Cat Burrito

For the www, we're well represented in Wiltshire. Welcome.

@oldslapper, I've worked shifts myself so have always been painfully considerate of others. My house is a small 2 bed terrace with thin walls and I wish my neighbours were as considerate as I try to be. I think when reading posts online one naturally thinks of their own life. A 25w practice amp a three minute walk from a house, pointed the other way is going to be considerably less intrusive than most Basschatters at home practising in semi or terrace houses. My friend has done considerably better on the property ladder than me (I have nicer kit, more records and shoes - life is a balance!) and it's more about some people being pompous. Neither of them works shifts. The summerhouse is also down loads of steps so I think they really are just being silly. By all accounts it's her more than him. And no, I didn't think you were having a go - my exact thought was that I bet you had neighbours that were noisy so had just empathised. I have similar where I live and this just isn't the same. @ubit. It's for music and we will be soundproofing it as he's turning it into a studio. In 34yrs of playing I wouldn't have said it was jumping out as needing it but given the neighbours, it would be a sensible way forward.

Not personally but it's not my house. As per my previous comment, I would imagine we are all more annoying practicing in our own homes. This is a 3 minute walk from the main house. At my place, my practice amp backs on to to my neighbours kitchen & she asked me to turn up! My previous neighbour came around to say how much he enjoyed my acoustic jams. This isn't something that is done with a drummer or loud stack amps. I think that any typical person who could physically see what is going on would think they are being completely unreasonable. They know he's a music teacher and the walk from the house to the summerhouse is a fair one (down four flights of steps and over a bridge and then up some more steps).

For context our next get together is mid-September and it's two practice amps that are a three minute walk from the house. My 25w bass amp is set around 4. The amps are directed AWAY from the house. It's always weekend daytime. The last rehearsal was 16th July (yestersay's practice was 6th August). We've never rehearsed for more than a few short hours & that's with plenty of chat, as we are old mates.

Genuine question if any of you can help? I have a duo that I'm part of with an old school friend from 30yrs ago. We have two small practice combos and a drum machine stored in a small summerhouse which is about a 3 minute walk from his house and that backs onto open fields. He's a music teacher and I think we are both of a reasonable standard. Yesterday, we were rehearsing down in the summerhouse (as we do about every once every 3wks - a session usually lasts 3hrs, always sometime between 10am - 5pm) and received the following text; "I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather as we are and having a good summer holiday. A polite request, do you think you can please turn down the amplifiers on your practise sessions when your playing in the summer house, I'm not sure if you know but the sound travels up making it sound like Glastonbury in the garden from up here and we cant hear our own radio in the lounge when windows and doors are open. In the winter months we don't even hear it however during the warmer months it does become a little over powering when doors and window are open, and we are in the garden more. Many thanks, speak soon Debbie & Steve x" My question is this; if Glastonbury is £300 a ticket, does £180 sound reasonable to charge them?

Or just the top strings from a guitar pack? EADG would be a bit pointless (but great for bass). Presumably though you'd want it for banjo style playing rather than bass? Personally I play extremely unconventionally and we use these instruments for 80s post punk / goth stuff. So we put flanger / chorus / delay on them. Sometimes I play lower register variations of bass parts, other times right up high for lead melodies. In previous bands I was playing more country / folk / bluegrass so thinking more conventionally. It's all just a nice busman's holiday from the bass.

I have a few cheap pedals like that on my mandolin pedal board and they sound great. I'm livid though - I paid £14 for my chorus! 😸

I play mandolin too so it made sense to have my tenor banjo tuned to GDAE. I like the crossover. If you play guitar, it's probably not a bad idea. I worked in a band a few years ago with a guitarist who played a tenor banjo tuned like the top 4 strings of a guitar DGBE and it sounded great. I think ultimately it won't hurt to try and just see what works best for you.

I initially gave up music for my job as it was shift work... being bandless lasted only 4yrs. How I got around it was I formed the first few bands around me and booked everything around my work. I built up a good enough reputation that I was getting approached by bands knowing that I was limited in my availability and they'd still want me. On social media I swear most people think I lead an exciting rock n roll lifestyle (busiest man in rock has been thrown at me on a fair few occasions) but the reality is that I have just become extremely good at juggling things. For the last few years my job has been more 8-4 type hours but as of Monday I am back around for the first of three 5 week blocks of 24/7 shift cover (over a few months, not back to back). In the middle of those I am managing a UK tour, a Spanish Tour, a trip to Norway and some decent standalone shows. Plus open mic and recording. I thankfully have few other distractions aside music and paid employment so am able to operate at this level. I guess my point is that if anyone really wants to do it, you can operate at a level with a degree of compromise, whether that's meeting in the middle on musical tastes, doing open mic, running the band yourself or some other way. I play with musicians who want to be the next Mick Jagger and I play with musicians who want to have a bit of fun away from everyday life. Both of those scenarios have strengths and weaknesses. Best of luck trying to find something. Oh and motto is "if it isn't fun, don't do it!"

Do you play 5 string banjo? I cheated by getting a Tenor Banjo so have it tuned the same way as the mandolin. I did the same with the Bouzouki - 3 instruments all in the same tuning. Within my duo we also have a mandocello but it is tunes a 5th down. The shapes are different but related so easy to adapt. It makes us look super talented but actually it's all smoke and mirrors!

Shameless self promotion alert! If you have 85 seconds and fancy checking out a teaser of bass vi and synth, my duo Deadlight Dance...

My duo played a couple of sets to an initially dead pub, followed by one of the liveliest crowds I have had in a while, locally. It never ceases to amaze me how there is a demand for 80s post punk / goth performed on folk instruments (now with added drum machine / synth). I'm pictured here on the 8 string mandocello.

I think one has to be fairly selective as you can amass a LOT of stuff. I have all the albums I played on framed on the wall above my stereo. I also have a lot of old magazines and fanzines from the early 90s onwards in a storage box. It's amazing how yellowed they have become. The photos are long since scanned and moved online. However, all of this is edited highlights as I would need a whole garage to keep everything.

Sounds like you have outgrown the band. It's like any relationship, starts off great and then the mild irritations become more of an issue. The singer doesn't mind the guitarist being under rehearsed and you do. I'd discreetly start looking to jump ship, personally. I practice a lot now too but I have also (years ago) been the one who doesn't practice. If it's not an issue, great, but if it is, it will need to be addressed. The other band members might wish to come with you but sadly there is no guarantee. The singer has already suggested that "it is just a bit of fun". Sounds like you have a more pro attitude and you won't develop as much if you play with people who aren't inspiring you to push yourself further. Personally, I find it extremely rude if people don't practice. If I have spent my evenings going through something only to find someone else hasn't bothered, it bugs me. Not a problem, I just surround myself with players who put the work in and inspire me.

I got pretty decent on mine over lockdown. I started playing around 2005 and was little more than a glorified strummer. I think where I went wrong was trying to play mandolin music which wasn't really my thing - especially bluegrass. Over lockdown I applied a more rock / pop approach and now I am playing mine regularly at open mics. It's a great fun instrument, if you can find the inspiration.

This is a short film we made for a piece of music to showcase a post punk / goth duo. Nick and I did a band back in Sixth Form with 3 others and whilst staying friends over more than three decades, over lockdown I started digging all those old records out again. We've been doing Cure / Sisters type stuff at open mics on folk instruments but writing more synth heavy originals too. He has a hell of a voice (he was originally the guitarist back in '89 / '90) but this segment is instrumental. I'm playing a bass vi rather than a conventional bass guitar. We shot this on iPhones and recorded it on GarageBand. A bit niche but we like it.

Can you remember any details of the old account? I'm sure an admin could reset it for you. A previous username would be helpful.

Welcome to the Orange family! That rubber mat should fix it. I had a look on EBay and found an Orange one (colour, not brand!)

So my best mate from school was returning from Atanta, GA to the UK and it would have been rude not to get him to reunite onstage with me for the first time since 1990. We'd recently gotten the drummer to do the same and although I couldn't get 4 schedules to match, he joined my duo for our first live performance in 32yrs. He's long stopped playing but plays a bit of ukulele so I sent him some videos and chord patterns. When we arrived at the venue, the PA guy hadn't shown up and the barman was particularly useless. However, I went on a charm offensive and he agreed we could do the songs unplugged. Nick the singer had a VERY powerful voice and I used his mandocello. History was made, albeit a history that won't matter too much to anyone not in the below picture. Hopefully my friend will be back next year and we'll aim to get the whole band back out of retirement. (if anyone is curious, the legs behind me belong to the promoter who insisted on busking along with us).

I tried to get Zilla to do one for me back in 2019. He literally stopped emailing me about half way through, having started every email with an apology. I always wondered why he went quiet and assume reading this, the not having the tools comment was the reason. I kept all my comms patient and couldn't work out what the issue was. In the end I bought the AD200B but it was a shame as there would definitely be a market for this.

I think shallowness is great in moderation. It's the same thing with pepper!

Thanks Dave. It's been my main bass since late 2016. it's on a few albums now and went from being my main bass in one band to my default in most bands. Rics can be hard work but I find this one (my second time of Ric ownership) to be a good fit. It's the s model so no binding and dots rather than inlays on the fretboard. I added the black pickguard and TRC. Plus the strings are neon red, which is lost in a world of moody black and white photos! The photographer took a better shot of it from the weekend here.

I took the train up to London to play the Lexington, in what was a UK debut show for my main 3 piece. Network Rail prices have shot up and the journey was the usual hard effort. The onstage sound was not great and we struggled as a band to hit our stride. The footage I have seen was much more forgiving and a few people came up and commented which made the whole experience better. Our drummer and his girlfriend offered to take us back to Paddington but the drummer had been drinking so he dropped us 0.7 miles from our destination. We got the train with seconds to spare, purely because it was delayed. Up mega early for a First Aid at work course and definitely feeling like I had a late one. Outside the venue. Onstage

I was in Camden a lot in the mid 90s and I would say the Thunderbird isn't wrong. The Musicman and both Fender P / J were the most popular generally in any Britpop band but generally it was just classic / iconic instruments. A BC Rich would be the wrong look but there were certainly Rics, Gibsons and Hofners too. Later day Oasis were using the non reverse T-bird and I am sure I remember bands like Elastica with Thunderbirds at times. The Firebird guitar equivalent certainly cropped up a lot. Unless someone in your band is really cracking the whip, I don't see it as an issue. Especially as you have said you love the bass.