Happy Jack

After a huge amount of research time and money spent, my opinion is that the best compromise between sound and weight is currently the QSC CP12. It's neither as loud nor as 'hefty' as the QSC K series, the RCF ART 712, or the Mackie SRM450, but it's easily enough for most venues and it weighs 13.7Kg which is about a third less than the others I just mentioned. When it's time to put them on or take them off a pair of shoulder-height poles you really notice that missing weight. Where I need more oomph than that for whatever reason, I just combine them with a couple of sub-woofers sitting on the floor, so no lifting onto poles involved. They also make superb floor monitors.

I use a Crazy 8 on an old PA pole as my stage monitor (putting the cab at ear level virtually guarantees no feedback concerns) and then get most of my bass sound and volume through the band PA. All of my gigs include @Silvia Bluejay on sound engineer duty so the mix always sounds great out front while I don't need to worry about what the audience is hearing. This video is from the loudest and most raucous of the pub gigs we play:

That's a lovely looking thing. Does it play even remotely as well as it looks?

Mat? What you need is a Reformer.

Do you get much of a volume variation across the pickups? Is the bridge noticeably louder than the neck or maybe vice versa?

And while you're in there, be sure to weigh it. I had two of the real thing (thank you @silverfoxnik 😂) but had to sell them for the heinous crime of weighing 11lbs. That's each, you understand.

Pilates, pilates, and more pilates.

Already done ... goes back to the supplier (full refund, not a replacement) tomorrow as soon as the Post Office opens.

He's in Aberdeen, Chris. That's a commitment level too far for me, and I'd guess for you too. 😀

So that pickup arrived. @Silvia Bluejay and I tried to install it today. £132 of cheap'n'nasty plastic, the battery holding socket being particularly poor design. The CR2032 lives in a recess so you can't just slide it in/out, the battery clip has to be lifted. Then it snaps. A piece of proper spring steel would have cost maybe a penny. A bog standard battery cover (as used on every clip-on tuner) might have cost 5p. But no, they chose to compromise a £132 unit to save 5p.

Long time ago now, but the biggest issue was the internal mapping between the XR18 and Reaper running on the PC. Secondary issue was that I couldn't find a way to do instant playback in the studio of what I had just recorded ... I had to render each take to a WAV on a memory stick, then take that stick to the PC in my home office and listen to it there. Just getting everything hooked up so it worked meant spending ages watching (really very helpful) YouTube tutorials of the "connect A to B, now set C to D" variety. Next time, I'll get the best take (or the take the band feel happiest with) 'as live' recorded as separate stems on the Ui24R, then take those stems into Reaper for the pixie dust. That process will reveal the flaws that need fixing, which can be dealt with one by one. In everything I say, do bear in mind that I'm not recording Dark Side Of The Moon here.

Thanks Paddy, will do.

I have a weird acoustic bass guitar (a custom-built 5-string Safran Iris) to which I want to attach a non-invasive piezo pickup, ideally with a small preamp. I've found this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Nanoflex-Active-Pickup-Control/dp/B000MSQBHQ/ref=asc_df_B000MSQBHQ/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310812505354&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10819983389944498702&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045969&hvtargid=pla-552840324703&psc=1&mcid=1a9dd4bc467d36fa922f24c0c6b8fc6a&th=1&psc=1 Has anyone used one of these? Or know anything about them?

During Covid I recorded a track in my studio using an XR18 as the front-end for Reaper. Reaper worked perfectly in every regard and was as easy to use as ever. On the other hand, the functionality of the XR18 was such that it was a nightmare to get it rigged up (this is after a couple of years of live gig experience, so we weren't novices) and I would never wish that experience on another musician. The results were perfectly acceptable. UKZK72000004 Cut Me Some Slack 811949163.mp3 Next time I do this, I shall be using a Ui24R as front-end which makes the entire process of recording the stems an absolute doddle.

Unfortunately, it seems that Macca thought that Michael Jackson was a friend. Now that really was naive.

If weight is the issue (and it's one I'm very familiar with) then I'd suggest looking at a lightweight head and separate cab. I've had a lot of success with https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/bass-guitar-amp-head/trace-elliot-elf-200w-ultra-compact-bass-guitar-amplifier-head?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17868851192&utm_term=&adgroup=&creative=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAx_GqBhBQEiwAlDNAZnseZptbD2kbaGt5Y5aG5bBzMQWIkJONTUI8sQNscwbM3Jc4h26PghoCUygQAvD_BwE paired with https://www.andertons.co.uk/trace-elliot-1-x-10-enclosure?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAx_GqBhBQEiwAlDNAZgyyys3qFiB0E0ySD6u-gqH_AFgUTTKZAvqzQx1_HJUgOQEcvnflWhoCQEIQAvD_BwE Ludicrously lightweight, way more volume than you'll need for any venue that doesn't have PA support, and surprisingly versatile. I run a Rickenbacker 4003s5 through it with my covers band, and a double bass through it with my rock'n'roll band ... sounds great either way.

What does it weigh?

I was born at the tail-end of 1956, on a Saturday. The factory was closed for the weekend and for the New Year holiday, so not one Fender bass manufactured in 1956 was actually made while I was alive. Hmmmmmmmmm. I pondered and I puzzled why all this should be, I've got a sneaking suspicion someone's putting something over on me. So instead I went for the first bass manfactured with me actually, y'know, alive. Fender were still building basses in batches in 1957, and the first batch was in March. That's the batch that produced Bill Black's Precision. And mine.

It took me well over 10 years ... TEN F***ING YEARS ... to get this simple fact through to the drummer in my covers band.

Some interesting replies there, a few of them a million miles away from where I'm at, but it's all good. 😂 In both my two main bands over the last 15 years song choices have been largely democratic but every member (they're both 3-piece, one used to be 4-piece) has a veto ... we may beach about that veto being employed, but it's never over-ruled. Both bands have a pretty clearly-defined musical 'territory' that they cover, so that immediately averts most of the pointless arguments. In fact one guitarist actually got sacked by the covers band (specialising in the 60s & 70s) precisely because he turned up at a rehearsal in 2011 or 2012 suddenly insisting that we absolutely had to cover Paparazzi. 🙄 The R'n'R band is different in that the vocalist / front man takes lead on every song. If Damo doesn't want to sing something then it ain't gonna happen. In the covers band all three of us are capable of taking lead vocals, and that has led to the first response to any suggested new material being: "So, are you going to sing it?"

I was in one for about three weeks, over 10 years ago. IIRC it was set up by @paul h of this parish but I'm not even sure this is now the same Paul H. 🙄

That's impressive. I thought my 'musical memory' was pretty darned good, but there's plenty on that list that I don't recall at all. Agreed on Max Romeo, but also (for me) Joe Dolan, Lou Christie, Karen Young, Donald Peers. Who? So I recognise 45 out of 50 for the act performing them, but even then I struggle with some of the songs ... there's seven of those 45 that I couldn't hum if my life depended on it. 😂