Muzz

OK, two channels negotiated for with the BL, they're going to be paired to the H1 headphone out of the desk. MS-02 ordered, stay tuned for progress... 🙂

Sadly no P option, but that's more like it! 👍

Not a gig review as such, but a quick addendum to my using the QSC in a pub last week and it being completely overwhelming, I had a sit down yesterday to actually work with the thing (yeah, I've had it a year, I really should've done this before) and found it was set to No Sub i.e. it was boosting all the bass, and no HPF set, which would explain the sound. Ten minutes with the manual and some EQ curves that an enthusiastic geek in the States had recorded from the various presets, and with the preset and HPF set appropriately it's now sounding much more like a traditional backline amp. Phew.

I've got a couple of presets on the Stomp I've made with a split of the signal (and you can HPF/LPF the signals, too) between a bass amp (lots of choice) and a guitar amp (even more choice) for that Chris Wolstenholme/Royal Blood kinda sound, it's really useful and they sound pretty good live, too.

Yeah, I was kinda expecting that, the Lekato 5.8's the weak link in the stereo chain...bugger. Looks like it's the MS-02 solution until I win the lottery...am just negotiating an extra channel from the BL/desk owner as I type... Cheers

Hokay, this one's a bit specific, but I'm looking to move from a mono inear setup to stereo with as little expenditure as possible. Current setup: Lekato 5.8Ghz transmitter/receiver, one in the aux channel out on the desk, the other into a Behringer P2 on my belt (set to mono), into IEMs. Great for mono. The desk is a Soundcraft UI24r, and it'll link/route two aux sends (we have aux output channels to spare) for stereo, and I've found a stereo cable/Y adaptor for £6.50 that'll combine the two channels into one 3-pin XLR. The logical thing to do would be to plug the Lekato transmitter into that, set the P2 to stereo and Happy Days. I've found evidence that plugging the P2 directly into it will give stereo, but I need it across the stage. What I don't know is if the Lekato transmitter/receiver will send a stereo signal to the P2 - the main use for the Lekato is as a wireless system for a mic (people use it the other way round for IEM), and for the life of me I can't find anywhere where it mentions 'stereo' in the docs. One warning sign is only one figure given for latency, whereas the MS-2 (see below, it'll work in stereo) has a latency figure for mono and a higher one for stereo. Anyone used the Lekato to transmit/receive stereo? It's not my desk, so I can't do any testing. Plan B could be to route two channels to one of the TLS headphone outputs on the desk and buy a Lekato MS-2 system (these work on TLS rather than XLR, and are stereo end to end) and drop the 5.8Ghz pair and the P2, but that's £60 on a wing and a prayer. As I say, a bit specific, but any info on any of the stages above would help.

Thanks for that, unfortunately still too heavy for me these days. It's a shame, but getting old sucks...

Now this caught my eye...I love a BB (had several, still got one), but these days they're too heavy for my busy gigging schedule and glass back...when you say 'a bit lighter', how light is it?

My current drummer (who is very good) calls it 'The Bluetooth's linked' when he plays with the right bassist... 🙂 EDIT: I should add that in my experience it's not always that the drummer (or bassist) has to be fantastic, it's more a chemistry thing: I've played with a couple of fantastic drummers who, while it was all OK, just didn't lock in, and that 'knowing what they're gonna do next' thing just didn't happen...

Relative newbie since 2009, my post count isn't as stratospheric as some of the titans here, but I like to think my inane blather has meant my word count's quite respectable. And some of it even makes sense...not much, I admit, but...

A pfffft sort of gig Satdy night up in Blackburn (and a single vital road closure added 20 minutes to the nearly-an-hour trip there), mostly empty pub ("Oooo, you're up against Eurovision tonight") and apparently a complaint later that the drums were too loud. I'm not surprised; the pool team is apparently the big thing about the pub, so they can't move the table, it having been professionally levelled or something, so we were in front of it, with a big chunk of empty pub behind us that had more natural reverb than a church. Tricky to keep as quiet as they wanted, but ironically the half dozen drunks in there were deafening before we went on in their conversational volume, literally shouting at each other while all sitting round the same table. They buggered off at some point, as did most other folk, but hey. Didn't help that I'd been out on the bike for a 130-mile blatt in the sun, and that took it out of me (I seem to recall riding a big bike was a lot less physically demanding when I was 21), so I hit the Energy Wall about half ten. Anyhoo, earlish finish, and we got paid. Last minute dep call for hosting a jam night in Tyldesley last night, which was good fun, tho I was the soberest person in the place by eleven (with a 25 mile drive home to do), and we didn't finish till pushing midnight. Used the QSC 12.2, but it was wayyy too much, I need to look at the EQ settings for a less bassy, more focused preset for using a foot from you on a small stage. No inears, my ears are singing today. 😐 Light Sonic P, Stomp, inears/QSC. Green Sketchers for both gigs. Edit: Checked yesterday, and I was using the Bass Amp preset on the QSC, which isn't my favourite; had a faff about with it, and there are presets with less really low bottom ends which would have been more appropriate for a small pub gig with a raised floor (I'm not a fan of a ton of real lows; they're too much trouble to separate from boomy mud). On the other hand, for the gig the weekend before outside in a field, the bigger bottom end was very good. I guess I just don't use it enough to have got used to switching it about.

Have a look at https://stellartone.com/ the things are on there. Very interesting take on the tone pot, it has 10 detents which increasingly drop off treble, a lot of them without dropping the mids like a normal tone pot. I find it very useful. There's an explanatory graphic on the page which shows the curve of each click, it's a matter of finding the ones you like.

Still my go-to gigging bass, still great. The Squier logo's staying on the headstock, it deserves it. I put a Stellartone tone pot in it, because it'll roll off the highs without losing the mids, and I'm a big fan of mids.

Played an end-of-season outdoor festival at a local(ish) footy club; you know the thing - bouncy castles, ropey burgers, BYOB, a charity raffle, generally a family day out on the pitch, with a proper stage, unfortunately facing into the sun, so it was verrrry hot (the drummer/PA engineer's iPad shut down at one point because he'd left it on the stage in the sun and it overheated), but a good day. Mostly singers with backing tracks, a couple of solo acoustic types, we closed it out for an hour at half seven. I'd brought my QSC 12.2 just in case the cobbled-together PA wasn't up to much bottom end, and it's a good job I did, as one of the (12") subs (we had 2 x 12" full range cabs each side, too) sharted itself just before we went on, so I brought the QSC up to the front on my side (where the bust sub was) and didn't go through the desk. Made it loud onstage on my side, but I went out front with my wireless and blimey charlie o'reilly that QSC can generate some bass; lots of it even a good way from the stage. Admittedly we weren't at Knebworth levels of volume, but lots of people said how well it all sounded, and I'd never have imagined playing an outside venue with one bass cab and being heard more than 40ft from the stage against a miked-up drummer, guitar and vocals in the PA. Extraordinary. It didn't break a sweat, either, and was on about 75% volume, with 50% more (linear) input from the Stomp to come, too; clean (Stomp patch dependent) and very nice...as I say, the onstage sound was naturally bass-heavy on my side, but it was the overall amount of sound the thing is capable of which surprised me - I can't think of a full stack rig I've ever used that would've made more, and that's including an Ampeg fridge and SVT...

It wasn't particularly the jazz itself (tho Lord knows it was the wrong crowd for that), it was the condescension and 'judge-y' attitude of the players that rankled...perhaps just a pair of up-themselves musos, but they were a thankfully rare exception. There was a bloke that came in with a fantastic rock voice who always cranked the volume to painful levels (he didn't last long after having had the volume turned down on him a few times), and another old Blues guitarist who got up with myself and the drummer, called a 12-bar that turned out to be (when he started playing) a 14-bar (in a different key) and stopped playing half way through the song to tell me I was 'crap' before walking off. Not needed, not the spirit of a jam. He didn't come back, either. Other than that, everyone got the vibe of the place and it rolled along a treat. The three/four lads who'd never played before were objectively awful (on a fairly regular basis), but had such a good time playing and were so thrilled to do it that everyone loved them. The landlord got a bit sniffy at one point about 'standards' being kept up, but all the regular musicians pointed out we'd all been there at some point, and he relented.

Yeah, that rings a bell: I used my Stomp in the jam night setup, but I'd just tell the punters 'That switch is the tuner, don't frig with anything else, ditto the amp settings because it's going through the house PA, too.' 99% of bassists just used the tone control on the bass and it never sounded anything less than good, but one night a pair of Jazzers turned up; they 'Didn't like' any of the drummers they'd heard (despite our drummer having played residencies in jazz clubs in London, in between his pro career on cruises and in hotels) because 'Nobody in here can swing' so decided to just do a bass and guitar 'set'. The bassist insisted I take the Stomp out of the loop (buggering up the gain/level stage) and proceeded to take five minutes farting around with the combo settings before playing. No hint of thanks after they'd bored everyone with what was 15 minutes of presumably one of Spinal Tap's Jazz Odysseys, and received the sort of applause where you can identify exactly which 3 people are clapping. They left straight after, and didn't come back. They weren't missed.

There's always one: when I've gigged my Shuker Fenderbird I've had similar 'experts': 'Why don't you play a Fender?' 'That's got the wrong neck on it' followed by (after I'd mentioned Entwistle and Wilkeson) 'Yeah, but it's still the wrong neck'... And the general comment, spoken like it's the Last Word/Checkmate in the conversation 'I used to have a proper Fender.' My (very, very good w/mods) El Cheapo Squier Sonic P hasn't had any comments yet, but I'm ready for 'em...

I was in the house band for a jam night for about a year, literally 200 yards down the road from 12-String's place (funny town Tyldesley, it's full of live music), and I always took a cheap bass along to lend out, and my small combo through the house PA. The players ranged from pro (No.1 Album) musicians to some lads who were just starting out (the first time they played live was at the jam night), full bands, pairs and threes ('Can you play bass for us?') to solo acoustic singers. Everyone got 'up to three' songs, depending how much they had prepared (or not, in some cases), and while there were a lot of regulars (see 'Tyldesley's full of music'), there would often be a mix of regulars doing different stuff, even on different instruments*. No hard rules**, no cliquey stuff, the audience was less than 50% musos, so the emphasis was on entertaining punters. Some nights I'd do the first two/three songs, and be sat down watching until we got up to do the last one of the night. I'd say that's pretty much how it should be. * The chap that used to do my head in (in a good way) was a great left-handed guitarist who'd get up on my bass, flip it over and play it upside-down (very well)... ** Anyone taking the mick (and I'm thinking about cranking volume, 5-minute guitar solos, etc) just didn't get called the next week...

I'm another borderline-obsessed with weight: I won't buy a bass over 7 1/2lbs again, and the ones I have which are more than 8lbs or so just don't get used. I gig a lot, and no matter how you spread the weight it's still there (tho I have a 4-inch wide strap on my main gigging bass), very luckily I bought a cheap, very giggable P-bass that's Poplar and weighs 7lbs 9 after some Ultralights (I have them on everything...why wouldn't you?), and sounds exactly like a P-Bass in my hands. Other than the aforementioned Ultralights, the best way to get a light bass is to try a lot of light basses and find one that sounds the way you want it to; if you want to mod with routers, be aware it'll probably reduce the value of the instrument, so start with a cheap one you won't mind losing a bit of money on. Although the other substitutions mentioned can have a cumulative effect, it's down to how much tinkering you want to do.

On the subject of JJ's live tone, last time I went to see them (tour before last, IIRC) they'd switched to inears/no backline, and it was dreadful; that indistinct, scooped sub-bass rumble you get at 90% of big venues. I dragged my other half all round the Apollo trying to find somewhere I could hear properly, but to no avail. It really pisht me off, we left early. When I go to see JJ, I'd like the bass (on the earlier songs, at least) to take the top of my head off, please... I mentioned this to Jon Shuker when i was picking up my JJ Sig from him, he said he'd chatted with JJ (I wasn't the only bassist to mention it) and they were 'still working through some issues'. Apparently it got better last time out, but I didn't go. The JJ Sig is based largely on the legendary Green P, I can confirm it's a very angry P, so it's not the bass.

Just to throw something else out there, and as detailed elsewhere on here, last year I picked up a Squier Sonic P new for £145 on the basis of 'How bad could it actually be?' (oh, and the fact it's very, very light (well under 8lbs)...yeah, I'm a glass-backed owd codger masquerading as a rock star) and it's a very good bass. Some tweaks to make it align more with my requirements (including a DiMarzio pup and one of Fender's own (much better) £35 bridges), and it's my main gigging bass. Now I know at the very bottom end of the model range I may have lucked out with a particularly good one (QC-wise), but it really is a good bass, and a great platform if you, like me, are an inveterate tinkerer, and are old enough not to get hung up on what it says on the headstock...

Thing is, you can get a custom made bass built for you by a luthier that IS objectively better for half that £4k, which these days is in the territory of a lot of higher-end US mass-manufactured stuff...