BigRedX

I suppose it was a little bit over the top, bit I simply don't "get" the DOI thread. Every so often I dip in to seem what is happening, but to me as an outsider it just comes across as a clique with it's own set of in-jokes, and seemingly no connection between the various posts. I wouldn't even begin to know how to make a contribution. I suppose what I really want is the ability to hide the thread from me permanently. I would have said the ability to hide all of "Off Topic" is what is needed but very occasionally there are threads in there that I am able and want to, make a contribution to.

I've been totally ampless in one band and partially ampless (I have an FRFR for rehearsals and occasionally on-stage monitoring) in the other for 5 years now. I made money when I sold my traditional amplification and replaced it with a Helix and RCF745. Given how I'm now using the FRFR I could have bought a lesser (and cheaper) model and come away with even more profit. I don't miss my traditional rig. It looked good, but it was big and heavy and took up lots of room on stage and in the band van. On small stages I would have to turn down so much so as not to upset the FoH sound that it was all but inaudible and on big stages it really only worked as a personal monitor when I was stood directly in front of it. The rest of the time I was reliant on the PA monitors to be able to hear myself, so for me it made total sense to ditch the conventional rig as most of the time it was of no audible benefit to either me, the band or the audience. The sorts of gigs my bands play there is nearly always a good in-house PA in the venue. Since ditching the conventional rig I have done two gigs where I need to use the FRFR to provide bass for the whole venue, and IMO it coped far better - the improved dispersion of the FRFR meant that I only needed to be slightly louder on stage then I would normally choose, instead of being so loud that I could barely hear the rest of the band as had happened before. Also loosing the conventional bass rig means that the bands' transport needs have been reduced. Instead of a fully loaded van one band now gets everyone and all our gear including the drum kit and the merch into two average-sized cars, while the other band (which has no drummer) gets the whole band plus our roadie/merch seller into a single estate car. I can see bassists that play in bands with their own (mostly vocal only) PA not wanting to go this route. Personally from my experience playing in a band that owned its own PA, it was IMO an expensive hassle and I won't ever go back to doing those sorts of gigs.

You'll get greater variations in sound with two different cabs then you will with a single cab or multiple identical cabs.

Whoever is assembling the PJB units obviously has a suitable tool. I would contact PJB ask them where you can get one from.

This has come up a couple of times with regards to control knobs and there is a good chance that the problem is similar to the one the beset Hercules stands, in that there was a problem with the material used. If this is the case, cleaning with something like acetone will only be a temporary fix, and once the sticky layer has been removed/dissolved the newly exposed material will start to break down in the same way. If its a rubbery coating causing the problem eventually it will all be dissolved away and hopefully whatever is beneath won't exhibit similar problems. However in doing so you'll have lost the advantage of having a grippy coating on the knobs. My opinion is that this is defect that needs to be addressed by the manufacturer by replacing the knobs FoC with ones that don't go sticky.

The problem with mixing cabs is that the decisions and how good they sound are made standing a couple of feet away, with no regard for what the combination sounds like elsewhere in the venue. Fine if your rig is simply a personal monitor, but potentially not so good for your audience.

I have an RCF745. These days it's used mainly for rehearsals and the occasional gig where the foldback is strictly for vocals only - everywhere else the supplied foldback is more than adequate for mine and the rest of the bands needs. On the two occasions I have needed it to supply bass guitar for the whole venue it coped much better than my previous very big, heavy and expensive conventional rig. Also because of the much better dispersion characteristics I only had to be slightly louder than I would use for on-stage monitoring, instead of so loud I could barely hear the rest of the band.

Jens Ritter

I'm partially left handed in that I do some things left handed and some things right handed. Learnt to write right handed and while that might be due to when I learnt at school (in the early 60s) I can distinctly remember that I had classmates who wrote left handed although the contortions that they put themselves through in order not to smudge what they had written did make me think that made learning to write right handed might overall be an easier option. Out of Interest for languages that are written right to left is there a larger proportion of left-handed people in their populations? When I first picked up a guitar my natural inclination was to pick it up "left handed". However it was obvious that this was the wrong way round. When I did start to learn to play, it was finger-style "folk guitar" which meant that I needed to be equally proficient with both hands, and since the guitar I learnt on was designed and strung for right-handed playing, I learned that way. In retrospect I'm glad I did, because it has opened up a far larger range of guitars and basses to me than if I could only play left handed. There is at least one luthier who won't make left-handed instruments because his right-handedness makes it impossible to feel for the fine tuning needed to complete a left-handed custom instrument to the standard he wants for something with his name on.

I wonder how long it would take before someone mentioned him.

Got to say the whole thing baffles me to. None of the "examples" on here have made it any clearer IMO. I never transcribe a score because the only music I play is my own. And when I'm composing I just pick notes that sound good to me. And note choice is as much dependant upon the sound of the instrument playing those notes as it is on the actual note itself.

Not any more. My first band's debut album (initially released on cassette back in 1980) was recorded on a Tandberg reel-to-reel that the percussionist's (we didn't have a drummer) mum borrowed from the school where she was a teacher. The last recording I made using compact cassettes was "Love Junkie" by SugarBox which was released on CD in 1997. The vocals, guitars and bass were recorded on compact cassette using a Tascam 238 8-track recorder and the drums and synths plus some additional backing vocals (via an Akai sampler) were were run "live" using a sync track. I think we were running 16 live and 6 tape channels at mix down. The final mix isn't quite what we wanted, but we'd run the cassette so many times doing the tracking and mixing that we wore it out, and what was released was the last decent mix we got before the tape would no longer play properly no matter how many times we cleaned the transport mechanism and wound the tape.

Build my presets and snapshot variations using the HX Edit application on my computer and then tweak them when I get in the rehearsal room. That's another advantage of the top of the range model, the display and device user interface is almost as user friendly as the edition app.

I don't know why you need to "open" the image. It should be right there in the post. Here it is again on the Basschat server:

The possible slight loss of top end from my passive EMO DI boxes is completely and utterly outweighed by the fact that they have for the past 30+ years been totally reliable and have worked in many situations where for one reason or another the DI box supplied for my use by the PA did not.

If you're on Facebook you'll know who is responsible for these. If not can you guess which now well-respected luthier made/modified them?

Can we make the Den Of Iniquity disappear permanently for everyone?

Essentially yes. It won't do everything I need, but then I have very fairly heavy-duty effects processing and MIDI control demands, and I use the large display and LED "scribble strips" as an electronic set list. I bought the Helix Floor on the assumption that if I bought one of the lesser models I'd eventually need something that only the most fully featured version had and I was right. Also in real terms it offers way more processing power and programming flexibility than any other multi-effects unit I have owned. Have a look at this comparison page as see if you think it will meet your requirements.

For some gigs I still use an FRFR cab which I run from the XLR output of the Helix. I also have the Helix set up so that the volume control only affects the XLR output. That way I can control my on-stage volume when I'm using the FRFR without affecting the FoH feed. It is relatively easy to change the volume control assignment but by always using a DI box it means that I don't have to, and also I don't inadvertently send full volume bass signal the the FRFR when I am using it.

Technical rehearsals. Including some in decent sized room with the sort of PA you'll be using at a gig.

When I was using an Etherwave Theremin at gigs we always had a problem with the Behringer active DI boxes in that they simply didn't work, whereas the passive EMO box that I used to take was always 100% reliable. IIRC we worked out that there was a mis-match between how the Theremin and Behringer DI box were earthed that meant the signal from the Theremin was essentially being shorted out when connected to the Behringer.

But they have to be the right related skills. As I mentioned in my previous post I work in another creative industry - graphics - and in the days when I was still working for advertising agencies, the graphic design graduates we employed would spend most of their first 6 months unlearning most of what they had been taught at university and learning the correct way to apply their artistic skills in a real-world environment. It's not good being able to produce cutting-edge creative design when most of the people paying you are going to be very mundane with mundane products and tastes.The same, from what I have seen, applies to every creative occupation. Interestingly of all the people I have worked with the ones who have the biggest artistic success are those with no formal arts or graphics education, but who were entirely self-taught, and had the required get up and go to make it happen by themselves.

All the people I know who have made a career in music have done it one of two ways. The first group didn't bother with education beyond the sixth form college and often beyond GCSEs. They simply went out and got on with playing, writing or producing music and the most important bit which is building up contacts and general networking and making the most of any and every opportunity that came their way. In order to make this work, you'll need to be living and breathing music non-stop while you do this. The other group who did go and get a music-related degree have ended up teaching the very same subject that they studied. Although there are plenty of other people I know who also studied something to do with music at university and now have jobs that have nothing to do with their degree course and do very little musical with the rest of their lives. What I have found for those who make a living out of any creative endeavour (I include myself in this since my main source of income is graphics), is that for a long time you have to say yes to absolutely everything that come your way, work just about every hour that your not sleeping, and unless you are extremely lucky for every job you do that is artistically and creatively satisfying, there are a whole load of others that you will need to take on just to be able to keep paying the bills. Good luck. You'll need it.

IMO scale length makes no difference for low B until you get to 36" scale or longer. The best low B I've ever had was from a 34" scale bass and two 35" scales basses I owned were both very poor when it came to the sound and feel of the low B string. For me the most important factors were a stiff neck either set neck or neck through construction combined with the right choice of string. I found that most "B" strings are far to low tension and for standard tuning 135 was the absolute minimum. I also found that a taper-wound B string gave better results. Of course this only suits the bases I play and my playing technique. You may have to do you own experimentation to find what works for you.

I have a separate presets with up to 4 snapshots for each song. For the band where I play bass VI, I alternate between "bass" and "melody" parts with the synth player, and TBH with the amount of processing I'm using, the choice of bass makes little difference. When I switched from using a Burns Barracuda to the Eastwood Hooky I only had to tweak some of the "guitar" snapshots slightly to get the right sound. For the other band where I play a more conventional bass role the difference between the presets I use for each song are more subtle, but have still been arranged so as to give the correct bass sound in the other all band mix.