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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1426690422' post='2720844'] For me technical ability is a means to an end and the the end itself. I would classify myself as a composer/songwriter first and foremost, producer/arranger second, band member third, and lastly a musician. For me the final product be it a recording or live performance is more interesting than the technical ability of the people performing it. [/quote] I'm very similar. I'd say I'm better on bass than I am at my other instruments, but for all of them, I can play them to the standard required to play the music I've written.

What is this "heft" we're talking about? Surely there's nothing that can't be achieved with some clever compression and EQ?

All my basses are solid. My schecter studio 6 is quite quiet when played unplugged. Then I have a "marshall" (some custom 6 string I bought 2nd hand off here) which is loud in comparison to the schecter. Is it the strings I wonder?

Well, yeh, OC-2 was mass produced, and I wouldn't describe it as "boutique". The main reason people love it is for it's glitchy sythny nature, so I guess you just didn't like it.

In my experience, if you're concentrating, you can hear all your notes, but most basses are very quiet un-plugged I do have one bass which is quite loud un-plugged. No idea what makes it louder, but it's lovely to play. The only problem is the p-ups are knackered so I can't really play it plugged in!

Yes, you're right, "successful" does not mean it's great music, but I doubt he would have gotten quite so famous if the first two albums were genuinely "terrible". Obviously that's all subjective Anyway, I didn't want to get in the middle of an argument sorry, just thought I might clear it up

[quote name='UglyDog' timestamp='1426671038' post='2720447'] Oh FGS. No, I'm not. You said "[i]If his first albums had been terrible - there wouldn't be a thread in his name on here would there?[/i]", and in reply I am pointing out that the two do not go hand in hand; just because we are talking about him on here, at length, does not [i]automatically[/i] make his first albums the work of greatness. [/quote] The point is that he is famous because of his first album or two, and so indirectly, this thread wouldn't exist unless they were successful.

Cool. A lot of the PA/Mixer dealies in rehearsal rooms will have a headphone output. You could use this as a headphone amp to do the above test properly, so you might want to take your headphones with you to rehearsal

They can be very useful tools. A lot of people these days are foregoing an amp all together, in which case a pre-amp of some sort is pretty much essential, if you care about your sound You might be one of these guys who just wants to give the sound man a clean DI and forget about it, in which case it's probably not for you

you need a headphone amp of sorts, then plug the send into the input of the headphone amp (sounds like you plugged the headphones straight into the send?!)

I love my feedback loop. If you have a good bit of dirt in the loop, a wah pedal will act like a pitch shifter for the feedback weeeeeeeeee. If you have a delay it'll go mental. I particularly like my whammy set to an octave up, so that the pitch of the note seems to get higher and higher (very fast), it creates massive sounds!

I do both. In terms of making original music, a democracy is definitely better. In terms of getting gigs, getting money in, pushing the band forward, dictatorship wins.

Have you tried running the amp into a headphone amp or similar? Just to test if it's the preamp that's distorting

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' timestamp='1425600325' post='2709070'] It sure is. Check this out: [url="http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/barge-concepts-vfb-2-variable-feedback-amp-blend-bypass-looper/11725"]http://www.guitarpla...ss-looper/11725[/url] [/quote] This is the one I use but I don't think they make them any more The blend side blends the clean signal in with whatever effects are in the loop. The feedback side takes some of the output of the effects loop and feeds it back into the input of the effects loop, creating weird oscillations etc.

Don't forget your music stand!

[cheeky] I see you're in Staffs - my studio is in Talke, happy to do BC rates [/cheeky]

all good, dead busy at the studio, Headsticks are out gigging a lot too I did think we had one at the rigger coming up but it's been cancelled for some reason

Oh dear, I absolutely HATE the enhance knob on the LMB-3. I love it as a limiter though and always have it at the end of my pedals. The enhance just sounds so artificial! Maybe that's because of my basses?

I'm not technically brilliant at all. I would not be able to play anything particularly fast for example. This doesn't bother me at all, I can play what I want to play. Very occasionally I'll come up with a riff or a bassline which I have in my head, but I can't play, and this is pretty much the only time I force myself to practise over and over until I can do it I suppose it makes sense for the "session" guys as they need to be able to do everything, and then obviously there are the uber-technical players who manage to make a living from impressing people. I like to watch them, but I would never want to be one!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1426021866' post='2713604'] She's smoking, no doubt and I too see this sort of thing all the time on YouTube. Let me make this very clear, this young lady would smoke my rear end on skill and ability, however she is playing under ideal circumstances and she's being guided and lead on, playing along with world class studio session players. Impress me, post a clip playing live in a club with your circle of musicians and playing *standing up. Blue * Can we all agree, we all play better from the sitting position? I do [/quote] I can't find any live clips but if you check out her FB page it's obvious she's getting good gigs, and playing them, standing up

[quote name='njr911' timestamp='1425997710' post='2713219'] No, I should spend a bit of time with it but with two kids the only chance i get to play is in rehearsals once a week [/quote] downer. OK, well, what's the behringer pedal?

yes, good advice truckstop

There's no octave pedal like that, as far as I know. It's an interesting idea! I think what you're experiencing is a lack of balance across the strings and up the frets, so certain notes are louder than others. Your strings, pickup height, amp settings etc will all play a part in this I have a friend who's EUB was quite quiet on the G string no matter what we did with it. We managed to get around it to an extent using a multi-band compressor, which applies different compression to different frequency bands. This might be the way to bodge a solution

Haha! Have you tried the compressors on it?

In that case, I don't think a compressor is going to be interesting enough to solve your pedal GAS. If there's money burning a hole in your pocket, grab one of the zoom multi effects units, have hours of fun figuring out what effects you like, then you can lust after all the individual "stomp boxes" which also do this effect.