stewblack

[quote name='ianrunci' post='138027' date='Feb 11 2008, 11:47 AM']I have just gone back to bass after playing guitar for the last 15 years and decided I needed something cheap and cheerful to get me going again. I bought a Behringer BX300T head which has hardly been used and was still in the box along with a a Peavey 4x10 all for £120 and managed to get a Yamaha BBG5S for £50 which I think was a bit of a bargain. Has anyone had any experience of the Behringer's, it seems to be ok but I haven't had it down to the rehearsal studio's or on a gig yet so haven't had a chance to give it a good run. Just wondered what other people thought of it? is it cheap and cheerful and worth the money or a bag of crap and I have wasted my money? Ian[/quote] You'll get a mixed response here. I love all the Behringer kit I've ever bought. Some hate it for what could at a stretch be described as ethical reasons, some have had genuinely bad experiences and some I suspect are employing outright brand snobbery. All I can say is why pay more for a label?

[quote name='Clive Thorne' post='125634' date='Jan 22 2008, 08:42 PM']I'm sure I've seen these discussed in a thread before, but a search for rocket did not reveal it (perhaps it was on bass world). Anyway, I'm doing a lot of traveling and spending nights away from home at the moment, so am looking for something portable (ie fits inside the bass case) to go between my bass and the headphones, preferably battery powered. The Pocket Rocket is one that springs to mind, but a few reviews on the 'interweb' mention excessive hissing. Does anyone have experience of these or equivalent devices, and if so what are your thoughts/recommendations? Thanks in advance people, Clive.[/quote] I wouldn't be without my pocket rockit. I use it while my family are watching the audio visual sewage that comes out of the tv,I use it back stage, I use it wandering naked around the house if the fancy takes me. It's wonderful.Never fallen out, fits every bass I own, sounds great. If I ever lost or broke it I would buy another in a heartbeat.

[quote name='jay249' post='136103' date='Feb 7 2008, 11:00 PM']...Only you have to go all the way to Midsomer Norton..![/quote] You have a good point. It's only down the road though. Mind you I haven't been there for ages - it might be rubbish now, you might not pay to play in Bris and Bath might not be so snobby. Things do change...

The Wunder Bar Midsomer Norton is the best live venue. Avoid Bath and Bristol. Just my personal experience.

[quote name='BassBomber414' post='135921' date='Feb 7 2008, 07:27 PM']Getting back to the start of the thread - Thomann are a cut above for customer service.[/quote] Apologies for attempted off topic humour. Back on it I have had very similar experience with [url="http://www.musicstore.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/-/-/-/Default-Start"]these people[/url] the one to one contact the cheap delivery and the fine prices. GAK have taken an age to deliver and when phoned told me not to expect customer service as they were a cut price online store and really couldn't take the time to speak to me. True story.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='135910' date='Feb 7 2008, 06:10 PM']If we'd joined the Euro when everyone else went single currency our economy would have spun out of control and gone through boom and bust. The economic position now is even more divergent as the UK economy is in a completely different place to the new EU states and having one central bank fix interest rates for all of us would be disastrous. Alex[/quote] You are Robert Kilroy-Silk and I claim my £5.

[quote]Eurosceptics are fools., One word: Thomann[/quote] Two more: John Redwood. Seriously though, quite agree.

Hope your boss doesn't read this cos it sounds like someone's going to need a day off sick soon

If it helps anyone else decide to use them then they get my vote too. Just what ordering online should be. Always there next day as ordered great price.

Well it's new to me anyway. Maybe you do it this way all the time, if so you could give me some tips on making the system work. Usually I like to start knowing what the chords are and just feeling my way around the structure in an obvious root, fifth, octave type pattern or just roots to get said structure in my head. Then as I get under the skin of the song try out different ideas to different parts of the song till I've got basslines for each part of the song. Then I'll put them together keeping the best most fitting melodic parts and paring down the rest so as not to clutter the song. This time however a mate has given me his demo and no chords (he doesn't know the names just plays what sounds nice to him) and asked me to accompany him at a gig next week. Great fun. I love playing with just a guitar as it's a totally different ball game from playing with a drummer. But as I've no idea what he's playing I've stuck the song on repeat and am literally just playing anything until I find something that sounds nice then trying to remember what I did. It's a weird unstructured way to write a line but I hope the result will therefore sound different from my usual style.

Well mine came broken The twist tighteners were split. But the guy had included two replacements So that's OK then.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='127099' date='Jan 24 2008, 06:18 PM']i meant to watch it, but forgot. Hopefully it'll be repeated - BBC4 do a lot of that.[/quote] Started out pissed off as it's not on BBCi Player, but as theres a great show called New York Rock at the BBC instead I'm well happy. So far excellent Patti Smith song with some shots of the bassist - unbelievable in itself! - and now Tina Weymouth and the rest of the Talking Heads this should be fun. As you say the Beeb repeat a lot on 4 so should catch the Police later.

[quote name='neepheid' post='126877' date='Jan 24 2008, 03:20 PM']Excellent spot - snagged one.[/quote] Me too, thanks for the heads up.

I'm part of the 'Kay Generation'. Got them from your Mum's Gratton catalogue or Woolies. They were known as Woolworth guitars round my way and a little heavy if you were beating the dust from a large carpet but excellent for a medium sized rug. You couldn't swing the thing well enough for French cricket - it just wasn't aerodynamic enough. Don't recall ever getting a recognisable bass noise out of it, I moved straight to my Aria Pro2 in the early 80's and it's still the one I'd run into the fire to save. The Kay:

I play a bit of improvised bass with a singer songwriter but the gigs are far and few between and rehearsals non existent so that takes very little time. I rehearsed a set of covers, again just improvising to the chords, for a gig with another guy who wanted to augment his rather basic guitar playing then I got flu and couldn't do the gig Doh! But my real focus is on two bands. A knockabout covers band doing mates weddings and local pubs/halls (which won't progress to the next stage because they won't all do exactly what I tell them!) and an originals band which I love as I have a great rapport with the songwriter and a comfortable musical relationship with the drummer. How to juggle commitments? I believe you decide which is your priority (this should be instinctively apparent) and everything else must be subservient to that band. You must remain constantly sensitive to your priority band and be 100% certain that there is no question in their minds where your ultimate loyalty lies. First come first served for gigs and the musicians rule is you never blow out a gig but if something really 'make or break' important came up for my main band and I had other stuff booked I would have to blow the other stuff.

If you see anything advertised by Peavey UK on the bay, can I heartily recommend them to you? I've had a couple of things from them and they are absolutely first rate. Excellent packaging, product precisely as described, very good communication and incredibly fast. I won an auction at 3pm yesterday and the bass turned up at 9 this morning. £10 p&p. Excellent company.

Thunder 1A We had [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/QUALITY-WESTONE-THUNDER-1A-ACTIVE-BASS-GUITAR-N-R_W0QQitemZ220194738907QQihZ012QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]this yet?[/url] What is the matter with me?? Just bought one of these and now I want this one too. The knobs are different mine had two swiches but that simply won't wash. Not the thing at all. Aaargh.

Good luck to you mate. As others have said the experience will prove very useful but I do understand your reservations. When I was 19 I wouldn't dream of playing any covers, or anyone else's bassline. Took me to my late thirties to say bollocks to principles and take the money, but I have to say I have learned a lot from studiously learning other peoples stuff since and now my original basslines do have more variety. The fear is of course you just end up sounding like another derivative bass player. Hey ho, I'd still say take the gig. If you don't you'll always wonder and if you do and hate it you can walk away. I turned down chance to dep in a 'proper' band once and I still wonder where it might have led, of course I'll never know.

[quote name='Hit&Run' post='121647' date='Jan 16 2008, 07:17 PM']I know peavey UK were selling off a few instruments that had electronic faults, but were otherwise sound. Back on topic, I've got some dimarzios in a jazz bass and they're really nice. You can get good prices on them from the states as well. Is it the pickups, the electronics, or both that are iffy on your 5'er?[/quote] Not sure yet - they say all may need replacing but the problem is battery drain - which isn't likely to be the pups. When my man gets it to bits for me I'll know better but I'll buy any bits needed so was after recommended places to buy from.

I just wish it wiped the person out all together. Still have to see that they exist which does irritate but nowhere near as much as accidentally reading a tiny bit of one of their posts. As we all know the kind of trollish idiocy that attempts to ruin any message board is best remedied by complete ignorance, and ignoring something is easier if you don't have to read it in the first place.

[quote name='Toasted' post='121294' date='Jan 16 2008, 09:41 AM'][i]With the Conservative Party losing three out of four general elections by 1974 under his leadership, Heath came to be seen as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party activists, and sympathetic newspaper editors. Among the wider electorate he attracted more sympathy, partly because of public statements he had made hinting at his willingness to consider the idea of serving in a government of national unity.[/i] It's almost perfect [/quote] Thought you'd like it.

[quote name='Hit&Run' post='121185' date='Jan 16 2008, 12:11 AM']was that the cirrus bxp?[/quote] Nope - a Millenium 5.

He's so good this bloke that he's got more than one feedback section ! Check [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=78"]this[/url] out!