BigRedX

I tend to use the 5-string equivalent of 40-100, but IMO the E and Low B strings in these sets nearly always feel to flexible and are definitely much lower tension than the other strings. My ideal set would be something like: 40, 60, 80, 105, 135. That for me would deliver a much more consistent feel between the strings.

I don't go to a lot of big gigs, but I can't help but think that genre has a lot to do with it. Most of the big gigs I've been to in the last few years have been late 70s to mid 80s bands (or new bands influenced by those eras) and without exception the sound has always been excellent and near perfectly balanced. In particular at the WGW the 8 bands playing in the main hall at each event have always sounded great no matter where they are on the bill and what instrumentation they are using. The one exception to this was HIM in London a couple of years ago. Massively loud drums, and everything else except for the upper-range vocals reduced to a undefined sludge. This kind of mix might work in the studio where it's possible to spend ages fine tuning the separation between lots of down-tuned instruments all competing for a limited sonic space, but live it simply doesn't work. Many of the songs were unrecognisable until the higher pitched chorus vocals came in, because the indistinct mix meant that almost no actual notes were discernible from any of the instruments or the lower range verse vocals. The opening band had a perfectly good mix, and the sound for the headliners - Fields Of The Nephilim was great despite the fact that Carl McCoy vocals are close to the lowest pitched "instrument" in the band.

It is perfectly fine to use "Mic" cable to make up unbalanced instrument leads. If the two shielded conductors are twisted together then you should connect one to earth along with the screen. Convention dictates that the conductor with the red sheath is "hot" and that is the one that should be soldered to the tip terminal of the jack plug. However it doesn't matter which of the two is connected to the tip and which to the sleeve along with the shield conductor so long as you make sure you do the same at each end of the cable. If the two shielded cables are not a twisted pair then connect both of them to the tip and just connect the screen to the sleeve. HTH

Are the keyboard sounds going to be sequenced, or will someone actually be playing them? What laptop do you have?

Just to throw a spanner in the works I'm liking the sound/feel of G natural on the way up and G# on the way down. Fits very nicely if I play along with the album version...

By the time you've taken the wall-wart transformer into account it's not really that small and compact. Also check that said wall wart comes with a UK plug on it rather than the one pictured, as you'll be messing around with adaptors and that won't make for a very reliable PSU.

[quote name='Mossiebass' timestamp='1499176195' post='3329702'] A fender style neck for me, particularly maple. It's all about the aesthetics [/quote] But then which one? A P-neck or J-neck? or is it all about the headstock shape in which case copyright would most likely mean that there are no production Fenderbirds.

What is more important in a Fenderbird? The fact that it has a "Fender-style" neck (in which case which one because there are at least 2 different ones) or that fact that's a bolt-on neck as opposed to the through neck of the Thunderbird?

You need to break down you pedal board to its separate components a build it back up on device at a time until the noise comes back. Work slowly and logically otherwise you'll never track down a permanent solution.

Each mains socket is rated at 13 amps. At UK voltage of 230 volts you can power equipment up to 230 x 13 = 2990 Watts. That is more than enough for the average home studio. Each piece of equipment should have the power requirement on the back where the mains socket is (or on the PSU where it is external). Add them all up and that is you total maximum power requirement. Unless you have some very high power amplifiers you are unlikely to even reach 1000 Watts. In fact in the days before low powered light bulbs and high powered audio amplifiers, the average home studio probably used more power to light it than all the studio devices in it put together! Also the ring main will most likely be rated at 30 Amps so if you really need more than 3kW you could simply run the rest of the studio off a second (and third) 13 Amp socket on the wall provided than you didn't exceed 6.9kW over all the sockets in the ring.

In order for anyone to have a meaningful go at fixing your problem you will need to provide the following information: 1. What kind of device are you using? 2. What operating system and version are you using? 3. What browser and version are you using? 4. Do you have any 3rd party browser extensions like Ad and/or script blockers in action? If you are on a computer, the quickest test you can do is to try an alternative browser and see if the functionality is restored.

[quote name='super al' timestamp='1498582510' post='3325692'] Google is sorcery and we don't use it round here I've got Dave on speed dial and he says they were doing a session for Labi Siffre that was later sampled by m&ms on "my name is..." Didn't get a penny apparently [/quote] He would have been paid a session fee for his bass playing contribution to the album, and unless he specifically has a songwriting credit for "[font="sans-serif"]I Got The..." (the track in question) then he's not entitled to any further payment. That's why it's always more important to be the songwriter than just a musician who played on the recording.[/font]

[quote name='super al' timestamp='1498576696' post='3325638'] The guys are top, top musicians steeped in rock n roll history with one or two stories to tell. I can't remember which tune but one of Dave's basslines was sampled for an Eminem track I think (someone here is bound to know!) [/quote] Less than a minute with Google will get you the answer.

Use a solid bass. If you're playing amplified there is no tonal benefit in having an acoustic bass, and as you've discovered it's got plenty of disadvantages.

The only thing approaching a major festival that I have been to as a member of the audience was the Rock Against Racism concert at Victoria Park in 1978. The relatively long march from Trafalgar Square plus the fact that we were nowhere near the front meant that I arrived in time to see the last half of the The Clash's set. Then because my parents wanted me home at a reasonably sensible time I had to catch the early coach back to Loughborough which meant leaving just as Steel Pulse were starting to play. Other than that the only other festival I've been to where I haven't been playing was the Nottingham Rock And Reggae Festival which being held on the Goose Fair sit meant it was less than 10 minutes walk from where I lived so I was able to nip back to my flat if (when) the weather or the music was crap. As a punter, I'm not at all a fan of festivals (at least in this country). The idea of spending a lot of money to see a handful of bands from a distance, all of whom would (for me) be far better enjoyed up close and personal in a small sweaty, dark club, just doesn't make sense. At least as a performer at the better organised events there is somewhere back stage to escape away from the inclement British weather and great (literally) unwashed.

As someone who is interested in 8 string basses of this type, AFAICS there are 3 different bridges available that allow individual intonation of each string in the course - something that is absolutely essential on an 8-string bass IMO. The Schaller 3D version. The one used by Dean, Schecter and a few other budget far-eastern made 8-string basses; this is a two piece bridge and tail-piece combination. The one that Tune Japan use for their 8-string basses - a sort of variation on the high-mass style Fender-type bridge. Unfortunately only the Schaller one appears to be available without having to buy the bass to go with it! Why do you want to have different stringing for the strings in each course? IME I have found no advantage in doing this.

[quote name='BassAgent' timestamp='1498302372' post='3323711'] I'd get a Model D reissue waaaaaay before a Voyager. [/quote] Unless it was strictly for studio use, I'd take patch memories over any supposed superiority of sound. As someone who struggled using non-programmable synths in the early 80s, I have no time for even simple synths that don't have programmable memories for the sounds.

I think we have always been over-focused on the kinds of instruments used to produce the music rather than just the music itself. Hence the popularity of bands like Royal Blood who have one or two decent songs and a gimmick. Don't get me wrong, a good gimmick is essential to help promote a band and their music, but I'm now at the point where the instruments used are irrelevant. All I'm interested in is whether or not I like the music. And IME young people are still very interested in music. However they don't buy very much because they don't need to. Why spend money buying vinyl/CDs/downloads when you can stream all your favourite songs for free or watch the videos on YouTube any time you want to? These days just about everything is available no matter how obscure. When I was getting into music, hearing my favourite songs meant listening all day to Radio 1 to catch the couple of times that they would be played, or buying the record. There were no other options. And if you wanted to hear music that wasn't the latest single or album you had to buy it. I'm sure that if Spotify had been available back in the day I wouldn't have bothered spending money on records or CDs. And as for the problems of the big guitar manufacturers, I think a lot of it is down to the over-stuaration of the market. Why buy new when you can get pretty much anything you want second hand for about half the price? And there's just so much more choice on eBay then your local musical instrument retailer could ever hope to compete with. The only way I could see myself buying new these days would be if I was wanting a specific custom instrument from a small-scale luthier. If I want something mainstream, I'm happy to wait for it to turn up second hand.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1498157879' post='3322895'] [/quote] Just looking at that photo have you thought about how that is going to fit in a hard case, or alternatively what protection it is going to need in a gig bag?

[quote name='elephantgrey' timestamp='1498127596' post='3322641'] Someone's not a fan of fuzzrocious There are high end pedal brands that have things like midi presets alongside having alot more peramiters, chass bliss comes to mind. Imo you'll also still need some kind of switcher/midi controller for a rack mounted system. [/quote] Actually Fuzzrocious aren't too bad compared with a lot of boutique pedals I've seen. And a MIDI foot controller is lot cheaper and easier to replace if someone pours their pint into it than a board full of individual pedals. Plus I'll still have access to my basic sound for each song even if I can't make any mid-song patch changes.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1498122057' post='3322602'] I wasn't familiar with In Isolation even though they appear to be a Nottm band, clicked on the link to bandcamp and I actually quite like some of this stuff so thanks for the link [/quote] Thanks! I came across the band originally when we shared the bill at an early Terrortones gig and really enjoyed their music, so when the opportunity came up to play bass for them I jumped at it. [quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1498128545' post='3322650'] Just had a listen to the first song on the link...now THERE'S a bass sound (and mix)...fantastic Was that you on the recording, BRX? [/quote] And thanks again! Unfortunately that's not me. It is a great bass sound (and riff) though, and I think I've got it pretty much nailed live with my BassPod. I've only been playing with them for about a month now. I believe all the bass parts on the album were written and played by one of the guitarists. Quite a few of the songs I've had to learn feature bass lines with complex guitar-style licks that only occur once or twice in the song, but in very prominent places. It's a good thing that I'm also a reasonable guitarist otherwise they might have been a lot more challenging to play.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1498067397' post='3322345'] I'm just not sold on bass multi- effects processors for gigging. For me they're too complicated, too many features and functions I'd never use. And I still say they don't have the "mojo" of the high end dedicated pedals. Blue [/quote] If by "mojo" you mean incomprehensible graphics that look as though they have been done by a 5-year old, and an unintuitive arrangement of the controls based on what was convenient to lay out on the PCB and fit into a generic-sized box rather than what makes sense as regards the signal flow, and still end up being as difficult to use as the worst of the parameter access devices, then AFAIAC you can stick your high end pedals. Give me the peace of mind that when I hit the foot switch for a particular patch it will sound exactly the same as it did the last time I played the song. Also any decent multi-effects unit will live safely in the rack case with my amp and not on the floor with the spilt beer.

Interestingly used to get the complete opposite problem when I was playing guitar live. My amp is a Hughes & Kuttner Tube 50 with a built-in Red Box DI. Despite the fact that I knew from experience in the studio that the DI sound was all but identical to mic'ing up the speaker with a Shure SM57 (and TBH I thought DI sounded very slightly better), trying to persuade most PA sound engineers that I wanted to use the DI output of my amp instead of putting a mic on it could be a somewhat frustrating exercise. Added to this was the fact that I didn't use any particularly high-gain sounds and the band played at a relatively low on-stage volume, which mean that when I did want to get feedback sustain, I would have to be very close to the speaker in order for this to happen. The presence of a mic in front of the amp could make all the difference between getting the guitar to feed back or not. Several times at multi-band gigs I would find by the time the band came to play the DI from the sound check had been replaced by a Mic...

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1498046495' post='3322187'] I used to use a zoom fx back in the day with auto wah,fazer,fuzz etc the results varied from venue to venue, often there just wasn't time to alter the gain and settings for each patch to suit each gig. [/quote] I gigged for the first time with my new band on Saturday. I have separate patches for each song on my BassPod (multiple where required) which have been adjusted to suit the guitar and keyboard sounds of the rest of the mix. At the gig most of them slotted in exactly where they should have done in the mix. A few didn't and they'll be tweaked again at the next rehearsal, and I'll see how it goes to the gig after that. After a few more rehearsals and gigs all my sounds will be exactly where I need them in terms of EQ and relative clarity. It's not particularly difficult to do.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1498048362' post='3322202'] Maybe if you spent hours getting everything set just right, with some creative EQ and compression, and an amp or an amp with speaker simulated DI output, on flat studio monitors, you'd have had better results? It works for me anyway (on multi band originals gigs). If my sound is too boomy for the room, they can EQ that out. They won't have to re EQ every time I change sound as I have them all levelled out [/quote] Exactly this!