Gareth Hughes
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Everything posted by Gareth Hughes
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Check out the Youtube clips for the Catalinbread SFT pedal - it's sounds as good for real. I'm running that thru a Markbass LMK and LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG it.
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Fair play Chris - not an easy job to do. Here's something that might help with the hand strength: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=powerball&x=0&y=0"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?u...amp;x=0&y=0[/url] Very useful if you don't have the time or facility to warm up on the instrument. Basically it gets your blood going through your forearm and gets it ready for some work. Also, use your shoulder muscles - don't try to get all the sound you want by squeezing the neck with your hands. Think of your fingertips as pinning down the note and your shoulder muscles as the strength to pull the sound out. (Jeez, analogies are tough). This sounds terrible but picture this - if you were going to punch someone you wouldn't use just your knuckles and wrist - you'd put your whole arm into it - well, same goes for double bass. As for digging in to get more volume - it can be very counter-productive on the upright - it almost chokes the string. Simple tips are - bring an amp (and you'll ALWAYS need one unless you're playing with band members and audience members that understand they're listening to an acoustic instrument meant to be played in large numbers) and get the amp up high so that 1) you're getting the high frequencies pointing at your head and 2) you're not getting the low frequencies pointing at the upright body. Also, LOW low frequencies are NOT our friend here. I find anything below 100HZ to give nothing but problems, so sometimes you need to cut those by way more than seems rational. For controlling feedback - stick some foam/cloth/socks (yup, been there) through the afterlength of your strings - between the bridge and tailpiece. Those parts ring like crazy and cause way more feedback than you'd imagine.
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Yup, D'Addario Chromes have PLENTY of click and zing in them. I've just put an old set, that must have been on three different basses by now, onto a Precision and they still have plenty of life in them. All good.
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The other tough thing to deal with, even if your intonation is correct, is playing with a guitar player with a slightly out of tune guitar - or with an in-tune guitar that just had a capo put on and has shifted everything sharp a little. When this happens on more than a few songs on a gig, that's when I begin to wish I'd brought a fretted.
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I have no sure fire method to offer only that I've found that for me, if I'm working on something new (and unknown like original music) that if I write out a chord chart I find it tough to move away from that and always need that damn piece of paper at hand. Now I just learn it by ear and the only notes I make are on a setlist - Track one in C, mid8 in Bb. And that's about it. Any more info and I become a slave to it. The other thing I found that I do is that if I'm sight-reading all the time then my memory shuts down completely. I did ten weeks of 'RENT', seven shows a week. I honestly could not play one song now start to finish without the music in front of me. Yet when I have the music in front of my I barely look at it. It's like a safety net - don't look down!!!! This also echoes something mentioned before - you don't have to play everything note for note as it's written on paper. For me that's something I'm always working to overcome, and in doing that I know I'll get away from the page a lot quicker. Hope that helps!!
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Play it live NOW!!!!! You'll be fine. I did a three week tour with a band, and the guitarist only noticed on the last night that I was playing a fretless. Same rules apply - be tasteful.
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Fancy an EHX Double Muff or a Danelectro Daddy-O? -
The Patitucci book is excellent. Not only for reading but I'm finding it's a great way to think outside the box when playing in a certain key. All of the examples are not what you'd expect to play when told a piece is in C Major, for example. And like any great etude should, it opens up many different ways to get around the fingerboard to play the same thing. And I bought mine for about $13 from David Gage himself, so I'm well chuffed with that.
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My tuppence - yes it's necessary IF you want to do reading gigs and learn things from books, expand your musical vocabulary, etc. As much of a headache as it was for me to learn to sightread, especially as I could already play (to an extent) I always figured it would be a bigger headache to be offered a great gig, with good money and I'm available and then I have to say no because I can't read. I've had gigs come up the day before, from people I have never met, simply because I can read. Given that I make my living doing this, I'm happy that I can take those calls rather than sit in the house, wishing I was out working. It's a skill like any other - play with a pick, slap, thumb mute, whatever - it's all relevant. Those folks booking you DO NOT CARE about all the things we care about. I've never heard an MD or a sax player or whoever argue the merits of playing with a pick - all they care about is can you make the music sound the way they want it to. Play it standing on your head - with a nappy on, no less!!! Just play it right - and if that means learning to read then do it. Does that make me a better musician than you? Nope But it makes me a better musician than I would be if I couldn't do it. Edit- Just to add to the OP's original questions - I sometimes use a metronome, especially if I'm working on something that trips my fingers up. And something else that caught my eye on this thread - I haven't done any grades, just learnt from Chuck Rainey's 'The Complete Electric Bass Player Volume 1' book. Well worth getting.
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Loving that Oriental Express tracks - beautiful sounds and playing. And interesting that Hyunmo is using a GK MB150 combo that cuts off at about 2Khz, yet his sound is very detailed in the hi-end. Wonder if that's just the DI track we're hearing or is he hearing that through the monitor?
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Bump for a great instrument. Basszilla bought this from me. If ever a bass has mojo - this has it in spades. Oooooo temptation be gone, damn you!!!!! -
Have a bump - these are amazing cabs - capable on a surprising amount of volume. My Markbass LMK is rarely past 3, and that's in a pretty loud band with horns. And you'll love the easy schlep.
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Maybe worth checking out an Epifani UL112. They pop up here from time to time. Would easily do the job for your jazz gigs and they are just so easy to move around.
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Bump for an awesome overdrive pedal. Check out the demos on Youtube - they really do sound that good in person. If I didn't have one already.....
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[quote name='Gwilym' post='948801' date='Sep 7 2010, 09:00 PM']These are great amps, I'm very happy with mine. Worth noting that the voltage is not switchable though., so this is probably set for 230/240volts ? Good luck with the sale, someone will be lucky to get it [/quote] Yup, this is the UK/European version, set for 230/240 volts. And here's something really geeky - Gwilym, Dood and Machinehead, all writing in three consecutive posts above - all joined on three consecutive days!!! How's that for conceptual continuity!!!!!!
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Hey KingPrawn - Yup, she sure is purty. Thanks for checking your pockets too
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Hey carlc64 - Good to see you here, and good luck with the gear. Gareth (mr.hughes on talkbass)
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Doh - apologies folks - the neck is by WD Music, not Warmoth as previously stated. Hey, they both begin with 'W', right?
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Here's a possible option - if you have a Boss TU-2 tuner pedal - both of those outputs work at the same time, and apparently with no signal degradation. This sounds highly suspect, except that it was shown to me by Joylan Thomas on a session he was engineering alongside Ken Thomas producing. Ken Thomas was heavily involved in a lot of the early Sigur Ros records, and more recently the last Moby record. I don't say this to name drop but rather that if it was good enough sonically for them in a studio then I'll take it!!!
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Folks - up for sale is my Markbass F500 amp. 4.63lbs of teeny tiny goodness. Bought this last July, so it's just over a year old, with minimal use - I have a Markbass LMK that does everything I need. The F500 was always taken out in a padded case and pampered from day one. It's in great nick, bar for a few scratches on the top panel from a dastardly DBX compressor that should have been racked. Looking for £595 including next day UK special delivery. I can include the gigbag for another £30. Looks similar to the pic below. Plenty of space in the bag - can fit the F500, 2-3 Boss size pedals, Boss style power supply, two 10ft cables and a 4-way plug board. Here's the technical guff from Markbass: INPUT - impedance 500 Kohm, max. voltage 15 Vpp EFFECT RETURN - impedance 22 Kohm, max. voltage 25 Vpp CONTROLS GAIN –80 dB to +25 dB range MASTER VOLUME with pull mute LINE OUT LEVEL GROUND LIFT - switch on rear panel PRE/POST EQ Di - switch on rear EQUALISATION LOW - centre frequency: 40 Hz; level: ±16 dB LOW MID - swept frequency 100hz - 800hz, level: ±16 dB HIGH MID - swept frequency: 700 Hz - 8khz, level: ±16 dB HIGH - centre frequency: 10 kHz shelf: ±16 dB VPF (Variable Pre-shape Filter) - centre frequency 380 Hz (cut) VLE (Vintage Loudspeaker Emulator) - frequency range 250 Hz–20 kHz (cut) OUTPUT LINE OUT - balanced XLR, max. voltage 10 Vpp EFFECT SEND - unbalanced, max. voltage 20 Vpp (pre-EQ) TUNER OUT - unbalanced, max. voltage 25 Vpp SPEAKER OUT - speakon / 1/4" (x2) OTHER WEIGHT - 4.63 lbs / 2.1 kg DEPTH - 10.04 in. / 25.5 cm WIDTH - 10.87 in. / 27.6 cm HEIGHT - 1.73 in. / 4.4 cm (1U) OUTPUT POWER - 300W RMS @ 8 ohm, 500W RMS @ 4 ohm POWER REQUIREMENT - 100V; 120V; 230V; 240V, 50/60Hz [attachment=58268:IMG_2621.jpg][attachment=58269:IMG_2620.jpg][attachment=58270:optoma_bk_4013_1.jpg ]
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Folks - I bought a new neck for this bass but alas I just don't think I'll be the fretless whiz I dreamed of. So once again - Up for sale is my Ernie McMillen Custom 4 String Fretless. Ernie McMillen builds guitars for the Avalon Guitar Company. Recently he has been working on Zematis guitars at Avalon, which retail at $15,000 in the US. Before that he worked for 15 years for Lowden Guitars, during which time he built many of the Goodfellow Basses that were made there between 1992-96. All this to say that the construction is top notch. Enough about Ernie and now the bass: I had the bass made in 2000, and whilst I do love it so I'm mainly playing upright for most of my gigs so this bass is criminally underplayed. Body is a regular jazz shape (taken from a mid 70's Fender template) and is one piece Mahogany with a bookmatched Rosewood cap (that has some damn sexy stripes running through it). As you'd expect for a ten year old, well gigged bass, it had a few marks here and there. The neck is a WD Music unlined ebony Jazz neck, with an overhang which gives you an extra note at the top (high E instead of Eb on a regular 20 fret bass). The neck wasn't new to me but it's still in great shape. One slight bump around low F# on the E string. I've tried to show that in the photos. The other bump looking thing is actually a small bit of Birds Eye Maple. I'm guessing this neck always had flatwounds on it as there is no string wear. *One quirk - the previous owner played left handed so if you flip the neck upside down there are matching position markers - for those Hendrix moments perhaps?* To get a better fit for the new neck Ernie lined the neck pocket with stained black maple. Bridge is by ABM with adjustable 16-20mm string spacing. The pickups are by Bill Lawrence, the J45 model. These pickups have a huge frequency response and are very even from low to high. The electronics and standard Jazz passive: Vol/Vol/Tone. The bass was originally wired with a preamp with the jack socket side mounted. I didn't get the empty jack socket filled in, just discretely covered, so an active system can be installed without any modification. Asking for £700 shipped to the UK with a hard case. Here's some examples of other basses that Ernie has built: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=53343"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=53343[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57031"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57031[/url] [attachment=58238:IMG_2611.jpg][attachment=58239:IMG_2613.jpg][attachment=58240:IMG_2615.jpg] [attachment=58241:IMG_2616.jpg][attachment=58243:IMG_2618.jpg] [attachment=58244:IMG_2619.jpg]
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Yup - this rubs me way up the wrong way. Had similar experience with the Bass Centre late last year. I ordered one of the new Fender Am Std 5 string Jazz basses. Was told it would be coming into them within a week, then onto me. Took at least 6-7 weeks for the bass to show up. To compound my annoyance I was told it came to them first, rather than be sent to me directly, because the Bass Centre gives them their once over and professional set-up before it leaves to go on to the customer. Now either mine was never looked at or folks - NEVER send your bass in for a set-up there. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt (only because I'm a sarky git) but when the bass finally did arrive the neck was beyond loose - each screw needed at least 7-8 turns to be properly tightened. I'm in Ireland so that's the price I pay for ordering online. I could have sent it back and lost more money. As it is I have a great bass but I doubt I've ever shop there again, which is a shame as I bought plenty there on each trip to the Liverpool St shop and the one before that.
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Good man yerself. I was just down in Inchageela - about 40 mins west of Cork, for a gig with the mighty Crystal Swing. Some beautiful places down there, especially in West Cork.
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Cool. Whereabouts in Ireland are you? I'm just past Newry, at the foot of the Mourne mountains.
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D'Addario do a 6 set in flats - their Chromes series. For closer to home, try OVerwater strings. I have no first hand experience, but the Overwater people are great and would happily answer any questions about their strings I'm sure. [url="http://www.overwaterbasses.com/regular-flatwound.htm"]http://www.overwaterbasses.com/regular-flatwound.htm[/url]
