BigRedX

I've found that I have a greater tolerance for songs I'm not keen on listening to, if I'm actually playing them. On the other hand having to learn and play some songs has completely killed any chance of listening enjoyment that I might have previously had for them.

I ordered a pair of ZS10 Pros as they were cheaper on Prime Day. However how do you tell which is left and right? The instructions seem to apply that it is marked on the earpieces but I can't see anything. Where should I be looking? Also how do you know which confectioning on the cable goes into which earpiece? Again there are no obvious markings. I'm probably being really stupid, but I've just spent 10 minutes looking closely at all the parts and I really can't see anything.

Got to say that most of those "bassists" look very uncomfortable with a bass guitar.

Most Schecter headstocks have the "point" at the bottom, and those few that have it at the top all appear to be through neck. Of course it could be something older than the current range.

Fair enough. However I noticed that they have mic'd the most convenient driver for use with that clamp, rather than what might be the "best" sounding one. Also the sound of one 10" driver close mic'd isn't the same as the sound of two 8x10 cabs from a couple feet away...

I ask because there are no visible mics on that Ampeg rig, so at best only the pre-amp section of the top (and maybe not even that depending on where the DI feed is being taken from) would be contributing to what you hear.

Is that a photo of the actual gig?

Off topic... I've never understood why so many Mac users seem to be content having having the dock at it's enormous default size and positioned permanently at the bottom of the screen. On all my Macs it is shrunk down to a size just big enough to make out the what the individual icons are and the applications I don't need on a daily basis or are easily accessible another way (like System Preferences) have been removed. Then on my desk top it is positioned vertically on the far right of the second display where it's not in the way of my actual work - especially as on wide screens where there is plenty of width, but vertical space is at a premium. On my laptop it is hidden and only appears when the pointer is moved to the bottom of this display - if I could find a way to hide it permanently I would.

For my basses - a very uncomfortable Mono M80 gig bag for the Gus and an Eastwood branded heavily padded gig bag that was supplied with the Hooky Bass. For the Helix Floor the Line6 Helix Back Pack. All the leads specifically for the Helix plus the footswitch that controls the backing go in the front pocket. For everything else a Line6 Pod/Floorboard bag. XLR and mains leads go in the main centre compartment, DI boxes and headphone amp in the Pod section, and tools and Gaffa tape in the small pocket.

And adjacent to this, when sub-BCR teeny bop band Slik split, Midge Ure formed Rich Kids with Glen Matlock and then took over from both Robin Simon and John Foxx in Ultravox. Meanwhile the rest Slik went on to form firstly the highly under-rated Zones and subsequently Set The Tone.

He also made an electronic instrumental album with Martin Gore in 2011.

Thanks. In Isolation have a gig booked at The Fidler's Elbow in December. Come along and say "hello". I'll be using my CAR Gus.

Sneaker Pimps. Although they didn't match the commercial success of Becoming X after Kelli Dayton left the band, IMO their subsequent albums are musically much stronger, and Chris Corner's post Sneaker Pimps band IAMX are even better yet.

If it was a genre of music I was familiar with and if I was a fan of the artist in question, then I would most definitely know (and hopefully be able to play) their style of music, I would like to think I would acquit myself reasonably well as a supporting musician.

Unfortunately they don't always even get that right. See my post previously in this thread about receiving someone else's very expensive pre-amp which they initially expected me to return at my own expense.

From the OP it sounds as though they are wanting to drop a low B down to Bb and A. However as someone when is very sensitive to changes in tension on my strings and find standard low B strings far too floppy even when tuned to low B, I'd check that I was happy with the tensions by tuning manually before committing to some quite expensive hardware.

Three reasons.: 1. If I'm using my RCF745 FRFR as an on-stage monitor I connect that via the XLR output. 2. Using a passive DI box protects the Helix from any inadvertent attempt to feed it phantom power. Modern devices that don't need phantom power should be built to ignore it, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. 3. I have the volume control configured so that it only affects the XLR outputs and the jack sockets always send at full volume. This means that if I'm using the FRFR I can control my on-stage level without affecting when is being sent to the PA. Using a separate DI vis the jack means that I don't have to mess about changing settings so that the XLR is also sending at full volume (and I won't get a nasty surprise at the next rehearsal because I forgot to change it back).

Hurtsfall were in Derby at the Victoria Inn on Friday supporting Chaos Bleak and local band Courtesan. Somewhat frustrating as the PA were very slow to set up and they appeared to have run out of working channels on the mixer or multicore by the time we were ready for our sound check requiring them to use channels from the other bands, so playing first was a definite advantage as there was less likelihood the sound changing between the sound check and the actual gig. Also it meant that were almost 30 minutes late starting. In the end it all worked in our favour because by then there were lots or people there - as soon as we started playing they flooded in from the "beer garden" and were very enthusiastic, especially when we played our forthcoming single "Tilting" and even the new song which we were only playing for the second time was well received. Only issue was one of the synths was very quiet on the last two songs, but we carried on regardless and I doubt if anyone other than us even noticed. We'd gone in expecting the gig to be fairly quiet and were intending to treat it as a practice for next weekend's Goth City performance, but were pleasantly surprised and even sold a couple of T-shirts and Lucid CDs.

Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully by the time we play there at the end of September they will have got their act together regarding the PA and monitors. Because we don't have any backline or drums on stage, provided we can hear what is coming out of the FoH, the foldback is less critical for anything except vocals.

As I said earlier in the Thread: Line 6 Helix straight into the PA either with whatever DI box the PA has or my EMO Passive DI (my preferred route).

I had a 4-string Wesley Acrylic bass which had the frets taken out, and din't think it was heavy. If was certainly a better instrument IMO than the Squier VMJ that was supposed to replace it. I've played one of the Percy Jones clear basses, and it was very heavy and pretty horrible to play. Also close up it looked terrible, with lots of unpolished surfaces. While it might look OK on stage or in a video, for a hand-made custom instrument I wouldn't consider that lack of attention to detail acceptable. Again the fit and finish of the Wesley was far superior.

Yes. I've bought several basses from Ishibashi (U-Box) without any problem. They are geared up for international sales and handle everything well. Other Japanese sellers can be reluctant to deal with foreigners and may totally ignore you as a result. Don't forget that you will need to pay VAT and import duty on the combined price of the bass and shipping. Add 25% to the cost of the instrument and the shipping price and you won't have any nasty surprises. Also I have sold and shipped a bass to Japan, again with no issues. I didn't do anything different to shipping a bass anywhere else. Pack it up with plenty of padding and if you don't have a hard case, double box it. For international shipping I always use a courier service that will be the same company both here and in the country I'm sending to, such as UPS or FedEX. It costs more but IME it's always more reliable. Remember to tell your buyer that they are responsible for any import taxes. Good luck.

IME if you need to max out any EQ band (let alone all of them) then your equipment probably isn't right for the sound that you want. Good studio engineers will normally try and achieve the sound they want by cutting the unwanted frequencies rather than boosting the wanted ones. This is what I always do with my signal chain. Ultimately if you are getting EXACTLY the sound that you want then it's probably OK, but if this was me I'd be wondering what was wrong with the rest of my gear, because I would want to apply subtle EQ once in the signal chain and leave it at that, and if I couldn't do that, I'd be looking for what was getting in the way of achieving the sound that I want and replacing that. If you are boosting all the frequencies to max or close to max you are probably overloading an input somewhere in your signal chain and what you probably want to do is add an overdrive/gain pedal instead.

Hurtsfall will be playing Goth City 7 - To Live and Die in LS in Leeds on Saturday 15th July. We're playing the main stage at Boom opening for Auger (who are great) and will be on at 8.30

I don't get this romanticising of wear. And I'm sure that if Gibson and Fender had known just how rough the "rock n roll lifestyle" would be on the finishes of their instruments they'd have picked something more hard wearing than nitro in the first place. And at what point does wear get in the way of the playability of an instrument and when it does what should you do about it? Case in point my Red Gus G3 Bass will be 25 years old next year. That will probably make it "vintage". It stated off as one of the display/demo models that Simon took to various musical instrument shows and trade fairs, and at some point after the end of 2001 it was sold to the person who owned it before me. For the next 5 or so years it must have had a very hard life because when I bought it, second hand, early in 2008 both the bass and the Hiscox case it came in were severely worn. The purple/green flip paint finish had chipped off in multiple places including the back of the neck which made it somewhat uncomfortable to play. Some parts were missing and others had been replaced with non-standard items. Having decided that overall the bass was a keeper, I got in touch with Simon at GusGuitars to find out what my options were. Due to the way the flip paint works it would be impossible to retouch the worn areas, and the only options would be to leave it as it was an try and smooth out the chips on the neck to make them less uncomfortable, or strip it back to the primer coat and apply a new finish. Since I wasn't particularly taken by the colour (this was the main reason why I didn't buy the bass when it was "new" back in 2001) I decided to have it refinished in Candy Apple Red and at the same time have the whole bass refurbished, which included new chrome for all the metalwork and re-profiling the aluminium horns that were somewhat out of shape. (How on earth had that happened?) When I got the bass back apart from still having the same old worn case and some slight wear to the frets it looked like a brand new instrument. For the past 15 years this has mostly been my main bass and has done well over 100 gigs, and while it has picked up a ding or two, it is not showing a fraction of the wear it displayed when I first got it. Has the refinish and refurbishment affected the value? In this case it has probably made it worth slightly more. Having the work done by the person who made the bass originally probably helps. What might count against it, is that being the first 5-string bass Gus made the instrument in it's original condition is well-documented on the Gus website, and of course it not longer exists in that state...