Greg Edwards69

FWIW, we’ve recently acquired a subwoofer - an EV ELX200-12SP to beef up our PA system (up till now, just two Yamaha DXR12 speakers up on poles) and tried it out for the first time last night. As I’ve mentioned on another thread, it’s made us realise we need to spend some time with all of the PA gear in a rehearsal space to optimise it all as best as possible and know how to deal with certain common issues quickly. Currently me and the two guitarists have been using an FRFR speaker each as backline/personal instrument monitor (DXR10 for guitars and my headrush 112 for bass). I noticed last night that the sound out front was very different to my frfr. Much less mids, and note definition - almost compressed sounding - even with the eq set flat and compression bypassed on my mixer channel. That said it probably wasn’t the best venue to try it out in either - it’s quite a boomy place, or possibly the sub was turned up too high, although it didn't sound like it. We’ve also been looking into better IEM solutions too (the cheap G4M one we have is fine for bass but doesn’t handle a full mix, esp bass). Whilst the guitarists were considering ditching the backline if we sorted out IEM situation, I’ve adamantly retained my frfr until we got a sub, due to the low end loss sticking the main speakers up on poles. As such, me and one of the guitarists have recently started using an Xvive U4 system. After being plagued with interference the first time we used it, we've since got our channels optimised and it worked great last night. Although we both said it sounded a little too bright and shrill, certainly much, much brighter than the PA. Both of us are using KZ ZS10 earphones, so I wonder if there's something else at play. The desk is a Yamaha MG20XU. So the only eq is on each channel strips that unfortunately also affects the aux sends. The only solution we can think of is an external eq for the IEM. So yes. We definitely need to spend some more time with this gear in a controlled environment! PS, full disclosure. The PA system belongs to one the guitarists father, who usually runs the sound for us. Lovely guy but I believe he turned 80 in the last year or so and I’m not sure he’s up to the task of managing our live sound as well as he used to, so I think I it is prudent for us to spend time with the gear with a view to managing it ourselves. Personally, I think I have the best ear in the band, and I’d love to do the work myself, but it’s not easy playing bass at the same time and having a couple of other in the band also wanting to control the mix without as much knowledge.

Redonizm were back at Starr Sports, Canvey Island again. A decent night again and playing for an appreciative crowd. More importantly, after testing a new subwoofer (EV ELX200-12SP) it’s clear we need to spend some time in a large rehearsal room with the full PA to dial everything in just right. Whilst I think the sub did its job, it probably wasn’t the ideal room to try it out in as the ceiling is quite low and excites everything around low G on the bass, keys and acoustic guitar, even with low cuts and eq. Standing out front I noticed my bass tone was quite boomy and lacked definition compared to my frfr. On the other hand, the new Xvive U4 IEM a couple of us are using performed really well, if a little shrill sounding. But probably the best IEM sound I’ve ever had. FYI, we tried this out at our previous gig a couple of weeks ago at Birchanger social club (that I completely forgot to to a write up about), but we had a few interference issues with the one of the lead vocalists mic and one of the guitarists mics. In retrospect, we should have spent some more time researching and determining the most appropriate channels for each device, but live and learn! Anyway, we worked this out since and it performed very well last night with not interference issues whatsoever. If we can spend some quality time with the gear in a rehearsal space, and get everyone onboard with this IEM system, I’m now confident we can leave all the backline and home and just use PA.

I've notice the same thing with their hipshot stock. The one's I want (chrome shiny ultratlite xtender clover OR Y-shaped and matching ultralite licenced never seem to be in stock.

Phone adverse as well. But as I have a stammer, I have an excuse! . To be honest though, I really should push myself to use the phone more often.

Same here. The power socket on my Headrush speaker is in exactly the right place to damage a straight IEC plug when used in tilt-back monitor orientation. I found an appropriately angled 90 degree lead on Amazon to rectify this oversight. I believe the particular seller sold them in both left and right versions. Up and down 90 degree adaptors are also available Amazon.co.uk : right angle IEXC

I've had several over the years, Zoom BFX708, Boss GT6B, Zoom B9.1ut, Korg AX3B, Korg Pandora PX4D, a couple of Zoom MS60B's, Line 6 M5 and now only using my Helix LT (I also have Nux Mighty Plug if that counts. I've gone back and forth between multifx units and stomp boxes over the years, or building hybrid setups with both, and nothing has come as close to perfection (for me) as the Helix. It has the models I wanted (including the Pearce pre-amp), the routing options I required that can be changed at the press of a button and the global eq which is worth the admission price alone IMHO.

Do what I did and use two of them! I had two on my old pedal board for processing both signals from Attitude bass, and sold them both when got my Helix. I kinda wish I had kept one now

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