SumOne

I recently went back to 4 from 5 as out of three bands I play in there is probably <5% of the setlist songs that go lower than the low E, and those that do mostly are just D for a couple of notes that can be substituted. So no 'need' for a 5. Saying that though, I have been missing that 5th string, particularly for home playing as 4 feels a bit restricted. Similar to the fact I have an 88 key home piano and a 61 key stage keyboard (with octave up/down buttons). So I reckon I'll be back to a 5 soon.

After a couple of weeks I'm still impressed with the CK 61, no issues with it. I guess the Fantom 06 is fairly similar to the MPC Key 61 that I sold to get the CK 61. The MPC Key 61 is more capable than the CK 61 in most ways - but, it is double the price, bigger, heavier, less 'hands-on' for things like organ drawbars. For live use I think the more 'what you see is what you get' approach of the CK 61 with things like physical controls and very little menu diving and faster startup is better, even if it has fewer effects and the sounds are sometimes not as good. My main issue is still the fact that the key width is just slightly thinner than a standard piano, I find 5mm thinner per octave noticable, I am getting more used to it though. I have been on the fence about returning it a couple of times due to key width and the nagging feeling that I'm always going to think a Nord Electro 6 is probably the best of these sort of stage pianos with organ drawbars....but £1k extra is quite difficult to justify. And actually, the Nord is missing a couple of things I find useful like the way the CK lights up buttons to show which sound your are editing, integrated speakers, bluetooth connection, pitch and mod wheel, and the Nord it weighs twice as much, so it isn't better in every way.

Edit: Now I can see the video. It would be nice to have that level of music theory knowledge, but I'm not sure that it's really needed. My guess is that Radiohead were influenced by hearing those songs listed by artists like Elvis, Bowie, Pixies. Or they were noodling about as it's not too far off the chords that the circle of 5ths would point you to (G- C - B diminished). I mean, most people can speak/write without really being able to spell out the theory for how they do it. Sure, some theory helps (you need to have learned to speak/write!) but writing a sentence like 'It sounds great; however, did he make it himself?' Aparrently (via Chat GTP) is a compound sentence that includes Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Conjunctive Adverb, Verb, Reflexive Pronoun, Interrogorative clause. Do people who write a sentence know all theory/terms? I kind of think, as with music theory, you could over analyse every piece of speech/writing/music in that level of technical detail, but it wouldn't necessarily make for a better speaker/writer/musician (hence why so many popular musicians can't even read music, let along go deep into technical terms and theory).

Generally, the 'rule' seems to be to put the Tuner at the start as that's the cleanest signal to get the tuning from e.g. an extreme example - putting it after an envelope filter that's turned on would make tuning difficult, you'd need to click off your envelope filter before tuning - whereas having the tuner in front you wouldn't need to turn off the envelope filter (or other pedals) for accurate tuning. But after a compressor should be fine. Although saying that, some pedals (especially Fuzz) don't like having a buffer ahead of them - so you'd perhaps want your buffered tuner after them. .....so I don't think theres really one right or wrong answer - it depends on your signal chain.

Cheers, I didn't know about the QR thing.

What's to stop someone meeting you in person, paying via PayPal (or Bank transfer) then still doing steps 3-5?

Every other website (including the Cort website) says 34". The more I look into it, the more I think this'll be my next Bass, I reckon I'll be putting my Jazz up for sale soon to fund it!

Going from EHB back to a Jazz made me realise just how paddle-like the Fender headstock is, and how ridiculous that is to have all that weight at the far end of a long piece of wood you need balanced - so you either end up with a heavier Bass to balance it (especially with things like 35" 5 strings) or neck-dive, headless solves that, and I found them to stay in tune better. I think you're right that it's mostly there as advertising space (and now out of sense of tradition for what people expect a Bass to look like). And yeah, if I get one of these Corts I'll basically be saving the planet by using less wood!

I'm keen. It seems a good deal for approx £700 (Bass Direct), or £650 if you want to trust international shipping from Thomann. That's about £500 cheaper than any 5 String Ibanez EHB (and nearly £900 cheaper than their top of the range EHBs). I've gone from owning an Ibanez EHB to a Jazz Bass, I prefer the sound of the Jazz and it is probably better suited to the bands I'm in, but adding the 5th string, saving a few 100 grams, and moving balance/weight away from the headstock are all big benefits of the Cort. And I reckon I can sell my USA Jazz fo more than the Cort will cost. I think it's mostly tradition/look that stops all Basses going headless, because form an engineering perspective they seem the better way. I've owned a few multiscale basses but there are pros/cons so I'm not too fussed if it's multiscale or not.

Nice Bass! Your review of it is pretty much how I'd describe the two EHB 1005 MS basses that I've had : Good basses in almost every way, but some small issues that are mostly easily fixed. But both of mine had small quality control issues (paint not perfect, a couple of the strings had rust on them), I'd do away with the contoured back - but I did get used it, locking jack is annoying - but easily removed, fret markers aren't great - but I added luminous ones. Headless multiscale 5 seems a winning combination, I'm hoping companies like Dingwall also go down this route.

Pretty much those mentioned, basically players where Basslines stop being the backbone and start being a lead instrument. (usually very skilled players, but if you want to be in the spotlight and show off how many notes you can quickly play then just play guitar).

I found it interesting he used stock sampled drum breaks and cheesy bass and orchestral parts and managed to make it sound good. All those hours I spend trying to find a perfect bass tone are probably wasted!

Jah Lil x Silly Walks - Lift Me

Torch - Good Reggae Music Silly Walks Discotheque have produced quite a lot of good stuff.

It looks good, when my NUX Mighty Plug dies I'll probaby get one. I know it's asking a lot, but I'd like it to have a 1/8 jack out like the Mooer Prime as then it's potentially a whole basic live pedalboard - or at least will do for practice sessions, as can switch between presets (assuming you can add a chain of a few effects in each preset), and can use it as a tuner.

I wasn't really taking it seriously and checking for peer reviews, more of a joke meme than anything else. Saying that though, just because someone else manipulated a version of it doesn't prove the Bass one is fake. That Dailly Mail article from this week says Bass music = Psychotic (re-hashing old 'evidence'), so it wouldn't be that odd for Fox to pick up on it.

So there, I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweets shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's me, and Keith Moon, and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweets shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shopkeeper and his son... that's a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business, really, but sure enough I got the M&Ms, and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show.

The Bass music one was on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/silversunpickups/s/cFXcxaTG2D It found be fake.... But I think it was referring to this study which the equally dis-reputable Dailly Mail had a story on: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13165253/What-music-taste-actually-says-personality-according-science.html

..... (or, they might just not be the sort of people Fox News viewers like!)

It's already the case that recorded music isn't much of a money maker and artists make most money through playing live and merchandise. My guess is AI probably won't make much difference to that other than perhaps making recorded music less valuable and the experience of seeing live bands more valuable. Interesting that Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk having spent nearly 30 years pretending to be a Robot, disbanded and said "the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot." and went on to write a score by hand for a 55 piece orchestra and 20 ballet dancers.

I know this is just GAS that I need to avoid, but the trouble with the CK 61 is I just know there are things like the Yamaha YC 61, and Nord Electro 6D 61 that will be even better (but £1k more), I'm close to convincing myself it's worth the extra for something that'll last for years and hold it's value well.....but of course, once I got that I'd then I'd be eyeing up the Nord Stage 4! I thought Bass buying was an expensive game! But really, a £700 Fender Player series J or P will not sound or feel all that much different to a £4k vintage or custom shop one. Whereas, arguably (at least my internal monologue) a £4k stage Keyboard probably does actually sound, perform, and feel significantly better than a £700 one.

I asked chat GTP to respond for me: --- Hey everyone, I recently received an AI-generated pub gig booking email, and I have to say, I was impressed by how seamlessly it mimicked human communication. It had all the right elements - a friendly tone, relevant information, and a clear call to action. However, I couldn't help but wonder about the implications of using AI for tasks like this. On one hand, it's incredibly efficient and can save a lot of time for both artists and venues. On the other hand, there's something to be said about the personal touch that comes with human interaction. What are your thoughts on using AI for pub gig bookings? ---

Yamaha CK 61, arrived today. Early impressions are that it's a good 'un. I'm sure something like a Nord Electro 6 would be better, but is also more than twice the cost. Or perhaps the Yamaha YC 61. But £750 was about as high as I wanted to go, I play in some quite grotty and boozy pubs, the risk of it getting knocked over or having a pint dropped over it is quite high! It seems in my Goldilocks zone for pub gigs: I've got an 88 key home piano that's great for home piano stuff, not great for other sounds though and is big/heavy to move. Also, I've got an M-Audio Pro 49 which is good for using with a Laptop/DAW but I've had hassles using this setup live. I had an MPC Key 61 that was excellent for home use and making full songs, but is complex and doesn't have quite so obvious/simple on-hand keyboard controls as the CK (like organ drawbars) for live purely keyboard playing. The CK 61 is small (fits in my 49 key flight case), light, decent enough sound for the main things I want - Piano and EP and Organ (not quite so good sounding for some other stuff: Horns sound very digital - like an 80s keyboard, and Bass Guitar players have nothing to worry about being replaced by the Bass Guitar sounds!), seems okay build quality, fast startup, obvious and useful hardware controls that are relatively foolproof - it's really good to have pretty much anything you'll need directly there with a corresponding button/slider/knob (I haven't opened the manual and think I've got it all pretty much figured out within a few hours), semi weighted keys, easy to set 3x split points. Lots of in/outs. Added bonus features of in built speakers, battery power, and bluetooth to stream music through it. My main gripe (which unfortunatly I find quite an issue) is the keys are slightly smaller than my other keyboards (15.9cm per octave vs 16.4cm), it's the Yamaha synth width keys rather than piano width which is a bit annoying for a stage piano, I find that small difference a hassle for muscle memory while also using my other keyboards and doesn't really save much space so seems a bit pointless (2.5cm over its 5 octaves). It's enough of an issue for me to consider other keyboards, but I don't think there is anything else with all the features and wider keys in this price range so I'd better get used to it.

Yeah, the form factor of it has just about won me over. It ticks a lot of boxes, but the MS-60B + is perhaps going to do all that and more. (and of course, there's always the B1-4 which is tough to beat and is less than half the cost of the Pod Express).

Linval Thompson, Westbound Plane