mcnach

+1 on these

Little update, now the honeymoon period is over... Nah, who am I kidding? Still honey moon! I love this guitar. My Fender Stratocaster and the PRS look at it with envy, as I seem to just grab the SX Tele 9 out of... 9 times 😛 I took it to a local guy to get the frets level perfectly, and I haven't even changed the pickups. I love the bridge one, the neck one is not the best, but I don't want to change anything in it, I can't believe just what a great guitar is for £129 plus £50 for the fret levelling (it was only on the region around the 12th and 15th fret a bit, nothing major, but I do like to play guitar-hero a lot 😛)

With the pedal engaged, it's a mute, there should be no sound coming off the speakers when you unplug the bass.

really?

Yup, bought from them a couple of times. Delivery takes just a few days longer than usual but nothing crazy.

There was this song by a Spanish band where they sang something like "so many light years I've been waiting..." It makes my skin crawl everytime... a light year is a measure of distance not time!!!

reply with a horrified face "oh my gawd!!! It's true!!! how did it happen???"

Playing originals... a girl told me I didn't play it like in the record. . . . She was right too! That song was on our first album and I had since changed the bassline. It turned out she was learning to play bass and learning our songs! We've been together 5 years now

Or introduce the next song as the one requested, but play something else. We got a group of guys asking for Wonderwall, we are a ska/reggae/funk band playing originals. Singer would nod, then introduce the next song as Wonderwall to the joy of those guys... and watching their disappointed faces was hilarious, because he did that at least 4 times

He was the previous bass player in the band...

... and 10 minutes later she's telling the same thing to the jukebox, yup, I know the type...

Usually followed by "Yeah, I used to have a Fender" (pause... as that's supposed to be your cue to show admiration). I had one guy telling me all about his Fender and how I should really try them, because my little bass seems to sound ok, but you know, you need a Fender in order to be taken seriously. My little bass was a Stingray (shrug).

Just tell them they're all tuners, one for each string and backups, just in case.

"I only use the Fender when I have a good recording engineer" (no, I never said anything like that, but I'd love to see the reaction) (and no, nobody ever asked me that, but I'm not a session bassist, in all of my recording sessions we were the client so they do what we want them to)

Bar manager: "the bass is too loud" Me: "... It's not switched on yet, I'm still setting up" BM: "yeah but it looks loud, that's a big speaker" Me: "luckily, I've brought a volume control with me tonight" (grin) BM: (stares blankly) ... and you realise you have another 4 hours before you can leave, FML.

awesome, thank you!

Ooh, that's intriguing and looks perfect! It's tiny, I can easily mount it into some tiny box and fix it next to the power supply on the board... for that price it's worth a punt, thank you!!!

I was the same. Then I started liking Precisions ("Forget me nots" is largely to blame, that slapped Precision tone is deliiiiicious) and I've largely bent my Precisions to comply with my desires. Now, Precisions work for me too and no longer get lost like they used to. I think @drTStingray is probably right in that it's a combination of the inherent characteristics of the bass, plus everything else we do to achieve our sound, from preamps, pedals etc, to the way we actually play. Bottomline is, if I need to fight a bass in order to get the sound I want from it... that's not a bass for me. So I get that some people get frustrated with their Stingray and move on (many people, judging by the number of reports on threads like these). It is a real issue for many. It's probably like the "Jazz basses sound too mid-scooped and get lost". It is partially true: you *can* get that kind of sound out of a Jazz... but as many players illustrate, you don't necessarily have to have that issue. The difference is that, for some reason, Fender Jazz lovers don't seem to react so aggressively to that kind of comments, while MM Stingray lovers are more likely to act offended in some way... I don't know. PS: I am primarily a Stingray player. I love that bass, but I'm ok if someone else hates theirs.

It depends entirely on the band and speaker cabs available. I've used 150-200W amplifiers very effectively. But watts are cheap these days, so I'd also prefer at least a 500W, just to be safe although it looks like we'd be increasing cost/complication when the OP is not even sure he'll have that need, and a 500W through a single small cab (I'm assuming, we haven't been told) may not be the best idea, because it can only output so much volume, and there will be the temptation to crank the amp beyond that which will only result in heating it up, not getting louder. I used the TCE BAM200 (the tiny, cheap, 200W one) with full band (8 piece) using an Orange 410 cab. It won't startle seismograph operators in the vicinity but it can do 'loud enough'. It's surprisingly ballsy. I'd probably choose the BH250 over it, for the OP, 'though. Not because of the additional 50W, which I doubt will make any significant difference, but because it's only £60 more (£189 vs £129) and it's only marginally larger, but it has an aux input, a mute switch, and a built-in tuner, which the BAM200 lack. Also, the BH250 is the amplifier at one of the local open mic places and I've heard it in action many times [*] and it's not bad at all. [*] It's an open mic, but the evening typically sees a couple of bands playing short sets (40 mins or so), so it's pretty varied. My band has played there many times, BH250 plus a 210 cab or sometimes a 410. It's a pretty cool little amp.

I'm not sure I follow... I've got a 9V supply, I need it to go down to 5V (I mention USB because it's the most common alternative, and the clock works if powered that way). It's not so much to find a specific type of connector, but to get the right voltage. I looked for similar clocks but didn't find the right one working at 9V, which would make my life easier. If I find one that's an alternative too, I don't need to stick to the one I found.

Brilliant! Bonus points for thinking outside the box I can probably use one of those power banks they sell to charge mobile phones while on the move, and there are some pretty small ones that would have plenty of juice to power a clock for an evening. Not only they're about £10-25 depending on the charge they can hold, but I may have already one (I have a biggish one, a bit bigger than a modern phone, and 2-3x as thick, that holds a lot of charge... but I also have somewhere a much smaller one that can charge my phone entirely a couple of times, it might just work!) Thank you for the idea I'd still prefer something that is powered together with my pedals (the clock has a battery just to keep the time internally when main power is off), as this would be one more thing to remember (to charge it), but it's not terrible.

eeek! > £200!!! But it's a good call, I didn't think of power supplies that come with a USB outlet... Hopefully there will be something simpler around. The DC7 looks like a great unit with LOTS of power on tap, but it's way over-spec'd for my needs and I don't want to spend £200 to replace my power supplies just so that I can power a digital clock... when a £5 travel analog alarm clock will probably do the job just as well. edit: hmmm, my Voodoo Labs power supply has a 'sag' control on one or two of the outputs, allowing me to reduce the output (supposedly to simulate the effect that well-used batteries have on some effects) and I'm pretty sure it goes down to 4V... It's on my big board which doesn't get as much use (well, since March zero :D) but... yeah, that can work there. I still would like to find a suitable alternative for my other smaller boards

Busted! 🤣

To ensure we stick to the times etc. A clock discreetly bundled in the pedalboard looks better than us looking at our watches or even a phone, but in general I thought it'd be good to be able to tell the time discreetly. I'll probably just use something like this (simple, cheap, batteries last long), but if I can find a simple way to power a digital unit it might be nicer:

Nice! But isn't that USB only to transmit data (firmware updates and the like... although I'm not sure what kind of updates a tuner needs, hmmm)