Muzz

I'm no virtuoso, but I get by OK, I'm a busy player (not in terms of notes - quite the opposite - but in terms of gigging a lot), but I think that's because I also have a set of skills that can be just as important as chops (over a certain threshold, obv) in any band; I'm reliable, I'm cheerfully sociable, I'm dependable and I don't panic, and I have a professional attitude no matter what the circumstances.

I started on Rotos for a good while, because they were pretty much the only game in (my) town, and I didn't know any better...then DR Sunbeams and HiBeams, and occasionally flats (Chromes) and groundwounds a couple of times on specific basses. Then I discovered Elixirs about ten years ago, and that's been that, apart from a brief flirtation with NYXLs and Slinkys and a couple of others I can't even remember, but they didn't last (SWIDT?), so it's Elixirs all the way now...

...and you'd be wrong; I've been trying to convince the BL that the band in general has waaayyyy too much gear for the pub gigs we play, my example is evident each gig...my other gigging band has literally half the gear. The drummer always arrives last, and because I set up last (see breakdown activities but in reverse...again, three minutes) I'll help set the PA and lights up and give him a hand, tho he's nearly 40 years younger than me and therefore far more qualified to lift heavy things...

Yep: switch off Stomp, unplug power supply, unplug the desk feed lead and bass lead, coil into rucksack, put inears and transmitter/receiver in bass case with the bass, zip em up...done. 😃 If I'm feeling particularly philanthropic I'll lend a hand...I generally do one end of the gig or the other... 🙂 I arrived early (unexpectedly light traffic) just as the van with the PA, lights and guitarist/BL did, so I unloaded with them, but at the end I broke down the PA and left the three of them to it...I might get across the principle sooner or later that we need less gear...call it Tough Love... 😃

Handed my 414 over to a well-regarded local tech for a fret dress and setup (she's earned me lots of money over the last year, including being the House Bass at a regular weekly jam night (tho this has now finished)), and picked her up Satdy before my gig, and she plays and sounds as well as anything I've ever owned. If she was a pound lighter (and I wasn't such a collector) I could probably sell everything else...

Satdy night pub gig up in the sticks Nelson way, main road, no car park, but I cared not a jot as my load-in these days is a rucksack with leads and Stomp, and my bass case. Just as well, there wasn't much room for the band. It was quietish (I suspect would've been even quieter without the rugby on) early, we were scheduled for a 10pm start, but the landlady asked us if we could go on at half past 'because it gets busy after that'...I looked at her skeptically, but it turns out it was one of those pubs where it's the last place open (1:30am closing) in the locality, so people end up there...sure enough, by 11 it was banging, which made a change from the last few evenings of sparsely-attended indifference we've had of late...it's also nice to see a well-run pub can still make live music work... Inears were, as always, a joy, and I was packed up and loaded in the now-traditional three minutes, which made the 35-mile trip home a lot easier...

Yep, my Lad's in Uni now, and his rent (£200 a week! Plus living expenses...) is what I'm playing to pay these days...

There's an app called Moises, which uses AI to split mp3s/wavs, etc down into mixable tracks (it's very, very good), and you can drop everything out but the bass. Free for a few goes, it's also a great practice app...

That is dreadful...and he looks so pleased with himself, too...drugs are bad, kids... I watched most of it during the day, then went out to a rock club and watched some of the US stuff later at a friends house, but I was kinda worn out by it by then. Queen put in probably the greatest 20 minute shift in rock music that day, they were completely on it, and they overran their 20 minutes (including Freddy's audience singalong) by 20 seconds...

Rival Sons last night at the big Academy in Manchester. Sold out, absolutely rammed, the band were great, but overall the experience was brought down by one of the most yattery audiences I've ever stood in (I moved several times, and at one point had to tell one booming bloke who just wouldn't stop telling his two mates about how his brother-in-law has got a new car (yeah, you couldn't unhear the conversation) to shut the hell up), and secondly by yet again a stooopidly loud kick; the drummer has a 26" kick, and the soundman must have really liked it, because it was the main instrument all night; it turned into kick drum vs band, and the kick won. The band have some intense slower songs which were ruined by the mix...

If I can find just one person in the audience (and most of the time there's usually one, no matter how small the crowd) who's listening with some interest, I play for them. If no-one at all is listening, I play for myself: I concentrate and play the very best I can, which is an achievement in itself: getting through a couple of hours of live playing without dropping a single note or a single beat or a single nuance and staying right in the pocket with the drummer is an achievement, and that's a good thing. I work on things like playing without looking, too. Then somebody pays me for having done that. It's all good, sometimes you just have to look a little harder...

Over the years (playing in covers bands, and especially in this current one) I've become completely immune to the levels of indifference shown by punters during the sets (especially the first set), mainly because the mithering buggers are all there at the end when they're drunk and we're dying to get packed away, with their 'One more song!' nonsense... As long as I'm being paid, I'll play to an empty room and not think twice about it... 🙂

Yep, saw them a few months ago, and he's solid gold...as is the rest of the band.

The only thing I'd be concerned about is the kick - it'll not carry down the room if the drummer isn't a bit of a monster, but, as people have said, if the bar area is more for people drinking than listening closely, you may well get away with it...

Like Mickey above, I had a 'doughnut' (great term) musical career with a break for family, I sold everything but one bass (and even that went when I got on here and GAS hit...a regret, one of very few) and for seven or eight years I didn't play much, except for one-off things and at the odd party, but I've been back in for 14 years now, and I can't see it ever going away...even last year, when the main band split up and I couldn't get arrested in terms of a new one, I never stopped looking or auditioning. My boy's away to Uni now, so I've even more time on my hands, and I'm in three bands (one very busy, one occasional and potentially the best of the lot just getting off the ground) and doing jam nights, and I'm still full on it...

Look at it more as flautism's* loss being drumming's gain... 🙂 * Yeah, I know...

Could have done with either a click, a tranquiliser dart for the drummer, or Metallica's rider the other week at a Jam Night, when the drummer who turned up called Rio, couldn't play the hi-hat 16s, and then played 8s with the whole thing about 25bpm faster instead...I nearly lost a finger in the resulting blur...

Every posh bass I have has a John East Retro in there, so I have a reference point for the tone; they're not all set the same, because the basses themselves have a character (mostly pickups and placement), but with the JE Pre I know how to get a consistent sound from them all... All my basses have Hipshot Ultralites, because why wouldn't you, and most of them have split-coil pups in them, too. My main gigging bass right now while I'm doing sketchy pubs every week is my BB414, and while that's passive (so no JE), it has Ultralites and a more comfortable bridge - the Fender £30 one...a great bridge, and I don't even care it's got FENDER stamped on it... Oh, and Elixirs on everything...

In the covers band, our (very very good and reading) drummer has a visual tempo 'click' on his iPad around his dots, so we're always in time. I've found that it's best if the whole band doesn't get the click, even with backing tracks; it's more natural to play to the drummer, and a really good drummer will also push and pull around the click, so you can even get the more natural variance in there, too...

Yup, I was there; sooooo much talent in three bodies on one stage...Billy was Overplaying Menkle Billy all night, Mike P made the near-impossible look effortless, the only downside was Ritchie looked like he really, really didn't want to be there - faultless playing and singing, but no audience engagement and a face like a handful of mince all night...unlike the support band (Scarlet Rebels), who grabbed the crowd by the scruff of the neck and wrung a response from them...

Hahahaaa...that's hopeful at best - no event planner/wedding organiser ever admits they're going to run over, they'd take it as a personal insult to their (actually non-existent) planning/organising skillz...plus getting more money out of the customer 'tacked on' is an invitation to an argument on the night. The result we had was the best outcome, tho: we finished at the agreed time, anything preventing us from starting just came off that...

Pub gig in Walkden, half-empty pub (like an awful lot these days), half-arsed response till, of course, the end, when the drunks were all jumping about and on the 'More!' train...luckily there's a hard 12pm cutoff, so we could ignore them after that. Inears as always were fantastic, all nice and quiet and mixed the way I like - those wireless transmitter/receiver things were the best £70 I've spent in a very long time...plus no backline to haul around means I'm set up in about 2 minutes, and broken down and into the car in less than that...

This 👆

Yep, and I've a soft spot for Kill Em All, too: despite (or possibly because of) the shonky production, Lars' cheesy fills and Cliff's honky bass sound (apart from Anaesthesia), the album sounds exactly like what it is; a bunch of spotty teenagers who've mashed up Motorhead and Diamond Head and come up with something very exciting...the energy rolling off those songs is terrific... 🙂 And now I'm listening to it again...to be closely followed by some Diamond Head...

I use a Rumble 100 (with a better driver in it, admittedly), and use the Helix Stomp as a HPF to cut out all the waffle below about 50...same into the PA, too...I don't like sub-bass...