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Showing content with the highest reputation on 25/06/18 in all areas
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Last Saturday we'd just finished playing Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac when a rather drunk punter asked us if we knew any Fleetwood Mac.8 points
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So unlike me it's time for a preview of what's coming up, the headstock design. After some discussion with my friends we shortlisted down to two designs from which I chose the one below. I have always made my basses under the name "Dragon" because I'm Welsh but I was told it made them sound like a cheap Chinese copy of a BC Rich made for school kids to pretend to play metal in their bedrooms, so maybe a rebranding to the Welsh word for Dragon which is "Ddraig". Either that or at the American Luthier Bruce Johnson's suggestion I rename to "Daft Bat" which is a strong possibility. The design will be a Welsh dragon in white Mother of Pearl with the brand name Ddraig either in Paua or Abalone. I haven't got any Paua yet but I've ordered some and should be with me by the end of the week with luck.4 points
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I'll call it a day now and come back to it tomorrow to decide about the edges. But you probably get the idea of where it's generally heading: With loads of wood still to remove - especially the heavy maple from the neck carve - and with all remaining hardware piled onto the scales, it's sitting at below 7lbs at the moment, so below 6 3/4lbs should be well within reach for the finished bass. As always, thanks for looking4 points
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Those who have seen my other builds will know that I creep up on the final shape generally when I'm doing the body carve. While I have a general idea of what the final shape is going to be, I tweak it as I'm going along and do multiple checks ref the depth of carve and where the chambers are. This is after the first pass. Plenty more to go:4 points
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3 points
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So today's thrilling update, I know you're not sleeping nights wondering what will happen next First job this morning was to drill the switch and control pot holes, I did this perpendicular to the surface rather than to the back so the knobs don't look pink torpedo eyed. I looked at some Les Paul guitars in PMT Cardiff last weekend to see how they were drilled, strangely some were vertical and some where in line with the contours, it was the ones high on the wall that were angled so in hindsight they would have been customs as they cost an arm and a leg.. Next was to sand the body contours and make them look less like I attacked them with an axe, after that I did the sides and the back but only to 80 grit until the binding is in and all other work done then I'll take it down to 240 or 320 grit depending on how it looks. No need to go further than that on wood, the marks will never show even at 240 with clear lacquer, the problem with going finer is that the grits start removing soft wood rather than the harder and ripples start to appear, it's quite hard to stop that and to be honest there isn't any real advantage to do so on your average timber like Oak, Mahogany, Ash etc. The last job of the day was to check the necks for flat and yes they were, excellent news so a couple of wipes with the plane and then I sanded the headstock and glued the headstock veneers on, after an hour in clamps I trimmed the veneer flush and being the daft bat I am I stuck the bits together to have a first look at what they were going to look like. I won't comment on that, make your own mind up. The top of the neck body isn't flush thith the top of the body yet, I need to trim the bottom of the tenon but I'm leaving that until shaping time3 points
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Played in a Free tribute band, during our second set, the venue owner asked if we did any Phil Collins.3 points
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You wouldn’t believe what my acoustic duo gets requests for. We do a weekly pub gig where we encourage requests via forms we distribute on the bar & tables. We have lots of regular punters who know us well so most requests are reasonably doable. However you can always tell if the requests are from new punters as they vary from smart ar*e ( Bohemian Rhapsody etc) to obscure show tunes / heavy rap / metal / garage etc etc. Sometimes we do surprise them by having a go though.... 😄3 points
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3 points
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Clipping doesn't hurt anything other than tweeters, and they'll sound nasty long before they should blow. What you, and your (idiot) guitar'd player should be concerned about is hearing loss. I'd say ask Pete Townshend, but you wouldn't get an answer, he can't hear the question.3 points
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I'll be selling my massively trusty Gallien Krueger Head, flightcased with a compressor, going through an ugly, but great sounding 4x10. This has worked flawlessly for 7 years in a variety of bands, but now moving house apparently means I can't have 3 amps anymore. Downsizing is the plan and a shiny new Markbass setup has taken over. It would be great as a practice room amp or touring rig. I've never considered having a backup, but some of the members here have some VERY nice gear. The head is a Gallien Krueger RB 400IV. I bought this years ago second hand as my first 'proper' amp. It's 'only' 180w (8 ohms) or 280w (4 ohms) but it is LOUD. Paired with a big cab, I've never needed more push. As far as I know, it's a Class A style amp, meaning a huge transformer and no Class D overheating issues. . I used to use it with a 2x10 too but gave up as I just didn't need it. It also sounds great, I've had numerous compliments from other bands and soundguys, It's got that lovely GK growl if you need it, but plenty of scope to clean up if you don't. It has a few scuffs as it's been used, some of the tiny button caps have been replaced with 3d printed caps as GK won't send you new ones but it's always been reliable to me. It comes in a solid SKB flight case with lots of spare bolts, as they're American, it's not easy to find those, with a 1U vent hole passing through a pair of custom made Neutrik cables to the compressor through the effects loop; The compressor is a DBX 266XL stereo compressor. I use the channels independently, so usually have the first as a softer compressor/gate and the second with some more aggressive settings. Either or both can be bypassed with a push button on the front for a pure sound. The upshot is you have a very cool lightshow whether it's engaged or not. This all goes through a big old Carlsbro Bass reactor 400. This will never get you any street cred BUT it really sounds great. It'll take 400w into 8 ohms, I think the drivers are eminence Delta's and it's honestly put some much more expensive cabs to shame. It's solidly built (read, 40-odd KG) and would take a beating if you needed a cheaper cab for a tour or practice room. The carpet is a bit scruffy, it's certainly been used but doesn't look too bad and you can always use it as a ladder if needs be. I'm based in Manchester but do travel to Yorkshire regularly, Collection is welcome but local delivery could be negotiated at the buyers cost. I'd prefer to sell as one unit but would consider splitting. As always, I'm open to offers. Kind regards Andy More photos! ;2 points
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once had a punter go up to the frontman to ask for a request during a song expecting his undivided attention whilst playing guitar & singing. The stock answer when getting daft requests was that we don’t do that song, but the next one contains some of the same notes.2 points
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Just caught up with this. That is a very fine looking ‘instrument-in-the-making’ Looking forward to performing my test pilot duties if required...2 points
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Am I not correct with both my Eden Metro combo and my EBS HD350 that I set the volume on bass to max, on the amp to zero and then feed in the gain until when playing my loudest notes (silently ) the clipping light just flickers. Then I adjust the amp volume up as required.2 points
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There's no standard for clipping lights so it would be hard to say how much clipping would be acceptable. Heed Bill's advice about tweeters/horns. If the amp is genuinely clipping all that extra power pretty much goes through the horns. Some clipping lights are on the input stages rather than monitoring the output. That makes it easy to set up a little distortion and then adjust your levels with the same level of 'grind' at all volume levels. If you have an input level control (sometimes called gain) and a master volume try turning the master volume right up and the input level down and see if the light goes out, or even turn the volume on your bass down and the master up. If that is the case your input stages were overloading and the amp actually wsn't giving you a little more power to play with. Worth a try anyway.2 points
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New toy - these don't seem to be readily available but managed to track one down on a bit of a whim. I 've got some gigs coming up with a band that run a fair bit of a wireless and don't want to be that annoyance that turns up with a load of wireless to complicate matters! Also, they are a bit less clunky than the studiospares headphone amps Ive got... and a bit less risky than taking a P9RHW. So here it is - Behringer PM2. I have to say, having used the Fischer sticks with a band that I also play for, the Behringer *ahem* version of it is equally well built... and dare I say it, I think I prefer the uncluttered look of the Behringer version. It's certainly less busy on the white lettering front than the Fischer. I paid just under £40 for the PM2. The Fischer comes in at just over £120. That's some saving there. So for those that don't know what they are looking at, it's a belt mounted headphone amp - better than trying to drive your headphones directly from an aux.... Plus it has the some basic mono/stereo switching (essentially if you don't want your mono mix just coming out of one ear on your headphones!) So, stereo or mono operation (there's a little switch inside that changes between the two modes) - combo jack on the bottom... so TRS/XLR for UNbalanced stereo, or TRS/XLR for balanced mono... and I'm guessing - not that I've checked... a TS will give you unbalanced mono also... (with switch in mono). So, in my gig bag of goodies, I've got a long XLR, a long TS cable, balanced dual XLR split to single unbalanced XLR, Dual TRS to single XLR and a TRS to XLR adapter... (a bit like this - https://www.kenable.co.uk/en/xlr-plugs-connectors/6096-kenable-xlr-male-plug-3-pins-to-635mm-trs-balanced-jack-plug-audio-adapter-006096-5055383460960.html - useful into plugging into the QSC desks that have stereo TRS auxes especially for inears) - that should cover me for most wired situations, I should think! Good stuff. With gadgets like this and the ZS10 appearing for the price that they are, why wouldn't you be embracing IEMs?! So assuming that you have an aux available on your desk, for under £75 (and maybe add another £15 for cables for your specific mixer - so say for under £100 all in)... there's no excuse to not be ragging your ears anymore. And the upside is that you can hear absolutely everything that is going on. Win, win.2 points
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2 points
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With 2-4 gigs a weekend booked till the end of the year, unless they are all unpaid, you can get a whole lot of interest from unemployed or not very busy (band wise) drummers. A lot of them wont need to rehearse for weeks or months on end either. With that many gigs they should be match fit within a few weeks on the fly. We had a problem with our old drummers abilities and despite our fears, getting rid and replacing him was very easy as we had plenty of gigs on offer. Our new drummer is fantastic and we are so much better as a band with him on board. We also now have a nice dep pool of brilliant drummers too. Win Win. Get it over and done with and start enjoying band life again. Get rid of the clown ASAP.2 points
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While playing in an originals folk/rock band we were asked if we could play Wonderwall. I just said that the next song was our reworking of the Oasis classic , we've given it a different tune and new words, we then launched into whichever of our own songs happened to be next on the set list and nobody complained.2 points
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2 points
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1980's - 3 piece covers band - keyboards, bass, drums, at a masonic function. Dear lady who was in charge of the function asked if we could "go from table to table, singing and playing" , like Spanish troubadours...........................🙄2 points
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They have their place like everything else and each to their own after all we're all different thank God I wouldn't want them but I have wondered what LEDs would look like fitted behind Mother of Pearl block inlays to give a dim glow2 points
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In case of use to any of my fellow BCer's: we ended up getting a Chauvet Gig Bar 2.0 plus a couple of small Chauvet DJ Bank LEDs. Including decent length power cables this came to just under £500 (new), all in. I'm guessing these will be available at a significant discount second hand on DJ sites. We unboxed and gave the Gig Bar a dry run today (see clip below) and the band seem very pleased with the choice. If you have a limited budget and want to get just "one" lighting rig, I think you could do a lot worse than this. Chauvet GigBar2.0 (18-06).mp42 points
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It’s in the next set mate, then at the end, oh yeah we ran out of time/ will play it next time. Life’s too short to have conversations with people like that.2 points
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Yesterday I worked on the Rosewood fretboard, got it inlaid. Turned out that the new binding cutter I bought wouldn't do the fretboard because the bearing was too far down from the cutters so today I just cut both on the router table and stuck the bindings on with CA. I started with a thick gel type with a slow setting time so I could get the inner edge of the mitre exactly in the right place then used a thin CA to do the rest, horrible stuff, gets everywhere, made a right mess of my finger nails After that I scraped the bindings flush and sanded the faces through to 3000 grit which looks very good. The Mother of Pearl is stunning and no filler used at all, feeling a little smug about that LOL I finished off the day by putting a thin coat of Lemon oil on the faces, will give a couple more before fretting them2 points
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Recording the gigs and playing back afterwards can be a useful tool - sometimes people don't realise quite how fast they are playing.2 points
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Did a dep last night with a power trio - the drummer was also a dep, who I'd never met before. I was slightly nervous 'cos it was a big-ish room, the band are loud, and everything but the bass was through the PA. I only had a 120w valve head, so I turned it up and hoped for the best. It was fine. Lots of dodgy moments, but we carried it off...2 points
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Rob Allen Mouse 30 in as new condition. I'm the original owner, and ordered the bass direct from Rob in 2009. I listed this back in December without any joy, so have lowered the price to match what other (less spec'd) Mice have been going for on the Basschats.. Alder body Spruce top (I believe this is the last bass Rob made with a spruce top. At the time of ordering the bass he was switching to maple for the lighter coloured tops. I loved the look of the spruce and grabbed the last piece!) Birdseye maple neck Goncalo Alves fretboard (with extension) and bridge Protec gig bag (very sturdy) Has only seen studio use, on just a handful of sessions, and has lived most of it's life in it's case in a smoke/pet free studio. Located in NW6, London. Lightweight, and sounds and plays beautifully. She's a beaut! Collection preferred, but will post within the UK and EU if necessary (at buyers expense). Straight sale only please. More info here : https://www.roballenguitars.com/m30specsphotos-21 point
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Moog sub 37. Not better, not worse, different. Electron analogue keys is worth a look too.1 point
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I have moved to short scales mainly because of small hands but the weight was also a serious factor. I’m a large chap and the shorter scales look ridiculous when I play them, I feel the best way to deal with this is not to give a 5h1t.1 point
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I've had them in Status basses. Very useful on dark stages. But neck LEDS are for amateurs. I want this:1 point
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I'd always bring my "big rig" if I play with guys like this. You need to balance the sound of the band. If he is this loud then you have to be as well. I played with a similar guitarist yesterday and I brought both cabs, started with the volume controls at noon, expecting to creep up a little from there when needed. My Aguilar TH500 used to clip with this guy (clipping with this amp doesn't cause a problem) now my AG700 doesn't. I wouldn't touch the EQ if you are regularly clipping, I'd turn your bass down and let the amp deal with the volume. If you are still clipping or you can't hear your rig over the rest of the band, your rig is telling you that you need to upgrade to something bigger. When you are playing as loud as you say, it's time to get some effective ear protection.1 point
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1 point
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I've now slotted both fretboards and glued them to the two neck blanks. I've used an offcut of kitchen worktop to clamp them against with a couple of bits of ply to prevent any clamp marks on the neck. Once set, I marked the neck outline and used a bandsaw to cut as close to these as possible to give the router less to do. The router I have mounted in a thick piece of MDF as a router table has decided to cause me a few issues on this build. Firstly, it seems to have moved slightly and is not cutting at a right angle to the table. When I put a square against the edge one of the necks this showed up; luckily it tapers from front to back of the neck so won't make any difference once the neck is shaped. The router then decided to have a bite at the neck when I was cutting across the grain at the heel taking a small chunk out. Again, luckily, this is right in the pocket so won't be visible (I'll tidy this up and replace the bit it removed). Then, as a final act of defiance it decided to die with just 10mm left to trim...…. I have a second router (made by Triton) which I temporarily fitted to my MDF router table to finish the first neck and trim the second. Must better. Nice and square, no biting. Job done!! I'm going to have to invest in a proper router table as this should make the difference in terms of everything be more solid for this kind of work. Anyway, neck outline shaped for both basses and it's a sunny day!! I'm quite pleased with how the stripes look on the back of the neck against the body. Next job, neck and fretboard shaping.1 point
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I'm a drummer and have the same kind of conversations in my band regularly. I found that the most positive messages from band members usually went along the lines of "Look, the timing of the band belongs to *you* as the drummer, YOU have your foot on the accelerator and brake and how fast we go is completely your domain. However, we can't all play as fast as you can so we need to be able to signal that we need it to go slower." The next thing we did was have several practice sessions where we just concentrate on 'messaging' i.e. playing our usual tracks but getting different members of the band to signal a slowing down or speeding up and listening to the drummer drive the pace from that. It's like a game where the drummer is in control and different band members make 'speed up' or 'slow down' signals. We always over-emphasise the speed change so that all band members can clearly agree that it has sped up or slowed down. It's a lot of fun as a drummer because you actually feel like the driver in terms of speed. If the drummer is a reasonable person they'll see how important it is to practice this messaging as much as any other aspect of practising. By making it a 'game' and reassuring them that they are always in controls, it works well. You have to be honest with yourselves though that you are prepared to trust the drummer with the tempo setting (not paying lip service and ignoring them!) - respect must work both ways. We drummers need nurturing and ego-stroking. Otherwise we throw our toys out of the pram and have tantrums, but then we often get the blame when actually *nobody* is working as a team member. david1 point
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I've always felt that an audience appreciates a good gig with real momentum and excitement, more than they give a monkey's about tiny differences in tone. Maybe it's because i play bass and acoustic guitar, both of which involve just one sound thru the whole gig (fingers/pick and tone control etc doing the rest of the variation).1 point
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Ah yes - being smacked in the teeth by a mic when a drunk person dances into the stand. Always goes down well. Its about as funny as people who shout "three!" when you are soundchecking the PA. Comedy gold that is.1 point
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I'm a great believer in making the best of a bad gig and just doing your best (you know 'those gigs' that you didn't really rehearse enough for an you know its bombing 1/2 way through the set). I make as many mistakes as the next guy so I don't like to point out other peoples faults. Still we should learn from bad gigs, poor song choices and being unprepared, Otherwise the band never gets better and you make the same mistakes gig after gig....Now that's really annoying. (this should never be discussed on the night of the gig though)1 point
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I once discussed joining a band with someone - their precise requirements were that I play exactly the lines they told me to and also drive him and the singer to and from gigs as neither of them drove. That was a tough gig to turn down!1 point
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For the avoidance of further confusion: England Flag UK Flag Flag of the Klingon Empire1 point
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Need a catorgary who uses a compressor but can't tell what it does lol1 point
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Peerless Retromatic B2 ... 34" scale, available in six colours, and also sounds great:1 point