SimonK

So was up at Anderton's today collecting my guitar with the fixed nut... and forgetting entirely about this thread bought a new cable with a right angle jack on both ends as it fits the latest iteration of my pedal board... am I out or is a new lead OK?

Yes we maybe should find a new thread for this as it is a matter of perspective - but an important topic nevertheless. I'm a director of a community interest company focussing on mental health, with clinicians who have all left the NHS because they are fed up with just doing crisis management with people getting to the Clinical Psychologists far too late. Also there not being enough time to complete the necessary therapy as they have to move onto the next clients too quickly. Everyone in the MDTs were(are) just getting burned out and staff turnover was/is massive. We now run a business that takes private referrals from local GPs which is really tough as while we don't charge anywhere near as much as we could, there is a certain level that we need to run the business and some people in desperate need struggle to pay it - but it is the only way to get support. We then have a problem with risk management where the Police are often the only option as the NHS services simply are not able for us to refer back to, and we have a duty of care to pass the risk on. It's a really sh*t situation but at least we have mostly success stories (albeit it takes a while to do therapy properly). I do think it is a bit of a red herring, or unjustified rhetoric, to tie failing services with the staff running them. Our experience is that the staff are pretty good, but the system is just failing everyone - it really isn't "parroting a reductive and inaccurate line" - it's what is happening on the ground certainly where we are.

Nope, I'm standing by the "one cannot access mental health support" statement. It may be semantics, but if it is something like for every 100 people who need a type of support there is only one place available (again it depends on the service and region, but certainly in many areas you cannot even get on waiting lists). I suppose a 1/100 availability is not a 0/100 availability and thus technically support is available, but if there is little chance of getting it I think one could fairly say "one cannot access mental health support". Should probably point out this isn't about party politics per se, although we have a Labour government at the moment who aren't addressing the problem, the Tories seemed just as incapable of grasping the nettle. The problem is that mental health is a long term and not very popular issue, and doesn't fit into the five year election cycle very well hence it doesn't get addressed. On the bright side, and getting back to topic, luthiers seem far more available so at least you can get a dodgy bass fixed in the UK at the moment 🙂!

Surely it was always thus - there are plenty of great players out there, but it takes luck to get the gigs that will make a living? Probably the most succesful musicians I know are the ones who studied acoustics rather than music at University, and make their living with a combination of playing music and designing theatres, PAs etc... Indeed I'm told designing spring dampers for buildings to stop the noise of the underground in London is one of the most interesting acoustic jobs...

Sadly not - they risk assess and if you are not in immediate danger you don't even get on the waiting list, even if there are known therapies that will stop people's health deteriorating further. Essentially they are waiting until it's mostly too late before any help is offered. Alternatively they offer CBT therapy conducted by half qualified therapists for conditions where it is known to only help less than half of the referred conditions. Mental health support in the UK is shockingly appalling.

If you think it is bad/annoying with engineering you should pity psychologists. My wife is a registered Clinical Psychologist which is a protected title, but almost anyone can call themselves a small p psychologist, or therapist, counsellor, psychotherapist etc. It dupes all the poor people desperate for professional help given you can't access mental health support from the NHS at the moment. Compared to this (where people kill themselves due to poor care) who is considered a luthier seems a bit trivial, as the worst that will happen is a bass or guitar gets destroyed!

I vaguely recall someone made some pedals with jacks on the top AND the sides which I thought was a brilliant idea and was hoping would catch on - but it didn't. I also can't remember who it was who made them.

And then just went over to youtube to see this on my feed - very impressive!

I'm of the "oh no it doesn't fit... time to buy a bigger pedal board" camp! Thus said it is irritating how the industry can't agree whether jack sockets should be on the top or the sides, while preamp/DI pedal makers really need to catch on quicker that you always need the xlr out on the left side of the box!

There are some job titles that are "protected" in the sense that you cannot legally call yourself that title, for instance "Chartered" professions, or HCPC/GMC registered medical professions, but for everything else it's entirely down to marketing and reputation. So if you call yourself a luthier, and other people treat you as a luthier, then I guess you are a luthier!

Am I the only one who can't cope with pedals being mounted sideways for purely aesthetic reasons?

by Jarred Cooper - if so my claim to fame is I played bass for him on a UK tour in the late 90s... and almost killed him when I lost control of my little Rover Metro on a roundabout 😞 !

I have similar with a QSC poweramp and some Thomann speakers that I bought fifteen years ago also for occassional and backup use. After sitting around for many years I have mounted the poweramp in a rack and use it for practice now driving a Trace Elliot (one half) and a Marshall (other half), so use it for guitar and bass at bedroom levels (the rack case has a door that hides some of the fan noise). The speakers have been in the loft since I last used them about five years ago, but with a resale value of nil I'm just keeping them.

I think it's awesome that the market values TE so poorly as the amps sound as good as anything else out there, but are a fraction of the cost, and weight & age are the only downside. My problem is getting too many of them as I keep seeing awesome deals - at the moment I'm trying to justify not getting a second 4x10 simply for at home practice as there is a very good one on ebay very close to me (but that would take me up to seven TE cabs)!

Trace Elliot owner:

...yes my son burned me the other day with "Dad why do you always play the same things - isn't it a bit boring?" Mind you I don't think I'd want to be a session or even professional musician - the orchestra pit stuff looks fun but not every night of the week. There was an interesting article a year or so ago about the most satisfied musicians being those who combined their hobby with other professions: https://theconversation.com/why-putting-your-artistic-calling-on-hold-might-not-always-be-such-a-bad-idea-192203

I'm another Trace Elliot fanboy. For about £150 you can get a 150W, 1x15 combo that will be plenty loud enough for any drummer - below is on ebay right now. It will also sound amazing. The TE stuff is just in the sweet spot of being cheap, but still mostly reliable.

Most of the guys I know do nothing more glamorous than sit in their home studios/front rooms recording a bass track (other instruments are available!!) for a fixed fee. Yes they also gig a fair amount, but the session stuff seems to be done mostly remotely now.

I carry my fretless as a backup. I can play most things on it if need be and also sometimes I just feel a need for some mwah. Really rescued me once when the cable in the battery compartment of my fretted bass broke during a battery change.

I suppose the other thing to consider is whether you are likely to be going down the IEM/silent stage route, as if you are a good preamp with a DI out is your most important piece of kit. While I love my amps, I do always have a preamp on my board just in case someone says no to the amp (currently I'm using a Genzler Magellan Pre/DI which is awesome as it has two powerful footswitched EQ curves, a HPF and a mute switch alongside the DI out).

...careful this is Basschat, the answer will be new pedal and new rig! I've only really rated the Bass Cubes for practice purposes so would absolutely be looking for a class D amp of some sort. The Trace Elliot ELF stuff is excellent and very transportable both in combo and head/cab formats.

...I'm having flashbacks to programming whole songs on the Alesis SR-16 drum machine (that I note is still made) and then recording both drum and bass on a single track so as to save tracks for other more complicated instruments. Then that heart sink moment when you hear the tape start to strain and try to work out how much you have done since the last bounce-down... yep life is easy with computer recording!

My first was a 386SX which I upgraded to 16 Mb RAM - needless to say I preferred a tape based multi-track over a DAW for many years - I think I started with a Tascam Porta something or other before moving up to a Yamaha 8 track that was particularly awful at chewing tapes and ruining everything! First digital recorder was a Zoom MRS-4, and then Garageband was the first affordable software I used. I hate to say this that no matter what problems the OP is having, I would probably prefer them to the old battles with cassette based multi-tracks!

Yes I saw that the other day and found it a real eye opener - indeed it spawned much of today's activity for me trying to replicate his synth tone - I started the following thread:

It looks to me that the OP bought something like this package: https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Focusrite-Scarlett-Solo-3rd-Gen-Vocal-Recording-Pack/6H08 which does indeed state "It features everything you need to record vocals and instruments" which is a bit misleading as while it is the basic hardware, you can easily spend significantly more on the software needed to actually record something. As above I would second using Garageband as I imagine the microphone and interface will work fine with very little extra fiddling, and if the OP wants more in the future they can move up to its big brother - Logic Pro - without having to get to grips with a different software package.