thumperbob 2002

My hands killing me! Just sorted come on come over and what us hip for the new band I'm setting up. But harder to play than my normal jamerson covers. Definitely more than one finger needed. My normal band soul patrol are well established now and it's so easy its intrue so i thought I would set up another band doing more challenging funky stuff. Got a great bunch if musicians. Just aiming to do one gig per month solely for enjoyment. Really looking forward to it. The aim is to do stuff that noone round here does. Any song suggestions?

It was said to a certain mr Epstein that guitar bands were dead and we know what happened there.

Yeah flat on the lh1000 is mids on max (10) and bass and treble on 2. To be honest not much difference to mids at 10 and bass and treble on 0. Would be no problem for my active basses- Warwick thumb and low end jazz, just a little too scooped for my passive jazzes. However I don't think it's the amp as much as the speaker cab that is scooped. I only needed a little extra mids, just that bit to really cut through. Now I have a very very loud, portable rig that cuts through with oodles of headroom.

What about MC Hammer /Rick James- you cant touch this. I sometimes bang this in in one of our intros- works really well. Oh and The Jackson 5 I want you back.

Thanks Andy. What a great pedal. Never surprised with bass gear normally but this is amazing.

Got one of these from another chatter. What a great pedal So simple- just controls the mid range frequencies. Built like a tank. Tiny but very heavy. My rig is a little scooped so thought I would use a graphic to add more mids ( maxed out on my hartke lh1000 ) so bought a behringer one. Did the trick but was curious about the bmc pedal - one came up on here so I bought it. Amazing quality, very warm sounding. Loads of different sounds on this and all useful. Cut through like knife through butter. Really really useful pedal that would be useful for all players.

Just get the full set list and learn them as best as you can - note for note. Soul man sounds pretty easy but there is quite a bit to it. However you've gotto do it without looking at your bass. Positions.....!! Loads of great great lines for soul songs. Sex machine?

Bought a EWS Bass Mid Control pedal from Andy. Very fast delivery- great guy to deal with. Bob

Hi Pal- Graphic on its way to you- should get it tomorrow -or Thurs. It actually has a Feedback tool- think its called FBT- which when you push a button and ring out the pa ( turn it up!! ) the offending frequency lights up- turn down that one and turn up pa. Easy. I always do our live sound out front with a wireless- I have a Mackie 1608 so can mix out front using a router too. I think it is important to mix the whole band as one mix and not to concentrate on one instrument ( unless you have problems with it. ). You`ll quickly know which frequency to cut to have a balanced mix. The problem with some musicians is that they get carried away on a gig and go for it once they are on and so play harder than in a soundcheck. Not good for sound. Listen to a record of your type of band and try to emulate the mix- keep those keybaords down in the mix!! They will fill the midrange if you are not careful. I tend to have them really quite bright with a High Pass Filter on almost everything. Too much to talk about in one post!

We all have off days from time to time. Forget about it and try something else for a bit. Two years getting a set together- wow. You must all be saints or really enjoy being in a small room with other non- gigging musicians. Two practices like that and I`m out!

it will open up new avenues to you, unless you have amazing ears. I could play for years before I learned to read music ( which was pretty boring intially, though once the pressures on at a gig I cant say I could describe it as boring anymore ) I wouldnt say I was a great reader, but can get by. Our trumpet player, who is also a conductor in some big bands, read the brass part to Sir Duke straight off first time, and that is a good reader, I think you could say. Though I think it depends who your bandmates are also- its great to be able to play along with Jamerson etc ( but not straight off for most of his stuff ) but if you are doing the normal Rock stuff in Pubs I would say its academic whether you`ll use it or not, Theory is important though. The question is, would it be better for you to really get to grips with Theory ( which everyone could use ) or spend at least 30 mins per day learning to sight read- which is not so useful for everyone?

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1351668867' post='1853862'] What you need ( if you have the cash) is an EWS BMC (Bass Mids Control) pedal. Tiny, ultra low noise, and very high quality. Costs about £140 but real quality does not come cheap. Thoroughly musical pedal which will solve all your issues and life problems too ! and recommended by me !! [/quote] That looks fantastic-the only problem I can see when compared with a Graphic EQ or full range parametric is to cure a boomy room the answer would be to reduce the lows and the low frequencies only. Would this give you that control. Love the size of the thing.

Well I had the Harley Benton BEQ-1 delivered yesterday ( ordered the correct one- just couldnt remember the name for it. ) Medal framed pedal- sliders look a little fragile- but it was £27 delivered so cant really complain. Took it to a gig yesterday night and with quite a mid boost- very unhappy face on this EQ- got the sound I was looking for- very warm- cut through brilliantly- I am in a 7 piece- quite loud Soul/ Funk group. I recorded the gig on my Zoom H2- bass sounded absolutely superb. Very low and deep but defined with a great brightness at the high end when needed. I do agree with the previous posts in that the Hydrive cab seems to be very scooped, much more than the amp. However these cabs have massive headroom and power and can be very bright and therefore cut through very well. That is what I wanted when I purchased this rig. Now I have the control I need this rig is a keeper- until another onset of GAS. I think the only downside of this rig is that the amp is a little heavy- esp when compared to my Markbass LM2 ( which actually sounds similar to the Hartke through this cab when flat. The cab is surprisingly light for a 4 x 10 so I suppose that makes up for it.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' timestamp='1351706075' post='1854451'] Aw, c'mon! The compact cassette was widely available by the early/mid 70's. Just rip a few LPs and burn them to a compilation tape. write down the tape counter start points, and BINGO! you can play/replay tracks without the hassle of the stylus rigmarole! [/quote] They were too dear for me- Could hardly afford records- let alone a tape deck. Everything is cheaper nowadays.

I play everyday- no messing- mostly its learning a new song or two or revisiting old songs to get them absolutely perfect. Having not played for a few days ( on holiday ) I can tell, and think that the crowd can tell too ( they cant ). You never ever stop learning and shouldnt get to a point where you are "good enough"

I have ordered a Hb GEQ1 from Thomanns. Its the least I have paid for a pedal for a long time- about £30. Will report with findings!!

Our band have a Behringer Mixer- 24 channel- 4 auxilliaries- inbuilt effects- miles better than the Yamaha one we had at half the price- with twice the facilities!! Looks fragile but we have been using this four times a week with no problems- not flightcased either- kept in a suitcase!! Sounds great. Something to be said for scale.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1351521534' post='1852087'] I've quickly skimmed the thread - It caught my eye as an avid Hartke'r. It's funny as I found that with my own bass, I had lots of upper mids from the rig but my bass having a slightly subdued lower bass 'bump' meant that I craved a bit more in that region. Actually a simple EQ pedal did the job nicely to boost that region. Interestingly, my passive basses were the opposite and I had too much low mid! Another thing you could try, that won't break the bank is to use a different preamp valve in the LH. It's a safe operation to change it, similar to changing a lightbulb. Depending on model you can alter the sound of the amp. The great thing that I love about the LH preamp is its simplicity and thus, changing the valve can change the character of it's sound too, sometimes dramatically. My two current favourite valves, both found to be useful for vocal mic preamplifiers are (premium) GE 5751which is a very clear sounding lower gain valve. Mine is some sort of high grade one. I have to say,'a 1958 black plates triple mica' and it gets a quiver from the back row at valve conventions heh - but, my 'chuck it in and sound great' valve is a JJ ECC83S (premium and drive tested). They have a natural bump in the upper mids that really seem to make my Shukers sing - way more so that the more standard Sovtek 12AX7WA (or electoharmonix rebadged version) you find factory fitted in a lot of preamps these days. If it's a troublesome frequency, then maybe look at a parametric EQ pedal. Boss used to do one as does the likes of Carl Martin among others. this would allow you to accurately pin point that mid bit you want whilst at the same time zoning in on other areas of your tone too. I'd suggest that you could boost a bit around 1Khz - 4 Khz to help you cut through guitar distortion and cymbal sizzle too. [/quote] Interesting post that Dood- I think I`ll look at buying a simple para or graphic EQ- as my Basspod sorts it out nicely, but as I said, is a bit unwieldy- ( esp on smaller stages )!!

yeah- I`ve had loads of rigs- the Schroeder Cabs are immense ( sold them both when I bought some Ampeg Gear _ Pf500 etc ) The Ampeg gear sounded fantastic through our rig but I needed a bit more power. I think the point of my OP was that I was looking at getting a good small EQ pedal to give me that mid-hump. My Basspod does the job in a terrific way but I feel that I dont need the many great things it does. And its a little on the large size. Lots of songs I do need that slap bass and I dont like slap on the bridge Pickup. No problem for fingerstyle Nos.

Hi All I have recently purchased a LH1000 and Hydrive 4 x 10. Mega rig- really powerful and warm. Old school heavy amp and pretty light 4 x 10. On a couple of gigs I find its a little mid scooped for my taste. Actually sounds great but to cut through the band without being ridiculously loud I need a bit more mid punch. These amps have a fender tone stack type of EQ where for flat response Mid is on full ( 10 ), with bass and treble being on 3 . Obviously with both bass and treble full off that is the max mids I am getting. Not enough though and this is my problem. Its the speakers really- very warm and clear but I need more mids. I can use my basspod as a preamp and get all the mids I need but I am trying to be as simple as poss and the Pod Live XT is simply too big to carry with all my other gear. Does anyone have any ideas- I have a Sadowsky pre amp which is too scooped in any event and a VT bass which has a very simple mid control. I think I need a small Bass EQ pedal but would like a high quality one- does anyone have any ideas? I really need my tone to be minus 1 from Honky. I use a Fender Jazz with both Pickups on full- prefer that tone to Bridge as I do a bit of slap in each song and dont like the slap tone of the bridge pickup. Any advice on what I should buy would be great.

Played our Friday night residency last night. Packed night. All the band in Halloween garb. Realised I am using my pod xt live just as a tuner now so it has to go. Our mackie 1608 is truly set up now. So convenient. All in all another great night for soul patrol.

Great band. Bit of an old school tone bit fits really well. I sort of agree that the solo should have "breathe" spaces ( to let the music come through ) but I thought that track was made to be that way. Great moves too. I like the way that they look as though they are enjoying themselves.

I agree- my MM ( which I sold a few years ago ) was a terrific bass- real quality instrument- but the pre-amp was a little harsh. My Roadworns are the same quality but in my opinion sound miles better- more of a vintage vibe.