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Why would you stay away from all digital compressors? There are good and bad examples of analog and digital. The MXR is a good comp, but there's plenty of love for the Spectracomp on here and elsewhere. Sweeping generalisations don't really help.

I'll just put this out here... Many fans of The Beatles on this thread are starting to sound much like my parents did when they went on about the "superiority" of classical music and how this new pop/rock wasn't proper music back in the early 70s.

I haven't stepped boldly anywhere except for the front of the line at my local Chinese Buffet. Blue

Here we go again Channel 4 should have something like this for a bass/guitar themed 'Grand Designs'!

Class mate. Love that song about the Yellow Walrus

Didn't the company originally make it as an item to get richer from though?

Not so groovy but one of my old faves all the same, classic May

If you want transparency, choose the Mxr. The Cali76cb if you play a low B string occasionaly (it has a hpf that keeps the comp from squashing lows) If you want aggressive slap punch, get the Aguilar. It is awesome for that. If you want buttery sweetness, the diamond or supersymmetry. Digital compressors? Stay away from those.

It's all alimentary to me.

And still nobody mentions the improvement in sound quality when you've ditched the amps. re:drums just for anybody interested, acoustic drums are still the preference for any drummer. A drummer that turns up to a pub gig with a huge kit and super bright and loud cymbals is the local village idiot. In terms of micing, for pub gigs a lot of the time you'll just need kick. For larger venues, you can successfully mic with two mics. I personally never mic the snare directly unless I am micing the whole kit. On a two mic setup, i would choose to mic the kick drum and a single condenser mic on a high stand behind the drummers right shoulder, pointing directly across the kit at the snare. (Assuming drummer plays right handed). This way it'll get a good coverage of the kit, (hi hats and splash included) not just the snare. It sounds great in the inears also - if you are using them. PS - entry level wired inear monitoring can be achieved for way under 100 quid per person for somebody using ME6s. For something a lot better, for a 200 quid setup, consider something like UE900s. Read about it in the inear monitoring thead if you are interested. Also, check out the inear recording I put up in there and ask yourself if that isn't something you'd like on a gig. That level of monitoring is now affordable even in a pub band given the pricing of digital desks now. Link - Theres always going to be dinosaurs stuck in their ways. Tech has moved on. Not too long ago, PA that would take a full band going through them was prohibitively expensive. This isn't the case now as the tech is becoming a lot more affordable. Whether people choose to embrace it or not is another thing. I'm convinced that the amp route is on borrowed time now... but that's just me. I like an amp like the next guy... but the convienience of a PA doing all the work, the better monitoring that it opens up, wins it for me hands down. I don't care if people want to go the same route as me or not - I just like to correct statements that suggest a route like that is prohibitively expensive. You only have to read through the IEM thread to see what a revelation it has been for the people that have made the switch. And to be honest, you don't even have to go with IEMs... a serious wedge with your own mix of the whole band in it, with the foh doing all the real work, is another great option. The crazy thing is, nobody batts an eyelid about paying crazy money for backline but if I said the best sound you'll ever have is if you changed your say, 1000 quid boutique cab for a 1000 quid monitor that has both you and the band going through it, most people would not be interested... Not saying my opinion is worth more than anybody else's - but I've done both routes in anger. My IEMs for example, cost more than most peoples complete backline... but that's how much I have been sold on the alternative method of getting a band sounding the best it can both in my ears and out front. The other thing is, my sound is consistent in every venue and I can hear exactly what I want. When I was at the drum show, I was having a similar convo with a drummer whilst at the IEM stand. If you were on a gig with IEMs, you can hear everything you want to hear at a volume you want to hear them. Percussion on a gig? Great! I want to hear that shaker and Indian bells they got going on. Chances of enjoying that on stage without IEMs? Zero. You'll be lucky to hear anything over the drummer. Anyway, the point is, is that this stuff is now available to all - whether it's on a stadium gig or a pub gig. - and I guarantee your audience will appreciate the band more if they can hear everything clearly through the PA. A decent PA yields better high frequency horns too - so getting your vocalist heard over the band is easier... and that is further cemented that the quieter band sound on stage means less bleed into the mics. As I say, Dinos can be Dinos for all I care... but it's interesting to see all these old guys advocating that nothing but an amp would do are all deaf and wired up with hearing aids... but each to their own.

To add some scale to ped's picture, here it is next to a pile of pound coins...

Another week, another topic about The Beatles which leads instantly into a debate about whether they were actually all that good, were they really that influential, did they really matter that much, and what's all the fuss about anyway? The people who start these topics or jump into them with both feet rarely ask the same questions about Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly or Cliff & The Shadows or The Rolling Stones or The Who or Jimi Hendrix or The Doors or Pink Floyd or ... ad infinitum. Gosh, I wonder why not?

Without having heard them, I'm going to guess that what you're hearing is really just the tonal difference between a Jazz bass with (presumably) active pickups and a passive Precision. Ballsy and punchy means different things to different people, but a Jazz bass normally has a sharper attack than a Precision, and with EMG's that difference should be even clearer. It makes sense that your Jazz seems a bit deeper, too. Do you usually play with both pickups turned up? This scoops a lot of the mids out of the sound, leaving more room, so to speak, for the lows. With the bridge pickup solo'd, you're getting mostly a lot of (very) high mids. As a contrast, the Precision is quite heavy on the low mids. To me, a Precision is punchier than a Jazz, but that's because I define punchy as having a beefy, prominent midrange.

I remember news about artists and stuff being earlier last time, but alright, I'm looking forward to it. Missed it this year but I booked my Eurostar ticket vor next March today. Gonna be there with Eich again, together with Marleaux. I think De Gier is also gonna be there again, probably with his new Lowlander model. I'm still hoping for Thomas Stenback to be there...

I'm not certain (I don't listen to 'em...), but I have the impression that most radio stations are more about the ephemera than the classics, of any ilk. Not much Grateful Dead on the airwaves, either.

You mean you wouldn't be tempted by any of these 'packages'... http://www.genesimmonsaxe.com/meetgenebackstage/ Not even the one where you buy a signature bass for $10,000+, he plays that bass for one song at a gig, then signs it and hands it over to you?

Well done for spotting Q and for getting that sorted for us! @Cuzzie I know is another user of the Manta so just looping him in too.

Always go for separates. Then when you come to upgrade you only have to change one thing, not both.

Gene Simmons is a high profile bassist, has been around for donkeys years & has doubtless inspired many thousands of kids to pick a bass up the world over. Love him or hate him, & it's easier to do the latter, he easily qualifies for a signature bass in the crazy world of signature basses I'd say.

That's a great shout Howie! Class work again Andy.

Thanks for asking about this. Like Pink Floyd, I was wondering Watts... uh the deal?

Tim lectures in Music Production at Newcastle College. He teaches my son. Small world... "My band" is Rush. No contest. Apart from Marilliion perhaps. And maybe Level 42 for a period....

Stainless DR Hi Beam for sure.

I strongly suspect you’ll love it! I forgot to mention that the 900 is the only one in the range that has a cooling fan. The bonus of the 300 and 500 is that they don’t have cooling fans so they run silent all the time!

Absolutely fine by me

No, but if it doesn't appeal to you, or touch you in some way it doesn't make you a bad person. I understand Jaco's talent, skill and influence. I just don't enjoy what he did with it.

I'd be tempted to use 600 grit aluminium oxide (a.k.a. sterated aluminium) rather than wet and dry. The wet and dry can shed some abrasive which then leaves little black bits embedded in the finish. Also you probably won't want to use it wet anyway - that will lift the lacquer on any edges

Indeed they are quite loud and full sounding. I modded mine a bit by taking the badges off the grille (one rattled) and took off the plastic corner protectors. Looks rather neat.

If somebody's taken a photograph, they've created an original work of art which is automatically copyrighted. Just using those pictures on an auction doesn't mean the original photographer has surrendered his copyright, in the same way as just because you hear a record on the radio, the writer hasn't surrendered his copyright to it. PS. And this is why the OP should start using a sniping tool...

It's a shame that people judge Scott for his free & 'fun' YouTube content, and not the actual educational content within SBL, which on the most-part, is excellent. What he's created there is very cool! Si

Puma 500 incoming

A few years ago I found myself living next door to an 'erudite' musician. A brass player, a teacher, a composer; as a conductor he's done the Proms for years, works regularly with major international orchestras. We had a few conversations about music which I found enlightening from my very limited perspective. This chap had a way of explaining things which made things very easy to understand yet I never felt like he was talking down to me or using his knowledge as a tool to buff his self image at my expense. The thing that sticks in my mind was when he scored a gig with the Berlin Phil. He came round to tell me, bringing his unaffected delight and a couple of bottles of wine for us. Such a nice man.

Ha! Fantastic. I feel brighter already Cheers charic, great idea

Yes on both counts.

The older I get the more I find everything he did mindblowing. When I was younger I didn't even realise that most of the players I liked were copping him. I didn't get that first solo album at first either. But as time has passed and my musical tastes have expanded and changed I find I now "get it". When I came in at about 14-15 years old I was very much into level 42 and thought fast slapping and anything with loads o notes was the coolest of cool. Its a teenager thing perhaps. I thought things like Chinese Way were all things that Mark King had come up with off the top of his head. Mark has later on said that he was trying to roll Stanley Clarke and Jaco into one thing which when you listen to those early things is now very clear. But Jaco.... For me its, musically speaking, sonic works of art. I hear something he does and just think wow. I don't necessarily want to learn how to play it all note for note but the influence without a doubt is there in most things I play. On a gig I might chuck in a little something here and there that is so Jaco but at the same time I couldn't even pretend I'm on his level. I never will be and neither will the majority of players that actually do like him. But I do get it and it floats my boat so to speak. I think its ok to not be bowled over by it and I'm in no way saying that anyone hasn't got good ears or taste just because they don't like it or get it. If I play Jaco solo stuff like Donna Lee or Weather Report to my wife and she gives me a blank look. I play her "I Can Dig It Baby" or "Come On Come Over" and then its oh yeah this is good.

Another excuse for unfettered consumerism. Why do Brits slavishly like to copy every fad that comes out of the US? Anyway, it's no secret that sales events are a scam whereby retailers hike up prices in preceding weeks and then 'slash' them back to their original levels, get rid of obsolete or unpopular lines and buy in shoddy toot specifically for them. After all, despite all the saccharine marketing cow poop about the customer being # 1 blah blah the question everyone should be asking is what's in it for the retailers?

Another one - written by Lalo Schifrin:

oh dear, I do this all the time... and every time I dread the thought of looking in here and seeing that someone is slating me for it... then I go back to counting all my cash and the feeling goes away

You can get used to the switch by buying a capo and putting it at fret 2 on a 34" scale bass tuned down to D-G-C-F. With the capo you now have a roughly 30" scale bass tuned E-A-D-G. After you get used to that, buy a Fender Mustang bass or similar. Story has it that the bass on Hendrix' All Along the Watchtower is Hendrix playing a Fender Mustang.

Whilst his playing wasn't/isn't to everyone's taste his legacy regarding the electric bass guitar should never be diminished and is almost beyond compare in terms of players generations later looking to emulate him and (some would say rip off) his sound - see also James Jamerson and Larry Graham. If we consider how many incredible musicians there have through time few leave a legacy whereby their sound/tone/style is emulated almost on a daily basis (you could argue that Hendrix would be a good example from a guitar perspective). In the 80s you couldn't move for bassists rolling off the neck p/up on a Jazz and playing right next to the bridge - it was everywhere. The 90s brought Acid Jazz and, again, those urgent and funky sixteenth note lines, and as Joe Dart is heavily referenced (quite rightly, in my opinion) as one of the leading lights of today's electric bass playing, for me, the sound he is closest to, is that of Jaco. And without Jaco there wouldn't have been Rhythm Stick, and for that alone he deserves all the acclaim he gets!

Free, since hearing 'Tons Of Sobs'. Though the interest waned with the last album 'Heartbreaker' without Andy Fraser's input.

Your all missing the point. When he hit back in 70's it was like hearing something from Mars. Like it or not he was then totally unique, mind blowing and individual..trouble is now there's a whole room full of players who basically copied him..that's why unless you were there he now seems slightly meh...if still not brilliant.

Probably because he was an innovative bassist for his time, and that's carried on through to bass playing (mainly in the funk / jazz / fusion genres) up until the present day. The one thing that this thread proves is that (love him or hate him) JP wasn't mediocre. @fleabag - yep, you're absolutely right I don't have to read the thread.

Gotoh for me. Brass Saddles and a proper base plate made of something not cast from left overs lol

Gotoh 201 is already quite cheap and is better than a BadAss IMO.