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thepurpleblob

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  1. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='stingrayfan' post='257865' date='Aug 8 2008, 10:22 AM']Looks really good. I've just redesigned ours using iWeb on the Mac. See what you think: [url="http://wagthedogband.co.uk"]www.wagthedogband.co.uk[/url] It's my first attempt attempt at a proper site. It's currently on the .Mac server which is painfully slow, so will be swapping it out to a proper host soon. Anyone got a good FTP app for Mac to get it from iWeb-->server please?[/quote] It looks nice but one thing to watch. All your text is graphics. This is a *really* bad idea. It means the Google will never see it and cuts down the chances of it turning up in a search. As a rule of thumb, everything that can be text should be text for the benefit of search engines. If you must use graphics, for example for the band name/logo, always make sure you include an 'alt=' which provides the text version. The very best application for FTP and SFTP (better!) is FileZilla. A Mac version is available. You can also use Terminal and use the command line ftp if you are feeling adventurous.
  2. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='pete.young' post='257641' date='Aug 7 2008, 10:13 PM']You completely missed the point of that helpful message. Either take your website down or update it - it looks like your band has folded, and anyone coming in through that route won't get as far as the myspace. We find that we get far more bookings through the website than we do through the myspace pages. I guess it depends what kind of a band you are, and what kind of a website you have.[/quote] Yep - that's the one Another little point common on band websites... and my personal favorite (not done on this site by the way) is - "our next gig is 29th September!!". Turns out it was in 2006 :-) Always, always put the year!
  3. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='Sibob' post='257496' date='Aug 7 2008, 07:09 PM']My band still has a website, a .com, but it gets next to no traffic. We advertise it along with the myspace address and myspace takes all the hits! Regardless of how long the 'fad' has left in it, I'd rather spend those 2 years taking advantage of it rather than flogging the current dead horse that is standard band websites, and missing out on all the potential publicity! Si[/quote] Seeing as you mentioned it (and, please, no insult intended). Your web pages take *ages* to load (I didn't check why but I will if you like), the picture is missing and the show dates are a year old. I conclude your band is no longer in existence (if I bothered to wait for the page to load that is, which many won't). Whatever else you do, keep it simple, keep the information easy to find, up to date and don't do anything that'll make the punters stop looking.
  4. thepurpleblob
    My day job is developing web software, so if I've done a couple in the past just hand coding it - it's a lot of effort even if you know how. Depressingly, MySpace has consistently got a lot more activity. So... my advice, buid a simple page using a good memorable domain name (that looks better on business cards than a myspace link) with a picture of your band and a big link to myspace. While we're at it.... never develop (or have developed) a website in Flash. No really, don't :-)
  5. thepurpleblob
    Yeh - I must admit I did gather quite quickly it was "offers over 800". I guess that's ok, but it would have been politic to be quite clear about that. It is a bit more usual to pitch in high and ask for (lower) offers. I wouldn't go in a sulk about it, I just think there was some confusion. Put it back up and say "best offer over £900 or whatever". Still sounds reasonable to me :-)
  6. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='Tee' post='256455' date='Aug 6 2008, 04:46 PM']4/4 essentially means there are 4 beats (one, two, three, four) in the bar, using quarter notes.[/quote] Just to add to the confusion, for most purposes a "quarter note" is a standard single note, certainly in the majority of rock music. It's Sunday name is a "crotchet". 4/4 means four of those beats repeating. Unless the song has a complex rhythm, you should reasonably easily be able to hear the repeating four rhythm. A common rock bass part is playing 8th notes (ie, two notes per standard beat), and you would count that as 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and.
  7. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='254944' date='Aug 4 2008, 11:35 PM']Is it the 5 or the 1005?[/quote] Never mind that, it's a Series 1 TRB-5F. The one to have A hell of a nice colour too.
  8. thepurpleblob
    Most rattly strings I have seen have been down to a worn nut. It's the string slapping against the sides - as it were.
  9. thepurpleblob
    Learn some basic theory. Get a basic book, "Bass Guitar for Dummies" is easy to find and as good as any. Alternatively, there's loads of stuff on the interweb. Here's one to be going on with: [url="http://wheatsbassbook.org/chapter_select.php?chapter=019"]http://wheatsbassbook.org/chapter_select.php?chapter=019[/url] Learn to count; learn what a bar is and how to recognise the first beat and how to count it. As has been said, most go 1.2.3.4 1.2.3.4 right through the song. You *need* to be able to do that. I used to be a drummer, so I have it easy, but if you don't have that advantage it's absolutely vital that you play along with something. If it suddenly gets impossible then you'll have to simplify the line or do it slower until you can. Don't take me the wrong way, but playing some mad complicated riff and then coming in two beats late is playing it incorrectly. Oh... and don't you dare give up. To quote somebody who knows better than me, "it's only hard because you've not done it before". Playing in your new band is probably what you need. You'll be surprised how quickly you improve doing that.
  10. thepurpleblob
    I have a Line6 Low Down 300 to dispose of. I also have an FBV Express Pedal (which gives you a good volume pedal and a tuner that actually works). I'm not fussed about selling the pedal as it works with my Pod, but if the deal is good :-) The LD300 has been gigged a lot. It's undamaged and works perfectly but the carpet covering is a little snagged and dirty in places. No holes or anything just "used". I think the cat has had a go at it too :-) I know there's a lot of differences of opinion on these combos, but I liked it and it was certainly loud enough for most situations. It's also not too big or heavy (like it fits in the boot of my car unlike my Ashdown cab). I've been using it mostly for practices, but I'm just doing a deal with "MB1" for an Ashdown 2x10 which should solve the transport problems. This will become surplus. I'm mostly interested in swaps (or swap plus bit of cash either way). Something like a more compact head (than my ABM 500) for practices. I quite like the look of the Ashdown Superfly, but something along those lines or WHY. Definitely collect only or meet halfway (within reason). I definitely have to go to Manchester shortly too, so anywhere between here and there. OK... Or just plain sell for, what, £175 for the combo. £45 for the pedal. A couple have sold recently for 200 quid, so considering the wear and tear that seems a fair price.
  11. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='MB1' post='256052' date='Aug 6 2008, 10:14 AM']MB1. "Stay Back!....Dont come any closer!....The purple blob!... has the upper hand!". (A seven moment!) NOW SOLD PENDING THE USUAL![/quote] The usual being getting the money out of PayPal's icy grasp after selling some stuff on EvilBay. Why do they take so long?
  12. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='ped' post='255556' date='Aug 5 2008, 04:45 PM']What about something very unusual and basically impossible to compare to anything else value wise? I would have no idea how much to ask for my fretted bass for example[/quote] If it's anything like rare cars, you agree a value when you take out the insurance. You must have *some* idea what it's worth!
  13. thepurpleblob
    I've yet to find musical instrument insurance that's doesn't seem pointless. Most have conditions along the lines of "you must keep your equipment in an armoured vehicle at all times and you must sit next to it with a big gun in your hand".
  14. thepurpleblob
    [url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5305520.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5305520.stm[/url] It's the usual, when the guys with the expensive lawyers go after you are you prepared to make a stand and (possibly) loose your house? The right and wrongs are almost irrelevent. It's just business!!
  15. thepurpleblob
    Never could be organised enough to have a practice regime. My little bit of advice is "be enquiring". I pretty much just learn the line to songs - I play in a covers band. If I haven't a clue what's going on in the song, I make a point of finding out and if there's some stuff I can't do I practice it until I can. It's probably terribly ineficient, but I seem to have learned something. I take lessons too (even though I'm very old) and I'm sure I'm his worse pupil by miles. That keeps me interested and doing stuff I would otherwise miss. P.S. There's some stuff I can't do that I've been practicing for years - I still can't do it
  16. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='MB1' post='254306' date='Aug 4 2008, 12:21 PM']MB1. STILL AVAILABLE![/quote] PM'd
  17. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='Delberthot' post='254265' date='Aug 4 2008, 11:38 AM']I read something quite interesting a few months ago but I'll be darned if I can find it. It was about how some people collect vintage fenders because they sound different due to being played for 40 odd years and the vibrations of the strings through the wood over those years do something to the wood to make it sound different to something that would be made today using identicle parts. Someone like Stuart Spector had come up with some sort of thermal discombobulator that could theoretically replicate this to make a brand new bass seem like it had been played for 40-50 years. If true then this could be a factor as well if you were to take 2 identical basses built, say, 5-10 years apart. :brow: Interesting theory but I don't know enough about the properties of wood to know if this is correct or utter sloblock. [/quote] I would be prepared to believe that a 40 year old plank of wood sounds different to a newish one due to all sorts of factors, but vibrartion of the strings?? Sounds like bollox to me
  18. thepurpleblob
    I must admit, if it's something awkward like a bass a bit goes on the packaging for my (valuable) time but I do say so. The very cheapest route is knowing somebody with an account with one of the major carriers. It's surprising how cheap that can be.
  19. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='254085' date='Aug 4 2008, 08:33 AM']Where was that then? Got a link? In principle, fair point but my experience differs from his. I don't think he has a very well structured argument.[/quote] Well, I must admit that I went through two Stingrays last year - the first one had a faulty paint finish. The replacement sounded noticeably different, and that's the same sort of wood made around the same time. Of course, maybe the finish makes a difference too. At the end of the day, wood is a living thing and no two bits are the same. How much of a difference it makes in the whole scheme of things is another matter. There's an article on the web somewhere, that has a big list of wood types and (independent of any other factor) what quality of sound you can expect. I think *that* kind of thing is taking it a bit far. Not the one I was thinking of but... [url="http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm"]http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm[/url]
  20. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='peted' post='254138' date='Aug 4 2008, 09:38 AM']The fact that it goes away when you touch the strings does point to a grounding issue. Time to check the soldering joints on the electrics. I've also seen some basses which have a wire inside the body going from the bridge to to control cavity for grounding, make sure that this is still attached.[/quote] I've never seen one that doesn't have the bridge earthed (and hence the strings). I think you would know about it if that wasn't there :-) Thinking about it, I guess a bass outlasts most other "domestic" electronics. Twenty year old electronics could easily have dried out capacitors and the like. Depending on what it is, a replacement pre-amp could well be the most cost effective fix if simple checks fail. I suspect somebody's time to investigate could easily exceed that cost.
  21. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='Shockwave' post='252978' date='Aug 1 2008, 08:49 PM']Hey guys. I am having big problems reducing treble hiss in bass internal Pre-amps. I can get zero hiss when the treble control is set between -15 and 0, But anything above the middle position causes a huge amount of hiss, This hiss stops when i touch the strings. The hiss also stops when i switch to passive mode. Ideas? Cheers. Rob.[/quote] Buy another bass.... Which bass is this? I have seen this on a number of older active basses. No amount of checking earths and resoldering joints makes any difference. This leads me to suspect that some (particularly older) preamp designs are just inherently noisy. I notice you have a 'Ray on your gear list. Mine, for example, is deadly silent but a 1990-ish Yamaha TRB4p I used to have was almost unuseably hissy.
  22. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='Adrenochrome' post='254078' date='Aug 4 2008, 08:11 AM']...be careful with your mythbusting - a lot of people get upset. Next you'll be telling us that tube watts aren't really much more powerful than solid-state watts![/quote] They're not
  23. thepurpleblob
    I think if you read his article you'll see that he doesn't say that the wood doesn't make any difference - he says that it doesn't make as much difference as (some) think it does. Firstly, I'm inclined to think that he knows what he is talking about. I also, suspect that I haven't played enough instruments and really thought about it to know any better. The type of hardware, pickup choice and location etc., could *easily* make much more difference than the choice of wood and I'd find it hard to refute if someone claimed that.
  24. thepurpleblob
    [quote name='warwickhunt' post='253622' date='Aug 3 2008, 09:49 AM']I agree it does appear to be the two named manufacturers that have suffered most but is this a fact or just a misconception? I realise the 'credit crunch' is hitting everyone and everything but are there other manufacturers that are hit as bad as EB & 'W' re. the OP question. Pre EB will bump the price as will the fact that it is a 'good un' but a major chunk of that value is the fact that the retailer has premises to upkeep so it will have his profit margin built in and don't forget that even on used retail goods there is still VAT to be added! That came as a bit of a shock to me when I asked if a store would handle a commission sale for me... unless they were blowing smoke up my backside [/quote] I used to be in the second hand business - audio equipment not musical instruments, but same thing. The VAT is a killer. Even if the shop doesn't make any profit, something (using round figures) bought used at a grand has to sell at £1200. On top of that you have to factor in money for the percentage that will break and you'll have to repair or refund and for your £1200 sale you'll be wanting to buy in at £500-600. The seller, of course, thinks they're getting ripped off.
  25. thepurpleblob
    Is this still for sale? I'd quite like one of these. I have a slightly tatty (but in perfect order) Line 6 Low Down 300 to shift to avoid wife related abuse and Glasgow to Manchester is a bit of a drive... Stilll.... mmmm....
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