dodge_bass

2 minutes ago, donkelley said:

Those Radial units are fantastic.

Absolutely!

3 hours ago, jacko said:

As if by magic an immaculate radial JDi turned up on here last week about half the new price. paid for it on thursday and had it hand delivered to my soundcheck on saturday. worked a treat and made the sound guy very happy. 

I saw that and was going to point you towards it but think you'd already beat me to it. Good stuff. Glad to hear it worked out!

Sold my SY1 to Chris - great comms, super-quick transaction ALL GOOD. Enjoy!

On hold 

Got this just before Xmas but have decided it’s not for me. It hasn’t left the house so is basically new. It was £179.99 from GAK plus p&p so you’re saving a bit on a new one. Interested in trades for bitcrushers so hit me up if you have one. Pic to follow. 

These are very good DIs

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/15918892166261574840?lsf=seller:291943,store:17486815475102514008&prds=oid:1228701713132546910&q=passive+di+box+radial&hl=en-gb&ei=104LXv_TArWFhbIP69mjmAg&lsft=gclid:EAIaIQobChMIovyI3oDg5gIVVuDtCh0iBQBDEAQYBCABEgIkh_D_BwE

5 minutes ago, jacko said:

Hmmm.  all active basses plus the signal is getting modified by the pedals so maybe a passive box would suit my needs. 

And that would then remove the need for a power supply as well?!

these are a great starting point IMO. 

1 hour ago, jacko said:

I'm wanting to add an active D.I. to my pedalboard to send my 'effected' signal to the desk before the amp. However, I've been looking around and it seems they all come with a 9v battery and/or take u to 48v from phantom power.  I'm wondering why they don't add a 9v (or12v even) ac socket so I can power it from the t-rex fuel tank? Seems a bit disingenuous when nearly every pedal on the planet comes with both battery and ac adaptor.

On the other hand would it just be simpler to use a passive D.I. ? 

PS - not a dumb question, the opposite!

45 minutes ago, spyder said:

I would personally use a passive di on a pedal board. 

I think this really depends on your bass / effects useage etc. Generally active for passive basses and vice versus. And of course if you’re using a traditional all purpose DI box rather than an bass specific DI. Better IMO to have your own decent quality DI box with you then you’ve always got your sound. 

I suspect that you are looking at non-– bass specific D I boxes? There are a multitude of a D I boxes that are active and specifically for bass that have 9 V power.

Here’s a quick list to get you started:

Aguillar Tone Hammer

MXR M81

Any of the Sansamp DI boxes

You’ll pick up something second hand easily to get started with.

Pm'd.

I took this in a trade a while back but it's never been used bar a few times in the studio and the neck is a little wide so hoping to shift it on.

1981 Fender Precision Special - been used a fair bit as can be seen from the pictures (some will call it mojo!). As far as can see it's all original bar one strap button (silver not gold), the jack input (also not gold) and one of the tone pots which has been replaced (I do have the original along with the active circuity schematic). Neck is straight and you can get a good low action on it. The active circuity works. but I think probably needs a little attention (reflected in the price) - it's a bit crackly at times and if you crank it fully up it can screech a bit. IMPORTANT TO NOTE THERE IS A PASSIVE / ACTIVE SWITCH ON THESE BASSES so it's totally usable in passive mode as it currently stands and may be fine for you in active mode too. There's one for sale here for £1495 (https://classicandcoolguitars.co.uk/portfolio/1981-fender-p-bass-special/) so this is a decent price for a nearly 40 year old bass that just needs a little love and attention. Price includes shipping and a decent quality gator hardcase.

EDIT:

1st question via PM - Weight - 4.78Kg.

2nd questions via PM - not original hard case

Any questions please drop me a PM.

Thanks

Ian 

Happy to be wrong (and sorry to query) but did they ever do Squire JV series in this colour and with a matching headstock? Never seen this before and seen a lot of these JVs....

PM'd re.Grove Regulator

Pm’d

Didn’t these come fitted with a Badass bridge?

18 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Be great to see a pic of your board set up with this on, Ian! 

There we go.

All the fx are in the loop.

Clean signal is BO box - microthump - comp - DI

FX signal - BO box - FX loop (all fx) - micro thump - comp - DI

Comp is set fairly low for clean finger style and obviously kicks in a little more when FX take hold. Microthump cleans out bottom end before it hits the comp.

I've got a Bright Onion box that includes an FX loop. I put all my FX in the loop that way there's less noise (i.e. you haven't got your clear bass sound running though up to 10 fx pedals - gets noisy! ) and it means I can have a couple of pedals turned on in the loop (e.g. 8ver and squelch) and that way one switch will turn them both on. Also I found sometime I'd not switch things on properly as the type of switches used to turn pedals on are all different and that got annoying so one switch all the time (loop on / off) works better for me.

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

As a user of professional GIS, that's kind of like me saying to an amateur naturalist 'bear in mind you won't be supplied data from google maps'.

Perhaps that's exactly it. I can't read notation, so better tab would help me.

Aside from my inability to even achieve reading at a sub-Grade 1 level, despite years of attempts, I already know that.

 

Why, for the love of God, is it that raising the issue of improving tab generates such an outpouring of (effectively) demands that the questionner should learn notation?

 

The fact is I don't, and never will, be in a position where I need to sight read unless I volunteer myself into it. In forty-plus years of playing with other people I have never needed to sight read (although i did bluff through singing lessons by being very quick at picking up a simple melody by ear).

I use written music as a way to  assist with learning  (or very rarely composing or transposing) music and speed of reading is not the priority. I just need a guide , and I find tab works for me and notation doesn't.

Also, sight-readers need to accept that for some people there is a dichotomy between theory and practice. I have bothered to learn some musical theory and it does help me a bit (but not much) when learning a song. I'm sure notation helps keyboard players and those who wish to understand the harmonic structure of a piece, but in practice most people just use notation to know what note to play next, just as with tab.

No amount of protestation by sight-readers is going to change that, I'm afraid; they have to accept that for some people under some circumstances, tab is not just the better option, but the only option.

 

The point of this thread is that some tablature is great and makes it really easy to learn a piece of music, some of it is abysmal. I was hoping to discuss what the features of good tab were and ways to promote them. But it seems that either other tab users don't want to or they fear the scorn of the sight-readers.

As a result of this discussion and my attempts to learnt quite a lot of music over recent weeks, I have seen a lot more variation of approach. I honestly think that notation itself will get a lot of competition in the next twenty years as more expressive and accessible ways of presenting music that use dynamic display are developed - already a lot of keyboard players are getting started using 'waterfall' display, for example, which has huge potential to be developed further. There is also dynamic tab that replaces the heads of notes with fret numbers and uses very strict spacing rules for duration information, done well this gets close to classical notation for readability.

 

With existing technology you can just share the music over bluetooth as midi file and each person can display it on their own device and switch it to their favourite 'reader' while keeping in synch with everyone else. So one person could be reading notation, another tab and another just getting chord symbols, all in real time while they play together.

 

This is the sort of idea I was thinking of:

I think bass could be presented as an image of a fretboard with markers for finger positions that behave to show when they are damping, pressing down and also highlighting the next ones coming. An arrow could fade in show a pending slide and the marker could actually make the movement when it is due. Combine this with lower level indicators to show the scale currently in use (and highlighting root etc.) you could probably convey more information than on a stave. Imagine being able to see not just the line you are playing on the fretboard but also all the opportunities for improving or adding fills while staying in key and yet changing dynamically through the piece. Might work better for Giant Steps than notation?

 

 

 

 

Some really interesting stuff in here, thanks for the reply. I'll try to briefly respond as should be working!

I love the concept of a much improved tab with all those features but the cynic in me simply says you're re-inventing the wheel....music notation has done all of that already so why bother. And furthermore one of the benefits of music notation is that it allows relationships between notes / keys etc to be clearly seen. Tab doesn't allow that it simply tells you where to place your fingers. So you can replicate music (if the tab / your ears are good enough!) but it doesn't necessarily highlight clearly the relationships between the notes which is pretty important. I must confess I don't think traditional notation will come up against a lot of competition - it's existed and function very well for 100's of years, for a reason that it allows music to be clearly, accurately and intelligently displayed whilst simultaneously allow the player to make their own choice of fingering / positioning etc to facilitate most clearly whatever is going on in the music. Want to play with three fingers (like double bass) rather than four...not a problem because notation DOESN'T tell you where to put your fingers just what the notes are. To nicely return the GIS / map analogy...currently tab simply gives you a single route from home to your destination whereas music notation gives you the whole map. It gives you all the options and that's why overall it's inherently superior.

I should note however that alternative methods of notation (graphic scores / tab(!) etc) do exist and exist for a reason and often that's to fill a gap - DJ'ing, synths, electronic music etc are all in need of something to at times more accurately represent what's going on. Notation is not perfect, far from but it serves a useful purpose.

Now you note that you're not going to ever be in a sight-reading situation and that you're using tab as a learning tool. Great, it's good to be clear about your need to use, in this case tab, for a specific purpose. And you make an interesting comment about theory / practice in relation to sight-reading but I would reply to that by saying that I do a lot of work that doesn't require notation (i.e. original music written /arranged by ear) and I still use them same theory in practice when I do that as well. If you avoid learning any theory / developing your understanding of musical structures / language then you're restricting yourself...that's a slightly different discussion I think but whether I'm reading / hearing a C major triad (for arguments sake) I know what it looks like (notation), sounds like (aural), how it's constructed (theory) and how to actually play it (physical). Music is a combination, for me, of all those different elements.

Must get back to work, I know I have't addressed all your comments but I've made a start I hope...and bear in mind I'm NOT coming completely (though mainly!) from a place of MUSIC NOTATION GOOD TAB BAD but rather am slightly playing devils advocate because it's a discussion I often have with my students....who I'm sorry to say all end up reading music notation and avoid tab  Just for transparency!! Look forward to your reply.

I think it’s worth considering too that you would NEVER get given tab in any kind of professional setting. There’s a reason music notation has developed and become the accepted way to transmit Western music over tab - it’s the best format that’s been invented. Tab does not clearly show relationships between notes just where to put your fingers amongst flaws. Tab has been used for lute music for many centuries so it can’t just be written off - it certainly has its place / useage but ultimately for modern music it’s at best a flawed system. 

Clearly it’s an emotive subject but my experience from the ‘other side’ as a strong reading musician is that it’s only musicians who can’t read who kick up a fuss and want to read tab / improve tab. Learning to read took many years and much frustration on my part - so it’s not an easy process either but it’s a very valuable one. Not what the OP wants to hear I doubt but there we go.

Ultimately we all have to decide what best suits our situations. If you’re not in reading situations on a regular basis then it’s probably not a priority and energy could be expended more effectively elsewhere. My personal experience is that reading music has opened up so many doors / avenues / experiences that not reading / reading tab would have so that, on a purely pragmatic basis, seals it for me. 

Bought his FI pedal - great comms - sent the same day as receiving the money - very well packaged and all as described. Was a bit worried as he only had one bit of feedback and it was quite a lot of money but ALL GOOD. Deal with confidence. Thanks!

Bas bought my pedal - great comms, totally hassle free. Deal with confidence! Enjoy the pedal!

Pm’d