stingrayPete1977

Mark at bass direct has always got me parts from the strings and things rep,I've never even told them what bass it was for.

I'm not sure they are "still relevant today"? to those that have always liked them but I doubt many young people know who they are. Awaits the "my daughter loves them!" Comments, well they will if they've been bought up on them.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1491411914' post='3272852'] At the risk of boring everyone senseless, I have numerous prolapsed discs throughout my spine, some quite severe, and cervical spondylosis and scoliosis. In addition I suffer with hypermobile joints which sublux (partially dislocate), often many times a day. In simple terms, due to a combination of both (and some other factors, including a degree of RSI from years of computer work), I have problems with the nerves in my arms, legs, torso etc. These are exacerbated by certain movements, resting angles, etc etc. I've actually lost a fair degree of facility in my hands due to this, and my right hand basically feels like I've got a glove on, 24/7. One of the issues on a more rounded bass is that if you take a given flat surface (e.g. side of body of 4001) and round off the edges you end up with a much narrower contact area, and the placement and angle of that narrower surface on my forearm aggravates the nerve pain there, which seems to be why a 4004 causes me far more issues than a 4001. The same happens with forearm contours, a la Fender, or more rounded body shapes, e.g. Ibanez SR, which place my arm in a position that sets my nerve pain off. A Jazz is absolute hell for me, but the worst is a typical (non-archtop) Status, because of the height and placement of the upper bout combined with the severe cutaway for the forearm. For those who say float your arm, don't rest it, I can't, because of the joint and nerve problems. I have to rest it, or it's even worse. What I do a lot of the time on a 4001/3 is rest my arm on the flat side of the body, which seems to be wide enough that it doesn't aggravate the pain to any real degree. If you look at a Ric, the highest point of the rear upper bout is also far back compared to most basses, and the region where the upper bout on most basses is at its highest is actually quite short on a Ric. That just seems to work for me as it accommodates my arm placement in a way that most basses don't. Also, and rather bafflingly, even if I rest my arm on the edge of the binding it doesn't have the same effect that a rounded edge does. I've no idea why; maybe the surface area is simply so small that it doesn't aggravate the nerves in the same area, or maybe that's nonsense! I've seen several doctors, consultants etc. over the years, and they're not prepared to do anything because the risk with my neck alone would be too great given my issues, and there are too many other factors involved (shoulder joint issues etc.) which may hinder any possible success. In fact at one point I was passed from pillar to post over whether the main culprit was my neck or my shoulders. They also don't seem particularly concerned about my issues; I was asked by one consultant, who I paid for privately, what I was doing there as I seemed to be walking around just fine. That was money well spent. The really hilarious part was him telling me there was nothing wrong with me, me telling him [i]exactly[/i] what was wrong with me, him sending me for an MRI that "wouldn't show anything" and said MRI backing up exactly what [i]I'd[/i] told [i]him[/i]. Ce'st la vie; it just means there are very few basses I can play now. Given that my first bass was a Ric 4001 and I've been playing them fairly consistently since 1980, I do also wonder if I've kind of moulded to them. Billy Sheehan once said the same about a P Bass shape, hence his Yam being fairly close. I hope I've not bored everyone too much, but you did ask. [/quote] I appreciate the time taken to reply

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1491403980' post='3272768'] Once the mix is filled out, you lose the clank and buzz of 'poor' technique in amongst everything else while the fundamental remains strong. Of course, I believe the ear is led by the music and as you engage with a song, you'll follow the chords and instrumentation with your ear and take it in as a whole, but the minutiae of the performance, especially the non-musical stuff like a clanking fret buzz or a squeaky bass drum pedal, can easily be missed because it's not what you're listening for. [/quote] The bass players I know without 'poor' technique are great players but rarely pull off a properly convincing rock track, tickling a status king bass doesn't work on an AC/DC cover for example.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1491395100' post='3272669'] I have the opposite problem to most; I find a bound 4001/4003 is one of the few basses that is still comfortable for me (I have various physical issues), but I have been playing them for 37 years. I find them far more comfortable than Fender, Music Man etc etc. Every person is different so what's comfortable for one, or even many, doesn't mean it's comfortable for everyone. In fact I had to sell on a wonderful 4004 because the more contoured body caused me issues, although I'm hoping to give one another chance soon with fingers firmly crossed. With regards to any pickup balance issues, I use early 70s 4001 basses and the treble pickup has a pretty low output, even after doing the cap mod. In fact Chris Squire originally had his famous bass, originally mono, wired stereo so that he could get the level of his treble pickup up to the volume of the neck one. But again, depending on your playing style, amplification, sonic preferences etc, any differences may or may not be an issue for you. And of course you can always raise/lower the pickup or even turn the individual volume up/down. One thing I find with Rics is that people often don't make use of the controls; there are a plethora of sounds to be had between the two volumes and two tones, for instance Paul Grey (The Damned) used to back his neck pickup off a little bit to open up the mids, something I do too on occasion. [/quote] I know you've told us many times before but it still baffles me, what can a rounded edge body actually do to you?

The blood sugar sex magik ones are really noisy with lots of drop ins yet the album is really nicely mixed with plenty of sonic space around everything. Hard to get my head around.

Back to the old "why do bass players spend money on good gear, expensive guitars and amps, zildgian cymbals etc yet the singer owns no gear and uses any old P.A. and skanky mics out the Mic box even though most people say the vocals are the most important bit?".

Always puts the silly arguments about bass guitars and amps into perspective, RIP

I didn't like the Deluxe preamp so I bought a Jazz V US standard and an Aguilar preamp!

Those Elvis mics are a real pain, even with the digital desk they are awful, if you've managed to get that under control with a standard desk your mixing skills ain't bad, master the digital and you'll be getting the best sound you've ever had!

My previous band had two rack mount feedback arresters, they ended up disconnected after finding the best arrester is someone that can ring out a room!

Feedback from the monitors is always going to be dictated by the desk not the actual monitors unless they are really rubbish and just happen to not produce the problem frequency. My spare Mackie desk only has a limited EQ and it can only do either front of house OR the monitor out, the digital desk can have a 31 band eq on each of four individual monitor mixes, the certain mics we use all have a fixed problem frequency so we pull them on the actual faders where possible then each venue has its own problem frequencies, we push each Mic and monitor way beyond where it will end up then pull the individual bands out. Occasionally the mics might sound boxy but you know that without the digital desk it would be even boxier as you'll have even less EQ bands or you can have it sounding nice yet constantly feeding back, compromise that's all.

[quote name='Deedee' timestamp='1491081549' post='3270426'] No, but that doesn't make them any less capable. [/quote] Just makes no sense when a combo socket would work for everyone, none of my cabs have jack sockets either so I'd need to use a convertor.

[quote name='Monkey Steve' timestamp='1491232693' post='3271416'] I've had the "must use the backline, that's my sound!" beaten out of me, mainly from playing a load of small-ish venues round London where bringing backline is not an easy option. Even if there is an amp on stage, what's happening out front is taken from a DI before the signal gets to the amp, so I've moved to a Tech 21 pedal and get "my sound" from that. then it's up to the venue/soundman whether they want to use the (usually cheap and tatty) amp they've provided for monitoring, or just give some bass through the PA monitors. I'm also fairly relaxed about how much i can hear on stage - as long as I can make out what the bass is doing well enough to hear if I'm out of tune/hitting the wrong note that's all I need for a gig. I have a real bugbear about band members/other bands who spend an absolute age getting the soundman to make a series of minor tweaks so that they get the exact mix that they want...usually the guitarist. Priority for me is that the singer can hear enough to stay in tune and the drummer can hear enough to follow their queues. Once that's done I'll take whatever level of bass they can give me. I was going to add a line about making sure i can hear enough of the guitars to follow my queues...but you can always hear the feckin' guitars, whether you want to or not. [/quote] +1 For anything multiband I'll take audible and useable over anything else.

You can't just blame the digital desk, or the in ears, there are plenty of bands using a digital desk with conventional monitors and bands using in ears with old style desks, jeez how long have in ears been around? If no one in the band can work the desk that's another issue but I wouldn't write off playing in a band with a digital desk and/or in ears before finding out if someone in the band can work it. You can only use a backline as front of house mix up to a point anyway, at some point it's going to need to go into a PA and the band will need monitors.

I get what dad says about budget but quite often the people that poo poo monitoring with anything other than their own amp and cabs normally have expensive cabs, an RCF 745a is £1000 but with a decent preamp to model the sound it would sound epic pointing at your face during a gig! It would have a tonal range in excess of pretty much any bass rig without losing any of the typical bass amp frequencies.

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1491220546' post='3271276'] I've abandoned my rig when we gig the small pubs purely down to lack of space and the b*llache of lugging it in and out of vans and venues. So now I DI from my DHA preamp pedal into the PA ( xair 18, RCF tops, monitors and a Mackie sub), sounds great, loooads less hassle to set up. [/quote] I'd say for pubs this is the winning setup, thumbs up from me.

What gets me with these threads where people declare the need for their sound etc is that chances are if the sound coming back from decent monitoring isn't good enough then the FOH probably isn't sounding how they want either, there can't be many (any?) bass amps out there with the capabilities of an aux out from a digital mixer, I'd put an RCF wedge and an xair mixer against any amp for monitoring with my money on the mixer being the best option.

Once used it's used anyway, as long as it's the updated 2012 onwards version it's resale wouldn't be any different for 2013,14,15 etc imo.

I just can't get on with passive basses, I don't think they suit my amps tbh. I was happy with everything else on the bass, it's great now.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1491156691' post='3270905'] If I might suggest a Fender American Standard Jazz V [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/303149-fender-american-standard-jazz-v-5-string-passive-jazz/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.u...__fromsearch__1[/url] [/quote] Not active though, but a preamp makes them stonking, I use my 2013 alongside a £2300 Musicman happily at most gigs

The silver Lakland Jazz in guitar guitar brum has been there for years.

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1491134228' post='3270705'] Does this bother you? If so I would ask for an actual new bass. As fair enough old stock etc but 2012 is a bit too much imo. I mean it could also effect its value if you chose to sell it on also. [/quote] It could increase it! 2012 is seen as a good year these days, I'd keep it if it's nice.

Would those vintage amps still have 1/4 jacks if Speakons had existed?

You lot are a barrel of laughs aren't you?