Woodwind

Apologies if this would be better suited to the repairs section - Mods please move it if you deem it so.

Has anyone on Basschat fitted a Lusithand NFP preamp in their stingray?

If so what were/are your experiences?

I'm potentially looking to fit one in the new year in a bid to refresh my instrument (and my approach to it).

Absolutely some idiosyncratic technique going on.

Having had a jazz style bass as my first learner bass 25 years ago my hand never got accidentally close the to the knobs ever. I don't really even understand how this could happen.

It's not something I'd even thought about until reading your post.

3 hours ago, Hellzero said:

May I add that being mainly a fretless player, most of the basses I sell are fretless and they sell very easily and always fast as fretless basses are rarer, but I'm a bit late to the party. 😊😉

This is good to know! 

Thank you. I was worried they would move quite slowly

Thank you all for the replies

Lots to ponder 

I thought I'd benefit from bouncing this off the collective minds here.

I'm going to have to sell off some instruments. My main bass - a de-fretted Sterling Ray34 will be first to go.

Being fretless I can see it will have less appeal and potentially not command as much money, so I wondered whether it would be worth having it refretted?

I understand that the money it will cost to do this will basically be the same as the increase in money I could potentially charge for the instrument, but would it become easier to sell as a result?

Your thoughts would be most welcome.

Cheers,

Thomas 

I know this lesson is tomorrow, but I would find any excuse to cancel and then start a new hunt for a teacher based on all the suggestions here.

If you're local to Glasgow there must be many great teachers around.

I have had lessons with a teacher who at times only had one amp (his second amp was on a tour bus or venue etc etc) and guess what, he wasn't the one playing during my lesson.

Actually that's not quite true - if I was struggling with something he used my bass to demonstrate (or his bass unplugged) and could accompany me on piano.

So don't be put off by one amp per se, but my guess is this teacher you found may well ending playing more than you in your lesson.

And yes as nearly everyone has said, reading notation is nothing but a good thing so a teacher who can help with this is your primary goal.

Good luck 😎

57 minutes ago, Nothingman said:

 

How do you go about getting impressions done? Sorry if that’s a dense questions. 
 

 

Not a dense question at all!

Yes I'm sure your current audiologist will be able to do this, but there are plenty of other places dotted around the country.

The ACS site has a dealer finder -

https://www.acscustom.com/uk/how-to-buy/how-to-buy-uk

I was fortunate to get my last set through the Musicians Hearing Service scheme as all my income at the time came from music related activities.

https://www.musicianshearingservices.co.uk/what-we-do/musicians-hearing-health-scheme/

This time round I'm going to the ACS London office.

Have a good peruse of the ACS site as there are options your audiologist may not be aware of.

For example you can have the plugs linked with a cord (very, very useful) and with my next set I'll have them made with the left and right plugs in different, contrasting colours; so in a rush, on a darkened stage with intermittent colourful lighting I will be able to instantly tell which is which.

5 hours ago, Nothingman said:

This is a great thread and very apt for me. 
 

At 42 and 25 years of playing and gigging, I have bad tinnitus and struggle with conversations in loud environments. 
 

So yesterday I had an appointment with a private audiologist. 
 

I’m waiting for a copy of the report but generally my hearing is ok. However, there is quite a dip in the frequencies that speech is in (can’t remember the numbers). 
 

Hence part of my struggle. 
 

As part of the consultation I’m trying some eye watering expensive hearing aids!

 

They are amazing but I’m clearly not at the stage where I need to invest.

 

So I decided to get some proper ear protection for rehearsals, gigging, and going to gigs. 
 

Damage may already be done but I’m going to do what I can from now on. 
 

Never got on with budget plugs (too much muffling) and often didn’t bother with them, even when sat in my pocket. 
 

So definitely put the ACS’s on my list. 
 

Thanks for this great thread, more important than any d*ck swinging gear based content. 😂

Hope my tone doesn't come across as too overbearing, but make sure having ACS's on your list means making a call and booking an appointment for Impressions tomorrow 😀

It can take a few weeks for the plugs to be made and there will be a delay in getting an impression appointment.

I know the £150+ depending on what options you go for is a bit of a hit, but you will not think about it again after you have used them a few times.

Just in the process of refreshing my hearing protection set up.

Booked in for new impressions of my ears for another set of ACS Custom plugs.

I anticipate having the 17db filters in these and I'll have the 20db ones on hand from my previous set.

Ordered some new non-custom reusable 20db plugs for use at work, which I'll put in as I arrive at the workshop and then augment with my over-ear defenders when the really noisy machines start.

Ideally I'd like some new over-ear defenders too as I've never been convinced by the protection offered by the 3M ones I have despite their claims and reviews (I feel the protection drops off at the higher frequencies, which is the inverse of what you want).

As stated above there is no price too high for all this

3 hours ago, musicbassman said:

Knower are up there in my favourites list - always creative and original.

If you're looking through their back catalogue, then this gem from around 2016 takes some beating - and here it's Louis Cole on synth bass and then Tim Lefebvre digging in on his P bass

 

Love the trash can drum kit!!!!!!!

Excellent topic!

I didn't know Knower, but will be exploring their back catalogue off the back of this.

@leroybasslines absolutely superb playing in your video!

On 17/10/2023 at 06:18, Graham said:

 

 

I'm now looking at options for downloading and storing my library - American labour laws suck and capitalism ruins everything.

 

 

I suspect some of the laid off employees may start their own version of Bandcamp in time. 

We'll see whether it (if and when) or any of the existing alternatives (I don't know of any) provide an adequate new home to bandcamp.

It may be a good thing.

The press release implies you'll be able to put your music forward for sync opportunities, but how this would work in reality is beyond me.

I like bandcamp a great deal, but the way users engage with it is changing. As my sales dwindle, my complete plays increase massively, so it seems more people are using it as a streaming service.

7 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

 

 

At 200°c I can't believe there's no effect on the metal.

It won't be getting anywhere near hot enough to anneal the steel, but it will be tempering the metal to some degree and maybe it's this that is helping rejuvenate the string?

That's so cool!

Instagram is my primary means of promoting my live shows and releases.

Over the 9 years I've been using it it has proved to be incredibly useful. 

It has changed/evolved over that time and how people interact with my profile has also changed, but it has outclassed useful engagement on any other social network I've tried.

I don't think I'd relish starting from scratch now though.

Thank you so much for posting this.

I promised myself that I'd work on my sight reading recently so this is a great reminder to get going.

I jumped straight in with this video -

They are good exercises!

12 minutes ago, casapete said:

Absolutely unprofessional or even cool. Ask them if they’ve attended major gigs where this happened?
Smacks of amateur hour big style for me - I’d get them to knock it on the head pronto. If they feel

the current band is not where they’re at, then as you say get them to get their metal rocks off

somewhere else. 

I couldn't agree more.

Absolutely unacceptable, complete amateur hour. I know we all make music for a variety of reasons, but if you're in a cover band and want ongoing paying gigs then what happens between songs is as important as the songs themselves imo.

Good luck getting them to stop.

On 20/07/2023 at 19:14, Manwithvan said:

"...Our line up is electric bass, viola, sax/clarinet, accordion, and bassoon..."

Other than this festival Where can I hear your music?

On 20/07/2023 at 18:18, PaulWarning said:

I have enough trouble playing only left handed 🙂, John Otway plays both left and right handed guitar 
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=358951982112502

 Interesting that his name is on the poster behind the TV presenter at the begining of the OP's video

On 20/07/2023 at 16:54, BlueMoon said:

Some party trick.

 

Video edit? No idea.

Some party trick indeed! No video edit, you can see the switch at 2:34

There are other videos of Karl playing bass with Nina dotted around youtube, but I don't know if he does the switch in those 

It's either A or D for me.

Figure of 8 gives me the creeps somehow and anyone doing the elbow/hand wrap should have all their cables confiscated.

As someone that has had a very unusual musical journey (and hope it continues to surprise me) I've enjoyed reading through this thread.

All the best with your BA show.

On a slight tangent - apologies if I missed it if it was mentioned earlier, do you tune your bass guitar in 5ths?

When I was looking for a new way to write and wanted to distance myself from the double bass (which I'd been forced to stope due to injury), I started tuning my bass guitar in 5ths an octave below the cello.

14 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

I'm the same! But I don't think I've got hearing damage, I've had tests done and my hearing is fine... In my case I'm investigating whether it's some other condition to do with how my brain interprets and reacts to things...

I think you're absolutely right. Tinnitus can fool the brain so it interprets stimuli in a different way (apparently, based on what I've read).

There's no reason this wouldn't be the case with other causes.

PM'd