warwickhunt

Just picked up a short scale Sterling by Musicman Stingray... the neo pup passive jobbie with the push/push volume pot.  I was aware this was a (faux) volume boost and various youtube reviews (Andertons & Lobster) seemed to indicate this was a subtle boost (or cut as it really is).  However, the bass I've received has a BIG gain/volume differential and I wondered if this was normal?  

The differential is so great that there is no way you would engage it to make up for any perceived differential between any of the 3 pup selections, it is that big that no matter which pup selection is made it feels more like a 3-6db lift (massive).

50 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

And a pick playing bassist .. Yay !! 

Can of worms time... guitarist playing a bass (which he is famed for) or does he become a bassist because he is playing a bass?  

Either way picks are good and I think SL might have struggled to play finger style. 

Moondrop Aria - any owners/users can comment on the ergonomics of the fit?  They look to be quite 'blocky' and I think one of my isolation issues with my present ZS10s is due to the bulk of them, which I think could be pulling or rotating them in my out ear.  I totally appreciate that everyone's ear is different and that moulds are the absolute answer (I have custom moulded attenuated ear protection from pre IEM).

I may have posted this in another thread but I can trump some of your 'sound guy fixes tone' anecdotes.  

I play in a Cheap Trick tribute; the guy from CT, Tom Petersson literally invented the 12 string bass and has a tone (not to everyone's taste) that encapsulates the 12 string bass + bass AND guitar valve amps.  I got to a gig, set up and then went to have a bit of a chat with the engineer.  I explained what I was trying to achieve with my 4 string bass, some drive from the Sansamp and a mix of effects to get somewhere near Tom's tone.  He came over to me 30 mins later to ask for a dry feed from a DI for the FOH so he could get a nice fat clean bass sound out front.    DOH!  

2 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Oh dear. Rookie errors.

Sadly not 'rookies'!  This a pro instillation in a venue done by 'engineers'! 

44 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

You mean the way that every manufacturer of 8, 10, and 12 string basses does it is wrong?

 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=12-string+bass&iax=images&ia=images

For some reason I was thinking it was the same as my Musicvox which was inverted but as you say this is the correct way and the inverted way makes it harder to play as you need to flatten your finger to press the octaves.  

Small matter and some manufacturers offer it as an option but the 'bass' string being the bottom of the 3 in a set is not the easiest way to finger/fret, as you have to rotate your finger over the thick string to fret the octave strings.

2-3 MONTH delivery but if you are unhappy return it... within 3 days!    

Love that all the sets of strings anchor through 1 hole/retainer.

2 minutes ago, 0175westwood29 said:

 

plenty shows ive been to and played the headline band has had there own sound guy, who either runs the inhouse rig or will plug into the pa themselves the first thing is much more common as you can find out the desk and talk abou t this in advance.

 

the band mixing themsleves if they know what they are doing is totally fine, when you go see a bigger show or tour one SE will not mix the whole show each band will have there own

No I get this, we mix our own sound via our digital 'desk' and gig in venues with in-house engineers but we either accept that we turn FOH over to an engineer or we mix ourselves; different if you are taking your own engineer who will handle the PA.  On multi line up gigs such as festivals you are unlikely to have that option to just turn up and say 'We'll give you a stereo feed of our mix' as the engineers will have no control over balance or issues arising!  

Just now, 0175westwood29 said:

think he basically saying they mix themselves and yeh plug into the pa so the in house guy doesnt need to do anything

 

Hmmmm.  

A - I can't see an in house engineer being to happy that he is redundant.

B - Can the band envisage that they can mix the sound for every venue effectively and deal with any issues arising in real time etc because the FOH SE will only be able to turn you up/down or effect the whole band mix with EQing.  

If you are talking about the band having a splitter so that they have an in/out/thru for each channel; they control IE sound/mix and send an identical signal of each input to the FOH that might make sense.

42 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Our next move will be either to look for our own sound engineer or to invest in a digital mixer and give the PA a complete mix that they can't mess up.

Are you talking about your band controls / sets the mix and then you give the FOH/SE a L&R send?  

2 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

@warwickhunt - you would be able to test it, if you load a blank IR into your NUX and just use the HPF/LPF on the editor

I was with you right up until you said "load a blank IR into your NUX and just use the HPF/LPF on the editor"!    

5 minutes ago, 0175westwood29 said:

Are you trying to match them to a cab you have? I have the same sound in the speaker as your di? 
 

The only way for that is ir and something like a two notes cabm+

I like the sound of my amp/cab set up (Thunderfunk>TCRS210) but there's no such emulation (referring back to Alex's video).  However I'm trying to emulate as good an IEM sound as I can; DI/FOH literally is down to whoever is handling FOH but that is ever the case because even if I were to take stick a mic in front of my amp/cab, it would sound different out front any way.  A cab sim to me is just a badly EQ'd amp tone.

3 hours ago, 0175westwood29 said:

what Pre amps shave you been using? its taken me a while but my current direct setup is a blend of three di ( geddy 2112 and ashdown ctm rack pre) three channels into two notes wall of sound for recording, if i want a silent stage i use a two notes captor on my amps out put (its a peavey 200w) im careful and its fine.

 

also if you play clean without drive or fuzz you could be fine as you are. ir shine when distortion is involved

BBE Acoustimax / NuX MLD / Tech Para / Tech (original DI) / Fishman Platinum Pro

BBE - 'technically' for acoustic instruments and has a Sonic Maximizer built in but works great for electric bass but no drive

NuX - drive/OD and IR but I found it overkill for me, even when dialled back

Tech Para - upgrade to the Tech DI that I had but tbh I found that without some of the options engaged it was a bit weak but with them on it was too full and I needed to EQ it a lot

Tech DI - my original back up incase my amp was to die but in fact my choice for pre amp to desk and IEM

Fishman pro - The least coloured pre and very useable EQ that isn't excessive, no drive option; I'll keep this as the EQ can be switched for my acoustic guitar

You are touching on something that I've been experiencing this past year as I've investigated the move to silent stages and IEM.

At times, some of the DI / pre pedals that I've used have had IRs / cab sims in them but I've ended up disappointed that all they seem to offer is a bit of a wooly blanket EQ to the tone of the bass/pedal.  Our guitar player is a fan-boy of all things IR etc and he is forever trying to convince me that cab sims etc are what I 'need'... when I've personally felt that maybe the units that have these cab sims/IRs to add to the tone are maybe just not a very good EQ BEFORE the sims are EQd over them (if that makes sense).  I've ended up just using a DI/pre with zero cab sim/IR and EQing my IEM to suit the lack of cab.  

17 hours ago, markbunney said:

There seems to be a big gap in the market for reasonably priced 5.8ghz wireless units.

 

they are either >£500 like the Shure or under £100 like the Lekato and similar.

 

I have a boss WL 20 which is great, but I want to try using it to power a Behringer P2 as we are moving to IEMs. This means that I need another wireless for my bass, but am concerned if I buy another 2.4ghz unit there will be problems with drop outs and clashed with other units in the band.

Don't be put off by the low price of the 5.8 Lekato units.  I have a sub £50 unit and I've had zero issues with drop out and the signal sounds no different / better / worse than a cable or my more expensive 2.4 Line 6 unit.  

<edit>

I'm not saying for 1 minute the Lekato is better than Shure or other top brands, it isn't.  More expensive units have tougher construction, higher quality switches, jacks, sockets and likely chips in them but if you aren't throwing them around and abusing them I can't see that they are x10 worse a product than a £500+ unit.  IMHO

Used to be my cab (I bought it new), it is a superb cab which simply gobbled up any amount of power you threw at it.  I'm actually surprised it is as heavy as that (not that it is heavy for a 6x10), I seem to recall lifting it from the car 1 handed!  

Speaking of sub placement... 

We did a gig last night where the venue has permanent installation of an in-house PA, set up with a full Yamaha digital desk or to hook up to our mixer.  A lovely set of QSC passive speakers (4 bins + 4 mid tops + 4 wedges) and a superb rack of 5 power amps to drive it all.  In theory a great set up but... bin placement was purely for show rather than quality of sound.  The frustrating thing is that this is all hardwired and fixed in place and can't be moved; installed by a professional installation company/engineer. 

2 minutes ago, JPJ said:

My ZX10's are great but despite trying multiple foam and neoprene tips, isolation is still an issue for me.  

Ditto.  I put it down to my ear canal shape but I guess it is the overall design/shape.

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

One thing we could try next time we play there with the covers band (19th August, so probably half-empty again) would be to put the subs together in the centre, and the tops on poles to each side.

 

Both my main bands are 3-piece so having a great lump of 3'-high speakerage in the middle wouldn't be as disconcerting as it might be for a larger band.

1 hour ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

It would, however, look 'orrible. 🙄🤷‍♀️

Sub()s centre is good in an overly boomy room, we have started taking a sub as we are now all IE with no backline and being a 3 piece we set it in front of the drums, with guitarist one side and me the other.  

10 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

Daft - wireless tech goes obsolete.

Tech gets smaller/cheaper over time (generalisation, caveat being next level is inherently dearer initially) and it could be an internal chip slot to fit the next upgrade.  Replace jack sockets with push/push switches to turn off and then no mods needed to bodies or scratch-plates... I must stop giving away my ideas till the patents opens! 

DOH!  Does anyone know what time the patent office opens?    

22 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

I hate the look of dongles. Much prefer the cleaner look of a cable going to pack.

Agree (even though I use one)... now if only you could ditch the useless plastic and just put the chip internal on the bass!  No dongle, no cable; it would drive tech savvy watchers mad at a gig.  LOL

30 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Although everything can have an argument, I am not sure I see what the argument for wireless for pub gigs is. The wireless costs less than £50, means I don't tread on any leads, I can go out the front and the end of the hall to check on levels at setup, and I can wander around.

I am not sure I am seeing any downside there?

Agreed.  

I've had radio gear since the 80's 90's starting with Nady stuff, mainly because I disliked the restriction of a lead.  Every gig our guitarist sets sound levels etc out front and then I go out front to check his vocal level in the mix... not so easy with a lead to get the best distance.  As for battery cost etc.  I've always used good quality rechargeable or the unit has a recharge built in.  If I thought a £500 unit would give me even a fraction better sound I'd go for it but I've yet to hear any discernible difference between the cheapie Lekato 5.8ghz and a friend's £800 unit... or a lead for that matter.

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

...I am pretty happy and am not looking any more for any changes.

Heretic!  Burn him.