Greg Edwards69

Just to experiment, I dialled the Stadium Stack settings into the SVT4 Pro model on my Helix. Whilst I usually go for a more neutral eq on amps, paired with a judicious low cut* this sounded fantastic through headphones so far - a lot cleaner than the Origin pedal, but still had that big ballsy, plummy girth you expect from an ampeg amp with a little top end sizzle. I was expecting it to be way too bassy and scooped for my taste but it sat in a mix very nicely whilst I jammed along to some familiar tunes. I need to test it at gig volume at this weekends rehearsal, but I think with a little tweak here and there, particularly the mid range, this may well become my new default patch. *I've been an advocate of hpf for bass guitar for some time to clean up extraneous low end flub. But this is making me rethink my approach. A judicious low cut with a shelf boost at the same frequency appears to get the low end punch I've been looking for without getting mucky.

Being a bassist who is now 60 years old, Martin Kemp could have stood in.

I just kept thinking of Vic Reeves singing "in the club style" on Shooting Stars. That said, I think they all did a great job and it would have been less entertaining and risky if they were all stellar musicians. I take my hat of to them all. I hope I still have that energy and passion for playing and performing when I'm in my seventies.

It’s not just at the cheap end of the market that this trend is happening though. american ultra series 4 string jazz. 4 colours and maple board https://www.fender.com/en-GB/electric-basses/jazz-bass/american-ultra-jazz-bass/0199022790.html american ultra series 5 string jazz. 3 colours (only 2 of which are the same as the 4 string) and rosewood board. https://www.fender.com/en-GB/electric-basses/jazz-bass/american-ultra-jazz-bass-v/0199030712.html

It's not just me then! In the case of the Charvel's I mentioned, I'd much rather have a 4 string in the deep red or racing green the 5 string JJ comes in rather than the lurid lime green or blue. I have to say, I also prefer maple fretboards these days, which limits one's choice even further. When I bought my G&L Tribute JB-2, they offered 4 finished, but only 2 with maple and the other 2 with rosewood - luckily I like the sunburst option. It would be great if manufacturers offered an online or in store configurator of stock parts to make your own, even on the cheaper lines. I'm sure many people would pay a small premium for the facility.

That book sounds good. Jeff is certainly a very vocal advocate of bass education (that gets him into deep water sometimes). My sight reading used to be very good, with treble clef, which I used to play the clarinet and keyboards. These days, not so much. I bought an electric piano last year with the intent of improving my sight reading and keyboard skills again. I think my reading was worse than my playing as I haven't done so for around 25 years since I started playing bass guitar as my primary instrument. I did get a couple of cello books a number of years ago with the intent of improving bass clef reading, but they quickly ended up on a shelf. I really ought to get back into it properly.

The owners manuals are now available, for this who are interested in such things, like I am. https://www.boss.info/global/products/katana-210_bass/support/

I'm not sure if this is a new thing or whether I've simply not noticed it before. But lately, I've noticed there's a trend for offering different finishes depending on the number of strings. For example, on Squier's new contemporary range, the 4 string jazz comes in either Sky Burst Metallic and Shoreline Gold, whilst the 5 string comes in Gunmetal Metallic. https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/squier_expands_contemporary_series_with_two_new_guitars_and_four_new_bass_models.html I saw a similar thing recently when Charvel, released the San Dimas basses. They go a step further and change the finish depending on the pickups too. PJIV black, white, lime green or blue. PJV black or white JJV red or dark green. https://www.charvel.com/gear/shape/san-dimas-bass Like I say, it may be something I've never noticed, and there's likely a financial reason for it. But I'm sure it could be source of frustration where finish options are limited to the number of strings, and vice versa.

I refer thee to the Rt Hon Alex Claber - it would appear that it's the power supply that make the most difference.

There's nearly a joke there.

And just a top handle too, it would seem. That's quite a lot of weight to carry in one hand.

With this and the new Postive Grid Spark Mini there's certainly some great practice amp options to be had. If the Katana has a pitch shifter, I'll be very, very interested. It'll save me having to set my helix up just practice a couple of tunes with dropped tuning. If it has a completely flat "FRFR" mode, then even better.

Thank the audience and venue, and ask people to visit your social media channels or website. It feels a bit tacky to do so, but many venues are booking bands based on their following. Plus a bit of free video footage is always nice. Carry business cards, and maybe get a popup banner made with links to your website. Set up a shared band calendar and make sure everyone uses it to mark their availability. It's a lot easier to respond to booking requests. Oh, and don't eat pie and chips, or a curry before the gig.

Lately it’s wearing a back support belt when I’m setting up and packing up. First gig coming out of lockdown after months of working from home, not gigging and sedentary lifestyle majorly messed my back up for a few week after, more-so as it was one of those ones up a large flight of fire escape stairs and we were a couple of people down (inc soundman) which meant more gear humping. look after your health folks.

"What's your best price" is also a pet peeve, regardless of whether I've said "offers accepted" or not. It's as if haggling is a dying art form. The best price is the one I advertised it at. If you want to make an offer, then make one. Don't expect me to make an offer against myself for you.

My common one tend to be. "Will you take £xxx (low ball offer) because I need to get the train from London to collect it?" No, becuase I am not compensating for your travel expenses. "Will you take £xxx (low ball offer) if I collect it today?" No, you're not doing me a favour by paying me less when I'm in no rush to sell.

I've done the same thing as well. I was over zealous with a trussrod that was seemingly made out of butter. Ruined the neck. I was able to track down a replacement and was as good as new. A neck through or even set neck would have been far more expensive to fix.

Yamaha came up with variation on this for the Attitude basses. Mr Sheehan certainly doesn't seem to have issues reaching the high notes. That said, personally, I don't find heel construction to be the main hinderance to upper fret access. It's the low cutout that usually determines how high I can play comfortably.

Looks great and a nice form factor. Take off the expression pedal and this is what the stomp XL should have been. I note no XLR output though. Having independent XLR and 1/4" outputs is one of things stopping me from going to anything smaller than my Helix LT.

Bass x2 (sometimes just one if the gig is close to home - I know, it doesn't make any sense). Helix LT Headrush FRFR-112 Line 6 G10s wireless - sometimes TC Helicon Critical Mass vocal processor (crowd vocal simulator / octave up and down) Mic ipad or Kindle Fire tablet with bandhelper and mic stand holder. Leads inc spare extension power leads IEM pack and earbuds Mini guitar stand Plectrums Earplugs Baby powder (essential on hot gigs) large sweat band (so my forearm doesn't stick to bass body) Water bottle (we all use a sport top bottle for water - saves any dangerous spillages) Business cards Change of clothing (depending on gig) Cash, just in case. Phone (useful torch feature) Keys so I can get in when I get home Regarding backups. I used to bring two amp heads before going frfr. I had a disaster one evening when my old Markbass LMII suffered a small drop in its case that caused microfractures and it went into protect mode after 20mins. My trust in class D being roadworthy went down since that day. Me and both my guitarists all use a helix and an frfr speaker each. One of them also bring a stomp as a backup with a couple of basic presets saved for any of us to use. This way, we have a backup if one of the helix devices craps out and each frfr speaker has a spare input so there's redundancy if one of them fails. We also go direct to FOH as well, so it's not a huge deal. We need to upgrade our IEM system because it's crap, but when we do, that will make the on stage frfrs even more redundant.

Have you looked at GR Bass? There’s at AT110, 1x10, only 5kg and 99db sensitivity. Bass direct sell them for £550. It’s £50 over your intended budget, but at that weight it could be £50 spent. If GR bass made a 1x10 combo I’d be all over that, personally. Otherwise, at the budget end, Warwick make some Gnome cabs to complement your head. No idea what the sensitivity is though.

I love the description on their website "8 Decent Guitar Cabinets". 😆

Since the two guitarists and me went all Helix and frfr, this has improved things substantially. I, and one of the guitarists (who doubles on keys) are very conscious of where we sit in the mix and what it sounds like in the room. The other guitarist is very much in the "Set it can forget it" camp (he used to be a nightmare with his old 100w valve combo pointed at his knees and he never touched the eq, not to mention his stompbox and channel levels would be all over the place). Great lplayer but not the best critical listener. We've turned on the hpf on his frfr (and told him not to touch it) and I set up is global eq so that has an additional low cut. We also had a couple of "technical rehearsals" to help him dial in and balance his presets so there's no sudden volume spikes. We also go direct form the Helixes to FOH, so it as long as his on stage frfr is at a sensible volume, our soundman has control of his overall volume. It sounds so much better now.

I don't want to cut through the mix. I want to punch the mix in the balls. Seriously though where the bass sits in the mix is dependent on so many factors. The material, the other instruments, the sound of the bass drum, even what's appropriate for the venue. For me, "cutting through" means note definition. Actually, it means sitting properly in the mix so that it's felt and identifiable. It doesn't have to be all subby low end. You can have note clarity whilst still feeling the low end thump that getting peoples legs gyrating on the dancefloor. It's not one or the other. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a big fan of Duff McKagan's tone on Appetite for Destruction. The bass tone has a metric tonne of chest thumping wallop in the low end, but it has a glassy top end clarity that let's you identify every single note. PS, I've run the gauntlet of bass tones in the mix over the years. I used to think it was all about cranking the bass knob. Then I discovered upper mids, then I discovered Billy Sheehan and used a dual channel signal path for some time in an effort to get huge subsonic low end and cutting mid-range. Then I discovered hpfs and frequency slotting. I think I've got it just right nowadays - somewhere in-between them all.

Yep. Discovering hpfs and first, second, third etc order harmonics was the lightbulb moment for me. I had really struggled with amp eq in the past, and odd frequency choices (I really couldn't get on with my old markbass' 40hz bass and 360hz low mid). Realising that I didn't need to reproduce the lowest note fundamentals and that removing the lowest frequencies could improve my overall tone was game changing. I've been known to push it up as far as 80-90hz in some rooms without losing the low end "punch" to cut through the mix. It certainly makes for a nicer sounding room too! IMO, hpf should come as standard on every bass amp head.