Phil Starr

If the screw has a stub clear of the surface you can probably get it out, but you may only get one chance, it smapped because it's a thin screw and it's in tight, there's a chance it you exert too much force it will snap again where you can't reach it. You have to avoid any bending forces on the screw, hold your pliers nice and straight. Heat works but use much more of it than you think, get it as hot as you can, you need to get it hot right to the tip, not just warm, all the way down inside where the timber will cool it. Before you do this think about how you will grip the screw, if the pliers won't grip and you turn then this will polish the stub making it harder to get a grip as you make repeated attempts. If possible I try and use a file to make some flats to grip. On large screws I've managed to get enough to use a spanner but this won't be big enough for that. When filing use some sellotape to protect the wood from the file. Good luck.

[quote name='KingPrawn' timestamp='1499633862' post='3332669'] I have found myself in a really odd situation. I'm involved with a band that has 3 other incredible players, two are classically trained and play day in day out orchestras etc. The lead singer is fab and decent guitarist. But.... There is a barrier in that the two highly trained players have to have the dots in front of them. They are really struggling to make the transition to learning a song without the dots. Equally the lead singer is struggling to get to grips with being handed lead sheets, as she is really an intuitive player. I find myself as piggy in the middle. I can just about hold my own with work between rehearsals. I really want it to work as when it gels it sounds great. Just wondering if any of you BCers have any tips to make this work? wheres the middle ground? [/quote] Is there actually a problem here that won't be solved by just spending a little time working together? If they are going to read the dots it's probably going to be completely correct, a bit like playing with a click track for you as a bassist. You are probably going to have to observe note lengths and pauses more accurately to tie in with them, what a great opportunity to work on your playing. If they want the dots they are going to have to write them themselves. For them that is the effort/cost involved in learning the song, just like the effort you put in learning it your way. Do they want to change, or see it as a problem? If not you probably aren't going to have a lot of luck pressurising them and why should they if they can play the songs beginning to end perfectly well. I'd imagine they've all done some training as accompanists so with the notes in front of them they'll still be able to follow a looser approach to timing/phrasing. I've seen the whole London Symphony Orchestra rise up as to a man and woman to support a struggling soloist. Most importantly I think a lot of really good music comes out of mixing in different skills, even playing Mustang Sally in a covers band demands little adaptations to the rest of the musicians. You are going to end up playing differently from other bands, it may take a while to adapt to each other but if you listen to each others ideas and playing it'll happen.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1499850490' post='3334008'] Careful, there seems to be 2 different measuring systems at work here. The 1200 watts of the 210LNT is not RMS. It's AES which, while it's supposed to be the more accurate figure, is actually less than the RMS figure. A quote I've seen is that 800 watts AES is the equivalent to 600 watts RMS. The RMS figure will be about a third less. [/quote] For most people AES figures are probably more relevent than RMS, certainly a lot more reliable than any of the advertising scams of 'peak power' or 'music power' What would be the best test of a speaker? For most of us the most useful would be to blast music at full power for several hours and if it survives then that speaker can handle that power. AES is an attempt to do just that by soaking the speaker with music frequencies appropriate for the speaker for two hours. RMS power uses a single frequency sine wave and is often based upon temperature rise in the voice coil, if the speaker stays below say 250C then it passes. That's really good for a manufacturer as it gives them a way of testing a batch of speakers to destruction and is an objective repeatable test but doesn't give much idea of real life. The problem with real life music testing is to define music, Classical or Drum'n'Bass? To keep it objective we use all the frequencies filtered to an agreed standard for a set period of time so that speakers can be measured in the same way across the world and then compared fairly. There are two commonly used standards that are used to try and do that AES in the USA and IEC in most of the rest of the world. The UK is a member of the IEC and British Standards are aligned with the IEC as are DIN standards in Germany. The details of the testing procedures have slight technical differences from AES but give pretty much the same results and you'll even see manufacturers give a AES/IEC rating. So you can trust AES/IEC ratings, probably better than RMS ones. There is legislation around them and standard test procedures where something roughly like music has been put through real speakers. That doesn't mean you can't break a 1000W speaker with a 1000W amp or that you would blow it instantly with a 2000W amp, there's no legislation that can account for operator error More reading if you are curious from EAW http://eaw.com/docs/6_Technical_Information/StudyHall_and_TechNotes/Power_Handling.pdf and JBL https://www.jblpro.com/pub/technote/spkpwfaq.pdf

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1499809322' post='3333829'] I know Callum, I'll tell him to give his sound person a pay rise. [/quote] I thought he was excellent. Great voice, some nice songs, loved the one about his dad. His band were just right too they all looked like they were enjoying themselves. The audience loved him but he can't have missed that. I suspect he's going a lot further. Wish him luck.

I was staggered at the incompetence really. I used to mix at festivals back in the 70's (think WEM 4x10 era and AltecA7's) It's not an easy job as you don't really get a soundcheck but in these days with digital desks you can simply program in your settings at the start of a tour. The changover was so slick, with teams of people wheeling on the drum riser and new lighting rigs, pyrotechnics going off on beat. Techs handing over ready tuned guitars. Session players in the wings for one song, or ready to take over if Brandon decided to drop guitar for a bit of audience interaction. Probably £1,000,000 worth of PA, nothing left to chance it seemed. I can't believe it was the lack of money that caused this, or plain laziness. I think there's a general hatred here for the Disco/RnB style bass mix but there's no doubt punters like a bit more bass and drum that used to be the norm. I also get the techs wanting to compress the drums in a live situation or trimming the upper end of the frequencies to clean up the mix and separate the instruments a little. For god's sake I'm a bassist. I like a lot of bass and drums but to let it overload the speakers and drown out the lead guitar. And they had someone there on the other stage who could do the job.

I saw the Killers along with Tears For Fears and Elbow at Hyde Park this weekend and the bass sound was awful. It's not the first thread on this topic but why do they do it? The PA at these big events is out of this world, they can pretty much have any sound at any volume they want, the control of dispersion is so good as is the integration of the relay speakers, you pretty much get the same sound at the back of the arena as you do up by the stage. So what was wrong, the bass was too loud and the kick drum even louder. The bass sound conveyed very little information. Tears for Fears used a Hofner look alike (Taylor I think) but you couldn't tell it from the P-basses we saw most of, and you really couldn't tell a P from a J even though some bands were swapping out between songs. You couldn't really tell a pick from a thumb. The bass was probably 10db above the rest of the mix and was distorting like hell on all the louder passages. Kick drum was at least 6dB up on that for a lot of the time, though less distorted because it was compressed to hell. There was almost a complete lack of mids and top for bass and drums. Kick and tom drowned out the cymbals snare and hihat. It just sounded like one of those in car systems with a boom box in the boot. the only band that got anywhere near a decent balance were Elbow though even then the synth bass was running into distortion. The Killers had the worse balance you could barely hear Dave Keuning's guitar if the rhythm section were playing and it stayed the same all through the set. Honourable mention goes to whoever was running sound for Callum Beattie on the smallest stage. Lovely kick sound as he was setting up but too loud in the first number. Then one by one the vocals and guitars slowly came up until by the end of the third song he had nailed the mix completely. I don't suppose anyone in the audience noticed it happening either, which is how it should be. You'd think the headline band would get the best sound guy, not someone who doesn't notice a missing guitar or his speakers hitting the stops. The bands were fabulous by the way.

My test is that it should sound the way it does through good quality headphones, and you are right, use your ears and if the combination sounds good to you then you have found the cab for your set up.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1499737702' post='3333252'] Leather. [/quote] Brilliant I build cabs. I've got about half a roll of vinyl left but after a couple of years of using acrylic it may never get used unless someone asks me specifically. It's just hard/impossible to invisibly mend and you've then got to treat the cab with kid gloves or accept the road worn look. The acrylic is much tougher than I expected and is wearing well, I haven't needed to touch it up yet but knowing I can is a bonus.

I started at 55. I was performing live within 4 months and gigging regularly a year later. Ten years later I'm still learning and still ambitious to improve. I honestly don't think age is a problem unless you let it be, and from my angle you are a young man anyway The only problem is making time when you have the responsibilities of an adult and physical fitness. I was lucky, some friends wanted a bass player and were patient enough to wait for me to come up to speed. If you aren't already friends with musicians then start to look for them. My experience is tht they are pretty much all as encouraging as people are here. The first time you play a song all the way through with someone else is a magic moment. The first time you look out at a gig and see a sea of people dancing in time with your fingers is just ecstatic. Play with other people whenever you can and join a band as soon as an opportunity arises. Good luck and have fun!

For once I'm going to restrain myself from another over long technical explanation and say 'Al stop worrying'. Yes the type of wood matters and so does the construction method, but can you order one of these cabs built out of the other's wood? Both claim rather over enthusiastic power handling if you take into account all frequencies and expect them to handle continuous power but both will probably handle all you throw at them in practice. Power handling is largely down to voice coil diameter for the upper frequencies and excursion for the lower ones as BFM hinted. Anyway the designs have been finished and the speakers made, you can't change anything but you know both are quality products which you'll be proud of. All you need to do is decide which sounds best to you. Go and spend some time with each. It's like test driving a car, you've done your research, narrowed your choice down and now it's time to sit in the drivers seat and find out if the designs suit your needs. The design features are all interesting but you'd never buy a car without a test drive and neither should you spend that much on a cab. Enjoy your day in Brighton and make sure you check out the opposition

Obviously we don't know what you sound like but any change in your on stage sound is going to feel a bit odd until you get used to it. You'd be better off worrying about your FOH sound for the audience so why not record your rehearsals and listen to that afterwards before trying to redo your eq. We did one gig with our rhythm guitarist missing through family commitments and it sounded really thin at the gig. The recording of the gig sounded great afterwards, it may not be what you expect. Are your band members missing cues from what your second guitarist was playing or maybe rhythmic drive? It may be they just want a little push at times and you may have to change what you play a little. Having said all that when i've played with a five piece I've generally ended up cutting the top end and boosted the low mids so I can sit in an acoustic pocket without muddying the overall sound. Again listen to recordings.

I do wish people wouldn't use the term musician as a way of criticicising anyone with less knowledge/skill than themselves, it's one of those 'irregular verbs': I'm a musician, you are a 'player' and he's a total amateur. OK hands up those people with nothing left to learn. I'm glad to see people mentioned fatigue as a factor for vocalists and amazed it took so long before someone talked about the crossover points in someone's vocal range. There's more too, a song has points where the vocal line needs to be strong for the words to convey meaning or have emotional impact. Think of Harry Nillson singing 'Can't live' in Without You if he couldn't do the big lift at 1min 20, it would be a very ordinary song wihout that (see what I did there) There are situations where transposing songs is easy and sometimes almost impossible. If you are using an open string to give yourself time to do a hand shift in the middle of a run then you aren't going to welcome a key change. Sometimes you can just play a note an octave higher sometimes that won't work. For a guitarist chord inversions sometimes work and sometimes not, playing with the capo above the 5th fret is often really awkward as you are trying to jam four fingers into a very small space. Eb is always troublesome unless you re-tune but a 'nice' key for brass instruments. The reality in the end though is that it is the singer most of the audience will notice and remember. A good singer with a band who are doing little more than keeping time and marking the chord changes is going to be blow away the tightest most technically accomplished band with a singer who is struggling, so until someone perfects the neck capo for vocalists.......

I'm with Ivan on this, I played brieflly for a country band, it's a real education in timing, economy and control apart from anything else. Improved my rock playing no end. It was what I had in mind when saying give the R'nR a go.

Unless you really hate the music give it a go. I think the future is in genre bands. Audiences go along because they know what they are getting and you'll generally get an audience that likes your brand of music. It's dance music so you'll get lively audiences. Bookers know exactly what the offer is so you'll probably get steady bookings, there's nothing like regular gigs for sharpening your act. There's a benefit for you too, all genres have their tricks and really nailing a style of bass playing will mean you've incorporated a whole range of tricks into your own playing. That will inform a lot of your playing from then on. You've got to respect most/all forms of music, the musicians then were inventing something new and investing all their skills in what they did, just like people in the 70's, 80's and so on. If it's not your thing long term then you'll eventually move on but it'll be something you can go back and dep for when gigs dry up.

I can do a week's worth of reading It is moderately complex and because there isn't a good mathematical model of cabinet damping you'll get some disagreement even amongst experts. Even the word damping is confusing because it is both a properly used English word and also a mathematical term used to describe the nature of a resonance. I'll keep away from that for the time being. As a musician I'll guess you know a little about resonances. Assuming your bass is in tune you'll know that if you play the E string fretted on the fifth fret then the A string will start to resonate by itself. Well in a speaker cab if you play all the frequencies some notes will jump out louder than others. All the bits of the cabs have their own resonances, frequencies which they naturally vibrate at and they will wobble away if you play those frequencies, just like your A string. Sometimes the vibration of the cab can be as loud as the speaker itself making a muddy, distorted sound. Stuffing the cab is an attempt to kill those resonances and make the sound cleaner, as is a lot of panel bracing. There are two sources of resonances, the air and the panels of the cab and each of these can resonate in a number of ways, so stuffing is used differently to kill different resonances. I'll deal with three of these. The first is the air resonances often referred to as standing waves. The speaker sets up a pressure wave in the cab which reaches the rear panel and is reflected back to the speaker. Now if you soften the back panel with some wadding the sound won't reflect so well and the wave is damped. The conventional thing is to put a bit of wadding on three panels, the back, one of the sides and the top or bottom. This damps all three standing waves. Unfortunately the thin white flimsy pillow stuffing isn't very good at this, and that's what a lot of people use. Some experts (Martin Colloms) recommend the wadding hung in the middle of the cab to break up standing waves there. The egg crate stuff is usually there to do the same thing. It's denser and the shape is meant to absorb sound and to reflect it randomly. Stating the obvious it can't reflect and absorb at the same time and the dimples are the wrong size to do much good. The second technique is to fill the cab with wadding. This helps kill standing waves but also affects the behaviour of the sound in the box, done properly it can increse the effective volume of the box but you are talking about stuffing with densities of 1lb per cubic ft and upwards (16kg/cu m) and at least half of the volume filled. I've never seen that in a commercial pro audio cab. You do see it frequently in sealed hi fi cabs. The third technique is heavy wadding used to damp the panel resonances. The black sticky stuff you see on your car door panels. In speakers it's usually some sort of rubber loaded with sand or stone to make it heavier. The problem with this is obvious, the most effective system is to use something which has the same mass as the panel you are damping, so you end up doubling the weight of your cab, fine in hi fi cabs but not if you are carrying cabs to and from a gig. You'll have detected that I'm sceptical about a lot of commercial cabs approach to damping. They put it in so that reviewers can say 'the cab is well damped' but without extensive test gear it is hard to say if it is effective or just decorative.

Well done, I left it even later than you 55 before I played my first note. Go and start looking for people to play with, if you haven't already. I started jamming a few songs with friends and within a year was playing at my first gig! Nothing complicated as you can imagine but it's surprising how many great songs have really simple bass lines, just as well with my skill levels.

I started with Rotos I hated the clank when first fitted, loved the sound week old ones gave and tended to change them every six weeks or so when I was gigging regularly, they just tended to go dead on me. This worked out quite pricey so I tried Dean Markley Blue Steels which I thought were an astonishing price but they lasted months and just fade over time 6 month old ones sound as good to me as 6 week old Roto's. A couple of years ago I changed the strings on my Jazz and at the same time put some Elixirs on my P-bass so I could compare them both aging. Two years on both still sound OK to me, though I've probably tweaked the eq. I'm going to change the Blue Steels I think to see how much they have gone downhill. You can't be too confident over your ability to detect gradual change so it'll be interesting to see how old ones compare with the new ones. Anyway in terms of value for money I'd be confident in saying either will last way more than twice as long as Rotosound stainless strings, maybe even more than five times as long, so cheaper in the long term.

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1498781258' post='3327061'] It occurs sufficiently often in classical music that it has a name - hemiola. Its 6/8 but there's definitely 3 over 2 polyrhythms involved. [/quote] thanks for this, just had an interesting read of the Wikipedia entry on this. [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiola"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiola[/url] I found the only way to count this song was 1-2-3 2-2-3, for most of the song the empahsis was on the first beat of the triplet and you could almost class it as a quick 3/4 (you could almost hear it as a waltz or end up swinging it) but there were some ambiguities which is where the 3 over 2 comes in I guess. I love these ambiguous rhythms. Didn't know about hemiola but now I know why Bernstein's America is so catchy

I've also been told about the three injections thing. My belief is that it is about NICE guidelines rather than an absolute rule. Fortunately any problems I have are in my knees which don't affect bass playing. However can I recommend exercise as one of the few things you can do yourself to help out. I recently got a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Bit of a bugger because I'm a biologist who has followed all the dietary advice all my life and been fairly active and slim(ish). Anyway as a result I decided to lose a little weight and cut a lot of carbs out of my diet. I love my grub and cook a lot so decided I'd rather lose weight by exercise than going on a diet for the rest of my life. This was entirely about blood sugar for me but the result is that many of the little aches and pains that I thought were down to inevitable aging have disappeared. There's a lot of research going on at the moment into inflammation which is implicated in everything from dementia, diabetes, arthritis, depression through to cancer, what we do know is that exercise, especially load bearing exercise reduces inflammation and a sedentary lifestyle and overweight increases it. I know it's easier said than done and I'm lucky enough to enjoy activity but it's well worth knowing about. It's an iron rule of speakers that you can't have loud, lightweight and cheap, maybe there's one about being old, unfit and healthy.

6/8 http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0055856

A 400W amp turned down noticeably is a 200W amp. The only problem is noticing. Most speakers can handle the power from an amp for a long time before overheating, the real problem is more likely to happen in the low frequencies where speakers have problems with being pushed too far. It's just the deep bass that does that so listen to advice about watching your lows. Roll off the bass a little and certainly avoid bass boost including from any fx and you'll be fine.

If you are getting feedback problems then you have a simple choice, turn down or sound s**t, in this case sounds like your guitarist needs to turn down. There are a couple of things you can do to curb feedback generally. Often there are resonance spots in the room, so just moving to a different part of the stage can solve problems Also moving your bass as far away from the speakers will help. You don't need any deep bass in the monitors so cut the bass there. Try filtering any bass out of the vocal mic and the guitar. You'll probably have an 80Hz filter for each channel on your mixer

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1498669183' post='3326261'] Luckily, Ambient comes across as a good guy. Can't see him scoring out Agadoo as a cruel joke!! [/quote] Ouch!

Make sure it's right. My son works in Japan and obviously speaks Japanese. There's a trend for Western free spirits to have 'Free' tatoo'ed in Japanese. Unfortunately the tattooists aren't fluent and have branded them free, as in cheap/good value. The Japanese are of course too polite to comment, but have some fun at our expense.

[quote name='Danuman' timestamp='1498594471' post='3325795'] The technical nature of their specialisation I suppose leads some of them to be a bit set in their ways, but I bet bass players are no different! [/quote] Don't forget they have to deal with singers and guitarists too