synaesthesia

[quote name='The Funk' post='242178' date='Jul 17 2008, 09:30 PM']My Acme cabs give me a tri-amping set-up. I guess that makes me one better than you? EDIT: Actually, that might not fall under the definition of tri-amping. It's a three-way cab with internal crossovers - so I just send the one signal into it.[/quote] That is not tri-amping at all. A passive 3 way crossover does not work the same way as electronic crossovered signals split into frequency bands that feed individual amplifiers. In a proper electronic crossed system, you can vary the gain or power amplification to each band, and you can alter the bands with ease. A passive crossover does not allow this flexibility. there are also a host of issues with passive crossovers, phase coherence, frequency dips at cross points etc...

[quote name='Shockwave' post='242032' date='Jul 17 2008, 06:53 PM']... the 8's are only 200 watts, However I have independent Treble and Bass volume controls on the marshall which works very well so there is no danger of blowing them. I dont need that much wattage on the treble speakers anyway due to human ear mechanics.[/quote] You don't need much wattage on the 'treble' speakers because of power distribution across the frequency band. see e.g.: [url="http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm#power_dist"]http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm#power_dist[/url] You will find that the higher you cross the less you are feeding your 'treble' speakers. Given you are running 2X8s in a hefty box, your crossover should be somewhere between 300 - 900hz. Cross any higher and you might as well lose the weight of the 8s and fit in a 4" driver. Also beyond 800 hz or thereabouts your 15" most probably goes into a territory where it is ineffective on a number of counts.

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='241806' date='Jul 17 2008, 03:14 PM']As I said in my other posting, I'm having my 1st DB lesson next week, I was going to wait until I'd had a few lessons before buying an instrument, but I'll need something to practise on, so I thought I'd hire one. Footes were recommended to me, and they have a hire scheme, with an option to buy, here - [url="http://www.footesmusic.com/page.asp?s=fgmpdl365661&id=rental"]http://www.footesmusic.com/page.asp?s=fgmp...1&id=rental[/url] They have these two nice looking objects, I'm now seeking advice about which one to have. [url="http://www.footesmusic.com/product.asp?s=fgmpdl365661&strParents=327&CAT_ID=661&P_ID=2729"]http://www.footesmusic.com/product.asp?s=f...1&P_ID=2729[/url] [url="http://www.footesmusic.com/product.asp?s=fgmpdl365661&strParents=327&CAT_ID=661&P_ID=3628"]http://www.footesmusic.com/product.asp?s=f...1&P_ID=3628[/url] Once again thanks for your help. Kevin[/quote] Foulds in Derby also have a rent to buy scheme. In Leicester, go see: [url="http://www.batchelar.com"]http://www.batchelar.com[/url]

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='241797' date='Jul 17 2008, 03:01 PM']Hi Erm, yeah I'm OK for electric basses, it's a double bass that I'm after. Thanks for replying though. Kevin[/quote] Foulds in Derby do rentals. [url="http://www.fouldsmusic.co.uk/"]http://www.fouldsmusic.co.uk/[/url]

[quote name='tauzero' post='236326' date='Jul 10 2008, 09:57 AM']NS, who you might consider slightly more reputable in luthiery terms, have fingerboard dots on their EUBs (I actually would prefer them to have rather less than they do). Conversely, Palatino didn't put them onto the VE-500 (so I stuck some on...). I don't see why the absence of dot marks on acoustic DBs should mean that there shouldn't be any on EUBs. After all, classical guitars don't have any side or front fretboard markings, so by your reasoning, nor should any other guitar.[/quote] Don't put words in my mouth. The NS have as note markers not in between notes. Your Frontier bass did not influence the world of fretless fingerboards.

Try IEM for a while to see if it works for you, but try the full IEM, with a mix of your stage partners, as opposed to one ear bass only IEM (which IMmostHO doesn't work well).

[quote name='Johnny Wishbone' post='235161' date='Jul 8 2008, 06:18 PM']I don't have any trouble hearing drums, guitar or vocals on stage, so perhaps I should look at running the IEMs direct from the headphone socket of my amp (assuming it doesn't cut output to the speakers when in use)?[/quote] In all seriousness, if you can hear everything else: Step 1: Review your bass rig if that's the case, it may be your speakers, your strings, your EQ/tone settings, your pickups, pickup selection/blend settings, etc if you can't hear your amplified bass it may be because you have a freq. dip in the rig, not enough mid range, poor dispersion in your cab, etc Step 2: turn down the rest of the band. Step 3: feed some bass to the wedge monitors Step 4: learn to hear yourself on stage, or dial a tone that allows you to hear yourself. Cut the low end and cut out the muddy boom. Your stage amp is more often than not a stage bass monitor, assuming you have proper PA support. You can dial whatever tone that allows you to hear yourself readily and feed a pre EQ tone to FOH, assuming your gear allows you to do this. Your situation may be different if you use efx on your bass or need a grungy tone. If you want to go wireless IEM, feed a mix of the stage and your bass, you're more likely to play in time better than if you augmented only your bass in your in ears, and listened to everything else at stage volume and dispersion. Using one ear bud only for bass and one open - I suspect you will have problems, and you'd more than likely boost the volume so that you can just about hear your bass notes. Also, bass reproduction in ear buds work properly if you have a good seal, unlike open or semi open Headphones, and the psychosomatic completion that you get with the bass 'in the middle of your head' is best achieved with 2 ear buds, at much lower SPLs than you would with one ear bud.

If you are not expected to dance or slide across the stage, and can use a wired IEM system, buy a small mixer, take a line feed of your rig or bass, mix it in with a stage feed from your band's mix desk or FOH and you're done. I normally play in a trio where all of us are seated - pianist , drummer and me. We all use wired IEM. The performances are tighter. We use a 4 channel headphone amp (about £90), and I have a stage matrix submixer (I have several of these, so no cost to me but you could buy one for about £100 - 150) where everyone can have their own EQ'ed mix. It is the system I have in my recording studio for tracking band tracks. The outlay for the band is less than the cost of ONE decent wireless IEM, say a Sennheiser 172 or equivalent. At the moment, I cannot justify paying 400quid per muso for a rudimentary wireless IEM which in truth is often , (i) mono only, (ii) limited in mix & EQ capabilities, when the wire to me or anyone else on stage, is not a bother. If we work with a singer she has wireless IEM because the punters want to watch her wiggle her hips. I've also subbed regularly with a disco band & tribute band where from previous experience the stage monitoring was so poor that I could never hear the vocals, - I take a small behringer desktop 4 channel mixer, request a FOH vocal rich mix, and mix my own bass to it. It even feeds the ear pods. total cost, mixer approx £40, 5m IEM extension £5, ear pods - your choice, I use a Shure Ewhatever, can't remember now. The only issue with all of this is that you don't really hear your bass cab as a monitor anymore, and if you rely on proper PA support, it raises the question whether you need to have a box behind you at all. What makes this worse is if you have spent loads of time and money in your on stage cab set up. If you need a 'speaker' tone you can use a Palmer rack unit or a Sansamp rack unit which will give that, and recently I came across a circuit using a lightbulb to simulate voice coil heating effects. I can see myself easily gigging without a bass cab.

I bought one of these overseas when I was away for a stretch, and was invited to sit in with some mates where they were performing- I'm lefty so I bought a lefty one - these were the only budget lefties in the shops - , I CAN play upside down borrowed righty for pop or blues, but not Giant Steps at 220bpm. I brought it back here and tested some J pickups on it. They were invariably too bright for this bass. I even put Alembic Activators in it one time, and it was the first time I heard the Activators being harsh. The stock pickups match this bass to a 'T'. They are darker sounding on their own but they get a nice tone on this instrument, not a J tone, but a useable tone. The neck on this instrument is very nice, I like the profile. So far I have done all sorts to it, changed the pickups, put a badass bridge on, etc but I've found that the stock combination worked best and returned it to the stock condition. If you want something else, maybe go get a different instrument.

An Upright bass should not have side dots most acoustics don't; and Stagg - well i wouldn't say they were the paragon of virtue or tradition for luthierie. There are a couple of posters who said they have seen examples of reputable manufacture of unlined fingerboard basses with side dots marking positions as opposed to notes that were not (a) custom order, ( probably an oversight from a manufacturer not familiar with fretless instruments, if you have any examples - post them here. The world should know and after 30 years of playing unlined fingerboards, I'd like to know too.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='233245' date='Jul 5 2008, 05:18 PM']I think we'll have to agree to differ here, although I haven't seen any good quality unlined fretless basses that don't have the side dots where the frets would be. If you know different I'd be happy to be enlightened. In the meantime I've plenty of food for thought for getting my bass side dots how I want them.[/quote] RE: Side Dots and unlined fingerboards; the side dots are note markers, and not in between some non existent fretlines. This is the luthierie tradition in unlined fingerboards be they electric basses or whatever, you should find this in fretless basses with unlined fingerboards from Warmoth, Alembic, Fender, Rickenbacker, Musicman, Pedulla, Ken Smith, Fodera, Rob Allen, Harvey Citron, Joe Veillette, Harry Fleishman, Rick Turner etc. In a lined fretless fingerboard, the side dots are not note markers but position markers. You will see this to be true of the above manufacturers as well.

cut a strip of lens cleaning tissue, soak in PVA, lay up over tear, repeat if you need to make it thicker or stretch over a larger tear. Robert is a sibling of one of your parents.

He has been around a long time, and he was certainly an early champion of the EUB. He had a slew of records way back featuring solo bass, duos with various famous voices, trios with famous folk as well. He was the Clevinger poster boy, and he gave Willie Dixon a pink Clevinger. His recordings are OK, nothing to scream about, but I'm sure he is a fantastic live player.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='230732' date='Jul 1 2008, 05:53 PM']Also try [i]Outbound[/i] by Stuart Hamm. It's a very "mature" piece of work from him but the entire album is filled with the most glorious licks, and the slap line to the Castro Hustle is a beast. And, and Jeff Berlin's [i]Champion[/i] might be worth a listen too...wait, that can't be right, a bassists solo album without a note of slap on it? [/quote] Oh Mr Berlin SLAPS. He doesn't do it on record much though. I went to see John McLaughlin with Trilok Gurtu and the bassist supposedly was to be Kai Eckhardt. Mr Berlin was on stage instead and I wasn't complaining, he did a most marvellous slap solo that was a few minutes long and at the end of it he grinned as if to say "FXXX THAT".

Talk to the protection racket people.

[quote name='Finbar' post='224628' date='Jun 23 2008, 12:00 AM']I did find that Duracells wouldn't fit in my Conklin, and then when I decided I may as well put them to use in my wireless isntead, they had no juice in them! I've been put off Duracells ever since ¬_¬[/quote] ?? I have a Conklin and I feed it duracells or procells. What model is yours?

[quote name='backwater' post='224263' date='Jun 22 2008, 04:50 PM']I use the procell PP3's for most things - radio systems, basses, effects etc and find them pretty good as they are rebranded Duracell. Expect to pay around £10 to £12 + Post for £10. I usually get mine from CPC (www.cpc.co.uk) when I'm ordering other bits Andy [/quote] ++ to procells. They work out to about £1 per pp3 and you just pick up boxes of them at electronic wholesalers or Ebay.

Maplins has a similar product at £4 - 5. LEDs similar to above, in their clearance bins in Derby last week. Here is another useable Maplin product: [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31824&criteria=reading"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...riteria=reading[/url] light&doy=1m7

Compression is simply an audio process where an electronic signal's dynamic envelope is altered. The consequence of doing this is that your signal is altered, and the audible consequences are appropriate or inappropriate depending on your situation. It has no bearing on technique, or lack thereof. The world's best players have been compressed, and several players have also performed or recorded without compression or limiting. Compression cannot improve your playing or tone, and using compression does not mean you have no finger technique. Compression can be used to tame audio spikes, passages or instruments that would otherwise jump out or overwhelm other sounds going on. If you want to hear compression on electric bass, check out Dee Murray on Elton John's "Teacher I need You" (don't shoot me album), or Macca on "You never give me your Money" (Abbey Road). There are passages where you have clear distinct compressed bass notes. The tonal and dynamic balance is perhaps more critical in a recording. Having said that most pop records are limited or normalised (i.e. compressed enough to make the audio as close to 0dB as possible without distortion). This has an effect on the overall audio's perceived loudness and has little to do with compressing an isolated tone, e.g. the bass notes in the examples mentioned. In a live situation, if you are after a specific tonal effect of compression, or if you vary your playing a lot with slapping/popping and fingerstyle diferent passages of tunes such that your overall level is wildly fluctuating, you might consider a compressor in your chain. Otherwise, in live playing, if all you do is play fingerstyle fast or slow, and you do not need to alter your signal envelope, there is not much point in having a compressor in your chain. It can make your notes, tone, sound very indistinct on stage. 99% of the electric basses in the world will hold a wholenote and a tie at 50bpm,- compression will not improve your ability to play a whole note tied over two bars, or for that matter a half note or your ability to choke a 16th note. Sustain is a notion too often misapplied to the electric bass guitar, and sustenance via compression for bass is like squeezing a beef sandwich into a meat pattie. Live, the FOH could limit your DI signal and a good PA will have some limiting to protect the amps, speakers etc. If you need limiting on your backline and it is not an audio envelope effect you consciously want, you are either playing too loud, don't have adequate PA support or have a gear mismatch in your setup.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='224653' date='Jun 23 2008, 12:32 AM']Memrees, like the co....[/quote] Memrees indeed, I met Keith in the 80s a few times. I think he routed one of my basses or an extra P pickup and he used a Select P for a template. Went back as it didn't fit the EMG and it was then when we discovered that they weren't the same size. Did the adjustments FOC. Top bloke.