SumOne

Generally, our audience is people who happen to be at the pub, some people that go to the pub because they see a band (any band) is going to be on, friends/family, or they've heard us play at their local before....but last night was the first time there were a notable amount of people that had heard us before and specifically travelled to hear us - which felt like a bit of a 'next step'.

Forget any advice about 'rising above it', I advise to 'sink beneath it', ideally with with cowardly and underhand tactics. Start off by going to their gigs after you've had an industrial amount of beans - stink the place out then run away.

I'm very fickle, but having owned the Cort Space 5, and and Ibanez EHB, and now considering different lightweight 5 string basses I'm led back to the Space 5. It's suprising what a difference a few hundred grams can make to comfort, and headless seems the only way to achieve that and still have good balance (and the bonus of being very stable tuning). The new Ibanez EHBs look good but they cost about £1k more, that feels difficult to justify, and I'm not against multiscale - but also don't feel it is particularaly game changing stuff, it isn't without some drawbacks. One thing I think I will do though is sand down the right-angle edge on the top of the body where the forearm meets the bass and I guess try and put on some wood dye...that'll immediately significantly de-value it for any resale as I'm no craftsman! but perhaps that will encourage me to be more committed to it rather than selling on again!

This is very useful to know, in fact as far as I can see it is the first/only time the actual weight has been mentioned anywhere online. It is just about on my self-imposed 4kg limit. Once Bass Direct have them in stock I'll make a trip there to try it out vs the new Ibanez EHB. I think I'll probably prefer a few things on the SP1 like the tone and front facing jack, 22 frets (more room in that plucking area), body shape, and the look...but I expect the Ibanez will stack up in a similar way for scale lengths, tone, and playability and will be about 0.5kg lighter (and £250 cheaper) so it'll be a tough call.

I just got myself the Spark Neo and so far so good. The headphones are good quality - comfortable and good sound, and so is the transmitter - it feels quite robust. The connections all worked fine straight away (you just need to remember to close the app down before re-connecting), the app all works well for presets - AI that can do an alright job of making presets e.g. 'Reggae Bass' and 'Doom Bass' both had okay results, there are some quite good 'play along' features via the phone, metronome, tuner, and can make a signal chain of effects (there aren't a huge amount of bass specific effects - but enough, only slight downside seems to be the fixed location of effect types in the chain). Having owned the Boss Waza Air Bass I don't think there is much difference - Boss has the spatial movement thing, but I never used it. This is day 1 though, so will have to see about stuff like durability and battery life.

Yes, it was. It's a great bass, I did a gig with it today and it did well (me a bit less so!).

It looks like his only UK show this year is at Reggae Land (2-3 Aug Milton Keynes), big lineup. https://reggaeland.co.uk/

I think they will be good combination of scale lengths and playability. People often rave about 'great sounding B' on their 35" scale basses, 34" seems the sweet spot for an E, and people seem to like short scale Basses partly for playability and the warmer sound from the higher strings - so hopefully 32-35 is a winner. The 33-35 on the Ibanez EHB worked well for me sound-wise and is comfortable whereas the 34-37 on the Combustion felt a bit like sacrificing some comfort with reach, weight, overall length (and perhaps a 34" G isnt ideal, I thought it was fine though) all done mostly for that B string - the B was very good, but it comes at a cost.

I think the SP1 solves a few of the issues I had with the Combustion: Strings: Combustion 34"-37" has quite a limited selection of strings available. 32-35" means the SP1 can use normal strings. Length/weight: I found 34"-37" on the Combustion a bit OTT for reaching some of the lower frets on the B and the overall size of the Bass felt a bit unwieldy and heavy (the headstock is quite a long distance away - meaning the body has to be quite heavy to balance it), I thought it could all be a shorter scale and still sound good. My Combustion was about 4.5 kg (to be fair though I see most are more like 4.2kg so I think mine was unusually heavy), I've seen that some Super P's are a fair bit less than 4kg so hopefully the SP1 is too. Number of frets: I prefer 22 frets (vs 24 on the Combustion) as I never use those very top frets but appreciate that extra space between the pickups and the fretboard for slap/pop. Passive - front facing jack: I'm keen on passive with and front facing jack for real-world practicality e.g. can briefly put the Bass on a stand at rehearsal and keep it plugged in without the jack hitting the floor (and the body shape looks like it'll fit a bit better in a stand), can sit on a sofa to play while plugged in without the jack poking in to the seat, can see it to easily plug in/out, never need to think about batteries. I plug into pedals and Amp for EQ stuff that is a lot more powerful/precise than any Bass EQ so don't really need that to be on the bass. Tone: I'd have trouble saying 'that sounds like a Combustion' in the same way as, say being able to hear the character of a P bass, hopefully the SP1 has some of that that passive P bass character. I'm pretty much sold. The only competition for me is the similar scale (33-35) Ibanez EHB MS range, they now have a few more high-end ones (about £1,700) which get a cosmetic and pickup and preamp upgrade, but their big selling point to me vs an average Dingwall is how lightweight they are, my bank balance would appreciate saving a few hundred £ and my back and shoulders would appreciate the weight savings. I think the real-world issue of comfortably/enjoyably actually standing and playing a bass for a couple of hours on stage or at a rehearsal is often overlooked...but yeah, if the SP1 is <4kg then I think that'd be the winner.

I think the SP1 P bass type neck pickups solves an issue I have with multi-scale (admittedly it isn't an issue I've ever seen anyone else mention, so perhaps it isn't an issue!). Play horizontally down the strings and the usual multiscale pickup angle/position (like the bridge one here) means that you are playing the B string just in front of the pickup, but the G behind the pickup (green line). That has always felt like an issue for me - the tone playing the G relatively further back is different to the tone of the B ahead of the pickup. But now, if playing ahead of the neck pickups (yellow line) it at least means you are playing slightly ahead of the neck pickup on the B and on the G which I expect is a more even tone across all strings.

Nice! That ticks a lot of boxes for me. Bass Direct have it on pre order at £1,950. I'd order one if I could be sure it would be 4kg or thereabouts. (I had a Combustion that was about 4.5kg and was too heavy for me. Competition with things like the Ibanez EHB range where a big selling point to me is they weigh about 3.4kg).

Ah no, my poor search skills. Any mods reading this, can this thread be merged with that or deleted?

I'm a proud new owner of an MTD to show off and can't see an MTD owners thread, so here it starts! MTD Kingston Andrew Gouche AG5. Here it is in the wild: It plays very nicely, I'm impressed. The neck and fretboard are real standout features - probably the best of any 5 string I've owned, good feel and low action. Only thing I might change is I think some smoked nickel knobs would go well on it. ....and I realise that 4.1kg for a 5 string is relatively lightweight, but as it is all relative and I've owned a 3.4kg Ibanez EHB this now feels a bit heavy. I might get used to it, but once you've gone superlight it's difficult to go back!

I got my first MTD about a week ago - a Kingston AG5, it is really good. I think we're in need of an MTD thread in the 'Bass Guitars' section.

Went to a Mad Professor gig last night, live dubbing. Was a good show also with Joe Ariwa and Ariwa vocalists Abel Miller and I Jah. And a highlight for me was a new mix of this:

Perhaps opposite to what others have said earlier in this thread but in my head at least I've found it simplest to just learn the interval sequence of the major scale - but really learn it off by heart with all finger positions and playing right up/down over multiple octaves, jumping strings etc. Basically apply that 'Ionian' of the chart to a bass fretboard. Then it is just a case of where you start/finish to play all the modes. It clicked with me that the 'Aeolian' is the minor scale shapes, so instead of 'I need to learn the major and minor scales/shapes' (which I did first) I realised I could have just really learned the major inside-out and but started/finished on the 6th note, and the same applies for all of the others, for a long time I found it confusing to think 'to learn Dorian I need to remmeber to play a major scale with flat 3rd and flat 7th', much simpler to just play the major scale intervals - but start/finish on the 2nd note. Saying that though, I don't think this technique of basically learning as shapes on a fretboard works if changing instruments, or changing bass tuning to drop D etc.

I bought a bass from Steff and all was good.

Yes, I have learnt them - but for me so far that has been pointless and I think it's potentially a bit of a barrier for some people, from the outside it looks like it adds technical complexity. People gets scared off when basically modes are relatively simple 'play the major scale notes but starting on the 2nd' etc. I don't know about others, but I've been in quite a few bands and not once had anyone said anything remotely like 'play the intro as two bars of F Lydian and then two more in D Dorian before vamping on B Locrian'. ...... perhaps that is the done thing for certain types of music though.

Each to their own, but I like the simple side of the theory that the modes are just 'major, but starting on the 2nd, 3rd 'etc. the Greek naming and way it is often presented (like earlier in this thread!) just confuse it for me. Perhaps I don't know enough anout it and am exposing my ignorance here - but as far as I can tell, learn the major scale shapes across all strings, up and down, starting on different fingers etc. really learn it by heart (I remember some SBL lesson saying this and it stuck with me - suprisingly few bass players can flawlesley play a major scale on one string, or using open strings, or jumping from the E string to D string etc) . And then you have it really, just instead of where you were starting on the '1' of a major scale start/finish on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. and get used to doing the 'shapes' from those starting points. I Don't Play Loud Music After Lunch The limitation to this is I only know how to play the modes when playing the shapes on the Bass, it'd take a lot of thought for me to translate that to other instruments or written notation.

Another one on the 'Reggae Fever Oldies, Vol 1' compilation: Prince George 'Babylon Kingdom Fall' 🔥

We do a silent test that everyone is going through the mixer/laptop and in ears are working, and individually do a quick loud test of backline things (E.g. just playing a few bass notes at volume). Then we basically go straight into our first song but it is one where instruments gradually start playing one by one and the lead singer stands out front checking the levels via a laptop interface, we go around for a while if he needs to adjust things, then he starts singing and adjusts vocal levels if needed. The upside is punters don't have to put up with a lot of '1 2 1 2 check check' stuff. Downside is it is a bit a a damp squib of a set starting.

The Blue Bells (AKA The Black Arks) are new to me but what I've heard is great. Quite a few of their tunes are on a compilation 'Reggae Fever Oldies, vol 1' (which is a lot better than it sounds!)