paulears

I've been doing some 'how to' videos lately and just completed this one on recording double basses - cheap mics, expensive mics, different techniques and you can hear a range of examples. Oddly - some of the mics I expected to do well did less well than I expected and other did better? Even if you regularly record the things, you might find it interesting?

Grandson might, get a go but I'm keeping it safe - the action isn't mega low, and won't go lower, but it's very playable and no buzzes.

My grandson wanted to play my basses - but he's not big enough really, so I decided to buy a violin bass - tobacco finish - Rogue brand, as it wasn't that expensive. I didn't expect much and it didn't even appeal to me. Short scale - so a bit weedy and no guts, and worse a 4 string when I play 5 - have done for years. I've got all sorts of basses. When it arrived I figured they'd not put the bass in the parcel - far too light, but no - it was there. Actually I'd not realised they were this size and weight. I tuned it up and plugged it in and got a big surprise - it's not bad at all. It records really well too. It's more like the old Rickenbacker I had years ago and it's got plenty at the bottom and loads of tone adjustment. I've got a bad back now and my American Jazz is probably double the weight. I always assumed and never checked, that these were a lightweight instrument in tone, style and playability, but I really like this thing - and I'm going to play it. Lots! Has anyone else discovered the same thing? I've no idea if this is all violin basses including the original Hofners - so down to the design and style, or if it's just this particular brand.

I think the 'casual' 5 string player treats it like a 4 with just a few extra notes down low which you can use if you want to, but once you start to be a 5 string player as first choice, you lose the ability to easily switch back. The bass player in the show I'm currently running made the switch last year and we had some banter on how the 5 wasn't really much help in his kind of work, but this year I note he's on a different 5 string that's his No. 1 instrument now, and he's tweaking the dots he plays to make it work better. The score written for a 4 string so lots of downwards runs that end on perhaps a D, and the music is better for the C's to Eb's that are in it being played down low - and the PA here is substantial with subs, so the bass is a powerful feature. His scepticism has taken a year to go and now my suggestion he should revert being a 'traitor' to the 4 string annoys him (good). Once you take that step to treat the extra string as a real part of the instrument, to keep good at the 4 string would take practice, so why bother?

I'm happy switching between my 5 strings, and my one 6 string, but going back to 4 is out - I've changed how I play so much that I use the B an awful lot now, higher up the neck. I make mistakes on my old 4 string.

Got you! I assume the pay is better than here then so you can invest in the extra equipment? I suspect that for many bands who do smaller venues and bar, Ivansc's price is at the higher end of the range. Our band are lucky in that we tend to do theatres, corporates and festivals where the money is OK, and funds the PA and lighting we have available when it's needed. I the area we live in, the music scene is very poorly paid. I don't think we have every played a show within 60 miles of where we all live. In fact, last but one show we did was on the UK West coast, and I liven the most Easterly town - and we went all that way for a 35 minute set, and we're doing it again in a few weeks.

I'm a bit confused on the PA/Lights thing. We have a pretty standard price for the band. If we need PA, the price goes up, and if we need lights - same again. When we do theatre shows, it's quite common for venues to have PAs - our rider and contracts are always PA Supplied or PA NOT Supplied. So they get backline and us. We'd then expect what we need - which is 4 monitor mixes as a minimum. Sometimes this isn't possible so then we have to take our PA. This means an extra vehicle, and extra fuel - plus of course the equipment itself. Of course they pay! What often happens here is that their PA is decent quality, but lacking mixer channels or monitoring - so for these we will bring in our desk, our monitors and give them a left and right. This is quite common. Now we can control from an iPad, this isn't a pain - and the mixer can be stage side, not taking up FOH space. If a venue has enough lighting so we can be seen, we usually live with it, but if they want a lightshow, that is extra, and again extra transport - as in a bigger vehicle, and somebody to work it, putting costs up. If we agree to do small gigs, in small venues, then the equipment provided has to be sufficient for us to play. If their system is two boxes on sticks and a 12 channel mixer - we won't do it. We don't ask for things we don't need, but it's clearly unrealistic to expect a PA and lights for free, as much as it's unrealistic to expect us to play through an inadequate system. A band who buy a PA vs a band who don't - is surely a no-brainer? You get what you pay for.

Playing out of tune is bound to make people think you are a bad player. It's craziness! It's flawed physics anyway. If both musical illiterates and other musicians perceive it as out of tune, then it's bad practice. If I'd heard a bass player tuned sharp enough to make me aware, I too might have said something if the opportunity arose. You are going to get all sorts of weird beating with the guitars bottom strings and while maybe it's a valid effect from bands with a brilliant PA and sympathetic person out front, in a pub, it's just (in my humble opinion) a technique that will be misunderstood and make you look like a bad player. I've been playing bass for 40 years now, and this is the first time I have heard of this 'trick'. My own worst gig was with a mixer doing foh and monitors side stage, run by a female who was clueless, and didn;t understand the concept of monitors at all - hearing feedback and turning down gains, removing a totally DI'd keyboard from the mix. I played 45 minutes by touch and eye, my bass amp totally inaudible, the keys totally missing and none of my voice in the mons at all. It was simply terrible, and painful.How can you play bass, and sing four part harmonies when none of you can hear anyone else?

I've found those types of jacks to be the worst in the world. They have very little cable clamping ability, and they bend. Sure, when used to link pedals it doesn't matter that much, but I'd rather use cheap moulded plastic ones.

Apart from the band, I also hire kit out mainly to theatres, so I have a fair bit of different kit. Sennheiser G1,2 and 3, a few bits of AKG, and Line 6 2.4GHz kit. I've also had some cheaper kit, which rarely performed well on a couple of points, while on it's own, wasn't really too bad. The Line 6 and Sennheiser kit is quite happy (as is Shure that I occasionally hire in to meet rider requirements) to operate multiple channels. It's been designed to operate as a multi-channel system. The cheaper ones don't have the filtering and technical tighter specs to not get 'annoyed' by others, and nowadays, in our band, we have two radio guitars, and now four IEM systems going the other way. I use Sennheiser IEMs, and Line 6 for the guitars, and although we have Line 6 handhelds we could use - we stay with wires for what we do. They all work together perfectly and we very rarely have any issues - until somebody pops up with something different and it doesn't integrate properly. Looking back over maybe 5 years, we've lost a couple of battery door flaps on the Sennheiser packs, split two tubes on the Line 6 handheld from over tightening. Apart from that, the only other things that have broken are one handheld that somebody rolled a flight case over! I bought a couple of counterfeit Sennheisers from China. In fact, they sound really nice, and perform quite well. They do suffer from intermod problems - using the same trouble free channels as the proper Sennheisers they are not clean - and background warbles pop up. I'd be happy using them on their own, but they're a bit less well made than I'd like. Screws come loose, tight joints become wobbly, and the sound is not quite the same. When I buy more, it will be more G3 or Line 6. The Chinese have stopped making the dodgy copies in the main now we've changed bands. The factory who made them now sell the same stuff buy with their own brands. No idea what they're like, but they're sending me a twin channel ch 38 IEM system to play with. Might be good, might be bad, but it might be worth it?

Hard to play, or hard to keep up? Hardest to play - all the little syncopated bits in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and American in Paris, and for hand cramps, Disco Inferno!

If you are after things to get your fingers working, but are not too tricky - then Michael Jackson's Billy Jean, Garry Moore's walking by myself, Alannah Myles Black velvet in Em (mainly because there is a nice open E twiddly bit that you smile once you get it right!, and if you fancy something faster, then Final Countdown to test your semi-quaver/16th right hand - which also does note changes on the last of some 16 note bars. For fun, add in a version of Disco Inferno, where the pattern changes every now and then. Many, like the chain, are instantly recognisable, even if people don't know what they are. The timing on some is a good test of your feel. If you want some baselines that are not quite as you remember them, then try my Beach Boy stuff. Sloop John B is nice and busy and of course Good Vibrations - that has a riff everyone should know!

My first band was Eggie Rumdrum and the offbeats - and one of the band was called Luke Drongo! (His real name was Charles Riddlecombe - which is perhaps even worse)

I just remembered I leant a keyboard to a friend in 2002, and they've never given it back! They're also a heavy smoker, so all things considered, they can keep it!

Our keys player (and band leader) has been doing the Beach Boys for years - and his brother now lives in the US, having played with the real Beach Boys for a long time.

Sorry - not meant to be condescending, but you are doing it without thinking. I think the whole process is just a musicians style, and we only notice it when it goes wrong. When it's right, nobody thinks oh, that's ahead or behind - indeed, have you noticed when you have two tracks that are out of alignment, shifting one backwards or forwards is often random - you hear the two sounds as not being together - and are convinced it's the snare, so you shift it the obvious way - it's late, so you move t forwards, but it gets worse because it wasn't late, it was early. I suspect we hear it as 'wrong' but can't easily tell which way it is. When we play, these pushes and pulls are instinctive. Some beginners have the musical ability, and just need to learn the instrument, while others are doing the musical equivalent of painting by numbers, and just can't quite feel it. In one of our songs, one bass note is really pushed - so much that it's quite obvious, and I always feel it's a mistake, but as a tribute, it's there in the original so I play it. Talking about it one day - the drummer looked blank - he'd assumed my timing was a bit rubbish on that bit every time!

Don't try any of this cabin stuff with flyby. Their web site says guitars under certain lengths are ok in cabin, but the check staff don't know this and say no. Customer service don't know and say no too. Show them the web site page printout and they've never seen it and say no. They tell you it must be hold, but you can walk it to the plane yourself, where the same staff member has conveniently forgotten she told you this and refuses to take it. All in all a pain in the bum all round. Especially when you then see the guitar thrown from the plane and watch the baggage handler miss it! Insurance did cough up eventually. On the other hand a recent trip on Emirates was brilliant. It had to go in the hold but a man appeared with rolls of bubble wrap, and they encased our gear in this, and then a man was tasked to take our kit to the aircraft and at the other end in Dubai, another person hand carried them to the reclaim. Can't argue with their care and attention. Flybe just handed out insurance forms and were totally uninterested.

http://youtu.be/ey213GoCKhk We are a Beach Boys tribute, UK, Europe and the gulf states. Happy music, keeps us happy!

The trouble is these people are trying to dumb down their natural playing process into language beginners can digest, and it goes wrong. Every musician who pushes and pulls intuitively understands, but the people playing by numbers see it as another technique to mimic, understanding and appropriateness not being important. It's like those amateur singers who tried to mimic Whitney houston's singing style with the wailing and microphone in/outs she used with great effect, without understanding how she did it, becoming a sound mans nightmare!

I think playing on a big stage is nice, but just very odd. Big and in daylight is different to big and audience in the dark. My first ever festival performance was a bit surreal. It never actually occurred to me I'd never done one before - done plenty as sound and lights or video, but I was about three songs in when I clicked I could see people really well, and they were spread out all over the place. I don't suffer from stage fright or even nerves, so I just remember thinking how odd it felt. I actually enjoyed it all the more because you could see when individuals liked or not the songs you started. They'd be jiggling around for one, then go still, or start to talk on the next. In a theatre venue, you only see a few rows. I also hated it when it rained and they were getting wet. The only time I got put off a bit was in Abu Dhabi at the Grand Prix when I turned expecting to see the guitarist and there was a camera and cameraman - that seemed very odd, and even worse, seeing a huge face on a screen that is yours, but delayed a second or so put me off quite badly. Never look at the screens, it's very disturbing.

I always did the muso thing and avoided the net, however - it's simply not practical any longer. The software you install needs the net - Cubase with the licensers and Adobe with the CC continuous validation. I put AVG on my system, the cheapest paid for one, and everything is fine. I don't go to the kinds of website where dodgyness seems likely, and frankly, the advantages of it outweigh the potential issues. However - I always have my data backed up, and I have another machine that would run my business if the main one died. In fact, with Adobe's system, I have music and video on the sound studio machine and the edit suite machine, and vice versa, so all I need to do is swap the Cubase dongles. Windows 7 and 8, on the two machines and to all intents and purposes, they perform identically.

When you tape in a product and "price" into Google, you often get wildly different values. I buy from the cheapest that isn't an absolute unknown. I wanted a Behringer bit of gear for a project this week, and would happily have bought from Thomann as they are usually cheapest, but I got a link to Amazon of all people, and one of their retailers was ten quid less than Thomann. They go the business. I also choose Thomann for more expensive purchases because as I'm VAT registered, I have to fund the VAT content until the next quarter. If I buy from Thomann, they supply it VAT free, which helps the cash flow when it's hundreds of pounds. I obviously can't claim it back at the next return date, but it saves me spending then claiming back.

The trouble is that it's the old artistes who know how to work the audience. Glasto is Radio 2, not Radio 1.

Let's be honest here - most decent brands of cable are tough and will last. I found a guitar lead I made when I was 17 in the 70s, and apart from being a bit stiffer than I remember, it works fine. If you use decent connectors and cable that has real metal in it, then as long as you can solder - the differences are very small. Dry joints, plated rubbish metal, delicate screening and fragile insulation all make for trouble. Fancy fabric covering and precious metals might sway some people, but I prefer substance.

The Sale of Goods Act doesn't deal with specific numbers of weeks or days or years - in court, it's what the judge deems reasonable. A year's guarantee was traditionally considered a reasonable time for a guarantee, but it was never set in stone. If you buy on-line, then you have the modern DSR rules to help you, but the SoGA runs in parallel, and uses "merchantable quality" as a guide to something good enough to be sold, but only sets out a few circumstances where things [i]must[/i] happen. You do NOT, for example have to accept a repair. The retailer is entitled to inspect the good to check they've not been trashed or messed with - but if you do accept a repair, it's generally understood now that this does not wipe out your claim if the goods die again. The best bit, however, is that if you paid with a credit card, not a debit card, then the credit card company may be willing to do a charge back against the retailer if you can provide proof the goods are defective. This falls down if you use a business credit card, or to recover the VAT, bought the goods through your business. This then becomes a business transaction and the Sale of Goods Act doesn't apply because it is not a consumer transaction. The courts have proven over the years to support the side that has behaved reasonably. Plenty of examples of refunds being made after a twelve month period has passed because the goods are a long lifespan (or should be) product. Equally, goods that have been heavily used within the year have not been deemed suitable for refund. In the case of the Laney amp, the first repair could have been successful and everyone would be happy - bar the silly delay. However, telephoning Laney is not your responsibility, it's the dealers and them not chasing it could be deemed negligent. However, the second fault would support your belief that the unit is clearly not suitable for the purpose you bought it for - another part of the SoGA. If you buy an amp to use on stage for gigging, and the retailer suggests a product, then it has to do that job. So your course of action is quite variable. You can go straight in and ask for a refund on the grounds that the item clearly was not of merchantable quality, and is not fit for purpose. If you paid by credit card, and they a reluctant to refund it, then pass it to the credit card company - because technically they bought it, not you. If you wish, you could accept the money off a different product - that's up to you. The cost of a county court summons is quite cheap, can be done on line, and doesn't cost you anything if you win. In court you just produce evidence. receipts, dates, times and things that happened.