.gif.9ad672bb8b84505709f76b39c8c256ec.gif)
Dan Dare
-
Posts
4,570 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Shop
Articles
Posts posted by Dan Dare
-
-
Turn the tweeter down, too, if your cab has one.
-
Just now, Dan Dare said:
Unless you have a complicated active bass, wiring is incredibly simple. You could do a J Bass for a great deal less than it costs to buy a kit. Three CTS pots, a capacitor, a Switchcraft socket and some decent cable is not going to cost you more than about £15. Plenty of diagrams on the 'net. As long as you can solder, you're away.
-
Unless you have a complicated active bass, wiring is incredibly simple. You could do a J Bass for a great deal less than it costs to buy a kit. Three CTS pots, a capacitor, a Switchcraft socket and some decent cable is not going to cost you more than about £15. As long as you can solder, you're away.
-
16 hours ago, drTStingray said:
The thing to remember is a small change on bass goes a long way - simply doubling up the notes or changing the intensity of the line you're playing goes a long, long way in terms of dynamics - or introducing a root note an octave higher.
However if you're already playing flat out there's nowhere to go - so you (and especially the guitarist) need to organise the song dynamics to account for this.
A good lesson can be learned from Free - these tricks were used to great effect.
Finally fat bass sound (without effects to create it) will generally come from your fingers, a bass guitar and amp set up with those characteristics - eg Free - Andy Fraser using an EB3 with a valve stack (Orange?). I find basses like Warwicks, Wals and Musicman create a fatter sound (to the extent you sometimes have to thin it out a little or play softer) - there's a good reason why Flea stopped using the Fender Jazz live - it was simply a thinner sound and wouldn't get that raunchy fat slightly driven sound so effective in a lot of RHCPs music.
As I said, it isn't about dynamics, volume, etc. It's about harmonic texture. Bas and drums with a solo instrument is still pretty harmonically uninteresting to the average listener, who is not interested in how accomplished the bassist is.
-
16 hours ago, chris_b said:
Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Ronnie Wood, Tim Bogert. Not very interesting? Seriously?
A classic example of solipsism, I'm afraid. To most listeners, who are not focussing solely on the bass but hearing the whole piece, a bass player, no matter how accomplished, playing on their own with a drummer and one melody instrument is not very interesting. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
-
Thick picks will help, as others suggest. If you're playing with a very loose wrist and slapping the strings with the pick (especially if it's thin), that will increase the noise, too.
-
On 07/12/2017 at 08:23, dlloyd said:
The bassline is fairly clear here:
Steve Winwood. WHAT a singer.
-
10 hours ago, chris_b said:
But the point is you don't want to fill out the sound. That's not how it's done.
Listen to any record and the levels don't go up or down during solos. Quiet sections aren't quiet. The arrangement will change so that less is played but the level remains the same. No one plugs in a pedal to fill the sound out on a record, so why do it on a gig?
If the OP's sound is thin during the solos then it will be thin in the rest of the song and the racket the guitarist is making is covering it up. Sort the band's sound out (maybe add some natural authority to the bass tone) and the guitar can play or not and the band sound will be good.
I'm not talking about volume, but texture and I disagree with your assertion. A band can sound "thin" if there is little happening harmonically. The worst example is the classic guitar, bass and drums trio. When the guitar player stops playing chordally and takes a break, you have drums and one, yes one note (unless the bassist uses a lot of double stops and/or chords) playing at any one time. Not very interesting and it's going to sound sparse, however much you "add authority" to the sound of the bass.
-
If you just want something to drive your tops for vocals, these - http://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/pa12-cp/ - or the Soundcraft equivalent are nice. Decent eq and onboard effects and you can often pick them up used for not a lot (which is what I did).
-
Probably made by one of the major string companies, as are most strings marketed by instrument companies under their own name. If the price and gauges are right for you, worth trying a set.
-
On 31/03/2017 at 21:49, Chris2112 said:
Markbass really do rule the roost for bass amplification these days.
I like MB a lot, but Aguilar ain't bad either.
-
Bill's correct as usual. Many amps that run at 2 ohms have some kind of limiting circuit, anyway, to prevent excess current draw/overheating, so you're no better off than if you run them into 4 ohms as far as power output goes.
-
1
-
-
Why get a small low powered head for practices? Any modern, powerful class D head will be light (my Ag700 weights about 4 and a half pounds) and do you for full on gigs as well. Saves having to buy two.
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, steantval said:
I never mention it, it's not an occupation, it's a hobby.
That could cost you a lot of money one day. In practice, the premiums aren't that much greater. I get mine through the MU.
-
1 hour ago, BigRedX said:
Most bassists who claim not to need compression probably have something in their signal chain that is actually doing the job of a compressor. Where it is valves in the amp or something in the sound coming out of the PA.
The only way you guarantee not to have any compression in your bass sound is if you:
1. Don't go through the PA
2. Use a transistor amp (not class D) with the input gain well below the level at which the clip light comes on and still plenty of clean extra volume available on the master volume control.
3. Don't have any overdrive/distortion/fuzz effects.
4. Don't use any digital effects.
5. Don't use a wireless system.You forgot a very important point. You must use a cab that is capable of reproducing the full frequency range fed to it and at full volume. Such a beast does not exist in any transportable format.
-
1 hour ago, EssentialTension said:
In my exerience, with some guitarists in some bands, it can help to encourage the guitarist, or other musicians, to stop calling it a 'solo' and to stop thinking of it as a 'solo'.
The 'instrumental interlude' should involve all members of the band - it's not all about one instrument with everyone else doing as they are told.
That sounds like a recipe for cacophony. Unless it's an arranged, multi-instrument break, the rest of the band should be providing back-up when someone takes a solo and staying out of his/her way. You wouldn't all noodle away whilst the singer was singing (well, you shouldn't, anyway).
-
Get a keyboard player. With up to ten notes at once on tap, they fill out the harmonic palette nicely...
-
19 minutes ago, mike257 said:
Not everyone uses them on their pedalboards, but almost everyone will be compressed. A lot of amps will compress naturally anyway, and, at small club gig level and upwards, it'll almost certainly hit some sort of compression somewhere between arriving at the mixing desk and departing from the speakers.
Very good point. Although bass players may not use compressors per se, a lot of bass rigs (especially smaller combos) do indeed compress naturally by virtue of the fact that they run out of headroom.
-
Anyone remember the old massive - around 2 metres tall - Orange cab? I think it was 8x12. Have tried to find a photo and failed. Ridiculous thing, but would terrify your local bar if you turned up with one.
-
I don't know the seller, but just spotted this in the marketplace. MB do warm vintage better than many of the lightweights and it looks to be in very nice shape. Worth a look?
-
-
1
-
-
11 minutes ago, tonyclaret said:
I wasn’t thinking that myself, perhaps the whole neck needs rising. Veneer, do you mean this kind of thing?
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253249344214
Yes. I think raising the whole neck slightly would be the way to go. As you like the way it plays, it sounds as if the neck angle is good and you just want to lower the action overall. Shimming one end of the neck will alter its angle by canting it back, so you'll lower the action at the top end, but you'll have to adjust the nut to take care of the low end. I'd experiment with varying thicknesses of card (don't glue them in place so you can change them) and then get a piece of veneer in the thickness that works best.
-
You can save mucho moolah by not buying "genuine Fender". A shaped piece of alder/swamp ash, etc is a shaped piece of alder/swamp ash, etc...
-
It sounds as if you need to raise the whole neck away from the body a little, rather than adding a shim at one end to increase the break angle, so a shim covering the entire neck pocket surface looks the way to go. Fwiw, I don't buy the arguments about decreasing resonance by introducing a tiny gap, etc. However, covering the entire neck pocket surface won't result in any gap if you do it neatly ( a piece of veneer - you can experiment with thickness - should do the trick).
-
I was told TE used Celestion drivers back in the old days if that's any help.
'thick/fat tone?
in General Discussion
Posted
You are making my point for me. I am suggesting adding to the harmonic content - via adding keys, brass, etc - in order to make the sound fuller and more interesting. I certainly didn't say that one ought "to sound like Status Quo". They can hardly create a harmonically interesting sound, after all, with just 2 guitars, bass and drums. It's the same every time and swiftly becomes tedious.