SimonK

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.

On both five and four string basses I tend to play all root notes on the E and A strings. I find the other strings (D, G and then the low B on the fiver) work better for accent stuff - either popping the higher octaves or playing something widdly up high, or with the low B really using it as an accent when trying to build the dynamics - kind of like a bass drop!

So personally I stick to standard tuning, although do agree my E and A strings get the most use.

Was procrastinating and wondering about the difference between dBu and dBV was this morning. The following article is really interesting and especially the table at the end that touches on an issue that comes up time and again in amp threads.

https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/decibels-explained

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

Guys and Gals - it's a bit of fun!

New IEMs are part of PA, so T2 fail under the rules which are quite clear.

 

But so what?

 

If you're pro or semi-pro then buy what you need to do the job to the standard required, but accept that the challenge is as written and not really aimed at you. It's at those of us <ahem> who like buying stuff because it's interesting/fun/cool/collectable or whatever but we don't need it and really should be practicing instead.

@SimonK If your church has just gone IEM and you need to buy a Behringer P1 then it’s still a fail, but nobody here will excomunicate you.

 

Actually I couldn't cope with being tethered to the snake so have bought these: https://www.thomann.co.uk/swiff_audio_wx520_monitor_wireless_system.htm I suppose saying I'm also going to use them when exercising on my indoor trainer is also clutching at straws (consumer bluetooth head phones are for pussys)!

Mind you not as bad as last year's glorious T1 fail thanks to a Trace Elliot Stack plus Warwick five string 😎. I have to admit that failing is way more fun than the staying in!

9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

IEMs are not (solely) ear protection.  Ear plugs are ear protection - and definitely allowed.  The choice to go IEMs is the equivalent to the choice to go wireless, as far as I'm concerned.

Yes I have to admit that we've been talking about going IEMs for a while now, just did a firmware update on the desk so we can set monitor levels on our phones, so buying an IEM probably does count as the next step forward albeit not directly bass gear as I will also use it for drums & guitar - hence I figured tier 2!

I suspect I'm a tier 2 fail as of ordering a Swiff IEM last night.

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Basschat motto right there...

Although speaking as someone with nine trace elliot cabs I'm with Yngwie on this - more is more, overkill is overkill... and I love it  💣 !

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

 

I guess because it just works? Flawlessly. For the 70+ gigs that we've used the A&H CQ18T desk since getting it. At each gig we've had one or two band members using a wired IEM straight into the aux outs (with no separate external headphone amp), and with the desk output levels being set for them no higher than for the wireless IEMs.

 

Just to make sure I'm not losing the plot, I've just tried the desk with my home over-ear headphones and no external headphone amp. Could very clearly hear recorded output at similar volumes for both the headphone-out and aux-out with similar output levels on both.

 

Go figure 😅

Must be something about that particular desk if headphones work directly because aux outs produce line level which is the standard for routing between different bits of gear (e.g. in a rack) whereas headphone level is a lot higher. There are a few caveats (-10dBV vs +4 dBu variants) but the wikipedia article explains it well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

EDIT - in thinking about this I bet the manufacturers are targetting these small desks towards home studio users and thus build something like this in as a feature so people don't have to buy additional headphone amps. Thus said it makes me a bit scared as high headphone levels running into expensive rack gear has the potential to break things! I probably wouldn't buy this specific mixer if it was indeed doing this.

EDIT2 - just downloaded and read the manual because I couldn't quite believe designers would do this, and the aux level is +4 dBu as expected, although the desk does seem to have two separate headphone outs that can monitor the aux mixes so I suspect these are what the IEMs connect to.