chris_b

I was walking/staggering home after a gig and the case opened. My P bass fell out and bounced down the road. I just picked it up and put it back in the case. Next day I saw some very large gouges out of the top of the body. It was a shame but what is done is done. The impacts became part of the life of that bass. I did buy another case.

I wouldn't start screwing anything into my cabs. When I wanted to stack my Bergs on their sides I just bought some rubber feet and placed them in between the cabs. Kept them in my accessories bag. I got mine from Maplins but Blue Aran do them too.

When you start hearing things you don't like about your gear, it's time to move on. Time to upgrade and buy one you like the sound of right out of the box.

The guy giving me lessons has shown me different ways to play stuff I've been playing for years. . . and opened my eyes. On some of it I've gone home worked at the lines and come up with "better" and more comfortable ways of playing his lines, ie playing on different parts of the fretboard, starting on a different string, etc. He is happy that I have adapted his method and made it my own.

This isn't classical music. There is no such thing as cheating. All the top players will have good technique, but they all have their own style and method of playing as well. If it sounds good then do it. If you can make something easier to play, and get the same results, then work on that. Do everything in stages.

As long as you are following "orders"? Nothing. Stuff may not be what it seems, but context is everything. As long as you sound good or look the part and the guy who is paying you is happy then it is all good. I've never been replaced by a session player on a gig or record, but I've been in bands who have initially done that with a drummer and brass section. The guys were cool. They got paid, got the glory and did the rest of the work once they were up to speed. I have mimed to tracks on TV and on a live show, where we only did 2 numbers, because they didn't have the facilities for a live sound or the engineers to mix what we were playing. I'd rather be miming to a well played record than sounding terrible at the hands of a guy who doesn't know about how the band should sound. Stuff happens. Learn from the bad, remember the good and variety is always fun.

Practice is the only thing that will get your ability and technique up to speed. Use a metronome and set it to a count where you can just about play that line. It'll get very boring, but you keep playing it until you feel comfortable and it is easy to play. Then you speed up the Metronome a little. Go around that loop until you can play along comfortably with the record.

OK. Seems like you've covered all my suggestions. I don't know what to suggest next. For me the ER15's then the PRO17's filtered to the right level across all the bands I play in, from quieter to louder. Our sound must be very different. I have never "lost" the bass wearing my plugs.

I'm taking lessons. I told the guy I was bored with my rut and I wanted him to find me a new one. So far it's working really well. I'm probably tool old to carve out a completely new rut, but the current one is a lot wider and far more interesting.

Yes, but only if it is the resignation of the guy causing the problem.

No. I'm not a fan of rehearsing at high volume. If you are rehearsing at gig volumes then you should be setting up as you would on a gig. So whether the problem is the way you place the back-line, or other players, or the room, or the volume you rehearse at I can't say, but my guess would be that the plugs are working as intended and they are high-lighting problems with your rehearsal process. My experience with band rehearsals is that the gear placed around the room in a circle and you all have each others amps pointing at you. I usually had the guitar amp pointing at me! Turning up the bass just makes the guy across the room turn up and you get nowhere. Everyone playing in a loud band is going deaf. This is happening at different rates but the end will usually be the same result. I'd guess that if you thought it was worth paying this amount of money to protect your hearing you are already experiencing some "issues". You've got to give these plugs a chance. One rehearsal is too early to give up on them. You are putting a filter between you and the sound waves so everything you hear will sound different. The balance can change but you just need to acclimatise. I'm not sure how you can have a sound that disappears when you put the plugs in. Maybe your sound is one that is filtered out, but I haven't had that. When I use the plugs the bass sounds bassier and louder to me. Raising the cab will change what you hear, but I think your rehearsal is the problem. IMO taking the plugs out and carrying on without them is the last thing you should be doing.

Why is quitting the first advice that is always given in these threads. Is this guy the band leader? If he isn't then nicely tell him to stick it. If it is his band then the rules are different. I'd still try to negotiate the end of this micro managing, but either way you've got to come up with interesting parts that show you can be trusted to think for yourself. Quitting should only ever be a last resort and be way down the list.

Being "picky" about what you are willing to play is fine, but if you are sitting at home waiting for something "great" to turn up you're also getting rusty and dropping further to the back of other musicians memory banks. When playing you are meeting different players, you're networking, you're keeping match fit. There are possibilities you don't get with something like JMB. A band might be temporary and not your ultimate aim but IMO most playing is better than not playing at all and better opportunities present themselves when you are "out there" and part of a music "scene".

The last time I needed a back up amp (and I didn't have one!!) was to cover last valve amp I owned. Bloody valves!! In the late 90's I bought a new Mesa 400+ from the Bass Centre, which popped a valve the moment that Chris and me took it out of the box in the shop. Then carried on blowing valves over the next 5 months that I owned it. It went back 4 or 5 times but they never found the problem. In the end Nick (good guy) offered me a swap with an Ampeg SVT3-PRO. I lost a fortune on that deal (but not as bad as the deal Barry wanted. He tried to get me to give them the 400+ and buy the Ampeg for half price!!) but I was happy to get rid of an expensive and unreliable pile of poo. I could get great sounds out of that Ampeg, through my Mesa cabs, and I used it for the next 8 or so years. By which time the cabs, which weighed about 100lbs each, had permanently damaged my back!! I've done a couple of thousand gigs since and haven't needed a back up since moving to SS and D class amps. A great idea that went very wrong.

I'd guess the starting point is Flatwound strings. The rest might include setup and an over driven amp. Later in the song it doesn't sound like he's using any pedals, but as pedals are a black hole for me so I don't know if he's using any or not

Ask first and they should be happy for you to try the basses. They'll probably want to "supervise" and set up the amps for you. As an older gent, I've noticed that I don't get hassled so much in shops when I pick up a bass. I didn't try any last time I was at BD, but didn't I see some had locks on the hangers? I'll always say Hi first and ask if they mind me trying out the basses. I'll probably play a dozen basses but only plug in 1 or 2, or maybe none. I can tell if I'm interested without an amp.

Love this playing. . .

Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart.

Yep. If you have the gear to hand give it a run through.

Plainly you are not reading what I'm writing. I'm not bickering with you . Good-bye.

I don't think so. In this case, and apparently with some other German car manufacturers, it was illegal activity and they were just plain cheating their customers and the regulatory bodies. Of course you would care because you were getting worse fuel economy that they were being told, ie driving was costing more than they were leading you to believe. There are no parallels between this and the TC subject at all.

I wouldn't bet on that. People didn't like the tone and others wanted to kick TC about their marketing claims, but I haven't yet seen a post that says these amps were too quiet. TC sold 500 watt and 750 watt "boosted" amps. These amps stood up against all other amps in their class in terms of volume. That's why they sold and there were many happy users. Let me repeat, many happy users. I had the Staccato and RH750. They were loud enough to rattle your fillings out. Whether you like the tone or not is a preference, that they were loud enough is a fact. I sold the RH750 to fund my Thunderfunk, but this "nonsense", obviously caused by TC's marketing dept, has more to do with internet "experts" than it does TC.

So you guys are saying that it doesn't matter how good an amp sounds, the only thing that matters is the design spec? Pull the other one! TC were selling a 250 watt amp that was as loud as a 500 watt amp. The only "problem" you've got is they called it 500 watts. As it was as loud as a 500 watt amp then is anyone really going to feel short changed when they start gigging and find it is as loud as all the other 500 watt amps? As I say the "noise" came from internet armchair experts. The guys who gigged those TC amps were happy their amps were performing well.

You say that as if what an amp sounds like doesn't matter! The loudest noise and most condemnation came from people who had never seen or heard a TC amp. Sadly, what TC didn't say was their amp was equivalent to a 500 watt amp etc. If they'd done that then there wouldn't have been a problem. The assumption most of the people who joined in to the Talkbass thread made was that a 246 watt amp couldn't possibly be as loud as any one else's 500 watt amp. If these people had used their ears rather than what ever else they were using they would have heard 250 watts sounding as loud as 500 watts. The mature response should have been, how are they doing that? Unfortunately the subject quickly descended into abuse and got nowhere. It's still getting nowhere.

RMS is a standard that applies to amps and cabs. Apparently doesn't mean much due to the nature of power, sound and volume, but RMS is an indicator that seems to be understood by most. SPL works well for cabs, but not for amps. I believe AES is the coming thing and a more accurate standard than RMS.