bnt

I've only been in the Bass Cellar once, but I had a different experience. The young lady there at the time didn't mind me trying two different basses, though neither was as expensive as a Stingray. I suppose that, if you work there, you think it's normal to have that many basses in the same room, and you know them all. If a customer's travelled there from the sticks, however, it can be a bit overwhelming for them, and it takes time to get your bearings. I would have to try dozens of basses to get a feel for what I want, which is not an option in any current shop. (Yes, I know: Bass Bash.) No, not even the Bass Gallery. I've been there once, too, but I won't go back there until I'm ready to buy. Martin was very polite, but I could tell he wanted to get back to the workshop to build basses.

If I was a moderator, I might be offended by the original post: it implies that they aren't running this forum properly, don't think about this kind of thing, and need someone else to come along and [b]SHOUT ORDERS AT THEM[/b].

I thought people came here for advice - and IMHO that includes advice on selling, even regarding the price. If I put something up for sale, I would like to know if other people think I'm asking too much or too little - and that actually has happened to me already, here. This is part of what makes this a community of bass players, and not a marketplace like eBay or Loot. edit: I would make one suggestion: please think before rushing to reply to a "for sale" post. It should not be a "first come first served, at the stated price" situation - allow some time for discussion about the item and the price. When I tried to sell my Stick here, I got the price wrong at first, and got the impression that some here were rushing to take advantage of my inexperience at selling. I'm not a professional seller, and don't want to be.

I think it would take a little electronic investigation to make sense of the Moon situation - to see whether it's the pickups or the active circuit. For example, it may require bypassing the circuit and running the pickups passively, if there isn't already an active/passive switch.

If that ESP really is a "Bottom Bump", then I guess the Tune basses are ... "Top Bump"?

[quote name='Cernael' post='262311' date='Aug 14 2008, 12:05 PM']The problem with the last one, as before is that the pots aren't individual volumes. I THINK they actually need to be connected to the pickups in parallel, when the pickups are in series.[/quote] I think you're probably right about that, and I'll look in to that later if I can. It was 2AM, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. PS: if you have access to Microsoft Visio, I'm finding it's a great tool for this, though I don't know it that well yet. For example, you can change the position of a switch or pot by changing a parameter - I didn't have to re-draw anything once I got the basic layout right.

[quote name='Cernael' post='261893' date='Aug 13 2008, 08:27 PM']Ah, but that one doesn't include the volume pots. They were what I began to ask for, before I got carried away. ... Hope that's clearer.[/quote] Not really - a discussion like this really needs pictures! It's late, but let me see if I can throw something together with Visio. Firstly, I've had a go at redrawing your original diagram: does this look right? [attachment=12100:S_P_1.gif] If so, I think I see where you're coming from. Forget what I said about standard volume controls - they shunt the output to ground and aren't going to work here. Let's say you have the switch closed, so the pickups are connected serially. With both pots at maximum (highest resistance), you'd have both pickups at full, as you'd expect: [attachment=12101:S_P_2.gif] (If a pot was turned to the other side, that would bypass the pickup, silencing it.), However, if you were to flip the switch at that point, you'd have this: [attachment=12102:S_P_3.gif] which would be a problem. Each pickup would be in [i]series[/i] with the potentiometer at max resistance, and after that the pickup-resistor combinations are in parallel. In effect, the volume controls are reversed, and you'd need to turn each all the way around if you wanted any sound from either pickup. (That's my reading of it.) The idea I had was to combine that diagram I linked to before with volume pots in series, like this: [attachment=12104:S_P_4.gif] A bit more complicated, I know, a DPDT switch and more soldering, but it's the best I can do at 2AM! I'll have another look tomorrow.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='261897' date='Aug 13 2008, 08:33 PM']Low End..Anybody heard of these. Or played?? They look very wide at the top of the neck.. Bloody nice mind..[/quote] Is this an advertisement? Those are the pictures off the [url="http://www.lowendbasses.com/"]website[/url], down to the file names. You could have just linked to their [url="http://www.lowenddistribution.com/lowendbasses/gallery.html"]Gallery[/url].

Nah - I think you're looking at more complex wiring to get the effect you're after. If you look at the diagram on [url="http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/tips/serpar.htm"]this page[/url], it's labeled as a humbucker coil series/parallel switch, but the principle is the same. Just don't get the phase wrong: it will help to remember that both "hots" go to one side of the switch, after standard volume controls, and both grounds to the other side.

[quote name='danlea' post='259558' date='Aug 10 2008, 09:41 PM']I've implemented a slightly round-about way of controlling the treble leakage. Switch centred (off) is no cut (~250k), down is moderate cut (~23k) and up is proper dub.[/quote] - with the switch centred, what is the effect of the 240KΩ resistor and the capacitor in the circuit? In general, using 500kΩ pots will give a slightly brighter sound, since they place less of a load on the pickups.

[quote name='finnbass' post='260506' date='Aug 12 2008, 12:27 AM']My strap is called Brian...[/quote] It's a few years since I could be called a "strapping young lad"... I call my Tune's strap "Ernie Ball", for some obscure reason. The Tune is called "Tune". If I ever get a cat, I'll call it "Cat", I suppose.

Oh yeah - search this forum for "Tennessee" to find more BC reaction to these monstrosities. Some finished auctions (e.g. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/15-STRING-BASS-PERCUSSIVE-CHAPMAN-STICK-TECHNIQUE_W0QQitemZ180249836567QQihZ008QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]this[/url]) have better pictures, where you can experience the full horrors of the pickup layouts, or the alleged bridges.

I agree that "perfection" is subjective, but how do we evaluate players anyway? By what they can and can't play, and I still think that "perfection" would be a player who can play anything and everything, without limitations. However, just because you [i]can[/i], don't mean you [i]should[/i]. I used the example of Geddy Lee earlier: I think that what he does is "accessible" to the likes of me. I bet Geddy's fellow Canuckian, Alain Caron, could fill in for Geddy on the bass (though not on vocals!), while I would not say the opposite is true. Which makes Alain a little "closer to perfection" as a bassist, in my opinion, but less accessible and inspirational to other bassists. It's like Formula One racing: fast, dangerous, yet somehow uninvolving. These days we look beyond the driving itself for interest e.g. to the fact that Lewis Hamilton is British, or the technology of the cars. The Olympics has the nationalist interest too, but also an amateur feel to it: you don't need massive financial and technical backing to take part (though it does help). Apart from that, to be honest, I'm not too bothered about getting people to agree with my definitions. It's more important to be happy in your playing, and find inspiration wherever you can; regardless of one's technical level, however you chose to define it.

I'm a big fan of guitarist Bill Nelson, who's been putting out weird retro-futuristic songs for many years now, since Be Bop Deluxe broke up, starting with [i][url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hMmmhyrvRsE"]Do You Dream In Colour?[/url][/i]. This is [i]Spinning Planet[/i] from his Flashlight Dreams DVD, from a few years ago, where he did everything including the video: Also, some one who's worked with Bill, and with pianist Roger Eno, in the band Channel Light Vessel and on other projects: Kate St. John, who does amazing things with various woodwinds, especially the oboe. Kate was an original member of The Dream Academy, and does a fair bit of orchestral and soundtrack work too. Here's one of Kate's solo pieces, [i]Indescribable Night[/i]:

It's his extra leg? (deedle-deedle-deedle-um?)

It's called "Change Tempo" in [url="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/"]Audacity[/url], too.

[quote name='OldGit' post='258164' date='Aug 8 2008, 02:35 PM']Keyword stuffing is a rather pejorative term. Careful use of key words and phrases to ensure people searching for those things on google are presented with an attractive link to your site in the google search results page is just sensible. Google uses the title and description meta tag content on its results pages. That's what I'm talking about. If you can't edit the description tag what does google present in the results? Normally it substuitutes the first 20 or so words it can read from your page -and that may be a menu or something else unsuitable.[/quote] Maybe I should have been clearer: by [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_stuffing"]keyword stuffing[/url]. I was referring to the way some sites blatantly try to manipulate Google by overloading [i]meta keyword[/i] tags with anything they think might grab results. Google is on to that now, of course, and ignores [i]meta keyword[/i] tags altogether, because they are open to abuse in this way. So, yes, "keyword stuffing" is a pejorative, but you're referring to sensible use of [i]meta description[/i] tags, which Google [url="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35264"]does use[/url], as you say. According to the Wordpress [url="http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/07/why-isnt-my-blog-in-google/"]FAQ[/url]: [quote][b]Can I upload meta tags / sitemap for the search engines?[/b] That is not possible. Google and most other search engines ignore meta tags.[/quote] Which is not quite correct, since Google does use [i]meta description[/i] and others as noted. It just won't improve your page rank, which is what I thought you were after. I've had a look at various wordpress.com forum questions, and the answer in every case is "we don't like meta tags". It's still under discussion, and I'll look into it further and might ask again, about description tags specifically. wordpress.com (the hosted service, as opposed to using their software on your own site) does let you enter a blog "tagline" field, which would serve as a description, if the makers of the site templates actually included it in the HTML. It's possible that some templates are doing this already. I'll look in to that and see what I can find. If you were to use the wordpress.org software on a site you host yourself (requires PHP and MySQL), that's different: you'd have full control over all tags, by editing templates. These restrictions I'm referring to are specific to wordpress.com, the free hosting service, which is very wary of spam blogs and other abuses. I think we're talking at cross purposes a little here - I would call a [i]meta description[/i] tag a normal thing to have, not the aggressive SEO that some try to use to boost their sites artificially, which Google is [url="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769"]at war with[/url]. I do understand your position, and I was thinking in business terms e.g. if you were to go to a bank and ask for a business development loan, they would ask you about your unique selling points, or market differentiators. That's all I meant: how does your band stand out from the others in your market? If pointing that out on the website is what you mean by SEO, then of course I have no argument with that .

Oh, definitely: perfection is boring, and I prefer players who aren't perfect. If you listen to Geddy Lee, for example, he's quite technically sloppy in some ways. He slurs from note to note, his right-hand fingering is not precise, and he tends to move up and down the neck when he could hold position (even on his 4-string). After listening to him for years, I seem to have picked up abstracted versions of some of his "flaws" e.g. re-packaging slight slurs as [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_note"]grace notes[/url], a concept I learned years ago when I studied bagpipes. Also, I think there are virtues to moving up and down the neck, even if you don't have to, which is something Chris Squire does too. I find there's a different tonality, it can be an attention-grabber, and it helps basslines "breath" a little. (That's the best way I have of describing the effect!) In Japanese culture, there's a concept called [i][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi"]wabi-sabi[/url][/i]: the appreciation of imperfection, even the deliberate introduction of a tiny flaw in something that would otherwise be perfect. Actually, [i]wabi-sabi[/i] might make a good band name..!

[quote name='OldGit' post='257707' date='Aug 7 2008, 11:58 PM']Nah I just mean the standard stuff .. can you control the title , description and ALT tags so you can control the google results page stuff for your site... When mother of the bride searches for "wedding band solihull" will google return your site - That sort of thing. I was asking because of the line about having a real url rather than a wordpress url - sounded like one of those url masking activities Google hates ..[/quote] Wordpress aren't using URL masking - I had to tell my domain registrar to use Wordpress' own DNS servers, so they are actually hosting that DNS name as normal. Let me see... if you write a static page or a blog page, you have a title, of course, and an optional excerpt. You have categories for organising things, you can set a parent page (so you can have pages, sub-pages, sub-sub-pages etc.). You have tags, which are used for pinging search engines (which is where you'd put in "wedding band solihull"), and you can put in a trackback URL. You have full control over alt tags on images etc.. You don't get the option of setting arbitrary meta tags full of stuff (the keyword stuffing I was referring to). Personally, I think SEO is overrated. I mean; call me naive, but (in my limited experience) if you have a unique selling point, and you reflect that clearly in the web pages, Google etc. will index it and people will find you. I'm still getting dozens of hits a day on a particular FAQ I wrote 2 years ago, because it filled a niche that needed filling. It's only when you're doing the same thing as loads of other people (no unique selling point) that you have to game the search engines, and the effect doesn't last.

[quote name='OldGit' post='257670' date='Aug 7 2008, 11:06 PM']The Wordpress option sound interesting but can you control the SEO well enough? Does Google index it all?[/quote] I suppose that depends on what you mean by SEO. It does get indexed by Google, it has categories & tagging, RSS feeds, it will ping Technorati etc. for you. If you mean aggressive SEO methods, googlebombing, tracker scripts, spamming, keyword stuffing, etc., then I don't think so.

[quote name='Sibob' post='257458' date='Aug 7 2008, 06:26 PM']Myspace & Facebook!! as if anyone looks at standard band websites anymore lol Si[/quote] Eh? Not everyone is into this whole "social networking" scam. MySpace and Facebook are ugly, inflexible sites that are there to extract info from you, and sell your eyeballs to advertisers. It's a fad with a couple more years left, so that's a cue to do something more solid, IMHO. If you build your own site from scratch, you can have total flexibility, including a proper site name (<band>.com), but that can take up too much time. My suggestion of wordpress.com is somewhere in-between: simple at first, but more flexible if you want it to be. Put the website address on flyers etc., people will know where to look. Later, if you want, you can even set up your own site, install the Wordpress software, and migrate everything over easily.

If it was my band, I would use my existing [url="http://wordpress.com/"]wordpress.com[/url] account and set it up there. You do everything online through a web browser, no need to install any software on the computer. I like Wordpress because it's not just for blogs, you can put up loads of organised static pages, and also have a static home page if you want. With a free account you have some limitations, but you can pay a few bucks to have extras such as: - more space and MP3 file hosting - custom CSS, instead of one of their standard themes (though they are pretty good already) - use a top-level domain name that you own, e.g. <band>.com instead of <band>.wordpress.com

[quote name='Monz' post='256849' date='Aug 7 2008, 01:32 AM']2) Status S2 Classic - Not played one yet but everyone I've spoken to rates them highly although all the vids or audio has them being slapped... do they only do that tone?[/quote] [url="http://www.rhinosrevenge.com/"]"Rhino" Edwards[/url] from Status Quo has been playing them for at least as long as he's been in t'Quo... not much slap, pop & tap in the average Quo track! He's playing the [url="http://bulldogbash.eu/"]Bulldog Bash[/url] today with his own band, Woodedz. (Wood Heads?)

[quote name='Alien' post='255321' date='Aug 5 2008, 12:53 PM']Using a 3PDT works, but you get no indication of what's happening. You'd need an extra pole to work a LED.[/quote] I did see your previous post, with your design - I just wanted to put a "concept" passive design out there too. It would avoid the hassle of batteries, but it presupposed that the user can hear the difference between the two settings.