Woodinblack

Of all the songs from all the albums (and I love them all until hold your fire), Middletown Dreams on Power Windows is one of those songs that evokes images.

Oh yes, that is them. Hard to tell how good they were with the sound being that mushy

Don’t know, girl singer, bass and drummer

Not sure if their name, the group opening for royal blood in Newport. Sort of American punk. Bass player has a very shiny ric like bass, which I assume is a ric. Seems to make a mushy sound

Speaking as someone who only really plays 5 string basses, and is leaning the chapman stick, no, you really can't!

The songs I do in my band that I can't do on a 4 string are poker face (actually possible but not as easy), baker street (again possible if I miss out some of the accents), Brick in the wall, Moondance (yes, it can be done on a 4, but if you have got used to it on a 5 it is a real faff on a 4), black magic woman (for the same reason). There are some others that if I am paying attention I can play on a 4 string without messing up, but would seem a bit odd to limit myself. I used to play with a 4 or a 5, but because we randomly change songs at the last minute I have no idea what is going to be called out, so I don't have time to change, as a result I haven't got to play a 4 string live for a while. My other group is Motown and disco, I wouldn't try that without a 5 string.

Its really rare to find songs that actually use 3 strings, rather than contriving 2 string songs to fit!

Oh it sounds just fine, its just the fit. Well, and the weight and space in the car - what with the PA and the lights and everything and the fact I have a smaller car means I haven't gigged with it in a while. Shame as it sounds nice.

Needs big speakers too. I have 2 x TC112 speakers, that aren't wide enough for it, so the amp goes on lenghwise which is bad for two reasons. 1, it looks bad, 2 it puts the side of the amp parallel and at the same height as of my single coiled ibanezes that pick up the mains hum a lot if they get close.

The length is really just down to where the bridge is and a little of how big the headstocks are. That is why thunderbirds are so long, they have huge headstocks and the bridge is half a mile up the body. Pretty well all Ps would, I assume, be the same length.

Well, yes, so monophonic with more oscilators and harmonies. You can set quite a few mono synths to do that, such as the Korg Monolog. Its still monophonic if it is tracking on input source.

I don't mean a gimmick for other people, I mean a gimmick for me - I have no use for it other than 'oh look I am doing a synth line'. I mean I used to like doing killer and seriously thought about doing 'you can't touch this' even though they were fine on the behringer boss clone, although the best reason to play that on the bass is that you are a bass player and don't have a keyboard player. But for me, I need something I can gig live, that is small (not enough room on the pedalboard for large, so sy300 was out), and then when I feel like it I can use with other instruments, specifically the chapman stick. And frankly with 10 strings on that, playing just one would be a gimmick. -- I must admit until this I was considering the source audio thing, I didn't realise it wasn't polyphonic, I just kind of assumed it would be. So pretty lucky I didn't get it.

Yeh, I wonder why they don’t pick up on that?

For me polyphony is essential, which is why I was interested as it no longer needs the GK pickup, a mono synth is ok as a gimmick but not something I could see much of a use for

Yes, I get that but why would you choose to use a FI synth in a studio compared to any number of more powerful synths, other than that you already have one. Like if o was recording in my room, I have a Roland DS61, Gaia, basstation 2, blofeld, Yamaha reface dx as well as all of logic, equator and cupher2/strobe. I really don’t see, however good the FI is - and I haven’t used one, that it is going to bring anything to the party that isn’t there

I am not sure I would use a bass synth pedal for recording, it is always going to be worse than an actual synth that are cheap and plentiful.

But at least you can be unimpressed for half the price!

Yep, me too

I would play acoustic bass and do bass and percussion on it. Sort of Jon Gomm like but on a bass?

Yesterday, a bit meh. Afternoon was a gig in a campsite for someones birthday. They originally wanted us later, but we had another gig in the evening so it was 3-5:30. Set everything up and used 2 PAs as the guitarist was keen to do that. Unfortunaly remembered everything except my ipad to set up the mixr. The singer had his, but it meant I couldn't monitor it and my IEM mix was for some reason completely wrong. Half time I downloaded the iphone x18 app, which meant I could fix some issues, but frankly it is not easy to use something you arent' familiar with. The second half there was a lot more response from the crowd and by the end everyone was joining in and enjoying it. Its a shame we couldn't do later as that would have been better. Evening, set up in a small pub we play often. I remembered the iPad, but everything isn't working, I think the iphone app really set the mixer funny, so all the EQ is everywhere. Set it up and it sounded ok but too loud. Told the guitarist to turn down, but he ignored me as usual. Went out, came back for the gig and the sound had changed horribly for some reason. Set it up as best as we could in the few minutes, my mic level was way down for some reason, the singer was feeding back but not loud. Anyway, did the first half then the drummers dad (who is at most our gigs came up and said the sound was terrible and everything was too loud. Turned the bass amp down (to way lower where I normally have it in that pub), so did the guitarist. Played the second set. The guitarist was actually too quiet, i told him to turn up a bit but he said he didn't hear me (probably didn't understand me saying to turn it up, he has never heard that). Honestly I think we were tired, it was all a bit flat. Aparerntly the sound was great in the second half, everyone seemed happy (I was told I looked bored, but pointed out she mistook bored for tired). Paid well, but honestly I could have been as happy to have not done it.

They wanted a change from the breathless whispy girl singing some famous hit much slower that they used for every advert in 2018.

It was always so.This is why an old gibson is generally good. The good ones got looked after, the bad ones got trashed, so the old ones left were the ones worth keeping. From my POV, the way I would get an instrument is if I wanted an Ibanez, I would go online and order one, it would turn up and be fine. If I wanted a gibson, I would go to a shop with a large supply of them and try them all, to see which one was good, and get that one. In certain years they were almost all good (and in certain years they were almost all bad).

At the moment I suspect I have more than 10. But I can't count them, that would be rude, plus if I count them then it becomes real and I would have to accept I had too many.

I had a gibson darkfire with robot tuners. It wasn't perfect but it worked (the QC of the guitar itself was shocking). I got rid of it because i was offered good money and wasn't playing guitar, but I would have it again in a heartbeat, and if I had the option for robot tuners over normal tuners, I would have them. But in general, guitarists are even worse than bassists for 'if it wasn't invented in the 50s' syndrome.

Really? Never had a Gibson then?