Greg Edwards69

It’s for this reason I’ve considered a Vox mini superbeetle bass stack, but if I’m honest with myself, it’s not the ideal solution for me.

We had a decent night at The Sarah Moore pub in Leigh-on-Sea on Saturday. I quite like this one as it's so close enough for me to walk to—well, I would if I didn't have to carry two basses, Helix, and a bag of "stuff." Load-in is dead easy in this place, and the landlord had kindly reserved the space for us so nobody was sitting there. He also moved the pool table, which had been in the way the last couple of times. The only downside is that it's a rather cramped space for larger bands like ourselves, so I ended up standing at the back directly behind one of the guitarists. It makes me glad the guitars and bass are all direct to FOH with IEMs - I wouldn't have had any space to stand otherwise, and I would have struggled to hear properly as well. We played well, and had a decent turnout. Aside from the regulars, its the sort of pub people tend to go on their way to somewhere else, but we must have done something right and most of them stayed for the evening. Not to mention my wife rustled up a healthy crown of friends too. It was also our super-sub Sophie's last one with us for the foreseeable future, and she did us proud and sung her socks off. Next week Birchanger Social Club

Not only that, but if we had been running backline and vocal only PA, I wouldn't have heard the backline very well as a) it would have been pointing at my knees, and b) I would have been wearing earplugs. to protect myself from the drummer.

After Saturdays postage stamp sized stage, where I was stood right next to the drummer's snare side, I was reminded how glad I was that we went IEM. I went to bed without my ears ringing!

Leigh-on-Sea this weekend. Nice and local for me.

Before you buy anything else, try a little piece of surgical tape over the nozzle of the ZS10s, apparently this can tame the harsh treble. https://www.audioreviews.org/trn-vx-modding-ko/

I remember someone telling me years ago to avoid Duracell. Because they cost more, they tend to stay on the shelf longer, so you have no idea how old they are.

Perhaps an anti-fatigue mat would be useful. I have one at work when I use my standing desk. But yes, the stage was a delight to play on. As I mentioned previously, bands booked by the bar itself play downstairs at one end of the room. We were actually the first band to play there, and they considered having band nights upstairs in the function room, but our singer rightly advised them to have bands downstairs to attract walk-ins. If passers by heard a band playing upstairs they’d probably assume it’s a private party and not bother going in to find out (regardless how many posters you put up).

40th birthday party at Starr Spoirt, Canvey Island last night. It’s a venue we’ve played a several time in the main bar, but we had the luxury of playing in the function suite with a generous stage and lightning this time. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself, I had so much space! Although this also meant carting all the gear up and down a couple of flights of stairs. We played well, but the audience was difficult to crack at first, but by the time we started our second set, they were all lubricated enough to get up and dance and sing. We got there a little earlier than usual at 4.30 as the party was due to start at 7pm and we wanted set up without rushing and find time to get something to eat and relax before playing at 8.30. Finished at 11 and home one 1am. I felt absolutely broken we I got home! Totally worth it, of course.

Perhaps he deserves his own Behschat forum.

I found my sheet of LED blackout stickers at the weekend and covered the front and side dots. Much easier to see now and I didn't have any trouble finding my way around at band rehearsal. Let's hope they don't fall off if things get a bit sweaty. I'll consider setting them with clearcoat or clear nail varnish if they do. Having changed the strings, it's definitely clearer sounding, but still not as bright as my other basses. However, I've found several threads about swapping a plug on the preamp board that alters the voicing. I'll give this a go later this week and see how that sounds. All in all, very happy with it so far. As as said before, it's my first 5 string for around 15 years. Even though I've only had it 10 days, the old muscle memory is starting to come back. So much so, after playing it all the way through band rehearsal, when I picked up my 4-string JB2, it felt alien and confusing. I need to keep on top of that and regularly practice 4 and 5 strings! And weirdly, I can switch between my regular 34" bass and my diminutive 28.6"Jackson Minion without issue. Switching from the short/medium scale EHB to my regular 34" somehow felt more jarring. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe because it's close in size but subtly different, whereas the Minion is a lot smaller so I expect the change.

I've been meaning to reply. I took your tips on board and use the Allen key the 'wrong' way round and it worked great. Holds the strings in place perfectly and hasn't chopped through them. Luckily, my Planet Waves string winder has a built in clipper with a rubber cover to prevent scratching, so no need for extra protection.

Charles has released a couple of video (IIRC) documenting his bass playing career since he was a teenager. To paraphrase: he's worked bloody hard, moved to America to get into Berkley and was gigging seven days a week. He turned professional as a touring and session bassist. But it was a sheer chance that he recorded something for Davie504 that went viral and he realised he could make more money making youtube videos than he could as a session musician so he refocused and grew his own social media presence and is now one of the most successful social media musicians. That's just good business sense in my book. He found a niche and grabbed it. So what if he's not doing the same thing as thousands of other bassists? It's worked out well for him. Best of luck to him.

I would have nipped it in the bud right there. Unless the song, and more to the point, the 12-string will feature heavily in the set, there's no point using it as a reference for sound check. Some people don't understand the difference between soundcheck and rehearsal!

Had our first IEM rehearsal yesterday. What a revelation! We needed a rehearsal to get one our singers, who has been out of action for the last 9 months or so up to speed, but our drummer was unavailable. Luckily, our other singer used to be our drummer. He also uses an Alesis sample pad thing that's possible to configure as a drum kit. So we had that, our Helixes, keys and vocal mics all routed into our relatively new Allen & Heath CQ18. Basically, the normal gig rig except no drum mics or speakers. Sounded great. I'd go as far as to say better than great. Rehearsal rooms get notoriously loud with real backline, and earplugs, even good ones, affect the sound. This sounded great. Detailed and clear - just the same as it would at a gig. I think we might do the same more often. Just need to bring a couple drum mics and stands for the full kit.

I've never broken a string on stage either. But even if I did, this is why most of us bring a spare bass to gigs. FWIW, the string change was dead easy. I'd even go as far as to say it was quicker and easier than a traditional bass.

It sounds okay to me so far. That said, I've only tried it through my little Blackstar practice amp and I need to change the strings and adjust the set-up. I'll have a better idea when I try it through my gigging gear at the weekend. It won't sound like a Dingwall B string, if that's what you're after, as it's only 32", but it will more than suffice for my meagre needs.

Thank for this. Most helpful. Ibanez' website - not so much.

Thanks both. I think I have a sheet of blackout stickers somewhere I bought a couple of years ago to cover up a couple of annoying LEDs in the bedroom. I'll try and find them and give it a go. The knobs aren't bothering me at the moment, but I'll bare that in mind.

It would appear that Ibanez have used an alternate material and not actual Luminlay. There's several review floating around the interweb stating the glow doesn't last long. I have a little UV torch I bought when I tried UV nail varnish in the past as a side dot solution. The torch works fine, it's just the material that's crap.

Well, not today exactly, it arrived Saturday, but close enough. It's a new to me Ibanez EHB1005SMS. Short/medium scale (30-32") fan fretted 5-string bass. Found in the B-stock section at Andertons for a decent price (£699 inc official gigbag and shipping) I've been thinking about one of these for several months now. It's not my usual thing at all, but I've been curious about fan frets, and this one ticks a lot of other boxes as well. I'm a 4 string player at heart. I played a 5-string exclusively for many years (and had a 6-string for a little while), but I realised I played it as a 4-string with a few extra low notes on an extended thumb rest. However, my band's repertoire has been edging into genres that need lower tunings. I've been making do with the pitch-shift on my Helix that works rather well, but I can't be bothered to set it up at home to practice (and I've been through somewhat of a journey finding a small practice device that handles pitch-shifting - so far settled on the Katana:Go). I've been curious about fanned frets for some time now, but being vertically challenged, and with a limited budget, I didn't fancy going up to 35" of the regular Ibanez EHB series, or 37" of the Dingwalls (although I'd love to try one). I've been having so much fun with my diminutive Jackson Minion that I thought I'd give this 30-32" model a go. This should also prove useful in tight spaces so I don't end up clumping Dave, one of my guitarists, around the head! I'm also very conscious about weight and balance. This is a little under 8 lbs (I haven't actually weighed it myself, but it feels very light). And I could tell immediately when I first saw this design that would balance very well and give easy access to each end of the neck. I quite like that the back of the upper bout is slanted, so it brings the bottom of the bass forwards a little - like a built-in beer gut. All in all, the entire design appears to be well thought out - function over form. Thoughts so far. Handles and feels great. Feels perfect on a strap and doesn't change position when seated (and still balances when seated). The fan frets are easier to adapt to than I thought. The extra string however... Needless to say I haven't played a 5 string in a while! Still, I guess it's easier than the mental gymnastics of switching to BEAD tuning on the Helix. The strings are dead. I know it's B-stock (meaning it could be a customer return), but I think it still has the original strings on. New set delivered to work today to install later this week (if I can work out how!) The preamp appears quite powerful (although difficult to tell with dead strings). I'm not a big fan of active basses (I can't be doing with swapping batteries - and I've broken a couple of battery clips on past basses and pedals), but at least this one has a full passive mode, where the treble pot becomes a passive tone. I've yet to determine if the passive mode works without a battery. If it does, I'll be very happy. Still, once I've changed strings, I'm hoping this will be able to achieve "that" modern 5 string tone. It didn't come with the straplocks that the bass originally ships with, only the strap buttons. Not a problem for me as I don't use straplocks anymore - I have a strap permanently attached to each bass with rubber washers. However, these straplock buttons don;t work as well with rubber washers, so I've ordered a new set of larger buttons Those who know me will know I don't like skinny or thin necks. This was a gamble, but it appears to have paid off. It's comfortable wide and doesn't feel like it's going to snap. Fret markers. This is my main, and only gripe TBH. The roasted maple neck and fretboard is lovely and all, as are the abalone markers, but I just can't see them. The side dots are luminlay (or something similar), but again they disappear into the wood colour under normal light, and charging them up with a UV lamp only lasts a few minutes. I've spoken (emailed) fretlook.com from whom I bought block inlay decals for my G&L. They've said they should be able to design a set of similar block inlay decals to fit this fretboard. That should make things much easier. Obligatory "fresh out the wrapper" pic below.

I remember one pub we regularly played at had air con, but it was broken. We had an August gig and I was dripping like an egg sandwich before we even started playing. Even the windows, which had steamed up, we couldn't open due to noise complaints. Apparently, a new resident, who had moved into a property near the pub - that's over a 100 years old, on a busy high street - complained to the council about the noise. IIRC the landlord also had to take down the hanging baskets of flowers outside because the same resident complained they exacerbated their hayfever!

Hey any chance you could share that with me?

Essex International Scout and Guide Jamboree. Holy moly that was good fun! Most fun I've had with my trousers on for some time. We were looked after incredibly well by the team and treated like VIPs (we even had a young man who took upon himself hold up a couple of umbrellas to shade us from the sun whilst we were eating... bless him). The tech team were equally as helpful and accommodating. Indeed, the monitor engineer said he was so happy when he saw our tech rider, that me and the two guitarists use Helix devices and no backline. It made his day when I said we're all happy to have the same monitor mix as well. The kids were up for a good night from the off. Singing, jumping and dancing as soon as the drums kicked off "Chelsea Dagger". And they kept going for the following 75mins until we finished. There were several video and stills cameras recording and broadcasting to the big screen on either side of the stage (including one at the front of the stage on a sliding gantry that one of our singers relished by gurning into it several times). And they even found time to put an Instagram reel together by the morning. Incredible stuff. Hopefully we'll get a copy of the full recording in good time to use for promo. A proper festival vibe. Felt like rockstars for the evening. Hopefully get to do it again next year. PS There's nothing quite like kicking in an octave effect when you've got all those subwoofers as your disposal. *explosive*. Instagram Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-Hm6xPI7HN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==