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And I got the gig! Only 30 more songs to learn now

Well, shirley an envelope filter would be .....The Sorting Office? I'll get my coat.

- how did you work out / stumble on what sound you were after? Was it a particular bass player or a bass line on a music track (if so, who / what?) = Was told to go and get a Jazz bass for a gig I was doing at the time by a band member. Did so to solve an argument and found out THIS was the bass that made all the sounds that were in my head. Bass players on a lot of records I grew up listening to used a Jazz so I'm guessing that's how the sound got in there in the first place. - if you know your sound, how would you describe it? (May be a tricky one to put in words, I guess!) =Not "my" personal sound but borrowed. Back PU gives me a tight and defined Jaco type thing.(the yanks call it burp?) Both PUs gives me Marcus Miller slap thing or deep and round for grooving. Then there are other variables but mostly its these two simple settings that work over just about anything. (that I play on or bands I play with. Covers mostly.Pop.Funk.Soul.Rock.Indie) - what are the key ingredients in your signal chain that are essential to delivering 'that sound'. (Hopefully we'll get some great suggestions for combinations of strings, PUPs, EQs, amps, cabs and pedals, depending on which are the most important /really key bits of the chain for you). = Recording or low volume - Passive Jazz straight into desk or amp. Tone all the way off. PUPs back or both depending on tune. Gigs - Passive Jazz bass into sadowsky preamp pedal into EBS HD350 amp then EBS neo cab/s. In descending order of importance in the chain: Passive Jazz bass My fingers and where I pluck. Usually over near the bridge side near the back PU regardless of PU setting. Regardless of the bass I'd probably always do this anyway for finger style. That's how I get "my" borrowed sound. Strings by D'addario because they are nice to the touch and less effort due to low tension. From there its a preference but not essential. EG: I prefer the EBS stuff but its not the only amp that can achieve what I'm going for. I like the simplicity of it more than anything. There is a plug and play element to it that appeals to me. I know quickly if I'm going to get an ok tone or a great tone depending on the room so I can get on with accepting what its going to be on that gig and get on with it. The Sadowsky preamp pedal is more to give a signal boost than any major tone shaping. I use a touch of bass and treble boost. It works like that so I stick with it. I also use a Chorus pedal when I want a bit of sparkle for a riff or maybe in a solo if it fits with the tune.

I barely had time to photograph it, never mind upload pictures last night, it's too good... However, now I am at work I will be sure to take some better composed images at some point soon to show off how well this has been put together, but for today this will have to do. As you can see, it is bog standard, apart from some extra feet and a rotated badge to allow for portrait and landscape (default) orientation. 12 mm ply, and ceramic magnets in case anyone was wondering. An easy carry (scurry!) from the post office to home!

The nastiest drum I've ever heard is a piccolo snare. As a non-drummer, if there is one contribution I can make to this thread, it's DON'T LET HIM HAVE A PICCOLO SNARE!!!

I think this is accurate. For the record, I hate ‘acoustic nights’. Usually some over-earnest scrotter with a beard and unbuttoned lumberjack shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a Jack Daniel’s tshirt underneath playing ‘his take’ on classic rock numbers.

Hi All Lots going on at Chowny at the moment. So am sponsoring a thread to put you in the picture We've new offices in Bristol (in scenic Lawrence Hill) and would love to invite anybody who fancies it to pop by and have a play on our basses or pedals. Just give us a heads up when you want to come. So first stock updates: Stock in of all of the following: Retrovibe EVO Davie504 Basses Retrovibe EVO Retrovibe Volante Retrovibe Vantage Fuzzster Pedals Pitchcraft Pedals Stock incoming over the next month SWB Pro SWB-1 CHB-1 and CHB-2 (2018 editions) We've added a new video studio and are adding new videos to our Youtube channel twice a week. They will be a mix of things (jams, talks etc) Here is Scott Whitley and I talking about the SWB and how we came to make it. And here is Danny Sapko playing on the very first ever CHB that we made. Finally we are releasing our new Bassmosphere Pedal soon. It's boutique designed Chorus/Reverb pedal. Manufactured in China and sold for the price of £62 (plus the usual "basschat" discount). Anybody who wants to come and play some bass (and drums) or just bring your band into our studio to do a song - get in touch. Thanks! Will add to this thread as new stuff happens.

Whilst I`m not exactly keen on bands playing for nothing, sometimes, when starting out on the originals circuit it`s one of those things that has to be done. You either get 5 paid gigs a year, or you take a punt on a few more unpaid as well, knowing you`re expanding your audience/merch sales/fan-base. Additionally, and in regards to the op, they agreed to play for nothing. Now irrespective of whatever any other band is getting, if you make an agreement you should stick with it imo. Again, not wonderful but you can gain a reputation as trustworthy, which can work in your favour - it`s how we`ve done things. An example of this is we were playing Gateshead on a Friday night, Blackpool on the Sat night afterwards. A big gig in Glasgow was offered to us at very short notice. So we did all three, doing an early afternoon Glasgow set, we wouldn`t bin the small Blackpool gig for the better Glasgow one. It was knackering, but in honouring our commitments it further cemented our reputation as a band that can be trusted.And the band is now self-funding, we don`t take any money from it but it pays for all recording/merch/hotels/flights/ferries/van & driver hire etc. But if we`d binned all the early unpaid gigs I wonder if we`d be in that position now.

You know I’m just messing with you Al

This is looking very tasty Ref the headstock veneer - if I get time tomorrow I'll do a quick A-Z of how I iron on veneer rather than clamp. Great thing is that it gives pretty much instant results and you can see what you're doing. I did a live demo of the technique at the Midlands Bass Bash.

I essentially picked up a yamaha gigmaster kit for about £60 (gumtree - parents desperate to sell a poorly thought out xmas gift lol) and a yamaha electronic kick, hihat and ride cymbal from ebay for £55. The module I use is a Megadrum which I use to trigger Superior Drummer on a laptop. To convert the toms I used some cone triggers i picked up from ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-pak-drum-trigger-replacement-DIY-foam-cone-Convertible-Percussions-/152148530322 They're nothing more complex than a piezo and a little foam cone but thery're really very good. I followed this technique The cymbals are pretty simple with two piezos on each, some thick clear 3m sticky back plastic (the stuff some people put on their cars to prevent stone chips) and a little plastic box inside which I wire the piezos to a jack. There are some far more advanced ways of doing this to allow cymbal choking etc. Try this for an idea (sorry the guy is pretty annoying but its a good demo) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npnuaguzq6Y Any questions just ask. I'm really looking into a 2box drummit 5 module so we can work live without the laptop but it might mean a bit of work needed on the cymbal set up and a better hihat system. More often than not, if we have to use it for gigs we use a real hihat and ride cymbal as they are so much better than any of the edrum conversions I've been able to sort.

I took a picture of it for someone else, and it seems to work ok visually. So I did some other stuff, I got some veneer, spent a bit of time fitting it, overnight glueing etc, and then removed the clamps to reveal: Ok, so that didn't work and I peeled and sanded it off again! I finished the holes, and redid the lower horn as a friend of mine pointed out the angle was wrong, even though it didn't really matter (it isn't a clone), I decided to route it out a bit more: I bought a bit of rosewood as I decided I wanted a bit of contrast for the electronics cover. Not done that perfectly but I am pretty happy with it: And finally, bought some Stunning Stain from Crimson Guitars in crimson red and a black concentrate so I can mix them. This is what the red looks like after a coat, so I think that is what it is going to be done in, maybe a bit darker at the edge

It's the way things are going certainly and round our way there are a LOT of acoustic om nights. A lot of the bedroom warriors need to learn how to project a song and entertain an audience, but I've seen some stand out performances from singer/guitarists or on one occasion a ukulele duo! If it keeps live music in places that would otherwise not bother, I think it's a good thing as long as the quality is there

With no pay there's no Contract. I wouldn't play

Ron's answer to the question at 45:59 reminds me of a passage in Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance where Robert Pirsig wrote that when on the road he would check the bike over every morning . He had done it so many times that just the act of laying out his tool roll on the seat had become the ritual that readies his mind to see the state of the machine as it really is . With peace of mind gained about the equipment he is then able to enjoy the moment .

It's the same material (3mm cast Acrylic). The flipside to having great optical clarity is that it does have some reflections but not that you'd notice in any of the playing environments my screen protecctor has been in over the past few months - indoors with lots of stage lights and outdoors. I'm just finishing off the design for the Helix Floor model as well ready for prototyping

An excellent thread! For me the sound I like comes almost entirely from the bass itself. Pedals to some degree too, but that’s only to provide sounds which would be impossible to achieve with the the bass alone. I never really found “the tone in my head” until playing a Yamaha BB1025x a couple of years ago. It was grin inducing in a way that I’d never experienced from a bass before. Since then I’ve made sure I have at least one P-style bass in my arsenal. A recent discovery is that I have a lot of love for MM humbuckers too - they seems to cut through certain mixes better than a P, yet retain a degree of fullness often lacking from soloed Jazz pups. I’ve found my MTD Super 5 (dual coil-switchable MM buckers) to be the perfect Neo-Soul/R&B machine. Smooth and deep yet defined and cuts through a mix surprisingly well. Once upon a time I might have been in the camp of having “my sound” and sticking with it regardless of the context but now I think of myself as a bit more of a tonal chameleon. I’ll play the bass with the tonal configuration that works best for the music at the time. As has been said, though, the goalposts do shift if you’re in a covers band vs an originals band. I’m not in a band at all, so I suppose I play covers by default! In summary, I guess I don’t always know the bass sound I want immediately but I do know that I want the bass itself to be the primary factor and that I don’t want the amp to be colouring the sound at all. Those are the only two constants.

I bought one of those new years ago for £365, couple of surprising quality issue with loose pots and wobbly input that wouldn't tighten... That tone though! I've never been as satisfied with a tone before or since that bass...

+1 to the above as starters, just to get the principle established. Nylon-tipped sticks won't help (they're what I use exclusively, but they're no more quiet than wooden-tipped...). Another 'ruse' might be to get him to use Vic Firth hickory sticks. If he's a hard hitter, he'll soon get tired of 'em busting..!

Good, dynamic drumming, at any appropriate volume, is largely a question of technique. The real solution, if the bloke is up to it, is a good, competent drum prof to teach how to get the best from the kit, in all styles, at all volumes needed. It won't be over-night, but it' the 'real deal'. Meanwhile, there are solutions that work, but always, as usual, with a downside. Hot rods..? A very useful tool, indispensable in some styles, but a 'heavy hitter' will probably trash 'em pretty darned quick; they're not the strongest sticks around. This could cause budget issues, as they're not cheap, either. Worth a try, but not much to gain, without restraint from the fellow, I'd say. Drum screen..? Excellent as a solution, but very expensive, much stage footprint lost and one heck of a 'faff' in intimate venues. Worthwhile if the cost, weight and space are not an issue; I fear it'd be tiring over time, though. When I was playing in folk-rock bands, 'back in the day', I made up a set of covers from linen sheets and knicker elastic (don't ask how I acquired that..! ) to slip over the drum heads, a bit like a shower cap. That certainly muffled the drums (I've never been a 'lumberjack', but we were rehearsing and playing in very quiet venues...). The sound of the kit was, of course, radically changed, so if big, expansive 'Queen'-type toms are required, it won't fit the bill, but it may be worth trying (cover the heads with a cut-up tee-shirt to see if the tone is workable..?). Drum lessons, though. That's the secret. Technique, learned, as quickly as possible from a good teacher, that's my 'top tip'. Good luck with it; it sounds as if he's worth it. Keep us posted as to progress, please..?

Kept it simple last night. My 1974 Precision straight into a 1966 Ampeg SB-12. Beautiful beautiful tone

I have a super nice Bulgarian upright bass, a custom built - but not for me - instrument with some strange dimensions. The scale is 4/4, but the body is 3/4, built with massive tone wood. It is nothing short than huge. I had to get a new car to be able to transport it smoothly. Anyway, the bass is huge, the tone is huge. The instrument is built 2012, so I wonder how the tone will be in a hundred years when it is this big and full now... I've used a David Gage Realist on the bass, but it didn't work well. A lot of ugly "mid artifacts" that demanded heavy filtering to sound decent amplified. I sold the Realist and bought a Realist LifeLine and an adjustable bridge. The bass loved the LifeLine; it was the opposition to the Copperhead... I've used the bass with a Fishman Platinum Pro EQ/DI, and with my BasSwitch preamp, but when I got my little Quilter BassBlock 800 I could amplify the bass without preamp. Then I got a Vanderkley Spartan, and that one did NOT like the piezo pickup at all. The input impedance on the amp was a real mis-match to the LifeLine. Then my eye caught the little Redeemer Beltpack from Creation Audio Labs. It has an input impedance over 20 Mohms(!!!) making any pickup work well with any amp. I ordered one, and Lo and Behold! The tone is big and full. No gain problems. No need for eq-ing other than cutting some low bass. Best preamp I've ever used. So far the Beltpack isn't finally mounted on the tailpiece of the bass, I have to think a bit more before I get the proper design for the fastener. Anyway, the bass hasn't sounded petter amplified...

Nope. Have to search.

Ok, I'll play! Clean bass, then adding the layers of Diabolik, Octabvre Mini, MXR Bass Envelope Filter, MXR Carbon Copy: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApKsVfvGwYkOiqkL9mVycX-u9kCMAA Chain is in that order, octave after the fuzz to keep the low end clean. Recorded direct, no amp or speakers involved.

I have a few Hercules products but not the one mentioned above, all are superb quality and customer service was excellent when I had a minor issue (replacement was with me in a day FOC).

My instinct is to agree with this, but one thing gives me pause for thought: the promoters who do no promotion often have a lot of free time to get their version of the story out if they feel slighted by a band. This guy's clearly chock full of s**t, but there's a risk that he'll decide to spread a load of "fake nooze" about you guys cancelling and being unprofessional or whatever. If you wanted to hedge your bets...you said you've got some interest. Play this gig. Bring your crowd. Demonstrate just how good and professional you are - like Lozz said, watch the other bands, have a drink with them, make connections and flog some CDs if you can. Better still, asking the other bands seemingly innocent questions like, "oh, are you getting paid for this gig, then?" might help to sow the seeds of discord and quietly let them know that the promoter's trying to shaft you. If the promoter asks you whether you'd like to work with him again, you're in a really strong position to give him both barrels. If he doesn't, there are plenty of groups and message boards online where you can tell other musicians everything you've told us. E.g., if you're on Facetube, the "advice/blacklist for uk bands promoters and labels group" has about 17,000 users who could (should) be warned off working with the guy.

Someone I know recently spent enough to replace ALL my gear AND the car I carry it in on one of these "toneful" things, and set it up next to his old one. *annoyingly loud piercing crack*...*much louder and therefore much more annoying loud piecing crack*... ..."See?" "Uh, nope. " *repeats* Ahdungeddit. Probably never will.

Bass needs more power from an amp to create a better sound. I'd start at 500 watts not because I need to be loud but because I want a clean powerful sound at whatever volume the band plays at. If you've been out of bass playing for the last 10 years, you might have noticed that the bass world has changed. You can still buy the old stuff, but it really is the old stuff. Modern bass gear is smaller, lighter, louder and sounds light years better than the average stuff of years gone by. I'd look in the BC classifieds (because you can find great gear at a good price) and look at separates because you can change your mind about your sound (and you will) an be able to upgrade each piece individually.

I welcome your new word and looking at the picture you posted, would also propose craftsmanshit be added to the list

If it's the same material that is used to make the rather cool screen protectors, then I can report there are no reflections as the material sits really close to the screen. That said, I've not played a gig out in mid day sun yet with it.

I was fortunate enough to have a few prompts throughout my time as a bass player. Tone 1: John Entwistle's clanking Precision tone on The Who Live at Leeds, Live at the IoW 1970, etc - drove me towards Precision-type basses and valve amps. Tone 2: John Entwistle's more rounded-but-still-wonderfully-articulate Thunderbird tone circa Quadrophenia / Who by Numbers - inspired initial purchase of EB-3, which I felt outperformed the Epi 'birds at the same price point, and later an actual Gibson Thunderbird. Tone 3: John Entwistle's enormous 8-string bass tone on songs such as Success Story and Trick of the Light - OK, I'm never going to make my Hagstrom sound like a custom-built Alembic, but it's been a good starting point. Unfortunately, along came Tone 4...and as far as I'm aware, The Ox never played fretless, so I've had to look to other sources with that. But it's been a very enjoyable exploration.

Nick's work is just mind-blowing. I'm actually saving up to buy every single product he's sent me prototype pictures of!

If you can't live with it as it is, you probably need to admit defeat and treat the guitar to a new one.

This is common here too (Northamptonshire) and imo is actually a sign of more sensible landlords. Too many pubs either just can't afford a full band or they're not big enough to cope with the volume. Some pub bands are great at getting the volume right but most are really way too loud with people still insistent on loud guitar amps and bass amps to get their sound. If you want to play these places as a bass player then either get involved with a band who are happy to work with electric drums and no backline or alternatively work on your bvs and sing a few lead parts so you become an indispensable member of the team. Of course there are exceptions. Two pubs round our way have stopped having full bands because they and their punters are sick of hearing the same old classic rock songs every week lol.

Nothing to say, except that any musician should be able to control his volume. There's absolutely no excuse for it

I’ve always been chasing the bass sound equivalent of a big lazy idling American V8 burbling away inside a Plymouth ‘Cuda. Randy HT’s work with Incognito reminds me of this.

Lindisfarne were much more radical than people realise ...

From my humble observations and what I hear from people, venues don’t want space taken up with a full band and large speakers/amps, and they don’t want the deafening volume that a large amount of amateur bands seem to want to play at. Sadly in nice bars/clubs a full band is a bit too much for a lot of punters, but they can tolerate a quiet innofensive acoustic duo who just play ‘background noise’. There is a nice bar in the nearest town to me and they have live music a few nights a week. An acquaintance goes there fairly often with work colleagues etc as the food and drink is good, and overheard him say as soon as the local blues/rock/cover band of choice fire up for the night they all get out as soon as possible. I think a lot of the time people just don’t want to hear another band playing the same old dross or murdering modern pop tunes in their local. I’m guilty, I play in a covers band and despite being pretty good (IMO) I would probably avoid a bar with us or anyone else playing 😂

Going to the correct venue always helps , unlike my band on Sat night ,I pulled up to British Legion club turns out it was completely the wrong town & not even a British Legion Club ...other members not being organised makes me anxious ,saying things like can we play this in a different key tonight & bringing a second guitar on the basis that it's pre tuned for a certain song & its still in it's case & not tuned but they swap guitars anyway?

I've tried a few preamps for DB and always seem to go back to the FDeck Clone. Has a great buffer and the useful HPF and phase switch. You can get them made in several forms and are pretty cheap.

Same here, pal of mine has a Ric he adores and thinks is a legendary classic bass. It sounds terrible and is an absolute chore to play though. If it didn't have the iconic look he wouldn't give it a second glance. Joint first position for worst bass however is a Hofner violin bass (one of the more pricey ones) I used the last time I was persuaded to go to a jam night. Just as clunky as the Ric with a similar amount of useless cosmetic adornments which hamper playing only this time it sounded like mud being played through more mud rather than a choice selection of honky farts like the Ric. I can only assume all the controls on the bass and amp were broken because it sounded the same no matter what. Again the owner was really proud of it and I have no idea why, I've seen his band a few times and the bass guitar and kick drum are indistinguishable from each other in the mix.

Blimey, they look like the boys down the local Quickfit tyres. Wheel balancing is extra, Sir.

I have played in bands where the singer will either have the lyrics on a stand, or a tablet. But they are professional musicians so can sing 100s of songs. They can't be expected to be word perfect on every song.

I've been using - and I've been very impressed with - a Bergantino B Amp. Very/increasingly flexible, around 800w, will go down to 2 and 2.7ohms. Fully parametric eq, studio quality DI, VR compression, cab profiles (if you use Bergs but good with others), very nicely designed and great build, presets/memory function, very punchy and very loud (if you need that). Light too at around 6.5lbs. Not the cheapest option but an extremely impressive amp in all respects (IMO)

I generally brace the body between my knees and pull the head back, thus taking the strain off the truss rod/nut, make the adjustment and let go of the head. The bass goes pretty well back into tune though obviously needs minor tweaks. Never (yet) had a problem doing it this way.

Used the Dubster at band tonight. Two 3015 LFs with an adequate wattage made the earth move

It is a good set up with the 2x RM fifteens. Haven't yet done the 15+ 2*10 but the 2*10 on its own sounds good.