fretmeister

I kept a small board worth for when I won't take my rack. In hindsight maybe I should have bought a floor helix rather than the rack. Even then it's a compressor, Alpha Omega, BSW sort of stuff. I haven't got round to selling my medium or large boards yet. Must do that. With the power supplies there's quite a lot of dosh there. I kept my EBS Sheehan deluxe as well- even thought he Helix now does the Pearce thing really well.

Loads of options these days. On my various boards I've got the True Tone C6 (thinline - gets under a Nanoboard), a Voodoo Labs PP2, and on the massive board a Gigrig Power Generator modular set up. Power supplies are never exciting, but don't begrudge them. Nice quiet stable power is great. And considering the cost of 9V batteries they pay for themselves pretty quick. A lot of the cheaper / smaller isolated ones don't have 8 outputs though. But you can still daisy chain a couple of outputs for pedals that won't be a problem leaving the difficult ones on their own output. Also be aware that some of the posh reverb and trem pedals have high current draws that some power units can't supply. So if you are aiming for an Eventide or Strymon then you'll need to check the current draw specs.

Yup. It's a great book. I've taped over the tab in mine. I'm trying to learn to read properly!

That happens to me every Saturday!!

Not many sub 9lb rays around. Many hit 10lb. when I found a 5 string that was 9.5 I bought it, then put hipshot ultralights on it to knock half a pound off, then routed under the plate. It’s worth sod all now but I have an awesome 5 string ray that is just over 8 lb.

Bar lines give the pulse. It’s why 2/2 sounds different from 4/4 and 3/4 different from 6/8 even if the notes land in the same place. They are vital. And that’s before we get to rehearsal situations of “start at bar 38 please”

I'm learning to read. I'm doing the Jeff Berlin course and a few other things. I'm glad I am. It makes things so much easier to understand and I'm only at a basic level. I want to reach a stage where I could read stuff that is complex as the stuff I can work out by ear. To me, not learning the language of music is almost in the same league as wanting to read a book but refusing to learn the written language that would allow not only the general gist of the story but all the fine nuances and subtleties that make a story great.

I used the Boss EQ-20 ten band for a similar approach. I actually managed to make a Marshall Bass 12 combo (vile piece of crap that was) sound like a bass amp!

https://www.jeffberlinmusicgroup.com/bass-lessons/jeff-berlin-bass-education-package-1

I've got a bunch of aftermarket IRs Some are great some are shite. The downloads usually come with dozens of files so it's very easy to get ear fatigue auditioning them. And so far I haven't found a solitary IR (for guitar or bass) that I couldn't match with the onboard cabs. Then there's the OTB eq setting option instead of using any cab sim at all. That's pretty cool too.

Just thinking a bit about spending in the future. What are the chances of me finding a Flea sig jazz with a weight under 8.5 lb?

1. Do you prefer buying from a music shop or online shop? Depends on the product. Pedals etc online. Basses over £1000 - in person, under £1000 I'll take a punt if the shop's reputation about returns is solid 2. Do you prefer to try before you buy? Sometimes. 3. In your experience what is missing from most music stores you have visited? Educated staff and range of choice 4. How far would you travel to go to music shop Chain - no more than an hour Specialist - 2 hours. 5. What would attract you to a music shop ie range, price etc Actually putting accurate weights for every instrument. But in summary - don't do it. You can't compete with Thomann and Andertons and the like. Andertons stock a million quid's worth of just Gibson to get bulk discounts. You won't beat them on Gibson and Fender prices. You have even less hope on the "price is all that matters" products like strings and pedals - you are competing with Amazon as well as the online music giants for that. Unless you can specialise to a massive degree (like Bass Direct for example) the day of the independent music shop, at least in modern electric instruments, is over. You might also want to look up stats on first year retail bankruptcies.

Worked well? Reputation wise maybe. Not financially. They are 1 unexpectedly large heating bill away from collapsing.

You are absolutely right about the appeal of the good old Fender bass, and that many producers will say "have you bought your Fender?" when turning up to a studio. But that's also because the producer / engineer is damn lazy and hasn't found out how to record other basses. Steve Swallow's anecdotes about that very problem are quite revealing. He only plays his Harvey Citron bass and nothing else. He's booked because of his "sound" and yet every time "Where's your Fender...?" I'm not convinced much holds it value anymore - a quick look at the classifieds or ebay shows that, but a US Standard is one that suffers less soul crushing depreciation than others. But that doesn't seem to be true of the Vintage range or of the Mex range. Other brands have it worse, but only in comparison to the US Standards and not the others. But despite all that the main thing is - Fender claim things are new when they are not. They haven't done anything innovative in the world of bass guitar since they designed the jazz bass. For that reason spec changes (not upgrades) reek of money for old rope and price gouging. Fender churn them out on highly efficient CNC machines and the used market is saturated. A US Fender doesn't hold it's value as much as it used to and until Fender reduce production numbers to just meet demand rather than just running the CNC machines at full throttle all the time the depreciation will increase. The entire point of the Vintage models is to go back in time to the glory days. Of course they look lovely and no doubt some prefer those older designs. But to charge more for a demonstrably poorer design is taking the fosters. Either that or bassists (me included because I really want a relic'd jazz like Bobby Vega's!!) are gullible nobbers.

That's my thought. I'll have a 50s Mex any day.

I like solo bass. But I like buskers to play songs that I recognise more.

Geddy Lee and Marcus Miller models have been around for years.

Is it in the wrong place? I thought it looked ok. But I've never owned a 70s either.

Thick end of 2k for a mass produced precision is taking the fosters. and what is going on with the mismatched lacquer on the 70s jazz?

Roland Bass Cube 30. Superb amp in every way.

I think the shortest time from 1st rehearsal to gig for me was about 3 weeks, But we'd all done the cover band thing before and we made a set up of tunes we already knew just to get going quickly. Other bands have taken months.

I think I read that the NG2 now has a slightly slimmer neck too - front to back. That would get me in trouble as well!

That's quite interesting. But at the same time if I can get away with a 10 pence dish cleaning sponge then I'll probably stick to that. I could see the mechanical version being very useful if there were many changes in a set though.

I’ve got pink foam! On a cream white bass! Looks hideous!

I’ve been experimenting with strings lately on my P-Ray 5. I got a set of La Bella Low Tension Flats which I love. But for my current gig I need good thuddy noises for half the tunes and a bit of zing and dirt for the rest. I do not want to take 2 Basses. i have no idea why I haven’t tried it before but I put my favourite Prosteels on this evening and then stuck a load of foam under the strings and knocked the tone control down a bit. It’s not identical to the flat sound of course, but damn it’s close! And I can whip the foam out halfway through the set. i feel a bit thick for not trying it before!