SubsonicSimpleton

Might be worth giving the Yamaha THR-10 a try alongside the 1 watt Blackstar in a shop with your guitar and let your ears decide.

If you want to learn to get a good sound out of the instrument, you need to embrace the need to make some noise - the sooner you get on with playing your DB and stop worrying about what anyone else thinks the better. If you want to work on something this would be a good place to start. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADKMPguLfoc Focus one thing and you'll make good progress, don't be tempted to spread your effort and attention too thin. As well as playing the scale up and down, use the same scale fingering to play melodies, simple basslines and you'll soon start to get comfortable with making music on that big empty fingerboard. Everyone starts at level zero and has to work their way up, don't give yourself a hard time about it.

Might be a good idea to give Ashdown tech support a ring and check on the lowest output imedance that the head will run at - the online manual states 8ohm for the five-fifteen head and lists minimum impedance for the MAG and ABM heads at 4ohm. [url="http://ashdownmusic.com/files/product/file/user_manual_20140110075823_64421.pdf"]http://ashdownmusic....75823_64421.pdf[/url]

Peter Hall in Beverley

Might be worth considering your RH technique in this decision - if you lean towards an economy of motion approach and let the amp do the work, then the narrower spacing can potentially make your playing more efficient(in which case stick with it), but if you have a more animated or heavy handed approach, then the tighter spacing might always feel cramped and wrong.

I would love a gut strung DB, but bottled out on making that string choice on the basis that it would be adding an extra learning curve(maintenance, coping with humidity/temparature swings on gigs etc) on top of getting to grips with the instrument. In the end I went with spirocores to give myself the option of using a mag pickup, but there are some pretty good sounding artificial gut substitute strings that might get you close soundwise without the expense or maintenance hassles of natural gut. I'm tempted to try these at some point [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwzcihp0gZM[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbahfFnp-O8[/media]

Are you sure it wasn't good quality chinese, manufacturers like Shen make some really nice instruments at the top of their range. I'm sure there are strings luthiers in Japan, but never come across any info or discussion about them.

In absolute terms, anyone making music is a musician - what's more interesting IMHO is how people perceive their relationship to music. Is there a difference between someone who defines themself as a guitarist and someone who defines themself as a musician who happens to play the guitar? IME there is a difference in attitude to what and how each type learn and approach playing, and how they perceive their own skill level.

[quote name='tonewheels' timestamp='1471297777' post='3112001'] No brainer. Use the weight you saved on the cab an invest it on the amp. My rig: [url="https://flic.kr/p/zobkB5"][/url] [/quote] You really need two One10's and then you could make a mini stonehenge rig (ideal for a spinal tap tribute maybe)

[quote name='thebigyin' timestamp='1471255721' post='3111541'] got myself booked in for a couple of lessons just to get the hang of it and then i hopefully take it from there....just want the lessons to learn the correct stance and a few tips on technique,not really into been taught songs or theory ect i have a fairly good knowledge on electric bass so hopefully transfer the knowledge onto Upright [/quote] Welcome to the darkside, upright is a lot of fun. Don't discount the idea of studying with a good teacher - I've been studying with a terrific classical teacher (even though all my gigs are pizz and not classical music) who is quite relentless in pushing me out of my comfort zone and systematic in identifying what I really need to work on, and it has really raised my game in a way that I wouldn't have been able to achieve by self study. Just remember in the beginning to keep your practice sessions short (like 10 mins) - it's quite easy to be having so much fun that you go beyond what your physiology can cope with, and having to take a long break from playing to allow inflamed tendons to calm down to avoid serious injury is very frustrating(speaking from first hand experience of an enforced month off about 3 months after getting started). If you can fit in several short sessions throughout the day, it's more beneficial than one long session. The strength and stamina will come with time, so be patient.

Get playing with other people sooner rather than later - you can learn lots of things from books and playing along with recordings, but playing music with other human beings is more challenging and rewarding, and it's something you can only learn by doing it.

Does talent equate to how fast/complicated someones playing is? IME musicians who have developed some chops and feel the need to demonstrate said chops at every opportunity regardless of whether it fits the music or not are not very enjoyable to work with or to listen to, especially if their time feel isn't that good. Does a bands recorded output necessarily indicate the full scope of what the abilities of the musicians involved are? Maybe, or maybe not - some musicians never lose the desire to improve even if their main paying gig doesn't allow them to showcase the full extent of their abilities - could you make a judgement about George Benson's ability as a jazz guitarist by listening to this ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok__l1Acuwg He certainly got plenty of hate at the time for "selling out" and making records for a wider audience than jazz afficianados.

Two sensible solutions to avoid big pauses for detuning are to use a pitch shifting device(I'm not a fan but use your own ears) or to have one instrument set up and ready to go in each tuning, so the guitars just swap instruments and check their tuning very quickly rather than wrestling with tension changes on the neck and needing to tune and retune to get the instrument stable and in tune in the new tuning. Quite a few acoustic guitarists on the folk circuit use multiple tunings during their sets, but they tend to cover the retuning pause by telling stories, so there isn't any 'dead air'.

I know a couple of duos that use the Bose L1 compact system for guitar/vocals and rate them highly on the basis of good sound and general ease of transport/setup. The Yamaha stagepas systems are also worth a look, I've used the discontinued stagepas 500 to run vocal and mic'd double bass through without issues - just depends on how loud you intend on getting, you might only need the smaller stagepas400 for just vocals.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1470291533' post='3104735'] And if you really want a project [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-Bass-Upright-Bass-/322215251580?hash=item4b05868e7c:g:0nsAAOSwdzVXoJwr"]http://www.ebay.co.u...nsAAOSwdzVXoJwr[/url] [/quote] 500 quid for an abused G4M ply that probably cost less than 400 quid new

Before diving down the expensive strings rabbithole, you could try rubbing rosin directly on the strings you already have in the bowing area if you haven't already tried it.

Looking at some of the youtube comments, the designers are predicting 18hrs battery life which is IMHO abysmal considering the lifespan of a PP9 in most active circuits.

I've seen functions bands duplicate their active tops for monitoring, so if one of the FOH cabs goes down they can rotate in one of the monitors with minimal downtime.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1469631749' post='3099904'] If you play live and put on a show, then both factors are equally important IMO. [/quote] I would agree, but what sort of show are we talking about, and does this automatically equate to expensive? Kiss put on a very big show - Gene Simmons uses cheapo mass produced basses (albeit ones that cort IIRC supply him with in bulk directly) which he then autographs and sells to hardcore fans at the end of each show for an eyewatering amount. Many players on this forum would consider these axe basses as being on par with other starter/low midrange instruments if you removed the celeb tie in and looked at materials, manufacturing facility etc. What makes Flea interesting to watch - his energetic stage antics or the bass he is playing at the time?

Excellent link - the region label method would work really well for cutting out chat between songs, I'll give that a try myself.

[quote name='MoJo' timestamp='1469626820' post='3099832'] I wouldn't personally class a vintage instrument as a 'beater', no. The GSR is absolutely appropriate in a pub covers band I'd say, but my ego, I suppose, is telling me that someone who has been playing for thirty odd years should be gigging with something better than what many would consider a 'starter' instrument. [/quote] I find this an interesting viewpoint - Leo designed a bass for the working musician that could be produced cheaply and take a beating, and unless they have sat in a case hidden behind a wardrobe, most older Fenders will have taken a beating over the years. Joe public couldn't tell the difference between a couple of years old squire that has been abused by a teenager and 60 year old fender - they will both look like a tatty old POS to anyone who isn't a music nerd, in fact most of the time joe public can't tell the difference between a bass and a guitar. Ultimately what is more important, the notes you play(and the way you play them) or the instrument you play them on?

Would an original 50's Fender with 60 years of dings, play wear and nicotine stains be classed as a beater, or would it's vintage status and high monetary value class it as something else? Personally I think clothes, instrument and amp should be appropriate for the gig and music in question - a designer suit and £10k Ritter would look pretty stupid at a punk gig etc.

I found that the editing process from one large file was very time consuming, so I came up with a very simple and time efficient solution - I mount my zoom H2N on a mic stand and manually stop/start for each song/take so I can then just bang all the audio files in a zip, upload to google drive and email everyone else a link to the zip file. I record everything in WAV format, and don't bother converting, but I'm pretty sure you could set the tascam to record in mp3 format (the zoom does at various bitrates) and eliminate the need for converting. If the editing is not an issue, and you don't want to record in mp3 format, in audacity you can select a bit of a track and then export it mp3 using the "export selection" option on the file menu which is pretty quick, couple of clicks, name the track and you are done (unless you want to be really anal about the metadata and fill that in).

Consider this - Peter Hook developed his style as a result of the restrictions of the equipment he had at his disposal, the musical situation he was in and ignorance about how to do things "properly", all these factors combined to create something unique to him. If you carefully transcribed all his basslines, with enough time/effort you could imitate the recordings, but regardless of how good that imitation is, you will still be missing the attitude, thought process and personality that created the music in the first place. I would recommend that you just join (or form) a band and let your own style develope - the music you love will be embedded in your synapses and influence your playing as a matter of course. Being influenced by the attitude and philosophy of someone you admire is much more subtle than just copying their music (and generates much more interesting results IMHO).