molan

Nice one Clarky - I've never actually seen an all black Alembic before!

Just got this message from a bass player who was the gig last night: [i]"out front the bass sound was great with plenty of clarity & excellent projection from your bass rig (could hear every note you played and the slap, nuances and runs cut through beautifully), volume was perfectly balanced with the drums and guitar"[/i] So that's cheered me up a bit

[quote name='bennifer' post='884784' date='Jul 3 2010, 01:42 PM']Fairly simple. You want to give your FOH engineer a Pre-EQ DI out that they can fiddle with for main PA duty. They make a good judgement on what you should sound like, with your input as well if you sort it during soundcheck. Then fiddle with your amp to your hearts content, to get an onstage monitoring sound that you prefer. Don't have bass in your foldback/wedge at all so you're just getting the bass sound onstage that you want.[/quote] Sound engineer wouldn't put bass into the FoH. . . We usually have our own engineer and he puts everything into the FoH. This one would only put vox, keys & sax plus a little kick drum in.

[quote name='essexbasscat' post='884741' date='Jul 3 2010, 12:46 PM']Congrats on the Sadowsky by the way, surprising about the neck dive ?[/quote] I wonder if I was maybe just being over critical of it when I first got it, lol. There is a bit of neck bias but it's not terrible and using a comfort strap rather than leather held it in place much better. I also lowered the strap a little from where I normally play, I think the smaller body than a standard J felt a bit 'odd' but just seemed to work better when played lower (I'm talking of not much more than an inch or two on the strap though - I didn't have it down around my knees!).

Morning everyone - apologies for the late reply but I've only just got up Totally agree that the FoH sound is the most important but I do find it frustrating when I haven't got a good on-stage sound. I'm sure my playing suffers a little and my enjoyment is definitely less Tom - I had the same rig I took to the Bass Bash & I used the new Sadowsky. The Sad was great, the slight neck dive I thought it had just disappeared when actually playing live & it was effortless to play. Other things that annoyed me though were: Sound engineer - not our regular guy & we had a different set of monitors. They were quite long throw and I was being smacked in the face with very loud vocals all night (there was plenty of room to move them to a better position but our vocalists didn't really understand that they could stand further back and hear better. For a few songs the keys were way too loud in the monitor mix, drowning everything else out completely so I had to get them turned down. My signals to the sound engineer weren't getting through so I had to walk over and get them adjusted. Which brings me to. . . Drummer - as I'm talking to the sound engineer and explaining to the keys man why he can't have total domination of the monitor mix my drummer decides to start the next song without checking that I was ready. Needless to say it was a song which starts with just drum & bass - I missed my intro & then completely fluffed the next line. It was bad enough that we had to start the song again which is just so unprofessional. And then when it finished the singer made a sarky comment something like "special thanks to our bass player on that one". He did the same thing to the sax player later on at a point when he has to swap his tenor for a baritone & he also missed his opening parts. Singer - one of the singers was having problems hearing herself (back to those monitors again) and subsequently was over-singing off and on all night. She got very screechy a few times and I could see people visibly wincing! To compound matters she doesn't have great mic technique and this just exacerbated things. She also started one song in entirely the wrong key - she was taking her cue from me & she gave me a glare which made me think the fault was mine, I was just about to move down a step to match her voice when the rest of the band came in and it turned out I was right all along, grrr. Venue - Ok, so we're a dance band, people always get up & dance when we play. However the venue management decided to arrange the room so that the only possible dance area was a long strip down the side of the room where people came in and out. There was plenty of space but they'd filled it with tables which they really didn't need. Oh, and we were playing in a sort of arched alcove which meant people were having to watch us through a set of arches which meant everything was a bit disconnected. Right that's it rant over, lol. Despite all these niggles it was actually an Ok gig, guitarist was on top form & I always get a buzz playing with him when he's really hitting everything right and our new male singer was good too. We also got a surprising number of people dancing in the limited space and, in a very competitive music & bar environment we were bringing punters in to watch us (the one clever thing the sound engineer did was to leave a few windows open so our music was drifting out on to the street).

So I tried a totally new set up this evening & spent maybe 2 hours tuning my sound to get exactly what I wanted to hear from both new bass, amp & cabs. I always knew sound would be different in a much bigger hall but thought my 'core' sound would just need some tweaking. Set everything up at the gig & all I could hear was mush! Boomy lower frequencies, no definition, no subtlety of tone, blah, blah, blah. After all my tweaking I discovered that my pre-set of 'everything tuned flat' sounded best to me on stage Really pissed off that things weren't working properly but soldiered on & didn't really enjoy the gig that much (and I LOVE playing live usually!). After the gig I spoke to someone who's seen me a few times before & he said it was the best bass sound I'd ever had. . .

Having owned 3 US NS5XL's I have to admit that I always assumed the tone pump was both cut & boost and tended to just set it in the mid position anyway I never understood why people didn't like it, I've always preferred it to the J East circuit that lots of people fit. . .

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='883326' date='Jul 1 2010, 07:20 PM']This thread is back with some Bootsy! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMACZj6R0ZU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMACZj6R0ZU[/url][/quote] I love Bootsy Baby, I have this album on rotation in the car Loads of great songs on it & some wicked Bootsy funk. As Bootsy says: [i]"Everything good is nasty, You don't miss your P until the U S S Y is gone, The thigh is the limit baby Don't shoot until you see the fat of the thigh I am the freak, Freak of the week Hey Bootsy hit us with that bass I'm funkalicious baby. . ."[/i] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaiHh9xLb-g&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaiHh9xLb-g...feature=related[/url]

[quote name='sk8' post='883021' date='Jul 1 2010, 02:40 PM']having used a Shuttle 3 with a compact i'd say no. To get loud the compact needs juice and this won't have it IMHO. Saying that though the Shuttle 3.0-10T combo kept up in a four piece, admittedly maxed but it was there [/quote] I've gigged with one of these and was astonished at how loud it went with decent low end as well It wasn't breaking up at all at the volumes I had and that was in a 7 piece band. TC RH450 has more power and the 'tubetone' option but it's a fair bit bigger than the real micro amps (still pretty small but just not as tiny as the latest breed!).

I've been playing a Fodera Wooten in buckeye burl all day off and on - stunning bass The Aj's aren't my favourite shape Foderas though I must admit.

Ummm, I love sonic blue basses

So many nice basses around the room yesterday, difficult to pick a favourite, ones that stood out for me included: the veritable host of GB's Peavey T40 Nash Relic '71J Warwick fretless Sei Singlecut Wal G&L green fretless White MM5 Could have happily gone home with another 10 basses. . .

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='879107' date='Jun 27 2010, 07:14 PM'][/quote] Shouldn't you be Sarah 4, 5 & 6 string

Not sure where you're based but if you're in the South then Steve Rowse at Steve's Amps is an absolute wizard on Ampegs [url="http://www.stevesamps.co.uk/"]http://www.stevesamps.co.uk/[/url] He'll also offer help and advice if you're too far away to visit him

Another big thanks to EssexBC & the mighty NetballMan for all their hard work! Enjoyed meeting everyone & putting some faces to names & trying some new basses I think my highlight was watching Urb on his Sei through the RC2 Looper Also listening to Urb & Ari playing a couple of my basses and making them sound so much better than they ever will in my hands, lol.

[quote name='Clarky' post='879086' date='Jun 27 2010, 06:53 PM']Maybe the Gallery can do a fret stone and sort it out?[/quote] That's a really good point Clarky - my '78J had what I thought was a bit of a dodgy neck and Martin stoned it & it was like a different world when it came back

I'm here and online - quicker for me to respond here rather than pm but if you pm me back I'll get it quickly

Looking forward to seeing you Dan Good shout on the pedals - I'll dig out my 5 EBS ones!

I'm seeing Nate on Tuesday & very much looking forwards to it - right in the middle & only 10 rows from the front Lots of Alleva Coppolos at the London Bass Bash if you fancy trying one out

For those of you who are interested the caretaker has rigged up a laptop projecting the football on to a big screen Some other stuff: For additional on-site security we'll have a sign in & out process. Everyone can log in whatever they are brining into the building & then when people leave they will be asked to sign out with the same gear they arrived with (unless they've bought or sold something on the day - in which case they should have some sort of proof of purchase from the seller). If anyone needs a lift from either station then they can call me on 07920 236 760 & I'll arrange transport

[quote name='JackLondon' post='878410' date='Jun 26 2010, 09:04 PM']Shame man, was really looking forward to your Shuker. Hope it's nothing serious ?[/quote] If I get space in the car I'll sneak my Shuker in as well

Anyone able to bring some spare guitar stands? Just realised I was planning on bringing about 7-8 basses & I only have 5 stands!