fretmeister

@drlargepants Saw the comments about the M900 - do you want a photo of my settings? I'm using a passive PJ with it and I'm very happy with my big band sound. Chunky bottom, enough space in the mids for the trombones, and a little treble, and with a touch of wooliness provided by the B3K circuit. The VMT circuit should be the better choice for this... but it isn't. Far too much mids clashes with the other instruments. The B3K circuit does it far better and with less EQ mucking about.

Boss / Fender 63 Reverb. Old DOD Phasor is sort of brown / red Boss Octave

After a couple of weeks playing it with the factory set up - I like it a lot. I have had to adjust a little playing the G string due to the usual EBMM habit of only having a micron movement before falling off the fretboard but I'm getting the hang of it. It's not as clanky as my former metally self would have preferred but it does suit the big band stuff far better. The low B seems stronger too. I'm guessing that the string was being choked a bit even if I couldn't hear any buzz.

Excellent. The great thing about having a few sight reading books or example tests is that it forces you to read rather than remember. I've got a really good memory for bass parts - I can remember stuff I last played 5 years ago quite easily - so it's hard to tell sometimes if I'm reading a piece or just remembering it. So I try to use new stuff any time I can. Great thing about the bass guitar - you can pick from millions of piano scores and just play the bass clef part for practice. I just ignore the chord element and play whatever the lowest note shown is.

Probably be a small group who have played all the supposed top gear. I've never played a Ritter or Alembic or Carl Thompson, and only had 2 mins on a fretless Wal. I have played Sadowsky, Marleaux, Fodera, Status, Modulus. Of those - they were all lovely and very different. I thought the Marleaux was the best *for me* out of them. BUT if Status went back to their older neck profile that was more C shaped rather than the D they have now... that would probably change my mind.

Ive used Mark Bass gear with non Mark Bass cabs with a great result. I think their heads are great but the cabs are a bit lacking. I had the LM2 with some Bergantinos and that was superb. So I'd be looking at cab swapping first. I play a lot of walking stuff - mainly big band with a 20 piece horn section. I either take a Tecamp Puma 300 or my DG M900 - but always through Barefaced One10 cabs. 1 for rehearsal and 2 for gigs. I'm really impressed with those cabs - amazingly full in the bottom and enough top end to hear it come through. No hiss or fizz as there isn't a tweeter. I never got the chance to try the LM2 with the Barefaced cabs, but I'd be amazed if that didn't do what you wanted. Super light weight too.

Yamaha DXR10 is very good.

Every courier is simultaneously described as utterly shite and amazingly awesome. It's a coin flip - very time. I've sent hundreds of parcels with Parcel Force... then they killed a Ashdown Cab I sent. Cost me money and I was very annoyed. But that was less than 1% of the time. I've never had a problem with UPS or TNT. Again - probably the odds currently in my favour. They are all great.... until they are not.

That's lovely! Alas it's also about £800 more than the Sandberg. Which means I can't afford it.

Do them again next time. Then add new ones. Bit like learning scales. You don't nail a scale and then never play it again. Otherwise in a year you'll be able to sight read Giant Steps and you'll struggle with Bah Bah Blacksheep! A great timing exercise is to take 12 bars of something written in 4/4 and then shift the bar lines so it's in 3/4. You'll end up with a few more bars. The notes are the same. The length of the piece is the same. But the pulse of the music, with the ONE landing differently will be very different. It's a real head-scratcher but a great exercise.

I do. It could be - as it is subjective and not part of music education - that we have different views on what it is. I'm with Jeff Berlin on this one. Groove is not a subject.

"Time and groove" is a wasted slot. Replace that with reading. Reading has time in it. Groove is a nebulous subjective thing that doesn't happen without playing with other people. Groove really is ignoring strict time and either pushing or pulling the beat. That's a performance point rather than a learning about music point.

Is that even possible? Wouldn't the black element get rubbed or chipped off - possibly lowering the fret height and causing buzz?

3 times per week for an hour is the wrong approach. You'll retain far more practising for a shorter time but on more days - particularly for reading where the most vital element is doing it all the time. Just like any other language. 15 minutes per day, every day will be far more beneficial. Don't confuse learning music with learning a tune. They are different things. Find somewhere that you can leave your gear and a stand set up all the time so you only have to switch it on. Then read every day. All your individual aims will happen automatically as you read different types of music You'll play different genres, different key and time signatures, get used to where all the Bs are on your fretboard and deal with phrasing, time and groove just by reading music. If you've never read then a basic book on sight reading such as Stuart Clayton's Beginner one is a good start - then something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1848493584/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They are short phrases of a couple of lines each. Very easy at the beginning, betting gradually more difficult. It's a Double Bass book - but just ignore the bow information. You'll improve massively in just the first week. I spent the first 20 years of playing not being able to read a note. Now I'm playing in an educational trust jazz ensemble and I'm sight reading (ish!!) new pieces every week at rehearsal.The above process was recommended to me by the music teachers at the trust. It works and it only needs 15 minutes per day.

Lovely. Fernandes usedto make some excellent guitars.

It's definitely a marketing fail if we notice a Ninja.

The DG M900 will do it. I use mine in a big band. I turn on the drive but have it really really low so adds a bit of wooly thickness and then EQ to the room.

Depends entirely on how often the rehearsals are, and how good the gig pay is. And of course whether the other members actually prepare at home so rehearsals go smoothly. That being said - at the moment I get annoyed I have to travel for 15 minutes! But that's because rehearsal is on a Saturday morning and I'd prefer to be in bed.

That looks great! Let me know when you get bored and want to sell it!

I'm quite happy with Class D, and I only ever judge an amp with my ears and not the spec sheet - I was just curious as to whether it was some new tech that was worth thinking about. I've never thought the 500W heads were under powered, but as the 800W is only about another £60 it got me wondering about it. I've got a Tecamp Puma 300 and a Darkglass M900 and I seem to be using the Tecamp more often and then using pedals if I want dirt. The DG does do a great clean too, but I'm wondering if I fancy a change.

Aside from the BSW I use the MXR filter into a Brown Dog Gated Fuzz. that is glorious!

Digitech BSW.