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Heres my Sandy PM4. Its an old one (cant find a serial number anywhere....) but a fabulous bass. Almost plays itself. sandberg 8 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr sandberg 7 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr sandberg 5 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr

It's bad enough seeing the first Christmas ads on the box in September, now you've gone and started it in May I'm tempted to lock and hide this thread.

It is all a ruse. You don't need books, CDs, hifi system, magazines, videos, DVDs or TV...all you need is your laptop and a subscription to lots of things at only £9.99 per month each. Oh, and cloud storage for all your backups at £9.99 a month for when your laptop breaks. "Why am I so poor?" the junior office worker mused, listening to Spotify though bluetooth headphones on his iPhone X while clicking away at his laptop. His £4.20 large coffee with cream from Starbucks cooled next to him.

PMT is the worst, especially the one in Oxford. They're so accommodating and let you try stuff, bend over backwards not to look happy when you hand over your card...I once went in for a plectrum and walked out with two new amps! I think I forgot the pick, too.

Keyboard player set fire to me during the gig, City of London Poly, early 80's. Not entirely an act of musical criticism although I suspect that since we were both vying for the lower register at the time some degree of unconscious intent was involved. Lessons learned: (1) never let the stylist use a whole can of Elnett to get your hair in place, even if you are the bassist in a hair band, and (2) don't let the keyboard player flick cigarettes across the stage in your general direction when trying to act cool.

I understand that people don't like post EQ, but the way I look at it (I also engineer too), is that as far as I'm concerned, I use the gear I use to help create / add to my sound. My job as a sound engineer is to make it louder but also make it fit the mix too, so I prefer post EQ as that's been set how the bassist likes it. The engineer on the tour I'm on understands that, and is more than happy for me to send a post EQ send, and he loves the sound he's getting and barely has to touch it. That, in my eyes is how it should be done. I've had an engineer absolutely ruined my bass tone, I had various people say "you've normally got a gorgeous tone, but it was just muddy, what's happened?" And I saw what EQ had been done and all questions were immediately answered. Not cool.

With a 'regular' drummer and bass player The Who would have been boring, I bet. It was KM and JE's pyrotechnics that made that band what it was. They were both pioneers in their way. If PT can't see that, he must be a ****.

"Next month, the one and only scale guitarists ever need" Doh. Rae,. Me Me Me Me Me........

Nope, because even if you think you've no intention of buying anything, if you're like the rest of us, you will anyway. If not on that visit, then the next, or the one after that. They rely on it!

It will change your life. Also, this.

For the sake of your bank balance; leave the credit card at home and just go for a noodle!

All is calm, all is bright in my current band. Which is nice. I wouldn't mind some of Fleetwood Mac's success, but not sure how I would have dealt with the, ah... somewhat 'interesting' relationship and substance issues...

As a follow on from my earlier post, I`ve since found out that the guy who died is having his casket come out to one of our songs. Really moving, and just goes to show that our bands may touch people in ways they never get to know, but the two things from this for me are never get big headed and remember the audience are the ones who count, and always put on your best show/performance.

"My bass sound in the pa isn't as good as my backline, not as punchy and defined. I use a pretty flat eq on my amp, just tweaking to suit the room. Quite a few effects and I di from the amp." As stated above, the sound that you get from your amp on stage is a combination of EQ, any baked in sound of the amp itself and the influence of the sound of the speaker cab. I am not a post eq DI fan per se from a traditional amp, I would still send the signal to the board pre EQ and then doing any processing at the desk (typically tone shaping, compression and maybe add a touch of saturation). Your on stage tone is your onstage tone. You outfront tone is your outfront tone. What you want to hear on stage can be very different to what is ideal FoH so treat them independently. With regards to those that run loads of effects, then yeah, you want to get the effects in the feed to the PA - but personally, I would still remove the colouration of the speaker cabs... but like many things, this is all subjective. Some people like to dial in EQ, some people like cab emulation devices. It's all down to personal preference and what works for you. I actually run two desks - one for IEM monitors and one for front of house, for reasons that I have hinted at above. With two desks, I can EQ every instruments differently for front of house and monitors, different processing, different compression and fx etc. If you don't have all these lines of processing, you will be compromising somewhere... but in reality, as long as people can hear themselves on stage so that they can play, an aux with just one EQ over the top to help prevent feedback is what most people can cope with. The Aux fed sub is a good technique - and probably also worth mentioning, that you don't actually want a lot going through your subs at all. In fact, You may end up HPFing your bass around 80Hz to stop things getting swampy (remember, a 80hz HPF is not a fixed cutouff, you get a slope (typically 24dB/octave) so you still get some bass in the subs but not as much as you'd think. Number one problem with subs is that people tend to push too much through them and it ends up destroying the mix - I'm guessing that this is where your "not as defined" bass problem is coming from. Certainly a decent PA should outdefine and out punch a traditional backline no sweat. Depending what your tops are, switching to 80 on the crossover will probably help you clear up any swampiness - if thats a problem... and that's before you reach for the desk. Remember, little bits of EQ, focusing on cuts as opposed to boosts. Certainly you'll want to calm the top end, also some cut around 2-5k and try a HPF at 100 and work down until the bass starts to get a little swampy. You'll find the sweet spot for your setup. But remember! This will change for every room that you are in... but at this point, you should be primarily reaching for the master EQ on that main outputs to compensate for the room. Once you've got your EQ sorted for your instruments, they shouldn't really change from gig to gig.

I know it isn’t a band name but I still think Ten Benson’s album Satan Kidney Pie is possibly the best album name ever.

We played a boozer near Cannock. When I pulled up there were two guys fighting in the car park. Should have just driven home. Wen set up played the gig. An awful lot of gesturing and punters acting out sexualised behaviour on each other, with inflatable guitars. Our singer cut the set about 5 minutes short, ( which i was annoyed about) Packed up, went to pick up the silver coin and the gaffers wife refused to play as we had finished early. This was true, all be it 5 minutes. I said ok pay us what you think is fair. They were itching for a fight. We were escorted out of the pub like we were in a spaghetti western. A guy followed us to our cars still itching for a punch-up. Our guitarist, who has some serious anger issues obliged and slapped at least four of the possie before we hit the road out of dodge. We still talk about it ten years on. Good times!!

We're vinyl lovers in this house, we invested in a decent system just as CDs were being released and have stuck with the medium throughout making further investments along the way. It was only very recently we bought our first CD player, 4-5 years ago? Now I admit our vinyl player is of a far higher quality than our CD player even though it was still quite expensive but vinyl has a big edge over listenability in my opinion as long as the vinyl is spotless (we have a record cleaning machine). There is also something more of an occasion to playing a record the set up, the album art, it's less so with a CD but not gone and let's face it the sound quality isn't bad at all with minimum fuss and it still gives that sense of ownership. Downloads, we did try but it seemed wrong somehow, download, click/play despite the excellent sound quality it feels disposable somehow. So are CDs going to become relics of the past? I hope not, there is something extra to owning a physical medium Gratuitous photo of my two Tbirds next to the hi-fi

This^^^^^ the artwork and pics are all part of the music experience to me. I can picture the covers of all of my favourite albums, probably 99% of all the ones I,own in fact. I also like the fact it can’t be deleted or lost in an ‘upgrade’.

Personally I think that the Vinyl resurgence is just a flash in the pan. I'd give it 5 years at most. Who wants a medium that inherently degrades every time you play it? As for Cd's it's still my preferred medium, but then I'm an old Fogey. Just a thought - If you copy your CDs to another medium and then sell the originals are you not in breach of copyright?

Up in the sticks (out past Todmorden). No bars, not even 3G!!

I keep trying to start an INXS tribute band named Stranglew4nk, some right weirdos come to audition

I’d ring ahead and have the stuff ready to collect. Keep your eyes closed and hand over the cash. 😂

That's a fair point my friend. About 30 years ago, or more, I was a regular attendee of many biker festivals throughout the UK. Of note were the Kent Custom Bike shows run annually by the local Hell's Angels. My god what fabulous weekends they were. A total festival environment where all were welcome and partied, whether you rode a Harley, a BMW, Guzzi, Japanese or a Vespa. They got some cracking well known bands to headline. Great times. As you say, things are different now. I'm not the party animal I once was, and the carefree enjoyment attitude just doesn't seem to be there from youngsters. Everyone is too busy with the latest iPhone to care lol. I don't ride any more, but I do play bass. It's my last thread connecting me to something different. 🎸 Geoff

Are you sure we didn’t play the same place? Exactly the same for us at above example. Herefordshire/Worcestershire border?

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When it's right, it's right. My 90's Mexican jazz should be the worst bass in the world of you believe everything you read. It's actually my main bass for almost everything. Makes me think "upgrading" won't give me the return I'd expect from the outlay

Back when Hawkwind had smaller ambitions...

I have the same desk. My setup is a little different because I use a modeller but I run 'traditional' bass through it all the time so I'm fairly up to speed. As a very general procedure/starting point I start with HPF at 40Hz, LPF at 5KHz and the 'bass' preset on the channel compressor. If I'm the full-time soundman (as often happens when we have support bands or provide the PA for a multi-band backline) then I'll tweak and tweak and often get it to sound better than that. If it's for me and I cant mess with whilst I'm playing, that's normally how it stays all night and it sounds fine. I have an effects preset set in case my helix goes down that has a low mid boost, a high mid cut and most importantly one of the guitar amp effects inserts set to provide some grit and colour. I'm not one for a 'straight in' bass sound and those modelled effects (particularly the guitar amp sim and the valve preamp) can really add some character. Maybe try one of those if you miss the tube colour from your amp.

Only 1 week old? Blimey. He could have returned it for a refund if it was ordered online.

Not peeked under the plate yet, but will do at some point. If the finish is anything like the first pics in this thread then that would be great. Not sure I could live with the screwholes though. The strings are Rotosound RB 40-100, which seem to be my favourites at the moment. As for the price, starting price was £60. Bidding went frantic in the last seconds and I managed to slip in there with £117 which did the trick. Geoff

a nylon plectrum seems to sound more "meaty" (as in 'finger' ). A hard plastic plectrum sounds more "clicky" (tic-tac ) .

More of these?

+1 I often have to 'ease' pick guards when I've new P/ups. Two sided nail files (coarse and fine) work well, aren't too aggressive and leave a good finish.

I think some gentle filing around the opening in the guard is what you need to be doing. If you've managed to get the pick ups in there but they just a little tight, it should only need a small amount removed.

Hope "hard copy" in whatever form doesn’t disappear, if only because I’d miss the sleeve notes.

Not my gig. A night off. I went to watch a band at my local and their drummer quit during the second set. Just started dismantling his kit. While someone else covered for a song, he dragged his cases on stage. Singer announced the next song, but no. Show over. Astonishment.

Mine went well until I got a music stand out...

Are we really going to change the rules of Cricket just because kids don't find it 'exciting' and have the attention span of a goldfish?? Anyone who doesn't understand the rules doesn't deserve to enjoy the game, IMHO. Bah! Tsk! Pshaw! And so on.

La Bella nylon flats are superb on an acoustic, especially if you're plugging in.

‘Landfill indie’, love it. Perfect 😂

I've been using a Pitchblack+ for a few years now: http://www.korg.com/us/products/tuners/pitchblack_plus/index.php Granted, it's about twice the size of a regular pitchblack, but having your A/B and tuner combined in the same pedal is really quite convenient! (Plus it has an option to daisy chain power out to other pedals - I only use an overdrive and a fuzz on stage, so it's more than adequate for these purposes.)