mingsta

The action on my beloved Stingray 4HH has been out of sorts for the past year or so and the usual truss rod/saddle height adjustment doesn't seem to be able to sort the issue out. I'm guessing it might need someone with better skills who can look at the frets and neck angle etc. Could anyone recommend me a luthier in London/Surrey who's a wizard at this kind of stuff?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1454940122' post='2974385'] A sad tale indeed, but for top-quality leads and cables one need look no further than our own obbm of this parish. [url="http://www.rock-wire.uk.com/"]http://www.rock-wire.uk.com/[/url] All of my many leads and cables are from obbm and over the years I have had NOT ONE single problem with them. Yes, I am doing this. It's happening. PS: Thanks for naming the shop, by the way. Unlikely ever to go there, but definitely not now. [/quote] This. If everyone bought their cables from rock-wire.com, the cable industry would die overnight as you'd only need to do it once.

Lots of good advice here already. If you want the pure mm experience, then the closest you can get to it in the current line up is a maple board stingray classic. My personal favourite is the stingray HH as a do-it-all bass, though if already have a P and a Jazz then you may not need the versatility. The bongo is fantastic, sheer bloody dynamite with a massive sound and great playability. I also tried a a Reflex HH a few years back and was very impressed. A bit fuller and less zingy than a stingray and an absolute tone monster due to the pickup switching.

Saw him at the Jazz cafe many years ago and love his stuff from the Tony Toni tone (sp?) days and Lucy Pearl.

Interesting thread! I was a bedroom player in my youth, then had a big 14 year break before picking it up again in 2012. Nowadays, I have to be performing in some way or another as my motivation for playing. The most obvious and immediate thing is gigging, which I love and is my main focus on the bass. If this dried up, then I'd have to find other ways to perform or else I'd stop playing. I'd probably get in to writing original music with a collective of like minded individuals, but there would have to be some outlet for this i.e. getting music out on to the net. I'm in south london and there's still lots of pubs and venues which are hosting live music. The money isn't great: £200-250 for pub gigs, £280-400 for parties and £800 for weddings is what we typically get depending on requirements, but as we all have day jobs, we can take these gigs. Where I'm at, most of the youngsters seem to be in to live music. People in their late teens and 20s will always be going out & live music goes hand in hand with that, so I can't see that ever disappearing. The market for classic rock type bands (the undisputed backbone of the pub and social scene for the last 4 decades!) might shrink over the years, but if you can keep your set list diverse/current, then you'll still get booked.

Nope. It's a bit of wood with strings on it. Riding bicycles, on the other hand...well that's a whole different story...

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1452701241' post='2952594'] From the moment we learn joined up thinking we seek approval. We all seek it... some more than others. Perfectly normal. [/quote] Apart from those of us who are married. We spend most of our time trying to avoid the need for approval!!!

No, I got it. I was giving my own experience. I'd imagine that many of us fell in to bass playing, as opposed to Guitar or Vocals which is more of a calling. I've come to love the bass, but totally get that for some its just an enabler to be part of something, and it could just as easily be another instrument.

Not ego at all. You want to be PART of something that people think is awesome. Now if you'd said you wanted everyone to think YOU were awesome, that's a different matter. Gross generalisation here, but I'd imagine that most bass players in gigging bands are good team players, who take satisfaction in a good team performance rather than personal glory. I know I've done my job if the music grooved and everyone was dancing. The reality is that only other band members or a select few punters will appreciate a tight rhythm section, but that's fine by me. I only went out and bought a bass because my mates wanted to start a band when we were 15 and that was the only slot available. But since then, my association with the instrument has heavily influenced how I listen to and appreciate music so its now hardwired in to me and I can't imagine playing any other instrument (though if I had the time, I'd love to learn a bit of drums and guitar to make me a more knowledgable bass player).

Yeah, it seems like you need to have a word in the shell of both the guitarist and singer. They should be doing everything in their power to help new drummer get up to speed and taking a responsibility in solving the timing issues. While the drummer is usually the dominant time keeper, there's a collective responsibility for everyone to listen to each other and not pull the timing all over the place. Our drummer will ask for sessions where we turn on the click if he thinks we need to go back to basics regarding timing and its accepted by everyone without question. You can bum the odd note when you perform and by and large no one in the audience notices, but if they band isn't tight or the tempo starts galloping away, thats something which affects the whole performance.

Hello! Will definitely give it a read. I could never go pro, but as a London based amateur I'd love to read of your experiences.

If you have a need to practice covers, then SweetMidi is hands down the best midi player I've found by a long shot. It's the reason I've stuck with my ancient iPad 2 rather than switch to an android tablet.

4 basses, Bongo 5hh, Stingray 4hh, Stingray 4h, sadowsky hpj metro. I gig about 1-2 times a month. But I largely only gig the stingray 4hh. It's the best behaved in gigging situations, even volume across all strings, no dead spots, volume is even between the 5 pickup settings and easy to use 3-band eq. I find it cuts through the mix better than the sadowsky, though I prefer the sadowsky for knocking about at home. I find that Having a dead consistent bass is one less thing to have think about when playing live. I used to bring the five string and swap in for the odd song that needed it, but it was a faff and I now use a de tune pedal.

Funnily enough, we were looking for a drummer about 3 years ago and I found a guy who lived local to us. I was a bit concerned when he said that he didn't have a drum kit but we weren't exactly spoilt for choice and decided to give him a go. He turned out to be the best and most reliable drummer that I've ever played with and we're still going strong, so to speak.

I was ready with my torch and pitchfork, but on reading spencers response maybe it's not quite as black and white as I thought. BURN THEM BOTH!!!!!

I've been after a synth pedal for doing 80s/90s pop covers for a while, but it's a bit of a minefield as they're all quite expensive and I couldn't find anything that matched the sounds that I had in my head. I'd heard of the akai deep impact but never looked in to them on account of them being out of production and now changing hands for several hundred dollars. I've Just seen the article on the modern version on notreble and this could be the one. Patch 65 around 3:13 is about as close to what I was after as you could reasonably expect to achieve on a bass guitar. Best start saving up! http://youtu.be/G0A-3MnNrWw

Thanks guys, does anyone know if the Mike Lull TC4 basses are slightly undersized like the mv4 model, couldn't see any details on the website. Again, not a cheap option!

I've always had a bit of unresolved GAS for a jazz bass, but the slab like body looks odd with my pint sized frame. Who makes jazz basses with slightly smaller body size?

I'd go for something with a 12inch speaker, at least 100 watts and with an aux in and headphones. IMO that strikes the balance between something that's small and portable but which can be used for rehearsal and on stage monitoring if you start to gig. As well as the fender rumble, check out the EBS session 120.

I'd go for the phil jones big head. Everything you need for a high quality portable headphone amp (rechargeable, tone control, aux in) and nothing you don't need. The korg pandora px5d is also good, but I personally don't need all the effects etc.

Probably my favourite bass player at the moment. One of those players who makes you think "damn I'll never be able to play like that" not through playing a billion notes a second, but with his amazing groove and feel. If the drummer exploded mid set, he could honestly carry the whole rhythm section.

[quote name='stevebasshead' timestamp='1449755547' post='2926525'] I'm sure someone will correct me but I'm not aware of any pedal that will [u]reliably[/u] detune and won't demand a pristine technique to help it track well. If that [i]is[/i] the case maybe the better option would be for you to relearn the songs higher up the neck but still a half/full tone down and use an octave pedal to add the depth of sound back. [/quote] From what I understand, analog pedals do it by tracking your notes. For these pedals, you need a good clean technique so that there's a strong fundamental for the pedal to latch on to. Another consideration is that analogue pedals can't handle polyphony very well, for the same reasons. On the other hand, digital pedals just process the whole signal and you don't have to worry about tracking. The downside with digital pedals is that there is sometimes a little bit of lag/latency due to the digital processing, while with analog pedals, its instantaneous. I've got the EHX pitchfork which I use when I can't be arsed to bring a 5 string for the few songs that need it. Its digital, latency is good compared to the zoom multifx that I have. It does the job well and as it can also do upper/lower simulaneously and blendable signal, you can use it as an effect rather than just for pitch shifting. My main criticism of the EHX Pitchfork, and all other pitch shifters I've tried, is that they sound somewhat artificial, particularly in the lower register. But its a compromise. I can live with it for the couple of songs that we do which need a 5 if its one less bass to take to a gig, but if we had more then I'd probably think about using a 5 for the whole set.

As a pioneer, who's been the biggest influence for future generations of bassists alongside James Jamerson, I'd say that yes, Jaco was really all that. But at the same time, I'd have to confess that I've never really "got" his work, even though I can appreciate the artistry. I've found it too inaccessible for my simpleton musical tastes. I sometimes wonder whether I acknowledge Jaco as a genius not because of what my own ears or musical appreciation tell me, but because its been so widely recognised among other bassists. Oddly, I've never had that issue with the likes on Stanley Clarke, who's broadly in the same space as Jaco, but who's music I find a fair bit more accessible.

Blue, I enjoy your posts and this has been an interesting thread. But the way your OP read it had the air of asking "how much do you gig, and why?" then bigging yourself up on account of your 75 gigs a year, while looking down on those who aren't living that life. I'm sure that's not what you meant, but its certainly how you came across. You probably could have done the first two things, but skipped the last 8o) I'm a working stiff/hobbyist and can speak from that perspective. For many a hobbyist just getting to the point where you are doing 1-2 paid gigs a month is already a good achievement. I've reached my glass ceiling and I'm happy in my greenhouse! If I had more time for music, I'd put more time in to expanding myself creatively/musically rather than necessarily doing more gigs. We have a growing setlist of about 40 songs, and it'd start to do my nut in if we were bashing out the same songs 1-2 times a week. Music is quite far down my list of priorities so I'm just massively thankful to be in a set up that works well and where we get a semi-regular stream of gigs 1-2 times a month. The only reason I do it is because I enjoy the pressure and release of performing live and because its massively rewarding (satisfaction, not money!) to be paid in recognition of this. For most of us its not glamorous or cool being in a band at all, so its certainly not for that! When we play weddings and parties you're just some dude carrying heavy boxes and running cables for 50% of the time, then the other 50% of the time you're at the back with the drummer while the singer and guitard lap up the glory. So no, far from being a Boys Night Out...not by a long shot...