Skinnyman

Hi Lefty, I did look at the Rodes but dropped them to 4th place behind the SEs, MXLs and Tbones based solely on reading the specs which didn’t seem quite as good for the M5s. Problem is, of course, that specs on paper don’t really tell you what your ears are going to experience which is why I’d like folks’ hands-on opinions. From the sound of things, the M5s might be worth another look - they’re certainly in the right price range. Off down the YT rabbit hole I go then 😁 Thanks!

After using a Behringer U-phoria 1820 for years, I just took delivery of a Solid State Logic SSL 2+ Mk2 and I am blown away. The Behringer has served me well for nearly a decade; totally reliable, well put together, the line inputs are decent, lots of connectivity and monitoring options and the headphone amps handle high impedance headphones easily. The only real downside is that it can be a bit noisy and that can be an issue with recording vocals and acoustic guitar (which I’m now doing more of). So I decided to treat myself to a new audio interface and narrowed down the choice to the Motu M2/M4 and the SSL. In the end, the SSL won out because GuitarGuitar had a decent price on it. It’s a different form factor to the Behringer so I’ve had to rearrange the desk a bit to accommodate it but that’s freed up space elsewhere and given me a bit more room overall. Construction is reassuringly solid with the exception of one of the low-cut buttons which wasn’t seated properly - a bit of jiggling has dropped it into place now and it works perfectly. Headphone amps are good and strong, as good or better than the Behringer, sound quality is excellent and the noise floor is virtually inaudible. I haven’t used it in anger yet but my quick tests have been very positive - the mix preamps in particular seem really good. There’s a “life” to the recordings that was missing from the Behringer and my acoustic guitar sounds fantastic. Well, up to the point where I try to play it. So, very happy….. …..and yet the GAS keeps coming I’m now after a matched pair of small diaphragm condenser mics specifically for recording acoustic guitar (and possibly as ambient mics for recording a choir). With a budget for the pair of £150 or less, I’ve narrowed it down to the SE Electronics SE7, MXL 603s or Thomann’s Tbone SC140. Does anyone have any hands-on experience of any of these? And, specifically, any issues I should be aware of? At £99 delivered, the Tbones are the cheapest and have excellent specs so I’m interested to know if there are any reasons to avoid them?

Yeah, but I bet you feel just a little bit dirty though, don’t you?

Assuming that everything else about the band is okay, I would join without a qualm. we live today in a series of echo chambers that reflect (and amplify) our own views. I’m not sure that society has improved as a consequence and I firmly believe that we only tackle extreme views on either side by talking to each other. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and even if they’re views that I find distasteful, so long as they’re not illegal, who am I to force everyone to think as I do? Bigotry exists on both the hard right and the hard left and it can only be challenged if we spend time in the same room. The world is polarised enough without me adding to it so, yes, I’d join the band. Unless it was jazz. There are limits….

This is a piano piece that my wife improvised one evening. It formed a great basis for me to practice with Spitfire Audio’s BBC SO package so here’s my first attempt at arranging for strings.

This journey, into bass playing? What made you pick up that first bass at the start of this long and winding road? When I was about 6 or 7 I heard Bert Kaempfert’s A Swingin’ Safari and Ladi Geisler’s bass just captivated me. From that day I wanted to play bass - wind forward forty years and my mid-life crisis finally gave me the impetus to actually learn… Do you still have the same fire and enthusiasm? Do you still love it? I still love it but the enthusiasm to play has been tempered by the realisation that I’m not actually very good and I now spread my lack of talent thinly across lots of instruments rather than just being poor at only one. What has changed along the way? Your taste in music, taste in basses? I used to be a bit of a music snob and wouldn’t listen to a lot of stuff. Learning to play and being in a few bands has widened my appreciation and there’s not very little I don’t like. What was the first bass? And what’s the latest? First bass was a Tanglewood that was quite decent to learn on. First “proper” bass was the Ric 4003 I’d always promised myself and which I got as soon as I knew I was going to stick with it. Since then dozens of basses have gone through my hands and all of them have now gone with the exception of that first Ric (which I will never sell) and a bitsa SG Nanyo Bass Collection that I’ve recently brought back from the brink and is now my go-to recording bass because it sounds so….fat-but-focused if that makes sense.

Great idea. Maybe we could video it and post the video online? 😂

I’m old and grumpy. Complaining about The World Today is a civic duty.

I don’t really have a problem with her - it’s his faux outrage that I find irritating. And increasingly common all over social media.

It seems like YT and Insta and all the others these days are just this incestuous circle of “influencers” calling each other out and getting artificially outraged for some perceived infraction or other. Grifters the lot of ‘em. People around the world are dying in conflicts, children are starving and none of this sh*t matters one iota. None of it is worth the server space it takes up.

And of course there’s the classic rookie error of forgetting that one’s playing a fiver and playing it as if it were a four string. Doesn’t sound wrong as such, just really odd. Er, so I’m told by people who’ve done such a thing. Not me though. I’d never be that stupi…..

I ended up carrying a supply of “gender benders” for that exact reason. £8 a pair on Amazon and saved me many times from having to recover all the cables and swap them the right way round…

Forgetting that I’d strung a bass with BEAD strings (as an experiment prior to buying a fiver) and trying to tune it as EADG. Wondering why the PA was dead and, in the process of trying to track down the issue, turning up every gain and volume knob to max before spotting that the master Mute button had been pressed and….

I have recently (re)acquired an SB301 from the friend that I sold it to a good few years ago. It's dated '91 and the electrics have really had their day - I don't know what he's done to it but the wiring is pretty brittle and a lot of the soldering is pretty poor. EDIT: And now that I've checked, the rest of the bass is pretty rough too. There's a massive bow in the neck and it won't tune at all. I think this needs more work than it's worth (or that I'm able to do) so I think I'll just strip it for parts - it has a Roland GK-3B, some nice Entwistle pickups, the Gotoh tuners still look good and I daresay someone might appreciate the body and be able to do something about the neck....

I’ve been through this dance with every band I’ve been in. In general, it seems to be that the less skilled the guitarist is, the louder they need to be. I’m sure that deteriorating hearing is part of the issue but a big challenge for at least two bands was the drummer’s volume - so loud that the guitars “had” to turn up, which made the drummer hit harder…. IEMs and a quiet stage are, in my view, the only answer. Sadly, the last guitarist I worked with didn’t see things the same way - which is mainly why I no longer gig*. Hats off to the OP for doing what I wish I’d done many years ago. *well, that and the fact that I’m no feckin good

Your daughter could announce that she’s swapping to guitar as the keys player has the bass parts covered. The guitarist will have conniptions because of the competition for volume as will the keys player who now has to learn the left hand parts properly. At the subsequent band meeting, your daughter can graciously agree to stay on bass but ask that the keys player write proper keys parts that don’t occupy the same sonic ground as the bass and kick. Or just sack the keys player

Bought an Ampeg Scrambler off Marty. Great price and great condition. It was posted really quickly and packaged really well. All in all, the perfect BC transaction! Thanks, Marty 😁

I stopped gigging a couple of years ago and have been slowly clearing out all my stuff ever since. I’m now down to my last bass (a Ric 4003 that will never be going) which I use for noodling and a bit of home recording. Logic plug-ins are okay but I do like recording audio direct and doing minimal work on it in the DAW so, after much research I’ve just got an MXR M80 DI+. It was a toss up between that and the Sansamp and in the end I was swayed by an Amazon price of just £150 on the M80. I’m very, very impressed. Deep and rich and sonorous - and then i hit the “colour” button and it’s even more so. The distortion is okay - not really my sort of thing anyway, plus i have a new-to-me Ampeg Scrambler on the way to do mild overdrive duties - but the core sounds I can get from the EQ are excellent. Of course, i’ve now started to wonder whether i shouldn’t get a cheap, second-hand P bass to complement the Ric….. and so the GAS starts again!

Ryan just bought my Pedal Train(s) and, just like everyone else, i found him super easy to deal with from start to finish. Thanks Ryan!

Festivals haven’t been my thing since Knebworth ‘79 so I’m going to show my naivety here but don’t the Beeb pay Glastonbury for the rights to broadcast the footage? And, if that is the case, then wouldn’t it be the case that those sections of the media who don’t want the BBC to show it are presumably at liberty to outbid the Beeb for the rights if they wanted? Or is it protected like a Wimbledon/Boat Race thing and always free-to-view? Also showing my ignorance - what events this year?