August 12th, 2011 9:30 pm
You’re progressing from being a beginner, you’ve learnt a bit when it comes to how to play bass, you’ve learned numerous tunes on your bass and you’ve got a series of rehearsals and/or gigs lined up with a band.
Well Gig tip number 2 is aimed at those amid you who’ve got shiny new active basses that you’re planing to take to this jams or gigs.
What you need to do is this: find something that you take with you to each gig. So either your bass case. or your gig bag. Or if you drive to each gig you could have a little pouch or bag in your car for spares. Whatever you take to each gig, you need to put the following two items in there:
1) At least one spare 9V battery
2) A Philips head screwdriver.
Some active basses sound poor once the power has drained out of the 9V battery that powers the active circuitry, and the volume output from the bass gets in truth low too.
So that’s what you need the 9V battery for.
You need the Philips head screwdriver to undo the screws that keep on the plate that houses the battery compartment. Some basses come with clip off plates – regrettably mine (and in all likelihood yours too!) doesn’t. Don’t rely on any person else in the band to have a spare battery or a screwdriver.
If you want to be seen to be in truth helpful by the humans in your band – and this works in your favour if you’re depping (or subbing) a lot and you get work from recommendations – I suggest you have at least two spart 9V batteries and a little multi-head screwdriver kit of numerous kind to lend to other band members suffering from instrumentation or battery distress! (A multi screwdriver kit ought to be cheap as chips and hardly take up any space. For years I had had a set in my gig bag that came from a Luxery Marks & Spencers christmas cracker! Did the occupation utterly though!).
So to recap:
At least one 9V battery (and if you have one or more battery powered effects pedals you must have at least one battery for over pedal. Sounds over the top I know, but you never recognise what’s around the corner….)
1 Philips head screwdriver (or multihead screwdriver set).
Tags: beginners, how to play bass, learn