Greg Edwards69

John Deacon, along with Jack Bruce is the reason I started playing bass 30 odd years ago after childhood years of playing clarinet and keyboards. Inventive playing with a keen sense of melody and harmony, and always serves the song without getting in the way. My band had to learn "You're my best friend" for a wedding some years ago. Sounds like a simple little pop song, but that bassline, wow.

I seem to recall something about vinyl records not being able to handle low bass that well so bass players of the vinyl era tended to play higher up the neck to cut a better behaving track.

Not too bad last night. Trouble is, due to the venue (social club in a village) hosting jubilee events for the previous couple of days, it wasn’t as busy as we hoped it would be. Maybe 2 days of celebratory drinking had taken its toll on the locals. Still, we put on our usual show and thankfully, the number of dancers was greater than the number of band members. A couple of technical issues at the start due to lighting interference and the head barman didn’t know how the lighting worked, but all good in the end.

I’ve found the same thing playing for biker clubs and hells angels. Any trouble is swiftly dealt with. And they’re a helpful down to earth bunch, even helping us load it and out.

I read an article a few weeks ago by a compère/comedian. She said since opening up the country after covid lockdowns, a few people appear to have forgotten how to behave in public. I fear she may be correct. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/21/its-no-joke-since-lockdown-live-audiences-have-forgotten-how-to-behave

I remember turning up to one pub that we used to regularly play at to me met by the obligatory big screen showing football/rugby right where we needed to set up. Landlady said we had to wait until the match had finished (which wasn't long). Then when we started setting up she told us there was another game coming on and we wouldn't be able to start playing for another could of hours and play a much shorter set! We reminded her we had a contract with a start time and she still needed to pay us in full regardless of when we start. My wife also phone the pub from home and told them she had a load of friends coming to see the band and wasn't happy that they had sport on. Landlady come over and said we can start as contracted and will turn the screen off. Another pub refused to turn the boxing match off, on a screen right beside of the guitarist. Finished one song with an epic guitar solo and a huge cheer. He was so pleased with himself until he realised they were cheering the boxing match. Honestly, I really don't know why pubs have to show sport when they've booked a band (actually, I do know why, but it annoys me nonetheless). And they expect a 6 piece band with drums and PA system to be setup and ready to go at the snap of a finger.

Not last night, but day before. Barking Bikefest, in support of the Tour Series 2022 cycling event. One of our singers blagged us the last (aka headline) entertainment spot of the day before the main event via his contacts with Amazon Key who are the main sponsor. Really nice small scale festival setup in the middle of a beautiful park. Played on a temporary bandstand with various street food eateries and other stalls around us whilst community cycle races went on around the park. We were down to a 4 peice from our usual 6. One of the guitarists is on holiday and our female singer came down with tonsillitis during the week. Luckily, our other signer handled it with aplomb. Provided backline was excellent (Ampeg PF500 plus Ampeg 2x10, Fender Twin and Roland Jazz Chorus) but unnecessary as me and the guitarist went direct via our Helixes (whatever the plural of Helix is). Quickest set up and break down we've ever done. Set went down well, especially "Park Life". When else do you get the opportunity to play that song in the middle of an East London Park on a beautiful sunny day?! No pay, but free food and use of a secure green room. Bonus points as we were invited to the Hospitality area with free booze, food and goody bags to watch the main event after. Really good fun. The American Amazon contingent who flew over for the even really liked us. We jokingly said... " if you need a band for your Christmas party at HQ in America...". I'm not sure if they were serious when they said, heck yeah, we'd love you over there for that.

Allegedly, Zelensky wants to hold it in Mariupol next year. That would be a humbling spectacle if they could pull it off.

According to wikipedia, ITV, STV and S4C are also members under the UKIB umbrella. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Broadcasting_Union#Members

Nice job Huw. Love that synth sound and the playing. I wonder how close I could get with the Helix now it has more synth options.

FWIW. It’s worth keeping an eye out on thomann’s b-stock bass page for bargains. There’s a sunburst JP-45OP on there right now for £167. Not a huge saving, but still, it’ll help pay the energy bills!

That would be an issue for me too. I don't use a real amp, just an frfr speaker. At the moment, I send XLR from my helix to FOH and 1/4" from the helix to my frfr speaker. I'm guessing Origin Effect expect people to use this in conjunction with a real bass amp and cab on stage. Without a cab sim on the 1/4" going to an frfr it would sound rather fizzy. I suppose you could send XLR to an frfr and then another XLR from frfr to FOH as a workaround, But I love having discrete control over each. FWIW, I don't use cab blocks in the helix, I prefer a simple eq to top and tail the signal with high and low cuts. But the same logic applies here.

Absolutely. If I hadn't of gone down the Helix route, I may well have gotten the B|Amp instead. It really does appear to be the quintessential bassist's bass amp.

If you're playing a lot of melodic parts, you may want to investigate multi-band compression. It's more transparent than single band and high note don't get "swallowed" by the low end. The TC Spectracomp is highly regarded for multiband and single band compression. (To be honest, if I was in the market for a comp pedal, this is what I would buy).

My only concern is ergonomics, having never played a single cut bass design. I like my top horn strap button to reach around the 12th fret which not only improved balance, but brings the nut a bit closer (my old Warwick Thumb was terrible in this respect). But I notice the gretsch button falls somewhat short of that around the 15th fret, so I wonder if the gains from the shorter scale (shorter reach to the nut) are somewhat lost from the strap button positioning.

Also, FWIW, I'm quite intrigued to try one of these basses, humbuckers or not. Seems like a good platform to start exploring short scale (this or the Sire).

FWIW, there's a new thread continuing the saga, since Gretsch corrected the specs https://www.talkbass.com/threads/update-to-the-g2220-saga.1559805/

It depends on the quality of the amp’s built in compressor, and it’s settings IMHO. Most built in compressors are single of the single knob variety with a preset ratio (often quite conservative), attack and release. If you want more control or a different flavour you will be better served by an external pedal. The only way to find out is to try it.

I've never tried it myself, but I hear you can remove (or reduce) dents in wood with a wet cloth and a soldering iron and steam it out.

I wonder if an aria plate would fit without too much trouble? still, as you say, there’s plenty of places now that will make a custom plate these days.

And ironically, the original aria headstock is very similar to HB’s usual design. Perhaps they changed it to avoid a potential lawsuit.

I like having the choice. I've yet to find a definitive 'do it all' bass (although I had a play with a cort gb74 gig bass that is tempting), so I choose the bass I feel best fits the type of gig we're playing. Heavy rock at a biker bar - Yamaha Attitude. Function/party set - G&L JB2. Either way, I'll take the Squier 50s P as a backup. Unless it's a little, short set somewhere, I always take a spare bass, even if it lives in a gig bag. I've had a bass fail once and only once at a gig (dodgy jack socket) and was so glad I had a backup. Likewise, I had an amp head fail during a 20min set at a showcase event. Markbass head in padded case fell out of the boot when we opened the boot door. Seemed fine at first but must have had a microfracture that caused it to go into protect mode after 10mins. Got it fixed and bought a new amp and started taking both so I had a backup. These days, me and the two guitarists each use a helix and an frfr speaker as backline monitoring (with multiple inputs).. One of them also brings an HX Stomp as a backup with patches loaded for each of us, so if one helix dies, we are covered. Similarly, if an frfr speaker dies the others have spare inputs. Regardless, we all go direct to FOH as well. Heck, in a dire emergency, I could probably use my Nux Mighty Plug, or my G10s wireless (receiver has XLR output) straight into the desk. Our drummer's kit is in immaculate condition and he takes great care of it (he does actually bring a spare snare drum sometimes). He also has a roland trigger module device with two pads and bass drum trigger. So even if he had a catastrophic bass drum/bass pedal or snare failure he's be able to work around with with the trigger. Our old drummer came back after a break as a co-lead singer. So we even have a backup singer if one can't do it!

Admittedly I didn't even know about the Aria bass. I wouldn't mind betting they are all likely made in the same factory, with the same tools, machine and people. But I do find it amusing that the original aria headstock design is very similar to the usual HB headstock design on their other basses, unlike the 2+2 HB have employed on this new range.

Aha, I missed that. That'll teach me for not using the search feature!

And in contrast to one of my previous threads, I'm pleased to see 4 and 5 string versions are available in the same four finishes.