MrDaveTheBass

[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1463147068' post='3049042'] Michael Jackson? He's dead too unfortunately [/quote] I think I see what you did there!

I'm a bit disappointed that the casting director has decided to play it safe and go for the obvious choice of Ms Gaga. She is so blatantly influenced by our Cilla, and is such a similar artist, that surely it would have been better to choose a more 'off-the-wall' candidate?

[quote name='DiMarco' timestamp='1463123836' post='3048734'] Always remember:[list=1] [*]Music is not a contest. [*]You don't play bass to win jamsessions or youtube. [*]Never stop learning. [/list] Keep enjoying what you do. [/quote] +100

[quote name='matski' timestamp='1463045007' post='3047996'] Do these cobalts 'go off' over time? [/quote] They do lose their 'zing' after a while, but I'm not sure that they go off any quicker than another type of string. Straight out of the packet they sound like played in rounds, and my first set continued to sound like that for a good couple of months. Sorry to be a bit vague, but I joined a second band just after I put the Cobalts on and was playing a lot more than usual, and so can't really tell how long they lasted compared to a regular set of Ernie Ball Slinky Rounds. String-life unfortunately, is really one of those YMMV things - or 'how bright is a piece of string' ;-)

They're definitely worth a try. After 27 years of using rounds, I'm now on my second set of Cobalt Flats, and I think that I'll be using them for the foreseeable future. They do sound different from rounds, but the tone is very useable and can be shaped easily with a bit of EQ. With the EQ flat, I've lost a little bit of the roundwound growl from my MM Sterling, but it can be dialed back in by boosting the treble a little. The best thing about them is their feel - they're an absolute joy to play, and my right-hand picking fingers are no longer shredded after over-enthusiastic gigs. Do pay attention to the instructions that come in the packet - you need a couple of extra turns around your tuning posts compared to ordinary rounds, and I almost cut my first set too short, and only just managed to hang them onto the tuners.

Thanks everyone for your replies - as I suspected, Android USB support looks more complicated than it should be. I didn't want to start faffing around too much with my phone, but was curious if a simple solution existed. Danny, thank you very much for your kind offer of your old OTG cable - I've already ordered one off Amazon (for a bank-breaking 79p!) so I'll let you know if my phone works straight 'out-of-the box'. If not, it looks like a 3.5mm headphone splitter cable will be the simplest solution.

Thanks Marvin, That's how I currently connect my phone to my Korg Pandora. My issue with the Zoom B3 is that it hasn't got a dedicated 3.5mm 'Aux-in' socket. How exactly are you connecting your iPod to your Zoom? (I suspect that I'm being very thick here and staring at something that's completely obvious).

Is there a way of connecting a Zoom B3 via USB to an Android phone? I'd like to use the USB as a Aux-in so that I can play along with music files from my phone. (Samsung galaxy S3 Mini running Android ver 4.2.2). I've had a trawl through t'interweb, but most of the information that I've found on Android USB is either vague or contradictory. I'm hoping that you knowledgeable lot might be able to point me in the right direction. I assume that I'll need a USB OTG cable - does anyone have any recommendations as to which one to get? Also, does anyone have any experience of playing recorded music from an Android phone over USB? - What apps would you recommend? Many Thanks, Dave

I agree - I've noticed the 'straight-neck' phenomenom in classifieds too, and thought it weird. I've always set up basses and guitars with a bit of neck relief, but I agree with Tim - you'd never be able to sell a bass using the line: 'with a nicely bowed neck'!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1462101853' post='3040231'] At that time if the feel was right then a bum note or two wasn't the complete disaster that it's seen to be now. Plus it was harder and more risky to fix a single note back then. I blame Pro Tools. It's so easy to fix things that it's done as a matter of course. [/quote] There's an excellent BBC 'Arena' documentary on Brian Eno. In it, Eno makes a wonderful analogy between Pro Tools and Playdoh: In the 'old days' a 'warts-and-all' recording would be like lots of different brightly-coloured bits of Playdoh - the quality came from the feel and variety. Now, because it's so easy to pitch-shift and quantize every note until it's 'perfect', it's the equivalent of mashing all your different Playdoh colours together into one homogenized, sh1t-brown lump.

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1458234838' post='3005886'] [size=5][b]And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Boyle[/b][/size] [/quote] Thanks, I've learned something today - I'd only ever heard the Pogues version on 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash', and I hadn't realised it was a cover. Absolutely amazing song - I'll go and hunt out the original.

Vincent Black Lightning by Richard Thompson always messes me right up.

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1456611696' post='2990837'] The other thing that bugs me is that singer consistently gets the words wrong. So if I'm doing BVs I have to sing them wrong as well otherwise it sounds weird. I couldn't bring myself to sing 'savilate' instead of 'salivate' though. (It's in the lyrics to 'Bitch' in case you're wondering) [/quote] Does he Savilate like a Pavlova dog?

I was looking for a transcription of Charlie Larkey's sublime bassline on Carole King's Smackwater Jack, when I happened upon this little gem: [url="http://www.sykestranscription.com/transcription-archive/"]http://www.sykestranscription.com/transcription-archive/[/url] Mr Sykes offers a paid transcription service, but has a large archive of (mainly 70s rock) basslines, all free to download as PDFs. They're all proper old-school dots (no tab), so a good opportunity to brush up on your reading skills.

Noddy Holder sometimes played Jim Lea's bass while Jim was sawing away at his fiddle.

The news is still only just starting to sink in. I never met him, never knew him, but I'm really shocked at how much this sad news has affected me. Absolutely gutted.

I tried out a new pair of Alpine earplugs at rehearsal last night, and I was really pleased with them: [url="https://www.alpinehearingprotection.co.uk/earplugs/musicsafe-classic/#"]https://www.alpinehearingprotection.co.uk/earplugs/musicsafe-classic/#[/url] I've used Elacin ER20s for years, but the Alpines were much more comfortable and the sound quality was better. Mrs Davethebass is pleased too, as they came with a smart black aluminium keyring case, which is much classier than the transparent plastic manky earwax-filled case that I used to cart my ER20s around in. The Alpines come with two sets of filters - silver for medium level protection, and gold for high-level protection. I'm not sure that I'm ever going to use the silver set, as the gold filters were perfect for a small room rock band rehearsal with bass, two guitars and a loud drummer, and I could still hear everyone well enough to chat between songs.

[quote name='No. 8 Wire' timestamp='1447678358' post='2909411'] Have you also tried TI flats? How do they compare tension wise if so? I really like the low tension of the TI flats but I'm interested in trying out the cobalts. [/quote] The Cobalts are my first venture into the flat world. The tension is higher than the Ernie Ball rounds I was using previously, and I needed to adjust the truss-rod to compensate. The marketing blurb for the Cobalts talks about a roundwound sound with a flatwound feel. They haven't got the full growl of a set of rounds, but sound much brighter than a traditional set of flats. As the Sterling's got loads of GRRR, anyway, I'm very happy with the compromise.

I recently put a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt flats on my Sterling, and I'm really pleased with them. They're still bright enough if you need a bit of slap and pop, but you can wind off the treble to go in search of a Bernard Edwards tone. (Impossible I know - it was all in his fingers, but it sounds closer than using rounds).

It's OK as long as you don't think of it as a guitar, but instead as a 6-string piccolo bass.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1446728998' post='2901794'] I suppose as far as placebos go they're cheap enough, but they're still placebos. I've never been able to find a single bit of objective data from any of the makers of either isolation or coupling devices (and you really should wonder why there are both) so I obtained my own. The results are posted here: [url="http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19112"]http://billfitzmauri...hp?f=10&t=19112[/url] BTW, since hockey pucks are a high density material if they did anything it would be to increase coupling to the stage, not reduce it. [/quote] Thanks for the link. It looks like I'm going to have to sell my cab and buy myself some skates and a hockey stick instead!

The pucks are made out of fairly sticky rubber, so if you anchor them under your cab's feet, the cab doesn't go anywhere. I must admit I've only tried them on level stages though.

If you're looking at ways of isolating your cabs (especially on boomy wooden stages), I've had great success using ice hockey pucks. They're easy to chuck in a case or gig bag, and at £6 for 4, they're 10 times cheaper than one of them there Gramma Pads. [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skate-Hut-Ice-Hockey-Puck/dp/B0073UQTMI"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skate-Hut-Ice-Hockey-Puck/dp/B0073UQTMI[/url]

The most useful tool that I've used for working out tunes is the Korg Pandora (PX4D). It lets you hear both yourself and the track at a proper level. It has a handy detune function that allows you to tweak the tuning of the track into concert pitch. Add a decent set of headphones, and you're good to go. I also recommend a fantastic free Android App called 'Audipo'. You can pay for the 'pro' version, but so far the free version's done everything I needed it to. It allows you slow the track down without affecting the pitch, and to loop-repeat difficult sections. It works on the fly with MP3s on your phone, so much more convenient than having to fire up the laptop and import a tune into Audacity. I find that if I can sing a bassline, I can play it. I've also found that it helps to play along with a kazoo. It sounds crazy, but it works - try it! (Just make sure that you're out of earshot of your significant other, or if that's impossible, at least hide any sharp or heavy throwable objects!)

To be honest, I didn't have a problem with any of the band members (at the time it was just the bodhran player, a fiddle player and me). I was just getting back into playing after a 10 year break, and was really looking for a pub-rock outfit. The folky thing was interesting, but I was struggling to fit bass-lines in with the bodhran and no proper drummer. We rehearsed a coupke of times, but I never gigged with them.