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Thanks obbm.... received in the post - top bloke! Just goes to show what a great community Basschat is!

New Player Series Buttercream P Bass! Just when I thought I had bass GAS under control, Fender release this... Buttercream, Maple... OMG, GAS! GAS! GAS! I'd stick a black guard on it (of course) but even so it's unlike Fender to produce a colour combo that I actually like. Dammit! They're £649 or thereabouts, too... https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/electric-basses/precision-bass/player-precision-bass/0149802534.html#start=1

I've just bought the Vinyl LP of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake on impulse. (For anyone in marketing, the sleeve made the sale.) I wasn't familiar with the album as a whole so when I got to Side Two it blew me away. Side one ends with the classic single Lazy Sunday. Turn the album over and Stanley Unwin takes you for a fanciful ride as he narrates the Small Faces version of an original fairy tale about a boy called Happiness Stan. The tale unfolds over the entire second side in six tracks with Stanley (mis)guiding you through the story in a way that you think you understand but; do you really? He starts the tale with the words: "Are you all sitty comfibold two-square on your botty? Then I'll begin..." Masterpiece!

What I would like to add that the full solid neck is said to contribute a lot to the uniqe sound and endless SUSTAIN of the Vigiers... May be a matter of personal taste: I never played basses which would allow such a low string action. On my Arpege 6str string action at 24th fret is less then a matchstick:

^^ This! If you're aiming to be a high end function band then you can't afford to be leaving your audience on the dance floor 'hanging' 30 seconds to a minute between every song. It's really this point alone that has got me rethinking the subject - which is driven by live work flow and ties into programme-ability and presets. I'm definitely starting to think that something like @HazBeen's board in the OP is the future for this sort of live work. The difference between the superb song flow / lack of 'dead air time' when our dep guitarist came in recently and had every song set up sequentially (on his full fat Helix) so that he could scroll through the set list with a patch per song vs our long standing guitarist faffing about adjusting his analogue pedal board between songs was a complete revelation. I noticed big time at the gig. The rest of the band noticed pretty quickly when they looked back at the footage. We're just gonna need to tell our long standing guitarist that messing about with pedals is something he can do in his own time and not in the band's time during a function set! I completely accept song flow is less of an issue when we play pubs or for original bands where the crowd are there for the 'music' and not for the 'party'. I also totally get that digital pedals aren't 'up there' with the best of every analogue pedal (they're getting closer, for sure). If that makes a difference to us as bass players that's good reason enough to stick to analogue even if 99% of the audience won't care in the slightest about the nuances of bass tone between an analogue and digital effect. But NOT if it's going to kill the party vibe in a function band setting. Time and place; tools for the job.

Sonic Red? Blasphemy!! Next they’ll be releasing a Fiesta Blue Great looking range though in all seriousness! Si

Happy perfection. Stay cool won't you.

The tidepool colour looks to me like it should be accompanied with acres of chrome, and have a badge like "Cadillac" on it.

This is the first time I have had a crack at this little monthly comp, but I have had my home studio up and running for a couple of weeks now so thought i would through my oar in the pond. The picture just reminded me of our cat and this is what i think is going through her head as she struts around the house, her name is 'Bootsy; by the way...

I appreciate that's a possibility but we have to remember; that the same could be said for a shorter episode. This is all an opening gambit and it's just the pilot. Nothing's set in stone and it'll be easier to focus in on a workable format once we have this out so we can get objective feedback. Ideally I want this to be something everyone can enjoy but it's an impossible task to please everybody at once. As I've said I want this to be a representation of the forums wants/needs, so once we've put out the pilot we'll make a proper feedback thread and poll the opinions that people put forward to see where we end up. Until then everything's in a liminal zone really. I just need to make something happen for now, so sticking with this format/length is my safest bet for actually getting something coherent together. I mean everyone could turn around tell us it's terrible and the idea could languish in the bardo of unrealized potential for all we know. So lets not get ahead of ourselves.

As a fortunate owner of a series11 and series111 Passion basses, 31 and 27 years old respectively,with no movement on necks what so ever.I can vouch for the prevoius comments.Amazing playing and comfortable necks on any Vigier I have ever played.It is fantastic not to have to worry about neck relief and lack of truss rod, if all you have to consider is intonation and your personal string heights.That said if you like experimenting about with neck relief and set-ups a Vigier is maybe not for you.Though that said i believe every bass player should have a Vigier (if lucky enough)😁

Would have to be a really nice tort, though. Probably costing about a third of the value of the bass. Yer typical modern 'shitty corned beef' or 'slice of crap salami' tort just won't cut it... in my humble opinion, of course.

I'm sorry, I just can't resist any longer. Every time, EVERY time I see this topic title, I get the same result ...

That's looking really smart

It goes: Football's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming ...

I have several spare ones. If you PM me name and address I'll pop one in the post.

and what if you want a different tone, or have just got the FX and are still looking for the 'right' tone? What if you find (for example) a filter sweep is way too deep on that boomy hollow stage and needs backing off, or the room is so bright your carefully set up distortion sound is way to bright. Just leave it? The Helix doesn't look like it has a lot of real time control, especially if you are trying to balance 2 or 3 effects at the same time. Even the Zoom B3n seems to have more. I have no experience of the Helix, im just going by the photo in this thread. A 'live' situation doesn't just mean during a gig, it can easily cover sound checks and even setting up. I hate seeing musicians bending down and fiddling with things, especially during songs, but if something is wrong with the tone during the gig then i just find it easier to have real time control of everything so i dont take longer than needed. In over 800 function gigs over the past 15 years believe me when i say i have never kept anyone waiting between songs. What is the difference between 'getting it wrong' and trying to get it right? By that i mean how can you get it right without turning the knobs until it is right? The way a lot on here go through pedals could show that maybe more tweaking is needed. Of course then there are those with pedal boards so large they spend all night doing a River Dance impression.

Absolutely... As a company they are between a rock and a hard place. As a personal observation I wish they’d stop launching classic designs as new models but then I get that it is business and this is how to survive.

Going by my recent experience with a Jess Loureiro split-coil 51 Telebass pickup (which sounds absolutely excellent - warm, punchy and articulate), I can only imagine that his P/J sets would be equally stellar. He does a 'classic' set and a 'coil split' set, thus: http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=63&controller=product&id_lang=4 http://jlguitars.eu/shop/index.php?id_product=64&controller=product&id_lang=4 All hand wound with traditional materials - and his prices are very competitive, too.

Yes - after the initial flush of GAS, I'm considering refinishing one of my existing basses in buttercream (or similar) as that seems to be the crux of my excitement and enthusiasm. The requisite colour will cost me around £20 in materials and nothing for my time. You can't argue with a saving of £629. Sorted!

Prepare thyself.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDBren6gJVs

I’d suggest getting a Source Audio Aftershock and trying out all the various models in there. You may end up loving the pedal and keeping it. Or you may come away with a much clearer idea of what kind of distortion pedal you’re after.

I asked for that! 😊

One of my favourite albums of all time. 'Song of a Baker' on side 1 is my favourite track.

I like it, but at this rate my day will consist of 12 hours looking at bass gear and 12 hours working to pay for it all.

@dave_bass5 Have you tried the Helix or it's recent "spin-offs"? The days of single parameter access for multi-effects is long gone for all but the most budget of devices. IME the reason most people need to fiddle with the parameters on their effects in a live environment is because they have got them wrong in the first place. If the device is programmable your effects settings are right every time you recall the relevant patch for the song.

Written in the true spirit of a real Acronym Research & Selection Executive, whole quote may be read above ^^. ...

Saw one of these in PMT Cardiff and have to admit it caught my eye too. Good score!

It really doesn't help that each time I hear the opening bars I find myself singing "Half a pound of tuppeny rice ...".

^ This +1 The Helix products are great. I don’t own one but have played with one and loved it. To answer the question: have analogue effects pedals had their day? No. And I doubt they ever will. This discussion is in fact very analogous with the ongoing "digital vs analog" debate that can be found on literally every music production / sound engineering forum. It basically boils down to the following conclusions: 1) It's now possible to convincingly emulate just about every aspect of analog FX/processors digitally - that is, to the extent that most people can't tell the difference (and those that can probably just had a lucky guess!). Which means that... 2) It's more a question about 'workflow' or to put it another way, simplicity. Analog devices tend to be easier to operate and produce more immediate results - i.e. there's less 'faffing around' involved - and for some people, that helps them to concentrate on the music, which leads to a better end result. And... 3) Some people just prefer the tactility of knobs and switches over mini-CPU screens and buttons; or prefer old stuff to new stuff; or whatever. In which case it's like the preference between a modern sports watch and a more traditional wind-up. They're both perfectly good for telling the time; and are both here to stay 🙂

Is there not room for both analogue and digital? I find folk tend to get polarised towards one or the other when in fact you can have the best of both worlds with a bit of thought.

It's as 'right' as one wants to hear it, I'd say. I popped it into GP7 'as is', and accented the 'one' of each bar (in 3/4...), and it sounds fine. To me, it benefits from a higher tempo than the default 120 (I preferred 240...). Here's my rendering of it; I added the last, resolution, note ...

I used the Line6 Bass pod XT for a number of years, both live and in the studio, now replaced with a Tech21 GED2112, but both have an old Boss Bass Chorus pedal on the FX loop as none of the choruses I've tried sound the same on the rare occasion I use it on the fretless... Analogue has it's place as it doesn't sound the same as digital, that said, digital has great advantages in the studio and live.

Welcome. It's not easy for us to describe how something works/sounds (and equally difficult for you to translate what we say into practical understanding of how well it might meet your needs). For what it's worth, my two pence worth is to stick with proven/mainstream/branded stuff when you're starting out. Avoid unusual options. A Squier plus a Rumble is decent, proven budget kit that will do as described on the tin. It will also be easily sellable when the time comes to upgrade. I wouldn't buy a new instrument. There are plenty of used Squiers about (have a look on eBay, Gumtree et al), so let someone else take the hit on depreciation and buy used. Get something that has been treated well (plenty of people buy Squiers and similar starter instruments, try it for a bit, give up and sell them, so you can often get something that is virtually unused and save a lot of money). Put the money you save on the bass towards a better amp. I wouldn't buy a used amp in the price/power range you're looking at. Used small amps have usually been overdriven/abused (as beginners try to play them in band settings and hammer them when they're only really meant for low volume practice). New or used, the Rumble 15 comes into that category. It's little more than a toy, I'm afraid. An 8" driver just isn't going to cut it for bass. It won't be re-sellable for anything other than peanuts, so buying one will effectively be money down the drain. Save a bit longer and go for something like a Rumble 200, which will last you and be up to (moderate) band use as you improve. Do you have any musician pals who could help/advise when you go shopping? An extra pair of ears is always helpful. Good luck.

+1 for The Bass Gallery. Not visited yet - will put this right in a couple of weeks hopefully. Bought a bass of them recently online which had a problem on arrival and Charlie sorted it all out with minimum of fuss and maximum understanding.

Have you seen the pedal section in a Sweetwater catalog? Pedals are here to stay.

I really liked the Bongo I had a good go on a while back - an extraordinary amount of very tweakable output, and it played very well. If I didn't look down, it was a great bass, but I'm terribly shallow like that, and I just couldn't live with the shape. I have a friend who has an uncanny knack of vocalising underlying issues, and therefore making them something you just can't unhear - he 'bog seat'-ed the Bongo for me, and even ruined Corvettes with his 'that top horn horn looks like a nob'... 😕😁 I love the head shape, tho... 😀

It good to see this thread is back on track, it was in danger of floundering.

Yeah they’re really great for the price! I have a fretless Jive, and it’s excellent! Si

Great, but you need to check you like the amount of relief because obviously you can’t change it. My series II basses are almost exactly flat which I love. The series Iii and IV have a tad more but it’s still only about a credit card thickness. It’s rare to see one where the neck has moved even a fraction in its lifetime.

Looks like me playing slap! And I think I do that with my head when I play too... The amphetamine chicken peck I call it.

In terms of multi-FX, I tried embracing the new technology years ago, and just couldn't get on with it - a Zoom bass pedal when they first came out and were dirt cheap. It wasn't that they weren't OK, just that they were really fiddly, and you were choosing between pre-determined settings rather than tweaking a knob to get things just right. I'm happy to concede that a modern version will be vastly superior and I've seen bands (and band mates) using them live without any problems. But I don't feel the need to try them again. I don't use or need a lot of effects (though I have more than I regularly use) and the ones i do have do exactly what I want. In fact the only pedals I've gigged with lately have been a tuner and if I don't have my own SVT with me, a Tech 21 VT pedal, so I'm not exactly flying the "analogue" flag. But I don't see either the stand alone or analogue pedals disappearing any time soon. Not because of any refusal to use multi-FX from me, but because guitarists tend to be believers in the Holy Tone Grail and will spend endless amounts of money chasing it. Just look at the amount of boutique distortion pedals on the market, and the premium prices paid for vintage pedals that have a certain reputation and scarcity.

It has to be in the 'marketplace' section but yes it'll be moved probably to above 'other items for sale'

I find it hard to believe that there's not much money in merchandise T-shirts. From my experience of doing them for the various bands I've been in, T-shirts are the easy money. A good design well executed in 1 or 2 colours on a run of 100+ garments selling for £10 each will make your money back before you've sold half of them. Just remember to get the size breakdowns right. No matter how many skinny hipsters you have in your audience the people who buy t-shirts are all L, XL or 2XL... Certainly I've easily covered my costs with all the band T-shirts I've produced. I wish I could say the same for the music.

In order to keep my strings fresher for longer I wash my hands before touching my bass, carry a microfibre cloth to wipe the bass and my hands and point a fan at my hands so that they don't sweat and stick to the strings which would inevitably cause skin particles to end up between the winds of the strings. I get around 9 or 10 wedding gigs out of a set before they get noticably dull. My bass is also the last thing to come out at a gig and the first thing to get put away at the end of the night

Without doubt Mick Karn was once of the most original players out there, that Japan catalogue still sounds like nothing else on the market. Lovely fellow, sadly missed.

Take that responsibility ! i joined up with a new formed band and after the first gig we had terrible PA sound issues , so when I asked who knew how to run it they all shrugged the shoulders and said the PA came from a previous band split and a different guy used to run it 😂 So took all the kit , hired a hall for a couple of hours and played with all the kit and worked a simple solution with desk , amps and speakers , sound checks take a 2 minute blast of roadhouse blues 👍 In the land of the blind , the one eyed man is king 😉

Another absolutely faultless deal with Pawel. This one was as easy as the first one. Highly recommended