thisnameistaken

The basement is a good room, I haven't seen any music on the ground floor so I couldn't comment on that. It's a nice little venue, and it's got the BBC building and Leeds College of Music and the WY Playhouse right on the doorstep so usually quite an arty clientele. The food is pretty good too.

[quote name='Bassmurf' post='1032050' date='Nov 21 2010, 11:02 PM']can you get a good full sound out of the hartke when it's only got three knobs!?[/quote] Yes. Start by not touching any of the knobs, it already sounds good and full. To be honest I am suspicious of amps that have lots of knobs and switches and sliders. It makes me think it's probably a fundamentally bad-sounding amp. I think the Hartke LH heads have little in the way of EQ onboard because they were confident it sounded good.

I wouldn't stress about learning the so-called "floating thumb" picking technique. Hardly anybody uses it because it's an over-engineered solution to a non-problem.

I don't think I try to sound like any specific bass player, to be honest I don't know who played bass on a lot of my favourite recordings and I don't really care either.

The LH500 has a valve preamp but solid state power stage. It doesn't sound very "valvey" to me, but it does sound good. I've always rated Peavey gear for heavy-duty gigging but I haven't used that particular head. The Hartke I've been gigging for about 18 months and it has been totally reliable the whole time. I really like it.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='1030465' date='Nov 20 2010, 02:38 PM']Vic IS it and a bit. [/quote] That is ace.

[quote name='Mikeg' post='1030200' date='Nov 20 2010, 10:22 AM']Oh sorry wrong impression I have a much better bass (ibanez btb670) im just thinking of doing it up for fun and for a backup[/quote] So you're asking us if it will be [i]fun[/i] to modify it? That is difficult question to answer.

[quote name='daz' post='1030099' date='Nov 20 2010, 03:38 AM']My combo has a built in Octaver, does that count No seriously i never use it, dont see the attraction really. How many times is an octaver used per gig.?[/quote] How long's the set? If we're doing half an hour there will probably be 2 songs where I use my octaver. One of them the octaver is the intro. If we're doing an hour I will use it a lot more. I don't know what the suboctave sound from your combo sounds like, maybe it's crap?

I think his playing is too cheesy for me. It's like chart music - yes some of it is very slick but it's schmaltzy nonsense you've heard a million times before. I also really don't like his tone. The drummer was excellent though, I do like listening to a good drummer.

Haha this should be a good thread. My band when I was 17 (1991-ish): My current band, earlier this year: [url="http://www.myspace.com/copaseticska/music/songs/Restless-69378405"]http://www.myspace.com/copaseticska/music/...stless-69378405[/url]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='1028957' date='Nov 19 2010, 10:23 AM']I try to be a good bass player (that's a relative statement because there are much better players than me out there)[/quote] You're too kind man, too kind.

Funnily enough I look at my left hand less when playing DB than I do on bass guitar. I think the longer scale actually makes it easier to know where you are, because obviously there's a bigger difference between one position and the next. When I used to play fretless I think I used my ears more than my eyes too. All my fretlesses were unlined so there wasn't much worth looking at anyway.

Yeah I don't envy any professional bass player to be honest. I wouldn't want most of the bread-and-butter gigs they do, and for the guys at the top of the pile they have to do "solo bass" material to promote themselves and even most other bass players don't like "solo bass guitar". It just doesn't sound very good. I only want to play music I like, and I'm very picky, so I would never be able to play bass full time even if I had the skills.

It looks like a great design. One day when I have an expensive bass it won't seem like such an expensive pickup.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1028777' date='Nov 19 2010, 01:29 AM']well you should try the 24 fret Jazz.[/quote] I can't get over the look. I like how Jazz basses look, I don't want one with a fancy bit of wood glued on top instead of the usual decoration. I just want a passive Jazz like a normal Jazz but with more neck. And for that amount of neck to be accessible too. The closest I've seen to what I want is the stuff Sandberg are doing, but if I bought one of them I would still have to tinker with it to get what I want.

TBH I think any musician's output is what it is, and you either like it or you don't. This stuff does nothing for me, and some lesser (in terms of technique and commitment to the instrument) bass players have produced stuff that I've thought was more clever and more interesting. But that's just how it goes. I don't get upset when people don't like my band or don't like what I've played on a given song. It's just me doing what I do and I don't really have any influence on whether other people enjoy it or not. I imagine it's the same for everybody else, even (especially?) people who do "bass clinics".

The only time I've had more than four strings was when I saw someone selling a 6 that I really wanted, so I bought it. I honestly didn't notice any difference between playing 4 and 6 (maybe because it was a Warwick and it was excellent) but it was too showy for the sort of gigs I was after so I shifted it. It was a lovely bass though. Consequently I don't think it's a big deal adding more strings at all. If your technique is sound it won't matter how many strings you've got, until you get into ridiculous neck-too-wide-for-human-hands territory where all you can do is tap the bloody thing if you want to play anything below C2...

I like Jazzes but I wish they had 24-fret necks. I love the 26-fret neck on my old Thumb but wish the front pup was further forward sometimes. I used to have a 22-fret Fender Jazz (one of the early '90s "boner" basses) which was lovely when I first got it and I thought it would be the best bass I ever had, but in 6 months it fell apart, total POS.

[quote name='phil.i.stein' post='1028677' date='Nov 18 2010, 11:26 PM']that's new to me and extremely welcome !!! [/quote] Their first proper album ("Hot") came out in 1996 and you would probably recognise every tune on it because they all ended up being used on commercials. I think this tune was also used on a commercial but I couldn't tell you which one. They were a fantastic band, seven piece with three front men who each played one stringed instrument and one brass instrument and also sang, plus the banjo-playing singer woman. I saw them live at the Roseland in NYC when Hot was out, they actually got Les Paul himself up on stage for one number, and the crowd ranged from teenage kids up to people in their 60s all dancing. Brilliant night out.

[quote name='TPJ' post='1027879' date='Nov 18 2010, 01:14 PM']I secretly fear getting a better instrument and not being able to replicate the dark, round, thumpy tone that comes from my cheap bass. [/quote] +1!!! Some days I think about swapping the strings out for something livelier, then I worry that I might never get that sound back again. I think I will probably buy a second bass rather than re-string this one.

I just love Squirrel Nut Zippers.

I'm not a fan of Sadowskys but I think the red/tort is the best looking. Pearloid pickguards shouldn't be allowed, they are foul.

[quote name='charic' post='1026957' date='Nov 17 2010, 03:23 PM']Sir! I challenge you to a duel [/quote] Silddx needs those for his gig tonight, don't get them dirty.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='1026908' date='Nov 17 2010, 02:30 PM']Good fun game but remember folks that placing the note on the fretboard is way more important than knowing it's name or where it is on a computer keyboard...[/quote] Hmm, I think someone is crying because their score sucked.