BigRedX

I have to agree that you are being too hard on Peavey and Carlsbro. On of my bass heroes from the early 80s used a Carlsbro 1x15 bass combo (the green version) and got a fantastic sound out of his Aria Pro II SB1000 through it. My rig for the whole of the 90s was a mixture of Carlsbro (1 x 15 cab and 350 + 350 stereo power amp), Peavey (BassFex and Spectrum Filter) combined with a home made 2 x 8 cab, and was totally reliable and great sounding. IMO the 70s was far worse if you couldn't afford anything with a well-know name as not only did it sound rubbish but was completely unreliable with it.

Which is why I suggested using the powers of the DMCA take down notice. Not only does it cost you nothing, but it is normally acted upon with 24 hours - especially if you send it to the company hosting the web site rather than the owner of the site.

Unfortunately you are mistaken. If that was the case recording studios wouldn't need lots of expensive acoustic treatment in their control rooms, they could simply slap a 31-band graphic equaliser across the monitor output and everything would be fine! Room acoustics are both a time domain problem and a frequency domain problem - in that they are caused by standing and reflected waveforms creating peaks and troughs in the sound at different frequencies, but also just as importantly at different positions in the room. Because of this, while it might be possible to make things sound better in one part of the room by adjusting the EQ, you are just as likely to make it much worse in others at the same time. You also are just as likely to improve matters by repositioning your speakers or at least changing the direction in which they are pointing. As you can see and hear trying to fix it with a frequency domain only solution is not going to be completely successful. One venue I've played in is shaped in such a way that the sound (particularly the bottom end) is focused away from the stage and into the audience area. On stage everything sounds weedy and lifeless with no real bass, but if we were to EQ to compensate we would be subjecting the audience to a very nasty bass-heavy mush of sound, which wouldn't be very pleasant for them at all. No amount of EQ adjustment alone is going make the room sound good for both the performers on the stage and the audience in the main part of the room. In another venue, the biggest improvement we can make to the overall sound is to draw the curtains over the large windows that occupies nearly all of one wall. Immediately everything sounds much better and there has been no need to adjust the EQ at all! Remember that the sound in nearly every venue improves vastly as soon as a reasonably sized audience is present. These people haven't been sneakily adjusting your EQ to achieve this! They do it because their bodies break up the reflection patterns in the room that have been causing problems.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1488309412' post='3247808'] Have you tried speaking to the other acts from that night? After all, you're not the only act in that same boat. If you need to take action you could possibly share the legal costs. [/quote] Which is why I suggested the DMCA take down route as there are no costs involved.

Those of you that follow Basschat's composition competition will already have heard [url=https://soundcloud.com/bigredx/bigredx-september]this piece that I created[/url] which was built entirely out of sounds generated by interpreting the data from the JPEG image, that was supposed to inspire the piece, as a wave form. Nothing even vaguely resembling a musical instrument was used in the production of this track.

Peterson StroboRack of course. But the built-in tuner on my BassPod XT copes with the low B with ease too.

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1488284354' post='3247483'] This was a big hit some 44 years ago. All done on a Moog I believe. Not a 'real instrument' to be heard. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX_lnmb1Moo[/media] [/quote] Don't drums count as "real"?

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1488275808' post='3247398'] No not yet, which is why we thought we'd try a more friendly approach. If he ends up publishing and charging then we're in to a different phase. [/quote] Does the promoter already have previous live gigs up on his web site? IME although they eventually come up with the goods, the MU's legal advice runs at comparatively glacial speeds, especially when you are dealing with the immediacy of the on-line world. So if possible I'd be finding out now who runs his web hosting and his payments and be ready to hit them with DMCA takes down notices just in case the friendly approach doesn't work or is ignored. However as more time goes by and the recordings haven't appeared anywhere, I'd be slightly less worried. If he doesn't have them up before the end of the week I would have thought anyone in the audience who was interested in buying them will have forgotten all about it.

[quote name='HengistPod' timestamp='1488208933' post='3246793'] As a final note, I like the 3-point bridge. It's part of what a Thunderbird is all about. I tried the Hipshot bridge but found it to be an enormous slab of metal which made very little difference to my sound. So it lives in a box now. I like to feel the 3-pointer under the edge of my hand, which is now suitably calloused on the fleshy bit at the base of my pinky. [/quote] Technically it's not. The 3-point bridge was only introduced with the 1976 re-issue model. An original 60s Thunderbirds will have the separate 2-point bridge and tail-piece.

Is the gig recording actually available to buy at the moment?

I'm not as in touch with the goth scene outside of the UK as I used to be, but it seems to me that there is something very wrong here, because IME niche genres like goth have a small but very loyal set of followers, and while playing that kind of music is unlikely to make you famous you should be able to attract a big enough following to make the band self-sustaining and not be playing to audiences costing of friends and family only. Where can I find the video of your band?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1488216401' post='3246891'] I like playing bass in a 'real' band, but anyone who says producing electronic music is in some way 'easier' or 'unreal' is talking out of their arse. [/quote] Completely agree. I would suggest that anyone who doesn't think that electronic or sample-based music isn't "real" should have a go at creating some of their own, or if that's beyond them, then at least make an arrangement/cover of their favourite song. You can get all the kit you need for less than the cost of an average bass guitar so there's no excuse for not having a go at proving me wrong. It's not like it was when I started getting into synthesisers in the early 80s when you'd need at least £200 to get one cheap monophonic synth.

Cool. Let me know when the CD is out. I'll buy a copy.

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1488111931' post='3245875'] Singer has asked MU for their view and was contacting the promoter for it was she that booked the gig. I'm catching up with her this afternoon so I'll find out the score. Thanks for all the advice! [/quote] And?

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1488120584' post='3245996'] YEEEEESSSSSSSS! Don't get me wrong, the other stuff is all well and good but metalflake is proper lush. Tell me it will have a matching headstock! Please! [/quote] I think it's funny that some many of us have got so used to the idea that the neck of a bass (or guitar) will be finished natural rather than matching the rest of the instrument that a matching headstock (and only the front) is something unusual!

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1488055568' post='3245535'] Yes, sir [/quote] Excellent, and I take it you have already submitted a set list for the gig in question? As a PRS member you can also get performance royalties form any YouTube videos that might get posted by members of the audience. Also through your record label (or more likely Aggregator if you don't have a major record label deal) you can either get YouTube performance videos you don't approve of taken down, or alternative cover in ads which you take a share of. BTW what is happening with your original problem?

[quote name='largo' timestamp='1488052846' post='3245486'] Either buy the vintage Jazz you're really after & keep your fingers crossed OR buy a decent used bass for a decent price, if you like it great, if not sell it on & try another... I did this for a while & reckon I broke even over 7 or 8 basses, losing a few quid on some & making some on others. Great fun & you might find a wee gem in there. You've got the cash sitting to buy that first bass at anything from £500 to a couple of grand if you like. I'd go with the Fender Flea bass suggested earlier, pickup one used & see how it feels. Punt it on if you don't like it or you might just have found a 60's jazz you like. Oh yeah, good luck & have fun... [/quote] Since you seem to have the money, I'd go further and suggest that you buy 2 or 3 used basses and spend some time getting used to them. Then sell the one you like the least and buy something else. Repeat until either you've found a bass that you really like enough for it to be a permanent keeper, or you know enough about what you want that you can get it made for you.

IMO if you buy/build with an eye towards selling at some point in the future you are very unlikely to end up with the instrument you really want as there will always be some compromises you've made to make it more appealing to a prospective buyer.

I get a similar situation in my day job - freelancing in graphic design, and TBH you can't really do anything other take what work is still available and hope that something else will come up to fill the job you have lost. However after I last put my rates up, one of the more persistent offenders now pay slightly more for my time per hour than those who don't mess me around.

TBH if I'm using my full rig and, I've never had to make any adjustments to suit the room, I switch on and it sounds right. Besides you can't fix room problems with EQ. If you are lucky you'll make it sound less crap in some places. I can only recall two occasions when I've encountered really bad room acoustics and both times it was so bad that no amount of EQ adjustment made any difference anywhere in the room. IMO the only worthwhile solution would have been to completely demolish the buildings and start again.

Vigier have been offering fretless guitars and basses with metal fingerboards since the 1980s. I think someone would have said something by now if there was excess string noise on these.

But you'll never have to tweak them again once you've got it right, and they'll be right every time you select them.

To the OP- are you a member of the PRS?

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1488038515' post='3245301'] I kind of like the way these guitars get away from the old school thinking that you have to see wood somewhere on the instrument to make it look less of a toy. For me, this [b]is[/b] a toy. Note I didn't call it an adult toy but essentially, that's what we're talking about with instruments really. They're just play things at the end of it all. [/quote] So if you are serious about your specification, then you should at least make an enquiry. He's already made an all-gold G1 guitar with a coloured carbon fibre fingerboard: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/image_zpsliejblgm.jpg[/IMG]

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1488038593' post='3245303'] That's nice. Do you use it a lot? [/quote] It was a fantastic playing and sounding instrument (as well as looking more than a bit unusual) in a HSS Strat vibe. Unfortunately it wasn't getting anywhere near as much use as my Gus G1, FretKing Esprit V or Hallmark WingBat so I sold it about a year ago.