AdrianP

It looks like I'm the only person using an Audio Technica System 10. The thing I like about it is the receiver is built around a stomp box base so it fits onto my pedal board and is powered the same way as any other pedal. The transmitter, which takes 2 AA batteries, is about the size of a small cell phone and clips onto the back of my strap. It's got quite a sensive attenuator inside. Fully open, a Jazz bass, with swing bass 66 strings, is quite trebly and fizzy. So it needs quite a bit of attenuation. But it's mostly been reliable since I got it and am quite happy.

I'm almost afraid to say this but I'm all over the place as far as string choice is concerned. In fact, I don't have any two basses with the same strings on at all. My Yamaha BB424 has Fender steel flats. The 1025 has steel rounds. My fretless, nickel flats. On my Jazz, I had always used Roto swing bass 66 steel rounds (the orange packs). But my tastes are changing and i'm no longer enjoying the clank against the frets. I've now put D'addario balanced tension nickel rounds on and liking the slightly warmer sound. So is there space for 'all of the above'?!

Andy. Pity I can't award a like and a thanks at the same time but it looks like you absolutely nailed it! So I turned the bass upside down and looked at the underside of the machine heads. Who knew there were Allen headed adjusters under there? I mean, really! I held onto the elephant ear and gently tightened each adjuster. All were fine except the A string head, which needed about a quarter of a turn before it tightened up. Result? Vibrating sound gone! Many thanks.

Hi guys. Any idea what might be going on here? My Yamaha BB424 has performed faultlessly for over a year. Just recently, though, there's been a strange vibration going on. It seems to be coming from the neck and vibrates along with the string being plucked. Any string; open and fretted. The vibration seems to sound deeper than the lowest note so I thought it might be the truss rod. I've tried tightening it a turn and then loosening it without any effect. It certainly doesn't appear loose when turning it. Ive also tried tightening just about every other screw and bolt on the bass, again, without effect. So, O wise ones, any idea what it might be? Thanks.

Haha! In that case, seeing as the party is being held in the deepest of south west Essex, we should be safe as long as we steer clear of any Depeche Mode covers?!

Thanks all. Actually, I think the neighbours are invited and quite looking forward to it. We are planning on making some noise but I imagine it will all be done and over by 21.00, let alone 23.00. So I really hope that the natives won't get too restless.

Great. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks all.

Oh yes, absolutely. I should have been clear it's the music licencing that interested me, not the alcohol. There'll be booze, but that's down to them. And yes, it's playing to a private event so no tickets involved. The band will be paid (obviously, not me though!) But it is definitely a private event.

Hi all I'm seeking the forum's collective wisdom on licencing issues. Specifically, a party we're playing for a relative in a couple of months. As some background, all of the gigs we've played so far have been in licenced venues where we've not even had to think about the issue ourselves. But we're shortly going to be playing a paying gig in a marquee for a relative. This will be set up in their garden. I can be certain that she won't have thought about licensing but do we? What sort of licence do we need? Anything else to think off? Apart from being as professional as we would normally be and not to pee off the neighbours, of course. We'll be playing rock covers, if that helps. I just don't want to wing it and hope for the best. Thanks all.

I've got to stand up here and say at least two good words for YouTube cover videos. Of course, you have to be selective with them but there are a couple of guys who put out consistently decent output. As we tend to play a lot of 70s stuff in one of my bands, I always see if a guy called Infusion26 has done a cover of something I'm learning. He never slavishly copies the original but always comes up with a melodic interpretation in his own style. His version of Nights in White Satin was one of the first songs I ever learned with this band and got a lot of compliments when I played it. I've also been learning While my Guitar Gently Weeps today and found a couple of quite helpful videos. Again, someone's interpretation. But I'll never play like Macca so it will, ultimately, be my interpretation of an interpretation. And when Lush, one of my favourite bands, reformed in 2016 Miki, the guitarist, said she re-learned a lot of her parts from watching cover videos on YouTube. So even the original artists sometimes use them!

I've bought a couple of things off here and been very satisfied with the experience. But I do my due diligence before buying. As, presumably, do sellers before selling. Part of that due diligence is checking out the activity history of folks selling to get a feeling for how invested they are in Basschat as a community. This is made more difficult, however, when you checkout a seller who's 'watts' come exclusively from posting items for sale. That makes it more difficult in telling their level of investment in the community. So, if there is at least some discussion about how this section works, how about removing the ability to mod up original posts in the for sale sections?

That’s a real shame 😪. I was hoping it was the magic pixie dust sprinkled on it at the factory, or something! The action is, I would say, medium low. About the same as my US Jazz; set up just a bit lower than Fender recommended settings. I was thinking of dropping the action slightly but, in case that breaks the magic spell, I’ll let sleeping dogs lie. Whatever it is, it just plays like an absolute dream and I couldn’t be happier.

I've had my black 1025x for almost two weeks now and have been playing it almost exclusively. It really doesn't have a bad sound in it and every turn of the volume or tone knob, or movement of the pickup selector, produces something discernably different. But there is something I've just noticed which hadn't struck me before. I can't get the frets to buzz. Not anywhere. I can play any string, any fret almost anywhere between the frets without any discernible buzz. If I concentrate, and press very lightly on the string just in front of the preceding fret, I can generate a small amount of buzz. But I have to really try for it. In normal use, it seems completely free. I don't know if it's the setup of this particular bass, or the inherent qualities of the material and construction, but this bass amazes me more and more every time I play it.

I've been a member of the BB club for about a year, ever since I got a BB424. It was mostly for home practice purposes but the range of tones coming out of it ment I started taking it to more and more rehearsals because it sits so well in the mix. When we started doing more songs in dropped tunings, Eb but occasionally D, I was faced with a choice. Take three bases to rehearsals and gigs (including a fretless) or get a 5 string. So when @redbandit599put his BB1025x up for sale, I bit the bullet. We met up at the obligatory dodgy car park this morning and made the trade. And since I got back, I haven't been able to put it down. I thought the BB424 had a massive range of tones but this is frankly ridiculous. I've been playing it mostly with both pickups on, volume on full and tone about half way up. But put it on the P pickup, and you get a great precision type rumble. Given the 'pictures or it never happened' rule, I post this as evidence of my modest BB collection.

I've got a few basses right now. Fender, Ibanez, Yamaha plus a J&D tuned to Eb. I can pretty much get along with all of them in terms of string spacing. But the thing that I do find difficult is a flat fretboard with un-rolled edges. I really love the sound of my Yamaha BB424 but find the sharp edge to the fretboard intrusive in that I am always aware of them when playing. I much prefer the very obvious rolled edges on my USA Standard Jazz.

Not a 5 vs 4 issue for me (I don't have a 5-er to have ever tried it) but swapping from fretless to fretted during a set causes me no end of problems. Fretted to fretless is fine. Just going back the other way seems to fundamenally mess up something in my head.

Absolutely a fan. My interest came via Keith Emerson, hearing a Hammond played together with a Moog. Absolutely glorious sound. The Nice's rendition of America possibly the greatest ever piece played on a Hammond organ.

I've never listened to a Grateful Dead album. In fact I've never knowingly listened to a Grateful Dead song nor could I even name one of their songs or albums. Their entire musical output has utterly passed me by. Edit: The Allman Brothers are another band like that. Never listened to anything they've ever done. Up until recently, I didn't even know that the Top Gear theme was one of their tracks. I'd always assumed it was a Ronnie Hazlehurst jungle or something.

Well she released Confide in Me and Where the Wild Roses Grow. I'm sure that some have been called legends with a weaker back catalogue than that.

Steeleye Span. The first incarnation, which only produced one album and never even toured, was the absolute epitome of gently electrified folk music. But the MK II version had Martin Carthy in it didn't it? How could that be going downhill? Well if you listen to Hark! The Village Wait you can almost taste the tension between Tim Hart and Terry Woods. But the contrasting vocal styles of Maddy Prior and Gay Woods, and of course Ashley Hutchings tremendous, melodic bass playing, make for probably the best album of the late '60s folk revival.

YouTube comments don't really bother me. It's just the flotsam and jetsam of free speech on the internet. What really does get me, though, is the passive/aggressive down like. Take one example. I subscribe to a channel of a performer who posts beautifully produced arrangements of traditional songs played on the Appalachian dulcimer. She has a lot of loyal subscribers who post supportive comments on her arrangements. But it's not exactly the white hot centre of the YouTube universe. So what exactly takes you to her page, listen to a piece of music and then down like it, without even commenting? You were looking for videos of cats playing with a ball of wool were you? You feel cheated so you hit the down like button? I just don't get it. At least with a comment, someone has taken the time, whatever they think. But that's just me. Weird like that.

Hi there. Yes, I've currently got a KB12. It's not a bad little amp, if you don't expect too much. Very good for rehearsals. Will even go loud enough for small pub gigs. And quite a nice tone even when everything is set at 12 o'clock. Never used it for on stage monitoring but no reason to think it wouldn't be perfectly satisfactory. The only buts would be that it is very sensitive to placement, requiring a solid wall behind it to make the most of the two massive rear firing ports. And it's not as cheap now as it used to be. I got mine when PMT we're blowing them out for £220. I think they're much more than that now. So it makes a lot of sense as a £200 combo. Does it make the same sense at £3-400? Not quite so sure. But, if you can live within its limitations, it's a decent little combo.

Saw a new band, Piroshka, at the Lexington in Islington last night. New as in only formed a few months ago. But it's more a post-punk/shoegaze supergroup (hello, is there anyone still reading?!) made up of former members of Moose, Lush, Elastica and Modern English. Given that it was their first ever gig, bar a warm-up at the weekend, it was a really great evening. The band really seemed to gel well and, given that all the material was new, the audience really got into it. On the subject of the band, Michael Conroy, previously bass player in Modern English, really impressed. He plays a lot of notes, it has to be said. But never more than the song required. I will probably seek out more of his earlier stuff. Had a quick search on here and couldn't find any reference to him so maybe check out his work.

Well I hope so. It was your suggestion after all! To be fair, I know it will be more mic than I will ever need but it seemed too good a deal to pass up. And I've not read a bad review of it from various folks with different needs and different vocal styles. So I hope it will be a good choice. The stand and cable, neither of which I have at the moment, just sweeten the deal.

Never thought I'd be in the market for a microphone but we did a rehearsal at the weekend and I was persuaded to do some backing vocals. Just some oohs and aahs as a kind of harmony with the singer but it turned out not too bad. I have always thought I had a terrible voice; well I do actually. But, with a bit of practice, I could get used to it. Not sure about the audience! So, seeing as I haven't bought anything music related for over a week, I just dropped £99 On the 935 plus stand and cable. Should be here by Wednesday.