synaesthesia

I bought one of these overseas when I was away for a stretch, and was invited to sit in with some mates where they were performing- I'm lefty so I bought a lefty one - these were the only budget lefties in the shops - , I CAN play upside down borrowed righty for pop or blues, but not Giant Steps at 220bpm. I brought it back here and tested some J pickups on it. They were invariably too bright for this bass. I even put Alembic Activators in it one time, and it was the first time I heard the Activators being harsh. The stock pickups match this bass to a 'T'. They are darker sounding on their own but they get a nice tone on this instrument, not a J tone, but a useable tone. The neck on this instrument is very nice, I like the profile. So far I have done all sorts to it, changed the pickups, put a badass bridge on, etc but I've found that the stock combination worked best and returned it to the stock condition. If you want something else, maybe go get a different instrument.

An Upright bass should not have side dots most acoustics don't; and Stagg - well i wouldn't say they were the paragon of virtue or tradition for luthierie. There are a couple of posters who said they have seen examples of reputable manufacture of unlined fingerboard basses with side dots marking positions as opposed to notes that were not (a) custom order, ( probably an oversight from a manufacturer not familiar with fretless instruments, if you have any examples - post them here. The world should know and after 30 years of playing unlined fingerboards, I'd like to know too.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='233245' date='Jul 5 2008, 05:18 PM']I think we'll have to agree to differ here, although I haven't seen any good quality unlined fretless basses that don't have the side dots where the frets would be. If you know different I'd be happy to be enlightened. In the meantime I've plenty of food for thought for getting my bass side dots how I want them.[/quote] RE: Side Dots and unlined fingerboards; the side dots are note markers, and not in between some non existent fretlines. This is the luthierie tradition in unlined fingerboards be they electric basses or whatever, you should find this in fretless basses with unlined fingerboards from Warmoth, Alembic, Fender, Rickenbacker, Musicman, Pedulla, Ken Smith, Fodera, Rob Allen, Harvey Citron, Joe Veillette, Harry Fleishman, Rick Turner etc. In a lined fretless fingerboard, the side dots are not note markers but position markers. You will see this to be true of the above manufacturers as well.

cut a strip of lens cleaning tissue, soak in PVA, lay up over tear, repeat if you need to make it thicker or stretch over a larger tear. Robert is a sibling of one of your parents.

He has been around a long time, and he was certainly an early champion of the EUB. He had a slew of records way back featuring solo bass, duos with various famous voices, trios with famous folk as well. He was the Clevinger poster boy, and he gave Willie Dixon a pink Clevinger. His recordings are OK, nothing to scream about, but I'm sure he is a fantastic live player.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='230732' date='Jul 1 2008, 05:53 PM']Also try [i]Outbound[/i] by Stuart Hamm. It's a very "mature" piece of work from him but the entire album is filled with the most glorious licks, and the slap line to the Castro Hustle is a beast. And, and Jeff Berlin's [i]Champion[/i] might be worth a listen too...wait, that can't be right, a bassists solo album without a note of slap on it? [/quote] Oh Mr Berlin SLAPS. He doesn't do it on record much though. I went to see John McLaughlin with Trilok Gurtu and the bassist supposedly was to be Kai Eckhardt. Mr Berlin was on stage instead and I wasn't complaining, he did a most marvellous slap solo that was a few minutes long and at the end of it he grinned as if to say "FXXX THAT".

Talk to the protection racket people.

[quote name='Finbar' post='224628' date='Jun 23 2008, 12:00 AM']I did find that Duracells wouldn't fit in my Conklin, and then when I decided I may as well put them to use in my wireless isntead, they had no juice in them! I've been put off Duracells ever since ¬_¬[/quote] ?? I have a Conklin and I feed it duracells or procells. What model is yours?

[quote name='backwater' post='224263' date='Jun 22 2008, 04:50 PM']I use the procell PP3's for most things - radio systems, basses, effects etc and find them pretty good as they are rebranded Duracell. Expect to pay around £10 to £12 + Post for £10. I usually get mine from CPC (www.cpc.co.uk) when I'm ordering other bits Andy [/quote] ++ to procells. They work out to about £1 per pp3 and you just pick up boxes of them at electronic wholesalers or Ebay.

Maplins has a similar product at £4 - 5. LEDs similar to above, in their clearance bins in Derby last week. Here is another useable Maplin product: [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31824&criteria=reading"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...riteria=reading[/url] light&doy=1m7

Compression is simply an audio process where an electronic signal's dynamic envelope is altered. The consequence of doing this is that your signal is altered, and the audible consequences are appropriate or inappropriate depending on your situation. It has no bearing on technique, or lack thereof. The world's best players have been compressed, and several players have also performed or recorded without compression or limiting. Compression cannot improve your playing or tone, and using compression does not mean you have no finger technique. Compression can be used to tame audio spikes, passages or instruments that would otherwise jump out or overwhelm other sounds going on. If you want to hear compression on electric bass, check out Dee Murray on Elton John's "Teacher I need You" (don't shoot me album), or Macca on "You never give me your Money" (Abbey Road). There are passages where you have clear distinct compressed bass notes. The tonal and dynamic balance is perhaps more critical in a recording. Having said that most pop records are limited or normalised (i.e. compressed enough to make the audio as close to 0dB as possible without distortion). This has an effect on the overall audio's perceived loudness and has little to do with compressing an isolated tone, e.g. the bass notes in the examples mentioned. In a live situation, if you are after a specific tonal effect of compression, or if you vary your playing a lot with slapping/popping and fingerstyle diferent passages of tunes such that your overall level is wildly fluctuating, you might consider a compressor in your chain. Otherwise, in live playing, if all you do is play fingerstyle fast or slow, and you do not need to alter your signal envelope, there is not much point in having a compressor in your chain. It can make your notes, tone, sound very indistinct on stage. 99% of the electric basses in the world will hold a wholenote and a tie at 50bpm,- compression will not improve your ability to play a whole note tied over two bars, or for that matter a half note or your ability to choke a 16th note. Sustain is a notion too often misapplied to the electric bass guitar, and sustenance via compression for bass is like squeezing a beef sandwich into a meat pattie. Live, the FOH could limit your DI signal and a good PA will have some limiting to protect the amps, speakers etc. If you need limiting on your backline and it is not an audio envelope effect you consciously want, you are either playing too loud, don't have adequate PA support or have a gear mismatch in your setup.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='224653' date='Jun 23 2008, 12:32 AM']Memrees, like the co....[/quote] Memrees indeed, I met Keith in the 80s a few times. I think he routed one of my basses or an extra P pickup and he used a Select P for a template. Went back as it didn't fit the EMG and it was then when we discovered that they weren't the same size. Did the adjustments FOC. Top bloke.

Get this if you are wanting to learn Latino bass: [url="http://www.shermusic.com/latinbassbook.htm"]http://www.shermusic.com/latinbassbook.htm[/url] It covers most of the popular styles and tells you what the rhythms are, but.... if you really want to know the music, get a few drum books: there are a few about that cover the variations of Afro-Cuban, Afro-Carribean, Brazillian, Tango etc. The ones written for Drumset you have to understand are often modern interpretive amalgamations of what one bloke can imitate on kit, in effort to mimic what a whole Latino percussion rhythm section can do. But if gives you an idea of where the accents are nonetheless. Another good place to start, and many people will have such a gadget, is your digital beatbox or drum machine. Most of those have one or two variations of each popular style, but at least you can start to tell the difference between Songo, Samba, Bossa etc.

More misunderstood than Jazz in this country for sure. Not enough Latino culture around for even schooled jazzers to know what's what. Auditioned a guitarist once as musical director for a named vocalist's tour, told him we were doing Mas Que Nada - he said he needed to brush up on his flamenco. Even with drummers you 'd get problems, gigged in a trio with a drummer who fakes his latino by banging a syncopated beat on toms, whether it is samba or bossa. Another schooled drummer told me the bossa was essentially just a clave thing.... Most of what is referred to as Latin music is Latin American Music, and Latin America is a large geographical expanse with many many styles of music as there are countries. Spain and latin America are related through language and culture, there is some cross fertilisation but Spanish music and Latin American music are not quite the same, as Portugal is not the same as Brazil. Within "Latin America" you have much diversity, and the rhythmic accents are not the same in the different genres. It does not matter much in the UK, for two reasons - the UK has no real relationship with Latin American Culture, and cultural ignorance will continue to be the norm - so you can play any syncopated beat and it must be 'latin'. In Latin America, the music is played from the cora-Z-on, whilst in Spain it is from the cora-thz-on. Close, supposedly the same heart but not quite the same.

[quote name='PauBass' post='225698' date='Jun 24 2008, 10:20 AM'] I know this may sound silly but, just in case, I wanted to confirm with you guys. To power my pedalboard I'm using a Dunlop DC Brick, which has seven 9v and three 18v outputs. Well the thing is that I'm using all the 9v outputs and none of the 18v is being used. Since I'm going to need two more extra 9v outputs I was just wondering if it would be possible to use the 18v outputs to power some 9v pedals. I know that if the pedals says it needs only 9v that's what you should power it with but I think I've heard before people powering some pedals, I think ditortion/overdrive/fuzz mainly, with 18v instead of 9v, am I right? What's your advice?[/quote] With distortion devices, you probably want minimum voltage as opposed to maximum voltage, most typical circuits clip; i.e, distort more easily as the headroom is often lowered with lower operating voltage and quite often with more desirable audio consequences. Some more controlled designs of distortion devices have voltage regulators to fix the voltage at say 5 V to get a consistent distortion waveform - as opposed to the old school on the fly technique of using old batteries, which give out lower voltage. Back in the day, several musos used to keep a slew of used 9V batteries as the tone for example from a TS808 or TS9 was actually 'softer and rounder'. Even some big names like SRV also resorted to doing that. Tricky though to use a dying battery. Raising the voltage is possible with several distortion devices but you are likely to end up with more headroom, and consequently less capacity for distortion.

[quote name='Musky' post='224635' date='Jun 23 2008, 12:06 AM']I read somewhere or other about a repair involving the material from a pair of tights and something like nail polish. Or maybe superglue. Never had to try it myself though.[/quote] Lens cleaning tissue soaked in PVA applied over tear will work.

The fingerboard "pau-ferro" is Ironwood. It is very common in Vietnam, often used in furniture that will last forever. The weight of the body probably suggests that your specimen is also made of "mamywo" which is James Tyler's nickname for "Malaysian Mystery Wood", - this is actually Jelutong, a very light whitish softwood. It has similar properties to "basswood" and actually is a cheap craft wood use in teaching woodwork, or making hobby craft as it is very easy to work, i.e. easy to shape. It is not quite balsa wood, but like balsa it is used in toys, hobbycraft, etc. Be careful with your body it would dent easily. The owner of GIM guitars in Malaysia Jeffrey Yong has assisted with the sourcing of Jelutong. Also Jim Tyler is second only to Howard "Alexander" Dumble in eccentricity. Tyler also walks about with a gun on his belt; and I've been told by Jeffrey who visited Tyler, that he literally pumps gun shots at his factory shop reject instruments if they don't make his QC grade.

[quote name='stevie' post='221237' date='Jun 18 2008, 11:11 AM']Leo Fender and Jim Marshall didn't make sde-by-side bass cabs in the 1950s. Marshall bass cabs were 4 x 12, 1 x 15 and 1 x 18 and Fender had the Bassman, which was a 1 x 15. The side-by-side 2 x 12s these companies built were guitar amps. The Fender Twin and the Marshall Bluesbreaker (and the Vox AC30 before it) used open back cabinets based on a perfectly valid dipole design that still enjoys popularity today.[/quote] Actually Fender started to make a 4X10 bassman as early as 1955. See Teagle and Sprung, Fender Amps, 1st 50 years. circa p 70 onwards. An electric guitar tone is not complete without the amplification system, and whatever historical deficiencies in design, such as limited bandwidth (typically 100 - 3.2Khz), speaker distortion, etc are part of what is desirable. Even the preferred 'clean' tone has this limited bandwidth, and the direct injected electric guitar tone reproduced in full audio bandwidth has never been desirable or even listenable. An electric bass has largely two different sonic goals given the history of how its tone has developed: 1. it behaves like an electric guitar and and the limited audio bandwidth and distortion characteristics are part of the 'tone' 2. the ultimate goal is to reproduce what the pickups send out as cleanly as possible, perhaps with some EQ. Full audio bandwidth capability is what is desired here. If you need your tone to be (1), stick with what is out there, albeit deficient in design. Your tonal bandwidth will be limited and won't disperse without problems. People do this all the time, and until they try to overcome these problems it is never going to be a problem for them. But then, I think Mr Zappa said some people like to vomit on their own clothes and it is not a problem for them either and it may be best to leave them be. If your tonal goal is (2), then your ultimate signal chain is the ultimate recording channel, and the ultimate audio reproduction chain is your ultimate public address system. And despite this the bandwidth of the electric bass spans typically from 30odd hz to about 6 or 7Khz. You really do not get much audio activity beyond that range, and most of the time you can drop off below 50hz, and drop off above 6 khz. Even Alembic pickups coupled with their on board preamps (famously bright) have capacitors to filter off oscillating frequencies above 6.5Khz. In either case, most stage musicians are weaned on guitar and bass having poor dispersion. If you have ever had a drummer ask a bassist to make his/her tone 'rounder' you will know that drummer has sat behind or sideways to a bass speaker system for too long. Stage audio deficiencies and intelligibility can be offset by close monitoring, either in ear, floor or pole mounted. But beyond the stage, dispersion and comb filtering become issues that you'd have to contend with, whether you like it or not. FYI, in the studio comb filtering can be an issue with the aforementioned products, but in the studio you mostly have an audience of 1 lab rat engineer who should be seated in the sweet spot, or a few others who come by to check out the mix or recording, and move into the sweet spot to listen. Comb filtering is a problem when you have a dispersed audience. You don't move around into different corners of the studio to check the mix, and you certainly don't position yourself away from the sweet spot area. Those speakers were certainly not designed for wide dispersion in a public area.

Sold a compressor, clean transaction, fast payment, no issues.

Love his playing but I 'm sat in front of the TV watching Mainstreet - EWF in concert this Good Friday morning. They are singing to tracks and the instruments are mimed in a 'live' concert. Hear the bass slap and watch his fingers, same for the guitarist and the drummer. Great stage effect with the spare instruments and the Conn strobe tuners in the backline The conga mics have no XLRs, they are certainly not wireless mics...they must have run out of dud XLRs..... the vocals are live though. Can't tell with the horn section look real though, the live sax solo was certainly desafinado and the electric guitar solo in one tune was also similarly out of tune in parts .... Glad that I bought the CDs and not tickets to their 'live' concert! Shame about the general miming. Love his recorded licks though.

Just got notice that RTF will play a place called Indigo2 in London. Not sure where it is but even if I have a gig that night I'd cancel to turn up for this one. 21 July. And to fend of the WTF is RTF posts, its the classic Return to Forever quartet - Lenny White, Al Di Meola, Chick Corea and Stanley.