MartinB

First gig for Black Hole Jets! I am likely to be playing it sitting on a chair, as I've recently ruptured my achilles tendon

We're all on headphones for band practice; I use a pair of (over-ear) Audio Technica ATH-M50s. I'm direct to the mixer, the (acoustic) drums are mic'd, and the guitar amp goes to an isolation cab. The only sound in the room when not wearing headphones is the drums, the vocals, some muffled noise from the iso cab, and quiet twanging of guitar strings. I was originally using in-ears, but it turned out that full isolation just wasn't needed - the M50s are enough to get the drums to a comfortable volume, and the cymbals that get muffled I can bring back in through the mixer. And they're a lot more comfortable to wear for a long period, and less faff to get in and out.

I was looking at a Debut as a modding base, but I ended up going for a Sonic instead (£30 more), because the average weights of the Sonics seemed to be lower. Mine came in at 8lb 11oz; not a boat anchor but more than I was expecting. Now that I've hacked a cavity in it big enough for a MM-type pickup, and some weight relief holes under the scratchplate, it's 8lb 4oz, and I should be able to get it down to 8lb with lightweight tuners. Spent about £230 in total so far. Proper alnico pickup and 2-band Stingray pre-amp circuit. Definitely better value than those new passive ceramic pickup Sterlings at £349

I've never had shocks, but I've had crackling sounds when touching the scratchplate of a guitar where that scratchplate is quite large (e.g. Jazzmaster). It's easily fixed by adding some conductive tape to the back of the scratchplate, and making sure that this is grounded - e.g. run another bit of tape out of the body cavity where there is shielding or conductive paint, so that the two are in contact when the plate is screwed on.

Paging @agedhorse

Popular, contemporary, funk - pick two. You're unlikely to find any real funk, but something moderately funky is a possibility - pop acts have been drawing from the early 80's post-disco/boogie well for years now. This year's "song of the summer" is one example:

GHS Pressurewound strings might be worth a look. The 44-106 set (M7200) is slightly higher tension that bog standard rounds (and the E is good amount tighter, which is great since that's usually the floppiest string), but their construction also makes them feel stiffer. Unfortunately, being GHS, they are a bit spendy 💸

Roughly equivalent to standing 7 feet further away from an amp, IIRC

That looks cool! 😎

£499 at Andertons! 💸 https://www.andertons.co.uk/Squier-FSR-Classic-Vibe-Bass-VI-in-SSP/

You could attach one of those anti-static wristbands to the bridge 😆

I'm not convinced that tortoiseshell works with olive. It'd look better with a black pickguard and pickup covers. Or off-white.

Silver sparkle listing has appeared on the Thomann website: https://www.thomann.de/gb/squier_ltd_cv_bass_vi_lrl_ssp.htm

Maybe a Pedaltrain Booster would work? I've seen people add feet to these and use them as pedalboards. The PB2 looks about the right size to have the Stomp on the top, and the battery velcro-ed underneath.

Mick Jagger had his own doubts about it thirty years ago: -- interview in Rolling Stone magazine, 1995

Yep! https://thelittleguitarshop.com/

I'd love to see a really simple sample player pedal, where you shove in an SD card and have like two footswitches for "Play current sample" and "Go to next sample". Often thought about doing it myself with an Electrosmith Daisy or similar in a box, but obviously never got round to it 😆. The closest I've seen is the Electro-Faustus Simulacrum, but they're unobtanium and apparently have a problem with switch clicking noises when activated. Usually people recommend the Boss Loop Station or Digitech JamMan for foot-triggering of samples, but these are full-on loopers and seem like overkill. If you've got a keyboard player then life is easy, because either their unit can play samples, or they can tape a crap-but-cheap-and-functional Akai MPX-8 to it. Or even just use a phone/tablet/whatever. Life is easier for people who are sitting down and not using both hands all the time. A drummer with an electronic percussion pad is another good option, although they have to spend a fair amount to get one that can actually load user samples. This is one of those subjects I've spent far too much time thinking about 🙈

Let's see... according to Thomann, the cheapest Music Man is £2,666; the cheapest MIA Fender is £1,369; and the cheapest Rickenbacker is £2,222. The Harley Benton equivalents are £162, £111, and £195 respectively. So I'll take the Music Man please, and then sell it for sixteen Harley Bentons 😆 In all seriousness, if someone gave me £2,666 that could only be spent on basses, I'd be looking for two to five that cover different sonic territory (P with flats, MM, fretless, etc)

The siren on surf classic "Squad Car" was played using a saxophone mouthpiece: Seems like it can be done using other brass* mouthpieces as well, though I have no idea how difficult this is: * Yes, I know sax is technically a woodwind 😝

The Stomp's outputs are balanced, so you can run them straight to the desk. They're just TRS sockets, rather than the XLR ones on the average DI box. Just needs the right cable, or an adapter something like this:

What's special about the DI part of the EBS - is it doing something more than just outputting a balanced signal?

The headstock is pre-snapped on this one

Any idea what's going to be different about the bass Jive? The current one seems to be popular with bassists, so I wonder what they think needs changing.

It's a big promotional thing for a new Beach Boys documentary that's coming to Disney+. A cynic might say that they're primarily aimed at selling to collectors who will snap up any official BB merch, and any usage for actually making music is just a bonus 😉