Leaderboard

For best effect, (1) play the whole song, (2) play it loud, (3) try to keep a straight face. And yes, this is the actual single as released in 1961, unaltered.

So Mike received the pickups from me (finally, haha!) and has finished the work routing them. He’s done a quick mock-up with the bridge and controls in place to check how it all fits... pretty perfect methinks 😎

I was playing with some of the Amp and cab models today through headphones. ALL of the amp/cabs were pretty unusable even after tweaking IMHO. However... Stick a 800 Hz Crossover split before the amp to bypass the lows (only mids/highs through the amp/speaker) light compression on the lows, then mix the signals..... SOUNDED. SO. FREAKIN. AMAZING. Ill post the patch on the tips/tricks thread incase anybody's interested

First rehearsal tonight. Bloody hell... A drummer with feel, dynamics and timing. Led the band as opposed to chasing someone else... Great guitar player. Think I’ll have to practice more...obviously not match fit at all. and the singer who I’ve worked with before. Easy playing, lots of interplay and fun. as a point though “I need more love” by Robert randolph is great way to get blood blisters...

Took delivery this afternoon of my third Ibanez six string bass in the last 3 months or so. One is up for sale, so I hope to stick to just the two! Newbie is an SR 1206, premium range, and is seen here between my SR506 (standard range) and SR1006 (prestige range, and now for sale). Played the 1206 for a couple of hours this afternoon and it felt very much like the 506 which I played this morning. I was planning to change the rounds it came with for a set of LaBella flats, but after playing it, I'm not so sure now. I'll try it though one of my 'proper' amps tomorrow instead of the little combo I normally use at home. Once the 1006 has sold, I'll be putting East pre amps in both of the others. Obligatory pics below, sorry about the quality, it was getting dark by the time I thought of putting the bass down and taking the pics!

That opening note of the solo is just fantastic. As is the little reprise at the end.

The Trammps....Hold Back the Night

I live in Scotland... we don't have cultural appropriation. We just play music we like. Sometimes it comes easily, sometimes there's some effort involved. Sometimes it's a disaster 😂

A Helix Stomp is worth a look too. If you want a crossover split, lows to a compressor, highs to a Darkglass B7K or a guitar amp, then either mix into a single output or keep the channels separate, it can do it all in one box.

Some people get on with things, and some people don't. Hardly worth getting worked up about.

I suspect the issue here is that typically, on any digital multi FX, the presets are never great. And especially with a product like Helix where there is so much tweakability, testing it in a shop is really not the best environment to get the best out of it. It can take a bit of leisurely time to learn the ins and outs of what’s possible within the UI and get creative with routing and tweaking to get something truly stellar (as @GisserD has discovered) but “stellar” is totally within the realms of what Helix is capable of. Anyway, you’ve obviously already made your mind up on the matter so who am I to try and convince you otherwise

And free returns when you find out its underpowered unless you use a cab the size of small country. You'll be fine with a 610, but there's no way you could use this in a loud band with anything much less. Which of course defeats the point of having an amp the size of a Kit Kat.

Every little helps - another tick off the To Do list. Magnets on the truss rod cover: I know it's tempting fate but, from a build point of view rather than the additional wait time for the finish to fully harden (probably a further week), this should be finished this week

It'd be fun to speed that up, remix it with the bass going all the way through and then claim its an early Muse demo...

Great thread, some really cool cats. What hasn't been mentioned yet... Christian McBride Marcin Pendowski. https://pendofsky.bandcamp.com/track/psychobaton

This is so exciting my monocle dislodged!

Just bit the bullet and ordered one. Might give it a blast this weekend.

Worst bass flounce ever 😂

I tried this blend stuff for few years but disappointed with every unit. Have two boards with X-overs now. Active board (it is for active basses) has the Tyler and the passive has Iron Ether's Divaricator. Both are working fine but are somewhat different animals. IE even has some extra effects and is smaller but needs an insert cable (a TRS plug to two TS plugs). Tyler actually took a bit more time to set up but has two adjustable loops (hi & lo) in stead of one. Please take some time to study the manuals to understand their differences. My choice for X-over frequency is around 400 Hz. Lowest E is 42 Hz, and 4th E is close to 330 Hz. So the fundamentals are not affected but higher frequencies, i.e. harmonics, can be tweaked - a lot! I did not know before that flanger or fuzz knobs could be turned so far right, to south-east. So the passive board starts with this very small but powerful COG T-16 octaver. In the IE Divaricator loop there is a Spruce Effects OGF and a mooer Pitch Box. After the IE loop there is the Daring Audio Phat Beam (that includes a comp and an effective LPF - especially mt fretless loves this box). Active board starts with the KMA Tyler. High loop has amptweaker Tight Fuzz - tce SCF - IE Xerograph. Low loop has IE Frantabit, because Franta can be adjusted far more with Tyler's LPF. Then after the Tyler comes an IE Nimbus and a tce HyperGravity. These last two do not need the X-over and I like them to be at the end of the line. The best thing with the X-over is the possibility to really play with different effects and sounds. All settings can be adjusted far more than ever before. If the band is very small, I think that the effects would give the bassist lots of sound seeking possibilities and new space without ever losing that low end.

Perfect thank you! Good site to know about in general, too. Trust the BC community to know these things! 🙂 (2009 in case anyone else is wondering...)

Jon Stockman, Karnivool's Roquefort, 6 string Thumb I believe. Geddy Lee's Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures tone. Pastorius on Mitchell's Hejira and Shadows and Light. Tim Comerford's work with Audioslave. John Isley's tone on the first 2 Dire Straights albums Norman Watt-Roy on Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, or indeed anything he played on frankly. Mick Karn Sons of Pioneers. Tony Levin, too many to mention, Red Rain probably... Phil Lynott Dancing in the moonlight. I could go on...

Anything off this album;

Hehe. I thought that for ages until I got a dingwall. Absolute piece of cake, they don't seem fanned when you play them. It's like a clever illusion whereby people think you've got skills. Which I haven't.

That's a great explanation ....thanks. I knew it was ghosts all along!

...well in a somewhat bizarre turn of events, I interviewed for a position last week and the agency just called and told me I'd got the position and start on the 17th. Amazingly, I'd initially turned the interview down, largely questioning my abilities, but the agency were told the decision was unanimous and I was head and shoulders over the other applicants. Feeling a bit happier.

Basses (or any other instrument for that matter) only sound good on a recording in the context of the arrangement and production of the music. Take a listen to any of the many isolated bass tracks available on YouTube if you want to hear how different (and generally not very good) the bass sounds once you strip away all the other instrumentation.

Now him and Phil Baugh on stage together would have been interesting!

So what to say about Marco’s bass? Well, for the two or three weeks I had it staying with me I loved having it around. It’s lovely, beautifully built for effectively a home-make and sounds great. Stunning looks too. When I pulled it out of the case at worship band rehearsal everyone stopped and gathered round to have a look, wondering if I’d bought myself a new one. The girl singers said I should just keep it as they loved the look and the woods so much. And the Delano pickups sounded great too - very flexible and some great sounds. Though I still think a three way pickup switch and a three way humbucker coil switch would give you all the functionality in a much more intuitive package. The immediate question from the others was “How much did it cost?” I explained its story but said that I reckoned that to go out to a builder and get something similar spec and design would easily cost a couple of grand or more. Thru neck, hand built, quality woods, lots of unique design features... which got me thinking about how to review it. I think that Marco has the ability to become a proper luthier is he puts his mind and effort to it. So I asked myself, what would need to change to justify paying £2k for a bass like this? So that’s my benchmark. What would he need to do to lift his output to the Shuker , ACG stakes...? Mostly I think it’s just attention to detail. So that’s what I’m going to focus on... where does the QA need tightening up etc. I like the design even though I’ve never really been a fan of Warwick Dolphins or Alembic style random cut outs. That said, I think that the curves of the cut out behind the bridge still need some fine honing to get the flow just right - just some more or less flare on the main part of the body to properly frame the cut out. we’re just talking half a mm but it could flow a touch better. Similarly the ends of the upper and lower horn. Their shapes don’t quite match. Pure nuance but important aesthetics nonetheless. I compared them to my Aria SB where the horns hook similarly and, though different do match in width and profile. Headstock. I like the elongated shape, branded logo and little cut out. I think it’s neat and looks cool. The adjustable nut is cool too and very easy to tweak. And it’s wenge or stripy ebony or very dark rosewood (or similar)! Cool! Wonder what the durability will be? However the cool little maple wooden trussrod cover needs a wider base... its thin enough that when the locating screw loosens it can rotate and leave the truss rod cavity uncovered. And the tuners... I think they’re put on back to front! The shaft should be nearer the neck than the tuning head. As they are pushing with your thumb on the E and A string tuners loosens rather than tightens the string. That just feels wrong. Plus their position on the headstock could be adjusted by a mm or so to even the shafts of the tuner a tiny bit. See. I said it was all about tiny detail. Neck It has its own feeling! Very deep and square D shaped, esp near the headstock. A bassist chum and I decided it was kinda Warwick Squared. I got used to it as I played it but I’d love to play Marco’s take on more traditional neck shapes. The carve is so nice and the Matt finish is lovely to play. And don’t forget, the customer is always right, even if they want a dull, standard J or P bass profile! Lol! I like the matt maple fingerboard too. Can’t stand heavy gloss fingerboards. I’m not sure that the chevron carve at the end of the fingerboard completely works for me but it’s a lovely touch as the board seems to flow into the body. Maybe a different shape might work a tiny bit better? Or not. There’s also a tiny measuring error as a touch of the walnut body/stringer peeks through. But the carve through on the back is lovely! Body Love the shape and it is sooooo light compare to my Wals and Aria!!!!! Very comfy to wear. I’ve commented on a couple of things already to do with the finer points of the aesthetics. But overall it’s a lovely, characterful design. It would definitely be a candidate for a standard model body shape if Marco released a range of basses. The small headstock, extended horn and offset bottom strap button means it hangs really well and it was a pleasure to play. Finishing This is where I think this is where Marco has the main scope to hone his craft. When you look at brands like Shuker, Overwater, Goodfellow, Wal etc the finish is completely perfect and, at the type of level Marco should be aiming for is expected. This is also where a lot of the hidden cost of a custom bass is. Time and care. The funny thing is you sort of can’t really tell when it’s done perfectly over and above the minimum necessary and you can’t always see the time that has gone in to achieve this sort of perfection. But every time you don’t achieve this standard it’s a glaring error. Especially if you’re shelling out £2-3 grand for a bass. On Marco’s bass there are a couple of spots where it looks like a plane blade has caught or chisel slipped and some filler has been needed. On the back of the neck there seem to be some circular sanding marks still present. A little longer with some finer grit sandpaper and wire wool would have sorted that. It looks like the pickup screws haven’t had guide holes properly drilled and the screws are a bit higgledy piggledy in the pickups. One has completely reamed out - no slight pickup height happening any time soon. There is dark filler around the abalone side dots which kinda spoils their circular shape. In fact, with small dots I wonder if a more uniform pearloid, plain white or black might work slightly better, giving a more defined circle. But none of this detail stops the bass being lovely to play, stunning looking or nicely designed. It’s a fab bass and I loved having it around. However, these are the finishing details that set it above the average . From home built/self built into the lofty heights of custom built/luthier built. From what I’ve seen I reckon that Marco could have the capability of making that jump. So in summary, I’d say that Marco should keep honing his skills and he will soon be producing even more droolsome basses than this one. However, the magic, silver bullet is all in that attention to the finest detail. Thank you so much, Marco for letting your lovely bass out for its grand tour of the UK. I so enjoyed pretending it was mine for a little while!

Brilliant story, thanks for sharing x

No need for that, I buy most of what I listen to! I've just listened on headphones. I really enjoyed it, very different to the other stuff I hear at the moment. It has a bit of a throwback to the 90s with all the distorted vocals, samples, and electronic noises mixed with the band. I recognised the samples on "Light 'em All Up" straight away - I actually used them in an instrumental band I used to be in! There are some awesome bass tones on this album! Did you produce it yourself?

My short scale basses have a reasonably tight feel but it's not massive over a 34" scale. A different choice of strings can change the feel, have a chat with Newtone strings see if they can do something for you or if you get the Mustang and its around 30" scale I could lend you a set to try the difference.

Great news sir and the bug has bitten you again. Good to see you are back into playing again. Dave

.... and he’s back!

Drove up to fellow BC member FinnDave to purchase/collect a bass he was selling. Had a great chat for an hour; he's a top bloke...and the bass, an Epiphone Thunderbird Classic Pro IV with Babicz bridge and Gotoh tuners...wow, what a bass. It's immediately become my prime gigging bass. Awesome feel, action, sound, looks...the total package. And the neck's almost 2 inches shorter than my Burns Bison, perfect for my short arms. Thanks BassChat for hooking us up.

Look at KMA audio machines The Tyler. May provide some usefulness for you

Neil Murray on this

There are so many, but on this subject this always pops into my head first. If I can actually make a decision I will post some other faves later.

Looked everywhere to find out who the Bassist on this is, but no luck. But he grooves great on this.

I'm not too keen on the bridge on my V7 fretless, it just doesn't seem that solid. There's a bit of lateral movement on the saddles when you pull the strings, but it's certainly no worse than the average BBOT and unless you hit the strings with tremendous force it's not going to cause any issues with playing. I just prefer bridges where everything is locked down. As for the tuners they seem fine to me, although ,due to my dodgy fretlesss playing, just because the bass is holding it's tuning it doesn't mean that I'm playing in tune.

Slightly off the wall maybe but Killing Joke's Love Like Blood bass sound and especially how it sits with the drums in the mix has always been my favourite bass sound and one I have struggled to emulate on any recordings I have done