tauzero

Always get the young man's name and address. Business cards. If you're in a band, make sure you've always got some business cards because you're the only one in the band who will have. (This also applies to capos, spare leads, lighting rigs, and PA). Make sure the hat you buy is the right size. Fans. Get a clip-on fan to keep you cool. A hand towel is useful too. Use a guitar stand to hold your bass, don't just prop it up unless it's a headless that's happy to be stood on end. If you want to get ahead, get a hat. Don't take any advice from anyone on a bass forum.

I still have the silicone strings on mine and I don't use talc for them, just don't slide around the neck and use a rather violinish left-hand technique (fingers pointing along rather than across the strings).

Decent capo. I use a G7 for the odd guitar gig that I do, which is trouble free. On a side note related to multiple guitars, one of the bands that I play in does some songs tuned a semitone down, and the guitarist has two guitars - he leaves both in standard tuning in the first set so he has a backup if a string breaks, then tunes it down in the interval and we do all the down-tuned songs in the second set (which is, of course, when he breaks a string). Despite the fact that his capo isn't of the best, he can actually put it on and take it off without affecting the tuning of the guitar.

Seeing as there's one of these threads every few weeks, could a mod merge them all and pin them? That's if there's any mods paying attention to this thread...

[quote name='Thor' timestamp='1405538823' post='2502909'] Cheers Si, I knew this would be kinda tricky to explain, the old switch has the pins mounted vertically and I suppose what I mean is that the pin currently mounted in the top left corner is wired to the input jack (the shorter terminal on the jack), I guess what I'm trying to get at is if the switch is mounted in the casing 180 degrees out, the top left pin on the switch would now be bottom right, so I'm concerned (as i don't really understand how the switch works) whether i could cause damage/further problems with the pedal. [/quote] 180 degrees out wouldn't matter, but those 9-ways can easily be put in 90 degrees out (I've done it myself). Get a multimeter on it and as KB says, map it out. Simplest way is to put one probe on the centre pin and then go round the four pins at the centre of each side until you get a connection, then you know what the orientation is.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1405192120' post='2499612'] The problem I am having is working out how to make it do what I want it to do. I will basically have two pedals in one box, a fairly standard Big Muff and a Musket, but I want them to share an RGB tri-colour LED, with a shared anode. When the Muff is on I want the LED to glow green, when the Musket is on I want it to glow red, but when both pedals are on together I want it to glow blue. As it is I can't figure out how to do it. I can't find a red/blue bi-colour LED so if I do decide that I definitely can't make it work how I want, I will still have to buy the tri-colour one and just not use the green cathode. [/quote] How complicated do you want to get? It would be pretty easy with a couple of logic ICs - hex inverter (you use five inverters) and quad AND (you use three gates). CMOS chips will run at 9V which is what you want (TTL only goes up to 5V). Run the Big Muff LED signal to the A input of AND 1, the A input of AND 3, and via an inverter to the A input of AND 2. Run the Musket LED signal to the B input of AND 2, the B input of AND 3, and via the other inverter to the B input of AND 1. AND 1 output goes to the green anode, AND 2 output to the red anode, AND 3 output to the blue anode, and you connect the common cathode to 0V with a resistor, or maybe put the resistor between the AND gates and the anodes. The logic is pretty simple - LED 1 is A.!B, LED2 is !A.B, and LED3 is A.B.

I'm building something not dissimilar at the moment - the intention being that it'll be a MIDI pedalboard that plays chords intelligently. The basis of it, though, is an Arduino [url="http://arduino.cc/"]http://arduino.cc/[/url] which detects which button is pressed and sends a MIDI note or notes corresponding to that. If you're only using half a dozen buttons, you might as well use them as direct input. As I'm using 15 or so (at least 14), I've used an array of diodes to allow me to channel them into 4 inputs plus a polling input. You'd then want something like this, if you want the sample to play while you're holding down a particular button (note that I have only just started looking at programming the Arduino and I'm not familiar with the MIDI library, so you'll have to work the MIDI commands out): int Pin2 = 2; int Pin3 = 3; int pinVal = 0; int lastPin = 0; void setup() { pinMode(Pin2, INPUT_PULLUP); pinMode(Pin3, INPUT_PULLUP); whatever MIDI setup is needed } void loop() { thisPin = 0; pinVal = digitalread(Pin2); if ( pinVal = LOW && lastPin != 2 ) { midi send all notes off midi send note 2 thisPin = 2; } pinVal = digitalread(Pin3); if ( pinVal = LOW && lastPin != 3 ) { midi send all notes off midi send note 3 thisPin = 3; } ... (all other pins) if ( thisPIN == 0 ) { midi send all notes off } lastPin = thisPin; }

Perfect for the air guitar championships.

They're not "very rare", they were sold under a variety of names - mine (sold some time ago) was an Atrics (as it was from Germany, it got nicknamed the Gerry Atrics). I'm pretty sure I paid around £250 new - I'd have to check on that though. As for whether it's worth it - it's of reasonable budget bass quality, but not fantastic. You could probably commit GBH on a pair of Peavey Grinds and produce a much better instrument for very little more money.

Hasn't BetaFunk posted to say he doesn't post here any more yet?

[quote name='lou24d53' timestamp='1404823078' post='2496022'] So what [i]should[/i] a headstock look like then? Whilst I agree there are a few downright dogs on here, it would seem that any manufacturer who is trying to come up anything unique or radically different from the norm is getting slated. But yet those designers who stick with the tried and tested Fender-esque shapes also get slated often on here for not coming up with anything radically different. [/quote] Tony Tsai's old style of headstock is great. I don't need stands, I can just hang them from the washing line. Oh, and the tuner placement means that the strings pass over the bridge in a very nearly straight line - are you taking notes, W&T?

I regularly went to see the Handsome Beasts there in the 70s. It's sad that it's gone now.

Much though I like the necks, Wood & Tronics have a headstock that's not only been hit with the ugly stick, but also if it's strung B-G, the B gets pushed to the edge of the fretboard around fret 1.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1404422647' post='2492594'] I think I have opened a can of worms! At least it is Nice to know that the majority are of the same mind set as me. I just look at the quality and variety in the sub 1k mark and can't imagine straying outside that. For those of you who have/do good luck and I hope you enjoy your basses as much as I enjoy mine. [/quote] Back in 1987, having paid about £125 for a rather tatty second-hand P (before reli[ck]ing was fashionable) a year before, I happened to pick up and play a £950 Warwick Thumb. Before doing that, I couldn't imagine anyone paying that much money for a bass. After doing that, I had to trade in my P and Hohner B2 and stump up another £600 to buy it. So it can happen. That's not to say that the same thing would ever happen to you - and, given the ever-expanding range of sub-1k basses, if it did, it's as likely to happen with something costing £220 as something costing £2200 (which is apparently the current equivalent of the £900 I finished up paying).

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1404373903' post='2491930'] Money is the necessary counter-weight to talent. The more talented a player is, the less money he spends on equipment (see McCartney, Jamerson, Pastorius, etc.). The less talented a player is, the more money he spends on equipment (have you seen my gear?). [/quote] Mark King? And surely with your Entwistle counter-wossname, he didn't lose his talent when he started spending loadsamoney on equipment?

I've got adjustable nuts on both Warwicks and two of the Tsais. So that's four basses that don't ever need a nut filing job.

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1401793034' post='2466836'] I bought the Tascam GB-10 about a year ago and the issues have with it are probably minor but irritating just the same. if you have a track on and you press the [<< button to go back to the beginning of the currently playing track it goes to the beginning of the previous track so you have to press the >>] button to get back to the track you were practicing to which is frustrating. [/quote] Press stop twice, that takes you back to the start of the current track. That annoyed me too until I found out how to do it. [quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1401793034' post='2466836'] The other thing I would like is a line-in so that you can play along to tracks from your iPod or mp3 player rather than having to fill the memory card from your computer in advance to play along. Finally the screen is not backlit so is not always easy to see what is going on. [/quote] Having a line-in sort of defeats the point though. You've probably got a line-in on your amp, use that instead. I've had both the CD-BT2 and the GB10, and I prefer the GB10.

Save all that filing and mucking around (as long as it's the right width for your neck): [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm[/url]

It works better when it's spelt right: [url="http://www.yeshuamusic.co.uk/"]http://www.yeshuamusic.co.uk/[/url] Where it says that they sell HB instruments.

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1404246037' post='2490819'] No producer, only an engineer at the moment, it's a hobby band and it's still in the process of being recorded. The engineer will mix it and then we'll get it mastered by another guy.. To be fair to the guitarist, he has had to come up with 10 or so solo's that he's been happy with... I just don't like the idea of all the layering. I'm just worried he'll leave no space in the music and it will end up being the over produced bollox, that Discreet hinted at. [/quote] It does seem a bit surprising to me that with a 2 guitar band, he'd be doing a lot more overdubbing.

[quote name='ironside1966' timestamp='1404244534' post='2490799'] It spent 2 week at no 1 in 1990 but most musicians I know have played it at some time,including me. I played in the mid-nineties and it was old hat then. I don’t understand why some bands haven’t moved on [/quote] It's quite shocking, isn't it? I mean, some bands still play stuff from the 18th century. Surely it's time to move on from Mozart and Bach?

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1404218942' post='2490410'] I don't know about the vocals but Jeez do any of you think she was playing that fiddle? Come on then digital camera experts why was the guy on the right playing in time when hers wasn't, my bow technique on DB is terrible but I can tell you that's not how you bow a fiddle! No mic, no wireless Kit, no piezo installed... [/quote] And, funnily enough, only the sound of one violin. It hardly seemed like a serious attempt to fool the audience. And no-one has bothered mentioning the security guards doing a dance routine to "Jolene". And I don't think anyone who was actually there has said anything about her miming. Never mind, there's always time to get a Miltychat flashmob together and grab the pitchforks and blazing torches.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1404139220' post='2489638'] Has anyone else noticed how Ellie Goulding is getting increasingly desperate in trying to turn herself into some kind of credible "alternative " artist [i]a la [/i]Florence And The Machine? [/quote] You mean she's started to sing wildly out of tune?

I like it. Two previous bands have threatened to do it but never did, I'd like to give it a whirl sometime.