Stub Mandrel

+1 for Orange Terror, lovely and controllable, you can play clean then dig in for dirt. The Trace Elliot Elf too. Best bass amp overdrive Ixve heard is the (sadly only 50W) Joyo Badass hybrid.

A great secondhand option is a Westone Thunder 1 or 1a. My Thunder 1 sounds "more like a p-bass than a p-bass". They look great and have Matsumoku build quality. Very giggableand affordable. What's not to like? Example...

Like I say I understand the theory. I just can't relate dots to notes in real time. I almost get an anxiety attack when I see the bass clef, because I think of all the effort I've wasted on the treble clef to no benefit.

City centre pub/brewery. Awful access for cars so took the elf & PJB C2, the sire on my back in a soft case and found cheap safe parking half a mie away. The rig was enough to hear myself but the sound guy was too timid, so my sound lacked guts. Nice big stage area, about 8" high, and big room with good acoustics. We could store gear in the Brewery! With the awful forecast weather was actually decent but we only had twenty or not quite thirty people in at a time... but nice to see a couple of groups walking past and decide to come in when they heard us. The bar actually said it was more people than expected. We went down well, which is what really counts.

Exactly as I learnt in school over fifty years ago then? It's easy to say learn the bloody letters. I completely understand how notation works. But I can only recognise four notes on the treble clef by sight, middle C, G, A and B, and that takes a few moments. Any others I have to mentally work them out. Add in any accidentals and I'm completely lost. Some people can't seem to grasp that I understand HOW it works, it's the 'learning the notes on the stave' bit that completely fails to stick. In singing lessons, I could bluff by looking at how much each successive note moved up or down and approximating the interval, as my voice naturally stayed in key. It's not 100% reliable and doesn't work very well (for me) on an instrument. And yes, I can just about sight read basic tab; I even play notes in more comfortable positions (I prefer going across the strings rather than up and down) on the fly.

Utterly illogical to me. If the lines represented the seven degrees of the major scale (and their repeats) then each triad in the major scale (for example) would always appear in the same place. Every extended chord and inversion woudl have a single form, always starting on the same line or space. Not on different lines or spaces depending on the key signature. I mean, the same set of dots can mean a major or minor chord depending on ten key signature! I'm not particularly interested if I'm playing in C or Bb, except for being aware of the root. I suppose I just mean notating everything into C and transposing. That would work better with how may brain understands music. After all, the bass is one of the easiest instruments to transpose on.

I got an immaculate P10 for 499! [OK not ss] Sires look gorgeous.

I've slways hoped that, but even Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is beyond my pay grade. I think it's because notation is so illogical. Dots are neither always the same note nor the same degree of a scale. If the staff represented doh-re-mi etc. you could then easily read what you are doing and transpose into thecrequired key. Each chord would have the same symbols in the same place regardless of key.

Err... yes. Of course, I know the fretboard. I know lots of scales and modes, and I know lots of intervals, chords and their inversions. All makes me a better player. Not sure what the dots would do other than make it easier to play from notation. Doesn't help with the dots. Thank you for your helpful guidance.

I've tried many approaches. I'm used to learning skills I find difficult and putting in the effort. Apart from sports requiring good balance skills (skateboarding, skating) and things beyond my physique (I'm endurance not sprint) sight-reading is the one thing I really can't crack, even with formal lessons. I understand the theory, it's just the note positions mean nothing to me, I believe my condition is termed dysmusia and has nothing to do with pitch skills (I don't't have perfect pitch, but I can whistle an A or a C within a few tens of cents).

Not entirely true, as there are loosely applied conventions about laying out the tab to indicate note length. But some tab does have them.

I made a fume extractor that sucks the fumes through a carbon filter using cooker hood refill. 3D printed and has a computer fan fitted. Front Fuselage.stl Fume Extractor Base.STL Filter Housing.STL

I haven't rehearsed for months Getting bored with the setlists now. Have got one lined up for early feb. Going to add a few new songs, inclufing INXS New Sensation which is a bit poppy and outside my usual styles.

I've got one of these. It's the dog's but a bit beyond the budget. https://www.antex.co.uk/store/p/m12-w9wdk-mg96e-7bnxp-hke3z-ndrtm-cjw7g-cws4k-56tfy

Nope I can't. I can pretty much sight read rhythm but I can't read pitch despite (checks watch) over fifty years of trying.

Emotions in Motion is a great bass groove.

Indeed. The worst offender was a Zoom board of some sort that died every other rehearsal. Fortunately(?) that band didn't gig much... Maybe I just emit a field that screws up multi FX units? That said, Al uses one and it hasn't died yet.

I suspect you already knew this but it's a spot on observation, though I think you meant to say increase the mids Edited 6 minutes ago by Phil Starr It also shows why, especially at more moderate volumes, bass amps need a lot more power than guitar ones. There are lots of variations on those curves (phons are psycho acoustic so not everyone perceives the same change in volume, indeed drops and increase in volume are perceived differently). Here a perhaps more typical graph. The average is about 6-9dB/octave in the 50-200Hz range which differentiates between guitar and bass:

Yes 😈

We keep getting problems due to Google calendar sometimes taking weeks or months to show up entries across all of the band members. Sometimes it won't synch between my phone and pc, and it's refused to receive entries fom outlook for a year or two (it used to work). So... what's as simple to use as Google calendar but more reliable?

There's something almost pathetic about those who think they are gatekeepers of being a 'real bass player' according to what brand, value or style of bass you play.

Hi Sam! I must admit I'd heard a lot about the band but not much of the music. It was a brilliant night and always great to see a band totally relaxed, enjoying themselves and giving their best!

In that case we are both on the album 'Live Chronicles' 😎