EliasMooseblaster

Oh, hell yes. Now that was fun.

I bought a Behringer BDI-21 a while ago to set up a little headphone rig, and for the (increasingly rare) gigs where I have to plug straight into the PA. It's fine; for the little money I paid I don't feel I can really complain...but every so often, the baked-in mid-scoop starts to get irksome. So I started looking at options which came with a midrange control and a reasonable price tag, whereupon I found the EHX Battalion. Does anyone have experience of using one of these as a DI in a live setting? I've just come from watching a demo video which sounded really good, but the guy demo'ing it was sending the signal out to a bass amp, rather than a PA. So, does it do the job adequately? Can I tweak the EQ safely without completely tanking my FOH sound? Do sound guys freak out when offered a DI box that isn't their own and is covered in knobs and switches?

I suspect you're absolutely right. Unfortunately, what we think of as "rock" music does seem to be treading down an ever more conservative and tedious path. There's definitely a formula that Planet Rock (and others) seem to cling to, and I can't see it changing any time soon. Even the two Pink Floyd numbers in that list are among the "safer" choices from their back catalogue. (Longer rant on the subject here: https://ralphbeeby.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/the-devils-music-exorcised/)

Sorry, you'll have to excuse my own bad experiences clouding my interpretation of your original comment! I'd agree with you there - as long as I can hear the notes I'm playing, I can live with a less-than-wonderful stage sound. I think I've just done too many straight-to-PA gigs where I've barely been able to hear a single note - which was particularly challenging on the ones where I was playing fretless!

For a Cherry White gig, I'd take two or three - Gibson Thunderbird and/or Epiphone EB-3 (4-string perhaps with backup 4-string) and the Hagstrom HB-8 (8-string...no backup as I only own one!) I like to give everything else a fair rotation when I pop along to local jam nights, though there's little point in taking more than one bass to those. Especially if I want to bring a skinny-string as well - getting on the bus with two guitar cases can give one the air of a serious musician, but trying to stagger on with three or more just makes one look a bit ungainly...

You cross your heart and pray thanks to all deities whose names you can remember that, as a bassist, you only have to transpose the changes, and not the head of the tune.

There's possibly an aspect of your own playing style to it as well. Never been sure quite why it is, but there are certain popular basses I've just never got on well with. I've heard plenty of of bassists who get great sounds out of a Jazz bass - from fellow BCers up to the likes of Geddy Lee - but when I've played around with one myself, I've never been entirely happy with the sounds I was making. It's like borrowing someone's shoes that are ever-so-slightly too small; by comparison, picking up a Precision or a Thunderbird is like slipping back into a pair that fit properly. And I'm sure the opposite will be true for a lot of people on here. It may just be that you're used to the way your 'ray and Sei respond to your playing, and the Precision will feel like a different beast.

I can't find it just now, but I did read an article on Fender's website which made a similar claim about the Telecaster's bridge pickup. The writer asserted that the way the metal of the bridge extended to surround the pickup (the "other" ashtray design) did something to enhance the sound and make the pickup "snarl" more. My own Tele does not have the extended ashtray bridge, and sounds pretty much as I expect a Tele to sound, so I remain sceptical.

One of Australia's finest singer-songwriters, Sonia Serin, is briefly visiting the UK, and has very kindly asked me to play bass for her at a gig in Camden this Sunday. Last I heard, our set is due to begin around 8.30-8.45.

I agree with both of you, but particularly the bit I've highlighted - believe me, it's no fun having to play fretless on muscle memory alone!

I do find this a fascinating subject, not least because I can sympathise with your position! I consider myself introverted, but I'm very aware that I am a different person onstage. I don't necessarily dislike meeting new people, but I find it tiring - dedicated "networking" events are my idea of hell - but somehow I find I'm able to present a different personality when I have an audience waiting for me to play. (And I'm quite sure I know a few other introverted musicians who function in a similar way.) I'm familiar with the idea that the introvert is hesitant to speak up in a group because (s)he wants to form and double-check any idea in his/her own head before voicing it, and so the conversation ends up being dominated by the surrounding extroverts. So the way I see it is that if I've gone to effort of arranging the gig, getting the band up to scratch, and getting my gear to the venue, then that set is my unequivocal opportunity to speak up (perform) and I'm bloody well going to do so! But then, I can only speak from my own experience. I know that not everybody is capable of putting that mask on when the time comes.

It's worrying how commonplace it is, this idea that work is something that must be suffered. Is it dreadfully naive of me to think that yes, we've all done jobs we haven't enjoyed, but surely they're either a means of making ends meet while you get a side project off the ground, or something you put up with until you find something more interesting to do for a living?

If anyone's in the vicinity of North Finchley tomorrow, I've had a rather short notice booking to join this interesting-looking lineup. I'll be doing a solo set of furiously fingerpicked folk-blues, going on about 5.45pm. If anyone fancies a pint before that, I'll be loitering in the venue from around 5ish. I hear they have some interesting beer on.

Tramp the Dirt Down by Elvis Costello. (What? That's not about gardening? Oh...)

I must admit I've not logged into that other forum for donkey's years. I used to make pretty regular use of it; I think I just found that I preferred the atmosphere over here (maybe it's the cheese) and decided to pitch my tent here instead. I think it was the black-and-whiteness of so many conversations which I found a bit tiring. Topics such as the order of your signal chain, perhaps at which point you took the DI signal from, or - god forbid - whether to mix driver sizes, might prompt a lot of "try it and see" responses over here; over there, you're never short of people declaring "I would never do this*, and here's why you're wrong..." Still, as far as the most bizarre exchanges I've seen, I can't decide whether my favourite is: - the two blokes who started taking chunks out of each other over whether Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd could be considered part of PF's "canon" because one of them didn't like it; or - the time the forum nearly erupted into civil war over the question of whether a Bass Guitar was a type of guitar, or some special and unique bass-related entity in a family all of its own. *this first part quoted verbatim from several cases...

Very true. Though there is also the mutual enemy of both the publican and the performer: the freeloader who comes in to listen to the music without buying a drink, or nursing a small lemonade all night. I realise some people might have good reasons for doing this (loneliness and being genuinely strapped for cash spring to mind), but I've heard of groups of people having the brass neck to occupy a table in my local for a couple of hours and neither making a purchase from the bar nor dropping a coin into the jug that goes round for the musicians. One of the regulars told me that he'd had a quiet word with a small group who tried to get away with this one night, who took great offence at the notion that this pub, known for its regular music, could only continue to support itself and let people watch the bands for free if they took enough behind the bar.

You are my northern analogue AICMFP

Not with my settings...

Sorry to hear about your guitarist. Love the track though - your bass tone is to die for!

I always maintain it's a shame that Last.FM has been gradually going the way of the dodo for the last few years. Spotify might be alright if you know what you want to listen to, but I remain unconvinced by its suggestions for new discoveries via algorithm. Last.FM, on the other hand, switched me on to at least two or three artists who I happily follow to this day.

Bear with me, as I explain in convoluted fashion the small group of people who occupy the overlap in the Venn diagram connecting the Lithuanian version of The Voice to up-and-coming UK hard-rock band Inglorious. Early in 2015, I had arranged a gig for Cherry White in the Victoria Inn, Derby. It was to be our first outing with our new singer, Donata. I very much doubt any of this parish will be familiar with her work prior to joining CW, but before coming to London, she had enjoyed a few years of pop chart success in her native Lithuania, after winning their version of The Voice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this fame had not travelled as far as the UK, but it did mean that we had an unknown but very impressive lead singer in the fold. (And if nothing else, it impressed the two Lithuanian colleagues in an office where I briefly worked around that time.) Also on the bill were a young band called Parasight. And I do mean young: I think the eldest was barely 18, and they all looked quite a big younger than that! But they were good. Full of energy, as many of us doubtless were at that age, but also tight and well-rehearsed. Notably, the two guitarists were playing off each other really well, and they had some nice Wishbone/Maiden-esque harmoised lines. And really friendly and unpretentious when we met them; nice guys to a man. I heard via the band's Facetube page that they'd folded, which I thought was a shame, but they mentioned that one of their guitarists, Danny, had landed himself a couple of really promising opportunities, of which I forget the details now. But following the ins and outs of his own Facetagram page, I gather that he has not only replaced the original lead guitarist in Inglorious, but has also played Slash in a biopic about Guns'n'Roses. So there you have it: that night in Derby is is, to my knowledge, the point of smallest separation between Inglorious and Lithuanian TV talent shows.

Or perhaps, "Man, I feel like a plonker..."

I know the type you mean - not wishing to detrail the thread, but donkeys ago I manned the phones part-time at a driving school. I never bit my tongue harder than when a guy phoned up one morning to ask if we had "a stimulator." "I'm sorry sir, a what?" (Thinks: I think you've confused us with the shop at the other end of the high street...) "A stimulator. You know, one of them computers you can practice on before you go in a real car." I politely explained that we didn't have a driving simulator, and asked whether he was still interested in booking any lessons. But throughout the conversation, he insisted on bring up the "stimulators" again and again, saying that the bigger companies had "stimulators" he could use, and how we should get ourselves a "stimulator", while I politely explained that simulators were quite expensive, and our office space was very limited. I hope he managed to find the stimulation he was after.

Probably the same way that various companies can offer unpaid internships without, apparently, falling foul of minimum wage legislation. It's within the letter of the law, even if it is a d!ck move.

And with a fretless Wal, how could you not love fretless bass? Enjoyed reading that - thanks for sharing!