mcgraham

Agreed. You can breathe new life into old and tired songs with some very simple but creative arrangements.

During a personal practice time, I warmed up on what used to be my main workhorse (the Geddy - which I'm now keeping), then moved onto what had been my main fretted for the last year (the W&T Klimt), then finished on the recently acquired fretless (W&T Zoid 'Hyperbass'). It was quite an experience to hear how my tonal preferences have shifted and progressed over the years. The Zoid has rapidly become my favoured instrument because of its sound (and also its playability). I love how organic, woody and articulate it sounds, almost like a crisp and full acoustic guitar sound, yet it always sits well in a mix and doesn't sound hollow. It can go from a defined 'fretted' sound with a fat fundamental and fast attack with little to no mwah, to a more mellow note swell with an almost upright-ish characteristic.

Both raking and strict alternation require work. Raking can initially feel more natural but takes work to get the timing and muting consistent; strict alternation can initially take work to get it feeling natural but the timing can be a lot more consistent off the bat. Rakes make it easier to descend adjacent strings without work, but it's difficult to rake to non-adjacent strings with good timing, muting and overall sound - I use alternation for skipping to non-adjacent strings to keep the flow. Strict alternation doesn't suffer from this problem, but is initially more difficult to start with. IMO, both have drawbacks and merits, and both will require work in different areas to get them usable.

[quote]I know it's slightly off topic - but I'm actually yet to see a Pedal Board that I like the look of for my few pedals. I spent a few hours today hatching a plan.. it may even make a build diary! - unless, by a strange turn of lucjk I see exactly what I have in mind out there already![/quote] To me, the Pedaltrain Mini is the most beautiful pedalboard ever. It's the perfect size for a stage, light, easy to carry, easily configurable, looks swish, and the smaller size forces you to really think hard about which particular effects you need/will use, how you will use them, and how many you actually need/will use.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Really helpful on all fronts. I'm looking to spend £100 or so on a small powered monitor that has a reasonably flat frequency response, so those suggestions seem about right. When I'm band leading or doing improvised music, I often need to be able to speak with band members whilst we are playing. Isolation from my IEMs makes this impossible when the band is playing. Therefore I want a personal monitor that always me to hear myself but to be free to speak with band members in such situations. In these types of situations the overall onstage level is low enough the band members can speak and be heard at normal speaking volume, so the monitor doesn't have to be super loud to compete. In situations where a lpud onstage level would mean a low output monitor would be insufficient, we wouldn't be able to communicate verbally anyway, so I would use my IEMs in loud onstage situations. I'm therefore more considered with the portability and size/shape over the max SPL. Any other suggestions?

Does anyone know of any mountable monitors that are very small? Something long and narrow that has a bracket or frame for mounting onto a keyboard/music/mic stand or the like, rather than floor wedge monitors. EDIT: Something along the lines of the Alto PAM5A. The more suggestions the better (I've looked at the TC VoiceSolo, Mackie SRM150, and Behringer Euro 150 ripoff). I'm looking for something that is shaped like a line array type thing (i.e. longer than just a single speaker) but that isn't a floor wedge.

Great post as always Bilbo. It's very easy to fall back on stock licks or things you've practiced to death. I have stock etudes that I use for different instruments that help me warm up and keep various elements of my technique in shape, but after warming up/etudes I try to consciously play something different/fresh each time I practice, and create exercises that balance out deficiencies in my technique. Also, I quite like spending an hour (where possible) before a gig/rehearsal warming up/'etuding' and generally widdling to my hearts content to make sure that I serve the music when I'm actually playing with others.

One of the best bass sounds I ever heard was from a Bongo. Absolutely beautifully thick bass tone.

[quote]It was worse when it was a jam with him and a guitarist who likes the sound of off key shredding, because 'its free and pure'.[/quote] That is one of the funniest things I've read in a while. I don't clench, in fact, I have the opposite problem. My jaw is sufficiently relaxed that when I turn my head to the left and down to look at the fretboard, my jaw puts up no resistance to my shoulder/trap(ezoid) pushing my lower jaw very far out to the right. So sometimes when I've had practice intensive weeks (i.e. anywhere from 2-6 hours every day/other day for two to three weeks), I get severe jaw clicking that is quite unpleasant. Dissipates eventually. I would suggest getting a mouthguard type splint from a dentist. I got one a while ago when I did grind my teeth at night and it completely resolved the issue.

Cheers!

What if my secret Sport Relief sponsorship was to be punched in the face for every day that you have that logo as your profile picture? In that case I think it'd hurt me more than you

How long must you/we endure this torture for?

I think you might need to change your profile picture. I genuinely thought to myself 'what on earth has possessed waynepunkdude to buy a polytune...'

Max, it tracks fine with a 5 string (mine is EADGC). The accuracy is better on the strobe tuner in chromatic mode, but those with less discerning ears would not notice. I understand it would likely be done with FFT (fast fourier transform) technology to identify frequencies, but the issues I see would crop up in determining the identified frequencies as specific harmonic components of particular strings (e.g. the B string fundamental could be confused with/masked by upper 5th harmonic of the E string; sharp G string fundamental could be confused with upper major third harmonic of E string, etc). Very clever stuff anyway, the way they've managed to do it. By the way, whilst it may seem only seem to shave seconds of tuning when you first get it, you can get a lot quicker with a bit of practice. Tuning a guitar with a Floyd Rose trem that is massively out is a piece of cake now!

Sadly the only face-to-face/direct feedback I've had about ACS products has only been negative. The personal touch is excellent and the staff are exceedingly helpful, which makes it all the sadder when I hear bad things about their products. There are plenty threads on IEM just have a search in this section and the amp section of the forum. IEM setup? Cheap mixer and DI will do, just get creative with the connections. IEM headphones? Your bog standard headphones will do it, in ear canal types or over-ear headphones are marginally better. Try the above combo (mixer + standard headphones) to start on the cheap. Next step? if you like it and could cope with IEM, then consider some good quality universal fit instead of total custom fits. Good universal fit headphones can rival a number of significantly more expensive custom jobs. Mark

I [i]AM[/i] the only one using in-ear monitoring I can literally turn up and take a monitor feed from the desk, or even patch into an existing one without interrupting the monitor set up. I've done this with and without a rig (i.e. only PA support and PA + rig, respectively).

[quote]Can you go out from an output of the Sansamp BDDI or Aguilar Tonehammer into headphones?[/quote] As OBBM says, won't work. Check out the Micromon from Behringer, or some alternative headphone amp + monitoring equivalents from ART. These act as small headphone amps, that also allow you to pass your bass signal through to an amp, and also to mix in an external signal (e.g. aux, mp3, monitor signal, etc). I've got a similar system integrated in my SFX Preamp (www.sfxsound.co.uk). After using in-ear, I won't go back to monitoring bass from the amp alone. Unless I am leading a band (or other situations where I need to be able to speak/give directions and hear people speak whilst playing at the same time) then I will always run IEM. I am totally convinced by this technology, and it can be achieved for next to nothing nowadays (my first attempt was with a cheap Behringer 4 channel mixer and my best pair of headphones that I had kicking about - sound sucked but I'd never heard myself more clearly!).

OldGit got the same things (ACS plugs + T15 inserts) and he thought they were sh*te. He bought (on my recommendation as I have the same) Jays Q-jays and loves them. I use these for monitoring as well as ipod listening and recording. Cost me £100 from iheadphones.co.uk. Dual driver design and incredibly small. The standard plugs are also very comfortable, fit well, and block a great deal of ambient noise. Great midrange detail. Drums sound particularly 3D through them. Low end reproduction is good, but they don't overemphasise the bass like many headphones do. If you dial in a lot of extra bass frequencies most in-ears will distort. Mark

[quote]but can vouch for Marks pair being Stunning[/quote] How dare you.... guess it's my fault for wearing a low-cut top. I'd offer another lift, but I think the number of basses we're taking might make this not so feasible. Mark