Sean

45-60-80-107 D'Addario EXL170BT. I use those on Spectors with EMGs and the Haz-clone preamp dimed through a GK and play lots of high register stuff. Sweet as a nut. Other than that, it's all in the fingers.

If we look at the way Barefaced markets the products on the website, you can see that it's getting away from being led by driver size to a bigger degree than many other manufacturers but is still led by 10 and 12 in the names of the lines, 12XN, 10CR, it's still spec-focused rather than being completely led by what it does for the user, although the copy does focus on what it delivers so in that respect it is progressive. If you look at LFSys.co.uk it's entirely focused on what the product does for the user to the extent that whether it's a 12, a 10 or ceramic or neo gets put in the specification not the "reasons to buy". The Monaco delivers everything I need for most of my user cases. There are applications however where a different solution could be better and that's where it over-delivers. A 5m x 4m rehearsal room with 2m ceilings? Something much smaller would be the perfect answer and that's where the Monza and Goodwood come in and the small BC-build cabs that are based around an 8" driver. They aren't using 8" drivers because the 8" driver meets the tonal requirements, the 8" driver meets the technical requirements of loudness, size etc at a target price. Cab design/architecture has moved forward so much in the last 15 years and both these brands have done a lot in that respect. I'll not say I'll never buy another BF but for now, for me, my use cases and objective comparison there is a better option.

I'm an ex-Barefaced user. I had 4 over the years. My experiences are well documented on BassChat. I've moved on. I've applied a lot of my professional skills to the "what" of the desired outcome. I should have done this years ago but it's like cobblers' shoes. In work (I was a product manager for a big engineering company for the best part of 30 years) when developing a new product, we always tried to establish what users were trying to achieve, not what they want. In terms of bass players, they need to be able to hear themselves clearly and easily in a live environment. There are various solutions including IEM systems, which is disruptive tech as far as bass cabs go, but there's still very much a need for the individual bass amp to be heard in the room. So, bass cabs are still a need. Often users don't really know what they want from products and it's the product managers that need to determine what the product needs to be to meet the needs. I thought in the past that, "I want 10" drivers because they give me this..." and I couldn't have been more wrong, the level of ignorance involved in coming to that "requirement" defies belief. What users actually want, though they sometimes don't realise it, is easy portability, the ability to hear what they're playing in various situations and rooms easily, enough "volume" to keep up with other instruments (drums usually) etc. The constraints that then shape the product are price, size, availability of tech etc. For those of us that attended @Phil Starr 's speaker/cab demo at the SE and/or SW Bass Bashes last year, we've seen and heard first hand the whole "I prefer 10s" or "I only use 15s" fallacy in action. That demo just kills the argument about driver size preference and turns the conversation to which sound do you prefer, not which is your favourite size speaker. Then there's the array fallacy, "I prefer 4x10s". No you don't. What you have is experience(s) where a particular 4x10 has given you your desired outcome, or seeing Billy Sheehan using Hartke 4x10 cabs has coloured your thinking. What you need in reality is the sound you consider to be a pleasing tone clearly audible to you while performing. What pulled me away from BF? To start, product quality was a factor. I've never had anything where the tolex comes away and shrinks so easily; unacceptable on any product but inexcusable on a premium priced product. And the 10" BF cabs just didn't work for me in a gigging environment although they often sounded great out in the venue. The BT2 was pretty good but lacked something. I've now settled on a cab that gives me exactly what I want. I don't care what size driver it has, it does everything I want it to beautifully and brilliantly. It's light, compact, built like a tank and looks very professional. Comments and feedback from other people on the sound are always positive and I'm playing better because I can hear myself clearly all the time. The more we think about outcomes and less about specifications, the better products will get and the sooner you'll get what you need.

I think you handled that very well indeed. You were 100% straight and got all the expectations out. I agree with the thoughts about how sax should be handled as far as set lists go too.

That is the first properly shonky Yamaha I've ever seen. Maybe the guy that was doing the book-matching for the Cort Space basses got moved to the Yamaha facility.

They really really really don't want us putting aftermarket preamps in these, do they?

IIRC DJ was going to collaborate with Albey Balgochian to introduce a range of instruments under the "A Bass" brand and they were looking at setting up pre-orders. I registered my interest at the time. The Lakland DJ ceased to be for a while but soon returned when the "A Bass" thing came to nothing. I had a limited edition Lakland "Adam Clayton" DJ in a natural ash with black blocks and ChiSonic pickups for a while. These were Korean-made then shipped to Chicago for QA and set up. It was an absolute lead sled ship's anchor of a bass. I think it was commissioned by Bass Central and there was a small amount of config available like pickup selection and white or black blocks.

I had a Skyline Darryl Jones (Korea) and I had a Shoreline Darryl Jones. There was nothing between them, really. I preferred the Korean one as it was lighter and more "played in" but there was no difference in build quality or spec. Both were very good instruments.

What's the neck like, Matt? Is it P-like?

Wow. I didn't know that. It's a bit like custom shop Squier being more expensive than Fender. Sort of. Either way, now you've explained it I get it even less. I could go to Woodstock and place my Spector order in person for that money.

£8k+ for what it is seems excessive to say the least. It makes Fodera, Spector USA, Valenti and F Bass look like bargains in comparison. If you look at European builders like Sei, Overwater, Brooks, Shuker etc, you're paying a heap of extra money for one of Roger's finest. Good work if you can get it and all the best to him but pound for pound, I just don't get it.

It looks like it's been left in the shop window for 50 years. I want a shiny new one that looks like Sting's did in 1983. Without dropping £7k on the Woodstock crew.

Non-aged and a neck profile that wasn't so skinny it was like a sleeve on the truss rod and I'd be all over it 😃

After rehearsal tonight, I can only say that this is just a complete misinterpretation, mistranscription of a song. Jeez. It's a train crash. I'm left wondering how to deal with it. I've managed to get the message across about it all being C# for 12 bars but the effort versus reward is stacked against me when we're trying to get gig-ready. It works if I play the bass line as roots of the chords the guitarists play (of course) but it's a butcher's shop of a song after the reprise. I'm struggling to see how whoever got it that wrong/different. Not only that but the arrangement is different inasmuch as there's extra bits and missing bits compared to the original. The 8 bar bridge from 2:07 to 2:20 is omitted. Fortunately, it's a band of people that are very balanced and OK with challenging anything. It's a rare thing.

We rehearsed Sultans last week and it was so fast that I was blown away by the dexterity of nailing the solos note for note. I believe that a lot of songs "breathe" better at the right tempo or within a certain tolerance. With Sultans I found that my bass line sounded too busy at the tempo we played it whereas playing it at the "Alchemy tempo" sounds fine. I've found that vocalists struggle too when songs are rushed, their breath control goes completely and then their performance drops off. In a previous band I used to nag about playing songs too fast all the time and was ignored, not even a conversation. I clocked Living on a Prayer at 151 bpm off one gig recording (it's 123bpm on the record), others were similarly fast, then one gig we had a dep drummer who played everything absolutely on the money and afterwards the other three wouldn't shut up about how well we played and how much a great groove we had, how we didn't make any mistakes etc.

A friend of mine gave me some reduced to clear mince that was just on the sell by date the other day. I said, "thank you very much, I never look a gift house in the mouth". [Boom, tish and long tom full that doesn't come back on the beat...]

One thing I've done as a result of all this is to chart out the songs as the band plays them with notes to explain. One day they might need a dep or a replacement and having this reference material is going to save some bassist a lot of time. It could well be a fellow Basschatter. You're welcome. 😀

I'm the newbie and there's quite a few things above that on the list of things to be having chats about that will refine the set. Things are really positive and moving forward, I need to be selective and focus.

I'm currently getting my head around playing "those sections" of Times Like These in 4/4 time instead of 7/4. I can see the logic in making the decision but it's not difficult to count 3 / 4 then 4/4 to get to 7. That one is a lazy shortcut and and is now 15 years ingrained into 4 people so I'm "re-learning" it.

That post applies to pretty much exactly my situation in a previous band.

We grow our own apples, pears, plums, strawberries, rasberries and gooseberries and we also go blackberry picking. Most of it gets preserved as chutneys, relishes and jam except the strawberries which get eaten immediately. Other than that I don't think we ever buy or eat commercially available fruit.

We drop the 30 second organ intro to Faith but otherwise it's exactly like the record.

My current covers band and previous covers band made changes to songs that I don't really understand and I don't know the origins of. I'm not talking key changes or replacing a sax solo with a guitar part, I'm talking about structural changes. These changes include chord sequence changes, complete rewrites of sections, changing the way a song ends, changing the intro, etc Now, these aren't avant guarde bands, or artists doing reinterpretations. They're pub/club/function/festival covers bands. Some of it is so subtle it hardly seems worth it, some of it is just plain wrong, some of it seems like someone was just trying to be creative and add their own twist. I'm yet to come across one that is either an improvement or that is easier to reproduce than what is on the original. This must be a more common occurrence than I previously thought. I can't really remember dealing with it in the past. What's your experience of this sort of thing? A few I've experienced recently to get the ball rolling: 1. Mr Blue Sky (reprise at the end). Instead of 12 bars of Db then C then B etc there's a completely different ending that uses G A Bb with a riff. 2. Long Train Running. It goes G///|G///|Eb///|Eb/D/| at the end of the verses instead of G///|G///|Eb///|D///| I have to concentrate to not play it like the Doobies. 3. Message in a Bottle. Has a different ending that you'd never guess. 4. Other songs: the chord sequence for the guitar solo is simplified. I see some logic but knowing the skills of the guitarists, I just can't see why they needed it simplifying. 5. Summer of '69. After the guitar intro the band comes in on the A not the D.

Last Wednesday was my first rehearsal with the covers band I joined recently. They've been busy gigging for over 15 years and are keen to get me integrated. We went to Firebird Studios in Bristol, which I think is top notch. It's very well appointed. We got through 20 songs and other than a couple of bits where they deviate from the original recordings, I felt that we were pretty much giggable. A great bunch that have really welcomed me and gave me free reign to run the rehearsal as I wanted. They feel that as I'm new to the band but definitely not new to bands, that the best way was for me to drive the bus. I started us off with some easier songs to get warmed up then did what I considered to be the ones that might have needed some detailed attention and then went on to some of the more fun ones to play so that we would end on a high. Other than having to restart one song because I inadvertently trod on my FX power supply and disconnected it, everything went smoothly. We're back in this week doing the rest of the set and running through a few that are new to them too, so I'm really looking forward to us all being in the same boat from that respect rather than me playing catch up. Recording the rehearsal seemed to be a new concept and got a few questions. I explained that I intended to build a library of play-along tracks for home practise that will be better than using the original artist recordings. I also mentioned that it's just good practice for any band to record and listen back to gigs and rehearsals as QA/QC. I use a Zoom H2n and then slice up the file in Logic and use the generic mastering. It's pretty good and more than fit for purpose. Edit: The "deviations"? 1. Mr Blue Sky (reprise at the end). Instead of 12 bars of Db then C then B there's a completely different ending that uses G A Bb with a riff. 2. Long Train Running. It goes G///|G///|Eb///|Eb/D/| at the end of the verses instead of G///|G///|Eb///|D///| I have to concentrate to not play it like the Doobies. I don't know why or what the origins of these are, I'm just playing 'em "wrong" so it fits in. There were a lot more of these anomalies in my previous band and didn't understand any of them. It's almost like they've been put in there to trip up deps/newbies 😃 It's probably worth a thread of its own...

Yes, that's it. I played in a band with a chap that owned one and he had a Fender Strat sprayed to match. He'd play the first set with the Fender and then switch to the Bender later on. I think as many as 10 audience members noticed the switch over the years.