mcnach

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1374174144' post='2146168'] Hey![size=4] You doubted my word!!!??? How could you?!?! I used to repair solid oak furniture. I've sweated dents out of all sorts of pieces of furniture. Not done many on basses yet , but I've just been lucky so far. [/quote] How about dents on the back of an oil finished neck (MusicMan Stingray)... any danger?

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1374078384' post='2145073'] I've done Grangur's damp cloth + iron (albeit a soldering iron) repair on a couple of natural finished guitars now and it really works. One of the repairs was on an MM neck and after I'd done it you could barely see it and certainly not feel it. Give it a go, go slowly, taking your time and I reckon you'll be surprised and pleased. [/quote] A couple of weeks ago I was careless and rested my Stingray against the amp while I was trying to plug some cables on the back... and the bass fell. Ouch! The back of the neck has now two dents. Not huge... but noticeable. It's a maple neck, oil finished... I remembered this technique and it's tempting me to give it a try, but I was a bit worried about messing with damp cloths and heat on the neck of the bass... Hmmm... shall I?

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1374077930' post='2145066'] Get the drummer a pair of light sticks or a cajon at the same time. Busking at volume is a quick way of being moved on before you earn any money. Steve [/quote] Indeed! OP: find out what the regulations are at the place you intend to play. Many places state a "no amplification" rule. In practice, small battery operated amps are ok, if you keep volume levels down. I just bought this thing for playing on the street with my band: It's a QTX QR10PA. It works well and not expensive. There are bigger versions of this, but I am not pushing this one hard at all and it makes more than enough noise. We had the police stopping by two evenings ago, smiled and moved on... so I guess we were not too loud. Only the bass was amplified. I suspect if we had a drumkit and a Markbass amp they may have asked us to turn down or leave... It depends on location, I suppose.

I'd love a Phil Jones briefcase... but I found the QTX QR10PA does the job beautifully at just under £150. Portable, light, and battery life seems decent. Not had it long enough to really test it yet 'though. You can put two sources through it, although shared master volume means you'd better have means to balance the volumes in other way (active bass is perfect). I'd view it as a one instrument only solution... but if pushed you could do more. And it has a built-in mp3 player, if that's of interest.

We used Dischromatics recently. Very pleased with the results and their assistance with various bits.

There, pictures from yesterday. It's really portable... and sounds good!

It went great! We played for just over an hour, maybe an hour and 15min. We just wanted to get together and organise ourselves a little. We set ourselves at a crosspath in the park and it was not very busy... but we still got a small crowd and somehow made £47. We will definitely repeat when there's actually some people But back to the amplifier... It sounds good, and it is definitely loud enough without distorting. We had 3 acoustic guitars and voices, unamplified, plus trumpet and saxophone, and the drumer brought a cajon. It would be really easy for me to overpower all other instruments with bass, and sound good. At £148... I think it's perfect. Really happy with it so far. It comes with a wireless microphone, the kind that you wear around your neck and has a stem with a "lollipop" that stands in front of your mouth. I don't think it sounds very good... but it may be useful to reinforce the cajon, perhaps. Tomorrow we are trying again. This wireless has a separate volume... but the two jack inputs work from the same master volume, which is a pity, as you cannot plug two things at once and control their volumes independently... But I'm happy to ignore the small shortcomings and just see it as a portable busking bass amp. Anything else is a bonus. I did not play very loud, but we are now thinking about getting some Roland MicroCubes for the guitarists, so that they can use their electrics and sound a litttle more like "us". That will also allow us to sound a *tiny* bit louder than with acoustics, so my amp will have to work harder but it wll be ok, I am sure. I just don't know how long the battery will last but I will find out pretty soon! We don't want to be loud 'though... busking in many places in Edinburgh seems ok as long as you keep the volume down. The minute you become loud the problems start and we don't want to go there. From my experience with the Crate TX15,,, the QTX QR10PA is a much better sounding solution, and not much more expensive. The built-in MP3 player and radio could be cool too in other situations: a colleague at work who goes fishing a lot saw it and thought it would be perfect for their trips.

You get an idea of the size...

The QR10PA arrived today at work. It had some charge already but I plugged it in to charge while I was at work, just in case. I tried a USB stick with some RATM on it (it has a built in MP3 player) and it sounded alright... it seems a lot louder than the Crate Taxi TX15 and it's only a little bigger. It really surprised me how compact it is, and light, which makes me think the battery life cannot be all that long... but we will see. I arrived home and plugged my Stingray into its "guitar input". It's actually a quite nice fat tone! And it sounds loud at home. Definitely more than an acoustic guitar or even a couple of three of them. Looking promising! But we will see how it behaves on the street. In about an hour, Sea Bass Kid will be assembling at the Meadows in Edinburgh for a test...

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1373912503' post='2143074'] I'm surprised so many people are so adamant cheap wiring kits make absolutely no difference to your sound than more expensive kit. On another thread several people doubt the tonal characteristics of wood choice too, and this seems to come up frequently. Many people are of the opinion that the wood used has absolutely nothing to do with the instruments final sound. I'm seriously considering nailing a pair of wizards to a piece of 2 x 4 and throwing my Precisions in the bin. [/quote] It's been done already, check on Talkbass... and guess what? People could not tell what the cheap plank was on the audio clips: they all sounded good. edit: oops, Ou7shined beat me to it!

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1373839027' post='2142216'] Take up double bass or buy a decent acoustic (Gibson, Guild or Tacoma Thunderchief). Steve [/quote] Double bass is appealing because I love the sound of it, but I would not call that a cheap portable busking solution As for acoustic bass guitars... sorry, however good it is you cannot bend the laws of physics: small body = not loud enough regardless. I haven't found a single one that can do the job, volume wise.

Digital callipers here. Cost about £8-10 and work very well. I bought them precisely for that reason: what gauge strings do i have here? They do the job very well. I may get sometimes slightly off readings (104 rather than 105 etc), but I think this is mostly due to angling the calliper etc. You must be perpendicular to the string.

[quote name='tonyquipment' timestamp='1373655587' post='2140339'] that looks alright actually! - 8 hours battery life/ 10kg?? [/quote] we will see... when it sounds too good to be true... I suspect it's the wattage that they exaggerate, but then I don't really need it to be very loud, just to go with acoustic guitars unamplified...

Well, I went for one of these in the end... cheap enough for a try. [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Qtx-QR10PA-portable-PA/dp/B009L4KZ8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373654107&sr=8-1&keywords=qtx+qr10pa"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Qtx-QR10PA-portable-PA/dp/B009L4KZ8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373654107&sr=8-1&keywords=qtx+qr10pa[/url] I'll report back.

Still wondering about a little trolley, a battery, an inverter, and my MB CMD121 combo... Anybody has any idea about what would be a good battery/inverter and what sort of playing times I could expect? The amp would not be cranked up very loud... although I suspect I'd be tempted to turn it up higher than I need and run out of juice quickly.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1373563710' post='2139132'] I've got a PJB - ideal for just what you want other than the price tag...I'm sure that you can find a way of justifying the purchase..after all it isn't just GAS.. [/quote] I'd have to be sure it's going to be used more than a couple of times in August... but it does seem like a good one. If we end up wanting to do it regularly, it's on my list of amps to check!

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1373555589' post='2139018'] I've not been particularly impressed with the Crate taxi amps on bass when I've heard buskers using them - they've just sounded like a distorted mess, although perhaps they were running on low batteries. The Phil Jones briefcase sounds great for a battery powered amp, but is more expensive than you'd want for the occasional busk. Double bass can be a good option for busking if you're away from noisy traffic, but you have to want to play double bass in the first place. Making bass work outdoors can be a bit of a problem. I find myself getting jealous of tuba players! [/quote] The small 15W watt ones do have a tendency to sound distorted if you try to crank it up. I think you really have to reduce the low end from the bass, but still, it's not very loud, so people tend to push them hard. A tuba!!! Oh, I'd so love to play one!

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1373554970' post='2139009'] Bit more expensive at £162.50 + shipping but 50w and a 10" speaker. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/traynor_tvm50.htm"]Traynor TVM50[/url] [/quote] That does look interesting, thanks!

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1373554836' post='2139005'] My band decided to do a gig on the Royal Mile but we didn't do it by halfs. We hired a portable generator for the amps and our drummer brought his full kit. After a couple of tunes things were going great and we'd attracted a huge crowd, until out of the corner of my eye I spied a gentleman in a wig and a dress gesticulating wildly, with policeman in tow. What we hadn't realised, is that we had set up outside The Scottish High Court and the judge (it seemed) was put off by hearing rock loud music while he was sentencing murderers. Spoilsport! [/quote]

My band has decided to have a bit of a busk this summer, and for that we're going acoustic... except the bass. Three acoustic guitars, singing, a trumpet (that's going to be loud!) and a drummer who will bring things to hit, maybe just a cajon and a tambourine. Now, bass... I'll need amplification, so I am looking for something that will do the job, cheapest and lightest wins. I am tempted by the Crate Taxi. Friends of mine had the TX15 and it was not extremely loud, but with acoustic guitars etc I think it'll be just fine if I cut lows a bit and use a midrangey sound (which is what I normally prefer, with my Stingray), and it's small, light enough and reasonably cheap. They used to make a 30W version, but not anymore. I wish I could have deep lows, but I am realistic... Does anybody else know of other alternatives? I do have a small, light and powerful Markbass combo, but I imagine getting a suitable battery/converter for it to work for longer than 30 minutes will result in probably about the same expense as the Crate, and a lot heavier overall... although I could probably just get a trolley for it too. Any ideas?

I got "The Email" today! My Compact is nearly done and it's time to pay the balance A lot sooner than I expected.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1373060742' post='2133442'] I face 'generic zero-definition bass tone' syndrome quite often. I try not to stress about it these days, 'cos if the engineer wants to mix the band from the drums up there's nowt you can do about it. I generally insist on a mic or post-DI which I think helps. Every now and then we get someone who knows what mids are, and what flatwounds should sound like. I cherish those moments. [/quote] I was at Kelburn Festival this weekend (where I got to play with two bands ) and I saw quite a variety of bands. Some bands were awesome, and had really good bass players who played great basslines. At least I think so, because all too often they were an indistinguishable rumble and I had to use my imagination to fill in the gaps. Often, the "bass" actually came from the bass drum and you could just about get a hint of pitch definition if you focused hard enough. Grrrr. It nearly drove me mad with a couple of bands that clearly would sound amazing if the basslines were audible. Why why why why? Why?

[quote name='bridge' timestamp='1373028011' post='2132937'] Guys, The band I play in, are forever wanting to change/add to the setlist.(every 2-3 gigs). Just got me thinking, how often does your band change its setlist?? [/quote] all the time! and tend to change order of the songs according to what we think will work best at any given moment.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1373010493' post='2132660'] Over the last few years I've come to the conclusion that at the level the majority of us play at on here most of the time it really doesn't matter what you sound like out front for the average audience member. The important things are that the overall volume level of the band is not too loud (or too quiet) and that the vocals can be heard. Everything after that is just icing in the cake. Its far better to put on a show and to be entertaining because that's what the audience can relate to, and what will bring the compliments and merchandise sales after the gig. Unfortunately having a great bass sound (or not) will make little difference. If you are really serious about having exactly the sound that your band wants FoH (and remember it's the whole band sound that is important not the individual instruments) then get your own sound engineer who is knows what they are doing and can prove it to the house engineer in seconds. Also stop playing multi-band gigs with sub 30 minute change over times. Sometimes though it easier to have a moan then to actually do anything about it. [/quote] amen!