TimR

[quote name='skychaserhigh' timestamp='1395998948' post='2408743'] Call it what you like but if it doesn't sound good then It's pointless. [/quote] It's not 'what I like', they're industry standard terms. Go looking for a mixer with 'flat' preamps and see how far you get.

[quote name='skychaserhigh' timestamp='1395997626' post='2408709'] I'm not the one being picky ! I'm saying your bass isn't flat plugged in. I turn the knobs until I get the sound I like and that works. Imagine if sound engineers didn't use eq at live gigs or on recordings. [/quote] Read my post above. It's flat. You're talking about transparent. They're entirely different things.

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1395985766' post='2408610'] Agreed! I didn't know whether to raise my disgust with S4C or to continue laughing! For what it's worth, I used to go through the PA but for some unknown reason we started getting dreadful feedback through the stage monitors when it was a bass drum and my bass heavy part (we have an old Peavy system with proper bass bins), so now I just crank up my rig and wear earplugs! The problem with feedback for the singers and keys is now much better. I think it's system age. And Myfanwy and Da need to wind their necks in! [/quote] You may have been putting bass in the monitors and this would spill into the kick drum mic. Also a lot of people push the lower frequencies on the kick drum channel instead of around 120Hz which is where more of the punch is. Recipie for feedback. Avoid bass in monitors and use your rig for on stage sound unless you have good control over the monitor mix.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1395954219' post='2408421'] My thought as well. Strange question to ask someone on being introduced - probably more interested in gear than music. Still, it takes all sorts. [/quote] I suppose I should count myself lucky I didn't get stuck with him discussing gear. Or more likely him telling me what gear I should be using

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1395933473' post='2408144'] Well if it's an old desk then it might just be age catching up with it. Transformers have a finite life and there may have been a damaged component in the mixer for years which finally gave out. ... [/quote] Definitely.

Well it's blown twice. The first time was the transformer. The tech will tell you what it is this second time. I wouldn't even bother talking to them about it until the tech has had a look. He'll probably spot the problem straight away and you'll all just have made yourselves look silly arguing over it.

The supply power transformer? Sounds like there is a fault with the desk somewhere that hasn't been diagnosed fully and each time you're just fixing the obvious blown part. Get the tech to do a full check. Are you using phantom power at all? Are you using an active bass? How are you plugging in?

Funnily enough I was introduced to a guy at a party as 'another bass player'. His first question was what bass do you play. I have an Ibanez. He said 'Ah. I play a fender', then he walked off. He's a strange guy by all accounts anyway so no loss.

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1395913181' post='2407789'] I've got a little mark tube going into a barefaced bigun and it sounds best with no eq... i have the mix biased 60% towards the valve preamp so there is obviouly some colouration going on, but I've experimented with the eq/contour controls a fair bit and it definitely works best for me with no eq. Back in the 'good' old days (which is the 80s for me), I don't recall being able to do this with any of the various bass amps I owned - they all needed some serious twidling to get a good sound out of them. Modern gear is just so much better IMHO, arguments about transparency etc. not withstanding. [/quote] Yes. I think my first amp had bass and treble. The second had 4 frequency eq. Then I bought a Trace GP7 which has 7 band graphic, two 'shapes' and compression as far as I can remember. My Warwick is 4 band with bass boost and treble boost buttons. The compression is just a level control with on/off switch. It's usually set flat but I'll push one of the mids under certain room conditions. The compression is about 3. My active bass also sometimes sees the mid pushed a touch. But usually everything is flat. But then I have tweeter control which I dial back completely on one cab when I'm using both the 2x10s and just a touch when using one cab. The bass boost you get when adding the second cab doesn't really need anything done to.

Loads of waffle here as usual. Flat - all the controls set at their neutral point. Transparent or natural - an amplifier and speaker setup that changes nothing of the tone of the original source. All amps can be set flat. If you set it flat it is flat. Very few bass amps and cabs are transparent by their very nature. Let's at least agree the terminology.

Going to a gig is a social event. It very much depends on who you go with.

Fill your boots: http://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=205&threadid=31036

Any amp over 500w should have soft start on the input. When the amp is turned on you get a huge inrush current to the transformer, the soft start limits this current. On some amps (like the Warwick) that are close to 500W they don't always use them. Hence the need for a 10amp fuse. The 'internal' amp fuse will be a 3 or 5Amp slow blow fuse. The 'kettle' lead should ideally be a 10amp but 13amp is ok.

As has been said many times. Cheap is not the same as inexpensive.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1394747388' post='2394858'] ... Even £500 will buy a quality instrument these days that could easily last a good player a lifetime, if they didn't just fancy a change after a while. Some people will spend more on strings over two or three years (maybe less)! ... [/quote] £500 isn't in my opinion a beginners bass. That's firmly in the territory of intermediate to professional level instrument. See my Argos example above. £90 will buy you an entry level bass for you to suck it and see. Would you seriously spend £500 on a bass when you were starting out? That's got to be nearly three weeks wages for some teenagers. My second bass when I was 21 and had been playing for 4 years was £350, a months wages for me back in 1992. My first bass when I was 17 was £120 Japanese sidewinder. I still have it but I can't play it, everything about it is wrong. The neck is too wide for a start. Yes, quality nowadays is better, but your choice of instrument as a learner is not influenced by experience. It can't be, you don't have any. As you get more experienced you know what you need. My third bass bought in 2003 was £500. That's not a months wages anymore but its probably a few months disposable income and certainly 6 gigs worth of money. It's perfect and I can play things on it that I can't on my second bass, which I also still have.

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1394740787' post='2394720'] Think it's bollocks personally. I've been playing 20 yrs. just done a pro UK theatre tour using a Yamaha BBN5 which i bought for £400 about 17 years ago and an ESP LTD 5 String fretless which i bought for about £400 last year. Both play and sound great. The amount of great comments i got for the sound of both of them is unreal. I don't believe all that over a £1000 guff. [/quote] £400! You could get 4 basses from Argos for that! And still have change for some mid range running shoes.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1394740671' post='2394718'] Interesting description: • 6 nickel flatwound strings. • 3 single coil pick ups. • 5-way pick up selector switch. [/quote] Well it is for beginners. When you get really good and outgrow it you can get a proper one with 4 strings.

It beats me why anyone takes so long chosing a bass. Just pick up an Argos catalogue. Less than £90. Job done. You can even chose black or red. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/039186.htm?cmpid=APPSOCIAL01

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1394663484' post='2393929'] First bass? No, as it was objectively an appalling instrument (Aria Pro II with a neck that couldn't be set up properly). But I'd be content with the the second bass I owned a year into playing (unidentified Peavey), which actually cost me less than the first one. [/quote] I think that will be a lot of our collective experience. What factors did you take into consideration when you bought the replacement. Can you even remember I don't necessarily think it is the quality you grow out of. The nature of being a beginner is that you are only starting out and learning not only about your playing but also about the instrument and the possibilities and types out there.

I built one of these. With a ratchet strap it's useful for all sorts of things. http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/231171454627

Beautiful amp. I had one for about 10years. Had to get rid of it as carrying up stairs needed 6men and my cars braking distance was 3miles at 30mph.

[quote name='Lee Carter' timestamp='1394643655' post='2393665'] ... on something that plays the way I want. ... [/quote] This is the key part. It's nothing to do with wanting a flash bass to show off with. As you mature as a player, you find out what it is you want. I wonder how many players would just go back and be happy playing that first bass that they learned on.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1394639427' post='2393598'] ... Buy another bass or tweak the old one. It's all good. [/quote] Skank has it on the button. However for me, on a cheap bass many of those adjustments are either not possible or financially viable. Maybe when you bought your 'beginner' bass you picked one with a neck profile or width that you were comfortable with at the time. That may now be the limiting factor. Change the neck and machine heads? Fine, but maybe the pickups and tone controls aren't quite right either, the body might be a bit heavy. These are things you probably didn't consider when you first bought the bass. The bass begins to become Triggers Broom and guess what, in that case you've outgrown it and already changed it without realising. Maybe the phrase 'beginner' bass is a misnomer, maybe it should be first bass. It's more about realising what you can no longer adjust to your personal preferences.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1394632136' post='2393509'] All of that misses my point, which is that good running shoes and good basses are affordable by almost everyone these days so it's not gear that holds us back. [/quote] It really depends on your definition of a beginner bass. I suppose what you are saying is that intermediate basses cost so little, relatively, that people are buying them. So now you have to be playing at an advanced level before you notice the next step up. As I say, if I ran 50-60 miles a week in a pair of £50 trainers my legs would be trashed. Mo runs 120+ miles a week... There's a big difference in most things, if you know what you are looking at, and why.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1394626114' post='2393398'] In some professions, the 'tools of the trade' can make a big difference. An extreme example would be F1 where you could be the best driver in the world but will be outclassed by someone with a better car. Music is not like that because the sort of instruments that our musical heroes play are really quite affordable. We CAN get our hands on the same sort of gear that the best pros play, just the same as we CAN don the same running shoes as Mo Farah, but they will make little difference to our playing ability. [/quote] It will. There are, or certainly used to be, real dogs, that are practically unplayable and you spend a lot of effort wrestling with them trying to make them sound. That's things like tone knobs that don't alter the tone significantly, frets that are not dressed or fitted to the neck properly, and other things like Bilbo mentions. That's not to say (as I did earlier) that all inexpensive basses are like this. There is a difference between 'cheap' and 'inexpensive', there are a lot of good inexpensive basses and if (insert your hero here) picked up a good bass and a poor bass he would definitely be able to tell the difference. For all of us there is a 'tipping point' where we can't tell the difference to the next step up. Mo Farah's shoes? If he ran in my model of shoes he would really struggle. If I ran in his model of shoes I would be able to tell the difference but they wouldn't make me run significantly faster. I've done this with running shoes too. Start at £20 shoes and work up to £130, I got to £80 and decided the extra wasn't going to give me the benefit in return of investment.