Beer of the Bass

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379771588' post='2216624'] Also Lace seem to manage to produce a pickup (Alumitone) with almost no wire in it at all that operates at normal output levels without the need to boost the signal (and of course all the unwanted non-string noises that also get picked up and amplified). [/quote] The Lace Alumitones are an interesting pickup, as they are in effect a single turn coil formed by the body of the pickup. So they're ultra-low impedance, even compared to more conventional low impedance pickups like the active EMGs. They've got their own matching transformer built in to the body of the pickup to avoid the need for a dedicated preamp.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1379687023' post='2215742'] Oh, but that's simple. A pot is essentially a resistor, and as any resistor will have a certain frequency response for starters. [/quote] Can you explain how a resistor could vary with frequency, unless it was also behaving as an inductor? I am not convinced that a simple carbon track pot has enough inductance to make a difference here. I brought up the issue because I do not believe that fitting higher quality pots of the same value will alter the sound of an instrument in any way (although it can be a worthy upgrade for other reasons), and the cases where people think it did can be explained by conformation bias or because they have corrected other issues (such as bad solder joints) in the process.

Is it OK an octave up on the A-string? My bass was really wolfy around the octave A with Spiros, and I found that one of those little brass wolf-eliminator weights carefully placed on the afterlength evened it right out.

I don't know if your outbuilding is too small for it to be an option, but a little woodburner (of the sort found in hippy vans/canal boats/yurts etc.) might do a good job of keeping the damp off. As well as heating, they keep the air circulating, and the combination of the two keeps the humidity down.

I've settled on Spirocore Mittels for the moment. The arco sound tends to be on the bright side and takes some practice to control well, but nothing else I've tried quite gets the growly pizz sound I like. I also have close to zero budget for experimentation at the moment, so working with a long-lasting string which I already own two sets of is the only sensible option. I think my old bass is just about dark enough that the Spirocores complement it nicely, while on a brighter sounding bass they might be grating. On the current bass (old German flatback), I've also tried Innovation Honeys, but ended up going back to the Spiros. The Honeys were pleasant to play and easier with the bow, but I kept wanting that Spirocore pizz sound back. On my last bass (plywood), I've also been through Thomastik Superflexibles (sort of like Spiros with less growl) and Thomastik Dominants (fantastic, loud, just enough growl but horribly breakable).

Out of curiosity, has the Zoom stuff got better in the past few years? I had the first generation 506 (from around 1996) and while it did some fun stuff, the sound on cleaner patches or bypassed was definitely lacking something compared to plugging straight to the amp. I still have it in a cupboard somewhere, it might be fun to dig it out some time...

[quote name='Norm' timestamp='1379585789' post='2214397'] a long while ago somebody posted some Zappa stuff with a pick playing bassman. I cannot for the life of me remember the track or the players name but only the fact it was an ace bit of playing! Surprising to hear a pick player on that jazzy, jazzfunk Zappa thang! Hopefully somebody will be along soon to enlighten & refresh my fast disappearing memory? ;-) [/quote] Will this be Scott Thunes? I know Silddx on here is a real Thunes enthusiast, so it may have been him posting it. Zappa had several pick-playing bassists over the years - I'd guess he liked that sound and sought them out.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1379585089' post='2214385'] You can pick up a second hand Pitchblack for about £35, so its not like the "good" ones are all that expensive anyway. If you're on a tight budget I quite often just take my Snark clip-on tuner to gigs and rehearsals, that works absolutely brilliantly and is considerably cheaper than any pedal tuner (I think mine cost me a tenner). [/quote] Just for an alternate view on the Snark, mine works well for only a couple of weeks until the battery gets low, and it leaves blue marks on my headstock. I don't like it very much!

I've got one of the Harley Benton (Thomann) tuners, the one that looks like a Boss TU2 copy. I've seen them branded Beta Aivin too. It reads the B string without any trouble and seems fine to use. The only issue I've had is that it doesn't like to have the power supply daisy chained with a high gain fuzz, as it causes noise in the fuzz. That may be specific to my particular pedals though.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1379514227' post='2213563'] This is the whole reason for laminated necks. There are several, smaller resonances which has much less effect than a single large resonance. [/quote] I'm really not so certain about this. If the neck laminations are solidly bonded together (as they would have to be), surely they'd respond to vibration as a single unit. I'd see it more as a way of increasing the stiffness and stability of the neck.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1379512685' post='2213539'] anyways im interested to know more about these half pots and exactly how they cause the sound to be a bit sheepish and any recommendations of where to get replacements please thank you very much [/quote] This can be a bit of a can of worms on here. No-one has been able to adequately explain (IMO) why cheaper pots would affect the sound compared to more expensive pots of the same value, although many are adamant that CTS or similar sound better. The higher quality pots do feel nicer, last longer and have a better taper though.

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1379442339' post='2212829'] Obviously good for metal, but do they sound good? [/quote] A friend of mine has one of these. For something so weird looking, it doesn't sound odd at all. My friends example mostly sounds like the set of ancient strings that he's had on it for years.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1379360898' post='2211835'] Dunno about most, within certain genres maybe. Even the SVT is fairly clean up until its cranked into drive. Loads of bass is done straight to desk, can't really do much cleaner than that. Like Motown. [/quote] Even straight to desk, there's a lot of voicing applied by preamps, EQ, compression, tape saturation etc. on the "classic" recordings, especially Motown. Bass forums regularly have threads about people not getting their P-bass or Jazz to sound like their favourite recordings. So it's a good observation about bass tone in general, but hardly Rickenbacker specific. I could see that the hardware and narrow string spacing might make some players less comfortable using certain right-hand techniques, so that could be perceived as a lack of versatility perhaps. I had to change out the Rickenfaker bridge on my oddball DIY bass for a Hipshot because of the palm muting issue, and the pickup cover (or gaping hole) on a Ric could limit what you can do fingerstyle too.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1379350079' post='2211579'] Definite theme of all the tone come from a driven valve amp going on, even Macca, who you wouldn't generally associate with drive, has a small combo pushed thing going on. [/quote] You could say much the same of most bass tones from the past few decades though. And even many of the supposedly "Hi-Fi" tones depend on a heavily voiced signal chain of some sort too...

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1379331746' post='2211278'] I had one of these with the DD pickups, and compared to the standard pickups in my Mexican jazz, they were indeed quieter and slightly wooly sounding. Stick some Basslines in there or even some Wilkinsons. [/quote] The Mexican Fender pickups have ceramic magnets, so they'll tend to be louder and brighter than a typical vintage style alnico pickup. I don't think this is a reflection on quality, more the style of pickup.

I like that too. For some reason I can picture it being used in a polka band, with a big sparkly Weltmeister accordian, matching waistcoats and moustaches!

It's odd, I thought the usual thing in pro sound would be to run a DI before the amp in addition to miking the speaker. Surely if they'd been doing that, the sound guys could have turned up the DI fader to FOH and put some in the sidefills within seconds of the amp going down? I wonder if the Soundgarden bassist is one of these guys who is unusually insistent about not having a DI there at all?

It's a job that any luthier should be able to do, but I think the issue is more the cost of the work (at most luthiers' hourly rate) is greater than the market value of the bass. It might make a good project if you wanted to learn how to do it yourself though.

I'm sure those cost less less than a new TNT combo did in the 90s. I paid £235 for a new Mark III head in about '96 or '97 (I had to save up for ages, being a teenager), and I think the combos were more expensive. I guess it's just the way gear prices are going.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1379239082' post='2210059'] Tell them they'll need to get a dep to cover the Christmas gig. Let them see how hard it is to find a player who actually wants the gig. They'll also notice how vans do cost money and drivers are needed. Also, if they won't have a meeting it does raise the question; "what issues do they know of that they DON'T want to face up to?" Good luck [/quote] We've already had that conversation and agreed not to accept the gig, so no worries there. The thread is more about me being surprised that we needed to have that conversation at all, since if it had been me opening the email from the promoter, they'd have got a polite no straight off the bat.

[quote name='maldy' timestamp='1379192352' post='2209763'] Totally agree with this and this happened to me in an old band. There was one member who would accept any gig. Sometimes ones that would pay us in beer. This was good for him because he didn't drive, but not so good for the rest of us. I talked to the rest of the band and we all agreed it was not on. Next time it happened I spoke up expecting the rest of the band to back me up. The buggers didn't and I looked like the spoil sport for turning down the gig! [/quote] Gawd, yes! We played at a beer festival last year, with lots of enticing ales and though it paid OK, they also gave us beer tokens. I was driving, inevitably. If only you could get doggy bags for beer...

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1379158315' post='2209233'] I think it happens to a lot of bands - when you're ready to start gigging, anything seems like a good offer because, if nothing else, it gives you a chance to test out the unit, see what people think, etc. After a while, you become more confident that the band is competent and liked, and you don't really need those gigs any more - that's when various band members start considering the cost:benefit ratio. Looks like you're just the first one to reach that stage. I'd hope that, as long as everyone's polite and upfront about it, it shouldn't do any lasting damage to put your foot down occasionally! [/quote] That's a good way to think about it. I've got about 5 years gigging experience over the rest of the band, and I went through that early stage you describe with another band entirely. So if I'm annoyed about it, it's because I'm going along for the ride with the rest of the band on the same trial and error process which I'd already been through myself.

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1379172187' post='2209472'] Miserable buggers. I've always just played for the love of it. Never thought about cost. I've wasted money on worse things than gigs [/quote] I can see where you're coming from, but if we're going to play gigs for the love of it, we have to ask ourselves "will we love this gig?" rather than ranking all gig offers equally. There are some gigs which break even or make a small loss which can still be worth doing for a whole host of reasons. I had a good chat about this with the band today, and fortunately we seem to getting to a bit more of a consensus on what we're looking for in a gig.

I've declined this particular gig, but there's definitely a difference in attitude between the band members. I guess that my being a couple of years older and married affects things too. A couple of days after Christmas I intend to be relaxing with family and friends not running around sorting out van rentals and hanging around half empty hotel function rooms, though I would probably make an exception if it paid well. I'm not even solely focussed on the money side of things - there are some paying gigs I'd be happier not doing (certain pubs) and some expenses only gigs which I love doing (certain smaller festivals which I would have been at anyway). I guess I just don't have that attitude that having a gig is always better than no gig, which I need to talk about with the band.

This must be a common issue! In one of my bands, the member who does most of the gig bookings is not very good at saying no to gig offers. We've had a couple of gigs in the past where we've been left out of pocket, playing to oblivious audiences and wondering why we bothered. Currently I'm trying to explain to the band why I'm not keen on doing an out-of-town charity gig in between Christmas and New Year, where I'll have to rent a vehicle to shift our gear (I'm the only driver) and the promoter is offering "as little as possible" in payment. We do still get plenty of gigs which feel worth doing, but I feel like we could be more selective. Any tips on getting my viewpoint across without seeming like a grumpy b@stard?