The Funk

[quote name='bassjamm' post='4861' date='May 23 2007, 01:23 AM']Hi all, Just wondered...i'm going to be down in London this bank holiday Monday (28th May) and i'm looking for a gig to go to with a few friends, probably jazz/funk/soul sort of thing... Can anyone reccommend any bands that are playing on Monday, or any good venues worth contacting to see what's on? I'd like to check out the Mingus big band at Ronnie Scotts, but £36 a pop is a little too much Thanks in advance... Jamie[/quote] Blatant Plug Warning: Check out Foolish Earthlings on 31st May at Ginglik, Shepherd's Bush - funk/soul/rock band (mine). 1 free drink on me if you come down and introduce yourself. Same offer applies to all members of the basschat community at any of my gigs. Otherwise, I've heard there's a funk jam session at The Bedford in Balham most Monday nights. I don't know if it's good or crap though - never been.

I did a gig with my EBS Microbass II last night. For proper gigs, I want to take my full rig. For in n' out, little gigs with decent monitoring, the EBS works great - and I took all my stuff in just one standard gig bag.

I have two rack set-ups. Rack Set-Up 1 4U Gator Rack Case: - ETA Systems Power Conditioner/Distributor/Circuit Breaker 1U - Drawmer DL241 Compressor/Limiter 1U - Aguilar DB680 Valve Preamp 2U 2U Gator Rack Case: - QSC RMX 850 Then, as a back-up, Rack Set Up 2 4U Gator Rack Case: - Warwick Quadruplet Valve Preamp 1U - blank ventilation panel 1U - Gallien-Krueger RB400 2U

[quote name='funkysimon' post='1383' date='May 18 2007, 01:15 PM']What do people use as a boost for solos?[/quote] So... los?

The guitar amp might explode. Well, maybe not literally but you're likely to damage the speaker. A 50W valve guitar combo should manage fine against a 350W solid state bass amp.

What he said

It depends on what kind of harshness you're getting. If it's just brightness, that could easily be a strings / EQ thing. If it's another kind of harshness, it could be dead/crap valves. If it's another type of harshness it could be a lot of other things. I'm rather jealous of your new acquisition btw. I have a DB680 which I wouldn't trade in for anything. I'd like a better power amp to go with it though.

I voted Warwick but I love my Fender Jazzes too.

I'd go for Option 2, with a tiny bit of Options 1 and 3 as required.

My mistake - I meant the K2! D'oh!

The other option is to not bother with a cab and just DI out of your amp.

You could keep your head and get a Hartke Transporter 2x10 cab. 150W, 36 lbs., [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/210-tp/69241"]£175 from GAK[/url]

I agree 100% with the Rode NTK. I have one and it's great on vocals. If I could afford another one I'd use them for drum overheads too (although a pair of NT1000s would be cool). The NTK could sound cool with an acoustic guitar, a foot or two from the soundhole (off-centre), with a smaller condensor about a foot from the neck around where the fretboard meets the neck. Noice! With the NTK you can blend between the cardioid, figure of 8 and omni patterns, which is handy. For kick drums, I hate the AKG D112. I have one and I'm just not a fan. Obviously if the drums aren't tuned properly, they're going to sound crap whatever you use. My cousin has an Audix D6 which sounds fantastic. They don't cost much more than the AKG now. For snare, I think an SM57 works fine. For toms, I have the little AKG clip-on mics which are ok but not great. I'd like to try the Sennheiser e604s. SM57s work fine on guitar amps. I tried a few different mics but the guitarist prefers the sound of the SM57. I've only recorded saxophone once and that was through a Rode NT1000. It sounded fantastic. It helps if the sax player has a good set up and knows how to use it. Something to think about that's more relevant to mics than compressors is mic preamps. If you're using the inbuilt preamps on a budget mixer, it's going to make any mic sound like a £10 Argos jobbie. For bass, I just record using the DI out of my Aguilar DB680 preamp. It sounds exactly how I want my bass to sound. I have no idea about what I'd use to mic up bass cabs or a combo. Maybe an SM57 and a kick drum mic. Or the Sennheiser e609 could be interesting. For the Motown sound, they just used 3 mics in total: 2 room mics and 1 vocal mic. You could always stick two good condensors up to capture the room sound in stereo - a couple of Rode NT1s would be good for this - as well as close mic-ing everything. Then when it comes to mix down, you'd have the choice of either a vintage sound, a modern sound or a blend of the two. But sometimes it's nice to just be able to worry about getting your part down right.

Funk, The: 27-year old bassist who spent the last 10 years of his life torn between music and doing something respectable. As a result, had an extended run of 9 years on and off in higher and professional education while he tried to keep from having to choose. Has recently found one foot on the bottom rung of each of the music and legal career ladders, finding gainful employment in a law firm and starting to play London's 'toilet circuit' with his Funk-Soul-Rock band, Foolish Earthlings. Has gotten over years of GAS by finally assembling and settling on a great rig... except the power amp and cabs could be lighter and more powerful... uh-oh! Footnote: 98% self-taught with no idea how to read tab, struggles with dots, and has a bad ear. Despite all this, has developed into a fairly funky bassist through a combination of listening to and playing with good people.

I can't remember which one I've got... I think it's the Dual Custom. It sounds awesome. I whack the o/d to full - it's the heaviest and most 'tone'-ful bass o/d pedal I've heard. On the lower and mid settings, it does a nice warm, thick, meaty o/d. I also have a Warwick Quadruplet which isn't an effect really but it does the preamp and power amp overdrive very well. It has 3 12AX7 preamp valves and 1 EL84 on a dummy load to give you the power amp distortion. You could have the best of both worlds and ask Dave of DHA to build you a Dual Custom with 1 preamp valve and 1 power amp valve on a dummy load. That'd sound nuts!

Foolish Earthlings will be playing a full-on funk night at [url="http://www.ginglik.co.uk"]Ginglik[/url], Shepherd's Bush on 31st May 2007. (1 Shepherds Bush Green, Shepherd's Bush, London W12 8PH) For more details, [url="http://collect.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.showDetails&Band_Show_ID=15575186&friendid=61944874"]click here for the band page[/url] and [url="http://www.myspace.com/molehillnights"]here for the promoter's page[/url]

Black! ... or even black brushed metal...

Hi. Made it across in on piece. Now I need to go back and retrieve my avatar and sig.