TrevorR

Walking back to the station on Thursday there was a charity thing outside Charing Cross" . The bass player had a Micromark like this https://www.gak.co.uk/en/markbass-micromark-801/56360?gclid=Cj0KEQiAnIPDBRC7t5zJs4uQu5UBEiQA7u5NeyR5vdS840VVDW5mIS1E2iLAPvA8qNGf7KgGIUKdrj8aAswu8P8HAQ going into the PA. sounded amazing and probably good enough for any teenage practice, and probably a darn sight better than the 75w Laney I started out on...

The question is, how much does giving you the Piano mean to your dad. Is he giving you a bit of unused stuff (in which case realise the value and hit the marketplace)? Or is he giving you something special to him as a gesture of his love for you, in which case turning round and asking him, "Great, how much can I flog it for?" could seem a touch callous. From your description the gift sounds a bit more like the latter. Also, ask yourself, is the Pensa or Celinder THE BASS you will play for the rest of your life, or just another piece of future marketplace fodder? Then, depending on the answer you are maybe in the territory of "Gee Dad, now I can afford to buy the bass I have always dreamed of owning...!" But be honest, ruthlessly honest, about that question because if he is in the territory of scenario two above and you've moved the bass on in a couple of years...

Hmmm... "...He would like me to continue my piano practice and I do love playing..." My thought FWIW is there are a load great basses out there that you could save up for. There's only one Piano your dad gave you...

I wish you a hopeful Christmas I wish you a brave new year All anguish, pain and sadness Leave your heart and let your road be clear And I'll just leave the lyric there... have a great Christmas my fellow Basschatters! And a happy New Year!

I wish you a hopeful Christmas I wish you a brave new year All anguish, pain and sadness Leave your heart and let your road be clear And I'll just leave the lyric there... have a great Christmas my fellow Basschatters! And a happy New Year!

I hate to be cynical but let's see if a fully functioning SB700 goes up for sale fro £200 more in the New Year?

My wife and I bought each other a Roland Digital Piano for Christmas so I guess that counts. But my real indulgence each Christmas is to buy the double Crimble editions of Private Eye and New Scientist and find myself some space over Christmas to read them.

My learning was nothing to do with music. First thing I learned was that when I said towards the end of 2015, "Well roll on 2016. At least it can't possibly be worse than 2015 was!" I was being terribly, horrendously presumptuous. This has been a bl@*dy hard year in just about every way - and I'm not thinking about celeb deaths and the like. I've buried a brother and seen another debilitated by a terrible heart attack, I've had a new boss that I thoroughly didn't like or really get on with, I've struggled to understand my little boy's diagnosis of ASD and worked to access the educational support he needs, I've seen his best friend horribly injured in a horrendous car crash and the toll it has taken on the whole family and struggled daily with my own health... The second thing I learned? Sometimes the most important things are just putting one foot in front of the other, keep on going and concentrating on those you love and whom love you.

In the bleak midwinter is a bit maudlin at the best of times. But done by Bert Jansch it's also a bit sublime too... http://youtu.be/yRQ_FoeFO3Q Not all miserable but here is an alternative Christmas playlist I did for our work Mixtape Friday last year (no Bing, no Noddy, no Nat, no Roy...) http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGIYNBxcSZ3ulEh_6hUrfomkvT5AUqdWt

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1482360756' post='3199970'] @ Fleabag, it seems that Univibe is more appropriate since there is a proprietory effect that does all of what we're talking about. Excellent yooboob clips thanks. @ Beer of the Bass, I can accept that there is a pitch change which although barely perceptible, would have a noticeable effect. Sort of like low level "wow-and flutter" as we called it in days of vinyl and affordable turntables. [/quote] [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1482431945' post='3200586'] Because the doppler effect of the Leslie cabinet is created by moving the sound source (the speaker) relative to the listener, you get both vibrato and tremolo in equal measures as can be heard on any of the Hammond and Leslie clips available on YouTube. [/quote] A couple of further thoughts on the changes in pitch and timing. Don't under estimate the effects that these can have on the sound even if the differences are minute. Think of how a chorus or a flanger works... see here for an accessible and hilarious guide to how effects work... http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/fxguide.html In a chorus the differences in timing are pretty minuscule and in a flanger the pitch variation is pretty minuscule but you can still definitely hear the modulations in the effect. Also, in terms of changes of pitch, it's not so much the ACTUAL changes in pitch you're hearing, it's is the interaction between the pitches. Think back to school physics lessons and the diffraction fringes you get with waves and how when you have two similar but different frequencies you get "beating" between the two frequencies. This is how tuning with harmonics works. So all that is going on in a Leslie cab too because of those micro pitch and timing differences.

Saw C&D as the culmination to my nephew's stag weekend a couple of years ago and was a cracking gig. Amazed by how tight they were and DP is, as others have attested, a properly good, understated but still inventive player. Chas is no slouch either and we tend to forget that he was right there at the birth of British rock and roll and rock music back in the 60s.

[quote name='Harryburke14' timestamp='1482259418' post='3199039'] So my cheap(ish) cable from amazon (£4) has just died on me, all my other leads work. Does anybody know of any cheapish cables that are decent and actually stand the test of time? [/quote] Four quid? No "ish" involved. [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1482312099' post='3199354'] cheap cables are a bad bad bad idea, especially when a good one doesn't cost so much! Cables by OBMM are a great choice. Similar can be obtained from Award-Session. Good quality cable and Neutrik plugs, in a wide range of sizes and plug configurations. My oldest cables are about 16 years (from Award Session "Cleartone"). They will probably last another 16... not expensive for around £20 or a tiny bit more. [/quote] Could have written that post word for word!

The 700 Andy's bought is passive with a series/parallel switch option (or is it a coil tap? Can never remember). Nothing like an Alembic. Love mine. Great playing and sounding bass.

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1482341663' post='3199759'] Anyway, The answer is that there is no direct answer. Most circuits take advantage of the active circuit to add bass and treble controls, but the whole point of an active bass is to buffer the low level signal from the bass and stop treble loss and noise in the cable. Some don't bother with this - the G&L L2500 is exactly the same tone controls in passive or active... [/quote] [quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1482347424' post='3199825'] Can anyone shed light on active pickup/passive pots ? My recent Peavey RSB has them but I'm stumped for reason. [/quote] See Woodinblack's answer above for the reason. Have watched some YT vids testing different lengths of cable run with and without any active buffer. If they're true on long runs the difference is remarkable.

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1482323960' post='3199552'] @ TrevorR; I stand corrected and I apologise for calling you out on another post. Sorry Cheers chaps. [/quote] Had you? I genuinely hadn't noticed. I'd best rush off to the Search function and find out what it was so I can be highly affronted for about ten seconds and then think "well, life's too short to worry about that, we're all friends together here any way" and get back down to the important things in like like geeking out about bass and stuff! But genuinely though, thank you for thinking to apologise (even though I didn't realise I might be due one).

Yes, tremolo is change in volume. Vibrato is change in pitch - think of a fretless player or violinist creating vibrato by rocking their finger back and forward to minutely change the pitch of the note. Or a guitarist doing it by bending the string to create vibrato. So the confusion is further exacerbated by the misnaming of the Strat's "trem"/"tremolo unit" which should ACTUALLY be called a "vib"/"vibrato unit".

I love Aimee Mann's One More Drifter in the Snow. My additions to the playlist would be: That'll Be Christmas by Thea Gilmore http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7qQAE794uvo Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly (or Leigh Nash) http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YIS5lSDO7tU Or John Prine's subime Christmas in Prison http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jj-Vff5HPhc

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1482181848' post='3198307'] Wooten I never got. A juggler rather than a player and when I hear him in a band context (say Mike Stern), I hear a competent played who, when he solos, well, juggles rather than expresses anything. [/quote] [quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1482185627' post='3198349'] Mark King (*flinches at coming onslaught...*) Clearly an incredibly talented musician, but all that rapid percussive stuff doesn't do a thing for me. [/quote] This just about sums it up for me. Clearly a whole load of Wooten-love happening on this page. Oh, and Rudy Sarzo but only because he replaced the best bass player Whiteshake ever had or will have...

[quote name='interpol52' timestamp='1482095381' post='3197640'] Hey Blue. I have to disagree here, I think [i]different basses have a baked in tone, what you do with that tone comes from the fingers[/i]. [/quote] This ^^^^ Anything else is simply reductive thinking. Any complex system is by nature... well... complex and affected by different elements, albeit that some will have a more dominant effect than others...

Not knowingly tried J Retro but I do love the Audere preamp. One of the few cut/boost circuits where the maximum travel on the controls were still in musical usable tone territory. But never lacking or too tame either.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1481993766' post='3196862'] ...and make... ... (ahem) note correction much easier. [/quote] I think what you were trying to say was "...beautifully expressive vibrato...", Jack

[quote name='Yank' timestamp='1481973287' post='3196662'] Ian Waller. Didn't he play bass on the first couple solo Rod Stewart albums? I loved Stewart/ Faces back in the early '70's. Saw the Faces twice. Great live band. Second time had an Asian guy on bass bouncing all over the stage. Rory Gallagher was the opening act. Amasing! [/quote] Think you're thinking of Mick Waller on drums... weren't Ronnie and Ronnie doing bass duties on those early albums? Rod 'n' Rory... that's one heck of a lineup!!!!!!!!

Would it be even more tempting if I mentioned that both Tibbs and Spenner were playing early Wal basses in their Roxy periods too? Story of JG's custom P Bass here... http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/wal-basses-early-years-over-last-half.html Story of JG's JG series Wal bass here... http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/jg-bass-special-pt-2-tale-of-two-basses.html Gary Tibbs' JG series Wal bass here... http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/jg-special-pt-4b-gallery-2-jg-basses.html

Love that song and love that bass line - one of my "desert island basslines". John Gustafson was a really great and really under-rated player. You're right they had some properly good bass players through their ranks, esp in the 70s and 80s. I'm not a fan of Roxy but I love Alan Spenner's playing with them on the albums around Avalon era. LitD was recorded on a unique bass guitar... a hand built/modified P-bass made for Gustafson by Ian Waller a few years before he started building Wal basses full time. The bass had a heavily over wound P-bass pickup that Ian Waller rewound himself by hand. That and Johnny Gus' fingers contributed to that unique sound. Classy player!