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OK, this is about as non-rock'n'roll as you can get... I've been trying a new instrument of a type I have never played before. As you know, I play cello as my main instrument and I also play sax (mostly tenor and baritone). Well, I've never played a brass instrument... I started looking because of my challenge in trying to find groups where I could play sax. After a certain amount of looking around and assorted e-mail trails, I landed at Kirkby Stephen's beginners' group with their brass band... The culture of brass bands is interesting. They are very keen to recruit people of all ages from young children to much older people. They will lend you instruments. They have stocks of good quality - but older - instruments to lend. The provide free tuition. There is a strong focus on community. So, I end up with a 1970s Boosey & Hawkes Imperial silver euphonium. My recent Fridays has been a 6pm session with the beginners' group in a back rom whilst the 'training band' rehearses in the next room. On Friday, the main band gave its community Christmas concert. The training band plus beginner me played three items as part of the concert. I have the advantage of being able to read music and I've played in groups before. Just the slight matter of getting the right note out when you blow... Someone caught me not doing much... And yes, GAS attack, I've bought a second-hand Besson Sovereign (B&H were bought out). In case you're wondering - the range of a euphonium is similar to cello and baritone sax.

Vester were one of those brands that came in very low pricewise and were pretty well made. Maybe 20 years back, I had a Vester Strat-thing, pointy headstock with dual humbuckers generic Kahler-style whammy. It was a quite lovely thing. More than capable. Less interesting were the circumstances surrounding purchase. I was looking at a pair of guitars at the time, the Vester was shiny and new, the other one - for not dissimilar money - was used, battered and tired, so I bought the Vester. Of course I did. I often wonder where the other one, a 1961 Les Paul Junior single cut, ended up.

If you look in the iem bible thread it Depends on the seal you get - the tighter the better as you get more low end and can run them quieter. with my iem I use the triple flange Christmas tree type ones which give a good seal and last ages - time to investigate earbud tips…

@BigRedX did a version of I believe in father christmass with his old band that is superb, hopefully he'll post a link to it

The intro argument is just for the video, the streaming versions go straight into the song.

What's the added switch on the MXR?

So we had our big Christmas service yesterday pm and during the pre service rehearsal it was impossible to hear my bass though my IEM I think because everything else, including choir, drums, electric, acoustic, keys were so loud in front of house. i ended up borrowing a cheap pair of closed cup over ear headphones, which worked well although I looked a bit stupid !! I think IEMs have their limitations unless you've for custom moulds for your own ears? I'm using the KSZ10 or something like that!!

It surely has in your case.

Either do it an active up, and still have no 40hz audible, or revert standard 4 banger ( with no 40hz audible ), and punch the mix in the guts.

Honestly, this sort of tuning only really works through a direct-to-PA solution like running it through a QC or other modeller, as it's the only sort of system that can come close to doing justice to notes that low, and that's only if the PA is running multiple 15s/18s with loads and loads of power. Most regular bass amps, no matter how much power they have and the size of the speakers, tend to roll off below 40HZ (E1) anyway. If you go down to E0 (20Hz) there's no bass amp out there that will come close, unless you're using servo speakers or other such tech. Properly EQ'd, a regular low E will sound fuller and clearer than using a string tuned an octave lower. The exception to this would be if you played the string up around the 12th fret, which gives you the regular E1, but with that thick tubbiness you only get when you play in that position.

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/395084-the-reggae-thread/

Long story short after a fairly long time not playing live and having not recorded anything in about 8 years I'll be recording shortly and (hopefully) gigging again soon. Previously I have been in bands that always played in standard tuning (BEADG for me but not using the B string much) and these bands have always been more on the RHCP side of things so fairly easy to cut through the mix. This band however tunes in Drop A but with a lower E string below it so I'm tuning in EAEAD. Using a Dingwall NG2 for this so scale length isn't an issue thankfully. Ive got a fairly decent tone for cutting through set up but would love to hear advice from others who have more experience playing in these (quite frankly absurd) tunings! Should say as well, gear wise I just put everything through a Quad Cortex.

Re Hartwood Delta arriving tomorrow.

Fender have instructed dealers NOT to I bought a new Fender MIK on a personal impurity from Japan. When I enquired about another I was told the had been stopped by Fender. Apparently not illegal in Japan.

Just also discovered this (but searched to see if anyone had it on the forum!). The fight about using a pick, and comment about active vs passive pickups for losing a girlfriend sounds scarily familiar to this forum! ..."and we all need to remember why we got into the bass in the first place" - "because the band already had two guitarists... because four strings is easier?"

To clarify, I mostly handled international acts on the “Americas” side of the pond, both touring but later as the A1 (lead audio) in several “higher end” venues. The only UK tour I did was in the 1980’s with Taj Mahal, and I never encountered any issues. I stopped working dive type venues in the early 1980’s, realized early on that it would be impossible to make a living and raise a family. I mostly worked venues in the 1000-2500 cap range, in part because there’s respect built into that type of venue, but also because they tended to be union or union friendly facilities with clearly defined work (and safety) rules. My crew made it ~40 years without a reportable accident or injury. During this entire time, I designed pro audio and bass/guitar gear for some of the largest names in the industry during my downtime. Now that I’m retired from pro audio events, I design full time for Mesa Boogie and Gibson, It all goes hand in hand, I met others who had design “side hustles” while touring as well. The touring experience helps make good, real world, player friendly solutions for players.

Bit of a rabbit hole, you can spend a long time finding out they don't do what you want, but the free versions of these will create video for audio. https://invideo.io/ https://pika.art/ More... https://audiocleaner.ai/audio-to-video-ai https://pictory.ai/audio-to-video https://wavel.ai/solutions/ai-video-generator/audio-to-video-ai

I think once we get into the realm of very high end basses like >£7k for a custom US NS-2, it gets really subjective and personal and goes beyond having a quality tool for a job. I don't think I'd order a custom NS-2 but I'd consider the right used one at the right price. Having owned a US NS5-XL in the past and gigged it a lot, I'm not convinced it's worth 3x what my Euro 5LX is as a gigging tool, or that it offered 3x as much anything but if that is my only measure, I'd be missing the point. Ordering a custom NS-2 would however be very low risk compared to going 100% custom. At least you know exactly what the recipe is and that you weren't going to be disappointed. What all this tells me is that my various Euros are phenomenal basses and extraordinary value and a few of them are really special. I played Gary's CST with the Legacy and it's fab, so I understand what you're enjoying about it. Have you considered the LHZ pedal? Whatever Spectors I buy in the future, they'll either be used private or I'd go through the import route for anything new. I think my point is, do what you fancy, especially after holding that fascination for 40 years.

Carol service this evening where along with all the normal ones we did a cover of the below that went really well, helped by a very awesome singer, equally good violinist and our lead guitarist trying out a new Irish Mandola - they did make me play Cajon though!

A long time ago I used to work for a business making t-shirts and selling them on eBay - the problem was that while we would pay our VAT and taxes and national insurance and run everything above board we were constantly being undercut by companies that would fire up, copy all our designs, flog them cheaper and then disappear - the only way you could do this is either slave labour, or avoid VAT by legal and non-legal means. Cracking down on this, and the likes small parcels of Chinese fast fashion avoiding taxes/import etc is really important unless we want to see a massive hollowing out of our society... So there is the likelyhood this might be rubbish for some hobbiests who flip lots of high value gear and don't keep receipts - but I kinda think the long term this is a good thing. It will protect jobs. Plus it's the data the HMRC are after for trends, going after Beedster who sold two Bitsas, or Dawn who chucked her cheating husband out and sold off all his precious fishing rods is hardly going to be cost effective... the guy flipping 4 cars a month, or the t shirt business turning over £1M+ a year and avoiding all taxes might be worthwhile their time...