ThomBassmonkey

The way I used to teach intervals when I was a music teacher was to get people to think of songs (I had a list as backup in case they couldn't) that had the intervals in them.

e.g. in Sweet Dreams the main riff is root, root, fifth, so if anything sounds like it's the same interval as the jump from root to 5th in Sweet Dreams, you know that's the interval. Same with Smeels Like Teen Spirit, the first two notes in the main riff goes up a 4th.

If you can try and find songs that fit all the intervals and you know well enough to remember what they sound like, then you can apply that to other songs or to jamming.

I've shot an email to them but the guy that looks after me is out of the office until Monday so I won't hear anything before then. I'll let ya know if he gives me any details.

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1341495174' post='1720016']
Based on the US pricing, I reckon they'll gone in under the NEOs, but at the original prices the first lot were at, so nearer £400 for the new MBE 212.
I've e-mithered the UK distributor asking about availability, but as usual I've not heard anything.
<rant>I rarely get any response from manufacturers or distributors in the amp business, which is really really poor.
The only folks, in my experience, who are prompt, friendly and seem to value customers and potential customers are Ashdown. It takes very little and it goes a long way... </rant>

Eude
[/quote]

That's strange, Polar are usually on the ball with replying to emails. I'll drop them one and see if they have any news.

I think having a good B string is harder to get right than having a good E string. So many manufacturers (even on premium instruments) think that making a 5 string is a case of making everything a little wider and putting an extra string on.

It's easy saying "stick a thicker string on it and it'll fix problems" but if you have to do that on one bass and not on another then the B on the first is clearly not as good.

I don't think it's a case of paying a premium for a decent B either, plenty of sub £500 instruments have great Bs, it's just that they need to be designed with the extra string (and the frequencies it produces) in mind.

I mucked about avoiding rays for a couple of years because I could never quite find one I wanted. Then I managed to find one and loved it so much a few months later I got a 2nd.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1340868245' post='1710605']
The Gold speaker GK cabs are notoriously bad. The rest get good reviews.
[/quote]

This. The GLX are the BLX coloured gold for a special order (I think it was GuitarGuitar in the US, can't remember though) but between the bad reviews and the gaudy colour, they never sold well so they've seeped through to the UK market.

I'm sure an MBE, NEO or RBH cab would be a completely different story.

[quote name='S9_S12_Bass' timestamp='1340839181' post='1710505']
I've just finished a band practice which I didn't take my super 12 and had to use a GK 4x10 Which to me sounded sh*te and couldn't get a decent tone that I can get with all 12 o clock settings on my shuttle 9, I got the bloke there to change the cab as to be fair it sounded like it was on the way out, then gave me a Warwick 4x10 which sounded like I had plugged my lead into a nice wet turd. So in my experience my super 12 beats any cab I have played weather that's a 4x10 x1 or x2 or a 1x15 and 4x10 or 2x10 x 1 or x2............. I think you may get the point I'm tired so excuse my rambling
[/quote]

What GK cab was it?

Asking how a 212 compares to a 410 is a bit like asking how a 450w head compares to a 500w head, it's a very general question. If you're looking at specific cabs, it'd be easier to help.

The lowest frequency a cab goes to is pretty much irrelevant, the volume it does it at is more important and that's not easy info to get hold of.

[quote name='0175westwood29' timestamp='1340834589' post='1710432']
how do they get two channel in these heads? is it swtiched by a footswtich!

my bass clipped the input on one of the early ones of these so ive always avoided them! maybe its time i gave one another go?

andy
[/quote]

I think on a technicality it's only one channel, in that they share an EQ so most of the circuit in the pre is the same. There's two gain structures though which allow you to boost the gain/volume as you please. I still find it strange that you made one clip, maybe it was a fault or something, GKs are well known for sounding great with MM basses, which are very high output. It's be strange if GK didn't cater for louder basses.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1340672027' post='1708038']
Did that not work? I've wondered about this.
[/quote]

It would work, the bass would also balance better.

On the downside though, your bass won't be as manouverable (IME at least from experience with acoustic guitars, they just kinda stick in the position they're in, more prone to laying horizontal too) and you have the extra weight on the neck (and basses are heavier than acoustic guitars). If you move about whilst playing, they're both considerations.

[quote name='deepbass5' timestamp='1340661163' post='1707862']
Funny, We have only ever had drunk people fall on us and damage our equipment, not the other way round. MU is now £155 without double checking but you do get £1000 of instrument cover chucked in with your £10,000,000 of idiot insurance.
[/quote]

The MU gives £2,000 of unspecified instrument insurance. The unspecified part is important (and I don't think mentioned yet) as it means potentially you could take as much gear as you wanted to gigs and as long as the value of anything pinched is less than £2,000, it'll be covered, whatever it is, even if you take a different bass/amp to every gig.

They're also worth it if you're having problems with venues coughing up money. A lot of venues might not care but with the MU you'll get legal advice from people that specialise in that kinda thing.

Also free PLI and various other benefits. It's definitely worth it if you (or your band) earn money from your music, it's really not a big cost in the grand scheme of it.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1340644196' post='1707497']
Tricky isn't it, as buying online you're bound to get a few minutes out of the warehouse boy.

" ...it's NEVER worth being an arse with people." This is the key and, unfortunately, people are often given one chance and if they come across as one that's it.
[/quote]

When I buy from a shop I expect good service, buying online just gets me the gear. I get a discount because people don't have to be nice to me and I don't get to see my gear before it's shipped, at least that's how I see it. If I'm paying a premium to support a shop, I'm doing them a favour by giving them extra money, being treated like I'm not welcome is a sure way to get me to give my money to someone I feel does deserve it.

And yeah, even if the person you're being an arse to doesn't intend to buy anything, word will spread quickly (even on a forum like this) about your attitude problem and you'll earn a bad rep for your shop.

I don't consider the NEO range budget gear at all. I couldn't tell you how they're so cheap, but they're class amps. They're what a lot of the pro GK endorsees use simply because they're smaller and lighter and sound as good as (though different, obviously) the RBH range.

up down up up, hum along with them

I used to work at a small music shop a few hours on Saturdays and it's NEVER worth being an arse with people.

We used to have 5-6 kids come in in a group regularly and play all the guitars. I always kept my eye on them but they were never rude or rough with the instruments. In the end one ended up spending about £500 with us (it was only a small shop that sold beginner instruments in the main so that was a good sale for us). It's always worth encouraging people to try instruments as you never know what they're willing to spend. Imagine Seasick Steve (for example) coming into your shop, he might be scruffy as hell but he'd definitely have the money to spend if you treated him right.

It drives me nuts when people treat me like dirt in a music shop. I might not have a huge income, but as my gear list shows, I'm willing to invest in my gear and if people treat me like crap, I won't be risking my money with them, any problems with stuff I buy and I wouldn't feel I could trust them to fix it.

I took a trip a while ago that's about 2 hours each way to get to a shop (I won't mention the name because I've been told repeatedly that it was an isolated incident) and after walking in there was a guy there that obviously knew the owner playing bass at full volume, the owner asked me what I was looking for and after telling him, he shoved a bass in my hand, handed me a lead and told me which amp to plug into then disappeared into the back to make a phone call for the next 30 minutes while the other guy kept twiddling on the bass he was looking at. I had a quick noodle and as I was serious about buying an instrument (about £1200 budget) I actually just wanted 5 minutes on the bass to give it a go then try some other stuff. In the end I just left after trying one bass as I don't like helping myself to everything there (especially in my price range), I couldn't hear properly anyway and if the guy couldn't spend 20 minutes with me, I wasn't going to spend a lot of money with him.

I play fingers on anything and everything. I joke that real bassists don't use picks, but it doesn't bother me really. Depends on what suits the music.

Take around the contact cleaner and a soldering iron and some solder. If you can't fix it with them, you'll need a new pot.

First of all give the pots a good wiggle, roll them up and down and try unplugging and re-plugging a jack lead several times, sometimes that works out the muck that might've built up.

Try contact cleaner first, it doesn't really matter what you wipe any excess away with as it's what goes into the pot that's important.

If that doesn't work, wait a while for it to dry fully then you could try re-soldering the contacts on the pot.

If that doesn't fix it, then you'll probably need new pots.

[quote name='muttley' timestamp='1340022724' post='1697704']
What's that story of Picasso and the napkin sketch?

edit: Here it is:-

[url="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/being-modern-conceptual-art-2370214.html"]source[/url]


Ask them what they would charge for 2 hours freelance work. How much does it cost to get a plumber in? Or go to the dentist?
[/quote]

Ask them how many hours in a week they get paid for working. Then consider how many hours a week a pro musician is waiting around before playing that they're not getting paid for. You could also ask how likely it is that they'll fall out of fashion and their jobs will go south just because their time has passed.

If you think musicians should get £10 an hour, a decent hourly rate, gigging 2 hours a day 7 days a week for the whole year without a day off would only be £7300pa. Does that sound a fair amount for someone that's likely never going to get any time at home (doing that many gigs, you're going to need to be touring)?

If someone gigs 4 days a week on average and gets £50 per gig (£25 an hour), they're still only on £10400. And that's before expenses too, mind.

So £100 a gig, 4 days a week on average through a whole year will get £20800 before expenses, that's really not a lot.

I'm not sure how a job that consists of lots of rehearsal and then very little actual "work" (as in paid time) can be compared to something that gives regular hours. I'm not sure of the relevance of the Picasso thing, I'm sure anyone with any sense and the money to do it would jump at buying a Picasso for $10,000, whatever it was drawn on so you're kind of arguing against your own point I think.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1340180542' post='1700309']
I assume this is aimed at me. I do support bands (more than almost anyone else I know). I don't think "piracy is ok".What I think is: "[b]sometimes[/b] piracy can actually be a good thing for musicians. [b]SOMETIMES[/b]."
[/quote]

It wasn't aimed at anyone specifically and I gave an example of where piracy can help the artist in the post you quoted. As a rule of thumb though, it's a bad thing.

I'm endorsed by GK and Polar Audio (PA are the UK Dist for GK gear, I'm technically endorsed directly to GK so I get a decent discount on their stuff but I can get smaller discount on anything PA sell), our drummer's endorsed by SJC and technically we're endorsed by a string brand too but none of us like the strings so we've never really made use of it.

My endorsement is basically cheap gear and I help out them when I can, I'm around here a lot pimping them out (I would do it anyway because I love GK stuff, but I know a bit more about them after having played all their stuff so can help out with a bit more accurate advice) and I've done a trade show for them (LBGS last year) and hopefully I'll be bugging a local shop to start stocking their stuff and helping them learn about it, which'll help everyone.

I got my endorsement after buying a (retail) GK 700RB-II and a couple of 210RBH cabs and loving it, then going to Warwick about a bass endorsement. They offered me a crap amp endorsement instead which I turned down, so I went to Polar and asked if I could have a GK endorsement and they sorted it out for me. Our drummer got endorsement offers simply by emailing around and finding a company he wanted an endorsement from that replied to him.

Some endorsements can sound fancy but actually they're not great. Warwick offered me 50% off RRP on any of their amps, but after you take into account that RRP is usually 30%+ more than street price and that you have to pay shipping from Germany, I was only saving about £50 on an amp that would've set me back £800 from a shop.

This reminds me, now my band's on Kerrang, I wonder if it's time to get in touch with EB again...

I think there's definitely a brand sound for lots of brands. GKs have a very distinct sound, as do Ampegs, Markbasses and various others.

IMO it's partially to do with the fact that people will tend to work for companies they like the products of and are surrounded by their amps so when they're trying to achieve what their idea of a perfect bass tone is, their opinion is going to be bias towards what the company's already producing anyway. Part of it will be that similar components will be used (e.g. same power amp) throughout the range. Obviously they'll consider the brand "sound" too.

From what you describe, I'd go for a GK MB head and NEO cabs. I use a Fusion into 1 or 2 NEO212s and it's naturally bright but easily copes with B. The RB series that Liam suggested could do it too but they're not as naturally bright as the MBs so you'd be more reliant on the EQ (which could easily do it, but there's no point getting an amp that doesn't fit the bill as well)

I own a few, a knackered 4 string from the 70s I don't even have all the parts to (if I ever get into some money I might do something interesting with it, it was a reject from a shop I taught at when it shut down), my first bass (Washburn B style), the 6 string I played at my first gig and in my first proper bands, used it for about 8 years so it's not going anywhere and my two stingrays which are my main basses now.

I generally just use one bass, it's always been that way, I tend to get a new bass and use that then my old bass goes spare so I'll trade it for something else and use that. I'm happy with my rays now though. I can't imagine feeling the need for loads of basses, if I was in several bands that needed completely different sounds that my basses/amps couldn't manage (I can't imagine it to be honest with the gear I have at the moment) I might get another bass for that band, but I'm not one of those people that insists that I need a set tone for a genre.

I guess there's a lot of people that don't make money from their music. That's ok, but I wonder how you'd feel if people expected you to do your jobs for free?

Downloads in moderation are ok, as has been mentioned, lots of stuff that's downloaded wouldn't have been bought anyway and for smallish bands, it can be ok to get their name around. I've laughed with bandmates at gigs when someone says "I've got no money on me, but I'll illegally download it!"

There's some pictures going around on facebook at the moment along the lines of "Why is our local music scene dying" and "Why do I have to pay to get into gigs" with the reply "Tell me about all the merch you've bought recently" and "Why should musician's get food on their plates when I have to pay a few pounds entry" and it's true. Entry fee is usually about the price of a pint and a CD costs about 3 pints for an album (usually small bands just have EPs which are much cheaper)..

If you want to support music, buy stuff. Not supporting bands is damaging to everyone, when people can't afford to play gigs because of expenses and can't pay for more recordings because their CDs are being pirated, it's the fans that lose out as much as the bands. It's not the band's responsibility to give you free stuff.

Frankly I'm a bit disappointed that musicians can have the veiw that piracy is ok.

They're definitely neodymium. It specifically mentions it on their site here: http://www.gallien-krueger.com/products_neo_series.html

If they weren't it'd be outright false advertising rather than just misleading. Also, as you pointed out, with the weight as it is, there's no way they're ceramic. They make their own range of speakers (Paragons) which as you say is probably how they make them so cheap.

IMO an acoustic bass guitar is a bass that's designed to be played acoustically, you don't see many because they don't tend to work.

Semi-acoustic is an acoustic bass that's made with compromises to make them playable electrically or more comfortable for someone used to an electric bass, things like pre-amps, electrics, narrower body. 90% of acoustic bass guitars have pickups etc because it's widely accepted that the small body of a bass guitar can't amplify the sound of the bass notes very well.

Hollow bodied are things like 335s etc. They have no merit acoustically but the hollow body can affect the sound.

Chambered bodies look like solid bodies but they're made with chambers (durr) inside. Generally routed before a top is put on so there's no obvious sign that they're chambered. It affects the weight and potentially the tone though.

Solid bodies are solid bodies.

I think the biggest two problems with a 5 string bass are:

Crap B strings, easily sorted by getting a decent 5er. £400ish can pick you up an L2500 or a SUB5 for example, lots of 5ers seem to be 4 strings with an extra string bolted on and a wider neck which doesn't always work IMO. For a good idea how a B string should be, a 5 string ray or Warwick are definitely basses to look to just to get a feel of how they should be.

The neck width, they are wider and the depth of the neck changes over the strings too. Some people have problems with cramp etc on the bigger necks, for some it's worth persevering and getting used to it, some don't bother.

Personally I went from a 4 string to a 6 string, then back down to a 5. Once you're used to a 5 string it does everything a 4 string does and more. Because I can play a 5 string, I don't see the point in limiting myself with a 4. I wouldn't mind owning a decent 6er but with my main band being a 3 piece, I very rarely need to play anything high up (the music thins out too much without more instruments fattening it up) and with my 2nd band being ska-ish, I'd struggle with a lot of the basslines with the extra string on.