cheddatom

Corporation in Sheffield on Friday, great sound on stage. My first time gigging without an amp (just DI through the monitors) and it was perfect. Not many people there, but it was a very small room so not too depressing The Sugarmill in Stoke on Saturday. I set up for soundcheck and nothing came out. We did a soundcheck without my pedals, and then I had to go and try to fault find without an amp! I used my tuner as a signal indicator and located a bust patch cable. So, sorted in time to get on, but I think I might have been a bit too loud in the mix with my pedals We went down well anyway Star & Garter in Manchester last night, back on drums. It's a cool venue but there weren't many there, and some of the old punks looked nearly paralytic. We did get to see a very good band called Eye The Bomb who I'll be following

Steak Number Eight - cool on record, but I never expected they'd have so much energy when live. I was totally captivated for at least an hour. Ace!

Paul Simon at the NEC. He was great, and so were the band, but it was an enormous venue with sh*t loads of empty seats. Awful sound and no atmosphere

cable losses wouldn't be effected by the quality of the lead. The length of the cable is what degrades the signal (although I'm sure a bad cable can do this too) Obviously some buffers do sound noisy, I'm not denying that. However, most are fine, and they do bring some benefits. The Pete Cornish piece isn't trying to sell you any of his pedals, it's just very informative about the subject

thanks, I'll try it out!

I've raised pedals before with a small piece of wood the same size as the pedal. I don't think it looked weird, but then I also don't care if anyone thinks my pedalboard looks weird. Is there room inside the pedal box for you to shift the sockets up a bit? The digitech site says the polara is 5.08cm high, and the photo makes it look like the jacks are just over half way up the side

wow, can't wait to see this finished

still no photos?! I have no idea what this looks like!

Skybone I'd recommend reading that pete cornish link

I've got 3! My only 4 string is in bits. On a standard gig I could cope with a 5, but I generally don't get "standard" gigs on bass, so when I do play it's generally weird experimental rubbish where I can play loads of chords and go mental

The Barrels in Hereford again last night. I'm on drums in this band. The stage is a short but hollow wooden stage, and I just love the effect of this on the kick drum. It didn't seem to add any boominess to the bass so no need for isolation pads or whatever. It's the first gig I've played without ear plugs for ages (forgot them) and it wasn't too bad at all! Didn't get too loud, no ringing in my ears afterwards, and everything sounded great!

I use a pre-amp pedal and run it into the effects return, or power amp input (depending on which amp). If I was worried about pedal malfunction I'd set up an AB switch to switch between the pre amp pedal, and the main input on the amp. Actually that's not a bad idea in general (although the pre-amp on my peavey combo is knackered)

you won't damage anything (unless you have everything on 11). I would try it both into the normal input, and the effects return (not in the loop, just straight into the return). See which one sounds better. Let us know!

great playing WOT!

I have a gooseneck light that came with a mojogear pedalboard, and that runs on 9V. I can't find them online now, it looks like a sports clothing company nicked the brand name

is the guitarist using a thin sound for his solos? It really shouldn't drop out that much if you have a well balanced sound as a band. The suggestion to get the drummer to fill things out more is a good one. Personally if I think it sounds too thin I'll play chords or strum octaves I love pedals and dirty bass, and I use them loads, but not to fill out the band's sound

This is a good read [url="http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html"]http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html[/url] There have been a few similar threads in the past so you could search too As I understand it, a buffer raises the impedance that the guitar "sees", so that the pickups behave as if they were plugged into an amp first, rather than a bunch of pedals first. They're good for reducing noise on long runs of cable etc. In practise, you may or may not need a buffer. If you have an active bass, you almost certainly don't need any buffers in your chain, but they shouldn't hurt either

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1447421860' post='2907549'] Personally, I think you should be able to not use it and sound good.. [/quote] Yes, I agree. I like to think that I can. I also like to use compression most of the time [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1447421860' post='2907549'] A common situation for it would be to even out those higher notes that might disappear but I'd be inclined to EQ that in and compensate in my general playing sound. [/quote] A compressor really shouldn't be used to even out the volume differences between different notes. Unless you're talking about a multiband compressor, it wouldn't be influenced by which notes you're playing.

definitely use ear plugs, and you probably need them in rehearsal too. I use the crappy foam ones but you can get some "flat response" ones for about £10 or custom moulded ones for just over £100

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1447345024' post='2906923'] If it's useful for recording or FOH, it's useful at source. It just depends exactly who it is that understands the effect and how to use it. It on stage it's not required by the player, that's fine. If the player prefers to use it, that's fine too. I've never understood this particular 'rule' that some trot out (either '[i]must [/i]use' or '[i]never [/i]use'...); folks have differing styles, needs and perceptions. Is that difficult to accept..? I play drums. My drums are often (but not always...) compressed to some degree somewhere in the chain, by competent sound techs or by myself, if I'm mixing. It's an element of a sound system, that's all. [/quote] Indeed! Whatever works is fine! I've played bass quite a few times without compression, especially when I CBA to carry my pedalboard! [quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1447345478' post='2906928'] Has there ever been a recorded bass sound that did not use compression ??. [/quote] No EDIT: Well, it's probably debatable in that there are different ways to get compression, and you might not always be doing it on purpose. Any distortion will give you a form of compression, for example. But yeh, I would say for the last 20 years at least, there hasn't been a record mixed which didn't have a compressor somewhere in the chain affecting the bass

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1447341520' post='2906867'] The guy engineering our 3rd album was allergic to compression. He was into 'fidelity' and 'dynamics'. As a result the album sounds totally sh*te and really quiet. None of us can listen to it. [/quote] Is this a current album? If so you might be able to get it louder by re-mastering. PM if you'd like me to give it a go [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1447342501' post='2906882'] But these are the ones I want otherwise I wouldn't hit it like that... [/quote] I really don't think you're hearing the transient peak that happens in the first 1 or 2ms. It is entirely possible to set a compressor so that it's having an effect, but it's not audible.

I know I'm repeating myself from similar threads in the effects forum, but compression does not remove your ability to play "with dynamics", depending on what you mean by that. If you want to be able to play louder and quieter using only the power of your fingers, this can still be achieved with a compressor in the chain. I use a compressor to reduce the initial transient peaks of any notes with a particularly hard attack. This is an effect which is pretty much inaudible, but will hopefully give some protection to my rig. I still manage to alter my perceived volume using only my fingers. I also sometimes use compression with a slow attack to give me more punch. Again, as long as I get the threshold right, I can still "play with dynamics"

how do you shape your voice from boring (but in tune) to "grabbing"? Or does this just have to come naturally?

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1447329626' post='2906711'] Insurance is included up to about £300, more than that costs extra. Sent quite a few guitars south using ParcelForce, and have always been able to insure them without any problems. [/quote] I've read here that they have a specific exclusion for musical instruments, but they don't mention it and sell you the insurance anyway, therefore you've paid for insurance, but weren't covered

what pickup did you get?