gjones

I have friend who was a Bbc engineer and is also a bassist. He says the same thing about the shortage of engineers with live music experience within the BBC.

I imagine it must be difficult to judge what is coming from your headphones and what is coming from the stage. I also assume that it's difficult for the BBC to get the numbers of experienced engineers required to deal with so many live acts. I would guess they're mostly contractors, as this is not something the BBC does very often and I doubt there are many BBC employees who are used to engineering live music. When I listen to Chic in a few weeks I'm hoping the sound will have been remixed and the bass will magically appear.

I only listened to a couple of bands and the bass wasn't there. The band I watched first was Chic and I couldn't hear any bass whatsoever. I mean a sound engineer that mixes Chic with no bass, should hang their head in shame. And I was playing it through hi fi speakers.

It doesn't help that the sound, from the BBC, always sounds weak. I assume it's because they're just taking the live feed from the desk. I have noticed that the sound of many of the videos does get 'tweaked' and remixed at a later date. Which can restore stuff, like the missing bass and bring down the ridiculously prominent bass drum. Interesting discussion on reddit about the subject

I've owned three American basses. A 75 reissue American Vintage, a Deluxe Jazz (both now sold) and a Precision Elite. I bought the first two second hand and the Elite new. The RRP of the 75 reissue was about £2.5 k, when bought new, and the Elite cost me £1.9k. The two Jazzes played beautifully with very low action. Were they worth the money, if bought new? Well you can buy a less expensive bass and take it to a guitar tech who will get it to play fantastically. I have a parts Jazz, with a Korean Squier neck, and a vintage modified body, which has been set up really nicely and plays as good as my American Jazzes did. I own a Japanese Fender that also plays beautifully. So logically, buying American doesn't buy you a bass that plays better than a much cheaper instrument, so you may ask 'what's the point in spending so much more money?' . Is it kudos? Peer pressure? The American dream? I bought my American basses because I wanted a 'Real' Fender, not one of those copies from overseas (however good they might be). Ironically, when I bought my brand new Fender Elite it didn't have 'Made in the USA' on it, because, legally it isn't actually an American bass, as too many components are made overseas. These days Fender instruments have 'Corona California' stamped on them instead.

She used to have a band. I know her old drummer Debbie, who now plays with James and my niece's band . The all female band was drummer, electric guitarist and bass player which, visually, looked a lot better on stage. The last time I saw Charlie XCX, at Glastonbury, her stage show looked even worse, as she was on earlier in the day in daylight, so she didn't even have a light show - just her gyrating on the stage to pre-recorded tracks.

They missed out the shewee.....

Hmmm...... I put a set of Elixirs on a Jazz bass I have. I was practising some slap (a very rare thing for me) and noticed that the G string was very dull sounding. As the action wasn't great I took the neck off and inserted a shim in the neck pocket. When I put everything back together the G string sounded fine. I'm not sure what changed, possible something to do with string tension over the nut?

I have a John East J-Retro fitted to my Jazz Bass. I love a bit of low mid, which I feel gives punch and definition. When I go through a, front of house, PA I will turn up the low mids on my Jazz to prevent the sound engineer giving me a muddy sound out front. Of course I could change the whole character of my bass, with various options available with the J-Retro, but I mostly keep things pretty simple. I also like the ability to walk out into the room, while the band is playing, and change my tone to suit the room, without touching my amp controls.

I always feel an imminent gig usually concentrates players minds and gets them learning the set. That is, assuming they have a professional mindset in the first place and don't want to look like a fool and let everybody else down on the night.

He should just whack some tolex on it. He'll get some pretty low offers otherwise.

That's a great deal. I owned an Ashdown EB 150, which was a beginners combo similar to your's, with a 15 inch speaker. I used it for years and partnered with another 15 inch cab it could be really loud. I still really like the Ashdown sound.

My band hasn't done a gig in 5 months, when we do start gigging again (if we ever do), we'll need zimmer frames to get to the stage

In my experience, once you reduce the volume on the bridge pickup, even by a little bit, it then has no further impact on the overall tone. What you're then hearing is just the neck pickup soloed, which is naturally a bassier sound. The front pickup is usually a lot louder than the rear pickup, as well. This may be due to it's placement on the body.

The Orange Terror bass head has the same issue.