ThomBassmonkey

He's ordered a Shuker I'm off to pick up a Sandberg on Wednesday, can't wait!

The best ever bass is a funny thing, I love my Thumb, sounds great, feels great. I'm picking up my new bass on Wednesday Especially for people that play more than one genre, it's unlikely they'll find one bass that suits everything. It's also just nice to have a change every so often. Personally I've thought about it and I'm going for the one classic style bass (Sandberg JJ5 is the one I'm getting on Wednesday) and one more unique bass that either sounds or looks a bit special, which my Thumb covers at the moment. I've not gigged a classic-ish bass since my first Washburn that had a split P pup though, so I don't know how it'll all work out. Will I use one more than the other, probably, will it mean that whichever one I use more is better, not really,just different.

[quote name='Raggy' post='1057127' date='Dec 13 2010, 12:06 PM']I was once sick in my mouth during a gig halfway through a song. Though it was down to the amount of booze I had consumed the night before though. [/quote] We played a gig on Saturday and our singer had had a drink or two and fluffed a note, we thought it was just a mistake but he turned around and told us to bring it down for the next section, so we did only to discover that he wanted a quiet bit so he could tell the audience he'd just thrown up in his mouth. He's also pooed himself onstage (before I joined the band, fortunately) and there's a video somewhere from when we were in France (with another band where he plays guitar and does backing vox), he's laying down on the stage and me and our singer are humping him and pretending to kick him etc, only to find out after the gig he actually lay down on stage because he was so sure he was going to pass out. haha

I once did a gig where I was so ill, I had to lean against the wall for the entire set, they had to jam for a couple of minutes at the start ofr me to get off the toilet and we only cut one song off at the end so I could go back to the toilet again.

[quote name='LiamPodmore' post='1053113' date='Dec 9 2010, 05:44 PM']You guys take 2 days for 1 track? My band managed to do 3 tracks in one day, using our own drums, bass with DI and Mic, 2 guitar tracks per song, 3 takes per person per song, and backing vocals. Actually turned out pretty good (Its in my sig) Liam[/quote] With all due respect, I echo what others have said. We have our own studio (not someone's computer in their bedroom with a POD, we actually have our own proper studio, the gear's not as good as the one we've used for our last couple of singles and we find it helpful to have the outside producer's ear too) and we can knock out several tracks in a couple of hours, it's rare that it takes any of us more than 2 takes to nail our parts. Here's a link to the last single we did with them (same thing happened then, I was tracked through the BDDI as well as my amp, it still sounds brilliant, but it's not quite *my* sound): [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7maqY4G3P1E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7maqY4G3P1E[/url] , hopefully you can hear the difference in quality between the recordings (ignore our video, that was very rushed).

Second hand Fender MIJ jazzes are usually around £400, I've only seen one or two Jags on here, but they were hovering around that mark too. £400 will also buy you a slightly older german Corvette Standard if you fancy the Warwick side of things, I'd go for one of those over the Rockbasses any day. There's a Sterling by Musicman Ray 34 in these forums at the moment for around £400 IIRC, they're brilliant and a lot of people say they can't tell the difference between one of those and an American Stingray. If that's gone and you can't find another, there's always the Musicman Sub, which is basically almost a Stingray, but slightly cheaper, they go for around the £400 mark too and are more common 2nd hand. If you're going to go new, you could do worse than getting a Squier CVJ and upgrading the pickups. If you're handy with a soldering iron, that could be within your budget (assuming you want to upgrade the pups, you might like the stock ones).

[quote name='minkey1980' post='1055681' date='Dec 12 2010, 08:28 AM']10. Yamaha Attitute Lit (Billy Sheehan signature, looked like a hot rod Fender. Great fun with the dual input stereo sound, wonderful to play, very good quality bass).[/quote] All the others have negative points, but not this one. What was the problem with it? Also cheap basses can be nice, there's people on here (can't think of any names at the mo, but I know they exist) that have sold of expensive bass collections to stick with a couple of modified Squiers.

Is that Billy? haha, bless him. I sometimes don't look forwards to playing. I always want to feel like the band's getting something from the gig, if only 3 people have shown up and they're just looking bored, I don't feel like I'll have fun. The important thing is what happens when you're on stage. One of those 3 people could be a A&R man for a record label, or even just own another venue that you might get gigs from. If you start jumping about by a loon, even if no one else gets in to it, you can laugh at how silly you probably look and have a good time anyway.

[quote name='pantherairsoft' post='1046856' date='Dec 3 2010, 09:39 PM']Your choice.. Unless your asking an engineer to help create 'a sound', then trust him. Out of interest, knowing your local to me, which studio is it (PM me if you prefer)... As I'm recording in Feb and want to make sure I perfect my argument if we're recording at the same place [/quote] It's not a local studio, it's a bigwig one down in London. Had breakfast with Westlife (well, one of them was behind me in the queue for a bacon baguette) on the 2nd day there.

[quote name='dan670844' post='1050919' date='Dec 7 2010, 07:28 PM']I would love to either guitar of bass, i have tried but can't sing and play! if anyone has any pointers! advice welcome![/quote] Practice practice practice. I hardly do any singing, but one of the bits that I do is 2 hand tapping while I sing in a different rhythm. I found that breaking it down rhythmically to see how they fit together (like a drummer would break down kick and snare) rather than trying to learn both then just do them at the same time. Even Les Claypool says there's no trick to it, it's just a buttload of practice.

I do a bit of backing while I play, nothing spectacular though, more just joining in with the audience participation bits, but through a mic.

[quote name='bobbytodd' post='1050014' date='Dec 6 2010, 11:08 PM']the back line we use is drummer-roland v electronic kit with 300w drum monitor,im using a peavey max 450 and peavey 4x10 rythm uses a marshall mg50 watt combo and lead retardist marshall jcm 900 and 4x12 and a 2x12 one each side of the stage.says it all really and our pa consists of 4xrcf art subs and 2xrcf 12"tops and 3xmackie srm 450v2 as monitors when they work.mind we dont use all the pa in small venues[/quote] Tell him to get an attenuator or GTFO. Even with just the 2x12 the JCM is going to be too loud for your average pub gig. He doesn't need to have amps both sides of the stage either, if he just kept to one side then he could blow his own ears off and everyone else could hide from his retarded volume the other side, though I'd still feel sorry for the audience. Any decent valve guitar amp over about 30w is too loud for pub gigs. Either he should be prepared to sacrifice tone and run it a little cooler or get an attenuator. Having 6x10 cabs with it is absurd. Our guitarist uses a Mesa 50w 1x12 combo and can't get a good tone because it's too loud (he keeps meaning to get an attenuator but hasn't got around to it). Sorry, guitarists with stupid rigs drives me nuts. If your drummer's using an electric kit, it's ideal for the sound-guy as it means he can have total control over everything, even at low levels. Last thing that should be happening is a retardist (as you call him) ruining that control. What you could try doing is listening to a CD of a track you play and figuring out how loud all the parts are, then mimicing that as accurately as possible. Maybe even getting someone else to stand out front and tell you what to change or do the sound (assuming you usualy do it yourself).

[quote name='TimR' post='1049986' date='Dec 6 2010, 10:45 PM']The only problem with starting with the drums is that if the venue isn't big enough the band will quickly get too loud for the room.[/quote] Drums are probably going to be the only thing in the set-up that doesn't have a volume control, it makes way more sense to match the things that do have volume controls to that rather than the other way around. If the room is to small and the drummer needs to play quietly, ask him to play quietly for sound check. It's much easier to match the PA volume to the drummer's volume than vice versa. It's unlikely the drummer will be able to tell how loud he is out front anyway.

[quote name='Ian Savage' post='1049807' date='Dec 6 2010, 08:22 PM']The best way of doing it is to build from the drums up[/quote] This is sound advice. When you sound check start with the drums and then work from the bassiest instrument (the bass, duh) then through to the most trebly instrument (lead guitar probably in your case, for us it's flute) then do vocals after. Depending on your style, the bass doesn't have to be an instrument to be heard independantly, it can be just in the background to fatten out the guitarist's sound by sticking to roots. Also try getting someone who knows what they're doing in for one gig to EQ everything, if the guitars are too bassy or the bass has too many high mids and treble, they can interfere with each other (as someone else said) so just getting someone in to sort them out then roughly remembering the settings can be a big help. If you can stop playing without half the band noticing, something's very wrong somewhere and definitely worth checking out. It's also worth noting that ideally nothing should be louder than anything else instrumentally (maybe lead instruments should have a slight hike, but not massive), everything should sit at the same volume but fit together in the mix with EQs and effects (like compression) ideally. Have you got any videos of your playing? It's possible there's something he doesn't like about your tone, if it's very boomy sounding for example, he might just be hearing that and when you're not playing the boom's gone. He just doesn't realise exactly what it is he's listening to.

Christ, they're expensive (in the UK), looking at Strings Direct, a lot are though. I think I've been spoiled getting stuff at trade.

Use a tape measure?

I think the 12" speaker in the 60.1 would give a much nicer tone than the 8" in the 15.1. The problem with small amps is that they distort very quickly and can sound tinny with small speakers, if you don't mind paying the extra for an amp that you won't be able to use outside your house or recording (as both of them are too small for band rehearsals and gigs) then I'd definitely go with the 60.1.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1048505' date='Dec 5 2010, 06:12 PM']I haven't played any Chinese made Tokais yet[/quote] If you're ever interested you can have a widdle on my chinese Love Rock, it's a guitar of course, but it's an indication of build quality and if you know Les Pauls, it'll give you an idea of how they compare. I think something to bear in mind is that a lot of "copies" are really just copies of the shape, especially with solid coloured instruments there's not a lot to distinguish at a distance. In my mind a copy is something designed to look like something else, it doesn't mean it's supposed to sound or feel like it. Even within the same model by the same manufacturer there's often a difference in woods, neck, appearance. Warwick being a prime example where a single model can have any number of neck shapes alone (before you even go into woods etc), so long as the body shape is the same, it's often considered different versions of the same instrument.

That's the one, thanks!

[quote name='chris_b' post='1048361' date='Dec 5 2010, 04:11 PM']Tokai never made Fender rip-offs. They made very high quality instruments which were more sought after than Fenders in the 80's.[/quote] I consider rip of as taking someone's idea and making a profit from it, which Tokai did. I don't dispute that they were better instruments (I don't know, I've never played an 80s Tokai and I'm not a big fan of Fender in general anyway).