mcnach

ok ok... here's the strat

As far as my bands are concerned, we're hoping we'll still get some gigs this year, but we're focusing more on building up new material for next year. We are busiest with festivals etc, and this Spring/Summer is a complete write-off.

+1 I suspect that most music venues and pubs will take a bit longer to get back in business, and because it's never going to be 100% safe (the virus will still be out there in the population) I imagine a certain % of the population might be reluctant to get back into crowded places anytime soon.

I'm down to just two guitars now. A Stratocaster with a fat humbucker at the bridge and Floyd Rose that I've owned since 1996 from new, and a cheap but lovely SX Les Paul style with P90 pickups. I should have kept the Telecaster... I had a Japanese E-series Squier that was covered in dings but played and sounded fantastic. I sold it in 2008 together with most of my equipment when I needed to downsize quickly (I was going to move to Canada, but then didn't). I regretted it ever since. I still want a Tele but I haven't yet found one that appeals enough at the right price (I don't play guitar as much these days, and when I do it's the strat, so I don't want to spend 1K on a Tele now).

I have the Squier one, but I am not sure if they're any different in dimensions to the Fender one.

I suspect most people will recommend what they use... and I'm no different I play mostly ska/reggae/funk. The combination I've been most happy with is my current Mesa D800+ plus a couple of Barefaced Two10 cabs. The combination of voice/HPF/bass control on the D800+ is a veritable reggae secret weapon that works very well with those speakers. But I've also been very happy playing with a Trace Elliot 210 combo + 115 extension... however that was muuuuch heavier.

Of those, Hi Beams will be the stiffest. edit: if you like halfrounds, maybe try Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats? They're stiff, smooth (of course), but a lot brighter than any other flats (and indeed halfrounds, in my experience). They're more like mellow roundwounds, in sound. It sounds like you'd like their sound and feel.

This. Find a way to ground the polepieces and you'll be ok. If that is complicated (magnets being in the way, or epoxy or whatever), a little clear nail varnish on the polepieces will fix that too, but I'd try grounding them in the first place.

Yesterday I discovered this band from Barcelona, much in the same vein of the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble...

I've been using a Line6 G30 since 2009... can't fault it.

20 Hz??? And I thought 40 Hz was already a little too low 😲 It seems a really odd choice, considering most if not all cabs out there roll off the lows quite a bit higher than that. I'd definitely want an HPF with that.

For anyone who missed out on the sale, I think the blue SC-02 at £26 is still a steal. I paid a little more than that a while ago and I don't regret it. To be fair, I don't think I have ever used the additional functions over the red SC-01, but I'm glad I have them, just in case.

Hmmm, not sure about that rule. I avoid open strings in general unless I specifically want their sound (open strings sound different) or it's integral to the feel, like on Slither by Velvet Revolver, for example. Playing a note on the 5th fret, you have two ways to mute it, and they all sound slightly different. You only have one way with an open string. Use each position of any given note depending on the context. Open strings have their uses, but so do their equivalent on the 5th fret of the previous string.

Of course it isn't. But let's not get facts get in the way of a good rant

Ha! I hadn't noticed that! 😍 I *love* it!!!!

I think the protocol is not interfering *publicly*. It's not your business. But feel free to contact the person if you feel they've been misled about the value of their item. However, it is THEIR item and can price it however they feel like it. Contributing to their thread just to say it's overpriced is tacky.

Nice! Red baron?

We tried JamKazam but we're all using WiFi and found that it's not good enough. We can't all switch to cabled connection right now, so that's it.

The Seymour Duncan one is not really a clone, and it is substantially different. Not bad, just different. I didn't love it when I had one on an OLP. I have no experience with the Aguilar one. John East also makes one based on his own '76 Stingray which is very nice and comes as a 2-band, or 3-band (not the Stingray 3-band, but the 2-band *plus* a semiparametric mids module), which are very nice.

I've played ska and reggae on one for years... Go on!

I think you're just impatient. It takes time. Keep at it, regularly, and you'll get there much more quickly than you imagine, but it won't be overnight. I rarely use a pick, and even if I play guitar with a pick, I still find it a bit awkward except for the simplest songs/runs. Practice, that's all, really. Practice and the right pick. For bass, I found it much better to use more rigid thicker picks. Dunlop stubbies are the best I found, for my taste. 2mm or 3mm are very good, and their shape with a depression in the middle helps keeping them firmly in place even when you're hitting strings hard and fast. The 3mm ones are best when you don't necessarily want a very sharp attack, as their rounder edge makes them smoother, while the 2mm ones are more aggressive.

Agh! I measured from the 13th fret!!! It still works, since the fret you choose is arbitrary, just make sure you measure from the right one on yours!

that is soooooo true...

You're in the wrong forum, my friend. Basschat is the reason I had to move into a bigger house!

I had one for a while. It's definitely not a 'classic' Precision style pickup. In a way, the PBXN reminded me of it, only the PBXN is a lot higher output. I felt it was smoother and slightly highmid-scooped compared to a standard Precision pickup. Of course, the pickup is only part of the chain, so you can get a lot of different sounds out of any one pickup.