All Activity

Some wild takes being spouted on here veering into misinformation/disinformation. Amps are fine, they're fun to use and if you enjoy the preset eq voicing, the way your cab reproduces that and can hear it well enough on all the stages you play then great, enjoy yourself. I have a traditional bass rig I very much like (two of them in fact) and I enjoy using them at rehearsals/dep gigs. IEMs are fine, they're fun to use and with a digitial desk you can eq your bass however you want it, if you know what you're doing the scope for sculpting your sound is staggering and that's before you add in any external preamps, pedals or bass specific processing units. You have consistency on every stage you play no matter if you're stuck in a corner or have acres of space, the level of control is unsurpassed and in no time you can get a great personalised mix at whatever volume you choose. For all live work with my main band I'm going through the PA straight from my DI so it doesn't matter to me, I can do either but always pick IEMs for sound quality and practicality. For cramped pub stages where you're right on top of your amp they're a total gamechanger. The first time I saw bands playing without cabs on stage it did look a little weird but after a couple of times I didn't notice it at all, just another way to gig which often has significant advantages over the using amps for individual backline.

A proper dressing room. Far better than a cupboard at the side of the stage for 5 to share. 😂 Dave

You can or can't see it replacing your Fishman Platinum Pro?

Indeed. Those seem to be the reissue relic set now used on Roadworn and CS relic instruments.

I found a used 4 string set of double ball end strings in an old gig bag. No idea of make and all I can tell you is they're all 34" long and of lightish gauge. Absolutely no use to me!

Those look like re-issues to me - the '50s'60s ones had a much shorter/wider thread pattern on the barrels - yours have the longer thinner thread typical of re-issues.

Ahhhh, but WHICH TYPE of coffee? (Therapy time again!) 🤪

The key update has now gone live. It’s now possible to create and hear presets in real time for any Source Audio pedal using just the mobile or desktop app - no pedals or instruments required. This means you can check out in depth how a pedal will function and sound. https://www.sourceaudio.net/soundcheck.html

Your banana is very interesting!

I had another recording 'gig' last night (I was the engineer). This time a 'band' - actually two 13 year olds with an original metal song but they wanted a full band sound. At that age, I was expecting it to be hard work but they were very mature about the whole thing with the only distraction being the obsession with capturing everything on their phones for later TikTok release. I had to remind them several times that they were paying for the time! Drums went down with a rhythm guitar guide track with only a couple of false starts. The guitar took a little longer and there were a couple of drop-ins necessary as they were losing track of time (the guitarist wanted to re-do the whole track but most of it was fine). The vocals started out being a bit lacklustre (think 'Disney sings metal') given they were about revolution and rebellion, but once I'd got the singer to tell me why he'd written them, and how he felt, the anger came across in the third take. The guitarist also played bass through the house amp which I recorded DI and with the room vocal mic. It was a nice old Ampeg 15" combo - not sure of the model but great sound DI and with mic. We overran the session by about 30 minutes - mostly TikTok video - and we had to stop for a few minutes while the thunder storm raged overhead. All in all a good session and it restored my faith in the younger musicians who are coming to take over from me. 😀

Chum on Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners

Have been to walk the dog here. Decided that as it wasn't on my "to think about" list until earlier this morning, then it's not worth further effort. Need to save my thinking capacity for later, when I have to choose between cake or toasted teacake with my coffee.....

Aw man that Spector Forte is back at BassBros again... Haunting me it is! Haunting me I tell you...

That conveniently ignores the fact that musical instrument amplifiers only form part of the "sound" because when amplified instruments first started appearing the technology wasn't up to producing clean tones at any serious volume. The original idea of the electric guitar and bass was that they replicated the sound of their acoustic counterparts put louder. Of course with what was available and, more importantly, affordable in the 30s and 40s that was impossible, so they settled for being able to be heard over the rest of the instruments in the dance band. Listen to early amplified guitarists and they are all favouring clean sounds. The "character" that the amplification process imparted on the sound was an annoyance and not initially a desirable feature. While it is possible to build a clean valve amp, it's not cheap and it's not very efficient in electrical terms. Had the idea of the electric guitar and bass not come along until solid state amplification was well-established and easily affordable, the sorts of sounds we'd be used to would be very different.

Walking The Dog - Stones