M-Bass-M

The thing that really bugs me about the 'club' threads on TB is that it destroys the forum, because as others have suggested, you end up with forums within forums, and you have to fish through 10+ 'club' threads before you find a thread of interest. Having said that, I can understand the benefit of bass-specific threads. I wanted to find out more about the Cowpoke Precision I bought a few months ago, and sure enough there's a Cowpoke club on TB. From there I was eventually able to find things out such as what the different pre-amp controls did. I think if BC were to have 'club' threads, then they should be stuck on a separate sub-forum, so that they don't pollute the browsing experience that we all love here on BC.

My Precision has a PJ PuP combination, with vol/bal and treble/bass stacked pots for controls. I'm contemplating upgrading the pre-amp, but I'm a bit limited on options because of the 2xstacked layout. Audere do a pre-amp that would fit, but given that they're on the pricier side of things, I was wondering if anybody else had other suggestions to look into? Cheers Mark

I'm wondering if I didn't see any percussionist / second drummer because he was on the other side of the stage. In fact, I do recall at one point at the gig thinking that the drum sound being played wasn't matching what I was seeing MF play. Only for a few beats or so, but perhaps this was me hearing the second drummer? Anyway, MF was still an impressive drummer to watch, stunt drummer or not. It's why it's even more of a shame I couldn't hear JMcV, because I'd loved to have seen and heard such an impressively tight rhythm section.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1380804278' post='2230787'] It's sadly not a great venue for sound quality at the best of times. It's basically a large, echoey concrete bowl with hard surfaces everywhere for the sound to ping off. [/quote] I'm not sure about that. I've seen a number of bands play at the MEN (including The Who and Paul McCartney), and I've never felt then that the bass was lacking. However, on those occasions I was lower tier / stalls, so it could be that the sound does deteriorate signficantly in the upper tier. [quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1380804400' post='2230792'] A friend at the recent Birmingham gig was disappointed to see a stunt drummer barely concealed on stage behind Mick. Which is a shame. Ditto not hearing JMcV. [/quote] I had an excellent view behind the stage, and I didn't see any stunt drummers at all. What I did see, however, is that halfway through the set Mick Fleetwood joins the rest of the band on the front of the stage with an "acoustic" drumkit. After use, this drumkit gets immediately dismantled by roadies behind the stage - perhaps your friend saw this kit being assembled / dismantled? [quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1380804451' post='2230794'] I saw FM in London back in 2009 at Wembley Arena and noticed the same thing. One thing I also noticed, was that John Mcvie plays that Chain riff fingerstyle but used a pick on the original recording. [/quote] Yeah, that surprised me too, and given my earlier comments just sounded completely underwhelming.

On Tuesday night I went to see Fleetwood Mac play at the Phones 4 U (formerly MEN) Arena in Manchester. Although the band gave a fantastic performance overall, I just could not hear any of John McVie at all! To make the point, early on in the set they played The Chain, and when it came to the bass riff, there was none of that driving twang that you associate with the original recording. I could just about make out the rumble of the lower frequencies, but certainly there was a staggering lack of definition from the low mids upwards. Now part of it could be where I was sitting - in the upper circle, side-on, about half way. Another possibility was that because the sound engineer was so focussed on giving Mick Fleetwood a massive, stadium-rock drum sound, he just completely lost the bass in the mix. Did anybody else also attend this gig and have similar feelings about the bass sound? Spoiled for me what is supposed to be a great rhythmn section backbone partnership.

They're rare as hen's teeth, but the Fender Aerodyne Precision has the slab body and edge styling that you're interested in. Mark at Bass Direct had a second hand one a few months back which annoyingly I missed out on

I saw this as soon as it came up for auction, the starting price was £0.99 As Bassbus said, if you'd have fixed the tuner and added another string, this would have gotten you another £500, I reckon. But yes, looks like some sort of pawn broker / debt collector, so unlikely to know what they're missing out on.

Another vote for Polytune. Peterson also do a strobe tuner app - iStroboSoft - which is an incredibly accruate tuner, if that's what you're looking for. A bit more expensive than the others though.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1376636637' post='2177045'] Meh. It's OK, I suppose.... [/quote] Interesting how you have a tortie pickguard on each one... Sunburst and white is cliché, I think the reason why is because it feels like every budget, Chinese-made Strat knock-off comes in this colour. The same way I don't like Candy Apple Red on a bass. Sunburst and black tries to make things a bit cooler, but doesn't work as well as sunburst and tortie. I like this last combination to the extent that I'm considering adding a tortie pickguard to my Squier VMJ Fretless...

I too have thought the same, particularly in relation to MIA Fenders and MusicMan 'Rays. There's a really nice MIA Precision Deluxe in my local Dawsons, but I have a massive issue with the fact that it costs almost the same as my hand built, UK-made Status!

Silly Love Song by Paul McCartney...

Thanks for all the responses. Having a speakon:XLR lead made by OBBM was my original thought, so I imagine I will go down that route. Seems a bit of an easier option than having the panel replaced! Cheers Mark

I have an old Trace cabinet that has both XLR and 1/4" jack inputs. I understand the benefits of a balanced XLR connection when it comes to line/mic signals, but not so for speakers. For speaker cables, are XLR better than 1/4"? Also, is it possible to match a speakon connector to either an XLR or 1/4"? And again, which is preferable? Cheers Mark

Well, I'm delighted to say that I'm the lucky winner of this bass! I actually used to own one of these in sunburst many, many years ago. There's something about the retro-50's look mixed in with a modern PJ configuration that really appealed to me. The sunburst one looked great, but the blond one looks even better! Depending on how it sounds, I may look into upgrading the pickups, but otherwise I'm hoping this becomes my main workhorse bass.

Fair enough! In that case it would indeed be quite a prize for a lefty.

I saw that serial number and wanted to call "shenanigans"...do MusicMan really print the serial number on the bridge like that? I genuinely don't know, but found it extremely surprising that the model would be the first ever left-handed Musicman - just doesn't seem old enough!

It's a bit underwhelming at first, but then slowly you start to get intrigued by the whole bass. It's a reasonably priced Fender, that looks like it might do some Stingray-esque tones...not sure it would be your main bass, but could work as a very nice backup!

I'd also add to those urging caution about such an approach. You have to remember that every time you apply for a credit card, they will do a credit check on you. Part of your credit rating is impacted by how many credit checks have been carried out - the more credit products you apply for in a short period of time, then the more desperate for credit you may be and the higher the likelihood of you having lots of other oustanding unsecured debts. Thinking ahead to your plans for a mortgage, or even buying a car, you'll want to keep your credit rating in the best possible shape. Another point to consider is that you may not be given a credit limit high enough for you to transfer your existing balance on to! Banks tend to offer low credit limits to new customers to minimise their exposure. Finally, the other benefit of having a credit card is for emergencies. Say your car breaks down and you need to pay for repairs - credit cards can help to plug short-term cash needs while you put in place more appropriate longer-term borrowing. Hope this helps.

I'm finding this thread quite useful, as overdrive / distortion is something that would help my band, but I've never really worked out how to use it. The biggest problem I have is that using a pedal, I can get a big, thick crunchy distortion sound. As soon as the rest of the band plays, I just get lost in the mix - specifically I lose the big deep bass rumble that adds to the sound. My question is, how do I solve this? It's almost like I want to keep my normal bass sound, and then just layer over the distortion, instead of changing the whole signal. Is this a wet/dry mix thing? Cheers Mark

Another long shot: are you running PT with admin privileges? I know I have to for my setup, although I can't remember the specific reason why. Other than that, the Avid Pro Audio Community is usually a good place to ask for help: [url="http://duc.avid.com/"]http://duc.avid.com/[/url]

Ha, thanks for the replies guys! I think I remember reading some time ago about the mis-match between the P and J pups, which I guess explains much. The truth of the matter is that I should just get me a nice plain vanilla p-bass. Time for some GAS!