Ben Jamin

Hi guys, I was just wondering if anyone could help me figure what went wrong with my head this evening? We did two sets in a fairly big venue. I had a 1x15 and a 2x10 stacked for monitoring on-stage (but only running the 2x10) and the FOH signal was coming from the DI output on my Ampeg PF500. The first set went fine - sounded ace. At the end, I turned the volume down on my bass, hit the mute switch on the amp and left it like that for the 20 minute interval. When I came back though, we went straight into the first song and there was nothing from the cab. I could hear the boom from the FOH system and managed to get through it on that before quickly switching to the 1x15 in a quiet section. Still no sound. Then I noticed the fault light had come on on the amp, so I turned it off and left it for about ten seconds (hurrah for really long quiet sections) before rebooting it. Still nothing from the cabs, but I could hear the FOH still working fine, so I played the rest of the set based on the general rumble I could hear, mourning what I guessed was the death of my power-amp. Weird though, as the gain was set at less than a quarter and the volume at under half, so I was hardly driving it. However, after just about making it through the gig, I had a chat with the bloke on PA, rebooted my amp again after about 5 minutes, and it worked fine! He double-checked my channel on the desk and there was nothing out of the ordinary - just a bit of EQ - no phantom power or anything. Obviously I'm happy it works again, but it'd be nice to know what happened so that I can hopefully avoid it re-occuring! Cheers! Ben

The first thing I listen out for when coming up with lines is what the kick, snare and any other rhythm instruments are doing. These provide the fundamental rhythm pattern so working around those should let you know where to fatten up/emphasise a beat with a big low note or two. Generally less is more - the trick is in balancing leaving enough space for everything to stand out whilst taking up enough room to support it and beef it up. Don't worry if your part seems musically uncomplicated - I used to think it was impressive to throw in as many tricks as I could, when infact it only made me sound arrogant and the music sound bad. In my opinion, the real joy in bass playing is just sitting on a good groove. Runs and fiddly stuff sound ace... in the right place.

I just bought a Mono strap called The Betty which is possibly both the coolest looking and most comfortable strap I've ever tried. £30ish

Warwick $$ Corvette 5-string - Ampeg PF500 - Barefaced Compact ,,,and a Sue Ryder!

From stage left-right - rhythm guitarist, me, drummer. That way me and the guitarist can see what we're doing and me and the drummer can lock in nicely.

[quote name='jackers' timestamp='1341309564' post='1716621'] hehe, thanks Nick I have to say, I have always wanted to try flats, but I am not sure whether I could still get that gritty edge to my sound with them. [/quote] Try out some D'addario Chromes maybe? They can go pretty bright for flats

Nice! Can't argue with a sunburst P!

I'm guilty of the default E too. It's knowing you can always bring it down to a big fat open E root note. ...even though I play a 5-string now which goes down to B?

Sounds like it might be a pre-amp problem to me - my Warwick starts to distort on the lower notes when the battery starts to go. Also, active basses can be a lot louder than passive ones, so maybe you could try turning down the input gain on the amp? When I switch from my passive Precision to my active Warwick I have to take the gain on the amp right down otherwise it'll distort. Hope that helps

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1341095431' post='1713886'] I can't say from 1st hand experience of basses ...... but I have a couple of solid Gibson guitars and a hollow Gibson (an SG, a Les Paul, and an ES335) they ALL have the same [u]exact[/u] same pickups and hollow bodied ES has a sort of woodier thicker tone ....almost as if there is a miniscule amount of delay added. I guess if a bass did the same thing it would be wicked. [/quote] Mmm. Sounds good! I'd love to try one with some flatwounds!

Nice! Excuse me whilst I surf over to the GAK site and add a bass or two to my basket...

At the risk of sounding a bit dim, what kind of differences does a semi-hollow body make to the sound (other than I guess more acoustic volume)?

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1340872465' post='1710677'] You are privileged. [/quote] Haha noooo, I don't actually own any of this, I was just trying to illustrate that there will always be one more thing we 'need' when in-fact, at least in my case, I'm already lucky enough to have two basses that cover everything for me

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1340841560' post='1710526'] Might be more the best sounding metals are more expensive. [/quote] Probably. There seemed to be an obsession across most of the brands with silver sounding amazing though, but at no point was it explained why! I mean, they look prettier, sure

Also my friend was looking into buying a new flute for uni the other day - why do the more expensive metals like silver give 'the best' sound, eh?

"Tell you what Ben: I'll learn guitar, you buy this bass and learn how to play it - and we'll start a band and become famous."

Also a big Muse fan, Chris Wolstenholme got me into bass years ago. However: Yep, definitely made of cheese. But that's the point really I guess, got to love it!

[size=6]2![/size] Warwick 5-string - active/coil-split - roundwounds - does everything 'modern' Sue Ryder - passive/back-up for when my back's broken - solely for the P-bass and flatwounds sound Sorted. Apart from... A Dingwall (intriguing) A proper vintage Fender (just because) A single-cut six-string (for self-indulgent guitar territory) A fretless (for staying in tune with the guitarist) A cricket-bat headless (for that 80s band I haven't joined yet but might do at some point in the future/epic mirror-posing) A short-scale (just for giggles) A Fodera (bling) A custom bass built to render the entire collection obsolete And so on and so forth

Here's a couple from an recent acoustic(ish) set for a fashion show! Classic bassist-gawp Bass-shot! ...And my facial reaction upon hearing back my first take for my old band's EP, quite a while ago...

[quote name='D-L-B' timestamp='1340785792' post='1709443'] Just some of it... [/quote] I can just imagine the gig dilemma: Anyone got a spare patch cable?

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1340702501' post='1708190'] Much better Although it could be much more entertaining if the losers got to design it [/quote] Yes!