markdavid

I think part of the problem is that even if they are not trying to be cliquey you will always find that when someone has their turn to play they will often request specific musicians to play with them, this whilst understandable can make the problem seem worse

When your bandmates insist on rehearsal at ear splitting volume , our rehearsal yesterday was insanely loud, what is the point? We were in a tiny rehearsal room and it was louder than the jam night I went to the previous night.  Will be having words with bandmates today,Thankfully I have earplugs but I still don't feel comfortable about being subjected to that level of volume

Keep it ,you will regret it if you get rid of it 

Just an update, went to the Jam night at the same place last night, I changed my strings to TI Jazz flats as the tapewounds I had on I have just found to be too muddy sounding.  Brought my eq pedal and applied around -10db of cut on the lows and around 10db of boost in the mids as my bass is quite low end heavy, worked like a treat and my bass was clear and easily heard, still with plenty of low end.  

Not much too add, I love Chicago , great band, great basslines , there is something about there music that just sounds so warm and cosy 

4 hours ago, SpikeBass said:

You are welcome to come and have a play on her if you like.

Thats a tempting offer, i have one of the Chinese made contemorary series Hofners but have never played one of the German Hofners

35 minutes ago, bassjim said:

 Guitarist noodling at any time the band isn't playing  be it at rehearsal, in soundcheck, pre gig ,between tunes ect.  

Out of all the things that are annoying this is the most.

Yep , nothing more annoying than trying to tune up or to talk to another musician in the room about the material you are playing and someone is blaring away on their instrument

Really nice bass , I am a little envious

1 hour ago, Jus Lukin said:

Yep, going from out in the room, where you're in a position to hear the full frequency range of the sound, to right on top of it could make it seem much darker by comparison. Not to mention that there is a good chance that by climbing on stage you are getting closer to room boundaries and corners which reinforce low frequencies, so the sound you were attuned to from 'out there' could have been very different where you were playing. It can work the other way to, oddly- an amp which sounds thin and crispy on stage can fill a room nicely elsewhere, and rooms can introduce nulls in the frequency response too. As far as any of that is concerned at a gig, you are generally at the mercy of where your position is in that particular space.

However, I saw your thread on the Labellas! Followed the link back here in fact.

Two really important facts missing from this thread- you were playing the Höfner, right? Also with tapewound strings? If that is correct, I'll bet the other guy was using something rather different! Höfner's rep for being nothing but thump machines is a tad unrealistic, but they are pretty warm and thumpy in the big scheme of things. Certainly notably different to the average Fender type with rounds and I'm not surprised in the least that you had a bit of an issue.

EQ would very likely have saved your derrière that night, and as noble as it seems not to touch anyone's EQ, presenting a Höfner with "I'm playing this, do you mind if I put a bit more top end on for the next couple of songs?" Would probably get you permission for a quick tweak. The real issues with EQ flipwittery are cranking volumes or low end, which can damage an amp, or changing things and walking away without putting them back. If you can very quickly assure them you know what you plan to do and why, and that things will be as they left them the minute you finish, you have a good chance of a green light. At the risk of getting overly long winded, a cut to the lows could be just as productive as adding anything further up, what with that pickup right by the neck, but we're not talking about a situation where going into much detail is good use of time!

So to sum up, assuming that is the case, and to partly answer your other thread, don't bin off those strings based on this experience. They were in a situation that was likely never to work well, so play them and the bass where they can be set up to do their job properly. Some folks don't like EQ touched at all, but there is no harm in asking. I am in the house band for an open night and provide the amp, I don't want too much hassle but I want everyone to have a good time playing, and for the music to sound good all night. If someone is cool about it and can at least hint that they know what they're doing, them I'm all for it. If I wasn't, helping host a busy jam night might be the wrong gig for me! And finally, if you are after a minimum of hassle or communication, then bring a more standard bass to a gig like this. A non standard sounding bass will always be more problematic than 'the norm' in this kind of situation, no matter how great it may sound when set up with its own suitable EQ.

Good points raised here, the other guy was using a jazz bass also with tapewounds but his bass seemed noticeably lower output than my Hofner (when I went on I turned the volume knob on my Hofner down to about a quarter way up ) so not only was he using a bass with single coils but I would guess the pickups not being as hot would have a brighter tone.  I think next time I am definitely going to bring an eq pedal as the low end on Hofner's is huge and I would bet that a bass cut and a bump in the mids would have really helped in the situation.

1 hour ago, mcnach said:

 

that's why I prefer the copper white nylons instead, it's too easy to get all 'thumpy' on most black nylons... which is fine if that's what you're going for, but I'm not.

I love thumpy tones but it is important also for me to be able to hear what I am playing, with the black nylons they sounded great at home but in a live environment I couldn't even hear what I was playing between songs and they were boomy to the extent that actually lost that thump which I find the thump is usually the result of a tight, non boomy, focused low end

And i am very dissapointed to say that these may be coming off, love the tone at home but had an experience at a jam night https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/323772-strange-claritydefinition-issue-at-jam-night-anyone-else-had-similar-experience/ where my bass just sounded like mush, whilst this was undoubtedly an eq issue my bass sounded this way even when I was tuning up between songs so I think the strings are part of the issue as well.  

It sounds more difficult than it is, it is mostly just the same patterns played in different locations. I would recommend finding some YouTube covers to help.

Band members that don't respond to messages, nowadays it even more frustrating because apps like Whatsapp tell you when they have read the messages so you know that they have chosen to ignore  

Had a strange issue the other night, not looking for answers to the issue but  was wondering if anyone here has experienced similar. 

Went to a Jam night the other night, first time in a while so was quite looking forward to it, house band started the evening, sounded good, bass player had a fairly warm tone dialed in which suited the music well. 

I went up to play and as is usually the case at Jam nights not knowing what songs we were going to be playing but not worried as I have a fairly good ear, I never fiddle with another bass players amp settings so left the eq etc as it was.  My lack of worry turned to horror when I plugged in and during the song realised I had no definition, no clarity to the point were the pitch of my notes was not discernable, my tone was just boomy mush, in spite of this and in spite of turning in a terrible performance because of this I enjoyed the night but the next one I go to I am definitely taking an eq pedal lesson learnt , just goes to show how different basses can sound so different from each other

Looks really nice, Thats definitely one of the nicest looking Ignition basses I have seen, in fact that sunburst is done better than a lot of the contemporary series Hofner's I have seen, I love my Hofner CT club bass but the ignitions being fully hollow (CT series is semi hollow) are tempting (will be a few years before I can splash out on the German made Hofners)

I always used to go for as low an action as possible, used to hate anything other than a low action then I found one of my basses that I had recently bought had a really fantastic tone that the others just could not get close to, the notes had more punch and heft to them. I wondered why this was , the bass had the same strings as my other basses and was a very similar type of bass, I wondered what was different about the bass that made it sound so much better and then it occured to me that this bass that sounded so good was the one bass that I had really struggled to get a low action with.

I raised the action on my main bass to around 2.5mm at the 17th fret on the E string which I previously would have scoffed at and boom there it was, the notes sounded fuller, had more punch and just sounded so much better.  I thought my bass would be much harder to play with the higher action but other than very fast bass parts it is just as easy to play.

Have received the Labellas and very happy so far, nice low tension, feels comparable to Ti jazz flats, tone is nice but strings are only 24hrs old so will need more time to break these in 

Got a set of the Hofner specific set in light gauge 100-50 , I wanted tapewounds and also something with very low tension and these looked like they fit the bill, awaiting delivery and looking forward to trying these, anoyone here used Labella black nylon tapewounds ?

My one experience with JoinMyBand being a drummer that did not turn up, arranged an audition, text the guy the morning of the audition giving clear instructions to find the place , no response an hour later it became clear that the guy was not going to show up. 

Looked on his profile and he was posting responses to pretty much everyones adverts on JoinMyBand so I suspect he probably did the same thing to a few other peoples bands, I made a point to reply to my ad stating "no timewasters please "    Sadly it seems a lot of people like the idea of being in a band more than the reality of it

Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey Buckingham is not Fleetwood Mac imho , thats like the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger

The instrument the viola or the viola bass (as in the epiphone viola bass)?

Hi all

Am after getting a compressor pedal but have noticed that a lot of them are very expensive (£200 for a pedal, your having a laugh) , I am after something that does a decent job for an affordable price (sub £100) and after suggestions.

Basically to give an idea of what I am after, one of the places I practice at has an Ashdown head with a built in compressor, I tend to turn it to about half way, I don't slap but I love the extra punch that a compressor provides due to the slight squashing effect it seems to have so I guess I am not after a super subtle effect and am using it more as an effect than controlling dynamics

thanks

Thanks for the replies, some really good suggestions here, as suggested I think I am going to take a short break from playing and hopefully that will bring back the desire to play again, fingers crossed

Hi All

First off apologies if this is in the wrong section, if so then I am sure the moderators will move as applicable , 2nd I am not looking for any medical advice with this topic, I am medicated so that is taken care of 

Have suffered depression for a while , Recently started to feel depressed again and it has crept up on me , as is sometimes the case I don't feel particularly sad I just don't feel much of anything.

Unfortunately this has extended to my bass playing and I cant motivate myself to practice, I just don't feel the enjoyment at the moment and part of me wants to sell all my equipment and just be done with it.

I am not enjoying listening to music all that much either.

I have just in the past couple days got over the flu so I think that has probably had a profound effect on my state of mind.

I am after some pointers to motivate myself back into music , hell it was hard enough to motivate myself to make this post, hoping someone has a good suggestion , thanks

Joe Jackson Steppin Out  - I thought I had it nailed but then on closer listening realised hes  playing octaves , absolute b*!ch to play at the original speed, one day i'll nail it