Count Bassy

Rather late in the day, but Dell notebooks are known for this. There is a problem in the power adaptors that only have the live and neutral connections, ie no earth. With a multimter I can measure 100Vac on the metal parts of the laptop relative to earth! Thankfully its a high resistance so not actually dangerous (so dell Say), but its bloody irritating. Try Googling 'Dell notebook shock' and you'll get pages of hits. Of course Dell insist that is not a problem and that all notebooks have this 'feature'. Strangley no other makes seem to have pages on the web dedicated to it. Of course it might be something else. Run your laptop on batteries and see if the problem goes. If it is the laptop, and its a dell, then give them a call and bollock them!

Tell me about it. Grrrrr. We only do the occasional gig, so when we get one we need plenty of practise to knock everything into shape. We were due to be playing the 5th July in the local pub, and consequently were due to be rehearsing last night and this afternoon (this would have been the last practise before the gig). Last night rang the drummer and the singer up at about 7.30 asking where they were. Apparently they were in the local pub (1/2 mile away, but 'Didn't feel in the mood'. Guitarist tried to ring the drummer this morning about todays practise to be told that he'd gone out and it wasn't known when he'd back! Tis complicated by the fact that the drummer is the guitarists brother, but even the guitarist has had enough of it. This isn't the first time he's messed us about, but I'm determined that it will be the last. Anyway I'm hoping that myself the keys/sax and the guitarists can find another drummer (we have someone in mind), and another singer from somewhere, and get a new band together. It rather hinges on whether the guitarist is up for it, obviously a more difficult decision for him as it's his brother. The sad thing is that I quite like both the drummer and the singer, and they are both very good at what they do, but as band members they are just a pain. So, my thoughts for you would be knock it on the head and move on! However I'm very pissed off at the moment, so I wouldn't take any notice of me. I jus wanted to vent my speen a bit and this thread seemed a good place to do it.

[quote name='Mr Randall' post='221238' date='Jun 18 2008, 11:11 AM']71 fretted Precision[/quote] Hey man, that's almost like 6 octaves!

Sorry I should have put several winking/grinning things with that 'high fallutin' comment. No offence meant in anyway Bilbo!

Agreed! But to take the analogy further, if your used to eating in Michelin 5 start restaurants (i.e. high 'fallutin' creative jazz music) then Macdonalds and Burger King (i.e. cover bands) must be about the same, and both a bitter disspointment. If your used to eating in MacDonalds then discovering Burger King is a small step in the right direction!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='221110' date='Jun 18 2008, 09:02 AM']VERSION's BANDS??? to suggest that this merits a higher level of creativitiy is like saying Burger King is a classier repost than MacDonald's.[/quote] But it is !!!

[quote name='Jase' post='220849' date='Jun 17 2008, 07:03 PM']Cor, we're starting to split hairs here....cover bands, version bands????? same thing aren't they? [/quote] Well yes, in that they both do songs that have been written/made famous by other people, but no in that one tries to sound like the original and the other doesn't. Broadly speaking its all covers but, in the context of this thread, one means that you learn to copy a bass line exactly (possibly to the exclusion of creativity), and the other doesn't (possibly to of exclusion of accuracy, but with room for some creativity). I'm not making any judgement as to their relative merits here. I'd quite happily play in either, or indeed in an originals band (if only I had the talent). Clive

[quote name='gilmour' post='220779' date='Jun 17 2008, 05:35 PM']I'm surprised that people feel iplaying cover limits or inhibits their creativity. By learning more and more songs you'll increase your 'lick library' and give yourself more chops/styles/ideas to draw on when creating your own. In fact I find the exact opposite, when I'm only playing original stuff I settle into a style and everything sounds the same[/quote] Same here to some extent. As you say playing a cover forces you into doing something that you might not otherwise have thought of. If trying to make things up I too have a (bad) habit of falling back on tried and tested stuff. Having said that the 'covers' band that I am in tends to do 'versions' rather than 'covers'. (My definition of the difference being a cover band tries to sound like the original, reproducing the same bass lines and guitar solos etc, whereas a 'versions' band takes the song and does its own thing with it.) So, to some extent you get the best of both worlds. With our band some songs come out slightly different to the original (eg alright now), others quite quite different (eg superstition) I suppose you could argue that doing versions instead of straight covers is a good excuse when you can't actually play the original correctly!

I guess it depend on your motivation. If you enjoy tinkering and upgrading, and enjoy the results, and learn something in the process, then why not spend a bit of money doing it?. After all most people spend money on their 'hobbies' without any thought of getting their money back. Again, if you've got a bass you're particularly fond of, but want to tweak it rather than trade it in, then why not? If you can't afford the bass you want at the moment, but can afford a different bridge etc, then why not. BUT, ultimatel, as others have said, this will not be a cheap way to get a good bass, and (assuming you've paid the going rate for the various bits) you're not going to get your money back. As long as you realise this befor you start then OK.

The volume control?

[quote name='BigRedX' post='216477' date='Jun 10 2008, 10:46 PM']Um... Did you say the fretted note is sharp? You need to move the saddle back to get the 12th fret note in tune with the harmonic.[/quote] definitley +1

If the power supply was rated for 500mA at 12V then, if it was unregulated, the 'no load' voltage would likely be higher than 12V, as someone has already said. Also, if you put a dead short on it then the voltage would drop below 12V, but the current would go well above the 500mA. If the excess voltage caused one of the solid-state devices to go short, then the resulting current could easily cause a track to burn out. ie the track burning out is probably a symptom rather than the cause. Even if the supply was regulated then 12v is still 33% above 9V! What would you expect your telly to do if you connected it to 320Vac? Behringer stuff is cheap, so it's a bit unfair to expect it to be as tolerant as a Boss or something which costs a lot more, and we don't know how a boss would respond to a 33% overvoltage (dont try it!!). Regards Herr Behringer

Part of me wants to say that at £90 and £100 respectively can't you really go wrong with either of the first two (it costs me over £90 for a tank of diesel these days). The other part of me wants to say that at these prices they've just got be crap, but what with far eastern manufacturing that doesn't always hold true anymore! Just read this and realise that it doesn't actually help much, so I'd also say that at least with the Warwick you're getting a known quantity, and something you could sell on if required, even if it does cost 3 times as much!

I just thought I'd pass this on as most of the threads on the Bass Centre see to be negative. You may have read my thread a week or so ago about dead spots/strings, which turned out to be a duff string. Anyway, I e-mailed the bass centre (it was one of their Elite strings) asking if I could buy a single E string from them, as on the web site they only seem to do sets. They e-mailed back saying they'd send me one for free. The new string arrived this morning and works fine. This may seem just like normal customer service, but I did make it clear to them that I had actually bought the set over six months ago, and not directly from themselves, and that I did not have any receipt or anything, so I think that deserves a big thumbs up to them. Clive

OK, so it wasn't actually a probelem as such (except for the lack of vocal cut through), more a case of what's appropriate. I'm not sure of the details, but the one he'se looking at has an active sub unit, an active midrange, and a passive high unit driven by the active mid range unit. All x 2 of course. I've heard this set up in action and I know that it sounded very good to me, but I thought you may have ahd reliabilty problems or something. Thanks for your reply. Clive.

Like most guitarists, our likes it loud, even when practising in our dining room. Everything else then gets loder to compansate, so our practises get pretty loud. Thing is that at times when it the volume peaks, or it may be particular notes, I feel myself going dizzly for a couple of seconds, like I've stood up to quickly. Obviously ear plugs is an answer that I'll be looking into, but in the meantime I'm curious if anyone else suffers this. For information I have a grommet in one ear (not the plastacine dog), which might not help the situation. Clive

[quote name='thinman' post='195676' date='May 9 2008, 08:35 PM']and I'm going to go back to a passive PA using BFM cabs from our current DB technologies active system.[/quote] I have a freind who's fairly serious about buying a DB active rig set up (about 2Kw), so i'm curious about why you're moving away from them. Should I be warning him off them for any reason? Clive.

Well, I put the old E string back on and normal service has been resumed. No dead spots and sustain and tone back, so I guess it was a duff string. The only problem is that my E string is now barely fatter than the A string, so I think I'll be putting all the old ones back on for now, at least till I get something else to try out (half rounds?). I've got a 30 year old Selmer flat wound E string somewhere - I might put that on for a laugh and see what I think to that. As it happens, just before I took it off I played it un-ampliflied and on the 'duff' string there was definitely a light buzz/rattle (not a fret buzz) as if something was loose inside. Are Elites known for poor quality, or was I just unlucky? Anyway, thanks for your thoughts folks. Clive.

I've had a Fender Urge Mk1 (32" scale) for about a year now, I've kept the strings that were on it when I got it, and it's been great, and with a very even response over the whole fret board. Anyway I decided that I perhaps wanted a fatter, less 'trebley' sound, so rightly or wrong decided to fit some heavier strings. This went OK, but extra tension pulled the neck foward a bit, raising the action at the dusty end. I played it like this for a week, and although it didn't have the desired affect on the tone (and in retrospect the E string sound a bit muffled even then), it was playable. So this week I decided to adjust the truss rod to reduce the relief on the neck. Physically this went OK in that it reduced the relief to where I wanted it, and brought the action back down. BUT: There was an incredible dead spot on the E string 7th fret, Not just a bit quieter, but a lot quieter with no sustain at all, almost like I was muting it. There was still plenty of clearance on the frets, and no fret rattle when playing, so it would not seem to simply be too low an action. Anyway, I thought, this is no good, so I put the truss rod back where it had been, thinking that this would solve the problem. But no! I now have a complete E string that is dead, and at the seventh fret is worse than ever. My next plan is to put my original E string back on and see if that helps, and if it doesn't then put all the original strings back on. The new strings are 'Elite Player series', Nickel plated, 105,85,65,45. The original strings are of unknown make(s), 95,80,60,45 Anyone got any ideas? Is this just a duff string? are Elites crap? Unfortunately I bought them about 6 months ago, so can hardly take them back now. I had heard of 'dead spots' butr never thought that they could be this bad! As it happens I didn't like the feel of the extra tension that much, and it didn't have the desired affect on tone anyway (it lost the ploppy sound), so the next step (having solved this problem) might be to go back to a lighter gauge, but try half rounds or something. Any thoughts appreciated. Clive

What gets me is the unnecessary name dropping that goes on. For (hypothetical) example we don't get 'I carry my lead and strings in my gig bag', instead we get 'I carry my lead and strings in my Shuker/Alembic/Wal (delete/add as appropriate) gig bag'. Sure there are discussions where the details of the kit are required, but so often it's not yet we are given it anyway. Similarly great lists of the basses and kit you have attached to your posts is surely not required. We only need to know that your a bass player, and everything else can be revealed as and when appropriate? OK, Rant over. I'm ducking already.

Whoops, Yes, I just found the other thread myself, as I said apologies. I shall go and flagellate mysself forthwith!

Just received this as part of an E-mail from Roland - apologies if it's old news: Sound Control stores close You may have heard earlier this week that Sound Control, who also own Turnkey and Media Tools, went into administration. The insolvency of this company has led to the appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP as administrators and the immediate closure of nearly half of the stores. Clive

Thanks for that link 3V17C (are you related to R2D2?). Thats a much better price, although still beyond my original target. I'll have to get to try one out, and see if I can re adjust my idea of what I want to afford!