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Everything posted by Kiwi
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In view of a very heavy gigging schedule coming up over Summer, I'm going to get a light weight set-up based around my EBS Neo212 cab. Besides which I need space in my flat again so my GK RB700II combo AND GK 210RBH cab are up for sale. The combo is rated at 380w at 8ohm and 460w at 4 ohm with an extension cab. It has been well gigged but never treated harshly or dropped because it gets loaded in while strapped to a tri-truck trolley. It's proven to be incredibly reliable. There are some scuffs on the plastic corners of the combo where its moved on the nylon carpet in the back of my car but otherwise the amp is in superb condition. The rubber wheels have lost their shells and run on the plastic wheels, this is a manufacturing defect and covered by the warranty. Let me know if you want replacement wheels (which are going to do the same anyway) and I'll contact GK. I fell in love with it after trying one borrowed for a gig a few years back. What I liked most about it was that the mids were very clear and easy to hear because the amp has very sound design principles which allow great versatility without things getting over complicated. The lows are huge and the separate tweeter volume and gives fantastic control over the attack, particularly if you're a pick player. It can easily compete with offerings from manufacturers at twice the price. This amp is great value for money. As well as the huge amounts of clean power, the amp is also [i]designed[/i] to sound growly. There's boost control which creates a very mild overdrive in the lows and mids without losing crispness. So if you want a super clean and powerful sound with superb attack then this is the amp for you. Plus if you want more growl, just dial it in! I've also played gigs of up to 400 people and NEVER had a problem with being loud enough on stage. If they made a version in light weight spruce ply with neo cones, I would be keeping it. If the sheer volume wasn't enough, the wedge shape makes it very easy to hear yourself on stage. The speaker is angled to point directly at your ears so no more situations where your knees get deafened! Controls include: DI level (plus ground lift and post/pre eq switch), input socket, -14dB pad switch, mute button, volume (aka gain), contour (mid scoop), presence (add hifi sparkle), treble, high mids (VERY useful), low mids (VERY useful), bass, boost (adds growl), tweeter volume, tweeter cut switch, woofer volume, woofer highs cut switch. As you can see, all the controls are very simple yet versatile and focussed on real world needs of the average gigging bassist. You can plug normal cabs in the back of the combo as well but you won't be able to take advantage of the biamp facility that allows you to control tweeter volume. I've already sold one of these to Vipa who plays his Alembic Rogue 5 and Yamaha BBNE2 through it and he loves it. Biamping means you get TWO power amps in this combo. Did I mention value for money? There's a review at Musicians Friend here: [url="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?doc_id=82026&src=3SOSWXXA"]http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?do...mp;src=3SOSWXXA[/url] Apparently GK were the first to introduce biamping to bass amps! £350 for the combo, no trades thanks, the buyer is welcome to collect or we can arrange to meet within 1 hour of London for petrol money. There's no realistic way these are going to ship economically, I'm afraid.
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[quote name='Ba55me15ter' post='196832' date='May 12 2008, 12:11 AM']As regards PA, I would say invest in finding a good, local hire company. Running a good rig and more importantly getting the best sound out of it is a huge investment in time, money and effort.[/quote] We made enough in deposits before our first gig that we ended up buying our own £4000 1k Mackie rig. Hiring didn't make any financial sense to us. Yes we have to hump our own PA around, but we've got a roadie now as well to help out and the PA gets stored in the garage belonging to our percussionist. We also run a pair of light stands with lighting controllers and a cheap projector which casts psychadelic patterns on the wall behind us. Looks fantastic!
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[quote name='bilbo230763' post='196940' date='May 12 2008, 09:54 AM']The band taht recorded 'Mr Benn' has some top notch players in it, including Kenny Wheeler. To the Producers credit, the musicians are listed on the end credits. I once saw Alphonso Johnson's name on a US kid programme.[/quote] Abe Laboriel ended up writing all the incidental music for the final season of CHiPs. Apparently the producers dumped the orchestra and just left him in the studio to get on with it!
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Looks like the action on his bass is pretty low, I haven't seen many players with that kind of set up. The 5 string sounds like a high C? [attachment=8611:Renaud_G...__action.jpg] There's barely a still shot in that entire video to try and keep things visually interesting. He must have had cameras swooping around him all day like king kong with biplanes. EDIT: Just saw a production shot included at the end of the clip - 1 camera on a boom swooping around!
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[quote name='Joao_Moura' post='196870' date='May 12 2008, 06:49 AM']The problem is that most bass players just follow the guitar, and don't come up with basslines that add that special flavor to the song.[/quote] Thats a pretty sweeping statement as it stands. Presumably you're talking about a specific style of music? Or does your assertion include jazz, funk, soul, etc. where the bass actually plays a distinct and different role to any other instrument? Personally, I wouldn't get so worked up about it. Who cares what someone writes about in some hillybilly rag? No, really, who actually cares? St Petersburg, Florida? The only thing St Petersburg has credibility for is pelicans that dive bomb swimmers, giving them 30 stitches in the head!
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[quote name='OldGit' post='196787' date='May 11 2008, 10:57 PM']It is in a Local Shop, perchance?[/quote] Oh yes, and so many precious things! There's lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!!!
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I live for funky music and so do most of the punters dancing to our music. If they're enjoying it and I'm enjoying then thats all that matters to me.
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[quote name='OldGit' post='196561' date='May 11 2008, 03:51 PM']Dear Sir Norman, Please have a band on your design consultancy panel for buildings that will be used for gigs. Thanks CK[/quote] LOL, yeah. I didn't even mention the lack of power sockets. For where we were, there was only one pair of sockets in the floor and another pair under the raised shelf that ran around the periphery of the floor area. Certainly wasn't a building designed for big functions. Actually, Sir Norm's practice has its critics. I don't think I'd be happy working there. Speaking of which, I have a new job any way. Woooo!
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Oops, permissions updated accordingly. Sorry!
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I'd be happy to put you in touch with our Percussionist/Manager who seems to have done a pretty good job with our band, if you like.
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Here's a wee vid of the venue while we were setting up. I've got one of us sound checking where the acoustic issues are easy to hear so I might splice that vid into this post later when its finished uploading. EDIT: Intro to Ain't Nobody
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[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='196457' date='May 11 2008, 12:07 PM']What kind of audience was it?[/quote] Wedding party of a surprisingly diverse range of ages. We had a request to play River Deep again from the grandfather of the bride so we obliged. The best man told a story that the groom was a huge Michael Jackson fan had actually ran through Madison Square Garden on their stag night dressed up like Michael Jackson complete with rubber face mask! The more that the bride and groom got into it, the more everyone else did as well. Thats happened at quite a few gigs so we might note that for situations in the future where the punters are a little reluctant to get on the dancefloor. Apparently we're only the second band to ever play here.
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This was the view from our dressing room looking east on the 37th floor yesterday afternoon. I swear this is the most dramatic sky I've ever seen over London, made me think of a Constable painting. The load in was truly horrendous. The entire PA, all the amps, drum kit, percussion and lighting had to be loaded into the goods lift from the loading bay, taken up to the 34th floor then shifted through half the kitchen area to another lift that went from 34 to 39. THEN we had to lug everything up 1 flight of granite steps to the 40th floor before we could actually set up. The acoustics were terrible as you might imagine with glass dome, but at least there weren't any standing waves where we were. (Although frequencies from all parts of the space did get reflected into the centre of the space very effectively. Made me wonder if the dome was nearly parabolic in shape). Having said that, we did actually hear ourselves a lot better than some of the conservatories we've played in.
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Was the venue you played long and narrow? There might have been issues with standing waves. Is the cab front or rear ported? (I can't remember on the one I used to own)
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Well they had the guy who made them on breakfast TV and he gave a demo of the guitar and one of the horns.
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Welcome aboard They're very bright basses, I installed an EMG BTC pre on the one I used to have, and had to max the bass to get satisfying levels of warmth out of it. Those unwanted harmonics might be due to your technique maybe?
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[quote name='Ham fisted Bass' post='195478' date='May 9 2008, 03:10 PM']I'm sorry....what does this mean?[/quote] Beats me, I heard it somewhere. Probably a bit of verbal diarrhea.
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[quote name='Ham fisted Bass' post='195451' date='May 9 2008, 02:33 PM']I don't leave home without one; SWR Electric Blue - two words and is SWR short for anything? ......After regaining his composure Ham fisted Bass has switched amps checked DI levels, and has missed most of the last number; now with his 'back up amp' employed as his main amp and the gig has finished; when does he get his 'main amp' fixed? - even if it is done under warranty, with a helpful distributor and 'bendy' manufacturer what is the lead time for him to see the repair carried out given that the manufacturer is servicing his largest (home) market....[/quote] Your perspective differs to so many others here, I suspect. Hey if life give you sh*t then its time to make sh*t juice... ...er, or something like that.
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[quote name='Ham fisted Bass' post='195413' date='May 9 2008, 01:37 PM']Fair point any manufactured item will fail at some point - but it's when the 'product' fails mid gig that the good warranty point flounders. At that point, the warranty matters not[/quote] I'm sure Mark will stand by any warranty on the Shuttles purchased from him.
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[quote name='andy67' post='195313' date='May 9 2008, 11:37 AM']hmmm, sounds good! there seems to be quite a groundswell for ol' rockers returning!?[/quote] Old rockers never die, they just smell funny from all the embalming fluid they've consumed.
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[quote name='BigRedX' post='194911' date='May 8 2008, 06:56 PM']Interesting looking instruments. Has he made any basses before? I couldn't see anything in the gallery section...[/quote] I don't know that he's made any basses yet but he has already demonstrated an understanding of how important a hard fingerboard is for a fretless. He suggested Australian ironwood but thats obviously not a NZ native. He does have an old kowhai fence post he's saved which might do the job if the puriri isn't up to the job, or there's some black maire as well. All of these species (so far, apart from black maire) are indigenous to where I grew up in Canterbury as well. The dramatic topography of NZ means that there are often quite sudden changes between ecological communities.
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[quote name='OldGit' post='194240' date='May 7 2008, 10:25 PM']CrazyKiwi has a smiffy [/quote] a smiffy or two, used to be three once upon a time...
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My parents dropped me an email the other day about this bloke who lives by himself in a small community in the South Island and makes acoustic and solid body guitars from NZ native timbers. I've had a dream of owning a bass made from NZ native timbers for quite a few years (and the equivalent in english timbers too). So I checked out his website here: [url="http://www.singingwood.co.nz/"]http://www.singingwood.co.nz/[/url] I guess you could say he's a bit like a NZ Carl Thompson but waaaaaaay better value and probably a bit more savvy when it comes to tonal character of timbers because of his acoustic experience. Having said that, I'm not aware that he's made any basses yet out of the 80 instruments he's made in the last 7 years but he certainly seems committed to the job and delivering a good instrument. So after a quick flurry of emails, I'm about to take a leap of faith and put a deposit down on a creation of his with the following spec: 6 string 36" scale fretless laminated neck bright sounding but resonant inspired by the Fodera Beez Elite single cut shape (but may not necessarily be a direct copy) semi hollow body All NZ native timber (agreed mostly rimu construction with a puriri fingerboard) Creative Theme : love of the NZ landscape His trademark is at least one or more inlaid leaves around the instruments he produces. The exchange rate is still reasonably strong at the moment so it seemed like a very good deal. Delivery date isn't likely before Christmas so there's plenty of time to finalise things. Luckily I accepted offered a job offfer yesterday too!
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Lovely bit of mahogany that!