BigRedX

Nothing... at the moment. One of my originals bands was offered two NYE gigs. One turned out not to be actually on NYE so we politely turned that down. The other has gone quite after we confirmed that we would be available and like to do it - unless we hear otherwise very soon we'll have to assume it's not going to happen.

Unsurprisingly I like it, however I currently have no use for basses with only 4 string or basses with no frets. And why would you even want to play this seated? It's obviously designed for catching the attention when playing gigs.

If you have message notifications by email then it is possible to read your messages without having to visit Basschat.

Is the seller sure about the scale length? The original Gibson model is the more conventional 30½" scale.

As you've discovered making emulations of pre-synth keyboards (electric pianos and organs) sound realistic is as much how you PLAY them as how they sound.

How have you got the audio file(s) for the backing and click configured? As two separate mono files or a stereo file with the pan for the backing and click baked in? How are you outputting the backing and the click? Via the headphones socket or using a decent audio interface? If the problem really is Logic (which I doubt as I use it for live backing with no problems like this) is it the best application for playback of the backing track?

I'm the oldest child. TBH when I was growing up it just wasn't a very music-orientated household, and "pop" music was very much frowned upon. This is despite the fact that my dad was a competent piano player (I never heard him play once but there are photos of him playing when he was younger) and my mum is extremely musical - violin at school, learnt the guitar (for her teaching job) at the same time as me and for a long time was much better than I was, since then she has gone on to sing in several notable choirs and now in her 90s plays in an oldies ukulele group that probably does more gigs a year than me!

I was 8, and not even vaguely interested in music, back in 1969.

The only regret I have (and it only with hindsight that I realise it's a regret) is not working harder when I could and making more of the opportunities I had musically in the 80s. In particular I turned down the chance to work with William Orbit. In my defence, at the the time he was still to have any kind of commercial success, and I didn't think much of his band at the time (Torch Song).

There are basically two types of Aggregator service. One charges and annual fee for their services but then passes on most if not all of the payments you receive from each download or stream. Good if you expect LOTS of people to be downloading or streaming you songs. However you need to keep paying the annual fee otherwise your music gets taken down. The other has a one-off fee (last time I did this myself it was around $50 for an "album" but has probably gone up since) for each release and takes a cut (about 10%) of all your download or streaming payments. Better in the long term if you don't expect to get a lot of streams and downloads or if your release is basically a vanity project, as once you've paid your initial fee for the release you don't have to do anything else and your music will be available until you specifically ask the Aggregator to take it down. Bear in mind that unless you do lots of promotion and you music turns out to be very popular you are unlikely to make your money back from either method. I've got music from 4 different bands (2 current, 2 previous) available via both these methods and not one release has turned a profit purely from streaming or downloads. Luckily I'm also a main songwriter on most of the songs so I have made an overall profit on some releases when the PRS royalties from on-line activities are also taken into account. However the overall amount of money I've received from on-line activities is minuscule compared with I've made from selling CDs/Vinyl/Cassettes after the bands have played at gigs and PRS royalties from gigs and radio play.

I was lucky in that about 10 years ago I was able to build up a collection of about 50 guitars and basses, so that when it came to pare it down to just the instruments I really wanted was going to actually use it was easy to compare and contrast and make a decision about which I liked and which I was just owning because I could. I'm now down to two 5-string basses, two Bass VIs and two guitars, which is basically a main and a backup for each. It would be nice to still have most of the instruments I sold, but the ones I kept are the ones that were getting the most use and therefore it's better that the others have hopefully gone to people who will actually play/gig/record them and not keep them unplayed in their cases.

These days any decent multi-effects unit has a means of editing it using a computer. The days of menu diving (apart from the occasional rehearsal room tweak) should be long over. I've said before the convenience of knowing that every time I select a particular patch on my digital multi-effects unit it will sound exactly as I was expecting far outweighs any supposed sonic superiority of individual analogue pedals.

Herco Flex 75 plectrums, although I usually buy them 100 at a time so that doesn't work out particularly cheap.

What I play in terms of note choices and phrasing, combined with an good multi-effects unit.

Out of interest. Is 3D technology capable of printing a neck and/or frets yet? If not what is holding it back? Structural integrity of the material, accuracy or size?

Now you've posted some photos I can see why the conversion to BEAD might have been a bit more "challenging" than I was expecting. It looks as if you tech has had to bend the metal of the string holder in order to accommodate the thicker windings of the B string.

For me the Helix really brings home how much of a compromise traditional bass rigs are and often with the amp sound you are fighting against the limitations of the cabs. Devices like the Kemper and Helix are never overkill if they are delivering the sound you want, even if it's just a single sound with slight variations for the whole set. I currently have a separate Preset (the Helix terminology for a patch) for each song, sometimes with up to 4 "Snapshots" variations for the different sections in the song, so I'm getting a lot of milage out of the various features. However even if I found that I all I needed was a single (killer) sound for the whole set, I'd still be using the Helix because it is essentially "my sound" in a single easily transportable box.

I'm a Line6 Helix (similar idea, different manufacturer) user and I'm now in my 60s - but then again I've been using the tonal components of multi-effects units for my core sound rather than characteristics of whatever amp and cab(s) I've been using since the late 80s. What I would say is not go down that rabbit hole of trying the compare the modelled sounds with those of the "real thing". As far as I am concerned there are only two types of sounds - ones you like, and ones you don't; and how they are derived as far as I am concerned is irrelevant. And don't be tied to bass amp and cab models. A lot of my patches don't use any amp or cab sims, but separate EQ and drive/distortion "pedals" which allows me to "decouple" the EQ frequencies from the drive sound and pick an EQ module that give me control of the frequencies I like and a drive/distortion that has the right sound for the band/song/song section. Also when I am using an Amp sim it is often one "designed" for the guitar. When everything is modelled the worst that can happen is that you won't like the sound, in which case you can try something else instead. The way I work when constructing new sounds is to build them up one segment at a time. I start with EQ then drive and then compression (if the sound needs it). I do most of my basic set up using a computer editor and then fine tune the patches when I get in the rehearsal room and can hear them in the context of the band mix. Good luck!

I have clothes that are supposedly reserved to wear on stage, but that won't prevent me from wearing them on other occasions as they are only a slightly more exaggerated version of what I'd wear normally. I do make the effort to have a different image for the two bands that I currently play with, although both a variations on a common theme. It made for a hectic change over a couple of years ago when both bands played one after the other at the same festival.

To go back to standard EADG tuning, the bass may need a new nut cutting, and may need the truss rod tightening slightly. It will probably need the intonation adjusting. None of those things should be challenging for a decent tech. And adjusting from EADB to BEAD should have been even easier as the existing nut could just have its slots widened rather than needing to be replaced. Time to find a new tech I think.

Since I ditched my amps and cabs I've never been happier with my sound. TBH nearly all of my previous rigs over the past 35 years no matter how "conventional" they looked were about making the line level output from whatever multi-effects unit I was using loud enough to hear, and any colouration they added to the sound was both unintentional and unwanted. For one band we all go direct into the PA, and for the other where the guitarists still use backline and we have a drummer with a conventional kit, I use an FRFR cab for rehearsals and those gigs where the quality of the foldback is unknown. I can't ever see myself going back to a conventional amp and cabs set up. If I was to join a band where the image required it, I'd probably have a fake folding up rig that I could hide the FRFR inside.

In that case I'd wire it with both pickups wired in parallel, one volume control, a tone control and a switch to bypass the tone and leave it at that. From experience once I have a sound/configuration I like I never touch the controls again, as 99% of the time IMO any changes just make the sound lees good.

I think before you start changing things what don't you like about the sounds your are currently getting?

AFAICS while posts in Off Topic don't count towards to the post count that is visible to others, any reputation gained from those posts does count which is how you can win the day and why most people who win the day are those who post frequently in the popular Off Topic threads.

Helix Native and run it on the computer that is our drummer.