BigRedX

As some who plays Bass VIs exclusively with one of my bands, these are my thoughts:

The neck is narrow. In fact of all the Bass VIs I have played or obtained specifications for (and it's a lot of them) the Squier has the narrowest neck of them all. Mine was one one of the first batch, bought almost 8 years ago, and I believe the more recent examples have a slightly wider neck by a couple of mm. However it is still very narrow and consequently the string spacing is very tight at the nut, and the thicker bass strings don't help. Think 70s Stratocaster, but with thicker strings and you'll get an idea of how narrow the neck is.

Like a lot of people my Squier Bass VI was bought on a whim and when it was very cheap, and it was largely unused for several years until the guitarist left one of the bands I play with and we decided to continue with no guitar player and me using the Bass VI instead. As a consequence of this I embarked on the mission to find something with a wider neck and therefore more playable for me. There's a multi-page thread about this which I can have a look for if you think it might be useful. The upshot of this is that the Squier was initially replaced with a Burns Barracuda, and more recently an Eastwood Hooky. Since it isn't even my back-up bass now I've been thinking of selling mine, but haven't got my act together to list it.

The other main issue is that the supplied strings are bit on the light side for bass players, which means unless you play with a very light touch you'll find the E and A strings far too compliant and floppy. The good news is that there are at least two manufacturers making heavier strings that are more bassist-friendly - LaBella and Newtone. However I found that fitting the heavier strings while improving the feel of the E and A, the increased tension rendered the vibrato mechanism almost useless. Some users have also reported intonation problems after fitting a heavier low E string.

On the plus side it looks and sounds great. If you can get on with the tight string spacing at the nut and the supplied light strings, then it's a great instrument. For me the compromises with the strings and the vibrato bridge plus the tight spacing meant that I've had to look elsewhere for a suitable Bass VI, but it did get me started and realised that the Bass VI concept would work for me and my band. Just not the Squier model.

"Real" is entirely subjective, as is what constitutes a "powerful, low, fat bass sound".

I'm a Helix user, but either device should be capable of producing a suitable sound so long as you program with your ears and not with your eyes.

Despite having ditched my traditional bass rig for just the Helix going direct into the PA, I very rarely use any amp or cab models. Remember that the important elements of your sound that the amp gives are the EQ section and, if it has valves, the drive sound. The cab is just essentially a LPF. I found that using a good EQ module and a distortion module is far more flexible, as you can mix and match to find a combination that you like, and the two elements are not tied together in a single amp sim.

If you do decide to use amp sims don't forget to try all of them - not just the ones that are supposed to be for bass. Remember that many vintage bass amps are simply guitar amps with a different name and occasionally the EQ frequencies adjusted for the lower notes. And unlike the real thing there is no possibility or damaging anything by using the "wrong" amp model. The worst that can happen is that you won't like the sound, in which case you can move on and try another.

11 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I think that so many gmail/hotmail accounts are used for spam at best and illegal communication in particular, so it is not surprising if some emails systems block them. I have always distrusted those free email providers but then it is easy to set up a dodgy email service for a few £s.

The problem is actually the other way around in that Gmail, Hotmail and the other free email providers have started rejecting email from other email hosts that don't have the very latest authentication features. This has mainly affected small business who are paying for their own email addresses as part of their hosting services. The problem is compounded by the fact that there are no error or rejection messages received by the sending service. The emails simply never reach their intended recipients. It's a simple fix for the owner of the host that involves changing a couple of settings. Unfortunately if your are on one of the bigger hosting providers like Fasthosts, they have so many accounts that it is taking time for the hosting service themselves to update them all. I ended up doing the one I administer myself after a week of no-one with a Gmail address receiving any email from us, but it's a process that looks daunting for the non-tech-savvy, so they may leave it until the setting are updated automatically by the hosting provider.

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I get the marketing emails on the sunday from them. Don't seem to be as quick with the updates to the effects pedal I sent back to them a few months ago to fix.

Marketing emails will have been sent using a bulk email service like Mail Chimp, and although it will have a Bass Direct "return" email on them, they won't have actually come from that address.

If bass direct have a domain name associated email host and they haven't recently updated their security certificates, then a lot of free emails services like Gmail etc. will be blocking what they send, as part of their attempted clamp-down on spam. If Bass Direct's email host is any good they will eventually be doing this for them, but if they are with someone popular it may take a couple of weeks to implement. Bass Direct could do it themselves (it's fairly easy so long as they follow the instructions to the letter, I've had to do it recently for an email service I administer), but until enough people complain I suspect it won't be high on their list of priorities.

On 14/04/2024 at 21:35, Geek99 said:

When my talent level demands it, I’ll shift to a five. Luckily I think I’m safe until 2351. 

I have very little talent when it comes to playing the bass but the additional strings actually make a lot of what I play much easier.

1 hour ago, Jono Bolton said:

It's absolutely sickening to think that a bass made in the 90s would be considered 'old'.

In a couple of years time everything made in the Twentieth Century will be at least 25 years old.

Spend a day each at Bass Direct and The Gallery and try anything and everything that takes your fancy. It's the only way to find out what YOU like.

2 minutes ago, AxelF said:

Could you not just soundcheck and save that as a scene, then pull all your FoH faders to zero bar 17/18 and save that as another scene?

That's what I was about to suggest.

41 minutes ago, TRBboy said:

Thanks Bill. Well, if anyone volunteers to help me out with that, I'd be very appreciative! 🙏

As Bill said you'll need to supply the INTERNAL dimensions of the cab (and probably also the port specifications).

Apart from a couple of years in the early 2000s where I played 4-string fretless basses and more recently where one of my bands uses Bass VIs, I've been playing 5-string basses as my main bass since 1989. There have still been a surprisingly large number of 4-string basses that have passed through my hands since I bought my first bass in 1981.

They break down as follows:

1-string basses: 1 fretless

4-string basses: 12 fretted, 7 fretless

5-string basses: 8 fretted, 3 fretless

6-string basses: 3 fretted (all Bass VIs)

8-string basses: 2 fretted (all 4-course)

Currently I own two 5-string basses and three Bass VIs (all fretted).

Also remember that the people who post outside of the for-sale section tend to be more interested in "less conventional" basses. So proportion of us playing basses with a string count other than 4 will be much higher.

In the same way that the only people I know using flats are either on here or those haven't changed their strings since they bought their bass in the 60s or 70s.

It was be useful if people replying to this topic could say when they were at school.

I suspect almost all the positive music lesson experiences will have occurred for those whose education came after the mid 80s.

2 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Truth is, nobody cares, really.  There, I've said it.  Nobody cares.  Your circle of friends don't care and your circle of friend's friends don't care.

 

Hurts to say it.  You might get 5% turn up once out of curiosity, but that'll be it until such a point as you may be playing a big room, then there'll be this expectation of free tickets etc.

That's very true. 

In the days when I had an office job working alongside other people I finally, after a couple years, managed to persuade some of my colleagues to come and see my current band play. What struck me the following Monday was the number of people telling me that they were surprised at how good the band was - as though they hadn't noticed my drive for perfection with the artwork I produced in my job, and therefore why should the band be any different? Unfortunately, the fact that they enjoyed the gig wasn't enough for them the go and see us play again.

On the other hand before that, most of the audience I been playing to was made up of musicians from other local bands, and they tend to be the worst audience ever - either bitching about how crap they think your band, is or seething with jealousy because you're getting more attention then their band is. I had to admit I've been guilty of that in the past.

luckily for the last 15 or so years I've played in bands that have been entertaining enough to generate our own decent following without having to rely on friends, acquaintances and work colleagues in order to have a decent sized audience.

The next gig for both my bands (Hurtsfall and In Isolation) is Goth At Brewery in Whitby on Saturday 27th April as part of the Whitby Goth Weekend:

It's an afternoon gig at the Brewery (opposite Whitby Abbey), with Hurtsfall opening at 2.00pm, In Isolation on at 4.00 and sandwiched between us Chaos Bleak (also from Nottingham) at 3.00.

For those who don't know, this is a very popular event and if you're not there early you'll probably have to watch and listen from the courtyard - although this will only be a problem if the weather ins't very good, in which case there is all the more reason to arrive in time to get a place inside!

BTW this is a free gig.

8 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Ouch !! that's what you call horrendous traffic. Sympathy for you guys there. Looks like you pulled it all together and had a great gig tho.

Well done.

Dave

Thanks! It was pretty nerve-wracking on the way in as we could see our predicted ETA getting ever closer to when we were supposed to be starting our set. Once we'd got to the other side of the Thames it was easier going but we were nearly thwarted by a bus broken down in the middle of a junction were we needed to turn left.

Next gig for both my bands is WGW which should be a lot easier as most of us are there from at least Friday (the gig is on Saturday afternoon) and the only challenge will not getting too drunk the night before when we go and see Westenra and Auger play.

5 hours ago, diskwave said:

Five, four, one, 37, none of it matters. All that actually matters is.. whatever you play does it make people wanna party? Thats it. Personaly? Four strings have never let me down....

I play in two goth bands. Party? What's that?

In all seriousness there's no way I could play most of the songs I use then Bass VI for on a standard 4-string bass. 

Hurtsfall were in London at the New Cross Inn supporting Ghost Dance on Saturday.

There were good and bad bits...

I've never played a gig south of the river and I won't be in a hurry to do it again. The last 5 miles took about three and half hours to drive, although much of this time we were completely stationary. I've seen heavy traffic in London before but this was ridiculous! Instead of turning up just before load-in we arrived 10 minutes before our advertised playing time, just as the first band were finishing. No time to do anything except load the gear in set it up , a quick line check and then straight into the set. No time to get changed or relax for a moment, although Sam, or singer, managed to sneak off and get into his spangly trousers while were sorting out DIs with the PA engineer.

However as a result of all the delays and the real possibility that we might arrive too late to play the energy on stage was electric and we stormed through the set. The song we'd chosen to open with at this gig, the somewhat prophetic "Lost Souls (Driving At Night)" which can be a bit hit and miss live just came alive in a way that it hasn't really before, and the new song which we'd stumbled through on Wednesday was played with the sort of authority that normally only comes after a lot of gigs. 

Apart from a few friends of our singer (he's originally from London) none of the audience knew who we were, but there were plenty of nice things being said afterwards and we sold a lot of merch and fended off questions about when the album will be out (later this year - honest). The drive home despite a large section of the M11 being closed was a piece of cake in comparison to our journey in...

Obligatory gig photo, apologies for my appearance, but there was no time to get changed so I'm still wearing my comfortable travelling clothes rather than my gigging clothes.

A couple of photos from Wednesday's gig:

Getting ready for tonight's gig supporting Ghost Dance in London now.

Just realised I haven't put up a poster for tomorrow night's Hurtsfall gig:

The line-up has changed somewhat since this was produced.

It's now:

Ghost Dance

Hurtsfall

Katolik

We're on at 8.35. Tickets are £17 or £20 on the door.

Depends on the band, music and the individual song. There is no right or wrong answer.

These days if you have the right tools, making a neck is no more difficult than any other part of guitar construction.

When I made my guitar back in late 70s I bought a ready made neck mostly because buying a truss rod or a suitable saw for cutting fret slots was near to impossible. Stephen Delft was doing a series of articles in International Musician magazine and he made his own truss rod from scratch, and modified a saw by filing the set off, and while the school metalwork shop probably had the facilities it would have taken too much time and the guitar wouldn't have been complete before the end of the school year. I'd made a balalaika the year before where did make the neck (it was a neck-through construction and the string tension was low enough for me to dispense with a truss rod), but the narrowest saw available to me was still too wide for the frets to fit snugly and most had to also be glued into place.

Of course now I can order a ready-made truss rod and all the right tools on line, so if I was going to build a guitar or bass I wouldn't think twice about making the neck.

Pre-EQ, but get the PA engineer up on stage to hear what your bass sounds like to you through your amp and cab(s) so they know what sort of sound to be aiming for FoH.

Mid week gig at The Chapel in Nottingham supporting Empathy Test and Black Nail Cabaret. Flag Promotions always know how to put together a great gig line-up and look after the bands, even when pre-gig ticket sales looked like being a bit slow.

In the end it wasn't a bad turnout for a school night and most of the audience were in early to see us. Not the best gig that we've played, there were a couple of technical issues the most perplexing of which was the complete change in sound on stage from the sound check to the gig, despite being first on and last to sound check. We had no fold back at all for half of the first song and it took another two before the stage mix was close to what we have had during the sound check. This has happened more than once at this venue and beginning to wonder if there is some kind of user error the part of the PA engineer there. Anyway the audience didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss, and we got plenty of positive comments afterwards.

We're in London at the New Cross Inn supporting Ghost Dance on Saturday, and then WGW...

1 hour ago, peteb said:

The fact is that, these days, the encore is part of the show (whether you like it or not). Especially at the bigger gigs, where punters pay to see you, not doing an encore (assuming that there is any sort of audience reaction) makes you look unprofessional, or even worse, like a diva! 

No. As others have said both the band and the audience have to earn an encore.

AFAIAC as a band member if I want to play a song it's in the main set. It's not put aside to persuade the audience to get you to come back on. An encore is a bonus and a "thank you" for both the audience and the band. A lot of the time even for well-known bands there is an expectation that the band will be back and shouts for more are minimal because the audience thinks they are not needed. Personally I think it's pathetic. As an audience member I'll only shout for more if I actually want to band to come back on, and if they don't I might be disappointed, but I'll also respect their decision not to play another song.