BigRedX

1. Listen to the track concentrating on just the bass line. 2. When you've got it turn off the track and sing the bass line to yourself. 3. Work out what to play on the bass from your singing and then write it down in whatever form works best for you. 4. Practice playing the bass line. Only go back to playing along with the track when you can do it without really thinking about it. It might be worth also practicing the lead in and out to this section on its own first. HTH

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1494935646' post='3299699'] IME that description applies to at least 80% of bass players. Besides, having a rig with good dispersion doesn't require jumping through multiple hoops, so why not? [/quote] That's not my experience at all. The majority of my gigs are small venues (under 250) but I'm struggling to recall the last time my bass wasn't DI'd into the PA. On several of the more recent gigs, I've been asked to turn down my amp to such a degree in order to get a balanced and controllable sound FoH that the bass in the the foldback has been louder than what has been coming out of my cabs. It has got to the point where AFAIAC my rig is mostly there for show at gigs and is only really used at band rehearsals. I'd love to be able to go in-ears but I don't see it as an option for small bands that rely on the venue's PA system.

Following on from some rather heated discussions about the merits of certain bass cabs over the past few months, some of the arguments have got me thinking. In particular the question of dispersion. The physics of a lot of the advice seems to make sense - don't mix your cone sizes without cross-overs and the arguments for stacking your drivers vertically rather than horizontally, but the more I think about them, the less they seem to be relevant to real-world gigging situations. A lot of it comes down to what we actually use our bass cabs for? Since 2010, I can recall less than a handful of times when the bass wasn't put through the PA, and all of those were in rooms so small that most of the audience would have problems getting 33° off-axis let alone 45°! Conversely, for the rest of the band to be able to hear me properly without help from the foldback, I'd need speakers/cabs with a decent 90°+ off-axis response. On most stages I'm pretty much stuck in one place, and on the bigger stages that have room for actual movement there is nearly always excellent foldback so most of the time the band is relying more on the foldback to hear my bass than it is on my cabs. If I'm being honest with myself, my bass cabs are mostly there for two reasons - for show and bring the controls on my amp and BassPod Rack up to an easily accessible height. If I could guarantee that every gig I played had suitable foldback, I'd probably ditch the cabs and amp altogether and just bring the BassPod (or upgrade to a Helix). Apart from bassist who regularly play decent-sized rooms without PA support, is dispersion an important consideration. From where I'm standing I can't see (hear) it!

My latest band The Death Notes are in the middle of producing our next EP and we need someone good to do the mixing. We have all the parts for the 4 tracks recorded and need someone to take these and produce some truly excellent mixes. The band were fairly happy with the standard of the last mix (although I'm not convinced it's anywhere near as good as it could be) but with the length of time it took due to changes it ended up being very expensive. This time I'd like to give the work to an engineer/producer who is sympathetic to the style of music - post-punk with goth and shoegaze influences - rather than someone who's just doing it as another paying job, and consequently can get us what we want in a couple of sessions. Please don't suggest we do it ourselves. I've got plenty of experience recording and mixing, but I now know that my ambitions are beyond my abilities. We are happy to pay for the right person to do this. Files are in OMF format so software compatibility won't be an issue. Ideally we'd want somewhere local to Nottingham as some of us will want to attend at least one of the sessions. The last EP is available listen to on [url=http://thedeathnotes.com]Bandcamp[/url] so you can get a rough idea of what they did last time and the style of the music. Thanks!

IME musicians who tune too often do it simply because they can now that everyone has an electronic tuner somewhere in their signal chain or attached to the headstock of their guitar. When I started gigging in the early 80s electronic tuners were only for bands with record deals. We tuned up to one of the synths before we played, and that was it. I can't recall any of my band members sounding horribly out of tune at any point later during the set. Later on when I was playing in a synth band we did buy a tuner, but it was mainly to check that the analogue synths were in tune with the pre-recorded backing tape. Again we would tune up once during the sound check, and as long as the synths were left switched on they wouldn't need to be tuned again. When we finally got digital synths, the tuner was left at home. When I went back to playing bass and guitar, I bought guitars with locking bridges, nuts and machine heads. Again check the tuning at the sound check and make any slight adjustments as required. After that I never found the need to retune during the gig. And none of the basses I've used live have ever needed anything but the smallest readjustment of tuning between use (unless I had managed to knock the machine heads taking it out of its case). I used to play with a guitarist who had a novel approach to the problem of tuning during the set. He was a heavy user of string bends and vibrato bridges, but he managed simply by having two guitars which were tuned just before playing - using the tuner in my rig as he didn't have one of his own. He would then play one guitar for the first half of the set and swap to the other for the second half. I never once noticed any tuning problems during a gig. When you don't have the ability to pedantically check your tuning between every song, you become a lot more relaxed about having to be "perfectly" in tune all the time.

Bear in mind that electronic kits are only quiet in relation to the noise that an acoustic kit makes. I've played in bands with a variety of electronic drum kits over the years and have yet to find one where the noise of the sticks hitting the pads don't mask the drum sounds at anything less than very loud hifi volumes. Also you will probably have to find a way isolating the bass drum pedal from the floor, especially if you intend to use in any room that has another one beneath it.

I don't like the term much either. However, I also think that if you play in a band with someone you consider to be a "guitard" you are just as bad yourself, as you are enabling all their bad habits.

Let me illustrate why you shouldn't always rely on electronic tuners and at the same time point out how little an average audience will spot you being out of tune. Some years ago at a Terrortones gig, our guitarist had managed to reset her Boss tuner from 440Hz to 445Hz. During the gig our drummer who was sat behind both amps could hear that something was wrong and kept asking us to check our tuning. Of course both our tuners told us that we were perfectly in tune. Out front, I could hear something a bit weird every so often but since we'd checked out tuning thought that it must be the odd wrong note being played. It wasn't until we were back in the rehearsal room the following week that it became obvious what had happened. However no-one in the audience seemed to notice that anything was badly amiss, and we even picked up an excellent review in the local on-line arts and culture magazine. BTW for those of you who are interested, the difference between 440Hz and 445Hz is just under 20 cents or 1/5 of a semi-tone.

Depending on how wide you like your 12-string neck, I've yet to play a better electric 12 string than this one: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/Bass/HohnerTEXIICustom.jpg[/IMG] Comfortably wide neck compared with a Rickenbacker and low-output lipstick tube pickups that give plenty of lovely 12-string shimmer. Unfortunately there are 2 very different Hohner 12-string electrics with the same model number and the other is a rather nasty telecaster shaped thing with unsympathetic hum bucking pickups which is best avoided!

The shape is influenced by the Andreas Shark Bass if I am not mistaken. I'd probably be making an offer on that if the postage wasn't so excessive.

One of the many advantages of having a bass that is constructed with a carbon fibre skin over wood is that it takes a fairly extreme change in conditions for it to go out of tune. I'll generally check the tuning at the sound check and quickly just before playing, but unless one of the machine heads has taken a knock while getting it out of the gig bag it's never more than a few cents out at the most and I could certainly play the whole set without bothering to tune up. I never check the tuning during the set unless I can hear something off while I'm playing although so far it's always turned out to be someone else in the band who is at fault.

Played at The Bodega in Nottingham with my new band "The Death Notes" supporting Scriptures for the album launch gig. Excellent on-stage and FoH sound and almost enough room to throw some shapes on stage: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/IMG_0075_zpsj9ordml3.jpg[/IMG] A really good evening all-round. I particularly enjoyed the set from the band on after us - The Madeline Rust.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1494244723' post='3294251'] Good photo. You look Numanoid! [/quote] Thanks! Well that suits the new band - post-punk with goth touches. As I always say a great gig photo is more than just throwing some appropriate shapes on stage - you ned good lighting and an excellent photographer too.

From Friday's gig: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/IMG_0075_zpsj9ordml3.jpg[/IMG]

Even if you hadn't already been put off power soaks, I haven't yet come across one rated for use with amps above 150W. As others have said they are designed for guitarists who want to drive the valves in the power section of their amp hard.

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1493932922' post='3292023'] [attachment=244644:post-9862-1296135181.jpg] Now you can play Guess how old I am. [/quote] Some time between 1960 and 1964 - more likely towards the latter date due to the rosewood board. Does it actually have a date stamp or sticker on it? It's in better condition than mine: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/DSC01541-2.jpg[/IMG]

I've got a 300. It's part of my "small" rig. Tiny, light and with the right cab(s) plenty loud enough. The cab does need to be a fairly modern and reasonably efficient design, or you might find that the 300 isn't quite enough.

I started [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/279770-the-year-of-birth-bass/"]a very similar thread[/url] just over a year ago. TBH there is nothing from my YoB that I could ever consider to be a usable bass for me. There are a handful of oddities that I would be happy to own, but they would be display instruments with occasional studio use at best. 1. [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Hofner 500/10 Six String Bass[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]2. Danelectro Longhorn Six String Bass[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]3. Gibson EB6 Six String Bass[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]4. Gibson EB0 (original body shape)[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]5. Gibson EB2[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]6. Burns Artist Bass (If I could find one that definitely was made in 1960)[/font][/color]

Ideally LEDs, but Luminlay comes a good second. I've found that anything non-permanent will rub off at the most inconvenient moment, and I've stopped trying to make do with these sorts of solutions.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1493506115' post='3288882'] I'm back here again as I don't feel the smiley quite conveyed my astonishment that an instrument this unattractive actually exists... Somebody designed this... with its beautiful lines and ergonomic aesthetic... the way the scratch plate seemlessly flows with the body shape... the headstock complimenting the body in perfectly harmony. Could this perhaps have been the first single cut? Weren't Burns a respectable brand at the time? I've seen basses from this era that were manufactured behind the iron curtain from old tank parts that are easier on the eye. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that but this truly is a shocker... I wish I hadn't looked at it again right before bed. [/quote] Except that's not a Burns. It's a Burns-Weill, and pre-dates the Burns London brand by a year or so. The Burns guitars of the 60s were a major step up in design, construction and finish from this Burns-Weill.

I'll be getting one of those sometime in the next week. Regarding reviewers, I think these days there is such a wealth of new music being released (and old music being re-released) every week that reviewers no longer feel obliged to review everything they receive. If they don't like it they simply won't review it, especially for niche genres. I think the only exceptions being made now are when someone very famous (or important in a genre) releases something that is seriously sub-par.

What do you want from your producer? Is it just someone to make you recordings sound technically great in the way that you envisage them? Is it someone who is going to cajole/bully the best performances out of the band? Is it someone who is going to take a long hard look/listen to your current set of songs and then make changes to to them in at least arrangement if not the actual songwriting itself? Is is a combination of any/all of the above? As others have said, the best way to find a suitable producer is to find recordings in a similar vein to where you see the band heading and find out who produced those and approaching them. As for price, I have no idea, but I would expect anyone any good to be wanting to make a living wage (at the very least) from what they are charging. It would also help if you posted a link for your first album so that we can take a listen and may be able to suggest recordings that you should be listening to.

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1493387710' post='3288000'] The Jetsonics came about as I was throwing a list of noise and speed words together and I liked the sound of it. It's also the name of a brand of lightbar on the top of US cop cars I found out later. [/quote] It's also the name of a Burns guitar designed by Claudio Pagelli.

Even if you don't like them as a company, there's a lot to be said for Apple's policy of only announcing new products when they are going to be available within the next few days.

IME the best band names have nearly always been thought of by other band members. From past experience with band names I would make two suggestions when deciding on a name for your band. 1. Don't go for anything with made-up word(s), invariably (and more so in these days of auto-correct) it will get spelt wrongly in publicity and reviews. In the 80s I was in a band whose name was single made up word. Only about half of our print reviews spelt it correctly and almost every time we were on the radio it was mis-pronounced. 2. Have something that is Google-friendly, so that when people search for you on-line your website or Facebook page is easily found.