Leaderboard

Back at the White Hart in Melton. I do like the sound there. It was very quiet when we started setting up, but livened up ok. Perhaps a little too lively from the young teachers celebrating the birthday of one of them - only two full glasses dropped and smashed. They moved on after our first break. We normally play here on a Sunday to a nice relaxed atmosphere, but it made an enjoyable change to be a bit more "in your face". I got a nice balance on the Big Muff with enough fuzz to be able to tell it was on too. GT-6B before it, Rumble after it. The Stingish bass (Sterling Sub5 with Retrovibe Stinger preamp) is a definite keeper - a load more compliments on my sound and it's so comfortable to play too. What wasn't comfortable was accidentally stabbing the tip of my fretting index finger on the sharp pointer of a temperature gauge only 24 hours before the gig. It was a lot sharper than it had reason to be, went in at least a mm, and spilt a fair bit of blood. Paracetamol numbed it to start with, but adrenaline is the best painkiller.

As the Basschat community has always been fantastically supportive in checking out new music, we released our first brand new music in over a year. “Gloss” is out today via Ray Records and streaming on all the usual platforms. As always, we collaborated with Haunting the Atom to make this fun video. For anyone wanting a bit more background, it’s influenced by the post punk bands of our youth. I wanted a Stooges / Velvet Underground simplicity to the music (one note solo and bass line) but with an intelligent lyric. It isn’t typical of next year’s forthcoming third album and is probably the rockiest track we’ve written. Filmed in my house (which stunk of incense for several days afterwards), we had a blast doing this.

It will be a full spread review for Bass Gear Magazine (see signature). I have to say, they are both brilliant and certainly make a mockery of generic speakers-in-boxes. I’m a sucker for painted baffles I have to say, but Monaco is an impressive lil tike. There will be a written review and, I’ll be adding to the review section here. Please bare with me.

This week I was kindly allowed into Chateau @Quatschmacher and try the FI4 VIP ... my background, I'm not an amazing player- but not awful and have messed around with synth type stuff in various Zoom multiFX then HX, H9 then the classic octave-fuzz-envelope thing... I've owned a C4 (twice) and sold it each time... One use which is a bit different to the normal synth bass/keybass type sounds is a pad sound I've used to fill in songs while playing at church (small church by US standards so sometimes only 2-3 musicians) I really really enjoyed the FI4 and need to work out if it will fit on my board... My thoughts... - Really premium enclosure - it's really nice metal box. - The tracking is amazing. I've got fairly good at playing clean and slightly before the beat from owning the C4 ... this you don't need too - it's so so fast and seemingly accurate - It can do rhythmic sounds - and works - you can add that little muted thump as a part of the rhythm and works - doesn't trigger the whole sound - a bit of a learning curve but you can choose how it reacts with your fingers - if your next note triggers the envelope again, or just glides to the next. (this has got a proper term in synth land) - The presets... like obviously you can build your own... but from what's available on the top it gives you edits from the preset! ... so rather than an absolute release time for example, it lets you fine tune from what's there! This makes so so much more sense - the sounds are really really good. Im pretty certain if you wanted the sounds of the fashionable MXR synth pedal it would do them... but suspect you have more control over how it articulates... - But most importantly to me - the C4 feels like you're playing a pedal- and the sounds are good enough to do that. The FI4 makes it sound like your bass sounds different. it's feel and how it reacts is so so natural feeling and musical. Honestly it was astounding - I had pretty much given up on synth bass and was going to go buy a wee synth and learn to play it... but now I'm rethinking. - I didn't scratch the surface of everything it could do! Short version: The very low latency makes it feel like a musical extension of your instrument. I like

SR300 is a very good bass if you're buying new.

All the basses I sent to you had crack under each fret... they all got through.

The words "art" and "artist/e" have acquired a lot of baggage, as is evidenced by many comments above. A lot of people seem keen to say something along the lines of "Artist? Me? Nah, mate. I'm just a regular geezer who plays in a band". Music is a form of art. Therefore, those who make it can be considered artists. It's up to them whether they choose to refer to themselves as such, but beware inverted snobbery.

Sure. If you create something from an idea in your head, whether that is original or a copy, and it provokes an emotional response, then you're creating art. The difference between craft and art is really just verb/adjective. You craft a piece of art. Whether or not you consider it or feel like it, it's down to the beholder to decide if its beautiful art or not. I think we undersell ourselves too much and have mostly forgotten that many people can't even contemplate how we manage to play an open E in time with the rest of the band. Something we see as easy and everyday, really isn't to your average person.

My suggestion is to take him somewhere where he try as many as possible. In my experience you don’t know what feels and plays ‘right’ until you try it. As a teenager I loved the look of Rickenbackers but when I finally got to try one I didn’t like playing it. A lot of money saved!

Anybody listening to music in the 80's will remember the loudness control on their cheap hi-fi. The magic button that made our music come to life, they are still around often with exotic names like Psycho Acoustic boost. The loudness control worked because it exploited a couple of simple bits of human biology. The same bits of biology that make any bass amp or speaker with a mid scoop fly out of the sales room. It's the sound we all love practicing at home but which sounds s**t when we take it to a gig. So to understand it on the graph a couple of simple bits of physics and then some biology which will hopefully help people with their eq. So Physics first: sound pressure levels are measured in decibels and are a measure of the sound's energy, how much the air is moving, kind of. It's what is measured by a sound meter and we use it as a measure of sound volume but it isn't reall a measure of how loud something is. Loudness is measured in Phons. The Phons are only the same as the decibels at one frequency 1,000Hz which is right in the middle of the mid range, sort of. Sounds at low frequencies or very high frequencies just aren't as loud for us as at 1,000Hz but at 3,000Hz they sound even louder. If you want hou can play with this online Here To understand the graph look at the 80Phon line; at 1000Hz it is 80db. Run left to 100Hz and it is 90db. To sound the same volume you need an extra 10db which is 10x the power from your amp/speaker run up to 7kHz and it is again 90db to get the same volume. The graph kind of shows how you would have to set the graphic to get the same perceived volume at 80 phons. As a bassist though the thing to notice is that the settings at low sound levels are different to those at the highest levels. At the quietest you'd need 70db of boost to hear any 20Hz sound at all. At 100phon you'd hear it easily and only need 30db boost for it to be as loud as it is at 100hz. This is where biology comes in, our ears and brain work together to give the most useful sounds. it's a really clever and subtle system of signal enhancement with genuine survival value. There are lots of quiet bass sounds our body makes, the rumbling of our gut and the grinding of our bones as we move. Imagine moving around the savannah's with the sound of our last meal drowning out the sound of something that want's us to be it's next meal The sounds we hear best are the dip in the curve 2-5kHz which is vital for understanding speech and screams and cries. Loud bass we need, it means something exciting and dangerous is about to happen, a large animal, falling rocks or something powerful and dangerous. The reason we like a mid scoop becomes apparent. by having the mids lower it sounds like the bass and treble are louder and you get the illusion of your bass coming from a much louder amp. When you turn the amp up to gig volumes you need a lot less boost to bass and treble to get the sound you crave. Loud bass is exciting, an adrenaline rush. So finally we get to bass guitar. Average gig levels are around 100db (as measured on-stage at Glastonbury a few years ago). 80phon is more like pretty loud music in a domestic setting and for sake of argument I'll say close to practice levels. From the graph you'd need around 15db boost to get 100phon at 50Hz and at 80phon you'd need 20db of boost for the same effect. That's 5db difference in the bass between gig and practice levels compared to the mids. So to take your carefully set up tone for the gig you need to turn your bass down 5db at 50hz or the mids up by the same amount to maintain your tone. Given that the mid scoop is often around 5-6db you've pretty much always got to lose it before you play at gig levels. This isn't the only thing you have to contend with at gigs, room acoustics and the other band members come into the equation too but you have to expect to re-eq when you turn up the volume for a gig to balance your bass and midrange. You'd have to do it for the highs as well except that there is very little hf coming out of your pickups. Cymbals through a powerful PA though......definitely the wrong sort of adrenaline!

Oh my…weird few months. As my old band Fiasco Jam was causing me issues - detailed elsewhere… I agreed to help a mates band out - they’re well known in Manchester and have a really decent following… They’ve been on hiatus for a while and their old bass player moved back home to Italy so they were stuck. I wanted an “out” from FJ so I wrote 4 songs for them and agreed to join. Fiasco Jam folded and the singer and Drummer asked me to carry on. ”this is great, I can do both” I thought… Things have changed - work gave me a promotion, which is good…but is chewing time. The build is ongoing and costing…and stressful. My dad’s been in hospital, mum not doing great… mother in law seems to be in rapid decline. I have just “quit” the new band - no big show, but I’ve prioritised myself; I’ve spent a day learning their setlist for a gig next month. reassuringly 3 of the tunes I wrote are on the list - but I must say the old stuff isn’t really my cup of tea. I’ve sent the message, the rehearsal will be awkward tomorrow but they’ve got 5 weeks if they’re not ok with me helping out to find someone else. That’s fine by me if they do. I’ve offered to transcribe and video any lines I’ve done to help and record the EP for them if they want me to. But I think I feel reassured that it’s the right shout.

Mark King at Fairfield Hall last night. Mark bass all the way. Little Mark Vintage 1000 head, Standard 104HR cabs, and a small unobtrusive pedal board 😜

Yeah, yeah I do: I’ve got a body of work; I write songs - some are bloody good. It’s my outlet and it keeps me busy - like all artists, I’d love it to be my full time job.

I hope that my main technical challenge/goal as a bassist is to make the band sound better, which can mean playing less, playing quieter, and playing simpler, the reward is the way the band and audience respond. As a BL once said to me, we don’t really notice what you’re playing but we do notice when you stop.

Okay, so a long time has passed, but I had an email from Blue Aran to say that the Lavoce speakers mentioned above by @Bill Fitzmaurice were finally in stock, so I've just ordered two. This cab, which was rated at 125w, is on the way to becoming an 800w monster! When the speakers arrive I'll make any modifications needed to fit them and then repaint the white on the inside of the enclosure. I'm hoping to have some fun with this cabinet and my TE Elf, as well as my Ampeg PF500.

Having recently acquired and SR300, I would agree with @TimR that it is a very good bass for the money (mine was a shade under £300. But being a 'new' bassist, I think the right way forward is, as @Len_derby has said, to try a selection of different basses. Being an ex-guitarist (I came to bass via the same route many years ago) it's about string spacing, neck profile etc - in other words the feel of the bass - as there are a number options that affect playability. One bass to consider is the Bass VI in all its forms. It's a six string, short scale bass that has very narrow string spacing (closer to a guitar than bass). Coming over from guitar, this might result in less of a learning curve. There are version from several manufacturers - I have a Harley Benton (Thomann own brand) one which is very nice and was cheap but there are Fender and Fender Squire versions as well as other brands that I'm sure others here will be able to talk about. I think there's a dedicated thread to the Bass VI in the 'Bass Guitars' Forum (click on the forum and do a search).

Perhaps it’s time to step away from the technical side and concentrate on performance. By this I mean try to stop analysing what you’re doing when playing in your band and feel the groove of the song more and what the other band members are doing. I had an example of this in my own playing, recently. I was playing along to a song I know well with one of my fretless basses and I played it well enough, but it lacked something, I was going through a series of mechanical motions that, whilst they did the job, didn’t seem right. I then played the same song on my EUB. My upright skills, by comparison to my EB skills, are really not great. I don’t have the dexterity or the stamina that I have on EB and have to pare back my performance. Anyway, I played the song the best I could with my upright abilities. What happened was that, although I was delivering a less technical performance, I was really enjoying it, I was actually physically dancing with the EUB and just enjoying the groove. Out of the 2 performances, I know which one I preferred and which one an audience (and band members) would appreciate more.

I'm definitely borderline artistic, or at least on the artistic spectrum

My third foray into the Cort Space Bass world was guaranteed to happen. These compact basses punch well above their diminutive weight and I never sold one because I didn't like it - more because pupils always seem to want to buy them from me! So to get this nearly new model for a bargain price was too good to turn down. Back to the 5-string this time, I've added my usual Elixir 40-125 set and it plays really slickly. Perfect for teaching duties, or as that spare bass that you keep in the car boot, it can always hold it's own with it's clean, hifi sound. What's not to like..?

There's always time for other bands later on mate, you're going through some far more important stuff at the moment and you need to give yourself the space and capacity to deal with that stuff from a full hand so to speak. Playing bass should always reduce stress, not add to it. Band or no band, you will of course need to ensure there's a bass within your reach at all times however. Good luck mate 👍

My mid 90s FL Ray put an end to my ignorant snobbery of PF - it's got more Mwah than a couple of posh birds air kissing.

Bit late to this, but to be honest the £180 Squire Sonic p bass I bought new recently was better quality than that. Very very poor. Name and shame if they don’t sort the issues out ASAP.

don't grass him up

Local boy Robbie McIntosh with his band at The Sound Lounge in Sutton last night Always a quality act, the gig being 10 minutes' walk from my house was bonus

Probably made a hash of that.

Maybe they weeded it out?

Some thoughts You can only adjust what is there in the first place in terms of power and tone. A passive or active bass makes no difference, provided the tone and punch is there, a good preamp peddle should do the trick. Abandon you attachment to the sound of yourself in isolation and focus on what it sounds like in the mix. e.g. I love the sound of a Stingray in the mix but don't like the tone when solo'd. GL

Great! I enjoyed that. I get a hefty flavour of Sister/Eldritch.

I think the OP got there, because the owner pretends they are the biggest Custom Shop in Europe. Strangely, their non Custom Shop models are pristine, I had a few, and there's nothing to complain about... Go figure.

If you have the time during soundcheck, the best way of finding out what works for your particular band, taking account of the sound of the rest of the instruments, is to dial in a moderate mid boost, say 6dB, and sweep it upwards from say, 150Hz all the way to ~1500Hz. You'll hear pretty clearly what works & what doesn't that way.

The dictionary definition is: ‘noun One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts. A person whose work shows exceptional creative ability or skill. "You are an artist in the kitchen." One, such as an actor or singer, who works in the performing arts. One who is adept at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit. "a con artist." One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. Similar: artisan. One who professes and practices an art in which science and taste preside over the manual execution. One who shows trained skill or rare taste in any manual art or occupation. An artful person; a schemer. Similar: schemer. A person who creates art.’ I don't see anything pretentious in calling yourself an artist. If you do create art then you're an artist. Does playing ‘Sex on Fire’ down the Dog and Duck on a Saturday evening make you an artist? Probably not, but if you're writing lyrics and composing your original music, then yes.

I put together this small valve rig earlier this year. It sounds great and is plenty loud, even though it's only 30w.

They offered me the gig!

Donnie McCaslin at Ronnie's. Treated myself to a fancy seat

The Divine Comedy on Monday night, followed by New Model Army on Tuesday night.... Both absolutely superb gigs.