Franticsmurf

+1 for the EHX Bass Clone.

My all time favourite Christmas song and what a great version. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, guilty as charged! Awkward gaps are designed to make us buy more pedals! 😂 I must stop following this thread. Every time I get my board just right*, I see someone else's with a pedal I hadn't thought of/is better than mine/is just right to fill an awkward gap. (*I have never got my board 'just right'.)

I was thinking more as a 'try before you buy' as these units have a range of different versions of, say, compression, chorus and octave. Once you've tweaked to get a sound close to the one you're after, you have an idea of the individual pedals you're looking for. I know he uses a Boss OC2 for octave and Ashdown amplification. Have a look for his 'Lockdown Licks' Youtube videos which may give you some more insight into his sound.

To add to @Phil Starr's post, if you're just dabbling to get a feel for IEM, try using a pair of Sony noise cancelling earbuds. I paid £10 for mine and they are all I use. The 'phones that came with the Gear4Music kit didn't give me any bass but the Sonys are great. (I'm not sponsored by Sony - yet. 😃)

Sorry to hear that. Try Amazon Warehouse - they sell returns and 'B' stock at lower prices. You have to keep looking but sometimes you can get a bargain. My Zoom MS60B was from there - returned unwanted and a third off. Talking of which, the MS60B or the B1-Four are multi effects with loads of different types and editing software for a computer which might be the solution to 'try before you buy'. The effects are modeled on individual pedals by different manufacturers and should give you an idea of what works for you.

Things have changed slightly from when I posted. In one band we have FOH sound and in this case I no longer use the P1. My bass DI signal goes from the amp to FOH, and the amp gives me and the drummer (who is not on IEM) a bass monitor which I can adjust without having to wave at our sound guy 😃. But my main monitor sound is a mix from the FOH desk which includes bass, lead vocals and my backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitar. The FOH signal goes into a Gear4Music wireless transmitter and I take a feed direct from the receiver into IEM. In the other band I use the P1 as I am mixing a feed of vocals from the PA desk and my bass. I split the signal from the board (content varies) with a small Behringer headphone distributor feeding the P1 and the amp. To be honest, the last couple of gigs with this band I've not bothered with the bass signal in the P1 as I'm getting enough volume from the rig for me to hear. The main reason I bought the P1 was to provide some protection for my hearing (it has a built in limiter). The singer at the time, who operated the desk, had a tendency to unplug his acoustic guitar without muting the channel and also to fiddle with the desk creating other unpredictable pops and bangs. He's no longer with the band now. 😃 I suspect going forward the P1 will be a standby at gigs and a means to practice quietly at home.

It's very difficult to answer as your sound as you describe it will probably be different to the sound I'm imagining by your description, although I understand what you're getting at. I'm a relative newb to pedals/sound too and in the last year or so I've been trying pedals, settings and pick ups to get my sound (admittedly, I am happy using effects as well as having a 'clean' sound). The three bands I play in each have a different requirement. Rather than buy, try and sell, where I've been unsure I've gone for a cheap option to get a feel for the effect before deciding if it's worth investigating further with a more expensive unit. Behringer make some great pedals at even better prices. As suggested above and if your budget allows try their compressor, chorus and octave to see if you can get close to the sound in your head. You then have the option to keep using them or replace them with different (better?) units and keep the Behringers as back-ups. I did this with filter pedals as it was something I didn't know much about. I ended up with an Eden Californiwah and a Sonicake Cry Bot, both relatively cheap. The Sonicake does what I want and is now a permanent fitting on the board. Is what you're hearing from real players a combination of their clean sound and mixing desk processing (the guy that does the sound in one of my bands adds a subtle compression to my signal for the PA) and/or the venue itself? Does the player have an 'always on' pedal hidden away (my compressor is always on so it doesn't really have to be on the board)? So many variables - and isn't the fun of bass playing partly about experimenting to get the right tone? 😃

I started off using a pair of JBL 104 powered monitors in my home studio. For the size (4.5" speaker) they were fine for the general recording and mixing I was doing. I only moved on (to M-Audio BX8s) because I had the chance of grabbing a pair for next to nothing from a mate. The 104s are now my PC monitor speakers and I occasional use them if I'm recording away from the studio.

Definitely welcome. I started on BC specifically to read the experiences of real users of kit before buying it. I like that there is a mix of backgrounds, levels of experience and genres here and some healthy disagreement and debate. It's such a valuable resource that I have benefited from and hopefully contributed to in some small way. I'm not so much interested in what the manufacturer says as what the sweating/freezing bass players say after the gear has helped them shine/let them down.

Hi Vasco, a fellow guitar convert here, too. Welcome to the site. 😃

I've done this in the past. And will probably do it again in the future. 😃

I believe this is now oookph in the metric era? 😃

Like a few others here, my usual thumb resting spot is the neck pick up, but for variation of tone I'll go back to the bridge pick up or rest on the edge of the neck as the song requires.

Yes. This. On Saturday I did it with a cup of tea on my hand, courtesy of the hotel we were playing at. Tea and gig - can't beat it. 😃

We played our Xmas gig last Saturday. Merry Xmas Everyone (Shaky) was received with moderate appreciation, Fairytale went down a storm, Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade) had everyone up and singing. We did a tongue in cheek version of Blue Christmas - speeding up after every repeat. Song that got the best reception (based on volume of singing) - Sweet Caroline. Most dancers on (and off) the dance floor - 500 Miles. Bah humbug! 😃

Great photo - I bet it brings back memories? And is the feeling of playing well and/or winning comparable to a good gig?

I'm using the Minimax 600 as my main gigging amp. I love the sounds I can get from it. The mid shift button alters the frequency at which the mid tone knob is centred - 250hz or 600hz. I find the bass 'punch' good for adding a little bass at low volume and I like the effect of the 'Kosmos' button (the manual says it adds harmonics to tighten the bass without adding watt-sapping bass frequencies). Built in tuner which mutes the amp when engaged. As has been mentioned above, the fan is noisy. But for me at gigging and rehearsal volumes, it's not a problem. I've used the DI a couple of times and have had no problems. The last gig I used it at I was competing with three guitarists, a keyboard player and drums and going through a pair of TE 1x10 cabs. Gain was about 9-10 o'clock and volume about midday - no problems. I wish they'd put in some footswitch options for the tuner and boost channel though.

Played the local Crown Court Xmas bash last night with the Hulla Band - the singer works there. Medium sized room with a good crowd. We started early, while the football was still on, and played beneath the big screen. It being a Welsh audience, there was not too much disappointment at the outcome but we did pause for both England penalties. Lots of dancing and singing along and the right mix of Xmas songs and our standard set list. As you can see from the photo, I went in my pyjama top. 😃 (I had a waistcoat ready but with the 'on-off' start as we debated whether to start before the football finished, I suddenly found myself playing the opening riffs with nothing to tame the shirt!)

The bass set up for yesterday's gig with the Hulla Band. Medium sized room, circa 100 people, full PA support so this was for the listening pleasure of me and the drummer. I was using IEM too, as I'm in the process of moving over to it full time in this band. The drums weren't going through the PA so I had one ear 'free'. The board was my standard for this band - tuner>comp>EHX Soul Food (grit)>MS60b (chorus and fretless patches)>BAM200 with DI to the desk. A glass of orange squash completes the line up. 😃

Now I think about it, I can see that pattern, to a certain extent, with me. At the beginning of the year I left a long term band with the intention of starting a new one. In the first three months or so after leaving, I bought 4 new basses and sold two, bought two amp heads, three new cabs and several pedals. I know that's not a lot for some but it is for me. Since joining a couple of new bands, the purchases have ceased apart from a couple of pedals for specific songs within the set lists. I suspect in the hiatus between bands I was thinking about doing new things and needing different instruments for the right sound. There was an element of upgrading involved and experimentation with a fretless. But now I'm playing regularly, I'm more interested in getting consistently the right sound for the bands. I now have an amp/cab combination and a 'go to' bass for each band. I haven't quite sorted the pedals out yet but the ones I have do the job. My GAS is satisfied, to some extent, by bring an old bass out of its case for a gig or two or re-arranging the pedal board. 😃

This is part of the reason that I have bought and sold instruments and gear. The other is a preference for 'new' things (new to me, that is, rather than brand new). I've always been one to tire quickly of things - in work I was great at starting and developing projects but one they became 'business as usual' I'd lose interest. In my hobbies (photography and music) I realised it was the same - a new camera or lens would motivate me to get out and snap away and then it would become the norm and I'd look for something else. It was expensive and while I had the money (part exchange and buying second hand helped) I realised it wasn't making me a better photographer and the enjoyment was the kit rather than the photography. Similarly with a new piece of musical gear. The excited anticipation of the box appearing on my doorstep etc etc. The solution that works for me is to keep rather than trade some of the old gear and put it to one side. Now I find that I can move from the current favourite bass (or camera/lens)to one I haven't used for a few months and get a similar buzz. I have 8 basses on rotation (currently favouring the latest addition - my American P bass) along with a couple of pedals that have recently rejoined the board. A few weeks ago I got the headless out to play at a gig on a whim. It was great. 😃

That sums it up for me too - I've never been part of a sports team but I guess the feeling must be the same.

My first gig was 1989, I was 25 and it was a couple of months after my dad had died. He bought me my first guitar and helped start it all off, so it was a poignant moment for me. I was a nervous wreck going on stage, not helped by the compare who clattered into the neck of the guitar seconds before the first song, throwing several strings out of tune! 😃 We weren't brilliant, we finished early as the adrenaline kicked in and we played too fast and as I recall we got around £30 (we took the door money). But the buzz was addictive, and still is. Had I been younger when I started, I may not have become so cynical about the whole scene (I have a newspaper cutting of an interview where I go on about the apathy and lack of opportunities in the area - not the best way to promote the band 😬). Most of the band were working full time, too. Had we not been, I think there would have been more energy put into making it work, as we were playing mostly our own stuff. But I also wonder if, had I started earlier, I would have got it out of my system and given up once I got a proper job?

As I posted my reply, I realised the same. 😃