DanOwens

Its probably old news, but I'd go with Orchid Electronics for all DI needs. Unbelievably cheap, handmade, world-class, superlative-laden boxes!

Are you hand sanding or using a chemical stripper?

I’m looking forward to seeing how this progresses! It makes my half-hearted attempts to dull the finish on my ES165 look easy... so why have it still not finished it!!

Hello! I own an NS and a Yamaha EUB and I like both of them for what they do. The generic advice is to try before you buy, but personally there's not that many places to try one near me. Where are you based? Perhaps there's a local basschatter who would help. Alternatively you could just by a Stagg on Amazon and return it if you don't get on with it.

Lots of people modify the Stagg to improve its sound, by putting rubber under the bridge and other small adjustments. they're better covered over on Talkbass than here.

Also strings are an important variable. Recently I've had Helicores, Silver Slaps and Honeys on my NS and the Honeys have really changed the way I play.

What was the price? I bet it sounds amazing! I got one of his Gypsy Jazz pickups and I love the sound.

I'm 35, been in a band for 2 years with 2 guys over 40. We're giving 'making it' a go at the mo. Still doing the pub circuit but writing and recording too. Sure Radio 1 might not want a band that are over 25, but pretty no one else cares.

How about building a Whamola like Les Claypool uses? Rather than a simple solution, you might as well build a new instrument, right!?!??!

The superlux are cheaper! Or buy second hand?

I like to take some simple chord changes - boil them down to the simplest concepts, then write around that. So Sheikh of Araby has a passage in it (I / V7b5 / ii / V) that fits with Meghan Trainor's 'All About that Bass' (I / ii / V / I) so I've just written a tune around some ii / V / I type changes and I love it. So simple, so consonant, but very easy to depart from. 

I should say I'm not writing jazz though.

51 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

Here's an example of someone walking by playing a lot of random notes, approximately in the correct key, and approximately in time - and it's awful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFxGBB4UGU
 

An excellent example, as pretty much everyone I know (including musicians) don't hear a single problem with the bass line, whereas most of us on BC consider this a crime against bass.

46 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

I've been paid to play to no-one and I find that even more soul crushing. I feel like I shouldn't be paid, taking the money makes me feel like a thief, which just compounds the glumness of the empty gig

We gig a pub in Preston (Vinyl Tap) which has excellent beer, vinyl all around, the gaffer joins us on gobharp or piano and it's a great gig. But we've done it twice to a very empty room; in these conditions where I empathise with the landlord, then I agree. Thankfully very few landlords introduce themselves or try to develop a relationship, so I have no reason to feel guilty!

I started to study Django Reinhardt's later playing when he was incorporating elements of bop-esque styles into his performance. He diverted away from the scales he used earlier and started to use other notes; I wanted to know what notes. It turns out that the explanation of what he was doing is really interesting, but also incredibly dense. He played by ear, but the analyses suggest all sorts of modal, augmented, jazzy jazzness. 

I came to the notion that there was a line with consonant chord tones at one end and dissonant microtonal chromaticism at the other. All playing just explores that line, not just jazz. However, your intention is clear to anyone who is listening and a happy accident might sound great, but it is obviously a happy accident to the listener. 

There's that Ray Brown BBC masterclass on youtube where a player walks this tasty line that sounds like a perfect walking bass line, and Brown just points out all she's doing is walking chromatically to the tonic. Well I thought it sounded great!

4 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

I've played a lot of "bad gigs" as defined above, but the only gigs I'd want to actively avoid are those without audiences. If you take a gig from a venue or promoter you've not worked with before, then it's a gamble, but if it turns out there's no audience there, just remember to never take a gig from that promoter again, and don't believe their excuses!

If I'm getting paid, I'll play my heart out to an empty room and be happy about it. I used to do lots lots of originals gigs to empty rooms and it is soul crushing.

1 hour ago, Dr.Dave said:

I don't like the transient places where the punters couldn't give a toss about the band , they're just going from place to place. Usually the reason being the place only gets an alcohol licence because they agreed to put entertainment on so the management ( the 'bar manager' will be no older than 19 and thick as a canteen cup) don't give a toss about music either. They tend to have no decent beer and are often up staircases. The stage will be right in front of the big screen with sky sports on. Some drunken lass 'always wanted a go on the drums' , some whizzed bloke wants to push your mic stand in your face while you're singing to get a laugh from his knuckle dragging mates and to round it off nicely the whole lot of them deliberately stand in your way around the doors while you're loading and unloading.

Pound to a pinch of stinky poo they always fall on the same night that the motorway gets closed for repairs and you have to drive 30 miles through the sticks to get down to the next junction too.

This is a bit too familiar

I play French, but my technique is awful due to the tension of gripping that finicky stick. I've considered one of the Chinese-origin German-style carbon fibre bows on ebay that are fairly well considered as it looks like a much more relaxed playing style. I think my tutor Steve Berry was swearing by one for a while (maybe it was from Thomann)

I started with a BassState B150 and I have fond memories of not only the excellent sound, but also the complacent attitude I took to gear. I owned one amp and it was heavy, but it was my amp so I had no choice but to grab it by the fingertips and climb those 3 flights of stairs!! Now, I'd need yet another amp set up, or maybe a suitable dolly, or maybe.....

What bags are you all using for this utilitarian utopia?

I rest my Yamaha in the Stagg EUB stand

We use one with my blues trio and we're going to start micing it up for some gigs. We use a kick and tambourine for the drums and it definitely works

I had no idea how useful the ART DTi was until I owned one. I use it all the time now. It converts one connection to another (xlr, phono and jack) and any combination. It has two discrete channels, which is handy for stereo use or for using on two signal paths (or more since it can be used as a splitter), and its 1:1 gain.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/art_dti.htm

15 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

The management clearly made a huge mistake in appointing three attractive women. 

As everyone knows, I am militantly anti-sexist but we all know that pretty girls are usually lazy, high maintenance and don't stick around long. Secondly, three pretty girls in one office will inevitably fall out, usually in a 2 vs 1 psychodrama that drags everyone else into their vortex of madness.

The bosses would have been much better off appointing just one middle-aged woman of homely appearance. They work harder, they're sensible and loyal and they don't come up to your desk at half-four in the afternoon whining 'Can I leave early to go the gym? Pleeeze?'

I got a SkankDelvar diatribe in response to one of my posts! I'll die happy!

Hi guys,

One of my guitarists plays a National and a Martin (not at the same time). The National currently has a 57 in front of it but I'm encouraging him to fit a Michael Messr pickup, and the Martin has a Fishman Rare Earth pickup in it.

I've been considering encouraging him to add a pickup to the National for louder gigs, but to be honest there's a lot he needs. An Amp Sim for solos, or a boost, a tuner out, the ability to mute each channel.

My thinking is below; I don't think that summing the channels pre-desk is the right way to go (although it would be simpler to set up, the EQ in the XR18 is very handy). Is there a product that could do this? Is there a custom maker (I see Bright Onion stopped doing custom stuff)? Or is my concept flawed? 

Thanks for your input!

I interviewed for a post within my organisation - in fact there were two posts and I was very friendly with one of the panel (he'd took me to lunch and told me to apply). It was a given, but I didn't rest on my laurels, I prepared for the interview and gave one clunky answer but the rest was gold. 

Three young women were recruited. They created an extra post so they could hire all three. Each of them is in their early 20s and they're all stunning. My mate who took me to lunch has a reputation already, but he ignored all the experienced people on the panel and literally hired the three young women. 

I still can't get over how blatant it seemed; there were far more experienced and suitable candidates; one of the recruited people had just finished university and is now on a salary £4k higher than mine! 

I'm not jealous of those that were recruited, I'm just horrified at the blatant sexism and objectivism of the panel (all men).

I bet there's lots who are much better at this than I, but sound-proof usually means a room built within a room where the inner room is mechanically decoupled from the outer room. There are lots of steps in between that, but fully soundproofed is a monumental task (especially when you take into account airflow etc).

Acoustically treated, however, is easy. Just put baffles everywhere!

On 14/10/2019 at 08:06, Kiwi said:

Yeah the one thing I wish it had was a pass-through defeat switch so that when the freeze was in effect, the input jack was disconnected.  Maybe a nice effect pedal guru will one day develop a hack for it...

EHX Superego with a mute pedal in the front?