Chris2112

Funny, a mate of mine who loves his hi-fi gear has found a pair of Sennheiser HD410's which he's giving me. I'll need to collect them from his place, but for free gear, that's pretty cool of him! I'll order a Pandora when I have the cash to spare (car needs new tyres and insurance next month). Until then, bass in the bedroom it is!

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1359679761' post='1958882'] No problem whatsoever.A Rickie tuned to B is almost par for the course in certain types of music. [/quote] And what type of music would that be?

[quote name='megallica' timestamp='1359731250' post='1959542'] I can kinda see why Jason's writing didn't make it onto Metallica albums (I thnk he got co-writing credits on three songs in his 14 years in the band). [/quote] I think that was also largely to do with Ulrich and Hetfield keeping such tight control on the creative process. Hammett didn't really get a look in either, and that situation was one of the major issues Jason had with the band at the time. Hetfield wasn't happy with him pursuing other projects outside of Metallica but then wouldn't let him write for them either. Not to decry James' and Lars' writing prowess, mind. James even said that he was sad that Jason had quit when he did, as a team writing effort on St Anger was one of the things that brought the band back together.

[quote name='whimsy23' timestamp='1359667427' post='1958624'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h86AKvPNfPs[/media] [/quote] This is fantastic. Why have I never heard of this band before?

Thunderbirds are usually a recipe for disaster, with their awful tone.

I sometimes wonder, if I had picked a guitar instead of a bass, would I be as good as Shawn Lane now? The answer is probably 'no' so I am quite content where I am.

[quote name='nobody's prefect' timestamp='1359586135' post='1957280'] If you want to play that many strings, you should play a sitar or a harp. Anyway, you don't need more than X strings to play the money notes anyways. [/quote] Ah, those are the sorts of quips I remember being aimed at 6 string basses all those years ago.

It's been a while since I even played a bass that was crap, yet casting my mind back, I can see a few Precision basses in the hazy past. The worst bass I've owned? Not sure. Possibly a Fender Urge Standard bass. 32" scale active jazz bass with a poplar body. I only owned it for a week or so. I just couldn't get a good sound out of it unless all the controls were maxed out. Which was obviously utterly useless. It played well enough though. It ended up for sale again a couple of years later with some decent electronics in it, so someone obviously got some use out of it!

[quote name='nobody's prefect' timestamp='1359584458' post='1957225'] You'd be surprised me matey... [/quote] It probably wouldn't surprise me if I were auditioning for a pub rock band, but I thought most the civilised world had moved on to knocking 11 string basses now? It hardly seems that a 6 string is even considered an ERB anymore.

Is there anyone these days who wouldn't accept that a high C string can be useful for some players? I thought that sort of attitude died out in the early 2000's.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' timestamp='1359566875' post='1956795'] I use a Pandora and Sennheiser HD 415 mk1 headphones. Job done. Better bandwidth, response.... In fact, everything, than an amp/cab in a domestic environment. And you can plug an external source into it. As mine uses batteries, it's viable in a power cut/ your garden/work canteen and so on! Downside? More finger/ string noise until you learn to tame it. That, and the sudden re-appearance of room- induced sonic artifacts like reverb and various resonances. [/quote] So, this Pandora thing, can I just have that on it's own with some good headphones? I won't need to have my amp downstairs at all? I could just keep the amp for playing live or trips to the studio etc etc...?

Regarding the above points: 1) The spare room where I usually keep my amp is about half the size of my front room. The amp sits at ground level and faces me and the bed. It sounds very 'tight' and articulate. My Warwick sounds like a sledgehammer there, very direct and articulate. 2) Sadly, I can't dress up my front room by hanging rugs, waffle boxes or foam on the walls. 3) Someone took a snipe at Ashdown above. I make no secret of the fact that most of their amps do nothing for me. But this is the Mark King amp. It's very crisp and clean sounding, with a strong bottom end. It's a bloody good amp, but the problem here seems to be the room. I doubt even Jonas Hellborg's EBS head and some Bergantino cabs would solve the problem... 4) The amp is not playing through the laptop speakers. But getting some headphone and a Pandora may be the best solution yet. I can't take my laptop up to the spare room, simply because down here it is hooked up to my mouse, keyboard and desktop speakers.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1359539974' post='1956195'] It [i]is[/i] a bit derivative... especially the vocals. Nice to hear the bass played in "normal" registers though - no detuning or five/six string basses. That has become (IMO) so dull in metal in the last few years. [/quote] There was a period where it seemed like every bass was being detuned to stupid new lows in metal. Meaning that records sounded terrible, even on a good hi-fi capable of reproducing some of the bass sound. I have always preferred guitars tuned to E or Eflat for metal tunes. They sound as tight as feck then.

Afternoon, I brought my bass and amp down to the front room this afternoon, having previously had it upstairs in my spare room. I thought I would probably play it more if I could sit down at my laptop with it and jam along to music again, something I haven't done a great deal of since I moved house late last year. Having just sat down with the bass and had a play, it sounds pretty crap. I'm using a Warwick Thumb 5 string, an Ashdown MK500 amp, with the amp positioned directly behind me and my laptop speakers in front of me. The bass sounds very boomy. It didn't have enough definition when I started playing it, so I tweaked the amp to cut some of the bass from the mix and boosted the mids slightly. There was little room between getting a satisfactory low end that wasn't booming round the room and having a bass that didn't sound honky and harsh in the mids. I managed to get a sound that I was happy to play along with, though I was still dissatisfied as the Thumb usually sounds great and is a joy to listen to. The same setup sounds fantastic in my spare room. My front room is pretty big (it runs the length of the house), and it has a laminate wood flooring over a solid concrete floor. The walls are paint on plaster over plasterboard. There are no curtains, just blinds and the only soft furnishing in the room is the sofa. In my spare bedroom, the amp sits on a carpeted floor in a smaller room with a double bed in it to soak up some of the boom. I hasten to add that I've played live in venues just using my amp for sound before, and found a similar problem that was sorted by some high volume mixing. But I don't really want to crank the amp and piss off the neighbours, I am wondering if there is a solution for my problem as it is now. Would something like an Auralex Grammar pad help or not? I don't think it's the floor that is causing the problem, as it should be an excellent launching pad for a good, tight bass sound. I think it's due to the size of the room and the lack of soft furnishings that are causing me problems. I like a really 'tight' sound like you might get from close-mic'ing an amp in a small studio room, and I'm just not getting that in my front room. Any ideas? Obviously I can't carpet the walls, as much as I would like to.

I love that Fodera bass. I have to say, I think I prefer Bona when he is giving it six nowt on some fusion tunes as opposed to this. It's al very safe, and for two fantastic musicians to come together and produce a relatively staid bit of music like this seems a shame to me. I suppose I might get into it more if I watched the whole thing though!

Have you tried calling him? Give him a bell and see what the score is. By and large, I don't think there are many rip off merchants operating here. We seem pretty good at filtering them out. But some people can be a bit lax with their end of the bargain, or he may have some personal stuff going on. A telephone call should motivate him to get this sorted!

Lee Ritenour never struggles to get good guests. I loved some of his 80's, some really great grooves there. What I've heard of this album, despite it's stellar cast list, is a bit 'elevator music', immediately 'switch off-able'. That said, the second video gives it a better showing than that 'Maybe Tomorrow' song, which is a real plodder and probably shows the album at it's worst.

No. I love trying out new sounds, and new instruments. If I wanted one tone that I could have been happy with all my life I would have kept the Kubicki Ex Factor bass I got when I was 16. There is much fun to be had in chasing the tone. Once you find it, you'll decide you want something else!

I have never owned a Shuker bass, but I did once speak to Jon Shuker on the phone. I was in Byker, the skies were grey and I was at work. I was ringing up about buying a bass he had on his website, I think it had been a demo model that he had taken to a music show. Anyway, it looked lovely. Headless, Delano singlecoils, stunning top wood. It was only when I spoke to him on the phone and found out that it had a mahogany neck that I decided sadly it might not be for me. He reckoned the sound was pretty mellow, and at the time I was looking for something that sounded like a razor blade. I ended up with a 1987 Status SII which I enjoyed a lot. I was very thankful to Jon for taking the time to chat to me on the phone, I gather he is a busy man.

Great to hear Jason making music. It's a good song, typical Newsted driving beat, good riffs. Refreshingly honest and lacking in pretensions. I just wish the production was a little more 'heavy'. There is a monster of a groove at 02:10. It's been a while since I listened to metal and thought 'f*** yeah', but there we go.

Did you see that Wal 5 string with the Noll electronics? Sacrilege! Why, oh why would you remove Wal electronics and replace them with some inferior product?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1359414390' post='1954550'] They don't turn up very often on the used market. Looking on eBay there was an LX 4 recently which reached £620 but didn't sell because it was below the buyer's reserve. Also an LX 5 listed at £799 which didn't sell. . [/quote] I don't think they're all that rare but the pricing issue is a good point. When Guitar Guitar Newcastle first opened (must be maybe ten years now, wow) they had a dark blue Streamer LX at £600. I thought that was a pretty fair price, given that in Sound Control, nothing with a Warwick badge on would sell for less than £1000! Of course, the LX was a trade in but it was like a new instrument. In any event, it was the first Warwick that I really got to sit down and play for any length of time and it was a revelation. Superb quality. That said, their value has fluctuated wildly. Unlike some basses, Warwick prices fluctuate on the used market, maybe because they are essentially the bass world's biggest niche product. Some sellers expect their used Warwicks to command a premium just because they are great instruments, but it just doesn't work like that. Unlike say, flogging a Geddy Lee jazz bass for £500 or whatever, you never know what sort of reception you'll get. When I put my Ltd Edition 1990 Streamer up for £1000, which I thought was a fair price, my inbox nearly burst under the weight of the replies I got.