The Combo Club

[GwenOnBass]

Oh man, I'd forgotten about the whole adrenaline thing. I studied voice at uni, back in the day, and there was not much in this world I hated more than doing recitals. The adrenaline always made my voice tighter, in a bad way, and it took a massive effort to open up properly.

I was always better in choir, and avoided being looked at when they were handing out solo parts...

I'm just going to play my bass in my room for a while. What happens later is a problem for future me.

“People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jack rabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat, [reproduce], sleep, hop around a bush now and then....No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenaline rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels”

— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72​

Adrenaline. ^ this is pretty much what it feels like playing by the seat of my pants for an audience.

 

[swink]

Hey, how’d you get a hold of a CCC? There’s a very short list of CCC possessors and I don’t remember your name on it. Hmm...was it the CCC-X or CCC-Z?

Once upon a time in a very distant past..... (This extends beyond the short-term memory of a FL.)

Welcome, swinky-do! Here's your official Combo Club Communicator for reaching most other membersat any time, and gaining VIP Accessto all the best venues. Make sure to read and heed the enclosed instructions and don't worry about any rumors of radioactive leakage. That was just the old model. This is the new improved quantum version!

View attachment 3856485​

And forgive Fearless Leader for still living in the olden days of secret decoder rings and drinking Ovaltine. Make yourself at home here and on the Combo Club Wiki page, linked in my signature. .

 

[iagtrplyr]

Once upon a time in a very distant past..... (This extends beyond the short-term memory of a FL.)

If you’re talking about my memory then we’re talking very short-term here. BTW, what are we talking about again?

 

[swink]

If you’re talking about my memory then we’re talking very short-term here. BTW, what are we talking about again?

Can you speak a little louder, I don't hear very well without my glasses.

 

[SoulReflection]

Can you speak a little louder, I don't hear very well without my glasses.

I can't hear or see you...can't remember where I put my hearing aids and glasses. If I can't find my specs, I am sunk .

 

[RodRy]

Ok. But does it cause you discomfort or interfere with your playing if not then play on!

Didn't used to. Now it makes my thumb hurt and 'click' when it bends for a few days after a longer (unfocused) practice. I have to get some level of dedicated technique practice into my day.


Edit: I took a couple 25 minute lessons at a local Jazz school over a year ago, and because of that, I actually use my pinky to fret notes on bass now. It proves that I can indeed learn new things - contrary to popular opinion!

 

[StatesideRambler]

That’s interesting @Miles_ONeal so then why are there thousands of Beatles lessons videos on bass on YouTube? I tried to have the music way down low in the background and keep the bass prominent out of respect for someone’s copywrite I get that. Musicians have been ripped off enough. But that seems harmless. But they did not pull it down it was just my settings were wrong for it.

In re: The sound file you played along with …
Is it the Beatles recording or is it a cover? Youtube is demonic about shutting down anything that has original Beatles content because the copyright owner (now Paul McCartney since 2017) has a chokehold on the rights. There are bots all over the ‘net in search of unauthorized use of IP and, given the penalties imposed or the likely legal entanglements, online services like youtube are quick to quash that content when it’s posted. The many online Beatles tutorials probably don’t use the original recordings.

 

[Michael Favata]

In re: The sound file you played along with …
Is it the Beatles recording or is it a cover? Youtube is demonic about shutting down anything that has original Beatles content because the copyright owner (now Paul McCartney since 2017) has a chokehold on the rights. There are bots all over the ‘net in search of unauthorized use of IP and, given the penalties imposed or the likely legal entanglements, online services like youtube are quick to quash that content when it’s posted. The many online Beatles tutorials probably don’t use the original recordings.

Thanks @StatesideRambler .
Some Beatles bass lesson videos do use original content some do not. There’s a wide variety out there.

I can see if someone is playing recordings of the Beatles, or any artist for that matter, on a video and it could theoretically serve as their playlist without having to pay for it. That’s fair enough. I would not want to rip off a musicians work. I would NEVER intentionally do that.

But my videos had my bass very prominently in front intentionally and the song barely audible in the back. It’s of no use to anyone but me to analyze my own technique which I think will be very useful. I never did that before.

They never did pull my videos down in their defense. At first I posted them as private and only those I shared the link with could view them. That didn't work. So I changed their status to “Not Listed” and changed the titles of the videos from the Beatles song titles to my initials and the word technique. I was gonna take them down but I want to see if they stick that way. So far their still there. That would be good to know for the future.

It seems to me the theory would be if they are not listed and not titled then no one could find them in a search unless I shared the link to them. So that protects them. That’s fair. I didn’t want the masses to see them anyway. They were just one take first take examples of using video to analyze our technique.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

“People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jack rabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat, [reproduce], sleep, hop around a bush now and then....No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenaline rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels”

— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72​

Adrenaline. ^ this is pretty much what it feels like playing by the seat of my pants for an audience.

YES!!! 100%

 

[iagtrplyr]

Halfway through the first part of Get Back and here are three takeaways.

1) fantastic viewpoint we’re given here. I feel like I’m working there and walking by as George says to the guys, “Ya wanna year a song I wrote last night? It’s called, I Me Mine.”

2) I about soiled my knickers when George’s Gibson went crashing down to the floor and hitting a cymbal while they were playing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer!

3) George was really coming into his own as a songwriter though I could feel he wasn’t taken nearly as seriously as he should’ve been by the rest of the group. John and Paul missed that one by a lot, but it did give us All Things Must Pass.

We’ll finish Part One tomorrow night. Very enjoyable so far. See ya!

 

[GwenOnBass]

Halfway through the first part of Get Back and here are three takeaways.

1) fantastic viewpoint we’re given here. I feel like I’m working there and walking by as George says to the guys, “Ya wanna year a song I wrote last night? It’s called, I Me Mine.”

2) I about soiled my knickers when George’s Gibson went crashing down to the floor and hitting a cymbal while they were playing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer!

3) George was really coming into his own as a songwriter though I could feel he wasn’t taken nearly as seriously as he should’ve been by the rest of the group. John and Paul missed that one by a lot, but it did give us All Things Must Pass.

We’ll finish Part One tomorrow night. Very enjoyable so far. See ya!

Very much more into George than the others. Listened to a lot of George. There is a story that can't be told, or maybe shouldn't be told, a night like forever

Back on our planet today, it's work with My 'Ray. Six days of solid practice and beginning to see things in entirely new ways. Mind bending, like George, only here with the dog and a pretty doggone nice PJB combo

Standalone it's 300 watts, 500 with the C4 extension. What's thing about loud and low land light, pick two? Did I get that right? What it is, is some pristine sound and I can easily imagine another PJB BG-400 and C4 for a 16 five inch driver rig
mwahahahha

Back on our planet it's woodshedding on My 'Ray
pick up the two short scales and it's ridiculously fun and easy. The Nordy Cat bass is too much fun to be even legal.
And woodshedding again on My 'Ray Friday

 

[GwenOnBass]

 

[68Tele-Bass]

Well, made to Stowe with big brother and fam. Great dinner- new favorite…Sweet potatoes with red curry paste and coconut milk!

Now to head back to Boston before this “snizzle” out turns over to all snow !!

 

[iagtrplyr]

Adding to Morrighan's and Tele's holiday wishes, here are a couple of festive shots that hope to get the good feelings of this happy time of year stirring in your hearts. The is 2/3 of our grandchildren gathered together yesterday to age their grandparents a year or two. Their plan worked, but it was so much fun we didn't care.

The second is my just-assembled Christmas tree (if that's what it can legally be called) stocked with guitars and a bass hanging from its branches. I wanted to try the Rogue but changed my mind when I realized it could get lost in the dense conifer-bearing tree and be lost forever. The Telecaster? No way, it would've snapped that toothpick of a tree in seconds!

Now that the holidays have officially begun, feel free to post your own pics to liven up the spirit around here. I'd especially enjoy seeing images from Europe if you folks get the chance to do so. Off to cause trouble as it's my last day I don't have to think about sch***!

 

[68Tele-Bass]

Adding to Morrighan's and Tele's holiday wishes, here are a couple of festive shots that hope to get the good feelings of this happy time of year stirring in your hearts. The is 2/3 of our grandchildren gathered together yesterday to age their grandparents a year or two. Their plan worked, but it was so much fun we didn't care.

The second is my just-assembled Christmas tree (if that's what it can legally be called) stocked with guitars and a bass hanging from its branches. I wanted to try the Rogue but changed my mind when I realized it could get lost in the dense conifer-bearing tree and be lost forever. The Telecaster? No way, it would've snapped that toothpick of a tree in seconds!

Now that the holidays have officially begun, feel free to post your own pics to liven up the spirit around here. I'd especially enjoy seeing images from Europe if you folks get the chance to do so. Off to cause trouble as it's my last day I don't have to think about sch***!

Great shots there! That Tele and the grandkids looks awesome!!

 

[SoulReflection]

Great shots there! That Tele and the grandkids looks awesome!!

Yeah, so does the Rogue and Mrs. FL...did we leave anyone out ?

 

[GwenOnBass]

It's only made it as far as the front stoop.



and very much doubt it will come any closer.

Today's assignments from our live practice group have me simultaneously terrified and thrilled. Apart from that, learned something really useful about my BG-400 combo ...

Experimented and ran the DI from the VT Bass Deluxe instead of from the combo to debug a monitoring problem. It is a software setting to blame, I learn. Fixed. What I did not expect to learn is the DI signal from the VTBD is line level and the DI signal from the combo isn't ....

Time for me to RTFM
again

Now working with all new combinations of gain and master on this amp

The Brite Flats on My 'Ray are settling in great. "Motown with an attitude" is what GHS says. Can very definitely dial that in between my amp, and these mutes

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The Brite Flats really do look like flats (except they're not). They kind of feel like flats (except they don't). They're a month old now, except with only three weeks of daily play because it was back at Santa's Workshop because the neck wasn't shimmed properly (free repair as part of the original payment). There's a set of EB Group Flats IV that want to be auditioned, too. But not anytime soon. To my own surprise, I like the Brite Flats.

 

[GwenOnBass]

One RTFM later

and the DI on the PJB combo is unaffected by volume and is an ultra-low impedance balanced line out. It is affected by the instrument's volume
the StingRay is active and the other two are not. Now to RTFM for the VT Bass Deluxe

edit. And there it is:

"BALANCED XLR OUTPUT: Balanced 600-Ohm low Z output. Sends effected or
bypassed signal to mixing console/recorder.
XLR Out Pad Switch: -20dB pad to match the output to equipment
with different input level requirements. In the line level (up) position, the
output is 0dB. In the instrument level (down) position, the output is -20dB"​

 

[iagtrplyr]

Great shots there! That Tele and the grandkids looks awesome!!

Thanks, from one Tele to another! I did a setup on her today and she’s fit for duty. I put on those Ernie Ball Cobalt strings and boy, are they nice. Three snaps and the pitch was set, lots of clarity, and they even felt good too. Dang, I almost forgot how thin they are compared to bass strings!

Other than replacing the grime saddles for brass ones and filing down the sharp edges of the nut, nothing else was done. One of the least stressful guitar setups I’ve ever done, and that I credit to the factory.

 

[iagtrplyr]

Yeah, so does the Rogue and Mrs. FL...did we leave anyone out ?

Uh...no one important, that’s for sure!