mangotango

20 hours ago, cetera said:

 

Sod that for a game of soldiers! lol!!

I'm just happy if they all work and sound good!   😁

 

 

...is the right answer.

As for the rest of you....yer a bunch of weirdos!!

On ‎30‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 10:42, mangotango said:

Dutch Acid Jazz group Tristan, in the Maritime Room, Cliffs Pavilion last night.

Totally groovalicious, though unfortunately, due to having to catch my last train home, I left just as Frans Vollink started his bass solo.... dammit!!

One thing made me chuckle - the Maritime Room is part of the Cliffs Pavilion in Sunny Sarfend, and last night Joe Brown was on in the Main Theatre. That finished earlier, to let all of the wrinklies home in time for their cocoa before bedtime.  The number of them looking in through the glass doors of the Maritime Room on their way past and out...and each one pulling pretty much the same grimace at what they could hear of the funky groove stuff (maaaaan)….. was so funny!!

Dutch Acid Jazz group Tristan, in the Maritime Room, Cliffs Pavilion last night.

Totally groovalicious, though unfortunately, due to having to catch my last train home, I left just as Frans Vollink started his bass solo.... dammit!!

I have a Bass VI. N.B. I also play guitar. I regard my Bass VI as a kind of hybrid instrument.

My plan is to use this bass on tunes where I want to play high-register figures, or even lead lines/soloing. For my other basses, I have 2 Spector 5-strings and an Aria EUB, so I regard this as a completely different instrument, which is underlined by the fact that I play it with a plectrum (unlike my other basses); I also use a lot of right hand muting. I even occasionally use the Twang Bar (which is not a venue for Duane Eddy tribute bands).

I won't ever use the Bass VI as my only bass at a gig.

I did need to make adjustments to my board, as my other two basses are active; so I have added a Carl Martin boost pedal to bring up the level and add some oomph; and I will at some point add an overdrive for lead playing.

And before anyone says it....there's no guitar in this band. Nor are we going to be adding one for the sake of the higher-register parts on a couple of tunes, out of a book of 25 pieces of music.  To have those parts played on 6-string bass rather than just assign them to the keyboards  - it's something different tonally and visually.

15 hours ago, la bam said:

Just my opinion, but separates are the way to go for the following reason:

If you're worried about having to be loud enough for lots of different venues and perhaps not having pa support etc, I'd recommend a 4x10 cab. Pretty much get away with anything with one of those as long as its driven correctly.

However, in time you might not need to lug a 4x10 around, so perhaps a 2x10 or a 1x12 etc would be better suited (or even better suited to certain venues leaving the 4x10 for the bigger ones).

With that in mind, and to save you buying another new combo, I'd spend the majority of the budget on a top quality, powerful amp head, and the rest on second hand cabs (or even one cab to start with) and see what works for you.

Head wise it depends what you really like. Loads of eq and functions and buttons? Or simpler the better? Lightweight? Built in fx? The worlds your oyster.

Theres lots of ashdown abm combos around for around £200, if you wanted a combi, but I'm not sure if they'll be loud enough. I had an abm2 500 (1x15) and it wasnt enough for me. I also wouldnt recommend a 4x10 combo - very heavy.

My main rig (and pretty much rig for everything) is a quilter 800 and laney n410. Total weight around 22kg and loud and good enough for any gig.

This. My rig at the moment consists of a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 that I run into a Genz Benz Neox 2 x 12" for most gigs, and that set-up is great; but for rehearsal rooms and small venues, I have a Barefaced One10, which copes pretty well with most things that I throw at (through) it.

When I started playing bass again at the tender age of 58 (see? You're not alone!!), I bought a combo, mostly because the technology had all changed since last I'd played bass regularly 3 decades before - and I couldn't  get my head around the intricacies of all of the heads and cabs out there quickly enough, I wanted a simple solution.  And because I also play guitar and use a combo for that, I knew that the "one-stop shop" simplicity of the combo would work for me. So I bought a TC Electronics BG250-112, a nice, simple, 1 x 12" combo that was light but powerful enough for what I was doing (250 watts). That worked for me for the first year or so.

During that first year, I was doing my research and soon enough I moved on to a reasonably powerful and flexible head and cabinet(s) set-up. So now I'm going to sell the combo, as I now have more headroom than I'll ever need before going to a PA, and a much better sound for my purposes. The TC's a decent piece of kit, but now my needs have changed, so it's no longer what's required.

However to get to my current set-up, I had to go through re-acquiring the knowledge of what I needed by having, then moving on from, the combo. 

Sometimes you have to ask other people, sometimes you get the knowledge yourself. You're in a great place here to obtain a plethora of other opinions.  Good luck!!

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

An update to this thread prompted by the other one on Bass VIs...

After 18 months of using the Burns Barracuda and slowly becoming acclimatised to the narrow string spacing at the bridge, as I've been using it exclusively with one of my bands - Hurtsfall:

However over the new year a post popped up on my Facebook news feed about a proposed Eastwood version of Peter Hook's Shergold Marathon 6-String Bass. I'm in two minds about this, I'm not a big fan of Eastwood's "parts bin" approach to making instruments as using standard guitar and bass hardware tends to lose the features that made the instruments interesting in the first place and they tend to end up with guitars and basses that are essentially one of the standard Gibson or Fender models but with a weirdly shaped body.

However this bass looks on paper at least to be pretty good. I've been in touch with Eastwood and the important specs (for me) are: nut width 50mm string spacing at the nut 40.5mm E-E (which isn't as wide as I would like but with an overall width of 50mm probably alterable with a new nut), String Spacing at the bridge: 65.5mm which is very good.

All I have to do is decide which colour to go for...

Before you go crazy on that....I spoke with the Shergold guy at the Bass Guitar Show back in November.  He assured me that they were going to be building basses again "very soon". Now I know that their more modern offerings aren't exactly the same as their 1970's product, so there's no guarantee that they'd build the 6'er; but Peter Hook's bass (along with Mike Rutherford's double-neck) must be the company's most iconic instrument, so maybe, just maybe..... Give them a call/send an e-m.  Worth a punt.

33 minutes ago, joeystrange said:

Eddie Van Halen played bass on a Sammy Hagar album. I always thought that was cool.

Yep, and I recall an interview of the time in Guitar Player magazine where Sammy Hagar told the story of how EVH had started jamming on the bass as though he were playing his usual Frankestrat guitar; and Hagar was complaining "No, no, no - you got to think more …...bass". 

Whatever the f*** that's supposed to mean.

Though I've a sneaking suspicion that he intended "crochet root notes for you, Sonny Jim, and yes you may be the most technically advanced guitarist in Rock; but when you have a bass in your hands, don't forget your place".

From my perspective, nowt wrong with a bassist who also plays guitar, or a guitarist who additionally plays bass...as long as you play each appropriately to the instrument in your hands and don't try to turn on into the other.

37 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Didn't BC do a model similar to the Hot Slapper ?  Though I've a lot of history with the white BC I still prefer the Maniac on the right.

Washburn Wannabes didn't quite cut it 🙂

37 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Didn't BC do a model similar to the Hot Slapper ?  Though I've a lot of history with the white BC I still prefer the Maniac on the right.

Washburn Wannabes didn't quite cut it 🙂

Yep, your BC is substantially identical to mine.  It's a great bass, and I will not be selling it ever. I just found that I preferred the feel (esp. the neck) to that of the Toon.

18 hours ago, TheRev said:

Nope, that's a Tune Bass Maniac. The lower horn on a Bass Collection is stubbier and curves downwards and the Tune headstock was longer, narrower and pointier than the Bass Collections'

The Bass Collection bass was a copy of the Bass Maniac,so the designs are very, very similar.

Have to say, having had the chance of a noodle on each of @Stingray5's Tune basses in the past, in a straight comparison between his 4-string (the "Hot Slapping "model - and be honest, who wouldn't want a model that's a Hot Slapper??!!)and my Bass Collection 30-something...for me, my BC wins every time. YMMV.

However, that 6'er is just a whole new ball game.  It's a very lovely piece of work that IMHO would keep up with pretty much anything you care to put up against it.

Here, in the hope that I'm not causing Mr. 'Ray5 to blush, is said bass in action; a video of our band Heads UP! at the 2017 Writtle JazzFest, playing my tune Killergram.

To be merciful to those who aren't fond of the jazz, or who just want to hear the bass, his solo starts at 3:16.

(To be merciful to everybody else as well, I have never worn that orange t-shirt at gigs since seeing that video.  My eyes....my poor eyes...)

@Stingray5 has a couple.  You want to chip in here, mate?

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 17:25, mangotango said:

Making arrangements to stay with my daughter in Liverpool so that I can drive over to Manchester for this.

All sorted and I have my ticket for a Saturday in Sunny Mancunia. 

So,  @ped - will there be a Basschat stand where we can congregate?

18 hours ago, merello said:

I know the feeling.

If you ask Al Krow, I caused that feeling....

Congrats on your Spector, that is a lovely thing.

On 03/01/2020 at 14:46, mangotango said:

I'll take my phone, my iPad, maybe see if I can sneak my Tascam recorder in as well!!

So obviously the whole thing was videoed and will be available on SBL Academy at some point.

It was a really interesting session - Hadrien was at times trying to overcome the language barrier for technical musical terminology...but when he played, it all became clear.  Great player, very jaco-esque phrasing and sound, but his technique looks like he's playing classical guitar - barre in positions, moving chords up the neck, right hand positioning....

Anyway, although we'd been told not to take basses, because only Hadrien would be playing, just before the start, Scott Devine asked if anyone had a bass in their car? SOOOO tempted to reply "Yes....but my car's in Essex!" but on reflection, glad I didn't. 🤔

Eventually, someone rustled up a 5-string Jazz which was deemed OK, and applicable for the guy with the tinselled dreadlocks who came in and sat at the back. 'Cos it was Thundercat.  Of course it was.

So they jammed over a few tunes, and even though the amp started screwing up, what they played (and in TC's case, sang) sounded very good indeed. Tried to get some video, but wanted to see it happen rather than just watch in on a screen, so not much of any use.  Will comb through what I have and add it later if it's any good.

On ‎02‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 11:35, fretmeister said:

Hopefully it will be on youtube at some point.

I'll take my phone, my iPad, maybe see if I can sneak my Tascam recorder in as well!!

How many "basses I should never have sold" threads do we see?

Agree with other posters. Sure you could get by with one....but who wants to "get by"?

You have two great basses, they do slightly different things, so you can do slightly different projects with them.

I think that you can be perfectly happy with that.

On ‎30‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 13:39, MrCrane said:

Do they have any football teams in Manchester?

You can always catch a train to Liverpool.

52 minutes ago, cetera said:

Nothing to add really..... except to say that the bloke from Crowded House also used them... as did many of the late 70's/early 80's US session aces (Chuck Rainey included)....!

Mid 80's-early 90's (Kramer-era) marketing targeted the rock fraternity and that has stuck. It could be said "for good reason" as nothing sounds better than a grinding Spector on those classic rock albums.... but those in the know recognise that they are much more than just 'one-trick' ponies, especially players in the US. Without the marketing reach in Europe, W*rw*ck cornered the market (& marketing)...

Certainly "nothing sounds better" in that vein, to my ears at least, than that Spectorbird!! Quite simply, it's one of the 5 best basses that I have ever played.

The Scott Devine Academy has organised a Clinic with Hadrien Feraud for next week.  They ran a comp for 20 lucky academy members to be amongst the attendees.

Yesterday morning, I had an e-mail telling me that I was amongst that number.  What a great way to start my 2020!!

On ‎30‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 23:51, BrunoBass said:

Pino certainly played on Whistle Down The Wind which was the lead off single from the album (North of a Miracle) but I don’t think he played on any other tracks. 

Yeah, but wasn't "Rissoles Give You Wind" (as it's forever known here at Chez Mango) a Nick Heyward solo career thing, not a HC100 track?

6 hours ago, Hellzero said:

This. With a guy called Thundercat on the bass. And the two following records, so 4 discs. This guy is really prolific.

And this, certainly the best jazz album of 2019.

Ah, Kamikaze Washington!! Always thought he was a bit Emperor's New Clothes, all honk & squawk; but after a bit more of an extended listen, decided he's alright.

Don't know the other one at all, so will find it and give it a listen.  Thanks!

19 hours ago, Paulhauser said:

The separate battery box have only been added a few years ago to the Czech line, in '14 or '15 IIRC. Before that every Euros (or NS-CRs before 1999) had the battery inside the main cavity in the back together with the electronics. 

Yes, mine are Korean-built and bear a little sticker on the control cavity cover stating that the battery is inside.

That'll teach me to buy cheap basses, huh?

I have zero Tats and a similar amount of hair. I play a zero amount of metal or heavy Rawkan'Roll.

Actually, I play bass in a funky jazz group, and my basses are Spectors.

(Gratuitous Couch Photo follows).

On ‎22‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 10:48, Akio Dāku said:

Just ordered my tickets for both days, guna make a weekend of it. (Is it wrong that I'm more excited for this than Christmas?) 😁 Xx

Unless you're getting a new bass for Xmas...no, it's fine.

3 hours ago, Peter Michael said:

I had a similar problem back in August and got some good advice here about stretches. Trying to keep up with  strerches before playing and it is helping.

 

Great stuff, thank you.  And I have to say - my right hand looks very much like yours in your video, except that I tend to anchor my thumb on the side of the neck - which probably doesn't help either.... My cramps really started after a good few tunes on the spin up around 160 on the metronome, sixteen songs into the evening (though a break after the first 10).