P-T-P

Errr... has Geddy traded his tumble dryer backline for three rotisserie chicken ovens?

Paul bought my Warwick Thumb Bleached Blonde. A pleasure to deal with him and a nice and easy meet and exchange. Of course his dodgily pimped Vauxhall might make receiving money from him in a service station car park seem more than a bit suspect to any passing officers of the law! "It came like that from the factory constable," just ain't gonna cit it I reckon. Still, easy to spot him once you get there so it's swings and roundabouts I suppose. All the best, cheers for a good deal done good.

[quote name='OldGit' post='68132' date='Oct 1 2007, 01:40 PM']Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it through the Grapevine" .. Gladys Knight's orginal is fab but Marvin Gaye just got it spot on right ...[/quote] Hmmm but which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think Marvin's version was recorded before Gladys' version but they were released the other way around. And I don't think either was the original recording of the song, seem to recall reading that it had been kicking about for a while before either of these two recorded it.

Sinnead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Nilsson - Without You Black Crows - Hard to Handle James Taylor Quartet - Whole Lotta Love

My perception is that it is mainly just Warwicks that are suffering when it comes to second hand sales and it seems to have been that way for a couple of years. I sold my (immaculate AAA flamed) Stage I about three years ago for about £900 and having kinda regretted it going ever since I've always kept an eye on Warwicks, the Streamers in particular. I can't recall many selling at over £700 and plenty of Stage Is going at <£600 with loads of LXs struggling to sell at <£475. A standard Corvette that fetches as much as £400 has done great for the seller nowadays. I think non-vintage second hand Fender prices have come down a bit in the past year or so - you can pick up a US standard jazz for under £500 now - but that's a reflection of the prices for a new instrument - can get a new one around £700 these days. Warwick's new prices don't haven't dropped much over time but the second hand prices have, and like a stone. I think it's partly due to the introduction of the Rockbass line - some buyers would always rather spend £350 on a new instrument than find the extra £100 for a superior but second hand one - and partly due to a fashion/image issue. Most of the current new bread of guitar bands we are seeing just don't use Warwicks and they are a little bit perceived as being a hard rock or funk bass. Then you get people like me who'd happily buy a second hand Warwick but only if the price was at the lower end of second hand scale just because they chop and change basses a lot and are concerned about re-sale values. There's a bunch of really nice Stage Is in the FS section which I personally wouldn't go near just because if I get bored of it a month or two from now I'd be concerned I'd be staring att a £200 to £300 loss. If I'm buying a Fender/MMan/Lakland etc. I don't really have that concern.

In defense of the engineer (sort of)... Assuming he wasn't just some studio lacky and was actually there at the band's request (possibly because he forms a team with the producer) with a general brief of helping the band get their album made/write something new/get a particular sound etc. it's possible that he may have needed to do the deed in order to get progress (or been instructed to by a higher power. It could be that the vibe JT was feeling was all in his head and the reality was actually a crap performance that just wasn't getting the job done, studio clock ticking, JT refusing to try something different and sessions getting nowhere fast. JT pops out for a cuppa and while he's gone producer instructs engineer to change the strings and force a new approach for the greater good of the record. There's a story that when U2 were recording the Joshua Tree half of the sessions were spent trying to polish up what the band felt was the nucleus of a great recording of Where the Streets Have No Name. They recorded, re-recorded, overdubbed, mixed, re-mixed, recorded more and on and on to the point where Brian Eno got so fed up he instructed Danny Lanois to erase the tape to force the band to start the whole recording of the song from scratch. As it turned out he got caught in the act and they eventually found what they were looking for ('scuse the pun), but the point is that in the case of JT's strings getting changed, it might not have been simply a case of ignorance on the part of the engineer.

There's no real cure for GAS but the best thing you can do is to FART (find a real treasure) as this will at least keep you satisfied for a while. It doesn't matter how much you love your current bass(es), there will always be something that catches your eye/ear which you weren't prepared for. When I got my DJ5 last year it was pretty much everything I had been searching for in a bass and kept me on the straight and narrow for a while, but I missed the searching for goodies and basses would appear which turned my head and even though I can't imagine I'll stray far from that DJ5, I'm now looking to see if something will better it.

I've just picked up a 6 string for a second attempt (the first failed onyl because the bass wasn't comfortable for me). The first 6 string I got I gigged with it immediately (was playing 4 strings primarily at the time, though had played 5ers for years previously). I think there's a perception that there's a difficulty curve from 4 to 5 to 6 but I don't believe that to be the case. Most of the playing techniques you'll use are the same across the three instruments. 6 string isn't more difficult, it's just different. There is a learning curve in terms of getting your fingers/pick/thumb used to finding the notes you have grown comfortable playing on your 4/5 string, but we're talking a matter of hours if you practive regularly not months. Yes there are new notes and arpeggios and scales and modes available to you with the extra string(s), but there's no law that says you have to know all of these on a 4 string bass before you're allowed out to play so why should it be different for 6ers? In terms of techniques, a six string does open up the possibility of new horizons in terms of chordal playing which are a lot more restricted on a 4 or 5, there's also the whole flamenco type approach which makes a lot more sense on a 6 string. It can be daunting when you pick up that 6 for the first time and you may even get frustrated because the extra strings will 'cause you to flub lines that you can play easily on whatever bass you were used to, but stick with it, slow your playing down a bit until you stop making the gaff and with a few hours of regular practice you'll be fine. Just remember, it's not harder, it's just different. Ultimately for me, what will determine whether I end up playing 5 or 6 (or more) string will be how comfortable I am physically with the size of the 6 and if I can find the time to learn and make use of the additional possibilites it offers. I don't think there's anything to be gained by the line of thinking which has a 6 string player being better than a 4 string player or the antithesis of that which sees 4 string players saying "Well if it was good enough for Jamerson..." when confronted withthe idea of a non-four string bass. Geddy Lee does amazing things with a 4 string bass playing in essentially the same genre as John Myung who does equally amazing things on a 6 string bass. Jamerson did ungodly things on a 4 string bass, but Anthony Jackson, who has taken much of his inspiration from Jamerson, does equally astonding things on a 6 string. It's all about what lets you express yourself best. If you can paint a beautiful picture using red, white and blue then more power to you; but if you get a hankering for a splash of green or gold, why restrict yourself when that palette is available? You might have more shades and colours to choose from, but it's all just paint in the end.

[quote name='obbm' post='62533' date='Sep 19 2007, 10:31 AM']Can anyone recommmend or not any particular wireless hardware. There seem to be a lot of systems out there now and trying to decide which one to go for could be a bit of a minefield.[/quote] db Technologies claim to have better bass response than others and of the two in-ear systems I tried, that is true, although the db unit was really old and didn't provide the cleanest sound. When the db finally gave up the ghost I switched to the T.Bone unit which our guitarist couldn't get on with and I think it's fantastic, best overall mix I've had since making the switch - signal was clean as a whistle and much more alive because of it and I didn't notice any major loss of bottom end. In fact, I kicked my octave on at for a bit of a mess around while guitarist was off on one his solos and the sound was massive. There are occasional one second or so dropouts, haven't worked out the cause of these yet, doesn't seem to be a volume peak issue, could be though as there is in-built protection of some kind. I'm sure it's something I'll get to the bottom of fairly quickly and if not it really is not the end of the world. For £160 I don't think you can go wrong really. Well you can go wrong if you don't get some decent phones to use I suppose!

I use IEMs. A bit strange at first but love them to bits right now. I currently am using a set of Shure E3c phones and one of these [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_tie16st_863mhz.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_tie16st_863mhz.htm[/url] I was previously using an old db Technologies wireless unit which died on me on Saturday night hence I used the spare T.Bone one. The db unit had slightly better low endresponse but the T.Bone is a far cleaner sound with a lot less compression hiss and I really liked it and for the cash I don't think you can go wrong. To feed it you'll either need a monitor mix tailored to you or a FOH mix going into a small (2 channel) mixer with the other channel being a feed from your bass. This would then go into the transmitter and away you go. It takes a bit of getting used to. You need to get a good seal when you put the phones in as that's key to good bass reproduction. I found the foam tips to be the most comfortable to wear, but they have very good sound isolation which can make conversation on stage a bit tricky and leave you feeling a bit odd when you finish a song to what seems like muted applause. A couple of ambient mics added to the monitor mix can help with this. I find that our dtummer's (un-nic'd) kit cuts through the isolation and/or bleeds just enough into his vocal mic that I hear him at a nice level. Similarly, so long as my amp is kicking out enough, I can feel it's presence through the floor and that makes the whole thing work. It took 5 gigs or so to be comfortable wearing them, 10 or so to get the mix working nicely for me and now, as I said, I wouldn't be without them and am considering investing in a high-end system and getting moulds made.

Which end of the bass is posing the problem? It's been a while since I first made the switch from 4 to 5, but at the time the problem was at both ends. Strings too close together at the bridge and neck to wide at the nut. I still have that issue with a lot of 5 strings but for my money, the Lakland 5 strings are the best fives for a four string player.