BigRedX

Electrics should be very reliable these days. They tend to fail either when they are very new due to manufacturing defects or very old as the more suspect able components wear out. In between so long as you don't abuse them they should be fine. In 40 years of gigging I've had 2 amp problems. One was due to manufacturing defects (Ashdown Superfly) and the other from user error - I stupidly plugged both sides of a stereo amp into the same cab. IME mechanical things are much more likely to go wrong.

My ideal back-up bass would be identical to my main bass in every way except for the colour.

IME it depends on the type of band and whether you need a car for other aspects of your life. Covers bands from my personal experience of being in a couple and from what I've read hear do tend to be very insular. Every member is responsible for his or her own gear and each turns up to gigs in their own vehicle. For originals bands it's entirely different. For a start few have to worry about lugging PA and lights about (I've done only a couple of originals gigs in the past 10 years where the band has had to organise their own PA and lights because the venue didn't have any). Secondly any serious originals band playing outside of their home town will have a band van along with a driver/roadie/merch seller so individual transport isn't a requirement, and local gigs can almost always be accessed by public transport or taxi. Also IME originals bands tend to be a lot more accommodating if non-driver members can bring something else important to the band such as free rehearsal space, storage for band gear, free design and printing of posters and flyers etc. And it very much depends on whether or not you need a vehicle for the non-band aspects of your life. I've managed being in gigging bands for almost 40 years now and I still don't own a car. If I did it would only be used for band activities, so my income form the band would have to completely cover the purchase and running costs in order for me to justify it. I've never needed on for my work - before going self-employed and working from home I never lived more than 30 minutes walk from my place of work, the exercise certainly did me good, and on the few occasions when one of my colleagues gave me lift him, rush-hour traffic meant if I saved at least 10 minutes on my journey we were doing very well! The last time I looked into buying a suitable vehicle for gigging, I found I could get a year's worth of taxis to rehearsals and local gigs before I had covered the cost of buying and insuring said vehicle let alone the other running costs.

15 years ago before I started work on transferring my complete CD and record collection on my computer I spent a week comparing different encoding rates and listening to the results through both my HiFi and home studio systems. I discovered the following: 1. By far the most important thing was the quality of the digital file encoding. Ideally I would have used uncompressed AIFF or WAV files, but back then the 1TB hard drive I had bought to store all my music files on had cost me a small fortune, so I was going to have to go compressed. 2. Using the built-in DAC on my PowerMac G4 I could hear an improvement in quality as I increased the BR or the MP3 file until I reached 192BR. Higher bit rates didn't sound any better. However when I listened to same files though the MotU converters in my studio system I could hear improvements all the way through 320BR to uncompressed files which were by far the best quality. So the BR used on the MP3 files makes a big difference until you go beyond 192BR after which you also need a better quality DAC in order to appreciate the benefits of higher bit rates or uncompressed audio files. Everything else (such as the amp and speakers) is IMO entirely subjective, so long as you have something half-way decent, and when for the past 20 years you have been able to get good HiFi speakers and amps for around £100 each there is no excuse to not to already have something perfectly serviceable. Personally I don't like sub-woofers. IMO they sound artificial.

Time to ditch the MP3s and other lossy audio formats. One of the reasons you may be having trouble hearing the bass is because lossy audio compression works by removing parts of the sound that are supposedly being masked by others. Often this means details that we as musicians may specifically be listening for are being removed because something more important (louder) is happening at the same time. In particular bass instruments in time with the much louder drums. The MP3 format dates from a time when hard drive storage was small and expensive and a fast internet connection meant you had 512K board band as opposed to 56K dial up. These days storage is stupidly cheap and for the majority the internet is plenty fast enough to allow real-time streaming of uncompressed CD quality audio.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1504263599' post='3363737'] I'd say there's a bit more to it than that. [/quote] Not a lot though... it's got a second coil on the bridge pickup and enhanced upper fret access which makes the body look a little awkward IMO. Other than that it's just a J-Bass copy.

Do we need yet another J-Bass copy?

Two things that you should consider before "sealing" off your rack case. 1. Airflow. many rack units even if they don't have fans or heat sinks rely on the design of the rack case to direct the airflow over them to keep cool. Blanking off the unused rack slots might prevent this. At the very least consider vented blanking panels rather than plain ones. 2. No matter how well you think you've got everything fitted and secured, eventually things will work loose, and an open U or two can be invaluable when trying to find out exactly what has come undone when one or more items in your rack suddenly stop working for no apparent reason.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1504084662' post='3362504'] My concern when leaving an originals band would be to have some form of written contract regarding material I had a hand in writing. All it takes is for someone to come along in 10 years time and nick a sample off whatever website you've used, and use it to make a recording that makes millions and you're left high and dry. It's a slim chance but could always happen. [/quote] Which is why you should join the PRS and get all the songs you have had a hand in writing registered and your percentage contribution noted.

The vast majority of interviews with bassists published in International Musician and Recording World magazine during the 70s would contain a section where they would describe what they did when they got a new Fender bass which would almost always involve removing the bridge and pick-up covers and replacing the standard fitted flat-wound stings with Rotosound round-wounds.

I was very nearly the bass player in a band with John Bonham's daughter. Our original singer had quit the band and since we were feeling ambitious and flush with money we put display ads in the classified sections of NME and Melody Maker (mid to late 90s). It certainly brought the nutters out. However in amongst all the demos from complete no-hopers were a couple of really good ones, one of which was from a Zoe Bonham. Unfortunately as much as we liked her songs and recording, she wasn't sufficiently impressed by what we were doing to want to join the band. I ended up giving her some advice on her home studio and that was it.

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1503661821' post='3360061'] Fender made a five WAAAAY before that. Also a six. Both in the 60s. [/quote] But not a low-B Five string. Also the 60s Fender 5-string had the upper frets missing so it had exactly the same range as their 4-string basses.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1503496496' post='3358706'] When I had an 11 year old he was listening to Pink Floyd and learning Comfortably Numb; but at 23 he's saying 'actually, Pink Floyd are often a bit sh*t'. [/quote] As someone who was getting seriously into music whilst Pink Floyd were producing some of their best known works I've always thought that they were mostly "A bit sh*t".

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1503563760' post='3359117'] And no one recommending drum'n'bass. [/quote] Drum n Bass is so late 90s...

If it works as you want, there is absolutely no reason to update any computer software. If the applications you are using don't run under the next version of the operating system then [b]DON'T UPDATE IT[/b]. I still run Logic 9 under El Capitan. Both do everything In need, and therefore I see no reason to muck about with updates to either.

I used to own an Overwater Original fretless 5-string bass that was (probably) the first ever 5-string basses made by Overwater, and potentially one of the oldest 5-string (low B) basses in existence. Having been made in 1983, although I know there are older 5-string basses, I've not come across anyone owns or has owned an older one, so there can't be that many. Before me it was owned and used by Michael Féat who as well as being a member of Streetwalkers (featuring Roger Chapman ex-Family) was a prominent session bassist appearing on numerous well-known albums in the 80s and I was told that if there was any fretless bass on an album he played on there was a good chance it was played on that Overwater.

[quote name='oldslapper' timestamp='1503484855' post='3358570'] Musical answer... "everything" Band situation... "everyone else" [/quote] This

[quote name='lowregisterhead' timestamp='1503221695' post='3356483'] It can be a minefield, for dep and depee(?) alike. There's a story I heard many years ago about a drummer who was asked to dep on an originals gig in a pub up in central London for the paltry sum, even then, of £50. The band leader sent him a cassette tape of the songs (as I said, it was a few years back) but with a busy schedule, he only made time to listen to it in his car on the way to the gig. It was fairly straight forward stuff, so apart from one or two hiccups, he discharged his duties quite well, or so he thought. Afterwards, the band leader took him to task about these and other minor infractions. Feeling aggrieved at what he perceived to be nit-picking, when asked to explain himself, the drummer said "Well, I gave it the fifty quid listen, didn't I?!?"[/quote] IMO if he wasn't prepared to do a proper job for £50 then he shouldn't have taken the gig in the first place. If that had happened to my band I'd be naming ans shaming the drummer in question.

So how tiny exactly is that space? The ceiling looks very low too.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1503403973' post='3357911'] Does it matter, as long as it sounds as required..? [/quote] No of course not. But it always amuses me whenever musicians say that their amp is set flat. What it normally means is that they like the "baked-in" sound of that piece of gear when the tone controls are set to 12 o'clock for active circuits and maximum for passive tone tone stacks. Every piece of gear colours your sound in some way or another.

[quote name='Wolverinebass' timestamp='1503351257' post='3357581'] No dude, you need an amp or pre-amp that has midi recallable settings. Then it won't matter if you move the dials in transit as it won't make any difference when the patch is called up. Come to think of it, if Alex is reading this, do midi pots on your amp and you'd keep the analogue signal path but have the ability to save the settings. [/quote] This is what I have with my BassPod. When I do amp sharing gigs I always tell the other bassist(s) that they are welcome to fiddle with the controls on my BassPod if they need to, because whatever they do when I select the patch for our first song everything goes back to what I want without even needing to check any of the settings.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1503340020' post='3357415'] Bass - Amp (set flat) [/quote] How do you know it's set flat?

BassPod XT

How big is the room and how are you intending the ventilate it? Remember that conventional ventilation is very much at cross-purposes with sound insulation!

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1503062064' post='3355430'] Any pics of the rest of the stage set up ? [/quote] In the Talkbass thread - linked above. The rest of it isn't anywhere near as interesting, although AFAICS the drummer appears to play standing up behind a conventional kit.