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solo4652

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Posts posted by solo4652

    Small, simple, light head with good compressor. Ideas, please.

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    Just got myself into a really good new band. Currently, I have a GK MB500. It's my only head, and so I'm going to need a back-up head. I've been told that my plucking and volume can be a bit variable, so this is a good chance to try an amp with a good compressor.

    Shopping list:

    Small and light, most probably class D.

    Simple controls. I'm not a knob-twiddler, and I'm very easily distracted and confused by complex EQ's and stuff.

    DI out

    Good on-board compressor

    Budget = £500 max

    All suggestions gratefully received.

    3 years, 4 bands, 10 gigs. What now?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by solo4652

    Well, well! Bit surprised to see this thread again! Quite timely, actually....

    I took a break from bass-playing while I got to grips with the repercussions of newly-diagnosed neck Arthritis and associated left hand and arm weakness. I had to give up competitive sailing, after 50 years, and golf after 4 months, which was supposed to be sailing's replacement. I sold all my 34" basses and switched to 30", and that has helped a lot because of the reduced arm and fret reaches for my left arm.

    Having (sort of) accepted the need for some fairly major life changes, I went looking for a band. Again. In the past two years, this is what I've done

    Band 1 - Existing pub band. Good female singer, poor male singer who overruled her. Her health and reliability was very variable. Guitarist became a first-time dad and couldn't commit to the band. In theory, the band still exists but, in practice, it doesn't. So, I joined;

    Band 2 - Male acoustic guitarist and his sister who were looking to expand their act into some sort of full band. Both decent singers. They recruited a very good friend of theirs as drummer and myself on bass. All going well and just starting to talk about getting gigs when drummer gets promoted to a London job and is now commuting weekly. He's struggling to find the time for Sunday rehearsals, but band leader seems reluctant to look for a replacement. The last 4 rehearsals have been cancelled. Next one due this coming Sunday. I'm not hopeful. That brings us to last night;

    (Non)-Band 3. At short notice, I spent a lot of time to learn songs for an audition for a "semi-pro functions band, not playing pubs and clubs..." I had my suspicions ( band leader couldn't/wouldn't send me the band's name, website/Soundcloud, setlist), but I decided to attend, mainly because I'd said I would. Total farce. As I suspected, the band was largely a figment of the singer's imagination. He had massively over-promised and wasted a lot of people's time. I was very irritated, and so were the keys player and drummer.

    Pretty fed up today, for all the reasons I listed in my OP. On the upside, I'm so pleased to have bought my FSR Fender Japan Mustang. Cracking bass with a really clear, middy sound. It meant I was able to get over the sale of my much-loved, but heavy, Yamaha BB 1024.

    Bands that don't practice

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1487672334' post='3241624']
    I read a quote somewhere, something like - 'some bands rehearse until they get it right, we rehearse until we can't get it wrong'.

    That is my favoured place to be. Not always possible but if I feel under-rehearsed then I don't enjoy the gig as I am always waiting for the inevitable train wreck. And for me it is all about enjoyment so I begin to question what I am doing there.
    [/quote]

    There it is, right there. Paul S says in 3 lines what I clumsily said in 3 paragraphs.

    Bands that don't practice

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by solo4652

    I do loads of home practice to learn my parts and I sort of pride myself on arriving at rehearsals well-prepared. Trouble is, not everybody has the same attitude. When we make mistakes and then agree on changes to address them, I make notes so I arrive at next rehearsal having incorporated those changes into my playing. I expect everybody else to do the same. But they don't. Result is same mistakes continue to be made, even though we've agreed what to do about them. Result is a bassist (and drummer) who rapidly gets fed up.

    Bands could easily make do with fewer rehearsals if members bothered to make notes/pay attention to rehearsal recordings. But often they don't and, for me, that means I can't relax before a gig if I feel that a band is under-rehearsed and just about to go on stage and repeat all the same errors.

    Train hard, fight easy.

    Chelsea Dagger thread #284675

    in Effects

    Posted

    In the past two years, I've gigged the song at least 50 times. No effects whatsoever - simply chose the P bass, cranked the gain a bit more than normal and pushed the low mids on the amp EQ. Unless you're a tribute band, that'll be absolutely fine. It's a party chant after all - audiences generally want to dance to it rather than listen closely to the bass tone!

    • Like 1

    Rag n bone man

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='mikegatward' timestamp='1486732157' post='3234178']
    My band have just started to cover Human - simple song but fun to play
    [/quote]

    Yep - same here, although we had to shift the key for our female singer all the way from Bbm to Ebm.

    One for bubinga5, perhaps?? Not sure...

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by solo4652

    Just stumbled across this today. Same two chords throughout. Smooth bluesy/jazzy feel, with lots of scope for vocal harmonies and acapella. Sort of a trip-hop/blues vibe. A cross between Morcheeba and Fleetwood Mac, maybe.

    [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz40jDUSKnY"]https://www.youtube....h?v=pz40jDUSKnY[/url]

    Harley Benton P Shorty V 3/4 LA Bass

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted · Edited by solo4652

    [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Update I've replaced the wiring loom with a drop-in pre-wired one with CTS pots, Switchcraft jack socket and some sort of Russian green capacitor thingy; [/font][/color]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Precision-bass-upgrade-loom-CTS-pots-/252745893325?hash=item3ad8d445cd:g:NLQAAOSwmc1XPNzc [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Bit of a struggle to squeeze it all into the control cavity - I had to pare away some of the cavity shaping with a craft knife. Worth it in the end to get rid of the unreliable jack plug and the scratchy pots. Also, the barky nature of the Entwistle PBXN's seems to have been smoothed out. Giggable? - Hell, yeah.[/font][/color]

    [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]So:[/font][/color]

    [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Bass + Entwistle PBXN's + new wiring loom/pots/jackplug = £107. Extraordinary. [/font][/color]

    Quick P bass wiring query

    in Repairs and Technical

    Posted

    Thank you Grangur. Did as you said, and it all worked. That's after I discovered that the new CTS pot shafts were bigger than the old pots shafts, meaning I had to drill out the pickguard holes. The bigger shafts meant the old knobs didn't fit but, luckily, I had some from a previous bass that did. The new capacitor is bigger than the old one and that meant I had to cut away some of the compartment walls with a craft knife to get it in. The new pots and the jack socket are larger than the old ones, so yet more craft-knife fettling of the control cavity. After I'd found a plaster for my cut finger, I managed to cram everything into the cavity and screw the pickguard on. No sound at all. Off it all came and I found another loose wire, so more ham-fisted soldering. What a bloody faff - it's only taken me 3 1/2 hours, and that's with a pre-wired "drop-in" loom! Anyway - got there in the end.

    Quick P bass wiring query

    in Repairs and Technical

    Posted

    I'm replacing the wiring loom in my Harley Benton Shorty. The red wire that connects the two pickups was hanging on by a thread, so I'll re-solder that. The white signal wire from one pickup currently goes to a lug on the volume pot and the black earth wire from the other pickup currently goes to the volume pot casing. I've had the pickups out to replace the foam underneath but I can't remember which way round the pickups go. Does the one with the white signal wire have to be the front pickup, and does the one with the black earth wire have to be the rear pickup? Also, I may have rotated the pickups 180 degrees while investigating the foam. There is "PB4" on each pickup which reads the right way up if viewed from the neck end of the body, but would be viewed upside down if viewed from the bridge end. So - which way round should the pickups go, please?!

    [attachment=237280:100_0904.JPG]

    Harley Benton P Shorty V 3/4 LA Bass

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]HB Shorty is ridiculously good for the money. I bought it primarily to see how I got on with short scale. I'd read that the stock pickup was weak, so I bought some Entwistle PBXN's at the same time and BassBunny of this Parish put them in. That means I can only really comment on the HBS with the Entwistle pickups. I find the bass very comfortable to play. The body is a little smaller than the Talman MB-30 I had and the HBS hangs a little more neck-up, even with a shiny strap. It's a bit lighter than the Talman too. The HBS was a bit noisy when I first got it, but the Entwistle pickups, plus aluminium shielding inside the cavities sorted that out nicely. I wire-woolled the back of the neck to get it baby-bum smooth. It certainly does a classic P-thump tone. The Entwistles are pretty hot. With tone pot rolled a little back from full on, I get a full, rich P tone that still has quite a bit of mid-range punch. Not woolly or indistinct at all. Being a P bass, it's a classic "one-trick pony" and you probably won't get it to sound like a jazz or a Stingray. I don't play slap, but I'm pretty sure you'd struggle to get a clanky slap sound out of it. When I bought it, my main bass was a Yamaha BB1024. I took the HBS to band rehearsal (pop covers) and I was amazed when the guys said they preferred the HBS . [/font][/color]

    [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The HBS convinced me that short scale was the way to go to cope with the Arthritis in my neck and arm. I bought the Ibanez Talman MB-30, thinking it would be my main bass, with the HBS as back up. Well, no. The HBS turned out to be a little easier to play, so I sold the Ibanez and bought a Fender Japan FSR Mustang. The Mustang is my main bass, and the HBS is the backup. Very different sounds - the Mustang has a brighter, punchier sound. First bass I've ever had where I've found myself turning the mids [i]down[/i] on the head EQ. The neck of the Mustang is pretty skinny compared to the HBS. The HBS neck is appreciably wider and deeper front-to-back. I'd have absolutely no hesitation gigging the HBS. [/font][/color]

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