mcnach

+1 When we play the longer sets, the place is still full but you can clearly notice some newer arrivals that stay until later, while many of the ones that were there the first hour don't make it till the end. Personally, I don't remember the last time I stayed to watch a band for 2x45' (only when my girlfriend insists, really), and other gigs I go to, as much as I may like the band I'm ready to go before they finish.

One Hot Minute is a great album

I enjoyed the demo Not all of us are in the Bass Taliban, and I'm perfectly capable to skip a post/video when it doesn't meet my stringent criteria Thank you for posting it!

Thanks I just wanted to make sure I understood what you meant. I don't see Fender pickups as being anything different from whatever-make pickups... when I've bought them I didn't buy them because they were Fender, but because I was hoping they'd give me the sound I was wanting. They make so many different types that I don't even know what a Fender sound is! I'm in the process of choosing a pickup for a Squier Precision I've got. I have a Fender Original in it at the moment. I'm not a fan of its high mids bark and I was considering a CS62 as it seems it may be a bit more what I'm after (I don't need big bass, but want low mids and tame higher mids). Then I find out there's a Vintage 63 whose description looks much like what I want. Oh, and then there's teh EMG GZR that while obviously not a Fender, it's based on a Fender sound... Argh!!! what is a Fender sound then? All of them???

I wonder how many Stingrays Flea has sold while playing other basses...

eh?

Ouch. But that would probably mean there will be a new album soon The guy alone could release 4 albums a year!

It seems that John and Josh do a lot of stuff together, in fact it's how Josh got the gig in the first place. So I can't imagine a real "sacking" but lately I have been seeing a lot of Frusciante with Flea, Frusciante with Chad... I guess they've come closer again for whatever reason and the thought of playing together again must have been present. It must be hard to be in Josh's shoes. He's been with the RHCP for some time now, but he's still generally seen as 'the new guy', and now the generalised cheer to welcome John back... must sting a bit. Josh is good, but he has a style that I don't think is very well suited to RHCP. Dave Navarro was very different, but he made it work. Josh... not so much. Looking forward to hearing what they come up with now. Frusciante brings in a lot of the writing that I like in this band, not just his guitar style and beautiful vocals.

I actually like that album a lot. If instead of a double album they had just released the best of the lot, it would be one of their best (IMO).

Uffff... finances are tight now, which is fortunate, because I really would like a nice Precision style bass and this one ticks all the boxes and a few bonus ones too.

Very nice! Your Precisions are going to get jealous now!

Never had any issues with DR... I hope I don't start now! It took me a long time to find *my* strings 😕

It bothers me that OCD is not in alphabetical order...

If you are, nobody here will be able to tell the difference as you would blend right in

Go crazy! Experiment!

The thing with turning the bass volume down is that on most passive basses that also changes the tone somewhat, losing some treble. It could be a great sound as it is, but it might not be strictly the same as turning the gain down on the amplifier's input.

Yeah, I've made lots of mistakes over the years, I guess that's what they call experience :p But a lot of it comes down to preferences... I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with using one or another input. If you like the result, then it's good. The VM4 in passive mode... it's a tricky one. It will probably come down to personal taste and what else you do with the bass: amplifier, speakers, room... In some situations I find passive sounds a lot better, while in others it makes little difference (but still 'better' for my liking). It's free to try so have a go and see if you like it. In my case, I was never in love with the preamp: it's not bad, but it doesnt give me the ability to adjust the sound the way I want, I find it always a compromise. So once I figured I much prefer its sound passive, that's it: the preamp must go. But you might like it as it is, in which case just carry on. When I go passive, I'm definitely putting a Tonestyler plus a pot to adjust its intensity, as I'll have the space. I'm going to be moving soon so I've got a few things to take care of first, so it won't be immediate, but when I do it I'll record a few clips as it is now, and then with the passive circuitry. It's not as good as comparing with your own bass/strings/equipment but it may still be useful if you're curious.

wait, doesn't the AG500 have adjustable input gain? I think I've played through one of those...

I'm not going to say *all* because obviously I have only tried a small subset of amplifiers of all the ones out there, but I generally found the active input lacking something. I think it most cases it's a very basic attenuation circuit that they add and you're probably better off giving a less strong signal to start with, on the passive input, if it's too hot for it when fully open. It seems to sound better, in my limited experience. I tend to favour amplifiers with an input gain knob, so I just adjust as required.

I never use 'active' inputs. By default I go with passive and only if that doesn't work well I'd switch to active. I have never had to. Most active basses have an output comparable to most passive basses. My lowest output bass was a passive Jazz. My highest output basses were also passive. On an active, you may turn all controls to max and then it'll probably have quite a large output, but that seems a bizarre way to do things, certainly not something I ever felt I needed.

I sold an OLP once to a guy, I had put a Nordstrand MM4.2 pickup and the 2-band preamp from my Stingray (I had replaced it with e 3-band John East MMSR). The guy liked the bass, and was talking about some preamp he had found that was supposed to be an exact copy of MusicMan's 2-band preamp. I told him "but that's what you've got in there now". He was surprised, he thought I I couldn't possibly have put a real MusicMan preamp in there. Good job we got talking or he would have ended up with two similar preamps unnecessarily

I suspect he only found out after the deed was done...

THere's even a coffee-drinking one!!! I feel like I haven't lived

Nice one!

A drummer I sometimes play with tends to play ahead unintentionally, which makes things sound rushed. I try to pull back a bit, but he notices it, what he does is slow down... and I just have to stop trying or we'd end up going really slow. He's been a drummer for decades, so I can't find a way to approach this. I am the new guy, relatively, so I just go with it. It's difficult, but when you play with someone who gets the whole playing behind the beat etc, it makes me sound great, I love it