Ian Savage

We rehearse in a place with a reasonable drum kit, guitar cabs and bass rig, so driving in to rehearse isn't an absolute necessity (most of the guys do though). For gigging, however, I specifically bought a Mitsubishi Delica (van-sized car with six seats or four seats and tons of load room) to cut down on mileage in multiple cars. Works out okay (except that I'm the mug paying for MOT / tax / repairs on it, but I guess I'd be doing that on a car anyway) - because it's classed as a car rather than a van for insurance purposes, all of the rest of the guys can drive it on their own fully-comp insurance which means that I'm not stuck being the only one who can't have a drink / the one who gets home after dropping EVERYONE else off. Well worth it IMO, don't know how we could tour without it.

[quote name='Rayman' timestamp='1356965986' post='1915736'] I have two Precisions, but only ever take one to gigs and rehearsals. I took a "backup" to gigs for years, but never, [i]ever[/i] needed one, not once. To be honest a spare [i]amp[/i] is more likely to be required. It's the only part of my kit that's ever let me down during gig. [/quote] I'd agree with that, I've broken a string onstage once in nearly ten years of gigging and had my amp go down at least three or four times. I'm 'kind of' a one-bass guy at the minute, in that there's actually five in the house ( ), but two of those are display pieces only (thrashed to the point of unusable, and signed (one by Mani, one by Duff)), one is for sale (sonic blue Precision in the classifieds!) and one's in bits waiting for me to refurbish it so that I can move it on. I'd hope that should my Wildhearts tribute band do any work in the near future that I can just drop my Vintage EST96 5-string down a tone (it's currently in C standard) and use that, but haven't even attempted any of the set on five strings yet; MIGHT see if my endorsement would get me a maple-necked V4 for it

[quote name='JakeBrownBass' timestamp='1358557869' post='1941538'] And you have this info on good authority? How an earth are you meant know what the cutting sheet was in the studio & how much involvement the guys had on songs if you were not there? [/quote] Well, they don't have songwriting credits on any of their output, which is a pretty big clue...

Disgusting. PRS's reason d'etre is apparently to represent "songwriters, composers, and music publishers", and yet for a bit of cheap publicity they laud four chancers who've never had any involvement with the first two in their professional lives, and are simply making money for the latter. From the PRS statement: "[color=#4C4C4C][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=2]Gigging is as important for the biggest performers as those starting out and it’s great to see that it is thriving in the UK.[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]" [/font][/size][/size][/font][/color][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=2][size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]No, it isn't (as important), because once you're big enough to play 34 gigs in a year and make a living it's considerably less important to you than the working musician who needs to pay their rent, insurance, vehicle costs, rehearsal costs and everything else by gigging everywhere and anywhere that will have you and pay. PRS should be f***ing ashamed of themselves for this piece of insulting blatent self-publicity. [/font][/size][/size][/font]

*cough* [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/195460-bitsa-fender-precision-fs-relic-blue-maple/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/195460-bitsa-fender-precision-fs-relic-blue-maple/page__fromsearch__1[/url]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1357949088' post='1931096'] That's why I don't like thinking in terms of what's 'needed'. I like to think of what might sound fresh and nice and put it in there. And when you're gigging with a bunch of other bands based in similar genres you will sound different and you will stand out. And the audience will be glad you put a bit more effort into your sound and gave their ears something different to listen to. [/quote] We try to do that with our songs instead

Stage left, pretty much always unless it's a major ballache to move a kit-share stage around; means I'm less likely to clout the singer with my headstock.

[quote name='lowdowner' timestamp='1358106644' post='1933281'] '58's for voice and 57's for instruments' was what I was always told. Having said that, my 57 seems to be fine for voice... [/quote] They're pretty much exactly the same mic bar the pop shield, which in turn gives SLIGHTLY different pickup and frequency response characteristics. They've been the industry standard for decades but these days that's really as much to do with ubiquity, consistancy and general bullet-proof-ness as anything to do with sound quality, you can get way better for the same money from the likes of Sennhesier and EV now.

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1357862349' post='1929877'] Switches on mics are not a great idea. Some pop, others just get switched off at embarrassing moments, and it's just another thing that can go wrong. You won't find a switched mic at a decent venue or gig. I was being flippant with my comment, implying a switched mic would be a crap mic. Having said that, I put my drummer on a switched Sennheiser so he could switch it off on the songs he doesn't sing on,just one less thing for me to worry about. He invariably forgets to turn it back on though, so..... ; ) [/quote] I use a switched Sennheiser E840 for exactly that reason; used to drum, needed to switch it off for songs I didn't sing on. No difference at all in quality between the switched and unswitched (our singer has the latter) and I've never had a 'popping' issue turning it off and on; it HAS been taped by a couple of engineers who obviously wanted 'belt and braces' though.

As a slight aside, I saw a three-piece band called Skam last year whose bass player filled more space when the guitarist was soloing than any bassist I've ever seen - apparently his 'secret weapon' was nothing more than a Boss ODB3 (and a pretty mammoth bass sound to begin with). Were I in a three-piece I'd want one.

Footswitch for my amp EQ and a tuner, so I voted 'no'.

[quote name='barneyg42' timestamp='1357668245' post='1926392'] Are there ringers out there? [/quote] Hell yes there are; I wouldn't buy a secondhand Shure SM57 or 58 these days unless the seller could absolutely guarantee its authenticity and ideally give me the original receipt from a reputable dealer. I got a '57 a while ago which rang alarm bells when I got it as it was too light and didn't 'feel right'; glad I checked it before using it as I would have fried my desk's phantom power supply if I'd used it alongside a condenser. See here: http://fakesm58.wordpress.com/