SimonK

Whenever we have preamp threads more people recommend the Tech 21 than anything else. Thus said I really like my Genzler Magellan pre because it has two very different "flavours" (foot switchable), a HPF, mute switch, and really powerful EQ settings. Not sure if it sounds like "tubes", but through the IEMs yesterday it sounded awesome (albeit I also add a Keeley compressor as well). 

2 hours ago, xgsjx said:

Yeah. I don’t quite understand that. 
Why would anyone still want to follow anything or anyone that’s been involved in paedophelia?

The problem is that people are weak and fail. If we didn't use anything because of moral concerns about the (human) creator we would have to stop using most technology, tools, art, music etc. As such there is a careful balance to be gained between sensitivity and practicality. I can see avoiding something if you know of a specific concern, but at the same time if you dig deep enough into anything I'm sure one will find moral reasons not to use it (and knowing what evidence can be trusted is also difficult)... so the upshot is that it is complicated, and difficult to be fully informed about anything. As such I would rather judge the motive of the user of the tool (e.g. song) than try to determine the history of the original creator of the tool.

I still play/listen to lots of the older Kevin Prosch songs - he was black listed for a long time, but nevertheless his songs were really meaningful to me during a period of my life, and I maintain the song and the singer are two different things.

48 minutes ago, Mokl said:

KZ LS10 pro is what I'm using. Find they did pretty decent, maybe not so strong in the mids as I'd like, and capable of sounding a bit boomy, but feel like a reasonable every point to IEM?

I was using the same yesterday and was having a problem (well minor annoyance) with the bass tom causing some type of resonance that sounded like a note - I think I worked out F# - which was really annoying, but something unique to my IEM mix as when I popped the ear pieces out I couldn't hear it in the room. I wonder if this was from the ear pieces or something else?

Interesting - been enjoying my late 90s streamer (posted a page or two back next to the Trace stack) but yesterday played a fully IEM gig using a Genzler Magellan pre as DI. Now normally I use the bass in active mode (as I figure more is more) but because I had the IEMs I was playing around with the settings and remembered the passive mode so thought I'd give it a try. My word, the growl that came out of the bass was awesome, so much so that at the moment I can't imagine myself going back to the active mode - I can see how having some onboard EQ is helpful, but at the expense of tone?

So this week:

• Couldn't make the Friday practice so just worked it out on the fly
• Used IEMs for the first time in a service
• Drummer used electric drums for the first time
• Tried a new router as monitor mix wasn't working (and it only sort of came on line)
• Used an ipad for the music for only the second time
• Had a keyboardist leading who seemed to make up his own basslines as we were going along

Was probably the hardest I've ever concentrated on a Sunday morning - only got lost once in five songs!

7 hours ago, Mokl said:

With much inspiration/guidance from this excellent thread, I'm now 4 gigs in with IEM, with the last being a silent stage at a venue with particularly tricky acoustics.

 

I'd say that so far the success rate in terms of my experience/sound in my ears is at about 60%. Areas I know can be improved are FOH chap not altering my levels mid set (!), seal of the IEMs (if I insert them just right, then there's a definite improvement, getting better at that), then finally the actual tone in my ears. 

 

The last point is the one I'm after advice on. DI from my amp sounds ok but very dry in the ears. It's not so bad when I've got stage sound as some of that leaks through to a fairly pleasing effect. Last gig and rehearsal before it I tried using my HX Stomp with cab and amp sim engaged to try and get a more pleasing sound to my ears (silent stage this time), but in rehearsal guitarist thought my tone suffered out front with the cab sim on, so I ended up running just the amp model, and it wasn't much really much different to my amp DI. No surprise there really.

 

My question is, what do you all do to get a satisfactory bass tone to your ears?! Would a decent DI with cab sim likely sound better than the Stomp, do I just need to experiment more with the Stomp? Answers on a postcard please!! 

I've also just switched to IEMs and this weekend had one of the best tones I've managed. I think having a really good DI might be quite important - I was going out of my Genzler Magellan pre with a little bit of EQ tweaking to taste.

Also, something I don't think anyone has mentioned on this thread yet (although I haven't read all 87 pages), walking around a venue with IEMs around your neck seems like the equivalent of walking around a hospital with a stethoscope in terms of how people treat you!

When I was a teenager myself and some friends used to busk regularly in Crawley and Redhill. We had our usual pitches that we would use all year, but then come christmas a whole bunch of others would turn up busking for "charity". When we figured this out we would get to the best spots as early as we could, but then would have arguments with the charity lot wanting us to move on so they could have a turn...

Bizarre to come across this thread this evening as I am weighing up whether to accept a charity gig in February where they are charging £25/head to come in. When I provisionally said yes I wasn't expecting to be asked to pay £25 myself as the email I got this evening has just requested.... hopefully it was a misunderstanding and they had just added me to the list of their attendees and bulk sent...

3 minutes ago, mep said:

OK, enough of all this talk about blues jams (go and create your own thread for that boring nonsense)

 

Dany rules, and this is our new logo!

Is this for those of us who need a few pints in the system before being able to play live at (blues) jams?

33 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

I’m pretty sure that’s how it’s taken by all. This would be a very boring and entirely pointless thread if everyone just encouraged each other to give in.

...isn't that the point 😈 ?

Meanwhile Danny in Bradford is contributing this to the music industry (they may just be miming...):

...but I suspect with David Gilmour it is about the music. With some of these youtube creators currently being "outed" the intention seems more to be getting the acclaim (clicks & subscribes!) of coming across as being a virtuoso, when they are clearly not. As has been said this then makes life much harder for the real virtuosos to make a living, along with the normal mortals who suddenly can no longer compete. It is also the source of rather a lot of embarrassment when they are pulled up on to a real stage.

RE Ichika Nito, someone has tried an obsessive take down (one wonders about neurodiversity!) of him which I think Danny Sapko must have seen. I've linked the below to 34 minutes in which I think summarises what has happened in this case - Ichika has produced super virtuoso videos that are beyond his own ability to perform which I suppose is cheating, although not the "ultimate" fake guitarist. Mind you the most popular comment in the chat underneath is Jared Dines complaining no one has accused him of being a fake guitarist yet!

Just now, Cato said:

I've just seen a new Sapko clip about guitarist Ichika Nito who I'm only vaguely aware of because he has a very nice Ibanez sig.

 

This time the accusations are over editing his social media clips and nit being able to replicate his performances live.

 

All seems a bit more tenuous than the Giacomo plagiarismstuff to me but 'calling people out' seems to be a popular genre on social media tese days.

It's just psychology - everyone is interested in a scandal - more clicks, more likes = more money!

Thing is social media starts to take it too far and thus anyone making a living on it needs to play the game. Has anyone noticed that facebook is now full of posts with something that is obviously wrong - especially driving videos - simply to lure people into saying "they didn't do anything wrong" or similar? A really irritating genre.

Still these sorts of forums are probably one of the oldest form of online interaction (after list servers) and still seem to be maintaining their value.

40 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

As well as a stereo XLR.

 

 

For two you mean?

No I just got the single version in the neat little box. I think the double version was £20 more but it doesn't have the robust box.

OK - first trial of the Swiff WX520s today. Two negatives:

1) When you turn them on there is a distinct, albeit quiet, white noise hum

2) They need to be line of sight. I had a quick walk round and as soon as there was something between me and the transmitter the signal dropped out

But on the the positives they are a really neat, compact, design, they definitely work, and as soon as a signal comes through you forget about the hum. I also didn't realise they accept balanced xlr, 6.35mm mono or stereo, AND 3.5mm stereo - giving all the options. You can also switch between +4dBu or -10dBV or instrument level, the latter triggering a gain control for amp free practice. Finally the transmitter is also rechargable so you don't need to plug it in either.

All in all I think I forgive the two negatives as for £150 its a pretty good package.

...although if anyone gets rid of a Rickenbacker surely we should be encouraging them for having done something virtuous and thus give them some leeway 😀?

7 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Good ideas, the reason I asked is that I am about to host an Open Mic night and I want to reduce the amount of alien saliva reaching the microphones. The colour coding makes the case on its own. 
 

I cannot claim copyright on the term Mic Condom, a former band mate coined that term. 

Reminds me of when we used to do a layer of sacrificial icing on the kids birthday cakes to fend off the spit that came with blowing out candles!

I like them for outdoor use, and also if (as you say) people of unknown origin are going to use them!

While I know the arguments, there is something deeply painful about replacing large satisfying boxes with such a small one...

1 hour ago, ASW said:

I find it easier to use the notes on the G string if I'm reading music. I score out bass parts for the bands I'm in. None of them play particularly frequently, so it's so much easier and more time efficient for me to turn up to a rehearsal or gig and read the bass part rather than try to memorise a whole set again.

 

If there are notes G or above (i.e. the same octave as the G string) it's easier for me to play those notes on the G String rather than jump up to a different position in a split second. It was the same when I had a 6 string bass with the C string, although that string was needed far less frequently.  

Despite what I said earlier, I have to agree that I too am more likely to use the G string when reading music, especially sight reading, as the old classical guitarist in me instinctively plays the notes within reach if my brain is busy processing the music!

6 hours ago, Al Krow said:

@Woodinblack just following up on the Swiff WX520 and a couple of online comments (summarised by Google), given this is on our band shopping list as a 5.8 GHz wireless.

• Real-world latency is often much higher than advertised (e.g., 10ms vs. 5ms claim).
• Exhibits a noticeable high-frequency roll-off (from 6kHz) and increased distortion above 4kHz, making it sound dull. 

Does the first of those tie up with your experience - is it something you can test?

I guess the second is not going to be more of an issue for guitarists than us bass players, but may impact female vox if it's an issue?

 

 

I have a set arriving today from Thomann and intend to check them out over the weekend so will let you know first impressions. Mind you they were so (relatively) cheap I figured best to just try them rather than dive in at the £400/500+ end of the market!

3 hours ago, spyder said:

Looks like Andertons do the flat bottom one.

No need to snap off the tags.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/rockboard-pedalsafe-pick-box/

...nice and you can fit condoms in there as well - no wait this is the bass forum... 🙂 !

With those setting is the compressor doing anything apart from what looks like a lot of high pass filtering - I think it's about 400 Hz when all the way to the right?

Trying and seeing what sounds best is the only reliable way, but as this is an internet forum and relies on keyboard warriors spouting opinions I would go HX one first as it's probably designed to have the whole signal hit it without any pre-processing especially if you are using modulation effects, then the drive/preamp/EQ for further tone tweaking and finally the compressor just to level the signal.

58 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I have a scenario to run by you all (and I'm just speculating at the moment) - I have a Yamaha SB500S with a knackered neck pickup.  I didn't break it, it arrived that way, it's second hand, it's no longer in production.  I have the broken pickup with someone just now attempting to repair it, but should that fall through what would be the collective's thoughts regarding ways forward?  You can't realistically get an exact replacement pickup for the current, broken one, but it is basically a J pickup in a bespoke Yamaha housing, because Yamaha.  If the broken pickup is unsalvageable, would I get a pass from the jury if I was to get a Tonerider or something similarly inexpensive to replace it with?  It's not like for like (other than dimensions), but I wouldn't be using this as an opportunity to procure some fancy, boutique pickup.  I just want the bass to work properly again.  I hope the OG pickup gets repaired successfully, that is deffo Plan A, just formulating a Plan B...

 

Thoughts?  No wrong answers (including "wait until next year, play your other basses")

My non-binding, totally unauthoritative view would be this is like for like (or as close as you can get) so would count as a repair. If, however, the new pickup has additional fancy features like making the bass groove so much that girls notice and want to snog you (isn't that why people change pickups?), then it counts as an upgrade.