mike257

So it's just me that thinks it looks the mutts nuts then? Oh well, I won't have to fight you all for the cheap 2nd hand ones in a few months then!

Loved her with Smashing Pumpkins, the solo stuff was pretty cool too, didn't know she was touring though! Gutted I missed it, sounds like a good one. So is she touring a new album then?

I owned both of these back in my youth - the Ibanez got gigged a lot, but had some issues with the neck, and (probably due to my own inexperience at looking after these things) ended up warped beyond playability, and has since wound up in a skip. The Squier was my first choice bass until the day I bought a Stingray. It's still in my collection, although it's been souped up with a Badass II bridge, Wizard pickups and all new pots/wiring. I actually took it out for a fair few gigs this year, and it still plays and sounds great. Based on that totally subjective personal experience (and my preference for 'classic' looking basses), I'd go Squier every time - although you should get your hands dirty with both and see how you feel about them.

I've got a California JM4 and absolutely love it - they're really well made basses, and I've never had a problem with how it sounds, it's great! Have been using it in passive mode lately, sounds great even without that fancy preamp.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1013099' date='Nov 5 2010, 11:17 AM']"One of our three singer/guitarists" That's just asking for trouble.[/quote] I found the most elegant solution to this most complex of situations. I've jacked it in! Bassist for hire then - let's see how that works out.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1013099' date='Nov 5 2010, 11:17 AM']"One of our three singer/guitarists" That's just asking for trouble.[/quote] Don't I know it!! The vocal harmonies were incredible - the ego clashes, not so much. I can't say I reccommend it!

[quote name='mike257' post='571472' date='Aug 17 2009, 10:29 AM']Amazingly, considering there's 6 of us, we come pretty close to managing it. There's three singers/writers in the band, one of whom was the driving force behind getting the band together in the first place, so he's the 'de facto' gaffer, but it rarely needs to come to one person to make the over-riding decision. .... Sometimes egos have to be massaged, and compromises have to be made, but we were all close friends who've played in various bands together before this one, so it all tends to work out in the end![/quote] Interesting to see this thread revived 12 months down the line - seems things have changed for plenty of us! My democratic, bunch of mates 6 piece has, after a fairly horrendous year of bad luck and bust-ups, become 4 band members and a session drummer. One of our original three singer/guitarists has got off in a storm of tension and unspoken grievances, and took the drummer with him. The remaining four of us, after resolving to carry on regardless, trained up a stand-in drummer and rearranged the set, with a view to not having to cancel any commitments. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and a guitarist is losing the plot, and now [b]all[/b] our shows for the rest of the year are pulled, and nobody seems capable of agreeing about anything. I'm sure it wasn't always this difficult!!

To be fair mate, most practice rooms I've ever used are in abandoned looking warehouses and down dark, empty looking sidestreets - most builders round here would have no better clue where our practice rooms are than the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick man, unless they were musos themselves. Even the cabbies usually can't find them! If the lads don't want to give you a second chance after you got lost in a new city, that's a bit tight, but that kind of attitude ain't gonna help you any either. I'd make damn sure I knew where I was heading to for an audition, between A-Z's, Google maps, and smart-arsed smartphones, it's pretty hard to not find somewhere these days! Don't take it as a knock though, hope things work out better for you next time mate

Practicepracticepractice. The more you do it the easier it'll be, but it goes if you don't keep on top of it. My old band was fast and heavy, and between two rehearsals a week and a couple of gigs a month, it became second nature. My current band has a much more relaxed vibe, and rarely presents anything 'difficult' technique-wise, and I've found that on the odd occasion I'm off having a rock-out somewhere, I struggle with things that used to come easily. Guess it's like any other excercise, gotta keep on top of it!

I've got Delano pickups in my Jazz-a-like Sandberg California JM4 - not the same set as you, mind. I've got the single coil at the neck, and a MM style (with a coil-tap) at the bridge. I A/B'd with my Stingray when I first picked it up, and found that my bridge humbucker, although not quite as full sounding, did a pretty passable impersonation of my usual tone. To be honest, that's probably more to do with the pre-amp differences (2-band vs 3 band) than the pickup itself. Coil tapped for the Jazz bass sound, it does the business no problem. To be honest, I don't actually use the bridge pickup at all when playing with my current band. I keep rolled right over to the neck and the bottom end is huge. I reckon they'll do the business pretty damn well in your Jazz, throw them in!!

Didn't know that about the low-end throttling - I've got a Shuttle 6 and use it with an Ampeg 6x10, and have no trouble shifting bottom end. I've never ran the volume past halfway, and I've used it with a couple of pretty damn loud bands. Personally, I don't know what I'd do with that extra power, as I barely run it past 3 or 4 at the moment, but I haven't tried one out to hear these tonal differences.

Is that you Danny? All the potential bassists are probably intimated by your 'just escaped from a L'Oreal advert' hair mate I've played in a band with this fella and he's a killer guitarist and singer - any bassists in the area who are interested would do well to have a go at it!

It's spot on about Billy Corgan in the Smashing Pumpkins. There's plenty of documentary footage and interviews where he and the other band members have been pretty candid about it. He'll do pretty much all the guitars and the bass because 'he can do it in fewer takes', and because he knows what he wants it to sound like. On the second album particularly, you can pretty much pick out the guitar parts that aren't his.

I haven't got experience of using the M-Audio stuff, but looking at the specs, the Mackie has a win with the number of preamps on board - the M-Audio only gives you 8 inputs unless you also pick up some kind of preamp with an ADAT output (The Behringer ADA-8000 mentioned further up is the absolute cheapest option, or something like a Focusrite Octopre would be a snazzier alternative). With the M-Audio, the mixing experience will be a middle ground between desk and computer - it'll be less 'hands-on' than the Mackie as you've only got 8 faders and a bank of assignable knobs, so there's still a fair amount of button/mouse pushing to do, but you've got the motorised faders, and total recall and repeatability of your mixdowns. You won't have the same control over tone shaping when tracking, because you're missing the Mackie's channel strips, but the integration with your Mac is tighter, and you'll have the hardware transport controls etc. The Mackie is going to give you (assuming you're only running 16 channels) a complete analogue mix experience, but you are stepping away from some of the functionality in the computer to do it (automation/recall/processing). Also, it's worth bearing in mind that you're adding an extra round of conversion, digital to analogue and back again, in taking the mix out of the box, so you're losing a certain amount of quality each time. I don't know how good the convertors are in the Mackie desk, but it will impact on the sound. There's pros and cons both ways, I guess it depends on your preferred way of working, but the M-Audio seems a decent middle ground between old-school and computer-based for the mixing - with the £300ish price difference you could shop around for a used pre-amp and get your full 16 channels input. Of course, this is all in my humble opinion, and I haven't used the kit in question. If you can get to a dealer and have a play with the M-Audio control surface, you'll get a better feel for how the DAW integration will help you out, and how much you'll miss all those knobs!

[quote name='Beedster' post='921560' date='Aug 11 2010, 01:16 PM']I have to admit I'm not overly sure about the relevance of 16x2 and 16x16 firewire, which seems to be the other significant difference? Chris[/quote] Hey Chris, sounds like a really fun project, it's got me thinking about giving my setup a long overdue overhaul! The difference in the Firewire interface is this: The 16x2 means you can send 16 channels in to your computer from the desk, but all that comes back is 2 channels, typically your final mixdown. You will have full individual control of channels when recording, but your final mix will still have to be done 'in the box' with the mouse. The 16x16 means you have 16 channels in to the computer, and 16 channels coming back out. With this, you could record the full band, and then at mix time, treat the Mac like a tape machine and return all 16 channels to your desk individually for an analogue mixdown, sending the results back into the computer for final master. You could still apply all your insert effects in the box, and potentially route the aux sends back in to apply VST send effects, whilst keeping your actual mix in the analogue realm of your desk. It's a big difference in the workflow - if you prefer mixing on faders and knobs, the 1640i might be worth the extra spend! Mike

I can't remember which one came first, but we played a three-song set before the school christmas show, I think I was 14/15 (way back in 1998/9!). I had tinsel down the neck of my Squier Precision Special (still got it too - the bass, not the tinsel), and I gave the school's little Carlsboro combo a good work out playing Stereophonics' 'Just Looking', I'm So Tired by The Beatles, and 'Design For Life' by the Manic Street Preachers.

[quote name='the_skezz' post='900877' date='Jul 21 2010, 12:29 PM']Link? You've got me wanting to see it now [/quote] As much as it pains me to do so.... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvCoIENZYfk"]it's here[/url]. Even at 18 I should've known better.

Probably falls under 'horrendous' - back in my youth I was tapped up by a mate to play bass in a death metal band. An improv death metal band. It was only for one gig, but all their rehearsals clashed with my own rehearsals, and it transpired that I didn't even get to soundcheck with them. I ended up jumping off a train and stepping straight on to stage with a guitarist, TWO drummers and two vocalists who I'd never heard play a note before, and proceeded to embarrass myself comprehensively for the next 35 minutes. An old band mate of mine kindly stuck a clip up on youtube 'for posterity', still makes me cringe now.

A fat +1 for this. Been using it for a while now, mainly to tune my acoustic guitar at home. It's at least as good as any standalone tuner-with-a-little-mic-on that I've ever owned. Good stuff!