Happy Jack

DB luthiers are very slow and appallingly expensive ... any job that you can tackle yourself is almost certainly worth doing. 

When you say you been "given the chance", do you mean someone is trying to sell you a DB that's in need of work? Or do you mean someone has offered you a valuable bass at a knockdown price because it's in need of work?

And do you actually need two DBs?

Just buy two Zoom Q2n-4K units, Chris. They'll do a perfectly fine job so long as you take the lighting seriously, they'll also act as a backup for the audio in case your 'main' recorder lets you down, and best of all they'll be available for live gig recordings.

Both cameras plus all cables plus two power packs plus two table tripods will fit easily into a standard bumbag, if you're sufficiently tasteless to use one of those. 😂

Absolutely this ^.

Like Dood, @Silvia Bluejay and I own or have owned most of the Zoom range and we have yet to have a bad experience or own a duff unit. All the handy recorders from the H1 up to the H8 will do a fine job of instant, on-the-spot audio recording and teh video recorders in the Q range have pretty much the same audio capsules.

All I'd add to Dood's post is that the Q2n is no longer current and - unless you get a stonking deal on a pre-owned unit - you should instead go for the Q2n-4K.

As a long-term user of the whole range (old H2, late-model H1, H4 and H6, not to mention all the Q2n-4k's we have lying about) I like these new versions and the upgrades that come with them, but certainly not enough to warrant spending still more money to get them.

The extra features would be nice, but none of them are - by any definition - essential.

13 minutes ago, chris_b said:

It's like a big family. You can put up with most of them, as long as you don't have to meet too often, except for a couple of cousins, who you would rather not see ever again, and a mad uncle or two.

I thought we agreed to keep that between us, Chris? 

😂😂😂

The great thing about jam nights is that even when it's a complete train wreck it's still entertaining. 

Here's the same song, same band, same drummer, but now a live gig in a fairly large Club on a Saturday night.

Here's the leccy kit in action at a low-volume semi-acoustic gig on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
 

The Junkyard Dogs have used a leccy kit at small / low volume gigs for years, initially a Roland TD-1 and then latterly an Alesis Crimson. They're both very much entry level kits with virtually no bells & whistles at all, and no attempt to look like the real thing. A leccy kit takes up significantly less space at a gig (especially while being set up and broken down) plus Paul the Drums is a bit of a shed-builder ... he don't do 'quiet'.

Paul whinged incessantly at first, and especially about the Roland, because the feel wasn't right. He is a lot happier with the mesh heads on the Alesis, plus (despite being a total luddite) he now routinely re-configures drum sounds on the fly, sometimes in the middle of a song. 

@Silvia Bluejay and I record every single gig we play. Listening later I really struggle to hear which gigs were live kit and which were leccy. That may be down to my hearing, but that's at least as good as the non-muso punters in the audience - if I can't hear the difference then they can't either.

As to the look, I got a small banner made up with the Dogs' logo which attaches to the frame rail of the leccy kit. Effectively it's an over-sized kickdrum head showing the band's name and that's what the non-muso punters see, not the wiring.

It doesn't matter how good you get; there will always be someone better than you, or at least someone you think is better than you.

It doesn't matter how bad you are; there will always be someone worse than you, or at least someone you think is worse than you.

Forget the destination and enjoy the journey.

What scares ME late at night?

Yup. Basschatters bought the lot. 🙄

32 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

I have a long lead with several sockets at 1 metre intervals. I lay it across the back of the stage and everything, including the PA, is run from it. It is rated at 13 amps and that gives us a limit of just over 2900* watts, but we rarely use the big PA and even that is within limits. It avoids this type of problem.

 

*Calculated at 230V ac. In most places the UK voltage is still around, or above 240V ac. so clsoefr to 3100 watts.

We have the same leads ... two of them. In fact, I remember when a Basschatter first discovered them on special at Lidl in "the middle aisle" and posted about them. We nearly lost long-standing members in the rush to get them. 🤣

The problem here was that we had those leads at the back of the stage (for backline & lighting etc.) but we were using the stageboxes - if that's the correct description - to power things at the front of the stage.

While I'm asleep, I dream about the gig. I was looking around as I played and noticed that - as with many Clubs I have played - it's very obvious that much of the decor has been cobbled together on the cheap, presumably by Members volunteering to help. In my dream I was fixated on this poor-quality work.

Wake up, get out of bed, down to the studio and plug the whole f***ing PA together but I know what's going to happen. Sure enough, everything works just fine.

I'll lay you odds of 100-1 that if you plugged a tester into the socket we used for the Stage Right sub it would have shown a fault ... seriously defective wiring at that point. It was the one thing we didn't isolate (well you don't, do you?) and - even more irritating - two of the four of us there actually had testers in our bags. 🙄

The Junkyard Dogs set up at a big Social Club on Saturday night, large hall and a very nice stage but audience a bit thin on the ground - it was the third week of January, the temperature had barely risen above zero for three days, and it was the band's first gig at that venue. No matter, treat it as a combined audition for future gigs and well-paid rehearsal. Which we bloody needed, I can tell you.

Powered subs on each side of the stage driving passive tops, 13A sockets under metal flaps across the front of the stage so no messy cabling, everything is set up so it's time to switch it all on. Stage Left sub is fine, exactly as usual; Stage Right sub produces an enormous hum. Play music through the system and Left is just fine, Right is very, very faint ... lots of hum, very little music. Hmmmmmm. Literally.

It sounds a lot like a ground loop so flick the Phase switch on Stage Right. Nada. Not a sausage. Bugger all. The hum is still there.

Replace the XLR cable from PA to Stage Right. No change, the hum is still there.

Switch the Main Out L/R cables at the PA. The hum stays with the Stage Right unit and doesn't shift to the Left.

Switch off Stage Right and unplug everything. Count slowly to five. Plug it all back together and switch on. The hum is still there and the clock is ticking.

Out Of Time. Game Over. Insert New Coin. 

Switch off Stage Right and unplug everything, then run a long Speakon cable from the Stage Left passive top to the Stage Right passive top. It works perfectly; we now have the entire PA being driven by the Stage Left powered sub.

Play gig, load out, go home, go to sleep.

PM'd

Looks good to me, no jarring changes in quality between cameras, well-chosen angles, neat cross-cutting.

I like your drummer too - very tight.

14 hours ago, BlueMoon said:

The Czech-made Grendels are great instruments. Not heavy, no neck dive, Schaller tuners, Hipshot B style bridge. Figured maple top. What’s not to like?

 

The Bartolini pre and pick-ups (exposed pole pieces) are fine for a modern Jazz sound.

This ^ is bang on the money. Very impressive bass for the money but when I had mine I had yet to realise that I am fundamentally a P-bass sort of guy so I just didn't get on with the Barts.

I was at NAMM with @Silvia Bluejay when they launched these (in orange, not purple, natch) and I was dead keen to try one. They were $329 IIRC.

When I played one, frankly it was a bit 'meh'. It was a perfectly acceptable cheap Chinese bass, but it had no Wow factor at all.

If they're now $629 (just five years later) then I'd be inclined to wait for a pre-owned model to be listed for sale by a disappointed owner.

"The Mazeti neck has the standard long 34 inch scale, and the geometry of the Fernandez body required me to move the bridge back an inch, and the neck I also moved slightly, so the bridge saddles intonate nicely at around half their adjustment range."

The Master at the peak of his form. I was particularly impressed by the nut. 🤨

47 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

The guitarist can just turn down

 

 

Is there any chance you could give me that guitarist's number?

.

On 12/01/2024 at 13:32, MacDaddy said:

But to answer the OP, yes, I was asked who my favourite bassists are when I joined my Alt-Country/Americana band, and none of them were from that genre 😆

Does Suzi Quattro count as "Americana"? 

😉😂

On 11/01/2024 at 14:17, chrisba said:

Battery power is definitely possible, but I've not heard anything battery powered that would make a bass sound like a bass. Even the specifically designed battery bass amps like the Roland Bass Cube are really tinny ( as well as tiny )

Ahem ahem ...

In truth? Probably the 3/4 Zeller I sold to make way for the 4/4 Zeller. 😂

I play a 4/4 at larger indoor gigs ... that's "larger" as in more room for me and my gear, so a nice big stage or something. Trouble is, that's only a dozen or so gigs a year.

For outdoor sunshine gigs I play my 3/4 AliKat because obviously it really sparkles in the sun. For all indoor gigs where space is at a premium I play the Kolstein Busetto that I bought a few years back from @bassacewhich originated on Basschat with @Clarky I believe. Now I've bought a KK Baby Bass which I'll use at jam sessions where not only is space limited but also I will be at the mercy of whoever claims to be "doing the sound" and the bass will be at the mercy of passing punters.

It's horses for courses, innit?

Not entirely sure I've actually answered any questions here ...