The Funk

[quote name='lowdown' post='302893' date='Oct 9 2008, 12:15 PM']Woody....[/quote] Something I get when I think of Megan Fox.

I looked them up, obviously. But I wasn't going to pretend I knew who they were.

[quote name='Jase' post='302913' date='Oct 9 2008, 12:35 PM']Hmmmm, don't think we'd pull 35 let alone 350. Wonder who's the first established act to play there?[/quote] It looks like they've got Michelle Shocked, Dreadzone and The Wholigans booked. Not really heard of any of them before.

Looks interesting. Was it a pub before for a while? Wouldn't mind doing a gig down in Caerdydd...

[quote name='lowdown' post='302893' date='Oct 9 2008, 12:15 PM']Honky...[/quote] A white person

Uh-oh. Something got me started...

[quote name='Rich' post='302729' date='Oct 9 2008, 07:51 AM']The next chunk of edam on our to-do list is "Disco Inferno" apparently...[/quote] Get your singer, or a member of the audience - or your singer leading every member of the audience - to do the David Brent dance, for a bit of pop culture cross-referencing.

[quote name='lwtait' post='299547' date='Oct 4 2008, 07:11 PM']Im finding I do recently. I gotta learn a load of songs for a gig, and they're easy enough to play, but i find i[i][b]m just sight reading the music[/b][/i] and not remembering it. Any advice?[/quote] Put away the sheet music - now!

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='302166' date='Oct 8 2008, 02:02 PM']I can't imagine it will have an effect on the originals club scene.[/quote] Where the bands hardly ever get paid anyway [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='302175' date='Oct 8 2008, 02:10 PM']Play happy tunes about how the good times are coming.[/quote] [i]Good Times[/i], [i]Let The Good Times Roll[/i] etc.?

I should also add, for the record, that [i]Billie Jean[/i] is not my lover. She's just a girl who thinks that I am the one. (Bloody guitards - I have mine playing through a 6W valve combo now, leaving the 120W valve Matamp head at home).

[quote name='coasterbass' post='300338' date='Oct 6 2008, 10:54 AM']Thanks. Its backline really - 8 guitars, drums, keyboards.... but 12 people at 2am too.... [/quote] Eight guitars? 12 people?

Thanks for that! It's as I feared.

[quote name='tonybassplayer' post='301787' date='Oct 7 2008, 10:34 PM']Just had a brilliant three hour rehearsal learning Delilah, Walking on Sunshine, Billie Jean and Wig Wam Bam for our function set[/quote] [i]Billie Jean[/i] is not cheese!

[u][b]ACME (SERIES II) LOW B1[/b][/u] [url="http://www.acmebass.com"]www.acmebass.com[/url] [u][b]Features[/b][/u] (10/10) The Acme Low B1 is a 3-way bass cabinet, which I think means that it contains 3 different types of speakers and a passive crossover splitting the frequencies to each speaker: a 10" woofer for the lows, a 5" mid-range driver and a tweeter for the highs. The Low B1 is not the only 3-way bass cabinet out there (although they're not that common yet) but its 10" woofer is unique. Its design allows for much deeper lows than a standard 10" speaker. It goes as low as a good 15" or 18" cab. The mid-range driver and the tweeter each have an attenuator dial on the rear of the cab to reduce the power to each of them as required. (I always leave them on full). By using their unique 10" woofer, they can make the cab very small and lightweight. Its dimensions are 15.75" x 15.75" x 13.5" and it weighs 31 lbs. There are marginally smaller and lighter cabs out there but I doubt any could compete with the Acme in the low end. The cab is available either in an 8ohm or 4ohm version. If you want to use just the one cab with a small head for a portable rig, most of the time you'd be better off getting the 4ohm version. I use it with the new Eden WTX-260, which pumps out around 290W at 4ohms. Even though the cab is rated at 175W, the Eden starts clipping before any of the speakers distort. This cab can take a lot of juice! [u][b]Sound Quality[/b][/u] (10/10) Well, this is the most important part as far as I'm concerned. I've used this cab for practice at home, for rehearsals in the studio with my hard funk band (vox, heavy guitar, rhodes/clavi/hammond, synth and drums), and on two gigs: one in a medium-sized room w/ dancefloor (wedding) with no stage but with PA support; and the other in a small jazz bar (with a stage but vocals-only PA). I'm a big fan of the Acme cabs and was already the proud owner of a pair of Acme Low B2 cabs when I wanted a more portable mini rig for smaller gigs or "in and out" gigs, where you're one of several bands playing and you need to travel light. This cab sounds identical to the B2s. Very, very clear. The lows are clear, the mid-range is clear and the highs are clear. Now this is the tricky part. It sounds completely different in different settings and you have to understand that to use it properly. At home, at low volumes the highs can sound a bit too loud. At rehearsal or onstage it can sound a bit quiet if you don't boost the mids on your bass head and if you don't raise it up off the floor to a decent height. Usually you should keep your cab on the floor to reinforce the lows but as the lows on the Acme are so good anyway, you don't need to. But the mids and highs won't reach your ears if the cab is on the floor because it's not very tall. I did one gig with it on the floor and heard nothing but lows; I did another gig with it stacked on top of the vocal PA speaker at about 6' off the floor and it filled the entire room. I'd describe the sound as deep, clear and transparent. It sounds to me how bass should sound. My drummer, who's not a man of many words, said "it sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" with a big grin on his face after the first song we ever used it on at a gig. [b][u]Value For Money[/u][/b] (10/10) Acme cabs are only available directly from Acme. By cutting out the middle man, they are able to price them very competitively. Being made in the USA, UK buyers will have to pay for shipping and 22.5% customs/VAT/other taxes on top of the price of the cab. Even after all that, this cab works out cheaper than an Epifani 1x10" and not much more than the GK MB 112 X. When the £ was doing so well against the $ - which was when I bought it - this cab represented even better value for money. [I will check exactly how much I paid for this in total and insert the figure here soon.] [u][b]Customer Support[/b][/u] (10/10) With Acme you deal with one guy: the creator, owner, designer. He is always prompt, clear and helpful when it comes to correspondence and if you ever have to talk to him on the phone. [b][u]Overall Rating[/u][/b] (10/10) This cab [i]cannot[/i] do everything. It cannot replace my stacked pair of Acme B2s. But what it can do is provide clear highs, mids and lows all the way down to a low B at a volume that's loud enough to gig with at small venues, and in a box that's a comfortable one-hand carry and wouldn't be annoying on a bus/train. I am very happy with the cab now after learning about how and where it works well. I tried it once with an old 70s Fender valve head, which it did not like at all! The EQ and built-in bass boost on some of the old valve amps is too extreme for this type of cab (but it sounds awesome with my valve Aguilar DB680 and Warwick Quadruplet preamps). If it were lost or stolen, I would immediately replace it. I may get another so that I can use a pair as a small PA. The cab also sounds good for keyboards, acoustic guitars and vocals as it's so clear and even. Together with the Eden WTX-260 it does what I wanted: something as small and portable as the brilliant Gallien-Krueger MB150S but with good lows, no distortion in the mid-range, clearer highs and overall just a bit louder. It does that and does it very well.

[quote name='Protium' post='299824' date='Oct 5 2008, 12:09 PM']Or a DI box which runs on phantom power [/quote] My EBS MicroBass II does. Bloody love that thing.

Just thought it'd be fun to find out which funk songs get covered the most - and maybe get some inspiration for new songs for our respective set lists. Feel free to include jazz-rock, disco, 70s/80s soul and funk-rock tunes if you think they're funk songs in disguise. Funk songs we cover from time to time in my band: 1. [i]Superstition[/i] - Stevie Wonder 2. [i]If You Want Me To Stay[/i] - Sly & The Family Stone 3. [i]Skin Tight[/i] - The Ohio Players 4. [i]Red Hot Mama[/i] - Funkadelic 5. [i]The Ghetto[/i] - Donny Hathaway 6. [i]Slide[/i] - Slave 7. [i]Flashlight[/i] - Parliament 8. [i]Use Me[/i] - Bill Withers 9. [i]Always On The Run[/i] - Lenny Kravitz

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='299895' date='Oct 5 2008, 02:31 PM']Odd question, but I was wondering how many people were like me. I like what I like basically. [...] So am I weird ?.[/quote] You sound perfectly logical to me - but that doesn't mean you're not weird.

Jazz After Dark, Soho. Last night. Fun gig. First time with my band at Jazz After Dark. (The guitarist and I had played there before a few times in a different band). 2 sets of covers either side of a set of original material. The largest part of the audience was a group of 29 women having a meet-up from a website for gay women. Very friendly and cool crowd. After a quiet first set we got permission from the management to crank things up. Second set went down really well. Last set had a few boisterous requests for jazz standards. I let the keyboard player and drummer have a little jazz noodle before we went into some more funk covers. Wound the whole thing down with a cool mutation of Freddie King's version of [i]Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do[/i]. Highlights: our set of original material and [i]Flashlight[/i]. I was still singing "Flashlight", "Neon Light", "Street Light" all the way home.

Welcome back. Jazzes are the bollocks though.

[u]Bad Bits[/u] - Crap ear - Limited theory - No stage presence [u]Good Bits[/u] - All about the groove - Pretty decent slap player too - Decent writer - Can drive

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='296792' date='Oct 1 2008, 04:08 PM']Oh I'm just waiting for Alex to truly bond with his RIM then I'll ave that off him [/quote] Out of context that looks so wrong.

Hehe, I do like the Warwicks. I currently have a 1989 Thumb NT 6, a 2003 Streamer Infinity SN 5, and a pair of the bubinga Corvette 4s (one fretted, one fretless). They are all fantastic instruments. I've never sold one but I have had a tough time resisting some of the amazing Warwicks that come up for sale at stupidly low secondhand prices.

I have a cool 70s Fender valve amp - with room for 3 of your 15s... Actually, as they're 8 ohms each, 6 of your cabs could be run together. Time for that Doom Metal band!

[quote name='markytbass' post='294654' date='Sep 29 2008, 04:40 PM']I am now paranoid that if I change the strings the magic will go with them.[/quote] That's not paranoia - it's just common sense. Like safe sex.

[quote name='Captain Bassman' post='292874' date='Sep 26 2008, 04:54 PM']Apparently, it's very important to the person paying our fee that we actually play this live and not just resort to using a backing track![/quote] Err... you sure you haven't been booked to back Mr Astley himself?