Wolverinebass

The Peter Hook quote made me laugh. Top!! I've not limited myself to stuff that's outside my comfort zone as I've done some singer songwriter stuff which was great and I certainly was playing very laid back. I thought that was fantastic fun. By the same token I've done stuff which has been more prog type material with tonto time changes in it. That was a brilliant challenge and one I relished as I'd never done that sort of stuff before. I tend just to pick stuff I tend to like and see if it'll work. I quite often don't hear the bass on a song at all if it's really simple, I tend to hear what I'd play. That might be the issue. Quite a lot of the time that isn't that different, sometimes it really is very different. On a default setting though for types of bands, I'm not sure if I have one to be honest. Maybe that in itself [b]is[/b][u][/u] the problem. I don't know. By the same token, because I listen to just about anything, I like lots of very, very different material, though this is in itself is not without it's problems. Whilst I think, say Tool are geniuses, I'm not entirely sure if I'd enjoy playing bass for them with all that unison riffing. Whilst that's probably an example that wouldn't be true if put to the test, I'm just trying to illustrate a point. If I didn't enjoy playing in a band or it's material, I just wouldn't do it. Just as paradoxically, just because I like a band's music doesn't mean I'd enjoy playing it. I hope that kind of makes sense. It's just been a very frustrating time and in many ways, quite demoralising for me as I just want to play music I enjoy and have a reasonable amount of expression over what I play. Probably those things are mutually exclusive and I just haven't learned that lesson properly.

It does sound like I'm going for the wrong bands doesn't it? Trouble is I have absolutely no idea what the right one is. Pity Pete Townshend phoned Pino before me.... However, I should clarify what I meant as I think skej21 may have misunderstood. This happened and I wouldn't say it's an isolated incident either. About 3 weeks ago, I replied to an advert. The band sounded a bit like Perfect Circle. Sounded really good and they said that the bass had been sequenced. I asked well before I would turn up if it would be acceptable for me to change it a bit as they were going to be removing the bass anyway. The singer says yes. Now to quantify this the song was basically, D, E, F# and A. The A was played as a slide. I noticed it was in drop D tuning the bass they'd sequenced. I said that as I'd only be using 1 string in a fairly rudimentary manner I wouldn't really be that interested if I couldn't put my own stamp on it. Again this was all fine. I then turn up and go for a jam. The guitarist says I'm playing the "wrong" notes as I'm playing the D an octave higher up. I could go on about this but if they had told me they wanted someone who had a bass with only 1 string I would have said "no thanks." It's not about scores or whatever, it's about people saying one thing and doing another. Skej21's point is well put that it's not about individuals showing off. True, but if people expect you to conform like that from a first meeting, then you'll never be on an even keel with them, nor will you ever be treated as an equal. That's why if I auditioned someone for my band, I'd maybe send them the song to learn, but I'd make sure that they understood that I'd rather hear how they play themself rather than just copying what was already recorded. Just my thought and I'm probably wrong. Give someone the same freedom you'd want yourself. However, if anyone fancies having a listen to my myspace to tell me what kind of band I'd suit, please feel free.

Recently, I've been on the lookout for a new band. However, I seem to have run into a few problems and I'm wondering if going I'm totally mad. I've always made it a rule that I only play with people who are better than me. Basically so that I'll always learn something and improve myself. The question is: Where have all the talented people gone? Anything I've went for in the last 4-8 weeks have either sprung the "just play the root note" crap on me (despite agreeing that I wouldn't have to do that) or just quite frankly, haven't been up to spec in terms of ability in terms of one or two of the members of the band. Perhaps I've been spoiled as I've worked with some very talented drummers and guitarists who I've learned lots from. However, the issue remains. Is this my insane ego running rampant or is it just that musical culture has moved on so that it doesn't actually matter if you're good at anything any more, just that you look good doing it? (See Guy Berryman from Coldplay for the most heinous example of a posing, talentless tool). Is it just that people expect bass players to play like they did in the early 60's? (badly and with no imagination) It's almost like people like John Entwistle, Jaco, Stanley Clarke and all those amazingly innovative and talented people had never existed as being good at bass gets you nowhere these days, but a patronising comment to "play a bit less" or "turn down." Whilst I am someone who has a problem with authority per se, I will never, ever be dictated to in how I play. I'll have a rational conversation about it, but I won't be told "you [b]have[/b][u][/u] to play this...." Er, no. If I wouldn't do that to anyone else, why should I take it? Anyway, I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are on this. Have a gander at my myspace [url="http://www.myspace.com/graphitewolf"]http://www.myspace.com/graphitewolf[/url] if you want to see if I'm an overplaying slap happy monkey.

As someone who uses an Alembic Stanley Clarke, there are various points for and against. I used to use overdrive on everything then I went through a phase of thinking it sounded pants. I've come to the conclusion that in general, the Alembics don't suit it too well. Mainly because you have to be so careful how you apply it with their preamp controls being so fiddly. However, and for comparison, on my own myspace (www.myspace.com/graphitewolf) there is a song I did about 5 years ago called "How High." That is with the Alembic totally wide open, full blast treble and tons of overdrive. It doesn't sound like it though as the song is quite dense. I'll quite happily send you the isolated bass track if you don't believe me. The one thing I've found about them is that they really don't sound good with chorus. I have no idea why, but mine sounds really wirey, weedy and frankly, rubbish. JTUK's point about the preamp in them is perfectly valid and accurate in my opinion. The whole filter thing took me ages to get to grips with (as JTUK suggests the mids are killer sometimes) and I'm still (after owning my bass for 8 years now) not entirely convinced about it. When it works, it's great, when it doesn't, it generally sounds awful. That's my experience, but I'm sure plenty will disagree with me. As for comments regarding Entwistle's Alembic tone, I've never been that much of a fan of it with the exception of the live 1982 tone (see Live in Toronto) which is frankly impossible to emulate and I have no idea why. I've always preferred his buzzard tone circa 1999 (see The Vegas Job).

I'd never stay in a band that I had no input in. You're one step away from a "can you play the root note" conversation. As far as I'm concerned, I'll never play in a band with folk I don't like unless I earned more money at it than U2. Which will never happen. Just quit and get something better as they sound like world class tools.

That Big One sounds great. Really, really good and clear. Certainly didn't sound muddy to me. The playing is rather good as well. Top!!

I'd say it was Track 1. I'm interested in hearing what the Big One sounded like in comparison. Any chance of that getting posted?

I've got a Korg DTR 2000. You can either press the button or use a latch type footswitch to mute as there is a jack in the rear panel.

Total rubbish players? I'd go for Paul McGuigan (Oasis). About 15 years ago I went to see Oasis at Loch Lomond and Guigsy managed to screw up "My Big Mouth." A song so simple that I'm quite sure someone who'd never played bass before could learn in 10 minutes. What a tube. Bill Wyman (let's face it all the best stones basslines with the exception of "Miss You" are played by Keith Richards or Mick Taylor). Besides, anyone who still plays with just their thumb deserves a bit of a slap for not at least trying something new in the way of technique. I read an interview with him where he said his "style" was down to having small hands. Obviously getting a short scale bass wasn't an option for him. Div. I would say though that the pinnicle of awfulness and lazy, slack playing would have to be Guy Berryman from Coldplay. Total and utter plodding crap. It's the sort of thing that makes me ashamed to be a Scottish bass player when you have total mugs like him getting paid millions for playing eigth note plodding rubbish of the lowest common denominator with no thought to feel or technique and using such a totally insipid bland sound. Tool.

[quote name='TraceAmp' post='915836' date='Aug 5 2010, 12:31 PM']Newer shots: [/quote] I think I just got a semi....

I use Optima strings on my buzzard (I in no way have a John Entwistle fixation) and they are fantastic. They do last quite a long time and I found them to be rather good in the mid range growl area with an unbelievable top end. Naturally they aren't cheap either.

I have no idea. The joke for me is that the ears attach to the outside of the amp's metal casing then onto your rack holes. If you tried to put a tuner in you'd run into problems that the rack ears of said tuner would be too wide to get into the gap and would catch on the wooden casing. Now, the best one is that the rack ears are sold SINGULARLY. That isn't a joke. That's completely true. Who in their right mind ever racked one side of an amp?!! Then even better was that you only get the frame of the rack ear, you don't even get the screws to attach it to your amp!! As much as I like Hartke stuff in general this was taking the mickey on one too many levels for me. So I'm probably going to go down the preamp/poweramp route to save my back and keep the 5500 for backup. I have noticed that now they've moved back to taking the amp out of the wooden casing (no doubt to save money) and they include the rack ears as standard. Hope that helps.

Sadly it does seem too simple. It's a 3U case. You can slide the amp out once you undo the 4 screws on the bottom of the wooden case holding it in place, but you won't be able to put a tuner in the top 1U gap that the grill occupies because it's 18 inches not 19 inches wide. The Hartke can only be racked with ears which you have to buy seperately. I had a similar idea when I got my 5500, but that didn't work when I did the measuring so I just racked the head instead and kept the wooden case for a rainy day if I flog the amp.

I think that was his thought to be fair. I was under the impression that Trace only made about 200. The last one I saw getting sold was John Entwistle's at Christies about 8 weeks ago and that went for something stupidly cheap like £700. I doubt he had any thought of doing this to sell stuff, it was mainly just for fun and the satisfaction of being able to.. I know that the Hiwatt copy he did took a fair bit of time but it sounded great when I played it. However, I'll see what he's using and get back though to be fair one is a bit of a luddite when it comes to actually building stuff. On the other hand, my mate doesn't even have a computer, so "in progress" shots may be a bit scarce...

I have absolutely no idea what he'll be using I'm afraid. I'm someone who just plays stuff and isn't really that sure how it works. I've only ever used valve amps in rehearsal rooms over the years and I've never owned one. The Hiwatt copy he did was really, really good and I have played one a few years ago. To me it sounded about the same, but I confess to not being very knowledgable about how they work. I tend to just go on sound really. Certainly though, my iron is Morphy Richards!!

A friend of mine has done some amp builds and recently completed a Hiwatt or at least something that is based on the original specs. He has now informed me that he is going to build what I'm sure many people regard as one of the best bass valve amps ever made - a Trace Elliot V8. Now, I'm not too knowledgable about such things as my experience of soldering is ocassionaly fixing a jack socket on a bass and mending scalextric cars when I was younger. I looked at the schematic for it and it just seemed monstrously complicated. Though of course, I didn't really know what most of it meant. Naturally, I am a bit of a div when it comes to this sort of DIY approach, but my question is firstly didn't the V8 have a circuit board in it? I thought it did, though I'm quite happy to stand corrected. Secondly, assuming that you can get all the equivalent parts, is it even possible to build something like that? I'm sure that some of you who have made your own valve amps will be able to shed some light on this, but it's more curiosity than anything else.

I've been having a similar dilemma myself and am yet to decide. How about something like this? Quite shallow and insanely light. [url="http://www.beglec.com/#product=digit1k0"]http://www.beglec.com/#product=digit1k0[/url] They're about £330 from Terralec. I think someone was sellling the 2K version here a while back. I don't think it went. I know that Dood recommends the Powersoft stuff, but they're seriously not cheap. Plus I think that they're slightly deeper than what you're looking for.

Put me down for one.

Thanks Dood. I understand what you mean perfectly and thanks chaps for your advice. The idea came about from realising that EQ settings and fx settings don't work for my different basses. That's not to say I want an 8 string to sound like a buzzard and that's not what I wanted to do. But I realised that I'd be piling through settings for ages setting patches when I could just control them centrally. I ended up getting the idea from an old Trace MP11. Very grateful for the advice and knowledge as this is something I've never done before.

With the expansion of my rig recently I'm toying with a bit of revision. However, I've noticed that if doing so I'd have 4 seperate foot controllers and that's just getting insane. I don't know if anyone has ever done this on this forum, but this is a hypothetical question which I've been pondering about my rig. Say for example you have a preamp which is midi compatable and your effects are midi compatable. Assume that all have midi in/out/through and I'm talking about at least or 4 seperate units of gear. My point being is you'd have a foot controller for each under normal circumstances and obviously that's getting into Fred Astaire territory. Is it possible to simplify it down to one? My point being can you connect the preamp and effects up via midi so that you can just press one button on a foot controller and you'd say change the sound from a dub sound with octave effects to a trebly tone with chorus and distortion. Just an example. In other words, with one button press [i]absolutely everything[/i] changes (if you want it to). Has anyone ever done this? Or even, [u]can [/u][i][/i]it be done? Opinions and technical advice gratefully received.

[quote name='Pow_22' post='881452' date='Jun 29 2010, 10:43 PM']Out of interest, settings wise on the HA5500 it obviously has the high and low contour, never had an amp with these on before. I cant have a full play round (at volume) till our next rehearsal but what settings on these would you recommend? The sound i have is very deep (almost muddy) and sometimes the highs do suffer for this (amlost silence on riffs/fills etc) so im lookin to obviously smooth this out but i do want the highs to still sound ''bassy'' and ''deep''[/quote] I'd leave the graphic flat then boost the low contour say to 6 and cut the high contour by the same amount. Try that then if you need to cut the 5kHz and above frequencies. Then boost about 250Hz a bit. Say 4dB. That should be a decent starter for 10 for you. Not the sound I use and you may have to have a fiddle as you play passive basses and I only play active basses. Though I think that'll be reasonable for you.

[quote name='Delberthot' post='880569' date='Jun 29 2010, 01:29 AM']You could do what I do and complain directly to the Uk distributor that they're the best part of £25 per pair - they could send you the ones that attached the amp Jack Bruce was using to the rack for the Cream reunion concerts No wait, I got those :brow:[/quote] Funnily enough I did complain. I heard the tumbleweed go past as they didn't reply for some reason.