Can I sport a whale-tail when playin' guitar?

[qersty]

you could try graphite ones. it think they are suppoed to be pretty resistant to wear. that makes them pretty bright tho

[coldbrightsunlight]

I bought a stone pick recently and it has been one of the best gear decisions I've made in a while. If you're happy with totally inflexible picks they're super sturdy!!

[MechaGodzilla]

i like thin and inflexible picks, like 1mm ultex or cortex or whatever.

[Benn Roe]

People not changing their bass strings for years or decades is stressing me out. Whenever I'm playing bass actively in a band, I change my strings every 3 to 5 shows. Once they start to dull, I can't handle them anymore.

[Blackened Soul]

i hate new strings.... I usually don't like the sound for a month... Just sounds clangy and tinfoily to me

[coldbrightsunlight]

People not changing their bass strings for years or decades is stressing me out. Whenever I'm playing bass actively in a band, I change my strings every 3 to 5 shows. Once they start to dull, I can't handle them anymore.

The expense! The clank! I can't imagine it

One thing I've really noticed is that on top of the personal preference thing, some people's strings go like, actually bad a lot faster. I was briefly in a band with this guy who borrowed my bass for one rehearsal and left the strings noticeably corroded. I have never once had corroded strings before this body chemistry stuff I guess - he must be acid fingers man.

[MechaGodzilla]

i pity the acid slime men and their string expenses but damn, these labellas are not getting replaced for a long fuckin time

[dubkitty]

a bass player with a project i was part of in 70s Chicago used to take the strings off his bass and boil them on top of the stove to refresh them. the green scum that floated to the top was, well, vivid.

[Benn Roe]

It does get insanely expensive (though it's still less than gas when you're touring), but I love me some clank. I change my guitar strings just as often, but at least those are like half the price. I like reading about everyone here's preferences for this sort of stuff, though. It's fascinating. For instance, it seems like VREEEEVROOOOOW and I have very similar musical backgrounds and interests, but completely opposite tone and equipment preferences. I absolutely can't imagine leaving strings on an instrument I'm actively playing, even for months. For that matter, I can't imagine playing through a DI box into a PA. This is a thing sound-techs really want bassists to do? I can probably count on one hand the number of shows where that option was even presented to me, and I never entertained it. Most PAs at shows I've played were barely adequate for screamed vocals, let alone an instrument we actually wanted people to hear.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Hahaha yah there is definitely a difference on the DI thing depending what sort of show/venue you are playing. Definitely not a thing in small places with crap PA systems. Then again it's also been a million years since I played gigs

It is interesting how everyone has their different views on the strings. Takes all sorts.

[dubkitty]

so you didn't want people to hear the singer?

[qersty]

most gigs ive done have been DI and a tiny practice amp. most sound techs also went into despair when seeing i had not one but several distortion boxes. well, further despair after hearing our drummer's really big cymbals

[goroth]

most gigs ive done have been DI and a tiny practice amp. most sound techs also went into despair when seeing i had not one but several distortion boxes. well, further despair after hearing our drummer's really big cymbals

#giggingInSweden

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

We played a show at this venue. They asked for a technical rider. So I gave my usual request—JC-120 or Twin Reverb. Got a Twin Reverb, and was pretty happy. Showed up for soundcheck. Did a soundcheck. Sounded fucking great. We looked at each other like "fuck yeah!", and were about to head backstage, when the sound guy came up and was like "THAT WAS WAY TOO LOUD". Turns out I got a Twin Reverb, but could only use it if I had the volume at 1. Yes, 1. Not "practically 1", or something else for the sake of embellishing the story, but literally *1*. Let me tell you, Twin Reverb at 1, does not sound great. And it does not feed back a whole lot, to put it mildly. In the end I got an Orange Tiny Terror, which sounded absolutely awful with my pedalboard which is designed for a JC-120 level of headroom. There was virtually no difference between distortion on and distortion off, let alone between all the different distortions I have.

#giggingInNorway

[qersty]

most gigs ive done have been DI and a tiny practice amp. most sound techs also went into despair when seeing i had not one but several distortion boxes. well, further despair after hearing our drummer's really big cymbals

#giggingInSweden

When i was a wee little doomer i had saved up for the only bass head that distorted within my budget. It sounded really mean through my junkyard 410. It wasn't good but it had beef. Then we played a gig at some youth centre, i was really pissed at some guy in a cover band sucking ass playing NIB, then the fat, vaping sound tech insisted on DI-ing straight from my amp that I had managed to convince him to patch into the speaker of a hartke combo. Because the preamp ran hot as fuck with an active bass into the "passive" input of course the crappy transistorised DI output would sound like shit. He still tried to blame ME for abusing my equipment (and not using enough chorus?). Like if you love going DI so much buy a proper fucking transformer at least. I think there is only one sound tech in town that owns a radial, he is the best and runs everything through a space echo

My childhood love that busted many mixing desks