BigRedX

I have a guitar with a built-in amp and speaker. A while back, over time the sound got more and more distorted (and not in a good way). When even changing the battery for a brand new one didn't fix it, I took the back off an found 5 or 6 ball-ends of the strings that had broken attached to the magnet on the speaker all vibrating away in sympathy with what I was playing. Removing them all fixed the problem. What I'm saying is that I'd open the cab up properly and check that nothing has become attached to the speaker magnet. Especially since you reported in the OP that the unit had got damaged in transit. And while you are in there check that there's nothing loose in there either (bracing etc.)

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1509702071' post='3400930'] Me neither and I like the Undertones but it's one of their weaker songs and one I always skip Anyone recall That Petrol Emotion which was formed by ex-Undertones? A fine and underrated band who were much better than the Undertones IMO. [/quote] I never really "got" the Undertones either. My first encounter with them was "Teenage Kicks" on TotP, and my initial impression of both the band and their music was that it was some clue-free A&R Man's idea of how a pop-punk band should look and sound.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1509703505' post='3400951'] Hmm..I know what you mean. I think it is just character. Despite being mainly a bassist, I think the guitar side is much harder to get right as I am SO used to pretty clean and powerful bass amps that I use a pedal or three with for say an Ampeg tube sound, or just use the amp as it is for the sound of my bass. Guitar is a different world. Getting that low level of hair on the notes is very hard to get right. Nothing sparkles like a Fender Deluxe/Twin when just plugged in with single coils. Etc. [/quote] I think that a lot of the time musicians get over-precious about having to have a particular piece of kit in order to get "THAT" sound. I now have a very nice guitar amp (Hughes & Kuttner Tube 50) but I was able to get equally pleasant guitar sounds out of the all-transistor Carlsbro Rebel 90 that I owned in the 80s. I can make all my different guitars sound the way I want them to simply by changing how I play them, and I don't even have anything like fantastic technique. So I usually end up picking an instrument for it's looks in regard to the band I am playing with, as everything else can be fixed with playing style, EQ and effects.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1509703227' post='3400948'] 1: You won't need the manual unless you are deep diving into MIDI. Some have moaned about not having a paper one, but the L6 guys said that printing it out in about 30 languages costs a fortune and there's just no need to kill that many trees anymore. The manual is also on the website so you can print bits of it if you want to read in the bath 2: Dunno what the rubber thing is for - I've got the rack version 3: Allen key is for the expression pedal. 4: Firmware 2.21 is the up to date one. So no need to update that at all. But you might as well download the editor on your PC / Mac. The editor only works when the Helix is plugged into it but some people prefer to edit like that rather than on the unit. I don't - I do everything on the unit and only use the editor when I'm backing things up. You will need to use the editor if you decide to disappear down the rabbit hole of third party IRs 5: Get plugged in and use some headphones while you are waiting to get your cable from that scummy guitarist! 6: I don't know what pickups you have in your basses. If they are hot you might want to use the INPUT PAD. Some think the whole unit sounds better with the Pad on anyway. Highlight the INPUT BLOCK on the screen and it will show at the bottom. 7: Ask me anything you like! [/quote] Thanks. Unfortunately real life intervened yesterday and I didn't even get a chance to switch it on. Firmware 2.21 is what I downloaded from the Line 6 site. Can I apply that to whatever previous version is on the Helix (assuming that it's not already on 2.21), or are there certain upgrade steps I need to take first. The instructions on the downloads page of the Line 6 site are confusing and full of dire warnings in red. I don't want to mess anything up. All my basses have a fairly high output so thanks for the Input Pad advice.

But what does an amp sound like? For me it's just some EQ attached to a device that makes my bass loud.

[quote name='Manton Customs' timestamp='1509644927' post='3400588'] A wise man . The approach would be something like - Remove frets Fill slots True up fingerboard and completely remove finish due to the gaps the frets will have left and possible damage Apply a hard finish such as Epoxy Level the epoxy. So yeah, it'd be pricey. [/quote] How hard a finish is epoxy? How many hours of fretless playing with round-wound strings would you get out of it before the fingerboard needs true-ing up again and re-epoxying?

OK then. Wear black. Unless you are the focal point of the band, something simple and black always works. No obvious logos, band or otherwise and I would have said no trainers well, except for 90s and 00s indie trainers are fine. So long as they are dark. Preferably black.

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1509632472' post='3400465'] Other band's T shirts ?? Never , never , never. Regularly I change out of one into something else to play. The punters wear band T shirts - the moment you step on a stage you're an artist , not a punter. [/quote] Very much this. IMO the same goes for anything with an obvious and visible brand logo on it. Unless of course said brand are paying you a sh*t load of money to wear it.

OK, the manual was on the USB stick. What do people who don't have access to a device that can read a USB stick do? Also according to the manual "USB flash drive containing the Helix Owner's Manual you’re reading right now and more" - what more? All I can see is the manual in 6 different languages. It also explains what the allen key is for, but not what the rubbery nodule does. Is it supposed to cover the bolt for adjusting the pedal stiffness? At this point I have discovered that someone (probably an ex-Terrortone guitarist) has "borrowed" my spare long jack-to-jack lead, so it will be some time while I hunt for another one before I can actually fire the thing up and get some sounds out of it. I believe that there are software and firmware updates for the Helix. Does Helix V2.21 contain everything I need or are there other things I need to download first?

For 90s/00s indie, something that makes you look as though you are about to set off on a long-distance trek across the moors, when in reality all you are doing is going down to the pub.

Well I've just come home with a full-fat Helix floor unit. Initial observations: 1. It's big and heavy, but looks well built. Good to see an actual built-in PSU rather than a wall-wart and flimsy lead that will become disconnected (or damaged) at the most inconvenient moment. Made like a proper professional piece of equipment. 2. No manual... WTF. I know that it's essentially all in the software that will hopefully be continually up-dated over the coming years, but still it would be nice to have something more than a double-sided "cheat sheet" to get me started. I've just paid over £1k for this and would expect some serious bath time/bedtime reading to go with it. I like manuals and I still need to refer to my BassPod manuals when I need to access the less well-used functions. Maybe the Helix is just so intuitive I won't need a manual. We'll see... 3. There's a BFO allen key and a rubbery nodule. What are they for? This is where a manual might have come in useful. 4. There's also a USB stick. I'll find out what that's for shortly, but if it's got anything essential on it, then I feel sorry for those users whose computing needs are met by a Tablet or Smart Phone, as they won't be able to do anything with it. Anyway, I'm about to go in. I might be some time...

The finish on a maple fingerboard isn't that hard wearing. It tends to last reasonably well on a fretted instrument only because very little actually comes in contact the board itself. The string stop at the frets and only part of the finger will touch it. Keep and play one for long enough and eventually you'll start to see finger wear patterns on the most commonly used notes. However as soon as you remove the frets it's a different story. Unless you plan to use super smooth flat wound strings, they will tear through the finish in no time, and even flat wound strings will eat into the finish on a fretless board quicker than one with frets on it.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1509575999' post='3400098'] Please, someone explain to me what your getting when you buy a new Harley Benton Jazz Bass for $135.00. They look cool, but again what are you getting? Blue [/quote] You are getting a copy of a tried and tested design made in a country where labour is cheap, but with a decent degree of quality control. These days there's nothing magical about having the Fender logo on the headstock. There's no R&D cost for the factory producing the copy. Besides one of the main features of all the original Fender instruments was that they were capable of being made by relatively unskilled labour using technology that was cheaply available at the end of the 1940s. Manufacturing technology has improved massively since then and now if anything it is even easier than it was back when the first Fender instruments were being made. TBH any company that isn't capable of making a decent version of Jazz bass nowadays probably shouldn't be making musical instruments in the first place.

So long as you want a decent number (100+) and don't need your print the same day as you supply the artwork, I've not yet found a printers who can beat [url=https://www.flexpress.co.uk]FlexPress[/url] for price and quality even after delivery costs have been factored in. And IME the likes of Vistaprint and Instant print don't even come close. In order to get the best prices you do need to supply a print-ready PDF otherwise you'll be paying extra for them to sort it out.

[quote name='jposega' timestamp='1509536515' post='3399662'] Unless Apple gets their s*** together and gives us back USB3.0 connections, I will never buy a new MacBook again. [/quote] USB3 is old tech. You won't be seeing it on any new Apple products.

I'm sure that there still is crap new gear being made and sold, but these days you'd have to specifically search it out, and even then it will still be better than what those of us who started out in the 70s and earlier had to put up with. I've been playing since the early 70s, but I didn't own a decent guitar or bass until the 90s. Before that I used a modified acoustic guitar, a solid electric I made myself at school, a very badly abused Burns Sonic Bass and a 12-string Baldwin semi-acoustic with a twisted neck. I did have some decent synths, but then in the 80s the crap ones cost about the same as the useful ones so as long as knew what you needed, you could get something decent.

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1509538208' post='3399697'] A Burns Sonic bass was my first real instrument, it cost me £15 which I borrowed from my sister and paid her back a £1 a week for fifteen weeks. [/quote] I still have my Burns Sonic Bass: It was already pretty heavily modified when I bought it 1981. A previous owner had stripped off the red finish, and had also added two more controls and a second jack socket to the scratch plate that weren't connected to the other electronic on the bass. The original bridge had just about given up and was held together by wire wrapped around it and the machine heads slipped as you tried to tune up to pitch, something the shop had disguised by tuning it down a tone where they were relative stable. Still this bass lasted me all through the 80s (when I wasn't playing synth or guitar) and recordings made with it nearly got the band I was playing in signed to CBS Records!

My first guitar was a horrible 1960s catalogue bought steel-strung acoustic that my parents got for reasons only best known to themselves. It had the typically high action of cheap guitars of the time, and even after I had found out enough to know to shave about half an inch off the bottom of the bridge to make it playable, I discovered that it sounded terrible. After pestering my parents for the whole of the summer, they relented and bought me a Kimbara acoustic guitar for my 14th birthday (the only real concession they ever made to my musical aspirations) I still own this guitar although these days it rarely gets played: As you can see it has undergone some modifications from it's original condition. The year after I got it, I sold all my model railway stuff and with the proceeds took a trip to Leicester where I was able to buy a second hand Carlsbro Wasp 10 Watt amp and a piezo pickup for my guitar. Unfortunately my £35 wouldn't stretch as far as a used "Woolies Special" electric guitar as well as the amp so I had to settle for the pickup stuck to the bridge of the Kimbara. However I now had amplification, and it was bigger and louder than the amps my school friends had - which just goes to show what terrible amps were around at the time for those of us on a very limited budget. Unfortunately a piezo pickup on an acoustic guitar didn't really make it sound like the guitars on the records I was buying, so after lots of trawling around the local music shops I added a cheap Schaller magnetic pickup. This was supposed to be fitted to the end of the fingerboard, but I didn't like how it sounded in that position, so I glued it to the soundboard next to the bridge and drilled a hole in the top to take the cable. At the same time I moved the piezo pickup to the inside of the body under the bridge and connected both pickups to a stereo jack. The output connected to a box with 2 foot switches in it, one which allowed me select the pickup and other which chose whether I was connected to the bright or normal input of my amp. However I still wasn't able to make it sound much like Slade or The Sweet, until I discovered distortion. After trying out a pedal that a school friend had made I saved up for the bits and added my own (Practical Electronics) fuzz box between the pickup selector and the amp and I was finally able to get something similar to the sounds on the records I was listening to. And that set up was what I used until I built my own solid electric guitar in the woodwork shop during my last year at school at the end of the 70s. I didn't own a bass until 1981, when as a student, I finally had some disposable income of my own and was able to buy a second hand Burns Sonic Bass complete with the original hard case for £60 (with a Fender-branded strap thrown in the seal the deal!)

[url=http://www.emosystems.co.uk/Products/Passive_Direct_Injection_Boxes.html]EMO[/url]

If you want to stick with Trace Elliot have a look at stand-alone GP12 pre-amp because that has a built-in bi-amp output with a variable crossover frequency. You can run that into any powers amps you want and control everything from a single point.

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1509475117' post='3399289'] Not true for all makes of right-angle XLRs. [/quote] Probably not, but I'm pretty sure that all the Neutik ones I've bought over the years are capable of this.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1509497666' post='3399500'] or Jet Boy Jet Girl [/quote] +1

[quote name='bonzodog' timestamp='1509473298' post='3399267'] Thanks for the advice so far. I think I will set it up tonight and try it with one of my jack leads. The problem I suppose with a right angle XLR is there are knobs either side of the input so at least a jack can be swivelled around. [/quote] IIRC the better right-angle XLRs allow the body to be rotated to each of the four 90° positions when you assemble it.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1509462936' post='3399108'] That's correct [/quote] I have to admit, I'm a little bit disappointed that they aren't a local band...

I'm pretty certain I've seen this (or something very similar before) so I'm guessing this is off social media and not an advert you spotted in Nottingham?