AlexDelores

Probably Geddy. But, as he’s already had a few mentions I’ll go with Joe Dart.

Interesting. I saw KC & The Sunshine Band live recently and couldn’t stop thinking that they should just Give It Up.

I use an Ortega KT Walker v2 as my #1 bass and gig it at between 60-80 times a year with my acoustic duo. It’s a great little thing as the Fishman preamp is awesome! Only issue with these little acoustics is the strings. I had it set up with the original nylon core string things that came with it but my guitar tech (who is really good) said he was really struggling to get the intonation right with a workable string height. His solution was to set it to use with medium scale Fender bronze strings. Once they’re on, they’re solid as a rock and cause no issues…but, getting them on is a nightmare. I have to uncoil part of the E string to fit it in the machine head and often, it kills the string so I have to open a new pack and start again. Not ideal, but I really run my strings in so it’s not a huge deal for me and to play it live, it’s a beast and really comfortable. That said, I have been toying with the idea of a ‘normal’ short scale because of said problems. sorry I’ve gone off on one there… Summary The Ortega KTWalker basses are a cracking little contender as long as you can get on with the nylon core strings. Otherwise, mini acoustic basses are a faff in general.

😍

This looks awesome! Great work/thread 👍

Yep! This is basically the basis of Ed Sheeran’s latest court battle! I really hope he delivered it in the same way 😂

Love the Goldie! What scale is it?

I’m in a covers duo that also DJ’s in-between sets. We don’t mix vinyl live but we do all of the above to make sure the night’s a corker. So, I’m an ultra parasite… But, I’ll take that as it means I can play music for a living rather than when I used to turn my nose up at covers bands as I worked 40 hours a week and gigged on the weekends chasing ‘the dream’ I still write a bit of music for my hobby now but my 21 year old self would be disgusted in me for selling out… But sod-im! He used to have bleached hair and wore his jeans too low.

https://youtu.be/lrhJv4KplU4 I can’t help but think of this when people mention sustain. Apologies, other than that, I have nothing of any use to contribute to this discussion about the why.

Really looking forward to this thread! 👍

Well, I take all that back. 😫😂 Guess I’ll re-pack my kit until next summer then!

We’ve played a few, one was a socially distanced outdoor Gin Fest with 150 people but as they have HUGE gardens, it felt kind of empty. Also played a couple of weddings, both have been more laid back drinks reception styled sets and have been fairly pleasant. We’ve got a couple of others booked in for the rest of the year and a potential Christmas residency for a few weeks at a local wedding venue. We are an upbeat acoustic duo anyway so we haven’t had to change much, although I’m not sure when we will get back to the upbeat part of our title... The no dancing thing feels very strange so far! Can’t see us doing much more than a few now though this year. We’ve also had to slash our rates for the remainder of 2020 to account for people limiting guests and trying to cut costs in order to justify keeping their wedding this year.

What a great thread and a beautiful bass! Fantastic work! Such an inspiring build 👌

That Gretsch is a stunner!

Found an old school report a few weeks back and my music teachers comments were ... “Alex needs to stop focusing all of his time on the bass guitar and make sure he’s spending time learning a variety of instruments” ... Pretty sure this is the exact opposite of how you learn to play an instrument. Fortunately, at the time I was too busy playing my bass to be arsed to read my school report.

Thanks for your review! I’m looking into getting one of the D-Walker distressed basses with the fish man preamp. I was wondering about the strings as it seems no where stocks them near Shropshire. Good to hear a verdict on them! Alex

I’ve never really looked into Preamps but I definitely will 👍 I just seemed to find the issue was overcome instantly by using a feedback buster so didn’t really look any further...on second thought maybe I shouldn’t look into preamps, I don’t need another excuse to spend money on gear 😂

I’m in the market for a short scale acoustic and the Guild look great. Only downfall I can see for the Guild is that the volume controls for the preamp are inside the sound hole which means if like me you gig it regularly plugged in you can’t use a feedback buster which I find is a must when using it live. Those Ibanez look lovely too but I already use an Ibanez acoustic bass and although it plays lovely the preamps in them are not the best. The Taylor seems to tick all the boxes but that comes with a cost as it’s about twice the price! 😩 Alex

Wow both of these are stunning! Very inspirational, thanks

Been eyeing these up as of late, they look a great bass for the money with lots of good reviews etc . good to hear your getting on well with yours. I’ve seen that Taylor do a nice looking short scale, however it’s about 3x the money. thanks for the post 👍👍

another factor is how accessible the world is now. It’s become expected of bands to have built this brand of their band before a label will even touch them, the bands that seem to make it are the ones that can do everything, music, marketing, promotion, recording etc. Of course this is a blanket statement and I’m sure there is still some incredible talents that just get picked up on the spot, however I feel the days of bands being heard, signed then built into a household name finished in the early 2000s when the internet started arriving. I feel the major role of the label now is purely mass distribution where as a lot of the actual marketing and fan base is wel and truly cemented before the band even gets a look in. Labels can now be lazy and wait for the artists to come to them rather than talent scouting. just my two pence

Thanks everyone for all your advice. Will check out some of the higher end stuff. Ultimately it’s not just down to me though so will chat to the other half (of the group) about it. I think we might look at a form of monitoring sooner though whilst we’re deciding/saving 😏... NYE gig cemented the need to sort something. Awful sound on stage so we may find once we sort out that issue the others might not seem as urgent. Just as a side note, Our need for more power is not down to how loud of a band we are but that we play a lot of loud ‘Pre club’ type bars in town that are full of loud, lairy groups of drunkeds , cheering shots, talking and waiting for us to play Mr Brightside rather than a crowd of music lovers out to listen to a live band. Fortunately all in all the gigs are good fun and they pay well so I can get over the fact they’re talking over half our set 😂 Thanks again all. Much appreciated Alex

Thanks everyone for all the help. Really glad I decided to ask the question on here. So working on the basis that I already have a couple of good speakers the issue is still that we need to reduce our footprint at some gigs so would need to run 1 speaker and preferable some form of monitor (in ear , again for reduced footprint) so we can put the speaker off to the side of us. Another option would be to buy a new , more powerful powered mixer such as ... https://m.thomann.de/gb/yamaha_emx_5.htm?o=16&search=1514742097 currently With my mixer I’m getting approx 150-180watt through one speaker @8ohm (I think) my wharfedales quote on the back : 300watts continuous 600watts program 1200watts peak impedance 8ohm. Now does That mean I should be looking for powered mixers around 600w total to allow me 300w through one speaker at 8ohm (the Yamaha linked above states 2 x 460w @8ohm, so would this be too powerful?) apologies again for the long windedness and I appreciate you all for sticking with me and bearing with my naivety. I beat sheet metal for a living and electrics blow my mind (slight pun intended) ... and the other member is more useless than me with it. Thanks Alex

That’s great thanks for the info on the Alto stuff. Yeah I didn’t think I’d have much joy with the cab. we currently use a Yamaha emx312sc powered mixer and x2 wharfedale evp x-15 passive speakers. I also use an Ashdown Abm 500 head and abm210 cab. As far as budget it really needs to be all in under £1k. We’re thinking we’ll probably end up with 1 active speaker (for now) a mixer, a set of the gear 4 music in ear monitors and probably an alto powered Sub, although we might end up with x2 speakers in a bundle and then look at the sub a later date and carry on with my seperate amp. im wondering whether I could DI my bass amp into the mixer but keep the volume low on the front of house sound (assuming it has a seperate level control for the monitors) hmm lots to think about, all though I’m most definately over thinking it all 😂 really appreciate the feedback from here though 👍

Thanks a lot, appreciate the help. I’m assuming if I have 2 speaker cabs + a sub I would need to daisy chain one of the speakers off another due to the available XLR connections on the mixer... which leads me to the question, would it be possible to use an active speaker connected to a passive mixer and then daisy chain my ashdown ABM 2x10 passive cab and go direct into the PA with my bass? As the cab would be getting power from the speaker? I know this wouldn’t be as ideal for handling the low end as a powered sub but would it be possible as a short term answer to having everything through the in ears? Unfortunately as with everything budget comes into play here.