TimR

Do you know the fretboard (or at least all strings up to 7th fret) inside out. If someone was to say play C# could you immediately put your finger on it (or them) without thinking? If not, then that's the first thing you need to do before even looking at the dots. Using tabs won't ever get you there. I think music teachers will try and teach you "this dot is this fret on this string", which I think might not help you.

I think people are scared of the 'reading' aspect. I've found playing bass in concert bands is actually fairly simple and you can feel your way through pieces initially not playing every single note. Work out what the key signature is. Then follow the lines approximately while staying in that key. Concentrate on the rhythms, which tend to be very similar for each piece, or stick to one note per bar. Record the rehearsals yourself for your your home practice. The band leader will cut you some slack if you're upfront from the start.

Usually there is "swing" written at the top by the arranger. Then it's up to the MD to get the band to swing by instructing during rehearsals. If the MD/conducter doesn't know how to groove then the band won't.

The other instruments will all be sight reading. Unfortunately if you're not confident in being able to trip along making the odd mistake and getting the feel for a piece, it's going to be very hard. It's a new environment for you. It's not like playing in a 3-5 piece band.

Did a gig once where during soundcheck the keboard was randomly turning itself on and off. I watched him playing for a while and spotted it was when he was tapping his foot. He was knocking the mains cable, which, on closer inspection, was about to fall out of the plug. So I said I'd open it up and rewire it quickly. To which he said he'd just keep his foot on it for the gig. 🤯 I rewired it.

Looks like he's sidelined that and made it a 200W guitar amp/amp for the 10" PA. I'm a bit confused. Is this bass combo available yet, or is it what's coming, or is it the 200W PA being used as a bass amp?

@devinebass does pop in every now and again. Hopefully he's seen or will see this thread at some point.

"The making of..." documentary.

I seem to remember they were given the scores and some recordings so that they could 'compose' their own solos pre recording.

There was (or is) a bass head in production being funded by pre-orders.

Hopefully it's just the internal fuse. I played an outside gig once where all the gear went completely beserk. Traced the issue to the band being supplied from several daisy-chained extension leads. About 400m in total. A lot of voltage sag when we turned on the lights.

Brilliant IA. 🤣

I think rather than delving into heavy formulas and technical explanations a more simple approach might work. Maybe the mods would make it a sticky, as this thread will eventually just disappear. I thought this was already somewhere else, but have searched. Maybe a Myth/Fact list of all the things that are commonly stated. 8"/10"/15" speakers. Valve/Solid State amps. Speakers in parallel/series. Lowest impedance for an amp. Open circuit issues for valve/solid state. Types of distortion speaker/premap/poweramp and the problems and what to avoid. Power amp manufacturer's figures including THD% at Hz. I don't think any of them really require an in depth understanding of why in electronics terms, they're important. I think that's the part that throws the bass player in the street when they say "I don't understand watts and ohms", it's the application and pitfalls rather than what a watt or an ohm is. More pictures/photos.

People will always ask. There's YouTube, Google and thousands of resources. It's a difficult thing to understand if you can't do maths and physics. And if you can do maths and physics, then you don't need to ask. 🤣 There's many different ways of combining amps and cabs, and the electrical side of that is only of interest to people who are interested in it.

The SI unit for voltage is the volt (V), which is defined as one kilogram meter squared per second cubed per ampere kgm^{2}s^{-3}A^{-1}

Weird. I thought that moving magnets exerted a force on the electrons, causing them to move. That's the EMF. There's no voltage moving the electrons. The voltage is caused by the electrons moving from one place to another. That's why voltage is defined in terms of current, not the other way round. A higher voltage is just where you have a higher density electro magnetic, electro chemical, theromionic field, or capacitive storage.

There are many ways of inducing current without voltage. Current comes before voltage as the first current was measured in a moving wire in a magnetic field. Your bass pickups induce a current with no voltage.

Strictly speaking this is wrong. The volt is defined as the difference between 2 points when a current of one amp flows through a resistance of 1 ohm (although it's expressed as power dissipation 1Watt). ie the current flow causes the volt difference. Which is a very difficult thing to get your head around and why the water flow/pressure analogy is more correct. Think of it as lots of blue men on the left piling up trying to get through the tube at the same time, with fewer blue men running off to the right as they pop out of the restriction. While the blue man stuck in the tube gets more hot and flustered and red in the face. Anyway. As you were...

I'm sure someone has done this in the past and it was asked to be a sticky, but for some reason the Mods didn't agree. Or may be a different forum...

My '87 Jackson Charvel SB2 complete with pointy headstock. It's my backup bass that I take to gigs. I've only played it 3 times in the last 22 years. Might get it out next week.

Lovely bass. I manged to pick one up for a friend some time in the 90s. It was a mess. I told him how to clean it up with a toothbrush and some cleaner I had. He spent a week sorting it out and bought it round and I gave him a set of my old strings and strung it for him. I can't remember his name, but it was a great steal. Wish I'd been able to buy it for myself.

I also stack the 2x10s vertically so there's more coming out at ear level.

I bought my TE 300 watt combo. GP7-SM 300? In 1996 for £300 second hand. I sold it in 2008 for £300. I used a Warwick 5.2 ProFET for the next 16 years into 2x 210pro. That's about 500W but never had it past halfway. I am now using a Gnome iPro 2 and TE Elf 10" for rehearsals and have used it on 2 gigs in a 'small' pub. I've used the Gnome on the 2x Warwick Pro 210 cabs and it's more than loud enough for outside gigs. As has been stated a few times, power amps are all pretty good now, it's the speaker sensitivity and I've found 15" or 2x10" is plenty for most gigs with a loud drummer. Adding extra speakers increases volume from the same amp.

Define small to medium. Up to 150 people?