uk_lefty

The first proper band I joined once had a bassist who had the notes written on the neck. He'd ask what key a song was in and just play that single note all the way through. I think you will be ready. Playing with other people is the quickest way to improve IMO. Jam nights, auditions, joining a band, playing along with friends... It will build your confidence and teach you a few tricks like being able to pick up what chord a guitarist is playing just by looking at his or her hands and knowing when verses etc are ending by the way the drummer changes the feel. All stuff you can't do with an MP3 at home. Just go for it!

It depends how much you need a really authentic recreation of the original bass sound. If you were playing to bass nerds it might be important but really just getting some of the essence should be sufficient, surely? For me if I use a pick I might roll down the volume knob on the bass a bit. But usually if I'm playing with a pick I want a more prominent bass sound so I just leave as is. If playing finger style and wanting a more traditional sound on my MM Stingray I might boost the kids, whereas I cut the kids for a lot of pick stuff to bring out the clank. But aside from a minor change to onboard EQ, or pickup balance of using a passive jazz, I wouldn't bother with major differences, it's just more to get wrong when you forget to switch it off for the next song.

I'm going to plug it into the laptop tonight to see if there's a firmware update needed. All of the issues seem to be on the compressor side which is really annoying! I've got loads of gigs coming up, I can't really afford to be without something and I sold off all my individual pedals...

Odd experience with this pedal. It just went silent a few songs into its first gig last night. There were all sorts of tech issues going on so I just went bass straight into amp via cable only to the end. Tested the boss this morning and odd behaviours continued. It worked in manual mode so I tinkered around changing effects and stuff just to see if any problems flared up. Then the compressor wouldn't switch on, but the light above the description part was on, when I pressed the foot switch the light only came on until I released the switch. Odd. I changed the compressor type and it was fine, then changed back to the one I wanted, fine again. Very odd. I haven't had this before.

Wish bass?

No idea. I don't know who that is.

Hope you get this job, your passion for it comes across and you're clearly leaving no stone unturned! Personally, no... I'm quite against most forms of artificial cosmetic enhancement to be honest. I've got grey/ white hair in my beard and my head hair is getting thinner and lesser daily. I am content to grow old disgracefully, I am happy with a craggy face and a few years back my wife gave up trying to persuade me to buy mens moisturiser. If a band wanted me to dye my hair or even just wear something I wasn't comfortable with I think I'd politely decline. If I felt I wouldn't fit in with a band unless I did x, y, z that I wasn't sure about then I'd probably ask them. When joining my current band, the desert penguins, I noticed the guitarists had black and white guitars, I asked if it was deliberate to have penguin coloured guitars... Luckily they said they'd never meant for it and never noticed, so I was ok using my natural wood stingray.

Cost of shipping, import tax, VAT, exchange rates... I believe those things will play a more significant part.

Gorgeous bass! I absolutely love my Stingray. Playing it live is always an absolute joy. Hope you get the same enjoyment out of yours as I do from mine.

Repetition used to really help for me. But then if you asked me how many bars until this change happens etc. I wouldn't know without the lyrics and drums as prompts. The band I'm in now does something people either hate or are indifferent to: we have iPads on our mic stands with notes on the songs. Some of my notes are just "riff B-E" for the whole song, others are section by section spelling out the chords. It's not perfect, it becomes a crutch and stops you properly internalising some songs, but when you've got a hundred songs in the repertoire and you change up the sets for each gig then it's just simply not possible to remember them all.

Lovely Stingray!!

Used to love them. BSSM is untouchable greatness IMO. I struggle with the stuff before. Californication is a very good album, but after that I struggle to find the magic in it. In 2012 I saw them live in Knebworth and I left early. I was really looking forward to the gig but it was just so incredibly bland and uninspiring, no energy, no audible vocals, and I found Flea's crowd chat childish nonsense. Another band I probably saw too late in their career.

There's a synth repair person in Hemel Hempstead, Plasma music. I've used him to service my bass amps recently but his specialty is vintage synths. Might be worth a try if you can't resolve on your own

That's poor by the promoters, we've known for a while it's going to be a bit hot this month. Anyone want to blame Yungblud's dad for the weather?

Something I can't find in the manual but would like to do... If I'm using a delay/ reverb or modulation type effect I'd like the sound of this to continue to tail off rather than abruptly halt when I deselect the effect. Example: playing some kind of atmospheric echo-ey phrase and then wanting to kick in with a distorted but not modulated baseline. Having an abrupt stop to the echo ruins it, but I don't want that echo on the distorted baseline... Is there a way to do this? I know there is in the HX Stomp (trails or something?) but couldn't find this in the Boss manual.

This looks awesome https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296599352696?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=R_g2gndvTiO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=XRJhsZSpS5O&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

This is awesome.

My Harley Benton fretless has a laurel board and it sounds better than my rosewood board fretless.

I think this would look good with those single string bridge thingies, you know the little round individual part-per-string bridges. Anyhow, glad you're enjoying it, looks great.

My ME90B arrived on Thursday last week. I moved house on Friday so today was the only time I've managed to sneak half an hour with it. Of course, I haven't read the manual... Initial impressions are good. There is everything you could want in one box. Yes, the Fuzz isn't as good as my old Darkglass, the distortion not as good as another old Darkglass... Etc. etc. But there is sufficient quality and control. I haven't bothered with the presets yet, though I remember from my old Boss GT10-B their presets were generally very good so I look forward to playing with that. I've tried quite a few of the different effects and so far I'm very happy. No more patch cables that can slip, no velcro coming unstuck, far less weight, able to save settings... It's just so sensible and practical, which Volvo driving man that I am means it's perfect for me. I need to get used to which effects are on which pedal and really get in to twiddling but with all parameters at noon I am satisfied I've got good quality sounds that I can click on and out easily and that I've got rid of the problems separate pedals unfortunately bring (noise, more points of failure, not playing nicely together...). More detailed review to come soon

Lovely!

Agreed! This amp is great, a really full and authoritative sound and headroom to infinity. The MB Series looks very cheap unfortunately, whereas the DBS looks premium. I had mine serviced and really it was just dusty, no issues after twenty five years, ten of those in storage. It doesn't replace my ABM but it's certainly not a bad backup.