shizznit

I have seen Metallica play 7 times since they released the Black album and not once have I seen them perform Enter Sandman where the sample of the kid saying his prayers has been in time with the break in the middle 8th. It sounds bloody awful! That's a classic example of when using a click sparingly to maintain an organic feel to the whole set is more than persmissable. As for the other songs they play...they tend to play them faster live which I actually welcome! I know Hagis from Senser (forgive the name drop!) who doesn't play on stage with them, but a very important member of the band. He doubles up as their sound engineer/samples guy and controls their click tracks and triggers the samples from the desk. I have seen this guy at work and take my word for it...if these guys didn't play to a click track the would not be able to play to the samples and it would be nigh on impossible to perform their songs as the samples form a huge part of their style. Hagis is a muso too and is totally appreciative of 'keeping things real', but I do regard what he does as skillful as the other guys part on stage.

[quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1331644521' post='1576407'] Thinking about the Seas of cheese dates - Apparently one night is a 'Best of' set, the other night is Sailing the seas of Cheese & the new album start to finish (Both nights will be 2 sets with a break apparently!?). [/quote] Either way, I don't care what they play on the 4th date which I will be attending! Just gutted that Herb won't be on drums

The MTD 535 will have a very different feel next to the Wal and I would strongly recommend trying them out to see which one lends itself to you. When I bought my old MTD I had very little experience playing a bass with 19mm string spacing and it was something I did struggle with for quite some time, but I did eventually start to fly across the fingerboard with some persaverence. If you are used to narrow 5 string necks (around the 17-18mm mark) that little bit extra spacing does actually make quite a significant difference to the playability. Some guys adjust to it quickly...I didn't. I have never owed a Wal, but I have played my friends 5 string on plenty of occasions and it's a very, very fine instrument. It feels very reassuringly solid (if a little bit heavy) and sounds incredible...really really incredible! The feel is almost similar to a Warwick neck IMHO, if not just a tad thinner.

My girlfriend plays and teaches soprano sax, alto and tenor (not baritone...she is only 5'2!). The soprano is my fav. Bit more of a lead instrument and relatively easier to play because the keys are closer together. I had a stint in school playing sax and it's not an easy instrument to get to grips with. The breathing and reed technique was something I just couldn't master. The horrible squeaks I was constantly playing whilst practicing did my folks heads in, so they encouraged me to play stringed instruments!

That's probably one of the most professional looking home-made cabs I have ever seen! You should be proud of yourself Ou7shined. 1st class job mate! My mate is going to build me a 210 foldback monitor in the summer dedicated to my bass amp signal only (HD350 backline/Reidmar monitoring). I am going to ask EBS very kindly if they can sell me a couple of 10" speakers and a tweeter for the project. I'm not doubting my mates carpentary skills, but I can probably expect it to not look as good as your effort!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1331630405' post='1575990'] Agghhhh! Nooooooooooo!!! [/quote] It sounded good...honest! I did put the original pup's back in, but sold it soon after.

I haven't owned a vintage bass for a long time, but I did own a 76' P bass a few years back. That thing was awesome. I was a bit naughty and replaced the pup's with EMG's, but it was the feel of it that was the big attraction for me. There's something about a worn in bass that just feels right somehow.

I love my Reidmar. I have a HD350 head too for larger gigs, but the Reidmar can hold it's own very well and sounds every bit as good. I could be here until the cows come home explaining how the Reidmar is like to live with, but I (along with quite a few BC'ers now) have posted our experiences over the past few months since it was launched on the following thread... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/159447-ebs-reidmar/page__fromsearch__1"]EBS Reidmar 250[/url]

I have been playing for about 18yrs and though I would say that I am confident and proficient in some areas I wouldn't consider myself to be a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination. During my experience I have had a lot of highs and lows about how I review myself as a musician. The trick is not to be too hard on yourself. It doesn't come down to how technical your are or how much theory you know. You have to be comfortable how you want to fit into music and how it speaks to you. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

^ Thanks for the insight Gust0o

From one end of the scale to the other... Ken Smith - Rolls Royce Warwick - Porsche 911 Fender - Ford Mondeo Vintage - Yugo I would rank Fender higher, but whilst being very functional and pleasing they can be a bit boring and predictable (feel free to sharpen your knives!)

One of my students has a Spear bass and it is...well...to be polite, adequately priced!

Puke? A lot of fluids (both bodily and alcoholic) have made it's way on to my instruments, but never puke! Stomache acid is very corrosive. I have seen a drinks can ring pull completely disolve within 20mins in a flask of stomache acid, so make sure that your bass is completely removed of all puke. Gosh...I couldn't imagine what the smell must be like!

[quote name='TDM' timestamp='1331561580' post='1574789'] I'm personally a fan of the sound new strings and a little bit of grit gives. The guy from Killswitch Engage, for example: [/quote] I saw these guys play at Download a few years ago and the bass mix was really loud. Happy days, but not on this occasion. Not only this guy was incredibly sloppy but I thought the bass tone was awful. I know you can open up a debate that FOH often doesn't do wonders to backline tone, especially at open air gigs, but sometimes you can just tell something wrong is going on up on the stage.

[quote name='mep' timestamp='1331558436' post='1574694'] I have experimented with the pre-shape. But to be honest, although it sounds great at home on your own it, in a live situation I am not impressed with it. [/quote] It sounded good to me at low home use volumes because it gave me an 'impressive' hi-fi tone, but when cranked at a gig it was unusable.

A friend of mine paid almost £2k for a vintage Gibson Black Beauty custom last year and when he took it to a Gibson expert they confirmed it as a fake worth probably £400, even though it had genuine 70's Gibson PAF's installed.

My old Jaydee Supernatural was a messy looking puppy. Both the 1/4" and XLR was on the face of the bass amoungst a host of knobs and switches... [attachment=102301:jaydee_supernatural.jpg]

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1331558652' post='1574703'] I love the dual purpose rule! Flat screwdrivers for opening paint tins, guitars for slicing eggs .. Granite fingerboards for chopping cabbage. Shredding has never been easier. [/quote]

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1331555088' post='1574577'] Another thread with an objective to quantify the subjective. [/quote] +1 I will not partake. Most of the players that I don't like adorn their houses with gold and platinum disks, so what do I know!

I have recently ordered an Uberhorn model with Jon and upon reading this thread my experience thus far has been pretty good. Dood sent Jon the spec I wanted and two weeks later the timbers, electronics and hardware has been confirmed and paid for and Jon is ready to build. The best way to get hold of Jon is by phone. Even when he hasn't been available to answer he has always called me back the same day. I have seen the popularity of his instruments rise very steadily over the past few years and no doubt he is a busy lad. The build times will vary from customer to customer and from company to company. What would you consider a quick turnaround on a build? I have ordered two custom made basses in the past. My Warwick Dolphin took 10 months and my MTD 535 14 months. When I visited the Warwick factory they had 6 lads working in the custom shop (might be more now) and Mike Tobias only had two lads working with him at the time I ordered my bass. If Jon finishes my order between 12-18 months from now I would consider the turnaround lightening quick for a busy lone working luthier. I am not defending Jon because I do think that giblett123 has been waiting a heck of a long time for his instruments. It does make me wonder why Jon hasn't taken on some help or outsourced some of his work during busy periods. His prices are ridiculously reasonable for the quality that he produces. If he hired an assistant expect his prices to go up and that could turn a few BC'ers off as Jon's prices is a significant pulling power.

Sunn, Ampeg and Kustom amps were very popular with Motown/Soul players. American amps took a long time to get to the UK and there weren't many brands available in the market over here. Vox, Orange, WEM, Acoustic, HI-WATT, Marshall and HH were probably the most common amps seen on big stages over here during the 70's.

Very pretty, but utterly pointless. I think you would lose a lot of the feel of your instrument because those frets are MASSIVE!!! Even Jens Ritter would struggle to find a reason to use those frets!

One of our agencies book for this venue. We don't often travel that far west unless it's a wedding booking. Thanks for the heads up just in case the agency approach us with a booking there. We're a 9-piece, so it sounds like we couldn't fit in there (the aggro doesn't seem worth it anyway!)

[quote name='spiderjazz' timestamp='1331552276' post='1574502'] I must experiment more with putting a pedal in front of the amp, I found even with blending that it was affecting the low end more than I like, but I probably need to mess around with settings a bit more. [/quote] Not all overdrive/fuzz/distortion pedals will work with bass as some of them will soak up the bottom end. For full on buzzsaw bass I have always turned to my RAT pedal. The filter control on it is very useful for placing a bit more low end gurth in the tone. These days I will run a fuzz pedal through a BOSS LS-2 Line Selector and mix a dry and wet signal so I don't lose the articulation and punch from the clean bass. Tim Commerford from Rage Against The Machine uses this 2 channel method and it works really well.

Gosh...the 80's was the breakthrough era of great bass players, so it's really hard to pin down 'the best'. Here's some of my fav's... U2 - New Years Day Police - Walking On The Moon Duran Duran - Too Shy Ian Drury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick Queen - Another One Bites The Dust Madonna - Like A Prayer Level 42 - Hot Water The Cure - Love Cats Paul Simon - (everything from the Graceland album) Phil Collins - (everything that Lee Sklar appeared on) Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer Was (Not Was) - Walk The Dinosaur Kool & The Gang - Fresh David Bowie - Lets Dance Fonzi Thornton - Change The Game Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster