leftybassman392

On a guitar amp, a master volume gives you the option of lots of distortion from the preamp whilst keeping the output level under control. For the average pub band this is likely to be an important consideration. Also (as any guitarist with a valve rig knows), cooking the power stage a bit gives a better result tonally if it can be managed at the venue you're playing. Another way to do it with a high MV level is to set the preamp gain fairly low but have a pedal in the chain to boost the signal. With my 20w Cornford Hurricane I gigged with a graphic eq in the chain; channel input at around 3 or 4, master at around 7 if possible, and set up the graphic to give extra gain with mid boost for soloing. Because the graphic and the input stage were interactive, o/p level had to be managed via the master but I'd have it as high as I could reasonably get it. Another option would be to use a power soak of some sort (e.g. Marshall Powerbrake). Although opinions differ as to how it affects the sound, it does give you the option of pushing the output stage harder without deafening everybody in the room.

Can't see you getting away with that one...

Crikey! Practice, modes and art in one thread! Is nothing sacred?

This. With knobs on.' As if evidence of it's oddness were needed, F1 driver Sebastian Vettel apparently christens his race cars with fairly racey (sic) names (e.g. 'Rachel's dirty sister'). I kid you not. Need I say more? I think not.

Nice going. No, really: a truly astute observation. Since I've been a member here for around 10 years I think I'll pull rank and make the observation that I have a pretty good idea what a public forum is for thanks for asking. As regards my sense of humour, well I've had a look and that seems to be in pretty good fettle too. Good of you to ask about that too though. While I'm here: 1. Based on your stated opinion I simply offered a suggestion. Seeing it any other way is simply wrong 'cos it just ain't so. Unless of course you just wanted to spout off about it for the good of the assembled throng, in which case spout away mi amigo. 🙂 2. In the spirit of lightweight discussion, I would respectfully suggest that you might care to lighten up a touch. Just a thought... Have a nice day. 🙂

Ummm... has it occurred to you to not listen to any more of it and save yerself and the rest of us a bit of time? Specifically, having listened to the first one and having expressed your dislike of it so candidly and at such length, why would you put yourself through the torture of listening to more of it? And then coming back here to complain about it... again?

All due respect Paul but that just doesn't make any sense. Are you really saying that anything musically worth saying can be said in less than 3 minutes? I'm not partisan in this discussion because although I think Punk has made a worthwhile contribution to popular music that doesn't need any help from old farts like me, I also think this 'sweeping away all the pointless, self-indulgent, po-faced sh!t that went before it' line is misplaced, not to say trying to rewrite history. Fake news 70's-style. There's more to popular music than 3-minute slabs of pith and bile. More to the point, the world would be an altogether poorer place if there weren't. ETA: As a by-the-by to some other posters, the reason that Stadium Rock bands like Whitesnake, Springsteen and others flourished is that they needed venues that size to accommodate the numbers of people that wanted to see them play. It didn't need to have anything to do with the quality of the music, but these bands had huge followings. Were the audiences just stupid or brainwashed? Of course not! Everybody's entitled to their views of course, but let's please not get silly about this.

Given what's happened here in the last few weeks I doubt she's alone. ETA: Having said I'll walk this challenge I've noticed my old Shuker Jazz 5 up for sale in the lefties thread. Hmmm...

A national dish consisting of sheep's entrails mixed with porridge and served up inside it's stomach with a side order of potatoes and turnips mashed to a pulp. Ahhh, Scotland bonnie Scotland! Here's tae us! 🥃

I've bought nothing, and since I don't play professionally any more I have no plans to buy anything. In fact there's every chance that I might sell something. I'm gonna walk this. 😎 Not gloating, you understand... ..but I am. p.s. I hope there's no time limit on entries for this one. I have been lurking the thread from time to time if that helps.

As per request. Enjoy.

What, the Office World MK signature 'Shredder' you mean?

Is it!? WTF! Oh wait...

It's slap; it's got more than 4 strings; and - horror of horrors (gasp!) - it's a girl. So, pretty much everything that could go wrong has gone wrong then... ...

Ummm... Would this be a bad time to remind people that slapping was in widespread use by double bass players long before electric instruments were even invented? So are you guys saying it's ok to do it on a double bass but not on an electric one? I don't have an axe to grind btw. I'm just a bit concerned that there might be a touch of selective memory going on.

+1 for the Briefcase. Pricey but very good. Comes from the 'HiFi' school of instrument amplification.

Sounds about right.

So, a formal do then...?

Plenty over the years, but two in particular come to mind: 1. Rough pub in a rough corner of Northampton (Morris Man?): mid song, we were approached by a guy the size of a brick poohouse dressed in a penguin suit and who Mike Tyson would have hestitated to quibble with. Turns out he was a bouncer who'd just come from a prestige gig somewhere or other and was keen to know if we'd be interested in some silver plate cutlery he'd liberated from said venue, whereupon he produced a fairly sizeable collection of knives, forks and spoons from various pockets. We politely declined. 2. Doing a cocktail gig for a friend in deepest Somerset. Problem was, we were also dinner guests at the event. Upshot, after an initial burst in the lounge while waiting for the dinner to start I spent the rest of the evening wolfing down each of the various courses and scuttling back to the lounge to play another song or two before the next course arrived. The guy organising the event was also the very close friend who'd invited us to the dinner. I didn't have the heart to tell him that we musicians don't normally do this kind of thing.

Don't worry about it. You'll never need it (unless of course certain events develop in a certain way come March 29th, in which case you'll need to mug up on it a bit; and while you're at it you might want to check out gills, groats and chains too).

Follow up to my previous post: When studying speaker specs, a key thing to check is sensitivity. Small differences in measured sensitivity can have a dramatic effect on how much acoustic energy is produced for any given input level. For example, a speaker with a sensitivity of 95dB requires twice the amplifier power than one with 98dB to produce the same volume level for any given input. Old lags will know that loudness is some way from being the only criterion for choosing speakers, but this thread is to do with watts per kilo (which as I've already said in my previous post is not a reliable measure of anything much, but which seems to be asking a question about loudness). If you're measuring loudness you can't really do so without taking sensitivity into account.

I don't play live these days so I only have one (a Seibass headless fretted 5), but when I was I had 5 or 6. Latterly however I found myself only ever using 2; the Sei and a lovely Roscoe fretless 4 that I got at a bit of a knockdown price from a guy in Florida. When I stopped playing seriously I sold the Roscoe along with eveything else, but I do still hanker after it occasionally. As it happens there's a very similar one for sale in the Lefties section right now, almost identical except that it's a 6. I don't need it of course and at this point would be very unlikely to use it in anger, but it's the first time I've been even a little bit tempted in years. Ho hum.

Weight against wattage is actually a bit random as it ignores a number of other factors that can significantly affect how loud a cab will go, but if you must do it that way choose either lb or Kg and stick to it for all your calculations. Don't try to mix the results.

No such luck!