tauzero

[quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1390128923' post='2341653'] As you guys all know, I've been mooching around in search for a small, light and decent sounding combo that could cope with pub gigs on it's own, no PA support, for about a million years now, or what seems like it. And I figured there must be others in the same position. [/quote] How loud is the band that you're competing against? I used a GK 200MB (predecessor to the MB150) happily with a club band for years, but it wouldn't have kept up with a full-on rock band. And how desperately do you want a combo? Not excluding separates would give you hugely more options, eg. Genz Benz Focus or GK Neo cabs which are cheap and light combined with one of the many micro heads around these days.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1393509626' post='2381179'] Seriously though, all the fuss made about £50 notes is basically to discredit cash. The government are desperate to get rid of cash entirely so they can 100% keep tabs on what everyone's buying and where. [/quote] Aha, so it's the government who's producing the fake £50s then? Damn clever, they get to spend loadsamoney without it costing them anything, and then they use it as an excuse to get rid of cash.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1393447401' post='2380521'] How does one company end up with twenty five damaged acoustic basses in such a short period of time? [/quote] Gets them delivered by ParcelFarce. They started out with 75 undamaged ones.

I put the volume up most of the way, leave a bit of headroom, so I can adjust either up or down on the bass as necessary. I used to put the volume all the way up but that meant that if the general volume was increasing, I had to go to the amp and turn it up.

[quote name='cclowend' timestamp='1393060103' post='2375652'] What's the point of having an effects loop if its not as good as putting the effects in line from bass to amp then? [/quote] Some effects, mainly rack-mount units, are designed to be used at line level. Stompbox effects and multifx won't necessarily distort if used at line level but it is something to be aware of.

[quote name='tayste_2000' timestamp='1393033565' post='2375579'] I'll pay good money for a HM-2 [/quote] They're far too light to use as anchors. Not too bad for chocking car wheels though.

You may encounter a problem using an effects pedal or multifx in a send/return loop, as the signal is somewhat higher than the output from a bass so it can overload the effect.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1392839726' post='2373412'] It may be that a fretless was played on the Jumping Jack Flash single but it was not Mr Wyman playing it. [/quote] Issa Stones track from the late 60s played on a defretted bass as per spec. The actual perpetrator wasn't a requirement in the original terms of reference. That'll cost you extra, squier.

[quote name='BassBod' timestamp='1392717018' post='2371828'] I remember reading years ago that Bill Wyman was using a de-fretted bass in the mid 60's - but I've never heard a Stones track from that time when you'd notice, it could be double bass, could be a hollow body? [/quote] Have a good listen to Jumpin' Jack Flash.

I wish someone would nick our guitarist's HM2. Bloody awful pedals.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1392675790' post='2371588'] Interesting programme. Obviously they only get a few minutes to dramatise a whole lot of research but one point that struck me during the cycling trial as shown was that there was no real control, or not one that was explained. The programme made a point of including the cyclists saying they would not normally race twice in one day so presumably there was no reference for what their second performance would have been without any pills - placebo or not. [/quote] Yes, I was going to raise that same point. TBH, due to the small sample size and lack of control, this seemed more like an anecdotal demonstration than true research - interesting but not of itself of any great weight. That's not to say that the placebo effect hasn't been firmly established now, by rigorous trials using much larger sample sizes, and it's also not meant as a criticism, as showing a lot of numbers from trail results wouldn't put the point across as well as the cycling did. The physiological changes engendered by placebo were interesting, establishing a mechanism by which the effect is manifested and demonstrating that it's not just psychological. There's a fair bit on the placebo effect in Ben Goldacre's book [i]Bad Science[/i], which everybody should read anyway. He also raises the point about the disclosed placebo, which is where the whole thing starts to get very puzzling.

[quote name='dincz' timestamp='1392635571' post='2370798'] I'll be watching. Does it make sense to talk about the opposite of a placebo? The belief that something is doing you harm? [/quote] That's the nocebo effect.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1392559538' post='2369998'] You shouldn't get involved in charity gigs unless you are committed to the cause... as the event is often very close to someone heart and discussing money/times is deemed 'churlish'....even inappropriate. [/quote] I've never found that. Whenever we've done charity gigs, we've talked about the timing with the organisers (or been the organisers) and got it sorted out in advance, then checked on the night that there's no change.

For the pub gigs my bands are doing, an active system suits me. Tiny Behringer Xenyx 1002B mixer, pair of Mackie SRM450s (which are lighter than some passive speakers I've lifted onto poles), Wharfedale active monitor and extension, and sufficient intelligence to be able to work out the best routing for the power leads (in fact, my intelligence is vastly over-specified for that). I wouldn't say that either active or passive offers a clear advantage, or, indeed, clear disadvantage. When I had a passive system with a mixer/amp, the mixer/amp power supply blew up. I would think that even the most passionate passive advocate wouldn't see this as a recoverable situation. With my current system, if the mixer fails, I can feed a mic straight into a Mackie, and if a Mackie fails, we just use the other one, so it's not an entirely unresilient system. I wouldn't actually object to a passive system with separate mixer and power amp, but it's more boxes to carry and store, and it's my PA, so it's my priorities that count.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1392480169' post='2369247'] I've now moved over to a Peavey 410 with wheels on it so weight isn't an issue any more [/quote] Up to a point, Lord Copper. You may find certain impediments:

[quote name='la bam' timestamp='1392322035' post='2367467'] I think a lot of bassists are going for the all in one small powerful package. As Lozz says Markbass with a tuner would be fantastic. I had an Ashdown Superfly and loved the size, but the compression which you couldnt turn off used to drive me mad! So any additions on an amp must be turn off-able for me. [/quote] It's been a while since I had one, but IIRC you could switch it off in software with the Superfly editor.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1392420545' post='2368718'] So a 6mm bolt has a cross sectional area of 28mm2 which is close to 10x 2.5mm2. But that's of passing coincidental interest. Lol. [/quote] At the risk of perpetuating this yet further, the other thing to consider is contact area. While a fuse has a big flat contact area to go into the big flat [1] fuseholder, the threaded bit of a bolt provides a series of teeny-tiny contact lines. That's going to be the major factor in considering the current-carrying area as a fuse has a considerably larger contact area than conductive cross-sectional area, while for a threaded bolt the reverse is true. [1] Well, curved, but an even surface

For quite a few years, I used a GK 200MB combo as my gig rig. I've moved back up to bigger stuff now, use a Tecamp Puma 900 head for everything with a TC RS112 for smaller venues and a Tech Soundsystems ND410S for larger ones.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1392226820' post='2366220'] One in its case,which is hanging on the wall. The other hanging on a Hercules floor stand. The mini-Rocks know that they can gently touch anything on the bass, except for the tuners. [/quote] Can they touch the tuners as long as they tell you which one they've touched? It's 1, 2 and 3 for me - some hanging on the wall, some on floor stands, some in hard cases. Come to think of it, the B2V is stood on the floor leaning against the storage settee arm as there's no [s]prison[/s] stand that will hold it.

Just use the top six strings from a 7-string set. Dean Markley - 22 27 47 67 87 107, Ken Smith - 20 28 44 63 84 106. Or get a set from Circle K - they do bottom string gauges from .051 up. [url="http://circlekstrings.com/store/6-strings-ss5.html"]http://circlekstrings.com/store/6-strings-ss5.html[/url] Basicall, you'll want something along the lines of 20-30-40-60-80-100.

If the audience are up and dancing and the next song is another one for dancing, just play the next one. Never have dead air. Well, that's my theory anyway. It doesn't always work. In one band I'm in, the singer has yet to fully find his feet over the audience chat (he's getting better) but the others never seem to quite grasp the concept of getting the next number started ASAP so there's a bit of a pause while they remember who actually starts the song. The other band has Mrs Zero singing, who can talk the hind leg off a donkey, and the rest of the band have a reasonable grasp of starting songs, so it all works pretty well. The other rules: Never ask if there are any birthdays in the room Never ask if anyone in the audience would like to sing a song Never ask for requests (especially not if the line you use is "Any requests? We've had one, but we're staying") If you have a singer that does that, is permanently pissed, and randomly rearranges songs in the middle of them, you're playing in Martin's band. Never mind.

Looking at the manual, I would say that it's an updated B1 so it loses the flexibility of the multi-stompbox model that the B3, and to a lesser extent the MS60B, has. You just switch between patches without being able to switch individual effects.

[quote name='ubassman' timestamp='1376780429' post='2179153'] CAPTION? [/quote] "For heaven's sake, child, put that damn apple back on your head"

While admittedly we were playing mainly English rather than Irish music, when I was with the ceilidh band I used a fretless Warwick Thumb. Lovely woody instrument.

Favourite bass - Warwick JD Thumb. Has the most playable neck I've ever, er, played. As soon as I played it I knew I had to have it, pxed my Fender P (which was, in comparison, like a Woollies Special beside the Thumb, although it was the second-best P I've ever played) and my Hohner B2 and took out a loan for the rest. I'd paid £150 or so for the P (second-hand and tatty), I paid £900 for the Thumb. So I'm not parting with it, even though I play 5-string these days.