synaesthesia

Was just watching DVD of Dizzy G at Royal Festival Hall with Arturo Sandoval, James Moody, Flora Purim, Giovanni Hidalgo, Airto Moriera etc... John Lee absolutely smokes on electric bass guitar! Check it out! BTW, Arturo Sandoval can't be human to hit notes like that....

[quote name='99ster' post='85185' date='Nov 7 2007, 11:34 PM'][u]SONY MDR-7509HD High Def Studio Monitor Headphones[/u] Been lusting after some for a while - but at around £200 in the UK was put off by the price.... Just got some from the US - brand new for $160 on eBay! They are incredible - I didn't know headphones could sound this good! If you want to give your ears a serious treat - these are the kiddies. And the build quality is very very good - serious pro kit.[/quote] These have been around for awhile. I'm still using 7506s and my studio ones are still going strong after 10 years. Never had a problem with them nor with the cable. Can't say the same about Sennheiser cables though I still have and use Senneheiser HD280 cans depending on how much acoustic seal I need, the Sonys are great sounding but they don't have the same acoustic seal and can bleed into mics more than the Sennheisers. Nevertheless, they are more efficient than the Sennheisers and are my first choice can.

[quote name='Mikey D' post='85005' date='Nov 7 2007, 04:59 PM']I know what you are saying, but if you are talking the role of the bass which is usually upright, it does help if the sound is more in line with the bassy thump of an upright than the more singing fretless sound. I have experimented with this with my teacher (one of the UKs foremost upright bassists and mean mean electric player) and I have to say, the more you go to try and mimic (not sound exactly like, but change attack, decay of notes and emphasis...) the timbre of the upright, the better you sound. However, saying that as bilbo says, it is more about where you sit in the whole sound spectrum that the individual tone you create. You are also lucky to work with so many musicians who can accept the electric as a valid instrument in the jazz context and I will have to check those guys out some more. Isn't Alex predominately an upright player? I'm talking about players would are forging ahead in the jazz genre solely on the electric. Also can you recommend some albums of Stanley's and Chuck's that demonstrate them swinging for me to check out. Cheers.[/quote] Check out Alex Blake's electric bass guitar playing with Manhattan Transfer. Chuck Webb played with Ramsey Lewis for years, and Stanley Banks played a lot with George Benson. He even turns up for jam nights in NYC. The problem I think many people have is that they think bass is bass, it isn't. A Double bass is not an electric bass guitar and vice versa. An electric bass guitarist plays a guitar, albeit an electric one an octave or more lower. It is not the same instrument. Next time you get pressured to take out your acoustic upright, insist on the pianist playing a grand piano, Bosendorfer even. If he doesn't ask him how wide a stereo image of a sampled piano is compared to a 7 foot grand. And tell the drummer his remo heads are mylar 'tupperware' plastic not calfskin. That'll shut them up.

[quote name='Mikey D' post='84844' date='Nov 7 2007, 11:39 AM']I spend a hell of a lot of my time trying to sound convincing on electric bass playing jazz as I have made the choice to dedicate myself to electric more than upright in a jazz setting and unfortunatly it is not as easy as a lot of people will have you believe. I also know that some people on here might now say "I play with my thumb and it sounds the same". It doesn't. It is not just about being in time and playing right notes, although these are very important. Sound is a big factor. The upright has a completely different attack and decay to an electric, but trying to mimic this can do wonders for your walking lines. Some people use flatwounds, a foam mute, turn off their treble and/or pick with their thumb and it sounds ok. I personally turn of my treble on my GWB35 and put a small piece of foam under the roundwound strings by the bridge and it sounds ok. For serious study of walking check out Kind Of Blue (Paul Chambers), We Get Requests or Nighttrain (Ray Brown) and go from there., If you are interested in going down the route of doing it properly on the electric (May god have mercy on your soul), for players who are excellent at playing convincing walking jazz on electric check out Anthony Jackson (wtih Michel Petrucciani and steve gadd), Jimmy Johnson, Laurence Cottle and especially Steve Swallow. I don't think there are any other bigger name electric players out there who really swing. Also check out the technique forum, someone asked about 'Walking Bass' and I posted a very helpful sheet to get you started.[/quote] I'd not worry about mimicing an upright with an electric slab, if you need to play an acoustic upright then go play an acoustic upright, otherwise just play the music... Chuck Webb, Stanley Banks, Alex Blake all swing on an electric bass guitar.

[quote name='guitarnbass' post='84871' date='Nov 7 2007, 12:55 PM']Well, music doesn't care whether you play jazz on an upright or an electric...[/quote] Exactly. Just play the music. I do 90% of jazz gigs on an electric fretless. Rufus Reid's book is a good place to start if you need a manual, John Goldsby has one too, otherwise, get the Aebersolds, some basic theory in your belt, and use your ear: transcribe! It also helps to have a midi player of some sort,youcan get loads of midi tunes in jazz format, slow it down to the tempos you need to practice at, change the key if you need to, get the fake books out and start practicing. You can work on Giant Steps or Au privave at 22 bpm if you need to and work towards 220bpm.... You can also using Amazing Slower Downer by Roni music to work with actual audio, it even slows down MPs and pitch changes these files. Great for transcribing.

[quote name='ahpook' post='84135' date='Nov 5 2007, 06:27 PM']what did you swap yours for ? it's something i'd be interested in trying[/quote] I honestly cannot remember but I went out and bought a bunch of similar sized computer cooling fans from Maplin and tried them, found one that was lower in noise and used that. It is not a difficult modification, strip the back fan clip off and you can fit a new pair of fans, one for each side of heatsinks.

[quote name='ahpook' post='80572' date='Oct 28 2007, 08:47 PM']plus the one... good amps and the best service i've had from an online/mail order firm.[/quote] I have amongst other poweramps, a Soundtech Ps802. I like 1U amps and have various makes of 1U amps. I like the Soundtech, it does what it is supposed to do, but beware the fans make a bit of noise. I changed my fans and they are still audible. Not that your audience will hear it but you will.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='83315' date='Nov 3 2007, 10:20 PM']Some people will tell you it shouldn't, in theory, make a difference. The reality is a lot different if you're wedged into a tiny space at the back of a pub room, etc. I prefer front ported.[/quote] Sub 100hz, it is largely omnidirectional. But if you place a cabinet in a corner or against walls, then you'd get some acoustic coupling, and you'd get coupling of the cab and what audio it produces, not just the ports. You'd get acoustic coupling even with a cab without ports. Whether you'd like the results and whether you can exercise any control over it, should be what is in question here. I can safely say that I have played enough places to say that port position is not as important as having some form of audio control over how your loudspeaker cabinet or cabinets will behave given the various rooms, walls, tents, boats, hollow floors, grass and pebbled surfaces, mud flats, floating barges, flower beds, topiary, stone canyons etc......

Lighter fluid is what you want. Comes in a rectangular tin. Removes all glue gunk.

Sweet deal, no hassle - comes with recommendations of various world cuisine restaurants in his part of London. Ace.

[quote name='ZPQ' post='80229' date='Oct 27 2007, 07:12 PM']Absolutely - assuming Danny is buying the multicore from Thomann then it's so cheap that it's worth finding a "workaround" - which is probably converting a send to a return or running (part) of the rig in mono. 16 sends from stage should leave you at least a couple spare.[/quote] look into: [url="http://www.audiospares.com/home.php"]http://www.audiospares.com/home.php[/url] Not sure if their prices are more competitive than Thomann. I had my snake custom made and even then I modified mine to have a few more TRS 'returns'. Depending on the venue and the act, I sometimes use an on stage in ear wired system, which for us is effectively and additional parallel system to the FOH signals. We draw the drum mix from FOH mixer and I find that you can never have enough spare returns.

Use your clothes iron to heat the frets a bit, and you can pull them out with a fine edge as a lever or use a fret puller, or nipper. Do one and look at how the tangs bite into the fingerboard and your common sense will tell you how the rest willl need to come out. A veneer insert will always be cleaner to look at and will look like a line, a filled slot may look a little craggly depending on the type of frets used and how you pull them out. You may need a fret saw to deepen the slot a bit, as it makes it easier to deal with a bit more depth than the fret tang. Cut the veneers to the width or depth as close as you need so you can minimise excessive sanding on the fingerboard. An X Acto craft scalpel or an actual medical scalpel will work well with a steel rule on a cutting mat, the art & craft shops or the marquetry suppliers can sell hyou a craft scalpel. You can get 1 - 3mm veneer easily, and you may want to have bright/ dark contrast, or match the fingerboard if you don't need the lines to be seen. You can also use plastic strips. Either way if you do inserts, you may want to consider a colourless glue. If you are after the fashionable gloss mirror finish on your fingerboard, google 'System Three", the product you want is Mirror Coat 2 part epoxy. It is available in the UK from boat building suppliers.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='76842' date='Oct 20 2007, 04:58 AM']Regardless of which, my experience is that flat cabs don't work in all live situations. But they may work in some. All based on a recording context mate, which just supports the point I conceded to you earlier. I agree with you, as far as a recording situation goes. However you've not addressed the onstage situation and issue of [b]context[/b] that many players on this forum are likely to encounter. Does the average punter use a wireless? I couldn't tell you what the average punter uses in their signal chain. "Satisfactory" being a question of taste? Eh? [/quote] The tonal character of electric bass guitar as we know it is largely in the 60 hz - 6Khz region. It starts to drop off below that and above that, even your Alembic onboard bass preamps are designed to shelve off above 6 or 7 Khz. Most electric bass guitar cabs are direct radiator designs and are often reflex designs, most drop off at 60 hz, and many popular cabs drop off well above that. The bass guitar signal's harmonic overtones which make up its character is often higher up in the register, particularly if you choose to blend more bridge pickup tone. Consequently you are not sending a flat frequency signal to be reproduced, it is more often a spiked frequency signal, particularly if you want to hear note definition on stage. Try this: Go get a variable low pass filter shelving off anything above 45hz, 50 hz or 60hz and feed your cabs nothing more than your electric basses. I vary my stage hi pass filter for different venues, stages. See how much you can hear/feel and how much of that interferes with what else needs to be picked up/ mic'ed/heard on stage. Then try the reverse and feed your amps with a high pass signal shelved at 45 hz -60hz. You'll get a much tighter bass sound, less stage low end mud, less interefence with other instruments, less sympatathetic resonance that you do not need to create in the first place, and you'll still know its a bass guitar that goes very very low, gives lots of slam, flaps your pants and can be heard. I have chased the nether region mate for my bass rig and found it using a good sub in a 4 way system, and you know what? When you have it you may find that you did not really need it after all. I am not talking about taste, but the seeming 'need' for reproducing 35 - 40 hz for bass guitar, and the belief that is vital for bass guitar, or worse that it does not interfere with stage audio management. I think most of live low end gratification for bass guitar slam or bass drum thump is really in the 60 - 100hz region.

Been three done it bought the t shirt mate. For loud gigs I play though an electronically crossovered sub powered by an 800 watt power amp, and usually I run a -12dB filter at about 50hz generally without losing any satisfactory trouser flapping bottom, either in playing an Alembic, a Rick, a 7 string Conklin etc. In 12 years of commercial recording and mixing, I've filtered electric basses of at 60hz depending on tracks. In a mix particularly for pop or rock records, this is quite a common so that you have a tighter low end, and a punchier recording, particularly if the track will be compressed a little at mastering. Your generic 4X10 bass cab doesn't really go very low in the nether regions and many people claim 'deep' bottom end nirvana with one - your average punter playing through a cheapo wireless which starts to filter off at 70 to 90hz (your freeports, some samsons, som AKG) claim they hear all the way to 35hz of their B string. My point is searching for flatter response towards 40hz whilst perhaps necessary for PA and DJs reproducing synthesised frequencies isn't all that necessary for satisfactory electric bass guitar reproduction. The heritage of established and acceptable tonal character of bass guitar given its definition via its historcal development with generally poor audio reproduction equipment added to the fact that many players post Jaco choose to emphasize their bridge pickup sonic character supports my claim.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='76721' date='Oct 19 2007, 08:27 PM']I think the point Alex was making is that its all a question of taste, at the end of the day.[/quote] I think he is defending his ownership and choice of said cabs more than anything. I respect than an Acme sounds smoother than most 2 way designs, but then hey, my own design 3 way cabs with a 1X12, 1X6 and a peerless horn tweeter that i have beeen gigging with since the mid 90s sounds smoother than most 2 way bass cabs too. But he claims they are 'flat' to his sharp ears, without measurement. I think that you'll find most 3 way cabs would sound flatter than your average 2 way cab with a tweeter and high distortion. Do the Acmes go deeper than any other design? Without comparative measurements it is a moot point. What is probably not reflected in this argument of mine goes deeper than yours is that that tonal characteristics of electric bass guitar actually does not need to, nor for the most part want to go that deep and in most cases does not produce a flat response down to 40hz.

[quote name='Mikey D' post='75867' date='Oct 18 2007, 01:17 AM']Hello, if you want to know more about me or my playing send me a PM if you are interested in adding me to your list. Based in Central Birmingham and studying jazz at the conservatoire. Fretless or double.[/quote] PM me with some contact info?

[quote name='jakesbass' post='75691' date='Oct 17 2007, 06:45 PM']More than happy to be on your list as it were. I'm in the south east but if theres money I'll travel, or any you might want covered in this area also. I play double as well. Jake[/quote] Hey Jake Check your PM box

Hi Am in 2 working standards piano-bass-drums trios, one contemporary pop.jazz quintet and will be showcasing a new soul band with a terrific yank singer chick in Nov for some agents....so far no gig clashes, but what I am looking for is someone prepared to take some jazz trio dep gigs as I may have one or two clashes in the Xmas period. Mostly midlands, .. nothing more than blowing changes thru charts of various fake books at various tempi...typical and not so typical standards, bossas, some bop charts,. Fretless or fretted electric. Not looking for someone to rehearse, but for someone who can turn up and play what the pianist might call up... Night in Tunisia, Orinthology, All the things you are etc etc

[quote name='OldGit' post='75107' date='Oct 16 2007, 03:58 PM']Have you tried the t-bird neck dive fix on your bass? [url="http://www.lysator.liu.se/~wizkid/music/thunderbird_mod/"]Here[/url][/quote] It's a tele bass I built. Pretty much like a G & L ASAT. I have found a good strap with some suede on the underside works well. ...nothing's perfect....A J is nice to strap on but a bitch to play on your lap, and this tele is a dream in the studio, sits nicely on the lap, gets all the tones I want but it is not the most confortable strap on....having said that, the positioning of strap pins can help some instruments but not all...if you have tried a Gretsch White Penguin you'd know......the neck gets 10 from the hi dive judges....