Dood

Looking at this picture alone without the video, I can immediately tell that what is going on here is a little more complex than the OP, as the guitarist is shaping the signal before it gets pushed in to a drive section. Distortion changes tone a huge amount. I can see that the player is cutting the lows to tighten up the saturation sound and boosting the mids, not unlike the eq curve of a tube screamer (but clean) - You could also treat the 6 band EQ pedal as if it were an onboard active preamp, shaping the sound of the guitar, like that of the active Stingray mentioned. Maybe the speaker cabinet they are using has a fair amount of natural mids in it and thus pulling the mids out in the ten band will smooth things over a little. Great for reproducing the sound of a guitar in a mix. I'm not familiar with the MK V Mesa, but I wonder if the tone stack is passive and thus will definitely react differently to that of the active filters of the ten band which can boost and cut more aggressively.

OOOOPS! God, I should put my glasses on, I missed this bit . Apologies. You are a busy musician though, aren't you? I feel sure you'd be able to talk to someone. 👍👍

Hey Jakester, If you can get on this scheme, this will be the best £40 (£30) you'll ever spend on hearing protection* https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/health-welfare/musicians-hearing-health-scheme I have heard that the criteria for getting them is flexible if you can demonstrate that you do a lot of work in music.

Yes that is very true. I even wrote in a bass player magazine column recently not to ever use one IEM in and one out.

Lots of posts to read through thank you! I want to make it clear that for over 15 years, maybe as much as 20 years I have been using pro moulded ear plugs, such as those made my ACS, Etymotic Research and more recently 64 Audio. Certainly since 2015 time I've been using 64 Audio's IEMs, so I've not been using cheap or crap ear protection and monitoring. I've had regular ear tests and have had a lot of help via audiologists in learning about how our ears work, ear health and tinnitus, so it's certainly not a new subject for me. I think I've given out a fair amount of advice on the subject on this very forum on the subject. I would say that given that I started with mild tinnitus, I've done all that I can to prevent it getting worse. My monitoring system that I have used has incorporated high quality personal ambient feeds so I don't crank unnecessary signals to feel part of the mix, as well as signal limiting. I've always kept my mix as quiet as possible. These solutions haven't worked and thus I only really have one direction to follow at this time. Right now, my ears are screaming and I've not been near loud music for weeks.

I really appreciate all the replies and messages of support, you are all amazing, thank you. I will read them all properly, I've been tending to my rather poorly daughter these last couple of days though.

Thank you all so much for your responses, I hear you loud and clear, it's certainly making me think about my next move. I've actually been on IEMs alone for live music and ear plugs (or my own private ambient system) for rehearsals, but this hasn't been enough to keep things under control. Even for the last two years I have operated a silent stage save for the acoustic drums. I genuinely fear the worsening of my Tinnitus and it could signal some very depressing and dramatic changes in my musical life. Even now, the howling is very disruptive.

One of my lovely students bought me a big plectrum as a gift. It's made from leather and is very thick. Although not exactly the same, it's the nearest a plectrum has ever come to sounding like fingers in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing with it. So, to cross-contaminate threads, it's kinda of a best (or worst) of both worlds depending on your view point.

Oh dear lord yes!!!! When I left my last band I sold my P16M. The stereo mix we had was glorious through it and the built in EQ access for each channel and personal limiter was a god send! Perfect addition and I liked being able to turn a physical knob whilst playing, especially of my iPad happened to be hosting another app at the time. Imagine my misery going back to a mono headphone amp when I depped for the band (although different members and hardware) after lockdown. Russ is so right. Stereo mixes not only give your sound space but your concentration and therefore less headache inducing congestion when sounds collide. Its great that it can be set up totally pre-fader from the main mixer too, so your mix is totally free of any other facets like unnecessary reverbs and effects, if that is appropriate.

Lots of experience with the XR18, with and without an external router. Without, it constantly disconnects, is patchy, laggy and fails to respond to commands on tablets. Slow and really messes with the overall experience of use. With a decent router, the whole band accessed each of their IEM mixes on their own tablets or iPads simultaneously, no lag, delay or drop outs. Mutes happened immediately and the whole mixing process became a breeze! I agree with the comments regarding Behringer managing to get this small facet so incredibly wrong!

It never ceases to pain me when I read threads like this one. I was earning the same when I first started playing as a teen.

Just bumping this topic. At what point is Tinnitus too much? At what point do you decide that it being any louder, more impinging that you no longer risk more damage? If you know a certain thing exacerbates it and it continues to get worse, is it time to heed the warnings and cease? Even if that very thing is necessary to doing what you do, playing live for example. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Oh absolutely! Helix is excellent for that and the built in global EQ / HPF is very welcome indeed. Brilliant piece of kit.

The @Bergantino Audio B|Amp (both Mk1 and Mk2) have adjustable High Pass Filters - and Low Pass Filters for that matter too. They can be saved as a setting too which is great for having presets ready for a given situation.

The Ultramags are really nice! On the bass in question they have a higher tension and there's definitely a mid bump in the tone which suits this ash bodied P Bass. The very top end is a little subdued and they can't do what D'Addario Pro Steels can in comparison. Bottom end is solid, they last well too - verses my experiences of Swing Bass strings in the past.

https://www.guitarinteractivemagazine.com/review/tech-21-dp-3x-dug-pinnick-signature-pedal/ https://www.guitarinteractivemagazine.com/review/tech-21-steve-harris-sh1-signature-sansamp/

I've already recorded reviews for the DP3X! It's super nice! - Both on it's own and as a tech column about amplifiers. I'll see if I can find the links. Oh and before you sk, yes I have done the Tech 21 Steve Harris pedal too which is more than capable of bringing the distortion too!

Ok, for you and @ezbass! I will try to keep this brief! The album is The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild by the band SikTh. It was bought for me by a dear friend as a birthday gift. Musically it was a breath of fresh air to my ears and I instantly fell in love with each crushing and brain melting riff. Now, my memory is a little fuzzy these days as I attempt to recall what happened next, but at some point in SikTh's touring history I became frustrated that the band weren't playing in my local city. So, I did the thing that any self-(dis)respecting, slightly mental music lover would do and offer to front the cash for this band to come and headline one of my city's well known venues. The plan, having contacted the tour agent and the venue separately paid off and I went on holiday for a couple of weeks. When I came back, SikTh were booked to play the gig. Anyway, I reached out to the band, told them my plan and they offered for me to come and hang out at the soundcheck and gig with them. Story short we all hit it off and are good friends to this day which is awesome. - James the bassist played with Devin Townsend recently, which is amazing as the DT band are one of my favourites! Sometime after that gig and around the time the band took a break, I guess this was around 2007 I was called by Pin, guitarist and as we'd been talking about bands previously. He offered for me to come down and jam "audition" for a new band he and Jamie Hunt (previously of Biomechanical) were forming. Story short I joined the band and I subsequently reached out to my friend and drummer Thomas Lang to join. Sadly, the band, due to busy touring and clinic schedules never really got off the ground, but Within The Void as we were known still have many songs, at least in part sat on my studio hard drives! Jamie then invited me to come down and audition to play for his new band with Steve Smyth (Forbidden, Nevermore, Testament) that was code named "Firehead". I replaced Dragonforce's bassist. We recorded some demos but I left due to personal reasons about a year later. The band is now called One Machine. Interestingly one of the names I came up with but originally dismissed. Off the back of my now working relationship with Thomas Lang, we set about putting a band together and doing some writing and we formed a band with Jamie Hunt with a great singer from the US. Again, I can't remember the exact time line but my internet ramblings and music caught the eye of Lebanese maestro Amadeus Awad and we struck up a musical relationship that led to recording with Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison. The EP called Schizanimus featured the incredible talents of Danny Boy-Maron and Elia Monsef. Remember those names.. Amadeus being pleased with our produce called me up one day and told me all about a bassist he was looking for to play on a much larger project featuring Russel Allen and John Macaluso from Symphony X, Kevin Moore from Dream Theater, Amanda Sommerville from Avantasia/Trillium and a pile more of talented individuals.. that bassist could have been anyone but he wanted me, so we recorded that album and the EP mentioned above subsequently came out as a limited edition on that album too. "The Book Of Gates" and our band was called Eon. Elia and Danny (yup I said remember them) are part of the Lebanese cinematic progressive metal band Ostura. After working with them previously they called upon me to record all the bass for the incredible album The Room (I know I played on it, but wow, it's a masterpiece!). My ole rhythm section monster Thomas Lang joined me once again along with .. and yes, get this The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra!! Marco Sfogli (James Labrie, Jordan Rudess bands), Arjen Lucassen, Michael Mills (Toehider and Ayreon) and Turkish guitar legend Ozgur Abbak joined us on this epic production! Somewhere in this timeline showing off my love for prog and catchy grooves and music, I was contacted by Dec Burke (*Frost) to be touring bassist for his new band AudioPlastik put together with Simon Andersson (Pain Of Salvation, Scarlet, Darkwater) but a some internal politics with another band member meant that the tour didn't happen. Aside from that, they are now amazing people to know . I'm going to stop there for now as there are many other branches to this particular story! So, you can see how one particular album may (or may not have) set some fairly huge wheels in motion for me! I still love that album and I am hugely grateful to everyone listed and many who aren't for these opportunities I've experienced. I guess you could say it is life changing! Can't wait for the next twist and turn to this tree!

Yup! As you say, My fave amp has a variable HPF and LPF, some of the major effects units I have owned such as Helix and Quad Capture have HPF blocks in them, there are SO many amplifiers on the market that have HPF's in them by design - guitar distortion pedals definitely have them in as a "pre-EQ" requisite (hence why you don't get much low end out for bass out of some). I agree that it isn't a gimmick, but, like signal limiting and over heating/short-circuit circuitry, an HPF is useful feature to have on board. Especially for those scallywags in rehearsal rooms that crank the bass control up to the max lol.

Changed my life, maybe not, had a profound lasting effect that I still remember to this day when I first heard it, yes. Actually, now that I think about it, a particular album helped to change my career path, so yes, maybe it did change my life. A long story, but if it weren't for that album I may not have been involved with many of the projects and album releases I've been on. Hmmm... Think I need to spin that one again soon!

Progress!