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Very different lol

Another thread reminds me of two. White guys calling each other 'man' or referring to someone as a 'cat'. Actually, add 'dude' to that list.

On a personal level my 'attempts' to do the 12 string justice have thrown up more questions than answers! LOL If you are in a position whereby you have TOTAL control of the FOH sound then you can go the full Tom P route and use the amplifiers/cabs of choice (roadies will transport them) and you can have DI's or mic'd cabs to suit, with an engineer who works for YOU and will mix it as you want. However... That is rarely the case for most of us and transporting gear is a consideration, as is who is in charge of your live sound and how much say have you really got? Even if you are hiring in or using an in-house engineer paid to make you sound good, sometimes (nearly always) they know what a bass should sound like (not a 12er) but you are pretty much on the lowest rung of the priority ladder and mic'ing / DI'ing multiple sources and mixing to your desired end result. I've come to the conclusion if you can get the best mono signal from whatever sources you need (pedals, splitters, Helix etc) and you can present a premixed feed to an engineer you're more likely to get close to what you want. I did a gig where I had a split signal (1 feed bass to bass amp/cab, 2 feed top end to a guitar combo) and despite my clear instructions it was apparent that during the first song the top end was muted and the rest of the gig was done with my 12 string (everything below 500hz) going through the PA with a bit of an indistinct tone. Conversely, I did do a multiband line up and the engineer bluntly asked if my bass was meant to sound like that (bit of dirt on the higher frequency split of the 12er) and when I said 'Yes', he just left it as was... result. Slightly different scenario if it is your backline sound that you are sculpting which will either be just for your benefit (in which case see above re FOH) or you are in a small enough venue that your backline is carrying the bass to the room. I'm a new advocate of the HX Stomp and I have it set up for some global EQ at the start > active split > 1st path is below 500hz and is processed very little other than an amp (no cab) / 2nd path above 500hz is passed through an OD set quite subtle (grit rather than distortion) > these paths are then blended at a vol/level to suit. I was considering sending path 1 to a separate output than path 2 which could be sent to 2 power amps/cabs/combos OR the 2 paths sent to 2 desk inputs... but would the engineer blend to 'my' liking? Maybe best to just give engineers a premixed signal and a 2nd premixed signal could be sent full range to a bass rig for on stage monitoring. As I say, more questions than answers! LOL

The problem I found with the stock preamp is that it was quite scooped but also the treble frequencies were voiced too high boosting treble as well as brightening the tone also introduced a lot of string noise.

There are Chinese copies of these - there's at least one owner on the Rickenfakers FB group. I don't think the one in the pic's a knockoff though, it doesn't have the generic hardware & pickups a copy would come with.

What are the names of the band's? I'll look out for them.

^ beat me to it. (Wait ... what?)

Thats exactly why I had it. Let me ask around... Some people have spares as they moved to HP, some silly sods staying on the surface pro. Rob

I think we're moved away from the OPs original point about being uncomfortable about playing a specific song rather than an issue of whether or not whole genres should be taboo. Having looked at the lyrics of that song I would say that the casual listener is very unlikely to have a clue about the real events it's referring to so I probably wouldn't be worried on that score. It does however appear to be in a dialect or patois which is likely going to sound very odd if sung in an English accent and probably even more ridiculous if said English person tries to 'do' the correct accent, so I'd probably be out on that score.

That's a much harder question to answer I'm afraid, and it's much more dependent on other gear and members of the band as well. Are you in control of this mix? If not, who is? Do you have a spare aux mix or two on the mixer? Every mixer? How will the rest of the band hear your bass? To get you started I have a band member who uses and likes the Xvive system (which is a good budget option), I use a Sennheiser G4, something more mid-range in price.

Aye but you said it better .... " 🙆‍♂️

Beat me to it.

"Tone is in the fingers" is great until you try adjusting your fingers to get the sound of an overdriven tube amp, a DOD meatbox or a reverse delay.

This is going to be super heavily genre / band dependent .... If i used the tone I need for for example " Placebo" or some other Pop punk in a some blues funk /jazzy number ... the looks i'd get from the audience and my band mates would turn me to stone . There's only so much that can be done with Pick > fingers and onboard Eq , not everyone needs a Fuzz / synth pedal but for some gigs i'd be lost without them

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl was a favourite of the band Ten Years After, but also done by Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Yardbirds, Grateful Dead, Rod Stewart, Van Morrison etc. As a young man just older than many schoolgirls it did not seem out of place but at 73? The problem is that most of the songs we do are talking of young men and their longing for young women although age is rarely mentioned in the lyrics. The one I have trouble with is Brown Sugar. It’s a great song but does it have racist overtones or is it just an historically accurate of days gone by? By all accounts it was written in about 15 minutes and the Stones no longer do it. What about the maddest appropriation of all, Swing Low as the anthem of English Rugby?

no worries , it's not super needed i figured it'd just be nice to have a second one to save me unplugging it

Maybe I'm just lucky; the sound I hear (I can(t know what each audience member hears...) suits me just fine, either when playing bass or drums. I'm just not that 'precious' about it. It sounds good, that's all I need.

Everything from your fingers and strings right through to the speakers and cabs has an influence over how the instrument sounds. My response is to eliminate the as many of them as possible, and to reduce the influence of as many of the others as possible to make it easier to control the sound I and the audience hears.

People will believe what they want to believe.

So is the room I'm playing in, and the atmospheric pressure of the day, and whether I play towards the bridge or the neck, or my mood, or ... whatever.