Al Krow

In @krispn's defence he seems to have loosely summarised his earlier post, no doubt after or during a late night NHS shift. [Haha - just seen we're in full agreement on this]. Gotta be validly arguable that many audiences won't be partial to slap. But IMO it's definitely not the case that most rock / pop audiences will dislike it and even be enthusiastic about it - particularly when it's done as well as some of the examples we've had on this thread. I, for one, would be delighted to play that Dua Lipa track as well as Juliaplaysgroove. Damn it she's even got me looking at MM basses - I thought you'd need a P bass to get that tone 😁

I tend to associate a boutique bass with the direct involvement of the "named" founder - it's his reputation and brand that we're buying into. That would certainly be true of a Shuker or an ACG, and clearly boutique basses are not mass produced a la Fender, Yamaha or Ibanez etc. But Wal has successfully continued since the departure of Ian Waller in 1988 and more recently since co-founder Pete Steven's death in 2011. It's great that it continues to thrive. I guess a brand doesn't need to fold the moment it's original creative inspiration leaves the field of play - surely that's what creating a successful legacy is all about. And there's no greater example of leaving a massively successful legacy, albeit only partly in the world of music, than that provided by Steve Jobs.

Ah ok no worries. Mr @dave_bass5 has provided me with a cunning plan to make use of the soundcard on my Focusrite Scarlett and by-pass the one on the PC for PC sound output. I'll see if I can hear any improvement on that using my Creative T40s at some point over the coming week. I do now need to find out a bit more about your two covers bands though! You got any uploaded YT material?

Nah - read back exactly what you wrote. It's what I quoted in my earlier post. But no biggie: if you meant "many" rather than "most" then fair enough, nothing to debate and I certainly wouldn't have commented.

Lol, me too. So you're basically my BC twin. Right, enough thread de-rail. Apologies to the OP!

Haha, yes those too! Covers bands?

Ah good Q - in which case I misunderstood the question. But maybe in that case Muppet has answered it.

Spooky. Same brand amp, same Creative T40 speakers. You'll be telling me that you're a bassist next 😂 Btw - did you spot my follow up query on the Compact Speaker thread?

I can save you the bother of contacting Doug - although his team are super helpful, whenever I've needed to contact them. Even to the extent of sending me a free footswitch, because the v2 amp I bought second hand didn't have one and they weren't being sold separately. Didn't even charge me for P&P! If you read dB's post (third one down) in the attached thread, you'll see he's confirmed that they have addressed this point and Danny goes onto to explain how it all works in the new set up.

The alternative where everyone agrees on something objectively correct would be mind bogglingly dull... "My bass has 5 strings." "Agreed." 😁

Frank please point me to any that are not! 😁

Ah ok - if you had originally said "many" audiences, there would be nothing at all for me to disagree with; that is a self-evidently true point.

Another Focusrite Scarlett fanboi here, but have recenlty been thinking about the general sound quality output - actually in the context of improving on my budget but reasonably decent desktop monitors. But I'm guessing the limitations of a PC soundcard are likely to significantly reduce the benefit of any such additional spend. Had a really useful tip from @dave_bass5 about by-passing the PC soundcard entirely and using the Scarlett's soundcard, instead, for output from the PC e.g. for YouTube clips etc. I suspect that won't be news to most of you more experienced folk but was a really helpful pointer to a novice like me! That tip and this thread has got me thinking about how good the Scarlett's sound quality compares to other interfaces. I've come across this really helpful review: https://www.audiomentor.com/reviews/top-10-best-audio-interfaces-for-serious-music-production. I was struck by the following comment, which certainly got my attention! Not sure how fair or balanced a comment it is, but it's certainly quite a vote in favour of the Audient kit: "If you think the Focusrite Scarlett sounds decent, wait till you listen to the Audient interfaces. The Audient line-up of interfaces features Audient’s console microphone preamp and the JFET DI built in. Why does Audient simply sound better? That’s because the components used to build them are of superior quality. You get better sounding AD & DA converters and mic pre-amps."

For me DrT put it really well when he said: My emphasis in bold to address the point at hand, but his whole post is worth re-reading for its balance and thoughtfulness.

That's quite a big assertion!

Another good shout docT! Here she is on Dua Lipa's latest track - loved her use of slap from 3.02 into this. Literally just 30 seconds of slap to finish off and it provides real energy and contrast to her bass line. Bravo. She posted this just 4 weeks ago and has since had nearly 800K hits and 57K likes. Who say's the public doesn't like a bit of slap bass?

@drTStingray another excellent post sir!

When you say "BB3" - I presume that is shorthand for Barefaced BB2 Gen 3?

Yeah fair point, and I'm not for a moment denying his skill. But the track played in your clip, to me anyway, is a much more in your face bass solo than with the 45 piece (or whatever number) band & orchestra that Incognito perform that track with. Acid jazz is awesome, but not sure how many of us are / will ever be playing that stuff? Respect to anyone who is! Getting back to my point - I suspect the audiences most of us play to will be just as, if not more, impressed by the much-derided earlier solo piece than this more sophisticated number. IMO Nigel Clutterbuck's talent and skill is going to entertain just as much in the context of most of our bands and audiences.

@BigRedX great work mate! Loved the bass line on Trappist-1, which drives the song forward, and the punchy tone which really stood out at 0.15+ at the start of the track.

Nah don't get that at all. Agreed it's not bad, but it's not slap played with groove in the context of a band and part of a piece of great funk music. It's a piece of solo slap and in that sense just as "circus" as any other piece of solo slap. The other maligned "circus" piece has just as much form and technique if you care to listen for it. And, frankly, your average punter is much more likely to be thrilled by the more flash version. It comes back to a basic question of why do any of us perform live? 1) cos we love it; 2) to make a few quid; and both of the above depend on 3) the audience loving it.

@ped - Jim is referring to the "digital artefacts / noise" you referred to in your preceding post below:

But more seriously, it does beg the question "what is a boutique bass"? For me the most important part, by a country mile, is the intellectual property of the design in all its aspects - body, neck, head, woods used and how they are layered, electronics, & other components - I just love the quality and design of the brass nuts on the KS! Where it is assembled must be a secondary point provided that the ability / quality of the craftsman matches up. So yup, these new ones will still be fantastic Ken Smith basses.

Should really be Kev Smith going forward then 😉

Ok thanks - yup far more powerful than the one I got which is 0.5l / day. But I guess there is a trade off with size, noise and cost. UPDATE: The dehumidifier this one arrived this morning from Amazon. Not a great bit of kit - poor electrical connection which means it only intermittently works. Going back!