EliasMooseblaster

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1387192221' post='2309083'] Years ago I invented a battle of the bands TV show presented by Lemmy and Wilko Johnson. No TV companies took it up, the short-sighted gits! It might have helped if I'd actually sent to it someone... [/quote] You really should have - I'd have watched it. One of the knock-out rounds could have involved the contestant having to share a stage with Jools Holland while he insistently played his boogie-woogie piano licks under everything they did.

Not a daft question at all - actually a more complex one than you give yourself credit for, and certainly not one to which I can give a comprehensive answer! A lot of guitarists spend time playing with their volume knobs to find a "sweet spot" where they're getting a satisfactory tone and the right amount of drive out of their (already excessively loud) amp. As bassists, we normally run our basses close to '10' just so we can be heard above them! Joking aside, your volume pot affects the overall resistance of the circuit. Whilst it doesn't have as stark an effect as the tone pot & cap, you should find that the balance of frequencies changes a bit if you back off the volume control. Where this becomes most obvious is when you've got a good overdrive pedal: you can dial back the guitar volume until the dirt all but disappears...then roll it back up, keeping some tissues on hand to wipe the blood from your ears. What you probably can't do is make a Epiphone mudbucker sound like a '50s Fender single-coil. Whether you can, say, make a Stingray humbucker sound like a Jazz pickup, I don't know. Got to be worth a try! (And if not, I guess you can invest in a coil tap!)

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1386981054' post='2307273'] I'm for [i]Hall Of The Mountain Grill[/i]. But I never thought Hawkwind were heavy rock, really. Still don't. [/quote] A fair point - outside of this thread I would have called them progressive rock, or, to split hairs, space-rock.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1386961000' post='2306947'] Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You. [/quote] Oh, well if we're going down that route then surely [b]Sir Lord Baltimore's [i]Kingdom Come[/i] [/b]deserves at least an honourable mention?

[quote name='dan670844' timestamp='1387019290' post='2307436'] I think it is very possible to gig with this amp, most often I use a LB212, its all about volume on stage, for most bands it is always too loud, you need to work with the drummer and guitarist to get the sound levels down. the singer will thank you and you the band will sound much more balanced and professional. But that is a problem world over, for most bands. [/quote] I'll drink to that! We've been quite lucky with sound engineers for our last few gigs, but previously we've had to get into the habit of telling them "just make sure the audience can hear the vocals!" (Though I think our relatively polite lead guitarist is also a blessing in that respect.)

I don't suppose anyone knows what year Vintage started using Wilkinson hardware? Only, I've got a VS6 (their SG copy) which must be about 10 years old now. I suspect the hardware is not Wilkinson (can't see any logo or decal on the p/ups), and I've toyed with the idea of upgrading the pickups - would I be correct in assuming that a pair of Wilkinsons* would be a good replacement? *not a euphemism

I know they don't normally get lumped in with the Heavy Rock crowd...and I know I'm not really helping us narrow it down here, but does [b]The Who, Live at Leeds [/b]count? If not, I think it's a toss-up between one of the Deep Purple MkII albums, or one of the first three Sabbath albums. (I also tip my hat to the Hawkwind fans who've piped up. Anything up to and including [i]Warriors at the Edge of Time[/i] is a fine choice in my book!)

[quote name='Stroopy121' timestamp='1386851440' post='2305296'] T'was a 4ohm 8x10 I was running. Yeah I know the power output will be the same, just curious if the different load has any effect on the perceived volume - since 4ohm will pull 2.7A at ~11V, but 8ohm will take 1.9A at ~16V, so although the power is the same, perhaps the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. [b]Weird though, I would have expected an 8x10 to move WAY more air than a 1x15...[/b] [/quote] Yeah, me too! I could hazard a guess that maybe the perceived volume is down to response curves and overall cab sensitivity - or maybe just that my idea of a "small" venue is a bit smaller than yours! Could be partly down to the bass, of course: I played these gigs on an Epiphone EB-3, complete with notoriously huge neck mudbucker. Put more in, get more out, perhaps...but I doubt even that would make a 1x15 seem louder than an 8x10!

[quote name='Stroopy121' timestamp='1386847603' post='2305234'] Out of curiosity, was the cab 4 or 8 ohms? xx [/quote] [quote name='badboy1984' timestamp='1386849369' post='2305268'] For the LB30 this shouldn't be a problem running a 4ohm cab or a 8ohm cab? The amp will pure out the same amount of power whether you use 4ohm or 8ohm cab ...... [/quote] ...but to sate your curiosity either way, my cab is 8 ohm! I've never tried it into a 4 ohm, though I think badboy[s]Stroopy[/s]'s right about the power.

[quote name='Stroopy121' timestamp='1386844296' post='2305184'] I was skeptical too, but other users said they'd gigged them and been fine! As I said, it did have just about enough juice in the practice room so I imagine if I had a less "enthusiastic" guitarist then it would still work for small gigs, providing I turned it up to 11! xx [/quote] I have gigged mine in a small venue with just a 1x15, and I don't think I turned the volume past 12 o'clock. (It certainly never goes past 11 o'clock in the rehearsal room!) Granted, the place was probably under 100 capacity, but it was perfectly loud with no PA support. I think it may depend on your playing style, though: our guitarist often describes me as a "lead bassist" so it's fine to have my tone dominated by honking midrange and valve grit. If you're more of a groove/pocket player then you might need power to push the low end...though for a 30W amp, the Little Bastard really can put out a [i]lot[/i] of low end if you crank the bass control!

As promised, a high-quality photo: http://thecrowfrombelow.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/after2cropped.jpg (Quite a big file, so I've linked rather than posting!) Also, if anyone wants to read about it in a little more detail, I've had a little ramble about it on the old blog: http://wp.me/p2GOWH-3e

If it were F natural, it'd be the Double Harmonic Minor/Major* of C. (*My scale book calls it a double harmonic minor, but Wikipedia calls it a double harmonic major - but both sources contain the same notes, if memory serves!)

Cheers! I've never been sure about the body - it's something quite pale and relatively light, so we suspected poplar or ash but couldn't say for certain. We stained it with a bit of brown Ronseal before the original finish, and then I used quite a dark brown shellac on the refin, so it's certainly not its natural colour any more!

I wasn't sure whether to call this New-Old-Bass-Day, or Old-Bass-Reborn-Day. I finally finished a refinish of the faithful old P-bass copy that my father and I bolted together from a kit about 12 years ago. The kit was bought from Brandoni Guitars, who I gather are still going. Over the course of about a week, we assembled her and attempted to French-polish her, until she looked a bit like this: (on the left) She's about 10 years old in the above photo. It wasn't long after this that I took the strings off to let the bowed neck rest. Last summer I decided to sand down what remained of the battered old shellac finish and give her a new coat. I also bought a nice Fender '62 RI pickup off the Bass Doc so I could upgrade the old one. And a nicer scratchplate. So as of yesterday, she looks like this: Quite pleased with the finish, so I just wanted to share the shiny with you all! I'll see whether I can post a better quality shot this evening (i.e., that wasn't done with a cheap mobile phone camera).

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1386343444' post='2299060'] Content - but could always improve. [/quote] This puts it better than I could - I'm quite happy with my playing at the moment, but there are always ways I could improve it.

[quote name='superclive' timestamp='1386251698' post='2297719'] Why do kettle leads seem to multiply? When everything else seems to disappear? [/quote] Just like me, they long to be, Close to yooooou....

I'd have also gone for options 1 and 3; in the end I went with 3. I've got into a strange habit of hoarding kettle leads ever since a bit of a hiccup with a return to a mail order company - they replaced the amp very promptly but forgot to send a cable with the new one! Now I always check before I part with my cash...and this minor incident was nearly 12 years ago! Maybe I'm just a bit neurotic. As flyfisher said, the things are easy enough to find and replace. I think what I really worry about is making sure I've got one with a 5A fuse in it, as everything else in the house seems to run off 3 or 13A. Not that I've managed to blow a fuse in an amp to date...maybe I really am just neurotic!

Get a 'bird. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoRb8hxwluE

Just going to bump this thread to re-iterate what a bloody good album this is! I've been in danger of overplaying it the last couple of weeks, but several of the songs have been firmly stuck in my head the whole time. [i]Monte Carlo [/i]is truly infectious as an earworm, and [i]Joe [/i]is still making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Bloody good stuff sir, bloody good.

Yeah, I was surprised - I've always used .045 to .105 myself, so I got a bit of a surprise when I used my friend's bass at a rehearsal, which he'd strung with .050 to .110s. Nothing too alarming...until it came to taking a solo and realising I couldn't get my bends on pitch!

As a long-time fan of The Who, I shall do my best! If it is indeed correct to credit Pete Townshend as the first man to destroy his instrument onstage, it all began as an accident - they were playing in a club with a low ceiling, and in the middle of one song, he accidentally put the head through the ceiling. The guitar came back down, but the head didn't, so to save face he grabbed his 12-string and finished the song (and rest of the set) with that, as if he'd intended to do it all along. The audience, understandably, went insane. I think they freely admitted it was a bit of a gimmick to repeat this, but at the same time, The Who were always the angry group that appealed to angry mods. The (occasional) destruction of their gear evolved into a statement of that anger, even though it was really just a gimmick. If you watch those videos of Townshend and Moon laying into their gear from the '60s, Townshend clearly looks like he's letting off steam in the process. The problem is that the bands who've subsequently done it don't have that backstory or that connection. I've watched clips of Nirvana doing the same, and it just looks staged and stroppy. Particularly when you're filling up arenas, like Kiss, like Nirvana, like Green Day, it just looks like three or four rich kids smashing toys they can afford to replace. It has none of the same resonance.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1386027984' post='2294923'] Here we go, folks, the ball is now rolling (and in your court..!). Here's my offering for this months Challenge... [url="https://soundcloud.com/dad3353/dreams-of-a-patchy-dormeur"]Dreams of a patchy dormeur...[/url] Let me know if there's any problems with the link, or whatever... Enjoy... [/quote] You do work fast, sir! Good stuff, I really enjoyed that. The drums sounded good - am I right in understanding that was just you programming a plugin, or was there some triggering trickery going on?

I'm working on it, I promise - give me a couple more years to get famous and then they'll be clamouring in your shop for any bass they can get their mitts on! Joking aside, this does go back to a similar thread I was reading last week, which came to a similar conclusion: a lack of any real "bass heroes" in modern music - I've certainly noticed the glut of cardboard-cutout indie bands in which the tallest of the four hipsters was given a bass and told it was easy enough to play, but of course he was told he [i]had [/i]to buy a Fender so they could "get that vintage feel." Dubstep has probably not helped matters. But then I'm sure '80s synth-pop was not exactly helpful - why bother looking for that elusive Competent Bass Guitarist when you could just play the bassline on a keyboard? Now I'm fortunate to be too young to remember much of the '80s, so tell me: were the big shots Mark King and Jaco actually appreciated at the time, or did that come later? Do we simply have to wait for players like Steve Lawson or Me'shell Ndegeocello to receive more widespread recognition? Or do we need to go out and reclaim this territory ourselves?

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1385984937' post='2294263'] elephant? I thought it was one of these… [/quote] Ah! I thought it looked a bit strange for an elephant. You're probably right. ...now what the hell is that?

My 2011 Gibson Thunderbird. I bought it off Billy Apple two months ago tomorrow. (The same evening our singer decided to resign, in fact, but that's a different story...) At the time, I had a strong sense of GAS for either a T-bird or a US Std Precision - and by "either," I of course meant "both of them." Oddly enough, this one bass has cured my GAS completely. I still look at some of the specimens on the BC Marketplace - some of you have some gorgeous-looking instruments up for sale, I have to say - but they just aren't having the same effect on me. Previously I would have lusted and pined for most of them, but now I can just look at them and appreciate their beauty. I am satisfied with my Gibson. It's quite possibly the nicest bass I've ever played.