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If you're playing an originals band then you should play what the song needs. During a song rehearsal listen to the rest of the band & just play the root on the 1 (& 3 if you wish) & ask the others to play their parts as normal. Listen to each part of the song. Do you stay out on the intro, play a bit of the vocal melody for the chorus, play in unison with the lead guitar, pull into a rhythm combo with the drums or pop a bass only intro there? What does the song want? Depending on the feel of each part of the song & how the band want it to be, I'll either be tight in with the kick, syncing along with a guitar riff, part harmonising with the vocals or playing very little at all & then when the singer shouts "G on Bass", I get to do a wee solo & mess it all up If I or any of the band members I play with say "that doesn't fit", then I take it away & come back with something that does (keeping the thing that doesn't fit & getting it in another song if I really like it). If you're playing in a covers band then suggest a couple of bass orientated songs that you enjoy playing & that way you & the rest of the band should be happy.

I'd agree that it should be low input for a passive bass & hi input for an active bass. Put your combo in a corner if you can & as close to the Walls as possible, this will help increase your perceived volume & lower frequencies should seem louder too. If you plan on adding a 2nd cab then I'd get a matching 15" & not mix up speaker sizes, thus reducing the chance of frequencies cancelling one another out.

Cheers guys, Mr Foxen & Dan, I'll have a look at the LS-2 & see if it's gonna be a viable option with muting switches. Ruck, I've read your post & sounds like I've a fun journey ahead! SilentFly, I've had a look at a few of the current pedals you make & they look very impressive. If it's a goer, I shall be in touch with you first before going with anything else. It may be a few months to a year away tho as I have a house to sell before I buy anything I still haven't managed to get time to hook the mixer up to see if it's gonna be a worthwile quest, but I hope to get it set up either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Is there a pedal that will allow me to merge 2 mono audio signals (well, one stereo out as 2 1/4 jacks) with individual levels & in/out switches to one mono audio out (as 1/4 jack)? I've looked at countless things from the Boss LS-2 to the [sfx] S&M (looks like a brilliant little pedal), but not found what I'm after. Basically I want a two channel mono mixer with stomp buttons for IN/OUT. My plan is to arrange my board as such... Bass into Bass MuRF, it is a filter array that can be used in stereo. One channel (Left) will put out the frequencies around 110hz & below, 240hz, 525hz & 1.2 kHz, the other channel (Right) puts out the frequencies around 160hz, 350hz, 775hz & 1.8kHz & above. My plan is to put the Left channel straight to one side of the "mixer" pedal (Maybe with an octaver in that line if I get one), so just the frequencies at 110hz & below can go unaffected to the amp & then the right channel will go through the fuzz, chorus & LPF (I will probably experiment putting fx in either line ). The 2 signals then get merged back to mono & straight into my combo. I have a desktop mixer that I'm dying to try this through, but so far just haven't had the time, but if it works, I'd like to get a pedal for the job (or make one, as I was looking at simple passive 2 channel mixer schematics & I could easily adapt it with foot switches). Any ideas?

What kind of guitar was it?

There is the Godin A4 or A5. Semi acoustic, fretted or fretless & has a 13 pin MIDI jack. My singer has one of the guitars (not sure which model but it's slightly similar to a tele shape), he plugs it into a Roland GR20 & then into a MicroKorg. Sounds pretty good & doesn't seem to have much in the way of tracking issues (tho I can't guarantee there aren't any as I haven't had a play on it). Downside, not a cheap option.

I've used my MB combo several times as a small PA system. Plugging in a mixer & putting thru 3 vocals, an electronic drumkit, bass & acoustic guitar & it sounded pretty good. I didn't have it turned up very far as it's been in a hall to about 30-40 people. Probably had the input & master at @ 9 o'clock at the loudest. Not sure how it would be cranked up tho but I don't see why it wouldn't handle this at louder volumes, a few manufacturers suggest putting a CD thru your cabs at a decent volume for several hours to break them in. Edited to learn how to spell

[quote name='Paul S' post='1093480' date='Jan 18 2011, 09:08 AM']Wot he said. I am not a very technical or complicated player and when our band said they wanted to have a crack at Hysteria I nearly backed away from the start. But, yes, once you break it down into bits (there was actually a decent YouTube on this but I can't find it any more) it is actually not that difficult - I have learnt more difficult lines TBH that don't sound as complicated. I play with a pick, too - don't know if that makes it easier or more difficult?! But the easiest way to build up strength and speed is to just keep doing it. Using dumbells and tennis balls, IMO, gives you strength to use dumbells and tennis balls.[/quote] Obviously keeping playing it will make you better at it. But to strenghten up your finger muscles when you're not able to play (such as at work or watching tv), squeezing a tennis ball is a good way to build up the strength quicker than repetitive playing alone. As with doing wrist excercises with a weight such as a dumbbell.

Dumbbells & tennis balls, that's what you need. Build up your finger & wrist strength. I've never tried playing any Muse basslines. I've got 5 of their albums so I might have a listen & try learn something.

Sorry to hear about your gear getting nicked & hope you got something back from the insurance. As for combos, I went through loads of em back in early 2008 when I was looking & ended up going for Markbass on the rep of the LMII alone & it's better than any of the Ampeg, Roland, Ashdown, Phil Jones etc that I tried by a huge margin. But there's toms of other good stuff from TC electronics, Genz Benz, Orange, etc & the new fliptops from Ashdown & Ampeg look cool. The Markbass CMD 102P is a 2x10 combo & new ones have the LMIII in em (mine's has an LMII) & can fill most medium sized gigs with plenty headroom. Some folk find the tweeter a little harsh to start with but a little playing with the treble & the VLE filter soon sorts it out to how you want. If you wanna know more about my combo, let me know.

I looked at these when I was trying to decide what combo to get. I don't see why they wouldn't as my MB combo can fill most town halls & such.

Something I learned as a kid was "Know when not to play". A rest is just as important as a note & too many folk fill those important gaps with noise. Now, imagine if we could teach a guitarist this!

Don't try to plug a 1/4 jack into a 13 amp socket

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='1089609' date='Jan 14 2011, 06:03 PM']Maybe a load over 16ohm will be too much for it and it'll sound too weak![/quote] I think you've got your ohms calculations mixed up, adding an 8 ohm cab to an 8 ohm combo makes a 4 ohm load (it's not 8 + 8 = 16).

The one that comes with Computer Music Mag is called CMusic. I used to use it quite often back in the pre Mac days & used to buy CM every month for about 6 years on the trot! What's wrong with just using Reaper? I pop into it just now & again to jot down ideas as midi files to share with folk (can't do that in Garageband ) & I've never bothered going for the licence as I don't use it enough to warrant paying for it & also can't afford it just now.

Oh, looks like they've stopped making them. I nearly bought one before I got the MB combo. They come up on here from time to time 2nd hand for @ £350-400. Tho there's a good selection of combos (or amp/cab set ups) in this price range to try out.

[quote name='DanOwens' post='1087134' date='Jan 12 2011, 07:51 PM']If Moog continue to develop the MoogerFooger product line I see some amazing things happening. The MoogerFoogers are great as they are: great ideas boxed into great pedals. They're not perfect though. I'd like them to be quieter, with less tone-sucking and a level control so you can balance the 'Drive' knob and use it to shape tone as well as get a level (the LPF sounds sweet overdriven, but man it gets LOUD). I love them, but my wishlist gets longer and longer. I know that it's a balancing act but boy when I think about it I would love to see some changes; one of which is MIDI implementation. Dan[/quote] I don't understand what you mean by "tone sucking"? I heard a few people saying it was a tone sucking pedal before I bought it. I've tried plugging the bass direct into my rig & then thru just the MF-101. The difference I found was that the MF-101 appeared to add more lower frequencies to my sound when bypassed (as not true bypass) & then when engaged it's obviously not gonna matter (unless it's when you have the filter fully open, in which case you can disengage). The LPF can be noisy, but it's remedied by insulating the sides with copper paper & keeping it on it's own psu. A level to balance the drive would have been good, but I suppose if you're happy to have the drive on all the time, then it's a case of setting your amp to the level you want. The MF-105b has true bypass & has the level control so you can get a nice switchable o/d sound at the same level (which would have been a nice option to have on the LPF) & doesn't have the noise issues that the LPF does. I wonder if a CV to MIDI converter would allow you to control the parameters via midi? I've never used one before but it would be interesting to find out.

Have a try on the Roland D Bass combos & see if it's a similar tone. They can be gotten fairly cheap nowadays.

I'd choose the Markbass/Barefaced option but go & try what you can first.

[quote name='grayn' post='1087052' date='Jan 12 2011, 07:00 PM']As the amp output says, MAXIMUM 8 ohms, I can't see why it should fry, with 4. I guess you were attempting humour but this is a decent, small combo.[/quote] Sorry buddy, it was my attempt at humour in regards to the combo being decent. Roland make crackin combos. I was being serious about using a 4 ohm cab as the max load all in for your combo would be 4 ohms & run at 8 ohms without an ext cab. Adding an 8 ohm ext cab would make your amp run at 4 ohms, adding a 4 ohm cab would make the load 2.66 ohms thus causing the amp to overheat (ohms kinda work the opposite from what you would think on first approach). Have a look at the stickies in the top section of "amps & cabs", I'm sure there's a full explanation of how it all works.

I'd take a look at such delights as the Markbass LMII & a decent cab in either 1x15, 2x10 or 2x12 configs. Alternatively you could get a decent combo s/h for £5-600 & then if ever needs be, get an extra cab.

[quote name='grayn' post='1086998' date='Jan 12 2011, 06:23 PM']If I got an ext cab, I'd get a 4 ohm, which should beef up the volume, more than an 8 ohm, I think. The Cube-100 is only 17Kg. I wouldn't call that heavy. Mind you, I am surprised at how light stuff like Mark Bass is. Separates may be an alternative, I should look into. Cheers [/quote] Adding a 4 ohm ext cab should successfully fry it, leaving you free to do the done thing & buy a decent combo

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='1086495' date='Jan 12 2011, 10:51 AM']Thats what i had and didnt really get on with it. I just couldn't get a reliable signal level. I hate distortion and really struggled to get a constantly clean tone.[/quote] Aww, that's a shame. Looks like just the job too. Out of curiosity, was it an active or passive bass you used (or try both)? Might be too hot an out from an active bass?

Ahh, but you can plug a line from the "tuner out" on your amp into the iPhone using IK Multimedia's iRig (amplitube)... They're about £24 I want one now.

Boss ME 50B I'm sure there's some 2nd hand on here