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I am an expert here on compression, and I can categorically say that sometimes I cant hear it, out of the context of a mix. Because you just cant, not a 'transparent' compressor with a soft knee set to just pull everything up a couple of dB on the softer stuff especially in parallel. Good luck to anyone who can, you're definitely not normal. But put that in the context of a mix and if you know what to listen for you can hear the difference the compressor makes. So why bother if its that hard to consciously perceive? Because perception isn't conscious, psychoacoustics are hugely important and influential and definitely can make a band sound far more pro than the level of the venue they are playing in. Lets put it another way, would you rather an expert live engineer use everything at his disposal to make your band sound as brilliant as possible regardless of the venue, or would you prefer him to keep some of his tools in the box? Do you think your punters would tell the difference between Dave the drummer throwing some faders up on a shitty 6 channel Behringer desk and Wes 'The Wesernator' Maebe with a Midas Pro One and some choice outboard? What about Wes using the same desk as Dave and a few choice dynamics tools? I reckon Wes could make my band sound better live than I can with the same gear literally anywhere, he's the absolute canine undercarriage at his job, so I'd be some kind of an idiot if I didn't feel that. What does he use to achieve this? Simple, the basics that every sound engineer understands: good mic placement, good gain structure, good dynamics control, good spacial and additive effects, great musical understanding, great ears. He will use compression all over your bass to make it work in the mix better, think I'm kidding, check this out and especially this where he daisy chains two 1176s, the man is a master of compression, its his bread and butter. So what does this have to do with the OP question? Its simply the wrong question. It actually shows why most bassists probably shouldn't be trying to use compression, because it breaks down like this:- The audience should not generally be able to tell that a compressor is being used per se, but they will know that something is different if you turn it on and off. It depends on what the compression is for. A transparent gain riding compressor is going to work at a psychoacoustic level. On the other hand if you are using a compressor to drastically change the envelope of your bass sound then every single punter will hear the change as you swap it in and out. Its just a daft question really. Think like a bassist and you cant tell what its for, think like a sound engineer and you cant imagine a world without compressors on nearly everything.

Learn "Forget You" by something called Cee Lo Green they said. Is that a band? A person? I wondered. Never mind let's have a listen. Ah good, given my hectic learning schedule a nice repeated three chord pattern is just what I need. I like days like these, they make up for the 'now let's learn Everybody Dance' days. Then, just as I'm smiling at myself for having essentially learned the bassline during my first ever listen to the tune, just under three minutes in and the bloody bass player wakes up and decides he's bored. Never count your tofu until it curdles folks.

Just got this. Huge Kings X fan...

I wandered into Norwich PMT a while back to blag a box for a bass I was flogging. Figuring that even asking nicely wouldn't cut the mustard for a very crumbly 63 year old who looks disturbingly like Compo, I thought I'd better buy something before asking. A charming young man, helpful, knowledgeable and chatty but never patronising or irritating, introduced me to their two secondhand bass cabs. Deciding I didn't really want a Fender combo, we switched focus to an MB 121 Traveler in great nick for £280 label. He went to endless trouble to set me up with a head I liked and left me alone in a booth to noodle as long as I needed. He was so nice I could see no alternative to buying the bloody thing (but TBF it was starting to make sense to me - God I love MB tone). Once I'd got my wallet out said lad was willing to haggle but wasn't a push over, and happily agreed to work several suitable guitars boxes into the deal (what I originally went in for, if you recall). Then when he learned I was parked 400 yards down the road he carried (yes he did) my new cab all the way to my car. I almost put him in the boot too and took him home to introduce him to my daughter. Then I remembered I don't have one.

Hey all, So here's my quick and simple comparison of La Bella flats with Chromes on my Precision, and Lakland Rounds with Gold White Nylon Tapewounds on my 55-01: https://soundcloud.com/simonpoulton/sets/la-bella-vs-daddario-lakland Each track has a description of what is happening, test environment etc My conclusions are that La Bella's are quieter, across their ranges, than strings I've previously used (my Gold Flats on my other Lakland are also quieter than the rounds they replaced too, but just means my amp does a little more work, easy enough, doesn't bother me). New La Bella flats, sound like 3 year old Chromes, so more mellow out of the pack. Gold White Nylons do an excellent impression of broken in rounds, whilst feeling very smooth and lasting a hell of a lot longer hopefully (due to being tapes). All in all, am very happy with these early tests, think I've finally found a company that has a varied and interesting string roster, where I can get everything I need from one place! Cheers Si

Hi Basschat! I recently purchased a beautiful Ocean Turquoise 4-string jazz elite bass, and had our monitor engineer send a desk recording from one of our recent shows @ Alexandra Palace, I'm super happy with how its tracking in a live situation, thought I'd share it and have this thread for other people to share their live recordings of their Elite's! (precision + Jazz)

For me, it's this by a long way: That'll gleam with a coat of Andy's Magic fluid - No innuendos please!!

Was just listening to this album today and thought I'd put something on here as it's an integral part of my Bass playing influences. I can see it's been mentioned before, but you usually get a discussion about how it's divisive so I thought I'd put my two penneth in. When the album came out, I was a pure 'metaller'. If it wasn't 'eavy', I didn't like it. I was a teenager then, and had already been playing bass for a year or so in a rap-metal band (I know). I bought Earthling 'blind', having a fleeting admiration of Bowie, mainly due my older sister buying the Dancing in the Street single years earlier. (I know). The thing that struck me about the album right away was the bass playing of Gail Ann Dorsey. I appreciated the magnificent tone, and the concise, accurate yet still impressively written basslines, even though I didn't realise at the time this is what I was hearing, if you get me. The songs are amazing and yes, the album probably did sound dated for a while, but in my opinion, it has been long enough for the 90s drum and bass elements to now sound 'vintage' to younger ears and would be well worth a listen. It's easy to see why it's not everyone's cup of tea but It's the album that got me to listen to bass players, appreciate not over playing, and get the importance of a good balance between instruments/vocals, not to mention getting me to explore Bowie further, which obviously opened a pot of gold.

Shang-a-lang always goes down well at our gigs.

I'll just incarcerate any future threads you start on the topic. Job done

Thanks for all the positive feedback..!!!! Inspiring to see the other kids basses too; bands like the Royal Blood, 21 Pilots and current established groups that feature prominent bassists (Chili Peppers, MUSE etc.) appear to be driving the instrument to new popularity.. Anyway, he got to see and play it last night; he was speechless (which is a lot with him..!! ) and managed four solid hours playing Chili Peppers, MUSE, Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Green Day and anything else he could think of...!! He is at his first band practice tonight, as a bassist, so got four days to learn 4 songs from scratch - he's done it too..... They're not simple tunes either and he didn't have a hand in choosing them (Mardy Bum, My Sharona, Mr Brightside and Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor). When he got up this morning, he went to play it before school and said "every time I open the bag, I think - what a beauty!".............. I can't ask for more really. Going to film him playing it and I'll put it up here shortly. Peace..

This ^ Are you sure it's nitro? It looks more like poly to me. Same solutions if it is poly but probably gives you more options of lacquer products you could use.

I learned about mirroring too and it really opens your eyes to peoples intentions. My experience is that when you point this out to people in Britain though is they take it very defensively. Things in Britain you can talk about: Weather, football, immigration. Things in Britain you shouldn't talk about: Feelings, death, other peoples intentions. The rumours are true.

I take it not as spectacular as your HGBM? But seriously, well done @tonyxtiger and @Cuzzie for making this happen - it's great to see BC in action like this!

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

After an 8 hour drive to Newcastle and 2 hours back to Yorkshire on Sunday and a 6 hour journey back home to Somerset yesterday, I now have the following in my arsenal: Just need to find a key for the case...oh it's a 2003 CIJ. Big thanks to the Monkseaton Mikes who helped.

Good point. T Cut also leaves a residue, which you should ideally wipe off with something like white spirit.

I was advised against T-Cut by JayDee no less, as he said it was too strong an abrasive, especially for the inexperienced amateur restorer. Since then I bought a Gibson restoration pack, which has a finish restorer and soft cloths, fingerboard lemon oil etc in it. No problems so far.

Get me a medium jar of Ovaltine while you're out, please..?

I'm having a Pelican Day - wherever I look there's a huge bill in front of me.

My wife: 'Are there any photos of you?' *Edit. Just spotted my receding hairline poking out out from behind someone's head at the Yolanda showpiece.

First part of blog finally out! https://wp.me/p2ZbyY-C1

That’s always vital… and this is the thing, you can get that from online retailers too. Or at least I do. For anything more expensive than cables and flimflam, I always place orders by sending an email rather than just plopping things in the ‘shopping cart’ and proceeding to PayPal. By doing so I get to build up a rapport with a member of staff, who I then contact directly next time I want to buy something from them. I always ask questions about the product to check that it meets my requirements; and I always ask for a discount due to repeat business, which I nearly always get, sometimes very generously (averaging probably 10-15%). Exactly the same principles as dealing with someone face-to-face. The only difference is I don’t walk out the door with the goods, I have to wait for them to be delivered. Works for me anyway

Firstly you don't have to play , if you feel no motivation maybe you might find another activity that you love more . Selling up might not be a bad move , I didn't play for 7 years but in 2009 got back into it brought some new gear and have loved it ever since , but at the time the break to enjoy other things was right for me All I'm saying is give it a go but there's no right or wrong , you got any other interests ?

The driver T/S specs need to be matched to the cab, via speaker modeling software. The driver thermal rating is one of the least important specs, as it has no relationship with either frequency response, sensitivity or maximum output. Perhaps most important when contemplating a swap is that if you don't model the existing drivers for low frequency results and have a data sheet SPL chart for the midrange and high frequency results you have no way of knowing if a different driver would be an improvement, or if it is even as good as what you have.

got to agree having a front man with personality is most important, and I always say if the band don't look like you're enjoying it how do you expect the crowd too? even if you can't jump around a lot there's nothing to stop you dressing up a bit, black T shirt with some bands name on it, scruffy blue jeans and dirty trainers just don't cut it IMO, if the level of musicianship is excellent but there's no show a disco would do the job

You know I am Al, Born and Bred Mancunian, Dont get sucked in to the Laaaaaandon ting bruv

What kind of DB are you using? I ask because when I tried Spiro weichs on my Duke, they didn't sound very bright at all. They were very rootsy sounding. Spiro mediums are reportedly brighter but even they didn't brighten up the bass...lol. The mediums are surprisingly less tension on the Duke compared to how they felt on my cheap hybird. As always, strings sound different on different basses.

Those look great. Proper well-thought out presentation. Unfortunately, too often, home made means chopped out with a pair of blunt safety scissors and crappy obvious recycled images where the design is mostly about being able to get all the information as big as possible in the available space.

For a brief period in my teens I thought technical skills the more important. Guitar shredder overload in the late 80's put paid to that. I'll take OK skills but a great show over the whiz kids every time.

@dave_bass5 has your SA Aftershock arrived yet? If so, initial impressions - how does it stack up against your other recent drive pedals? Hah! Just seen (on the PL thread) that you've got one too! So looks like three of us are just about to embark on a shock trip, hopefully with no regrets after

Well after my initial uncertainty I quickly became enamoured with the Thunderbird. So enamoured that I got a bit silly and ordered some more, realised I didn't need three and put one up for sale. I can't stop playing them, such a thick growly tone. They aren't subtle or refined. And they really respond to pickstyle too, it really kicks up the aggro a few notches. With my current setup, I am very pleased indeed - I can easily achieve the Cheap Trick / Wishbone Ash tone. I have ordered some replacement Gotoh tuners however - the current ones are fine but don't look quite right. The old-fashioned long stem tuners should finish it off nicely.

Here you go ... John's agent ...

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".

That was my first thought. My boy is 8 and only on his 5th drum lesson. I predict a very long and painful road to get anywhere near any grade standard, bless him

The first time I read that it made my eyes water!

Thanks all. Just seen a secondhand Squier VM Jazz on FB for £170 which seems pretty good, so may go and see that.

It's definitely easier to sing high notes if your mouth is in 'letterbox' shape. Try singing a high note with a 'round' mouth (a big O) if you want to check.

Session 25a.mp3 Session 25b.mp3 Session 25c.mp3 Session 25d.mp3 Session 25e.mp3

Session 22a.mp3 Session 22b.mp3 Session 22c.mp3 Session 22d.mp3 Session 22e.mp3

Session 21a.mp3 Session 21b.mp3 Session 21c.mp3 Session 21d.mp3 Session 21e.mp3

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.