jazzyvee

Stanley Clarke, Aston Barrett, Victor Bailey, Gary Willis.

If someone took a photo of their instrument with their mobile phone then when that picture is put on-line with the advert, the GPS data embedded in the file can be used to locate where the photo is taken. That would enable the found locations to be mapped onto a maps.

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1429555844' post='2752614'] In answer to the OP , and not intended to be smart in any way , but you don't have to put up with it at all . Just avoid the warehouse/stadium type gigs , you have a much better chance of hearing clarity in the proper theatre size gigs . If it is the music you want to hear then the stadiums seem poor all the time , but if the overall experience is a must, then I guess it is a compromise. [/quote] No problem, not taken as being smart. I'm enjoying reading the inputs to the thread actually. I rarely go to the kind of gigs you mention because hardly any of the bands I like are big enough to play these huge venues. But even at the medium theatre gigs I've attended the sound on the bass guitar is usually lacking clarity. I don't want anyone to think I'm bashing sound engineers, far from it. I'm hoping there is a logical reason to aid my understanding of why this problem occurs in larger venues.

Is it just me who wants to hear what the bass player is playing at large venues? Is it just physics, bad engineering and I have to live with not hearing what our bass playing brothers and sisters are doing? For a recent example. I went to a Parliament Funkadelic gig last night at the O2 Academy in Brum. The gig was awesome by the way. But there was an enormous amount of bottom end coming through the FOH PA mainly from the kick drum and bottom end of the bass. As a result but I could see what the bass player was doing but not hear the individual notes just an overall "in key" sound. Because I knew most of the songs the band played I was able to imagine what the bass line was in my head. He was playing a two pickup musicman, i think it was a Sterling 5 HH and from what I know from owning a musician bass before, they do have a good sound in the mids so there is no reason I can see why that wouldn't be possible to get out front. Even when he came out front to play a slap solo his sound had no midrange at all so most of it was inaudible. Is this something I have to live with or do sound guys need to up their game and make the bass heard clearly as well as being felt? It really is a disappointment for me and puts me off going to large venue gigs.

I remember at one of my gigs in the late 70's in my soul/ funk band. We'd done a run of Ewf, Commodores and isley brothers numbers and a middle aged couple came over to my side of the stage got my attention and asked me if we could play something by the Nolan Sisters.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1428919061' post='2745838'] You just need to play both basses until you don't notice their differences. [/quote] + 1 I have 35, 34 and 30.75" basses and don't find changing between them a problem. There are only certain tracks I play on the short scale bass so my fingers are pretty much calibrated to that bass when I do those songs. But as others have said It's just time on those instruments that make the transitions between different basses more comfortable as neck widths, string spacings and position of tone controls can be different. After a while your fingers just know which bass you have and taking control of it becomes more automatic.

I've never paid £11,000 for any instrument though I have bought used instruments that would have been more expensive than that new. I would not be averse to paying that kind of money for a new bass if it was the price needed to get a true custom instrument and I could specify exactly the things I wanted for it to be my perfect bass. The reality is that I don't believe I am at a stage as a player yet to find the major limitations of my own instruments, and I don't know enough about basses to enable me to confidently do that and get it right first time. I can't afford an expensive mistake.

[quote name='M@23' timestamp='1428343913' post='2740441'] I always think it's more to do with note choice, phrasing, timing, groove, etc. The tone will change but not the technique or style so much. Great players sound great regardless usually! [/quote] +1

[quote name='jonnythenotes' timestamp='1428415526' post='2741059'] . After you get your new wonder bass, do you then have to upgrade your amp and cab. No good putting aa £11000 bass through a Laney combo. Then are you going to find a new band, where all their gear is as good as yours....don't want to lose all that quality in a mess of lesser instruments. Then there is the PA.... That will have to be pretty good to show off the full potential of the bass. Also, make sure you have a top notch engineer... You cant mix something like that without a bit of expertise... you don't want it sounding like a run of the mill Fender. What about boomy stages, funny shaped rooms, and stuff that changes the sound you want that you have no control over. Then there is living in the fear of theft or damage. These mega basses sound great on there own, but once you introduce all the other countless things that make up a band, and the things that make a bands sound, your £11000 investment won't sound too different to instruments at a fraction of that cost. I use a Yamaha Bb2024....cost £1400 new... Not everyone's cup of tea, but It's a great bass that can take a few knocks, built like a tank, and out Fenders most new build Fenders in terms of sound. If you have the cash or desire...why not buy a super bass,, but don't forget that it won't sound like it did in the shop when you start gigging it. . [/quote] You do raise a good point about putting an expensive bass through a budget amp. I think if someone is spending £11k or up that way for a bass, it would certainly make sense to think about their rig and upgrade where necessary as you could be stifled by the weakest link in the signal chain. ( Not sure what you do if the bass player themselves are the weakest link), :-) I can bet there will never be a consensus on what constitutes a good rig suitable for a bass of that calibre. So many variables and options like you suggest above. I'm glad people want to buy Fodera's whatever the price, personally after trying a few I'm not interested in buying one. I'm happy listening to musicians who make great music with them. Ultimately echoing what has been said before, market forces will decide if the price is right and if it isn't Fodera can decide to cut the price or stop making any more. Which will probably put the prices up for used ones even more. Also the price of them gives the forum something to let off steam about at regular intervals. :-)

Ive tried out a few foderas in recent years and whilst i dont like how i sound playing them, they sound great when i hear other bass players using them. James genus was playing one with herbie hanock live at the symphony hall in brum and it had the best live bass sound ive heard in that venue. That said if i had £11,000 to spend on a bass i'd buy an Alembic.

Maybe it just wasn't meant to "B"

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1427121733' post='2725975'] ....... I am starting to realise that my preference for a pure, clean sound is maybe less common than I assumed. I am used to very low levels of distortion, and anything that adds even a small amount sounds (to my ears) to be unacceptably "different". It is very difficult to describe sound in words. [/quote]\ + 1 on that. I really don't like anything on my bass rig that to my ears sounds unclean. The best way I can describe it is like the bass is being played through a very slightly overdriven guitar amp. Not the sound I want from my bass at all.

I spoke to a guitarist a few years back who had one of these. http://www.backaxe.com/gtr.html The company may have a bass version.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1426156123' post='2714948'] Having recently acquired one of these amps, I am happy with the "warmth" in the tone and the control over the midrange - both of these factors were important to me in choosing a new amp to replace my Hartke LH500 However, I am having problems getting a truly clean (i.e. undistorted) sound from the amp. Even with the gain set on [i][b]zero[/b][/i] (and the drive fully off) there is some break-up! Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way around it? There are no centre detents on the tone controls, but am I correct in assuming that they offer cut and boost, and therefore would be "flat" in the 12 o'clock position? I'm confused... [/quote] I went to my local PMT this morning to try out some aguilar gear cabs. I tried the DB 412 and DB410 cabs individually with DB751,TH500 & heads TH350. The guy set all the amps tones flat and I found I could not get a clean sound because of the same breakup of the signal as you describe. Even at low volumes there is an edge to it especially noticeable on the higher notes. My normal way of using my bass rack is to have the power amp on max and use a low input gain from my pre-amp and play lightly and that gives me lots of clean and loads of headroom which is what I want. But any setting I had the Aguilar gear to I was getting this breakup. I'm only curious about the cabs so I plan to take my own head down there this week and try out the cabs with my own amp setup which I know is clean so at least I can hear what the cabs sound like. I always thought aguilar was clean hifi gear.

I had a go at bi-amping at a gig I did last December and it sounded great. My setup is somewhat different to the OP because my bass has two outputs one per pickup so I was able to keep the signals separate all the way from the bass, through two pre-amps and into a stereo power amp to the cabs. When I was trying it out beforehand at home I fed a Roland JC120 from the crossover high output from the pre-amp that was fed from the bridge pickup and that sounded lush even without switching the amp's chorus effect. I don't think it's something I will be doing all the time but I will take the opportunity to do so when it arises. Here is a link to the video with the bi-amping setup. [url="https://youtu.be/o3DD0UbiRrY"]https://youtu.be/o3DD0UbiRrY[/url] The sound engineer took 4 signals from my setup, one from each of the pre-amp DI's and one from each of the cabs.

Had a good gig at an 80's weekender in Southport but 3 songs the lead my sound disappeared and the overload light came on my amp, so bypassed that and went direct to a DI-box. One song later the signal disappeared again..... transpired the lead from my tuner to the DI box had decided to be intermittent. Scrapped that cable, went straight into the DI from my lead and thru to my bass amp. All went fine for the rest of the gig. But as you can imagine I never felt relaxed after that in case it was something else. Fortunately the gig went well and the singer managed to keep the audience entertained until we got it sorted out.

I've always preferred to control my dynamics myself. However, I did try a boss LMB3 - compressor a few years ago but I didn't like how it affected my sound so i sold it on. If my sound needs compression then I leave that to the FOH engineer who can do a better job with it than me.

I'm giving it a miss this year. I'm not looking to buy any new gear this year an there is nothing I'm particularly eager to try out. So I'll just read the feedback on here.

I'm learning 26 tracks for a Stevie Wonder set Initially it was on guitar but I'm going to have to stand in on bass too so thats a lot of learning to do.

Good bass and a fair price.

One of the most beautiful sounding guitars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD7kA52mN7E#t=162

I had John Diggins at Jaydee Custom guitars to inlay my initials at the 12th fret of bass and guitar a few years back and he did a superb job using abalone and mother of pearl. I want him to do some more but he is mega busy making basses at the moment so I'm being patient. Not sure how expensive it would be for a whole neck to be done but you could email him and find out. http://jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk

A friend of mine has asked me to do a setup on a rock bass that he got on Ebay. I only have imperial allen keys for my own basses so don't have the right size. Can you tell me what size I need for the truss rod and the saddle. Cheers