mcnach

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1452006450' post='2945413'] Supposed to have a final dress rehearsal before gigging , I made it clear this was my only week off in the year so if no one could make it ill go on holiday , everyone put themselves out & the singer doesn't turn up , get a text 4 hours after week packed up saying they had tummy trouble & was only just getting better , Our guitarist had seen him walking down the road 3 hours earlier , I could see he had been on FB until the early hours . what would you do ? [/quote] go fishing with him... as bait

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1451947415' post='2944988'] A band I was in briefly somehow ended up with a Spanish drummer - he was a f***ing nightmare. One of us would have to stand by him & physically shove him to get him to stop playing, once he got going that was it. His name was Juan - we used to call him Wham because of hard he used to hit his kit. [/quote] I always seem to have trouble with Spanish bassists in my bands...

[quote name='BeeBop' timestamp='1451960483' post='2945060'] I am quite out spoken and quite opinionated... sorry blame that on the old man ..who taught me a thing or two about what makes music good ... Mark King you are sh*t ...what the f*** have you done that says something about my life (The Smiths ) f*** all you can slap ...well maybe .... you play a sp**k bass ..yes i agree but what have you done thats truly original pushed the boundaries to make music a better place f*** All ....are you Jah Wobble are you Jaco are you Hamid Kasri .... eh No Mark King fans no nothing about good music.... some day people will look back and say there once passed a guy who s originality spawned a whole new generation .... I laugh... this will never happen with Mark f***ing King ..(some day there will come a rain a real rain that will wash all the scum from the streets (Mark KIng fans this is your rain...a real rain... ) ) Elvis never wrote a song in his life but at least his performance pushed boundaries and he did make music a better place ... ....Elvis or Mark King .......letmethinkabootitnaw am getting angry now ....what the f*** Mark Pa Ting ..... sh*t ...sh*t hang the DJ because the music that he constantly plays says f*** all to me about me life ooooooooo we got a live one ear ... [/quote] Meds ran out?

[quote name='Behlmene' timestamp='1451970417' post='2945065'] Seems the top manufacturers may be wrong. They insist on using what they suppose is quality wood for their guitars. Maybe it's a marketing thing? [/quote] Quality wood ends up being what traditionally started being used for solid body instruments (not based on 'tone' but on availability & price mostly). Tradition takes care of the rest. Other quality woods are supposed to be 'quality' for aesthetic reasons... and little else. Then... add marketing Not saying that the wood will not have an effect in the sound of solid body instruments, but when you consider the huge variation between individual bits of wood of the same species, it seems a bit too much to give the wood the importance that some want to give it. To me, it seems that other factors play a much larger role, and in the case of bolt-on instruments particularly the neck pocket fit.

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1451932059' post='2944747'] Have you seen the audio test where a guy literally sticks some PuPs/electrics to a block of scrap wood and then attaches a bass neck? He then records some open strings. He then records a well known brand of bass. Listening side by side Its almost impossible to tell the difference. My point is that this video showed that the wood made feck all difference to the sound in this scenario. On the flipside there are loads of players who like flats and sponge under the strings by the bridge to achieve the sound you say you are getting from your bass. [/quote] That's what I wanted to say after I read the "mystical" post, but... I couldn't bring myself to participate in yet another 'wood matters, oh no it doesn't' diatribe But I'm glad somebody did. My own experience with "crap wood" guitars that sounded great is enough for me. No molecular realignment needed for me

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1451901173' post='2944321'] In what way does just turning the volume down not work for you (and I mean that as a serious question) ?. Power soaking / attenuation padding the output of a solid state amp really makes no sense, and could even be damaging for a class D design, your always better off reducing the power stage input level (which is what your master volume control is for ...). [/quote] That's what I thought too. Between the gain and the volume control you can make the LMT800 quite controllable at apartment neighbour-friendly volumes, so I find it hard to imagine it's too loud for a band. This is meant as a serious question. I'm sure the OP knows the controls on his amp... just curious as to what I'm missing.

[quote name='Guinness21' timestamp='1451686112' post='2942549'] I don't currently have a cab I can gig with, and have been doing for my homework for a few months now. It's safe to say that I've been overthinking this decision I'm looking to have my cake and eat it - I want good sound dispersion in a one cab solution. I know from a sound dispersion perspective it makes most sense to run 2 cabs, but I don't want to be faffing around with trollies and 2 cabs will require multiple trips to the car to get all my gear into a venue. I want a cab that can handle decent sized venues, and something light enough and shaped in a way that I can lift myself (e.g. the Markbass 104hf is too square for me to carry myself). I've been to bass direct and tried out the Bergantino CN212 and the Vanderkley 212MNT amongst other things. I know the Berg HD cabs are meant to sound nicer than the CN's, but then I probably couldn't lift the HD by myself. Would have like to have tried the Baer ML212 but they didn't have one in stock and rarely do. I started a thread about my thoughts on what I tried so won't go into it, essentially the Bergantino CN212 came out on top. At the time I couldn't afford to buy one but was in the process of saving. Now I can, and I'm just having butterflies about my decision. Is it the best cab by itself to play reasonable gigs? I definitely prefer the sound of 12's over 10's, so not sure I really fancy running two 2x10's. I haven't explored 4x10's too much (mainly because I couldn't move them about by myself, or if I could I'd have to do multiple trips to the car). 4x10's I have tried are the Markbass 104HF and the Berg CN410 aren't felt disappointed by both (both are good cabinets though, so maybe it's just that I don't like the sound of 10's speakers). I'm 6'2, will the CN212 be playing to the back of my knees? [/quote] Will you need a cab that can carry your bass without PA support, and in what kind of venues? If you don't need PA support, the choices are numerous and I'd stay away from 410s (heavy). I'd probably get a decent 2x12 cab (if you don't want separate 1x12s). There are quite a few options and many are very portable. I'm not sure what kind of gigs you do, but I have never needed more than a 2x12" with a 500W amp, as anything larger than a small bar will have the bass through the PA. I have sometimes played venues like community centres etc without PA, and the 2x12" + 500W amp was enough. Not earth-shattering, but it sounded pretty good (I had a wireless so I was able to check around the room).

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1451680268' post='2942463'] The point is (to me) Barefaced don't make the 2x 10 in 8 ohm, or I would have bought two of them. They make the 210 in 4ohm and 12 ohm. One is no good to me and I'm buggered if I'm going to buy/carry three of them. As I said, I asked Alex last year if they would do them in 8 ohm versions and was told (in a bamboozling scientific way) no. [/quote] Two 12ohm 210 would make it 6ohm. Would it be noticeably different from two 8ohm 210s that would give a 4ohm load? I understand that if you want to use just one cab it may be noticeable, but as a two cab solution, I doubt it.

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1451586667' post='2941717'] Thanks for all the comments. I have ordered myself a cheap Behringer pedal to see if I like the overdriven sound. If not then its no great shakes at that price. [/quote] If it's the purple one... I doubt you'll like it much. It was my first overdrive for bass too and I was very disappointed at least. I'd recommend something like the EHX Bass Soul Food. It is not expensive (about £55-60 new) and is good at the low gain overdrive sounds (but would do higher gain ones too). The Danelectro Transparent Overdrive is cheaper (£35-40 new), and *can* give you some very good sounds if you take your time to work with it. It has a 2-band EQ that ensures you don't lose bottom end - a common problem on overdrives when used with bass unless designed for bass. But I'm talking about the CTO-1, the first version. The second version, available these days, is a little different and I don't know what it would be like with bass. The Digitech Bad Monkey also has the 2-band EQ and can be made to produce some decent sounds. I prefer the Danelectro, but these may be easier to find (used, I don't think it's in production anymore) and sub £30 too. I'd look for a used Bass Soul Food, personally. By the way, the youtube demos don't do a good job showing off this pedal, they don't really show low gain sounds, and even the higher gain ones can sound a lot better (to my ears!) than the tones they choose on the videos... but maybe that's just my taste. I just wanted to emphasise that it does a wide range of sounds, and my favourite ones are not on those videos.

[quote name='blamelouis' timestamp='1451553383' post='2941392'] And none to you ...go figure. With that attitude I'm sure your "students" are getting one hell of a bum deal.�� [/quote] why so serious?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1451564557' post='2941551'] IME a little bit of overdrive on the bass works wonders for most classic rock songs. After all, most of the songs you are covering will have been recorded with the bass going through a valve amp and the speakers straining to cope. See if you can find some isolated bass tracks from the original recordings of the songs. I think you'll be surprised by just how much dirt is actually in the bass sound. Remember that what sounds good on its own doesn't always sound as good in the full band setting. [/quote] +1 Listening to isolated bass tracks is very enlightening indeed. You're right, quite often the sound of the bass alone is not very pleasant, yet it sounds glorious in the mix. It's amazing with a tiny bit of overdrive can do. A lot of 'clean bass' sounds are actually softly overdriven, if you listen to the isolated bass track... to the OP: I doubt you sounded sh*t. That guy probably just likes more overdrive than you do. I'd experiment with some overdrive perhaps at rehearsals and see what it feels like, for fun, but don't feel like there's something wrong with your clean tone. Clean works too. Just saying clean vs overdriven means little... you can sound very good in classic rock by playing clean too, it's all in the EQ.