ivansc

My lot are a well-oiled machine. Piano player normally only has to play a couple of notes and we are "in" Been doing it so long now we fairly regularly stick unrehearsed stops in the middle of a song with no looking at each other and no blunders. We do HAVE setlists but adhere to them pretty loosely. Not sure whether to be smug or scared that we are becoming like an old married couple instead of a band!

Ahem! Back in the day I used to break strings with monotonous regularity. Usually one per gig, but on one occasion I brok the G,D and E strings in one night. This was playing with pick and fingers, mostly on a rickenbacker and a Travis Bean, both well set up and using quality strings - alembic mostly but also D`Addario.. So now you know the real story behind my nickname "hammy". It is not short for Hamilton. And of course now I am old and frail I no longer break strings.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1477505312' post='3162685'] Agreed, Dave we recently added "The Weight" [/quote] I programmed the full brass intro fron the live version of The Weight and used to do it when I was working with just me on guitar vocals and a drummer. The crowd generally liked it, but we did have to run about a bit onstage to make it look like there was more than 2 of us!

Dang! Didnt realise he had lost all that weight!!! Very good news indeed. And of course what a player!

BigRedX: LIsten to the Jet Harris/Tony |Meehan recording "Diamonds" and tell me the trem isnt useful. A guitarist friend has an original old one that he bought and restrung with guitar strings back in the sixties. He now refers to it as "my pension" but I think he might be optimistic as to its value.

Interesting. Once I decided I didnt really feel like I was going to achieve fame and fortune in an originals band, I started doign the same sort of gigs as Blue. Good-ish, steady money and above all regular. Came back to the UK and go tinto the country scene. Best and steadiest money I had made up until then. Sure the originals gigs paid way more once we had sold afew records, but they were expensive in terms of keeping up appearances and hiring in big gear. Overall that period was the most monety I ever made out of performing music. Typically 6-700 pounds a week pretty much all year round. In the early nineties right up to about 2003. I had a major shoulder injury in Nov of 2003 and had to switch to playing guitar for a while, so I started doing solo gigs in pubs locally either solo or as a duo with a drummer. Wow! Sleeping at home, no real travelling involved and I was still getting between 150 and 200 a night at least two nights a week. By tghat time we had an empty nest and my wife was working again. Overall a pretty nice way to wind down. And now I amuse myself with this band from the sixties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saints_(1960s_band) although the last original member retired about 4 years ago! In between times I show off at local jam nights for fun. And I am still pulling in a little money, of course. And finally got back to the stage where playing music is fun again!

For comfort: My japanese Epiphone explorer prototype - bolt on neck factory Pbass pickup. I added a jazz picxkup at the bridge. For sound: 63 reissue USA Rosewood board Precision. Sorta wish I still had my 72 ricky 4001 but it would still be very much in third or fourth place. As would the Travis Bean I swapped it for.

senny hd650s and AKG K240DFs from the mid eighties. Both are great but I also have a hankering for a pair of HD600s as well, subtle difference in character. Of course these are for studio use not exclusively practice!!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1476891864' post='3158195'] I think these types of opportunities are more readily available in the States than in the UK. But , I agree it's about being in the right place at the right time and able to get up and at short notice. Blue [/quote] Nashville was and probably still is full of guys who wont commit to a local gig in the fear of losing the chance at a "road gig" if one comes along. They are generally to be found either flipping burgers or on welfare.

Totally unimpressed. There are already way better bass sims out there and IKMM have a really sh*t way of doing business. I own a lot of their software but finally gave up and dumped the lot. Incidentally their support is totally useless.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1476867161' post='3157838'] Not true of all Neos - the 3012HO from Eminence will do 100+ dB at 1w/1m.. [/quote] I was talking about my particular Celestion green label neos. Which if I recall ARE that inefficient, although slapping the LM3 through them gives me all the loud I need. Oh and FWIW my old Orange cab had two 16 ohm 150 watt rated 15" Altecs in parallel and the Orange set to 8ohms. If I hooked the 2x10 neo up to the Orange it would indeed have been a bit naff as the Orange didnt have a 4 ohm tap. And of course the LM3 to the Orange cab would have restricted power output of the LM3 to about 300-350 watts. And given me a hernia with that bloody Orange cabinet to lug around again.

[quote name='steantval' timestamp='1476737018' post='3156881'] Butlins is quite a way outside of Skeggy and its in the Ingoldmells area. The main road out to is full of very large caravan parks, some of the largest in the UK, in the Summer months they use to be full of miners families on their annual two week break. [/quote] Not sure I would admit to that level of in-depth knowledge of Butlins anywhere, even if I lived next door!

Its all about deciding if you want to play four times a month or four times a week. Higher up the ladder pays more but generally less often. It all evens out unless you get really lucky and hit the big time. But of course with the few notable exceptions, then your lifespan at that level i necessarily limited by how long you can stay at the top. So once again, it all evens out.... A mate works in a functions band and he averages 1-4 gigs a month. When touring the UK C&W club scene in a duo, I was working between four and seven nights a week with occasional lunchtime gigs. Even after expenses, it worked out that we were both in the same earning bracket - on balance I probably did a little better than he did. So be careful what you wish for, especially if (like me) you really like gigging. And Blue: That whole "on the road in an airplane" gig is not half as great as it is cracked up to be. And of course the down time is a killer if you are not on retainer. Mate of mine is the long-term bass player for an international megastar and he has always said that the best part about his gig is the hours.... and the nice retainer the boss man pays him means he doesnt need another job when the act is not touring. Now THAT is a gig we can all aspire to.

One point that is being overlooked is the difference in speaker technology. I used a 120 watt Orange graphic head back in the day. With a 2x15" cabinet with 2 very efficient Altec Lansing speakers in it. Nowadays it is a MarkBass LM3 into a 2x10" 4ohm Neo cabinet, which of course means the amp i giving out a max of 500 watts into that 4ohm load. BUT. The neos are down in the 96dB efficiency range whereas the old Altecs were well over 100db efficiency. This translates into more air being moved by the Altecs for a given amount of power applied than is possible with the LM3. So it does mean that far more than just the simple application of "well it four times the power, why aint it four times louder" needs to be taken into consideration.

And here we are a month or so later - first gig under my belt last tuesday. Nobody warned me that right hand bass guitar callouses arent in the right place for right hand BASS callouses! Two tiny white dots appeared on the side of my first and second finger, followed by soreness. Lasted a couple of days, too! I need to practice more, appaently.

(grin) First time out in public with my Stagg EUB last Tuesday. The blisters that formed on the side of my first and second fingers, right hand, were something of a surprise. Callouses I have had since the mid 1960s are apparently in the wrong place for electric upright. Who knew?

Butlitz..... (grin) last one I played was in the sixties.

So relieved the warwick star bass isnt anything like the original Framus one! Mind you Bill Wyman did OK on one for a while, didnt he?

[quote name='kev b' timestamp='1476138816' post='3151765'] My amps are a HH from 1974, I bought the HH in 1976 [/quote] Yup - well built - quite a large number of them have innards put together by MY little electronic company. We did sub contract design and manufacturing of cable forms, stuffed pcbs & built small electro-mechanical sub assemblies for both HH and PACE:MM in the seventies. Back when men were men and amps had electroluminescent front panels! Was amazed to find one of "our" MM AP360 P.A. power amps still going strong in a holiday camp ballroom a couple of years back - has to be at least 40 years old! Even the dust looked original.

Just for grins, next time you are playing Yet Another 12 Bar in A, instead of starting the run over the V chord on E, start it on B. The seven I would usually only employ as a passing note in most cases, btw. either way you are going to wind up having to resolve it to the next natural anyway.

My first bass was a 1962 Precision. The best bass I have ever played for actually playing bass on. Widdling is a different matter. On the other hand myt "work" bass for 30 odd years is a PJ with a neck somewhere between a precision and a Jazz. Recently bought a USA 62 reissue Precision and I am in love all over again. Wide, ultra shallow neck, grunt and thump for days. I previously had the P/J and a Japanese 60`s reissue Jazz.Played the Jazz and the precision both at a gig and asked the drummer which HE preferred to work with. I think hge hit the nail on the head. The Jazz was punchy and articulate, but the Precision blended in so well with the kick drum it was like a kick in the balls (his words not mine) So we decided to compromise. I sold the Jazz

UPDATE: Mine has been clipped to the head of my banjo for a couple of weeks now and hasnt broken, still turns on and off and appears to be fairly accurate! For £2 I am not going to complain!

BigRedX: My sarky comments about it being the bass player who always decides what key a piece is in usually get short shrift from the guitwrists... till they are playing in C and you turn it into A minor just to piss them off! We ARE in charge!

MRTCAT: Was it the singer and bass players night off, or do the drummer and guitarist usually go out with backing tracks and a singer, no bassist? Sounds good though - I used to do something similar - a duo with me on guitar and vox, backing tracks for bass keys etc and my drummer on electric kit. He was great - no click track and we nailed it all the time. Sadly I dont even have audio of it, let alone video.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1476049538' post='3150895'] For those that don't know, I'm 63 and plan on staying in the game for another 10 years. What else would I do? Blue [/quote] Way ahead of ya, Blue. First actual paying gig in 1954 (on banjo but who is counting?) and I am still playing all the gigs I can get at 72. So don't worry about how you will be coping in 10 years time. You will be just fine.