essexbasscat

Could Holst's Planets be described as musical art ? could Debussy's Claire De Lune be described as musical art ? would the same apply to Sgt. Pepper's at the time of it's release ? or Purple Haze ? How about Talking Heads ? Jean Michel Jarre ? Frank Zappa ? How about Take Five and more of Brubecks's work Bilbo ? the ad - lib bits too ? Is creative dancing art ? But not limiting the discussion to defining what Art is, what about creativity ? creating a new piece of music or a new painting ? common aspects of the creative process ?

Hi all What are everyone's thoughts around music as art ? what philosphies does music share with painting and sculpting etc ? Of course, the easy ones are that painting and sculpting are visible and of direct physical substance, while music is appreciated through a different sensory medium and transient. Of course, transient art such as music and dance can be captured to become permanent, but require and intermediate source. Do similar thoughts (if any) occur to the musician and the painter / sculpter ? Creating music and painting must surely share some core processess and philosophies ? I do recall Jakesbass writing a few very interesting paragraphs on this topic about six months ago, but I've forgotten which thread it was on and a search has turned up nil. Are there any books out there that discuss this topic ? I've wondered about it for years to be honest and decided I'd better get around to looking into it while I can still read ! Thanks for reading all

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1085823' date='Jan 11 2011, 06:00 PM']Just got an email for a wedding gig - we will be doing Good Times [/quote]

[quote name='Conan' post='1085478' date='Jan 11 2011, 01:38 PM']I both agree and disagree. To actively seek mediocrity is disappointing and ultimately unfulfilling. However, how will you ever be known as a "good bassist" if all you do is perform carbon-copies of other bassist's lines? Surely there is more to it than that? [/quote] You have some valid points there Conan. I'm certainly not going to try and define the qualities and attributes that make a good bassist, that's been the subject of numerous threads already. As for becoming a good, or better musician/bassist (or for progressing at many things FWIW), it seems philosphically sound to open up future possiblities in a spirit of exploration, rather than limiting things with definitions and absolutes. Only my opinion, of course.

My compliments for your enthusiasm and dedication. However, your suspicions may well be close to the mark on this one, it could just be a case of too much too soon. Several details could help with reponses to your question; - Could you outline if that two hours you mentioned is in one period or spread over the course of the day ? if spread out, what's the average amount of time in one go ? - You don't mention a rough idea of your age. The body's endurance to tasks both old and new alters over time. But that's just trying to get to the bottom of your ailment. In the meantime, if you use the little (5th ?) finger less and see what happens, it should give you some ideas. Also, -how tight are you gripping the neck ? - Do you have a tutor or and experienced someone that can watch you play ? they may see things that are not immediately obvious. Hope you get this sorted and good luck with your bass career T

Pretty much agree with you Doddy. Part of the trouble with this debate is the language itself i.e. 'creative' and creative, with a sliding scale of professionalism between the two. It's a minefield

Not sure I can constructively add anything to the debate so far. However, some thoughts from reading the thread so far; - Take Layla as an example. If following a well known example of a song accurately is desirable, did Clapton get it wrong by re- arranging it for the unplugged set ? Re-arrangements of songs have been done for centuries, more recently by Hendrix making Dylan's All along the Watchtower his own, so successfully that many though Hendrix had written it. If songs are done with some skill and professionalism, those aspects will enhance the piece as a whole. When famous players give poor performances, it does get noticed. - Whatever happens to the desire to improve and become better players ? instead of going in with the attitude of 'That'll be good enough for the Dog and Duck', why not set out with the aim of becoming known as a good bassist ? it can only enhance your career. I daresay someone won't agree with the sentiments here, probably with genuine points of their own.It's only my opinion afterall. Not sure there are any correct absolutes with this topic anyway. Hope your next gig is a good'un, however you play it T

AH Nooooooooo !! the tongue and the bassface !!

Well done Rik for organising this Good venue with a quite space to relax and chat, very handy. Had a great time meeting everyone today, some really good players there as well. Some interesting A/B comparisions too with an LM111, an Eden WT400 Traveler and Barfaced cab (single 15 if I remember correctly), tested with a Rickenbacker (Cheers Rob), a Warwick Double buck (thanks James) my Goodfellow and a five string Jazz played by Truckstop. The LM111 won the vote for most appropriate pairing with the BF cab. A big thank you to everyone that contributed the amps / cab. There was even an NS upright on a stand that quite a few people played - everyone enjoyed that one. Now have GAS for an Eden WT400 Traveler and an Epifani 4x10 cab (talking myself into believing I can cope with the bulk), that combination is just nice, warm and versatile. Spot on. Look forward to the next one ! T

I'll still up for this too

Was a different cable used to connect the Ashdown compaired to the other two ? what was different between the tests ? what factors were the same ?

Thanks Paul, if I'd known how good the strap was, I'd have tried to get the other on off you too ! All the best for the coming year Cheers T

[quote name='cameltoe' post='1077274' date='Jan 4 2011, 01:29 PM']OK So I just had a play on it, some 14 hours on, and the action is just about as low as can be. It seems to be right on the tipping point of playing perfectly, yet possibly needing a touch more relief to stay consistently good, as it needs to be fully in tune to play perfectly. However it is a complete joy to play again. Very similar to how it was when I bought it, in fact, as I remember in the shop it played like a complete dog on one occasion, until i realised every string was slightly out of tune. A quick tune-up and it was absolute magic. I think I would have preferred a touch more relief- although this is how I love the guitar to play, and the reason I fell in love with it, knowing the neck will shift slightly over time makes me think I should have a bit more room for error. I'm in two minds whether to give the truss rod a very slight tweak to allow a bit more relief, and more room for error, or leave it as it is. It would be such a small adjustment though that I may just leave as-is. I'd probably end up moving it too far the other way, then have to readjust a few times to try and get it to play nice again. Plus I do have fairly light gauge (40-100) low-tension DR sunbeams on there at the moment. It seems to have it's magic back in any case![/quote] That's more or less where I was at when that 1/8th turn did the final trick

Doh ! First public error of the New Year Plenty more where that came from too ! Never wanted to be perfect anyway. Think a trip to the Aguilar site is overdue, then the nearest dealer to hear what it's all about Cheers Guys T

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1076587' date='Jan 3 2011, 06:13 PM'][b]1. Are Aguilar cabs more suited to producing the more rounded vintage type sounds than the EBS Neo cabs ? I suspect this is the case, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of others that have already walked this path. There's got to be a few out there. [/b] I'm ready to get shot down on this but I would say YES! I've owned the EBS Neo 2x12 and I've owned various other Neo cabs inc. 2x10, 1x15 and 6x10 and regardless of the fact they were different manufacturers, driver sizes and cab designs the Neo driver equipped cabs had an inherent tone that was more prominent, Hi-Fi, mid-biased. Now I know that it has been said time and again that the driver magnet material (Neo) has no effect whatsoever on the tone, well in that case I have to say that the cab designs for all these Neo cabs was such that the tone on all of them was different to any ceramic magnet driver cab that I tried. At the end of the day I bought and sold a multitude of very good Neo cabs not because they were rubbish but the tone wasn't what I wanted and as soon as I ran through the DB12's I knew that was the sound I was after; fuller and fatter... maybe the diet that Neo's go on makes them thinner in tone! [b]2. What circumstances prevail to encourage people to choose the DB cabs instead of the GS cabs ?[/b] The DBs were available used when I was looking! I've tried the DBs and the GSs side by side and they have a different sound, one not better than the other just different and my preference was for the DB [b]3. What advantages (other than weight) does the DB112 / DB112 NT combo give compared to 2 x DB112 ?[/b] Is your question a spelling error/typo? Do you mean x2 DB12 versus x1 DB212 Modular set up? If so I've never tried a 2x12 against the pair of 1x12 but if the 2x12 was a 4 ohm cab then I've no reason to think it wouldn't be as good/better than the pair of 1x12. I will add the caveat that a pair of DB112's are greater than the sum of the parts; pair up a couple of DB or GS 1x12s and they sound so much 'more' than just two cabs added together. I've started stacking my DB12 on their edge (maybe pics to follow) and putting foam between so that you can get the drivers up higher (and the horn if you have a horn equipped cab), I'd say that is one benefit over a single 2x12 standing on the floor much lower than ear height![/quote] Thanks Warwickhunt, I've noticed you've praised the DB's in the past. They do appear to be firm favourites with some BC'ers. It seems your findings are similar to mine, that maybe the more popular neo cabs are tailored for the Hi-Fi, more mid prominant end of amplification. While the Sa450 and LM11 and LM111 have been described as warm sounding, their sound does seem to be more Hi-Fi in nature, which would be complimented by the more modern neo cabs. I also agree the Aguilar cabs are fuller sounding than the neo cabs. I wouldn't readily think of GS or DB's as Hi-fi cabs. It wasn't a typo - I did mean a pair of DB112's, but one of them being an NT neo model. I just wondered if the DB112 NT offered more of the Hi-Fi sound than a standard DB 112 cab. If that is the case, the straight/neo combination could be an interesting. I do remember someone down this way had the DB 112 /DB112NT combination and a few others said it worked quite well. Wonder if they are still around ? Thanks for your answer WH and everyone else too. Much appreciated Don't know how those SL112's sound, but they do look damn nice !

Paul sent me a new strap at a nice price before the cheque had even cleared. That's a man I can trust and I've no hesitation in recommending him as a safe bet to deal with. Nice to find a good'n once in a while ! Cheers Paul Tom

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1076783' date='Jan 3 2011, 09:12 PM']You need to understand that learning a musical instrument is an incremental thing and that you can't learn it all at once. Your list of things to do is only the start and there are a million other things you will need to deal with as time goes on. My adivce? Simple. Learn to read music - so much will come from that and it will save you time later on.[/quote] Yes, couldn't agree more

Last time I scored some graphite paint it came from evil bay, the only place I could source it. Have a look at Guitarnuts.com for some very handy ideas about shielding. hope that helps T

I'm seriously considering keeping the Gs's regardless, as they do that vintage sound so well for such a small package. There may be no substitute though for an EBS Neo can to let the Sa450 breath properly.

You could do a lot worse than study GCSE music. While this will not directly improve your skill of playing the bass, it will aid a greater understanding of music and how the bass and other instruments fit into the overall picture. As a consequence, you will also learn the rudiments of reading music, which will again aid your musicianship on an ongoing basis. A music tutor at some point will also be very helpful, as they will aid your understanding the finer points of expressing yourself musically, whichever instrument you play. Good luck with your musical career, whatever you decide to do T

Hmmm... you could well be right about there being no subsitute for just going and A/B'ing it yourself or just spending the money. But I do value the opinions of BC members, there always seems to be someone out there that has looked at very similar issues. On that note, does anyone have any ideas around; 1. Are Aguilar cabs more suited to producing the more rounded vintage type sounds than the EBS Neo cabs ? I suspect this is the case, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of others that have already walked this path. There's got to be a few out there. 2. What circumstances prevail to encourage people to choose the DB cabs instead of the GS cabs ? 3. What advantages (other than weight) does the DB112 / DB112 NT combo give compared to 2 x DB112 ? Thanks again for all you thoughts Cheers T

Know what you mean about the shifting neck Cameltoe, my RW Precision's neck does move around a bit over time, not much, but enough to be noticable if you're familiar with the instrument. To be honest, I have mine set up to a general happy medium so that it's easily playable no matter what's going on. It's currently strung with DR Marcus Miller Fat Beams, which seem to work very, very well. The action is moderately low, not as low as some and by no means perfect, but overall, the instrument is such a joy to gig on a regular basis that I'm no longer really overly concerned about the action. I do check the bass over regularly as it's a regularly gigged instrument. I've never found any real issues and it's always easily playable. In summary, yes, mine moves a small amount too, but I've now become accustomed to accepting that as an ideosyncracy. I still love the bass to bits and continue to be impressed with it every time I play it, including when I'm a home working stuff out. On stage, the RW Precision just allows me to concentrate on what the rest of the band is doing, what my next vocal job is, what the next number is.... in fact, getting on with the gig. The bass contributes to to making my job easier and I enjoy playing it, which is all I could ever ask for I suppose. Hope you find a happy place with your bass Cameltoe Cheers T Edit; Having said all that, I did take time initially to get that happy medium set- up, which came down to a 1/8th turn of the T'rod and around 4-5 days of small adjustments to the saddles. Tools that fit the screw heads correctly and a large dose of patience take the worry out of it. Next job is to fit a set of those lighter machine heads.

THanks JTUK, I agree with you that the GS does allow mids to be expressed. I can dial them in from my Peavey MKIV head (more typical of an Ampeg head I guess) and adjust frequencies and prominance to suit. Like you JTUK, I have my horns somewhere around 40% - 50%. That's about as far as I like to push them, as I want to avoid brittle highs. Saying that the GS's can express mids when asked to while claiming that they don't allow the tone shaping of the mids to be expressed on the Sa450 sounds odd doesn't it ? Yet this seems to be the case in my experience. I wonder, is it more the case that the GS's react slightly differently to the output of class D amps compared to the more vintage tone generators such as Ampeg, the Peavey MKIV and apparently, the Aguilar AG500 ? it does seem odd, but it's one way I can account for the difference I've found. I heard my bass through the Sa450 connected to an EBS Neo 2 x 12 cab when I collected the Sa450. The tonal shaping of the Sa450 through the EBS Neo was very effective, with only small adjustments being very apparent. The GS's just don't do that at all. All that said, I love the sound of my GS112's with the Peavey MKIV or an Ampeg B2RE head, a very nice versatile classic sound. I do wonder if the DB's make the difference, also what difference the NT cab makes. Thanks for your replies folks T

[quote name='dmccombe7' post='1075245' date='Jan 2 2011, 01:05 PM']I'm also interested in the Aguilar 112's. What's the main difference between the GS & DB cabs. How do they sound with Ampeg SVT3PRO ? Cheers Dave[/quote] Just opened another thread on a very similar topic !