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T'is a very fine line between 'jazz' and 'contemporary classical music'.

I Put A Spell On You - Nina Simone

Around 530km to trade a Wal for a Wal! From my hometown in the Netherlands to Hull, I booked a minicruise for it. We swapped basses at a parking lot!

What a strange world some of us live in. S'OK to download stuff from t'web, though, right..?

I can’t ever remember having to ask a drummer in all the years I’ve been playing. Maybe it’s not been much of an issue and I’ve not noticed, or they were turning them off when needed. Either way, we now need this to happen in my current band and i expect it will be an uphill struggle, but i won’t let it go. I just wasn’t sure it was a thing with drummers. Thanks for the replies and confirmation.

There are some differences as well, like rosewood neck and the pickup placement looks like they are about 2cm closer to the neck on the original.

Hi all, I'm considering my first foray into flats after playing rounds for about 25 years. In the last year or two, I got sick of the zingy break-in period, cheese grater feel & finger noise of nickel plated steel rounds, and have been playing rollerwound GHS Pressurewounds since. I'd say they are the best strings I've played to date - I love the considerably reduced finger squeak, and smoother than NPS rounds feel, but I'm wondering if they will become a gateway into proper flats. My 'E' is rather dead, and I'd like to reduce (well, more remove really!) the string noise even on these and go even smoother. So I figure it's as good a time as any to try some flats. I play a 4 string Precision, through a Tone Hammer DI (AGS on), into IEMs. I play 2/3 pick, 1/3 fingers. I don't gig in the traditional sense, I mainly play in a church worship band. More contemporary than traditional - the usual Hillsong / Bethel / Elevation type stuff for those who are familiar - the bass on which can be quite gritty on many songs. I like to have a touch of grit from the THDI, but minus the finger screech that gets worse with every slight clockwise turn of the gain knob, that is anything past 9 o'clock. I don't bother with effects, I just want a great driving tone with a little grit. I've always liked playing with the tone fully open. This may be sacrilege to some, but any time I roll the tone knob back, I just don't like the muffled sound that comes out. So I like a fairly bright sound. A mellow, motown, dark, dull thump is most certainly not my thing, and I won't be putting foam anywhere near my strings. For this reason the demos with tone at 0% and 50% don't interest me. Fortunately I've been able to see some demos with both pick & finger play with tone wide open. I realise that what I don't like is what a lot of people do like in flats, but I'm sure there will be others (show yourselves!) who also want a bright-ish, grindy, growl yet with smooth feel and no finger noise, if such a thing exists. I'd like a sort of happy medium in terms of stiffness, I certainly don't want anything floppy, I guess I will veer towards the stiffer side, yet without wanting anything too bridge cable like. Tension wise, I guess something down the middle again - I don't want anything too crazy that'll need me adjusting my setup majorly. I've heard of sets of flats lasting years, but honestly I'm not too bothered about longevity, I'm happy to change a set once a year. I'd like them to remain reasonably bright anyway, so if they mellow out too much I'll only want to replace them anyway. I've been reading a bunch of threads and watching demo videos, and will order a set soon, but am hoping to get some opinions on these, especially from those who use flats for similar reasons to what I'm thinking. There are others of course (such as GHS Precision, Dunlop, Ernie Ball Group 2/3, DR Legend), but my research has led me to believe that these seem to be the most popular. I'm most likely to pick from the top 3: Fender 9050 I'm quite impressed with these from various demos. Seems to be a good all rounder, and is a fair bit cheaper than others at £40. I've read that it has decent low-mid grind/growl and is a bit similar in tone to TI Jazz, but less flappy. They seem fairly bright and less dark than chromes. Right now this is the front runner for me to try. D'Addario Chrome XL I had some briefly on a used Mustang, I thought they felt pretty good, yet still replaced them with rounds before I even had chance to play it properly with the flats on, then sold the bass soon after anyway. This seems to be a real 'Marmite' string - people either seem to love or hate them. I'm sure I've read more negative comments than positive ones. It seems those who like them really like them. I've read that they have good clarity & punch. They are bright, yet a little dark sounding. I've also read that they have a long break-in period, need some patience, then just die rather quickly. They have a hi-mid metallic clank / zing, and are quite scooped. It seems they are not as smooth as other flats, and can be sticky / grabby. I like some of the demos, but they are little dark compared to the Fenders. Apparently they have a bridge cable stiffness, and for this reason I'm not sure about them. La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass These seem to be perennial faves - smooth and well balanced. I had some very briefly on a bass which I passed on so quickly I'm not even sure I gave the strings a proper go plugged in, but they felt amazing to play acoustically. I'm just not entirely sure they're what I want based on demos. La Bella Low Tension Flats I'm ruling these out based on them not being the sound I'm after at all. Probably too flappy for me as well. TI Jazz I like the sound of these in demos more than some, but not as much as others. The fact they are meant to be very flappy, along with the price, has me pretty much ruling these out. Ernie Ball Slinky Cobalt I've read that these feel like flats, but sound like rounds. This interests me, but I've also read that some have had issues with fret wear, rust, and stickiness. They are at the more expensive end too. Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 These sound quite bright, but reading that they have very high tension, are tiring on the fingers & have low output, puts me off trying them. Thanks in advance for replies.

Playing along with them can be fun, and a learning experience

Open mic has always been a miss for me. Just full of acoustic singer songwriters looking for a backing band. Bandmix and JMB have been helpful.

IME having speakers at head height or at least pointing at your ears rather than your knees is always going to make it easier for you to hear yourself. Until I changed to an FRFR wedge, the best rig I had for being to hear myself was a home-made Bi-amped set up. Not specifically because it was bi-amped, but mostly because the arrangement of cabs and amp/effects racks put a 2x8 cab which contained the treble component of my sound at head height. Everything also went through the PA so the bass side cabs on stage were essentially stands for the rest of my equipment.

Not sure why there are people upset that this guy was caught stealing music and profiting from it. Guilty of the same thing?

I missed that first time around

Was the VLE engaged?

Still learning the set of about 30 for a gig on Friday 😖

This is very much my thinking too. For the bass I rarely use any of the amp or cab sims and when I do it's normally a guitar one chosen for the sound it produces in context with the other instruments in my band. I've yet to use the Helix with the guitar, but as I'm selling my guitar amp this weekend that will change in the next few weeks. However given that there (IIRC) over 100 different amp models in the Helix I'm sure that I can find one or two that make my guitar sound howe I want.

I've been thinking about this more - I have 3 shorties, two of which are P only and the other is PJ. And I have a medium scale PJ. So with that in mind I think I might just make this bass a ray only - at least for the moment.

Currently learning this, great bassline

https://custom-lynx.co.uk/product/tukrj45-cat5e-tukrj45/ ?

Oh, I'm just an idealist, I don't think it will ever happen to anyone who has stolen above a certain threshold 😁 But the above actually happened in US courts, it was a real life example. It just doesn't happen enough, and we're certainly not even going in the right direction.

From basses on the sofa... only two of these are shorties, but they are all compact.

Which do you prefer? Hamer vs. Hamer... I'll get my coat.