PTB

Another great album with Danny on is Darrell Scott - Live in NC. It's a trio with Kenny Malone on drums and Darrell Scott on gtr & vox. Some may know Darrell Scott better as the pedal steel/banjo/mandolin/guitarist/backing singer in Robert Plant's Band of Joy but his solo albums are well worth a listen IMHO. There's a wonderful bass solo in Wayfaring Pilgrim that gets me every time.

I did something similar many years ago and quickly realised my lack of reading skills was going to be a problem. I noticed that the bass music was notation only whereas the guitarist's music had the chords printed over the top. Next rehearsal, I sat myself right next to the guitar player and looked at his music and mine. I took the chords from his music and looked at mine to see if the line ascended or descended. It was exhausting but I made it through a week in the pit and was feeling smugly that I'd got away with it. I probably would have but the MD then took the band into the studio to record the soundtrack and my cover was blown! P

Great gig last night. Her usual bassist, Bosco Mann, was absent but his replacement, a tall long-haired girl with a flatwound P-bass, played those funky lines just spot on. The band were very tight and SJ put on a great show. The audience were out of their seats straight away and stayed there. It's as near as I'll get to seeing one of those 60s legends in their heyday - Aretha, Etta, etc - but I do think she has her own thing. Anyone else attend? What did you think? P

Two beauties - and rare too. You're a lucky fella, Clarky.

Clarky's excellent post gives you all you need in terms of the various components. Here's my diagnosis of your complaint based on your symptoms. I would suggest that your pick-up is the weak link here as others have above followed by the Sadowsky box. I use a Mark Bass 121 combo and this is very popular amongst a number of players working in London such as Orlando Shearer and our own Paul King & Sloblusine so I don't think the amp is a weak spot. It may not be to your taste of course but I would start elsewhere. As for settings, I use mine flat usually with a bit of VPF for mid cut but no VLE as this just makes it dull. Also, it has a rear port so needs space behind it - if you put it against a wall, it sounds odd and feeds back. I use a B Band Statement pick-up system which has unfortunately been discontinued. It combines wing elements like an Underwood with a Realist-like element that goes under the bridge foot to pick up the body. It then connects to a buffer/pre-amp which lets you pre-set two blends between the two pick-ups and switch between them. I've recently bought another 2 pick-ups and a pre-amp used on TalkBass so they can be found. I find I get a great sound for the sort of stuff I play - blues & swing - and it's very feedback resistant. I'm usually about 60% bridge wings and 40% body but find that this is the main tweaking I do, more or less warmth/clarity. I must admit to having very little personal experience with other pick-ups - I just struck lucky first time with my B-Band - but would suggest that you seek something other than the BP-100 which has a reputation for being temperamental at best. Others here will give you suggestions on this but it . However, if all my B-Bands broke, I would be tempted to replicate with an Underwood, a Realist and a Solstice or Raven Labs blender. The Fishman Platinum Bass pre-amp that Happy Jack recommends is also very popular and has more DB-friendly eq etc than the Sadowsky box. Not sure that the Sadowsky is best placed to buffer a piezo signal either and that's a key step in the chain.

[quote name='PaulKing' post='1288111' date='Jun 30 2011, 07:16 PM']Nice one Paul - thanks for the chance! Interesting to see how the band sound with new line up, Tim seems very happy .. and assures me there are no new tunes to catch me out. Hope not...[/quote] I had 6 cd's worth to learn when I joined so there's still plenty of old songs to worry about IMO!

Thanks for depping for me Paul! Tim thinks very highly of you. Hope the festival goes well. I'm on holiday so won't be able to attend either. I'm sure it'll be fun! Paul

As you will know, blues comes in many guises. It's worth trying to find a style or two that suit you all. I play in two bands, both blues but both very different. One plays west coast & Chicago blues doing tunes by people like Hollywood Fats, Kim Wilson, James Harmony, John Nemeth, William Clarke, etc. The other plays stuff by Little Milton, SRV, John Mayall, Otis Rush, Cream, etc. Find your own slant on it, get a good mix of tempo & grooves - not too many mid tempo shuffles - and make sure you have enough tunes people can shake their booty to!

Hope it goes well Jack. I'm playing myself so won't be able to catch you. We played the George last night and it was packed and jumpin'. Hope you get the same!

Yes, the PA point is very relevant. If you were to go through the PA, this immediately relegates your amp to being your monitor which means you need a smaller rig for those big gigs too. This is my preference as very loud stage volume (enough to fill a large room) is usually a problem for most of my gigs. I recognise that you need a good engineer and a PA with bass bins for this to work properly. So if it were me, I would sell everything apart from the SWR and buy a small powerful head and cabs as per my previous post. What to get? I don't have a wide experience with amps but I enjoy the very different flavours that my Mark Bass and Gallien-Krueger amps provide. I suggest seeing if there are some BCers near you with appropriate gear who would give you the chance to play through them. Good luck!

In helping you further with this, it would be good to know what styles of music you play, a rough budget, what basses you use and whether you are strong enough to haul conventional cabs around or would prefer the smaller lighter gear that is now available, albeit at extra cost. Ahead of this, I would generalise that you should get a powerful head (400-500w), a small cab and a larger cab. You then have to decide on whether the larger cab is at 4ohms so you extract maximum power from the amp or 8ohms leaving you the option of using both cabs together for your biggest gigs. I also agree with keeping the SWR at your rehearsal room. The answers to the questions above should help us suggest actual gear for you to go try out.

Nice work - very tasteful playing. Look forward to hearing more.

I would also have been happy to help but am already gigging that night. Hope your finger heals in time for you to do it.

Welcome Janice! Hope you find what you're looking for here on BC. My wife teaches ukelele at a local primary school and she has asked me to play upright with them at the summer fair in a few weeks. I can't wait!

Brilliant. Thanks for this AT.

Go for it! The best way is to throw yourself in at the deep end. If you can, record the gig & listen back later to see where the weaker bits were, identify any common problems etc.

It was a Modulus Graphite Quantum 6. I've been working my way down steadily ever since.