Greg Edwards69

I had a bolt-on 5 string Thumb. My first 'high end' bass. I bought it circa year 2000 from the old Bass Centre in Wapping along with a Warwick CCL combo amp. IIRC, it was ovankol body and neck, with wenge fingerboard. The former of which required regular waxing, and the latter feeding with lemon oil to stop it drying out. The tone was fantastic and was my main bass for a number of years. I've never heard another bass with that kind of growly piano tone... and that B string was perfect. But as others have mentioned regarding ergonomics, the neck dive and first fret reach got to me (I'm only 5'7" so the nut felt like it was in the next post code). Repetitive lines in the first few frets would make my left hand cramp up, and I ended up in pain for a couple of days after every gig due to the neck dive. It ended up living in a gig bag for a number of years before I finally sold it. However. I have since heard that Warwick basses made around that time had chunkier necks and were more prone to neck dive - mine was huge D shaped bassball bat of a neck. I quite liked it actually, other than the dive. Apparently more recent models within the last 10 years have slimmer profile necks again and balance better. But I would still recommend trying one with a strap, just to make sure the reach is okay.

Yamaha released the Attitude LTD3 with artificially aged wood using their A.R.E. and I.R.A techniques. Along with a revised neck joint, spine joint and pickup change this somehow more than doubled the price compared to the previous 2 versions. Considering I paid £899 for my already excellent LTD2 (end of line clearance - I believe the usual price was around £1600) there's no way I'm gonna fork out around £4k for a LTD3, and I doubt many people (if any) would even hear the difference in the construction techniques.

Unfortunately, our closest cheap supermarket is Aldi which as everyone knows, runs a similar business model. As such, we don't venture to Lidl very often. I'll make a point of popping in there more often if I'm close by in future to see of they have these in stock.

Interesting. We have two Lidl’s in Southend, I’ll have to make time to pay them both a visit.

I need one or two of these in my life. Commenting so I'll get a notification if they reappear in Lidl. PS, searching for similar on google, amazon and ebay without much luck.

Just keep your fingers crossed that you or your loved ones will never need to move into a residential care home. Now that is all about profit!

Found it, via the Keeley website Bass Compression with Robert Keeley - YouTube I believe the Keeley Bassist pedal is also based upon the compressor limiter/levelling amplifier circuit design, so it's ideal for levelling and smoothing things out transparently.

Whilst Ovnilab is a great resource, it hasn't been updated for a number of years now so it doesn't include more recent and readily available pedals. Also, because he was burned once by TC Electronics, he refused to review anymore of their pedals, which is a shame, because I only hear great things about the Spectra Comp and Hyper Gravity pedals. Also worth checking out are the Darkglass Hyper Luminal, and MXR M87 Lastly, do you know what sort of compressor you want? Compressor sustainer (feedback) or compressor limiter (feedforward). Robert Keeley did a great video on this that I can't seem to find at the moment (I'm at work). FWIW, I find the latter more useful for transparency and taming peaks and levelling bass. The former has more of an "effect", which is great in its own right.

Same here. I've had mixed experiences with using supplied backline. From crappy combos meant to fill the room, to cabs with no top end whatsover to amazing backline on stage only to find they want to take a DI directly off my pedalboard before it even reached the amp. As I mention above, all of us using a helix with FRFR has made us much more consistent, whether we're in the PA or not, or using the FRFRs or not (we've yet to come across a gig where we have to use the supplied backline and not be in the PA) Indeed, we had an outdoor small festival gig last summer. Whilst they had average supplied backline on offer, we simply asked for a monitor each instead. The sound was great and the setup, soundcheck and pack down afterwards was super quick. Even the sound guys commented on how easy it was to manage.

Going direct from the Helix and having my own FRFR has made us much more consistent. My headrush speaker is about as powerful as my old markbass rig, so it can handle vocal only in the PA situations just fine. And with the global EQ I think it sounds better and more controlled too. I no longer fear dodgy acoustics, one-loud-note syndrome, or filling stage with low end rumble. PS, I wish the Barefaced FR800 still existed too. I'd have one in a heartbeat.

Is that kinda the founding ethos of Fender guitars, though? They were designed to be mass produced as quickly and cheaply as possible by unskilled labour. They were workhorse instruments, made for the masses with replaceable parts (indeed, part of the reason behind the bolt on neck). It's only more recent times that people are convinced vintage fender instruments have some kind of mystical mojo. At the time, they were just mass produced instruments.

It depends. Mass produced don't necessarily mean it's largely produced my automated machines. I recall an Anderton's video some time ago. Lee explained that's whilst a CNC machine doesn't know where it is in the world - so a factory knocking out Squier bodies in Indonesia can use the same plans as USA fender, the main contributing factor to cost is the amount of work done by humans. The more work that is done by hand, the higher the cost. They're still mass produced, but using a more human workflow.

This is why I only use the global eq for environmental issues - compensating for 'lumpy acoustics' in different venues. Problematic frequencies would generally be the same for any instrument plugged into the same rig in the same venue. Global EQ shouldn't really be used for tone shaping at all.

It's easy to do on the larger floor units, but I believe it can also be done on the stomp units by using the send output at the end of your signal path to FOH and the main output to your on stage speaker

I use both. I have a low/high cut per patch, with the low cut set to around 50hz which is the roll-off frequency of my FRFR speaker and our PA speakers (we don't have a sub ... yet) and the high cut around 4khz that bring it into typical bass cab territory. The Global EQ is set to only affect my on stage FRFR and not the PA, so I can compensate for immediate environmental issues - such as 'one loud note' syndrome* which plagues certain venues but isn't noticed out front, and to prevent low end build up. I've been known to run the global eq low cut as high as 80-100hz in some places to tame the low end rumble. Honestly, I think the global eq and routing is worth the admission price alone. It's one of the main things that made me buy a Helix, so much easier to control nuisance frequencies on cramped stages than a traditional bass amp *Whilst I'm able to identify the frequency of several notes, I highly recommend keeping a Hertz chart on your phone to identify offending frequencies. An RTA can be helpful too if you struggle deciding whether it's fundamental from the harmonic. This is one area that I think could be improved for us bassists. I'd love to see something like Bergantino's 'variable feedback filter' implemented into the global eq. This is more intuitive 'note-based' system that sweeps through notes names from E1 - G3 rather than having to recognise frequencies.

I use two in my Helix - see my post above. One is at the end of the signal chain in every preset - this is set around 50hz to tighten up the low end and protect my frfr and PA speakers (we don't use a sub... yet). I have another hpf in the global eq that only affects my frfr speaker on stage, this one is variable depending on the venue to control any boom and rumble on stage without affecting the PA.

Ah, I didn't actually look at the details, my bad! But yes, that is rather shallow to be useful for bass guitar. The low cut control in my Helix is 12db/oct. I frequently stack two of them (one fixed frequency per preset and one variable frequency in the global eq) to get a more drastic cut.

Google just found this for me. Could be useful? https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1198318131/passive-high-pass-filter-0hp-herzlich?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_uk_en_gb_a-books_movies_and_music-other&utm_custom1=_k_CjwKCAjwoIqhBhAGEiwArXT7KwA1I8anBKDNbMbsbuJiP--C7IVI4GhhYYxTm84oBzNRCrKI_A2OABoCFmIQAvD_BwE_k_&utm_content=go_12603393578_128415434828_508814164559_pla-314262775587_c__1198318131engb_102858184&utm_custom2=12603393578&gclid=CjwKCAjwoIqhBhAGEiwArXT7KwA1I8anBKDNbMbsbuJiP--C7IVI4GhhYYxTm84oBzNRCrKI_A2OABoCFmIQAvD_BwE

Redonizm were back at the Haystack, Canvey Island on Saturday. Previous readers will be relieved to know that it didn't end up in a mass brawl this time, and patrons were well behaved. A full pub with a great crowd who were up for a proper party - singing and dancing the whole way through. I had a particularly full on day and was broken by the end of the night. My wife had booked matinee tickets for the "back to the future" musical as a birthday present without realising we had a gig that evening. One of the guitarists kindly picked up my gear and change of clothes the evening before, and we managed to high tail it back to Canvey after the show in plenty of time (Adelphi theatre to Canvey in about 1hr 20mins!) to set up and soundcheck.

My wife and I have had great success with the Otex Combi Pack (ear drop and rubber bulb). It takes a few days for the drop to break down the wax enough for the bulb to do its job, but when it does... oh what joy! And a lot cheaper than getting it done privately. Many GP surgeries don't offer this service anymore as it's no longer a free NHS service).

I've used rounds for the last 30 years and find it's generally a more versatile option. However, I bought a Squier 50s P bass a couple of years ago and I've flip-flopped several times between rounds and flats on it (it's currently sporting flats). The single coil is inherently very bright and flats tame that brightness very well. It's a joy to play with flats and it nail's "that sound" - you know it when you hear it! On the other hand, it's my backup bass. So whilst my primary bass(es) have rounds, it would possibly sound a little off if I had to switch to this one with flats - especially if I had to slap it. Although TBH, once it's in the mix, I'm not sure the audience (or even my band mates) would notice, much less care. It's usually only us bass players who are the most aware of other bass players tone. EDIT: I nearly forgot. I had a Warwick Corvette fretless that I strung up with Thomastik Infeld flats. Lovely bass, but it didn't see a lot of action - mainly as it didn't fit with the type of music I play (I really don't like bringing and swapping basses for just one song) and it was really heavy. But that was my only experience with flats before getting my Squier, and being fretless I wouldn't have been able to give an objective opinion back then regarding the merits of flats vs rounds.

I sincerely get your viewpoint and support you for standing up to your convictions. However, I do feel for the other band members of these artists who were involved in the writing process and no longer receive tidy royalty payments and have effectively had their body of work ripped away from them. IIRC correctly, Ian Watkins' bandmates for example, knew he was a bit perverted but genuinely had no idea of the extent of his depravity. Whether that's true or not, only they really know, but never-the-less, the Lost Phophets just stopped overnight and fans refused to support their collective music because it was tainted by the actions of one man.

I've gone back and forth so many times on this subject. It is difficult to know where to draw the line. We dropped the couple of MJ songs we had in out repertoire when a certain documentary aired a few years ago and haven't put them back in since - not because of controversy surrounding the man and his songs, but simply because we haven't been bothered to resurrect them. I personally would not be offended if I saw another band playing MJ songs, or even a MJ tribute act. I've always thought of him as a tragic, mentally damaged person who didn't see any harm in what he did in his private life. Gary Glitter however is an absolute monster of a human being and I feel it would be incredibly distasteful if a band played any of his songs. FWIW, I posted on a FB group a some time ago after the killing of George Floydd and the surge in popularity of the black lives matter movement. I said something along the lines of whether we should collectively revaluate the lyrical content of perennial cover band 'classics', such as Brown Sugar, for example (not that my band had played in many years anyway, but a lot of bands do). Let's just say the internet did not approve of my query. A few people agreed and got the point. Some told be to stop being a woke snowflake and just get out and play. And some, who clearly didn't read my post properly, told me my band must be crap if that's the sort of dated songs we churn out.

As mentioned above, I stopped using my old Ibanez double bag for similar reasons. I use two cases at the moment, a slim warwick rock bag for my spare bass and a big, heavy duty iGig bag for my main bass. This is a great case, that I bought years ago because it could hold so much stuff (even a markbass head in the main front pocket), and I can carry my minimum gear for a gig or rehearsal in one trip (if I'm not bring a backup bass) Actually, it's so sturdy and chunky that I've had to double check it's actually got a bass in it on several occasions. However, due to the bulk of this single bass case, I'm considering changing this strategy. I don't particularly need to carry everything in one trip. So I'm thinking about swapping this case for a slimmer model, such as a Mono case and use another bag for the bits that won't fit in it - such as extension leads. (Actually, I could probably better distribute the bits I keep in my bass case and helix case).

I've had a similar experience. I wonder if it's a combination of being able to use the frfr speaker as a wedge (although I used to angle my previous bass cab back a little with little folding markbass amp stand) as well as having much better control over the low end with the Helix global eq - meaning I can turn up loud without flooding the stage in a mess of low end boom and mud.