Bassmidget209

Hey just thought I would post a follow up for future reference. Full PA as would be expected. Our on stage sound was awful, partly due to possibly Inadequate monitors, partly an inexperienced sound tech. From what we have gathered we sounded good out front and the gig was fun. Top tip, most people will stay outside given the chance (which is fair enough, it's a lovely place to bo.honest) but means very few watching you, try and make an effort to drag people in OR arrange for a massive thunderstorm before your set. Worked wonders for the other two bands!

Thanks guys so far. Yeah I'm sure it's very similar to venues in Glasgow in that the bass amp is basically a stage monitor. I just don't want to be wrong haha. I would ask the promoter but the messages this far he kept referring to amps as cabs so I'm not sure he's the person to get good information on this stuff lol

Hey guys hope you can help. I have a gig in the aforementioned pub/venue on the 8th July. Now the fun part is that I have volunteered my amp for the bassists. Now I have zero issues sharing but I'm now concerned I'm underpowered. I have a 350watt ampeg portaflex and an 8 ohm ashdown 2x10 cab. It's not a stellar setup I know but honestly it's there so I have AN amp for times that it's not provided by the venue (my main tone comes through my preamp pedals). Now I have used this setup a few times in practice and it's...fine. holds its own etc but I'm worried that it won't work for other bands or running it at full pelt for a whole night is gonna result in a small explosion at some point. So my question to everyone is this: does anyone have any recent experience with this venue and is the PA etc decent? Will my amp be supported by the PA or am I gonna have to get an extra cab sharpish? I would really rather not put a cab on credit if I don't have to but I also don't want to let the other bands and ultimately the crowd down as well with subpar bass noise! Thanks in advance everyone!

Our singer has really pushed/harassed me into doing more backing vocals. When I joined the band I couldnt sing and play at the same time. If I'm being honest I still can't! Certainly not on the fly. I need to know exactly what I'm singing, it would appear I have very limited mental bandwidth so if I have to play, sing AND think about what to say I'm gonna stop breathing or fall over or something. I have improved massively though, there's certain lines where I'm doing something reasonably complex and singing/shouting and I'm now doing it almost naturally. I think my voice is ok, but nervous about saying so so backing vocals will do for me for now! I will say practice, practice, practice makes it though. Even if you think it's impossible now just keep plugging away and you will get somewhere. Maybe not geddy lee levels but still somewhere.

Hi tech21 does this apply to the paradriver as well? Just curious.

Just bought a pedal from Ander. Very good communication and was willing to keep it on hold for me. Posted almost as soon as it was paid for. Very pleasant transaction and can't wait to try it out at rehearsal!

That's what's holding me back as well. ...Well that and a complete inability to pay for either.

If your wanting compact then I would say the plethora (TC electronic) X5 or x3 if you want it really compact

Also have a Harley Benton iso pro (non AC version) and I've had very little issues with it. Only problem has been with a zoom ms60b that was very noisy with it. Seemed to be a known issue with zoom pedals being funny with power supplies. Anyways sorted it with a little Palmer power conditioner that sits under the board alongside the power supply and it has been silent ever since

I think as long as you stick to the main principal of 'serving the song'. You can't go too far wrong. I don't play a lot of covers (despite my constant badgering of the singer) but when we do, I'm never 100% playing to the record. Nail the main parts and if you can sneak in a tasteful fill or two then your good. If I'm being honest I probably do 'overplay' with our own songs but the principal is the same. I'm trying to make the songs more interesting, not make it all about me as such. The same applies to covers. If you can make it interesting to you (and hopefully others) without turning it into a 4 minute bass solo your golden. Alternative argument: nobody listens to the bass anyway, get it right on the 'one' and go nuts 🤣

How do you find the blurst? It looks really cool but I don't see a lot of people using it?

My thoughts exactly sir. Your pedalboards are a constant inspiration to me and what I can do to shoehorn guitarists out of the fun noise zone!

I did see an article somewhere about it. Along with slinky cobalt guitar strings. I think that is a market they could really make some headway in providing you can bend the strings sufficiently to make you think you look cool midway through a solo.....

That does sound good. Have a Russian muff (nano) At the moment but I used to have a devi ever cherry pop and I kind of miss the madness. In fairness I still have the cherry pop but there is something wrong with it, the sensible option would be to get that repaired 🤣

One thing I have noticed is that I'm seeing a lot of 'incomplete' bands, I.e. drummer and guitarist, singer and keys etc etc. We played with one band a few years back, a full rock band (Paramore-esque) but their bassist was a boss OC-3. They were very complimentary towards me and I've seen from old photos that they had a bassist at one point. So it may be that there aren't enough bassists for all the bands. One fundamental thing is that there is no money anymore. Now that doesn't stop you making a band with your friends and having a great time bit the days of 'making it big' are maybe over/harder to achieve. I've also suspected that's why you do have less people in groups. Technology can substitute sounds In a live environment, what it can't do though is give you another perspective or opinion on a song/musical idea. My worry is we loose some of the magic of collaboration over the years and the quality of output reduces. The chart stuff has always been about the lowest common denominator so that won't shift but the second and third tier of groundbreaking original musical artists is maybe where we will see the change. OR the world is changing a bit and everything will be fine, just a bit different.

I would put the Laney digbeth preamp in. It has clean and overdrive channel that are mixable, di and and effects loop as well as a 4band eq. Cheaper than most Di boxes aside from Chinese clones. Only issue I would mention (as rediculous as this sounds) you need to like the sound of your bass. It doesn't colour the tone the same way a sansamp or the like does. I had some issues with that for a while until I got a new bass and realised why I wasn't getting on with it😐. Something like a second hand sansamp has the advantage of sounding more or less the same regardless of what amp/sound system you plug it into. That's something that can be very valuable if your not using your own amp.

I really got into 6 music around the start of the Pandemic. Every other station was doom and gloom and 6 music was a sanctuary from the worst of it. I was still working face to face through the whole pandemic so having Lauren Laverne keeping my spirits up was a godsend. She is an excellent breakfast host in my opinion and the music is great for the most part. My only criticism is that there are aN awful lot of bands that sound like they formed together roughly three weeks prior with at least one member of each band who had told a few porkies on their CV. There was a band a few months ago playing a live slot (can't remember their name) and they had an absolute nightmare of a performance. Sounded all cool and hip until they had to play and then the guitarist/vocalist got in a complete muddle with her distortion pedal. I don't know if it got fried at the beginning of the performance or something but it just sounded incredibly unprofessional. Never heard anything like it on radio before, felt really sorry for them lol.

It's a fender Mexico jazz bass from the early 2000s. Full disclosure this bass has been through a lot with me. It got professionally converted to a PJ (SD quarter pounder set) very early on in it's life. Never got on with the pj set, used it almost exclusively as a p bass but at the same time never got the sound I wanted from it consistently. I frequently felt something was missing from it but assumed it was my ears. A couple of years ago I converted to flats, first Ernie Ball cobalt's flats, more recently Labellas. I feel ultimately I prefer flat wounds and intend to get flats on the reverend. The new roundwounds maybe part of the reason the Mercalli sounds different. At the same time I had a brief dalliance with rounds earlier this year and came to the same conclusion I always did with them - they sound really clangy and fizzy when new and take a few months to break in. So long story short Mexican fender jazz with flats. I may simply be in the honeymoon period but so far it's an excellent start to the relationship!

So this weekend I got my third ever bass (first one for 19 years!). I've been oggling reverends for a few years now and felt the split coil /bridge humbucker combo to be the best option for me (I've never enjoyed the bridge single coil sound much). Every single sound is useable both pickups sound great, I genuinely can't believe how much of a difference this has made to my sound. I was always of the opinion that amps and pedals had a bigger overall influence on your tone but I'm very happy to be proven wrong. Even my amp sounds ten times better, which I have never been fully happy with. Overall very chuffed 😁

Yeah I'm.wondering that. I've also had it at a few practices since and I wasn't happy. At the same time I may be clouded by that gig. It also may be the cabs. I've only ran it at 8 ohms and only with firstly a sub standard 1x15 and now a better quality 2x10. I've heard ampeg cabs make a difference has anyone else noticed this? Also would you say 350 class D watts is suitable for a loudish rock band in small/eventually medium gig scenarios?

Could I ask the group, is there a significant difference tonally between the 350 and the 500/800? I have the 350, have done for a couple of years as I wanted a gigable amp. I had used it at a few practices and it sounded...fine. better than what was in the studio (a very low bar). Finally got a gig where I needed to use my own amp (most places were house amps and I didn't want to make a fuss). When I had it set up and playing for the gig I was so underwhelmed. It just sounded flat and dull and not very loud. Important info - cab at gig was an ashdown (mag) 115 (8ohm). Have since traded that and got an ashdown 2x10, again 8 ohms. It has set me on an amp quest but am I being too hasty? Do I just need to get a cab that suits? Or go further up the line. I love the look and the size so if I can make it work I would be a loyal portaflexer!

I had a similar problem. Even through an isolated power supply (albeit a cheap one). Someone/ several people on here suggested a little power conditioner and that sorted it right out. Well worth 25 quid and adds another led to the undercarriage light show! 🤣

Is it maybe partly also to do with the nature of the limits of the tech and requirements of bassists. The original amps (fender bassman etc) simply were not up to the task of providing adequate bass reproduction for the stages of the era. Guitars and amps of the fifties and early sixties done and continue to sound great. The current products did not suffice and therefore further innovation and invention was required. The p bass and the jazz bass provided the right sound in an ergonomic package and have stood the test of time. Pedals were largely not suited to bass guitars and so further innovation was required. Amps weren't powerful enough until the svt came along and that is now the benchmark for many players. Bass frequencies are hard to tame and the nature of bass requires supporting other people's sound and therefore active basses with on board eqs (pedals can't provide tone adjustment as there were so few available to bassists of the day). Again the dissatisfaction with traditional bass constructions and tonewoods pushed for more exotic woods and constructions. Non traditional builders would adopt nontraditional shapes. The sheer size and weight of basses would necessitate further engineering such as light weight tuners and different headstocks, or even no headstocks at all! As more soloists appeared (essentially a whole new role for bass guitar) different builders would design basses with a focus on soloing and expansive fretboard Competition from synthesisers further pushed innovation into 5 string constructions. There is a LOT of generalisation here and I added more as I started typing and only came up with this concept on reading this post so please feel free to correct me but my closing statement is essentially: Bassists adopt new tech because the p bass and bassman where not up to the task of the evolving role of the bass guitar.

I saw a video recently of fat Mike talking about these. He's one of the few, if not only people with custom Dunlop picks and he got them cos he got drunk with Jim Dunlop at a NAMM and badgered him about it till he agreed. You wouldn't think it to look/hear him but he has a very rigid view on the role of the bass in the band (basically support everyone else and make them sound better, to the detriment or otherwise of your own sound) so the thin pick gives a subtler, rounded sound that he's after.

In regards to female bass players, I've always felt that there are oddly more than the proportional equivalent of guitarists and drummers. Again this is probably related to the stuff I grew up on, many have been already mentioned. For the other instruments though? Very very few. For the record I feel there's not nearly enough women in any of these positions regardless of intsrument but I did always feel there was proportionally more bassists that guitarists etc. Physically it doesn't make sense but maybe (please someone loudly correct me if I'm incorrect here) it's more to do with the mentality of a bass player fitting better with stereotypical character traits associated with women? Eg supportive, more of a team player (serve the song etc), not been entirely driven by ego and can therefore stand back and let some other doof in the band take the solos etc. I feel I have worded this badly but I think you can get what I'm rambling about. Also yes I am short and have relatively small hands, I felt for years like I was trying to 'tame' the instrument. I feel I only really just got to grips with it the past few years in a more consistent way so I can simpathise with the size issue!