Boodang

our guitarist does this, he turns up with his guitar and a di and goes 'where am I plugging in?'. And I'm like, I don't know, we discussed this before, the pa is just for vocals, where's your amp? For me, not having the ability to amplify yourself, when you need to, is just plain lazy / can't be arsed to bring an amp to a gig / someone else's problem cause I've decided it's not mine because I'm so talented. Not that I've got a chip on my shoulder or anything!

Well, a lot of gigs we do, most actually, are relatively small, so vocals thu small pa speakers, everyone else thru their own amp. When it's thru a pa I can still hear myself as at least I'm not at the mercy of the sound engineer. And then there's just the concept that to be heard you need an amp and you're not always going to have someone else to do that for you.

I just bought a LD Sysyems Icoa 15a speaker and it's very impressive, especially given the price at just under £400. So, initially I bought it for my gigs with an electronic drum kit. We're 6 gigs in and wow, what a great sound. The kick is punchy and the whole kit is clear. And that has been at a small open air (about 200 people), a small club, and some larger venues. So then I had some gigs come up with bass, and rather than use my swr setup, as I now get my finished tone from my pedal board, I used the Icoa. Again, great sound. Despite 300 watts and a 15 plus horn, it's not the loudest but any louder and I'll be going through a PA, plus there's plenty of headroom and it's nowhere near clipping or struggling to keep up with a guitar going through a Marshall stack. And, like the E kit, it's a great tone, clear and basically reproducing what I'm getting out of the pedals. Also has a built in 3 band limiter for when you do push it. Given the cost, unless you have a need for a specific tone from a specific bass amp, I can highly recommend. And quite frankly, makes some bass amps look expensive by comparison. Also, at 25kg, not the heaviest amp/speaker I've every lugged around (especially compared to the golden age of Trace Elliot!).

If your pedal doesn't specify the mA draw it will probably quote the wattage (it'll be mWatts). As Amps x Voltage = Watts then Watts divided by Voltage = Amps

Yep, always carry the passive Radial stage bug SB-2. In fact carry two of them as our guitarist is an idiot who insists on bringing active di's that always fail.

I've dived with dolphins in the Bahamas, skydived in Hawaii, hiked to the base camp of Everest and sailed the Seven Seas of Rhye.... oh the time and money I could have saved if only I'd done a Google image search instead!

Totally agree! In the past a custom was way more expensive than a Fender but now it seems the economics of a mass produced guitar aren't much different in final cost. It helps of course that my local luthier is just feeding himself and not even a few employees. Plus getting a custom done can be a lottery, there's no guarantee of what your going to end up with... but still, at those prices I'd go custom everytime and take the chance. In fact custom number 3 is in the pipeline and will come in way less than an American fender, here's fingers crossed it turns out well!

I'd start with the preamp. A pickup rewind might get you there but it's a bit drastic as a first choice. Trying out onboard preamps is not easy, it's not like a pedal where you can go to a shop,but I would recommend Audere preamps. Even if you end up rewinding the pickups you wouldn't regret getting a top quality onboard preamp in your bass whichever one you go for, and you might find that alone fixes things for you.

I agree... mostly! I think Fender have probably got their pricing spot on. My preferences for design might not be a quality issue but they would certainly be more expensive to incorporate. It's interesting that the scale of economics now mean that Fender, making a bass as cheap as they possibly can, charge more than a custom luthier who can incorporate those design preferences.

Now, I know this is a personal opinion and if you're perfectly happy with the Fender then that's great and all that counts, but for me I find the whole thing quite clumsy..... the neck joint is not contoured and chunky, I find the body bulky and it could definitely do with some contouring, then they cnc everything from the front and cover it up with cheap plastic! To me the whole thing smacks of 'how to make a bass as cheap as possible '. Can you imagine how much they'd charge if it was a set neck!

By comparison to this a Fender build is just clumsy.

£1500 is reaching a point where you can get a custom made. Putting a slab of wood through a cnc machine and slapping on cheap hardware hardly warrants that price though. Custom basses can be a roll of the dice though as you really don't know what it's going to be like until it's too late! Having said that, at these prices I'd rather get a luthier to make a custom to standard specs, you won't get a name brand on the headstock but you will get attention to detail, a better finish and probably better hardware. I got a custom jazz made recently from my local luthier, just specified I wanted it to the '62 spec and gave him the hardware..... £1000 all in and puts an American made fender to shame.

.... actually, just remembered, the song I hate the most is Kravitz's American Woman. Such an irritating number! I just don't get it, it's like a boring riff that just goes on forever. Not helped by the fact our singer is more suited to the 'stand by me' style songs.

Normally I play jazz gigs but a friend asked me to dep in their covers band for a bit. The songs I hate playing the most is anything with vocals..... and the covers has become a permanent gig! I don't mind tho because A. They're all mates and it's a good laugh, and B. I'm slowing infiltrating their set with some funky instrumentals.

Seamoon Funk Machine. With the depth control off it's a low pass filter, with the depth on you get the Brecker Brothers funk!

Our current crowd pleasers that are super fun to play; Chip : The Real McKenzies I'm Shipping up to Boston : Dropkick Murphys Drunken Lazy Bastard : The Mahones I like the last one just for the song title, but all the Boston punk numbers go down well.

I think the audience does notice, not in a way a musician would, but they know when something sounds good, or doesn't, or sounds muddy, or sounds like their favourite recording, or not. They don't know the technical terms or the details, but I wouldn't underestimate an audience's ability to be discerning.

Vigier Delta Metal Fretless The one I should have purchased. Back in the 90s I decided to upgrade to a 'decent' bass. On the shortlist was Warick Dolphin, Wal, Sei Flamboyant custom and the Vigier. In the end went with the Sei, got carried away by the fact it's a custom to my spec, 5 string headless etc. Turns out over the years that really I'm a 4 string fretless guy and the Vigier is the one I regret not getting. Trouble is now, Vigier only do it as bolt on (hate bolt on necks with a passion!), presumably to make it cheaper to construct. Keep looking but difficult to find the Vigier s/h as the original neck thru let alone at an affordable price.

The thing I have found that helps in these circumstances is using a tri band compressor. Surprisingly the one that worked best and was the most flexible to set up was the cheapest.... TC Electronic Spectracomp. The Captain East toneprint is a good start but if you need to tweak further you can plug in the laptop and there's plenty (too much!) of adjustments to be made.

I now use flats exclusively on all my basses but even more than rounds, there's a lot difference in the sound and feel between them. They don't have to be too 'thuddy', my TI flats and Galli Synthesis are quite lively, plus the tension on them is low (the Synthesis are like rubber bands!). I use nylons for a completely different sound and feel, the Bellas are quite dull but the D'adarrio's are actually quite bright. And don't forget tension. A friend of mine put on the Steve Harris signature flats and they're like stair rods! If you're experimenting with the sound, take 2 basses to the gig and try both to get a direct comparison.

... and yet you're blaming parcelforce! I've got some sympathy, the economics of shipping something like a Squier is difficult but that doesn't make the bass any less delicate. I do like the idea of taking off the neck, haven't thought of that before, would make all the difference.

You sent it in a cardboard box!!!

I think you've answered your own question.... main rehearsal and performance bass. Just take that.

I don't use a bass amp as I get the sound I need from my pedalboard, but on the board i most definitely use fx loops. Two types of loops; 'aby' loopers and a 3 channel switchable parallel mixer pedal. The aby just switches in a send & return loop, no gain or phase but does have the ability to have channel A, channel B or both. The trimixer is a different deal, up to 3 channels in parallel. The main benefit for me with this is the ability to control the send and return gain and phase. I've got some pedals which are easy to overload the input, but with the trimixer I can control the gain structure and make sure it's not too hot a signal, and likewise on the return. FX loops definitely helps you keep your signal under control.

Every 'stock' bass I have or have ever owned, have replacement custom wound pickups on them. I buy a bass for the way it plays and I'll change the pickups / electronics to get the sound I want. My Squier VM fretless just feels great but the stock pickups were not to my liking but I've never worried about things like that, I just threw them in the bin (literally) and ordered a custom set (alnico2 bridge, alinco5 neck), a stacked volume/tone preamp and hey presto a bass I wouldn't part with and way way cheaper than a custom. Hardware is another issue, probably won't make much difference sound wise, but if I like a bass enough I'll swap out for better quality if it's really needed.