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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

Thought I'd start a thread on my next builds, a pair of Les Paul like basses or my take on them. They will be made entirely from quarter sawn African Mahogany (FSC sourced) painted black nitro and both using Rocklite finger boards, one in Ebano and the other in Sunadri or ebony and Indian Rosewood substitutes. Other items to be used will be Mojo Thunderbird pickups for at least one of them, dual action truss rods, Warwick 2 piece bridge and Hipshot ultralite tuners. There will be mother of pearl inlays on the fingerboard and headstock along with Rocklite Ebano veneers. I'm not in any great hurry to finish these so i may take a while but so far other than buy some bits I have started wood preparation. The neck laminates have been ripped and stacked and will be left for a while to relieve stresses, the body timbers have been rough planed to an oversize dimension again to allow it to settle a little before planing to size and gluing together. So they are currently sat resting on top of my bench until I'm ready to plane the neck laminates and glue them. As that seems a very poor start let me introduce you to my tiny workshop and a basic list of what's in it Most importantly my bench, 10" Saw bench, 14" band saw, 10" planer thicknesser, router table, drill press, 12" disc sander, oscillating bobbin sander. Beyond that there are power tools, loads of hand tools hidden away and a dedicated sharpening station tucked away in the corner behind the bench. Being so small it's very difficult to keep clean and tidy so I apologise for the dust and the mess

Hi all, I'm not a bassist myself, but my wonderful partner plays both electric and double bass so I guess I could be a bass widow? I'm taking a big risk posting here as I know he reads these forums regularly but hopefully he won't catch on. He is amazing, musically and as a partner. Before I met him I was shy and nervous but because of his love and support I have written and recorded an album, won a songwriting competition and performed at several festivals. The last year has been incredibly hard for me but he has been my rock, so loving and so supportive. I couldn't have made it through without him. His birthday is coming up and I want to get him something really special to show how thankful I am both to and for him. But I don't know where to start! My initial thought was whether there were any respected bassists that I could arrange a lesson with, or something like that. But I'm looking for any ideas or advice on something to get him that he would love but also not guess I would be capable of choosing. I have a decent amount of money to play with so let me have it! I should mention he plays the double bass more than the electric and tends to play country/bluegrass above anything else. I'm looking forward to your suggestions and thanks for letting me join! (And let's just hope he doesn't see this as it's pretty obvious it's him isn't it!) Thanks all! SD Xxxx

Like this you mean?

Fender Rumble 500 all day. Great sound, light, 350 watts on it`s own and you can stick a cab under it to get the full 500 watts. The 200 Rumble would be good enough for monitoring but the price difference between it and the 500 isn`t that great and I always like to have enough power for any eventuality.

That bass bar looks good: I’m going to enquire about it. Thanks for the tip guys. r

Welcome Christine...looking forward to seeing your builds

Not sure why, but in my advancing years for quite a while now I’ve been a bit self conscious about going into music/guitar shops. But I’ve bought a Stagg stick, keyboard amp and sundry bits and pieces from PMT Oxford. Ive always been met with full attention and courtesy directed towards an old guy.. Hope they succeed in London and you boys and girls buy lots of stuff from them.

<super_nerdy_graphic_design_content> I have a buddy who does all my artwork for me. I pick the colours from Fiestaware https://goo.gl/TZ8Y2s which was dinnerware made in the 1940s/1950s. They all kind of follow a similar design, but with a different two colours on each pedal. I try give each pedal a quirky retro aesthetic. Up till now we've put the pedal naming duties out to the public (and if we pick a name from somebody they get a free pedal). The artwork is vinyl hardwearing outdoor stickers. They're super resilient. The pedals come blank from the factory and I have to spend 4 hours sticking all the stickers on. Here's what the stickers look like: </super_nerdy_graphic_design_content> The next pedal will be an envelope filter (with a HP/LP blend). Name suggestions welcome!

It never fails to amaze me how many pubs book bands and then do zero promotion.

Still do it, now you know what time you`re on promote it to the best you can, including that there has been an admin error on the name of the band on the official blurb. Turn up, play, stay for the rest of the bands, sell your merch and keep cementing a reputation of a band that honours its commitments. Might sound a bit po-faced, but when you`re starting out a reputation as a band that`s good to work with will keep you in work. Unfortunately we all encounter promoters like this, but at the end of the day you can play a blinder and gain an advantage through it.

True. All complete BS. And then there's the amps...

Awesome! Really practical for that situation where... Umm... You know.. Hang on... It'll come to me... ... Oh wait, no I've just remembered it's fecking useless

I think it was more that it was the first quality 2x15 I had. It was a bit underpowered and so I changed the speakers in it. Originally, I had a 1x18 cab and 2 4x12s (a smaller version of John Deacons rig) but it didn't sound right and was a mountain of stuff to cart around. After the Ampeg 2x15 I bought a Boogie diesel 2x15 (well, two in fact) and have been a rampant Boogie user ever since then (about 1988).

Too many variables. I gave up. When it happens that's great. If not, I'm not going to sweat it. Blue

Prototype full LT cover on test at band rehearsal. Will have the Floor model done shortly.

Way back in early '86 I spent a wonderful day at the much-missed Wapping Bass Centre, trying a whole load of fabulous exotica. Out of curiosity, I had a quick go on a Steinberger L2... It turned out to be a very quick go. What a ghastly instrument. No redeeming features aesthetically, ergonomically or sonically. Just utterly dreadful.

If the folks who’ve posted tracks here would like to migrate them there that’d be lovely.

I've forced myself to take another look and you're right - he was hiding behind Kimball's not inconsiderable bulk! No idea why they gave the solo to the bass player then...

+1!

Would that be a Police record? Ouch... Coat got...

It's important to try and listen to your sound in the context of the rest of the band, which is hard to do effectively at high volume rehearsals. I like to play along to studio recordings with different combinations of basses and preamp pedals into headphones to figure out what works best. The last couple of bands I've been in have had a very thick distorted guitar tone (e.g. Les Paul into a cranked Orange tube head). Here I've found it best to use a scooped tone to provide a pillow of low end to underpin the sound, but with a bit of crispy gain up top to add clarity and fill out that upper midrange where the guitarist and vocalist don't often tread. I used a BB1025X with both pickups on which is naturally scooped and growly anyway, into a Darkglass B3K, although the Tech21 DP-3X is my weapon of choice for this tone now. If I'm playing at the jam night down my local, totally different ball game. Often more then one guitar, but usually thinner sounding, and often a higher pitched female vocalist. To slot in here I stay out of the upper mids, go easy on the deep low end and fill out the lower mids with a P-Bass or my Sandberg Basic (a bit like a Stingray), both of which are wearing TI flats. Either straight into the amp or via a low gain drive pedal of a totally different flavour to the other setup. Full range OD with no clean blend is the order of the day here, something that produces a guttural roar from below rather than grind from up top when you dig in, e.g. SFT, BB Preamp, Beta, Agro.

When we started our band I really had no idea of the type of sound I wanted - or more importantly that the band needed. My preferred sound is a traditional warm Precision/Ampeg type sound, maybe a touch of high end and compression to stop it being boomy. But that wasn`t what was needed, the guitarist has a very full on, and at the time quite bassy sound, so didn`t want a sludge fest, especially as we play fast. Additionally as we`re a 3-piece I didn`t want the backside of the songs to drop when there was a solo, so added a bit of gain, a fair bit of top end, and some high-mids. I ended up with somewhere between Duff McKagan, Mike Dirnt, JJ Burnell & Bruce Foxton. Which imo isn`t a bad place to be, sound-wise. I also developed a slight different style to suit the music I`m now playing, again to fill out more in lead solos. To get this sound I`ve tried a fair few preamp/DI pedals, Tech 21 Sansamp BDDI, Tech 21 VTDI, Aguilar Tonehammer, and combinations of these, but eventually settled on the Tech 21 Para Driver - it has sweepable mids, so I can get the regular Sansamp type sound, just with boosted upper mids. It`s a great pedal and that piece of kit that I find invaluable, pairs so nicely with the weighty sound of my Ashdown ABM600.

I hadn't heard of Hot Rods so I googled it to see what they were... Found a thread on a drummers discussion board answering an identical question about being too loud for smaller venues, and one of them honestly suggests that to be quieter on stage the offending drummer should mic up his kit because that way they can turn the volume down through the PA

I've always thought East 17's Stay Another Day is sparse enough to cover in a variety of styles- one to make your own.

Reading the song lyrics onstage is a bit like an actor going out on stage holding the playbook.

Have used 15s in the past and liked them. But there are still those who think that frequency response and transient response are linked to cone size, which is not necessarily the case. I've used 10s that can vibrate the building and hit you in the chest - admittedly they were in an 8X10 cab being powered by an SVT-CL, but you get the point...

I have the day of this week, I have been fairly ill, but not ill enough to be off work, just ill enough to not sleep because I am coughing too much, and as it is nice now and it won't be for long, I thought I would take the day off. Because I just decided I didn't have anything I needed to do, so I sat in the garden and decided to shape the headstock. Found out loads of things. A router is way to agressive for doing these things unless you have a routing table, that I haven't. Cutting towards the end of the wood can cause the wood to come apart in an unpleasant way A dremel is much better than it seems I only possess 2 chisels and 2 files (I have a load of little rat tail files, but not really useful here), which is news to me, I though it was a lot more. They seem to have gone. Of the 4, one chisel is a little blunt, one has obviously been used to open cans and brute force things, so it useless. Both files are good, but one is too small to be useful in this case. Ultimately, however good your power tools, if you don't have a whole workshop, the end bits you need to do by hand. So off out to get some new chisels, a slightly roundy wood file and maybe some kind of hand planey thing. I have decided after a brief moment of indecision, that I will post the pictures however bad it goes, because when I have looked on here before everyone is way better than me, so I am here as a beacon of how not to do it, or what happens when you don't know how to do it Nice day for it though!

My first build was also adding a body to a commercially bought neck - it's a great way of starting Welcome to the world of the highly driven but sightly crazy

Back on topic, should I be excited that PMT are now open in London, given the numerous other stores located in and around the capital? Am I missing something?