Leaderboard

Ignore any chafing observations that may appear here. In expressing your dissatisfaction with a musical instrument retailer you are following in the highest traditions of BassChat. Not a week goes by that one of us does not put finger to keyboard the better to chronicle the deficiencies of sundry guitar emporia and / or their carters. Some abhor the over-pushy salesperson; others detest the chap who cannot hand us a bass without first sitting down and slapping away like a spoons-player with St Vitus dance; profound contempt is reserved for the purse-lipped, nicotine-stained geriatric proprietor and his dopey, hopeless shop-boy alike. The happy retail experience is so vanishingly rare that it is greeted with wide-eyed surprise. Even beyond the retailer we hurl our bile at wholesalers and manufacturers and their endorsers and their suppliers and their advertising agencies and so ad infinitum. Frankly, it's the right thing to do. Any erring retailer who gets off with as little as a redacted thread like this should count himself lucky. For myself, when thwarted by some ghastly till-monkey I adhere to a firm two-step policy of (i) a savage, public tongue-lashing followed by (ii) a bullet in the face in a deserted warehouse.

To those who feel I should have contacted the store in question...please re-read my original post! It was the first thing I did. Before starting this thread. It was meant as a general sound-off, not to demonise what I otherwise regard as a reputable business, which is why I took pains to keep the identity of the offender's totally anonymous. It may not be the way you would have done it, but hey, it's a free country for us all. An update. I received this morning a very nice email from the store owner. Very professional, very apologetic, very positive. As in all these situations, there was more than met the eye. Suffice to say said employee feel below the standards expected of him by his employer, and it has been dealt with. I can't say fairer than that.

Unbeknown to me until recently there appears to be a vast resource of information about compression, both on this site, and over other areas of the worldy wide webbie, who would have thought..... Some people seem to like it, some people don’t. Just when the reaping has occurred and a victor/truce has been announced, the Capitol announces another compressor games where previous immunity holds no sway and we are back into the bear pit. Maybe a short survey could provide a fresh outlook. Os there continued hunger, will a truce be called, or will it be Groundhog Day? Stay tuned.......

@Bluewine , look at it like this: I would have no problem turning up to a local venue that had PA, lights and often backline provided to play a 30 minute set of our own songs for free, have a couple of beers and listen to some other bands. We get to have a good night out with friends, network with other bands in the same genre and get pictures and reviews posted to online blogs which could lead to bigger paid gigs at festivals or support slots. I would not drag a full lighting rig and PA to a far away venue, play a 4 hour gig and still be packing up at 2am even if you paid me. My day job pays me more than enough to live comfortably, so I don't need the extra money nor want all the ballache required to earn it.

It’s funny how the expectation of good customer service completely switches us off to others on a human level. So whilst it’s entirely possible that this young chap isn’t a very good salesman, it’s also very possible that he’s having an awful day/week/year. So instead of checking what the case is, we complain on social media as opposed to seeing if we can offer help/guidance/advice on how that person might either fix their problem, or at the least, get better at their job. ”Oh that’s the job of the shop manager/owner” you cry! Nope, it’s the job of anyone who cares. Si

So, Just because I can, thought I'd "improve " the head amp cabinet of my BTA300 ashdown, spurred into action by the aquisition of MatampGt1Mk1amp'n'cab that is wine coloured with gold faceplate and corners. Besides many hours, this stands me at ninety quid so far, and I think will be great in the lounge on its Orange cab, yes, that's next after this !

He's nine years old, a grade 8 drummer and chose to play bass a month ago.. We've a Fender Jazz that rarely gets used, so let him try it first...... Took to it like a duck to water.... We asked what he wanted for his birthday and it was a clear "Can I have a Precision bass please?" After hunting around for a decent donor, we found a beat up Squier 20th anniversary, missing a few electronic bits - plus no 14 hole pickguard, strings or nut. Overall though, it wasn't too bad. Got it home and made a new pickguard (small design tweak around the controls - just to add something unusual), added the bits, new Fender nut, strings and gave it a good clean (oiled the board etc.)......... Here's his pressie........ To me it looks awesome and plays great. Can't wait for the reaction................

To quote the Goonies, “ HEY YOU GUYS!” So this is happening now. contacted everyone with invoices, no rush till the end of month but some have paid already and therefore hold a special place in my heart. I still have April as the delivery date which is a large window so when I get more accurate dates I’ll update you all. the geddy 2112 pre came with a badge of geddys signature so what does the dUg pre include? A free 12 string? A free six pack? have to wait and see I guess.

I like them both but I prefer the newer ones with dark against the body. Will you cap those with dark wood as well? PS: DOH! They're upside down aren't they? Still works for me like that though.

Great minds think alike... Although I've used standard MoP, this is what I remade last night: I've also made some more to replace the brass knobs on my own build

I voted Yes , I am on BC to talk bollocks

Well, if you don't really want the redundant 4 strings, I suppose I could look after them. I'll even half you on postage!

Clever comment! But in all seriousness there are of course reasons why classical musicians tend not to use compressors: The first and most obvious is because they tend to play acoustic/unplugged and so there’s... err... no signal chain for the compressor to be linked into. That's quite a biggie, really. Compressors are definitely most transparent when there's nothing to plug them into. On occasions when classical musicians are mic'd up and their performances fed through a mixing desk, there'll certainly be some sneaky compression being applied to help manage the overall mix. But yeah, you won't find it being used on stomp-boxes at the musicians' feet. Classical arrangements are written to avoid clashes between instruments of similar frequency. That’s not how composers think of it, they tend to think in terms of balancing tone and timbre, but it has the same end result. Very different to five tubby blokes belting out Moondance with instruments all fighting for the same frequency band. Classical concerts tend to be performed in rooms with far better acoustics than your average Dog & Duck. Other than that, yeah, classical musicians are mostly amateurs. Why anyone would waste their time with that sort of guff is beyond me

Something similar happened to me, my wife was nagging me about soemthing or other, I dunno I wasn’t playing attention, but on this occasion, I put her vocals through a compressor, and Lo and behold what she was saying suddenly made sense and I could hear it correctly. Well, I took out the bins, emptied the dishwasher and even took my weekly bath. Afterwards I managed to get a really squashed sound just by twiddling the knobs. As a result this one may be a keeper....

In recent months I've attended several concerts (Philharmonia Orchestra, a violin duo, a solo pianist) where there were no compressors (or indeed any amplification) in evidence at all, despite it being, as others have pointed out above, a scientifically provable, unarguable fact that compression makes music sound better (it is, after all, a simple matter of the measurable behaviour of sound traveling through air). As far as I could tell, the only mechanism they had for managing their dynamics was to rely on the skill and musicianship of the individual players! Honestly, I felt embarrassed for them. I did ask one cellist whether she'd considered using a compression pedal to help her "sit better in the mix", but she just looked at me as if I was some kind of weirdo. Amateurs.

Should we...? HELL NO! Will we...? HELL YES!

I've gigged one of these, it blew me away.

Correction: Vacuum sucks. Gravity's heavy.

Why don't you tell us what you really think rather than always sitting on the fence....?

The thing is Al, you might as well ask what impact wood glue has on the comfort of a dining chair? (bear with me...!). The glue helps to hold the chair together. Without it, that function is left to the screws alone. The chair still stands, but it's not as sturdy. And none of this is noticed by the people who sit on it. Thats about all I've got left on this discussion. My tank is empty, but I wish you well

If it was mine, I would make sure I had compatible varnish and thinners by testing on a hidden area, maybe under a tuner, make sure there's no reaction between old and new. Then apply thinned varnish to the cracks, gaps and especially under the decal where it's lifting, pushing the decal down flat onto the wet surface underneath until it sticks. When dry, build up layers as required, finishing with a coat or three over the whole area. Patience will be required!

This comment allows me to hopefully explain some of the misunderstanding around compression, so if you don't mind I'm going to dive in a dissect it a little Firstly, and with respect (not wanting to single you out), this type of response suggests that you don’t fully understand the purpose of compression. And I’m not trying to be deliberately patronising here! It's just an unfortunate by-product of me trying to explain all this. So apologies and please bear with me. Unless you are slamming a drum kit with hard New York-style parallel compression, it is very unlikely to ever give someone “a boner” as you put it. Boner causation is just not the purpose of compression, I’m sorry to say. It really is the 'bass player' of audio effects in that respect. Quiet and steady, doing its job, holding things together; no real glamour or glory. That's a compressor. Great! And you can pretty much stop right there, because you've got it - that is precisely the purpose of a compressor. And helping you sit better in the mix should not be understated. It’s the difference between a great-sounding band and indeed, one with potential to bring about boners. Even amongst the female members of the audience. And that's the part where the misunderstanding sets in. Other than very hard compression, which can be done for effect, there really isn't "any other application" apart from helping even out your signal so that it sits better in the mix. And maybe it's because you expect compression to do something else that you find it underwhelming. It's great that people comment on your tone and they most certainly do so because you’re a competent bass player and you use nice gear. But if you were to give me a bunch of your band's recordings and asked me to mix them, I guarantee there would be moments on each song where your bass is noticeably too loud or too quiet - and this would need fixing if I were to do my job properly as a (albeit unpaid amateur!) mix engineer. I could approach this by trying to automate or ‘ride the fader’: manually adjusting the level of your bass to compensate for loud and quiet notes. Or I could use a compressor to do this automatically. And the important thing to note here is that a compressor doesn't just apply to the solo instrument: it's about helping that instrument sit well alongside others playing simultaneously. It's a tool for helping to mix the whole band; not a tool for drawing attention to any one player. Does this matter in a live context? If you, your band and your audience are happy with your sound, then no it probably doesn't. As I’ve said before, compression is rarely essential, but it's nearly always beneficial. If you’re an obsessive like me, who likes to squeeze every % of quality out of a performance (live or recorded), then yes it matters. And that’s why the bass guitar on nearly every recorded song - and played by nearly every professional musician - has compression applied either at source or at the mixing desk. Such pro players have technique in spades and they use compression: because they want to attain the best sound possible. Does a pub band need to do the same? That's a question for you to answer. But if you're spending good money on your instruments and obsessing over string types/gauges, maple/rosewood boards, etc, then you're already obsessing over things that arguably have a lesser effect on your band as a whole than compression. TL/DR: you can mix your porridge smooth, or you can mix it lumpy. It's still porridge. But if you want to add other ingredients, like some blueberries and bananas, then it's best to mix it smooth for a better overall experience. Simple, right?

Ohh.. well that explains that awkward incident then...

Do you know that is entirely fair. Even the 'experts' amongst us are forever saying 'use your ears' to get the right setting / 'sweet' spot when adjusting your compressor to get to the optimal setting. There have been some blood*y good bass players in some pretty decent bands on this and other compressor threads who have said they can't hear any difference when they've tried compressors out. And if they can't hear a difference, what chance our band-mates and even less our audiences? But...just maybe that was down to the first of your comments?

I love vouchers. Forces the money to be spent on something fun/selfish rather than stolen by her indoors for something less important like food and clothes.

Nah that's an Indian takeaway. As was Freddie Mercury.

I think that there may be something in what SpondonBassed said...

But IMO it's also about having the right tools for the job. And the right tool for this job is a Roland TB303 (or a sequencer and sound module that sounds like it) and not a bass guitar. I've just had a look at a few "bass covers" of this song on YouTube and while the players are all very accomplished and have got playing the bassline down pretty well, none of them have come even remotely close to the sound on the recording, which is equally important in getting the feel of the song right.

I'm more of a Rat Pedal type of guy, here's mine:

Effective, true, but I find that electricity applied to the testicles first really gets the message across. I like a little bit of old-skool finesse first before galloping headlong towards the 9mm finale.

I too got impatient and went with an AS - ungigged but impressed with its capabilities and tones so far.

17 weeks today. Every time my phone pings to tell me I have a new email (approx 20 times a day) I instantly think "this is it" 😁

An anecdote..? I was about eight or nine; some school chums came to our house to invite me out to play. My Mum answered the door; I was just behind her. 'Can Doug come out to play, please..?' piped up one of the bunch. 'His name is Douglas.' said my Mum, in a suitably cold voice, and shut the door firmly. Little wonder that I was seldom visited after that..! Just sayin'; I've been called much worse since..!

No. But then I can't imagine someone walking to a golf course that is 30 seconds in the direction they were travelling anyway for pleasure either, so I suspect my imagination isn't great enough to understand someone wanting to play golf!

I would have been not long ago, but my Mesa D800+ has a variable one built-in that works very well

By the look of it quite a bit of lacquer has lifted too. I assume that it's nitrocellulouse. You can carefully use a small brush (i.e. artist's watercolour brush) to build up where the lacquer has flaked off. It will take many coats to do so. That might wick under the lifted lacquer and help to stabilise it. Nitrocellulouse will blend in with the existing lacquer - the solvents will slightly dissolve it. Obviously take necessary precautions if using nitrocellulouse - it's nasty stuff to breathe in! You'll also want some cellulose thinners for cleaning your brush. I had some lacquer chipped around the frets of the guitar I built and had to do similar. It's very time consuming. The lacquer needs to be built up slowly to allow the solvents to evaporate - 2 or 3 coats a day and then leave it for 24 hours. Scrape back any excess with a razor blade and repeat. I used rattle cans to lacquer my guitar, so sprayed a little into the cap so I could brush it on. Finally you'll need to sand it flat - I used micromesh pads then Meguillar's ultimate compound to polish it up. If worst comes to the worst and you end up with something resembling a dog's dinner, you can always strip it back, get a new decal (Rothcoe and Frost) and refinish it properly

The spectracomp does t do that at all, the volume is as close to identical as it could be on and off. I can only guess it’s either a setting or how the pedal has been designed on yours.

Not quite the same situation but about 10 yrs ago a mate who I'd been in a band with asked me to help out with a potential new project. He was a guitarist and had linked up with a veteran gtr/vox guy who wanted to get out gigging again after a long time off. I hadn't much on so said I'd do it as a favour. The plan was to initially rehearse with a drum machine (for ease of set up) then get a real drummer in later. He spent an inordinate amount of time getting us to millisecond timing against the drum machine (despite the plan being to use a real drummer eventually anyway) and of the songs he came up with to learn I always seemd to be a bit more up to speed on my parts at the next rehearsal than he was but otherwise he seemed happy enough so we went on for about 5 rehearsals. Gets to rehearsal 6 and before I could fully set my gear up he starts launching into a tirade venting at everything about me from my playing to my tone and finally, the nail in the coffin, saying he thought we would have been gigging sooner with another bass player. By the time he'd finished ranting I'd already packed my gear up on a trolley and just said 'best of luck with it' and walked out leaving my mate utterly embarassed and gobsmacked. My mate contacted me a couple of days later to say the old guy was out of order to the point he had also quit the project. Never saw the old bloke in a band, solo act or even at a jam session ever again.

Andy is a top guy and I never expected to see the bass again after 2 years - to say it made my week would be an understatement! My lesson learned is always unload the car post practice and gig regardless of whether you're knackered and it's chucking it down and get insured..... the other guitar, an ACG, was returned in similar circumstances a year ago by a great guy in Hebden Bridge As Andy says bass players are a fantastic community of like minded souls - my faith in human nature is reaffirmed! Cheers Justin

You could buy them all and build a 4 x 21 cab rated at 6000w....

I’ve gone stereo bass!

On the slippery slope now - this is what I fell in to: http://

The Bass Driver DI was designed as a tone shaping direct box. The concept was to plug into the DI and send the "parallel" output to your bass amp and use your amp for your stage monitor and tone. The Bass Driver DI's XLR would be sent to the mixer and would be set for the most desirable DI tone. The Bass Driver does have a specific tone with a midrange dip that many find desirable. When running into the front of an amp it usually sounds best if your amp is set flat. If your amp is set with a midrange dip (which is quite common) or you have an active bass with a similar setting, this will be exacerbated using the Bass Driver DI. It really comes down to whether or not you use the pedal as an always on effect or like to turn it on and off. Usually backing down the Blend or reducing the Bass and Treble (plus increasing the midrange for the V2 pedal) will take care of this. If you require more midrange content you might consider our Para Driver DI, VT Bass DI or Q\Strip (no amp emulation though) products. There seems to be a misconception about tube emulation and tube amps in general. I guess if you're a younger player and have not had much first hand experience with tube amps it's easy to assume that tubes=distortion which is not true. Natural tube output stage distortion is not so much an effect but a byproduct of pushing an analog circuit beyond its design limits. Tube amps as well as our tube emulation can be set clean. Tube amps were designed to run clean. Vintage tube amps had no "blend" control. We provide one because in a studio setting it was quite common to mic a tube amp and also run a DI of the bass direct to the console to get a more complex and refined tone. A big part of the problem when recording bass even in a large professional recording environment is that bass frequencies are very hard to control and will easily bleed into other microphones if say tracking other instruments. This tends to be why most studio and live sound techs prefer using a DI versus a mic with bass amps. Because our products emulate vintage tube amps they are able to achieve their overdrive and distortion characteristics irrespective of their volume levels unlike a vintage Ampeg SVT or Marshall. Because of this, it is advisable to be judicious with the Drive settings as in a live context you will play harder when competing with guitars and drums which will result in more overdrive than intended.

I have trouble with some of my own basslines! Make some, play some and everything is great. Have a break then go back and I've lost the feel or timing! It's just like someone else had written them...

I usually buy the 5 string (was) Marcus Miller DR Fat Beams , and they have enough wind to go through the body on a 35" scale.. Best round wound strings on the market Imo..And they last for a long long time. But your string of choice may differ. Amazon are selling these for £25 atm. Ive bought these for £45 in the past. I think since Marcus Miller has gone to Dunlop, you can get these at great prices.. https://www.amazon.co.uk/DR-Strings-FB5-45-Fat-Beams-Medium/dp/B009P6E9ZW