gjones

What type of fender do you have. The same thing happened to my Precision Elite. The black jack input is a stereo one for active basses. I had to buy a new one which cost me £26 from a seller in France. Supposedly the Switchcraft stereo jack inputs are more robust and easier to fix if they go wrong.

The Snark is accurate, bright and cheap but does have a tendency for it's neck to snap off, so be gentle with it.

The drummer in my main band basically listens to me and follows what I play. He's also up for suggestions I make to improve the groove. Other drummers I've played with were not so open to suggestions - they're no longer with the band.

I own a Barefaced Super Compact which I pair with a GK MB 800. That one cab can keep up with a very loud drummer. I have a friend who I saw trying to keep up with a loudish drummer and a very loud guitarist with his TH 500 and SL12 but was drowned out. I've noticed he takes both his SL112 cabs to his gigs now just to make sure he can be heard. The Super Compact can take a lot of power without complaining. Of course you may not need that level of volume with the bands you play with. Saying that, I now own a Markbass CMD 121P which can go even louder that the Barefaced and the GK MB 800, if needed. So the Super Compact may be on the market soon.

None of the above. I tie them in a loose knot Never had a lead fail on me in decades.

You said that you were plugging the line out into the DI and then sending that to the desk. When I've used a DI box in the past I plugged my bass into the DI box, a guitar lead from the DI box goes to the input jack on your amp and then an XLR lead goes from the DI box to the desk. That bypasses the amp completely and a clean signal then goes to the mixing desk. If there's a problem with a noisy line out, on your amp, that should solve the problem.

If the onstage sound is good, the band's performance is good, the energy is there and the crowd are enjoying it, then I'm happy.

It's rare that any band I play with choose songs with basslines I can't handle but a rock band that I played with over the last couple of years insisted on picking a couple of Richie Kotzen songs (bloody drummer's suggestion). The basslines were b*ggers but the guitarists eventually decided it was too difficult for them to play convincingly and it was dropped. Lucky me.

Yes, I bought what I thought was a white Stratocaster (looked white in the shop). Then got it home and it was Sonic Blue. 😂

I put a set into a Geddy Lee and they were very dark sounding. In the end I thought they were a bit too dark and ended up selling them.

It's interesting that every year, when I watch the videos of bands at Glastonbury, the sound is usually pretty awful. I assume it's because there is only a limited amount of BBC sound engineers that are any good at mixing live bands and there's a lot of live acts to record. What I find is that when I go back and listen again a couple of weeks later, the sound is much better. I suspect that the Beeb initially just records the live feeds (like a rough mix) and at a later date a qualified sound engineer remixes the sound track of the video to make it sound better.

Nerves are good, it means you care. But remember the old saying 'fail to prepare.....prepare to fail'.

Thanks for the heads up. I'd never heard of Billy Valentine, now I can't stop listening to him.

Hmmmm....if somebody had stolen the amp, they would have run off with the box as well. They wouldn't steal the amp, reseal the package and place it back where it came from, ensuring the courier wouldn't notice it had been tampered with, so that could be delivered to Thomann. I think it's been a human error at Thomann. I'm sure they get many, many returns every day that need to be processed and mistakes will inevitably happen.

I agree. Been a long time finger player but recently played with a rock band for a while. A lot of the basslines just didn't sound right with fingers so swapped to pick and it made a big difference. I now chop and change with the other bands I play with. It's good to be versatile.

They're heavy when you gig with them because, unlike standard leads which lie on the floor for most of their length, you're carrying most of the weight of them yourself.

I agree with you. I always go with the singer and if the whole band does it too, in many cases, nobody in the audience ever realises there was a mistake.

You only need to be as loud as the drummer at any venue that doesn't have front of house PA. At your next gig/rehearsal, get you drummer to play as loud as they can and if you can still hear yourself then you'll be fine. Any venue that has a front of house PA will put drums and bass through it.

I've known about these little combos for years but ended up going down the digital head and Barefaced cab route. But when, just after lockdown, I saw a mint, late model one with the leather strap, going for a very good price on Ebay, I decided to bite the bullet and buy one. 3 years later and I've only recently had the chance to try it out in various scenarios and I'm really, really impressed. I've played through it with a quiet drummer, a medium loud drummer and a very, loud drummer, and it sounded great in every situation. Initially, I was afraid that the combo on it's own wouldn't be loud enough, so for the first two gigs I also brought along my Barefaced Super Compact but decided that the extra cab was overkill and disconnected it for both those gigs, which resulted in a more defined sound, which was plenty loud enough to project to the back of the room, and easily heard onstage. On the third gig I used it, I left the Barefaced at home. It's also pretty light as well and an easy one hand lift (I have a sack trolley but haven't had to use it with the Markbass). Why didn't anybody tell me these little combos were so great (ok everybody who owns one told me they were great but I just didn't listen). I wonder what the new version is like? What I do know, is that the original will be a difficult act to follow.

Played a couple of gigs with my brother in law at the Leith Jazz & Blues Festival in Edinburgh yesterday. I've played on and off with him since the 90s but only a couple of times in last couple of years. His usual guys weren't available so he asked me and a drummer he knew from about 40 years ago to do the gigs. For a thrown together band we did okay, the crowd had fun and the manager of the second bar we played in, who'd obviously made a mint in bar takings from his bursting at the seams bar, offered us twice the agreed fee at the end of the gig (my brother in law refused due to some reason I couldn't understand).

I like the 70s styles of music but some of my favorite bands, that play that type of music, were formed in the last 10 to 15 years. Bands like Mamas Gun (soul), Young Gun Silver Fox (Yacht Rock), The Teskey Brothers (Motown), Israel Nash (Southern Rock).

Don't miss out the B at the beginning of Basschat or you'll get a shock when the website comes up. Edit: someone beat me to it.

I've started playing some songs with a pick. They're the rockier, more aggressive songs in the set which would have been played originally with a pick. All I tend to do is turn the volume on my bass down a notch, or two, and go for it.

After playing a gig last night, with a loud drummer, I think my favorite amp is now my Markbass CMD 121 P combo. I brought my Barefaced Compact with me (with the Marbass sat on top), as I thought I might need extra volume, but after the first set I unplugged it and used the little Markbass all on it's own. It was very loud, punchy and clear, with gain at about one o'clock and the master at about eleven o'clock. I'm pretty sure there was a lot more in the tank if I had needed it. I can't see a situation where it wouldn't be more than enough for any gigging scenario I might find myself in.