mcgraham

+1 I was listening to some classical (solo violin - Paganini's Caprices) through my IEMs, and it was truly stunning. Really moved me in the same way that my more contemporary music does.

Tau! You have got to check out the new fretless. It's even better than the fretted Klimt. I was jamming with pantherairsoft on the weekend, and it was the first time since I got the fretless that I'd taken the Klimt out. The Klimt (of course) plays amazingly, but there's some subtle tweaks on the fretless that just take it to a level above the Klimt. The neck is even sweeter and I know that was a real favourite feature for you on the fretted.

Used it last night. Supremely accurate. I wanted a new tuner anyway as my Korg Dt-10 is a bit slow to pick up quick changes in pitch when used for monitoring fretless intonation. This thing, however, is very very quick, and very very accurate. The strobe tuner is excellent. I was a little worried that the wide spaced LEDs would limit the granularity/resolution of the tuner's display of pitch, but it's not just an 'on-off' type array of LEDs, so that's not a problem. The polytune (for guitar at least) is very good. It's also particularly good for tuning up a floyd rose guitar, as you get a nice overview of which strings are being pulled massively out as you tune each string one at a time. It's also very good for checking everything is in tune once you've done each string. I wouldn't say it saved me much time, but I think with practice, like any tool, it will become a lot quicker and a timesaver in the future.

No-one else interested? My goodness! I am quite surprised there's not been more activity on this thread.

That's quite tempting, even though it's in Essex... and by that I mean it's a bit far I do love Victor's Bass Day DVD. I think it shows off his musicality as well as his chops. Oh, I also emailed him to tell him as much as I was that impressed and inspired, and he still took the time to reply. What a legend. Mark

Arrived this morning! About time... Anyway, can't wait to test it out. Now that I've got it in my hands, I will say that it look a bit tackier in the flesh than in the photos. The paint feels like that paint you used to find on 60s-70s style metal clothesline poles, the ourdoor hardwearing ceramic paint? Anyway, still looks good just not as slick as the images made it look. I will report back once i've used it. I'll be practicing wednesday night with the band as well, so will let you know how it fares live too.

Don't you know it! What annoys me most about mail services is not so much when they're late, but their incredible inconsistency! Sometimes I can post something on the cheap, at 5pm to go to the far ends of Britain and it arrives the next afternoon. Other times I'm post something (or usually waiting for something!) first thing in the morning, pay first class-insured-the works, and it turns after the following weekend. At least if they always took several days to deliver something it wouldn't be 'late', it would just be 'normal'.

Dammit! Still hasn't turned up yet. Freakin' mail services! Looks like it'll be next week before I get it... and I was really looking forward to using it and integrating it into my setup this weekend. Really quite frustrated by this, and i'm not normally annoyed by such things.

+1 to BRX's suggestion. With my fretless (W&T), I told them the key physical features, overall general aesthetic, and sound that I wanted, and they did the rest. And they did a phenomenal job. Re: not 'needing' a custom - I thought the same thing. Eventually I decided to get my first 'custom' (it had already been made when i bought it, but to specs I would've had anyway) as I was finding that every stock bass would be compromising even just a little on what i wanted from my instruments. Now, with two amazing custom jobs, I have no such niggles.

Biggest penis collection? Bizarre and totally off-topic story, a teacher friend had a colleague who spent his free time collecting insect penises, specifically beetles I believe. He used to spend his weekend hunting for beetles that he had not yet collected, cut off their penis, identify the type of beetle by the penis (as that is supposedly how you do it?), and pin it on a board with the rest of his collection. I believe his collection numbered in the 1000s. Most tragic part of the story? He is married with kids.

Indeed! Rehearsal spaces can be difficult areas to get good monitoring in. As the band leader for a few groups, I tend to keep a tight rein on sound levels in practices. I tend to let people adjust their own levels after an initial set up til individuals get a 'ratio' they are happy with (between respective amps and instruments - this usually gets quite loud), then (once they are happy) I get them all to turn themselves down whilst maintaining that ratio. I do this in rehearsals and co-ordinate with the FOH team to do the same for live events. It may or may not be an accepted professional practice to do this (I don't know - I'm not a pro sound engineer), but I find it keeps the band happy, keeps the FOH team happy, and shows the musicians they don't need to be loud/the loudest to have a good onstage/monitor sound.

[quote]If you want to be in the cone of sound without pointing the cab at the roof, have you tried tilting it back a little and then standing on the other side of the stage? Depending on the room, bands I'm in have had to do it before (usually in small practice rooms for the guitarist's sake, can't say I've ever had to do it for a bass since they're more omnidirectional).[/quote] I for one have rarely been in the situation where it is possible to stand that far away from your amp. IEM gives both you and the FOH significantly more control over personal monitor levels in a way that doesn't interfere with onstage sound, which in turn gives you a whole lot more control over onstage sound, and in turn more control over the FOH sound. Whilst I don't wish to belittle your suggestion, pointing a cab so as to direct it's sound all the way across the stage to where you would be standing does seem to fly in the face of having a controlled onstage sound, but that's just my opinion

Really? One of your favourite gear manufacturers? I'd never have guessed... </sarcasm> I don't blame you at all! They are producing some top stuff.

I played fretless exclusively for a year or two, and dabbled in it after that. Since getting my new fretless W&T, I've remembered why I love fretless. Like an earlier poster said, you can do anything on fretless that you can on fretted. Like another poster said, the sound is/can be made different to a fretted and can be closer to an upright sound, but you can also play it and make it sound like a fretted (to some extent). So those are practical reasons I love fretless. On a more emotional/personal level, I love the challenge and reward of playing fretless. The tone is different to fretted and beautiful. Certainly more expressive but not necessarily needing vibrato or slides to achieve that. Yes it carries the risk of a note being out, but that demands dedication devotion and practice and love for the instrument to minimise/overcome that. And as you progress, the emotional reward (for me) is just wonderful. Playing in the 2nd (and in my case the 3rd) octave of the fingerboard and playing what you're hearing in your head is more rewarding (for me) when done on a fretless than on a fretted, both for sonic reasons (i.e. the tone) and the personal reasons.

I don't think they look cheap at all. I think it looks very minimalist and very slick... which I like! I could see it becoming an industry standard due to its simplicity and its advanced feature set. It's also intuitive as it switches mode according to which one it detects you are wanting (i.e. single note, multiple notes, etc). I think a real difficulty will be satisfying the hordes of moaners out there who are griping about lack of flexibility in the advanced features and how 'pointless' the polytune feature is.

Bass Direct now officially have these in stock so ordered one today! Exciting! One thing to note, it's not clear whether this tuner lets you have the tuner on and still have your bass signal going through it to your amp (like the DT-10 bypass feature). I quite like this feature for constant intonation monitoring on fretless, though I have a solution for this anyway if it turns out that the tuner doesn't support this feature.

Hi Martin I used IEM again on Sunday for church in the morning and evening. I used my rig in tandem with IEM. Basically, I used the IEM to monitor myself (plus a monitor feed that I could blend in with the headphones), and the PA guys were able (and allowed ) to independently adjust the rig volume to whatever they wanted it to be without it affecting my monitoring ability. This was, by far, the best monitoring situation I've ever experienced as I could hear myself totally clearly and could control my own monitor level and mix & level (of myself and feed from board) all without affecting the onstage sound level. Without IEM this would not be possible. This is, of course, primarily applicable to those with their own amp. So for allowing the sound guy to control onstage levels without affecting monitoring for individual musicians, IEM is a great idea. Lower onstage levels could then have a knock-on effect on how well the singer hears himself without necessarily going IEM. Nevertheless, it follows that he may as well try IEM at the same time - it'd make your practices a lot quieter if you were all hearing yourselves through IEM rather than backline. If you have a look at some of the ART or Behringer Micromonitor devices, these allow you to blend a mix of an instrument with an auxiliary signal to a set of headphones, and are remarkably cheap. This would allow you to try IEM relatively cheaply, with each musician being able to set his/her own levels. I for one certainly don't want to rely on foldback speakers for monitoring anymore. I'm sold on IEM. Mark