GarethFlatlands

It might help if you put up where you were based so people could suggest places near(ish) you? I'd imagine those things are a bugger to ship up and down the country although needs must sometimes.

Used to have a BYOC Optical compressor on my board all the time until I had to take whatever I could carry in a gig bag to practice (car issues) and left it at home. Honestly preferred the sound without it, although I am a very meat and potatoes bassist, no slap, no journeys to the dusty on of the board, no 'out there' effects etc so it's not something I find essential compared to other more adventurous players. I'll probably put it back on now the car is back up and running (don't leave your headlights on overnight kids!) but run the compression at a much lower level just to keep me under control when I start really whacking the strings.

I'd second an EQ, you should be able to dial in the frequencies you feel are lacking, see how it works out and tweak from there. It's not a low gain pedal but I kick in a standard Rat to give me a little "grrr" when I feel I need it. Surprised how well it works on bass but something with a blend would obviously work better.

This has probably been asked before but I was too tired after a gig to spend too long searching the forums for a similar thread so apologies. Feel free to point me in the direction of another thread where this has been covered. In short, I'm tired of lugging an amp and cab round to gigs when one of the perks of playing bass is the ability to DI at gigs which is what I did tonight. However, the on stage monitoring was pretty much non existent so I was thinking about getting an in ear monitoring system I can put on my pedalboard after my Behringer BDI-21 and have a rig I could get on the bus. Please give me your recommendations on decent systems and your experiences with them. Budget would be around £200-300 but the cheaper the better obviously! Thanks in advance.

[quote name='RickyV' timestamp='1448392227' post='2915078'] Excellent. My guilty pleasure also........ (I hope you are being serious, otherwise I have made myself look a right mug ) [/quote] Entirely serious! I'm a sucker for a good pop song and they've got plenty.

Million Dead. They cancelled a small festival in Reading last minute as their van broke down on the way. They toured one more time including Nottingham but I have driving so much I didn't go. They split very soon after. aaaannd.... Girls Aloud. I love them, great collection of songs. Got asked to go last minute and didn't due to band practice. Again, split shortly after.

Love it. Been a really casual Bowie fan over the years but I've been learning a lot of basslines of his due to joining a Bowie covers band recently and I'm actually taking notice that he's got a new album out. Good job it sounds like it's going to be great if this is anything to go by. We've got a gig next Friday and we're going to try and learn this for it!

Picked up a flight case by the wheel, which then predictably spun round trapping my left hand index finger tip between the wheel and the bit that holds the wheel on (technical term). 30 minutes or so before the gig obviously. Played the whole thing not using that finger which looked weird and required a lot of concentration. Not an injury but I attempted to bias a valve and heard a loud pop when I put the multi meter on one of the base contacts. I took it to a tech who showed me what to do and said "It's this contact. If you touch that contact next to it, you'll get an electric shock strong enough to stop your heart." He was pointing to the one I'd got the pop from. Never opened the amp up again. I'm still convinced I'm on borrowed time.

[quote name='Samfordia' timestamp='1445803280' post='2894388'] Would this be it? [url="https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/reverb-delay/digitech-hardwire-supernatural-ambient-reverb?gclid=Cj0KEQjw-7GxBRCL_Kq6mZSHvdsBEiQA7r8VhGdrhng4NA_wjiSlJs9QYtybcgpQNkFIvQr_Ghdf55oaAlil8P8HAQ"]https://www.bax-shop...f55oaAlil8P8HAQ[/url] [/quote] I was thinking of the red RV-7 as I haven't tried the one you linked. Looks nice though. Guitar demo here but I managed to get it sounding pretty nasty on bass too. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Q_sO-3LNQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Q_sO-3LNQ[/url]

If you're after horror textures, the reverse reverb on Digitech pedals on full wet mix produces a really interesting spooky tone. The Hardwire sounds best but the X series does it very well too and can be had for fairly cheap.

3 situations in normal life where you'll be asked about the weight of something: 1. Catching a fish 2. Having a baby 3. Buying/selling a bass

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1445776504' post='2894015'] I'm gonna go against the grain a little and say I actually thought the Darkglass pedals actually lost a fair bit of the weight, heft and punch of the dry tone (have to agree with others here though that these are some very sexy clean tones) and on the last 'Jaco-ish' section I'd even go so far as to say I thought they sounded really quite boxey. [/quote] I was underwhelmed by the B3K but it looks like we're in the minority! Out of interest, does anyone know if you can get a similar sound as the Spark Boost with the mini version?

I went for the end too on the basis it was a DI and amp sim so it just made sense to have it last, but I can see merit to the after dirt but before everything else position in your case. As said above, try both!

The Microtubes wins it for me across the levels of dirt but I was pleasantly surprised at the sound of the EHX at low gain levels and how well the Spark Boost added a nice depth, although again only at low drive.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1444509635' post='2883806'] Only if you don't use it properly . [/quote] Guilty! I very rarely use the low B but I miss it when it's not there for the thumb rest reason. I'm sure there's plenty of valid reasons to play a 5 but I've never played in a band where I felt like I really needed it, I just threw it in every so often because it was there. As with most things, each to their own.

Why play a 5? A thumb rest that's a whole string long!

If I knew I actually had the skill to make it happen, the body would already be ordered!

Very nice but damn you for linking to that site! I'm now considering a new Jazzmaster body to do in a dark stain finish like the Elvis Costello model which I love the look of but in no way need.

[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1444090246' post='2880262'] I picked up one of these a few months back and they are lovely instruments. Very light and well balanced so good for your back, and they sound really nice. One thing I especially love about mine is the slap sound - it just has the most fantastic percussive 'click' to the sound that I've yet to find on any other bass. Hard to explain but no doubt you'll know what I mean the second you try your new one. Anyhow, congrats on the new bass! [/quote] Just got it home after it was stuck at work for a few days until I could get a parking space to retrieve it. Had a quick mess around through Reaper, there seems to be a nice level of tweakability from the active controls and it has a nice tone, although there's not a huge variety of sounds and it's a little noisy it should do me fine. I see what you mean about the slap sound, it's zero effort to get a nice sharp click out of the thumb hits. It's also really light which I really needed. Very happy with it, not sure I could have done much better for the cash!

Guten tag und wilkommen! Your bass/drum duo sounds very interesting, do you have anything online to listen to?

It's been a long day and I didn't read the other replies so sorry if this has been covered. I'd go for the basics which I guess you already know, like scales and chord theory, and work out how those apply to guitar with those pesky extra strings. If you want to play with a pick and aren't used to it then get that down as well. I always warm up with a chromatic exercise and a cross string picking one as far as single notes go. Thinking about it, I never practice chord picking as it's most of what you do anyway on guitar, it should just come naturally but I guess there's no harm in working on it if you feel you need it, eg fast down strokes if you're a big metal fan, finger picking, arpeggios etc. Other than that, the only other piece of advice I can give is a bit of a no brainer; learn to play songs you like at first to keep you motivated, then learn everything. Every Guitar World song tab I didn't know, I'd raid my parents record collection to see if they had it just to learn it (this was pre-internet). If you know theory, you should some insight into how songs are constructed on guitar which is never a bad thing, even if you don't like the song. You'll pick up a lot from this too, interesting chord voicings etc which you might not get if you just stuck to things you like.

Thanks for the feedback, they seem to be well thought of as far as cheaper basses go apart from a few people with bad experiences. Now the long wait until Thursday....

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1439981837' post='2847193'] I love Strats. Despite their huge popularity, I grew up with many guitarists who didn't use them, as they weren't cool or didn't sound heavy enough. [/quote] Young me thought this but I was sold as soon as I tried a good one and I soon realised young me was an idiot. My humble MIM strat is still my favourite guitar out of the many I've owned. As for the OP, bridge for most things, neck for smooth/fat tones and bridge/middle for that thin funky sound on the rare occasions I need it.

Just ordered an Ibanez SR300 that was on Ebay for nice and cheap (£160). I do have a fondness for my Vintage V950B but the output on it is low enough to cause headaches and noise at gigs. Also, it weighs a ton, and as I injured my back mildly recently I really needed something lighter. These seemed highly thought as far as budget instruments go of by people I asked and forums I checked so fingers crossed it's a good one and not a Friday afternoon at the factory job. 2nd hand so a few dings but everything important looked OK from the pictures. Should arrive on Thursday!

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1442239469' post='2865385'] I wasn't aware of it either to be honest, it was just one of those lucky finds on Ebay. [/quote] Oops, mine is CIJ and not MIJ so I'm probably thinking of the 3 colour options I remember from back when I bought it.