gjones

Been there, got the T-shirt. Had CT in both wrists. Had an operation on left hand and within 2 weeks was back playing gigs. Right wrist was not so severe, so now I wear a velcro weightlifters brace (cheap and unobtrusive) while I'm playing. I also wear my bass low so my right wrist is straight. Make sure you wear splints in bed. Go to doctor and bug him/her to get surgery. I had to give them a hard time before I got an appointment with a neurologist, who recommended surgery.

I remember buying a really long lead, a few years ago, and while we were playing at a wedding, going on a wander out front. I was amazed how great my Ashdown MiBass 550 sounded, through my Barefaced Compact, 25ft away, than when I was standing right next my cab.

That looks like the only bass anyone would ever need.

I know the feeling.

No manufacturer brings their manufacturing to the UK for patriotic reasons. I have to presume that transportation costs from the far East are now exorbitant and that automation means that the difference in labour costs are no longer a factor in whether the company makes a profit or not. Which is bad news for China.

Hopefully not. We'll see what happens on Monday.

One of the guitarists is a fan of David Icke. Luckily he isn't on facebook so I don't have to put up with his nonsense day to day. Whenever he starts about conspiracy garbage, eyes are rolled and the subject is changed instantly. Hopefully things will remain that way.

i wear it on my right wrist that I pluck the strings with (my left wrist had an operation on it to cure the carpal tunnel and is ok now). It's pretty light and doesn't get in the way.

I suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, which is a pinched nerve in my wrist. It means I get severe pins and needles type symptoms, which would make it impossible to play bass without taking the following measures. I now ensure my wrist is straight when I play standing up (basically I lengthened my strap) and play with a velcro weight lifters brace on my wrist, to stop it from bending. After taking these precautions I no longer have any problems when I play. I recommend you do the same, after all prevention is better than cure.

Well we have a band meeting tomorrow, where the drummers reluctance to gig will be discussed. He's already said he'll be happy to sit in at rehearsals until a new drummer is recruited. Now all we need is to find a decent drummer who is as committed to gigging as the rest of the band is.

It's an ABM EVO lll bought for £134 from Ebay a couple of years ago. Quite a bargain.

You have a guitar amp at ear height, my commiserations. It sounds a pretty dumb arrangement. If I was playing there, I would probably bring my own amp. Or ask the sound engineer to get the guitar amp as far away as possible from your ears (in a diplomatic way).

I would only use UK gear if it was stuff I specifically wanted, that just so happened to be British. I do have a UK built Ashdown ABM and a couple of Barefaced cabs but also have US built GK heads and a Markbass combo made in Indonesia. I have read articles which say that, as companies need less and less humans involved in the manufacturing process, cheap labour will no longer be a reason to 'offshore' manufacturing plants, in order to save money. In the near future manufacturing will be a mostly automated process, where labour costs are minimal and it will be more cost effective to base your manufacturing plants near where your customers are, to cut out the cost of transporting your goods over large distances from the factory to the consumer. Many manufacturers are already doing this.

As a teenager I was told, by the boyfriend of my sister who was a sound engineer, that bass soundwaves take a long distance to form, so you can't hear your bass correctly until you're 20 ft from your cab. That means the sound onstage doesn't ever sound like the sound 20 ft away. Harmonica players don't have this problem ☹️ What a bummer.

A couple of songs in my bands set require a B string but they aren't impossible to play on a 4 string (I just have to play some notes an octave up). The problem is that our singer tends to change the key of the song, to make it easier for her to sing. My 5 string is a G&L L2500 tribute, which sounds great, but I have 10 other 4 strings and I don't want them sitting at home gathering dust. Ahhh....first world problems eh?

These days sound engineers have spectrum analysers and other gizmos, which should be able to iron out peaks in the sound. Of course there may be some venues that you just can't ever get a good sound in.

The guitarists, although no spring chickens and probably pretty vulnerable themselves, are no fans of lockdowns and I suspect have sympathies with the ant vax/plandemic brigade. I suspect they would poo poo his worries about catching covid and I want to avoid confrontation if I can. Best to not have the drummer present, so that things can be discussed in a cool and thoughtful manner.

I'm happy to attend rehearsals until the drummer is ready to return to gigging in hot sweaty dives, if that's what the rest of the band want to do. I'm also happy to think about recruiting another drummer if they want to get gigging sooner. I think I'll break it to them after the next rehearsal on Thursday. The drummer usually shoots off pretty sharpish, so that will give me and the singer (who already knows about the situation) some time to discuss things with the guitarists.

I like the guy but you're right, I don't like him enough to allow him to hold us back from gigging.

I joined a band before the pandemic, we had a few rehearsals, then lockdown happened. After the lockdown I decided that I was going to push things along, get a set rehearsed and get everybody organised for gigging. Then the drummer told me he was vulnerable to covid as he had diabetes and had diabetes heart issues. He told me he didn't want to gig until 2022 at the earliest. This put a spanner in the works, as I was planning to get us gigging by the start of winter at the latest. So, although I'm still organising rehearsals, I'm not putting the same effort in to get us up to speed. After all we won't be gigging with our current drummer, until some time in 2022. So far I haven't told the two guitarists, as I'm afraid they'll either want to kick him out, or quit the band. Should I tell the guitarists or not? I'd like to know your opinions.

Actually I think that's the plan. He's playing with Saucerful Of Secrets, at the moment, so he's looking for a 60s look (i.e. Wem columns and Selmer amp).

It looks like a Selmer Treble n bass on a pair of Wem columns

That's the weird thing with sonic blue. I bought a Fender Stratocaster a few years ago, which looked white in the shop, when I got it home I realised it was Sonic Blue.

As @pbasspecial said, get a secondhand Barefaced Compact. I have one and it sounds much louder than the ABM 1x15 I used to own.

The strings on the Aretha track, actually sounded pretty tastefully done. Not syrupy, or over the top at all.