Muzz

Not so much a 'How was your gig' as a pre-emptive for tonight's gig: Irish/sporty bar in the city centre, on Paddy's Day Weekend, three sets, just after the last game of the Six Nations, when Ireland may win it all. I've told my other half to expect me back home clutching the evening's cash and covered in Guinness...I think I'll take my cheaper basses...

That's odd; I emailed Jon on Monday about my JJB build, and got an email back the same evening...having checked back through the trail, I got a reply to all the emails I've sent... 😕 Fingers crossed...

Then there's lyrics that aren't really lyrics, but word-shapes and sounds, like the work of Liz Fraser with The Cocteau Twins... I like a lyric; as has been said it can anchor the part in a song which might otherwise trip me up if I'm multitasking...but the opposite of that is our BL getting bored and inserting his own, which are fine when I'm expecting them*, but I always had problems when we did the Chili's By The Way, and he'd just throw in any two-syllable words which came to mind while I was busy concentrating on getting the bass line right... *'Those who think they've got chlamydia, Sit Down next to me...'

Worst 'selling' experience I've ever had was trying to give away a pair of sofas; I'd clearly said 'Free to collect', and even reiterated it further down in the description, with the sizes and 'You'll need a van big enough to fit both'...that kinda thing. The number of people wanting free delivery was equally irritating and depressing, and one woman even turned up in a small hatchback (after saying she'd collect, asked me to hold them, etc) on her own, and demanded to know what I was going to do to help her take them away...

After a good deal of EQ faffage, I settled on John East's EQ offerings a long time ago, and now they're in almost all my basses (as much for consistency as whether the basses were drastically in need of it) I have (including my Dingwall, my bitsa Shukerbird, and my main Shukers) and have improved everything they've gone in. Mostly U-Retros, of various vintages... They're a very 'musical' control, but the mid-sweep is the key for me...

Skoda Superb Estate. Greenline 1.6 diesel, so 70+ mpg driven sensibly. Thanks to a BL brain fart when booking a gig from Manchester to the New Forest ('It's near Stoke, isn't it?' FFS...) we had a go at doing it all in my car. Three of us, the drumkit (not a big one, but not electric, either) PA (RCF sub and two 12" tops), lights (two sets of smallish 5 x LEDs), all the stands, guitar combo, two guitars (one acoustic in hard case), 212 bass cab and cased Walkabout head, and dual Mono gig bag with two basses. And all the leads. Averaged 65mpg over the trip, but I had to drive fairly carefully over any bumps...yeah, it'll carry quite a bit... 😀

Ahhh, 'rockumentaries'...it's a grey area, really; I rather thought Metallica at least were acting like weapons-grade numpties throughout theirs...

I thought Metallica's Some Kind Of Monster was by turns ridiculous and hilarious, in an unintentional Spinal Tap kinda way, but the all-time winner for a great band film has got to be The Story of Anvil...

I'll refer to them if I'm pushed for time (for instance, our BL has just disseminated a list of 21 new songs he wants to debut in three week's time; we may or may not get a rehearsal in before then), and tend to approach them on the basis of a quick start guide, rather than anything definitive. Sometimes aggregating the results from a couple can get nearer the desired result. I've also come across some which are bang on. They're not all perfect by any means, but as a resource, they're not bad at all...

I'm with Clarky...put it in the middle, you maniac! 😕🙂

I've mentioned this before, but I took my new 12-string bass to a rehearsal once, to try out on a couple of songs. Nobody said a bloody word, and they were musicians, so generally, unless there are That Type Of Tyre-Kicking Muso in the audience (a Muso punter once berated me for using a Fenderbird; 'But...but...that neck's not right...' pfffft.), there's zero chance of anyone else giving a, erm, flying fig... On the Generic Sound thing, I have no direct experience of Foderas, but from what I've heard, tone-wise, from vids of people playing them, they do sound very generic. A very good generic, but generic, and nothing I haven't heard in lots of places before. It's a Personal Taste thing (so IMHO, YMMV, and all that), but I like more character. I do have luthier basses, but in every case I've specced them with the pickups, placement and EQ to be able to deliver a specific range of sounds, centered around what I like. Which, if I'm completely honest, is a Precision, with rounds, driven hard. There, I've said it... 😀

Hahahaaa, yes, the veto...I have an oud, which is pretty much unplayable as an instrument (it cost me about £20 on holiday years ago), but is a rather spectacular thing in terms of wood, and that got the first nod for downstairs...

The whole MA/VH situation extended beyond the musical, tho; he was treated (and paid) like the hired help throughout... On the Malcolm Young thing, 90% of ACDC tribs who don't quite sound right are the ones who have neglected to spot that the person in the band who needs to be closest to the original is the rhythm guitarist; sure, someone who sounds like Bon/Brian is important, and a lead guitarist who sounds (and looks, tho Buddha knows that's an increasingly bum-clenching exercise these days, even with the man himself) like Angus is also important, but to make the band sound right, Malcolm's parts have to be spot on...

My other half has no real interest in musical instruments per se, but when we were decorating and arranging the house we moved into a couple of years ago, she suggested I hang my basses on the wall as objects, the luthier (Shuker) ones especially, because she loves the look of them, the woods, the craft... If your friend's aesthetic tastes were different, he'd be at home going to Jon Shuker, who's a luthier who doesn't play an instrument...

Surely you could ask your butler to do it, and give you the precis? 😃 '...have you seen the price of bassoons?!!' Awesome...I'm gonna do that right now...holy cow... £24k for a Thomann one? 😱

I was never happy with the video for that... 😕

Hellooooo... 😃 Don't be amazed; it cost a fortune to get where I am... 😕🙂

I've often said (in various contexts) that I'm as shallow as a puddle when it comes to some elements of basses (aesthetics, especially), but beyond that, after a LOT of trial and error (thankfully not too costly) I know exactly what I like, and I can look at a bass and say 'That won't work for me' immediately. On the positive side, it's a bit harder, because I've been disappointed before, but generally I can get close ("I'll probably like that.") Doesn't stop me keep buying Stingrays, for example, despite knowing they don't suit me at all. I do like a Stingray. And then, when I play it in a band, I don't... On the multiple basses thing, I don't I've ever seen a rule that you have to be a professional to have several basses that do different jobs in different bands. And even if I had, I'd have ignored it.

Having had a go* of a fair amount of high-end (in cash terms) maker's output (stuff like Alembics, etc), I know what would suit me and what wouldn't, and a Fodera wouldn't. I'm sure they're beautifully made, but I don't like the aesthetics enough (at all, really) to warrant even a try...plus I don't have Fodera money to chuck about on the off-chance I'd like it to play. Good enough? How's that gonna work, then? Who's judging? I'm certainly not...depending on the night and the context, I might be onstage with a £250 BB or £2.5k Dingwall...it's still me... * Mostly in the sense of 'bought a second-hand one, tried it for a while, sold it on for pretty much the same money...'

In the function band, we often rearrange the first set (well, we have what would loosely be called a 'flexible' setlist - basically the BL calls them in the order he fancies; I don't mind, because he's very good at reading a room) around the number of Darling Kiddiwinks allowed/encouraged onto the dance floor by their doting parents, which usually precludes anyone else from dancing... On the 'sliding across the floor on knees' thing, the Singist/geetard/BL got carried away and tried that once, in some verrry cheap dress trahsers; cue instant tearing, the sound of the double-squeak of knees suddenly and painfully gaining traction, and him pitching forward onto his face with a resounding clang...the drummer and I played on, unable to look at each other, while he was helped to his feet and guided by kind hands back to the stage...

FWIW, I replaced the cheapo Chinese Eminence speaker in my Rumble 100 with one of those Beta 12s, after finding a good deal of (admittedly anecdotal) reports on people getting good results in the cab. As has been stated above, tho, speaker replacement's a bit of a gamble on what speaker works in what cab; I also made things less crucial because I cut all the bass out of the Rumble; in the scenario where I use it I'm into the PA and just using it for stage monitoring. I also have a couple of BF cabs which are light and loud (the Super Twin is 40lbs or so, and has wheels), but I'm guessing they're above the OP's budget... Oh, and I have a light sack trolley, too...all good except for Fricking Stairs...