BigRedX

Interesting bassists have always been trying to push what bass is meant to be/do. It's just that these days everything is acceptable so long as you can make it musical and not just a gimmick.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1472808953' post='3124389'] OK, here's a question for the (other) oldies on here: when I were a lad and the Hollies were at their peak, Eric Haydock's bass had 6 strings on it. Generically speaking, what was it? [/quote] A Fender Bass VI. 30" scale length, with Fender guitar string spacing (so fairly tight) and tuned an octave lower than a normal guitar. What it does depends on how you play it. However, despite it's looks, IMO it's not really a guitar as the voicing doesn't suit chords unless you play quite high up the neck in which case you should have probably bought a Baritone guitar instead. If you are a pick player that doesn't slap and you don't need any notes below low E, then it can be a perfectly acceptable substitute for a more "traditional" bass. I've done gigs with a couple of bands who use them this way and if you didn't look, you wouldn't know from the sound and parts being played that it wasn't a more "conventional" bass.

Definitely now. You can do what you want without any regard to what is considered "fashionable". If you want to rumble away with root notes in the background that's perfectly OK as is upfront virtuoso playing and anything in-between. If you're not hearing the bass you want in recently released music it's because you are not looking hard enough!

Which Rick do you want to sound like? Paul McCartney's? Chris Squire's? Lemmy's? Mani's?

Can I ask why you're not using a separately adjustable saddle for the octave string in each pair? I've never played an 8 string bass with shared saddles for both strings in a course that didn't suffer from terrible tuning problems above the 7th fret (which for me on an 8-string bass is where all the interesting stuff happens).

I've been the oldest member of all the bands I've been in for the last 20 years. Edit: Thinking about it some more I've only ever played with 5 musicians who were older than me in the whole 40+ years I've been in bands. However I was the youngest member of the band I was in back in the 80s.

If the manufacturers of digital effects were really on the ball they would all include digital ins and outs. Then you'd only have to do the A-D and D-A conversion once.

I once played synth/sound effects in a 4-piece post-punk industrial-funk band with 2 drummers and a percussionist. IME it can be hard work if you don't have the right musicians as there has to be one drummer setting the tempo and the other drummer following and even these days of drum machines and sync/click track playing it's still difficult to find drummers who are able to follow a tempo rather than set it.

Buy a programmable keyboard synth.

I used to run a Superfly 500 into two modern, efficient 8Ω cabs and it was plenty loud enough for my classic rock covers band when it was working. However they are notoriously unreliable. Mine developed the classic Superfly whine within 6 months of me getting it and shortly after that developed a problem where it wouldn't switch on half the time. As the shop I'd bought it from had gone bust I wasn't able to get a refund under the sale of goods, and Ashdown were remarkably uninterested in my problems. Given the reliability issues and the fact that they were EOL'd at £199, I'd be reluctant to spend very much on one. The going price on eBay seems to be around £40-50, maybe a little more if it is in full perfect working order and comes in it's original packaging with all the bits - carry case, strap manual etc. Good luck!

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1472368184' post='3120551'] Seen various adverts for basses wanted etc. Always makes me laugh. Oh must be between 20 to 30, must play a black pbass, must not wear trainers, must have a stylish haircut. Etc etc, Blah blah. The sort of band I would never be interested in. Where's the, must be able read chord charts, must have good musical communication skills,etc etc. Rant over. [/quote] If it's the sort of band you'd never be interested in, what's the problem? I realise that your "rant" isn't entirely serious, but IME there's a lot more to being in a band than simply being able to play your chosen instrument competently. When it's so easy these days to put up and answer on-line musicians wanted ads these conditions help to weed out the people who wouldn't be suitable for the band. If band image is important you don't want someone who doesn't fit that image no matter how well they can play, and IME it's much easier to find someone who looks the part as they will most likely be interested in the music and be prepared to put in the work required getting their musical skills up to the required standard if necessary, whereas from personal experience trying to persuade someone who doesn't understand image that they need to get a suitable haircut/shave off their beard/wear some appropriate clothes is generally a futile exercise. I never have a problem with "image" ads - the chances are that if I'm not able to fit the image then I'm unlikely to be into the music. There's plenty of bands looking for bass players, and if the ad I'm currently looking at isn't right for me, one that is will be along shortly.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1472482877' post='3121458'] Not everyone can read chord charts but likewise, not everyone can be cool. Those who say image doesn't matter generally look like crap. [/quote] Absolutely. IME if it is necessary to be able to read a chord chart, it can be taught, but people who have no idea about image generally never will, and even if they can be persuaded to dress appropriately, generally look mighty uncomfortable in their "stage gear". Sometime it's easier not to bother with these.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1472214966' post='3119518'] Nearly went to see them at the Flowerpot but the date clashed with another band I wanted to see so they missed out. I liked '...Are In Bed Now' too. [/quote] Their 50th Anniversary gig at The Flowerpot was the first time I got to see them live, and despite the fact that the set was drawn entirely from their 60s repertoire, I really enjoyed it. My very first band was named after one of their tracks.

[quote name='interpol52' timestamp='1472213660' post='3119499'] That's how I feel when I think about being 16. I think using 16 as a point in time is, for me, a time when I felt that music defined who I was and how I dressed more. Up until then it was just 'songs I liked'. Its an interesting age! [/quote] For me at 16, everything was in limbo. Glam rock was over, and punk hadn't happened if you didn't live in London. I didn't really "discover myself" until I left home to go to university in 1979.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1472154840' post='3119007'] I'm going to use what I usually use...and what often kicks off a debate . - red fountain pen ink. Specifically Diamine ink. I may try a few different reds to get one that looks right with this particular mahogany. [/quote] Why does this "kick off a debate". Surely as long as the wood takes the colour and it is reasonably light-fast it shouldn't matter what it was originally intended for?

The Pretty Things. Still one of my favourite bands, even if their post 1980 output has been mostly dull. However the most recent album released last year and recorded with the current live line-up is a welcome return to form.

Being dyslexic I had to read the ad very carefully several times before I got the joke.

Depends on the frets and the strings used and playing style of the previous owner(s) and what they played on it. I've never had to get a bass re-fretted, but when I was playing guitar, 3 years of playing the same songs every day (usually each several times) - either at band rehearsal or for my own practice, or while I was writing them, and what and how I was playing meant that I had worn significant grooves into about 5 frets on at least one string. This was beyond what could be reused by a fret dress and therefore I opted for a complete re-fret.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1471607924' post='3114401'] I know that the ports are connected to a USB hub and know that traffic will be shared between devices, that's not unusual at all - but going to the effort of having a USB3 host on board, but still throttling it back to USB2? Then in theory, data transfer tests should deliver similar results on USB2 and USB3 ports. I'm just not sure that I buy that for *all* hardware. Maybe some architecture that bridged the gap between USB2 and USB3. I'd love to see that in some detail. It just seems totally counter-intuitive and no business sense for up to date hardware. [/quote] I'm just reporting what I see in the System Profiler on my MacBook Pro which AFAICS is the same model as the OPs. The exact bus structure is quite tricky to see without actually plugging devices in and refreshing the page in SP. If you want I'll investigate further over the weekend when I have a chance and then hopefully I can produce a more accurate picture of the bus structure. It's not at all straight forward though. For instance, on my old-style MacPro with 3 USB ports on the back and 2 on the front, there a 5 USB buses, but least two of the rear mounted ports are on the same bus and one appears to be internal only...

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1471551916' post='3113991'] I'm surprised how many E strings get broken, I would have thought that one would be the least likely to break, given how thick it is [/quote] I've managed to break every string on a 5-string bass at some point including the 130 low B. The low B was back in the 90s when I was struggling to find a string manufacturer capable of making a 36" scale one consistently good, consequently it used to stay on the bass longer than the others while the latest one went back to Rotosound to be replaced by one that didn't sound completely dead straight out of the packet.

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1471562516' post='3114108'] You can pick up an Old apogee duet on eBay for about £100 or less. The grey first edition FireWire version. Great buy. Highly recommend it. [/quote] Apogee have already said that they will no longer be supporting their FireWire interfaces, in light of the protocol being depreciated by Apple. Therefor an Apogee interface is fine so long as it works with you current system and you have no desire to upgrade your OS until you are ready to buy an new audio interface. It's a pity because in all other respects Apogee are very good.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1471443107' post='3113092'] I'm thinking of this. Or maybe something cheaper. [url="http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Focusrite-Saffire-Pro-24-Firewire-and-Thunderbolt-Audio-Interface/B6Q"]http://www.gear4musi...o-Interface/B6Q[/url] [/quote] I have that interface and for most normal uses I can't really fault it. I had a couple of specialised issues which Focusrite weren't able to resolve but so long as you're not running OS X Server on your Mac you'll be fine. HOWEVER, it's not a true Thunderbolt interface. If you read the small print in the description, it's only Thunderbolt compatible with a suitable adaptor cable which is sold separately. For your current Mac if you do decide to get that interface, you be best off connecting it by FireWire although you will still probably need a FW400 (on the interface) to FW800 (on your Mac) adaptor cable.

A quick Google shows that it's affecting lots of other forums, so almost definitely something that YouTube have changed that has broken the current way of embedding videos in forum posts. The one workaround I've seen posted (using the "youtube2" tag) doesn't work here as I guess it requires some back-end tinkering of the forum software.

I couldn't really recommend a FireWire interface anymore. This is because FireWire has been depreciated by Apple from El Capitan onwards. That means they are no longer developing the built-in drivers for FireWire and while FireWire interfaces may continue to work at the moment, there is a distinct possibility that then next major OS upgrade will render them useless. If you can find a cheap second hand FW interface that is supported under your current version of Mac OS X (what are you out of interest?) and you don't intend to update your OS any time in the next couple of years then it could b e worthwhile Also if the manufacturer provides a custom driver for their FireWire interface then there is a chance it will continue to be supported for longer. However Thunderbolt is currently the best way to go as far as reliability and future-proofing is concerned.

[quote name='darkandrew' timestamp='1471392289' post='3112807'] Anything from the "Top of the Pops" range of albums from the 1970s. [url="Http://www.udiscovermusic.com/the-curious-case-of-the-top-of-the-pops-albums"]Http://www.udiscover...the-pops-albums[/url] The dodgy covers also being given added creepiness by what we now know was going on behind the scenes of the programme during that time. [/quote] Except that the TV show and the albums had nothing to do with each other, and the albums only had the same name because the BBC had not trade marked the name "Top Of The Pops" something that would be completely unthinkable nowadays.