the bongo and i are headed in to the studio this weekend!

[Lucas G]

this saturday, my band is going to be recording an EP at an actual studio. this will be my first time recording anything other than a practice, and i am pretty excited about it, but also pretty nervous. as soon as i know tape is rolling, i know i am going to be freaking out a little bit.

of course i will be bringing my new bongo- even though i have only had it for not quite a month, it is now my weapon of choice.

who has recorded with their bongo before? how well did it go over, as far as the engineer was concerned? i know there are some lazy engineers out there who are hesitant to work with something new and different. i'm just curious, i guess.

in preparation, i changed the batteries, the strings are pretty fresh- they'll have three practices on them by saturday, and the intonation is spot on.

i do have one question, though- maybe someone can help with this:

there are like two songs where i am digging in hard in certain 'heavy' parts and i am hearing a little bit of 'clack' of the open E on the fretboard. i would like to see if i can get rid of that- i am relatively new at setting up a bass, i can take care of buzz and intonation, but this particular problem i am not sure about remedying. should i raise the action a little? on just the E or all the strings? it only happens on the open E when i get too excited. perhaps a little more relief? maybe an eight of a turn?

i am sure it is more of a bad technique issue than anything, but it only happens in a few places. if anyone has any tips for me on that, it would be greatly appreciated. even if that tip is "stop doing that."

all in all, i am really looking forward to it. as it draws closer, i am sure i will get increasingly nervous... i always get pretty nervous before we play a show, too. of course that goes away as soon as we play the first note- i don't think this will be any different.

hopefully i will have some pictures to post soon of me and the bongo in the studio!

 

[LoEnd]

Bongos Rule!

I recorded with the band back in December with my 5 HH Bongo. The tone I got was amazing! Your engineer will be pleased The only problem that I found was that I had not discovered the awesomness of the EB Slinkys yet. I still got an awesome tone with the GHS strings though.

The clack sounds like you are just playing to hard, maybe a simple adjument on the bridge to raise that string might work, or give that ol truss rod a little spin.

 

[oli@bass]

Have fun recording!

there are like two songs where i am digging in hard in certain 'heavy' parts and i am hearing a little bit of 'clack' of the open E on the fretboard. i would like to see if i can get rid of that- i am relatively new at setting up a bass, i can take care of buzz and intonation, but this particular problem i am not sure about remedying. should i raise the action a little? on just the E or all the strings? it only happens on the open E when i get too excited. perhaps a little more relief? maybe an eight of a turn?

I wouldn't adjust anything on the bass except if it sounds really, and I mean really, bad on the recording. To have some string noise is part of the playing and it adds "character" to the recording... it's part of your performance, it's part of your sound, it's part of you.

 

[Lucas G]

LoEnd, i check out those recordings on your myspace page. sounds good! of course, any band whose influences include clutch, kyuss and sabbath is going to be something i would dig pretty much regardless. you sound good on the 2008 recordings and the older stuff, too!

Oli, the clacking is almost bad enough to merit a tiny adjustment. maybe raising the saddle screws a quarter turn.

maybe i just need to concentrate on not digging in quite so hard.

also: i just noticed the 'similar threads' feature at the bottom of the page. that's pretty handy.

 

[oli@bass]

Oli, the clacking is almost bad enough to merit a tiny adjustment. maybe raising the saddle screws a quarter turn.

maybe i just need to concentrate on not digging in quite so hard.

If the bass plays and sounds perfectly in all other situations, I'd say leave the action as it is and work on your picking! Maybe move a bit more towards the bridge if you dig in harder. In my experience, you have to do pretty large adjustments to compensate for overly hard attack, hence sacrificing playability. I'd rather have it clacking as an expressive means, or try to play that section less violently.

However, as they saying goes, "it's your bass" -- do to it whatever makes your boat float!

 

[LoEnd]

I wouldn't adjust anything on the bass except if it sounds really, and I mean really, bad on the recording. To have some string noise is part of the playing and it adds "character" to the recording... it's part of your performance, it's part of your sound, it's part of you.

I do have to agree with oli on this, a little bit of string noise is good (imo).

Thanks for checking out the tunes

 

[Lucas G]

that settles it then, i'm going to adjust my technique and leave the bass alone! i am guessing that if i moved my hand towards the bridge not only would it fix the problem it would sound better for that part, too. thanks, fellas!

 

[strummer]

One tip: Don't dime the volume.

 

[Lucas G]

really? i always dime the volume, on everything i own. i don't think i've heard this before. i am not doubting you at all, but could you tell me why?

 

[Lucas G]

okay, i did a search about diming the volume knob. i bet that will fix ALL of my problems. i am pretty used to passive basses and never even gave this a second thought.

it sure makes a whole lot of sense now that i have read about it.

dang, i wonder how awesome this thing is going to sound now? it was awesome when i wasn't even using it right!

 

[Lucas G]

an update: the pickups, especially they neck pickup, were WAY too high. i was actually bottoming out the E string on the neck pickup. i set them to the height suggested by the FAQ, and everything is perfect. i can dig in as hard as i usually would, no more noise.

keeping the volume at 50-60% made the bass sound way better, too.

the bass is even more awesome now that it was before, i bet my acoustic 370 head will even not mind it so much now.

this forum is seriously a treasure trove of information.

 

[mammoth]

hey up!

reading this i though i was looking back to before i 1st recorded with my bongo,

i often play a little "rash" on the E string and was prone to some nasty PKKKKKKNNGG! occasionally. ease down the pup a mil or 2 just on the E side, so that the pup is higher at the G and remember some wise words, a little EQ adjustment goes along way.

and every single engineer ive worked with has been amazed at the signal the bongo creates.

check out Hot, FTP or sights on ym myspace sight dude.. infact they're all bongo now i think of it.

enjoy my freind!!! you have the best bass in the world as your weapon

 

[rhythmCity944]

bass guitar is pretty straight forward to record with. Do a sound check and get the tone close to what you want. The engineer always has final say and usually knows better that you. You can always re- eq the bass tracks when recording is all said and done.

My advice...set all tones flat and keep the volume at 50% and go from there until you find that tone you are looking for. Every produce/engineer i've worked with in the studio never had any problems recording musicman basses. They always try to offer some cash to buy my basses because they record so well Next, make sure you can play with a metronome or commonly refered to as a "click track"...it'll save you time and A LOT OF MONEY. Also, The fresher the strings the better in my opinion

have fun with the recording...

 

[Lucas G]

dang, mammoth! that intro to 'hot' is nice! great tone straight across the board!

 

[mammoth]

cheers lucas! we often start our gigs with that, i bloomin love it

 

[carpedebass]

I don't know what I would do if I didn't have that "clack" in my sound....actually I have it EQ'ed to be more of a heavy "clunk" than a clack. It's just that quintessential metal tone that I dig so much...If you learn to use it in your favor, it becomes percussive...it's actually very addictive both to the player and the listener...use it in the "pocket" with your drummer.
I have actually spent years figuring out how to get that clunk...don't throw it away just yet...just ease up on the "mellower" songs.

 

[Lucas G]

oh, it wasn't the desirable kind of clack. it was string-on-pickup clack. it's all fixed now. the good clack is still there.