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OK folks, thanks everyone for entering - I've picked the winners and I'm just speaking to Jason at Rotosound now about the final details, so you can expect to hear from me soon if you're a winner!! Cheers ped

My son Jack is a hip hop producer, he’s spent years developing his style, making contacts and putting his tracks out there. He’s had loads of knockbacks along the way but he’s never been deterred, he’s never given up and he’s kept on plugging away. A while ago one of his beats got picked up by a rapper in the US who used it in a track that did quite well on the underground scene. This lead to his stuff being passed on to Logic, an artist on Def Jam, and an invitation to provide beats and additional production on a track called Still Ballin’ If you’re into hip hop you’ll know the track, it was number one on the Billboard charts, number one on the ITunes chart in the US (and I think in the UK). It’s now being used on NBC’s NBA coverage in the States. Suffice to say he’s thrilled, as am I. The other day Def Jam sent him his plaque. Just goes to prove that you can do anything, with talent, drive and persistence. Even a kid from Walsall making beats in his bedroom. Where this leads now I don’t know yet, but he’s getting offers so hopefully the momentum will continue for him. I’m absolutely made up for him and so proud

Trace Elliot is magic. That's the scientific answer. It can be proven with a magic detector, or Magector™. Here my Magector™ measuring bar is bent to 82° by the sheer force of an AH500X GP11 running at only half volume. And I was never closer than 30 feet from the amp at all times. The bass wasn't even turned up that much. The magic field was so strong during this test that you can clearly see where my white sleeved shirt turned entirely into a two tone blue denim overall. It had to be buried in a lead lined box until the magic levels (magevels) reach a safe and above all wearable state. To put this into context here is a Magector™ measuring bar following 2 hours exposure to a Penn & Teller live show. The Magector™ was never more than 8 feet from the stage and yet only a 15° bend was detected. Now I respect Phil and his decibels, of course I do, but I think the pictures speak for themselves here.

Fellaaaaaaz & Fellazettes! New Bass Day!!! I am delighted to let U all know that I finally got myself a Squier Classic Vibe Precision '50s Bass in Lake Placid Blue! Expensive but worth it! £440!!

Thought I'd wander across the Pond and see what the Brit Builders are up to. Haven't posted here in a long time. Here's a couple of Ric inspired builds, the Black one finished a couple years ago, the Walnut one just recently. The black one took 4 years on again/off again, the walnut one two years. The full build diaries posted on Talkbass USA here: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-hossenfeffer-bass-build.1102535/#post-16376432 https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-hossenfeffer-ii-build.1286896/#post-20081778

Still #1

I'm a recent convert to these great little monsters. I've acquired two in the last six months 😊 2016 (MIJ) 'Fender Special Run' & a '78 natural. Both love flats, got Chromes on the FSR & Labellas on the '78

Here it is in action

And if like me you realise you just typed some unnecessary, sarcastic and judgemental stuff on a bass forum then time for me to do the self examination.

The biggest issue is actually low ceilings in pubs. Because of the height of the bed I have to stand on a chair to use the pedals. Old coaching inns with low beans are particularly problematic.

Completely agree. Audacity. I use it every day. Brilliant tool. Copy and paste track, increase pitch by 100%, boost mids with eq tool and roll off the top. Suddenly all you hear is the bass! Loop and slow down awkward parts, save just those parts to mp3 if you want to practise away from pc, record yourself playing along simultaneously... it's indispensable.

Clearly the notion of 'Trace Elliot watts' being louder is tongue in cheek and nothing to get grumpy about. Yes, a watt is a watt is a watt. But for absolute certainty they are loud. I know sod all about acoustics and even less about physics but my rears tell me that my Trace Elliot AH-300 is considerably louder than the class D heads I have owned that were 600W plus. Genz-benz Streamliner 600, Markbass Tube800, TC RH750 were all MUCH quieter through the same cab. The only small head I have (and still have) that is as loud (or louder) is the Quilter Bass Block 800. All I can assume from this is the number of watts something is rated at has nothing to do with how loud it goes and there must be other factors at play. But that has something to do with 'science' I guess

Just rewatched Rush in Rio live dvd for first time in ages because of this thread. Firstly....Geddys voice was so much better then ( not a criticism as we all age and his vocals are crazy, but listen to R40 and the poor fella is really struggling), secondly....THE SOUND.....yeah, thirdly... what a great set list, a bit of everything and little tastes of all the Rush flavours. Happy.😊

How many basses can you fit in the boot?

19th October, London Palladium. Cradle of filth. Just doesn't sound like they go together.

There's always one. And it's often me. And this is no exception! I owned a 250 watt SMX 1x15 combo and matching 1x15 cab, bought new in the early 90's and in time grew to hate it with a passion, it was an absolutely gutless pile of 5h1t that was about as versatile as Rik Mayall. It was my first serious rig and I'd saved long and hard for it. I'd bought it on the strength of the buzz about them at the time, still very much pre-internet times so I was influenced by the likes of Bassist magazine and the word on the street. I was still young and relatively inexperienced when I bought it but as I developed as a bass player and got to know what bass sounds work for me I came to realise that my Trace rig couldn't deliver the goods. I wanted a fairly flat sound with tight lows, punchy mids and enough high end to give the sound some definition. All the Trace seemed to deliver was a bright top end. The SMX pre-amp had a million and one tone shaping options but no matter what I did with it, it didn't really stray form a bright sound that was delivered with the slam of an asthmatic nematode. It was like dealing with an 8 year old; Trace, give me gutless sound with lots of treble. No problem. That's great, how about thickening things up with some audible bass frequencies? What about some more treble instead? Trace, give me some punchy mids. I know, a massive boost between 2-4KHz will work wonders. And so on. I eventually saved up enough money to replace it. I couldn't care less what the anti class D crowd say but it was replaced by a Mark Bass Little Mark 2. And there it was, all of a sudden there were all the lows and mids that were missing from the Trace. The Little Mark was rated at 500 watts and was easily twice as loud as my old SMX and didn't break a sweat delivering the lows and mids with a conviction that the Trace never could. So if TE watts are twice as loud as everyone else's, then Mark Bass watts are >4 times as loud! All in my experience of course!! Fast forward to last year and having more or less got over my old Trace rig I thought try again. Based on the high praise heaped on them on here and elsewhere online, I bought a TE Transit pre-amp pedal as my band was ditching backline for IEM's. This was a significant improvement over the SMX but still not without its issues, for example the so called legendary Trace pre-shape added so many subby lows that it was unusable. I reckon it'd even be too over powering for dub reggae. Still, the EQ was very good, and the dual band compression was fantastic. But that soon followed its predecessor out of the door. So it came as something of a pleasant surprise when I dropped in to buy a used bass from a guy a few months ago and he plugged it into a GP7 (?) (1x15 with 7 band EQ) combo to show that it was working. My initial reaction was to think "oh no, don't" but with the EQ set flat and any idiot buttons switched off, there it was, my Trace Elliot epiphany. There was that big, punchy Trace sound that's so revered. There was the weight and heft that was lacking from my old SMX. Mine was obviously a Friday afternoon special and I still sometimes shudder at the thought of it. But some 25 years or so later, I think I finally get it.

Agree...👍 @Teebs Worth a look.

Yes - you put a Hempeefree into Guitar hero, and it prints out the music on paper, and then plays it prefectly for you, and then you have learnt the entire tune, and are the bestest bass player evz! Technology is wonderful! Seriously though, I've been playing around with Audacity since it was suggested, and it's brilliant! Coupled with AnthemScore, which converts the music to dots (left & right hand piano parts - bass being the left hand) - it's amazing!

Well all you ever bang on about is God and guns and “science is a myth”, so... 🤣 😃

I hope not. And I hope not. 🖕

Transcribe (7 String), while it's not free it is a lifetime subscription & there's so much you can do with it. https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html

It's OK on a big stage, don't you think the bed is a bit big for pub gigs?

I think Trace Watts are BOGOf watts, buy one get one free.

Well, in a former life I was a guitarist/singer (always been a bass player) and I still enjoy a bit of noodling on a guitar. I also used to switch between bass and and acoustic tuned B-B (I had a lovely J-45 for this) but as I’ve downsized etc, I’ve sold all my 6 strings. Went to PMT today to get a new multi-stand. and tried this wonderful beast. just sounded lovely - I played a Taylor iteration about 6 years ago and thought “jeez I wish there was a nice £500 version of this”. And here it is. Debating 9m interest free, or shoving it on the recently cleared CC. definitely got itchy palms as I drove home.

Said pdf could go ‘missing’ if you bring me back something nice 👍🏻

Erm....No. But I think you need more than 10 minutes through a headphone amp to (pretend) to understand that 😅

Honestly they don't mind. I went in last year to do exactly that. Apart from London there is nowhere else in the UK that has the stock they have. I started out trying something I was genuinely interested in and then just started asking to play Ken Smiths and Foderas just to try and understand where that extra £4000 comes from in a bass.

Correct. We don't ask how or why. We just know and respect. The end.

Don't laugh at me, @Ricky 4000 & @Teebs. I'm trying my best, you heartless monsters! 😀

Here's a tip: Equaliser APO. If you run Windoze, you prolly noticed that the Win Sound Controls don't have an EQ. So if you might want to quickly low-pass or high-pass or otherwise EQ anything you're playing via the computer without bothering to download it and open it up in Audacity or Reaper or something -- EQ APO is the man. 👍 https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/

Utterly brilliant. You lot can find me right now. In.My.Bog.

Hipshot Vintage will go straight on (18mm spacing) & suits the contours quite nicely!

Being sensible too, none of this matters. If you like Trace Elliot and one of the reasons is their gear seems louder you won't be disappointed. If you're irritated by other people liking something when their reasoning appears flawed then you have the opportunity for some self examination and character improvement. Everybody wins

I often use guitarpro but open the files with a program called Tux which is free, sounds are a bit dodgy but it’s a great way to learn bass lines super quick if you can read TAB

I’ve just fitted a set of Gemini’s to my R** copy 😉

I use Audacity for exactly the process you are describing. Slowing down, looping sections, it can do all that stuff.

Don't feel you need to stretch, you can move your hands, it's just a case of reducing the movement to a minimum

That exaggerated grain effect shown in the OP is done by staining the wood and then sanding back lightly to remove the stain in the soft grain areas and retain it in the harder ones. Then the wood is stained again so that the doubled stained areas end up darker.

Have you ribbed him about it being all well and good having a #1 and worldwide acclaim,. but it's not *real* music, not like in your day....

Crimson Guitars Stunning Stains. It's gets pretty damn black after a few coats. I use a sponge if I want to get a deep saturated look, tissue if I'm going more subtle. Even when I diluted to try and get a grey colour, it still retained its not-brown-ness, as it were. If you're specifically asking about technique as opposed to products, I'm no expert, but in my experience, it's just a case of adding plenty of coats.

Seems like the singer is suffering from a lack of confidence. I play with a singer who fiddles around with the unimportant stuff when he's stressed. I ask him why he wants to put this pressure on the band before a gig. That usually settles him down and we are OK. Is the rest of the band with you or with the singer? You're the bass payer, the logical and sensible one, so it's up to you to lay it on the table. Your band needs x songs for an x hour set. List what you have that is ready, then ask the band how they propose to get the rest up to scratch in the time available. If they need 18 songs for 2 hours, at 2 hours a song. . . lay out the maths and ask them how it's going to work! Tell them that running through the whole set at least once, maybe twice, before the gig is a prerequisite to doing the gig. Don't threaten to quit but stress the effect that a shambolic gig would have on your reputation and chances of getting other gigs.

OK, so you need possibly 25 songs to fill the time, you have 9 hours rehearsal to get them squared up, and the singer wants to burn 2 hours on one song? If the singer doesn't get how stooopid this is, then he's an idiot. Which might have longer term implications than for this one gig. You've got two rehearsals left, I'd get the whole band behind a setlist (via emails), get them learnt and get it run through as soon as you walk into the rehearsal room. If it sounds good, the you can go back and take a little time to work on individual songs. Do the other two in the band share your frustration?

Standard 'tuner, dirt, preamp' Nano. Hey, it may not be original but it works.