alexclaber

My Warwick Streamer and RIM Custom 5 are both almost dead-on 9lb. That's fine for me, though the RIM feels lighter because it's bigger and better balanced. I can't see much point going much heavier - heavy bodies tend to resonate less well, so if the neck wood is much denser I'd want to compensate with lighter tuners, longer upper horn, etc. Going lighter isn't a problem until the bass gets so light that it moves significantly when you're playing aggressively - I suspect if I had this kind of string tension on a Hofner and popped a note (ok, it's not possible to get that tension with a shortscale and no-one slaps on a Hofner...) the bass would end up being pulled away from me. I wouldn't say 8lbs+ is medium to heavy. I'd consider 9lb about average, 8lb light, sub 8lb very light, 10lb on the heavy side and 11-12lb+ truly heavy. Then again I've been playing wenge thru-necks for years and it's not the lightest wood... Alex

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='600257' date='Sep 16 2009, 02:40 PM']Ive never played in a band tbh... ...Id be at home in a crap covers band[/quote] Either have a break or find a crap covers band! Or a crap originals band - in which case you'll probably realise you're a lot better than you think! Bass isn't half as much fun on its own as with a band. Now I'm not a huge fan of their music but you can't deny Oasis wrote some great tunes - that first album is outstanding. I think it could be argued that they were a pretty decent band. And their bassist was utterly dire, just completely hopeless. If someone that bad can be in the one of the biggest bands of its era then even if you're as bad as you claim it's unlikely to stop you from playing good music in a good band! If you have a bass, an amp, transport and a cool demeanour you're sorted. Alex

[quote name='soopercrip' post='600220' date='Sep 16 2009, 02:03 PM']I love the sounds I'm getting, but how much I attribute to the pre and how much to the woods is what prompted my question matey[/quote] Play it unplugged in a quiet room - that's the acoustic sound of the bass. The pickup will then voice that a certain way whilst the preamp will do something else (possibly nothing with it set flat). That's an interesting wood combination - my '87 Streamer has a cherry body and wenge neck with cherry stringers. Cherry doesn't get used much on basses because it's quite in demand for furniture and is thus expensive - I gather the tone is similar to soft maple. Unplugged is it quite round and mellow in the lows, with fairy thick mids and a bit of snap on the top-end? Alex

One of the greatest jazz fusion tracks ever and the first jazz recording that really captivated me: What say you? Alex

I'm no hardcore jazzer but my thoughts would be that if you're trying to discover jazz, start with that which is closest to your current tastes - so there's some great jazz-hop out there that crosses quite a lot of lines, a few really intense fusion records like Mahavishnu Orchestra's first two albums, Billy Cobham's Spectrum, some accessible funk related stuff like Headhunters or the more out there Thrust or yet more crazy Miles Davis's On The Corner. I don't like smooth-jazz generally, it smacks of breakfast TV saxophone cheese and is deeply uncool and lacking the raw edge that makes jazz great. From another direction, big band stuff like the incredible Sinatra At The Sands (with the Count Basie Orchestra) is seriously hard swinging but lacking the more challenging harmony of bebop etc. Alex

I started out when I was 18 because I was really getting into music and had had friends who were in a band, and bass seemed easier than guitar plus you didn't need a pick and you were more in demand. 'Metallica - Load' was the key musical catalyst whilst Jack Bruce's playing on Crossroads make me realise how interesting bass could be. No idea what I wanted to achieve, just to play music. After a year or so of attempting to put a covers band together that turned into an originals band, started doing a bit of co-writing. If you're really into it I don't think it takes long to become 'impressive' at playing bass - however it takes a while longer to become truly decent and not merely flashy. Less sometimes is more but in the process of striving to do more and be original and different you'll probably learn when to hold back - strive for brilliance and at the worst you'll get competent. Where's my playing now? I'm a great groove player, a good arranger and decent lyricist. I've recently concluded that I'll never be a good lead singer so I'm going to focus on becoming a decent backing vocalist instead. I'd like to get better at improvising in a more jazz stylee - I'm not a walker or soloist - but I'm proud of my funk/rock/reggae/etc skills. I'd really like to get better at songwriting, though more on the melody front than the underlying arrangements, I think I have a knack for hooky riffs and sequences. The most bizarre thing for me has been how my obsession with tone and sound and my engineering curiosity has led to designing and building speaker cabs. The artist in me was a bit disappointed that there's more demand for the fruits of my engineering labours than my musical whims but when I take a step back I can see why - hence retiring from lead vocal duties and focusing on bass playing/writing/arranging on the musical front. What I love more than anything musically is writing new songs - picking up the bass, messing around and ideas coalescing and then gradually finding complementary parts and building the structure before I start making vocal noises and coming out with lyrical ideas. Looking forward to more co-writing, been doing quite a bit in the band but not with a separate singer - hoping they can come in with some more melodic strength to bounce off my more rhythmic ideas. I love creating a finished product, be it a new song, a new recording, a new speaker cab. I love and hate gigs - mostly love but there's a lot more stress and hassle with them than with the more creative parts of the process. When you start out you have little idea what you'll really enjoy so just get on with it and go with what moves you. Some love jamming, some love playing covers, some love writing songs, some love recording, etc. It's all good! One thing I know for sure that no-one is better at playing bass my way than me - and I'm not standing still. Alex

That headless thing was on Later last night. They really are very tight and am impressed how cleanly he executes those synthy/fuzzy basslines. Alex

[quote name='soopercrip' post='599854' date='Sep 16 2009, 08:05 AM']...however I still get the impression that the wood contributes only in a small way to the tone, and the priority when buying, or building, a bass is the hardware/electronics.[/quote] No, you have to get the woods right. If the woods aren't good then then the electronics won't have a good source to pick up and amplify. Good woods/construction doesn't mean expensive though - just the right balance of stiffness and resonance in the relevant systems. Find a cheap bass that sounds great unplugged but rubbish plugged in and a pickup swap will make it great. But if you have a bass that sounds poor unplugged than no hardware or electronics changes will save it. Alex

My RIM Custom 5 and a few Barefaced cabs should be up there with Robbie of RIM Custom Basses, maker of exceedingly fine instruments! Alex

Justin Meldal-Johnson: [url="http://www.justinmj.com/"]http://www.justinmj.com/[/url] Was with Beck from the Odelay tour until recently. Alex

[quote name='Toasted' post='599230' date='Sep 15 2009, 02:07 PM']How are you guys running the EQ on yours? It's a bloody mystery to me.[/quote] fdeck's frequency analyser (it's free and simple) does a great job of demystifying tone controls - connect head to soundcard and watch how the knobs affect the response plot. I was amazed to see what happens with the SWR Aural Enhancer! Alex

[quote name='soopercrip' post='599149' date='Sep 15 2009, 12:45 PM']is that the sound is 'electronically collected' , if you like, at the point (time) of picking, on an electric bass (active or passive), while the woods natural resonance I agree can affect the sustain, where (when) does it get the 'chance' to affect the tone, as the pickup instantly generates the signal.[/quote] Think of the pickup as being like a microphone. If you've miked guitar amps in the studio you'll know that where you position the mic makes a big difference to the tone - closer to the centre of the speaker gives more highs, closer to the surround gives more lows. Just like with a pickup, moving it towards the neck gives more bottom, towards the bridge more top. But the sound is there whether there's a microphone/pickup present or not. As soon as you pluck the string energy flows into and back from the instrument - the only part of the note where the instrument is not involved is the very very first bit of the attack, literally as your finger first touches the string - but as anyone that's slapped on a maple board vs rosewood board instrument will confirm, the wood/construction gets involved very early on in the note envelope. Alex

I've written about this numerous times but the gist of it is that you have two interacting systems - that which is the string and all the items that support and anchor it (nut/fret/fretboard/neck/joint/body/bridge) and that which is a broadband resonator (predominantly the body). On striking the string you put kinetic and potential (spring) energy into it, and then this energy changes mode every cycle and flows into and out of the support structure and from that into and out of the resonator. The stiffness/self-damping/mass/hardness of all the components affect which frequencies are damped (and turned into heat), which are directly transmitted and which are absorbed and re-emitted (and in the process excite harmonics of themselves). Even with solid-bodied bass, much of the sound you hear when playing it unplugged is from the resonating body coupling with the air. The worst case scenario for tone is an overly flexible neck that absorbs tons of energy from the string and turns it into heat and fails to re-emit it plus a heavily damped body that does that same. Stiff neck and lively body and you're in the right starting place. One reason cheaper basses can sound poor is that the finish is so thickly applied that it totally kills any body resonance. Stripping the thick gloss black finish from my old Hohner Jack transformed the sound. Pickup positioning has a huge effect upon how the sound of the bass is filtered but the sound starts with the instrument's acoustic nature. I'll be expounding on all of this at the SE Bass Bash if you want to know more... Alex

[quote name='Finbar' post='598794' date='Sep 14 2009, 10:38 PM']I don't really know what's going on with Sean to be honest. Is it worth me getting in touch with the person after Sean on the list instead, Alex? Just to keep the ball rolling...[/quote] Yes, absolutely. Pass it on! Alex

Bear in mind that the woofer still isn't fully broken in. If you can get a fairly high power 20Hz sine wave onto it for a good few hours and the amount of bottom will increase significantly. Once it's settled in you should hear that the lows go deeper than on the Markbass though they may not sound as subjectively fat or thick. Look forward to hearing more! Alex

[quote name='Bluepigbass' post='598225' date='Sep 14 2009, 02:35 PM']I see a lot bass players who perhaps do not appreciate how much cabs can throw their sound, they stand in front of a couple of 4 x 10s struggle to hear themselves whilst people in the middle of the room get too much volume. A bit of distance between bass player and cab can make a lot of difference.[/quote] Indeed, though it's not due to 'throw' it's due to dispersion. Maximum loudness is right up against the cab but only if you're on-axis (i.e. the speaker is pointing right at your ears) - stand up close but off to the side or have the speaker firing at your knees and then you'll feel and hear all the lows but you won't get the mids and highs (and that's what sounds loud and cuts through). When a player with a tall rig is having this problem it's either because they're standing to the side and thus aren't hearing their mids (4x10" cabs are very directional) and/or because they've managed to position both their rig and themselves so that they're standing in a low frequency null (where the reflections from the walls are cancelling out the direct sound from the cab). Alex

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='598029' date='Sep 14 2009, 11:07 AM']EDIT: Looked back up the thread and saw that it is indeed for a Vintage. Can you measure the distance from the top of the cab to the top of the side handles?[/quote] Owain, I don't know why your handles appear to be in a different place to Merton's! However they shouldn't be in the same place as 'thestick's. Alex

I'll see what I can do about logos! The first three Vintage cabs will have different side handle positions to all subsequent ones due to the change in ply changing the balance point. Balance point hasn't shifted by much on the Compact so handles is staying in the same place. Alex

[quote name='Musicman20' post='596057' date='Sep 11 2009, 09:18 PM']I can totally see where you are coming from. I agree. But, there is DEFINITELY a different tone on the ceramic vs neo...I tested the two high end Berg 1x12 mini-stacks. The ceramic had tons more...how can I put it, smooth and chunky roundness, ignoring the tweet. The neo sounded great, but more light and aggressive.[/quote] There is indeed a difference between the sound of those two cabs but it isn't because of the magnet materials, it's because of factors such a cone mass, cone stiffness, dustcap composition, suspension compliance, magnet strength and gap size, voice coil size, etc. You can easily make a neo magnet speaker sound identical to a ferrite magnet speaker if you wish to do so. Alex

[quote name='StevieD_FenderP2009' post='596284' date='Sep 12 2009, 04:02 AM']I'm going to check out the Barefaced 412 and see what thats like, and at 30lbs, that sounds like it'll be a bit more handy.[/quote] 4x12" and lightweight just don't go together. Also bear in mind that the tone of a cab is not defined by the size of, or number of the speakers - I doubt any bassist could reliably identify what configuration a cab is if blindfolded. There are many more important specs that define the tone of a speaker than the nominal diameter. If tone was so dependant on diameter I wouldn't have had so many people buy a Compact - hardly any of them were previously using a 1x15". If you can wait until October you can scoot round the M25 to the SE Bass Bash and try more bass cabs than stocked in any shop in the country! Alex

The people who claim ceramic magnets cause some special 'grunt' are akin to those that once claimed you had to use fifteens for bass, then that 8x10"s were the only thing to have, then that only guitar players use twelves, and so on and so forth. And probably very much like those who said that funny big four stringed guitar would never catch on. Or those automobile things because you had to have a man with a flag walking in front so you couldn't go fast anyway... Alex

I've only just got used to going down to low B! It's an interesting challenge learning how to use lower registers musically - what becoming apparent to me is conventional bass playing works best when mostly in the traditional register and as you go lower you need to think in a more orchestral manner, almost like being the pedalboard of a large pipe organ. Once you're that low the pitch becomes more clouded so the bassline no longer can stand alone as a counter-melody but acts almost solely as harmonic support function for everything above it. And likewise its rhythmic content becomes harder to discern. The amplification is an interesting challenge as well! Alex

[quote name='Moos3h' post='595405' date='Sep 11 2009, 09:25 AM']So what do we actually MAKE over here, and where do those profits go once your cash is in the till of the retailer?[/quote] I make my cabs here - in fact it says so on the badge*. If I wasn't selling direct it would be very hard to pay for British labour and remain price competitive though. I'm hoping that as overseas wages and shipping costs rise we'll see a return to more local production but that's a very long-term thing. Alex * Which stymied a bright idea from a forumite for licensing US production as I'd need to order a whole load more badges that didn't say 'Made In England' on them...

I LOVE drummers that can play their hi-hat really quietly whilst making the snare crack just-so and the kick properly stomp through the mix. But that's a bit of a tangent... Alex

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='595828' date='Sep 11 2009, 04:47 PM']When watching bands (as no one is interested in hearing what you have to say about the bass) I feel more inclined to praise drum technique, sound or lack thereof and don't pay much attention to guitars or vox. Basically I find interesting drumming interesting.[/quote] Ditto. Though it doesn't have to be busy to be interesting. I really like drummers that think like arrangers and really build an emotive foundation (though I've never got Neil Peart despite him doing this). Did Keith Moon overplay? I think he just played right for Who they were. Overplaying is bad on any instrument - but some drummers (and bassists) can turn what would be overplaying into incredible groove oriented yet seriously busy playing, like Zig Modeliste, Rocco Prestia, David Garibaldi, Bootsy Collins, John Bonham, etc. Even when Jaco went high and busy he still grooved hard. And even when Ginger Baker and Keith Moon strung together one roll after another, so did they. So does Danny Carey from Tool, or Vinnie Paul. I really really really hate drummers that try to do big impressive fills and completely manage to lose the pocket in the process - they also tend to be the ones that don't listen generally. Alex