barneyg42

[quote name='51m0n' post='1040868' date='Nov 29 2010, 10:04 AM']Errr no.... I said (and you may have noticed a reference to it once or twice already in this very thread) a compressor with only one knob, (and anything with no metering at all, is complete and utter b*ll*x I stand by that too, anything where you dont have the metering to see what it does, and the controls to tailor it to the envelope of the sound your bass, with your strings, you playing it, your fx, etc etc etc is only useful if you are lucky, and even then will only ever be a one trick pony. That trick having been designed more to make an easy sale of the amp for non-technical staff in guiatr shops than to actually enable you to get the best from the amp, whilst also beiung so completely generic as to be flawed nearly always. I may have reiterated this more than once in fact.... Without decent metering (ie input, output AND gain reduction) you cannot really tell when compresison is happening - its inherently hard to hear, unless it is set up to be so incredibly in your face that it is in fact crushing the life out of your dynamics (as much a result of stupidly fast attack times, and or stupidly long release times as the ratio and threshold). With decent metering you can quite easily set a 'best guess' ratio (say 3:1 for starters), longish attack, medium release, then bring the threshold down until you get significant (but not overpowering) levels of gain reduction (lets say an average of 3-6dB, with the occasional real peak at 9dB). Then take the gain up to unity with the makeup gain. The play with the attack to make it effect the attack of your bass sound in the way you wish (either loping it off of accentuating it) then you can tweak the release to fit the music you are playing. Then fine tune the ratio, threshold and makeup gain. Yes it takes about 5 minutes, yes it is iterative, yes it is a bit of a dark art (but no where near as bad as you might think after a couple of goes). You need to keep in mind that there are different ways to achieve the same amount of compression, either a low threshold (ie compression starts sooner) and a very low ratio, or a much higher ration and a higher threshold. Although these two strategies produce the same amount of gain reduction they can be very different in how they actually sound. You need to have the controls available and take the time to try both ways to see what workd best for you. Ask Silverfoxnik how having his DBX set up 'just so' worked out for him on the gig he had that evening, and it only took a few minutes to get it right. Thing is it really does have decent metering and all the controls you need. Sounded pretty fab to me when we were getting the settings together on it. I would highly recommend one to anyone looking for a compressor for bass. I also doubt that the gain in your POD is useless, I'm pretty sure it would be a makeup gain, and if you dont find you need it then the chances are that you arent really doing any compression at all. Having said that I haven't played with that particular device before so I may be wrong as to exactly what the relationship is between the two in that case. (Plus you cant underestimate the importance of more lights and meters on your rig, it helps you see where the one is, and we all know how important that is!) Sorry for the long explanation Nigel, just consider yourself lucky you didnt sit through the full works on Saturday, I think some people clearly wished they had made your choice too [/quote] Bollox, all bollox!

Just re-aquainted myself with a bit of Jude, downloaded Road Noise,The Official Bootleg having got rid of the vinyl ages ago and it has to be said that John"Rhino"Edwards is a fine bass player. I sort of realised this years ago and when he went to Quo I thought what a waste. Still, he's been with them some time now so it was definately a good career move even if it did nothing for his bass playing. And hey I'm no Quo detractor, always like their stuff and work ethic! Just seems strange for such an accomplished player to go down down the 12bar rock boogie road. £££s?

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='1040290' date='Nov 28 2010, 07:06 PM']BTW I still don't understand compressors, but now thanks to s1m0n I don't understand them in a far more scientific way [/quote] Main thing to remember is..........if you have a one knob compressor on your amp it's "b*ll*x"!

Ellie sings Your Song! Lovely voice! Gets Eltons approval as well apparently.

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[quote name='Salt on your Bass?' post='1039238' date='Nov 27 2010, 08:13 PM']Ok, so ill post something more sensible tomorrow, but sh*t this ris is mazing!! First time ive managed to run it all out and wirh my shutte 9 you can really bring some thunder! Ive had a few beers mid ans post session so will poat mire coherence tomorrow, but tgis is s light, so easy to move nd so assive its obscene! Been an owner and a lover if the compct for a while but as a rig, this KILLS! Sorry about the oaragraphs and selling, ill post a pic ans more sensibe wordsater, just so xcited nd happty! Join me!! [/quote] *coffee screen* LOLZ

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Cetera giving it some beans! [attachment=65157:IMG_4630.JPG] [attachment=65158:IMG_4622.JPG] [attachment=65159:IMG_4623.JPG]

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='1039326' date='Nov 27 2010, 09:19 PM']Just got back to snowy Harrogate. Brill day. Well done Nik and all that sailed with you. & now ...Beer[/quote] Enjoying a guiness or 3 myself, glad you had a good journey home. Loving the look of those Zons, I'm glad I didn't plug in otherwise I'd be selling my landladys daughters! Dont forget 5xl t-shirts!

Just landed at home, only about a mile away so stayed on til the end. Had a great laugh, met some old friends and made some new. Compression, b*ll*x mate all b*ll*x! Cheers 51m0n! Won a great album cover book in raffle. GAS, don't talk to me about gas! Have to say the loud room was emmense, notably Krakens Ampeg rig which nailed you to the wall. Simple rig, monster sound. I won't mention any numbers, I'll leave that to those that count the cash but we raised a good amount of money, Old Git would have been proud! Pics to follow

Couple of things, bringing rig, Superfly+Crown power amp, Acme Low B+1x15, Yammy fretless and Status fives. Got a Danelectro tuner to put in the raffle and a Zoom B2 for sale. Also if anyone needs picking up from a local station say between 9-10am drop me a pm and see what we can work out. Only one more sleep!

Only two more sleeps! Woohoo!

And all is great with the world again! Plugged into my Pandora via the line out and into my stereo and noise remained, took outer cover off and gave it the tap and jiggle test and still the same, plugged bass in and had a widdle and gradually it went away. Now starts and runs without a noise so I'm guessing it got damp and cold in my car, it was left in there last night too. As I said to MB1 in PM I'll sleep with it under my pillow from now on The spare amp will be with me at all times though!

[quote name='icastle' post='1031146' date='Nov 21 2010, 08:39 AM']Few things you could try: 1) Substitute your amp<>speaker lead with another one. 2) Using your spare amp, try both speakers out and check it's not a poor connection in the speaker cabs. 3) Re-create the crackling noise setup (keep the volume down to a sensible level though!) and then try tapping along the front of the amp with the rubber end of a pair of pliers (something heavy but rubberised to prevent marking) - if you find a point where the crackling gets worse or better, then thats where your dry joint is. If you can discover where the dry joint is then you have the option of repairing it yourself for zero cost or getting someone else to do it and reducing the costs as you've already done the donkey work for them! 4) Try rotating the controls and perhaps give them a little "wiggle" up and down and side to side- the dry joint might reveal itself that way (then follow the latter part of item 3). Hope that might help - and I didn't even mention setting fire to it... I'll leave that to my more professional pyromanic colleagues... [/quote] 1)Did this 2)Again did this and no problem with either speaker or leads 3)Will try this today, the crackling is constant and gets louder as you turn volume up, BTW bass wasn't plugged in and effects pedals were taken out of the loop too. 4)Again will try today, not my idea of a laid back sunday but as you say if I can do some of the groundwork it may save me a few bob! Cheers Colin

Living on a Prayer-Bon Jovi. Did this for the first time last night and instant dancing was produced! The Chain is in our setlist and one of my favourites, not just because of the F1 bass solo at the end but I love the vocals. Did a gig a while back and a guy came up to me afterwards and said " I loved the way you put the F1 theme at the end of that song, did you just decide to do that tonight as a jam or have you done it before!" I nearly choked on my beer! But he was -30 years old so probably had genuinly never heard the song before. Made I larrf though it did!

Got a Superfly on here a few months ago and despite some of the press it's been getting it's been mega reliable............until last night! I've just got my speakers upgraded and at the last couple of gigs the rig has really kicked ass but last night I set up as normal and when I switched on there was a dreadful crackling noise coming out, a bit like bad static but with added crackling. Now it's been in the boot of my car for a while so first thought was maybe it was damp, not a good combination. Luckily I had a spare amp with me although I could only drive one speaker as the ohmage was wrong for two. I'm just at the point where I was going to get a power amp and run the little bugger as a pre-amp as I love the sounds that it makes. I'm sort of guessing maybe a dry joint, I hope it's nothing too drastic as the plastic has taken a hammering getting my speakers sorted out. Just when I get things nearly sorted and bang, another problem! I'll get it looked at tomorrow probably, I was supposed to be trying it out with the power amp with the guy that upgraded my Acme and supplied my 1x15 but now I guess he has a repair job to do, but if any one has any suggestions (other that the usual dump it/burn it comments) let me know!

TIM!

[quote name='Doddy' post='1022508' date='Nov 13 2010, 03:06 PM']I think that your best bet is just to practice more.I'd never recommend practicing blindfolded or whatever,just spend more time with the bass until the neck becomes second nature,and you don't need to look at it. Maybe you just aren't familiar enough with it for it to become your 'main' bass just yet.[/quote] This is probably the answer, with work and being ill for a bit I haven't really touched the bass, first gig I did with it I played a blinder in a very good lighting situation, 2nd gig, well not good. Played there again last night and with lights out the stage was almost in darkness, strange that they have bands on all the time, have a stage but then turn all the bloody lights out. Typically the guitard didn't bring his little floor lights so the first 2 songs were like playing with a blindfold on even though I had put some yellow dots on the fretline edges. got a bit of light on behind and all was better. Think I had better knuckle down to some practice, I've also got a small clip-on light that I can shine down the fret edge like the Fretlord that will help too!

[quote name='pietruszka' post='1019116' date='Nov 10 2010, 06:19 PM']Man I know how that feels! As soon as I put my fretless on at an EP launch I played at, I thought ''hang on, theres not much light here!'' I struggled but no one noticed any different! Day glo stickers and such is a cracking idea! Ill be doing that! Dan[/quote] I did my first gig with it a couple of Fridays ago and there was plenty of light and I didn't think about it until the next night at another venue and it was Darksville, Arizona! I'd planned to get some day glo stickers this week as we are back there Friday but have been laid up ill all bloody week so might have the same problem again....doh! I'm thinking LEDs in the future if the bass becomes a keeper, loving it so far but you know what us bassplayers are!

Just found this.... [url="http://www.undergroundsai.co.uk/About_Us.html"]http://www.undergroundsai.co.uk/About_Us.html[/url]

[quote name='Jerry_B' post='1014353' date='Nov 6 2010, 03:13 PM']You can just put small white or day-glo circular stickers on the side dots. No-one can really see them apart from you. Art shops sell such things - WH Smiths too.[/quote] Yeah I'm guessing this might be the way, problem is I need to mark the fret so it will be dot central on the side as the currents dots are in the middle of the fret!

I'm now using my Yammy Trb fretless as my main bass but find it a bit difficult in a dark venue. The side dots are in the middle of the fret and the side fretlines are hard to see. Has anyone found a (cheap) solution to this at all? I guess I could get some flourescent dots in the appropiate places, bit worried it will look naff. Practicing in a dark room is the best option I guess