Dankology

Rather than separate proper wireless transmitters and receivers for each channel we had been looking at the small combined XLR/dongle connectors (the cheapest of which are significantly cheaper than the Sony/Senn systems mentioned above). The more I think about it, the expense and increased number of points of potential failure vs the relatively small gains means it's probably a non-starter. Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.

As the prospect looms of knitting back together the practice room post-gig, someone has queried whether we could be using wireless XLR connectors (for our non-phantom powered stuff, of course). I can't seem to find much in the way of a general overview online so wondered if the ever-relable Basschat panel had any experience here. Our rehearsal set up uses a Behringer XR18 which allows us to multitrack every rehearsal; we also use the same set up for proper recordings. Thoughts that immediately spring to mind are: 1) is there any latency involved? And if so will it be an acceptable-for-rehearsal level but not for serious recording? 2) is the battery life reasonable? 3) how many radio channels can you choose between? With potentially 8+ audio channels going through are we going to max out the available options? 4) how cheap can we go? There are some fairly diverse price points online Any thoughts or experience you can share would be much appreciated.

Re @casapete's comment about car dealers, I'm increasingly convinced that most secondhand dealers are now primarily simply selling loans and that the cars are the most convenient way of doing it. Back on topic, I tend to have a price in mind I'm willing to pay and will haggle in most instances but usually not here. Partly because the prices very often seem in line with what I'm willing to pay (or is that some cunning self-fulfilling ploy??) but also because there does seem to be a genuine community vibe here. I do often wait for multiple price drops though. The silent haggle.

If you genuinely believe that then I'd suggest that you aren't listening widely enough now and were not doing so back then. Or, as noted above, the rose-tint of retrospect has filtered out a lot of the dross that the charts/radio/TV have ever been full of. Just in case you're open to having your mind changed, here's some recentish tuneful stuff that tells stories and has interesting compositional quirks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1qlK5dF5s4 - The Weather Station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqXSfHO-7f0 - Jesca Hoop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY7MIqZ6Bvo - BC Camplight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OHfnY_ZE_4 - Carwyn Ellis/Rio 18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFu5wYMflSI - Mick Head

As well as generational prejudice, let's not forget that time is a great filter. When I was growing up (80s/90s) it was almost accepted as fact that 70s music was crap: pundits, talking heads, chat show hosts and guests all happily echoed the line that 1970s music was all some tacky and regretable post-60s aberration. Similarly, 1980s music -long the soundbite-seekers' bête noire- is now routinely used in ads and shows and also in cheeky references in new music. The quality of music being made over time is presumably fairly consistent, unless there are weird, internationally-consistent variations in levels of talent, with only the good stuff (and the atrociously terrible stuff) being remembered.

Hasn't this always been the way? A lot of my first exposure to what turned out to be classic rock was via TV ads in the late-80s through the 90s. Between licensing issues, nostalgia, familiarity, the possibly limited tastes of the creators and deliberately targeting those with greater spending power I suspect it will ever be the way too.

Who, I believe, was aping the Corronation Street theme tune. It's a rich tapestry...

I think I got a couple of brass collars in with my staytrem that work really well. If you can't find some tubing to cut to size I bet plumber's tape would do it.

At one of my local shops, the queue started at 9.30am the day before 🙄 The whole thing narks me enormously. Records being bought, never to be played, Ebay gouging, pressing plants tied up for months to meet demand, the occasional bit of music that you might want being potentially unobtainable without joining the melee. And, of course, most of the action just representing people paying over the odds for music they already own. If RSD has revitalised the independent sector, I guess I'm happy but looking at my local record shops the new stuff costs way more than I'd usually consider paying, new pressings are often quite ropey and even secondhand prices are moving skyward. Not sure who the winner is meant to be here but it'd be great if at least some of the people willing to wait 24 hours queuing outside to spend £40 on a 12" single might consider dropping £5 to see a new band later that evening. Rant over. Next year maybe I'll hit the queues and hand out CDrs of my band...

I love mine - bought on a whim, mega cheap, a few years back and use it for two or three songs at every gig. It was one of the lesser Squier variants and I had to change the bridge and significantly shim the neck but it's more or less right now. Especially with the Newtone Bass VI strings set on it. I don't think it would ever pass as a proper bass and I wouldn't want to play a whole gig on one but for our gtr/bass/drums three piece it covers a lot of sonic territory and gives a bit of variety. I'd probably swap it for a different colour though - everything looks better than white.

Guitar tuition & repair https://g.co/kgs/FGhRS93

I don't know about Tod but there are are a couple of good guys a few miles down the road here in Rossendale.

Best zombie thread resurrection ever.

Weird! We were there last week and had a completely different room - the green room in the adjacent theatre.

Isn't the hall of fame just a misguided extension of a sports halls of fame? I understand the desirability of a baseball or whatever HOF in the era when footage didn't exist or wasn't easily rewatched - greats and their achievements could easily be forgotten. But for music, in the recorded sound era, surely it just becomes a distasteful self-congratulatory irrelevance? Of course, there's also the highly unbecoming bickering re which current/past members are admitted or get to play I do feel for the Ramones though, who seemed to spend a significant part of their later career and post-band life resenting not being in the HOF when clearly their influence was seismic. Of course, their sales were relatively meagre, they were still touring in a bus and many of their best lps were out of print - a band ripe for recognition in the pre-internet, pre-streaming, pre-cool music on major TV shows era. I dunno. If it makes more people listen to Jane's Addiction or gives some validation to people who have barely made a living despite making great music, who am I to object? .

I don't have much time for Liam Gallagher but it's difficult to disagree with him here. Stopped clocks and all that...

All sorted (I think) now, ta

Bit of a disaster situation here but is there anyone with a splitter who can drive a (name) band from the Manchester area to Bristol on Friday and on to London on the Saturday, returning overnight on the Sat? Please direct message me to discuss!

I think there's a logical conclusion to that train of thought that involves not playing at all...

Thanks for the replies. It turns out it was a combination of issues. My lead had an intermittent loose connection as did one of the spade connectors to the output socket. While sorting this out, one of the other spade connectors (from the tone pot) crumbled... I couldn't bodge a repair of the spade connector but remembered belatedly that I had a whole set of unused EMG connectors in my spares drawer. All seemed well with the older battery but I've replaced that anyway. Will just have to remember to replace that wee connector cable in case I ever sell the spare pickups I nicked it from. Not sure I'm entirely convinved of the benefits of these plug and play solderless connector systems - seems like more points of potential failure with the added bonus of making a simple soldering iron fix more problematic.

Just trying to track down the route of an issue... Last night my bass went silent just before the last two songs of the set. It's a Jazz with EMG JVX pickups which run off a 9v battery tucked behind the control plate. At first I thought I'd muted the amp - no. Amp on/off - nothing. Tried my back up (passive) bass - nothing. Back to the Jazz via a couple of DI boxes - nothing. At which point I gave up. The soundman came up to me afterwards and said he was convinced it was the bass - and sure enough when I messed around while packing down, the Jazz was still silent while the Rick seemed fine. So I assumed it was simply the 9v in the Jazz dying and in my flustered state I'd somehow muted the amp when trying to swap to the Rick. But when swapping the battery today, the old one was reading at something like 7.2 on the multimeter which some light Googling leads me to believe should be sufficient for most purposes. Plus running the bass on the old battery into an amp at home seems fine. Also, I seem to remember the last time the battery went, there was a period of distorted sound that gave me adequate warning of imminent failure, rather than the apparent sudden cut off as last night. I've checked my lead and the wiring inside the Jazz and all seems well. I don't have access to the amp I used last night at present so I can't check that properly yet. But what are the panel's thoughts re the voltage on the old battery - is 7.something volts likely to be the culprit here and in resting the battery overnight I'm just getting a brief final surge of power on testing today? GIven that I was getting nothing through the DIs, I'm thinking the bass is the most convincing explanation but why is it working so well this afternoon and why did the passive back up bass seem to be silent last night too?

https://www.debassist.nl/muzieknieuws/artikel/2-29077/paul-mccartneys-first-hfner-is-back?fbclid=IwAR1VFDoe-MdDDfPc-FhPFOuwmDQ87PkwRzG2mlQXU_4G14Gb9D4EA-7TkVA

I've managed to download what appears to be the driver now- there were two possibilities listed and the likelier one kept saying that the site wasn't responding. A new driver has appeared in Reaper so I think all is good. En route to Birmingham now so we'll soon find out... Ta for the pointers!