razor5cl

There's such a thing as "low" gain? That term doesn't feature in my vocabulary 🤣

Forget to run your strap through your lead and you might die, or suffer an even worse fate.....your bass will cut out mid song! Learned this one myself after treading on my own lead and pulling it out at one too many rehearsals. On stage it could even be a clumsy guitar player!

I'm seeing Fields in a couple of weeks for the first time and I was really excited, all of my mates said that they're bloody brilliant live and that Carl is a killer frontman.....I hope this doesn't shatter any of the illusion of excitement for me just yet!

My band is Äxe - unholy old school black/speed metal slaughter with plenty of classic heavy metal and crust punk influence. For fans of big sunglasses and huge Marshall stacks (and of course filthy driving bulldozer bass too 😄). Been together about a year, released a demo in May and played 2 gigs so far. 2 more coming up, writing new material all the time, and looking forward to conquering the rest of London, then the UK, and soon the world! https://unholyaxekution.bandcamp.com/album/warriors-of-the-death-raid A couple of live videos from our last gig:

You're not alone - I'd absolutely KILL for one. I've always thought the Rhoads shape looks so much better than your bog standard Gibson Flying V-esque shapes. If you Google it you can find one-off custom shop Rhoads basses but a proper production run at a reasonable price would be absolutely killer. That and I'd like to actually play one first because I imagine the ergonomics of the body shape will be....uncertain and interesting 🤣

Just seen this one advertized through the grapevine - a limited edition Rhoads-shaped bass: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Jackson/X-Series-RR-B-IV-Limited-Edition-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Black-1500000455188.gc I've always lusted after the Jackson Rhoads and Warrior shapes and desperately wished they did bass versions (you occasionally see custom shop models pop up which shows they can at least make them!). This one seems to be a limited edition and I wonder whether any will make their way over here...

As others have said depends entirely on where you live. I live in London so it's possible for me to get to rehearsals or gigs fairly easily by public transport. Like others here have mentioned, our band has a permanent rehearsal room we rent and share with a few other bands, so all the bulky difficult-to-transport equipment stays in there. Which is just as well because we use massive 100W Marshall heads and I've got a Peavey bass head that weighs more than a collapsed sun. Plus cabinets, the PA, mic stands etc etc. We can even keep guitars in there so that we don't have to take those. I personally drive to rehearsals just because I'm lazy and it's easier than public transport with my huge pointy bass getting in people's way on the tube. The rest of my band members make their own way but I usually offer to drive two of them to the singer's house since it only adds about 20 minutes to my journey home. As others have said - it's possible to deal with by a combination of taxis, public transport if applicable, and lifts from other band members, mates, family or friends. It might be a lot of hassle but it could be possible. If you can fit all your gear into a bass case then you should be able to make it work. Having to transport more gear (like amps or cabinets or elaborate pedalboards) will be tougher but if you're clever with getting lightweight stuff you mayyyy be able to get by. At this point though you might have to start wondering if it's at all possible to think about at least learning to drive since it could be less hassle and potentially cheaper than buying new lightweight gear and getting taxis everywhere etc.

As the almost exact target market for a bass like this I'm seriously conflicted. It looks stealthy and super slick and cool, and I am a HUGE fan of the Jackson headstock over all else. Nice binding and luminlays too, real sexy. I'm also a big proponent of the Jackson "sharktooth" fret inlays, so sharp and much cooler than dots. But £1400, really? The body shape is nothing special and aside from the inlays and headstock shape I see no real benefit over a Fender Aerodyne or even something like the black Yamaha BB734a. Hell if you want something rock and roll get a used MIJ Charvel with the same headstock, real 80s heavy metal/shred heritage and made by the real Jackson before they became part of Fender. And most importantly cheaper too.

I hadn't consciously noticed this but I've been combing the classifieds for a while now and it checks out! I'm actually on the lookout for some cabs myself since my rehearsal space has two mismatched and rather knackered old boxes, a Warwick 4x10 and a Laney 1x15 and one of them is definitely blown since it makes an odd farty sound when I play hard with my distortion pedal on. It's a buyer's market these days it seems! Especially if you're not so bothered about lugging around heavy gear - my 90s Peavey head is heavy enough as is! Plus most venues we get offered to play have their own cabs these days.

You need to play like Cronos from Venom - make a total bloody racket and mainly use that fretless upper register for slides and making various ungodly noises

I also have an irrational fear of batteries dying! I'm just a miserable young scallywag. Thankful my bass only has two pickups though and no piezo volume knob! That sounds awful

It is an option I think but I'm not 100% sure. EMG seems to have thousands of wiring diagrams on their website and it seems that in addition to the handful they provide with the pickups there are also other options that they don't tell you about. They do sell an active blend knob I think but I'd have to check. Basically I'm too lazy to check their website, buy the parts, and figure it out myself/take it to my tech 🤣

I'd consider it for practice or in the studio but on stage I have an irrational (heh see!) fear of using pedals during a performance. I'm just paranoid that cables will get tangled or me or someone else will step on it by accident or unplug it. My tuner and distortion pedals live in front of the amp at the back of the stage and I strictly forbid any of my band mates from going anywhere near them lol

Someone here mentioned separate volume knobs and it's currently driving me mildly loopy. Just had the electronics swapped on my Jackson Kelly and I have two active EMGs with no preamp so separate pots it is. How does one deal with this? Having played for almost 9 years now and gotten used to having a master volume to quickly mute/unmute my bass with. I can quickly turn both down easily enough but turning them both back up is a faff. It's especially annoying since one of my band's tunes has a part where I do a volume swell up on a big power chord. So far I've been doing it with just one knob and then turning the other one up once it's already ringing out at full volume but sometimes I forget to turn up the other knob (like on stage this weekend oops!)

That thing looks really cool! How does it sound? I've Googled but can't seem to find a black one for sale anywhere. Each to their own but glam isn't really my thing apart from maybe W.A.S.P. I much prefer the cult classic German underground death/thrash metal band Poison! BC Rich are still at it today with their guitars! Look here for example, tonnes of purples and yellows and crackles: https://www.andertons.co.uk/browse/guitar-dept/electric-guitars/?cio_brand=BC+Rich A mate of mine has a crackle Ironbird and I just can't wrap my head around it. The over-the-top glam finish is totally not my thing anyways but each to their own. But on an Ironbird? A guitar shape famous for black/death/war metal bands? The mind boggles. I'm sure Suffolk is very nice but I think my band mates and musical friends would immediately disown me if I was caught dead with that thing lol. Really not my thing at all, and now I don't have to spend 4 hours before a gig getting my hair and makeup done.