scalpy

Learning the bassline to Loaded was a wonderful distraction from A Levels. Very sorry to hear this news.

Always when I'm at work. Will be great.

34 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

My band applies the principle... People who can afford bands are usually in their 40s and 50s, so what music do they like and will sing and dance along to? I like data too, didn't even know if I could do demographic analysis of our Facebook... 

We're learning a take that medley..... Where's the gritted teeth emoji?

4 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

This is it! I firmly believe in a covers band having a theme. Otherwise you end up with "stuff Dave and Terry listen to in the car and can have a go at playing" and people will not know what to expect and whether to bother coming. 

Absolutely, you need to have an aesthetic the crowd go for. Being a data geek i actually look at the demographic stats from our social media and then apply the marketing principle 'what were the big hits when they were 16?' 

We don’t do all out cheese but doing functions it just not worth trying to have artistic integrity. I did see a fantastic band two years ago called Mac and Cheese. The lead singer was like a West Country jack Black, crowd lapped it up.

Ultimately the singers have to be comfortable singing them. We put a lot of thought into choosing songs, normally trying to stay just on the right side of cheese, if indeed there is one.

9 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

There appear to be no nice colours though

Just those minging stripy ones on the website.

British racing green? I'm G&L fanboi so love the colours and love Ed Friedland's reviews so the above video was great. 

Interesting what he says about notes on the G string having more weight. 

4 hours ago, Passinwind said:

At NAMM I saw a 100 watt power amp that fits on the end cap of a very slick modular pedalboard system. I let a number of bass players know about it and asked them to go pitch the manufacturer on doing a bass oriented one as well, which to me means 300 watts at minimum. That's also probably about the most power we might expect to fit in your scenario, and as a semi-pro builder I'd want about 8 by 6 by 3 inches for a proper enclosure that would meet safety and EMC certifications. An actual pro could do better than that though, I'm sure. So, how much space is there under your pedalboard, exactly?  And do you see a market for a few thousand sales a year over several years, minimum?

Speaking of which, a lot of these small-ish boutique power amps are not strictly legal in the US at this time. I see that as potentially playing with fire, both literally and figuratively. YMMV. Over here there's a loophole for not-for-sale test builds, but I'm still generally pretty careful about who I let try my various DIY bass amp and power amp builds out on stage.

 

Thanks for your reply. I’m not an engineer and I’m not in the manufacturing business. I can only imagine the hurdles producing a 300w to those specs. Is there a market? I do wonder who buys all the preamp pedals that are available, not to mention the array of modelling tech out there now. The pitch would be the solution I’m looking for. I do a lot of rehearsals in different places, lots of pit work and some bigger gigs too. I don’t want a combo- very often my amp is crammed behind another player or cymbal stand, I can’t adjust it easily. I want to choose my micro cab or bigger cab, depending on the gig, and I want to be able to carry it all in one trip and use one plug! I bet I'm not the only one!

Quite interesting that two threads of a similar nature have cropped up recently. This and the ashdown pedal board amp one suggest what I've been wondering for a while, is there a market for/ the technology for a class d pedalboard amp that would fit under a board, like a regular pedal power supply? If the baby sumo fitted under a board I'd have it in a flash.

1 hour ago, dodge_bass said:

Actually I thought Sunset was much harder than West Side - maybe because all of the tricky figures in 7 etc were not nailed at all by the string section and the dummer was at the far side of the pit. Actually I thought that Sunset was a triumph of making it as complex to play as possible for no discernible reason - West Side Story grooves all the way through, Sunset for me was just meh. I'll not do it again if asked! 

Absolutely, west side is impeccably arranged, sunset clever for clever's sake. With the rather aptly named 'Car Crash'. 

2 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

Band members who are married/partners. If they fall out, it's a problem. If they are on good terms, one will always support the other, regardless of rights and wrongs, so you can't disagree with either of them about anything.

Whoops, that's me out then!

My peeve, drummers who cant stop tipettiy tapttity bewteeen every song, another go at that fill, the groove the band like with extra ghostnotes, bell of the ride all the time.....

1 hour ago, ianrendall said:

I can attest to this. Pretty much anything Rodgers & Hammerstein or Gilbert & Sullivan. I used to call it ‘crotchet, rest, crotchet, rest’ music!

Until you turn the page and its unison with the brass for the dance number....

Dullest show I've played is carousel. West Side is almost the champion for hardest but sunset boulevard takes it for one number, lets have lunch. Pages of incessant register changes, key changes, time signature changes, you name it changes! 

Have a bump for a very tempting bass from a fellow Herefordian.

Ok so I’m recommending something I use but only because I’m really pleased with it- have a look at db cabs, a small British firm. I have the ten inch speaker version, 7 kilos, sounds smooth not super loud or bassy but works well for loud rehearsals with my 8 piece and no problems at pit volume either. 

12 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

It helps if you think of fast passages as just slow passages speeded up. 😎

With the drummer on the show all the slow sections will be speeded up!

10 minutes ago, ambient said:

You’re actually learning it, memorising it?

From my experience things can change when you get along to the technical rehearsals, that why you often see pencil annotations on the scores. 

Oh god no, there's 100 pages and its in 2 weeks! I'd love to be at the point i could play without looking at the neck but there's some jumps in this part I'm going to have to, so i'll memorise some sections. It also makes watching the MD easier.

30 minutes ago, lowdown said:

Being a veteran of many professional pit shows over the last forty years, I can't remember one being..."the usual I V I V Fodder"... 

 

I know what you mean but I’m thinking seven brides, South Pacific, half a sixpence etc where it’s not massively challenging. 

19 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

How do you manage it? If I’m working on a tricky head for example I’ll break it down into 2 bar phrases.

They’re not really that complex (just quick). I imagine internalising an entire score must be a huge challenge! 

Guess that’s why theatre guys are so respected.

With difficulty! I’m not a full time pro, and my training was actually on the trumpet, so a lot of my ‘ability’ is knowledge transfer. I was lucky enough to have a really good big band leader at uni who taught us how to think about how syncopations belong to beats, so for instance the last semiquaver of beat one anticipates beat two. (it’d make more sense if I could play it to you!) So I start with the rhythm, then my chord/ scale knowledge is pretty good so I rely on that. What makes reading on the bass trickier than the trumpet is that on the trumpet 95% of the time there is only one valve combination per note. On the bass you can play a major scale from 1st 2nd and 4th position for example, so my biggest issue is planning the journey over the neck so that each section links smoothly. Full respect to expert sight readers! 

9 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

What sort of basslines will you have to learn, 🙂

Like a lot if modern shows they throw the kitchen sink at it, so the opening has a five eight section that's quite quick, then there's a number with lots if Latin rhythms all over the neck, some funk stuff and some swing sections as well. Second act has plenty of tacet though so some relief before another quick number with time signature changes and syncopation. The metronome is on this morning i can tell you!

22 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

As any Rocky fan knows it’s simpler and quicker to do it in a montage.

Ah but montages have music, who’s provided that and how much did they rehearse it? There will be a rip in the time space continuum!

Wow, the part just arrived in the post it looks I’ll be spending the next few weeks in the woodshed! Has anybody else on here done this show? Certainly makes a change from the usual I V I V fodder!

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Nice rig @scalpy.

BUT an Aggie db112 = £882 (PMT) and a MB 121H is £394 (dV247)

Nuff said? 😉

But when you buy the cabs 8 or 9 years ago for £600 plus covers.....🤟👍🔥

Sorry dozing off watching wales Italy with a cold!

G&L LB100 (their vintage sounding P model) with Chrome flats

Markbass littlemark tube- 500w

Aguilar DB112 cabs, in tweed for that extra midrange bump.

It is a fantastic sounding rig.

22 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Well I have no idea what the abbreviations stand for, but I'm sure that's a great rig. 

😁

Lb100 into lmt500 into db112s. Vintage without the wooliness.

2 hours ago, bassace said:

But Rommel liked jazz. He was always saying ‘Wes Montgomery.’

Superb, very well played.