thisnameistaken

[quote name='gafbass02' post='616346' date='Oct 4 2009, 11:19 AM']Always makes me chuckle! I miss looking up at the stage before i play and seeing my towering trace stack glowing green. Markbass just ain't the same for that![/quote] Yeah I saw a band last week with a 115 + 410 Trace stack and it reminded me of the days when my spine would put up with stuff like that.

That's pretty cheesy, bless 'em. Happy Birthday TE.

[quote name='retroman' post='615944' date='Oct 3 2009, 06:48 PM']I once saw one of my hero's literally boot a fan of theirs off the stage! [/quote] I remember once trying to climb onto a stage and being denied by the sole of Miles Hunt's boot in my face. I did one gig as a stand-in on bass for some lads from college who had a little hardcore punk band, and we didn't play a single song - they'd decided they were going to put on a protest about the venue instead and they'd scrawled slogans all over themselves in marker, I had no idea what was going on and we were all removed from the stage by security after about fifteen minutes of it, but not before the sound guy had put their mics through pitch shifters and made them look utterly ridiculous. I remember playing a little festival (think it was a benefit for something or other) where the singer from the band before us was climbing around on the lighting rig, the crew asked him to pack it in a few times and eventually pulled the plug on them, at which point the singer flipped out and went and punched the sound guy knocking his two front teeth out and requiring stitches in his knuckles, so off they both went to hospital. I half-knew this guy and I'd heard his reputation before, I was giving his girlfriend bass lessons at the time but I decided she should find another teacher after that. He was a proper nasty bastard that one. Another gig at a place where they didn't usually have bands on, stage was a six inch high platform at one side of the room and there were way too many people in there, our crackhead trombonist accidentally popped a guy on the bridge of his nose with his slide and was immediately dragged into the crowd by pissed-up frat boys, but luckily they were ejected by security before any punches were thrown. And there was the full-on inter-band punch-up which I sort-of started and the rest of my band won for me back stage at the Tradewinds that time, but I already mentioned that in another thread.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='616243' date='Oct 4 2009, 09:15 AM']I still think 'Blood Sugar' is one of the best albums ever, and is a bass tour-de-force. 'Mellowship Slinky' is amazing...and bloody hard to play![/quote] Yeah some of Flea's parts on that album are really nice. Not especially difficult to play but well-chosen and brave too in some places. Whereas Wooten can of course play tastefully but usually resorts to that barrage-of-sh*te approach he seems so fond of.

[url="http://www.looperlative.com/products.php?cat=7"]Here you go[/url].

I would definitely go for a 300W head (or thereabouts) and separate speaker cab. In my sorry experience I've only ever had sh*t results from Laney combos. Really sh*t. For cheap amps, Hartke are worth looking at. Fairly flat-sounding, enough features to be giggable, more clean power than you usually get from "budget" amps with the same specs. For a budget speaker cab, I wouldn't like to make a recommendation really. Although if pushed I'd say you can probably get a Peavey 1x15" with a Black Widow in it very cheap, and they're good. But really speakers on a tight budget are a hard choice, and you should try a few. Expect to be disappointed though, unfortunately. You tend not to get the same quality at low prices as you can, sometimes, when buying guitars.

On all the BBC's Glastonbury coverage, you never hear the bass on the first few tunes. Towards the ends of peoples' sets they get a good mix, but it's never there at the start. I'm guessing they opened with Guns of Navarone judging by that mix. Love that tune, it's still the only thing I can play reliably on my trombone, nice to hear Skatalites doing it for a change!

Is that the orangey-looking sunburst thing with no pickguard? I am interested in 24-fret Jazzes but I just didn't like the look of that one.

[quote name='tarcher' post='613121' date='Sep 30 2009, 05:22 PM']Pure Joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They don't make em like that anymore. [/quote] Can you imagine how much fun it must've been to be in that band at its peak? Bloody hell. They were knocking out top 10 fodder like it was nothing, and having a proper bark doing it. I've never been so jealous.

Might as well give it a go if you see one, you'd definitely get your money back. I always thought they sounded a bit fizzy and fake but then I never liked the G5 I had either but there's plenty of people out there who rate it. The DI does at least have enough memory settings to make it useful if you do like some of the sounds.

[quote name='Finbar' post='615080' date='Oct 2 2009, 06:31 PM']Hmm. Interesting stuff again. Well I really want something which caters for the gated fuzz/octave stuff mostly with a little bit of filter thrown in for good measure in varying combinations, which is why one box seemed a nice idea. Think of Nerve or something I guess. The ability to change between several different patches at the touch of a button was the main selling point really. So if this pedal doesn't do all of that, then I may just have to reconsider my options! Which leaves me no nearer to when I started [/quote] One thing I would point out is that they're not re-selling very well. So if you're not convinced you'd have a use for it, bear in mind that you'll probably lose out a lot selling it on. And I can't recommend you buy a used unit either because there's been some issues with customers who bought them second-hand who got referred to GodLyke for repairs rather than Chunk. I bought mine used and sent it to Chunk for a fix - which they sorted out for me no questions asked - but I've heard other people have had problems doing that.

[quote name='Chris Ramlar' post='614449' date='Oct 2 2009, 04:45 AM']do you mind if I post that information in other forum? (talkbass)[/quote] I already did in a thread where the O.S. came up in conversation recently.

Incidentally, I just asked Richard from Chunk if they're still intending to update the firmware again in future, and he says: [quote]Yes we are most certainly working on a new firmware release. There have been a number of things that have caused this to take longer than expected. The main one is that we're not talking about a few tweaks to the tracking algorithm here. We've come up with an entirely new algorithm. The other one is that the tools that are available for writing code for the microcontroller in the OS are a bit substandard so we have to write it mainly by hand in assembly - which is really time consuming.[/quote] So that's that. Still no idea when it will be coming but it's good to hear they are working on it.

I sat down with the Squeezer again for the last half hour, because it's been a couple of months since I last fecked with the VCO stuff and I wanted to see if I was remembering it properly. And I've revised my opinion a little bit: I was right that using the Release part of ADSR on the VCA produces un-musical results, and the Portamento settings are wildly unpredictable (but amusing sometimes), but maybe overall you might be able to use the oscillator. It's a bit flaky if you play fast, and I wouldn't trust it with especially long notes if I were you, but overall I'd have to give it a "not bad" but I wish they'd come up with some smarter tracking software. All that said, I've never used the Boss SYB-3 or SYB-5, and the only complaint I've heard about them is that they don't track fast playing very well. So maybe they'd be just as useful as the O.S. for a lot less money - assuming you don't need/want all the filter and fuzz stuff it offers.

[quote name='beerdragon' post='614159' date='Oct 1 2009, 07:43 PM']It screams neck dive, but i'm probably wrong.[/quote] Nah you're spot on, you'd spend all your time propping the neck up with your left hand.

[quote name='Finbar' post='613958' date='Oct 1 2009, 04:37 PM']How bad are we talking for the tracking? I'm used to the OC-2's tracking, and don't find myself wanting for more, even though I know it isn't brilliant.[/quote] Yeah but the OC-2's tracking is analogue and predictable, this is a different kettle of fish. If you set the tracking sensitivity fairly low you get ****-all sustain before it glitches out. If you set it high then you get very weird artefacts from string noise - tap a string or pick an absent-minded mute note and it'll be voiced as a note at some random pitch it might pick out from a harmonic it heard, and because it's all going through the VCA with an ADSR envelope for amplitude, it won't be subtle either! Stopping notes causes problems too: You might never have noticed before, but the act of stopping a string vibrating, whichever hand you mute with, will sharpen the note slightly before it dies. This is barely noticeable normally because it's quiet - you're in the process of muting the string - but when it's all being heard at the Sustain level set on the VCA you hear it very clearly, and it's not nice. This also has the effect of making the Release portion of the ADSR envelope useless - the last thing you want is your now-out-of-tune note released over a long period of time. But it's audible and annoying even if you're not using any Release time. The O.S. can also get confused about which octave is the fundamental sometimes, which is semi-fair enough, you can feed it a simpler signal to improve matters, but when it gets it wrong and you've got the portamento settings on much hilarity ensues. Imagine playing a note and the O.S. initially tracks it as a note two octaves below, then realises a fraction of a second later what the real note is. The portamento then sets about glissing up through two octaves to get to the right note. Hahaha. So yeah, to summarise: The poor tracking makes a lot of the features pretty risky to use or useless, and because of the nature of the VCO->VCA setup, glitches are loudly and proudly produced! I really hope they improve things though because the oscillator does sound good, the square/pulse and sawtooth waves are both really nice.

[quote name='Finbar' post='613482' date='Oct 1 2009, 12:37 AM']Does it do a decent job of just an octave down effect, for example?[/quote] No. Tracking on the VCO is currently not good enough. I've tried everything, it just isn't good enough. There's a promise of future firmware updates to improve matters, but I've had my O.S. since February and haven't seen a firmware update since then, so don't hold your breath. [quote name='Finbar' post='613482' date='Oct 1 2009, 12:37 AM']Also, does it have a clean blend on it?[/quote] Yes. It can be clean blend + fuzz, or clean blend + VCO, or fuzz blended with VCO. The VCO must always go through the filter, but either the input or fuzz signals can be mixed in post-filter if required. [quote name='Finbar' post='613482' date='Oct 1 2009, 12:37 AM']I guess I've just picked out the Octavius Squeezer as it seems to be one of the pedals that will do just about everything by the looks of it, even if it is costly. So any similarly sized/priced pedals with the same functions and quality would also be good if anyone has suggestions?[/quote] I still think the O.S. is worth the money just for the filter and fuzz if you use filters a lot - having an analogue low-pass filter + gated fuzz in one box with LFO and sample & hold modulation plus patch memory to deal with it all is great for live work. But don't expect to get waveforms out of it reliably - and that's a bitch for me because I really wanted it to do a decent job of replacing the octave-down sawtooth on my old G5, but the tracking just isn't good enough yet, and may never be, judging by the current rate of progress.

[quote name='beerdragon' post='613100' date='Sep 30 2009, 04:53 PM']Any chance of being put on the list? Ta.[/quote] I'd like to try it too, if one gets near York. Would like to take it to rehearsals and A/B it against my Schroeder 1212L.

[quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='613371' date='Sep 30 2009, 10:26 PM']hopefully they'll be delayed into never coming out =P God i hate Peavey equipment![/quote] The one girlfriend I had who played bass had some Peavey 15" combo and it was the best 15" combo I ever heard. But then she was a pretty nifty bassist. She couldn't carry the thing, but she could use it.

I don't have any experience of custom shop Fenders, but I am curious: What exactly is it you're after, over and above your existing Fenders? Is it a tone thing, or a feel thing, or...?

The weirdest thing for me with the 1212L, is that it's about half the weight of any other cab I've ever owned, but I've never felt more confident about turning my amp up. I haven't heard it struggle yet, and I'm driving it with a Hartke LH500. I honestly thought I'd need two, but it turns out I just don't.

[quote name='3V17C' post='613414' date='Sep 30 2009, 11:02 PM']since then (approx 20 years ago) i never drink or smok weed before or during a gig.[/quote] Yeah I should point out that all my stories were before I was 21, and I'm always straight on stage these days, wouldn't think of drinking or anything else before a show.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='613336' date='Sep 30 2009, 09:57 PM']Was once (rightly) ticked off by a very well-mannered drummer: "It's unprofessional to have two people in the band talking to the audience. That's the frontman's job. And telling the punters that our guitarist makes Carlos Santana look like a c**t is [i]just not on[/i]."[/quote] Excellent! [quote name='4000' post='613358' date='Sep 30 2009, 10:14 PM']I did once offer another band out; yep, the entire band. They passed, luckily for me![/quote] I remember once warming up backstage and smoking a fag, when the singer from the other band on the bill came along, gave me a disgusted look and said "Can you put that out?". I said "Yeah if you ask me nicely I will", whereupon he took the cigarette out of my hand and stood on it. I've always been a fairly scrawny geezer and I've had bigger guys try this sort of thing on with me all my life, so I - sitting with my bass (1995 USA Jazz) across my lap - stood up and pushed it with both hands into his face, trapping his head against the wall behind him, and started kneeing him repeatedly in the nuts. Both bands immediately waded in and while their band was all bodybuilders ultimately there were four of them and ten of us. Their singer and bassist went on stage that night with fat lips and black eyes. I spent many a nervous night after that hoping not to bump into any of them on my own.

Oh loads of gigs where I couldn't even see my hand infront of my face, too many to count. I remember one where I borrowed someone's guitar rig (our guitarist couldn't make it so I played guitar and our singer played my bass, we shared vox), he had a huge pedal board set up and I'd accidentally stepped on half of them before I even played a note, couldn't see well enough to figure out which ones were on or off, so just went ahead and played the set. Afterwards a punter came up to me and told me it was the best guitar playing he'd ever heard. I can't play guitar for toffee even when I'm sober. I remember another gig I ended up stage-diving to my own band, I think I'd given my bass to some girl to play. Later on I needed stitches in my forearm but can't remember what happened. And there was another gig during quite a long mini-tour where we had one song that had quite a long breakdown in the middle with not much happening on the bass, and I'd sat down for it for fear of falling down if I didn't, and I managed to fall asleep.