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Low Bs on Ernie Ball Cobalt flats on Stingray 5's are pure gold. To me...they sound better, tighter than roundwound Low Bs on those particular style of basses. I have Cobalt flats on both of my Stingray 5's... EBMM and Sterling and they sound closer to rounds than status quo flats.

I've been a big fan of Bill Lawrence bass pickups for decades and I still think their P46 is the best sounding P that I've ever played.

I had a problem, and some of you have too, using the P46 in a 5 string bass. The way the coils are constructed, and using them on a 5 string, the A string passes over magnets on both coils making it much louder than the other strings and there is no way to balance it out. This first happened to me using a P46 in an MTD P bass and I had to remove and put the stock pickup back in which sucked.

Another member of TB plays an Ibanez Mezzo 205, like I do, and he was having the loud A string problem like I did.
We talked about it and I went to Becky Lawrence with an Idea to lose a magnet in one coil to create space and eliminate the volume problem. She pushed back at first, saying she had never heard of it being an issue, but was nice enough to make one for me. I received the new pickup Friday, installed it, and it sounds absolutely great and is a perfect match for the J45 already in my bass. I'm encouraging her to make it an option. If you are in need reach out to Becky or her daughter Shannon on their web site and ask if they will make you one. I can attest that they are dead quiet, sound and balance perfectly, and are half the price of a comparable sized Bartolini or Nordstrand P for 5.

To be clear, this is for 5 string basses that use standard size P pickups, not the uneven coil sizes used by Fender, Yamaha, Sire and others... which do hum due to the different sized coils.

Photos as installed and measurement space for string excursion over the coil

N. Kentucky Bass said:

To which I'd reply:
I told the sound guy I needed more low end in my in-ears. He said, “I’ve got you.”
I said, “No, you don’t understand—I mix from the cheeks down.”

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This is why the majority of bands in my area bring their own IEM mixers and have a splitter snake in the rack.
We hook [everything] up to our splitter stage box. One leg of the split goes to our IEM mixer, the other to the House.
At one venue we plug into their stage boxes (big stage) and they hand us a split feed that we plug into our splitter box.
One leg goes to the IEM mixer, the other is not used at that venue.

All but one of the 6 bands I've played with (2 are bands I'm in) over the last 2.5 yrs are fully IEM.
WE mix our monitors, FOH does FOH. Every venue we play has PA provided.
Sound checks are pretty quick, so no more frantic waving of hand signals to the sound guy asking for more low end in your ears!

Yes, the band is at the mercy of the sound guy's mix out front, but your IEM mix is YOUR mix, not theirs!

Looks like there will be a Season 4.


"Hulu’s ‘The Orville’ Season 4 is finally getting production 4 years after Season 3 debuted (in June 2022). Seth MacFarlane, the protagonist and creator of the show, told the Hollywood Reporter in March this year that “Season four is written.” 4 months later, we can tell you that the fourth season will be filmed between October 19 this year and April 22, 2027, in Los Angeles and Prague, Czech Republic. Showrunner/director/writer Brannon Braga is back, along with director Jon Cassar."

Good morning.


Picked up a Sire P5 5 string a few months back but I am having constant issues with the tone pot being scratchy/causing distortion at times.

Looking for a direct replacement of the pots, and the input jack as well to be safe.

What are some brands/harnesses that are a direct replacement for a Sire P5?

steapien said:

I was wandering if its possible to use loops as two separate outputs. So You have one clean signal, and one distorted, it would be useful for recording. Anyone tried that?

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Yes. Insert a DI box in the drive loop, use the normal output as an output for your clean signal...

gln1955 said:

I think this falls under "read the room". If your audience wants more engagement, they'll let you know pretty clearly.

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Not so sure if that worked all the time for GG Allin.

hrodbert696 said:

My bar band's singer wanted to do an AI flyer for us a few months ago. I put my foot down and said absolutely not. I'm not TOTALLY anti-AI, it has some legitimate uses. But generally what you see is people using it as a substitute for thinking or for actual creative work. It's the underlying ethos; if we want to tell people there's something special about hearing actual musicians actually play music, rather than a DJ or even just a Spotify playlist, then why outsource our promotion to a robot? AI is a lot better now than a year or two ago, the six-finger thing is getting less common. But all these bands running AI flyers of themselves all wind up looking the same, precisely because they ARE doing it the lazy, easy way.

So I whipped up a flyer myself. Took me half an hour, using some pics from a venue photographer back during bike week the previous year.
View attachment 7543612

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Your flyer looks like everyone else's, like most of the ones I've made and very similar to the AI flyer.


Unlike AI, I tried to find our uncoolest photos to make this one:


The first AI take:


Talk about false advertising...there are 4 of us and we were calling ourselves a trio?!? That was DI (Drummer Intelligence).

I don't see it as being that different from using a template. It's not art, it's a notice. It's a small town, old guy cover band, not our full time jobs. The list of short cuts I take is long. Are the 42 facebook scrollers that might see this really judging our integrity based on this? Do I need to hand draw each one an carefully place it on random windshields to be authenic?

Quick test--AI or ni (nutdog intelligence)? Ethical or not? It got 8 likes on facebook, so consider your answer carefully. The fate of live music depends on it.




I wasn't thinking about an AI morality debate when I posted. I just thought it was interesting that, over time, without prompting, AI made 'artistic choices' that made the drummer and me conform to 'ideal' beauty standards. It must have learned that from humans.

fhm555 said:

Is the CF one piece or assembled panels?

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I understood it to be a CF sandwich with a foam (?) core. I’ve seen a thread or two citing issues with laminate separation at the borders.

Riis

Oklep said:

two bass tracks, one low passed at arround 300hz for low end, and second one with high pass at around 600hz with some distortion. I blend them together, and it gives me gnarly aggressive bass for heavy music.

My question is. How can I make this happen in live environment?

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I can achieve this with EBS Sheehan signature pedal with LPF inserted in the clean loop...

...or with KMA Tyler deluxe...

..or with Broughton FFXL....

2010P said:

Me personally I would stick only a compressor into the lows and use the high out for dirt and modulation, but I would be curious as to how you'd run your setup if you had one.

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Compresor and octaver for lows, dirt, envelope filter and chorus for mids/highs...

GretschWretch said:

Your post above made me Google Dean Stylist, which I find has a 32" scale, a mensure I am finding more and more appealing. You have no idea of the havoc you have just wrought with my long range plans.

Is yours a full hollow or a semi-hollow?

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Sorry for the havoc.

It's a big ol' hollow body. In fact, I had F hole covers made because when used live this thang will howl at the moon at the slightest volume, which my Gretsch never does due to the thinner body.

BassHole1 said:

The guitarist/singer of the band I was trying to get into thinks she plays it with a pick....??? But I found a few videos where she's playing the octave "beep beep" with her R. ring finger extended down? I've never tried that.....

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I've never seen a video where she's playing with a pick; she's playing fingerstyle except for that little bit of pop and slap.

And here I am! Just finished the last exercise. Can't get through the C-section flawlessly but I am happy to close this chapter all the same.

Next book will be Ed's Walking Bass book. I may also go through the Bass Method again, this time with a plectrum instead of fingers. Ideally, I should advance through the exercises more rapidly, but like I said above, there are some concepts which I do not fully grok yet.

So much learning, so little time (actually spent doing just that).

Spidey2112 said:

....

Chris, is the submission the sheet music, or the album cover tease?

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Both

Link to all the transcriptions in my Signature!

Ian774 said:

Anyone familiar with this model?

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I've seen it mentioned, but never one in the flesh, but as I type I think I recall there being an owner here. Looks like a fairly typical stock SR Premium, just with 18mm spacing.

Edit: the SR1605DW @ardgedee mentions was likely the one I was thinking of.

My latest video. It's a bit of an experimental hybrid - reverb pedal review mixed with sci-fi narrative.

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USAJO said:

You can take that further and go ampless. I’m visual. I prefer gear that meets my criteria as well as looks good to me. I think that’s not uncommon.

The crowd can also be visually oriented. That’s why bands put up walls of unloaded cabs.

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Shows that have no rigs on stage are visually less exciting to me, and it seems a fair amount of bands run this way now. I understand some of the reasons for it, but I do appreciate the extra eye candy when there are guitar and bass setups physically present.

What really saddens me is going to a show and seeing that half the bands don't even run a bassist. They track in the bass on a computer

I’ve fitted the Gotoh oversized buttons on both my basses and I prefer them.
Tried Schaller and didn’t like them and rubber washers made strap too tight on button.
The Oversized buttons are simple and work well with leather straps and move better ( not in the sense of coming off accidentally but move on the strap pin as it’s supposed too. So better than rubber washers in my opinion.
They look nicer too I think and I used the original screws that were used for the original strap button.
Gotoh make quality gear, I fit their bridges too on my basses )

Dave Higham said:

I've experienced 'blotchiness' with Z-Poxy and realised that having put on several coats, sanding between each coat, that the final thickness wasn't even. You're supposed to sand back to bare wood, leaving the epoxy in the pores, which I find impossible because it always opens up new pores, So I've sometimes finished up with an uneven coat which has an uneven colour.

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For at least one body, I did that (sanded back to bare wood), and then I started wiping the final epoxy on with a rag balled up and dipped in acetone or denatured alcohol, can't remember which was around at the time. Like a wannabe French polish, but with grain filler. It built up enough after two passes or so, over the entirety of the body. Followed with a Zinsser aerosol washcoat under Minwax aerosol nitro lacquer. It ended up being one of the best finishes I ever did, but that bass was sold to fund some upright stuff. I owned it for about a year. I don't know if it looked different after four or five.

We went to this concert last fall. Great guitarist.

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rmayer said:

Great rig. Love those Bag End Birch Ply Cabinets. My rig in the late 70s/early 80s was two Bag End S18s and a D12 on top. Ran a Bi-Amped setup, sounded great but weighed a ton.

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The cabs are still manageable for me… borderline heavy.. but they sound great.

Anyone here have a Sacramento 5 string 32"? I know Jake has made just a few.

Ive played two vintage Ricks in the last year that have really spoken to me tone wise but not ergonomically, and 32" 5ers are my preferred flavor at the moment.

Might move one of my Muckelroys and track down a used one or reach out to Jake about a custom build.

Dr. Cheese said:

It is hard to top perfection and those albums, especially Plantation Lullabies, were perfect.

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I like Bitter also.

These have all been listed, and I will summarize: if you don't want to go all the way to flats or nylon tapewound strings, then:

Pressurewounds, whether GHS or other brands that make similar strings; I have used GHS Pressurewounds to good effect, especially to tame the twang of G-strings when combined with (now discontinued) GHS Progressives.

One of these days I may have to see what SIT Silencers are all about.

Half-rounds, ground-wounds, etc., again, by GHS or other similar brands. I have played them and they do what they say.
I have a set of GHS Brite Flats on one of my basses I really like.

GHS balanced nickels feel smoother than other rounds to me.

I have heard that D'A half rounds are good, but I have no experience with them.