TimR

I think facebook is a bit random on what it 'shows' to people. It seems to put a high importance on telling people that you have changed your profile pic or updated your status, but doesn't always show all your pictures that you publish, usually it only shows one or two from your album.

The Warwick forum is quite busy and worth digging around. www.warwickbass.com the Mods actually work for Warwick and talk directly to their tech guys very quickly, I've had replies to my questions in a matter of hours. Although bear in mind they're German so might have a different understanding or way of looking at things. The 3.1 amp seems to be thought to be undersized by many, but they need to be driven quite high above where the clip light comes on. I have the 5.1 and have been very impressed. If you can find the extra go for the 500w. Both are rated into 4ohms and 300W into 4ohms is not a lot. The other thing is that they do/did two ranges of speakers, the 410/411 and the 210/211. The 411/211 series are supposed to be their professional range and are much louder than the 410/210. There is no mention on their website of the 411 ND. Odd. I have the 211pro and coupled with the 5.1 it's loud enough for me. The 3.3 is discontinued by Warwick too. Odd. I would check exactly what you are buying!

[quote name='Roland Rock' post='1090620' date='Jan 15 2011, 04:47 PM']I'm going to defend the lowly Marlin Sidewinder! I picked up my silver Sidewinder along with a cheap 1x15 amp (Cougar) for £200 The output was fine, the tone lacked a bit of definition and character, but was acceptable, and the action was quite high, but it was a great starter bass. I managed to practice, gig and even record with it for about three years. Maybe I lucked out with a good example[/quote] Yes the action on mine was murderously high but once I ripped the frets and gave the truss rod some serious abuse it now tows the line (although a truss rod tweak is needed every now and then). I aso rewired the switch and put in vol/vol control and took out the capactor on the vol control. Helped a lot as the two pickups are really badly matched. I think it was around £100 in 1985 but it's nowhere near as good as what you can buy for around £200 now.

I still have a Marlin Sidewinder bass. I ripped out the frets using screwdriver and pliers and filled the slots (and gouges) with polyfilla. Sounds a lot nicer than you would expect!

OK. I've done some more research. The power supply does have a significant impact. But it's still the current that's causing the problems (in this case excessive volt drop). The transformer in my amp is 640W but the amp is rated at 500W into 4ohms. There's no 8ohm rating so that's not much help. Do the manufacturers get the transformers purpose wound or do they get them off the shelf to keep costs down? I also have a two channel 1500W into 2ohm poweramp. Its ****ing heavy! I'm guessing that the amp power is not restricted by having too small a transformer. More of a case that they use the smallest transformer they can that still gives the amp the power out that they require. They could probably put a bigger transformer in but I'm guessing that then they would have to redesign the amp to get more gain.

[quote name='thinman' post='1087261' date='Jan 12 2011, 09:19 PM']That being the case, is some of the variance in ratings into different loads due to the duration over which output is measured? I'd imagine that with sufficient capacitors in the power supply high peaks could be achieved, but not sustained. I'd like TimR to elaborate on what he was saying about looking at things the other way round, i.e. output is not halved by doubling the speaker impedance - just for education purposes.[/quote] I'm just trying to revise this after about 15 years. Looking over a circuit diagram of a power amp the outputs all run through parallel transistors. I can't see where the power rails have any direct connection to the speakers. All the current must run through these transistors. Increasing the transformer efficiency may help in some way ie the designer may have compromised on the size of the transformer. Wouldn't this result in a corresponding increase in power at 8ohms as well? ie the power at 4ohms may well go up, but so will the power at 8ohms so you still won't get your double. Unless I'm overlooking something obvious. Are you saying that the power rails don't sag at all at 8ohms full power? I thought this sag something to do with the high frequency audio as well. If the amp can do 500w at 8ohms then double that would be 1000w. Let's say you only get 70% or 700W of that at 4ohms as the power is dependent on the current that the transistors will allow to flow. This current isn't directly related to voltage at high power. The amp is marketed as a 700w amp, NOT as a 1000w one that can't get to its max at 4ohms but can get to 500w at 8ohms. Hence you get sold an amp that does 700w at 4ohms and the bonus is it does MORE than 350w at 8ohms. You just increase the power by adding more transistors, not by uprating the already heavy transformer. Anyway it's been a long time and very hazy.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1087245' date='Jan 12 2011, 09:10 PM']I have some from Vistaprint. They look cool as anything but I rarely give them out! Mine are brown and have an upright bass on them with a link to my personal MySpace and a list of instruments I play / styles I do. I added my address and mobile. Possibly less is more here as I have it all on there - had it just been a contact number and no address I'd hand them out more readily[/quote] Yes. Our drummer got the ones from vistaprint AND because you get up to X number of words, he used as many as he could. Arghhh. The free ones have "Business cards are FREE at vistaprint.co.uk" and their logo printed on the back which I think makes them look like you didn't spend any money on them and less professional - maybe that is OK for a solo musician but for a £1600 function band? The premium ones don't have anything on the back.

[quote name='Skol303' post='1086873' date='Jan 12 2011, 04:26 PM']Your business card should ideally reflect your 'character' or 'brand', whether you're a business or a musician. So a black, funerial card might be ideal if your genre of music is "Doom Metal", but perhaps not if it's Gospel ;-) My main tip would be to keep it simple and avoid anything too 'flashy': the purpose of a business card is to pass on your contact details first and foremost. Nobody is going to hire you on the strength of a card, so don't worry about it too much either. Sw***y cards often indicate a particular word that has caused the word 's.w.anky' to get automatically moderated in this post... if you get my gist! So my advice would be to keep you cards plain and simple, and let your music - or your gob - do the talking. I work for a graphic design company, so if you want to post your proposed design(s) I'd be happy to comment on them, for what it's worth... PS: if you want to be really flash, a friend of mine once had a bunch of iPods customised with his name engraved on them and a selection of his music ready-loaded. But then he was pitching his services to major bands in the US...![/quote] +100 Free professional advice but priceless all the same.

[quote name='thunderbird13' post='1086890' date='Jan 12 2011, 04:40 PM']do I want to get involved with people who appear to be so disorganised.[/quote] You're dealing with musicians - it goes with the territory.

[quote name='3V17C' post='1086489' date='Jan 12 2011, 10:44 AM']... (incidentally - ignore the fact the my website is pointing to a myspace page... a temporary measure!!) peace c[/quote] I was going to suggest something like that. Getting a domain is not expensive and you can point it anywhere you want. So when myspace finally implodes you can point it to facebook or anywhere else really, even a self built free on-line one will look more proffesional with a proper address. You can probably also set up email forwarding so [email protected] can be forwarded to [email protected]. AND you don't have to reprint all your business cards.

[quote name='spinynorman' post='1086722' date='Jan 12 2011, 02:12 PM']... there is a strong possibility that your immovable reference bassline was written by a spotty kid who only knew root notes.[/quote] This is the best point yet and goes back to my point about understanding WHY the bass line is like it is. Is it because the bassplayer couldn't play anything else. Is it because they dragged the bassplayer out of bed with a massive hangover and it was all he could manage to play? Is it becase it was arranged by a pro arranger. Is it because they got a session musician who played something off the top of his head first time and they liked it. Said session player then listens to it later and thinks it's OK but given a bit longer could have come up with something better. Did the band all sit down and work out all the parts as a collaborative effort and its part of 'their sound' Is it the signature part of the song/melody. The new bass player in my old band probably thought he was doing great until they told him to stick to the original line. If he had played something approximating the original in the first place he would have been fine as I know they don't listen to what's going on around them. But he improved it so much that they didn't recognise what he was playing. Once you know what the function of that part is then change it if you must.

If you create something that serves no purpose other than to please someone else. Then you have created art.

Art cannot be defined.

Also add yourself to your own phone book in your phone. Then you can just text your "electronic business card" to someone you meet. Save all that spelling out your name and waiting for them to type your name into their phone.

Goto Staples. They've got good rates and you can see and feel lots of examples. The ink doesn't smudge. I think its really unprofessional to have free ones with the makers website address on it. Steer away from logos unless you've had one properly designed - I think they can look too home made.

[quote name='El Bajo' post='1084222' date='Jan 10 2011, 02:06 PM']I watched a documentary on Nigel kennedy the other night (he seems slightly unhinged). He, and his orchestra, play with different feel and embelish some parts in some of the greatest 'covers' ever created, i.e. 4 seasons. He says whats the point in getting up everymorning to play if its the same thing day in day out. As long as its sounds ace, do it! Most bands never play it the same live anyway,[/quote] He's a solo violinist. Same territory as lead guitarists. That aside, it's a good point. However, and its a big however. People go to see Nigel Kennedy and HIS orchestra perform, they don't go to see Vivaldi's 4 seasons being performed. Although knowing some Classical Music buffs I wouldn't be surprised if there's a forum somewhere discussing how Nigel Kennedy ruined Vivaldi's 4 Seasons by playing a C# on the third semi-quaver of the 147th bar.

[quote name='Phil Starr' post='1083884' date='Jan 10 2011, 07:27 AM']If these figures are correct then in your position I would play a gig with just one 4x10, which won't cost you anything to try. You will be 7dB (ish) down overall. I think what you will notice more is that with a lower stack you will no longer have speakers at ear level. I predict it will be loud enough, but that will depend on many things including your personal preferences. If you are worried then keep the other 4x10 in the car ready for the second half. If it does turn out to be OK then you can follow the 2x10 option. There are more sensitive 2x10's than the Peaveys out there.[/quote] My Warwick 2x10 WCA211PRO is 101. Never had any problems with it. I had to screw some feet onto one side to stand it sideways because of the carry handles but that didn't involve any drilling. Although I keep thinking I should get a complementary 211 but then I do a gig and realise I'm just gassing.

[quote name='Jam' post='1083624' date='Jan 9 2011, 09:22 PM'].... Question is, is there a better book I can use? This one is doing my head in, the exercises are so boring. It's not that it's not a challenge, perhaps I'm just tired.[/quote] Unfortunately it's all about repetition and it is boring. You're training your brain to recognise when it sees an E to play an E. Good work stick with it.

The sensitivity of the 4x10 is 97dB the 2x10 is 95dB.

[quote name='ironside1966' post='1083165' date='Jan 9 2011, 02:30 PM']From my experience the bands that busk tunes rather than learn them properly tend to be in the in lower paid gigs.[/quote] Is this chicken and egg? Do you get better paid gigs because you have put the effort in or do you put more effort in because you are getting paid more?

Going back to my example with my previous band. There are a lot of musicians who will listen to one verse, one chorus and the mid and then announce that they've got it. Hence the problem when it all falls apart in the third verse, or when the band can't get the bit where the mid section goes into the chorus instead of the verse. Now most tunes have differences in each verse and each chorus. So where I'm coming from is not necessarily nailing the parts exactly but understanding where and why the parts differ in each verse and chorus. Usually the bass line can be picked up in one or two bars, it's the subtleties that take the time to pick up and it's those bits that people don't bother with. Hence blandly busked tunes.

[quote name='Conan' post='1083290' date='Jan 9 2011, 04:53 PM']Why spend three hours getting one bass line note perfect if you can do a "good enough" job (so that nobody will notice the difference) in half an hour? Unless you are a perfectionist of course... [/quote] Because in most cases you only need to do quarter of an hour and it's clear that some don't even do that.

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='1082484' date='Jan 8 2011, 07:28 PM']... I've always thought when it comes to writing music. Listen to the music you like and want to write, and find the common thread between the bands and songs you like and use that as a spring board, ...[/quote] Listen to something from other genres and play along to stuff you wouldn't normally listen to. Might add a different dimension to the way you think musically.

Feel is essentially [b]how[/b] you play the notes. Some people have good natural feel, others have to work at it. An extreme example- Imagine Steven Hawkins reading versus Stephen Fry. Then imagine Steven Fry reading poetry and imagine him reading Harry Potter. You're probably playing all the right notes in all the right places, but some notes should be long and some short, some have more emphasis than others. You are probably doing this already but the length you play a particular long note and the way I would play it will be different. That's your feel vs my feel. There is also advanced stuff like playing ahead, on and behind the beat, laying back, pushing etc Music isn't just about what notes you play and when its about [b]how[/b] you play them.

A can't think of many basslines that can't be picked up within 15minutes of listening and playing along to. You really need to [b]understand[/b] how the line you are playing fits with and affects all the other musicians before you decide to change it and consider whether it really needs changing. In my old band we had a problem. The vocalist and I really struggled with one line of one verse in one song. Everytime we played it in practice we seemed to stumble over it, when we played live sometimes the tune would almost fall apart. In the end I recorded us playing it, took it home and compared what we were all playing to the original. On the original and the recording, I played triplets along with the vocal melody. On the original the drums, guitar, and keys all played a single note underneath the triplets. On our recording, the drums, keys and guitar were [b]all[/b] putting in fills without the triplet feel. I asked them about it and they all said it sounded empty so they were adding to it The mad bit was that they obviously were not listening either to each other or to the vocal line. This wasn't the only song I had to resort to listening to the original because of car-crashes. They're having real bad problems with the new bassist who continually ad-libs and doesn't stick to the bass line. OK in maybe a three piece but not a 9 piece! Poetic justice. The car-crashes happen in my new band for the same reason, the guitarists haven't listened to the original closely and are playing something that aproximates (or doesn't!) I went to an audition where I had been told that the guitarist auditioning me was a stickler for accuracy. I had spent a long time leaning 5 songs very accurately. We played through the first tune and at the end he asked "Is that how you think it goes?" At the end of the third song he says "Ok I don't think you're what we're looking for." Win some lose some. A problem that I see a lot is that you learn a tune and over the years embelish it a bit here and a bit there. After a couple of years the tune bears no resemblance to the original. "That's how we've always played it" No mate actually it isn't!