LawrenceH

I've been investigating lightening the load of my main player. I measured weights of various components and since I've put in the work thought I may as well share, it might be a useful resource for anyone else thinking about weight reduction on a jazz bass or looking to put together a bitsa. Haven't fully dismantled it so don't have separate weights for control plate components or pickups, but I'll try and revisit at a later date next time I restring. Cheap-o Ikea digital scales so expect a small %age inaccuracy, though it did test ok on some kitchen weights . Also taken a few measurements from an Aerodyne jazz for comparison, less than 300g lighter but strangely feels like a bigger difference. If anyone else has some components to add please chip in! Different tuner designs, original BBOT/high mass bridges, pickups, covers etc. Also neck and bodies as it's useful to see where the weight comes from and what the variance is. Will try and add some pics at some point too Japanese Fender 75RI: Neck (maple board) 773g String tree 7g Tuners (Fender 70s style) 445g (111g each) 3-bolt neck plate plus bolts 66g Pickguard 94g Pickguard screws 6g Control plate 148g Fender Deluxe Bass Bridge 106g Body (ash) plus DiMarzio Model J pickups 2682g Strings 75g Total: 4402g (9.70lb) Fender Aerodyne Jazz: Neck (defretted, epoxied rosewood board) 703g Tuners 370g (92.5g each) String tree 7g 4 bolt neck plate plus bolts 64g Body (basswood) fully loaded (pots, bridge, P/J pickups) 2899g Strings 75g Total: 4118g (9.08lb) CTS 250k pots solid shaft from my spares drawer 14g Hope this is useful info to someone!

Thanks chaps - good to know even a cheapo Android tablet has been reliable. Slightly hesitant to risk it on a gig! But a standard iPad seems within the realms of affordability, and assuming that Apple batteries and OS tend to be pretty stable. Couple of questions if you don't mind: Is it easy or even possible to swap devices to, say, a second tablet or indeed a phone as backup if the main controller goes wrong? Also, is a wired connection possible while charging the tablet? Or would I have to use wireless in that scenario? I will definitely take a look at Mixing Station as well, thanks for the tip.

Well, a CQ20b is on its way to me having popped up at a very decent price, complete with case. Entering the digital age! So I need something like an iPad to run it. Anyone got any recommendations or advice? Main concern is long term reliability and stability. I might explore using it for other music things but I don't want to splash another grand on an iPad pro especially if the bog standard one looks to have a good lifespan

I tried a Casio PX-S7000 recently. The sounds were great. Action is very playable deep into the keybed given how compact it is, but it is unavoidably light so not for everyone. Good for gigging in terms of weight but you'd definitely have to baby it. I'd have one at home for sure, the industrial design is excellent. Going back to @Hellzero's comment earlier on VSTs, I don't think any stage pianos or probably even high-end home hybrids are going to match the depth and realism of the best software ones. Of course you pay a price in terms of convenience - that's what puts me off Korgs, which are essentially a Linux PC in a keyboard frame. They have huge multilayer samples but you have to wait ages for them to boot up.

I don't see what's wrong with adding a second Orange cab if the OP likes the sound of the first, and the impedance works for the amp. Who cares if it's isobaric and therefore not the most efficient use of drivers? It's still compact, goes reasonably loud and since the drivers are neo it's not particularly heavy. Just think of it as a 112 that sounds how it sounds.

Sure! Bright Giants was another post-Covid project, has ebbed and flowed with arrival of kids etc but great people to work with and IMO strong songwriting with the playing focus on supporting that. Based around Bristol and Somerset, currently a 4 piece (vox, guitar, bass, drums) but exploring the possibility of expanding to allow our guitarist, who is also an excellent classically-trained pianist, a little more freedom. Also working on adding more 3-part harmony live where it'll support the melody. Aim for this year is being a bit more regular and ideally building on that to take what we think is a solid set of originals to festivals. Be nice to connect with other bands who might crossover potential audience-wise, sometimes feel we're probably a bit poppy for the punk/metalheads and a bit guitar-y for the pop kids! Cheers!

I haven't tried the Spectracomp but I've used the Hypergravity, and assuming it's similar you ought to be able to achieve all that with a 2- or 3- band preset, especially if they have gain on each of the bands. Tbh a good 1176-esque preset ought to get you most of the way there without even needing multiband. In general I find: - fast attack/fast release will even out the note attack and sustain, which helps with upper-mid clarity but can choke the bass end a bit hard which is where sidechain HPF comes in handy. - slow attack/slow release will emphasise picking attack over a controlled deep note to give you that soft-picked soul sound. - you can adust ratio and threshold together in a compensatory fashion so that you achieve similar amount of overall gain reduction with either high threshold, high ratio, or low threshold, low ratio. However you do it I find aiming for 3-6dB average reduction is about right for really filling out the sound. For fast settings this'll mean very briefly hitting quite hard (9dB plus) on peaks especially if you dig in or slap. - if you're multibanding, the switch frequency from low to mid-band takes a bit of fiddling to suit pickups and your taste in the low mids, which is quite critical to the body of the sound IME. My own general-purpose pop/rock/funk preference is chaining a slower compressor into a faster compressor, with a ratio no more than 4:1 on each, each taking off the aforementioned 3-6dB. A lot of people will do it the other way round (1176 into LA2/3A is conventional wisdom) but this way worked much better for me.

My understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, is that the Steinway in the Numa player is not the same as the downloadable update one for the Numa X. The original Numa D samples were rather lukewarmly received but the update is considered, and to my ears from comparing demos is, a substantial upgrade. The keybeds for the Electro (TP100) and Stage(TP40) are also not the same as the 73 (TP110) and the 88 GT (TP400w). Supposedly they represent noticeable improvements, but I'm just going by user reports. Also the Nords aren't graded, and the Nord Stage action is for whatever reason not the same as the slightly nicer version of the TP40 on the Nord Piano (those I can confirm from my own experience). How do you find the GT action? I'm not a great pianist though I did study for over 10 years, but I do have for reference a very nice and still quite well-regulated Model O that I inherited from my grandma (who was good). I've never found a digital that felt anything like the real thing, but the top Roland/Kawai portable actions do at least feel responsive and musical.

Thanks very much. For reference my Jap 75RI neck incl tuners weighs 1225g, of which ~445g is the tuners (Some ultralites weigh under 200g for 4) Overall that bass weighs ~4.3kg. I think I might get away with a little more neck weight before dive became an issue (especially as the weight distribution is along the neck rather than all at headstock as with heavy tuners), but I'm not sure. Trouble is I was hoping to use a lighter body due to back and shoulder troubles. I will keep following, I think what you're doing is very cool! Foam core (especially at headstock?) definitely appeals though.

I tried a lot of stage pianos before PMT closed their doors. My 2p: The Nords sound good and have great interfaces, the samples are all somehow more musical and characterful than a lot of the competition. But, the nicest Rhodes samples tonally are lacking depth/richness because the samples just aren't big enough. Keyscape absolutely runs rings round them. Likewise, the Steinway D sample shows its age which is a shame because it's nicer tonally than the bigger 'White Grand' (Steinway A). The Yamaha grand sample is better than any of Yamaha's own. One general criticism of the piano samples is lack of 'ppp' samples, they could have a softer tone at the bottom. Hammond sounds great. The key to pricing stability is their sound library, but get a model with resonance modelling. Crap actions on the electro, weighted or otherwise, passable on the stage but far from the best. Yamaha YC/CP: VERY disappointing pianos, just bland digital-sounding. Shame as the organs on YC were good and the interfaces are great. Didn't like the action on the 73 or the 88. Looking at 88 key models which I appreciate you're not sold on: Yamaha p525: much better samples and action vs CP. Good if you don't want all the organ stuff Roland, all the pianos sounded awfully dull except the RD2000 'German Stage' Expansion which was actually good (also nice action). The rest haven't surpassed the old 700NX IMO. Kawaii: pretty good sounds, certainly musical, decent action too (88 note weighted tho). I ended up with an MP7SE. Organ/FX not as good as the Nord but the piano key/sound connection is the best of the bunch. Not light though! Something I'd like to take a punt on, but haven't tried, is one of the Studiologic Numa X - either the 73 or the GT. Demos/reviews of the EPs and the downloadable Steinway D sound superb to my ears. Not sure if they have organ sounds though

Hah funny you should say that! I had the club stage monitors and they were miles ahead of the awful 15" tops that were common - including a lot of those early moulded cabs. Fired them up a few years later next to my home-brewed 12" tops made using REW/Bagby spreadsheet and decent components, and couldn't believe how coloured they were in comparison.

One thing I've long suspected about mics in live PA is that if you overlay the mic frequency response over the speaker response, including info about how the latter behaves around crossover, you'll be able to see which mics will play nicer. Even more so if you could see time-based plots and distortion info. I've often thought a mic with a tight peak somewhere around the crossover frequency brutally highlights all the deficiencies of that speaker. From memory the Shure peak is that little bit broader, higher and smoother than the Behringer. Likewise the slightly humped response of a lot of PA tops in the upper bass can play really crappily with mic proximity effect. Years ago I remember any boost centred around 3-4.5k always sounded awful with the common two-way speaker designs, because the woofer would be in breakup up that high and the mediocre tweeters would be straining to reach that low. Plus the ear is quite sensitive around there. Half-decent speakers nowadays tend to cross a bit lower, plus the crossovers are better, buying a bit more space. Just my own anecdotal experience, nothing systematic.

I'll bite! We've not managed a video yet, but here's a Spotify link, the only song I've ever recorded to feature a (mercifully brief) bass solo but don't let that put you off: We've also just released a (very questionable) Christmas song as a bit of a nod to that glorious tradition. Spot the obvious reference on the cover art:

Thanks that's useful and that description of your Spector is bang on how I hear/feel it. Do you have an actual figure, or range of figures, for that weight? Been experimenting recently and found very modest differences can be significant when it comes to neck dive on a light body. For reference my current jazz neck minus hardware weighs about 780g, has that slightly chunky 70s profile.

Really intriguing project you've got here. Echoing the question on weight of the jazz necks (and how much an ebony/rosewood board would impact that). Also interested in how you perceive the timbre comparing different fretboard materials. I like the way all-maple necks can appear to sound/feel a little compressed.

You're not, they are!

Worth bearing in mind that any recorded bass in a track will have multiple stages of compression contributing to the final sound. Taking a classic setup you've potentially got compression from a (mic'ed) amp, a channel compressor, tape saturation and a mix compressor. Potentially extra channel and/or bus compressors and a tape bounce or two! A lot of these will only be shaving off the odd dB or two but it all adds up. In my opinion, the best way to use compressors on bass is to use several of them, with none of them working too hard individually. That way you can choose the sound sculpting you want practically independently of the dynamic range reduction.

That is a bit of a stretch, I'd have thought Joy Division etc. occupy a pretty small niche in the wider scheme of things, while the only New Order song anyone is likely to recognise outside a very particular age/race/location demographic features a sequenced synth bassline. I think we all tend to overinflate the general importance of our own influences and heroes. Someone replied earlier saying they'd not heard of any of the bassists I'd listed even though it included one who played on the global best-selling album of all time, plus another who played on the bestselling jazz album of all time. Again though that seems perfectly reasonable, there's an awful lot of music out there and what we grow up with tends to dominate our perception.

Thinking from the perspective of smaller venues where lots of room modes and reflective surfaces can interact in a relatively small space... I've never found that settings on individual channels transfer all that well from one venue to the next even when eq-ing the room. It's a very useful starting point, but since the room effects have position-dependent components with respect to individual instruments, and a lot of musicians adapt how they play to the room, some further tweaking of the individual channels always seems to be necessary.

We've got quite a lot of strange perspex boxes made by our workshops (for laboratory experiments). It's heavy and prone to cracking, but you could certainly do it with the right cutting blades and drill bits. But if you wanted it to sound good you'd need some kind of wadding inside which might spoil the look.

If I didn't do it, I'd have missed out on a lot of stuff I grew to appreciate and ended up learning from. Not everything though, some of it's just rubbish.

I strongly agree with the general sentiment of this thread, and have always had a sense that I should try harder to 'get' stuff I don't like. But I also think there is some stuff that after careful consideration in the spirit of open-minded self-improvement, truly, genuinely, objectively is just utter toss.

Those are important considerations and I find the off-axis response is a big deal working live - one reason I find the Shure cardioids easy to work from both sides of the mixing desk is that their off-axis behaviour is relatively consistent with the on-axis. Re the personal choice and learning curve, I've done sound a couple of times at tiny, intimate gigs for a very good 'name' singer who favours the Beta 58. She really knows that mic and uses the proximity effect well. She makes that mic sound expensive! The downside at the desk is that such technique requires better, more transparent compression than the tiny gig rig provides and I have to ride her fader to tame the dynamics - better inbuilt compression is another thing drawing me towards a small digital mixer. The EV mics are intriguing - iirc the Shure dual diaphragm mics like the KSM8 are supposed to have greatly reduced proximity effect, I'd like to try them but they're pretty spend-y!

Well I wasn't criticising maple to try and hurt its feelings I like maple necks and all my current instruments have them. Was more just to point out that the urethane lacquers are actually quite effective at limiting moisture-related movement. The floor is parquet blocks, each one about the width of a neck and considerably shorter. The gaps between the blocks can open up by several mm. Different blocks move different amounts too, and swelling/cupping are noticeable despite being constrained by a very strong adhesive (these are old reclaimed blocks, never designed to float). FWIW maple seems to be very similar to beech in terms of hardness and relatively large moisture-related movement. Great furniture wood and lovely to work but a disaster as a kitchen worktop. In comparison a mahogany parquet floor laid the same way with the same oil treatment shows no sign of movement whatsoever across all ~35sqm. The tropical hardwoods are usually very stable.

Based on a sample size of one MM Stingray versus numerous lacquered Fenders, I think there's something in this. With the addition that oiled finishes are typically touted as 'breathable' whereas polyurethanes are far less so. The 'ray is lovely but it does drift with the seasons, the Fenders do not. I also have a maple parquet floor that has been oiled and the pieces move loads with humidity. It's an inherently unstable timber