JPJ

Apologies, I've just reread my post from last night - I didn't mean to sound arsey 🤦‍♂️

If anybody is interested there’s a great video showing speaker cone extension without, and then with a Microthumpinator HPF. This visually demonstrates the “subtle effect” SFXSound Microthumpinator

Chris from my experience with first the Stagg and then the KK Baby Bass, getting the bass to stay in one position was the problem for me which necessitated a certain amount of left hand holding of the bass (although to be fair the KK was considerably better when sitting down). I’m now using an NS NXT on the stand and this problem is completely alleviated allowing a much better left hand position. In fact, the NS is even ok on the end pin attachment.

Those pickups sound great and very little volume difference between the neck and bridge pickups. I also like the finish, looks like one of those early eighties Washburn's

A personal influence and a lovely guy to boot. Back in the very early 2000's I almost bought that fretless Overwater from Rod, but young children and common sense prevented me from going ahead with the purchase.

I use a Fender Tony Franklin fretless, doubling on NS EUB, in an Americana/Country/Rock band, and like Beedster I actually find it easier to play fretless over fretted.

Great news, pleased to be able to help

The input pad is normally a small button next to or near the input or gain knob (circled in red on this Yamaha example)

Lots of stuff to check really. Most mixing desks in rehearsal rooms have been well abused by the less than knowledgeable. But in the case of your own desk (assuming this is an analogue desk) I’d first check that an input pad hasn’t been accidentally engaged. Then I’d go through 1) check the channel gain is correctly set, 2) check that there’s no compression on the channel, 3) check there’s no extreme eq on the channel, 4) depending on the desk, check that the subject channel is assigned to the correct group and that group master is where you want it to be. Sorry if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs with this post, and I’m no expert, but the above is based on my own personal experience. For more detailed help, it’s probably worth sharing which desk you are using and how old it is.

There is an absolute steal of a bargain on a TC BG250 208 in the for sale section right now, only £125 and you can't go wrong at that money. Note, I am not affiliated with the seller in anyway. Just highlighting it here for interested parties.

Two beautiful basses but I gravitate towards the fretless. It seems there are some really usable tones in this combination of pre and pickups, but in terms of a comparison to Wal, they should 'cleaner' to me, without that signature Wal distortion. Also, there seemed to be a noticeable volume difference between the various filter positions that I don't get with my Overwater filter pre?

Just had a chance to watch the latest iteration video through my studio monitors, and again, I find myself preferring the sound of the Funkle over the Wal 🤯. It sounds to me like the Lusithand preamp is more 'open' than the Wal (in a sort of 'goes up to eleven' way) if that makes sense? Playing around with the filter pre on my Overwater I have now discovered that the filters are indeed one per pickup, and that there is a pull up function on the master volume that appears to replicate the Wal pick attack. Despite my Overwater being a neck through all mahogany construction with what looks like an ash top, it does not sound anything like a Wal, having its own unique sound which I actually now quite like.

My rig has two EV ZLX15P tops (the plastic box ones). EV’s marketing department claim 1000w but there is plenty of internet based evidence that they are only actually 250w RMS. We’ve played similar sized venues using ours for vocals, a smidge of guitar and bass, and a bit of kick drum and we’ve been fine. Sure, not the loudest but enough to have a great gig and be booked again.

Warren Murrel, bass player with Robert Jon & the Wreck, used the 500w version on their last two UK tours. I had the pleasure of sitting virtually in front of it at a recent show and it was sounding mighty.

So as I think I threatened earlier in this thread, today I’ve finally had a chance to reinstall the Overwater filter preamp in my Original series five string. I had removed this to install a John East Uni-pre as I felt I couldn’t get a tone I liked out of the bass in comparison to my John East J-Retro equipped five string Overwater Jazz. However, recently I’ve been playing a lot of passive bass (both fretted and fretless) and I’ve come to realise my tonal tastes are changing away from the deep dark bass I had tended to favour since first putting a J-Retro in a Fender Jazz five string many years ago. The preamp went back in without much of a fight, and initial impressions are that there is now a boat load of tones on offer. Control set is master volume, pickup pan, and two filters which work in parallel across both pickups. I’ve had a little play and I’m looking forward to giving it a good run through later. Oh and I’d forgotten how good a 36” scale low B sounds 😎

As Phil says, often easier just to replace the amp module completely. When one of my EV's blew the amp, I got the complete amp/dsp module for under £200.

I had my Overwater Perception defretted and refinished by David Wilson. The bass had an ebony fretboard so Dave used some ebony veneer to fill the slots and they are now hardly noticeable under stage lights.

I am in the fortunate position of using the Behringer XR18 desk with six aux outs meaning we can all have separate monitor feeds containing just what we want/need. I'm still in the experimental phase with IEM's and I've found that even with foam tips, the isolation isn't the best with loads of stage sound spill into my in-ears. So for my mix, I take 100% of the lead vocal, the backing vocals at about -3dB (if the lead vocal is at 0dB), a tickle of guitars (probably -4/-5dB) and my bass signal at 0dB. Given that I am normally stood in close proximity to the shed builder drummer, I do not have any drums in my IEM feed. Interestingly, I recently did a gig with FOH provided. The small stage is in the corner of the room, and is obviously a big empty box as it really resonates with bass drum and bass guitar frequencies. To keep things simple, I used my custom moulded ear plugs that have the 10dB filters in them (best compromise I've found between noise reduction and total isolation from the audience). I actually had a better 'mix' with the ear plugs than with my in-ears, and no ear fatigue after the gig either. As I said, I am still in the experimental stage with IEM's and I guess this shows I still have a way to go to achieve the best monitor mix for me. I'm also wondering whether IEM's are only really useful on silent stages or on much larger stages where physical separation is greater and hence stage noise spill is reduced?

Just to add to what Maude has already said, I find flatwounds work great on my two acoustics, and I particularly like the La Bella low tension flatwounds.

Our gig yesterday was a large'ish social club concert room with a proper stage. Our PA comprises two EV ZLX15 'tops' and two old Peavey 400w powered 15" bass bins. Nine and a half gigs out of ten I will place the bins under the tops simply because of space limitations. As I mix from the side of the stage (Behringer XR18) I also commit what some consider to be a cardinal sin in live sound and run a dBX Driverack. For yesterdays gig, I placed the bins on the floor in front of the stage on the centreline of the room (approximately) and side by side. The tops were on stands either side of us on stage. I had time to run the setup utility for the Driverack (pink noise anybody?) and save this new config for future use. What I noticed from this setup was: 1) bloody hell the bins were loud, and I was able to get some of that chest pumping kick drum from them (albeit) only over the first ten metres or so. 2) the overall mix was much better, with the vocals coming through loud and clear. 3) the Driverack was making much more use of the bins, with the level indicators on both the tops and the bins both regularly hitting four bars (with the normal subs under tops, the subs are lucky to see one bar). 4) Our nominal 1900w PA coped admirably with the room, yes we were not the loudest, but we were loud enough and I received several compliments on the sound. I must confess that I previously thought the gain from running this configuration would be marginal but actually it was significant. There is only one other regular gig where I could use this setup, but I definitely will be using it whenever I can.

Early evening gig at the local Billy Bootleggers bar. In-house PA and engineer (who knew what he was doing). This is normally a strange gig as it’s mainly passing trade, with the bar located in an up and coming suburb of Newcastle with several alternative venues all within a stones throw. Yesterday we had several groups of live music followers in from beginning to end which made us feel right at home. We played really well even if I say so myself, one of those tight loose kind of gigs and we all enjoyed ourselves. Just about to load the van for gig #2 of the weekend with my other band.

Hi Owen, This is the ad I bought from. I’ve just checked and he doesn’t have any other items listed at the minute https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225781255459?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=l125RuyxTwi&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=NlJhiuEZQNG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Two gigs for me this coming weekend and with two different bands. Saturday 23rd September sees me at Billy Bootleggers in the Ouseburn Delta (Byker) just a short walk east of Newcastle city centre with Ten Bob Blind, a female fronted americana band where I get to slip slide away on fretless P bass and NS EUB. Kick off 17:00hrs, with music from the likes of Buddy & Julie Miller, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, Thea Gilmore, Steve Earl, Tom Petty and more. If you are coming along why not get yourselves along early and enjoy Bad Bob Bates solo set from 14:00. Sunday 24th September sees me at the legendary Hartlepool Steelies club with Southern Incorporated, our southern rock band. Kick off for this one is 17:30. Lots of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, and more…..😎

I’ve been concerned at placing my NS NXT in the back of the van in its flimsy gig bag, and no more so than when I arrived at a recent gig to find it lying almost at the other end of the van from where I’d put it. I priced up a custom flightcase from a few flightcase manufacturers but as I also transport my EUB in my car, I wasn’t really keen on the standard aluminium riveted ball cornered standard cases so started looking for an alternative. I came across the Peli Storm case range which includes one the right length (the iM3410) but was slightly put off by the eye watering price 😮 But a quick check on eBay showed a guy in Wales selling four of these cases brand new. Anyway, after some very friendly communications a deal was done for one at just over a quarter of the price of one online, and it arrived today. I’ve spent the last hour cutting the foam inserts to size and ended up with this. The case seems like it’ll be strong enough to handle life on the road, and I’ll feel a lot happier putting this in the back of the van.