jazzyvee

In the past I bought a guitar with some some alembic electronics in it on ebay and had to ship the electronics back to the Alembic for repair as it wasn't working. It was out of warranty and they told me that they have to declare any new parts fitted and you pay duty on that cost. Also if you have current insurance on the item you can ask if it includes insurance for common carrier which will save you having to insure it separately through the carrier. On fixing the electronics, have you tried giving John East a call to see if he can fix it. He's designed studio gear and might have/or be able to get the parts you need and fix it.

I love short scale basses, I have a short scale bass with 45 - 105 string gauge and whilst the strings are slightly looser, the tone to my ears is richer and warmer on the bottom end and sweeter at the top end than a 34" scale bass. I haven't personally found any disadvantage tonally of a short scale bass.

[color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Had a reggae gig last night at an awesome 80's weekender at Butlins Skeggy and used a hired in backline of ampeg gear provided by the venue. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]I have no idea what wattage they were but as usual I brought my F1-x to plug into the pwr amp input or the return socket and both times options I could not get any clean headroom even with the F1-x down really low. I decided to forget my F1-x and go from my bass into the front of the ampeg head via the venues DI box and even then I could not get any clean bottom end everything was middly and distorted like the speaker was being pushed too hard. The keyboard player came over to see if he could EQ the thing whilst I played and he is a good producer and couldn't get anything with any weight at any useable volume without distortion. In the end we had to settle for a low volume middly tone with the bass setting on the head just under the 12 o'clock and the volumes on my bass just under 50% open and use the floor monitors. But even they were unable to give me any decent bottom end. Our regular sound engineer was out front and confirmed the sound FOH was perfect which was a relief to know it wasn't my bass.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]We played well but, there is nothing worse than taking a decent bass that you know sounds awesome and not be able to hear that sound.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Yes I could always take my own rig but these are all weekend events with multi-band setups and the transfer time between bands is short and just a line check so we don't usually carry our own backline on these gigs for convenience. This is the rig I was provided with but I have no idea what wattage it delivers. [/size][/font][/color]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1503624469' post='3359804'] So far I've never owned a pedal or played in a band or style of music that required one. My tone is me~bass~amp~cab. [/quote] + 1 I'd say I get my core hifi tones from my analogue rack system which is an F1-x and PLX2402, but for most gigs I use my mesa boogie walkabout head which I get a great warmer sound from.

Im the only non pro in my quartet and my only problem is getting gigs where they are all available. Other than that all is cool.

All my basses came with a hard case which are only used for storage. I have two custom flight cases for the long scale basses, one for short scale and three gig bags that i use most of the time when gigging. One for short scale that doubles for guitar and single and double gigbags for long scale basses.

I'm another one who ended up having two break on me in under a year. First one the headphone socket came away from the board inside then the next one the jack broke off. I decided to get something sturdier so the PJB Big Head was what I went for and so far it's been a great purchase. Now if I could find a small hard or padded case that could hold the charging and aux cables that would be great.

If anyone is gigging with a barefaced cab around Birmingham & West Midlands give me a shout I'd love to hear one in the wild so to speak. Especially if it's a back line gig with the bass not going through the PA. I'm gonna phone barefaced today to see if I can get one to try out. Which is all well and good but I want to understand how they sound out front as well as when I'm standing near it playing.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1502500883' post='3351897'] I would love to try two 8x10s stacked horizontally with a big valve amp. [/quote] Me too, I have a stereo bass (individual pickup outs) and would love to try that through my QSC PLX2402 amp with a a rack pre-amp on each channel, plus a roland JC120 taking the high end out from pre-amp crossover output fed from the bridge pickup. However there aren't many gigs that I could do that setup and not annoy the sound guy. I'm not after the volume just the clarity and density of sound. That said I've done a few gigs at a large music college in town and the sound guy is happy for me to do that setup next time I gig there. :-)

Had a dep gig with a band called Soul Kinda Wonderful at the livestock festival in North London last night. It was a really good gig. I enjoyed playing and the most important thing was that the crowd loved the show and wanted us to go on for longer and longer. Good news is the band have asked me to do another gig with them in August. :-)

Awesome gig indeed.

Consider this.... does the vocalist sound exactly like the record on all the covers you do with the band? If not, then why should you feel you have to? Trying to get the exact tone isn't really as important as finding a sound that works for the song. I dep in a few bands that include covers and all I aim to do is get a tone that sounds right with whatever the song is. No-one has ever complained, and i get repeat gigs. For example this weekend I have a dep gig with a Drifters tribute band and i've never played that stuff before, I dont own any fender or passive basses which I presume most of their music would have been recorded with. All my basses are active which I doubt was even around back then either, so in my practice sessions at home I just aim to get a tone I think works for the tracks. I won't even have my own bass rig for the gig so will be at the mercy of the dreaded backline. As for setting up your rig. Usually my settings are the same on my bass rig regardless of the gig. Sometimes I roll a little off the bottom end if the room is boomy but that's it. Everything else I do from the bass and/or by changing where and how I hit the strings, and where I think the bass needs a different tone I give it for each song or within the same song. It all helps to gain an understanding about how to create tone.

I'm heading for the gig in Leeds tonight and based on his gig last year at Love Supreme it should be another belter. His band are youngsters but man they can play and keep up.

That is sadly a rare case to recover all your gear. I'm so glad that it all ended well. But I can imagine the stress of the whole process whilst you were trying to find it. I guess the lesson for us all is don't let your guard down.

Take a listen to Herbie Hancock's version on his Possibilities album, the bass is nice and sprightly but grooving nicely. [url="https://youtu.be/eo7AcIdMnHY"]https://youtu.be/eo7AcIdMnHY[/url]

I had a really good gig with Musical Youth at Festival Too in King's Lynn. Alembic Series I 5 string bass, two Mesa boogie powerhouse cabs and my mesa walkabout head. Lovely sound & great crowd too. I hope we get invited there again in the future.

Stanley Clarke in Leeds

Generally I use 45 - 105 on my basses. But a short scale bass I bought a couple of years ago came with 40 -100 so for that bass anyway I will stick with that gauge.

I don't really see it as a problem I hardly ever pay the band cash these days even when I recieve the cash at the end of the gig. Since becoming self employed in my day job my accountant has advised me to pay it into my personal bank account and then pay the band individually by bank transfer. Sometimes strangely the manager of the venue pays the band members individually.

I got a similar invitaton to join such a band last autumn when my mates band had the bass player leave. It's a weekly residency for an open mic night and we do some songs and back others. I'd never done that kind of music before as I'd normally be playing Jazz-funk, reggae, funk and Rnb but I thought it would be a good oportunity for me to overcome some comfort zone hangups by doing something new that I have no experience doing. Whilst none of it is music I'd listen to at home it's been good for me as a musician to do that and it's much less pressure than my other gigs. I'd say take it, any opportunity you take to play you will learn something even if it points out areas of your playing to focus on. Playing regularly too is also a good way to become consistent and develop a style.

Good topic Blue, something I am also aware of. My main band is a named reggae band and with that band I'm at the back near the drummer so don't move about the stage much because the lead singer is a great showman and likes to make the most use of the stage and I don't want to get in his way. But I'm told I move a lot in my area of the stage but its not something Ireally notice myself. One thing I get told a lot is that I don't smile enough which is hard change because forcing a smile looks false and I already thought I was smiling because I'm enjoying the gig. I'm always having a good time on stage and I think I do smile a lot but I'm told I look serious a lot of the time unless someone makes a mistake in a funny place then I really laugh. With my own band Jazz/funk we are instrumental mainly and as i'm band leader I'm front of stage with the saxophonist and I'm really comfortable. Have seen many videos of us so I can critique myself and I think i do ok up front and don't have many serious concerns about it. That's not to say I don't have anything to learn about stage presence, I do and I'm learning all the time from watching other bands.

Most of the backlines I've had to use over the past 5 years not been to my liking. Usually they sound like they have been trashed or not very clean sounding and edgy/distorted even at the lowish volumes I prefer on stage. These days when I know in advance, i tend to carry my own rack pre-amp and go direct into the power amp of whatever head is on stage. If I'm just carrying the bass, well it has an external power supply which also handles the signal outs so sometimes on a quick turnover If the amp head is too complicated to get the sound I want or I don't like the sound, I will go direct from that psu signal outs into the power section of the bass head.

Thinking about it the donor bass has no position markers on the surface of the fretboard so there shouldn't be any sound problems with sliding over dissimilar materials. But as for getting a good luthier, Jaydee is only a few miles across town for me so that would be my first port of call and hope they aren't too busy making their own basses to fit me in. I'm not even sure I have the guts to do it but it's been on my mind on and off for a while and since that bass isn't one I use for gigging I wouldn't be sacrificing anything from my gigging basses if I didn't take to fretless playing. After reading the comments, i think the safest way forward is to try to find a 35" fretless in a guitar shop and see how that feels to play first before jumping in the deep end. Eeek I have just remembered there is an inlay of a shark in the 12th fret area is that gonna be problem with vibrato on the 11th and 12th frets?

Currently I only gig with 34" and 30.75" fretted basses. However I'm curious to have a go at fretless bass. I currently own a 35" scale 5 string fretted had made, made in Thailand, bass with a nice thick ebony fretboard. It currently has two sets of ACG EQ02 systems, one for each pickup installed by John East which I plan to remove at some point. I don't gig with the bass and only use it for rehearsals or practice when I'm away from home, hence it may be a good candidate for converting to fretless. So a few things come to mind, I have no desire to do this myself and wonder if it is: a) a big job for a luthier to take on would it be better to have a new finger board or just de-fret the existing one and have the fret slots filled. c) as I'm more used to 34" scale and the short scale fretted basses is that likely to mess up my muscle memory and hence my ability to play in tune on a 35" scale fretless bass or is the difference so marginal that it makes little difference? Thanks in advance.