BigRedX

The "True Value" of anything at any given time, especially used items, is whatever anyone is prepared to pay for it. That's not what the seller thinks it is worth, or even the classic half what it cost new. The Basschat market place while technically selling to a focused target audience, doesn't by any means reach as many people as eBay, and IME the more esoteric stuff isn't really popular on here. And if you're out gigging you'll know that bassists who know about Basschat and more importantly use the site regularly are still in the minority.

Because we have no guitarist in the band I compose a lot of music so it sounds reasonably good with just the bass which means using a lot of 2-note chords and alternating drone string melody string plucking. In this case using the A string as my drone always sounds best - D is generally too light on bottom end and E can be too muddy once I've added synths. Because we're a post-punk/goth influenced band that tends to mean A minor rather than A major. I've just gone through our current set and most are in A minor with a few in D minor, one in E major and one where the main riff and verse are in B minor and the rest in A minor.

While there is nothing wrong in itself about the mainstream, surely as creative people (musicians) we should be prepared to look beyond. Why are so many of us seemingly afraid of standing out? Besides I though you had me on ignore...

I have a Helix. Most of the time I don't both with cab sims (or amp sims for that matter) as IMO adding one always seem to make my bass sound worse. I do however find that the model of the Roland Jazz Chorus Combo works well with my Bass VIs. Therefore if you are determined to use amp and cab models don't be afraid to try ones that you wouldn't consider using for bass if it was actual hardware. You might be surprised.

At least it's not boring. That's a far worse crime.

Depends entirely on the cab design and what sort of bass sounds I'm favouring whether or not I need tweeters. I did briefly own a TE Bright Box in the early 90s - for the length of time it took to pay for it, get it home, plug it into my rig, discover that it made zero difference to the sound I was using at the time, and take it back to the shop for a refund.

But that is really bad. I suspect most covers bands would be embarrassed to be playing such a well known song so poorly at the Dog & Duck, so why is it OK for Mr Page to be murdering it?

While most of the time the wide string spacing at the bridge will also mean wider string spacing at the nut, this isn't necessarily true as the above shows. Also the bass I've owned that had the widest spacing at the bridge also had the narrowest spacing at the nut, and it was a 5-string. Don't assume anything. If the measurements are important get all of them, as the bridge spacing may only be a part of the story.

IME ping-pong delay effects are particularly bad live because for some listeners it will just sound out of time. While we use some stereo effects on our live backing, I always tell the PA engineer to pan them at 9 and 3 o'clock maximum width. Also all the tracks have been checked listening each side of the stereo on its own to ensure that hearing one louder than the other won't cause "out of sync" effects as often the PA top can be louder than the foldback on stage depending on where you are stood.

There is nothing "stereo" about a stereo DI. AFAIK all are simply two single channel DI units in one box. For my band we have both two channel and single channel DI boxes. The two channel ones have the advantage of being a single box and are only less versatile if you sometime need to use them for two single channel sources that are a long way apart. BTW I assume this is for live use - is there any real benefit to having a stereo feed from the keyboard? IME there is little point in stereo for live use as only a few people in the audience get the full stereo effect, everyone else will hear mostly one side or the other, and this can cause it's own problems with some panning options.

One of the great things about playing post-punk influenced music. The bass is usually the melodic instrument and therefore can't be reduced to a muddy mess. And most of the sound engineers doing gigs in the genre seem to have realised this.

The actual mic capsule should be the same. However the gain structure for the signal path within the mic casing and the D-A convertor are unlikely to be as good or versatile as a decent audio interface.

But that's just as bad an assumption that the "digitally perfect sound" comes at the expense of anything. Why can't both the sound, the performance and the songwriting all be excellent?

But a number of manufacturers in the mid-price 5-string market think that by adding one inch to the overall scale length of the string it will overcome the other shortcomings of the instrument when it comes to getting a decent sounding and feeling low B string. It doesn't.

You already have an audio interface and anything by Presonus is likely to be far better than the A/D converter built into the Mic, so get the one you originally linked to. The only reason to have the USB version would be if you want to use both inputs on the Presonus interface for other sources and also record from the mic at the same time. Then you'll need to make an aggregate audio device in Audio MIDI setup on you Mac to be able to use both simultaneously.

You need to get the significantly more expensive Matribox II to get MIDI and then it's on non-standard connectors.

Some general observations from someone who has been playing 5-string basses since 1989... The most important feature IME is a stiff neck and excellent neck joint. This normally means through neck or set neck construction. That's not to say that there aren't any decent 5-string basses with bolt-on necks, but all the ones I have owned have been poor. Also IME 35" scale length doesn't make enough difference on its own. For scale length to trump overall construction you need to go to 36" or longer. Any luthier capable of making a decent 35" scale 5-string bass can also make an excellent one with a 34" scale length. However if you like the feel of the extra inch then go for it, but don't expect it to automatically make the B-string better because it won't.

Personally as a real musician, I don't want to hear mistakes that I have made, even if it's only me that can hear them. Live it doesn't matter. It's gone before anyone one has really noticed. On record over and over again no thank you.

How is reverse delay done in real time? Since it is virtually impossible to predict what note anyone is going to play next I assume it's all done with envelope shaping?

Where was this when I was learning to play bass? Why? Would you have wanted to use it to learn the bass lines? When I bought my first bass at the beginning of 1981 I wasn't even remotely interested in the Beatles. Also if I sounded like that I would probably want to get some different gear. In My Life has an interesting effect on it, but otherwise I think the overall tone on its own is pretty horrible.

I'd definitely consider adding the suspension unit (if your recording space doesn't have a solid floor you will pickup all sorts of mechanical noise without it), a pop shield (although you can make one yourself from a wire coat hanger and a pair of tights), and possibly a reflection filter (unless you have a large and/or heavily damped space to record in). With all of that you may also need a more robust microphone stand, or a second one for attaching the pop shield and reflection filter so they don't affect the mic.

And another Oxjam Beeston gig report... Hurtsfall played at the Malt Shovel at 5.00 in the afternoon. My previous experience of Oxjam was over 10 years ago with The Terrortones where it seemed poorly organised with the venue changing at the last minute, everything running late, and the promised backline not being present. Luckily on that occasion the bass player from In Isolation who played before us was happy to let me use his rig. Little did he know that I'd be taking his place in the band 6 years later! This time it was a complete contrast: everything was extremely well organised and running on time! We were sandwiched between two bands of very different styles to our goth/post punk sound, and for once I didn't spot anyone in the audience that we knew, so we were playing to an audience who were completely unfamiliar with our songs. Despite that we seemed to go down well and although there were people drifting in and out as we played, plenty stayed to the end of the set and we got some appreciative comments afterwards. Still strange to be back home before 6.30 in the evening. This is the only photo I've seen so far of our performance seemingly taken from the back of the pub:

Unfortunately the initial problem is shipping to a drop location rather than a real address. As to OP has discovered they have limits on the size and weight of parcels that they will accept. Having had a similar experience the first time I tried to send something one of these delivery locations, I will now no longer ship anything to a drop location unless it fits within the Post Office's Medium Parcel weight and dimensions. Anything bigger or heavier I contact the buyer, explain that their drop location won't accept the parcel and if they can't supply a proper postal address cancel the transaction.

As has been said bike boxes cut down to size make the best DIY shipping boxes. Most bicycle retailer are more than happy to give them away. They are made of thicker and tougher card than the typical musical instrument box and they generally come with a load of internal packing that can be used as padding and/or reinforcement.

I can say I've ever needed to fiddle with the EQ when using my of rig to get the right sound. maybe I've just been lucky with the venues I have played. I have played two places where the sound was appalling, but that was down to the the acoustics of the room and no amount of adjusting the EQ would have made any difference, so I left every as it was. Remember that poor room acoustics are a combination of both frequency domain and time domain problems and a frequency domain solution while making it sound better in one place is having zero effect (or even making it worse) elsewhere in the venue. If you could fix room acoustics with just EQ there would be no need for expensive acoustic treatment in recording studios, you could simply slap a 31-band graphic across the monitor outputs and you'd be sorted.