gjones

I was in a band, until recently, which was originally formed by two guitarists in 2019. We'd started 6 months before lockdown and were working on a set. In 2022 we got back together and spent a lot of time and money working on two sets worth of songs (about 25 songs). 

I decided it was time to get a decent demo together so booked a studio. We picked the songs and 3 days before recording got together to go through the tunes we were planning to record. In the rehearsal room one of the guitarists seemed a bit distant and was not contributing much. Then, the next day (2 days before we were due in the studio) he sends a Whatsapp message to us all to say he doesn't want to join us in the studio.

Of course I contact the studio, to apologise for mucking them about, and cancel the studio session.

We then organised a band meeting and he explains he doesn't like approximately half the songs in the set, as there's nothing for him to do (i.e. there's only one guitar part on the original record and no guitar solos).

He's a grown man, we've been rehearsing this stuff since 2019. Why wait until 2 days before a recording session to tell us this?

The singer in the band started a poll to pick the songs that we all liked. At which stage I told them if the criteria a song has to meet to get it in the set, is that its a song we all like, then it's going to be an awfully small set.........and left the band.

But I took the singer with me. She is a great singer and really loves Americana and Country. The songs we will play will be the songs she wants to sing, not the songs the guitarist wants us to play (because he likes the guitar solo). 

What's that joke about how does a guitarist change a lightbulb?

Secondhand CDs are stupidly cheap on Ebay. So if you wanted to physically own the music you play, it wouldn't cost you that much. 

I was reluctant to use a streaming service for quite a while, as the payment per stream, that artists get, is pretty miniscule and I felt this was unfair. But I did some research and found that some are more generous than others. Tidal is the most generous, followed by Apple and Deezer. I don't know where Amazon comes in the list.

Aged 18, for a proper ticketed gig. It was at a local nightclub supporting some art school band or other. We were called Peach Melba.

If you are fine to spend £45 I know a man who can help you out with an excellent, solderless, Volume, Blend, Tone wiring harness https://www.basschat.co.uk/profile/7835-kiogon/content/

18 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I played about 15 seconds of each of the tracks that I was interested in and the thing that struck me was that how terrible most of the isolated sounds were, but how perfect they are when you hear the final mix. It all goes to prove that there is no great bass tone, just one that works well with a particular combination of musicians and instruments, and why for the most part chasing someone else's tone is a futile exercise.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

2 hours ago, Rumple said:

I've seen them loads of times and I've got tickets to see them again in London next month, Derek is dead so I wonder who does vocal duties now?

It's this bloke, apparently.

Mark King's brother, from the Andertons video reviews, is playing bass (at least for this gig from a month ago).

It may be a midi played line but at least it's trying to sound like a real bass guitar. Many of the songs I hear on the radio these days have no discernable instruments at all, just a background mush of synth pads, a midi drum pattern and an autotuned vocal. 

My brother in law is the main guitarist and singer in a few bands. He actually likes playing bass and occasionally does deps with bands  but can't sing while playing, to save his life.

On 08/04/2023 at 12:59, Lozz196 said:

I want to hear bands do the songs like the recording, I don’t mind live adjustments but when songs go on forever, well that’s my cue for the khazi.

I love Hothouse Flowers but the last time I saw them at The Barrowlands they just would not get off the stage. They went into some weird trance like jam thing, at the end, that went on forever.  They looked like they were having a great time but, after about three hours, I had to leave them to it and say goodnight

53 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Skip entry level, and several levels after that. 

 

My minimum would be a good 500-800 watt head and 2 good 112's. I use Aguilar amps and Barefaced cabs. They cover any genre and playing situation. They are light, loud, modular, great sounding and reliable.

I agree about skipping entry level. Buy a good brand secondhand and you'll get most of your money back if you ever need to sell.

Whatever you do don't skimp on the speakers, as they are the weak link. If the speakers can't run loud and clean, it doesn't matter how posh your amp is, you'll still sound rubbish.

7 hours ago, Cato said:

 

Case in point I saw a lad playing a Music Man Bongo in a pub covers band a while back.

 

The bass sounded great in the mix but while I was sitting round the corner just listening, before I actually saw him, it never occurred to me just from listening that he was playing something a bit out of the ordinary.

On the other hand......

I was chatting to the drummer in my band, after we'd finished our set at my local music bar. The band on after us were starting their soundcheck and the bassist started playing. Both my ears and the drummer's pricked up and we spun around at the sound of the bass guitar. It sounded amazing and I immediately tried to identify the bass he was playing. I could see it was a WAL mark 11, which I'd never seen in the flesh before and it had the best bass sound I'd ever heard. 

Now that's an objective opinion, as I didn't know what model of bass it was before I turned around to look.

After hearing one in the flesh, and now knowing how great they sound, would I ever buy one for the many thousands of pounds it would cost me to do so?  

Nah......

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I've always found the notion that it's OK to use your amp with whatever tat the venue have knocking about masquerading as a cab, very un-nerving. About 10 years ago my band played a festival where we were specifically told that we needed to bring amps but would have to use the venue supplied cabs - supposedly in order to minimise change over times. For me that meant specifically making up some Speakon to jack leads just in case the cabs supplied were jack only (I've never used jack leads for bass cabs) and it's just as well that I did because the cabs turned to need them. The cabs were terrible with very poor sensitivity compared to mine and were either inaudible or noticeably distorting, even though we weren't a band that played loud on stage. In the end I turned up as far as I dared and played "blind" hoping that it sounded OK FoH, and that the cabs and my amp would still be functioning afterwards. The experience left me vowing to never do that again, and in the future I would either use my full rig or expect an amp to also be supplied.

I played a festival a few years ago where the backline was an Ampeg SVT through an Ampeg 4x10, which would normally be a decent rig. But it had been limited in volume somehow and I couldn't get any decent level out of it. I had to stand right next to it in order to hear myself at all.

I played the same festival a year later and they had a ratty old Ashdown Mag head with an Ashdown Mag 4x10, when I saw it my head drooped but, surprisingly, compared to that Ampeg the previous year, it actually sounded great. 

I've only ever bought a brand new bass once in my life, which was a Fender Elite Precision. It cost me just under two grand. 

It's a nice bass and is put together well but the stereo jack input (which is a cheap looking plastic thing) only lasted a couple of years before it developed a fault and had to be replaced.

Saying that, I'm happy to subsidise a company like Fender and it's American factory and workers, if it prevents the company from having to offshore their production to find cheap labour abroad. 

9 hours ago, Rich said:

I had to play Dance The Night Away by the Mavericks for a dep gig once. Worse still, I had to sing lead vocal on it too which meant I had to play it more than once in order to practice it.

5 notes....

E  Ab  B  Ab   B  Eb  F#  Eb

E  Ab  B  Ab   B  Eb  F#  Eb

E  Ab  B  Ab   B  Eb  F#  Eb

E  Ab  B  Ab   B  Eb  F#  Eb

over and over and over and over...

 

I still wake up screaming. 

 

EDIT: I've just looked out my notes, and at the top of my lyric crib sheet I've written "E Ab B Ab B Eb F# Eb repeated ad nauseum".

So if Ed Friedland calls you to dep for him on the next Mavericks tour, I assume you'll be washing your hair? 🤣

After countless rehearsals one of the guitarists in the cover band I was in decided to tell us, two days before we went into the studio to record a demo, that he hated half our set. 

The singer tried to be diplomatic about it and get everyone to vote on a new set.

I just grabbed my bass and headed for the door. 

What's that joke about how a guitarist changes a light bulb.....

I'm assuming the secondhand prices shadow the increase in the RRP of basses in the shops. For example, new prices, for Ernie Ball Musicmans, have gone through the roof.

Do you have the problem when you play without the band? If not, line up each member of the band and get them to start playing one by one, starting with the drummer, then you, then the rest of the musicians. When a musician starts to play and at that point you cannot hear yourself clearly, sack that musician.

Problem solved.

It was similar to the Peter Cook one. It had P and a Jazz pickups, a tone and a volume and a mini toggle switch. The body was sunburst mahogany and the neck maple. I don't know who it was put together by as I got it secondhand from a guy in a London reggae band. 

I got rid of the body, as it weighed a ton but I still have the pickups and the hardwear. The P pickup is in my Squier Precision and the neck is on one of my Jazzes. 

I very nearly bought one in 1984. It would have been my first 'proper' bass. They cost £140 new, which was exactly what I had in my piggy bank at the time. In the end I bought a Mighty Mite, Fender clone (the neck of which I still have attached to one of my favorite Frankenfenders 38 years later).

52 minutes ago, woodyratm said:

I have lost complete trust in the guy now and would really prefer to go elsewhere. Even though he says he will use my playing, I don’t trust him to do so. 

I would feel the same as you if my playing had been tampered with, or not used at all in your case.

On 09/05/2016 at 18:41, rushbo said:

I've had no luck at all with strap locks. I find them really fiddly. I bought a bag of 100 rubber Grolsch bottle washers about five years ago off eBay for a few quid and installed them on all my basses and guitars. Solid as a rock but easy to remove. And they're a lovely pink colour...

This is your best option. Straplocks are fiddly and need to be removed when you want to remove the strap, or when you put the bass in it's case.

I have a few Fenders with straplocks and I've removed them and replaced them with the bottle washer option. They're cheap as chips on ebay. Fender actually sell them too.

I play there regularly and I've noticed the bass amps sometimes have some very extreme EQ settings, when I first plug in.

I assumed that a cleaner had just given it a good scrub and had turned all the knobs in a random manner.

By the way, in room 7 the Ashdown 4x10 has an ever so slightly farty speaker.

They look like something a kid would make in a woodwork class 😂

I bet it weighs the same as a small planet.

Do you get a free roadie with every combo.

I owned the Tweed Fender TV15 (which was issued a dozen years ago), that gave me a hernia lifting it, and that was solid state.

It didn't help that it had just one handle at the top and my flat was on the 3rd floor of an old tenement block.

Played a large music bar in town last night which is a regular gig. I thought we were sounding pretty good and the guitarist had a great sound (he's changed from a Les Paul to a Telecaster and the sound is now much clearer than before). He was playing through the venues Orange Valve head and a 4x12. In fact after the second song I actually shouted over to him what a great sound he had. That was probably the wrong thing to do, as it fueled his egotistical guitar brain and he went straight for the master volume!

At the break the sound engineer came up to us and said that one of the barmaids (it's a big bar with a capacity of 900, over two levels, and she was working at least 50 feet away) had complained that she couldn't continue working as the guitar was so loud. He said the guitar sounded fantastic but it was the loudest he had ever heard a guitar being played at that venue and the guitarist had to turn down before he sent the bar staff deaf.

For the second half the guitarist turned way down and I had to listen to him through the monitors (which sounded, in comparison, like a ukulele  played through a cheap transistor radio). Next time he plays I've told him to bring his 15 watt Fender pro junior, which is what he usually plays through, and he'll not be able to make anybody's ears bleed.