Leaderboard

Great mixers the MG Series and I find very easy to use, but I have one so am biased. Probably Aux bus weirdness as Cheddatom says. Pete's rough guide to MX series mixers:. This doesn't include the digital effects, if you have any. Start with: All channels switched off. All channel faders down. Group bus faders ( dark grey) down. Stereo (Master) fader (helpfully coloured Red) down. All EQ's to 12 O clock. Pan r/l to 12 O clock. Compression to zero. All 'pfl' buttons up. All 1-2 and 3-4' buttons up (if you have these). All 'ST' buttons up. All the aux channel sends to zero (the ones with blue tops). All Aux master volumes to zero. Connect everything up. Power on mixer, amps, powered monitors in that order. For each channel: Turn on the channel and press down the pfl button for that channel. Get someone to speak or play and adjust the 'gain' control until the output in the VU metres is occasionally reaching 0, in green. Put the pfl button back in the 'up' position and turn the channel off. Lather, rinse, repeat, for all the channels you're using. Set the monitor/phones switch to 'Stereo' (up) and turn on 'On' and 'ST' for the channels you're using. Bring up the faders on individual channels and get a rough balance on the headphones. When you're ready, bring up the Stereo fader gently until you get FOH. Optionally, increase compression but don't overdo it. If you want to adjust EQ, try and cut rather than boost. (ie cut mid and bass to boost treble) If you're using separate monitors, connect them to one of the 'Aux' inputs on the back of the desk (not the 'Monitor' sockets on the top of the desk next to the headphone jack). Usually you want Aux1. If there is a pre/post switch set it to pre. Turn up the Aux Send master for the Aux you're using to somewhere between 12.00 and 3.00 and then turn up the individual channels Aux Send to get a monitor mix. Hope this helps, good luck and have a great gig. If all else fails, read this! https://partydj.be/PDF-files/Handleidingen/Sound/Yamaha/yamaha-mg166cx-manual.pdf

finally arrived Wow its amazing very easy to dial in a range of sounds and sounds superb

or right trigger "this broom as 6 new handles and 8 new shafts"

In comparison to my US Fenders, my Mexican one is a good bass, but the tuners aren`t as good, there aren`t the graphite rods, the bridge isn`t as stable, and the pickups aren`t quite as full-sounding. So the US are better for those points, imo. Whether or not they`re nearly a grands worth of money better, well not sure.

I was mad into Talking Heads..... still am now......... the movie of Stop Making Sense was the first production which made me cry with joy. I didn't know what was going on........!! It still gets me on my feet now. I know it's not a seminal bass album but It changed my life. Corny but true.

Guitarists (or any other musician), no matter how talented, who can't see the value of volume control on stage are lacking the professionalism required for a serious working band. The band leader needs to do his / her job and deal with it. Sadly it's occasionally the band leader that's the main offender which makes it difficult to address. If i was in your situation I'd be thinking about how much better and more saleable the band would be if they could grow up and control their volume.

Just want to chip in hear to tell you about my acoustic bass, a custom Brook bass, handmade in Devon by three guys, using all traditional methods. It is called a Lowman. All Brook guitars are named after rivers, so I was delighted to discover there was a river Loman to name my custom bass after. It is based on the body shape and size of a Gibson J200. It has a Engelmann bear claw spruce top, bubinga back and sides, and walnut neck. This is what she sounds like, having just recorded this bass trio today. The tune is a Gordon Duncan bagpipe tune (I am who folk musician who also plays guitar and mandolin. I have arranged several celtic tunes for solo bass) Sorry, don’t know how to embed this in the post Acoustic basses are great fun, and my reasons for owning one are many. I like the way they look, especially with other acoustic instrument, they sound more ‘alive’ than electric basses, and their acoustic nature lets you ‘feel’ the music more, if you know what I mean. Robbie

I had the Scrambler for a while, and though it wasn`t a plug n play, you have to work to get the sound you want, when you do it is pretty decent, I had praise from every sound man at the gis I used it at. That said, Ampeg SVT sound strangely screams Tech21 VT to me more than anything. Or the Tech21 Para Driver - as it has sweepable/adjustable mids you can dial back in anything that has been lost via the Bass Fly. And the gain is pretty decent too, you can set it to that if you play quietly/non-aggressively you don`t notice any drive, but dig in and it responds very nicely indeed sort of setting, though it has bags more on tap.

Bit of a can of worms, tbh. I appreciate that US trademark law means that a trademark holder has to challenge every infringement or they risk losing their right to exclusivity - but I don't think that can be applied retrospectively to very old MIJ copies. I think Hall's big problem with these is that rather awkward little detail that they existed before JH's Rickenbacker International Corp did (I think he set that up in the late 80s) and they existed a very long time before he registered any of his trademarks. Some smartarse has previously pointed out (OK, it was me) that a Japanese company that sold Rickenbacker copies in the 70s - such as Ibanez, perhaps - could demonstrate that they made basses which featured all of JH's registered trade dress designs as far back as 1971. That might imply that Mr Hall didn't actually have any right to exclusive use of trademarks he first registered in about 2000. Probably just as well that Ibanez have better things to do.

If you’re going into the VT Bass anyway, you don’t necessarily need another Ampeg style drive, just one that works well as a dirty boost going into it. Something with plenty of mids to counteract that mid scoop the VT has from lowering the character control below noon. I’ve not tried the Zvex but I’ve always liked the demos. The SFT is modelled after an Ampeg SB12 and sounds rather different to the classic scooped SVT grind, it’s a lot more mid heavy. It did sound good going into the VT though, and there is one lurking in the classifieds! If you’re looking to blend it though you’ll need a new blender as it inverts phase, something the LS-2 is not equipped to deal with. I didn’t like the tone of the Scrambler myself, but I never tried it going into a VT. Plenty of mids and a clean blend though, it could work well. I was always a fan of the BB Preamp into the VT myself! Particularly if you’re a fingerstyle player, tubescreamer based pedals are very expressive / reactive to how aggressive you play.

And I always thought those were to compensate when you didn’t have, say, a huge great 8x10 right behind you!

I used to work in the school where To Sir With Love was filmed. Never saw Lulu though.

Before.... After... .

Agreed with Cheddatom, I've seen that done before, awful racket as a powered monitor was plugged into the (rear) PA speaker output of the amp.

you probably had the speakers plugged into a monitor or an effects send, and one (or more) of the mics sent to the related bus

These amps are ideally matched to woofers.

I used to find it really intuitive for sequencing but that just goes to show really

Started shaping.

Good grief - my whole band usually has to set up in a smaller space than that, and we're a five piece! What's that between the stack and your pedal board - it's not a butt kicker type thing is it?!

I've got a Mexican p bass that's been through this Before I started meddling it was a good p bass First I upgraded the pickup, Seymour Duncan 1/4lb along with changing the bridge to a BAII - result much punchier sound Then I changed the wiring loom to a Kiogon Wiring Loom - result - fuller sound and doesn't cut out anymore Then I changed the neck - Shuker Custom Built neck - result - more attack and a better feel Just the body and the tuners to go

Thank The Lord!!!!!!!!!

I didn't. Bwahahahahaha!!!

Funkfingers is right here. Apart from the quality of pickups and electrics, bridge and nut - the woods used by the manufacturer of the "higher end" bass should be of higher quality, be subject to a high degree of selection / quality control, and better seasoned. Add to that, the finish in the higher end instrument will / should be of a higher standard. An example from my own personal experiences here, is the quality & finish of the Mexican built Roadworn series (Yes, I know I bang on about them! lol) - leaving the relicing / roadworn finish aside, I've owned 2 Roadworns (a J and a P) and played several models of their more standard MIM counterparts. Apart from being lighter in weight, the quality of the woods used just seemed / felt another level higher again, plus, the finish on aspects like the rolled edges on the necks, and the edges / smoothness on the frets was what set them apart, along with the quality of the (aged) varnish on the neck.... You could take a Harley Benton, and put top end components in it - it may sound much better, but I suspect the finish and comfort of aspects like fretboard and fret edges would also need attention. Then of course, would you need to re-sand the neck and re-apply a higher quality of varnish / finish? By the time you have done all this and costed your time (even at sub minimum wage) you'll have spent more on the cheaper bass. Of course, I think everyone should try some upgrades and / or repairs to an old bass anyway... it's a valuable experience and can teach you a lot about how instruments are put together. Aside from all this, there's then the question of resaleability (is there such a word?) You can spend lots of money on a cheaper brand bass, buying pickups, electrics, bridge, brass nut etc etc - but when it comes to a resale, you rarely get that money back... that is, unless you part the bass out and flog all the components separately. Having said all this, I'm really tempted to one day have a go at doing an early Fender P bass, using the HB 50's P clone - like Discreet and several others have done such a smashing job of... Of course, if you're doing it to teach yourself some useful skills, or you just want a model of bass you can't afford the genuine version of, and you are willing to write the costs of the components off (or simply, you aint ever going to sell it) - then to my way of thinking, these are the best reasons for upgrading an inexpensive bass

I'm sure lots do get Sires or whatever playing and sounding as well at stuff that costs 4 x more. Part of it comes down to 'investing' in something for what it represents too. Lots of people buy Sadowsky because of Roger. Or X brand because they're made in England or wherever. It's up for debate whether that makes them better. But, it does make them more expensive. Some people boycott Cor-Tek, I'm not really clued up on that, but it's a whole other thing that influences a buyer's choices.

Bit of a can of worms this one. Is it possible to take,say, a Harley Benton Jazz, and upgrade everything, from the fret finish and tuners to installing all new electronics, to the point where it plays and sounds as good as a Sadowsky.? I have no idea, other than that buying all the premium components would cost a lot of money in itself, but anyone who has bought a much more expensive bass, and I'm one of them, would prefer to think that it isn't.

Mine comes and goes (occasional numbness but no pain): I bought a couple of decent wrist braces which I always wear at night. Incidentally one of the symptoms of a low functioning thryoid is carpal tunnel issues...

siouxsie and the banshees. I'm currently devouring the back catalogue.

I thought double basses and cellos were arched to stop the tension of the strings driving the bridge clean through the table. If you built a flat tabled instrument with a bridge, bass-bar and sound post wouldn't it just collapse, rather than merely be too bassy? My double bass and cello are much louder than my acoustic bass even when played pizz ... but run far higher tension strings and have much bigger surface areas too, and that I reckon is the thing. But I'm an engineer not an instrument maker, so probably wrong. Off topic anyway ... it's a great looking instrument and even if it doesn't sound quite as intended it must be a lovely thing to own.

The drummer or the dog? I can't eat rice - I'm basmatic.

For me geezer on the first black sabbath album. and mani on the first stone roses album.

Are you sure its the Amp and not the pups in your bass ?

I know some think these amps are the dogs doodahs, but that's just fanboi-ism lol. Apparently there's a good amp tech in Kennelworth. Or is it Barking? I forget... Seriously though, have you had it apart and looked and cleaned inside? Wasn't sure if the hoovering was just external. Could be a bone of contention... I'm sorry. 😎

Great looking set-up there, Bill, and I`m sure it sounds even better than it looks - assuming that is possible of course.

Another shot :-)

Seminal bass albums? All the Bootsy's Rubber Band albums. And the one that this is off

Allow me to join the dots for you, Jack. Is that all right for you? To your next point, I'll copy and past a bit from Wikipedia to save time, if you don't mind. "Appeal to tradition (also known as argumentum ad antiquitatem) is an argument in which a thesis is deemed correct on the basis that it is correlated with some past or present tradition. The appeal takes the form of "this is right because we've always done it this way". An appeal to tradition essentially makes two assumptions that are not necessarily true: 1. The old way of thinking was proven correct when introduced, i.e. since the old way of thinking was prevalent, it was necessarily correct. In reality, this may be false — the tradition might be entirely based on incorrect grounds. 2. The past justifications for the tradition are still valid at present. In reality, the circumstances may have changed; this assumption may also therefore be untrue." So there ya go, Jack. Happy, Jack? Just for fun, you might like to look up Logical Fallacies on the internet and count how many there are in this thread. There is one particular claim on here that manages to combine two fallacies in one sentence. Your mission, if you decide to accept it, is to discover who said it. Good luck!

If the one you got from Gear4Music had the strap button on the top wing it was the first version of Epiphone Thunderbird with the bolt on neck. The one in the link above has a through neck and Gibson pickups and is light years ahead of the old bolt on version, it's also the newest model available in the UK at the moment, though it is soon to be replaced by the Vintage Pro, when they finally decide to get their fingers out..

Indeed ! I've had an offer to try some used GHS crossovers - a kind offer of free strings from someone in the Netherlands Nice Also Mark Gollihur replied again, and informed me that the correct length of Spiros would be S42 and these would be 4/4 scale

I'm sure I remember Doug confirming this exact thinking in his podcast interview with SBL. This topic (the original post mainly) basically highlights some peoples lack of understanding of what is sometimes necessary for full-time musicians to undertake, basically to monetise whatever you possibly can. Clearly there is a 'market' for his more esoteric solo performing, at trade shows, clinics etc etc, but as has been mentioned above, it probably represents a tiny percentage of the bass playing he undertakes daily. He's good at it, people will clearly pay him to do it, why wouldn't he play like that. In any case, the whole 'bass should stay in the low end' is the most boring, yet constantly visited, rhetoric going. These people are musicians, that they choose the bass guitar to represent their voice is a moot point. Those players will likely stick to a 'role' for a lot of their musical life, but who cares if they diverge if it's an enjoyable experience for them or someone else?! Si

Nice Bill. Sounds great

The best DAW to use is the one that most closely matches the way you want to work, or failing that the one that majority of people you collaborate with use. Other than that they are all much of a muchness these days when it comes to features, so I'll take ease of use and ease of transferring projects between different machines over everything else. I'm a Logic user because back in the mid 90s when I bought my first computer for music, the person I was mostly collaborating with, was also a Logic user and that meant it was simple to exchange song ideas. Left to my own devices I'd have probably chosen Studio Vision, because of all the DAWs I'd seen this was the one that most closely matched the way I'd like to work. Luckily I didn't because within a couple of years it was dead following Opcode's acquisition by Gibson - a similar fate that has recently befallen Cakewalk. TBH once you've got used to how a particular DAW works its becomes easier to use, and you are going to be reluctant to change hence... And that for me is the next most important thing when it comes to picking a DAW. How long is it likely to be around. Logic is pretty safe because it is one of Apple's core Pro Applications, as for the others it very much depends on the whims of their parent companies. The future for ProTools has been looking particularly dodgy for the last couple of years with Avid's on-going problems. Plus their reliance on the less than brilliant iLok copy protection. And that brings the last key feature - copy protection. Reaper doesn't need it because it's essentially free and if you are going to pay for it, then it is stupidly cheap. Logic is also relatively cheap (certainly these days the full version cost less than the price an upgrade used to) and is tied to your App store account so it doesn't really need anything more than that. Personally I'd be suspicious of anything requiring an iLok to function. Whilst the idea is excellent the implementation is less than brilliant, and if there is a problem with iLok it can render all your iLok protected software useless, as has happen several times in the past few years to large numbers of their user base.

I love the lyrics to Sympathy for the Devil by the Stones... pretty much a history lesson in a single song (and a typically wonky-but-works-perfectly bassline by Mr Wyman). Probably my favourite song of all time is That's Entertainment by the Jam. Perfect slice of English working class life, mundane and dreaming about better things. I remember Weller writing about it, after someone had said it was his finest work to date, and he explained that he wrote it in about 10 minutes after coming back from the pub, full of beer! Special mentions to Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran and These Foolish Things, the Bryan Ferry version. Both great lyrics, and Eddie Cochran was only 20 when he (co-)wrote it. Oh, and Girl Afraid by the Smiths summed up me at 17, dying to ask out a girl I knew but never having the courage to do it. Nothing ever happened, and years later she told me she'd felt exactly the same at the time...

I love the way one gets a picture of a situation and person in Joni Mitchell’s songs, like short stories. A carefully chosen and economic use of words which lead the listener to fill in the gaps:

Been mentioned already, but pretty much anything from Dark Side of the Moon. So much of is still very pertinent today over 40 years after it was written. Roger Waters was a lyrical genius back then.

The shrieking of nothing is killing, justPictures of Jap girls in synthesis and IAin't got no money and I ain't got no hairBut I'm hoping to kick but the planet it's glowing

In a similar vein "shorter of breath, one day closer to death". And "we're just two lost soles swimming in a fish bowl, year after year". And "but for the price of tea and a slice, the old man died". Class.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.