BigRedX

Depends on the band and depends on the gig. I play in two goth/post-punk originals bands and these days I rarely have to do any promotion. Most of the gigs my bands play are well organised, and run by established promoters on the scene. We're often supporting much better known bands who will be the ones pulling in the majority of the audience. We'll put a couple of posts up on the bands' social media pages but that's really all that we need to do. It will probably be a different story if you're playing covers in a pub.

Hurtsfall have two gigs in December. The first supporting Skeletal Family at The Lending Room in Leeds on Saturday 3rd December, part of the Carpe Noctum series of gigs The second at Shakespeare's in Sheffield for "In The Black Midwinter Festival" when we will be playing on Sunday evening 18th December.

Did you try TecAmp or EICH? IIRC the name TecAmp is now owned by some US concern and have almost nothing to do with the original company. The designer of the amp is Thomas Eich who now runs EICH Amplification, and he is more likely to be able to help.

That's pity as this was a terrific sounding amp when it was working properly. I only sold it back to you because I have moved to an ampless setup. However, during the time I owned it, I found it was somewhat temperamental regarding the electricity supply it was presented with. On 3 or 4 occasions at gigs it went into some sort of "protect" mode and could not be persuaded to produce any more sound for the rest of the evening. Plugging it back in at home the following day would always result in it working perfectly. Have you tried getting in touch with Thomas Eich? I believe that he will still repair old TecAmp/Tech Soundystems gear if he has the parts.

When I was playing Dad-rock covers I could have got away with a 2 string bass tuned to E and A for most of the songs. I once took my Atlansia Solitaire single string fretless bass to a practice just to see how useful it was in a "real-world" situation. IIRC the fretless aspect was more of a drawback than the fact it only had a single string.

I suspect because there are no/less problems with DHL on mainland Europe they have been given the contract for deliveries and returns in the UK too. Certainly pre 2021 I haven't come across any problems with DHL, it all seems to have gone wrong in the last two years. Thomann obviously regard the UK market as something to be worth bothering with, hence them including out all the VAT and import duties in the sale price for UK customers. However a supplier is only as good as their weakest link, and right now DHL in the UK appears to be a very weak link. They need to sort out their pick-up policies for returns, because a lot of what Thomann sell are large items and these seem to be the problem for the current system, or the contract needs to be given to another carrier for the UK. And part of the problem may well lie with us, the consumers. If there is an issue with returning an item to Thomann because of DHL's pickup points, let both Thomann and DHL know, in writing as well as by telephone. If we don't complain about bad service nothing will get done about it. And it does work. I have had problems with the pickup/drop off point for another carrier service, and on both occasions I have complained to both the carrier (UPS) and to the two companies who chose to use them. The result of this is that this particular shop is no longer part of the UPS network.

And what exactly is wrong with keytars?

It's only used for the filter sequencing functions and goes through one of the effects send/return of the Helix and so can be treated like any other Helix module, and is also connected via MIDI for patch change and MIDI clock. For the band I use it with, we have computer controlled backing so this provides the MIDI clock for tempo control. So far I've only used it on one track which we don't currently play live, but the plan is to start doing more with it because it's easier to bring to gigs than a additional synthesiser keyboard.

Also something struck me when looking at the photos the Rob OReilly bass the both this instrument and the IR MIDI bass have bolt-on necks. Why? The neck is an integral part of the pitch detection system, it's not as if you can take it off and replace it with another one! Does anyone know what happens if you try and remove the neck from one of these basses? Can you? is there a connector in the neck pocket for the fret-sensing wiring? Could you fit a shim if it was required?

Most of the time their service is great, although I have always found it somewhat on the slow side (even before the UK left the EU). However note that Thomann have form for sending out returned items as "new" and getting stuff back to them because it is faulty etc. has always IME been less straight-forward than it should be and has got noticeably worse since 2021. Until they have the UK returns process sorted out (whereby they always offer the option for DHL to pick it up direct from the customer rather than going through one of the "drop-off" points) I don't think I'd want to chance it buying anything large from them.

Another boring J-Style bass with an even uglier headstock. And very vague on the actual pitch detection mechanism.

Thanks. Same as the Squier then. What bridge do you have fitted in these photos?

Two points: 1. As has been said the IR bass uses fret sensing to derive the pitch information which makes it much faster and more accurate than the alternative pitch-to-MIDI systems. 2. It's not a MIDI output on the Godin basses but a 13-pin connector that can be used to drive a separately bought pitch to MIDI convertor. The problem with pitch to MIDI is that it's slow and the conversion speed is dependant upon the pitch of the note being converted - the lower note, the slower the system will be to identify it. The very best of these systems require at least one and half cycles of the waveform in order to identify the pitch. Most of the time they require more, and they also demand a very clean and precise playing technique in order to get the best out of them. Low E on a bass is 41.2Hz which means that at the VERY BEST a pitch to MIDI system will take 36ms to correctly identify the note. That's slap-back echo territory and a noticeable delay. And that is before you factor additional delays caused by the conversion to actual MIDI data and transmission to a MIDI device. This why pitch to MIDI on its own is unworkable, and why the Industrial Radio system is the only realistic system available and so sought-after by those who can afford it and are prepared to wait for their bass to be built.

That looks better already! Out of Interest what is the spacing between the centre of the two E strings at the bridge?

That's exactly what I was trying to say. When you stand 10 feet away from your cabs your brain knows this due to the "ambiance" of the sound and the fact that you can see you are standing some distance from the source, and somehow everything is OK. If you are standing right next to your rig, or even worse you are using IEM and the signal is also delayed by 10ms it sounds all wrong, because the signal should be instantaneous, but it's not.

Helix Floor. The only thing likely to replace it will be whatever flagship device Line6 come up with next. Alternatively the Linn Adrenalinn, the only effect I use that the Helix can't replicate, but it doesn't spend as much time processing my bass as the Helix does.

One band is currently booking dates for a mini tour in March - we have 4 definite gigs lined up already. The other has nothing finalised, but several potential potential gigs coming up in the new year. So far 2023 doesn't look any different to any other non-lockdown year.

If you scroll through all the pictures you'll see that it has a suitably large neck plate - the body extends out behind the heel. Besides wood and proper screws are wonderfully strong materials. They make houses out of them. Not every instrument has to be as clunky as a Telecaster or Precession Bass.

Except in the real world it doesn't really work like that. Unfortunately for us the human brain is very good at a subconscious level at distinguishing between sounds that are delayed because they are coming from some distance away and those that are just being delayed. Even when the delay times are very small. That's why latency of over 10ms, caused by AD/DA conversions and wireless transmission, will be noticeable, and for many musicians completely distracting, whereas having the sound delayed by the same amount due to the listener being further away from the source is not as off-putting.

It's completely Thomann's fault. They have picked a delivery company, that in the UK at least, are incapable of efficiently handling returns for a lot of the size of parcels Thomann send out.

That's why I play as much as possible even if it isn't "practicing" in the traditional sense. I also agree about being able to kick straight in when playing - especially at a gig. I have been in bands previously where the other musicians want to play something "easy" as the first song so they can "warm up". Often this isn't a particularly riveting song from an audience PoV. IMO you should kick off with your second best song (the best one is saved for the set closer) no matter how hard it might be to play. Practice so that you can go straight into this song from cold, and if you really need to "warm up" first do it back stage or in a quiet corner of the venue. One of my band's opening song features a really complex bass line as the main riff, but I have made sure that I can always play from cold no matter what. The set is all the better for being to open with this song.

That's very nice... However I never look at it as a move away or towards one instrument or another. I've played guitar, bass and synths in various bands at various times. In fact every time I ended up playing guitar or synth in a band it's because I originally joined or auditioned as a bass player. In the end it's all music.

Most of the bands I liked in my youth didn't have any "legendary" playing in them even at the height of their popularity.

If that's the case I'd kick up a stink on their social media, and keep doing it until they sort out someone to come and pick it up from you personally.

There are import taxes and VAT on it. It's just that Thomann have include those in the price. Last time I had to return something to Thomann (before the UK left the EU) DHL came to my door to pick it up. Can you not get them to do this? Alternatively can you not go directly to your local DHL depot and have it taken from there?