uk_lefty

Saturday 3rd November from 6pm One Fat Finger will be the live band accompanying the fire works at Bishops Stortford Rugby Club. Come along and throw a toffee apple at the bassist!

All sounds good to me, I'd prefer a satin neck. I haven't had tuner issues yet but they don't feel as substantial as those on my other basses. Nothing wrong with the pickups to me but an upgrade is welcome. Might lead to a price cut on the series ones too.

They won't sell Jagermeister any more because it's European but they still sell Stella Artois... That's from Belgium. Is it cos they'd go out of business if they didn't sell Stella?

I don't think I'll ever "love" my Sire, I wasn't in love with the idea of getting it. But if the drummer kicks a cymbal over in to it, like he did my Japanese Precision, or if a drunk punter sends loads of kit flying and it ends up face down in a pool of cider, again like my Japanese P, I won't mind so much. They're good working instruments, they sound damn good and feel good but you won't care if they take a pasting live because they're never going up in value.

And this is why hard working journalists, like my brother, hate their jobs. The Mail office is full of kids trawling social media for anything they can make a sensational headline from to drag in traffic. They're paid peanuts too, but that's all they are worth. Journalism has been devalued so much firstly by this need for everything to have its own unique opinion and now by this "results by number of clicks" it makes paying for a newspaper ridiculous to me, but then that feeds the cycle. No money coming in = no pay for skilled people or incentive to have skilled people at all.

I bought one because I wanted a five string lefty jazz and it was the best option without spending crazy money. No regrets whatsoever, it's my main gigging bass. The headstock is a bit ugly but I forgive it. There are a lot of pots, I'm using this to see if I like active basses.... Well, I now bypass the EQ on my amp and my pedal board to purely have the bass onboard EQ pumped out. There are bits that could be better and more refined, I think the new series 2 has addressed that with things like satin neck finish instead of gloss. Don't let the headstock put you off if you want a solid working instrument. I'm not able to display mine so...

I'm the other way round... No, I don't mean left handed, I mean I like a headless bass with a body. I had a Hohner B2A for a while and would probably still have it if it had been "bodied" rather than bodyless... And the string spacing issue

It would be unreasonable to ask a new member to learn an entire catalogue in a short space of time. I'd ask them what are the ten most important, start there and nail them. Then when you're all happy go for the next ten. In our covers band we have built up a bank of 50+ songs, we try to add two a month and we bin off some that haven't worked so well. It's a lot to remember, even as covers - I'd say it's harder cos you can't bluff your way through if there's a distinctive part! I put cheat notes on my set list, so for example the bridge to Huey Lewis's power of love has no logical pattern to me, so I need to write out Eb-C... Etc. To glance at as a prompt.

Time tree is one we use. Good points are you can create and share events, block out weekends you're away etc and everyone can see it instantly. Bad points, if someone pits something in or deletes, makes a comment, you don't get a notification (or maybe you can if you change the settings?). So this leads to arguments over whether the gig was placed in before someone booked their holiday or after! If everyone is good with filling in their unavailable dates then it makes organising so quick and easy, especially when you get approached straight after a gig.

Can't help with the specific question being asked but my guitarist has a Faith acoustic six string and absolutely raves about it. Seems they're excellent value for money, he talks about it the same way I talk about my Sire bass.

What settings are you using on the chorus for the fretless?

One Fat Finger, covers band. Tonight at the White Lion in Baldock! It's a great atmosphere playing in there, we love it! Come along tonight if you're in the area. Music style: rock and soul covers. Our criteria for playing a song is will most people sing AND dance to it?

I'm another self confessed TE fan. I loved my huge TE rig and my drummer gets excited when we have a trace in the rehearsal rooms. I'd say if it's impossible to get a useable tone the amp itself may need a service. It's old gear, chances are it could have been thrashed by someone previously, dropped, left in a damp garage for ten years, etc. While not everyone loves the classic trace tone there still should be a good acceptable place to be found in the EQ options. I used to hate Ashdowns until i used one that hadnt been abused by a previous owner.

I don't think I paid anything like that for my Roqsolid amp cover. Think it was 30-40. Or you could buy a polythene dust sheet from B&Q for a quid.

The Best Disco Album in the World Ever! I had it on cassette. It's bass heaven. Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Any Hot Chocolate songs. Some of the disco type songs that really groove sound complex then you realise they're only a couple of notes, so should be easy... Then you try to get the feel and timing and you discover where the magic is, it's not easy to recreate that timing and feel!

Pearl Jam, Ten. Melodic fretless bass in rock. It's a game changer, or it was for me, I got a fretless after that convinced me it was useable in rock.

Guns n Roses live era CD. Some language you don't want the kids repeating but some basslines you will want to repeat.

Thanks Al. At the moment I use a flanger occasionally. A bit of chorus, moreso when playing fretless. For the fretless I use the enhancer on my LMB-3 too. I use bass wah every now and then, it's only for certain songs. I use a pre amp pedal with my passive basses, that has some drive and EQ to it, I also can use it to boost volume when I need to come to the front (once per gig!). That's it. I would like a more gnarly distortion but it's not essential. I'd like an envelope filter on tap too. Neither of which are essential. I'm not a big effects user, I could very easily go without. I like using effects and I like the ability to boost the bass every now and then and to thicken out or change the sound for maximum impact when I absolutely have to. We gigged as a three piece on Saturday and I found myself using effects more to fill out the sound through solos.

Thanks for all the input. The main aim for me I guess is to have a handful of overdrive/ distortion in one place instead of buying pedals to only find they don't do what I want. I'm not that bothered about amp Sims, though I do have a Fender Bronco modelling amp and I do rate the quality of the amp Sims on that. I play in a busy covers band, I use some effects for just the mid eight of a song and never for anything else, so a multi will help when we add to the set then drop stuff out. I don't need to be at the cutting edge of tech, but something easy to edit and so on would be helpful. I gave up too easily with editing multis in the past but something Windows based drag n drop type thing would help a tech idiot like me. The Line 6 Bass Pod XT Live looks like my kinda thing, so does the bigger zoom unit. I think I've been Boss brainwashed though... Aaaargh

Hmmm lots of Zooms! I had a BFX708 for years and the only thing I worked out to do with it was make it so I could scroll through the effects silently to select the one I want, so I could do it mid song. I never worked out how to edit patches and stuff, but I expect that's easier these days? I see not many have the xlr out, I could save my Hartke VXL for that. I suppose you'll all say yes, but are there more useable sounds on the zooms these days? I only ever used two or three EQ type effects and the driven wah on my 708. No love for the Boss units? I like the idea of the older style one as it looks like three pedals plus an expression, and I'd expect it to be good quality. The newer Boss unit I've heard is great for studio and home use but not live...? Am I missing any brands or even older models like the older Line 6 stuff?

So it's come to a point where I just want to stop buying pedals that I end up selling on. I use effects sparingly: chorus, flanger, bass wah, I have recently bypassed my Hartke VXL as the tone quality from my active bass is excellent with nothing in between it and the amp. I barely use my LMB-3 anyway. I carry all this, probably a good amount of moneys worth, in a heavy pedal bag. I've got an amp footswitch to engage drive and sub octave. So for all the other effects I am thinking of replacing the lot with a multi. Ideally a multi effect would have an expression pedal, DI output (XLR) and should not require a lot of faffing about to learn to program. Current thinking is the Boss ME50-B, but I like the look of the Boss GT1-B. Then everyone here loves Zoom.... Last zoom pedal I bought was nearly twenty years ago so no doubt they have improved but not sure how they compare to Boss. I am not paying out for the Helix thingy. Are there any I've missed?

Update. Shortly after buying the Batallion I pulled the trigger on a Sire bass and was using that with nothing else in the chain, not even the amp EQ and it quickly became my go to. A few weeks back I depped for the band supporting mine and used my passive P bass. The Batallion was excellent for getting the right tone and giving me some dirty distortion when needed. I can't seem to find a way to use it with my active Sire though, but I haven't invested the time. I considered keeping it on the board for when I bring out a passive bass, but I've decided to stick with my Hartke. I can use the Hartke with the Sire to give me the punch I really appreciate from that pedal and I can get it working better with the active bass. I also used to have the Hartke "always on" for my passive basses. The Batallion is a cracking pedal, it gives you three in one with the EQ/DI distortion and compression but I like to stick to what I know with the Hartke. The Batallion is back on the marketplace if anyone is interested.

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