NickH

Definitely interested in your opinion on it, as I'm in need of a wireless and a second cab to complete my live rig for the new band. If possible could you try it with a nice high-output active bass? My Status has an 18V circuit and runs pretty hot, I'm always having to play with the gain on other people's amps, makes me leery of hitting headroom problems on a transmitter. Cheers, Nick

R.E.M.s Mike Mills - Losing My Religion from Out Of Time, and It's The End Of The World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) from Document Another (IMO) greatly under-rated bassist. Not flash but really groovy and just what the song needs each time.

Was replying to Lostheplot's thread about song suggestions for his band's upcoming first gig [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=68085"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=68085[/url] and thought people might have some amusing / touching / shocking experiences to recount. Let's hear the grizzly war stories! I was 18 and playing keyboards in my first band. We'd planned our first gig to be in a rented function room and we were selling tickets to all our friends and relatives, figuring that a friendly home crowd would be the best way to start. Then our drummer's dad's boss hears about us and asks if we'd like to play his birthday party for a promise of free food n booze? Naturally we jump at the chance. Turns out he's a bit of a yacht-owning mariner type, so he's holding a party down by the seaside on this bit of gravelly beach he owns. There's a beach house we can crash in for the night too, but the party is to be outside by the water. It's late November. It's FREEZING. We were all playing in fingerless gloves, and even then I could barely move my hands. I was thumping out block chords on my keyboard rack as most of my fancy chops are completely unplayable when my hands are stuck in this claw-like position. It sounds like sh*te (we weren't a good band to start with to be honest) but the punters all loved it, dancing away and applauding each number. We came off feeling like gods of rock n roll. Proceed to indulge in mine host's free booze. He was as good as his word and had filled several huge drums with iced water and cans of beer. There were a couple of bonfires with whole animals cooking over them. We get as trollied as only a bunch of late-teens on a free bar can do, and bunk down for the night on the collection of couches and matresses in this beach house. There's about 5 of us on one couch and I'm sardined between our two gorgeous female backing singers! Course I'm so wrecked I don't take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. D'oh! Follies of youth. Woke up 6:15 the following morning with the hangover from hell. Pack my kit up into my Ford Fiesta, hit Maccy D's drive-thru for a McBreakfast that tastes like ashes and go to open the shop I worked in for 6:45. 8.5 hour shift. Dread to think what trying to do that now would do to me!

Your first gig is an experience you'll never forget. Having spoken to several musicians on this subject, the following seems to be universally true 1) You'll make some glaring cock-ups 2) Nobody outside of the band will notice 3) You'll come off feeling sh*te despite all the positive feedback from everyone 4) You'll never, ever forget it. 5) Those who don't have videotape of it, wished they did. Make sure someone is there with a camcorder. I typed a really long recount of my first gig and realised it might make a good seperate thread. Moved it elsewhere. Have fun!

[quote]In addition, I make sure they realise a decent bassist who isnt just a guitarist fiddling with bass is a tough musician to find.[/quote] We're not? Oh $#!7, I'm a keyboardist fiddling with a bass! Don't tell any of the bands I've been trying out for!

[quote name='longtimefred' post='656740' date='Nov 17 2009, 10:14 AM']If your wanting to just hear a bit more at head height, just get a crate or something strong to put the cab on top of.[/quote] Amend that to "... get a crate or something [b]REALLY REALLY F%^&*ng STRONG[/b] to put the cab on top of" as those baby's aren't light! Would hate* to see the mess it'd make of the drumkit (& drummer!) if it took a fall off of a beer crate borrowed off the landlord * Realistically I'd [i]love[/i] to see this happen, but I'm a sadistic git.

I've got the Marshall 4210 myself. It's a cracker. Tried quite a few amps when I went to the store and for the price bracket this one kicked the bejesus out of everything else. Only downside for me is, the cooling fan is a noisy bugger. Only really an issue for quiet practice at home of course, at a gig it wouldn't be at all noticeable. I'm thinking of trying to source a silent PC internal fan that would fit and see if I can jerry-rig it in there.

I'm rolling with a Marshall MB4210 currently. The list price is £330 new but I talked the guy down to £300, second hand would be cheaper. It's good and loud, very versatile with the sounds too. My old Ibanez I used both channels on blend for some valve plus transistor for clarity, with my Status I just run the valve channel. The option is there if you need it. It's 300W into the inbuilt 2 x 10" speakers, but hang another 4 ohm cab off the bottom and it's 450W. I've yet to need a second cab though.

To quote the fantastic Fight Club - "I wanted to put a bullet in the brain of every panda that wouldn't f^ck to save it's species"

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='661228' date='Nov 21 2009, 06:32 PM'][/quote] Holy crap! At the risk of sounding like a gamerhead - Dudes, we just got wtfpwnd

Damn! That's more than my ex-GF weighs.... I used to have a bastardised rack rig with an Ampeg 4x10 and another Carvin (yeah, I know) one. The Ampeg weighed about twice as much as the other one but sounded a lot better. Good job I'm such a big strapping bloke Think I'll go track down a GK rig to playtest. Thanks for the info! See you at the physiotherapist

FREEEEEEEBIIIIIRD!!! j/k Smoke on the Water is awesome if you like to noodle and show off a bit. The basic structure is very very simple and once you have that, just improv it.

How heavy are those 4x10 cabs? I'm not familiar with the range, but I like the angled back rather than the traditional square shape. My landlady would be happier if I didn't keep taking chunks out of the wall going up and round the stairs with the protruding corners of my Marshall!

I'd love to be asked to cobble together THIS: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqiw-Kqtlr0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqiw-Kqtlr0[/url] It's not happened yet, but it will... and we'll be YouTube heroes too!

It's Sod's Law - carry a spare bass and you'll never need it, don't carry one and... +1 to getting as good an amp as possible first though. Depends how many mates you know who play bass and owuld be willing to lend you one at reallyreallyreally short notice! A goodly bit of gig experience as both a bassist and a PA / lighting guy has taught me to always carry: Spare batteries (Pre-played) spare strings Basic toolkit A spare for every type of lead (power, signal, speaker) Tons of gaffa tape, AA / RAC membership, A big stick with a nail in the end of it, Plenty of contraceptives.

And, of course, still the most constructive useful thing you can do to a Precision

You might want to put a thought towards the total weight of the thing too, especially if there's to be any kind of power amp involved. Depending on the kind of wood it is you might be thinking about some very hefty screws. I take it this is for a home / studio recording setup and not going on the road at any point? + 1 to the thermal issue mentioned above.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='655197' date='Nov 15 2009, 02:26 PM']I quite like all that hairspray metal bollocks.[/quote] Well my bollocks are made of solid metal, but I don't put hairspray on them

"L.A. Song" from the Angel TV show series - although there's about three chords in the whole thing so it wasn't tricky. Awesome song though, and suited my rather bleak mood last night.

[quote]... crappy home shows for the opportunity for some of the lads to show off to young women...[/quote] It must be noted at this point, that this is not (in and of itself) a bad thing...

+1 to learning to use the ring finger. I've been a devout 2-finger guy for all my playing years - never used a pick - but messing round with some Iron Maiden classics in which Steve Harris gets those "galloping" rhythms going with three fingers really got me into it. Now it's just natural to me to use all three. Still can't get the little finger doing anything useful though. That's coming next!

Try to assess them as you play, in the way that you assess how an audience is responding to you. If you pull off something a bit flash in a tasteful spot, and it gets a smile or a musical response, then do it again. If it gets a frown then don't. If you dance or get your body groovin' as you play, and they do too, marvellous. If they're all stood like statues with shoegazing expressions, probably best to ditch the Flea impressions.

Slap some SD Hot Stack for Jazz pup's in there. Coil tap 'em as they sound great in both HB and SC mode IMO. Or, install the patented NickH 3-Way Rotary Parallel - Series - Singlecoil Switch. Opened a ton of bassist's eyes putting this in their bass. Costs about a fiver and is a piece of piss to do. PM me for circuit.

Normal 5-string bass. Set of strings for E-C tuning. Raise a semitone and get a good octave pedal. Use some of the cash you just saved to buy me a beer at Christmas!

[quote name='Lylodile' post='635525' date='Oct 24 2009, 06:12 PM']The only thing with that is he's replaced the pickup to an EMG35DC and added a emg preamp .[/quote] I'm thinking, for what he paid for the FleaBass plus that pup and pre, he could have got himself a decent bass and a can of Halfords 'orrible green spray paint. I guess playing talent and financial acumen do not always go hand in hand.