Happy Jack

7 minutes ago, Cheeto726 said:

I picked up a Fender American Performer Limited-Edition Mustang bass over the weekend and absolutely love it. Only issue I have is the fact that it's smaller than my other basses so it will take some time getting used to. I got this on a trade

 

The thing is mint condition too. When I looked into it and did some research, I read a lot of stuff and saw a bunch of videos about how short scale basses are not real basses, how they're "dead", etc etc. I also went to a local music store and they didn't really have anything good to say about them either lol.

There are a lot of brain-dead clowns on the internet ... sounds like you've stumbled across a few. As to the hopeless failed musicians who can't find a better job than working in music stores, don't get me started.

Start by Googling famous bass players who used short-scale basses, then try to convince yourself that Paul McCartney would voluntarily play a POS instrument. Good luck with that. 

In anything to do with music you should always ignore the opinions of others (including mine, of course) and try using your ears. Even when they're the opinions of experienced musicians who you respect, ignore them - they aren't you and they don't hear what you hear.

If you like the sound of a bass and the way it plays, then how much you paid for it, what it says on the headstock, what the scale length is, whether it's active or passive, uses flats or rounds, all that stuff is largely irrelevant. What matters is that you're playing it and you like it.

If you play with others (in a band, jamming, whatever) then do remember that nobody else in the room gives a damn what you're playing. "It's just a bass, right?"

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

Won't power on. We changed the fuse in the sun unit itself, changed kettle leads and sockets. I've brought it home and tried again, another new kettle lead and the power on led doesn't light. 

Bloody consumer electronics ... almost certainly cheaper to replace than to investigate / repair / fail again.

3 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

We have a large active sub which failed on us last night.

Define "failed".

The last time one of our subs failed, it completely failed to power up when switched on. We later discovered that the venue had a defective 13A socket built into the stage and there was nowt wrong with the sub. 🙄

29 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Concentrating on having a good, tight, entertaining band is by far the most important thing in this type of gigs.

Word.

@Silvia Bluejay and I only bring the subs along to carefully-selected gigs; most of the time we just run a pair of decent 1x12 passive tops with the whole band going through them at sensible volumes. 

We use a pair of MarkAudio 2x10 subs at really large venues (including outdoor gigs, natch) and at the very few gigs we play where they actually demand high volumes.

When using the subs we put the passive tops above and drive them from the subs' on-board power amps so although we now have to carry the subs we save on carrying separate power amps.

Location is driven by practicality rather than audio perfection and these days we invariably lay the 2x10 subs flat on the ground (for stability) rather than upright as we used to (avoiding combing etc).

Yup, I still use the Pitch Box at every gig with my covers band. It has been consistent & reliable for years now.

Sound quality when detuned by a full tone is definitely 'processed', i.e. any competent bassist will recognise that something has been done to the sound, but it's unlikely the band will hear that and the audience certainly won't. 

The chorus effect is very reasonable but I have little need for that function. If I spent more time playing fretless then that would change. 

The harmoniser function is probably the weakest of the three, but also the least useful to a bass player (except perhaps as a novelty item) so no harm done.

Thanks, but for £235 there's a fair amount of choice out there. 😂

I like the sound of the 411 fitted to my Kolstein, and they used to sell for c.£120 new. I'd quite like to source a spare for non-silly money.

Anyone got one they could bear to part with?

In fairness, with those singers standing in front of you, it would be odd if the audience was fixated on you. 😉

Guitarist in my 3-piece covers band is an excellent rhythm guitarist and also plays pretty mean slide, but he's no sort of lead guitarist and it doesn't bother him. Or us.

We play a wide range of pop/rock hits from the 60s/70s/80s and we just leave out the guitar solos.

You'd be amazed how few people notice, even when the missing solo is allegedly 'iconic', e.g. Let's Dance.

2 hours ago, PTB said:

Still some tickets left for Saturday’s gig in Goring nr Reading. If you fancy some Fleetwood Mac, come on down….and make yourself known……always good to meet other BC’ers. 
 

 

Don't forget @Silvia Bluejay & me for 23rd June ...

Surely the Rolling Stones' 100 best drummers are just Charlie Watts written 100 times?

Oh hang on, damn that pesky apostrophe ...

>30 years as a Finance Director here, and I would advise very strongly against going this route unless you genuinely expect to be as successful as Taylor Swift.

Technically speaking, any working band is automatically a Partnership under the 1890 Act but nobody gives a toss and I've never heard of anyone acting (i.e. sueing someone or trying to claim equal shares of band revenues) on that basis. Don't mean it ain't happened, mind.

Open a 'band' bank account, however, and you open a number of doors. Very probably, no bug-eyed monsters will walk through those doors; but if the doors aren't there then there's no risk.

Shared ownership of anything in band is a disaster waiting to happen.

The bands I play in get paid variously through all sorts of channels ... cash, Concur, Opus, etc. Whichever person can be bothered to deal with it collects the money and then distributes it later, usually (but not necessarily) as cash. If you can't trust one of your bandmates to give you your £50 from playing the Dog & Duck last week, then you should probably reconsider who you play with. 🤨

You just left my comfort zone.

Someone who knows what they're talking about will be along in a minute ...

Upper front is PAN, upper rear is VOLUME, lower front/rear are Treble & Bass boost/cut.

There's no parametric / sweepable mids.

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

... going out night after night without hearing protection is going to damage your hearing, limit your experience of music and in the end give you a sense of isolation from friends and family and ultimately life as you hearing fades and the tinnitus rises. 

 

Very Biblical. 

Never really 'got' IEMs despite years of trying and silly amounts of money spent. Just too much bloody technology, too much wireless, too many things to go wrong, too much time spent 'tweaking', too many blank faces at sound check ... "it's not working, what's happened?".

A low-volume backline on stage with all the serious volume out front through the PA works fine, and is more-or-less infinitely scaleable from a tiny backstreet boozer up to a big festival stage so the band hears a consistent sound at every gig. It's also completely obvious how to set it up quickly at any gig, all the components are easily swopped in & out when a failure occurs, and even the densest and most arrogant guitarist will eventually see/hear the benefits of not pointing their combo at the backs of their knees.

Just now, neepheid said:

New guts, old pot casing.  Because some people care about that sort of thing, it seems.

Thanks.

So does that fall into the category of rewinding a dead pickup or is it over at the 'blatant fraud' end of things?

12 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Nice way to cheat a potentiometer...

 

Not understanding electrickery, I watched what he did with the pots thinking, "Huh?".

Can you explain what that was all about?

Quite a good watch.

I told you not to tighten the trussrod with molegrips ...

Outstanding piece of work. 

Just stumbled across this (fascinating) thread. I realised that the ash-crete thing was an April Fool but I must admit I did start wondering whether it could be a thing.

But, what all this chiefly reminded me of was:

If I were you, I'd abandon any notions of dismantling it until you've hit it with a decent application of switch cleaner. You may find that's enough on its own to sort out the crackles.