mike257

The first time I ever encountered one was as a sound engineer for a blues rock band doing pubs and clubs. I was still setting the PA up when the un-miced snare drum tripped it. The landlord happily obliged with providing extra sockets. I've never come across one that won't trip with a band of reasonabke volume, but more often than not the venue staff are aware and understanding. Its not uncommon to be told "plug in to those sockets over there, but I didn't tell you that".

I air drum/table drum/steering wheel drum constantly, it's a compulsion. Drives the family nuts, but focuses me on rhythm and has made me a better drummer (and all round musician, hopefully) for doing it. The missus will often pull me up before I've even realised I'm playing along. I upset the kids even more today when they were playing Guitar Hero and I was sat behind them on the sofa with a Telecaster playing along to all the songs!

Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins is another one who uses an off-the-shelf sig model, apparently he was pretty hands on in the development of it. Used it for about half of the recent gig I saw and the majority of the previous one and according to a 'rig rundown' video I watched it's the standard factory model. Never seen the Biffy guys with their Squiers in anything other than Photoshopped-looking promo pictures though. No sign of the Hayden amps Simon Neil "endorses" either, apart from a couple of 4x12 cabs with the Hayden logo that are no doubt part of the package keeping James Johnston in giant Ashdown rigs!

Also, if feedback is an issue now, better gear won't make it disappear, but it'll hopefully give you more chance of dealing with it effectively. Where are your mics in relation to your speakers? Has your PA got a basic graphic EQ on board?

Because the bass player always gets lumbered with the stuff that requires a bit of nous to sort out! Got an idea what your budget is? How much are you looking to put through the PA? If you're just wanting to get the vocals across more clearly than your current rig, you'll get away with something smaller but if you're wanting to put drums/bass through then you'll want subwoofers as well as tops. Also need to budget for the necessary mics, cables and stands etc, which adds up really quickly and will cost more than you're expecting! Lots of people knock the Behringer stuff but if you're looking for cheap and cheerful it'll do the job for you. Plenty bands/venues out there using their stuff.

[quote name='MoJoKe' timestamp='1373747822' post='2141286'] Unless being dumb, I cannot find an O1V96 (even on Yam website? I'm probably gonna get tol not to be foolish now!) with more than 12 pre's? if I could I would agree, about perfect... [/quote] Sorry, you're right, I was being a divvy. It has 16 channels but the last four are line inputs - the old 01V that I own had two stereo channels so only 14 faders to mix from. If you've got any line level sources or external mic pres you can still make use of the four line channels to get your full 16.

Also, doesn't need to be an A/B/Y box, just a plain A/B will do as (i assume, anyway) you won't be playing both of your basses at once!

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1373645665' post='2140177'] I'm completely used to this situation, and it is annoying especially if you're like most of the bassists on here that spend years playing all sorts of gear until you find the sound that works for you. You then spend thousands on actually buying the stuff, hours of rehearsals and gigs to get the EQ sounding sweet in a band situation- warm, but not muffled, attack, but not too sharp, good note definition, but not too zingy- strings at that 'sweet spot' of sounding played in but not dead- finally the big moment comes and you get to play through a real PA, on a real stage, with all the time, effort and money you have spent on your sound ready to be unleashed to the world..... And what happens? The soundman points at a little blue box, and asks you to plug your bass into that Behringer DI box, then asks you to play something for around 10 seconds, and you're done. All the while your guitarist, with his cheap pickups, ridiculous tone-sucking overdrive pedals, and solid-state laney hardcore amp, gets a 57beta meticulously positioned, and at least 5 minutes of sound check time. [/quote] You're not the first person on this thread to say the same, so I'm not singling you out - this is just my perspective as an engineer on the idea that we only give bass a few seconds of time and attention. When I'm mixing a band the reason I only ask the bass player to play in isolation for a short period is because there's absolutely no point trying to tweak the tone beyond the basics without doing it in context. The drums get longer because of all the normally quiet rings and buzzes that suddenly become mega loud when miked and because there are anything up to a dozen open mics involved. The guitars get long enough to run me through the range of sounds they'll be using so I know they're properly balanced on stage and my gain structure can accommodate the quietest/loudest tones. No sound source gets much more than basic shelving applied (or really obvious problems addressed) without hearing how it fits with the mix. Saying engineers neglect bass tone because "your" soundcheck is ten seconds of solo bass playing is just showing an ignorance of what is required to make the whole band sound great together.

I know an incredible guitarist who lost his right hand but has a hook that he grips a plectrum with. Unbelievable lead player, the guy is inspiring. I'm not sure how I'd cope with it mentally, but I think having a positive goal like building playing skills back up would be a good route to dealing with it.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1373232136' post='2135196'] I've seen a video of Exit International and the bassists were playing Jazz and Precision basses so the idea of them playing a Bass VI makes sense. I'd be interested to hear them with that line-up. [/quote] Worth catching live if you get the chance, its a massive sound. Really nice guys too, pleasure to work with.

Haven't gigged one myself but recently did sound for a cracking band called Exit International - just a drummer and two bassists. The guy doing the more lead/melody type parts played a Bass VI for a chunk of the set and it sounded fantastic, and sat in the mix wonderfully. No worries about the bottom end either, seemed to have it on tap.

The Slash and Anthony Kiedis ones mentioned are both decent reads. Lemmy's "White Line Fever" is light but enjoyable too. I've got "Dream Brother" which is a biography of Jeff and Tom Buckley, tells their stories in parallel, a chapter on each. That was a great read, although being a big fan of Jeff, his chapters held my attention more. Don't bother with Scott Weiland's excuse for an autobiography though, load of old bollocks

[quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1372943005' post='2131912'] We played at The Ferry in Glasgow last Saturday. It's a new band for me & the venue is reputed to have an excellent PA & engineer. Turned out we had no foldback, which did cause a bit of an oops in one number. Since it's a place this band (Blue Devils) seems to play fairly regularly, I'd like to give the above a try. Also saves my poor old 5-stent heart the hassle of carrying big gear. G. [/quote] Don't know how it's got a rep for a great PA if there's no foldback! If you've got a wedge mix at your side of the stage I think you'll be fine - there's also the question of how much of you the rest of the band need to hear. I've mixed (and played) gigs with no bass amp plenty times and if (the big if!) the PA can support it out front and on stage there's no reason why it won't be fine. When I was travelling to venues I wasn't familiar with I always put my rig in the van though, even if an amp share had been promised, and that saved my skin more than a few times. I wouldn't depend on it unless you're confident the venue can support your requirements, otherwise you're stuffed if something goes wrong.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1372942472' post='2131902'] I've been considering going into my MXR-80+, thence to desk plus taking a secondary line out to a smallish cab & head as an on-stage monitor. I wonder what an engineer would do if I just turned up with my bass & the MXR-80? Do the foldback speakers handle tha\t sort of thing? G. [/quote] Depends on the venue Geoff - if it's got a fairly decent monitor setup with individual wedge mixes across the front you'll be fine. I mixed a three band bill the other week where nobody arrived with a bass amp (the fourth band, touring headliners, had agreed to provide it but pulled out of the show at last minute due to illness - that's why I never travel without all my gear!!). Just used a standard DI box for all three bands, cranked the bass in their wedge and it was fine. Sounded great in the mix and all three were happy on stage. It was a smallish room and it does benefit from having some bass coming from the stage but can get by fine without it.

On multi-band gigs, its pretty standard for the engineer to DI directly from the bass - it'll still sound like you, playing your bass and a good engineer will be looking at that sound in the context of the whole mix and doing his best to make it complement everything around it. Bear in mind that on these kind of shows there's a limited soundcheck and changeover time, so there's only so much you can do with the restrictions available to you. When I've played bigger shows and had my own engineer then we've put a mic on the cab as well and used a blend of the two out front but that's a luxury and not the norm.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1372895321' post='2131485'] Until yours is red and itchy, or the other party's? [/quote] Probably both, but its a risk I'm prepared to take to defend my beardy honour!

Little bit of a stretch to your budget but has 16 mic pres, full recall and iPad/iPhone remote capabilities is a used Yamaha 01v96. I'm using a first generation 01v with my function band (we had a limited budget and I bagged it for under £200!) and whilst its possible to bodge wireless control with a laptop and a router in between, I do think the 12 mic pres will be limiting for bigger shows, so I'll be hiring in on anything large. Easy to navigate once you get a feel for where everything is though, and (as with all the decent digi stuff now) all your outboard is, err, onboard!

I've got the Stagg 6 guitar jobby that folds into a suitcase. Cost me £45 over ten years ago and after a varied life of touring, studio and home use it's still as solid as day one. Always had it butted up against a wall with no issues and it'll take guitars/basses of all shapes and sizes. Currently in my music room with all my "stay at home" instruments in but I'm about to empty it out as I need it for my function band - plenty life in it yet!

Hey, I'm not fussed on Mumford either way but I won't stand for all this flagrant anti-beard posturing. Desist at once, or I'll rub my hairy chin on your face until it's red and itchy!

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1372689245' post='2128589'] Botttom line: I would willingly swap my day job to play for Mumford & Sons. [/quote] Today's "Talking sense on Basschat" sticker goes to you sir. I think if we were all given the choice between day job drudgery (or function band obscurity like I'm languishing in!) and taking the bass chair for [b]any[/b] band with that level of success, we'd only be lying if we said no. I don't get any kicks from listening to them, but the bazillions of people buying their records and gig tickets aren't interested the opinion of us bunch of disgruntled bassists!

Yeah, a grand (and rising) for my five piece. Early starts/late finishes extra. There's a higher bar set for reliability, efficiency and professionalism at a wedding as everything (not just the band) has probably cost a fortune, is tightly scheduled and at the end of the day its one of the most significant events in the life of your client, not just another party. We're out Friday and Saturday nearly every weekend over summer, so the work is out there, you're selling yourself short at £500.

Well, I'm currently juggling my function gigs with some freelance sound engineering, taking bands out on the road in my splitter van and a bit of stage teching too. Recently started to dabble in lighting as well, and as we speak I'm brushing up my CV to try and get some hours teaching music tech at local colleges. Still looking for things to keep the function band busy in the winter months. I've been offered loads of touring work in September but it all clashes with when mini-Mike no. 2 is due so had to say no!

I'm not sure how much difference it would make in real terms, but you could run from the preamp out on the back into another, more powerful power amp. The cab is rated for 800w and your head puts out 450w so on paper it'll take more juice. How much extra volume that translates to in real terms is questionable though. Have you though about getting your guitarists to turn down a bit? Or you could even turn the 'Low' knob down on the guitar amps when they're not looking! You definitely shouldn't be getting lost volume wise with a rig like that behind you! Maybe the rest of your band are too loud, or the bass and guitar tones need working on to leave space for each other - this is well worth taking some time over as the result will be an overall fuller and more cohesive sound for the band.

[quote name='Rockaction5' timestamp='1371802416' post='2118218'] some news from the other side of the channel, Jaguar type "DR" with DR re-designed bisonic type pickups. Elected "bass of the year 2012" in the french magazine "guitariste and basse magazine" [/quote] This looks fantastic!

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1371774599' post='2118096'] Just comes off as a jealous whining tart, given that Manson was not only quite astute in masterminding his own meteoric rise to popularity. Of course, after [i]Holywood[/i] Manson went creatively bankrupt and fell from grace just as quick as he went up. But Reznor never offered anything of merit so he is hardly well placed to criticise Manson. [/quote] I think he's doing alright with his 25ish year successful recording career and an Oscar on his shelf, to be fair. Haven't him and the artist formally known as Brian Warner kissed and made up these days anyway?