Gareth Hughes

My first car was an early 90's VW Polo, bought solely for gigging with my upright. (Easier to hustle a lift with the electric for sure). I could fit my upright, a Hartke 2x10, a flight case for my amp head and a passenger in the front seat. So yep, should be fine with your car - unless it's like a Passat where the boot doesn't open up completely.

The simple answer is: if it sounds right, it is right ( to quote Joe Meek). An active input on an amp is usually just an input with a drop in volume. So if the passive input is at 0 (neither boosting or cutting the signal coming in) then the active one would be something like -10, cutting the input signal. The long answer is that the active/passive input on your amp is all relative to the output of your bass. By that I mean - if your bass has a very high output, irregardless of it being active or passive, then it might benefit from going in the active input. Likewise, if your active bass has a lowput then plugging it into the active input will only make it even quieter. I have a passive bass that is way louder than any active bass I've ever owned. And also remember that all passive basses are not created equal. I have three jazz basses with passive pickups and none are the same volume as each other. So - to tidy up this waffle - plug your cable into the passive input first and if it sounds like it might be distorting a little then maybe your signal is too high and then you should try the active input and see if that cleans things up.

DONATE YOUR BODY TO SCIENCE, YOU FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How's that? Oh, and if Ped's been sitting on them - maybe not so valuable?

Heard a great one from Duke Special the other day: 'I am extra, I am director I am silence, I am Phil Spector'

Apologies. Harmonics (to me) are the audible equivalent of the many pixels on a TV screen that your brain sees as one image. Waffle aside - if your string is 42 inches long (for the sake of argument) then the first harmonic is right in the middle (21 inches along). To play a harmonic you don't press the string hard so that it touches the fingerboard, you just lightly touch and pluck. You should hear the same note as your open string, only an octave higher. If you split that 21 inches in half you'll get a second harmonic, an octave higher than the first harmonic. If you do this on an E string, both the harmonics will be an E. There are also other harmonics on each string (back to the pixels idea). The next one to go for is a fifth above the open string so if your open string is E then the fifth is B ( [b]E[/b] F G A [b]B[/b]). This harmonic is located rather handily directly above where you play the B note on the E string. Try doing this first on the D string. The E string can be a bit too heavy to get a harmonic going if you're not sure what's going on. Once you're up and groovin you can use harmonic's in very handy ways - such as this: take the G string, the fifth of that is D (again, located directly above the D note on the G string). That D harmonic on the G string is the same as the second octave D harmonic on the D string (the one at roughly 10.5 inches from the first harmonic at 21 inches). So you can tune the D string to the G string by using harmonics, and because the harmonics are higher and clearer to hear than the lower fundamental, it's a lot easier to hear when the two string are perfectly in tune. Repeat the process and you can tune the other two strings easily. The D string gives you the A harmonic ([b]D[/b] E F G[b] A[/b]) and the A string gives you the E harmonic ([b]A [/b]B C D [b]E[/b]) Hope that hasn't made things more confusing.

Could be that your tuner isn't reading the low open string of a bass so well. I've found that to be the case with some tuners, especially the little clip on ones. Try tuning using the 1st harmonic octave, or even the B octave on the E string. Another method I've had success with, as even my trusted Boss TU-2 decides to give up sometimes) is use your fingernail and pluck the string close to the nut, removing the low fundamental note in the process - gives the tuner something easier to work with.

Fair play. I'd have probably lost a few fingers before I got this far, so I'm well impressed with this. Very cool indeed.

Diggin it already!!

I'm proud to be a geek. The geek shall inherit the earth.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1343684213' post='1753775'] Thanks Gareth for your comments. You are always a fantastic source of info [/quote] Is that a polite way of saying I'm a geek?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1343670037' post='1753465'] Has anyone ever used the headphone out on their amp to provide some in-ear monitoring? [/quote] You could do that if you're not hooking a cab up to the amp. My Genz Benz Streamliner master volume controls the headphone output and the speaker output so I'd deafen myself if I used headphones alongside a speaker live.

I play a little and I surprised myself at how not confusing playing in fifths is. Actually find it easier to read cello than than to just noodle about - I'm not that comfortable with fifths yet.

Never mind the first position. Find the octave E on the A string and the higher octave E on the G string. Figure out where those E's are in relation to the crook of the neck and where the fingerboard meets the neck joint. With your first finger on the E you've got these following notes available: E string: B, C, C# A string: E, F, F# D string: A, Bb, B G string: D, D#, E Plenty to get you going there. And while you're there, find the E major and B major scales. Another thing to do is to thin outside the box with relation to where you start notes for a scale/arpeggio/pattern. For instance - with the A major scale, keep your hand in this E on the A string position. Play the open A string to start with. Then play the B and C# on the E string. Next, either stretch/shift a little to play the D beside the C# on the E string, or play the D on the open D string. Then play the E and F# on the E string. Then stretch/shift back a little to play the G# on the D string. Then return the original position and you've got the octave A. Repeat that process and you've got the B on the D string, and the C#, D and E on the G string. So in that one position, and with using open strings and a minimum of shifting, you've got an A major scale + a fifth. With the same process you've also got the D Major scale up to the 9th and down to the 6th - the B on the E string. Another thing to help you get up to this position confidently is to play your F major scale in half position so you can solidify the sound of it in your head. Then, play it this way - F and G on the E string, then A, Bb and C on the A string, then open D string and shift up to this new position to play the E and F on the A string with your first and second fingers. When that begins to get solid, try shifting on the open A string so you've got F and G on the E string, open A string, then Bb and C on the E string (the Bb requires stretching back a little) and then the open D string, and the E and F on the A string. I wish I'd been told this years ago. Instead, I got Simandl and slowly crept my way up the neck, all the while nurturing the FEAR OF THE DUSTY END!!!! It needn't be like that - just find those octave E's and get your disco freak on!!!!!!!

In theory they should be - I mean, if a P-Bass isn't an industry standard I don't know what is. Having said that - I recently swapped pickups in my Squier Matt Freeman Precision and installed a set of Wizard Thumpers. The Wizard casings were too big so I had to change them with the Squier's. So the internal part of the pickup was the same size but the external wasn't. Hope that helps.

I've had pretty good results using a Fischer two channel headphone amp, with one channel coming directly from my bass and the other being a mix from the sound guy. Great little flexible set-up. In dual mono mode (same signal to both ears) I can adjust the balance between me and everyone else on the fly. The other setting is a stereo mode - me in one ear, everything in other ear. That's great for total separation, but a little unsettling. I use this set-up for a trio with double bass/vocals, guitar/vocals and backing singer. Flippin guitarist had so much lovely low end from his acoustic that it was covering up my low end onstage and I was having trouble hearing myself properly. Not a terribly expensive set-up to be honest. Here's the stuff: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/fischer_amps_inear_monitor_bp.htm"]http://www.thomann.d..._monitor_bp.htm[/url] You'd also need this adapter as a regular one won't work with the saftey lock: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/fischer_amps_9v_dc_netzteil.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...dc_netzteil.htm[/url] And here's a cheaper version: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_hpa_in_ear.htm"]http://www.thomann.d..._hpa_in_ear.htm[/url] Bloody raging now - that looks like a great deal to try it out!!! Rather than this being a body pack that clips onto your belt, I just run a long headphone extension cable and plug into that - means less hassle when you're walking on or off stage. For earphones themselves - I started off with these cheapies from Thomann: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_ep_4.htm"]http://www.thomann.d..._tbone_ep_4.htm[/url] Cheap and cheerful and not a huge amount of low end but here's where that's a bonus: good soundguy suggested this to me - said to get cheap earphones because the seal/isolation isn't that good so it naturally lets in a good deal of the room ambience. Basically a cheap and easy way to hearing everyone else without setting up a second channel. Do it like this, along with playing through an amp, and you're basically just bumping your bass above the room sound. And because you can hear yourself better you can lower your amp volume and it sure makes it a darn side easier to [s]hear when you're out of tune[/s] play in tune.

Thank you very much indeed.

[quote name='umph' timestamp='1343570970' post='1752165'] drill a hole, wire in a volume pot. tis a cheaper solution [/quote] +1 to this. Did this with both my Mini Q-Tron's - works a treat.

Great - now I've just realised how nowhere close to the mark I've been busking that song at gigs for years!!! Nice playing m'lady.

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1343134809' post='1745805'] That is one of the most sickening sounds you can hear. [/quote] I'll go one better/worse - hearing the headstock rip apart whilst you're playing in a quiet room. The sound of ripping wood mere inches from my head haunts me to this day - even thinking of it now sends shudders down me spine.