Leaderboard

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.

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

"do you really need to put all your stuff where the other members of the band need to set up before a gig? We say yes".

On your marks!

I've been using an RCF HD 10A (the "traditional rig" equivalent would be perhaps a 450W 1x10" combo with a tweeter) for the last few months mainly as a monitor - but I doubled up and used two of them as backline last night while depping with a louder band than my usual one, with minimal PA support. During sound-check, I compared the difference between using one and two. I think I could have just about got away with using one at high volume - but two of them definitely gave a richer tone. The volume on each was set around 35-40% - so I could have gone louder had I needed to. In fact the keyboard player asked me to turn down. I was using a five-string - the tastefully-occasional low notes were deep and full, but with clarity, producing large grins each time on the drummer and guitarist - they were loving it - so there was no problem there. I know it's only one note lower, but there really is a big difference between a normal low E and a low D! Incidentally, my HPF is 24db/octave at 40Hz - paging @Al Krow Loading is a delight as each is only 12kg and 12" wide, so fit easily through doorways, narrow staircases, and squeezing past the waiting staff while you're hauling gear to the ballroom via the hotel kitchen The speakers have live-in soft covers (with flaps in all the right places) which also adds a small amount of convenience. I'm aware there's probably a psychological effect to being happy with gear one has recently spent money on - but really, I am very happy with these.

Have waited a few days before writing this up until I was able to use if at home and out in a gigging situation. So what is the Helix HX? It is basically all the effects you get when buying a full fat or LT Helix, plus some more added from the big 4 button and M series pedals, minus the amp and cab modeling in it’s bigger brother. In addition the HX can be used to control your pedalboard switching and routing needs. It has 2 FX loops to incorporate and switch existing pedals. There are 2 basic settings, stomp box mode and scene mode. In stomp box mode you switch individual pedals/loops on and off with the foot switches, in scene mode 1 button would switch on/off a specified group of pedals and loops. Very flexible and both settings give you real control of your pedalboard. At 43 I have one foot in the analogue era, but have been exploring DSP based effects for years. I am happy, although a little melancholy at the same time, to confirm the hype is real. Line6 have cracked component level emulation and the end result is that the HX delivers 117 or such emulated pedals that can fully compete directly with their stompbox (often analogue) brethren. There is a lot on BC and other forums on Helix, so it makes sense to not spend too much time on the technical aspects and focus on what it does for me as a frequently gigging, sometimes depping and periodically recording part-time musician. How have I set it up? Bass goes to my preferred compressor the Keeley Compressor Pro (the onboard compressors actually are very good, but I own the Keeley so might keep using it), into the HX. Loop 1 has my Future Impact and a COG Octaver (the FX loop has a blend function which is so handy), loop 2 has my long time favourite low gain Bearfoot Blueberry BOD and a DG Duality. These loops can be allocated to any position in the FX chain, so e.g. the Dirt loop can be the latest in the chain or earliest as required. My main issue with DSP effects WAS that dirt, octave and filters were generally okay but not a viable alternative to my stompboxes. I am amazed to report that I would be perfectly happy for Helix to cover my dirt. It is that good. So much so that I no longer have a B3K in loop 2 and use the emulated B7K instead. I simply cannot tell the difference in a real world situation. The Duality and BBOD are still on as I prefer them over equivalent emulated pedals, but if Line6 would emulate the Duality and BBOD I am comfortable they could be replaced. There is a really good Octaver in the HX, but I doubt the COG (or FI for that matter) will ever be replaced. But I have 2 switchable loops so who cares right? The envelope filters are very good. I use filters only in combination with octave and fuzz. Built in are more than acceptable for my application. Other may feel they still need a separate filter pedal, difficult for me to judge. All in all the HX is a compact (slightly larger than an M9) multi that doubles as a control centre for your board. Sounds great, is intuitive, is flexible and appears to be built as a tank. Some Zoom B3(n) users might think, why pay so much more for getting rid of the amp and cab emulations etc? Understandable question: I own a B3n, great fx unit in it’s own right, but totally and utterly put to shame by the HX on application, flexibility, sound quality (especially dirt and filter) and construction. DSP is here to stay and I am fully bought in.

Our second Sunday afternoon at the Old Abbey Taphouse in south/central Mcr. We're on a stage at one end of a big beer garden - landlady loves us acoustic, but we brought very small amps for singer and my acoustic bass, but were told atm their license doesn't allow any sort of amplification outside, so no chance anyone more than 6 feet away from the stage could hear us. Which didn't matter, because there was literally nobody there apart from the staff and a few friends and a sausage dog. It's a funky community center as well as a very good pub, and for a while a couple of attractive scantily clad young people (one male one female) were practicing circus skills with hoops and scarves in front of the stage - an interesting contrast to the usual "punters getting up to dance"! We just enjoyed playing together without pressure, and it was perfect for our excellent lead singer who's trying hard to build up confidence. And we were given good food and beer and told we can come back any Sunday we want to. Happy landlady, happy band, happy bass player :-)

...it’s all about the TONE.

There’s a few videos on YouTube about it but it’s really simple: 1. You print off your logo on normal paper using a laser printer (won’t work on inkjet) 2 Cover your printed logo with sellotape then using the handle of the scissors rub the sellotape for about 1 min making sure all the sellotape is firmly stuck down and there are no air bubbles 3. Cut out the logo leaving a few mm’s round the edge 4. Put the logo in cold water for about 5 mins if it curls straighten it out again 5.Carefully rub the paper off the back of the sellotape and you will leave just the logo on the sellotape (if it feels slightly gritty then put it back in the water and carefully rub it again till you don’t feel any grit) 6. Wet the sellotape again 7. Place on your headstock or wherever you want the logo to go and blot with some kitchen towel remove any air bubbles and excess water then leave to dry 8. Once dry you can then apply your finish and flatten the same way you would a water slide decal See it’s simple and a very cheap way to do it In the style of blue peter here’s one I did earlier......

Wow, that's awesome... Now where are my f'ing pickups?!

We played a Skinhead pub in Brockworth in '94 looking like below. The lowest point was when a bar stool was thrown at the band onstage.... so we did an encore! They offered what could only be described as a "carry to the car" service once we finished. Apparently the pub closed down in the late 90s.

Sounds like a message to Skelf could be on the cards next month (I'm moving house first). @CameronJ, I'm up in Perth (not Oz, thankfully), but soon to move down to Falkirk, so ACG would be a little over an hour's drive away (about 70 miles). Though I'm not against the idea of a wee drive down to Warwick & London. If I wait until July/August, I'll hopefully have a lekky car, so no congestion charge. Guitar Guitar stock Sandberg, so a trip to Glasgow/Edinburgh is imminent too.

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

My hard rock covers band was booked to play at a pub not too far away. It turned out when we arrived that it was essentially a harvester style restaurant/ pub. We played our usual sets and towards the end of the second set, I had a punter come to the front and ask very politely - "excuse me, I don't want to be rude, but how many songs do you have left?" Alwaysbmake us chuckle

I'm doing this remembering repairing kit back in the very early 70's, well 1970 actually. My memory may be a bit iffy at that distance. Compression is something valve amps do naturally partly down to the valves themselves but also due to the saturation of the output transformer. Basically they just peter out as the output rises giving a nice soft sounding distortion as they over loaded. Guitarists used this to create all the sounds of early rock music. Combined with the feedback you get at ridiculously high levels it also gave them a lot of sustain to play with. Everyone forgets that most of these amps were pretty unreliable and a band running four valve amps on stage plus often valve PA amps was experiencing a lot of technical failures. Plus back problems from carrying the amps. Having 20 KT88's on stage was a nightmare to be honest. Transistor amps were coming in by then WEM (not much more reliable) and later HH for PA followed by early guitar and bass versions. They were certainly cheaper and quickly became more reliable but transistor amps really distort unpleasantly when overloaded so we looked for a way of getting that gentle overload that the old amps gave. Compression was what was needed so compression on instrument amps started as an effect to give 'valve sound' The first compressors I encountered used ordinary car bulbs to compress the sound. At high power they get hot and their resistance goes up, put the signal through a bulb pick it up with a photocell and bingo, compression. The next stage was a voltage controlled amplifier. Take the output and use it to control the volume or gain of the amp and you get compression. These were often adapted from tape recorder automatic volume circuits and used FET's as the controlling element. By about 1974 integrated circuits took over thousands of components in a single package. You could get undistorted compression at will but you wouldn't do that complexity with valves. So you wouldn't simulate valve sound with valves for obvious reasons. They still make optical compressors as an effect but with VCA's you can get completely controllable compression which is largely done digitally nowadays anyway. Valve based computer anyone? If anyone is interested https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-what-optical-compression

Always liked the vibe of this one, about 30 years ago at the Crypt in Hastings.

In a multi laminate neck, the added stiffness of fibre rods is possibly overkill. I remember Wal (chunky laminated necks) decided against it back in the mid 80’s. i’ve got one traditional J neck with carbon rods, and it hardly gives under string tension - with the truss rod undone it remains virtually straight, despite being a very thin profile. Sounds great but it’s not very forgiving, and won’t take a low action without some fret work.

Spot on, and the really tiny one was a Little Giant. (we were only 16, after all) And they weren’t called gigs in those days, they were 'bookings'.

Some time you can, but if you don't have the audience and you don't have decent feedback from the crowd its hard to not let it in

Had two gigs yesterday - Left home at about 08:45 with my battery powered gear to get to Wythenshawe to set up bass gear and PA for a 10:00 start. Busked until 16:00 with two half hour breaks. Packed up and got home at 17:10. Loaded in the battery rig and loaded out the mains rig. Left home at about 18:00 heading for a village fair in a field in Weaverham. Set up by 19:30 - pie and chips while the other act was on, then were were on for just over an hour. Packed up while the crowd watched the fireworks - got home about 22:15. Today we started about 10:30, busking in the entrance of a local Tesco Extra. We had two bass players, so we shared the load. Musically, it was mixed - we don't have set lists, so you know most of the songs being covered, until the lead busker decides to try out a new one. For paid gigs like the evening one, we have a smaller pot of songs that we know well, but we still follow whatever the lead busker decides to do next. All the donations and payments go directly to Cancer Research UK. David http://www.loosechangebuskers.org.uk/

If you were looking at the Warwick Alien, check out the Godin A5 Ultra. I have the A4 and love it, Bass Direct have a used A5 for sale too: http://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Godin_A5.html Well worth getting the Ultra version for the extra magnetic pickup, it sounds middy and growly like a fretless 'Ray. Older ones are piezo only. Demo of the A4:

On fretted instruments.. Yes. Nickel is softer than steel. I'm not sure if yous see any difference in wear rate between steel and nickel roundwounds on a fretless fingerboard tho. Both are WAY harder than wood

Did one last year. The drummer arrived first and the venue manager told him he was too loud before his tom case was out of the boot. There was a 70dB limit for us at the bar. The bar was quite a way from the stage, we did a dB check with no music, just the punters laughing amongst themselves was peaking 85 or so. The bride also wanted to perform first- she and her sisters had been in a girl group and the groom had never seen them. They did about 10 insipid All Saints numbers and we went on. The bar promptly served the food and we just watched the audience exodus from the dance floor. Then the manager comes over and said we were too loud. First dance was wind beneath my wings, which would make a worthy much shorter post on this thread in itself. Only the bride and groom on the dance floor. Things did get rolling a bit but we had a laugh telling the audience off for clapping too loud.

Did an afternoon slot at The Grapes in Hereford yesterday for the Royal Bedding Musicians Against Homelessness benefit all-dayer. The audience was mainly the other bands- apparently it filled up in the evening - but they all cheered in a supportive fashion, and not a single one threw a pint glass full of piddle at us. Which was nice! We were, as usual, too fast,but surprisingly tight given the breakneck pace of some of our funkier numbers - this probably went down better wot with many punk and metal bands being on...

Almost all the bands I know that use an ipad grab on their stands are far too busy playing loads of gigs a year to a very high standard earning enough to pay their mortgages etc to care what anyone here thinks. Thankfully I can't sing for toffee with our without a stand so it's not a choice I'll ever need to make.

+1 for ACG

@Al Krow the Dunlop Flats I put on my VM5 are glorious! Just spent a few solid hours jamming and I’m loving em. Definitely worth getting a set.

NOTE TO MODS: I'm pretty sure this is not a genuine sale, so am posting as a warning... I was browsing Amazon and I came across some RIckenbackers at £455.00, so I had a look. Hmmm, thinks Paul - that seems too good to be true. So, I sent an email enquiring whether it was still available and received a reply: "Hello, I will explain in this email all terms and condition of product and transaction. The Rickenbacker Standard 4003S JG · Electric Bass Guitar is BRAND NEW, never used, ( UK model, not grey market or refurbished), but Amazon does not let us list it as new. The product is Sealed in its original box and comes with full Warranty, receipt, all manufacturer supplied accessories... The total price is £455.00 including all shipping taxes if you are in UK and for international shipping you have to pay extra 9,99£ (outside UK) . If you want to buy, send me your phone number, full name, shipping address and I will contact Amazon asap to process your order. Dispatch is by normal DHL Services, which takes 1-3 days depending on where in the UK you are. My return policy is full money back in 30 days. For more information don't hesitate to contact us! Thank You" I replied asking if I could collect and received the following reply: "Hello, Price is low because: 1) Is last model in my store. 2) Was exposed in my store in the show case. Condition is a 10/10. Box Opened Only. All Manufacturer Supplied Accessories Included. Excellent Condition. Full manufacturer's warranty; Buy With Confidence This deal will go through Amazon Platform and A to Z Guarantee Program. To set up our transaction I need the follow info: Full Name: Shipping Address: City / Postal Code: Country: Product: Quantity: Phone Number : 99% order ships out same day or next business day GUARANTEED! Customer Satisfaction GUARANTEED! I will immediately send the required data, Amazon will contact you to order, details about payment and shipping. in maximum 5 days you will receive product. Waiting your reply ASAP!" It's ony £455 - what could possibly go wrong? (Check out the vendor's other items, because they have loads, apparently!)

OK - this post may make the 'routing the block inlay chambers' explanation above a bit more understandable. First I glued some locating blocks to ensure that a ply worksurface could be securely located on the press-drill bed: Then drilled and inserted the locating pin: When in use, the router bit will be lined up to this pin: So now imagine that the fretboard blank has been double-side taped on top of the metal template here: So the drill spindle is lowered into the fretboard, and then the template/fretboard assembly is moved around the pin, cutting the block-shaped outline. With the outline routed, I will use the Dremel precision router base and a larger router bit to clear the inside of the rectangle. So just got to find a way of fixing the drill in the lowered position (it is spring loaded and no lock mechanism). I might just rig up a rubber band or similar to keep the drilling handle fully down. BUT first, I will have to cut the frets. Although this is a G&W template, intended to be used in the G&W mitre box, you can't do both operations with the template stuck to the fretboard in the same position! The locating pin in the mitre-box for slotting the frets is offset - and the rectangles on this template are not offset. So, the sequence to avoid scrapping a few fretboards is, I reckon: Stick the fretboard to the template Slot the fretboard Unstick the fretboard from the template Restick the fretboard to the template taking huge care that the fret index points on the template line up exactly with the fretslots and that the fretboard is absolutely square with the template. Bearing in mind that the template is underneath and the cut fretslots are on top, this is going to take significant care - especially as it is lining up and then fixing onto two-sided tape. Rout the rectangles On the other hand, if the blocks had been offset to the fret cutting index notches to match the offset on their mitre box, it would have been a doddle. I like G&W product range and quality, but they really haven't thought this through...

Don't mean to derail this, but the best bass I ever played that I didn't own ... I immediately bought it!

I think the Holy Grail for most musicians is to be able to play what you hear in your head. If you have a fertile imagination so much the better. Joe Satriani can probably do that and Blackmore probably can't. Also to put it into context, I've always thought of Ritchie Blackmore as an obnoxious knob.

It’s the whole experience, a lot of the music I love isn’t technically brilliant but it has ‘something’, whereas I can see superb musicians doing amazing things and it leaves me cold.

I had a rattle on one of Hartke's big Pro4200 cabs - 4x10 with a horn-like tweeter in the middle. I discovered, in the studio unfortunately, that when a loud note was played there was an audible rattle; we stripped the cab, tightened everything up but the rattle persisted. I ended up having to drive into London (from Kingston) to hire an Ampeg to record with. I later found out that the issue was a great big upholstery staple was on the tweeter magnet, so when I played a loud note it shook off, but was then immediately pulled back onto the magnet. Unfortunately, it was just the angle the tweeter was hanging that we missed it when trying to get rid of the noise in the studio, as it was a better cab than the Ampeg.

I'm just gonna leave this here...

Thought I'd add to this what i can from my experience 1st class D i got was Markbass LMK ordered at a show about 12 years ago, had to wait for the new kid on the block. It was great never let me down or left me wanting in over ten years with various cabs 2nd was an GK MB500 fusion as back up to the LMK . great amp used mainly for rehearsal and jazz. Great warm amp. EQ presets didn't really suit my cabs ? or basses? to be 1st call. change of cabs to two Acme 4 ohm, left me looking for a stereo amp with 2 ohm capability. bought an SWR SM-500 on here to cover the gigs where two cabs were req. Then got a Mesa Subway D800 to take the strain. Bomb proof design and great depth of tone, Just got the Mesa D800+ for the added footswitch mute and tuner out, also greater EQ flex, Gas again + grass greener etc. So verdict is I would be happy gigging any of these. Gas is the only reason apart from Ohms loading that pushed me to change. Some amps EQ centers suit certain basses and cabs better. and may be able to respond better to room E.Q ing. some shops let you try at home / gig well worth doing if you can. It is the only way to be sure. N.B. An old mosfet amp with a 4x10 cab will always feel good but your back will prefer the class D

Just try A/B ing each gig, till you decide if there is an overall preference. A pain perhaps, though you may be surprised at the results. I generally prefer the sound of my cab directly on the floor, but as mentioned above this can occasionally lead to boominess on hollow wooden staging. When this happens I just put the cab back in the base section of it's flight case (on castors) - simple.

For years I swore by having the cab standing only on its rubber feet. I used to have it taken out of its flightcase to facilitate that. When that case wore out I had a live in case made and had no foam under the feet to carry that on. Eventually, I had no need of flightcases and decided to put some castors on the cab. The result/? No difference that I ever detected. I would suggest that tipping the cab on its side might make an artificial difference because of the change in the dispersion.

Thank you, that's one I made

Welcome! and don't sell yourself short! Nice basses :-)

I like those sort of backstage ones that you didn't know were being taken, almost like seeing the workings of the band if that makes sense. Here's one of our mod band.

Also where are you based? Would likely be much easier and in fact better for us to sort directly for you rather than shipping unnecessarily to the retailer and back etc if they are a distance away as you say...

Hi Torby, That's not good. Can you let us know a few more details and we will have a look at what we can do to get you sorted. Amp Model - Serial Number - Date Purchased - Retailer purchased from -

Sent. The local post office asked me what was in the package 'for security reasons' and had a bit of a panic when I told them it was a couple of strongish magnets, but in the end they slapped a 'danger! magnets!' sticker or somesuch on the parcel and off it went.