All Activity

Or 'pro bass teacher has to learn 'the zip' in record time' complete with one of those YouTube thumbnails that guarantees I will never click on it no matter how interested I may be in the topic.

I want to be sure of a good reaction from the ladies in the audience.

I'd wait for an open legs night!

There is a great album by Barre Phillips and Dave Holland as well as Holland's Emerald Years and Ones All.

I may try it at the next open mic night.

"What Origin are doing is pretty cool and gonna make a lot of people happy who want the sound and ‘feel’ of those classic amps recreated as closely as possible in a compact form." Summed up perfectly. It's all about the feel.

He was great solid player, preferred him with Primal Scream.... another sad loss indeed!

Bought an Eden Traveler WT550 Bass amp from Geoff. All good - excelent communication, amp was packed great, shipping was fast.

I pretty much felt the same about the 'lack of' need for fret wrap. I've been playing for just over 40 years and good technique has always taken care of unwanted sustain or harmonics; but I do like the different tone you can get from using a mute. Luckily my old Stingray (1979) came with bridge mutes that you can lift on to bottom of string, Jameson style. I find they are great for slap, which I do relatively little of compared to many modern layers, as I prefer the less is more approach of Larry Graham; I also find they sound great for Country style bass. I hope that people using fret wraps so much these days don't get lazy on technique, as this is an important part of sounding good, and sometimes you want the full sustain of not using a mute, so will need that technique then to control the sustain, and for dropping in ghost notes.

I see we had the same thought.

Just wondering the same myself. There appear to be Tuff Cab (available in white or yellow only, nothing else out there), Granotone (5kg for £60, 800g for £25), and DuraTex (£100 for 32ml - that's just over six teaspoons, although it seems it's really a pint which would be more like 550ml). https://www.amazon.co.uk/DuraTex®-Furniture-Application-Water-Based-Professional/dp/B0CTS54R8X?th=1 Hammerite?

Hammerite comes in a variety of colours both smooth or hammered finish. Although it's expensive, it is quite tough as long as you have a compatible primer to support it. It's impressive when sunlight hits it so I'd imagine stage lighting would have a similar result. It is excellent for painting directly onto metal that has had the loose rust removed with a wire brush. It works well with plastics when you use the appropriate primer. I'd happily use it on a cab. It does take a while to fully cure however. You will need good ventilation too. It stinks for the first few days.

I couldn't resist trying one of these at the silly low price. Here's my impressions: Delivery was really slow, months rather than weeks but it arrived safely and working. Ali Express is pretty much no different to Amazon or eBay IME. The light is bright and the 40deg beam angle is not far off though it is much brighter in the middle of the beam. The light itself is well consructed with a similar aluminium case to all the rest of these lights, the end caps are plastic (ABS?) with brass inserts for the screws. the bulbs are all identical with all my other lights (inluding the brand name ones) and chuck out similar light levels. This one is brighter overall because it has more bulbs. It's a good uplighter , really useful and if I needed extra lamps I might well order more of these. You can however see the shortcuts down to keeping the price down. The kettle lead is too short to be usable, just one metre long. The remote control doesn't really work well. The button for white only works with repeated presses and the light when it comes on is neither white nor bright. The remote doesn't offer all the light can do withmany adjustments either not available or maybe just not working on my remote, it seems a bit of an afterthought. The built in programs aren't great, they are mainly chase or strobe programs which are too fast for band use IMO, they are clearly more orientated to disco use and are too fast for that use also if I'm honest. The control unit on the back isn't much better than the remote. There doesn't seemto be an adjustment for sensitivity in the sound to light and slowing down the chases isn't very intuitive. The four buttons on the back don't follow the 'standard' arrangement of menu, up, down and program and leave you guessing as to what each button does. It may have features I haven't managed to find yet. Other cost cutting issues are that the mains out is a Euro/US socket even thought the input one is IEC whch is odd. The Lightmaxx uses powercon connectors for mains which are much better . I'd use these lights either as single colour uplighters or in fade mode, confusingly labelled 'jump' on the remote. (yet another sign of cost cutting, jump usually means and istanteneous colour change) Instad of jumping it starts a gradual fading in and out of a colour sequence. That's really useful for a band as the colour change is so gradual you barely notice it and it won't distract from the band but it is potentially more interesting than an entirely static colour. Crucially this is slower than any of my other LED bars. So some minus points but at that price? I think it's all good.These lights would work best with a separate DMX controller but the colour intensity is good in the primary colours and the slow fade is a useful effect. The beams are broader than most and if you don't have a haze machine that works really well. The construction seems to be great for the price, I shudder to think how they do it. I don't think the lights wil prove to be unreliable but time will tell. If I were starting from scratch I'd be ordering three or four of these to illuminate the stage in steady mode and then have something overhead to do sound to light or chases.

You could turn it into an inspection/access port for soundpost adjustments,but it looks too high up on the shoulder?

30 Minutes a day.

Priced to sell - 1987 CHOPSON IV

I never met Mani, but he always seemed like a sound bloke, and a great player. The only Mani related story I can think of is that during soundcheck for a gig, I was idly playing the intro to "I Wanna Be Adored". I didn't know it at the time, was just working it out from memory. Well, some drunk guy hears me and goes "YAAAAAAAAAS! STONE ROSES!" and I'm like "F***, I don't know the whole song!" Thankfully he was too drunk to remember and the request I was bracing myself for never materialised, phew!

Only arrived Tuesday and no chance to gig it yet, but look, feels and sounds just what I wanted. Sits perfectly when worn. I think I made the right decision in not going for another 5 (I have the ACG jazz 5 here if needed)