BigRedX

I haven't modded any of my instruments since the mid 90s. I still have a 70s Ibanez Firebird copy in bits because I just haven't had the time to sort it out. These days there are so many variations for guitars and basses that it should be possible to find exactly what you want without need to go changing things. Last time I looked at buying something for the express purpose of altering to exactly my spec, once I worked out how long it would take me at my freelance rate it would have been cheaper to get something custom made.

Hopefully on 2nd December Vision Video at The Bodega in Nottingham. It looks as though the gig is still going ahead despite having parted ways with their synth player recently.

The best advise is to never by anything music-orientated for a musician, because unless you know them extremely well you are likely to get it wrong. I've been given no end of useless musically related tat by family members because I play "guitar".

I've never found the need to fiddle with EQ at a gig, but for the last 30 years I've been using programmable multi-effects where each song has it own set of patches that have been carefully crafted to produce the right sound and sit the bass in the right pace in the mix of other instruments. If that sound needs some additional EQ FoH to compensate for the room (although there are limits as to how useful this is as room problems are both frequency and time based and trying to apply a frequency-only fix only works in certain areas and can actually make the sound worse in others) that is the domain of the PA engineer. On stage it would be nice to have a perfect sound, but until my band move to in-ears, I'll settle for being able to tell that I am in time and in tune with the rest of the band and not be so precious about it. I'm also of the opinion that over all the whole band performance is better, if I play the song with slightly the wrong sound, than if I stop playing to fiddle with the EQ.

The sponge isn't under the G string which is responsible for the trebly parts of the solo.

Not for me. I sold all my amps, cabs and other effects when I bought my Helix so I've got nothing to "capture", and the things that do the same job on the Helix sound loads better already. The added facilities I'd want - MIDI triggered filters and gates should be achievable with a firmware upgrade.

But not for a massive amount. I suspect that they typical Basschat member would still need to take out extra insurance just cover the equipment they use at gigs.

Passive. For me there is little point to active basses: I have superior tone-shaping facilities elsewhere in my signal chain. I use a wireless system so I already have something that does buffering of the signal from the bass. I have a set and forget attitude to on-board controls. Most of the time it's everything full on and let my Helix produce the sound(s) I want. The only active circuits I have ever found useful are those that either allow individual tone shaping for each pickup or do something that can't be done better elsewhere in the signal chain such as the the ACG filter pre-amp.

IME the amps (and cabs) that weren't designed for bass sound great because there's no real world constraints on having to cope with low frequencies at gig volumes with a modelled version. I rarely use any amp or cab models in my Helix sounds but when I do nearly all of them are ones that were designed primarily for guitar.

No you don't. Just sing. IME singing puts the least number of barriers between "intent" and "performance". And when you have sung something that you like, play it on the bass.

More information about the two Hurtsfall gigs this weekend: 1. In The Bl4ck Midwinter Festival, Saturday 23rd November at Shakespeare's in Sheffield; Hurtsfall will be on at 8.15pm 2. Rock Against Racism Weekend, Sunday 24th November at Saltbox in Nottingham; Hurtsfall will be on at 3.00pm

The last time I saw Squeeze live, Jools Holland was still their keyboard player. I was in the tech crew for the university and helped load the gear in for the gig. His rig included all the heavy keyboards of the time - Yamaha CS80 synth and Yamaha CP80 electric grand piano.

It's all subjective.

The neck would have to be 50mm or 2" shorter than a conventional 34" neck for this to work without needing to move the bridge. Since the photos show the neck to one fret less than a standard Fender P-Bass neck that won't be the case.

Your typical Basschat poster has largely outgrown the typical bricks and mortar music store.