BigRedX

It might if you could actually buy one.

Depending on how it is set up, you can either quantise to the nearest semitone or use pitch bend information to achieve the precise pitch being played. Controlling synths by using pitch detection has always been too much of a miss IME. Admittedly the technology has come on a long way since the early days, but at some point you are always going to run foul of the laws of physics which says that the very best pitch to synth systems still need at least one and a half wave cycles to accurately detect the note being played. On a bass guitar this means that you will probably be able to detect the latency in any note with a fast attack below open D. This is why you find lots of slow attack sounds being favoured in the demos of such systems. On top of this you need to have a much cleaner playing technique, because ghost notes, struck muted strings and lots of other things that are not noticeable in normal playing are going to introduce glitches into your synth part. When I first started looking at guitar synths I quickly discovered that modifying my playing style to suit was going to take longer than learning enough rudimentary keyboard technique to be able to play the sorts of parts I wanted to on a synth.

In so many ways this is an exact reflection of some of the graphic design jobs I have worked on. Even when the client thinks they want something new and different a lot of the time they finally decide that what they really wanted was what they already had. I once worked on what was supposed to be a major packaging redesign of a range of crisps for a well-know manufacturer of said products. For several months various options did the rounds, but what finally went into production was so similar to their previous bags that unless you placed the old and new ones side-by-side most people wouldn't have even noticed they had changed. Some of my colleague were despairing about the situation and ranting at every opportunity. I just smiled, did what I was asked knowing that every revision back to something that looked more like the original design was a couple more hours pay for me.

This is why I have completely given up on the traditional bass rig. Fine if you can guarantee to always be using your rig, but at multi-band gigs with backline sharing this is hardly ever possible. Using multi-effects I had got to the point where my rig was simply there to make my sound loud enough for me and the audience to hear, and for any gig where the bass was going through the PA what most of the audience heard was very much down to the sound engineer. Even if I bypassed the pre-amp of whatever bass rig was at the venue my sound was still being shaped by the cabs, so I've stopped using other peoples bass rigs and now go straight into the PA from my effects - currently a Line6 Helix Floor. That way I have eliminated as many uncontrollable variables for my sound as possible. For the very few gigs where there is no PA support for the bass I have an FRFR cab, that has the dual advantage of not only being far more neutral sounding that an typical bass rig, but will also fit in places on stage where there is no room for an amp and cabs. On stage so long as I can hear that I am in time and in tune with the rest of the band I am happy. I've stopped obsessing about getting a perfect sound on stage, because for the majority of gigs I do, it's simply not going to happen. Maybe if my band starts playing 1000+ venues on a regular basis I can be a bit more diva-ish! FoH I'll have a quick listen to check that my sound is in the ballp[ark of what I'm expecting and it usually is, mainly due to the sorts of gigs we play the sound engineers know what sort of bass sound I'm aiming for. And if they don't I'll play them some of my "guitar" patches and soon sorts them out! TLDR: my sound comes from the Helix. On stage I just need to be able to hear myself and the rest of the band. FoH I trust the PA to do the right job.

I've completely given up trying to get synth/filter sounds out of the bass. Even if I had devices capable of the sounds the extra amount of practice I'd need to put in in order to trigger them reliably in a repeatable fashion simply isn't worth it, when I can either play it myself on a keyboard where it will sound right every time, or hand it off to our synth player or to the backing track, who can play it even better than I can. I'm lucky in that I now play Bass VI, so if I really want a synth sounding bass I can give it to an instrument better suited to it, and play something in the guitar register instead. If I was in a band with a more traditional line-up I'd probably bring a keyboard synth for any songs that absolutely had to have synth bass parts. IMO getting the sounds right for a song is as important at rehearsal as finding the right notes to play. My band spend at least as much time in the practice room fine tuning our synth and effects sounds and the balance between the different ones we use as we do working out what to play on a song. Both are equally important, and it is essential that the sound changes are right and properly balanced and the rest of the band need to appreciate that. I find that I can get close to the right sounds on my own at home, but I know that everything will need adjusting once the rest of the band is playing and we factor that in when getting a new song ready for performing to an audience.

I see depping for bands the same way as I see my graphic design day job. I am there to serve my client. If I think that they are VERY wrong I will politely suggest an alternative. Once. If my client chooses to ignore that advice I will produce them exactly what they want without further comment, take their money at the end and thank them for it, and ask what other projects they have for me. I won't have a moan about it, because it's not worth the effort. I might even use the work in my portfolio if the client is an impressive enough name or if their brand is relevant to attracting potential new business. It's gratifying when I do produce something that I can also be proud of from a creative PoV, but first and foremost I do it for the money, so I can pay the bills. However I think it is telling that the one piece of graphics work I have produced that will live on in the public domain after I am gone is something that I did for myself and not to any client-supplied brief. So, for me music is too important for me to waste my time playing songs I don't enjoy. Aside from the fact that I'm simply not talented enough to take on any depping job, I don't want to do that. I've played in covers bands enough to know that for me it's a route to hating songs that I used to enjoy. If I was good enough to be a dep I'd play the songs, take the money and leave it at that.

In the end it's what works for you, but personally I would never entertain the idea of non-programmable pedals for live use again. You should be able to do what you need with what you already have provided you are prepared to put in the effort creating and organising the presets and then having a couple of technical rehearsals with the band to fine tune them. It will also depend on how complex the EQ changes need to be. Most of the bands I have played with have required fine tuning of the EQ for every song in order to get the bass to fit into the right sonic space created by the other instruments also changing sounds for each song. And that doesn't cover any mid-song EQ changes required for when the bass needs to be more or less prominent. Without programmable EQ I wouldn't be able to do any of this.

If you don't want to play songs that you don't like write your own.

Our next gig is on Saturday 27the September in Manchester at Fuel The Music. We're supporting the excellent St Lucifer:

Friday night saw Hurtsfall's first proper headlining gig. This was at Liquid Light in Nottingham, which is first and foremost a brewery that has a bar and occasional events such as gigs and film nights. I discovered the place as it used to be home to the best vegan burgers in Nottingham. Unfortunately they seem to have moved on and there was no food on when we played. The PA is something else - it looks home-brewed but sounds great - see the photo of support band St Lucifer: There were plenty of people about while the bands were setting up and sound checking, but only a few of them opted to come inside once the actual gig started which was a bit disappointing for opener Joshua Todd, but luckily for the us and St Lucifer it filled up as the evening went on. I don't think the location helps, although it's close to the city centre, it's on an industrial estate and quite hard to find if you've not been before. With it being our first headlining set we were able to play for longer than our normal 30-35 minutes, and dusted off a couple of songs that we haven't done for a while. While it would have been nice for a few more people to have been there, once again we were competing with a goth festival in Morecambe and some of our audience were definitely in attendance there. Still it wasn't band for our first self-organised gig and we sold a decent amount of merch afterwards. Hopefully I'll be posting some more photos of us playing later in the week when they appear on social media. Next gig is also with St Lucifer in Manchester on Saturday 27th September.

Done. However your left handed, right handed, ambidextrous question requires an option for those of use who do some things left handed and other things right hand, but can't do the left handed things right handed or vice-versa.

Message In A Bottle is from 1979 and Born to Run from 1975!

Thanks for posting those two set lists. As I suspected they are quite heavily skewed towards the first half of the decade. @hiram.k.hackenbacker I hope you do "I Think We're Alone Now" in the High NRG style of Tiffany's version otherwise it's technically a 60s cover and "Video Killed The Radio Star" was originally released in 1979 [/pedant] ;-)

Maybe not. But I was just pointing out that by 1988/89 house music and pop songs that were heavily influenced by it were anything but niche. Personally I'd love to see an 80s band doing S'Express, Yazz or Soul II Soul. There appears to be an assumption that 80s music is mostly synth-based pop from the first half of the decade, whereas the reality is, as I hinted in my first post, that there's a lot more to the decade. As someone who plays in an unashamedly 80s influenced originals bands, I'd be interested to know what's in the typical 80s covers band's set list.

But if you go and See Duran Duran now they may be old, but they still know how to dress properly and don't look like a bunch of blokes who have gone to the pub for a pint or two on a Friday night.

Following house and house influenced records were all number 1 in the UK charts in the 80s. Jack Your Body by Steve "Silk" Hurley Pump Up The Volume by MARRS Theme From S'Express by S'Express Doctorin' The Tardis by The Timelords The Only Way Is Up by Yazz Back To Life by Soul II Soul And there were plenty more that made the top 20. Hardly niche.

"The 80s" is a very broad church ranging from "New Romantic" and synth-pop via jangly guitar bands all the way through to acid house. Of course most people tend to forget about anything post 1985 unless the band had already had hits before then. The problem I have with bands like the one in the clip above is that for me music in the 80s was as much about the image of the artists as it was about the songs. If the music is going to be performed by a bunch of beardy old blokes in crap shirts then it doesn't matter how well they have nailed the sound, the audience would be better off someone playing the records. I hope the OP is taking note...

Stage times for Friday's gig (19th September) at Liquid Light in Nottingham: 7:05 - 7:35 Joshua Todd 7:50 - 8:30 St Lucifer 8:45 - 9:35 Hurtsfall

Depends on the sound and feel you want. There is no right answer. Only the right answer for you.

Everything from your fingers and strings right through to the speakers and cabs has an influence over how the instrument sounds. My response is to eliminate the as many of them as possible, and to reduce the influence of as many of the others as possible to make it easier to control the sound I and the audience hears.

Unsurprisingly I like that a lot and if I had a spare €2000 and a use for a 4-string bass I might be making an offer. Made some time between 1963 and 1967 and originally costing 68,000 Lira. And in what looks like surprisingly good condition for a Wandré. All the ones I have seen in real life have been considerably worse for wear. More information on this Fetish Guitars web page.

Depends what you are buying. I just buy instruments I like the look of. If they don't work out from a playing and sound PoV then I sell them on. IME not amount of reviews will tell me what I'm going to think when the bass is actually in my hands.

IME Hohner are terrible at record keeping when it comes to all the various musical instruments they have made. I used to own an electric 12 string guitar that hasn't appeared in any of their catalogues or model lists. If I did an on-line search based on the model name and number on the headstock it came up with an entirely different looking instrument. However, there are various features that indicated that it had been built that way originally and hadn't been "Frankensteined" together from a couple of other guitars by a previous owner. Also I was aware that there was at least one other similar example owned by a well-known guitarist. So don't be put off if you can't find your exact model listed anywhere.

In the last 35 years I bought a total of 3 basses that I tried before parting with my cash. The fact that I don't own any of them now, but do own 3 basses that I bought on-line either direct from the manufacturer or off eBay without being able to play them first should say something. IME it is impossible to make a proper decision about the suitability of an instrument until you have put it to its intended use. If you play in a band that means at least one rehearsal and ideally one gig.

I've been able to be in bands for almost 50 years now without owning a car and for much of that time without being able to drive. Technically I can drive, but I didn't start leaning until I was in my 30s, there was no point before as I couldn't afford lessons let alone the cost of owning and running a car, and it took me 2 years of intensive lessons before I passed my test on the 3rd attempt. TBH I'm a terrible driver and the roads are safer for everyone without me behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, so I don't drive. As others have said, it very much depends on where you live and the sorts of bands you want to be in and the sorts of gigs you want to do. It may also depend on what other skills and resources you can bring to your musical ventures. I have chosen to live in a fairly large city with good public transport and taxi services which is more than adequate for getting to rehearsals and local gigs. In fact for local gigs getting a taxi to and from the venue is far more convenient and often cheaper than driving myself would be. Taxi drivers have zero problem stopping in the middle of the road directly outside the venue for me to load in and out. I don't have the hassle of trying to find somewhere to park that isn't going to cost the earth and if the gig goes on past midnight there is a very good chance that two taxi fares will be less than the cost of parking anywhere close to where we are playing. Any band I have been in that regularly does gigs in other parts of the country has had dedicated band transport, often with a driver/roadie, and IME it makes more sense if travelling any distance for the whole band to travel together. Remember that you can't finish setting up and doing your sound check until all the band are there and invariably if you are travelling in multiple vehicles, at least one will get caught in traffic or some other incident. Otherwise what else can you bring to the band or musical venture other than yourself and your bass? For about 20 years I lived somewhere where it was possible for any band I was in to rehearse for free. I also had what started as a simple 4-track recording setup that eventually grew to become a fully-fledged home recording studio where we could record everything except an acoustic drum kit. All available to whatever band I was in at no charge. Also in my day job I am involved with graphic design and can produce imagery for all the band's visual identity - posters, flyers, CD and record covers, T-shirts and on-line graphics - for free and able to get the print at discount prices or for free too. Do you have any other musical skills? Can you sing backing vocals? I currently play in a Goth/post-punk influenced band as well as playing bass I do all the drum programming and much of the sound design for our songs. I also provide all the hardware for the playback of the drums and second synth parts when we gig. All these things mean that the bands I played with since I first started gigging have been more than happy to help me with transport where I can't sort it out for myself.