teej

[quote name='ardi100' post='401906' date='Feb 6 2009, 11:52 AM']Thanks for that.

What exactly does the Platinum do that the Pro EQ doesn't? Can you target the feedback with the EQ part? I've been looking at the Platinum but I really don't need to be spending any money unnecessarily![/quote]

I use the pro eq platinum all the time, and just dug it out of my gig bag... it has the following controls:
[list]
[*]volume
[*]input gain
[*]compression & depth controls
[*]5 band graphic: bass / low mid / mid / hi mid / treble
[*]phase switch
[/list]

It also has three outputs:
[list]
[*]xlr
[*]1/4 inch jack: output
[*]1/4 inch jack: tuner
[/list]

There are 2 more switches for the xlr output: lift/ground (don't know what this does ), and pre/post, which allows you to send a clean signal, or one with all your adjustments. So you could have your own sound going into your amp with a jack-to-jack, and a clean sound going to the pa.

Simply adding the preamp has eliminated any feedback problems for me, so I'm not sure exactly how you'd use it for that purpose, but as I understand it that's a combination of the phase switch and the graphic sliders.

Oh yes, it'll work on phantom power.

And I love it to bits.

[quote name='chrkelly' post='400911' date='Feb 5 2009, 12:34 PM']Also if anyone's interested there's a Boosey & Hawkes 3/4 on musical chairs at the mo. It's for sale at £400. Decent starter bass at a decent price. I had one as my first bass.[/quote]

I'm playing a '69 Excelsior, a B&H bass... one careful owner and then me, slapping it about in the street. Perfect bass for a busker.

[quote name='bassace' post='400798' date='Feb 5 2009, 11:08 AM']Yes, I'd probably initally trust a £1k laminate over a £1k carved.[/quote]
Me too...

[quote name='bremen' post='398988' date='Feb 3 2009, 02:43 PM']Any amp will take more power from the wall (or generator) than it delivers into the speakers, but it won't take it all the time.

So though your PA is rated at 500W, if it's amplifying a sine wave at full power it's probably taking 800W from the mains. The vocal and upright bass aren't anything like a sine wave however, so with the amp clipping on peaks the average power going into the speaker is going to be more like 50W, ie 80W from the mains.

Approximately :-)

So your generator is probably OK, so long as you're not playing drum&bass. Presumably it's got an overload protection cutout? If it hasn't tripped out, it's OK.[/quote]

Thanks, bremen, that's certainly encouraging. We're nowhere near clipping, and we're playing blues from the '30s-'50s.

I'd still like to know if there's a formula I can use to work this thing out in future...

Hi all, I work with a busking trio - and we're recently questioning whether or not our generator is powerful enough for our gear. Can someone please explain to me how to work this out (I'm pretty numerate, but electricity is a bit of a closed book, and the other 2 are no better).

btw - our generator's a Honda Cycloconverter EX7 (700 watts max output)

and we use it to power
1x '78 Roland Cube 100w (guitar)
1x Yamaha Stagepas 500w (1x vocal, upright bass)

But the wattage used to describe the output of the amps is different to the wattage used to calculate their draw, correct? (f'rinstance the pa only draws 65w as I understand it).

Hopefully...

I work with Red Jackson: rootsy rhythm 'n'blues trio (Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Slim Harpo , mostly '40s and '50s stuff, some earlier, some later)...

[url="http://www.redjackson.com"]www.redjackson.com[/url]



and The Ukes of Hazzard: jazzy cabaret/comedy act (Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington)...

[url="http://www.myspace.com/theukesof%20hazzard"]www.myspace.com/theukesofhazzard[/url]

Totally - that's a huge part of how we work: no rehearsals, no arrangements, no set lists, everything on the fly. Lots of eye contact and there's no problem.

..and Saturday 31st Jan we'll most likely be

Busking in Tunbridge Wells (probably by BHS, Waterstones)

[quote name='BeLow' post='394962' date='Jan 29 2009, 09:24 PM']First think about being the rhythm engine - your job is to be rock solid with the drummer absolutely seamless practice alongside some tracks and try to think like a drummer (do drummers think?)[/quote]

Oh yes - I often describe our drummer, Mr Chicken-King Schultz, as 'the thinking man's drummer'. He won a BBC Radio 3 writing competition (first 3 pages of a novel), coming first out of 10 000!

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='194078' date='May 7 2008, 05:02 PM']Constance Redgrave out of [url="http://www.spikedrivers.co.uk"]Spikedrivers[/url]... she's one of the finest blues bass players I've heard, and a tone to die for...

[url="http://www.spikedrivers.co.uk/downloads/03soulsearchinblues.mp3"]Soul Searchin' Blues[/url]

[url="http://www.spikedrivers.co.uk/downloads/02youngandstupid.mp3"]Young and Stupid[/url][/quote]

+1 Did you know she tunes the E down to a D? They dragged me up for a slot on my 40th and it completely threw me. She's great.

But... Me'Shell, all the way "If That's Your Boyfriend He Wasn't Last Night' is probably my favourite bit of electric bass-playing from anyone, male or female.

Good thread bassace, hmmm...

Yes I got a Fishman Pro Eq preamp too
(spare double bass strings in the bass case, keep meaning to put the public liability certificate in there, thanks for the nudge, and the spare underwood is something I've been thinking about for awhile too)
tuner
nail clippers
travel toothbrush
big fat cuban cigar in a tube (I smoke maybe 2 a year - waiting for the moment)
lighter (see above - and yes I know you should only use matches for cigars)
spare headphones for iPod
cable to connect iPod to pa
cash bags (I'm a busker)
pen
and there'll often be whatever shirt I'm going to wear for the gig, folded up and slipped into the special protect-your-laptop compartment
not forgetting a book or copy of the grauniad

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='394529' date='Jan 29 2009, 01:32 PM']+1 - that's the key. It's down to the audience's familiarity with the material.[/quote]

Maybe. I think there's a broad church in the audience as well. I play regularly to probably the most mainstream audience going - a random selection of the general public in busy shopping centres (yeah, I'm a busker). And my contemporary take on blues from the '30s-'50s is popular enough in that context for me to make a living out of it. Many of them won't know any of the songs we play. I don't think the audience is as narrow minded as the promoters in the English blues scene.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='394529' date='Jan 29 2009, 01:32 PM']As regards "having the blues", IMO that's synonomous with the idea of playing with passion and commitment. If it's about more esoteric issues of background, ethnicity and authenticity, then we're in danger of getting into a sort of "Can Blue Men Play The Whites?" debate; at which point I'm running a hot bath and cutting my wrists...[/quote]

+1 Absolutely. Why would you even want play music that you didn't feel passionate about? Money I guess...

[quote name='OldGit' post='394188' date='Jan 28 2009, 11:20 PM']"Whilst maybe agreeing with Eric's 'Englishness', what is it with Gary Moore?"

Well he's Irish and lived throughout the Troubles and was disfigured in a face bottling.
I reckon that's probably enough to give you the blues ..

However I don't believe you need to have the blues to play the blues ...[/quote]

Well, I've heard Willie Dixon very eloquently disagree with you there, as well as a whole host of genuine blues artists. That doesn't mean that you have to be suicidal or a manic depressive. It means you have to have the blues in your soul, in your blood. Maybe you get chills listening to Robert Johnson, thrills listening to the Wolf or Hound Dog Taylor, whatever, but it's not just an interesting musical exercise. If you don't feel that way about blues, don't play it: play whatever does give you the chills and thrills. There's a world of difference between playing blues and playing AT blues.

[quote name='OldGit' post='394188' date='Jan 28 2009, 11:20 PM']Gary Moore may play a lot of notes but the excitement and energy is fantastic (IMHO of course). For me he's in the same blues subsection as Stevie Ray Vaughn.
I'd say a contemporary blues set should have a few tunes from each.[/quote]

Here I'd completely disagree. Why any contemporary blues act would want to cover either SRV or GM beats me. Surely that's what every blinkered pub-rock blues band does; wouldn't you want to mark yourself out as different? It also suggests that contemporary blues sounds like these guys: what about Little George Sueref, Big Joe Louis, Errol Linton, Ian Siegal, The Spikedrivers, Red Jackson (*hem hem* )? That kind of blues rock would be completely out of place in sets by those artists, especially since the latter four if anything sound MORE contemporary than the blues-rockers, not less.

SRV and GM may seem a good 'in' to the blues for those coming from rock, but remember the original poster was coming in from soul/r'n'b. I'd say he's over half way there. It should swing. Listening to a good range of traditional blues will open up a whole world of grooves that are largely missing from mainstream post '60s brit blues.

[quote name='OldGit' post='394188' date='Jan 28 2009, 11:20 PM']Remember to add light and shade too.. Bass and drums can add dynamics that can really make a difference to the tunes.[/quote]

+1 for that . Hopefully the drummer is sensitive enough to work with you on this, and the rest of the band can follow, lots of eye contact is key here.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='393480' date='Jan 28 2009, 10:22 AM']My band might be splitting up soon - it's only a matter of time. We play classic soul and proper RnB and during my time with 'em, I've developed quite a busy, funky bass style.

Anyway, there's a bit of a chance I might have an audition for a really good blues band so I thought I'd better start learning some blues and I'm finding it quite hard to play. I haven't been learning stock bass lines - I've just been jamming along to things like EC's Cradle to the Grave trying to get a feel for it.

I used to think it'd be a doddle but it's a totally different feel to soul and I find myself doing too much.

Any tips blues brothers?[/quote]

Feel.

That's what it's all about. You can't play the blues unless you got the blues. Sounds like a cliche but it's the truth.

The blues is a beautiful free art form, with improvisation at its heart. It has a simple structure precisely to facilitate that freedom of expression.

My advice would be to not listen to anything after the '50s for a while, head back to the '30s and dig deep and wide into the blues canon: delta, piedmont, new orleans, chicago, memphis; and don't get hung up on guitarists - check out the stomps and boogies on piano. Also the jump jive and rhythm'n'blues bands (Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner). The bass player to look out for is Ernest 'Big' Crawford, played with Muddy and Big Bill Broonzy, and lots of other people (that's him on Muddy's 'Can't Be Satisfied' (circa '46?), recommended listening for anyone who thinks blues bass is straightforward or simple). Don't bother learning any of this, just enjoy it, and let it inform your improv.

Of course all this effort might not help if the band is just playing Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top, but at least you'll know where it came from.

Red Jackson - a rootsy blues trio featuring rich vocals, slide guitar and harmonicas from Phil Mills, a 2-drum kit (who needs more?) played by the thinking man's drummer, Chicken-King Schultz, and myself on upright bass.

We've just got a gig at one of the best little boozers in Winchester:
Saturday 21st February at The St. James Tavern on Romsey Road.
9pm start (open 'til midnight), and it's free. We'll probably busk in town earlier to promote the gig.

The St James is a tiny pub, so it's going to get a bit intimate I should think! Real ale (Wadworth's) and good food on offer.

Bit of a delay, I've been busy dtp-ing new promo material.

[b]Saturday 24th January[/b] - Busking Guildford with Red Jackson

Well, it was cold one for sure, and I was a bit later than planned getting to the pitch - discovered I'd left my wallet at home and had to head back and get it. Fortunately we knew that 4 acts had been in Guildford last Saturday, and so none of them would be there. That left the Peruvians, but they didn't show, so I was first to arrive and bagged our favourite spot.

As I say it really was pretty cold, but it only took 3 numbers to get the fingers warmed up (the first 2 with fingerless gloves, the third with left glove on, but right hand slapping, then no gloves), and for some reason they always stay warm, even during our breaks.

The first set started pretty slowly and was looking fairly grim, until the set took off and we started to get a decent crowd (now, a big crowd is not always good - people are too shy to come forward if there are lots of strangers watching - something in-between is often best), and the cds started to shift very quickly. We finished feeling extremely relieved, we'd already done as well as we might expect in January, with 2 more sets to go.

We seem to be really on it at the moment; morale is high, with the new album out, and I'm sure it helps that we played a lot in the run-up to Xmas and then took a couple of weeks off. Our show is getting better and our grooves groovier. We've all noticed that the deeper blues seems to be making us more money (a sign of the times?), and so we play a lot of Delta and Chicago slide blues, with some New Orleans style harmonica-led stuff to break it up.

By the end of the day we'd earned a well-above average payday, and had a lot of fun doing so. We also met a young photographer who took some knockout shots of us. Here's one, for the rest try his flickr.com photostream: [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29977644@N02/"]paddyoshea72[/url]

[quote name='4000' post='383152' date='Jan 17 2009, 12:35 PM']Hawkwind on the Space Ritual tour...[/quote]

Ha, yeah great choice, but you wouldn't remember it afterwards, would you?

Busking in Windsor, Saturday 17th January, with [url="http://www.redjackson.com"]Red Jackson[/url]

Woke up to pouring rain, but the forecast was better for later on, so I took a leap of faith and got ready to head off. Sure enough, by the time I got out of the door it had pretty much stopped. Arriving at Windsor around 8am, it was still chucking it down, but I was able to shelter inside the entrance to the newly closed down Woolworths and wait for the other two band-members to show up, entertaining myself with the BBC radio dramatisation of Hound of the Baskervilles on my iPod. Meanwhile the few early shoppers and shop-workers passing by looked on in disbelief at me and my upright. Soon my optimism was rewarded and sure enough the rain passed over and the sky had taken on a most encouraging blueness by the time my comrades arrived in convoy. We unloaded the gear, and they drove off to park.

We hung out, drinking coffee and shooting the breeze, watching the gradual increase of punters on the street and waiting to see if anyone was coming to open up Woolworths and start using noisy powertools. Since that clearly wasn't going to happen, we eventually set up right in front and played across the street.

The first set went very well, and the second too, but by the third the street seemed to be thinning out, and the numbers stopping to watch had dropped considerably. Now I've been noticing lately that people often seem to respond best to our slide blues: it doesn't have to be up-tempo chicago stuff either, real low-down delta blues will do it as well, and so I suggested we switch to that and it worked like a charm - very informative. It's all too easy to assume that 'feel-good' music, the swing/jive/rockabilly side of our set, will be our highest earning material; but it's not always the case. That's something I love about busking - you can see very easily what's working and what isn't. I foresee a lot more slide material making it into our set in the coming months.

So, in return for our 3 sets, the people of Windsor treated us to a high average take (think 3 reasonably well paid pub gigs) on our second busking trip of January, usually the slowest month of the year. But I'm not going to tempt fate by making any hasty predictions for 2009!

Next week, maybe Guildford.

This is such a great community-spirited idea, I'm certainly going to keep coming back to check progress. I wish I could join in but I haven't done a bass guitar gig in about 15 years. Much praise to you Mr Punkdude sir for kicking this off with such a generous and, may I say, imaginative gesture.

[quote name='The Funk' post='371738' date='Jan 6 2009, 10:55 AM']Check out this performance from 1977 in Houston. The bassist (not Bootsy) has a Rick.[/quote]

Ha! That's bloody marvellous!

Got me wondering tho' - maybe it's that guy that I'm remembering, not Bootsy. Sadly it's been a long time since my vinyl saw the light of day, after the drive belt (or rubber band, if you prefer) on my aged turntable stretched!

Somewhere I've got a Parliament double live album c'77, gatefold sleeve with loads of tiny pics inside - can't put my hands on it right now, but I remember seeing quite a few of Bootsy with a Rick...

[quote name='merchant' post='371222' date='Jan 5 2009, 06:26 PM']Roger Dawson in London has been doing this sort of thing for quite a while.

He collaborated with Barry Guy to make a travel bass:

[url="http://www.barryguy.com/travelbass/travelbass02/index.html"]http://www.barryguy.com/travelbass/travelbass02/index.html[/url][/quote]

That looks very nice indeed

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='370784' date='Jan 5 2009, 12:01 PM']Dino makes a removable neck BSX Allegro, mine's a RN verision and it only has one bolt but it works very well without stability issues. The Eminence RN has a metal coupling which I thought was necessary when I was designing a homebrew EUB, but the Allegro does not have it and I have changed my design to follow the BSX method, which is far easier to construct. I have to say though, that the only issue with removable necks is the idea that you can set it up quickly at a gig and off you go- you'd surely be able to fit the neck on and string it up quickly, ...but whatever removable neck you use, you'd have to allow for the strings to stretch and settle from slack, so you'd have to watch your tuning quite a bit.

[url="http://www.bsxbass.com/"]http://www.bsxbass.com/[/url][/quote]

Apologies, of course I should have said 'nearest thing I've come across...'

And, yes - I would never plan to travel to gigs with the neck detached, but for flying it would be very handy indeed.

[quote name='bassace' post='370699' date='Jan 5 2009, 10:36 AM']They slapped because that's the only way they got heard before basses were amped.[/quote]

Absolutely.

[quote name='OldGit' post='370106' date='Jan 4 2009, 05:16 PM']Teej
You should have a link back from your youtube "more info" text section to here:
[url="http://www.redjackson.com"]http://www.redjackson.com[/url]
Use the whole address, with the http:// , and youtube will hotlink it, otherwise it just treats it like text and will need cutting and pasting.
Cheers
OG[/quote]

Sorry OG, I'm sure you're right, but I'm struggling to understand what you mean here...

You mean on the original youTube pages? They're on the venues' account, not mine, so I don't think I can do what you're suggesting.

And I'm not clear what exactly this would do... are you telling me that the vids aren't loading on your os/browser combination?

Teej