Annoying Twit

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1387275050' post='2310024'] Twit (if I can call you that!), I have a spare LaBella flatwound B which I got from the basschat recycling section, but it wasn't to my taste. If you PM me, I can stick it in the post. [/quote] Thanks. PM sent. To others: I'll look at other options once I've tried the above one. I'm not yet sure exactly what I like yet, but I have a strong suspicion that I like old strings. So, an old B would be a good experiment.

Not very newsworthy, but this seems a decent deal to me. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-Guitar-/310823024257?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item485e7ef681 I like the natural look, and it seems like quite a bit of bass for £75. I thought there was some discussion of these recently and people were saying that they were a decent quality copy.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1387269744' post='2309959'] Try flats. No, really, try them. Ideally La Bella FLs. Failing which, instead of getting a heavier-gauge string, experiment with a lighter gauge. You might be surprised. [/quote] Can you recommend an exact string gauge that might be suitable for an experiment? I'd like to try one flatwound string. Would a B string be a reasonable experiment, or should I go for one of E A D G? My bass is 34" scale. Or, is putting a single flatwound string on a bass otherwise strung with roundwounds a poor experiment as the string is too atypical? I was thinking that trying a single B would be a good idea, as if I really like it, I can then buy a matching E A D G four string set. BTW: I don't know exactly what you get in terms of string tension for different gauges. I like bendy and rubbery, but not floppy. If that makes sense.

I've never adjusted it before, and it was just so easy. It even uses the same size allen key as the saddles on the bridge. I had a look to see how much one would cost for my Shine, but could only find the new brass one for sale. That would be about the same price as the whole bass cost me in the first place.

I loaned my Rockbass in its previous setup condition to someone who had a really attacking style. The buzzing and rattling could be heard across a crowded room. When I offered him another go on it some time later, he told me no thanks. The Rockbass might benefit from a neck shim, and I'm wondering if I should try a thicker shim on the Shine. Both of them have an action that rises progressively down the neck. I'd be able to get the action lower with a shimmed neck, but would I just have to raise the action at the bridge and the nut to compensate so that I'm back where I started? While the Rockbass has been for a while been the bass that I liked the least (apologies if the member who sold it to me is still on here), I think it has promise. There's nothing on it that feels really wrong, and the shape and finish of the neck feels very nice. I'm getting better at extracting better tone from it, showing myself how much tone is in the fingers. And the sound is mellowing as the strings get older. The bass does have the same hardware as a real Warwick of the same vintage, albeit a Streamer Standard. I wonder if the pine body of the Rockbass will be a limitation in the long run, compared to the more exotic woods on the real Warwick.

I'm enjoying fine tuning One of my early experiments was to give my Rockbass 5-er to a local bass technician to have it set up. When I got it back, it was certainly different, but I hated it. It sat at work for quite some time not being used. I was very hesitant to change the set-up on it as, well, I'd paid some money for the setup. Tonight, I finally gave up and did everything from scratch. I now think it plays much better, and that I've done a better job than he did. For anyone who enjoys fine-tuning, a Warwick Just-a-nut is brilliant. I found that the D and G strings were buzzing madly at one point. A few turns on the nut's high string end allen key adustment, and it was fine. So easy. Off to see if it's possible to buy a Just-a-nut for my Shine! One general question though. When I set up the Shine and the Rockbass, if I take the action down as low as I can get it, not too far down yet, the strings feel very 'soft'. But, I've played basses that have both lower action than I'm getting, but also a firm feel. How do you achieve that?

On this bass, and on some other instruments, I have the truss rod cover removed permanently, and allen keys to the ready at all times. I've noticed that one day it might play well, and the next day, play like turds. Advice being heeded!

I adjusted the truss rods on my Shine SB26 again. I found that I'd over-done it, and the neck has gone flat and has no relief at all. After I noticed that, I thought I'd have to losen the truss rods a bit again. Funny thing is, I like the way that it plays now. The neck is really flat, and strings need to be treated really gently. But, I like the result. The pickups are currently really near the strings and they have bar magnets that protrude through the top of the pickup covers, so there's plenty of signal even when strings are plucked very gently. Does anyone here set their necks very flat?

Everyone keeps saying that it's so much easier with the proper tools, but I found it pretty easy with welding tip cleaners and needle files. Was I just lucky, or is it really that much easier? If so, how?

I couldn't believe the difference when I filed the nut of my Shine bass. Massive improvement. I shimmed the neck, and that was a great improvement too. With the shim in place, I can get the action as low as the frets will allow by adjusting the truss rods and the bridge. I'm no technical expert, but I found it much easier than I thought it would be.

I was hoping to get it into better shape before open sourcing it. Today was a bit of a downer given that I couldn't get it working on the Pi. I strongly suspect that this is because PortAudio is broken on the Pi. jackd is broken too, but there is a known workaround. I wrote a very hacky test program to open and close PortAudio devices, and it won't work on the Pi. I thought it might have been that I was using a Rocksmith game USB cable and the Pi's audio output. But, I went and borrowed an M-Audio Fasttrack Pro audio interface, and that didn't work at all. Using alsa command line tools for the Rocksmith cable and the Pi's audio output worked fine, so I think it's just portaudio that's broken Hence, the next thing I'm going to try is to extract the PortAudio code from the current application into a separate module. Then, I can replace that module on different operating systems, e.g. use a module written to use ALSA for the Pi. That may be a workaround which would then still allow me to develop on the Mac, generally much quicker than the Pi. Here's my very horribly formatted and written command line test program which uses PortAudio to copy the input to the output. It first uses the default audio devices, then allows the user to type in some device numbers to try hardware other than the default. If anyone else has a Pi and various audio hardware, it would be useful if they could give this a try. I'm not adverse to sharing the looper code, but just want to get it into better shape first. This is compiled with the command: gcc -o testpa testpa.c -lportaudio [quote] #include <stdio.h> #include <portaudio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <strings.h> #define SAMPLE_RATE 44100 static int rooperCallback( const void *inputBuffer, void *outputBuffer, unsigned long framesPerBuffer, const PaStreamCallbackTimeInfo* timeInfo, PaStreamCallbackFlags statusFlags, void *userData ); typedef struct { double value; } paData; paData data; void devices(); void openNamed(); PaStream *stream; main( int argc, char *argv[] ) { char temp[1024]; PaError err = Pa_Initialize(); printf( "Initialising portaudio, error %d\n", err ); if ( err != paNoError ) { fprintf( stderr, "Unable to initialise portaudio\n" ); exit( -1 ); } data.value = 1; err = Pa_OpenDefaultStream( &stream, 1, 2, paFloat32, SAMPLE_RATE, 256, rooperCallback, &data ); printf( "Opening portaudio, error %d\n", err ); if ( err != paNoError ) { fprintf( stderr, "Unable to open default stream\n" ); exit( -1 ); } err = Pa_StartStream( stream ); printf( "starting stream, error %d\n", err ); if ( err != paNoError ) { fprintf( stderr, "Unable to start default stream\n" ); exit( -1 ); } printf( "hit <return> to continue\n" ); fgets( temp, 1024, stdin ); Pa_StopStream( stream ); devices(); openNamed(); printf( "Hit <return> to continue\n" ); fgets( temp, 1024, stdin ); Pa_StopStream( stream ); } static int rooperCallback( const void *inputBuffer, void *outputBuffer, unsigned long framesPerBuffer, const PaStreamCallbackTimeInfo* timeInfo, PaStreamCallbackFlags statusFlags, void *userData ) { /* Cast data passed through stream to our structure. */ paData *data = (paData*)userData; float *out = (float*)outputBuffer; float *in = (float*)inputBuffer; int i; for ( i = 0; i < framesPerBuffer; i++ ) { out[2*i] = in[i]; out[2*i+1] = in[i]; } } const PaDeviceInfo *deviceInfo; void devices() { int numDevices = Pa_GetDeviceCount(); int index; printf( "The number of devices is %d\n", numDevices ); for ( index = 0; index < numDevices; index++ ) { deviceInfo = Pa_GetDeviceInfo( index ); printf( "[%d] %s #in=%d #out=%d\n", index, deviceInfo->name, deviceInfo->maxInputChannels, deviceInfo->maxOutputChannels ); } } void openNamed() { int fromD; int toD = 0; PaError err; char temp[1024]; PaStreamParameters inputParameters; PaStreamParameters outputParameters; printf( "Type in device numbers for input and output hittng <return> after each one.\n" ); printf( "input: " ); fgets( temp, 1024, stdin ); fromD = atoi( temp ); printf( "output: " ); fgets( temp, 1024, stdin ); toD = atoi( temp ); printf( "input: %d, output: %d\n", fromD, toD ); bzero( &inputParameters, sizeof( inputParameters ) ); inputParameters.channelCount = 1; inputParameters.device = fromD; // Rocksmith cable inputParameters.hostApiSpecificStreamInfo = NULL; inputParameters.sampleFormat = paFloat32; inputParameters.suggestedLatency = Pa_GetDeviceInfo(fromD)->defaultLowInputLatency ; inputParameters.hostApiSpecificStreamInfo = NULL; bzero( &outputParameters, sizeof( outputParameters ) ); outputParameters.channelCount = 2; outputParameters.device = toD; // hardware output outputParameters.hostApiSpecificStreamInfo = NULL; outputParameters.sampleFormat = paFloat32; outputParameters.suggestedLatency = Pa_GetDeviceInfo(toD)->defaultLowOutputLatency ; outputParameters.hostApiSpecificStreamInfo = NULL; err = Pa_IsFormatSupported( &inputParameters, &outputParameters, SAMPLE_RATE ); if( err == paFormatIsSupported ) { printf( "Hooray!\n"); } else { printf("Too Bad.\n"); return; } err = Pa_OpenStream( &stream, &inputParameters, &outputParameters, SAMPLE_RATE, 256, paNoFlag, rooperCallback, (void *)&data ); if ( err != paNoError ) { printf( "Unable to open portAudio stream\n" ); } else { printf( "The stream is now opened\n" ); } err = Pa_StartStream( stream ); if ( err != paNoError ) { printf( "Unable to start portAudio stream\n" ); } else { printf( "The stream is now running\n" ); } } [/quote] It works fine on my mac, with all sorts of audio hardware. But, it won't work on the Pi with any audio hardware. I tried opening streams reading data as integers instead of floats - that made no difference. This is such a simple program that I would expect it to work if PortAudio was working. It doesn't Edit: Quoting loses the formatting for this program. Anyone who wants the original code can PM me an email address. Edit2: It appears that rewriting the application as a jack client is a better solution, as that should work on the Pi, but also work on the Mac, preventing me have to have different audio code for Mac OS and Linux.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1387124851' post='2308421'] It's the same on here though. I recently advertised a couple of basses for trade, you wouldn't believe the low priced basses I was offered, despite my requirements being quite specifically stated in the adverts. [/quote] I think the impersonal nature, and the bidding format of ebay makes it more acceptable to put on these low bids. It's part of the game in a way. I wouldn't feel right making an absolutely silly offer via the 'best offer' feature of ebay. And there's no way that I would make a silly offer to a basschatter. There's a bass for sale on here right now where the price that would be so low that I'd just have to pull the trigger even though it's not quite what I want is only £20 less than the asking price (it's an inexpensive bass). But, I just can't make a lower offer than what I already consider a low price.

[quote name='odysseus' timestamp='1384985995' post='2283271'] 5 years ago I was in a band which used midi foot pedals. Somehow the main man was able to assign certain chords and/or notes to certain pedals for certain songs in order to play them behind the rest of the music. I should have asked back then how it was done, but that was then. It is certainly doable, but I'm unsure how. [/quote] This would be a complete doddle in Max/MSP. It would be easy to make a patch which accepted MIDI notes, knew which key it was in, and created different chords for different notes. E.g. if the key was C major, then you could say that your chords would be: C=C major C# = Erm, what would be the most useful choice here D = Dm Eb = Eb major E = Em F = F maj Gb = Erm, what would be the most useful choice here G = G7 (just to be fancy) Ab = Ab major A = Am Bb = Bb major B = Bdim Then, pressing one pedal note would give you a chord. If someone wanted a patch to do this, it would take me about ten minutes to make one in Max/MSP. You wouldn't need Max/MSP to run it, you could use the free Max runtime. EDIT: Damn me and my OCD about computer hacking when I should be doing other stuff. Here's how you turn pedal notes into chords. This doesn't do all the modes, only Ionian is filled in with actual chords. It would take no time at all to add in additional chords for the other modes, but a lot of headscratching and time do decide what chords would make most sense to use in each of the modes. I used C# and F# for an inversion of C major and G7 respectively, though in hindsight that's confusing and I should have chosen chords with those root notes for those keys. It's confusing to play a C# and get a C chord (of some type), particularly in other keys. But, fundamentally, this is how you make a single note on a pedal become a whole chord. Note that the real work is done inside a custom object, but posting computer code on this forum may not be a popular action.

Never seen a Gibson Les Paul with a headstock like this. http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/les-paul-guitar/1042014930#photo-content

I mentioned this Ovation USA made acoustic further up this thread. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ovation-B768-Elite-Acoustic-Bass-Guitar-Black-Including-Hard-Case-/271341979667?ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBUAA:GB:3160 Isn't £392 an utter bargain for this? When I looked into other sales, they were over a grand.

I wonder why Epiphone don't make five string versions of either the Zenith nor the Jack Casady basses.

Arrggh!!! I've finally installed the program on the Raspberry Pi, and I can't get it to work. When I try and open audio input and output, portaudio (audio i/o library) fails, and I have no idea why. Posting on forums and doing experiments to try and find out why. Also, I've discovered that there is a new release of the Raspberry Pi which has double the memory. This would mean probably triple the memory available to my program. It's pretty obvious that for a looper, it will be too much of an advantage to have 3x the memory to not upgrade.

I keep on thinking up ways that they would be useful. By some means, I will need to enable my feet. However, thinking about it, I need the buttons to send MIDI. If they don't, if they only change the internal state of the pedals, then I can't use those ones. I've got the manual and am going through it. Edit: Wait a second, that's not try. Even if the buttons only make the pedals change internal mode, they transmit MIDI data on different channels in some of those modes. Hence, the pedals could control multiple functions by using, say, MIDI channel 10 as transmitted in drum mode as a control channel.

I hope this thread isn't too self-obsessed, but I've just seen a set of second hand Roland PK-5A MIDI pedals for £199. I'm overcome with gear lust for these, In one thread http://basschat.co.uk/topic/224561-multi-instrument-playing/, I was asking about playing a keyboard with one hand while tapping with one hand to be able to produce a bit more music when playing solo. If I had pedals, I could play stuff with my feet, then I would still have two hands free for the bass. On that thread there was also a comment about playing some drums with the feet while playing bass, and that was very interesting. With MIDI foot pedals, I could play simple drum parts with my feet, overdubbing more drums if I'm using a looper. In another thread, I'm discussing a looper that I'm writing myself. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/218120-diy-looper-project/ It's currently in a getting near to usable state, but the big problem is the interface hardware. I'm looking at buying foot switches at £3 each or so then needing to mount them in a big enclosure to go on the floor. If I had some PK-5A pedals, then I could make my looper be controlled primarily through MIDI, using the pedals of the PK-5 as control buttons. If I write the code so that there is a configurable mapping between different types of MIDI events and commands to control the looper, then I could easily have it that the pedals can do all sorts of functions, using the other switches on the pedals to change mode. It would also make it much easier for other people to use my looper when it gets released to the world, as they could configure the looper to accept input from whatever MIDI devices they have to hand, not needing additional hardware or electrical building. I also wouldn't need a big casing for my looper, I could attach my Pi in its plexiglass case to the PK-5A with velcro or something. I do spend a carefully limited amount of money on myself, and this would mean no fretless bass for a while. As well as some other compromises. But, I've just seen these pedals and I'm just thinking MUST HAVE MUST HAVE MUST HAVE. Any comments/advice? Edit: In hindsight, it's not clear what I'm asking. But, is there anyone that has taught themselves to play with bass pedals and/or used them to control equipment?

Congratulations

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1386958530' post='2306895'] Only reason I didn't bid on this was that it ran out at 7.30 this morning and I wasn't up in time for a last-second punt! Silly low price it went for - wonder why on earth he advertised it like that? Jon. [/quote] I think he was just unlucky. It caught our attention, and maybe elsewhere as well. But it's ebay and seller's mileage may well vary. If I recall correctly, the fretless VMJs were going for £150 or so a couple of years ago, but I thought they had appreciated recently. I've always been a bit tempted by them.

How do people rein in the temptation to try and learn everything at once. I know full well that I should stick to a reasonable path, concentrating on things before moving on. But the temptation to just try to do all sorts of things is very strong, and I often give into it. I was trying to tap today.

Somebody, not me, got a bargain. Only a tenner over my stupidly low bid.

[quote name='JakeBrownBass' timestamp='1386883466' post='2306063'] Alex Al had to do it in the rehearsals for this is it. [/quote] Interesting. I found your quote here: http://www.bassplayer.com/article/men-in-the-mirror-the-bassists-of-michael-jackson-how-alex-al-and-his-predecessors-pumped-up-the-king-of-pop/4769