Simon C

At Sunday school I used to think “I am the Lord of the dance, said he” was “l am the Lord of the dance settee”. I wasn’t sure that they made settees for the sole purpose of dancing, but it seemed like a good excuse to dance on our furniture at home.

Over on TB there are rumours G&L may release MFD Jazz pick-ups in 2023. I assume they will have adjustable poll pieces.

It's good timing to generate some pre-Christmas GAS.

I might be one of the converts. I always thought Rickenbackers were a bit strange. Having played yours today I’m now not so sure about their strangeness. And there is a place on the wall now that my son has moved out and taken a sixer with him…… I enjoyed the day. It was good to meet you all. Ian King was really interesting. Thanks to all involved with organising and running the bash.

Likewise I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. I have a Laney “85” that you are welcome to have a go with. It does up and down. I’m not sure how far it tracks down, but I recall playing one song with either and F or F# and the sound tech said it was fine with my fretless. The other one I tried that you haven’t mentioned that might fit the bill for you is an EBS Octabass. You can tell it whether you want to track high or low registers - I guess it does some algorithm adjustment. That may fit the bill and it does sound good. Unfortunately I don’t have one for you to try.

A bit of an afterthought: I’ll bring some home recording stuff too. If anyone else is into it or thinking of getting started, it would be good to swap a few tips (and, for the exhibitionists among us, show videos of ourselves). I've added " iPad and home recording kit (and a couple of videos😀😜)" to my entry (16) below. 1. MacDaddy - Custom Shukers / Rob Allen Mouse / Peavey Vypyr VIP III 2. Binky Bass - Binky 10 string, USA Conklin 8 string, ACG 9 string, 3 x ACG 6 strings, Reiver 7 string (geeeetar), GR Bass Dual 1400 & GR Bass AT410+, Helix LT, Pinegrove straps, Richter straps etc. 3. Cetera - Spector (USA NS2 & NS2X, Euro Classic, Euro LX (w/Haz),Euro 'Rachel Bolan', Pulse II ) Wal Mk1 'Geddy Lee', Fender 70's Classic P & FSR PJ with East pre, GK400RB, GK Legacy 800 & 4. Tech21 VT500 Heads, Genz Benz Neox212 cab. 5. Merton - various ACGs, Zoots, Conway Instruments basses, Glockenklang Blue Rock, Barefaced Two10/One10 6. Eude - ACG Finn SC Classic 6 string, ACG RetroB 5, ACG TKO Modern 4, ACG ChubstRR Mikro 6 string, 2 X ACG Mule 4 strings (on loan from ACG), GK Legacy 500, 1 or 2 Barefaced One10 Cabs, Dod 250(r) modded with @Sibob 7 NancyJohnson - NS Design NXT5a EUB, Lull JAXT4, Darkglass A/O900, Darkglass 112 cab, Tech 21 dUg. 8. prowla: Obligatory Rickenbackers, a Warwick or two, maybe a Kramer aluminium necked bass, some pedals, Ampeg & Tech 21 preamps (subject to change), maybe the Minitaur & MIDI bass pedals. 9. Silverfoxnik: G&L SB1, BC Rich Eagle, Godin Shifter Classic 5, Sprackenbacker Ricky copy, Mesa Walkabout 15 combo, or Handbox R400 + Vanderkley 1156 MT. 10. Happy Jack: an assortment of weird 5h1t that I can guarantee nobody else will bring 11. WalMan (hopefully!): Wal, Status S1 & S2 & Zon Legacy Elite. One of the rigs (probably Mesa D800 & BF One10 or BBII as there's already One10's on thelist) or Helix & Headrush. SkarBassOne pedal. May have an old case & 2U rack to sell/raffle 12. Steve Browning: Mesa TT-800 and Mesa Subway 1x15 cabs. SVL basses. Greco Pbass and Tokai Jazz. 13. OrangeFriday: Latest homebuild items - Tubular Bass and Basscape effects plus maybe Jellybean Bass (the one with a few LEDs in the neck) 14. BillyBass: Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas V (J) and IV (reverse PJ) , Balaguer select series Goliath (HH), Tech21 GED 2112 pre amp, Barefaced Midget, Gallien Krueger Legacy 800. Jam pedals Lucy dreamer, Hamstead Subspace, Jam Pedals Ripply Fall. New pre amps installed in the Charvels: John East in the 4 string, and a Nordstrand in the 5 string. 15. Mudpup: Zon Sonus Std, Cort A4plus, Mesa Big Block 750, Mesa MPulse 600, Quilter BB800, Barefaced Big Baby cab 16. Simon C : G&L L2000 Tribute, Sire V7 Fretless, Ibanez EHB1000S Headless Shortscale. Various pedals (switch, tuner, Hypergravity compressor, Laney 85 Bass Octave, Bass Clone Chorus, Spectradrive. iPad and home recording kit (and a couple of videos). 17. Rumblefish: Reverend Rumblefish,Bernie Goodfellow bass, EBS HD 350,Vanderkley 112 MNT. 18. bass_dinger - Two Washburn 500s and a step-fronted SWR Workingman 12 with a three digit serial number. And maybe the Boulder Creek 5 string in my avatar. 19. Smanth - Harley Benton B-550FL, Kala UBASS, Roland Microcube Bass RX, TC-Electronics BG250-208, Line 6 Wireless, Some Zoom Pedals, Stompz if it is working, Bits for Phoenix. 20. Andyjr1515: Camphor Single Cut (see also For Sale listing); AJR's "Same woods and proportions as a Thumb but, wisely, a different shape" fretless; passing across the completed pink lightweight to Happy Jack 21. TrevorR - Wal Mk 1, Wal Pro 2E, Aria SB700, Frankenjazz, MarkBass LMII & Traveler 2x10, Pedalboard… 22. bassace97 - SVT Classic + 410, Stingray 4 HH and American Special Jazz Bass, and pedalboard 23. kebabkid - 2 x Sires and Roland Cube 24. Darren R - his good self

The Hypergravity for me too. I’m not quite sure where the attack is set on mine, but I was fairly confident that I’d find most compressors on the market somewhat limiting (1st gear pun of the day). Anyway in case anyone is interested in the process I went through to set mine up: Hopefully the link works. It’s the 1st time I have tried to do it.

I’ve received clearance from Mrs C , so just need to avoid a Church call up for the Sunday evening ( and even then may be able to attend some of the day). I'll bring my 3 basses and pedal board. Do I need to bring an amp , or do we plug into whatever others have brought ( mine is a keyboard amp so a flat sound and probably not too interesting for you)? I'm a newbie, so am looking forward to meeting you all. 1. MacDaddy - Custom Shukers / Rob Allen Mouse / Peavey Vypyr VIP III 2. Binky Bass - Binky 10 string, USA Conklin 8 string, ACG 9 string, 3 x ACG 6 strings, Reiver 7 string (geeeetar), GR Bass Dual 1400 & GR Bass AT410+, Helix LT, Pinegrove straps, Richter straps etc. 3. Cetera - Spector (USA NS2 & NS2X, Euro Classic, Euro LX (w/Haz),Euro 'Rachel Bolan', Pulse II ) Wal Mk1 'Geddy Lee', Fender FSR PJ with East pre, Hamer Impact, Pedulla Buzz 4 fretless and maybe Jackson TBird, GK400RB, GK Legacy 800 & Tech21 VT500 Heads, Genz Benz Neox212 cab. 4. Frank Blank - Jabba short scale fretted, ACG SS Recurve, Ibanez SRC6, QSC K12.2. 5. Merton - various ACGs, Zoots, Conway Instruments basses, Glockenklang Blue Rock, Barefaced Two10/One10 6. Eude - ACG Finn SC Classic 6 string, ACG RetroB 5, ACG TKO Modern 4, ACG ChubstRR Mikro 6 string, 2 X ACG Mule 4 strings (on loan from ACG), GK Legacy 500, 1 or 2 Barefaced One10 Cabs, Dod 250(r) modded with @Sibob 7. Stingray5 - MusicMan Stingray5, Tune TWB6, Tune SWV4-BB, Boss GT-6B, Eden EC15 combo OR Trace Elliot GP12SMX combo. 8. NancyJohnson - NS Design NXT5a EUB, Lull JAXT4, Darkglass A/O900, Darkglass 112 cab, Tech 21 dUg. 9. prowla: Obligatory Rickenbackers, a Warwick or two, maybe a Kramer aluminium necked bass, some pedals, Ampeg & Tech 21 preamps (subject to change), maybe the Minitaur & MIDI bass pedals. 10. Lozz196: US Precision, Ashdown ABM600 & Ashdown ABM PRO NEO 210s x2 Ampeg SCR-DI, Sansamp BDDI v2 11. Silverfoxnik: G&L SB1, BC Rich Eagle, Godin Shifter Classic 5, Sprackenbacker Ricky copy, Mesa Walkabout 15 combo, or Handbox R400 + Vanderkley 1156 MT. 12. Happy Jack: an assortment of weird 5h1t that I can guarantee nobody else will bring 13. WalMan (hopefully!): Wal, Status S1 & S2 & Zon Legacy Elite. One of the rigs (probably Mesa D800 & BF One10 or BBII as there's already One10's on the list) or Helix & Headrush. SkarBassOne pedal. May have an old case & 2U rack to sell/raffle 14. Steve Browning: Mesa TT-800 and Mesa Subway 1x15 cabs. SVL basses. Greco Pbass and Tokai Jazz. 15. OrangeFriday: Latest homebuild items - Tubular Bass and Basscape effects plus maybe Jellybean Bass (the one with a few LEDs in the neck) 16. BillyBass: Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas V (J) and IV (reverse PJ) , Balaguer select series Goliath (HH), Tech21 GED 2112 pre amp, Barefaced Midget, maybe a super compact too. Not sure about which head yet. Jam pedals Lucy dreamer, Hamstead Subspace, Jam Pedals Ripply Fall. 17. Wolverinebass: Aside from bringing sideburns and sarcasm, not sure what I might bring. 18. Mudpup: Zon Sonus Std, Cort A4plus, Mesa Big Block 750, Mesa MPulse 600, Quilter BB800, Barefaced Big Baby cab 19. Simon C : G&L L2000 Tribute, Sire V7 Fretless, Ibanez EHB1000S Headless Shortscale. Various pedals (switch, tuner, Hypergravity compressor, Laney 85 Bass Octave, Bass Clone Chorus, Spectradrive)

I'm late to this one. The answer is "yes". I don't think anyone has said "no" 😀. The need for a bassist in church and me already being able to play piano / keys ( quite well) and acoustic guitar (badly) was the reason I started playing bass. Playing 4 root notes per bar in time can't be that difficult, right? Whilst that's what got me into bass, the ability to read music and having a good understanding of the theory around chord structure has helped my bass playing to improve. And it has also helped the other way. I used to hate playing the piano with a metronome. I use one on the bass when practicing technique. So now I am a lot more comfortable with it on the piano.

NPD for me yesterday: the blue octave pedal in the middle. "The 85" by Laney. I'd previously tried their "Custard Factory" compressor but didn't get on with it. "The 85" is more intuitive; and the Anderton's product video on the Black Country pedals also helped. I tried out 4 others, but this was the one that sounded best with my G&L L2000 and Sire V7 fretless. The Sub 'n' Up and EBS Octabass were pretty close in the shoot out though. The Aguilar Octamizer and MXR288 octave deluxe were less close. The signal chain runs from top right to left. Switch to select the bass, tuner, compressor, octaver, chorus, preamp. I give the sound techs clean and driven signals from the preamp and let them decide how much of each to blend in. I'm often playing in 2 or 3 piece bands (worship rotas at church are proving a bit difficult) so having the 2 signals helps to fill things out. I'm hoping the octaver will similarly. I'm even thinking of putting it and the chorus after the preamp using the "thru" path, then they can have 3 signals - I probably need to talk that one through with them though!

Do you mean because of the ability to pan left and right?

Do you mean decent quality IEMs, or something between the desk and the IEMs, or something else? I use KZ ZS10 PRO for the IEMs. I like them. About £45 on Amazon and you get some ear bling without having to have your ears pierced. Others I know have had good experiences with CCA (CCA-C12 may be the model number); they are similarly priced. They will need an extension cable though. The supplied on is only around 1m (+/-) long - if they just run off that they won't even be able to bend down to pick up a drink of water. Church provide an Allen and Heath ME1 personal mixer for those of us using IEMs. It works really well in that you can not only adjust levels for each input (vocal or instrument) but can also pan left and right. The panning functionality helps with separation and clarity - I suspect this means I can run at a lower volume whilst still hearing everything.

Thanks for the response Pat. That’s helpful.

That'll keep your strings from going floppy. 😜

@Obrienp thanks for the review. If it isn't too much trouble, are you able to measure the total length of the bass please? Does the gig bag add much to the length? I'm thinking of using it as a travel bass - hence the questions. Thanks in anticipation, Simon

I think if I really wanted to, I could juggle work and a band. I’ve done it in the past, but do travel a fair amount so it’s not ideal. But I play in church a couple of times a month and can usually get someone to cover for me if I’m travelling. I also do 3 or 4 open mics a year and play a piece at 3 or 4 piano concerts a year. So I think I’m getting enough live playing without “needing” to be in a band. I’d have to give one or more of the others up and reintroduce juggling work and family - so the band playing is the one to miss out. Now when I retire……..

This was previously posted elsewhere on Basschat but probably fits better here. The only change to the original post is the position of one of the white dots in the photo. I’d initially set the level too high so had to dial it back a bit. I was going start a new chat but then found this one. I thought it might help others if I posted how I’d got my Hypergravity working. I’d bought the pedal after trying it out at Anderton’s with the “ Beauty and the Beast “ toneprint by Rudy Sarzo, which at the time I bought the pedal was the only bass specific one. Once I had the pedal I tried it with the Rudy one and also built one in the Toneprint editor that a bassist was using in their Spectracomp and had posted in Talk Bass. (Incidentally I found the editor ok to use with my rudimentary knowledge of compression). I preferred the Rudy one, so decided to work with it. The 1st step was to set all the knobs centrally. I started with my main bass ( a G&L L2000 Tribute) and style of playing (finger). I found I needed a bit more of the compressed sound so turned the blend knob to about 2pm - that’s the gold sticker in the photo. Then I moved to my other bass: a Sire V7 fretless. The pick ups aren’t as hot as the G&L, so I’m using the level to balance the volume between instruments. The manual (once I found it) explains the interaction between level and blend, so I used that info with my ears to back off on the amount of compressed signal in the output. The white stickers are the result. Then back to the G&L for slap (the red stickers) and pick ( the blue ones). The blue sticker for the blend knob is turned all the way clockwise, so no dry signal when I’m using the pick. These took more time to set up, perhaps because I’m not particularly good at either of them, don’t play them frequently and needed to move more of the knobs. But it was worth it, particularly for pick playing, which now sounds like a bass played with a pick rather than a horrible muddy mush. Unless there is a coloured sticker the knobs are at the 12 o’clock position. So for the G&L finger style all knobs are at 12 o’clock other then the blend. I’m really impressed with the compressor. Hopefully this is helpful to someone.

I plug into the unit with a chord. It's a long (ish) one - about 3m. With about 0.75m on the IEM supplied chord it's long enough that I'm not nailed to the spot, but not long enough to wander too far. I'd probably get a nose bleed if I went too far though. 😁. So no I haven't used wireless.

- We use the ME-1s in Church. I’ve never used any others so don’t have anything to compare against. I’m using ZS10 IEMs (also the only ones I’ve ever used). I can hear myself and others well. You can pan each band member to give better sound separation. I find the panning helpful as it gives more clarity, which I suspect allows me to run at lower overall volume. So a thumbs-up from me.

I bought a Spectradrive via this site. We were short on numbers in the church band last Sunday. There were only 3 of us and only 2 instruments ( guitar and bass). I suggested to the sound tech that to try and fill the sound out we take 2 signals from the Spectradrive: a pre eq from the DI out and a driven signal from the 1/4” out, then he could blend as he wished. Amazingly he agreed. After the service he said it worked well: pre eq as the main sound with a bit of drive filling out. I tried the same thing through my keyboard Amp. It works well - sounding more bass like. With only 1 signal it sounds a little more bass like but not much difference. But with 1 signal it is enough improvement that I put the pedal board in the signal chain before most practice sessions - this means I’m always playing through a compressor (a Hypergravity rather than the one in the Spectradrive) which I think helps with right hand technique, particularly pick and slap. One thing it has done is introduced a bit more creativity. I probably wouldn’t have thought about 2 signals if I didn’t have the possibility to do it. So a good experience thus far.

I'm new to In Ear Monitors. A couple of weeks ago in church I went back to the stage after the sermon. I put the IEMs in my ears, tuned the bass and turned up the ambient on the mixer. Nothing. I wasn’t too phased as we hadn’t had any sound in the monitors immediately before the service, so I guessed we were getting foldback post fader. The song started and I played the 1st note. No sound. It’s not somewhere you want to be, particularly with a fretless. So I Iooked at the sound tech, pointed at my ears, played another note - still nothing. After a while I noticed the cable from the monitor was unconnected on the floor. Very embarrassing having to bend down and plug it in. I’m guessing the congregation didn’t really notice, but it was live-streamed. I had the misfortune of watching the live stream back and it was in full view of the camera and very noticeable. Ah well.

Thanks for the response. Do you mean that there isn't much to be gained in getting a preamp pedal?

Hi all, I'm wondering whether to get a bass preamp pedal or not. At home I usually go straight from my basses to a keyboard amp. Both are active basses: a G&L L2000 (great preamp, if a bit odd in that it has voicings with bass and treble being cut only) and a Sire V7 fretless (with the stock preamp which is well regarded by many on youtube and I guess on Basschat too). Sometimes I go via my pedal-board to my keyboard amp (signal chain is: bass, switch to select bass, tuner, compressor, tube overdrive, chorus, amp). Sometimes I go via a Behringer Bass V-amp, which I use for the SVT amp and Cab sim - it sounds good in that mode, but I find the other amp/cab sims a little underwhelming. I tend to like the V-AMP if I'm using a pick, but don't really think it is worth the 5 mins of set-up and take-down if I'm playing finger style (approx 80% of my playing) or slapping ( less than 10% of my playing). At Church I go into a Gallien Krueger 210 combo - I'm not sure where the Sound Techs take the signal from. As I understand things, Keyboard Amps have preamps but they are transparent / neutral so don't impart any flavour, colour (pick your adjective) to the sound in the way that bass or guitar amps do. Mine does have treble and bass eq knobs on it. It has (I think) a 12" speaker. The Amp is a Carlsbro Colt combo about 23 years old. I think the main use of the preamp would likely be at home, in order to make the basses sound more like they would if I went into a bass amp and cab (which I don't have room for). Do you think I would achieve this? If I find out where the Sound Techs at Church are taking the signal from, then I may or may not use the preamp pedal there. Some things to consider: Both my basses are active so they already have preamps. Am I achieving anything by putting another preamp in the signal chain? If I had a passive bass going into a pedal preamp then a bass combo , I'd still be going through 2 colouring preamps (pedal, then combo preamp) unless I was able to bypass the combo's preamp. So I don't think there are any more preamps that are colouring the sound than I'm suggesting for my home rig (preamp in the instrument if indeed they do add any colour, preamp in the pedal, transparent {i.e. non colouring} preamp in the keyboard combo). Feel free to answer the questions I should have asked, if it helps you to answer the questions above. P.S. The Tube Overdrive pedal on my pedal board is a guitar one, rather than being voiced for bass. I may well replace it. So a preamp with a drive channel or blend may make sense - but I think that's secondary to the main questions above.

This was my weekend “gig”: Church on Easter Sunday. This week was a lot of fun, especially the last 2 songs. So that you don’t have to watch the whole service here are a few extracts that may entertain you: 1h:00min:37-57s is me playing a bass solo (I wasn’t expecting to) 1:04:10 is the worship band leader “enthusing” the congregation for the closing couple of songs (the antics for final song makes more sense if you listen to this). 1:05:10 into the final 2 songs 1:09:25 the final song. The final song antics weren’t rehearsed, but I’m sure I’d have channelled my inner punk rocker more if I’d known. Unfortunately you can’t see much of the congregation but it was like a gig -they were rocking. Comments are welcome - on the playing, stage presence, antics or anything else you’d like to comment on.