tonyf

Brought Mike's Line6 M13 off him. Absolutely trouble free deal, top class kit and a total gent to deal with. Cheers Mike. Rgds Tony

For the first time in about three years, I took my Nathan East Sig to rehearsal on Tuesday. Bit of a mindf**k to be honest. I "grew up" basswise playing exclusively 5 strings and didn't have a 4 string to my name until I started doing cover bands several years ago. Now, I find the 5 more alien than the 4 and find myself thinking "4" when playing 5 whereas it was the reverse when I first got my "normal" basses. lol As others have suggested, it's just practice that'll sort it. Sooner or later, after putting in the hours, you'll be as comfortable on a 5 as you are on a 4. T

Ummmmmm. Having looked at the Line6 website, just realised that if I'm after stompbox only type effects rather than amp and cab modelling as well, perhaps I should be looking at either the M9 or M13. These look to be exactly what I need. Flexible stompbox'ing fun with true bypass and some programmability. Plus looping. [url="http://line6.com/m9/"]http://line6.com/m9/[/url] T

[quote name='phil.i.stein' post='1105314' date='Jan 27 2011, 05:42 PM']don't panic. i find that there is a massive difference between using fx at home and at volume. speakers being driven hard sound different than the home set-up (obviously). get down the practise room on your own and play at volume. save the settings. then play with everyone else, and tweak. save the settings. it's a matter of repetition and compromise, i'm afraid. a different room will also change your tone, so narrowing down the differences is the best you can do.[/quote] +1 I guess I realised this the other night when I used it in rehearsal. Like you and cheddatom have said, what sounds ok in one setting ain't always gonna sound the same in another. With this in mind, I set up my whole rig on Friday before the gig in the evening and spent sometime considerably editing the patches in situ. I also looked at the output levels of the XT Live in the send return unit. It was time well spent as it sounded MUCH MUCH better when I used it on the night. Guess it's about rolling up your sleeves and getting to know it inside out. I think I've always assumed that you can plug it in and get absolutely ideal sounds out of it. That ain't always the case and the bass and amp combinations all become variables in what you hear. I feel better having done the tweaking with the amp at volume and I'm a lot happier now. I still KNOW I'm using some signal processing as opposed to having nothing between bass and amp but ultimately, I guess it's about a bit of compromise with one's core tone in order to get the colours in the sonic palette and lets face it, 99.9% of people in the audience ain't that aware or more likely, that bothered. T

[quote name='charic' post='1105037' date='Jan 27 2011, 01:33 PM']Isn't it better to have the possibilities there and not use them all?[/quote] In my case, I don't know. I've had a fair while now without any effects whatsoever and I think I realistically only need a few "flavours" to get me by, ie a good drive/distortion, a flange or chorus, an autowah and that'd probably do me. Having played with the XT Live for a while, I've found myself skimming through the vast percentage of presets thinking "where on earth would I ever use this in the set"? [quote name='EskimoBassist' post='1105108' date='Jan 27 2011, 02:34 PM']Problem is, buying singles is a slipperly, expensive and addictive slope. If only I had still been happy with my old Korg AX3000B perhaps I would have a car by now.[/quote] Flipping heck. PAS! lol

The covers band I'm in has had a short hiatus over the past couple of months so I've spent a lot of time using my Line6 Bass POD XT Live to practice with at home. I've been enjoying the "tweakery" I get with the Line6 apps being able to edit the tones via my Mac rather than being bent over it using the onboard controls. We've got the first gig of the year tomorrow night so I took it to rehearsal last night along with my head and basses so I could get used to using it "in the heat of the battle". Maybe it was the room, maybe it was me, maybe I'd not spent enough time doing my "tweakery" or the "tweakery" wasn't the correct "tweakery" but I just struggled all night and couldn't get a "core tone" I was comfortable with it. All my patches have been set up to use no amp modelling at all. I've got to the stage where I'm totally satisified with my core tone of bass into amp and want the XT Live just to give me basic some basic flavours, a flange or chorus, an auto-wah, a bit of distortion and perhaps a synth thing. I'm starting to think maybe the XT Live is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. As I want some basic colouring around my beloved core tone of my amp/basses, maybe I dont need a such a massively flexible amp modelling tool and I should just go back to using some high quality stomp boxes. Ideas? T

[quote name='KiOgon' post='1072337' date='Dec 30 2010, 12:10 AM']The bridge looks so wrong [/quote] Again, nooooooooooooooooooo! I love the oval bridge of the Laklands!

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='1072321' date='Dec 30 2010, 12:03 AM']Unusual because I think that it works for all their other basses... but that headstock, for me at least, just doesn't work with that body...[/quote] Ooooooooooo no, it definitely works for me Apart from the headstock, it looks as though they've ripped off the idea of the Fender Mike Dirnt. Which, having owned one, isn't a bad thing to do.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErWSYJYKM-Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErWSYJYKM-Q[/url] I got turned onto XTC a few years ago. Just brilliant.... Apple Venus is an immense album.

[quote name='Steve Spector' post='1063595' date='Dec 19 2010, 03:12 PM']Been looking at the TD660, but heard lots about the clear "hi fi" sound that is so favoured by slap guys. I play rocky/punky/indie stuff like U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Cure, Elastica, Papa Roach and many others - what it isn't is funky, but it's not thrash metal either. What I'm looking for is traditional thumping and warmth I suppose. I've got a Spector Euro 4 and 5. Now I know advice #1 would be try it myself, and I might well, but looking for any opinions/exeprience of this amp and especially with the Spectors. Many thanks, Steve[/quote] My main bass is a Red Plum Euro Spector 4 and I've got the EBS HD350 with proline cabs. To be honest it's all subjective when trying to describe tone. To try and put a tag on the sound of the Spector into the EBS rig, I'd say it's punchy, crunchy, loads of bite and top end articulation. However, I'd hardly call it hi-fi. I tend to drive the preamp a little to get some breakup. The drive in the head is pretty special IMHO. Clear, crisp and loads of attack and pretty transparent. The EMG's in the Spector work really well in helping to make the tone of the bass come through. The EBS heads are amazing bits of kit, really really flexible but they do excel at the transparent slap tone. However, grunt and punch is available in buckets if that's your bag. T

[quote name='Shaggy' post='1061857' date='Dec 17 2010, 06:07 PM']Mike Lull do a nice take on the 60's T'birds; [url="http://www.mikelull.com/Instruments/T_Series.htm"]http://www.mikelull.com/Instruments/T_Series.htm[/url] - nicer than the current Gibbos IMO, although bound to be pricey[/quote] I love this!

Can't argue with that price, 59p for a tuner. Just downloaded it and it seems to work brilliantly. Well chuffed! T

[quote name='paul h' post='1046848' date='Dec 3 2010, 09:32 PM']I play all sorts of stuff during it. [i]Mainly to numb the total horror of having to play a song with zero relevance to me personally or to my taste in music that is played by every single rock covers band on the planet as if the last thirty odd years have never happened or if they have happened that nobody has written a better song since which is quite frankly ridiculous because there must be a gazillion songs to choose from that would go down equally well some of which may have at least been written in this century.[/i] And breathe.[/quote] +1 The most manic response of any song in the set, I just can't understand why. Fckn hate playing it, but it makes people dance and sing. So I enjoy playing it because of this! Me? I get my own back during the BV's and sing "Sweet Home Wolverhampton"...... T

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1044683' date='Dec 2 2010, 09:21 AM']Claw? Surely it was the Hook, or did his nails need clipping?[/quote] The hooded claw? And did he finally get Penelope Pitstop?

Absolute monster bassist.

I'm looking for a new white perloid scratchplate for my Lakland Skyline JO. However, doing a search for replacements, I've only found blacks, tort and mint/white ones so far. I was wondering if a Fender Jazz retrofit would be of the same dimensions. Can anyone help confirm or deny? Thank you muchly! T

Glad it wasn't just me. I was hoping for some impressive stuff tonight from "old slowhand" but it was dire. The band looked tired, nervous and a little self-conscious. MIA were mightily impressive. Haven't heard them before. The guesting rhythm section from The Specials, Sir Horace Gentleman and John Bradbury, were simply sublime. Tight as a gnat's chuff. Wonderful. Horace is god!