dc2009

[quote name='Doddy' post='1277015' date='Jun 21 2011, 01:24 PM']That's just shocking. I've got to point out a couple of things.....First of all,you can clearly see her tune up in between 'Crazy' and ' f*** You'-that obviously didn't work. [b]Secondly,if she couldn't hear what was happening why was she standing [i]in front[/i] of the monitors for a large part of the song?[/b] Finally,she claims to not be able to see her tuner.....her pedal board is clearly in the shade of the monitor and will be easier to see than if it was out in the open. As that was the last song,I have to wonder if it was that bad throughout the rest of the set- in which case she should have heard it long before-or if it all happened during her pre song 'tune up'?[/quote] I said this earlier and couldn't agree more.

[quote name='paul h' post='1276957' date='Jun 21 2011, 12:44 PM']How many people at this level tune their own basses? Surely they would have techs?[/quote] Not many tune it themselves, though the majority I would say check it before they go on/after the first song. IMO you should be warming up for 5-15 minutes before you go on stage normally (I know they were messed about with timings here), but very few players seem to find that necessary - part of that would include checking the tuning. But yes, any tech that hands a musician an out of tune instrument to go on stage with should be fired, no questions asked. What then happened during the show was partly her fault, partly the fault of the engineer IMO.

[quote name='Hobbayne' post='1276954' date='Jun 21 2011, 12:40 PM']I played a gig once where the guitarist was so out of tune, I had to turn the bass right down and grin and bear it! Funny thing was, he didnt even think it was him! [/quote] Some guitards do that. My guitards favourite axe is a hunk of junk IMO and likes to detune itself. Thing is, he sings to the note produced by his guitar. Last practice that this occured at he looked at me as if I was out of tune, we stopped the song and quickly resolved that my Warwick, run through a digital tuner, was bang on and the guitar was distinctly not. Obviously, stopping mid song is not really an option for live performances, I've only ever seen it done once by a pro-band, and only done it once on stage myself, both for the same reason - bass drum pedal detaching from the bass drum.

[quote name='silddx' post='1276948' date='Jun 21 2011, 12:35 PM']When I was listening to it I thought it was the A that was out of whack.[/quote] It was the A or D to me, not sure which. Whenever she went for a higher note it made me cringe though, which means you can rearrange how you're playing, not easy to do, but a must for any performer, especially a professional. I got the impression none of the strings were perfect, but she might have got away with playing it elsewhere, I mean playing it in tune an octave up would've been preferable IMO (some pros might even have an octave pedal to whack it back down too).

Yeah there are many parties at fault here. Also, I could only hear the guitar in Don't Stop Believing, looked like she was air playing before then, and then in Don't Stop Believing, it seemed like she was feckin awful to boot? As for the bass, I agree with Silddx, if she did spot check the tuning at the start, she'd have known it was out. To my ears some strings sounded more out than others, if that's the case, avoid the worst strings, change how you're playing (I think we've all had to do that mid song, especially if you break one string). Sound tech should've cut her entire channel and told her to go get a new bass IMO. She was rocking out and in front of the monitors at some point, don't go and stand there if you can't hear yourself already. If you can't hear yourself, surely you point at your bass and point up to the sound guy, who puts your level up, or go and make use of that wall of ampeg behind you! And at the end of the day, tight for time or not, it takes 30s to tune a bass if you have a decent tuner, max. Well worth spending the time on, any tour manager/roadie should know that. OT but it's a lovely setting for a show!

[quote name='silddx' post='1276845' date='Jun 21 2011, 11:32 AM']Does anyone have ONLY bass in their monitor? I just have a decent band mix.[/quote] Ideally I have none of me in the wedge monitor, and put the bass through an amp separately as my on stage monitor. I like to have my backing vocals up fairly high in the monitor. The other issue with house PAs and monitors is I find they struggle with the 5th string sometimes. These days I'm only in standard tuning, so a B, but I used to go as low as Ab! Even with a B, I find you lose a lot. IMO I think many PA systems in pubs etc where I am likely to play is old and a bit useless, but given 5ers are often the norm these days, it's a shame more places can't handle them adequately!

[quote name='J.R.Bass' post='1276508' date='Jun 20 2011, 11:08 PM']You can't blame the drummer for being drunk if you were.....[/quote] Perhaps, though my few bum notes went largely unnoticed by everyone except me, and I was irked by them. The drummer missing beats however, was very much obvious! I've since had a chat with the band and we've imposed a 2 pint pre-show limit for future gigs.

What does your friend want the bass for? Is it a backup or a first time learner, etc etc? I have a top of the range edge and they are very nice basses, but the neck is super thin! IMO it's nice to play, but I'm glad I didnt start learning on it or I'd never be able to play anything else! Personally I think any ibanez is decent, same with yamaha. I can't speak much for ESPs that cheap but their high end stuff is good, the peavey is also a solid choice.

I was too drunk, as were the rest of the band, notably the drummer who I could shoot right now! Bands that were playing after us soundchecked after us, moved half our gear to different places in order for their soundcheck, and I'm fairly sure the soundguy didn't preset the levels, just guessed at them when we came on, result being a wall of sound on stage. Oh and the DI cable wasn't properly clicked into my sansamp and liked to come loose at times, and had to be kicked back into place - sigh.

I used to be after a jap one and those went for as little as 160-180 sometimes! A US one should fetch more, they're very nice basses IMO, so good luck with the sale, and be sure to give us some pics up here so I can drawl over it!

[quote name='JTUK' post='1275937' date='Jun 20 2011, 02:38 PM']Knowing ..or hoping that the FOH is good is still abit hit and miss though. I run a rig so I know what I WILL sound like onstage and anything less like crappy monitoring can deflate the gig..which is not a good position to be in, IMO hence I avoid it.[/quote] Well I guess the point I was making is that you can't always rely on just bass and a samsamp if the in house monitoring system (be it an actual monitor or a backline rig) is rubbish. Unless you bring your own monitors/have expensive in ear ones, which is a bit much for most of our playing levels! This thread has suddenly made me question my need for my rig. I took my trace head to my first gig with the current band, but have neglected to take it since, preferring to sansamp, and my huge marshall cab has always been far too heavy to take to gigs, though perhaps if our drummer gets his van soon, this will change?

Thanks for the kind words gust0o and guys. I'm hoping this bass will re-teach me to slap properly, owing to the very small string spacing, then hopefully I can take that technique to my warwick and make it sound good! I do love the look of this bass, one of the best looking basses for the money IMO. Don't think she's going to get gigged either, so will be a nice bedroom instrument for me!

[quote name='silddx' post='1275635' date='Jun 20 2011, 10:31 AM']Sansamp and monitors?[/quote] This is what I wanted to do last night, but the sound guy told me the monitors were crap, so insisted I use the inhouse backline rig as my own monitor, my sound on stage was absolutely diabolical, how the monitors could have been worse than the amp I do not know. I still had my sansamp DI'd to the crowd, so the PA sound was OK.

On my way to it shortly, come along you london folk, it's sure to be a great event!

[quote name='deaver' post='1274718' date='Jun 19 2011, 01:58 PM']Thought I'd sold mine without realising when I saw this thread. May well be converting mine to a Fenderbird if it doesn't sell over the summer[/quote] Lol I wish you all the best with the sale, I would highly recommend the bass to anyone who is interested. Our headstocks are different (in terms of the logo/truss rod cover), does anyone know if this indicates anything about the two basses? Conversion to a fenderbird, by putting a J neck on it or something?

I've seen some Warwick slamming in here for the 'Thumb SC' and I'm not here to defend them as such, but I think you guys could have a little more thought. If any of you have seen the other thread that's been here this past week, to do with how warwick's are now harder to get in the uk, you'd have seen a few music shop owners and warwick enthusiasts concluding that warwick are moving their german made basses back into the boutiquey, low production run stuff they used to, pushing it more back towards the high end, and leaving their rockbass series for the run of the mill stuff. IMO, if you're going to build a boutiquey, fairly expensive and high end bass today, I think you would start with a single cut bass. A good way to make one if you have an extensive back catalogue of basses? - modify an existing popular high end design! So I don't think Warwick have got it wrong at all. As for this fad or future nonsense, I'll agree with whoever it was who said above, they're just an alternative choice, though I would imagine given their lack of popularity compared to things like Js and Ps (that's a statement of fact rather than a dig), I think they will remain the products of high end luthiers for many years, if Warwick want to provide a more well known avenue to the SC then fair play to them, they might sell one or two as well! As for bedroom players, who doesn't practice in their bedroom, or have a bass or few they never intend to take out of the house (usually because they're too nice to do so when a cheaper bass will more than suffice)?

[quote name='ahpook' post='1274306' date='Jun 19 2011, 12:43 AM']maybe that's it, though this one from the warwick site has a [i]cover[/i]... [/quote] Wow, mark, I think that looks spectacular. I thought the natural finish one on the website looked average, but in white that is seriously nice, not too sure why I'm the only one who seems to like it!

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' post='1273920' date='Jun 18 2011, 05:17 PM']That takes me back. Wish I had never dismantled it now! Can you check to see if the A string is particularly quiet with the J pickup solo'd? Mine was, I would be interested to know if mine was iffy or if it was an inherent design flaw.[/quote] You dismantled it? o.O I just checked, and my A string is perfectly even with both pickups soloed and when mixed, sound like you just had a bit of a duff magnet, which is a shame. Mine sounds pretty nice, though the J pup is a bit weak as I said before. And thanks for the kind words merello, I do love the look of it too.

Having met some 'arses' of the UK metal scene, I wouldn't be surprised if this happened, but that doesn't make it right. IME, most guitarists know jack sh1t about bass (even those that purport to play a little), I think you could always blag an "it's the best sounding/playing bass in the world/for the money", even if they dont like the shape. If they don't like the sound for the band, then that I understand somewhat.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1273823' date='Jun 18 2011, 03:23 PM']When you say neck through 5ers do you specifically mean Schecters or just in general? The price of NT basses has tumbled over the years and I've seen a few NT basses going for the low 100's which I find astonishing but then I've no idea how good they! [/quote] I meant in general, but that's shocking, had not realised you could get them that cheap!

I'd still expect it to be more, even with basic emg's, I don't think you often see neck through 5ers at that kind of price!

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SCHECTER-STILETTO-ELITE-5-BASS-QUILTED-NECK-THRU-/390322434883?pt=Guitar&hash=item5ae107b343#ht_9690wt_914"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SCHECTER-STILETTO-EL...3#ht_9690wt_914[/url] Seriously, how is this so cheap? Someone here buy it, I don't have the money right now!