Kiwi

I've found EMGs do have a very distinctive voice - thats a matter of taste obviously. I can't actually visualise what you mean by more wood. *cough* There are varying levels of transparency offered by different pickups which all have their own plusses and minuses. If you don't know what you want specifically in terms of tonal character then the only answer is probably to either take Carl's suggestion (EMG's are very practical in terms of how they handle noise and stuff) or go and try basses where pickups have been changed around between identical models. If you want neutrality then why not go for a piezo based system in the bridge with a buffer preamp (or a John East pre which has buffers built in)?

oh, thats a bugger.

Fascination by Alphabeat its full on and boisterously happy 1,2,3,4 by Feist its uplifting and gentle at the start and climbs towards a soft euphoria at the end Switch by Planet Funk this ones not necessarily a happy song but its got an uplifting and cheerful chorus Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson, just because its got that gospel thing happening

As I mentioned on Page 1, I think theory brings you extra freedom. Whether that degree of freedom is relevant or needed is obviously subject to one's personal circumstances. I personally don't understand how the issue could be discussed meaningfully beyond that point apart from sharing experiences.

is it heavy?

does being the only one in a full suit and wearing a hat count?

[quote name='crez5150' post='277459' date='Sep 4 2008, 11:36 PM']I had a MK jaydee for a few years.... great bass.... very long..... Electronics were not great though.... I generally hate headed basses.... do love Jaydee's and Alembic's though[/quote] I replaced the circuit in mine with a 3 band Bart eq and it made a lot of difference to the headroom and clarity I was getting out of the bass. I asked about headless custom basses once on the Alembic forum, big mistake! Momma don' like dat.

and there I was thinking you were going to do The Constipation Blues.

I'm drooling at the wood grain. The couple of issues I've had with ABG's is that the examples I've tried can't compete with acoustic guitars for volume and they tend to lose a lot of sustain up the dusty end of the neck. How do you think your Brook instrument will measure up on these aspects?

I might as well bring the GB head too, it fits in the gig bag.

he's an awesome bassist, his lines are very lyrical. Thats a bargain price for the bloke who took over from Jaco in weather report.

have you tried hitting the 12th fret harmonic?

Trevor Horn? Youth? Don Was? (all bassists)

[quote name='CHRISDABASS' post='276434' date='Sep 3 2008, 05:57 PM']dont worry about theory too much or what other people say/think![/quote] Including you? *hides*

[quote name='valentine' post='276396' date='Sep 3 2008, 05:10 PM']all the notes and stuff on a bass,i just cant be arsed with learning all the theory i just like to pick the thing up and play it ,like what i mean by learning the notes ie all you ES,F,GS,A,BS,C,DS, do i really need to learn off by heart where they are on my fret bord,i have basic theory knowledge of the bass is this enough or do i need to learn all the theory also? i will if i have to but i still prefer just playing it to learning where all the notes are BORING! been playing 5 months now and i play about 2 hours a day so im getting decent at this thing now =)[/quote] I think the best thing about all that theory stuff is that it helps liberate your playing a bit. I'm hardly an expert compared to some on this forum, I only did RSM Grade 5 theory but knowing how chords are constructed and being able to construct them on the fingerboard is invaluable for coming up with bass lines that rely on more than just root, thirds, fourths or fifths. If you need an example of that in practice, James Jamerson's basslines on the Motown records are probably one of the best examples there are in pop music. He let this theory take all the hard work out of playing which was probably a good thing anyway given he plucked all his basslines with 1 finger ('The Hook'). But he did have a jazz background as well. Have a look at passages where he doesn't play the root note in a chord sequence and you'll probably find that it provides a short cut for getting between two other chords that would have other wise been a bit of a stretch. EDIT:

awesome, if I can get to that, I will.

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='275500' date='Sep 2 2008, 03:19 PM']Could it be that the allocation of numbers is done purely on a sequence, therefore next member is last current member + 1, and not by filling gaps left by registered members that have deleted their account?[/quote] We have a significant number of new members who never bothered validating their accounts for one reason or another. Including one member called Bob_from_accounting. Bob, if you're out there, don't be a stranger mate. With that nick I think you'll fit in fine.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='275356' date='Sep 2 2008, 12:31 PM']That could be the most 80's looking thing I have ever seen.[/quote] It was a bit short of features for use as a preamp and (when new) a bit expensive for an 11 band graphic eq. (programmable or not). I would have liked to see a crossover, stereo effects loop and a compressor on board as well at least. The other problem with this rig was that the volume controls for the Boogie power amp were around the back and so if the sound man happened to bump the FOH level up during the gig, the only way I could compensate with my monitoring was by increasing the gain of the MP-11 which would eventually distort. Ah well, we live and learn. I sold the MP-11 to GremlinAndy.

[quote name='marcus bell' post='274197' date='Sep 1 2008, 01:37 AM']or mp11?? now thats a rare one [/quote] *ahem* Didn't really work well as a stereo rig but at least it looked the part.

[quote name='51m0n' post='274714' date='Sep 1 2008, 04:33 PM']The markup over the US price (allowing for say £20 extra for shipping and for 17.5% VAT) is about £170.[/quote] Out of interest, do you have any links to US based price lists?

A jam packed weekend for us. We had a 9:30am rehearesal start on Saturday practicing a song we've sort-of-written/adapted for a charidee gig until about 3:30pm when we had to load up the van. We've had our mackie sub woofers being repaired for the last 4 weeks after they overheated, so the load in was pretty easy with just the wedge monitors. One of the monitors overheated 2 weeks ago as well so that's gone in for repair too so we're borrowing the soundman's spare wedge which is identical to ours. Mackie have apparently accused our soundman of thrashing the PA but he also does sound for the Mighty Boosh amongst others in addition to owning a Mackie PA which is apparently running fine so their claims seem a bit thin. We've told Mackie we were now aware that their PA's have a very well documented record of overheating and cutting out and from what we can see, there's no way of telling what the cause is. Besides which we expect a PA that is fit for purpose and capable of being operated in a variety of situations without burning out. Anyway, we gigged at a posh public girls school this week for another wedding. No changing rooms had been arranged which we felt was a bit slack. But the kitchen staff were very helpful and we got a slap up BBQ meal (with nicely marinated chicken, prawns, vegie and steak kebabs with lamb koftas, salad and french fries). The punters were up and dancing from the second song which was good but they didn't have as much energy or interactivity as previous crowds. They were a friendly bunch though but some of them got well trollied. So I got home from the gig and was back up for a 9:30am recording session for the charidee gig. I managed my part in 1 take but the drum part needed more work so we re-recorded it about 6 or 7 times. Thing was that as we played each take the unventilated studio and our lack of sleep caught up with us and the more takes we took, the sloppier we got. I recorded using the Celinder Update J as there was a bit of slapping involved (Gospel feel was the order of the day). I realised it would have been nice to record with the Alembic but the preamp/power supply is still being tweaked. I finished at 5:30pm but the guitar/keys/singers parts needed recording too. We had a great studio called Funkyjunk on Hornsey Road. Packed full of early 80's recording and processing gear, the bloke who runs the place must be some kind of collector.