Alun

Bond was using one at Bassday and the filters sounded pretty nice, but I guess you'd need to try it and see if it suits your playing and music. Cheers, Alun

This thread reminds me of a post on another forum where someone was asking for diagrams to make a pedal true bypass until someone pointed out that it already was

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='88064' date='Nov 13 2007, 08:26 PM']What are you classing as an ERB, I only play a 6 string and use it for everything from Jazz to funk and rock, and experimental stuff.[/quote] I think it depends who you ask. Most players I know would class anything over 5 ( or even 4) , but this topic seems to define it as over 6. Tis but a name

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='87940' date='Nov 13 2007, 04:34 PM']I just want to hear something moving on a VERB. If you hear anything you think will fit the bill, [i]please[/i] let me know.[/quote] My vote would be to go to [url="http://www.myspace.com/yvescarbonne"]http://www.myspace.com/yvescarbonne[/url] and listen to "Holy Spirit". Cheers, Alun

Listen with your ears, not your eyes. Music sounds good = music is good, be it played on a harp or a pencil. Cheers Alun ( proud player of 4 and 6 string bassy things) PS I know I've said it before but....have you ever seen a keyboard player in a pop band complain why some grand pianos have so many notes?

Welcome aboard. I'm now in Swansea but from down there originally - born in Haverfordwest and I still have family in Steynton ( just outside the delights of Milford) Cheers Alun

Hello. Just got back from Manchester ( by choice - haven't been travelling since last night!) so here are my thoughts... The venue as a whole was great and the sound in the main theatre was pretty good. The downside of using big rooms is that bass frequencies can get muddy but on the whole it was pretty good, better to me than sitting downstairs in the Life Cafe. It was great having food available all day, although the lack of any hot food after 2.30 did send me scuttling off to the nearby Subway before Jeff Berlin. The stands were great and there were some lovely instruments on show. If anyone has a spare £2850 they don't want, there's a very lovely 6 string Marleaux that I feel hopelessly in lust with ( or did until I looked while trying it and found Hadrein Feraud standing there ). A nice range of stuff you don't get to see everyday plus Promenade had a few more affordable goodies like Squiers, etc. The only suggestion I might make for future years is to not face Bernie Goodfellow's stand at any other traders ( or give him his own room!) as he was deafening all day and made hearding things tricky on the nearby stands. A lovely man, and a nice player playing nice gear, just a bit much all day Concertwise, these are my thoughts... Stevie Williams - seemed more relaxed as compere this year and did a great job. Nice set too with a gorgeous bass sound from his Jazz and some unbelievable trumpet from Graeme Flowers. Laurence Cottle - great as always. He mentioned earlier in the day that they were just going to jam through a few tunes, but it was far beyond your average blues jam. Great playing by the whole band, especially drummer Jeremy Stacey. Bond - wasn't sure what I was going to make of this but I really enjoyed it. A mix of tunes, brief jams and discussion on his use of effects. The last track "Japan" was particuarly nice. The only downside was being sat a little too close to another player and his entourage who made little comments to themselves throughout. Lorenzo Feliciati - I didn't really enjoy his set at the 2005 show, but thought this year's was really nice. The last track in particular stood out. It worked pretty well with the house band although I foind the pyrotechnic piano runs a little out of place at times. Jeff Berlin - probably the highlight for me. Great playing and he came across as a genuinely humourous person, despite his "serious educator" persona. I'm still giggling at the joke about the rock bass player I thought the drums and piano really shone on this set too, the piano solos fitted into this setting a lot more comfortably to me. The power cut and subsequent mini-clinic just made the event seem that little bit more intimate and personal. Reggie Washington - a nice mix of playing with the trio, solo playing and CD tracks. A lovely tone ( a quite Marcus-esque hard plucked Jazz sound) and some nice playing throughout. Hadrien Feraud - I was knackered by this point but glad I hung round to the end - possibly the most technically adept fingerstyle bassist I've seen. Yes, there are elements of Matt Garrison, Dominique DiPiazza and Jaco in Hadrien's style but I think he's taken it to the next level again. His playing on the Promenade and ACG stands was also breathtaking. Again, the piano solos were outstanding too, especially on Giant Steps ( who the Hell opens with Giant Steps???) I only went to one seminar, more through crap time managament on my part than anything else, which was Dave Marks' opening one. I'm afraid I only lasted through their first full tune due to the volume where I was sitting being a little on the loud side ( just in front of the guitar), but what I saw was great. Dave came across really well as an educator and the sound on his rig was beautiful. Really nice solo too. All in all, a great day. I do agree with what others have said about the jazz overload though. I am a jazz lover but I did miss the diversity of earlier years and would love to hear some funk, soul, rock and some upright too. Or fretless come to think of it! The house band idea worked much better than I feared it might, but I'm still torn as to whether it's a good thing or not. Obviously it makes things a lot more managable logistically, but I found it weird having a house band with a bassist (normally a house band would back a frontline player, not have the guest backing the piano). Stevie said at the end that he wanted more of the bass being in a band setting, but for me that would best be achieved by the bassist being accompanied by at least their regular drummer. Not that there was anything wrong with the drumming, in fact the level of intuition and listening was mind blowing on many occcasions, but we always talk about the bass and drums being a team, so I think using a house drummer does infringe on that idea. Two other things Stevie said got me thinking too - first was that it was important to showcase local musicians. I can see this from the Manchester music scene point of view, but surely it's BASS Day so the emphasis should have been on maybe showcasing Manchester bass players if promoting local players was important. The other thing, which I found a little worrying, was the line about featuring the bass as part of a band rather than encouraging people to buy a Loop Station and sit in their bedrooms. I understand where he's coming from, but does this mean we can kiss goodbye to any chance of Michael Manring, Steve Lawson, Trip Wamley, etc in the future? It would be a shame if the UK's one outlet for bass music turned its back on the solo bassists. Hopefully, that won't be the case. I must also mention how much I enjoyed seeing Stuart Clayton play at long last. Nice to meet you too! I didn't run into many Basschatters but it was great to catch up with Gary and Pris. All in all a fabulous day and congratulations to all involved. Here's to next year! Cheers, Alun PS Apologies for length of post!

A good thread to read as last night I came close to murdering the bandleader who who was using a semi acoustic jazz guitar with more low end than you would believe. Sounded great on its own but there was no point in me being there. I mimed a few bars and no-one noticed! That combined with a drummer who seemed to think he had to play [i]exactly[/i] what I was playing at all times, making nothing groove, led to a less than fun night. As for isolation, those foam sheets with the push out sections that come in camera cases, etc are sometimes a good cheap solution. I use a couple under the legs of my Wav EUB to make life for the people downstairs more tolerable Cheers, Alun

[quote name='OldGit' post='86268' date='Nov 9 2007, 09:32 PM']Have a good time guys. Someone enter the Overwater free prize draw for me? [/quote] I would but...... If I win, I'll let you look at my mine oo -er

I'll be over for a nose too Didn't manage to get near the Overwater stand last year, but it looks like you'll have more room this time. Cheers, Alun

Sounds like fun! wasn't out last night but Friday was great. Local pub/Thai restaurant with a blues guitarist ( who was deafeningly loud). Bit weird at times as he wanted to do some bebop as well which really didn't fit the rest if the music ( or the audience!) that well, but still great fun. It was packed as well which is always good plus some friends I have seen in years turned up. All good! Cheers, Alun

He's right about the Fimble being there you know Lovely bass, well worth the wait I'm sure. Cheers, Alun

[quote name='Gary.Lowe' post='62603' date='Sep 19 2007, 11:27 AM']First act won't be on untill about 14:00[/quote] Hi Gary, has this changed? The schedule on the website now seems to start at 1 o clock. Wouldn't want anyone to miss out Cheers, Alun PS Am I reading it correctly that most acts, excepting Stevie, Laurie and Bond, are using a house band? Any ideas whose in it?

Interesting thread I must be honest and say I don't own a P Bass of any description, but I do love the sound of them. That P-Bass and pick tone is perfect for rock, punk, etc and sounds great to this day. Not doing much in those genres, I tend to bluff it with the front p/up of my Jazz and a pick but it's not really the same. The recording debate is really interesting. In these days of home studios and VST plug ins, I agree that the art of miking and EQing has been somewhat lost ( I have also happily sat there with a razor blade and tape splicing and editting - great fun!) but I don't think all the responsibility lies with the engineer. The player should also have his sound and gear together, and know it well enough to make quick changes if required. I've been lucky to generally work with open minded engineers and have got good results with active six strings as well as with passive fours. The "sitting in the mix" dilemma often comes from, in my experience and opinion, players who set their tone to sound good soloed - a very hi fi sound with frequencies galore and active EQs do encourage this practice. People forget that even one extra insturment in the mix will change the perceived bass sound as they fight for room. Even just a drum track can soon gobble up that deep bass/lower mids (kick drum and toms) and high end ( snare and cymbals) leaving the bass with nowhere to poke through. Rock and metal guitarists with scooped mids will also soon kill off a decent bass sound, I've usually ended up using a disgustingly middley tone on those kind of recordings that sounds great in the mix but vile in isolation. Same with some effects, sound great isolated but are oftem lost in the mix. I used a POG on a recent recording to give an 8 string type sound with a pick and the resulting tone cut through beautifully, but you can't really hear the upper octave that often, Although I use my active Cort for recordings, I tend to leave the EQ flat and just add a little compression if need be - generally sits fine. Saying that, my favourite recording bass at the moment is a cheap Alden violin bass copy with flatwounds. There's something about short scale semi acoustics that just stays out of the way of everything else. Cheers, Alun

[quote name='jakesbass' post='81928' date='Oct 31 2007, 08:16 PM']+1 on Jimmy Johnson, for me the worlds current master of tasteful and supremely musical/interesting bass playing[/quote] And he's on a UK tour in a couple of weeks with Allan Holdsworth - can't wait!!

I use it a reasonable amount but my reasoning was the same as Wulf's - I mainly play six and need to keep my B string quiet I don't use it all the time but find it really helpful for soloing and chordal stuff where I'm up on the top strings. Cheers, Alun

After seeing him live last night with jazz painist Geoff Eales I have to urge all Upright enthusiasts to see him if at all possible. I've heard him before and knew he was good but his playing last night was unbelievable - tone, solos, groove - everything. Makes me sick Alun

In addition to those mentioned above try... Todd Johnson Steve Lawson Trip Wamsley Jeff Schmidt ( although you may find him a little noodly if you're not into the faster stuff) Seth Horan Some of Dave LaRue's playing with the Steve Morse Band is veeeeery Hammesque too. Have fun, Alun

Speaking of trains, if anyone is travelling a fair distance,it may be worth considering getting singles each way in advance rather than a return. Silly as it sounds, buying two singles was 2/3 of the price of a return from Swansea. Bizarre! Cheers, Alun

Will have a listen when I'm on a PC with sound but for now, here's a forum with enormous amounts of info about composition... [url="http://www.composeforums.com/forum/default.asp"]http://www.composeforums.com/forum/default.asp[/url] Cheers, Alun

OK, my laptop is playing up so didn't get to try it sorry Steve but yes, it does show up as an ASIO thingie in Media Player so I guess you could.

Oo, don't know. You can definitely listen to tracks playing back while you're recording but not sure about other applications. Will try later and let you know. If not you could play the track in the Tracktion studio software that comes with it anyway. Cheers, Alun

[quote name='steve-norris' post='80443' date='Oct 28 2007, 02:53 PM']Not seen those before, look a cool bit of kit for the price in fact very tempted bt one just for the ease of use![/quote] I think mine was about £79 from Dawsons in Manchester ( after last year's Bassday), and it's worth it for the bundled software alone.