Boodang

I’m not put off by upgrades but really does depend on what’s been done. After all most basses are built to a strict budget and are not necessarily going to get the best parts available, and as most upgrades don’t add much to the value, if it’s the sort of thing you like you could be getting good value for money. For instance, I’m not sure I could tell the difference in sound between a standard fender bridge and a Babicz but I much prefer to set up the latter. Replacement pups might not sound better, just different, but I’ve replaced the pups on all my non custom basses. There’s something to said for upgrade tuners on squiers! I put a graphec nut on every bass, a small upgrade that i think actually makes a difference. Strap locks a worthy upgrade? It very much depends on what’s being done to what. Upgrade tuners on the Squier I wouldn’t think there’s much to complain about, Babicz bridge on a genuine 60s fender could be considered sacrilege!

After watching a documentary I thought I’d give the 88 black nylon tape strings a go. But also I’ve got a little project on the go where I’m doing some Eberhard Weber style tracks with high register melodic bass lines. I’ve got a five string high C but when it comes to fretless i prefer a 4 string neck…. so I’ve strung my jazz A,D,G,C with the C being 50 gauge which rotosound well as a single. Playing notes lower down on the C string rather than higher up on the G really makes them sing on the fretless. I can see this being a permanent setup on the jazz bass.

So, having used the XR18 for the last couple of years, and using the L20 all last week to record.... I reckon the L20 is just a better sounding desk. With the XR you get carried away with the built in plugins, the L20 has none of that flashiness but to my mind it just sounds better straight after the gain stage. I've recorded with 5 different bands the last week and everyone mentioned how good they thought the L20 was compared to the XR. I'm relatively late to the party on these units but they're both awesome!!

Recorded Friday nights gig with the L20. Spent most of Saturday sorting out the gig gear but just got to play back the recording through the desk. I have to say the L20 did an amazing job. I thought it sounded so good I called the guys up to come over and have a listen. I've recorded the band through the XR18 and then processed it thru various plugins in reaper. This however I think is good to mix down as it with no extraneous processing. I'm going to do some recording during the week with both the punk and blues bands, and I'm going to use the Zoom. We'll see how it compares to the XR18 but so far loving the zoom

Just got sent a pic from last night's punk gig.

I think for me it was the realisation last night that the modern generation have been brain washed into thinking the only thing that has groove is a duff duff beat. I think they have a case for suing the music industry for nurelogical damage!

Our 80s punk band played at the Brit club last night. Right place, right audience= a great gig with fantastic atmosphere and energy. Played at the Canadians the other month and they didn't get it, played to the Brits, our home crowd, and they loved it. Middle aged ex punks singing anarchy in the UK! Half the audience weren't even born in the 20th century but they got the vibe, joined in and loved it. You have to enjoy the Jam and Clash for energetic sing alongs. I wouldn't have picked it as my fav but a Town Called Malice went down a storm with everyone. On the technical side used a zoom L20 for the gig and it sounded great and was easy to use. Also recorded it the SD card. Also went old school with old passive Yamaha speakers and amps.... best sound we've had so far. Could just be the desk that made the difference but equally loved going to passive speakers.

I just find it very sad that people listen to something like James Brown and say it doesn't have groove!! A sad day for mankind.

Valentine's gig with our punk band tonight, we billed it as 'my punk valentine', don't know why, just sounded good! Anyway, great gig, lots of energy and the audience were really into it. Afterwards, I'd been asked to put on my 'funk/groove' playlist to see out the night... after a while someone came up to me and asked if we could put on something that they could dance to, James Brown was playing. I looked quizzically at them as to be honest if you can't dance to that then you have a neurological issue. In the end I handed them my phone and let them search Spotify for what they wanted. They typed in hip hop... nothing they liked as they all had sampled James Brown beats... they typed in hip hop remix and got the result they wanted which is apparently hip-hop with the James Brown beats replaced with duff duff rhythms (if you could call it rhythm)... depressing! Modern generation (am I being age-ist?!) can't dance to James Brown.. very sad.

I've owned my xr18 for nearly two years now and very much enjoyed it. To make recording gigs easier (as it has built in SD recording) I just got the L20. Tried it out this week with one of my bands and have to say very impressed. Straight away the rest of the band thought it was a clearer sound.... pristine was the most used adjective. Many moons ago I bought one of the first zoom products, a result of which I haven't touched them since, but boy have they come on. This was an intuitive desk to set up, it doesn't have the plugins of the XR18 but initial impression is that it's a cleaner, and to my ears, nicer sounding desk. Recording a gig with it tomorrow, will be interesting to see how it performs both in terms of a live desk and recorder. Will report back. Anyone else have thoughts on these two mixers?

I bought an xr18 for our band and now I couldn't go back to an analogue desk. It's so flexible and we use it for gigs and home recording. Plus we can precision EQ, comp, reverb every channel for a gig and get a great sound using the plugin emulations which would otherwise be impossible. A studio sound at a gig. I did have issues at a gig with WiFi so now we take no chances and I use the xtouch universal controller. Not cheap but apart from piece of mind at a gig great for hands on control in the studio setting. Can't recommend highly enough.

Play sitting down?! Depends on the music genre I guess (still, could be a novelty in a punk band, you could have a steam punk chair!). I don't play standing up anymore, I literally can't be @rsed. But then I'm not playing bass in a punk or metal band. Still, since playing only sitting down I've had zero physical issues associated with playing, and I have two crushed disks in my lower back.... which is also the the reason I play drums with a back rest on my throne. Other alternative, play an eub, then zero wait on your body. I've got an NS Design, which actually just sounds like a giant fretless so good for other than jazz, and I have that on a stand and play it standing or sitting on a bar stool if I'm feeling lazy. Looks good on stage as well, always gets comments from the punters.

It seems to me that drummers are having a bit of a resurgence when it comes to being featured in videos (I play drums as well as bass, so narcissistically I quite like that) .... maybe it's because they're not doing statue impressions when on stage performing?!

As it happens I'm moving to Riga later this year. Which is of course completely irrelevant to your plight and of no help whatsoever!

PS found the Pye Audio website.... $4,850 for a stereo rack unit. Might almost be worth it! Neve rack do a kit which comes in at about $400 that might be worth exploring.