alexclaber

I went to a ball a couple of years ago with the world's worst covers band playing. The drummer was like a robot, no groove or swing whatsoever, it was so painful I was unable to dance despite the songs they were covering being great songs. Awful. I hate to say this but I would rather listen to a DJ than mediocre covers bands that think being able to play the right notes and sing in tune is good enough. Alex

[quote name='The Funk' post='49286' date='Aug 23 2007, 01:19 AM']I also keep my bass angled diagonally upwards. It means I can play with less strain in the right and left hand.[/quote] Good point! Pivoting thumb technique is very important if you want to comfortably cover more than three frets without shifting in the lower reaches. Once that became intuitive for me the whole 'stretch' issue became basically irrelevant. Alex

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='49468' date='Aug 23 2007, 12:29 PM']I think if I had to make the choice, I'd rather listen to something new played badly than something I'm familiar with being murdered.[/quote] Exactly! At least when an originals band is bad you can blame the songwriting to some degree... Alex

[quote name='lee4' post='49171' date='Aug 22 2007, 08:24 PM']I also play my bass slung low.I find there is less strain on my plucking arm.[/quote] Hmmm... Try it a bit higher, it shouldn't cause any problems with your plucking hand but should make your fretting easier. Do you use correct left hand position (i.e. thumb behind the neck) and pivot? Rocco Prestia, Flea, Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, come immediately to mind as shorter bass players and there are plenty of ladies that can play circles round me despite being smaller. I don't think one finger per fret is a great rule in the lower reaches unless you have huge hands and/or v low action and/or very light strings. Better to shift between left hand techniques as the music requires, always aiming for minimal strain. Alex

GK or MarkBass head, build or get someone (see finnbass.com) to build a BFM Omni cab. Such a rig will utterly blow away your Trace amp. You will be amazed! Alex

1. Is a light bass cabinet important to you? Define light. A properly built cab that is stiff and non-resonant is more important than a cab being light. But a cab that is overly heavy due to cheap materials or poor design is bad too. For a small cab (i.e. 2x10") I think 40-50lbs is fair, for a large cab that can have good wheels then 75lbs is fine. (Acme and EA stand out as ones that do it right, Basson stand out as getting it completely wrong IMO) 2. Would you be interested in a smaller designed cabinet for maximum portability? For rehearsals something small would be nice but for gigs I'd rather have something tall (so you can hear it) and big (so it's loud) with wheels (so it's easy to move). Has to fit in the car though (again tall and slim is better than a cube of equal volume) 3. What is the weight of your current rig now? Two 50lb cabs - only use one for rehearsals. 40lb rack. 4. Have you ever had portability issues with this cabinet before? Well it doesn't move itself, but it's small and light enough for me. 5. Would a Neo speaker make the amplifier more appealing? Speakers with neodymium magnets would only marginally reduce the weight. Thinner plywood with more bracing would make more of a difference. 6. Would you want casters on the amplifier for added portability? Not on these cabs, they're too small to need them. For a bigger cab yes, but really big (4") casters for tilt and roll. 7. Would you want the input to be in the back? Where else?! 8. Would you want the Ohm rating to be 4? Impedance is pretty irrelevant, my amp has tons of power. Most woofers are 8 ohms so 4 ohm limits you to either two driver cabs or a very small selection of speakers. 9. Would you want the power rating to be over 200 watts? Any half decent speaker will have a thermal rating of more than 200W. Less than this would be asking for power compression. 10. Is a metal grille cover attractive on an amplifier? Shiny is good. But grills are expensive, heavy and can rattle or cause port noise, so have to be carefully selected and fitted. Good luck with the project, pm/email me if you need any (within invigilation guidelines) assistance, I like designing cabs! Alex

There are many covers bands that play better, have more vibe, more groove and even more originality than many originals bands. Mr Funk's comment about originals bands jumping on the bandwagon is so true. Conversely there are covers bands that just don't get it and should not be let out, let alone paid to play! I'm just glad to see there is still some demand for live music when a DJ is so much cheaper and easier. If I could earn a good wage playing 9am to 5pm in a covers band then I'd love to do it as a day job. However as the rest of the world wants to go to gigs in the evening and pay as little as possible for the pleasure, I'll stick to writing and playing my own music (and sounding truely original - at least I think so! ) in my free time as that's what gets my rocks off, honey. Alex

Don't add bass boost in the ~40Hz or lower vicinity (i.e. below the cab's tuning frequency where the speakers' movement is uncontrolled by back pressure) and you'll be fine. Alex

[quote name='Tinman' post='48216' date='Aug 21 2007, 11:13 AM']So do you think, to get the sound I'm after I should be boosting the 40 to 130Hz range and cutting the rest?[/quote] No, that's a recipe for disaster! Set the EQ flat, turn the preshape off, neck pickup at max, bridge pickup rolled back a bit. Roll off the tone knob to mellow things out. Try some small tweaks to the graphic EQ but ignore the sound when the bass is soloed, concentrate on the change when the rest of the band is playing. Suss out what works for your situation like that. EQ is like seasoning - a little goes a long way. Alex

Approximately: Sub-bass - 30Hz (rumble) Low-bass - 40Hz (rumble/depth) Bass - 60Hz (depth/fatness) Mid-bass - 100Hz (fatness/boom) High-bass - 130Hz (fatness/boom/thickness) Low/mid-mids - 340Hz (thickness/growl) Mid/high-mids - 660Hz (growl/nasality) High-mids/low-treble - 1.3Khz (nasality/bite) Brightness - 2.6Khz Sheen - 5Khz Air - 10Khz Too high - 15Khz Alex

LOUD. Alex

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='48038' date='Aug 20 2007, 10:39 PM']So, thats only £50-75k a year. Nice work if you can get it, even if its not grotesquely Beckham-esque.[/quote] Especially when you bear in mind that this kind of work is rarely longterm. Note that the article from Sound On Sound is written by Big George - who wisely went on to supplement his income by composing and arranging music for TV: [url="http://www.biggeorge.co.uk/"]http://www.biggeorge.co.uk/[/url] Alex

[quote name='lee4' post='47932' date='Aug 20 2007, 08:35 PM']As I am only 5'7" tall,I have trouble finding a really comfy bass to play.[/quote] Trouble in what way? Is your strap at a good length? Are you using correct fretting hand technique? Alex

The OBP-3 in my Streamer is in a different league to the original MEC preamp, a huge improvement in every way. Despite that I almost always bypass the preamp nowadays and just use a pickup switch to change my tone, so I hear pure unsullied EMGs on 18V, which is a great sound! For the basses with passive pickups I'd go for an Audere over the OBP-3 - slightly more useful EQ voicing and that brilliant impedance switch. I agree about Barts tending to be a little darker, or maybe softer sounding. A lone Bart J pickup at the bridge is a great sound but on the neck or in the P position I rather have the openness of an EMG. Alex

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='48024' date='Aug 20 2007, 10:18 PM'][url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345828&highlight=thumb+rest"]This[/url] popped up over on TalkBass a while back & struck me (& others) as cooler than a very cool thing in the fridge.[/quote] The thumbrest that preceded my ramp was a small piece of ebony held on just like this. Cunning! Alex

[quote name='Steve_K' post='47993' date='Aug 20 2007, 09:41 PM']A nice bit of wood and double sided tape?[/quote] I made one out of gaffer tape until I knew what I wanted, then Martin Petersen made one out of ebony for me. Double sided tape works fine, even on oil/wax finishes. Alex

It really does look like the most left hand friendly five string neck ever! Alex

[quote name='Chopthebass' post='47875' date='Aug 20 2007, 07:17 PM']I've ordered a DB750 and Schroeder 210212 cab, and I was thinking of adding a 1x15 cab with about 500w power handling at 4-ohms. This will bring the overall stack down to 2-ohms and unleash the full power of the head. I want the cab to have the same footprint as the Schroeder and be tuned as low as poss. I was thinking of using a B & C 15NDL76. The cab needs to be 584mm wide x 406mm deep, and the height will be whatever volume is required. Ideally I'd like the cab as low as poss.[/quote] Well the big problem you're up against is that there are hardly any 4 ohm 15" woofers available. Combine that impedance difference with the higher sensitivity of the Schroeder due to its undersized cab and high tuning and you'll barely hear the 15". The best 15" for bass guitar bottom is the Eminence Kappalite 3015LF IMO. High sensitivity, good Qts for full bottom down to resonance, huge Xmax. Eminence have a selection of 1x15" and 2x15" designs for the 3015LF to save you doing the work yourself, though now I think about it your best best is to go for as large a cab as you're happy carrying and tune it to 50Hz to get a big hump in the lows to keep up with the Schroeder's high-bass hump. Alex

[quote name='Vasquez Rich' post='47865' date='Aug 20 2007, 07:06 PM']Was in Sound Control on Saturday watching a "Bass & Drums" Masterclass... and the bass guy said that whoever gets to play bass for The Spice Girls reunion tour would get £100,000 a week, A WEEK!!!!! Did I hear correct? Anyone got any info to back this up?[/quote] Yes, and the moon is indeed made of cheese. The best paid session bassist I've heard of (whose name currently escapes me) was a guy in the '60s earning a six figure annual wage because he was apparently the only man in the USA who could play Bossa Nova. Don Someone I think... Ray Brown is another that comes to mind - there was a lot of money in TV/film work in those days and the gigging scene was more lucrative too. I doubt any of the current top bassists are earning such a high wage but I'm sure the likes of Pino and Will Lee aren't short of a bob or two. Blame Jimmy Saville. Alex

[quote name='The Funk' post='47813' date='Aug 20 2007, 05:07 PM']Does that mean the Acme cabs will be up for sale soon? [/quote] Nope! Despite my best efforts I can't come up with a better compact cab design than the Low-B2. I'll be keeping the Acmes for rehearsals and recording (hopefully one in each location to minimise cartage) and the Omni 15TB will be the stupidly loud gig solution. Alex

I prefer WinISD Pro but it is a fair bit harder on the brain - though worth the effort IMO. What's your situation, are you looking to upgrade an existing cab with a new speaker, build a cab for some speakers you already have, or do a new design from scratch? Budget/needs? I've been through a ton of my own theoretical designs over the past year and despite having some great ideas (if I say so myself!) I've actually settled on a BFM design instead... Alex

Incredible reliability, solid tone, excellent value for money. Their white papers are very informative too: [url="http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/"]http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/[/url] And now they're getting more into gear that doesn't weigh as much as a baby elephant I think they're very seriously worth considering regardless of one's brand snobbery. Alex

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='47439' date='Aug 19 2007, 04:54 PM']It does indeed have the early predominantly Wenge neck. I could be proved wrong when I hopefully see the bass stripped of it's paint tomorrow, however going off the weight I think it will be Maple; I had an early Cherry model once and that was a featherweight bass. The route for the original bridge will be blended in with some sympathetic sanding/forming so that it doesn't look too obvious.[/quote] Groovy! There's nothing featherweight about my cherry bodied example though... Alex

Hmmm, I wonder in that case if it's a cherry body and wenge neck then, like my '87 model. Now I look more closely I can see where it was routed for the Schaller bridge. Alex

Looking good Robbie! Did you get my email about the 12th fret markers? Alex