mrtcat

Oh man that's not good. Really hope it gets sorted soon. UK customs are a disgrace and so are royal mail. It's like nobody cares that the package might actually really be important to the recipient.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1467289349' post='3082540'] I could see this happening a mile off with the Limelight stuff to be honest, not because I don't like what they're doing (because I think they look decent enough). It's difficult to quantify and I don't want to upset anyone; I'd love to believe that their basses are lovingly crafted with due care and attention (like the Bravewood stuff), but I just get the feeling that this isn't the case. If it's the latter, it's potentially a tremendous mark up for bolting together some instruments in a Dr Frankenstein manner. [/quote] My experience has been the polar opposite of this. Now I'm not expecting them to be hand carved from exotic woods from the moons of Endor but the few I've played have all felt and sounded great. When you order with Mark he listens to what you want, asks a whole heap of questions and offers some other ideas and then assembles what you asked for. I would certainly imagine the parts mark up on a real Fender to be considerably higher and with a Limelight you get to choose what you want it to look like. At under £800 I think that's pretty decent service and seeing as they don't appear to depreciate anywhere near as much as real fenders I can think of far worse musical investments to make.

Hartke Kilo amp. Bought new for around £800. Died at its 4th gig. Spent next four months taking it back and forth to the distributor for repair where they not only failed to repair it, they also damaged the front panel. Dealt with the Hartke UK top man (via this very forum) until it died a forth time and Hartke completely stopped communicating. Ended up having to throw it out less than 6 months after buying it. Most appalling service ever. In hindsight should have sought legal advice but didn't. Every time I see a Hartke amp now my blood pressure rises.

I like subtle relic effect if done well and if it's in realistic places. Mark at limelight sent me a picture of my newly built 76 p bass a couple of days ago. Can't wait to get my paws on it.

The biggest problem with drummers is that if they're any good they're usually very busy and you have to keep them fed with regular decent work or you'll quickly drop down their list of priorities. Only drummer I ever had a problem with was the one who had all the chops but couldn't keep time. He refused to accept there was an issue and even when he did accept something was amiss with his playing he simply said "Dave Grohl says it's perfectly natural to gain a bit". Pretty sure Dave Grohl was referring to a couple BPM not 30. I left that band pretty quick.

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1467066537' post='3081019'] Hi mrtcat, I think you already answered it, there's a definite art and it mostly lies in engineers who have it. Perhaps 1/3 equipment and 2/3 engineer. [/quote] I absolutely get this and that's why I had ideally wanted an engineer. Unfortunately adding in the cost of the engineer made it too expensive for the people paying so we explained that the sound quality would likely suffer as a result. They were perfectly happy on the night. With that said, we played over 100 gigs last year and only included an engineer on about 15 of them. I have a good understanding of how to mix live but it was just this gig where I felt like my foh bass sound wasn't up to scratch. Conversely the drums sounded absolutely great and the monitor mix was really good all round.

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1466985474' post='3080286'] Re the OPs question, yes I've come across this also - I think it may be a pa EQ issue - I don't do the sound but notice the master graphic is often set as a smiley face with the mids slightly cut and the bass and treble boosted giving quite a scooped sound. Not sure how much the individual channels can override it but my sound relies on mids. [/quote] The main mix eq is completely flat. The mixer we have allows you to eq each channel in much more detail than an analogue mixer like this: [attachment=222355:maxresdefault.jpg] I have never worked with a mixer that allows EQ on the main mix so it's not something I'd ever use.

[quote name='Chrismanbass' timestamp='1466960205' post='3080030'] not this again FWIW post EQ sometimes makes sense if you're mixing your own band as it means you get a roughly similar sound to whats coming out of your rig most of the time (the EQ for your rig may not be appropriate for the FOH mix as sometimes you're cutting what you want to boost in the PA and so on and so forth) it also depends on how much isolation there is between the PA and the backline if you're doing a small pub gig with little PA support needed then Post EQ is okay because the majority of the bass sound you're hearing is the bass amp however if you're doing larger gigs then you have a lot more factors to consider than just your bass sound i've done too many gigs (as an engineer) where i've been given a post EQ DI signal which is completely unusable and not appropriate for where it sits in the mix of the band and you end up with a bass sound that is unnecessarily subby to the point of not being able to tell what note the player is on or even worse a very middy tone which leaves the mix sounding completely empty in the bottom end this is why I'll always if given the option ask for a Pre EQ DI line (possibly paired with a nice bass cab mic where appropriate) just a little disclaimer I am one of those very rare creatures.... a nice sound guy. I do actually care about how the band sounds and each players tone i'll try and get things right at the source rather than fix them at the mixer end of the multicore however if my hands are tied by a player insisting that i use a Post EQ DI signal then experience tells me that i can't make the band sound as good as possible because you're limiting my options on how I fit people into the overall mix In terms of the OP's question I doubt its a systemic thing with your sound or your playing so you may want to look at the use of EQ and compression (compression in essence will make your bass more present in the mix but be careful not to over compress it otherwise you'll end up with lots of subby overtones made artificially louder making the bass less present in the mix i would look at how you're EQ'ing the bass the vast majority of basses have nice fat bottom at around 80 - 170 hz, presence at about 400hz and string clank and cut about about 2.3khz these will vary from bass to bass so experiment with the numbers a little bit and see what sounds good but that should arm you with a good starting point to build the tone that you want fwiw i also use a HPF to about 100 when i have the choice as this helps to define between the bass drum (which i like to fill out the bottom of the mix) and then have a present bass rather than the other way round where you end up with indistinct mush again none of this stuff is a hard and fast rule because simply there aren't any its all about personal taste and judgement ps. heres all the punctuation I probably should have used ..,,.,...,...,...,..,,,...,,.,...,..,., I'm sure you can do the rest Chris [/quote] This is all really helpful - thank you.

Awesome thanks everyone. I was going pre eq so that I can use the eq on the mixer. Stage sound is rarely the same as foh so it's easier to start fresh out front. I think I'll go more middy on stage in future and put more low mid on bass channel eq. Yep kick was gated and compressed so I think the sheer size of area we were trying to fill was a step too far for our rig (there were 500 people in for the evening do). Usually my bass rig would be enough as it's plenty loud enough. Next engineered marquee gig we get, I'll spend some time with the engineer to see what he's doing.

I had no choice really as it was a huge marquee and even with my rig cranked it was getting lost very quickly as you moved away from the stage. It would also meant being so loud on stage that I would blow any monitor mixes.

I guess it is possible in a big marquee but it's a really pokey system which has bags of headroom for bass.

After a little advice from players / engineers who can advise on getting a good bass sound through the pa. We played a wedding in a marquee last night with a typical low raised marquee type temporary stage. I really wanted to hire in pa and engineer but the budget wouldn't allow. We used our own rig (2x Rcf 745 active tops and 4x rcf 905 subs). It was just about man enough to give a decent level and nice full sound. It fell to me to do foh mixing which I accepted but was far from ideal really. We were working as a 4 piece with some backing tracks. Overall I got a really nice monitor mix and the foh levels were nice and it sounded nice and even and full. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the bass sound. On stage it was fine. My rig did it's job well and I was happy there. The sound I got through the pa wasn't quite so good. It seemed a bit hollow and thin. Hard to describe really but not thick and punchy like from my rig. I used the di (pre eq) on the back of my amp to feed the pa and made adjustment at the mixer (behringer xr18). I have a few pedals that I use which go in front of the preamp on my head. Would I be better off using a di box? I have a sansamp di but I use it as a drive pedal for certain songs. I don't particularly like it as a preamp as I prefer a pretty clean sound. Are marquees particularly difficult? Does anyone have any advice on getting nice solid bass sound foh?

I've never met Matt but I've done two gigs with Gregg who is just the nicest guy ever. He really has time for everyone and really puts everyone at ease when you play with him. An incredible drummer and he refers to Matt as the musical one. You get the feeling their parents did a great job bringing them up to be good people.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1466405982' post='3075497'] To an extent, yes - but as the person who does the setlists for my band, you have to be aware of other factors like changing instruments, different tunings, effects settings, switching from fingers to pick (and finding a bloody pick!), etc... I hate it when singers suddenly decide to "go with the flow" - especially when they have limited ability to read an audience anyway. Grrrr!. Rant over [/quote] Haha I was working on the assumption that there was a band leader everyone trusts. Our guitarist is great at reading a room and we go with his call. I'd never trust our singer to call anything. He's a total nightmare and clueless at that sort if thing.

Bass is my first instrument but I get lots of gigs on drums too which I really enjoy.

Tecamp puma with barefaced big baby would be pretty close to what you want. Clean, loud and the big baby will basically put out whatever you put into it and will go as load as you want. Maybe a touch over £1000 but quality clean sound is hard yo find at a low price. Powered pa cab and a di box would also be a good starting point

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1466108709' post='3073468'] Anything by Abba. [/quote] Aww now you see I could play ABBA all night long as long as the singers were up to the job. I just can't bring myself to enjoy anything that falls into the classic rock category with the exception of black Betty which I hate listening to but love playing because it really sorts the men from the boys. If the drummer is decent it's so much fun.

Set lists are just a starting point. Be flexible and just go with what feels right on the night.

[quote name='howdenspur' timestamp='1465919053' post='3072109'] That colour combo is great - like it a lot! Has also got me thinking about a Limelight again as an affordable YOB-alike. [/quote] That's exactly what I've ordered. I'll be 40 in October and Mark is currently making me a 1976 precision. I'm going to pick it up from him in October though as it's a gift from all my family so I agreed not to have it sooner. It's all paid for and the wait til October is killing me. Lovely bass FuNkShUi looks brilliant.

Whether you like relic work or not is a matter of taste, personally i really like it when it's subtle and looks like genuine wear. I may not have asked for such a heavy job and if I'm being super critical there's some bits where you can possibly see the curve of an orbital sander disc to my eyes. But it's not mine it's yours and as long as you like it absolutely nothing else matters and as Painy says it does look better than a lot of factory relic jobs. I look forward to seeing it fully assembled though.

Don't fret Mingsta. A pair of Yamaha DXR15s would be more than capable of tripping a 90dB limiter, especially when you add acoustic drums etc into the equation. It's quite possible that the limiter was set to a higher setting and the venue just told you 90dB as a means of keeping you in check. It's also possible that Machinehead played there last week and forgot to take his tape off the microphone ;-)

So unlike many of the fine folk here who can seemingly change rigs overnight it takes me a little longer to get the moolah together. Finally all sorted now though with my rig that will hopefully see me through the next few years. It's a mix of lightweight and not so lightweight. I really really wanted a light class D head to do it for me but I just couldn't quite get the sound I wanted without something older and heavier. So here it is: [attachment=221511:Rig.jpg] An SWR SM900, two TKS 1216 cabs (formerly owned by Karlfer and before that McNach I think?) and my simple pedal board (Sansamp - Polytune - TC Hypergravity - EMMA Discumbobulator - MXR Bass Octave). I picked the cabs up earlier this year and have been really happy so far. They have a lot of low end which I've had to dial out a bit to keep the live sound clean. I gigged the whole lot for the first time on Saturday and have to say that the SM-900 is immense. Super solid sound that you feel as much as hear and can go really clean. Combined with the clarity of the TKS cabs it's something else (if you like clean) but still has a thick feel to the sound. I thought I would struggle with such a comprehensive EQ but it's really useful to be able to find and remove the ultra low stuff at around 30hz whilst simultaneously being able to give a little boost at around 60hz. Add in a little low mid boost too and it punches through the mix whilst being so solid you can feel it. The SM900 isn't super heavy by any means but obviously not a light head. It's the compromise that I needed to make to get the sound I wanted and in all fairness it travels in a pelican case (like a big bombproof briefcase) which makes it very easy to carry. With any luck it should keep the GAS at bay for a while.

Been contacted by a lady looking for a band for a 40th wedding anniversary party on 20th August at the Highfield Club in Bicester. Her budget tops out at £300 so would suit a pub band rather than a function band. Ideally a mix of pop and rock but at that price she'll pretty much take what she can get. If interested, drop me a message and I'll pass the details on. Cheers

Pretty much every time I've ever played on multi band nights it's been a shambles. Thankfully I'm now mainly playing in function bands so, although that comes with its own set of issues, it's rare that we have such a frustrating day / night.