TimR

For a start you pickups do not capture the sound of your unamplified bass. They only attempt to transfer the characteristics of the resonating string. What you are hearing when you play unplugged is a combination of the string and the bass wood vibrating, you can't capture the sound waves coming off the wood. If you speak to Alex, he will probably tell you that his cab design is a compromise. He did try to build a three way hi-fi full frequency cab but found that fully transparent cab is not required for bass. So the barefaced cabs are 'fairly' transparent. Another factor is that unless you play solo, you need to redically alter the bass sound so that it sits in the mix with the other instruments. With an upright you will find that a lot of the frequencies it produces are masked by the other instruments and this happens naturally or is done by the sound engineer. If you don't you'll run out of headroom and everything will turn to mush.

Where did this spring from. It's a 3 year old thread! Complex? Isn't it just standard passing notes with feel. Maybe I'm missing something. If I am I'm playing it wrong..

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1321384276' post='1438592'] Fiat money is the type of money the western world uses these days. Fiat money is a method of exchange which has no intrinsic value......only the value we project onto it. They could make it out of recycled plastic. 95% of money circulating in the world is not in the form of paper or coins but bits & bytes on a computer these days. In reality money only has any value if people accept it as having value. Ever heard of quantative easing? It's a method of making money out of thin air. It's all a big con and part of the reason we're in the economic misery we're in now. [/quote] LOL. Even precious metals only have the value that we "project" on to them. Nothing has any value at all. It only starts to have a value when you can find someone who wants it and they have something you want that they will swap. The idea that Gold was worth anything is pretty ridiculous. If you start to base the economy on Gold, the price of gold has to rise to astronomical amounts so that it can support the trillions of dollars that make up the world economy. This would make electronics prohibitively expensive and we wouldn't be able to build the computers that do all the banking.....

[indent=1]Loads of ideas already about on this site. Search for Phantom power or similar.[/indent] [indent=1]Think the best Idea was to use a stereo jack to a box that sits on your amp with the 9v supply plugged into that. Mod the bass by linking out the battery.[/indent]

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1320502670' post='1427628'] Not really...he'd just be better off turning the camera off and practice more. This video kind of highlights my biggest problem with Youtube.....there is no sh*t filter. It's far to easy for anyone to post a video of them playing or a 'lesson' or whatever that doesn't need to be seen because it's so bad. What this kid and plenty of other Youtube players need is to get away from the safety of their computer and go and get their arse kicked on the bandstand. [/quote] That and there are far too many self taught people who've never had a lesson and think that all they have to do is copy what they hear. The problem is they may hear but they don't actually know what they are listening for. Compound this with people who are quick to offer up their opinion. Which is fairly worthless and unconstructive in most cases.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1320436063' post='1426969'] ... "off stage keyboard player" ... [/quote] This.

Played Tuba for a few years. "It's like diging holes."

Our guitarist started getting shocks off his mike the other week. The problem started when we started to use a drum machine plugged into the "PA". It's an old PA that the band bought second hand and have been using for a few years. Looks like the mains cable got damaged and someone "reparied" it with a connector. I looked at it and guess what.... [attachment=92175:Image0232.jpg] Check out the next PAT due date! Dec 07. Food for thought, could have been nasty.

Edward Norton [u][color="#810081"][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_History_X"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_History_X[/url][/color][/u]

I arrived a bit late to the practice last night. The two guitarists and drummer had already started and played a number while I set up. At the end of the number one of the guitarists says "I'm not sure about that number. It's lacking something" (Probably the Bass. Right?) but I said "It was a bit out of tune". He asked "Which bit was out of tune?". I replied "All of it. Mainly the guitars"

[quote name='tonyclaret' timestamp='1318724184' post='1405657'] .... Severe cramp in my fretting hand, pinky and middle finger totally locked together. Had this happen a couple of times previously but have always managed to shake it off pretty much immediately. .... [/quote] Indeed. This is exactly what happens. Same advice. Relax and don't forget to breathe.

We were asked to play this at a formula 1 fans birthday. After struggling with it for a couple of weeks and failing to do it justice we told them we couldn't do it. The only real playable, usable and recognisable bit of it is the bass riff in the middle. I think the rest of it is really good it's almost like 2 tunes bolted together. Rumors is one of my favourite albums and sold massively (I believe).

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1318352273' post='1401061'] Well said. Its frustrating when excuses are given too frequently. This thread just goes to show how important it is to play with musicians with similar levels of commitment and taste in music. [/quote] Indeed. But it's very difficult to find a band like that. Our Drummer is self employed and doesn't work in the evening. One guitarist is an engineer working 9-5. The other guitarist is the owner of a medium sized IT company in central London. I work 8-4 but if I have to finish something I have to stay. I also have small children. It's much better to find a band with people who are flexible and know what life is about. The last band I played in we all got ripped apart by the drummer if we were even slightly late to a practice or a gig. Despite us all telling him that kids don't behave when they know you are trying to get out and not to start rehearsals at 7.30pm because bedtime is 7:30pm. But then again he has no kids, left work at 5pm regardless of how much work he had on, went to the gym for an hour, went home ate his dinner then went to rehearsal.

[quote name='algmusic' timestamp='1318331351' post='1400597'] I don't think you know what a drummer is. A drummer is a musician. Someone who plays the drums isn't a drummer. They just happen to use a drumkit [/quote] As with all things there's a sliding scale. I wouldn't call a drummer a musician any more than I would call a lot of guitarists or bass players musicians. Maybe I'm a musical snob. There are lots of people capable of playing the right notes at the right time and doing very well in bands, but that's as far as it goes and as far as they want to go for a lot of them.

No. I fully understand the physics behind the different types of temprament. I know that guitar will only sound 'right' on its own. Add piano, bass guitar, saxaphone or any other instrument tuned to equal temprament and you are in trouble. Try playing it with a trumpet or voilin and you'll confuse the hell out of the musician who will have to continually adapt what they are playing to stay in tune. Its a curioso of no practical use whatsoever. But it is important in this discussion because it shows that there are people out there trying to be more perfect than they should and getting it very wrong.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1318276609' post='1400057'] First decent session I did, I tuned by ear...and then had to live with engr talking about bass being out of tune. Well, I couldn't hear it and I am sure I wasn't, but went straight out and bought one after that. I wasn't confident enough or experienced enough to argue with him..which I would do so now..but then I would have a tuner to hand anyhow. Why make things complicated for yourself.... ? It shouldn't even be an issue now .. and that should be a good thing. [/quote] That's the problem with engineers. They can hear pins drop a mile away, tell you what mic was used to hear the pin drop, how old the tape was that they recorded the pin dropping and what the resonant frequency of the vibrating pin was. Leave them to recording and let us worry about the notes.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1318276503' post='1400052'] Holy crap, I thought this was a joke! [/quote] Another product in the long list of Sanke Oils produced by people who believe without understanding and bought by people with more money than sense.

Erm yes thanks lads, that's the same link as BigRedX put up. I meant Tommy Denander made it up.

True temprament. He made that up didn't he? I've heard of Equal and Mean Tone but True?

[quote name='algmusic' timestamp='1318258398' post='1399765'] ... Rant over.. I know most of this is a joke, but maybe the drummer side of me is getting sensitive [/quote] Yep. You need to realise there is a big difference between a drummer, and a musician who can drum.

The depressing thing is not that they say these things.... ....It's that we've all heard them.

[quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1318153795' post='1398506'] I remember reading that the sound engineer for ABBA used to triple track all of the instruments, and put one track just slightly out of tune and the other slightly out of time. I think that's one of the things that made them sound so interesting and unique. [/quote] This is similar to what a chorus pedal does. It emulates several instruments playing at the same time. It what you'll get naturally from a brass line. I suppose frets and keyboards make the instrument more likely to be in tune with itself. Thinking about it I can't now see how being in tune could make the music sound more clinical. There's far more going on than just notes. The timing has to be spot on as well.

Possibly. But I think the real story is that protools and endless takes has made recorded music too perfect. We've forgotten what live music should really be and too many people are trying to present an exact copy of what they hear on a recording. Rather than being spontaneous and creative they play the same thing week in week at at practices and gigs. What you are hearing as dull and lifeless playing is just dull and lifeless playing from instrument owners who can copy something exactly but don't actually understand what they are playing.

Mask either side of the gaps with masking tape before you fill to stop the filler from spreading all over the fretboard.

I've been having trouble with gigs where we've not been provided with a decent electricity supply. I want to add something into our rider. Does anyone have anything written in the rider about what they expect that I can copy or reword?