SimonK

About ten years ago we were looking for a new drummer. First chap we tried spent over an hour setting up the biggest kit we had ever seen, and then proceeded to drown the rest of us out. Mutual agreement he wasn't the best for the band. Out of desperation we then tried a 14 year old kid who volunteered through a friend. Sort of did it as a favour as he had never been in a band before - turns out Sam was God's gift to drumming. He won the Yamaha U18 drummer of the year competition a year later, we recorded a bunch of Toto songs for his A-levels, and then he left us in his dust when he disappeared off to become a session musician! It was quite humbling to have a tiny part in his development.

...so in the thread I started the other day we started posting sound-clips (slightly dodgy in my case) from our pedal boards: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/490056-moving-in-effective-circles/ ...there are some amazing boards on this thread that I would love to hear some sounds from 🙂 hint hint - although maybe that needs to be a new thread?

My favourite was being at a charity day in Cromer, Norfolk, and suggesting to the organisers they have a live band that evening for their fund raising dinner. When he said yes I phoned my bandmates in Southampton who dropped everything, jumped in the car and we were playing by 6 (for no fee). They then drove home afterwards... them were the days...

Update from Gibson RE their London garage (definitely playing on the UK artist link!):

Ooh good point - its the stock pickups which means, I think, they are indeed passive pickups with active onboard preamp. But from a practical players perspective it is often anything that needs a battery in the guitar, vs anything that doesn't - but I get the technical difference!

I use Stingrays with active pickups, and have just thought it was to do with the designers preference for how they want the pickup to sound, coupled with the convenience of being able to boost frequencies directly on the guitar (rather than just cut). Granted off-instrument preamps kind of do the same thing, but for me the convenience of a preamp pedal is to add some more colour on top of the sound of the bass itself. Granted I have often not used any external preamp, going straight into DI, but having an extra box on the floor with some EQ/tone options can be quite helpful especially when moving between different rooms/bands and needing to tweak a sound to fit the mix. Nothing ever sounds the same as you move between different contexts so the more tweakery the better!

It depends on where you are in life - when I was a teenager/early twenties I would go almost any distance for a practice or gig so long as I could afford it. With my last band we recorded a whole album, but then couldn't be bothered to do any gigs (also not helped by COVID). If you are having fun do it, if not ditch it!

The difference between nationalism and tribalism is always one to think about - and to a certain extent we are cursed by evolution (certainly social evolution) to lean in these ways. That manufacturers can capitalise on this with their prices and marketing is a straight business decision!

That sports hall must be fun acoustically - reminds me of my youth at cutting edge events in Littlehampton...

That's a lot of filth on the bass - sounds great in isolation but do you find you disappear into the mix live? The big muff sound I have above is about as much drive I can put on it while still cutting through.

Right - quick guitar loop on a Digitech Trio (to get drums) straight into audacity, but these are the similarish sounds I get from my board, all of which are usable but not ever so exciting (apologies for the dodgy bass playing - monitoring was a bit of an issue!). TEST.mp3 1 - Just compressor (which stayed on for the rest) 2 - Hartke shape at 280ish 3 - Hartke shape + pre 4 - Big Muff 5 - Slap with Boss GEB7 6 - Chorus (Stingray Bass, 3EQ set flat)

Cool - thanks - I liked the fuzz at the beginning (16 seconds) which isn't far from the big muff sound I sometimes use (my reference is normally the Bass fuzz from Ben Fold's Kate). But the other sounds do you actually use them in gigs - I kind of imagine some sort of psychedelic trance type thing if you do... ...I will see if I have a moment to record some of the different tones I get out of my board, although as mentioned they are better described as different EQ curves rather than effects... PS love the reverse headstock on the p!

So I play guitar and bass, and certainly from a guitar perspective view compression, delay, chorus, a few drives and recently the awesome FreqOut as essential for almost every time I play. For acoustic I like some compression & chorus. But the truth is I play gigs on bass far more than guitar, so naturally have wanted bass effects. But the more I try bass effects the less I seem to use them, finding that compression plus various EQ shaping options seem the most useful once the band starts to play. This week I put my envelope filter and octaver back on the bass board determined to use them, but again after one practice swapped them out for the Hartke bass attack because of the two tonal options - a warmer mild crunch & the pre-shape that seems to just work better in a band setting. Generally I plug in, fiddle with the amp/pre-amp to get the 90% of the time sound (hence having a couple options as even in the same room things just change), use the Bass EQ for slap, chorus for fretless and very occasionally big muff when things get crazy, but nothing else seems needed. I then see some of the awesome pedal boards on here and start wondering what I am missing - what do people use their effects for beyond getting a solid basic sound?

Weekend pedalboard - decided to include octave, filter & chorus options this week - not that I ever use them but one day...

...and after some googling it seems it was Nathan East, probably on a Yamaha BBNE2, and into a LA-2A levelling amplifier - so no way of replicating that sound easily!

Just got the ZS10 Pros through and thought I would test them with Daft Punk's Random Access Memories based on the above discussion - pretty awesome, especially the bass guitar tone - something to aspire to!

I just took advantage of the Amazon offer and bought the IEMs with the mic figuring I can use them for zoom meetings as well. I'm toying with getting the little Behringer headphone monitor as well and going fully in ear just for myself, as I think I can plug the XLR from my wedge into one input and then run an additional line out from my pedal board (via a second DI box) to the second input and mix accordingly....

If it's only an extra ring on the jack socket it will still be compatible with 1/4 headphone outputs, I think it was more the other end of the cable I was thinking about - ie would it still be compatible with third party cables.

Yes I think I will grab a set as a spare - is there any harm getting the version with mic so I can also use for zoom calls - ie is it a different connector?

So I have been reflecting on this thread, and perhaps another thing that has irritated/bemused me is the distinct shift in marketing strategy as represented by the Gibson Garage, and I appreciate a couple other big brands have done likewise. We all know and love the higgeldy-piggeldy music shops with eccentric staff and the person in the corner playing stairway to heaven/smoke on the water. Granted Thomann, Guitar Centre, Andertons etc. have become behemouths, but they are still a natural evolution of the little shops dotted around the country/world. But the Gibson Garage seems to be a different type of thing - marketing high end equipment to wealthy, often older, people. Obviously there is money to be made in that market, but it feels a long way from traditional music stores and gigs in dodgy pubs with punters knocking people unconscious while spilling their beer into the mixing desk*. I think the worry is that if brands start focussing on this high end status seeking customer there is less for the majority of the rest of us who keep the music scene alive. *story for another time

Looking at what I wrote above I'm pleased I said "...initially it is about keeping it very simple...". I never play a song without at least one carefully chosen killer lick to keep up the interest - normally squeezed in between a verse and chorus. That way you can keep the rest simple, but still have a bit of fun! I also bring a fretless along for entertainment on the really slow songs when it becomes all about the mwah and vibrato... it has to be fun afterall!

For me the biggest challenge of playing in church is getting the feel of the song right. You often have a mix of interesting instruments and even more interesting talent, so initially it is about keeping it very simple and trying to work with the drummer. If the drummer is a bit inconsistent with their kick you can also play a ghost note every time the snare hits which is often a bit more consistent.

I think it was the general principle I was commenting on - that as the speaker moves the air it may actually be the most important part of the rig - rather than commenting on the Fender Rumble per se!

I played a very similar version to that at my wedding in 2006. My bestman and I took off our jackets and played it for one of the hymns - the comment being there couldn't be a service where we were not playing! I mentioned the Rend collective to our drummer today who nonchalantly name dropped that it was his wife's cousins band!

I don't think that is what people are saying, more "value for money" is more important than brand or where somethings was made. Which of course opens up a can of worms when it comes to musical gear/instruments given how hard the major brands absolutely try to make it about name and place of manufacture. I think for some of us there is also a level of disappointment, perhaps wanting to try the new Mesa products but realising they are out of reach even for someone on a pretty decent salary for whom music is a hobby that needs to fit in with other priorities. Similarly I can't imagine many teenage or younger musicians playing Mesa products.