mrtcat

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1435841184' post='2812922'] I am also a guitarist, but just because lots of guitarists are idiots does not mean that its not wrong to make blanket statements about what power is "appropriate" for any given band. As bass players we'd be furious if we turned up with an 800W amp because we wanted lots of clean headroom and some guitarist said "what you using that for, you only need 300W, you don't know what you're doing, moron, you'll ruin the sound of the band...". 10W, 100W, 1000W. Doesn't matter. What matters is how you use that power. (Ironically, of course, the supposedly too loud 100W amps are not much louder (about 10%, all other things equal) than the supposedly acceptable 50W amps. ) [/quote] Yeah but if I turned up with a 300w all valve bass head to play the local wine bar and then proceeded to state that I need to crank it up to make the valves really do their thing then I would rightly deserve to get shot down by the rest of the band and told "if you want to get an overdriven sound from a bass amp then a 300w head is far too powerful for this gig". I think that's the point being made here, a 100w all tube guitar amp with a 4 x 12 cab is not the rig for small - medium sized gigs[u][b] IF you want to get your sound by driving both the preamp and poweramp tubes to the edge[/b][/u]. And even on large gigs why so powerful? Your gonna put a mic in front of it anyhow so why use something so loud you're going to p155 off the rest of the band. If however you want a big powerful amp for overhead for clean sounds - knock yourself out but please make sure you eq it right as 4 x 12s are terrible for muddying up the sound if not eq'd sensibly.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1435455368' post='2808989'] I'd love to, but our eldest is a bit unique, I reckon, for many reasons. Our 2nd guitar is maybe unusual, too, in that he is rather more restrained than some, despite his excellent gear. A touch of timidity, a slight lack of confidence, who knows..? Either way, neither of them are into 'noise wars' per se, but can poke out a pretty mean 'Highway to Hell' if called upon. Our repertoire is not especially soft, either, with Ava Adore, Tostaky, Killing in the name of, and more, but one doesn't have to deafen everyone, the power is in the composition and arrangement already. Maybe we're just lucky. [/quote] They're not unusual. Yes they are in the minority but it's just a good indication that they adopt a professional attitude. Decent pros play for the song and they have nothing to prove other than how professional they are, which is why they are a pro. Guitarists that can't tame volume are just amateurish morons, regardless of how talented they are. The whole "the amp needs to be cranked to sound good" argument, for me, just says "you're too pig headed to realise you either have the wrong amp with you for this gig or you're too dumb to see that if it only sounds good cranked you are going to have to compromise on your sound a little for the benefit of absolutely everyone else (audience, band mates and the reputation of your band)". Amateurs with a pro attitude are far less common but a really valuable asset to a band.

I use a j retro and a stingray pre. Both are great and I found the j retro particularly useful as it gives me really usable mid control. John is a really nice guy and is only about 40mins away from you. I'm sure he'd happily fit it for you.

Think I'd go to Williamscott basses first to see what they could make for me. They're local and I'd like to see my cash support a local company. Plus their basses look lovely.

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why not just change the plug on the end of your cable to suit the cab? Costs no more than a couple of quid for a speakon connector and they are usually screw terminals so no solder required.

Many bassists gig 1x12 or 2x12 cabs so your PA tops should be able to at least give you some presence. I'd advise going for a more middly type tone though so as not to suck up too much of the power. I'm really not a fan of EV stuff but tons of mobile djs use them so they can at least handle some bass. If you have only got vocals in them they won't exactly be pushed too hard. As obbm says though some of the small amps will double as di and will also happily run your cabs. That would be my chosen route although I have a di pedal on my board which I use into my head anyway so I have that option too.

Great work. I love the look and sound of their gear.

1994 so i could see RATM live in their prime and so I could throw a bottle of p!$$ at Liam Gallagher.

I enjoyed their set and I've never really taken much interest in their work. Yeah not as wild as back in the day but a) it's perfectly acceptable to get old and slow down a little and the guts of the original band is sadly not with us anymore. Nobody forced those that enjoyed it to enjoy it and I'm sure if you asked Daltrey / Townsend they'd say "hey we are just doing what we do - like it or lump it". I'm certainly not as angry or aggressive as I was in my early 20s and no doubt they're the same. It's human nature. They're realistic enough to know that at this stage they will make more people happy by playing their old stuff rather than trying to churn out new material just for the sake of it. It's what sunday evening at Glastonbury is all about. That said I really think Glastonbury is becoming very hit and miss these days. Seen more bad performances than ever before this year I think.

At least we all agree that it's not Kanye West. Maybe we should have a mirror poll of the "People Who Think They Are Rockstars But Clearly Aren't" so we can put him on top of that one?

Pretty sure the lack of young rockstars is more indicative of the world today. There's far more opportunity to make music so the pool of people out there is way bigger. That makes it hard to pick a stand out artist. It's also harder to shock people with rockstar type behaviour so being "wild" doesn't get you as far as it used to. Add to that the fact that individuals don't get as rich as they used to because of the way the music world is now then a lot of the crazy behaviour doesn't happen. For me a rockstar is someone who can step up and make a stadium go nuts. 10yrs ago I'd probably have suggested (controversially) Robbie Williams but now I'm a bit stumped to be honest.

Why is the age important? If you're the greatest rock star you're the greatest rock star regardless of your age. And if you are the greatest rock star then I doubt you give two hoots about your own age.

[quote name='The Badderer' timestamp='1435512556' post='2809555'] However, there are also times where some sound engineers are so focused on what comes out to the FOH that the band are left unable to hear themselves. I'd say a fair bit of this lies in inexperienced bands or sound engineers not knowing enough about what goes on to get their sound check sorted properly. [/quote] This is a very valid point. Engineers that can put a band in their comfort zone by giving them a nice on stage mix can expect to get a better sound out front as people aren't playing harder or turning up in order to hear themselves. If we go back to the op's initial post though there was no sound engineer. Should you offer advice? Well it's tough as clearly some people here wouldn't want it and others would. You would never know until it was too late if they didn't want your advice. If a band was clearly struggling and I could offer some information that would actually help them then yes I'd probably tentatively approach and start with "please feel free to tell me to mind my own business but...". If I had no pertinent advice that would help and was just thinking "oh my days this sounds crap" i'd keep it to myself as we all know it can be tough to play somewhere with bad acoustics and spend a whole night fighting with the desk only to have your band mates and punters complaining to you about the sound. I think with these guys I would have offered a little advice if they wanted it.

Really enjoyed her playing (and the rest of the band) and thought paloma faith was great too. Proper talent in every department.

[quote name='mike257' timestamp='1435495170' post='2809302'] The amount of sound engineer bashing I see on this and other forums these days, and the general attitude that we are all clueless pricks out to sabotage your gigs or massage our own egos is just ridiculous. I don't know a single fellow engineer that doesn't take pride in their work and try and make every gig sound the best they can with the tools available to them. [/quote] I agree. Although maybe in a slightly more reserved way. I do sound a lot and have studied hard to give myself as much knowledge and experience. I think I'm half decent now and can help bands to sound their best. I was once inexperienced and had limited knowledge but at that time I charged accordingly. I have accepted lots of advice along the way and have also come across some really arrogant musicians. Luckily these have been in the minority and I've worked with some lovely people. The real pros have generally all been really helpful, supportive and appreciated. It's the amateurs that think they should be pros that are usually hardest to deal with as they're usually much more precious about "their sound" which is often not a sound that works well for the overall mix. The best guys I ever worked with were Gregg and Matt Bisonette who were just the nicest guys ever. The worst was a bass player in a wedding band from East Grinstead. Complained about everything and couldn't get a decent sound from an Aguila DB750 into DB212 and a Stage one streamer.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1435486745' post='2809154'] +1. Of course you won't like it if it's hip hop. I have never had a conversation with a middle aged white bloke about Kanye... or even classic hip hop (DMC/PE etc.) [/quote] Pretty poorly thought out comment there considering the type of forum this is. Also a little unnecessarily insulting to many of the people on here. I'm late 30s and white and love decent hip hop having listened extensively to the likes of Ice Cube, Dr dre, snoop etc etc when younger and still really enjoy more recent artists like Jay-Z, Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross etc. Kanye simply doesn't do it for me. So bland and clearly a total plonker.

I always play it on a 5er tuned BEADG. I'm working on it on drums at the moment and it's epic.

That's excellent. We all know how rewarding it is to create music and it should be available to absolutely everyone.

I have had experience with other online retailers before where you order a new bass and what arrives has clearly been out on the shop floor somewhere or has been returned by a customer. Dawsons did the same to me last yr with a squier jazz. You have to go in and select basses in person wherever possible. Regarding the finance, you have a right to cancel within a set time frame so make sure you contact the finance company too. I feel for you Thunderbird, that's really poor service.

I like the way they play stuff like RHCP on a stingray, Jamiroquai on a Streamer etc. Think that's a cool touch.

Always take my own amp. Busses pass through our village twice a week so that's not an option and with just 1 BFM 1 x 12 and a genz stm900 i can usually toast far bigger rigs and carry the whole lot including a bass in a 1er from the car.

I change bass during a set if we play something in drop tunings. Keys player prefers everything in standard tuning but vocalist can struggle on a couple of numbers if we don't knock it down a semitone. If the song has lots of open e string then i just use a different bass. Takes seconds to change with a A/B pedal as long as 2nd bass is tuned and ready with its own strap.

Thanks lowdown, it's not an issue with windows 8 and firewire for me. I am using the firewire port successfully with other hardware it's just the mixer that's causing a problem. The chap in the link almost certainly has the revised mixer which works with windows 8. As I have one of the original ones it only works with windows 7. I had a response from Mackie tech support saying I should try running the desk with a free driver called ASIO4ALL but I still can't get it working :-(

Haha, I'm no spring chicken myself but I have a three yr old daughter to point me in the right direction with the tech. Thanks for your help tho, it's great to know this new fangled stuff is good.