Bassmidget209

I think as long as you stick to the main principal of 'serving the song'. You can't go too far wrong. I don't play a lot of covers (despite my constant badgering of the singer) but when we do, I'm never 100% playing to the record. Nail the main parts and if you can sneak in a tasteful fill or two then your good. If I'm being honest I probably do 'overplay' with our own songs but the principal is the same. I'm trying to make the songs more interesting, not make it all about me as such. The same applies to covers. If you can make it interesting to you (and hopefully others) without turning it into a 4 minute bass solo your golden. Alternative argument: nobody listens to the bass anyway, get it right on the 'one' and go nuts 🤣

How do you find the blurst? It looks really cool but I don't see a lot of people using it?

My thoughts exactly sir. Your pedalboards are a constant inspiration to me and what I can do to shoehorn guitarists out of the fun noise zone!

I did see an article somewhere about it. Along with slinky cobalt guitar strings. I think that is a market they could really make some headway in providing you can bend the strings sufficiently to make you think you look cool midway through a solo.....

That does sound good. Have a Russian muff (nano) At the moment but I used to have a devi ever cherry pop and I kind of miss the madness. In fairness I still have the cherry pop but there is something wrong with it, the sensible option would be to get that repaired 🤣

One thing I have noticed is that I'm seeing a lot of 'incomplete' bands, I.e. drummer and guitarist, singer and keys etc etc. We played with one band a few years back, a full rock band (Paramore-esque) but their bassist was a boss OC-3. They were very complimentary towards me and I've seen from old photos that they had a bassist at one point. So it may be that there aren't enough bassists for all the bands. One fundamental thing is that there is no money anymore. Now that doesn't stop you making a band with your friends and having a great time bit the days of 'making it big' are maybe over/harder to achieve. I've also suspected that's why you do have less people in groups. Technology can substitute sounds In a live environment, what it can't do though is give you another perspective or opinion on a song/musical idea. My worry is we loose some of the magic of collaboration over the years and the quality of output reduces. The chart stuff has always been about the lowest common denominator so that won't shift but the second and third tier of groundbreaking original musical artists is maybe where we will see the change. OR the world is changing a bit and everything will be fine, just a bit different.

I would put the Laney digbeth preamp in. It has clean and overdrive channel that are mixable, di and and effects loop as well as a 4band eq. Cheaper than most Di boxes aside from Chinese clones. Only issue I would mention (as rediculous as this sounds) you need to like the sound of your bass. It doesn't colour the tone the same way a sansamp or the like does. I had some issues with that for a while until I got a new bass and realised why I wasn't getting on with it😐. Something like a second hand sansamp has the advantage of sounding more or less the same regardless of what amp/sound system you plug it into. That's something that can be very valuable if your not using your own amp.

I really got into 6 music around the start of the Pandemic. Every other station was doom and gloom and 6 music was a sanctuary from the worst of it. I was still working face to face through the whole pandemic so having Lauren Laverne keeping my spirits up was a godsend. She is an excellent breakfast host in my opinion and the music is great for the most part. My only criticism is that there are aN awful lot of bands that sound like they formed together roughly three weeks prior with at least one member of each band who had told a few porkies on their CV. There was a band a few months ago playing a live slot (can't remember their name) and they had an absolute nightmare of a performance. Sounded all cool and hip until they had to play and then the guitarist/vocalist got in a complete muddle with her distortion pedal. I don't know if it got fried at the beginning of the performance or something but it just sounded incredibly unprofessional. Never heard anything like it on radio before, felt really sorry for them lol.

It's a fender Mexico jazz bass from the early 2000s. Full disclosure this bass has been through a lot with me. It got professionally converted to a PJ (SD quarter pounder set) very early on in it's life. Never got on with the pj set, used it almost exclusively as a p bass but at the same time never got the sound I wanted from it consistently. I frequently felt something was missing from it but assumed it was my ears. A couple of years ago I converted to flats, first Ernie Ball cobalt's flats, more recently Labellas. I feel ultimately I prefer flat wounds and intend to get flats on the reverend. The new roundwounds maybe part of the reason the Mercalli sounds different. At the same time I had a brief dalliance with rounds earlier this year and came to the same conclusion I always did with them - they sound really clangy and fizzy when new and take a few months to break in. So long story short Mexican fender jazz with flats. I may simply be in the honeymoon period but so far it's an excellent start to the relationship!

So this weekend I got my third ever bass (first one for 19 years!). I've been oggling reverends for a few years now and felt the split coil /bridge humbucker combo to be the best option for me (I've never enjoyed the bridge single coil sound much). Every single sound is useable both pickups sound great, I genuinely can't believe how much of a difference this has made to my sound. I was always of the opinion that amps and pedals had a bigger overall influence on your tone but I'm very happy to be proven wrong. Even my amp sounds ten times better, which I have never been fully happy with. Overall very chuffed 😁

Yeah I'm.wondering that. I've also had it at a few practices since and I wasn't happy. At the same time I may be clouded by that gig. It also may be the cabs. I've only ran it at 8 ohms and only with firstly a sub standard 1x15 and now a better quality 2x10. I've heard ampeg cabs make a difference has anyone else noticed this? Also would you say 350 class D watts is suitable for a loudish rock band in small/eventually medium gig scenarios?

Could I ask the group, is there a significant difference tonally between the 350 and the 500/800? I have the 350, have done for a couple of years as I wanted a gigable amp. I had used it at a few practices and it sounded...fine. better than what was in the studio (a very low bar). Finally got a gig where I needed to use my own amp (most places were house amps and I didn't want to make a fuss). When I had it set up and playing for the gig I was so underwhelmed. It just sounded flat and dull and not very loud. Important info - cab at gig was an ashdown (mag) 115 (8ohm). Have since traded that and got an ashdown 2x10, again 8 ohms. It has set me on an amp quest but am I being too hasty? Do I just need to get a cab that suits? Or go further up the line. I love the look and the size so if I can make it work I would be a loyal portaflexer!

I had a similar problem. Even through an isolated power supply (albeit a cheap one). Someone/ several people on here suggested a little power conditioner and that sorted it right out. Well worth 25 quid and adds another led to the undercarriage light show! 🤣

Is it maybe partly also to do with the nature of the limits of the tech and requirements of bassists. The original amps (fender bassman etc) simply were not up to the task of providing adequate bass reproduction for the stages of the era. Guitars and amps of the fifties and early sixties done and continue to sound great. The current products did not suffice and therefore further innovation and invention was required. The p bass and the jazz bass provided the right sound in an ergonomic package and have stood the test of time. Pedals were largely not suited to bass guitars and so further innovation was required. Amps weren't powerful enough until the svt came along and that is now the benchmark for many players. Bass frequencies are hard to tame and the nature of bass requires supporting other people's sound and therefore active basses with on board eqs (pedals can't provide tone adjustment as there were so few available to bassists of the day). Again the dissatisfaction with traditional bass constructions and tonewoods pushed for more exotic woods and constructions. Non traditional builders would adopt nontraditional shapes. The sheer size and weight of basses would necessitate further engineering such as light weight tuners and different headstocks, or even no headstocks at all! As more soloists appeared (essentially a whole new role for bass guitar) different builders would design basses with a focus on soloing and expansive fretboard Competition from synthesisers further pushed innovation into 5 string constructions. There is a LOT of generalisation here and I added more as I started typing and only came up with this concept on reading this post so please feel free to correct me but my closing statement is essentially: Bassists adopt new tech because the p bass and bassman where not up to the task of the evolving role of the bass guitar.

I saw a video recently of fat Mike talking about these. He's one of the few, if not only people with custom Dunlop picks and he got them cos he got drunk with Jim Dunlop at a NAMM and badgered him about it till he agreed. You wouldn't think it to look/hear him but he has a very rigid view on the role of the bass in the band (basically support everyone else and make them sound better, to the detriment or otherwise of your own sound) so the thin pick gives a subtler, rounded sound that he's after.

In regards to female bass players, I've always felt that there are oddly more than the proportional equivalent of guitarists and drummers. Again this is probably related to the stuff I grew up on, many have been already mentioned. For the other instruments though? Very very few. For the record I feel there's not nearly enough women in any of these positions regardless of intsrument but I did always feel there was proportionally more bassists that guitarists etc. Physically it doesn't make sense but maybe (please someone loudly correct me if I'm incorrect here) it's more to do with the mentality of a bass player fitting better with stereotypical character traits associated with women? Eg supportive, more of a team player (serve the song etc), not been entirely driven by ego and can therefore stand back and let some other doof in the band take the solos etc. I feel I have worded this badly but I think you can get what I'm rambling about. Also yes I am short and have relatively small hands, I felt for years like I was trying to 'tame' the instrument. I feel I only really just got to grips with it the past few years in a more consistent way so I can simpathise with the size issue!

I thought I bloody fixed that. DAMN YOU AUTOCORRECT!

On a similar note. Does anyone have any particular knob vendors or emporiums to recommend? Perhaps a one man operation somewhere? A merchant if you will. I do enjoy moving away from the norm but I've not found something that's really caught my eye and eBay is about as far as I have ventured this far so would appreciate some venerable recommendations for your favourite knobs.

I remember reading an article a while back about this. It would appear that many of my generation look upon numeral with a degree of disdain but for the kids that were younger this was their first taste of rock and it heavily influenced their tastes. There's a growing group of bands and artists who are heavily influenced by the genre and are basically recreating it (please don't ask me to name them as I can't remember. They may very well be nobodies or I may very well be getting older and forgetting stuff). For reference I got into rock etc approximately 6ish months before numetal really exploded (my reference point being limp bizkit going number one). At first I too got sucked up into it, It was loud bright and new, along with everything else. I was discovering this alongside punk, ska, actual metal and rock in general so it was a really exciting time in my life. I do look back fondly on some tracks of that time but I did quickly move away from numetal for many of the reasons stated above, but largely a lot of the other bands didn't feel genuine.....and rubbish, they were largely rubbish (staind anyone?). It's a shame that this era was probably the last great (size not quality) era of rock. There seems to be a resurgence of guitar based music again soon hoping we can see some new perspective but I'm skeptical 🧐.

I have messed around with a few, most recently the Dunlop Stubbys (which oddly recently I appear to have forgot how to hold, it's really weird). Anyways I always seem to go back to the 1mm tortex (blue ones) I really dislike thin picks on bass (they thwack, that's as good of a description as I'm capable of providing). Another bonus of the 1mm's is that they fit perfectly into the gap at the bottom of a jazz bridge pickup so I can quickly flick between fingers and pick which is great as my stamina with fingers is a bit variable!

Yeah I would agree, the preamp would only increase the gain further. I would say either you need an extra cab (if your current one is running at 8 ohms, adding a second one OR getting a single cab to run at 4); or possibly look at the pa situation. In Most situations the PA does the heavy lifting volume wise. The amp gives you colour but the PA is the canvas size....to continue the terrible metaphor 🤣

My first guitar and first bass were both heavily stickered. Went through a lengthy process of destickering my guitar and gave away my first bass but couldn't resist sticking one on my first proper bass. Thought I would take it off eventually.or it would get worn away. That was about 18 years ago so I guess it's staying. Recently accompanied with a new scratch plate. Can't find any other photos apart from this one when I installed the scratchplate and converted it back to a true jazz (it has been in a pj configuration for almost all of its life).

That is a geometric masterpiece. I mean I'm sure it sounds good but that would make me happy to just look at.

Thanks very much 😁

It is really handy I have to say but it's a bit of a double edged sword. I LOVE the versitlity to size ratio but I find it frustrating to adjust or mess with on the fly. I honestly think it's one of those pedals most bassists should have at some point (other one being a sansamp/insert your di-preamp here). I mainly use the zoom for modulation so I am on the lookout for an appropriate multimodulator, not sure I'm gonna find a better one though. I also don't want to spend more that like a tenner which is probably the greater limiting factor here 🤣🤣