Leaderboard

Why not have a jam with the drummer? After all you're going to be the backbone of the band - great opportunity to get some rapport going...

The active/passive terminology can be a bit confusing as a bass can have active pickups but a usual passive tone circuit, which is what it seems Aidan has, or active pickups with an active pre-amp/tone circuit, or passive pickups with an active pre-amp/tone circuit. EMG's active pickups all have a built in pre-amp that doesn't offer any tone-shaping, but is simply there to boost the signal to a usable level. Passive pickups work on the principle that with more windings, the output is increased, the mid-range is boosted and the highs and (I think) lows are tamed. Because an active pickup uses a fewer number of windings and instead uses their own preamps to boost the signal, the output is high while being significantly more detailed in the far reaches of the audio spectrum. This, as far as I know, all happens within the pickup itself. Then the signal can be fed either to a normal passive tone stack (EDIT) tone/volume combo, directly to the output, or to an active EQ system. Some of the basses we call active, though, don't actually have active pickups, but rather traditional pickups fed into an active EQ. I'm hoping I didn't just add to the confusion here!

Age 45 (I had been playing just over two months at that point), a works Christmas bash, played a Epiphone EB3 through a Marshall bass combo. Mixed set, first half was 70s and 80s punk/ alternative, second half was more general rock covers, then we repeated the first half as it was just buzzing and the people running it asked if we had anymore. Booked again this year, can’t wait. My playing has come on a lot in the last year (about 450 hours of practice certainly helps).

Just wanted to tell you guys about the customer service I recieved from Mark this week: A while back I ordered a couple of sets of La Bella Super Steps from Bass Direct which arrived quickly and in original packaging, on Sunday I decided to re-string a bass ready for some gigs this weekend, I opened a fitted one of the packs only to find that the D string was completely dead....to say I was slightly disappointed would be an understatement, anyway the following morning I rang Bass Direct and explained the issue, Mark asked me to email the details to him and he would raise it with La Bella which I duly did, Tuesday afternoon I get home from work to find a brand new set of Super Steps on my door mat! If Carlsberg did customer service was the phrase that sprang to mind!

Good point! I've never yet found a P that I enjoy playing as much as a J. My search continues though...

They were all that good and they were all that influential. But only to some of us. Blue

The signature instrument is a marketing invention and has nothing to do with respect, musical integrity or any catalogues. There is only one question, "Is this guy popular enough to sell lots of basses if we put his name on them". Yes, gets a signature bass. No, doesn't.

I think it's absolutely lovely - apart from the colour.

Getting really annoyed with black Friday offers. Still getting e mails from Gak, guitarguitar an Andertons. But surprisingly the item I'm after is not on offer. It's like any other sales.

Good point well made, that looks at least as good as a mid 70s mocha ?

So do these, which leads me to think they're getting on a bit. Still sound great, though. New, they're quite a bit cheaper than my usual favourite, La Bella 760FS, so come next 'flats purchase', I'll give 'em a go. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

LOL! Guys each pedal will have its application, dUg tone can not be created using a VMT or B7K but the Alpha-Omega can come close. I own an M900 amp and never use it because the Alpha-Omega is more flexible and sounds bigger through my Trace Elliot Hexa Valve amp then the M900 ever will. I really believe a dirt pedal on its own is only half of the ingredients in a great overdriven bass tone. Sold my B7K because it sounded fizzy and weak, still have a VMT pedal but the VMT (and also the B3K) in the M900 to me sound a lot better then the pedal versions. I have tried many many more overdrive pedals on bass in the last few years but most will drown out in the mix, making the bass sound weak. The absolute best tone I got so far was taking the bi-amping route playing through both a Mesa Prodigy through the Barefaced 2x12 plus an Engl Raider 100 combo + extra 112 cab but dragging two stacks along is really too much. Also great sounding was throwing a Tech 21 flyrig 5 in the fxloop of my Mosquito Blender to mimic bi-amping. Add an octave up to the mix and you can do that Royal Blood thing as well. Plenty of options for sounding awesome, all depending on your taste and needs. Still, if I could choose only one I'd stick with the Alpha-Omega.

@Cuzzie you know as well as everyone else on Basschat that now @Al Krow has publicly slated the Tech 21 dUg pedal that it is only a matter of time before he buys one and starts singing its praises. You've only got to look at his recent monumental U turn on all things DarkGlass

It definitely sounds like an active Jazz and a passive Precision, and as a matter of fact, I prefer the Precision! I think, at least for now, you just prefer the sound of a Jazz bass. But, like chris_b said, there are many variations on the Precision, and you could certainly find one that's closer to your ideal tone.

Loving the new BC layout, nice work one and all but, can someone please explain what the "watts" thing is please? Some people have none and some, loads. Sorry if the question sounds silly but I can't find out what it is and what it is for. Cheers

You're asking why a car with a turbo can out accelerate a car that doesn't have one. Preamps always add more beef to your sound. EMG replacement pickups usually add a ton more. And then you're wondering why the tone of a "reasonably" priced Mexican made bass doesn't compete! You're not comparing apples and apples. Upgrade the P bass pickups and you'll move it into the same league as your J bass. Good P bass pickups can be passive and they will still compete in terms of tone. My passive P bass has Seymour Duncan pickups and it is a beefy as my active J.

Agreed. I was working at the City Hall in Newcastle as a steward and one night there was a full symphony orchestra on. It was magic. The volume and dynamics were jaw dropping, to me, for acoustic instruments. Enjoyed the whole experience, but like you never felt I needed to repeat it.

http://www.emgpickups.com/bass/j-models/active/jset.html#info Hmmm... it seems I may have been incorrect in assuming that the pickups were passive...

I really wanted to like Dunlop superbrights,but i found the tone rather bland (IMO of course) although they are very flexible and bright they just didn't sound as rich in the lows for fingerstyle as DR's. Dood is spot on though! I wipe my strings with "fast fret" after every rehearsal/gig

Except that most of those innovative recording techniques were developed when George Martin was working on comedy records with the likes of Peter Sellers well before he got involved with The Beatles. And as for "STEREO" it was deemed so important for The Beatles records that the mixes were mostly dashed off in an afternoon, after the serious work spending a couple of days getting the mono mixes right had been completed.

Nail, head. Couldn`t have put it better myself, and in fact was my own exact experience when I bought my first Precision.I`d grwon up listening to Bruce Foxton, JJ Burnell etc make such great sounds with their Precisions but when I played mine, at home through my practice amp I was underwhelmed. And then I took it to band practice and it all made sense. The Jazz on its own is a wonderful sound, much more articulate, better defined low end, add to that active pickups it`s going to have a good all round sound. Plus some players are better suited to certain types of instruments, our old producer once commented that I`m a Precision player through and through, probably why a great sounding Jazz or Stingray is made to sound so poor in my hands.

Just like Elvis, they influenced a lot of kids to pick up instruments, (as Van Halen did lator). So, many years lator, we'll always have musicians who want to claim how influencial they were, because to their own development, they were.

For me an artist should only really have a Sig Instrument if they are synonymous with that instrument. Duff McKagan for example, he`s just about the only famous person playing a Fender Jazz Bass Special, easily identifiable to him. Similarly Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols, his Gibson Les Paul was pretty unique with the two femme fatale stickers, he`s played it - or versions of it - throughout his career. So makes sense for these two imo. Whereas artists who have a different make/model of instrument every tour, well it`s like replica football shirts and having to have a new design every season to get the most from the fans as possible. A sig instrument should be - again imo - something that is identifiable over the length of an artists career, that you know they`re going to be playing the next time you see them live.

Quality music. Apparently it’s a duo called Banks & Wag who’ve done lots of pop as well as TV and film work. Singer is a vocalist called Sharleen Linton. Great set of soul pipes!

Surprised you’re getting low end loss with the Two Notes, but then again I only ever ran mine in Cold Fusion mode, where blending in a bit of Channel A can give you all the low end you’ll ever need and then some!

They both sound fine to me! The strings do make a massive difference to the tone though, so it's not really a fair test.

I'm sure there were other 60s/early 70s players who used these (John McVie, Larry Taylor and others) so they could make the same basic instrument and put a range of different names on......... oh hang on ?

The real reason for his annoyance, methinks

Shouldn't the Adam Clayton signature basses all have one string though? (Behave!).

Good points there Dood, I find that most strings lose that initial brightness quickly, and I`m in the camp of being able to put up with partially killed strings, so maybe going less bright but staying like that for longer is the way to go. Will have to give it a try methinks.

I think you have to give everything a chance. Jazz and Classical are generally not for me either but I can listen to Bach and Mozart, mostly the string quartet and piano stuff, but I fare less well with Jazz. When I was in my late teens I bought several Charlie Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Archie Shepp LP's but I never got much further. I liked the old Charlie Parker 1940's recordings I had, but they "disappeared" many years ago. I don't subscribe to idea of "mature" musical taste. You like what you like. Give me some Delbert McClinton any day of the week.

Cheers! It's all about layering sounds and instruments on top of each other. I started with Sound Dust Cloud Cello and made some semi-random noises with them, letting them flow organically. That then had the piano layered on top to make it sound like it was all intentional. A few other swarming instruments were added in (from the same sample library used for the Blue Planet 2 soundtrack - Orchestral Swarm). The harsh heavy low strings were Swarm and Albion one running through different ostinatum patches (basically arpeggiators built into Spitfire libraries) with Action Strikes drums. A sheppard tone brought in some tension and then the riser was added in the break in the middle. Then lots of listening to it and constant tweaking of the bits I hated. It follows a similar formula to a lot of my tracks and I'm quite used to it now. The real talent is in the creation of those sound libraries in my opinion.

Bass players only need to count to four.

How about the original Mission Impossible theme in 5/4 I believe.

Another one - written by Lalo Schifrin:

Stu, if this story results in a Wal being returned to long-lost owner or similar I'll happily donate £100 to a charity of your choice. If it turns to out to have been a noble attempt at the above - which it's looking like is the case - I'll still donate £50 to the same charity. I'll let TrevorR be the judge of the outcome. Either way, my apologies for the scepticism and thanks for your public spirited attitude, a rare thing on the internet. Chris

Indeed - this is just normal capitalism. The original owner could have tried to sell it at £780, but he didn't. It was his choice.

Fair enough, but the tone (from some) went from 0 to “He’s a troll/con artist” in under three seconds. I reckon there’s a really interesting bit of Basschattery to be had here if we’re all a bit more open and welcoming to a noob and dial down the “a$$hattery” a smidge.

Will you lot all shut up and let an old man sleep, for goodness sake..?

Speak for yourself Dad now, welcome Raeman

This isn't a shot of the Alembic-esque - but it is related. And it should warm the pink torpedoles of @scrumpymike 's heart: It's his veneer going on his Lyte back, because I've got the bench back....BECAUSE I'VE FINISHED THE ELECTRIC! Here are some finished shots: There are a couple of tidy-up jobs to do (but none that need the workbench, Mike ) including adding the hatch to chamber contact strips to those that notice such things (and centreing and gluing the nut for those that notice those things too) but this is pretty much how it looks I've done some sound clips - I'll post those shortly. As always, thanks very much indeed for your interest, support, comments and suggestions along the way

@tom1946 Got laid off this afternoon so PM me your address and I'll make a template for you tomorrow. You should have it by the weekend.

Lol! (Apparently I've already run out of my 'reactions' quota today, so I'll clearly need to be judicious about what sweeties I'm handing out to whom! )

You have to distinguish between 'entertainers' and musicians. There's a lot of pretty egoistic stuff on YouTube to wade through, and some of it is bxxxxy annoying, but as a learning resource it's still unequalled. Where else can you compare 8 bass players each doing their own covers of even fairly straightforward songs like Steely Dan's 'Josie' ? The general standard of bass playing is so high now compared to the average player 20 years ago it still amazes me, and I think the internet is the main reason. And some players are so good they don't need to go attention seeking - just check out anything where Rob Mullarkey is on the bass - what a supreme talent!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/C7ufcW][/url] Same bass - rear detail.

[quote name='Pea Turgh' timestamp='1505851520' post='3374808'] I play in a 9 piece function band, with a soundie and a good PA. The whole kit is mic'd. I think it's usually total overkill! When we rehearse, we use an active wedge for vocals, nothing else mic'd up. Always sounds great, always feels good. Why not this way in a pub?! My thinking is, I'm there to provide entertainment, to enhance a punters night. Not hold them in place with decibels/deafen them! It's not all about the band! I think if more people subscribed to a more modest volume approach, more people would enjoy the music (and form nicer memories chatting with their friends etc) and maybe there would be more gigs for us lot to play!!! [/quote] Just like putting bass and guitars into the FOH a micd kit played well can/should result in LOWER volume in a small pub.