bassbloke

I know I'm a musician. My mates know I'm a musician. I even keep a handy pick in my wallet (mostly for guitar) so that it falls out when I'm rooting round for change, so nice looking female shop assistants think I'm a musician.

If I was to buy that phone they wouldn't know I was a musician. They'd probably just think I was a bit of a cock.

[quote name='WarPig' post='709023' date='Jan 11 2010, 04:31 PM']Damn thats only one stop down the line from me![/quote]

Perfect. 'Borrow' a trolley from Sainsburys and you're sorted.

Bidding on a Sansamp RBI but not prepared to pay silly minute. I did, however, notice this. £120 starting bid, no reserve and no activity. If it was a blown speaker you could either replace or get reconditioned for under £100, giving you a quality cab for not a lot.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/David-Eden-2x12-Bass-Cabinet-Amp-Speaker_W0QQitemZ300384373608QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item45f04dcb68"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/David-Eden-2x12-Bass...=item45f04dcb68[/url]

I got into bass for the simple reason that one of my school mates played bass and fancied upgrading so I agreed to buy his old bass off him.

I did think DD Verni from Overkill (Years of Decay and Horrorscope era) was the coolest bass player on the planet.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='698317' date='Jan 1 2010, 07:56 PM']If you think that's unusual, the last piece of footage of Deicide I saw clearly showed Glenn Benton playing a black Rickenbacker...[/quote]

Maybe he thought it'd be less likely to get nicked.

You'll always encounter this kind of situation.

Actually, usually it'll be worse - you'll be on a 4 or 5 band bill because the promoter is a greedy little sh*t and thinks that by packing in as many different bands as possible they'll maximise their chances of making a few quid, as opposed to giving punters value for money by ensuring that the majority of the evening consists of live music rather than watching changeovers.

One band will always be late and miss their alloted soundcheck time, but there will be no one stage managing the affair, so rathern than do the correct thingt, which is move on to the next band and tell the tardy band that they've forfeited their soundcheck, you'll stand around waiting and feeling extra p*ssed off that you've had to use your annual leave or start work early or sneak out or whatever to make soundcheck.

Said band will invariably be rubbish, play for too long and ruin the running order, take ages to pack up and then proced to disrupt your set by taking theor gear back out to their cars via the centre of the venue.

Sound familiar?

My mate at www.insanarty.com will do the job for under £200. He refinished my two basses and they look stunning.

1) How long have you been playing Bass Guitar/String Bass for or both?
Bass Guitar - 19 years

2) If you don’t play string bass/bass guitar have you thought of doubling up on either to get more recognition as a bass player?
Not really. I play rock, metal and some blues so no call for upright. Would be nice, but I can't justify the space required.

3) Who are your favourite exponents of both string bass/bass guitar?
Too numerous to mention, but one of my favourite players is Michael Lepond of Symphony X

4) Do you think that both the bass guitar and string bass are important as bass instruments?
Yes

5) What genres do you think are important for bass players to listen to?
All genres

6) Do you think electric guitarists can learn to play bass guitar more than string bass?
Yes.
a)Entry level electric basses are cheaper
b)the shorter scale and frets make them easier to play
c) they're easier to record and amplify

7) Do you think bass can be used to solo as well as accompany other instruments?
Yes.

8) Do you think it is important to learn to sight read?
Yes, but how often your sight reading skills will be needed depends on the type of music and type of group/ensemble

9) What do you think of bass guitars such as 5 string/6 string e.g. as being an add-on to the bass players role?
They serve a valid purpose provided the extended range is used tastefully.

10) What are your opinions on electric upright basses as a substitute for the string bass?
They serve a purpose. They're smaller and easier to transport and less susceptible to extremes of temperature. If you play a mixture of arco and pizz then they are the logical alternative to a string bass.

11) What is the best amp to use for bass guitar or string bass?
The one that produces the sound you want to hear. You might not even need an amp.

12) What pickups for string bass are the best for capturing the natural tone of the instrument?
Can't really comment, but I would have thought a microphone would be best.

PM sent

[quote name='bigsmokebass' post='690759' date='Dec 21 2009, 04:17 PM']nice bass but uber grotty strings >_<[/quote]

Just look like flatwounds to me.

I don't know for sure, but might you have some recourse through the county court?

You have the guy's address, proof of shipping and evidence from him that he mucked about with the tuning.

AFAIK, the county court judgement is based on likely probably rather than proof beyond all reasonable doubt. An e-mail from saying he'd 'experimented with some alternative tunings' plus a report from a luthier saying the neck is bowed because some cretin tuned it up 3 steps and mucked about with the trussrod.

If they're all 5 years younger than him, there's a good chance that any of their female fans are 5 years younger too. So, maybe he's onto a winner after all.

Numerous reasons.

Stop bots, etc... from trawling his web content
Stop people from copying his auction and using it for a fraudulent auction

I took my backup bass, a sunburst 1996 MIA JAzz Deluxe V to my good friend Dave at [url="http://www.insanarty.com"]www.insanarty.com[/url] for a respray.

After a week or so it came back looking very different to its original 3 tone sunburst.

[attachment=37837:Bass_010.JPG]

So I now have a pair of very unique basses that complimengt each other nicely

[attachment=37838:Bass_022.JPG]

Lessons? They'd make more of a difference to your playing than a new amp or bass.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='671818' date='Dec 2 2009, 08:34 AM']The TC RH450 has a great sound, not at all thin and not at all 'puny' despite the 450 watts (its only a number). You probably need to try it. TalkBass have a long thread with overwhelming positive comment.

Peter[/quote]

what do you mean not at all puny despite the 450Watts??? Are we all playing 1000+ capacity venues or something?

If you really don't like the band, then move on. there's nothing more miserable than being in a band you don't like. But, if you do enjoy the band but don;t like being part of the trio that does every gig they're offered, then why don't you just join the drummer and guitarist in only participating in shows featuring the full line up?

The Peel is a good venue and they treat bands nicely, but if you

1) want to get paid
2) want to get asked back

you need to put in the hours promoting yourselves and trying to get people down.

It's not that hard to get to - it's a 10 min walk from Norbiton BR and there are buses from Wimbledon, Sutton, etc... that go past or stop very near the venue. It's not in the nicest part of town, but few venues are. Parking is easy too - just find a side street.

If venue are providing backline they I assume that they mean everything. If I hear that bands are sharing backline, I assume they only mean cabs and to be honest, I prefer it that way.

I'm happy to share cab and if people are really stuck will reluctantly allow use of my head, but I do get the hump if people don't ask to borrow my gear.

Finally, soundmen can be awfully presumptuous, but then they're focussed on making things as easy and smooth as possible and a shared backline is great for them.

I dug out a Behringer Ultra DI that I had somewhere and took a line out from the head into that. Problem solved.

The temptation was there to get clever and get a tube DI, Sansamp, etc... but I'm glad the cheaper solution worked.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

My amp died in soundcheck. Loud pop and then nothing. Luckily, the bass player in one of the other bands came to my rescue and let me use gis GK combo (and rather fantastic it sounded too). It ended up beng a costly repair to as the power supply board had blown, taking a few other components out too.

I thought Effects send and return is usually after preamp it certainly was on my old Hartke HA7000 - I used it to bypass the preamp. The DI on mine has a pre or post EQ switch, but I think it still comes after the gain stage, hence the problem with the hot output when I crank the gain.

I think the attenuator is the perfect solution, simple and effective and small enough for me not to forget to pack it. Thank you very much for that advice.

Here is my problem. I have a Tech soundsystems TVM head. It's a solid state head with passive EQ. I like to drive the gain stage quite hard because that's the sound I like (usually set to around 3 o'clock). I also boost both treble and bass EQ on the bass. It's a bit of a thuggish approach, but I like the sound and it certainly cuts.

The issue is that the DI output is really high and frequently causes problems for soundmen. I can get it back down to an acceptable level by dropping the input gain and switching to active input, but that fundamentally alters the sound of the amp and I have to push the master volume.

Would a line out to an external DI with level control solve my problem?

You may also have to adjust your playing style. even if you stick the bottom 4 strings of a 5 string set on your bass, you'll need to play slightly differently to ensure you have enough note definition.

So, ease off a little, turn your amp up, play nearer the bridge and tweak the EQ a little - a little less bass and a little more mid to reduce some of the boominess, etc...