Boodang

Back in the 80s, 90s & early 00s, I was either at ludicrously loud gigs or playing in a band and creating ludicrously loud gigs. Then, mid 00s work decided to do baseline hearing tests as we were using headphones regularly. At the test, went into the booth, after the 1st set of tests there was a long pause. At the end I asked what the pause was about and was told that the test result sheets only went down to -50dB and my hearing was in the -70 to 72dB range (just above referral for a hearing aid apparently), so they had to add a couple of lines to the bottom of the test sheets. My hearing hasn't got better in the intervening years but what has changed is my physical tolerance for loud volumes and now it just hurts. Moral of the story, get IEMs and buy the drummer an electronic kit.

I guess that's why I haven't taken the plunge and bought a ric yet. I mean, I like the neck and the way it plays but I just know I'd end up changing the bridge, the electronics, the pickups and all the hardware to get it how I wanted it!

Have to say I'm a big fan of running pedals in parallel. I use a Seamoon funk machine and SGFX supa funk together to make it a 'supa funk'.

Is it worth getting the hipshot replacement bridge and ditching the neck pickup surrounding hardware?

Does the ric perform any better in the sack?!

The one getting saved would be the Seamoon Funk Machine.... super funky in envelope mode (obviously!) but if you roll off the depth control it has a great bass boost sound which, strangely as it's just supposed to be in dub mode at this point, adds presence as well. Consequently it's an always on pedal. Oh, and the pedal looks fantastic!

Quick note on tilt eq's; the Aguilar octamizer uses one and it has more or less become my main means of controlling my overall tone. When I kick in my compressor it can be a bit too forceful in the bass frequencies for some situations but I like the overall tone, so the tilt just redresses the balance nicely. Conversely when I kick in my phaser it can get a bit treble heavy but with a little bit of tilt it's sorted. Simple but effective.

Apparently the compressor is based on the Diamond pedal, so if it sounds as good as that you're on to a winner. On the Diamond comp, the EQ knob controls a tilt eq (they don't specify the tilt frequency point), so you tilt the overall tonal balance more to the bass frequencies or more to the treble side, 12 o'clock being neutral. The compressor you have is the same as their 'pressure tank' pedal and they describe the eq knob on that as a tone control. From what you're describing it does sound like it's acting as a tilt eq.

Oh, and if you're fed up with your speakers and want an excuse to replace them, get this, plug it in and blow them up! Seriously good pedal though.

Both awesome and both now permanently on my pedalboard.

The head agrees with you but unfortunately the heart... that's going 'look at the roasted, bound neck, the pearloid scratch and the gold vintage finish blah blah blah buy buy buy!'.

Standard price starts at £1800, which is not silly money but.... starts is the appropriate word though and this is far from standard!

I think I've found my new GaS! Heat treated roasted maple bound neck, vintage finish and great sound. Now, where's that piggy bank.

A slight digression but an interesting anecdote; in an interview with Svensson, he mentions a moment when EST were playing a gig and at the a venue nearby, James Last was playing. JL turned up with umpteen lorries worth of gear and sold out for weeks, they turned up in a transit van hoping to half fill a venue. He thought EST was worthy of umpteen lorries and being sold out and vowed to make them more popular as a result. Tuesday Wonderland was the start of that venture.

EST... what an amazing trio. Such a shame Svensson died when he did (always a shame when someone dies at such an early age). Tuesday Wonderland is a must listen album.

... were you on incubation duty?!

At the risk of breaching copyright (if Chicago press are reading I promise not to post any more pages) and as a taster, this is chapter 1, page 1. There's 215 more pages of exercises.

Glad you found it interesting. It was something I came across by accident but as I like the Gogo Penguin's it sort of became an obsession of sorts. By the sound of the lineup in your group the concept could be right up their street! The book is interesting and you get straight into composing exercises... it's a bit of a commitment though, and I've not finished it all yet as I reckon for the novice aspiring composer there's a few years worth of work, but it is rewarding.

In fairness I don't think Russo ever used the term 'micro-composition' it's just something that's been coined to encompass the notion of small 'cells' in compositions. It was just his approach to teaching the subject. I'm probably more guilty of using the phrase than most!

You're not wrong! But as it says on the book cover, the philosophy behind this approach is for musicians with no formal training but who want to aspire to composing. As Russo was the director of the contemporary American music program at Columbia College, Chicago he knew something about the subject!

Yep, more or less (to both pattern and the 'arbitrary' comments). In the book there's a lot of rules and challenges to focus on certain areas of composition but once outside the exercises it can easily end up as pattern based compositions. As I said in an earlier post the idea is to achieve rhythmic balance and melodic momentum and develop compositional skills by stripping it down to some basic rules. It's not designed to a straight jacket more just a way of focusing the mind. Without wishing to blow Gogo Penguin's trumpet for them, they are a good example of how this ends up.

Yeah that is a shame. I found your original review, 10mm would make all the difference because other than that it looks good value for money.

For those interested and fancying a new year challenge.

I guess in this instance, as I'm the one who used phrase rather than the op, I'm being rather lazy and combining micro-compositions and the playing of them into one phrase for the sake of convenience.

Also, this is a fair question as mostly we don't use this approach when writing popular music and is something more associated with classical. Having said that, it's another way of thinking about music and I've found it quite valuable when approaching a song that requires me to write a bass line.