stewblack

My initial answer was one had 6 flats and the other had six sharps! Cheers guys, the last thing I want is to pass on false information.

It's something you notice a lot on line. The idiots are the grit in the oyster. They irritate but they do encourage people to post. Also one of the cardinal rules of the internet is that any given forum won't seem as good in a year's time. The majority of people here are still fine.

Teaching a guy the basics - I'm not qualified but he wanted me too, if this offends anyone look away! - and he wants a bit of theory. Well I'm staying one step ahead of him (my piano lessons were a million years ago) by reading up and asking in places like this. The great thing is I'm starting to read music and really getting a taste for it. We were trying to figure the difference between the key of G flat and the key of F sharp. Any ideas that I can share?

[quote name='finnbass' post='102489' date='Dec 11 2007, 01:35 AM']One of the reasons Behringer have never been successfully sued is that the vast majority of those circuit designs have existed for years.. They were NOT invented by BOSS, who simply 'ripped them off' themselves a couple of decades or so ago from other designers. What goes around, comes around. To suggest otherwise, is like saying that 'Murphy' invented the radio and no one else should ever use that design again or that 'Ford' invented the motor car and no one else should be allowed to manufacturer them.[/quote] Thank you. At last a voice of sanity on the Behringer issue.

[quote name='Aussiephoenix' post='101873' date='Dec 9 2007, 10:01 PM']see, I dont get that, just cause the 5th string is there, you Dont have to use it, well, if it confuses you anyway.[/quote] Well at the time I'd only just learned to play a five. I'd learned that one set on it and yes it took that bit of thought playing a song on an unfamiliar instrument with an extra string. Why would I have taken the risk live just to save carrying a couple more cases ? That would have been lazy, pointless, unfair on me and the rest of the band. I am slowly getting used to switching between the two and no longer learn a new song on just one but play it on both. they are after all utterly different instruments.

Oh - I did once take 4 basses to a gig. This was simply because I was in the support band as well! In one band all the songs are played on a 5 string in the support they're on 4 so each set needed one bass and one spare.

I will never use gig bags since dropping and breaking a bass in one - saving a little weight by not using hard cases is never worth it. Also I always carry spare amp and cab. I mean what are you going to do if it all goes pear shaped? So: Two basses in hard cases. Two heads. Two cabs. Two stands. Big wheel about tool box full of leads, pedals, tools etc. Stair climbing sack trucks if venue up or down many flights of stairs.

Funny you should ask as I've just got the beginnings of another bout of amp gas. It's always bass gas but amp and cab gas comes and goes. Once you realise it's all gas you just go with it and enjoy the frustration, the lust and the anti climax when it's all over. It's a lot like sex.

It's funny you should ask this, as it often comes up with a guy I'm teaching. I say to him I wish I'd learned four different scales instead of 1 as I've limited my note choice and only now am expanding the options. If you only know one place on the neck to play a particular scale your bass lines will be restricted and could become repetitive. Having said that I've not heard many people write better than me so I've not done too bad. Also I wish I'd not been so proud and occasionally learned someone else's bass lines when I was starting out. It stretches your technique and saves you reinventing the wheel. I was so damn certain I had to be original I didn't learn another bassline verbatim till I was in my 40's.

[quote name='Rich' post='99342' date='Dec 5 2007, 09:57 AM']A T3 fretless? Oh that is a thing of beauty.[/quote] So annoying, just before Chrimbo. It is indeed a beauty.

Bassassin - I am the worst ebayer in the world. Having had the winning bid on your Jazz copy for three days I forgot to look at it yesterday. Grrr. You'd have made a couple of quid more as well if I'd had a brain.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='97504' date='Dec 2 2007, 11:12 AM']Does the truss rod loosen? If so take it back a 1/4 turn then try going forward, if it stops in exactly the same place then it 'may' be that the truss rod is at its limit! In which case your trusty tech may well be needed.[/quote] Yep - it's off to the expert. Thanks everyone.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='97431' date='Dec 2 2007, 12:10 AM']Stew 2 tips Slacken the strings. Sit on the floor, put the bridge between your feet, the back of the body/neck against a knee and gently but firmly push the neck straight while adjusting the rod. This will take the strain off the trussrod. If this doesn't make it free-er take it to a luthier.[/quote] Thank you Oh king of all things Green. I desisted when I had what we recovering alcoholics call "A moment of clarity" as I thought about the torque I could apply with the pipe. The posh bass I tried next tightened up a treat and restored the action with a quarter turn. 1 up for Musicman. I've alerted my splendid guitar tech that he may be needed.

My better half against my better judgment went out and got central heating fitted now all my bass necks are shaped like long bows. So how hard can it be to tighten truss rods. Well on one of them bloody hard it turns out. Any tips? I loosened the strings, took a deep breath put a 6ft length of pipe on the allen key for a bit of the old leverage and still the bastard won't move.

You have my sympathy - you embody the spirit of 'the show must go on' I once did a gig whilst suffering a bout of diarrhea and boy was that a challenge. Literally running between numbers. Awful.

[quote name='OldGit' post='92347' date='Nov 21 2007, 10:27 PM'][url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=8701&view=findpost&p=90143"]Aguilar 2x12 I suspect this may be just a little better than the Behringer ...[/url][/quote] At least you were good enough to say you suspect, not know as most people would. Of course everyone here told me the Eden amp and later the Epiphani cab I bought were better than the Behringer equivalents I already had.. Guess what? They're not. The amp is less well made (the knobs are all losing their coloured ends for instance) but still quite good, the cab simply isn't any different. Blindfold anyone and they wouldn't know which I was playing through. I use it all in a stupid ott stereo set up and get people creaming over the sound I get.

[quote name='tauzero' post='91857' date='Nov 21 2007, 12:00 AM']There's talking to the audience and there's being in love with your own voice. On a really bad night, he'll introduce the band three times, ask for birthdays in the room four times, ask if there's any singers in the room twice, and ask for requests several times. We can cope with 1 and 2 because we all know our own names, even the drummer, and we can manage "Happy birthday", but 3 has led to a variety of drunken audience members doing a song or two (which doesn't go down well with the other audience members - they're there to see a proper band, not some pissed-up fart singing tunelessly), and 4 is hideously embarrassing because we've only ever managed one request (particularly stupid as the vocalist doesn't even know the words to the songs in the set). I think I'll just have a little lie-down now.[/quote] Hmmm. It appears to me that you hold your lead vocalist in similarly high esteem to that with which I viewed the singer in a now sadly defunct ensemble in which I had the honour of playing the bass. Might be wise to consider your or his position before you end up trying to strangle him. If you are driving along a dual carriageway as we were when this happened to me it can put your gear at risk of serious damage.

[quote name='tauzero' post='91480' date='Nov 20 2007, 04:04 PM']Getting your vocalist not to go on and on between numbers so everybody sits back down - priceless.[/quote] Funny, different folks I suppose. Ours can't speak to them to save his life and I feel it alienates them, causes an 'us and them' scenario. I end up filling the gaps and that just looks wrong. Maybe somewhere between the two lies the answer. I'd like to get a whole second set of disco/funk and play it without any gaps. that'd sort them. anyway can I add "Oh What A night" - goes down a storm. With the oldies.

[quote name='ergon' post='91140' date='Nov 20 2007, 12:01 AM']OK point taken [/quote] And if you happen to be in the west Country any time soon call in and see just how good the BA4X10 really is.

"Hey Bulldog" The Beatles. I told 'em, but would they listen? "Oh but it's so cool to pick a Beatles track most people don't know" Yes it is and a great bassline and I love playing it but not at a bluddy wedding.