Woodinblack

Oh I can't imagine I will be seriously gigging it for a while, I meant I couldn't play it as much as I wanted as I had a few general gigs to do, so I didn't have time. I have at least started to get more familiar with it. I spent time yesterday making an HX Effects patch for it. I ordered the strings from Netwone, who now have them on their website for £30 and £1.20 - for some reason getting information on strings is a bit restricted but the info is out there. Bit nervous about setting it up, but it is the most important thing.

But the buttons are also for that as well, you can assign any effect to any button, even if something else is assigned to it, so the button turns multiple things on and off.

I use the Vitoos ISO8* as well, I had to use the B3 on one of the isolated outputs to stop the noise getting round. I did try a Vitos ISO4 on the belief I might be able to power a helix HX on it, but I was wrong!

Don't know how you are powering it, but if my B3 is chained with anything it craps Digital noise all over the place. It has to be isolated.

Oh yes, the volume blocks, makes sense. That takes 2 blocks, leaving 4, I also need compression, so two separate compressors, I guess that means I have just two effects blocks to play with. I haven't actually used snapshots at all, I still use the box like a whole load of effects pedals that I turn on and off. I really should spend a bit of time with it!

I'm amazed, you mean it is possible to have some kind of shop outside london?? 😮

Use one of those Joyo ZGP power supply filters. Tried it on my pedalboard rewire as occasionally my smoothhound has some noise to it, completely killed the noise live.

Because I haven't had a chance (as my HX is on my pedalboard), so before I take it off and try, I want to connect a stereo instrument to it (yes, its a chapman stick), split the stereo to two mono paths and connect a volume pedal which can either control the volume of one channel or optionally both channels, ie, bypass the volume on one channel. Does that sound like something I could do? I do think that I am probably going to run out of effects blocks on the HX pretty soon, I think if I ever get to gig this thing, I am going to end up going for a full helix. Or maybe just connect the stick to a behringer xair mixer and then to the HX effects.

Although I have found 2 good bands through JMB, it is amazing how many people put an advert up and then don't respond to you or reply once and then don't reply again. Why would you ever do that?

Its his band. basically, and I enjoy the rest of band

Maybe they should make a JoinMyBand-pro, where you have to pay, to filter people out who are not serious. And have a feedback of replying time!

Two gigs this weekend. First was a outbuilding in a football club. Singer was outside, we were inside. The sound through the PA was ok although I had to put the bass drum and the bass through the PA, and the red lights were lighting on the beat and it sounded great out the front but at the back it was a horrible mush. Not so bad as a gig but I didn't feel it, it was cold (because it was only June 21st after all), and I just wasn't into it. Then in the last half an hour, everyone came in the building and were really into it, so after ignoring us for 2 hours we had the typical 'one more song' thing for about 4 songs. Then the singer and the guitarist sat down chatting to people while me and the drummer broke down, as is normal (to be fair, the singer normally helps setting up and the guitarist never does anything). So I broke everything down, put it in the car said goodbye to the drummer and went home. Next day, the singer had got the message. So he helped set stuff up. Guitarist obviously sat his gear up and then spent the setup time playing songs at volume while we moved round him setting it up. Much better gig though, very interactive crowd as always in a tiny pub. There was a punchup between two women near the bar, then some women came over in between me and the band (it is a split event), so close that she kept bashing herself on the head with the bass which was irritating. Then after bashing her once more, in a middle of a song, she tried telling me stuff pulling me to listen while I was trying to play a ska song and sing, and once she finally realised by going the other side of me and pulling me backwards that I couldn't hear because I had an IEM, she pulled it out! I still couldn't hear her and knew I didn't want to anyway so I yelled at her to go away. Turns out she wanted to tell me that she was in the fight because some other women wanted her to get out of the way, a snippet of information that I had absolutely no interest in even if I hadn't been playing. Marred the end of the gig a bit but it was still good. After the gig I started putting stuff away, I started undoing the PA and the singer rushed over and said 'no, let me get that! So the singer was helpful packing up, and the drummer had a friend with him who was also very helpful. And at least the guitarist didn't get in the way too much.

It was me who said about the short scale strings being hard to find. I couldn't find any until I found newtone but once I had find them, I wouldn't have needed any other strings as they are great and the company are helpful. they do any strings you want but they have short scale sets.

I enjoyed it. The hardest part was getting enough time, as they are between half an hour and 1 hour lessons every week. Some of the lessons are so trivial you wonder what you are doing, like playing the same note over and over, but when it comes down to it, you realise you have heard things you hadn't heard before like the way you play a note etc. I don't know if I took on as much as I could (it is half a year), but I still have access to the whole course and there are bits I wouldn't mind going back and doing. Overall I can say it did get me out of a rut, and I did become a bit better. Not hugely better, but a bit, and that was worth it for me.

No, it is the dark red one he got to look more like wood and I guess in photos it does, although it doesn't IRL. It was in dual bass reciprocal, designed for bass players but I didn't want a 'fancy bass' it has literally taken the money of that, I wanted standard tuning as I wanted to learn something new, but it mans I have to wait for the strings. I have the bass section sorted though so I am going to start there, and I figured I would apply the ideas from the SBL accelerator course to the stick! my action is too high too, but until I have the right strings there is not much I can do about it - I have an email from Emmet Chapman telling me how to set it up, so I better get it done!

In terms of wood, aluminium, its a railboard Its not heavy as such it is just more physically imposing than I thought, with its wide neck and being pretty long. But yes, until i can get some strings I can't really explore it much, also with a few gigs too. So far it is impressive but pretty opaque, the left hand takes to it straight away, as you might expect, the right hand is much more 'what am I doing here!' I figure I need to set myself some general tasks

Early days, need to get decent strings before I can really get going, but it is different than I was expecting thats for sure. And heavier!

The previous owner had problems seeing the frets / rails, so he put a piece of white tape before every single one. I don't really like the look of it, but until I can actually play the thing, i am not sure I don't need that, so I have yet to take them off, apart from where he put doubles, which was just confusing. Hopefully I will take them off soon. All the railboards have villex pickups and filters. If you plug them into phantom power they are active, otherwise they aren't. But it is stereo and the filters are supposed to work both ways (tbh, hard to hear much difference). And that is where things got complicated. When I got it I was puzzled why the melody side was lower pitched than the bass side and after a few questions I found out that it was in dual bass reciprocal, where one side is a bass in 5ths and the other side is a bass in 4ths. But I don't want that, I have basses, i wanted standard stick tuning so I have faffed around changing the strings, (i had some spares) as the gauges of the strings are like a closely guarded secret, but I didn't work it out and broke one. Why didn't I think of the d'addario tension calculator which lets you work out exactly what the strings should be. Anyway, I am going to have to get some new strings, so i have the option of getting them from america for $50 + $23 + import and vat, + parcelforce benevolent fund fee, or go to everyones favourite Lancashire based string purveyor for a fair bit less! Much against my real wishes I am not taking it to a gig tonight. I am sure I could work out mustang sally on it easy enough, but maybe that isn't the point

Having played the stick a bit now, from people who had never played one at all, I am guessing hardly at all!

I suspect it would generate a bit of interest there. Its not something you get to have a go at often, as it is the first one I have ever touched! Well, the guy had another one, a much cheaper (and older) one.

Yay!

That one does nothing for me, too big bodied and bulbous. However, the royas, royal family or any of the comic book angled shapes, would love one of those.

So, as an aside, is there a reasonably priced dual channel (ie, independently compressing) compressor around?

Its a tent!