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I'm knocked out that my band (Lutz) have had our album listed on a couple of these top ten releases of 2018 things; I'm assuming this came out of the New Music Saturday podcast and a few people have just picked up on it. At the very least, it affords me a little smile after what has been a fairly traumatic year in which I lost my father-in-law, my mother and my job. [Edit: I also emerged from the wreckage of losing my band, the band I formed eight years ago, to a bunch of fairly unpleasant interlopers.] 2019 has got to be better, eh?

...well in a somewhat bizarre turn of events, I interviewed for a position last week and the agency just called and told me I'd got the position and start on the 17th. Amazingly, I'd initially turned the interview down, largely questioning my abilities, but the agency were told the decision was unanimous and I was head and shoulders over the other applicants. Feeling a bit happier.

Drove up to fellow BC member FinnDave to purchase/collect a bass he was selling. Had a great chat for an hour; he's a top bloke...and the bass, an Epiphone Thunderbird Classic Pro IV with Babicz bridge and Gotoh tuners...wow, what a bass. It's immediately become my prime gigging bass. Awesome feel, action, sound, looks...the total package. And the neck's almost 2 inches shorter than my Burns Bison, perfect for my short arms. Thanks BassChat for hooking us up.

First Dates - will they be seeing each other again ❤️❤️❤️

What constitutes 'a good rig' could be debated until the cows come home, but I would agree... the best 'tone' or 'sound' or whatever you want to call it that I ever had was through an Ampeg SVT Classic with matching 8X10. Still chasing that sound, really. I'd use a fridge every time, were it not for the practicalities involved in moving the bloody thing from A to B. And back.

A good sound just makes you feel super confident and gives your playing another gear.

Weather at last improved enough to let me get some pics of my newly acquired California II TT4.

Blue note, Brown note, let's face it, we have the POWER

Saw them in the mid 90s at the Huddersfield stadium (whatever they called it then). Brilliant summer's day and Stipey was doing his stuff as the sun was going down. Magical. Tanya Donelly was also on the bill and I was a huge Throwing Muses fan at the time. The main support was supposed to be Oasis but they decided they had got too big to be a support. Beautiful South stood in... I don't really like them but full marks for jumping in at the last moment... and they had a full brass section... always a mighty thing... huge roar went up when they played an Oasis song. Back on topic... must start listening to REM again. I even went to Athens Georgia and had meals in Weaver D's and at the Grit. It's a very neat University town and every male student looked like Stipe... some of the women did too.

Put down the bass, pick up a triangle. Then listen to Reggae, an ting.

Ahh I should have said, Tom Waits is on the list! That album (and Closing Time) are absolute solid classics and I love playing them.

https://bit.ly/2KQT9WL

I think it might just be the light that is fooling you in to thinking the finish is shiny. I always try to get the bright sunlight light reflecting off the basses when photographing them to highlight the wood grain. Here is the latest one I finished:

Basses (or any other instrument for that matter) only sound good on a recording in the context of the arrangement and production of the music. Take a listen to any of the many isolated bass tracks available on YouTube if you want to hear how different (and generally not very good) the bass sounds once you strip away all the other instrumentation.

Good on you, pal, and all the best for 2019!

Thank you, Chris, it was a real pleasure to meet you and have a good old chat about life and all things bass. Glad to know the bass has gone to a good home, enjoy it!

I'm guessing it was a resonant frequency if it was only E - causing the speaker to oscillate at its natural frequency. But over to the experts!

Some of my favourite books for working on sight reading and some tips to maximise your practising efficiency:

There are so many, but on this subject this always pops into my head first. If I can actually make a decision I will post some other faves later.

When I played (finished gigging 20+ years ago now) guitar in bands we only did pubs and clubs, and we didn't get fed. But I must admit, these days if I was faced with a big meal before a gig I would be asleep on my feet! I do recall one memorable occaision at Barrow Hill club (I think - it is 30 years ago now) when half way through the second set we were blasting away through something when the power went off to our stage gear, only for the concert secretary (do they still have them?) to mutter through his mike "T'pies 'ave come!". Virtually the whole audience left the concert room whilst we were powering up the amps hoping they hadn't been shafted to go and buy pies from this block who brought trays of them in from a van. What a classy place that was. They did provide half a dozen "broken" pies and pasties in our changing room though, which we scoffed whilst they were doing the bingo and meat raffles between our second set and last set. The delights of working men's clubs and Miner's Welfare clubs. What pleasures they were.

Eddie Jackson with Queensryche on the 'Operation Mindcrim'e album - particularly the tracks 'Eyes Of A Stranger' and 'I Don't Believe In Love' - Gorgeous grinding Spector NS2/GK800RB tone! Tiran Porter with the Doobie Brothers - classic flatwound/pick thud, particularly on the albums Captain & Me, What Were Once Vices & Stampede. Guy Pratt with Toy Matinee. Ocatved Stingray goodness and groove for days!

Why do vegans and vegetarians feel the need to make themselves sound special? I dont like fish or gammon for example so I'd just avoid it at a buffet, it's a buffet so you just take things you like, aren't allergic to or have moral issues eating. If there's nothing you like get a McDonald's on the way home! 😋

An acquaintance of mine said he had "an old bass amp" I might like for a small charitable donation.. OK, I thought.. sure.. he lives quite a way away and it'll be a few weeks before I can go collect... turns out though, it's one of these: (images aren't the actual items!!) And also comes with one of these: Quite looking forward to it...

This is my rig for 2019!

Anything by Kate Rusby. Anything by Nickel Creek Si

My solution for a louder Walkabout was playing it through a Powerhouse 6x10! No volume issues anymore. I need to hit weights more before I can really be able to lift the cab in and out my car unaided. Hence a portable 2x15 has me excited.

The Tascam is fine for the job. Just bare in mind though, ( I am assuming) the PC speakers will more than likely be running off an onboard sound card. If so, unless you unplug the speakers and plug them into the Tascam, you will be using the Tascam to send the Audio/Bass signal into the PC/DAW and out via the Onboard card for monitoring. Just a case of configuring the Audio signals for in and out in the DAW.

I'm beginning to come to this conclusion. Since using Class D and light weight speakers for the last 10 years or so, I've never been totally blown away by the sound and I'm so tempted to go back to a 4x10. Not sure what though. The last rig I used was a big old TC Electronic 4x10 and an old BH500 head and it sounded amazing. Before that, I used an Ashdown Rootmaster head and Ashdown 1x15 and my Precision seriously sounded incredible. Just not keen on the extra size and weight that comes with it compared to my MarkBass LM3 and 2 x NY112 cabs.

Yer man from Incubus, Ben Kenney, used to tour with a couple of WA rigs - combo and ext cab beneath - see the link. It would be a pricy rig for us mere mortals http://mesaboogie.com/artist/ben-kenney.html

Takes about 10 seconds to get used to fan-frets when you actually play one.

Daysleeper is still one of my favourite songs ever. Fixed it for you. Si

Honestly, you're looking at an outboard widget. Equaliser pedal, preamp that kind of thing. I know you said you're curious how it works and so for that I'd recommend one of the diy kits and guides online. Much easier to start from scratch than modify a product. Try something like this as a start.

The Tascam unit is fine, and will do the job (and more...) with no fuss. I use a similar, but older unit as interface (US-144 Mk II...) bought s/h here, and am very content with it. For headphone practise, it's hard to beat the Voxplug amps, which have an Aux in for playing along. You won't get more compact than that..!

the king of sublime

Aha! I was out running along the river and stopped on a park bench to listen for ages to that gig. Open corners on the ground gave us quite a clear sound for miles

Yes you did, I should have re-read it lol I would do a New Amp day thread but unfortunately it is faulty and being returned for a new one. Sounds mighty fine when working properly though

On Friday I spent the whole day recording a mate of mine on drums in my studio. He's only 19 and he's the best drummer I know. Limitless creativity, all the chops, but totally musical. Anyway, after 8 hours of watching him I was totally inspired to go and get behind my kit at The Old Town House in Warrington. We'd never played in Warrington before so didn't really know what to expect, but this venue is ace! Really lively crowd too. It wasn't packed but there were enough in for a good time. My mate had given me some of his sticks to try, really big things like 2B or something (doesn't mean a lot to most of you I know) and they were brilliant. I hadn't played that well in ages. I don't know if it was watching this amazing drummer all day long, or the sticks, or the venue or what but we were super tight Saturday was a small indoor festival and to be honest I wasn't really looking forward to it. I always like to play, but I know this venue and crowd a little too well. It was way better than I expected. The sound man looked like the same guy, but he acted totally different. He was chatty, friendly, and did a brilliant job! Not sure what was going on there but the sound was ace! The crowd with extremely inebriated, sang and danced, and we generally played well despite some very amusing distractions. I wasn't driving so had chance for a couple of beers, and I was home by 9pm! Brilliant weekend

In most smaller rooms, bass frequencies are not distributed evenly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_modes Causes some pretty extreme effects in some rooms.

Don't worry @Andyjr1515, we'll keep things simple on the fretless 6 Eude

At that budget and needing around 300W, there's only really one bass combo that's going to fit the bill and that's the Promethean 3110. Wonderfully compact, light and value for money. But the quality of the 10" speaker on that I found to be a bit limiting and I always preferred it with an extension cab which kinda defeats what you're trying to do. I'd actually recommend what our dep guitarist has gone for and that's a powered PA speaker i.e. frfr. I think @jrixn1 was selling a couple of his RCFs (which are a top brand) for a good price and you might be able to get one of them within your budget. It'll likely blow anything else in the same price range out of the water. Or just get this. New for £234 and just 12kg (this is actually what our guitarist bought): https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Alto-TS310-2000-Watt-Active-Speaker/2FOC or its 12" big brother which is only £262 new. And if you want to add some colour, you could pair with a preamp and a couple of pedals of your choice. Job (very well) done.

I love this album so much and the bass sound and where it sits in the mix is wonderful to my ears. Any track is great

The newer Class D power modules (the D800, Magellan, etc) are very good, and a different animal from the older ones.

This is all very posh. I play pubs not functions or weddings. The only time I've been fed was at a rough pub in Linwood (struggling, de-industrialised place outside Glasgow) where it was a teenager's funeral. Halfway through the night they put a board over the pool table and covered it in boxes from the chip shop - sausages, random kebab meat, spare ribs, pizza and about half a ton of chips. They told us to tuck in and we did. Second set was snoozy and greasy, but we were happy. Later that night two middle aged women started knocking lumps out of each other. We just played on, and loaded out later through a haze of blue lights - the police had the place surrounded as a precaution at chucking-out time.