mario_buoninfante

20 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

Let's be clear, the hurdle for a working session musician and a covers band are the difference between Olympic qualification and entering the parents egg and spoon race

This made me spill my tea!

I think a Jazz Harmony course is what you would be looking for. There are few online, SBL included.

In general I'd pick one that is for bassists, that means you'd probably be learning and analysing songs from a bassist point of view.
I haven't done a proper Jazz Harmony course yet, but I have done a bit of "classical harmony" when I was studying at the Conservatoire, but afaik in a jazz context it'd be a lot to do with learning/breaking down/analysing jazz standards.
And I think that is awesome. Despite some standards do sound quite "dated", the harmony behind them is still quite relevant.

Bass > pedals > Laney Digbeth Preamp

Like with other things, I think who really needed ramps still uses them.
But yeah, it seems there was a bit of hype too though.

I think a different bridge might help too, if you don't wanna go 35" scale (that'd change playbility too).

MusicMan for example, make 34" scale long 5 string basses and I remember them saying in the video below that "they don't need to use 35" scale because 'the secret (for a tight B)' is in the bridge".

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mPCtATs02B4

Reggae/Dub is one of the trickiest genre to play. It's a lot to do with feel, syncopation, swing, and it can't be hidden behind effects (eg distortions).

Even really skilled musician that are not familiar with it struggle to play it in a convincing way.

Just my 2 cents.

6 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but since the speaker doesn't have flat response it just doesn't matter. The amp probably has an EQ pre-shape as well, most do. Where EQ is concerned set it where it sounds best via trial and error. When it sounds good it is good.

Why wouldn't it matter?

It's true what you are saying about the amp, etc , but that doesn't make the main question less valid.

The simplest example where this would matter a lot is if you were to use the line/DI out to record.

But, it might even be just curiosity.

Or one might want to take the eq out the amp and use it somewhere else.

Don't get me wrong, I get what you're saying about using whatever settings sound good, but that's not the point, at least reading the main question.

We shouldn't "dismiss" things so easily

6 hours ago, Sparky Mark said:

I've also asked this question on Talkbass as I'd like to obtain as many informed responses as I can :-

 

Does the 4 band Gallien Krueger active EQ implemented across many of its amplifier series produce an optimally flat voicing with these controls set at noon?
If not, is it possible to adjust the 4 EQ controls to flatten any bumps and/or dips and what are these settings please?
Many thanks in advance for your advice.

My MBSIII does color the sound (and I like it ).

Here's a quick test I did few months ago

On 06/01/2023 at 08:53, WinterMute said:

It's unlikely for me I'm afraid, I was the technical director for London College of Music for 7 years, my office overlooked the main performance/rehearsal space and I was subject to a daily barrage of bad jazz from people learning how to play it (or not as the case may be).

 

Very occasionally someone who could play would turn up, Branford Marsalis memorably, and I could sort of see the appeal but I'm afraid too much of it either goes over my head or is just meandering wibble...

 

A good big band makes a decent noise up close.

Fair enough. At the end of the day, personal tastes do matter
One of my wake up call, as banal and obvious as it is, was Jaco.
I bought his Word of Mouth CD when I was 17-18 years old, and listened to it maybe twice. I just didn't get it!
Never touched it in 15y then in the last few years I listened to his music properly, solo stuff but also the work with Weather Report and Joni Mitchell, and this time I was definitely ready for it.
Ready to appreciate the composers (all the people listed, not only Jaco) apart from the amazing musicians.
Take the classic Portrait of Tracy. That track is really important for the development of bass guitar. Nobody had played a whole track that way until that album came out, and that makes it unique, but also it is a really beautiful track from a compositional point of view. It is harmonically and melodically solid and would sound great even played on a harpsichord.

Also, the contemporary London Jazz scene helped me a lot getting into it. There's so much Carribean and electronic music contamination going on there, it's insane.
And the funny thing is, all the best/old school Carribean musicians who developed Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae and then Dub (all genres I love too!), were jazzists!
So, it's a circle in the end.

But again, de gustibus

26 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

You never know. You may even end up liking some jazz.

... aaaaand, that's me!

for those who like knobs and switches... and strings. It's in the US, I know, but I couldn't not post this!

https://reverb.com/uk/item/64546293-electrical-guitar-company-custom-12-string-bass-2010-aluminum-lefty

Jazz!
I always respected it, but as a teenager and until my late 20s I secretly thought it was "old music", that as a genre was dead and that jazzists were mainly showing off.
Well, I couldn't be more wrong! In the last years I got really into it and discovered that is more alive than ever, actually has never been dead.
Contamination is the bread and butter in jazz and there is quite a lot of experimentation too.

I found it one of the most "open" genres of all time, and one of the best form of art and expression ever!

Less straightforward than other music, so it took me a bit to understand it, more "life experience" and some studying too. But, it was definitely worth though.
 

27 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

That would require a thread of its own, but the ability to get on with the rest of the musicians for the length of a project. 

 

If you're not a people person you, and they, are not going to enjoy playing together. But then you'd have to ask why do you want to be a musician if you don't like being around musicians. So maybe that's a moot point. 

 

Maybe you don't need to be 'nice', but you need to be able to fit in with them. I suppose you don't actually want a 'nice' bass player if the rest of the band are psychopaths. But guess those types of bands don't last long.

Yap, absolutely. And just to be clear, I do love the interaction with other musicians when playing, and I believe it's a big part of what makes music great. But I understand others might feel different about it, and it's just fine.

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

True, but most of these people rely to a large extent on word of mouth to get more work, and being a nice person does go a long way towards getting those recommendations.

I do agree, but what does being a nice person mean? What is the interaction people have with their electrician?
If being a nice person means being well mannered, I agree. But I don't think anything more than that is "required" in 90% of the cases.
As in, one's electrician could also be a philanthropist, but I doubt it'll come up that often in conversation with their clients. Or, I doubt that it is the main reason why they get called in the first place.
With this, I'm not trying to say being nice is not required, it's just that I was surprised to see how many times this got called out as THE thing to have in order to be a pro.
I still believe that being able to "deliver" is as much important as, if not more important than, being nice in order to get jobs.

ie one's nice but can't play. Don't think they get the job
one's not nice but can play, they could get the job.

11 hours ago, TKenrick said:

 

Those three strands of professional bassist all require slightly different skill sets (FWIW most full time musicians that I know have to take lots of different sorts of work to survive).

 

If you want to do theatre work/cruise ship stuff etc then being a decent reader is a must, some sessions require reading but many require fast ears and a broad knowledge of what to play in different styles. TAB does not exist in the professional world.

 

Covers band work is probably the most easy to get into, but you need to memorise a lot of tunes (50-100ish to begin with) and be able to transpose them into different keys at short notice if you want to be able to dep with different bands. Being able to do backing vocals makes you way more employable.

 

In general, professional players across the board tend to have a great sense of rhythm, decent ears, and have learned enough tunes over the years to be able to improvise a suitable bassline when asked to do so. You don't need tons of technical proficiency or slap bass pyrotechnics to get plenty of gigs and as long as your gear works well it doesn't matter how much it costs.

 

It's true that a lot of work comes from your network, but it's not all down to being a people person; knowing the right people gets you the gig, knowing the right stuff means you keep getting called for that gig (and people think of you when they need a bassist for something else...).

 

 

I'd defo second this.

Being a pro musician is not different from being a pro "anything else".

I think first thing first, one needs to be able to get the job done. Now, what the job is may vary a lot. The examples above give a good idea.

Being a nice person would make things easier, but I think it's a nice to have more than a must have.

Clearly, being an a**hole is not recommended

I mean, do people call plumbers/electricians/lawyers/etc. based on how much of a people person they are?

I think they get called mainly because of their skills.

Now, I know music is not exactly the same as plumbing, but at the same time being a pro also means one gets jobs that feel like plumbing, but hey, work is work.

On 02/01/2023 at 14:25, Smanth said:

For setting up my first time I followed the approach in these videos by Elixir, which are really clear (sadly in imperial measurements).  Having said that, I have tweaked things a bit in string height to allow for my playing style.

 

 

After all of this I then fiddle with my pickup heights to get a nice even sound/volume across the strings.  I've found that a sort of warbling/throbbing sound means the pickup is to close to the strings (I think the magnet in the pickup starts to pull too strongly on the string)

 

 

S'manth x

 

+1 about the pick-up height. This is something I only learned about quite recently tbh. And it's really important in order to avoid a muddy sound and also because pick-up height affects the sound quite a lot!

I found out about it when I watched this
 

I found this useful too

I use this as guideline, and check how it feels.

https://www.jerzydrozdbasses.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-perfect-bass-guitar-setup

But tbh, I think I rarely measured the string height, mainly to make sure I respected the neck radius (ie for consistency). But everything gets signed off only after a round of playing, regardless what the measurements are.

a classic I've been listening to recently (the whole album)

 

2 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

That's a giveaway at that price. The seller is a decent guy, I sold him a Fender a while back.

Absolutely. The instrument seems in good shape and the price is really good.

But, it's not the right time for me to buy anything. I have a bass that needs to go first. No point in me piling up basses if I don't use them.

This will also give me more time to investigate the market and think about it

2 hours ago, Piers_Williamson said:

An alternative suggestion....pick up something like a fretted Mexican Jazz and take it to your local friendly luthier.  The Bass Gallery advertises defret and lining for £110, and they will set the bass up for you

Nice. That's a good shout.

I started thinking about this since the fretless around atm aren't exactly what I'd be looking for.

On 04/09/2022 at 10:43, Al Krow said:

We've been using Allen & Heath mixing desks (Zed10FX and Zed60-14FX) models for a long while and they've served us very well. However, we're coming up against the constraints of the limited monitor outputs on the A&H desks though (one aux-out and one headphone out). I've recently come across the Soundcraft Signature series, which look well featured, and have three individually controllable aux-outs as well as a headphone out. Seem to get pretty good reviews online.

 

Any of you come across Soundcraft gear or, if not, be interested to hear what you're using and how well you rate your desks?

Had several Soundcrafts over the years. My current mixers are a small Folio for the keys and a Sprit FX 16ch with Lexicon fx, penultimate generation.

They get the job done. I mean, the small one is really small, that's why I got it.

The Spirit is more or less the same size of the classic Mackie VLZ 1604.

It sounds good and has the right amount of send/returns/busses/inserts for me.

The Lexicon fx on it are good too. Clearly they don't sound like the PCM ones, but have "personality".

It has a 3 band eq with parametric mids, that works well. Only thing, the low freq in the eq is bit higher than I'd liked it to be, more in the low-mid range.

Overall, I'm really happy with it, especially considering its price, 350£ second hand in really good conditions.

I'd really recommend this, and also the Mackie VLZ, especially the US made.

I'd be interested in exchanging with a fretless 4-string, preferably passive but open to other options too.

3 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

I bought this recently and it's a bargain, I'd happily gig it. 

 

Secondhand the Korean made Warwick's and even German made would fit your budget. Sire do both V5 and V7 around £500 with a nice glossy fretboard.

I saw the Sire ones and are interesting.

There's also a defretted one for sale here...

15 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

 

Yes, you use the returns as instrument inputs.  It's one of their recommended setups:

 

 

 

Nice, they have accounted for that then
The name (return) was a bit misleading for me, but that clarifies things.