paulbuzz

I have one and and really like it, but for me it was greatly improved by a few simple mods: 1) Added an output level control to match up the volume between effect & bypass, which varies greatly depending on the settings 2) Added an effects loop to allow patching in a fuzz of my choice instead of the built in one 3) Added a footswitch (& indicator LED) to switch between envelope control and the expression pedal input

Must have had Dave Parsons on guitar, surely...? But certainly Sham without Pursey isn't worthy of the name. According to Wikipedia they currently have 3/4 of the classic lineup (including Pursey), though whether that means they're any good or not I've no idea. Edit: ah, I see they're one of those bands where different band lineups exist simultaneously - in this case fairly plainly a 'proper' version and a 'fake' version... sounds like you were unlucky enough to catch the fake version...? ☹️

No loopers for you then! 😄

Everyone knows that if it's a great gig, it's because the band were great, and if it's a terrible gig it's because the soundman was rubbish! 😉

Useful item (indeed, I too have made these in the past), but... £45 for one pot in a box...! 😧

Ok, out in the carpark, you two! 😄 In practice it's all contextual, innit? In a loud rock band, where you're struggling to get enough vocal level without feedback, mic-to-lips is essential, as EBS suggests, with some bass rolloff to counter the proximity effect. In a quieter context where feedback (and spill) isn't an issue, backing off the mic a bit will often give a more natural result, as Dad says.

I'm with the dog.

Careful eq is always the most important thing; rolling off a bit of bass is often useful to counter the mic's proximity effect, especially in the common 'lips-up-against-the-mic' scenario. Apart from that... Reverb on vocals in a live context is only really important if a) you're performing outside or in a particularly acoustically dead room, or... b) you're playing particularly empty/spacious music, or... c) you're playing a genre of music that is expected to have super-reverby vocals Otherwise reverb often just tends to get lost whilst also muddying up the overall sound. A bit of shortish delay with very little feedback is often better for achieving the effect that people usually try to use reverb for. It's very important to be able to turn it off between songs though; it doesn't work well for announcing the next song! Compression is very useful for evening-out the level differences between the loud and the quiet parts of the singing - especially if the singer doesn't have the mic technique to do this themselves. However, as others have noted already, it can worsen feedback problems if the singer is quiet, or if you're already struggling to get enough level on the vocals. Other effects are mostly inessential candy. Modern harmony-generating effects could bring a lot of added value, but I think it would take a lot of preparation and experience to really get them working well, even with the right gear.

Ah no, that doesn't alleviate my battery paranoia at all! The question is: how many songs will you have played with it sounding slightly bad, before it gets bad enough for you (or worse, someone else) to notice...?

Yes I can, because my bass will never have a battery in it!

Yep, I know lots of people find the benefits of an active bass to be worth the battery aggravation. Fair enough, but it's definitely not for me! If I really wanted one, I could possibly live with some kind of cunning phantom-powering arrangement, but a battery bass... noooooooo.......!

I dunno man, a p-bass seems like a pretty damn reliable object to me! No failures yet in 40 years! With reference to your particular example: this one definitely wouldn't happen to me because, if we're talking about feeling confident regarding equipment, one of my personal foibles is an utter hatred of battery-powered gear on stage. Ugh, I don't know how people can stand the uncertainty. It's even worse when people say "oh, but the battery in my bass lasts for 18 months or more" - that just means it's bound to catch you on the hop when it does die. Just no... I get that going wireless on stage would be really physically liberating, but the batteries...urgh! What if you accidentally leave it turned on between the soundcheck and the gig...? 🤮 (I do understand that this is a particularly personal neurosis! 😁 )

The weird thing here is that in almost every musical situation I've been in, I am the most cautious, backup-ready participant; yet in the context of this thread, I feel like I'm towards the casual, nah-it'll-all-be-fine end of the scale. I imagine that this is because the people likely to participate in this kind of thread on an internet forum are probably a self-selected group of slightly-obsessive preppers... 😜 So - are your band-mates all as well prepared as you, or are they a bunch of recklessly optimistic ne'er-do-wells, hopelessly vulnerable to equipment failure at any second...?

Very sensible, I'm sure! 🙂 However, having selected reliable gear and (mostly) kept it in good order, such experiences are very rare; just a handful of gear-embarassments in 40 years of gigging. TBH, the most gig-disruptive equipment problem I ever created was when I found I didn't have my bass strap, after having previously removed it from my bag for some reason. (Fortunately I did manage to get one from somewhere in the nick of time.) It can be the most mundane and unexpected of items that cause a crisis. So, do you super-professional all-eventualities-covered types take a spare of every single item to every gig? Including PA speakers, mixing desk etc, if you're providing your own...?

Same. Over a similar period of time, my two biggest amp fiascos have both involved the amp vibrating off the top of the cab and hitting the deck: 1) Old Trace Elliot GP11 pre-amp. Very loud bass, very resonant stage. Amp hits deck. Carries on working like nothing has happened. I'm completely unaware until my bandmates start gesticulating frantically at me. Shrug and carry on playing. Lesson learned: Trace Elliot amps are tough as shi t. 2) My first Class D amp. Amp hits deck. Stops working, input socket caved in. Replug directly into PA, bass sounds terrible, finish gig anyway. Lesson learned: Class D amps are really light. Put some velcro on the bottom of them.

This. "Uhh... have you got a spare 4-way?" "No, sorry, I haven't. Where's yours? Did you forget it?" "No, I just haven't got one. But you've got a spare socket on yours. Will it reach over here?" "Yes, if I fish it out from where I've tucked it tidily behind/under all my other stuff, and instead drape it (and all my cables that are plugged into it) right across the middle of the room/stage." "Well, we'd better do that then, because I need to plug my stuff in." "..." Although this is not quite as annoying as the time we arrived at a gig to find that the PA guy hadn't finished setting up yet, so we dumped our gear and went off to get a beer while he finished. On returning, I started to set up my bass gear, only to discover that my 4-way wasn't in my leads bag. I then noticed that this was because the PA guy had taken it from my bag and used it to plug one of his amp racks in...! He was quite alarmed and seemingly surprised when I unplugged it... 🙄

Pretty much the only kind of EQ pedal I wouldn't even consider is the Boss GEB-7 (or clones thereof - yes, I'm looking at you, Behringer BEQ700). The selection of centre frequencies used is absolutely bizarre: 400, 500, 800, then nothing until 4.5k...? Just no. The standard guitar version (GE-7) is much more useable, even as a bass equaliser, though it's true that an additional low band would be kinda helpful.

As an old-time TE fan, I really like the idea of Ashdowns with a proper sensible graphic equaliser. The arbitary mix of rotary knobs and sliders used for the EQ controls on many (most?) of their previous amps gives me the conceptual heeby-jeebies. Now if only they would dump the silly pointless VU meter too, we'd be cooking with gas...! 🙂 Oh - and while I'm having a moan: why can't I find any specs for it on their website? What size is it? What does it weigh? This is basic information that ought to be easy to find...

Surely a typo here? I can't believe you were renting a £200 piece of equipment for £1 per day...? 😮

I did this mod many moons ago. It's easy - if you can work a soldering iron you can do it! 🙂

Ashdown RM-112T-EVO II ?

Although the early-mid 70s tends to be seen as their classic period, I am especially fond of the mid-late 70s period, with Bob Calvert dramatically upping their lyrical game, and also filling a much more traditional 'front-man' role for much of that time. Astounding Sounds - Q,S&C - Hawklords - PXR5 - Levitation is a great run of albums.

Sound Master Rhythm 1 ...?

With reference to the research referred to in the OP's post, the full paper isn't available without paying, but there's a video abstract that gives a bit more detail on parts of their study, and is very interesting (at least I thought so!) https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31036-X

Intriguing suggestion, Bill! In general there seems to be a broad consensus that input impedances less than about 500 kohm cause a loss of top end from passive guitar/bass pickup signals. Would you disagree with this? The little Behringer mixer mentioned above, for example, has an input impedance of only 5 kohm. Would you say this impedance would be ok for passive pickups?