Beer of the Bass

Another wee rant under the header of gig etiquette; Dear Other Band, yes, I know changover times are limited, but I could pack my gear a lot faster if you hadn't just dumped all your sh*t on top of it two seconds after my last note rang out. And our singer/guitarist could get off much quicker if the "promoter" didn't stand in the middle of her cables and pedals to call the raffle. Grrrr! This happened to us this evening, and we were not impressed.

[quote name='arthurhenry' timestamp='1369561874' post='2090380'] Then there's the person who, despite the availability of a house rig, or one provided by a player who's more than happy to share, insists on using their own rig, as they absolutely must have their "sound" for the half hour set to four people. Sound engineers love them. [/quote] Sure, there's a happy medium to be found in there somewhere. If there's either a house rig or decent communication and organisation between bands, it's often practical to share at this type of gig. But if I'm not certain what I'm going to find when I get to a gig, I'll bring a small rig which I can set up in less time than the drummer setting up his cymbals and the guitarist plugging in his pedals. I do insist on using my own amp for guitar though, as I use the tremolo and reverb on the amp a lot and it barely takes a minute to stick a combo on the stage and move the mic over.

I used to think I was daft worrying about other people using my gear, but then I played a gig a few weeks ago, a four-band fundraiser sort of thing where the promoter told us one of the bands was "bringing the bass amp". The only problem with this was that they were an acoustic outfit, the bassist had a nice little AI contra combo, and two of the other bands were loud rock bands. The amp was run in constant fart mode and kept cutting out entirely. On this type of gig, I bring my own small rig along even where the promoter tells me another band is bringing one. The needs of different bands vary widely, and you can't expect someone in a folk band to be lugging something that will satisfy a rocker, or a metaller to supply something that will work for double bass etc. I will share gear by prior arrangement, but in practice I only do this on gigs where we know who the other bands are and we've spoken to them about it. Those tend to be better gigs than the sort with hopeless promoters and a random selection of the first three bands who said yes!

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1369339362' post='2088148'] The continued sale of decades old 'fakers has arguably almost zero impact on the finances RIC, and certainly less of a direct impact than the secondhand sale of genuine Ricks. It remains to be seen how this policy will affect the current demand for Ricks. [/quote] In my case, having a decades old 'faker as my first bass guitar has left me with a fondness for the look, sound, feel and general design of Ric basses which will probably result in me owning one at some point. Admittedly this will not be be at any time in the next couple of years, as my finances aren't up to it, but I fully expect I will pick up a nice mapleglo Ric somewhere down the line. If Ibanez hadn't been able to make their Ric copies, I would probably have never considered this style of bass as an option. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a similar story.

Intriguing reading, but (slightly OT) I wish I hadn't picked up on the references to Roy Estrada in the linked thread and googled him to see what he's up to nowadays. I always enjoyed his playing on the Mothers, Beefheart and Little Feat stuff, so knowing about his later child sex offences is offputting to say the least. I know the records themselves haven't changed, but it still creeps me out a little... On the thread itself, it's great to see Scott Thunes chiming in, and there's a lot of insightful stuff about what goes on in the music business.

The "harder hitting" sound of the Peavey might be to do with EQ. The Hartke has the classic Fender style tone stack, which has a substantial mid-scoop with everything set at noon. This can be a good sound, but it's worth trying it with the midrange on 10 and the bass and treble dialled back well below halfway. This may bring back the midrange punch you seem to be be missing.

I don't [i]need[/i] to change my guitar - it's a cheap AXL which with some setup tweaks does a decent job and has a bit of character about it. (It's this one here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/207429-cheap-looking-things-which-actually-turned-out-to-be-alright/page__view__findpost__p__2075359"]http://basschat.co.u...ost__p__2075359[/url]) But every now and again I fancy something a bit more classic looking, and I'm never sure how much I like the neck finish on the AXL. I was passing by my local music shop this morning and checked out a Squier VM Jazzmaster - I like the looks and it meets my requirements of having a long scale length, single coils and a vibrato tailpiece. I tried the Jaguar too, but didn't get on with the short scale. The quality and finish seem great for the money, it sounds sparkly, spanky and lively and the vibrato works well. The shop setup wasn't perfect, but they never are. The bridge seems like the only obvious shortcoming, as it has a tendency for the saddle springs to rattle and the saddles can move when played hard. As I say, I could carry on playing the AXL, but I think the Jazzmaster would make me smile. Does anyone have any thoughts to persuade or dissuade me?

If you were going to run those two combos in a clean/dirty setup, I'd use the 1x15" for the dirty side. Not so much because of the speaker diameter, but because it doesn't have a tweeter and the 4x10" does. Tweeters and distortion don't go well together IMO.

I'd been using the plain-G D'Addario 11-49 set for a while, I used them because they were about as heavy as I could go before getting into wound-G sets, which have never felt right on electric guitar to me. The 10-52s turn out to work absolutely fine with my Bigsby, and sure enough, looking at the tension charts D'Addario publish they're not really more unbalanced than most other popular sets. I hadn't found those charts when I started the thread! As it is, I'm enjoying the 10-52s as I can get better finger vibrato on the top strings but also dig in harder on the bottom strings than I could with 11-49s. I may go back to D'Addario for the next set though, as the Rotos seem a little darker on the wound strings after a week or so, and I enjoy a bright, glassy sort of sound.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1368471496' post='2077517'] I would have thought that simple foam ones would be more than sufficient for this purpose, seeing as I don't suppose you're wanting to preserve the fidelity of the sounds you're trying to block out? [/quote] I'd agree with that. Plastic filtered plugs like the ER20s are seriously uncomfortable if you try to sleep in them, especially if you sleep with the side of your head against the pillow. I tried this when camping too near the dub tent at a festival! Foam ones work much better if you're sleeping with them in, though you may miss your alarm.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1368297321' post='2075470'] How much was the wallpaper..? [/quote] It was an old roll we picked up in a charity shop, so not much. Don't worry, it's just a wee square of it in the fireplace. A whole room of that pattern would bend my brain...

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1368353926' post='2075927'] I understand an amp is for everyone, but there are so many amps with the same small mid dip its unreal...but because it hasn't become an Internet myth (all Stingrays are one trick ponys etc) no one worries. Check out some of the Gallien amps. Most of them have a similar if not more extreme flat tone. The new MBs have a huge low end, lots if aggressive sizzle, and a dip in the mids. Orange, Fender, even Mesa amps can have it too. [/quote] That's true of the GK MB amps, though there is still some scope for dialling back the bass and treble and turning up the two mid controls to get things close to flat if desired. I saw a post on Talkbass where a guy had measured the response on the MB200 and found the flattest setting to be treble and bass at 10 o'clock and high and low mids at 2 and 1 o'clock. I would appreciate it if amp manufacturers told us this in their manuals as it helps to know where you're starting from with EQ, especially if you want to recreate your sound on other equipment. A bit of a dip in the mids can be flattering with a passive bass (where you've got shedloads of mid to start with, and can stand to lose a little) and I can see why the amp designers do it. The problems arise when something else in the signal chain also has that mid scoop (like many onboard preamps or certain cabs), and things start to sound a little overcooked.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1368292217' post='2075398'] I love that finish! Honestly I don't think that looks like a toy, it's a really cool guitar [/quote] Yeah, I quite like the blue crackle body, it's more the orangey stain and burn marks on the neck, and the faux-rust coloured tuners I have mixed feelings about! I had not very much in my pocket and really fancied a fender-ish single coil guitar for the band I play in, and this has done a surprisingly good job.

This Axl guitar, which was £99 new. I've changed some parts, but it was quite giggable new apart from the nut. As much as it's kind of goofy and toyish looking, I really wouldn't sound any better if I went out and dropped a grand on a US Fender tomorrow.

Roquefort Blue is a truly excellent name for the colour!

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1368244157' post='2074871'] So... what you're saying is - We have a traitor in our midst? Let the witch-hunt commence [/quote] Ah, that'd be me! I don't think I'm a witch, as I weigh more than a duck, but I do have a pointy hat somewhere (unless the clothes moths have eaten that one too). The departing bassist, LawrenceH is also on here, though more of an occasional visitor to BC at the moment. Hey McNach, you and he could compare notes on the rest of us!

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1368015574' post='2072031'] I never bought a Little giant because of the bad press they got. But The Jazz bar in Edinburgh have one as their in house amp and not only does it sound great but it gets a lot of abuse (3 bands per night 7 days per week) and is still working as well as ever. Maybe it just goes to show that, with technology, you only hear about the small minority that go wrong but never hear about the ones that are super reliable. [/quote] Does that mean they've finally got rid of the knackered Peavey that was there last time I played there? Result!

When I've heard my bass DI'd through headphones or studio monitors with no EQ applied, a typical passive bass is surprisingly dull sounding IMO. It takes quite a bit of boost in the range of about 2-5KHz to get it close to the sort of amp sound I look for.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1368131974' post='2073728'] Yeah, it's quite an old rock and roll sound I think. Good for jazz too I suppose. Definitely the opposite of what you want for reggae or funk though. [/quote] I dunno, I could imagine flats sounding good for some types of reggae guitar. Ernest Ranglin (legendary Studio One guitarist and the man who coined the word Ska) was a jazzer on the sly, and it shows in his playing.

Maybe I have cloth ears, but I've only noticed cables affecting the sound if they're long (6m and upwards), curly or the really cheap skinny ones with moulded plugs. Longer or curly ones do reduce the highs a little, in much the same way as turning down a passive tone control a touch. If you're the sort who's going to cut that treble somewhere in the chain anyway, I can see how that might be no problem. I do see the point of going for the higher quality cables for reliability though. I've had several jack plugs die on me, but never the better Neutrik ones.

[quote name='longtimefred' timestamp='1368128103' post='2073663'] Its also one dirty rock bass player giving another dirty rock bass player and long time friend a bit of jib about his crappy little broken toy amplifier can see how some people dont understand but thats just how we roll. Time to worry when the insults stop [/quote] Sure, and pointing out casual homophobia is how I roll. No real offence taken, and back to the thread...

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1368119326' post='2073505'] 10-52's are grand, until you try to use them with re-issue Fender F-tuners, such as may be found on certain of FMIC's output and available as 'period-correct'. [/quote] That's a curious one. Are those the the 70's style tuners? An old bandmate used to string his Japanese 60's reissue strat with 13-56 with no problems, so I presume so. That was a good sounding guitar, though really not bend friendly! My cheap chinese Schaller rip-offs take the 52 gauge string just fine, fortunately.

[quote name='longtimefred' timestamp='1365348626' post='2038320'] I think it's telling you need it sounding manly rather than a big wet gay sound that are obviously trying to make it sound. So stop being a homo and grind it up [/quote] This will probably get me tagged as one of the humourless PC brigade, but what on earth constitutes a gay bass sound? I've heard gay bassists playing with about the same range of sounds as straight or bi ones!

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1368094098' post='2073033'] I'm actually planning something like that on the guitar cabs... [/quote] Although I hope you're not going for the same material as this one, even if it would make for a lightweight cab!