Greg Edwards69

40 minutes ago, stewblack said:

HXFX is exactly my kind of pedal. Like the Plethora it allows me to see separate effects rather than a crowded little screen.

However I've been a fan of Zoom pedals forever. If there was a dedicated bass version of the G11 that would be done kind of special sauce.

Pretty much agree. The helix LT is almost perfect for me and the “workflow” I need. But I’ve been a fan of zoom since the original 9000 series. Actually, I wish they would resurrect that form factor - a little unit that can sit on your amp with a passive remote pedal board that doesn’t require running power at the front of stage. TBH I’m surprise Line 6 didn't implement a similar feature with the Stomp and one of their Ethernet powered boards. 

30 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Pre Helix 3.15 software update comment about their synth sims (see Toby's post above).

Indeed. I’ve yet to update my Helix, but I’m hoping the new additions go some way to addressing the issues I’ve had with the synth models. And FWIW the bass octave in the helix is the best tracking octave effect I’ve ever used in multi fx.  Tracks perfectly even on the open E string. 

1 hour ago, stewblack said:

The app is only for the iPhone. For someone who prefers a functional mobile phone to an expensive fashion accessory, this is a great disappointment.

I don't know if it's a deal breaker, but it's pretty important.

I wouldn’t hold your breath hoping for nokia 3310 compatibility. 

I picked up a few tips from various youtube videos. But the most important ones that I felt were truly fundamental in getting this right are:

• Get the neck perfectly straight.  A notched straightedge and feeler gauges will help here. The notches take the fret heights out of the equation so you can properly set the neck straight. These are useful for doing setups as well as fret levelling so worth buying IMO. A fret rocker is also a useful tool to have, and take with you if you're buying or testing a new/used bass (I believe stewmac have a new model with in integrated fret file for quickly dealing with single high spots)
• Do not underestimate the power of the humble sharpie. Paint the top of every fret before filing. After your first filing pass you'll immediately see which frets, and spots on frets have or haven't been touched. Paint the frets again before crowning and file until there's barely a hairline left down the centre of the fretwire.
• Tape over pickups and bare fretboard with low tack masking tape. It'll save a lot of clearing up and protect the fretboard.
• A spirit level makes a great filing block. Stick a strip of masking tape along the flat edge, then stick your sanding /wet and dry paper to the masking tape with double sided sticky tape. Viola, instant filing beam. When the paper wears out simply peel it all of and reapply.
• A little goes a long way. Let the filing beam to the work. Don't push down and check the frets after every, single pass of the file.
• Add a ski ramp! Once you've levelled all the frets, create fall off up the dusty end by sticking 3 or 4 strips of electrical tape over the 12th fret (or higher if you prefer) and then redo the levelling process (including the sharpie) on the higher frets (I used a shorter spirit level) ensuring the filing beam is always in contact with the taped fret. The strips of tape raises the fret height slightly to create a shallow angle down to the top fret.

FWIW, I got a few of the tips from the inimitable Billy Sheehan.  His videos might be worth a watch to you as well.

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

And our PA was about 10kW too - we were believers in a quality sound, not loud but very clean, which meant headroom. However,just an unamplified gentle tap on a bass drum would set the limiter off...

So we mentioned the lack of facilities to the hall comm- they said it was a council requirement,and their tame electrician pronounced our PA "too bloody loud, shouldn't need more than 1kW in there!" (for he knew all about these things).

It's as if they didn't realise these things have volume controls.  A Ferrari can drive just as slowly as a 2CV if you need it to.

11 hours ago, iconic said:

We live close to a pub that has live music, since last 5 years or so.

 

We love it, even more so when a decent bass player turns up😉but, understandably other neighbours don't. One man's music is another mans relentless noise and invasion of their privacy. The licence was granted with strict conditions. 

 

The pubs music licence is looking like it will be pulled, too many bands have bypassed the noise limiter, with the permission or otherwise of a DPS, outside doors left open etc in all the excitement.

It's immediately noticeable when the limiter is bypassed, even to us and we aren't next door or, if we are at the pub it's a case of shouting into a cupped hand into an ear to be heard for only as long as we can stand..... just the ammo the neighbours have needed to get the licence revoked.

 

Doesn't matter to the bands doing it, they don't give a flying f*ck, just another gig. The real shame is that there are precious few venues left around these parts so it hurts everybody with an interest in live music.

I'm willing to bet that most pubs have been where they are than most residents living near by. There's on pub we used to play at that I believe has been there since 1912. We played there once very humid summer's evening and the aircon wasn't working (thank goodness for baby powder).  The landlord told us he couldn't open the windows because of complaints.  He later told us there's one particular neighbour (bearing in mind this pub is on a busy highstreet, even at night with the other bars and restaurants) who recently moved into the area. Even when bands aren't playing they complain to the pub and the council about the noise (they even complained about the flowers in the hanging baskets outside the pub setting off their hay fever).

The landlord got so fed up with the constant complaints that he moved on to a mother pub and the subsequent landlords haven't booked bands in since.

If you don't like noise, don't move to within spitting distance of a well established pub.

You could use this to your advantage. Even though it’s inconvenient for everyone to book a day off of work to do this soundcheck, you could alway tell that it will take 4 hours to setup, play though a range of song styles and pack up again, and thus get a free rehearsal out of it. 

13 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Just been checking out the 10 new amps / preamps / and effects on the B6. Zoom have helpfully provided sound samples for all 10.

The one that got my attention was the new Super Low Preamp: "A ZOOM original preamp...SpLoPre is equipped with a bass enhancer, which emphasizes the low end of every note. With a Lo EQ and a negative one octave sound, a super low-end tone is produced."  

Had a listen to the Soundcloud clip for this SPLoPre and damn, it's good! Think punchy, tight, glitch-free octaver overlaying your clean. If you want your bass tone to hit your audience in the gut - this delivers it. Brilliant.

Only question for me with this multi now is will I manage to hold off getting one until one comes up used? 😄

I haven't had a chance to listen to the sample yet, but that reminds me of the sub harmonic generator effect in the Ashdown Evo amp range.  I wonder if it's a similar thing.

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

Very different necks too, certainly on the earlier ones. I think my 1st Dolphin was a ‘91, but I’d have to check. It had the brushed aluminium (?) hardware. Both my Pro 1s had big (if surprisingly comfortable) necks, by my standards. Whereas the earlier Thumbs have necks like pencils. 

Wasn't that the case over the entire Warwick line? My 2000 Thumb had a monster neck - even bigger than my Yamaha Attitude LTD2 (my 2001 Corvette was relatively chunky too).  Comments regarding neck dive with Thumb basses are quite common over the years, and I seem to recall someone mentioning that the older models had smaller necks and balanced a lot better but the necks over the entire line up were reprofiled to be bigger c2000, and back to a slimmer profile c2010 (IIRC).

I recently picked up a Nux Mighty Plug MP2. I haven't have the chance to play with it in depth, but the sound quality is definitely good enough and varied enough for practice and it will certainly do the job as an easy to use, quiet practice device.  It's great that I can use it with or without my iPad or iPhone, and stream music through it wirelessly.

My other solution, that I was using before hand, was an IK Multimedia iRig HD2 device, with either Amplitube or BiasFX.  This solution has a superior quality of amp/fx simulation, but it's not as convenient. It's feasible to even use this as a live rig direct into PA / FRFR speaker if I needed to instead of my Helix, however, it can be a little noisy depending on which bass I use (single coil hum)

Headphones, I either use my inexpensive KZ ZS10 IEMs, that I also use live, or my Jabra Move on ear headphones (wired), not amazing or expensive headphones, but very neutral sounding which suits me fine.

EDIT: I wonder how good the NUX would be as a live backup rig straight into my FRFR?

2 hours ago, NickA said:

My Warwick beats it hands down for some things ( ergonomics for one).  Aggressive sound needed? I'd probably use the dolphin with both bridge pickups in.

It strikes me that the Dolphin is a redesigned Thumb in some ways, that fixes all the ergonomic issues that the Thumb has, but retains the classic tone it's known for.

I had a bolt on Thumb. It had a very refined and focussed growl, lots of mids but tricky to mix in a typical rock and pop function/pub band line up. It has a tone of its own. A one trick pony perhaps, but a damn good trick if you like that sound. 
 

A stingray has a less refined growl IMHO but is a more versatile tone that fits better and easier into mixes without much effort. 
 

Wal. I have no idea

FWIW, depending on one’s definition of growl, my Yamaha Attitude LTD2 is the growliest, gnarliest bass I’ve ever played. But P bass growl is quite a different thing to what you’re looking at. 

21 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Can the Boss modelling units recreate the sound?

Feature wise, the closest current boss unit appears to be the GT1b. However, I have no idea how close it sounds. 
 

I’ve had a quick skim through pdfs for the other units and none of them offer much in the way of bass amp modelling. It would be great if Boss added some bass specific algorithms to the GT1000 series and even the Pocket GT. 

36 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

if you do a LFT before meeting people you are not risking their health.

But you don't know if everybody else in the pub has done the same. I've had covid, my wife had it quite bad. We've been jabbed but it doesn't stop us catching it again if somebody else hasn't taken the correct precautions.

1 hour ago, TimR said:

I've been double jabbed and will be going out.

 

The advice is to do a lateral flow test and pick events that are more important to you.

 

Live music is near the top of the tree for me along with running races. 

 

I'll be at home off work for 11 days anyway. Not everyone has loads of elderly relatives and big family dinners. 

Yes. I'm double jabbed and will be testing everyday before and after the gig. Got booster on Monday. 

Playing live music is important to me as well, and I don't want to let anyone down. However, we can't trust that other people will be following the official advice and do the right thing, no matter how vague or clear it is.

Trouble is, the wife and I are supposed to be going to stay at my sister-in-laws for a week over Christmas. I'm now getting grief from her about doing this gig.  All I can do is keep testing and isolate between the gig and when we go away. 

The two singers are of the mind that they want to do it and they'll wear a mask in-between performances.  I'm not sure if the realise the mask is to protect other people - it's not a suit of armour!

1 hour ago, gjones said:

If the gig isn't cancelled, I suspect that the pub will be empty, with just die hard alcoholics and anti vaxxers in attendance.

That's what I'm afraid of. It's a sweeping generalisation, but the people that are likely to be there are likely the sort the people who don't give a toss about covid. aka superspreaders.

I'm half hoping this weekends (18th Dec) gig will be cancelled. But it's a pub and doesn't fall under the same rules as larger venues, so the bar manager (friend of one of our singers) says it's still going ahead.

I hate cancelling gigs, even if we have a valid reason - like one of us has fallen ill. But there really ought to be clearer guidance for this sort of thing from the government, such as pubs can stay open, but no entertainment, or table service only again.  As it is, once more, the advice is vague and puts the onus on the public to do what they think best. If you get sick, it's your fault and the government can't be blamed.

We've had a discussion and it looks like we are going to do this gig, but in what appears to be an act of self sabotage, we are actively not promoting it. We've also said we'll take whatever precautions we can to keep ourselves safe and out of harms way.

After this weekend, we don't have anything until February.

Oh, and keep testing!

4 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

I go through a Stomp into a QSC K12.2. It’s not the lightest but a K10.2 might be light enough.

Even QSC themselves recommend the smaller K10.2 for bass in live bands. Although this is with PA support. You might be better served with two of them or the K12.2 without PA support.

https://www.qsc.com/resource-files/productresources/spk/k.2/q_spk_k.2_appguide_livebands.pdf

PS, I'm seriously considering downsizing from my headrush frfr-112 to the K10.2.  It would also replace the smaller headrush frfr-108 I sometimes use for rehearsals.

On 06/12/2021 at 12:58, uk_lefty said:

The Markbass amp wedge thingy solves this. I love a fifteen but need the sound pointing upwards or I can't hear any top end on the sound... Wedge to the rescue. This is what I want for rehearsals and small gigs. Big gigs will have two fifteens stacked and no wedge, but also full PA support.

I used one of those too, with my old 121H cab. It made a huge difference in being able to hear the details in the bass tone. Sitting it on a Gramma Pad seemed to help a little as well, especially on hollow risers.

These days I use an frfr speaker that can sit vertically or as as a wedge. I don't use the gramma pad anymore either as my Helix has an hpf.  I really ought to stick that thing on ebay!

On 06/12/2021 at 09:32, BassAdder27 said:

A bit like that horrible looking Ashdown 310 vertical cab lol 😂 

Seriously though a good 310 or 312 vertical cab rated at say 600-800w minimum @ 4 ohms but wide enough for most amp heads would be a good one cab solution 

I remember many, many years ago in my first band, we acquired a couple of Wem 4x10 column cabs for our PA. I wish I'd kept them.  They were a bugger to move around, but I bet they would have made an epic bass rig.

3 hours ago, neepheid said:

A rocked up Waterloo seems to go down well wherever we play. 

LIkewise. Rocked up versions of disco era songs seem to work well for us too. Mama Mia, September, Le Freak, Disco Inferno, Love Train etc.  All guitar driven covers that guarantee people on the dancefloor.  It's picking the right ones that is the challenge.  I can remember clearing the dancefloor with Boogie Oogie Oogie, Let's Groove and Everybody Dance.

Just now, Happy Jack said:

 

I'm guessing you have either a female vocalist or someone with a really good falsetto?

 

Both! Female and male lead singers. He and I can both do pretty decent falsetto.

Tragedy!  Or pretty much any funky Bee Gees song.  Cheesy as hell, but absolute bangers.

Oh, and...

"December 63" - Frankie Vallie

"My Girl" - Temptations

"Parklife" - Blur

"Common People" - mash up of Pulp's original and William Shatners epic cover.

4 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

Thanks for all your replies.  

 

Two songs stand out: Alive by Pearl Jam and Enter Sandman.

 

With Enter Sandman our guitarist plays the lead as opposed to the rhythm at the beginning of the song and I have to fill the gap.  It would be better for me to alter the tone, add volume and a bit of hair and perhaps, 'Lemmify' my bit, . That is to be experimented with.

 

With Alive, the original bass part is on a fretless and Jeff Ament doesn't play many notes, he uses lots of sustain.  I have to marry the fretless bass bit with the rhythm guitar, particularly the last section, which is a guitar solo with Jeff Ament playing 4 bars E-G-D-A repeated over and over again.

 

Our guitarist is our most experienced musician; over 20 years experience as a rhythm guitarist and he has a wikipedia page about himself.  Trouble is, he's a bit lazy and often wings it in rehearsals.  He is also new to lead; he mainly tries to copy lead parts but will occasionally go off on one.

We play these two with one or two guitarists without issue. For Enter Sandman I have a little grit in my tone, play hard with a pick and play the bassline as normal (aside from a little wah sweep to simulate the guitar on the intro).  The guitarists plays more of the rhythm part on the intro.

On Alive, I use judicious drive and chorus to really fatten the bass up.  I also improve a little on the outro underneath the solos around simple pentatonic shapes. The bassline on this song is busier than you might think. Make use of those glissandos, harmonics and vibrato.

All of the above advice is great.  Get your tone in order first. Plenty of mids and maybe a little overdrive to accentuate the harmonics - really bring the bass to life.

The drummer can help too. It's amazing how a ride cymbal can replace a rhythm guitarists

On the odd occasion my band goes out with a single guitarists this covers pretty much everything. But I do have a specially dialled in Helix patch for a couple of songs that really need a little extra help. I based it on this guy's preset. Does a similar thing to the Fishman Fission mentioned above, but sound more convincing.