Franticsmurf

Ignore him, he's playing with your mind. They were a story told to young bassists to scare them in t'olden days. 🙂

Mine has the twin pole jazz pick up and I haven't noticed any significant drop off in volume. It was one of the things I was prepared for after reading other reviews, but it hasn't manifested itself here. Thanks. The finish was the trigger for me. I would have gone for the Z3 but I didn't like any of the finishes.

Early days as I have yet to gig it to be able to make a definite comparison. I play a Sterling 34HH (the Z7 was intended as a back up to keep a similar sound) and so far, at home volume levels, the sound from the bridge pick up appears the same. The Z7 pre-amp seems to provide more tonal variety in active mode (I don't know if this is as a result of it being 18v rather than the Sterling's 9v). Unlike some reviews, I've found my neck pick up doesn't have a volume drop. In active mode it can get quite thick and bassy but it doesn't quite match the 34HH's neck pick up. So far I don't think it's a Sterling Killer but then I never rated my ATK as one, either. But I reserve the right to change my mind after I've used in in anger. 🙂

I've only ever bought two new basses in 35 years. All the rest are 2nd hand/pre-loved/used and/or part exchanges. The bass I'm using for the C&W gig next month (a Squire PJ) cost me £100 and got compliments from our sound engineer at rehearsals.

I consider myself able to play by ear, and I find it harder (but not impossible) to play from notes without having run through the song a few times. I can't read music to the standard of being able to follow the dots in real time. My notes are usually reminders, limited to parts of the song that vary from the standard pattern, particular fills or runs that are needed for the song and, if required, notes about odd arrangements. I'll also make notes about effects, pick-up selection etc. I can pick up songs without a written guide, and this is the usual way for me to work out a new song. I will refer to some kind of guide (online or other band member) only if I have to. I can't play something straight off having heard it only once, although I can usually join in following a few test runs. We were auditioning songs during Sunday's rehearsal (we're working on a Country set for a specific gig) and I was able to pick up most of the bass lines within the first verse. As above, I'll be able to play the song without having identified the key. Alternatively, if I have the key I'm usually able to make a valid contribution to the song. I've never tested myself, but I'm fairly certain I can identify a 3rd and a fifth.

A break can be good for you. I took a break years ago and it worked wonders. I came back refreshed and a became a better player. It also meant I continued to enjoy playing rather than getting jaded and put off by the exasperation I was feeling. Don't make the mistake I did of selling almost everything, though.

I've had my eye on one of these for a while and have been reading the comments/reviews on the topics that mention the Z7. On Wednesday I had my replacement credit card and it had to be road tested and... well... ummm... I was looking for a natural finish but when searching Anderton's website, the only Z7s with this finish were 5 strings. But search for natural finish basses without using the manufacturer's name and these pop up. The QC and setup out of the box were great and I don't see (hear?) the need to fiddle to make any improvements so far. The pre-amp set up will take a while - I've only played through headphones so far but it seems there are a lot of potential options. I can see what everyone is saying about the knobs feeling cheap and I'll be looking for replacements at some point. I also think the two stacked knobs seem quite vulnerable to knocks, particularly if the bass is on a stand on a stage. Mine weighs in at 4.4kg (9.7lbs).

I have 10 basses of which I count 2 as my 'main' gigging basses. I like having the choice, though and I have gigged every one of the 10 over the last three years or so. My main band plays a wide range of covers which change quite frequently as we tailor the set to the function we've been asked to play. The feel of the set determines which of the main basses I use. For example, we play a long festival set every year which is usually heavier and rockier and for this I use my Sterling 34HH. We also have a regular Christmas gig for the Local Crown Court service and as this is a more laid back affair, the P Bass comes out. As we are a large band (13) if I know the venue is small I'll bring a headless bass and if space is particularly tight (I can think of two venues we've played several times) I have my Ibanez short scale headless. I like to have a spare guitar at gigs and it recently occurred to me that if I'm making the effort to match the main guitar to the gig, I should also match the spare to the main guitar. So I have a Squire PJ to use at 'Precision' gigs, and an incoming Sire Z7 to use at 'Sterling' gigs. The full list: Sterling 34HH Fender Precision Ibanez EHB100S Squire PJ (Sire Z7) Hohner 'The Jack' Spirit XZ2 Ibanez GSR 205 (5 string) Ibanez SR300 Ibanez AGBR 200 semi acoustic Edit: And a Harley Benton Fretless Jazz which I've used in rehearsal and on recordings but not gigged.

In recent years this has been my experience too. With a couple of exceptions, it feels as if people are less concerned about the band and its certainly not the main reason for being at the venue. The couple of exceptions I've experienced have both been bands with a more professional attitude than has become the norm, a set that doesn't include the same or similar songs to every other local band and that as a result of the first two have attracted a following.

I listen to all comments, criticism, praise etc out of politeness but the only ones I take serious notice of are from people who's opinions I respect, and the respect is born out of experience and understanding. That means mostly musicians, but I value our non-musician sound man's comments which come from a lifetime of listening to a wide range of music and his knowledge of the band's sound having engineered with them for more than 5 years.

I spent most of the three years I was a student in or around Denmark Street in the mid 80s. I went back a few years ago and was disappointed by how it is now.

I like the idea of taking a classic crowd pleaser and doing something different with it, which is what I thought you were going to say when I read '... electronic backing track ...' . My mate's band does a version of 'Love Story', the Taylor Swift song. All they've done is take out all the subtlety, rocked it up and made it loud. Personally, I think it's their best song, and it still gets a decent crowd reaction.

I agree to a certain extent. My point (not well made) was that the crowds I'm talking about would react equally crazily to us playing Sweet Caroline, or the juke box playing it, but they wouldn't complain if we didn't play it. I agree there are some songs you have to play (in this neck of the woods, Dakota is required on every set list and is often called for by the crowd at the end of a gig) but as you say there are plenty of songs that will get a good reaction and the aim should be a strong set list that doesn't rely on one or two songs. My experience has been filling the dance floor and keeping punters in the pub makes the venue owner smile a lot, too. My current band gets all of its gigs through word of mouth and its because we are able to tailor the set list to suit the occasion. In the context of the OP, if bands are playing similar sets then punters will soon get tired of the lack of variety. And if the options open to a venue owner are limited it becomes pot luck whether you land the gig or the next band that plays the same sort of set does. A band I recently depped for are known for playing Bohemian Rhapsody (sadly, not when I played with them). That will get them noticed in a way that 'they play Dakota' won't. They also play Dakota (sadly, when I played for them 🙂) because it works.

I can only speak from my experience of cover bands. Most of the bands I've seen play have a very similar set list; if not the same songs then the same kinds of songs. It's an understandable vicious circle in that the audience reacts to certain songs so the band plays those songs. However I used to play in a band where the BL said 'we play Sweet Caroline because everyone wants it'. No one ever asked for it at any gig I played with them and yet we often played it and, of course, the audience reacted. This confirmed the BL's thinking in his own mind but if we hadn't played it then the audience wouldn't have missed it. The few bands that play different set lists are the ones that stand out for me and, I suspect, a lot of people who go to see a band (rather than go to a pub with live music).

Sometimes things are beyond your control. I played a venue (dedicated band space in the basement of a pub) which was usually well attended. That night, the audience was just the guy we had collecting money on the door and a young couple. We spoke to them after the gig - there had been a massive fight in the pub upstairs and they'd come down to avoid the chaos. In the duo we were often asked to play in pubs on a Sunday between 5pm and 7pm - the intention being to try and stop punters heading home for their dinners. It rarely worked and they were mostly poorly attended, with those watching largely the ones that had been drinking all day. The main problem with the duo (and trio when we added a drummer) was that we got gigs booked through an agent, which could be anywhere in the South Wales area (up to 2hrs drive each way). It meant that the usual way of guaranteeing some kind of audience - by supplying them ourselves - wasn't an option. We managed to develop a following of sorts for local gigs - perhaps 8-10 people would usually turn up to a pub - but it was dependent on the weather, time of year and what other events were on. The mistake we made with the local gigs is that we didn't vary the set enough and so people started to drift away as they became bored with what we were doing (as did I, eventually). My main band now only plays private functions (the dream of guaranteed audiences 😀) but when I play with other cover bands in music venues, we are very much at the mercy of the publicity that the venue provides. Most of them are pubs with live music and few people come to see a specific band. Instead they are there to start the night off before heading to a night club and will leave according to their own agenda and not the end of the gig. So the pub concentrates on advertising the venue, the offers on drinks and fact they have live music rather than the individual band itself.

Last night's rehearsal was meant to be the first sight of our 'Country' set list for a dedicated Country & Western gig to raise funds for the hall we rehearse in. As usual, the band leader kept the list secret until about an hour before the rehearsal (annoying but not insurmountable) and we turned up only to find that he and the sax player had been called out on an RNLI shout. They are both members of the volunteer crew for the local inshore rescue boat and for gigs they are listed as 'unavailable'. For rehearsals, which take place in the hall about 300m from the lifeboat station, they are on call and it's pot luck whether they go out or whether they are covered by other volunteers on a first come first sent basis. But the show must go on, as they say, so we made a start with me singing 'John Henry' and 'Achy Breaky Heart', the trombonist singing '9 to 5' and one of the Uke players doing a sterling version of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky'. We also tried 'Man I Feel Like a Woman', not on the list but one we all through should be. They worked surprisingly well. We kept getting text message updates about the ETA of the BL and sax player but it became clear that the rescue was taking longe than expected (sea conditions and lack of light) so we called it a day around an hour early. I used a recently acquired Squire PJ through my recently rediscovered Laney Digbeth pre amp into the desk. The two idiots who got themselves cut off on a tidal island, despite signs showing the tide times and repeated warnings from the local Coastwatch volunteers as they set off, were rescued safely thanks to the actions of two lifeboats crews (6 volunteers in total).

To a certain extent it depends on how friendly you are with the singer. 'Best mates' friendly and you could probably, with some tact, tell the truth to him/her over a coffee or a pint. 'Acquaintance' friendly and it would be much harder and probably better to stick to some generalisms (needs some work, not tight etc) or just walk away. It also depends on how your credibility is with your friend and the band. I'm not questioning your credibility but if they see you as an experienced player and are willing to listen you could say more than if they just see you as 'the singer's friend'. I was in a band once that was a bit like the one you described. From within at rehearsals it was hard to spot the problems but once we started to record the sessions, it became painfully obvious that the singer couldn't sing and the the two guitarists weren't working together and by backing vocals were dire. Maybe suggesting they record rehearsals or gigs might allow them to spot the problems themselves? I was briefly in another band where, despite basic errors in tempo and timing, every song ended with one of the band saying a variation of 'that was special'. It made me smile as my interpretation of 'special' was different to his. But the serious point is that it can be hard to be objective, particularly if you are within the music, inexperienced r lacking in confidence and so concentrating hard on your own bit. The trick, as has been said above, is to ensure any comments you make are not taken personally. Easier said than done and a lesson I learnt over time.

I'll keep quiet if you will. 😂

When I went DI it took a few sessions to get used to not having the sound behind me, and not having instant access to change that sound. It took a while longer to tune the pre-amp I was using to work through the PA speakers. At about the same time I went to a rudimentary IEM system using a Behringer P1 wired to the desk and £10 Sony earbuds (I wanted to get a feel before investing in wireless). Although it was the cheap end of the market, I could see the potential and I liked the control over the volume in my ears - if nothing else the earbuds gave me some protection from the onstage volume. The big difference came when I was singing BVs - even with the cheap set up I could hear my voice much clearer than when using floor monitors and it gave me more confidence to harmonise. With IEM it took a while to get used to the isolation, and since our singer often talks to the band off mic between songs, I usually have one earpiece more loosely fitted so I can hear him.

I've had the (mis)fortune to experience a wide spectrum of stage patter over my gigging career. I started off in an originals band where the aim was to play a set through with little or no interaction with the audience - we played a Hawkwind influenced 'show' with linking music of sound effects between the actual songs so there was little scope for it. As the audience were there to see us, it didn't matter too much and worked in the context of what we were doing. That was a good thing because we were all so new to it all that we wouldn't really have been able to handle a difficult audience. Later I was very fortunate to work with a guy in a covers band who was a very good front man. He was able to gauge an audience and interact with them very well. His patter would be different according to the circumstances, ranging from next to nothing if the crowd were dancing (we once played an hour of the set back to back with no gaps as the punters were filling the dance floor) to gentle jokes at the band's expense if he needed to inject some humour. He had spontaneity and wit and the wisdom to know how and when to use it. There were never any controversial topics, inappropriate language or picking on audience members. I think these two examples show the difference between the stage patter required for an audience who is there for the band or music and one that is there anyway and for whom the band is incidental. I played in a trio where the frontwoman was a good singer but had no self confidence away from singing. Between songs was an awkward silence. Standing on the stage while we lined up the next song (we were using backing tracks) or tuned up was excruciating and made me realise that regardless of the circumstances, it may be necessary to engage with the audience if there's an unexpected delay. In this case I was forced into it with mixed results; I'm not very good with spontaneous witty banter. I played in a duo with a front man who decided he was a comedian and significant amounts of gig time were given over to his comedy script. There was occasional polite laughter but for people who had come to see and dance to music, it was totally inappropriate and went on far too long between songs. I didn't stick with that duo for long. For me and in my experience stage patter is important and the ability to deploy it appropriately and skillfully is essential. Knowing when to shut up is equally important. People pay to see a band primarily for the music and dancing and while for me it should be a performance, that doesn't mean scripted jokes or long song introductions. Personally, I make a few notes; for example at the recent festival gig where I played in a support band before my main band, I made sure that as the front man I could thank the previous act, introduce the act on after us and talk about the charities that were being supported by the event. I thanked the volunteers helping and our sound man. I had to say some words between songs as we had instrument swaps and I made a point of getting the audience to acknowledge a particularly good performance by our sax player. Most of that was prompted by words or phrases scribbled on my set list and it was spread across the 45 minutes of our set.

In my first band, late 80s, I played guitar. We had a bassist and he was very good but he was an odd character. It's very difficult to describe but he was unpredictable in behaviour. Never aggressive or loud but his actions were often annoying. An example was during a studio session (we had a week in the local college studio as the keyboard player was a student there). We were recording an albums worth of material. He turned up on day one, recorded his bass parts and left while we stayed to record the rest of the songs. No interest, enthusiasm or even a check in to see if we needed him again. When we played him the final mix he wasn't happy with it and wanted to re-record all his bass parts. He would make a lot of suggestions on arrangements and what other band members should play during rehearsals - try this chord, use this sound etc. While no single comment or action was the trigger and some of his suggestions were good, the constant need to change things and inability to move on with arrangements started to become very frustrating for all of us. At our first ever gig we had brought his gear to the venue from the rehearsal room as he didn't drive, and he was due to meet us there. At the sound check he was nowhere to be found (this was before mobile phones) and as kick off neared, the guy doing our sound offered to stand in for him. With about 10 minutes to go our bassist turned up completely oblivious to the stress around him and asked when we were sound checking. Needless to say, he didn't get one and this made him quite upset. It turned out he'd called in to the shop where he worked on the way to the gig and had ended up doing an hour's (unpaid) work there. We played the gig and for a first time it wasn't bad - but there was one grumpy bassist who thought it was the worst as he couldn't hear himself etc. Not long after we were offered a short opening slot at a local beach festival - about 20 minutes - and we were discussing how to cut the set down to fit. We decided to trim our songs by taking out the long intros (we were very much influenced by early Hawkwind) and trying to get the best songs in. But as one of the intros had been written by the bassist, he insisted that it remain despite our explanations. There followed an argument that built like a well crafted song into a climax that involved a bar stool being thrown across the tiny rehearsal room by the keyboard player at the bassist. How it missed the kit I don't know, but the bassist being in the way probably helped. It was only the difficulty of getting out of the synth den he had made for himself that prevented the keyboard player from physically attacking the bassist, who made a quick exit. The drummer and I calmed the keyboardist down and the rehearsal came to an end. As he didn't drive, I gave the bassist a lift home but it was an awkward and silent drive and the following day we let him know that his services were no longer required. The band limped on with several temporary bassists (I hadn't yet seen the light or heard the call) but never really recovered. Several years later I bumped into the same bassist and for some reason (probably desperation) recruited him into a covers band (in which I played rhythm guitar) for a few gigs as we were booked but without a bassist. At the last of these we were offered extra money to play an extra set and, true to form, the bassist refused (I'm still not sure why). I stepped in and played the bass for the extra set while he sat in the changing room for 45 minutes. He didn't get any of the extra fee and, once again, I was driving him home as he still didn't drive. It was a long journey made in complete silence.

At first I was depping for a band I used to play in - I knew the guys, even the bass player that replaced me. That was easy as the set hadn't changed and effectively I was just playing in 'my' band. But recently, they've started coming from an ex bandmate and I've had four in quick succession as a result of two recommendations from him. I don't go looking for them as up until recently I haven't felt competent enough to do them.

We played at a 40th birthday party last night, held in the hall in which we rehearse, so very much a home fixture. The audience was a mix ranging in age from 5 to 65. Food and drink provided, which is always good. We had been asked to provide a 'rocky' set and I decided to give my recently acquired 5 string Ibanez GSH205 an outing. I've rehearsed with it a few times and it was my back up at the Hulla festival back in June, but this was the first time it took centre stage. I don't play 5 strings regularly enough to be able to swap between 4 and 5 easily but I'd been practicing with it and was reasonably comfortable in using it. It was an 8pm kick off and we had a great sound thanks to our regular sound engineer and, of course, it being a familiar venue. I had a few senior/jazz moments, mainly as a result of the extra string throwing me and I felt the band performance as a whole wasn't as good as it has been recently. There seemed to be a lack of energy in some of the faster songs, with our encore of Dakota being particularly bland. But we went down well with the audience, with our younger fans particularly enjoying Taylor Swift's Love Story - they all gathered around our singer and stared adoringly at him as he sang it. 😀 My kit was the aforementioned Ibanez GSH205 into the pedal board - a Sine HPF, MS60b (for noise gate and tuner only), NUX Sculpture compressor, EHX Bass Clone, NUX Voodoo Vibe and into the desk via my Ampeg SCRDI. This board hasn't changed for a couple of months now (unusual for me) and I find it works equally well into an amp and speakers (last week) or DI (this week). I was monitoring from the desk via a Behringer P16m and wireless IEMs. This gives me my own mix and some protection from excessive noise levels. Footwear was the same as last week - unbranded black boots. Kit: Love Story:

Done. Good luck with your thesis.

My experience of IEM is positive and I use it all the time for my main band. However, it took me a while to get it 'tuned' to my liking and also it took a while to get used to the isolation (compared to wedge monitors) when pretty much all you can hear is what's in your ears. Some bands mates can't/won't get used to it and have gone back to wedges. So my advice would be to start out with something cheap (Behringer P1 or P2) and a relatively simple wired approach, using decent but sound blocking MP3 player ear buds (I have a pair of £10 Sony ones which are now my back-ups) to get a feel for the whole experience. If it's to your liking, there are plenty of wireless options and earpieces and a dedicated thread on BC with all the info and opinion you'll ever need. And your cheap wired system will act as a back up or even a home silent practice outfit. I'm currently using a G4M WPM 200 transmitter/receiver kit plus Linsoul KZ ZS10 earbuds. For the main band, as we use a Behringer X32 desk, I have a Behringer P16m personal mixer which links to that desk (and the X18, I believe) via 'Ultranet' (their proprietary system) which allows me to create my own personal monitor mix from 16 channels on the desk. For dep gigs, I can use my Behringer P1 to take a feed from the DI so that at the very least I can hear my own bass playing. As it has two inputs, I could also take a feed from an aux out or headphone out of the main mixing desk for an overall monitor sound. The added bonus of good IEM is that it manages the volume and can protect your ears from silly on stage sound levels.