thisnameistaken

Javier bought my Stingray fretless. No problems with the trade at all, swift payment, honest bloke.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='513829' date='Jun 15 2009, 08:23 AM']Dunno, mate. Are you a professional "blunt Yorkshireman" or just semi-pro? [/quote] Uh oh, the early warning signs that I'm turning into my dad... [quote name='Happy Jack' post='513829' date='Jun 15 2009, 08:23 AM']Not ruling it out, just can't see the point in hauling around a load of pedals if they're [i][b]either [/b][/i]not going to get used much [i][b]or [/b][/i](worse) are going to be forcibly inserted into songs that don't need them simply to justify bringing them in the first place.[/quote] That's a fair position to take. For me it's a bit different. The band where I use effects has pretty typical instrumentation (drums, bass, keys, guitar, vox) but often the songs don't call for that. Our singer and our MC often work on tunes together, neither of them listen to much music that has bass guitar in it, so when they're coming up with demos for the band to work on they usually don't have anything that sounds like a bass guitar in there. The first time I went along to play with them, the first song just didn't sound right until I switched on a few effects. I thought it wasn't going to go down well but the singer immediately turned around and yelled "Play more like that!". I also had to use my OC-2 on another song in order to actually reach all the notes in the bass part. I don't play lead synth parts or anything - I'm still usually playing as a bass player - but quite often what they want isn't a bass guitar, so I have to give them something else.

[quote name='Golchen' post='513753' date='Jun 15 2009, 12:08 AM']Sheesh, you telling me he's not even 60!![/quote] sh*t maybe he isn't. That's weird - he's looked over 60 for at least 10 years. Sorry Norman, if you're reading. He just looks like he needs a good night's sleep. To be fair he's probably not had as many of those as most of us have.

It's like asking if a band has a keyboard player, is there any point in having a bass player at all. Look at a band like The Doors and you'd have to say no - Ray Manzarek was quite capable of doing both jobs. Are drummers still eventually going to be replaced by drum machines? Is bass guitar obsolete? I feel like I'm back in the '80s. Have I missed the point of the thread or is it basically bollocks? To answer the question: I have keyboard players in both bands I do. In one I take a bass strung with flats and a tuner, in the other I take a big board of pedals. I seem to fit perfectly well in both. I've said this before, but: I think if you're doing covers, or your band is firmly rooted in some existing genre (especially rock music), then effects on bass probably aren't called for very often, if at all. But otherwise, why would you rule it out?

OK I did have an upright about ten years ago, got destroyed in a fit of rage by an alcoholic red-haired finely-titted girlfriend, was a bit of a dog anyway (the bass, the girlfriend was fair for a ginger apart from the psycho tendencies)), so I'm up for a fresh start. Something that will sound good plucked, 3/4 scale, pleasant enough to play, with a pleasing acoustic sound - I don't have a gig for it and likely never will, this is just to put a smile on my face at home. Anybody?

Can you play the stuff you want to play? If so, then you are good enough. Bear in mind very few musicians reach this level. In the mean time (probably the rest of your life), if people like to hear you play, and other musicians would like you to play with them, then you are doing well. Do your best to continue doing well. If you want to play at trade shows, learn to slap and tap. If you want to play on youtube, buy a loop sampler pedal. If you want to play in a prog rock band, buy a bass with more than six strings (everybody else in those bands seems to get along fine with standard instruments, but bassists are the most important musicians in prog rock bands). If you want to play in a wedding band, cut your hair and develop an appreciation for Take That, start referring to yourself as a professional musician. If you want to play in a tribute band, learn to roughly approximate the relevant songs in a half-arsed style, buy gear ten times more expensive than the band you are paying tribute to, start referring to yourself as a professional musician. If you want to play your own music, buy what you can afford, expect to receive criticism from old people who gave up when their own music wasn't good enough to get them gigs at Wembley, who decided to play in more lucrative "professional" bands.

[quote name='iamapirate' post='512345' date='Jun 12 2009, 06:16 PM']But it will get pretty close to a synthy envelope. You can set the rate quite low and the sliders to start low and then get higher. Can get quite messy if you don't play very tight, clean lines.[/quote] The envelope is pre-set by the three sliders, that's my point. It doesn't generate an envelope from the dynamics of your playing, and will never sound like an envelope filter.

Al: Might be worth keeping your eyes peeled for a used EHX BMS. They usually go for about £110 quid (based on the three I've bought...) and for that money they are great value. It'll do that '70s filter-sweepy mono synth bass sound better than anything other pedal or combination of pedals I've heard. And a fair few other tricks besides. Bear in mine though that it won't do "envelope filter". The filter is great, but it isn't envelope-controlled, its sweep is set up quite strictly using the sliders, rather than using your playing dynamics to open and close the filter.

[quote name='51m0n' post='510902' date='Jun 11 2009, 09:41 AM']Only thing I really dont like and dont understand about the Hartke LH500, it has jack speaker outs [/quote] Yeah that is a bit weird for a 500W amp.

Yeah mine does work the wrong way round, I've had the bass a few years though I'm used to it. Well I left it alone for a few days and what do you know, the rattling sound has disappeared. Maybe it just took a while for the neck to settle, given how stiff it is. Must remind myself not to panic the next time it happens!

I haven't tried one, but apparently it's a copy of the Boss SYB-5, and everybody says the tracking on that is a bit on the unusable side. Are you shooting for particular synth sounds, or are you just curious about what that particular pedal can do?

Take a huge pedal board, wear a lab coat and safety glasses, and make horrendous noises while occasionally making notes on a clipboard.

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' post='511148' date='Jun 11 2009, 01:13 PM']The guy at Chunk Systems strongly advised against putting a filter before the fuzz - don't know why though![/quote] Weird. I can't see any rational reason to say that. I've set up a feedback loop inside my O.S. using the filter and fuzz before, Richard at Chunk commented on the results but never told me not to do it.

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='510797' date='Jun 11 2009, 12:27 AM']Hey, my instructions were good!!! [/quote] OK, well, I've never used a splitter like that, but I figured the plug would have to go into an output, not an input, and the sockets provide the split signal. Isn't that right? I don't see how it would work if you plugged it into the input on the Brown Dog.

Write down the address of the place you're supposed to be staying and put it in your pocket / wallet. When you wake up the next day in a house you don't recognise, with people you don't know, at least you'll be able to tell a taxi driver where to take you. I learnt this lesson the hard way. Twice.

[quote name='Dosi Y'Anarchy' post='510741' date='Jun 10 2009, 11:03 PM']air play about the pedulla, you got the cash, personally even if I had £1,600 to spend, i wouldnt buy a bass for that much until: I'd had a chance to try if for long enough to know that i wouldnt sell it four months later, I knew for a fact that somewhere down the line that bass would earn its money back (career-wise)[/quote] Well with some basses you'd get your money back when you re-sold it anyway. But yeah I've never spent over a grand on a bass in 20 years of playing and probably never will.

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' post='510758' date='Jun 10 2009, 11:31 PM']I have not had time to try this tonight but surely the headphone splitter product will not work as it is just putting two inputs into the brown dog and not one as input and the other as an output socket in the Agent 00 Funk or am I missing something?[/quote] You got bad instructions again. If you put the splitter into the output of whatever comes before the Brown Dog, stick one split into the fuzz, the other into the 00Funk envelope in, it will do the same thing as a Y-cable. It basically [i]will be[/i] a Y-cable.