Woodinblack

Well, no pictures (was I even there?) - we played in a local pub last night, it wasn't our gig, it was the drummers other bands gig, but their singer got a cold and she didn't want to sing -  there maybe more to it then that, but not my issue. Anyway we could all do it so we took it over to not leave the pub without a band (and it is the pub we practice at). Easy enough setup, cramped but we have done it before so know our place, would be easier if the rest of the band didn't stand in the way chatting while I was setting up

I thought I would mix things up - so I took the new rickenbacker, which shockingly only has 4 strings (at the moment), the XVive A58 and the XS-1 octave pedal, so testing everything I got recently.

The XVive, perfect, no noise, no having to work around the noise the lekato that I had, absolute winner.

The ric. Well, its ok, it wasn't cutting through that much, and obviously thee is the lack of string thing. I didn't realise how much I relied on the 5th string, so a few mistakes were made, quite a few on one song, but at least with brick in the wall, I played the whole thing an octave up with the XS-1 an octave down and it sounded pretty spot on.

Some of the rest of the gig I played with an octave up, and mix down to give a bit of bite and it worked well.

The second hand I went back to the Maruszczyk and it felt more comfortable and easier to get a good sound, I think maybe because the output is higher everything is set up for that, so the ric wasn't cutting it much. Still, it was nice to play, but I may leave it for the other group, where i can use it as a drop D bass, I think the loss of the 5th string is something that adds a complication gigging. 

Anyway, second half there were more people, more dancing, and everything went more or less ok, so pretty good, and actually ran out of time without realising it.

Not a bad night, and we have another gig tonight, might try the same things, and see if I get the same result - maybe increase the input gain of the pedal.

I think its great, if money was no object I would get one. Maybe they will do a cut down version at some point

Well, the reason I didn't get one was that I almost did from bass direct when it was £1350, but when I contacted them they said it was an old price and it was £1450, which was more than I wanted. Then Thomann had a reduced one for £1300 and I missed it, then finally there was a second hand one for £1100 which I would have gone for, but I had just bough a ric. So yes, I would expect them to be over £1000 second hand. Whether it is a good deal depends on your opinion, not anyone elses, it is a bass, ultimately it isn't going to be that much different to other basses, but if you like it and can afford it its a good deal.

I would certainly get one if I didn't have so many at the moment.

9 minutes ago, ColdFusion said:

Hey guys, has anyone ever tried one the NS Dimensions 5 fan fret basses? I've been eyeing up one and just curious to hear others thoughts on them. 

I have several times and almost bought one several times, but never actually did as wrong price / wrong time. I found them good to play and sound good, but only in shops etc, never in a gig

31 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I had to use my Lekato over the weekend while the Xvive was charging. Just at home. I can't believe how susceptible to interference the Lekato is. Just tapping it while it's plugged in to my EBS Micorbass produced a noise. Maybe it's faulty, although has never actual dropped a signal. 

Mine doesn't drop the signal, and it isn't touch sensitive or anything, it is just very noisy, If I connect the receiver to a normal 5M+ guitar lead via an adapter, it is absolutely fine, but that really isn't the point! Its fine for at home though, so now it is my home device. It was actually ok if you didn't use overdrive or something gigging, as the noise was below the guitarists noise, but put any drive on it and it got very bad.

The quickest way to do it is to go to Support at the top and send a support request, saying you want to change your email, what your email is and what you want it to be, and then it can be done.

On 18/08/2025 at 21:03, tauzero said:

Hercules do make a long arm hanger. However, I don't trust it for anything heavier than an Ashbory.

I have two longer than that that have been up for years. And my walls are made of that grey compressed powder they used after the war because presumably they had thrown all the bricks at the enemy.

Used it tonight in anger, and the warble is not so much of an issue in a band setting. But I used it on battery, and it cut out after about 2 hours!

Remember, don't use it on battery! In contrast the ME-90B runs on 4AA batteries for days.

4 hours ago, Elfrasho said:

worst piece of kit: LEKATO In-Ear Monitor System MS-1

I got the MS-1 and still use them, in place of my xvives. they are flimsy but they have worked really well well.

6 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Nice one. Im loving mine still. I like the idea of the battery but not sure ill have them long enough to every try swapping them. 

I am too - I now did a practice with the setup where the lekato would have been noisy and needed a workaround, and the XVive was as quiet as a cable, so very happy with it.

Its 48 hours - the button shows the countdown timer before you can press it

Well mine turned up today, and it is certainly the best pitch shift pedal I have used but obviously not perfect. It is really good from just above low E, but my use case is doing Drop D and lowering it down to either drop B or drop C. The D has a slight delay, where it starts a little higher and comes down - its really subtle but you can tell the difference between playing a real B and a D dropped to a B, because of this initial drop. Maybe it is the bass I am using, I will try another one later, that one has a little knackered string.

Actually i have a practice tomorrow with the group that I do the drop B/C songs with, so I will see how it goes then

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

 

It's also not a standard scratchplate and the routing on the OLP bodies is just massive trenches (shame, a clear scratchplate would be nice otherwise) so the previous owner might just have decided to relocate the controls. Although I would associate a diamond layout more with a two-pickup bass.

I think the OLPs are great for experimenting on, cheap and loads of space to work with.

2 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

I think a culture change is also needed. My kids generation are happy to spend eye watering sums of money to see the bigger artists on their mega tours but have really minimal interest in watching unknown artists. 

Well, when I was young we saw the bigger groups at the Portsmouth Guildhall, but they were very cheap and affordable compared to how much we had, so it was actualy the same price as going to the pub, which obviously we did quite often, because that was cheap. There would often be a band in the pub, or one of the smaller venues. None of those things are that cheap any more.

But then, it was the status of those groups, you see iron maiden /  scorpions / Dio etc, they weren't mega legacy groups at hte time, they were just the normal groups 

1 minute ago, Rosie C said:

Amazingly that was my last job. We had a subsidised works canteen, everyone ate there and it had a really good atmosphere. Sadly I lost that job when covid struck and I doubt many companies still have a canteen.

When I was first out of school there was a works canteen, but since that job I have never worked anywhere big enough to have a works canteen. Since 1983 I haven't worked at anywhere with over 20 employees - oh hang on, not true, I worked at westlands but that was mostly from home too, and when we were in contractors didn;t go to the canteen (in fact I am not sure where it was)

1 hour ago, tegs07 said:

Indeed. I work from home most days. My days in the office are my least productive as I can’t concentrate over the inane conversations. Ironically my last two jobs were focused around increasing productivity through technology investments and innovation. 

Well, yes, when I said I WFH all the time, we actually go in every other tuesday, where we have a couple of meetings, then go down the pub at lunchtime (when we were full time there we never went down the pub), then chat - so it is more a sociable time. It is nominally a work day but we go home earlier and nothing really gets done, even indivual sessions where you need to help someone discuss something don't tend to be as productive as on teams as its generally just too noisy with too much going on.

15 minutes ago, kwmlondon said:

Yeah, Paul told me the previous owner to him had used the things as a bit of a test bed for stuff. 

Yes, the knob location isn't standard for the OLP so I assumed there was something else in there.

I have an OLP and use it quite a lot, they are really good for cheap things. Mine isn't any hotter than any other bass I have, but it has a stinger preamp on it so maybe the original wasn't good.

46 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

And we should be progressing, not trying to get back to the bad old days.

Agreed - speaking as a full time working from home guy, when I was working from work I took my lunch with me, and work was about 15 minutes, so expenses wise, apart from burning more fossil fuel it wasnt adding anything. Maybe 'normal' depends on the area. and I get more done, isn't that the idea of productivity, rather than everyone going out and buying sandwhiches and making things dirty?

4 hours ago, Terry M. said:

There was. Wasn't great though unfortunately for basses. No sorry that was Portsmouth I'm thinking of.

Portsmouth PMT I would have a long history with, as it was originally Telecoms, then Nevada. I bought all my first musical equipment there, my first new guitar (a westone concorde), electric piano, pretty well every effect boss did in the 80s, used to practically live there in the early 80s!

4 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Not sure I'd ever find a use for anything above +1 oct anyway with our material!

Absolutely wouldn't be something I used (3 up or down), I guess they just put it there as they could

16 minutes ago, Cornwall Steve said:

I thought Dawsons closed in Dec 2022 after going into administration. Have they re-opened again ?

they did - thats what i mean, they used to have that (and wasn't there a PMT in plymouth?), but no longer.

The gigs are still good, I think the rehearsals with my main group that might end up pushing me out of the game!

Good clips, if nothing else, it does tell you to avoid the 3 octave up mode!

12 minutes ago, Cornwall Steve said:

Doesn't surprise to hear you say that. Not when you see so many big names that have disappeared since Covid. 

Yeh, PMT used to be quite good for bass stuff until they moved, only went in a few times after they moved and they weren't as good. But there were others down your way, such as dawsons, in exeter, but they didn't have that much.