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I am an expert here on compression, and I can categorically say that sometimes I cant hear it, out of the context of a mix. Because you just cant, not a 'transparent' compressor with a soft knee set to just pull everything up a couple of dB on the softer stuff especially in parallel. Good luck to anyone who can, you're definitely not normal. But put that in the context of a mix and if you know what to listen for you can hear the difference the compressor makes. So why bother if its that hard to consciously perceive? Because perception isn't conscious, psychoacoustics are hugely important and influential and definitely can make a band sound far more pro than the level of the venue they are playing in. Lets put it another way, would you rather an expert live engineer use everything at his disposal to make your band sound as brilliant as possible regardless of the venue, or would you prefer him to keep some of his tools in the box? Do you think your punters would tell the difference between Dave the drummer throwing some faders up on a shitty 6 channel Behringer desk and Wes 'The Wesernator' Maebe with a Midas Pro One and some choice outboard? What about Wes using the same desk as Dave and a few choice dynamics tools? I reckon Wes could make my band sound better live than I can with the same gear literally anywhere, he's the absolute canine undercarriage at his job, so I'd be some kind of an idiot if I didn't feel that. What does he use to achieve this? Simple, the basics that every sound engineer understands: good mic placement, good gain structure, good dynamics control, good spacial and additive effects, great musical understanding, great ears. He will use compression all over your bass to make it work in the mix better, think I'm kidding, check this out and especially this where he daisy chains two 1176s, the man is a master of compression, its his bread and butter. So what does this have to do with the OP question? Its simply the wrong question. It actually shows why most bassists probably shouldn't be trying to use compression, because it breaks down like this:- The audience should not generally be able to tell that a compressor is being used per se, but they will know that something is different if you turn it on and off. It depends on what the compression is for. A transparent gain riding compressor is going to work at a psychoacoustic level. On the other hand if you are using a compressor to drastically change the envelope of your bass sound then every single punter will hear the change as you swap it in and out. Its just a daft question really. Think like a bassist and you cant tell what its for, think like a sound engineer and you cant imagine a world without compressors on nearly everything.

Learn "Forget You" by something called Cee Lo Green they said. Is that a band? A person? I wondered. Never mind let's have a listen. Ah good, given my hectic learning schedule a nice repeated three chord pattern is just what I need. I like days like these, they make up for the 'now let's learn Everybody Dance' days. Then, just as I'm smiling at myself for having essentially learned the bassline during my first ever listen to the tune, just under three minutes in and the bloody bass player wakes up and decides he's bored. Never count your tofu until it curdles folks.

Just got this. Huge Kings X fan...

I wandered into Norwich PMT a while back to blag a box for a bass I was flogging. Figuring that even asking nicely wouldn't cut the mustard for a very crumbly 63 year old who looks disturbingly like Compo, I thought I'd better buy something before asking. A charming young man, helpful, knowledgeable and chatty but never patronising or irritating, introduced me to their two secondhand bass cabs. Deciding I didn't really want a Fender combo, we switched focus to an MB 121 Traveler in great nick for £280 label. He went to endless trouble to set me up with a head I liked and left me alone in a booth to noodle as long as I needed. He was so nice I could see no alternative to buying the bloody thing (but TBF it was starting to make sense to me - God I love MB tone). Once I'd got my wallet out said lad was willing to haggle but wasn't a push over, and happily agreed to work several suitable guitars boxes into the deal (what I originally went in for, if you recall). Then when he learned I was parked 400 yards down the road he carried (yes he did) my new cab all the way to my car. I almost put him in the boot too and took him home to introduce him to my daughter. Then I remembered I don't have one.

Hey all, So here's my quick and simple comparison of La Bella flats with Chromes on my Precision, and Lakland Rounds with Gold White Nylon Tapewounds on my 55-01: https://soundcloud.com/simonpoulton/sets/la-bella-vs-daddario-lakland Each track has a description of what is happening, test environment etc My conclusions are that La Bella's are quieter, across their ranges, than strings I've previously used (my Gold Flats on my other Lakland are also quieter than the rounds they replaced too, but just means my amp does a little more work, easy enough, doesn't bother me). New La Bella flats, sound like 3 year old Chromes, so more mellow out of the pack. Gold White Nylons do an excellent impression of broken in rounds, whilst feeling very smooth and lasting a hell of a lot longer hopefully (due to being tapes). All in all, am very happy with these early tests, think I've finally found a company that has a varied and interesting string roster, where I can get everything I need from one place! Cheers Si

Hi Basschat! I recently purchased a beautiful Ocean Turquoise 4-string jazz elite bass, and had our monitor engineer send a desk recording from one of our recent shows @ Alexandra Palace, I'm super happy with how its tracking in a live situation, thought I'd share it and have this thread for other people to share their live recordings of their Elite's! (precision + Jazz)

For me, it's this by a long way: That'll gleam with a coat of Andy's Magic fluid - No innuendos please!!

Was just listening to this album today and thought I'd put something on here as it's an integral part of my Bass playing influences. I can see it's been mentioned before, but you usually get a discussion about how it's divisive so I thought I'd put my two penneth in. When the album came out, I was a pure 'metaller'. If it wasn't 'eavy', I didn't like it. I was a teenager then, and had already been playing bass for a year or so in a rap-metal band (I know). I bought Earthling 'blind', having a fleeting admiration of Bowie, mainly due my older sister buying the Dancing in the Street single years earlier. (I know). The thing that struck me about the album right away was the bass playing of Gail Ann Dorsey. I appreciated the magnificent tone, and the concise, accurate yet still impressively written basslines, even though I didn't realise at the time this is what I was hearing, if you get me. The songs are amazing and yes, the album probably did sound dated for a while, but in my opinion, it has been long enough for the 90s drum and bass elements to now sound 'vintage' to younger ears and would be well worth a listen. It's easy to see why it's not everyone's cup of tea but It's the album that got me to listen to bass players, appreciate not over playing, and get the importance of a good balance between instruments/vocals, not to mention getting me to explore Bowie further, which obviously opened a pot of gold.

Shang-a-lang always goes down well at our gigs.

I'll just incarcerate any future threads you start on the topic. Job done

Thanks for all the positive feedback..!!!! Inspiring to see the other kids basses too; bands like the Royal Blood, 21 Pilots and current established groups that feature prominent bassists (Chili Peppers, MUSE etc.) appear to be driving the instrument to new popularity.. Anyway, he got to see and play it last night; he was speechless (which is a lot with him..!! ) and managed four solid hours playing Chili Peppers, MUSE, Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Green Day and anything else he could think of...!! He is at his first band practice tonight, as a bassist, so got four days to learn 4 songs from scratch - he's done it too..... They're not simple tunes either and he didn't have a hand in choosing them (Mardy Bum, My Sharona, Mr Brightside and Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor). When he got up this morning, he went to play it before school and said "every time I open the bag, I think - what a beauty!".............. I can't ask for more really. Going to film him playing it and I'll put it up here shortly. Peace..

This ^ Are you sure it's nitro? It looks more like poly to me. Same solutions if it is poly but probably gives you more options of lacquer products you could use.

I learned about mirroring too and it really opens your eyes to peoples intentions. My experience is that when you point this out to people in Britain though is they take it very defensively. Things in Britain you can talk about: Weather, football, immigration. Things in Britain you shouldn't talk about: Feelings, death, other peoples intentions. The rumours are true.

I take it not as spectacular as your HGBM? But seriously, well done @tonyxtiger and @Cuzzie for making this happen - it's great to see BC in action like this!

Ohh.. well that explains that awkward incident then...

After an 8 hour drive to Newcastle and 2 hours back to Yorkshire on Sunday and a 6 hour journey back home to Somerset yesterday, I now have the following in my arsenal: Just need to find a key for the case...oh it's a 2003 CIJ. Big thanks to the Monkseaton Mikes who helped.

Unfortunately, the links to Major-Minor's fabulous Boot Camp series of tutorials were lost as part of the site migration. Thankfully I had saved them offline onto my PC for future reference; unfortunately (and I hadn't realised until I checked earlier) I only saved Sessions 1 to 26e. Thankfully, Stevie had saved Sessions 27 to 36, which means we've got the complete set! The Major's Bass Boot Camp text for Sessions 1 to 14e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp text for Sessions 15 to 17e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp text for Sessions 18a to 21e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp text for Sessions 22a to 26e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp scores for Sessions 1 to 14e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp scores for Sessions 15 to 17e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp scores for Sessions 18a to 21e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp scores for Sessions 22a to 26e.pdf The Major's Bass Boot Camp text for Sessions 27a to 36.pdf

I remember going to see headliner Doyle Bramhall III at Shank Hall (small club/ bar). Great guitarist and song writer ,however he had absolutely no stage prencence or real connection with the crowd. It was all about his guitar playing. And as I said earlier these days that only gets you so far. His opening act was a young husband and wife team and they had their stage appeal stuff together. Very entertaining. Blue

I'll see if I can get hold of them. Can't promise though. I'll let you know.

... and you're 'available' any week-end or weekday, for the next few years. Am I wrong..?

I make up for my poor musicianship by having no stage presence or appeal whatsoever. I sit with my back to the audience, I wear dirty old clothes, and I pull terrible bass faces at the drummer whilst moaning about his playing. I drink brown ale and smoke crack on stage. If people don't applaud when I take a solo, I turn around and spit on them. I threaten men and make sexy growly sounds at the ladies. I often get so absorbed in the music that I soil myself on stage. I play mellow jazz standards in an intimate wine bar, on a yellow 1987 Kramer with a pick, going through 34 dirt pedals into an SVT and an 8x10 cab.

Actually I have to give County Music in Canterbury a mention. No high end bass stuff in there as such, but I bought a short scale Squier Jag from them a couple of weeks ago. I took in my own pickups and they installed them and set up the bass at no extra cost, and they had it ready in a couple of hours. I know a pickup swap is not a big deal but it's nice of them to do it for free, especially when I wasn't spending big bucks.

Hi. Folks just an update on this, I used UPS and had the bass insured for £5500 by a 3rd party,. Thanks for all the advice and special thanks to Grangur for the kind offer!

got to agree having a front man with personality is most important, and I always say if the band don't look like you're enjoying it how do you expect the crowd too? even if you can't jump around a lot there's nothing to stop you dressing up a bit, black T shirt with some bands name on it, scruffy blue jeans and dirty trainers just don't cut it IMO, if the level of musicianship is excellent but there's no show a disco would do the job

It always amuses me that when this topic comes up folks tend to start discussing it in polarised extremes. It's worth bearing in mind that there is a spectrum of different approaches between... ...and... I think Gary put it very well above. It's about the band demonstrably enjoying being there and connecting in some appropriate way with the audience, wherever on the spectrum that is!

The spec here says the body is nitro and the neck is satin poly - http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Precision_Highway_One.html

If it's poly then trying to patch it by spot filling will not work as well as if it was nitro. Poly cures to a hard finish and patched areas will leave visible fracture lines, unlike nitro which melds with the existing finish.

If you read back, I didn't dispute his credentials. I know who he is - and in fact, you'll see I even stated that he is the dog danglies.

Can't remember from memory, it was a long time ago that i did it after buying it, i know that i had them set to match the volume of the piezzo with the pickups and put the most amount of gain possible whilst keeping everything balanced. In all honesty, i can't even remember right now what those trim pots are for, hehehe I'll have to take out the backplate of mine soon as i'm going to replace the jack so i'll take a look at the trim pots and post my settings here afterwards.

Quite, restoring this bass to it's former glory could dramatically reduce it's value. The bass world is going through a "dragged down the canal" period at the moment. On a more sensible note -

Awesome!

I`m not sure about this as a whole, but I do know that having worked with great musicians/great song-writers who had those as their only redeeming features, I wouldn`t choose to work with similar again. I`m not sure if I have any stage presence, aside from - not my words I should add - looking scary and staring the audience out. Which in fact means that with my middle-aged eyesight I`m just looking at the audience to see if they`re enjoying it. Wearing appropriate clothing for genre, and not looking at the floor, even if you don`t leap about like a deranged gibbon conveys a better stage presence than looking like a bunch of guys who don`t even know each other, and won`t make eye contact with the audience. If the people on stage look together, look like a band, and connect with the audience even if they don`t say a thing, well already their stage presence has taken a step up.

2 x Barefaced FR800s (15kg each),1 x Barefaced LF1400 (24kg), 1 x Behringer XR18. Job done for pubs and clubs. Total weight 57kg (126 lbs). Probably prefer the RCF art 745s to the BF FR800s but it's extremely close. The FR800s will do kick drum very well. That's all well and good but unless you sort your guitarist out then you're wasting your time. No matter what pa you have, it'll be unbearably loud for your customers if he doesn't grow up and stop being a plum.

Hi, My wife recently showed me a video she had taken of our 3 year old grandson playing my jazz bass, on its stand, like an upright whilst she played some music on the stereo. "can you do something for him" she asked. So I bought a secondhand Gear 4 Music 3/4 precision. For the money its not bad but it did need a fair bit of work to make it anything like playable. The neck has no finish at all so I gave it 4 coats of tung oil and lemon oiled the fretboard. I had to lower the nut, shim the neck, adjust the truss rod and then set it up. So he will get it four his fourth birthday and we'll see what happens. Regards, Doug

For a brief period in my teens I thought technical skills the more important. Guitar shredder overload in the late 80's put paid to that. I'll take OK skills but a great show over the whiz kids every time.

I'm not very sympathetic (to the shop). The very existence of a "specialist" shop is founded on the availability of specialist advice and good service. As has been pointed out, almost anything you want will be available online for delivery before 10am tomorrow and cheaper too. They have to put that bit of effort it.

That looks really good. Many of the budget instruments available are amazing value. With improved electrics and a bit of work on the frets they can be really great.

Great minds think alike... Although I've used standard MoP, this is what I remade last night: I've also made some more to replace the brass knobs on my own build

It's definitely easier to sing high notes if your mouth is in 'letterbox' shape. Try singing a high note with a 'round' mouth (a big O) if you want to check.

I have trouble with some of my own basslines! Make some, play some and everything is great. Have a break then go back and I've lost the feel or timing! It's just like someone else had written them...

I'm a sucker for a white bass, especially nice looking if it's translucent.

OK I'll just open another tin

Session 21a.mp3 Session 21b.mp3 Session 21c.mp3 Session 21d.mp3 Session 21e.mp3

Session 17a.mp3 Session 17b.mp3 Session 17c.mp3 Session 17d.mp3 Session 17e.mp3

Session 15.mp3 Session 15a.mp3 Session 15b.mp3 Session 15c.mp3

Session 12.mp3 Session 12a.mp3 Session 12b.mp3