Count Bassy

[quote name='stu_g' timestamp='1381499582' post='2239928'] i gotta say i just dont like bass solo's ,in my youth i was all for a drum or bass solo i just dont understand some of these bass players with say 6 string plus basses doing all this solo shenanighans they should get a guitar it would sound nicer i wouldnt go busking with a bass if i wanted to get any money [/quote] Very few bass solos that I like, and the ones I do tend to be slower melodic ones; Slap and tap fests leave me pretty cold. My favourite bass solo has to be Martin Turner's at the start of Wishbone Ash's Handy (on the "Wishbone Ash" album). Edited to add a link: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EcT_I8kxZ4[/media] Edited again to say. I really hope that this is a solo and not multi-tracked.

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1381353898' post='2238132'] I'm self employed, my time has a cost. It is cheaper in the long run for me to take a bass to someone who knows what they're doing than spend the time learning how to do it (possibly badly) myself. It's the same logic by which I employ an accountant, an insurance broker and a lawyer. Steve [/quote] So how do you justify practising your bass? You'd surely be better off not doing that yourself, but pay to go and watch someone else doing it? [size=4] [/size] I used to be self employed, but used to allow myself some time off without thinking how much I could be earning.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1381336679' post='2237839'] I have a friend who's an electrician. If I asked him to set his guitar up he'd cry.;-) Again, what you define as a setup may be simple, but I would include things in a setup, at least potentially, that you wouldn't. Unless your frets etc are perfect, assuming you like low action, you simply can't do a decent basic setup. [/quote] Comes down to what you mean by "perfect" and "decent" and "low action". Also depends very much on what the action is when you start and what you want to achieve. In principle I agree with the OP. At the end of the day it's engineering, not some sort of black art. Some people might feel more comfortable with it than others, and some might prefer to pay someone to do it for them (totally up to to them and I have no problem with that). I've always done my own. I've never done any fret dressing or nut cutting, but have always been happy enough with the results. If I felt that the frets needed dressing then I'd probably give it to someone else to do, but relief, action, and intonation I'd always do it myself. After all if you paid someone for a set up and then decided to change make or gauge of string then it would need re-doing again anyway, which gets expensive. I guess a significant dividing line in what people feel comfortable with is whether the action is reversible. Relief, neck shimming, Bridge height and intonation are all reversibly. Nut cutting and fret dressing aren't.

Your post is being privatised!

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1381131669' post='2234580'] You are Neil Murray and I claim my five pounds. [/quote] I'd be happy to sound like Neil Murray.

Get a two pole "Make before Break" double throw switch Use one pole to short the output on the jack socket to earth, and use the other pair to open the battery connection. Then the output is shorted/Muted fractional before the battery is disconnected. and when turning on the battery is connected and the output un-muted a fraction later. However, if the power up time of the pre-amp is longer than the both on time of the switch you might still have a problem.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1380697915' post='2228945'] And here's me thinking I'm just a grumbly male menopausal grumpy old git! [/quote] Just because the rest of us are as well doesn't mean that you're not!!

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1380660548' post='2228715'] You can filter items by proximity to your post code in eBay. [/quote] Yes I do that, but then you don't see the ones that are outside the radius and willing to ship. Would be nice if there was a filter to eliminate collection only items.

I'm trying to buy some speakers to put in our practice room and have exactly the same problem. Looking on E-bay 90% of all offerings are collection only which is really frustrating. Sellers perogative of course, but as you say, they are reducing their market place drastically. It would be really great if E-bay would let you filter items so that you only saw items that offered delivery, or were within a certain radius.

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1380056160' post='2220346'] Mel Collins! Yes, yes, yes! [/quote] Note a King Crimson fan (Don't dislike them either), but three more yes's to Mel Collins. One of my favourite saxophonists ever.

By having two coil slightly apart in the classic humbucker there will be certain high order harmonics that will be out of phase in thetwo coils and thus cancl out, which I imaging would affect the tone to some extent. I.e the fundamental will be in phase in both coils. Rather like having both pickups on in a Jazz (but much less of course).

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1379958561' post='2218774'] He did say small/medium venues though. I think band tend to scimp on P.A's ... and for the few pubs we do, we will just put the tops up... but there are tops and TOPS. You can count the band round here with GOOD P.A's on one hand, tbh...and the vox sounding as good as poss is something to aim for. If I was doing it on the cheap... I'd go for a decent Soundcraft mixer into Martin cabs...with decent power amps, That will cost you about £1500 min if you are very lucky to find them..and isn't likely to be the lightest... Be careful with SH gear that will have had a pasting but can't really take it. If I've heard one band with a blown P.A ..then I heard a fair few. Sorry, soapbox here... but I really don't understanhd bands rehearsing to get it right, and then sound poor ..and it isn't the playing. It is core sounds being poor..... and if you get these right, the sound checks are so much easierf..AND faster. [/quote] I'm not really arguing with you. In principle go for the best PA you can afford (up to a point), but for some bands £5K is out of the question, especially if your just starting up, and you can get away with a lot less if you're careful (as you illustrate yourself). I'm not quite sure what constitutes a 'small' venue, or when that becomes 'medium', but I would say that most pubs (round here at least) would count as small if you're playing in the main bar areas.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1379863338' post='2217506'] Having said that a band is a communial expense, a good P.A can set a band back £5k easily enough ...and various band member can have that tied up in their own kit...so it is not so much who owns it, but who sets it up and who carries it [/quote] Although if you take your time and buy second hand you can get a very reasonable PA for a lot less than that. Depends on what type of gigs you're doing. You don't need a £5K PA for the average pub gig! IMO of course!. And a useful hint I was given was to always set up the mix before you start adding any effects, reverb and stuff (hate reverb myself).

But, as mentioned, a nut problem will put all the bottom end frets out (getting less as you move away from the nut), and the OP only mentions the 3rd fret.

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1379091602' post='2208642'] It still annoys me that the bass player didn't get a solo at the end of the film, whereas everyone else did. [/quote] She was probably too busy chewing gum, by the looks of this video!

Screw a lot of lead weights on to it?

I had this with an acoustic guitar and is was a duff string, so I'd suggest changing strings first., and think again if its still the same. Is the tuning at all the other frets OK?

[quote name='Junkyard Rocket' timestamp='1378502779' post='2201352'] Martin Petersen once told me that its best not to and you shouldn't need to cut strings to length. But what does he know! I bet he's not tried string an ashbory recently. [/quote] I always do, because if you don't then on a 2 + 2 (or similar) head layout you get a stupid amount of string round your G string spigot, which pushes the string to the top or bottom of the spigot, and it just looks horrible. Also, I've read here that if you have too much round the spigot then it won't hold tune so well. I seem to remember reading on a manufacturer's web site somewhere (Fender I think), that you should cut the strings so that they go beyond the spigot by about 3 inches. I'v always done that and it works for me. Of course if you one of these who leaves 6 inches of string flailing in the air then it's not a problem. One problem with cutting them in advance is, of course, that if you have 2+2 and in-line style basses (or string through/not string through bridges) then you can't change your mind as to which bass to put them on.

[quote name='Mr Bassman' timestamp='1378506668' post='2201395'] Just tell her to mind her own business and get back in the kitchen! Ouch!!!!! [/quote] If you hadn't left the chain so long she'd never have got out in the first place.

A serious one: Cut your spare set of strings to length before you put them in the case/gig bag. Saves a lot of time and hassle on the night if an unscheduled string change is required.

AFAICR I've only played one Mexican Fender which is my MIM Urge Mk1. It's a great instrument. Sounds good an plays well. I also have a USA built one. It is a better instrument, but mainly in terms of features (E.g. smaller head stock, enclosed (Better IMO) tuners, extra pick up, passive/active, micro tilt neck etc) rather than fundamental build quality. Neck and fret board on the Mex are great. It cost me half what the US one cost and was worth every penny. Sadly moved onto 5 strings these days so neither gets played much.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1378334370' post='2198969'] Its analogue because the pulses can be any width. And a filter isn't a digital to analogue converter. [/quote] Any width that's a multiple of the controlling DSP clock (might be thinking more in terms of servo amplifiers here), and the filter takes a digital signal (all right, one bit resolution) and generates a true analogue value. Sound like an D to A process to me, if not in the conventional sense. So is a bit in my PC memory, that can be set to 0 or 1 for any length of time, an analogue device? According some definitions here the only thing that's digital on my computer is the sound card, because it has A/D and D/A converters.! Please don't think I'm taking this too seriously by the way. It's just a bit of banter you know. Irrespective of what we call them here's a link to an interesting, not too technical, article on how they work, including some of their short-comings. [url="http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1274757"]http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1274757[/url]

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1378330502' post='2198877'] OK I think I understand where you are confusing analogue and digital. The control aspect of class D amps are often driven my MOSFETs which act like switches (or indeed by digital controllers), however these components are controlling an analogue waveform and you have to consider the difference between analogue and digital in terms of how they are quantised. The amps are not digital in the sense that they do not deal with discrete voltage levels (steps). [/quote] I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous answer. Except to add that they do deal with discrete voltage levels. Off and on!!! Typed on my trusty analogue computer. [size=4] [/size] [size=4] [/size] Lot of smilies because it's really not that important.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1378332082' post='2198914'] The bit that makes class D not digital is the lack of an analogue to digital conversion step. [/quote] Analogue comes in and is converted to a 2 state (On/Off) signal at the output transistors, albeit PWM. Filtering/smoothing and frequency response of the speaker then converts this PWM signal to an approximation of the original analogue signal. The output of the amplifier as whole is analogue (I've never argued otherwise ). The output devices are working digitally. I guess it comes down to whether you call PWM digital because its on/off, or analogue because ?????.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1378329935' post='2198857'] Hm. At face value, you sound a lot more serious than I was in the post you respond to. Whatever the case may be, I'm not able to have a serious talk about the degree to which certain elements in processes and concepts are this or that - in a language that is not my own. Nor am I willing to on this forum. [/quote] Perhaps I should have stuck a smiley on there! To be honest I'm not really that bothered either, it's all just words, and what they sound like is the important thing. I think the only digital/class D amp I've ever played through is GB shuttle 9 (Not mine) it was only at practice volume and sounded fine to me.