uk_lefty

Today I'm on four basses, two guitars. One multi amp set up, one bass gig rig, one bass multi effects, a new guitar multi fx, an acoustic guitar multi fx.... A mic, mixer, zoom handheld recording device. I have no excuses. I have very little time to play but I like the chase of buying something and trying it out. Everything I have music wise is sellable, though I love my Kramer fretless as it was an 18th birthday gift, and my Stingray was bought brand new and would lose too much money if I sold it so I'm keeping it forever... And its my number 1 bass. I'd like other basses, currently listing after another fretless, but I don't think I'll bother. Really, 4 basses is at least 2 too many. The guitars? I want to get back in to writing songs and do some recording. I have an electro acoustic and a squier Telecaster, both are adequate for my dreadful guitar playing.

It's pretty obvious what the brand is from the logos on the box. Not what you'd expect from them at all, or anybody, indeed. Hope it gets properly resolved for you.

I think this is why Warwick run a successful global guitar company and I don't.

Hmmm... Models I want not being available left handed annoys me a lot but also saves me a lot of money. Mixing different hardware colours, so chrome Bridge and gold tuners is a big no. Recently pondered buying a black bass that had some gold hardware, thought I could replace the chrome bits with gold but it had silver blocks on a rosewood board, just looked wrong. General cheap rubbish hardware is an annoyance, just seems to be a cost cutting measure on a lot of basses selling for less than a grand. Bad relic jobs. By this I mean every single instrument looks the same and the relic just isn't realistic. Or it looks like it got washed up on the rocks at Flamborough Head. A relic on a modern instrument is just wrong. Good quality relic and genuine wear are OK in my book though. Warwick making basses that have maple necks just isn't right. To me a Warwick has to have a bubinga body, ovangkol neck and wenge board. Nothing else will do. Their maple bodies look quite nice though, I'll give them that, the one I had was a stunner. Bad flame or quilted maple tops. They can look stunning. They can mainly look dreadful on cheaper instruments. They always look like something from the late 80s / early 90s and not in a good way.

I see lefty ones every now and then on ebay. There's a silver one on there right now. Didn't think they were much more than cheap far Eastern tat, but have never played one. Seems they could be a hidden gem!

Top advice there. A set up can make a massive difference. I think I'd been playing for about ten years before I'd even heard of a set up but once you've had a good set up you'll never go back. Think of it as having a service on your car, the way it drives and sounds much smoother after all the filters and fluids are changed. Changing strings can completely change the character of your bass too, but don't just think if the sound think of the feel, it's a very personal thing so be prepared to experiment. People on here sometimes sell second hand strings after trying them out for a few mins so could be easy to try a few sets.

Awesome!

It's just a different way to raise money. Quite inventive. I like the idea, but of course the only people with a realistic chance of winning have to have more than 50 thousand dollars spare, good for the band, not great for aspiring music students etc. But however it is done I can't see it being fair in that sense.

How much is full personal violation? Asking for a friend.

Absolute Radio? Seems to work like that from what I remember. Otherwise they'd be paying presenters for Absolute Classic Rock, Absolute 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 2010s, Absolute Hymns, Absolute B0llocks, Absolute Dance, Absolute Vodka... Etc.

Probably. Just don't want to have to do it if I don't need to.

Is that a true quote?! My goodness!! If a drummer said that because he had a cool pattern he really wants to play then fine. But a singer?! Is he rapping over a really heavy beat?! Surely "I fancy a slow ballad type song" or "we don't have enough faster songs with a driving beat" is a better comment. Either he struggles to express himself or he's incredibly awkward and just wants to mess you about.

The bassist from the Vapors was lack handed and his white 70s Rickenbacker with "Vapors" labelled case was on ebay quite a while back for a very good price. Sadly, still out of reach for me at the time.

Pump it Up is my tune to play in a shop while testing a bass! Just need to convince the band now...

I don't think it's that at all. In a lot of threads the bass player also runs the PA, sets it all up, books all the gigs, drives the singers mother to bingo... I, and I think most of us, get it. Like most of us on BC you're dead keen to get things going. However others in your group aren't pitching in for whatever reason. It's trying to find what that reason is, doesn't like the way it's being done, insecure, can't be bothered... That's the tricky bit.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous basses. If it sounds even half as good as it looks it will be incredible!

Not the same thing but in my "real world" job I've gone from an environment of being given a task, completing it and bringing it back thinking it's done to only be admonished by the boss because I hadn't consulted with evey single other department no matter how unconnected and disinterested they could conceivably be... To now working in a place where whomever has time starts something then we all meet up and build the idea up together until we agree it's good enough to be called useable. I know which one I prefer! Really, they're both pretty much the same thing, only the ground rules are crystal clear in one environment and not in the other. But in the first environment I got sh!t for doing things my way and having to "own" it all the way through and get pulled from pillar to post to now all outcomes being owned by the team. Perhaps you and the guys and or girls in the band need to sort out the ground rules? Do they want your complete song, or an acoustic track, or you humming in to a mic or does someone want to say "hey I've always wanted to do a song called f*ck the Parish Council" and then you all build it out individually? Do they feel you are pushing your way of doing it on to them (I'm not saying you are, but we all know what muso types are like!) or do they want to try different things...? Having an open discussion will be enlightening. You could get everything from support for your way, to alternate ideas, to maybe someone saying they don't like any of it but have no ideas of their own... In which case it leads to a different type of discussion. Good luck

Just to add to it all... Fender's amp modelling does a lovely SWR sound for a very clean bass tone. I had their old Mustang 40 bass amp and the amp modelling was really pleasing, as was their Bassman model for warmth. I think they've got a new 800 watt modelling head out at the mo? Could be worth a go. My gig rig is Ashdown and I use an old Boss GT10B pedal for other amp modelling if I want it. If you want to go from ultra clean to valve warmth then I think some kind of modelling either built in to an amp or via a pedal would be the way to go.

I can't read it properly on my phone but to me it looks like this contract is named to Rusty himself so he is getting a £50 cut, the rest of the band would be getting their own individual contract and payment of however much each? Not sure. The going rate for a pub Saturday night slot round here was 250 so in a five piece it's a max. 50 each depending on whether we have any other costs. So for that gig back in the 80s if he was getting 50 quid himself, depending on other costs as already mentioned, I'd have thought that was OK? Again though, I could be reading the contract completely wrong!

Great stuff! Photos are so incredibly special, how they can take you back to the entire day and remember the most minute and insignificant of details and always bring a smile to your face. My kids are approaching 1 and 4 by the end of the year. I had a small "office" OK, music room, built in my garage and have spent every working day in here since early March. This weekend I received massive canvas prints of photos, one of each child, and they're up on the wall today. The one of my girl has her playing my Telecaster while her toy baby doll is on the floor behind her, very cute.

This. You can easily get another Profile bass if you miss it too much in the next few years.

Thanks... I have downloaded Reaper but never actually used it, just a bit more experienced with Audacity. I'll take your advice on all of the above, much appreciated.

Hi, if the title is not clear... I've made my first multi track recording in Audacity today. I had used it before mainly for editing stuff recorded on my zoom recorder but I wanted to branch out. I've recorded a guitar track using a Blackstar ID Core BEAM as the interface, amp sim and effects. Aside from terrible guitar playing, it's great. I've added a bass track using the same set up but with bass amp sim and bass effects, it's passable but I'd like a more nuanced bass sound. Here's where the issue comes in. I've recorded vocals using a Behringer 4 track USB mixer direct in to Audacity while listening to the guitar and bass tracks via my PC and headphones. I can swear there's latency on the vocal track, it just doesn't sit right. I'll repeat the experiment but there's just something I'm not at all happy with. Is it a case of mixing the interfaces? Is this a common and known problem? Or is my vocal timing just shoddy?

Can't remember the exact song. I had a learn bass book that included "sound like black Sabbath" with an iron man type riff. I remember learning should I stay or should I go early on as well as the Clash version of police and thieves. You really got me by the kinks should have been the first song I learned, it's very simple, but even 20 years on I'm still playing it live and easier ones than that: she sells sanctuary is just d c g, it's an in-joke in my band that all songs have to go d c g or we won't play them... You had to be there. Anyhoo, it's not all about flashy chops if you want to get paid to play in a band, far from it. If you want to be a YouTube star it's probably a different story but I wouldn't be knowing about that.

So some progress... Replacement knobs arrived from the USA. Brilliant. I just couldn't get the old pickup out so again had to go to the tech. He had to break it to get it out. Brand new Armstrong replacement pickup in, great. I've collected the bass today, and plugged in. Everything works.... But. The A and D strings are just so quiet. E and G strings are loud and punchy. I tuned it. I tried two different amps. It's not the pickup height, that's really low on the E side and high on the G side, and it's hump shaped towards the middle anyway. I'm at a bit of a loss. Got loads on with work today but will have to investigate more later... Really wanted to be playing this at rehearsal on Thurs. Learning a lot through this process... Sadly not exactly what I set out to!