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10 o'clock yesterday morning and I was just up and pottering around the flat when I received a phone call.. could I dep with a Rolling Stones trib band, performing that very afternoon? Load in time, 1pm!! I madly said yes. I depped with this band for a few gigs over the summer and really enjoyed it and I got to know the songs really well. However, I hadn't played any of them since the end of August and I didn't really feel 'match fit'. Still, it seems they were desperate. There had been some sort of falling out the night before, leading to the departure of both bass player and drummer. The gig was a 'Rock n Roll Circus' event, featuring a John Lennon trib, a Who trib and the Stones trib 'headlining'. I had in fact intended to go along to watch with a few friends, so I had to let them know I'd be going on ahead and actually playing!! The Who drummer agreed to be both Keith Moon and Charlie Watts for the night 🙂 It was a smashing afternoon. There was an MC all dressed up like a ring master and a very good magician doing conjouring tricks with balls (steady, discreet!) which all added to the rock on roll circus atmosphere. However, I felt very nervous as I was completely unrehearsed and was just hoping that it would all come flooding back. As we were last on, my nerves just grew throughout the afternoon. When I got up to play I decided not to do anything flashy, just concentrate on trying to remember it all, and to stay at the back and not to try to move around much. A pretty good Bill Wyman impression then, haha! 🙂 Afterwards everyone was very complimentary, especially the 'John Lennon' who I know slightly but who hadn't see me play rock n roll before. So I took that as the biggest compliment, as he made a point of coming up to speak to me. However I felt I had only just got through by the skin of my teeth and delivered quite an array of bum notes! Saw some vids of it on line today though, and I didn't sound as bad as I thought, so that was a relief. Looks like I'll be doing another one on Friday!! I'll be better prepared this time though 🙂 I love my life 🙂 🙂

Ibanez Talman or the Fender Squier Jaguar.

Well after over thirty years of should I buy or should I not I finally took the plunge and purchased a New Rickenbacker 4003. The Bass itself has a beautiful finish which was my main worry and plays great with no set up needed which I am obviously happy about. I intend to remove the talent inhibiting bridge pickup cover and install one of the Tube Ampology Cove Bezels to fill in the gaps caused by the removal of the cover. The Bridge as we all know is not the best design so I will probably change it for a Hipshot, but for the moment I am going to leave the original on and see how it goes. There was only one thing that was off with this Bass which seems to be quite common with the Bridge pickup being on a slight angle but that is easily fixed as I believe it is only glued onto the plate. Same as every other 4003 the neck pickup was around 20% lower than the bridge pickup which I rectified by raising the neck pickup to maximum and lowering the bridge pickup to suit. I changed the stock Nickel Roundwounds with Thomastik Infeld Flatwounds and the Bass sounds really good........Well it sounds like a Ric if that floats your boat. Happy Days!

is there any way the mods can block me from looking at the for sale forums? i think i have a problem

Or 'Lazarus points' as they're sometimes known.

Given the ease with which parts can be recorded remotely with todays modern technology, and that this is a forum populated by bass players, would it be worth considering asking if anyone would be interested in collaborating with you?

The guy is just wired very differently to most people, with his wife being complicit, there’s even some telling characteristics of psychopathy in there. He’ll never have a meaningful music career.....maybe a ‘viral entertainment’ career, but not much more. Si

EDIT 22/10/2019 As the new v3 firmware launched yesterday I will move the discussion to a new thread and lock this one as much of the information here has been superseded and/or incorporated into the new v3 manual. Thank you to everybody who contributed to discussion here as it helped get me involved in working with Panda and helped shape the manual for the new firmware. __________________________________________ Original post: At the behest of @Al Krow I’m going to start a page which should hopefully serve as a helpful resource for understanding and using the FI and for sharing patches. For the moment, I’ll include an explanation of some of the features in the editor, which I wrote as a PM to @GisserD, I’ll add to this in due course. There is a new editor due out after April so I’ll amend once I’ve had chance to familiarise myself with its enhanced features. If anyone would like me to explain a particular feature then please comment and I’ll do my best to add it below as quickly as possible. I’ll also include a link to patches I’ve created and will add to this as I create new ones. Likewise, if you have useful tips or patches to share then please do! Please give me a “like” or comment if you’ve found this useful. It’ll encourage me to do more! Thanks. __________________________________________ Editor tips: In the VCF/MODULATION section, “Freq Vintage” is the cutoff of the original Deep Impact filter (with its imperfect scaling). “Freq New” is the cutoff of the new, perfectly-scaled FI filter. You can only engage either one or the other. Switching has to be done by the Vintage one though. Set its slider to “off” and it will engage the New one; turn it up and it disables the new one. After reading the manual again, it appears that the number that “freq new” is set to corresponds to the MIDI note number of the same value. That is to say, each increase of 1 corresponds to a semitone. Note 36 (min) is C (65.4Hz), note 122 (max) is D (9397.27Hz). ”Freq 2nd” is the cutoff off a second (bandpass) filter running in parallel. Turning its slider up engages it. You can then space the two filters to create dual-peak, vocal formant- type sounds. An increment increase of 1 provides a one-semitone offset from the main filter. Oddly, this second filter still reacts to envelopes and LFO even if you turn off the main filter with the dial in the top right of the screen. This can yield some interesting results.  In the VCF/ENVELOPE section, “attack” sets how quickly the filter(s) open(s) from cutoff to maximum. “Decay” sets how quickly the filter(s) close(s) from maximum back to the cutoff point. Back to the VCF/MODULATION section, “AD” sets how much the VCF AD envelope will affect the filter cutoff - higher values will open the filter further. “Env. Follower” sets how much your plucking dynamics (bass’s volume envelope) will affect the filter cutoff - again higher values cause the filter to open further. You need to be judicious in balancing the “AD” and “Env. follower” sliders in the above section. If you want a regular, always-the-same-shape, keyboard-style envelope then only use the AD slider. Adding too much of the envelope follower can override the shape of the AD envelope you’ve chosen. A bass’s volume envelope has a reasonably quick rise to maximum and then a longish decay as the note dies out. If you’re trying to program a slow upward filter sweep on the AD, the envelope follower will swamp that. Likewise, if you’re trying to program a very snappy decay on the AD (like acid-type bass sounds), the long decay of the bass’s volume envelope will ruin that if you apply too much envelope follower. “Resonance” controls how much a portion of the signal is fed back into the filter. This boosts the frequencies around the selected cutoff point, thus creating a resonant peak. Turning the resonance to maximum on 24dB mode will cause the filter to self-oscillate, yielding a pure sine wave oscillator. When using a bass guitar, you’ll need to have “bass” turned up in the VCF INPUT section (it needs a trigger and pitch reference). It probably works better when plugging in a keyboard instead as you’ll probably be able to hear just the sine wave. It doesn’t seem to behave at all like it does on analogue synths - changing the cutoff didn’t really enable me to tune it very well. Weirdly it seems to be best in tune when the “freq. vintage” was set to 0. After reading the manual it looks like the new filter will behave correctly (see above under explanation of “freq new”). I’ll have another go and update this page accordingly. The “Slope” knob switches between a 2-pole (12dB per octave) slope and 4-pole (24dB per octave) slope. The latter cuts off the higher frequencies above the cutoff point more rapidly than the former. LFO can be used to control the filter, either on its own or in conjunction with the envelope(s). (LFO can also be used to modulate the oscillators’ pitch.) I like that it has a delay slider too so that the LFO fades in over time. I’ve used that on one of the patches I shared. The LFO can be controlled by MIDI CC #1 and so a foot pedal can be used to bring modulation in and out as desired. What is really cool is that the noise has its own AD envelope (next to the VCF AD envelope sliders). This means you can program a short burst of noise to create a percussive attack even when you’ve programmed a long decaying filter sweep. (Normally noise just goes through the same filter as the other sources so that if you program a long decaying filter sweep, you can hear the noise all the way through. On the FI, you can get the noise to just be present right at the moment of attack and quickly disappear, or conversely, have it silent at the start and then slowly fade in.) I’ve finally figured out how the harmoniser section works! It’s part of the distortion circuit. You need to turn up the “distortion” slider in the INPUT section and (at least one of) the voices in the MIXER section (next to HARMONIZER) in order to hear it. One oddity I’ve found with the FI is as follows: if you’ve edited and saved any of your patch parameters on the actual pedal and you subsequently load new patches into those slots, then the new patches will take on those tweaked values. If that’s not clear what I mean: on the pedal a parameter setting of 5 is the default, i.e. if all parameters are set to 5, the patch will sound exactly like it did when you created it in the editor. Say you make an edit to a patch on the pedal and set its resonance to 9 and save the change by clicking the edit knob; when you load a new patch into that slot, its resonance will be set to 9 also. I realised this quirk when my first patch sounded nothing like it should have sounded. Luckily, setting each parameter back to 5 sorts it out. You can do this for all patches at once from one of the power-on menu settings. EDIT - this was a bug and has been addressed. __________________________________________ Patch transferring Here’s a little pointer that is an answer to a query about how to actually load patches on to the pedal. I know a few people have struggled with this. This is a cut and paste of a reply I wrote on TB: You need to find out which patches you want to load onto the pedal and which slot number in the pedal you want to have it. If you just want to replace one individual patch with another then first find a patch on the pedal that you want to overwrite. Then find the file on your PC of the patch you wish to write to the pedal. Rename this file so that it starts with the two-digit prefix of the slot into which you wish to load it. Open the renamed file again via the editor then click “write single file to pedal” and it will get loaded into that slot. If you want to load multiple files at once onto the pedal then it’s best to create a folder, copy in the PC files you want to load onto the pedal. Then rename each file with the slot numbers you want them to go, choose that folder via the editor then click “write all”. Any blanks will be skipped over and left untouched in the pedal. I’ve gone a step further and have all patches I like in one folder (unnumbered). I then have a different folder into which I placed the 99 patches I want on my pedal at any given time and I number these with the two-digit prefix and write these all at once. If ever I swap any out, I delete the old file from this folder, add the new file and number it and then write all again. Or you could simply have one big folder with all patches you like and then just number the 99 that you want and click write all. Any unnumbered patches will be ignored in the write process. ______________________________________ Patch sharing: (I’ll see if I can create a shared drive like the one on Talkbass) My patches: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1C7ZYqsyXkyNuasuuwLrQlICboSsGfXMp TB shared patches (including mine): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zto20lpne0dnent/AAC6W_8BHeYLrBTjkcoJBzCza?dl=0 __________________________________________ Latest firmware: http://pandamidi.com/support __________________________________________ My v3 sound clips: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u2-dJaWdaAbPDnDdWkipu-P7IH_GHLQ2

It's coming!

I fear I have more chance of sorting out the woes of Westminster than I have of abstaining from bass related purchases for a whole year. 😟

Fender bass, had such an easy neck to play I guess I'll play the rick some more today Oh I believe in Fender bass.

I don't know - it wouldn't play. I did something wrong now its gone to lu-thi-aye-aye-aye-aye Yesterday. This assumes the French pronunciation to rhyme, of course.

Which assumes that your bandmates have the slightest idea of what a fretless bass normally sounds like

There’s that hofner taunting me...

Everyone posts positive reviews, goes out and buys the shiny new thing, post even more positive reviews - then there’s a lull and their for sale post has even more positive reviews “best amp I’ve ever played , but....”

I have pulled the triggered and order the black one. I'll keep note of the strings you mentioned and order some of those at some point. Thanks for the help. 👍

It's not half the bass it used to be...

I think I know the post you mention. A particular sub-species of human I despair of are internet conspiracy theorists, the sort who infer that thousands of scientists around the world have colluded to play a huge hoax on the world's population viz climate change. Often i find myself wishing for an asteroid to come crashing into Earth so a few thousand years into the future, life can start again. You Tube is possibly the worst outlet for the many pathetic trolls who feel the need to disparage anyone who tries to do anything with their lives. I certainly wouldn't post vids of myself playing bass etc.

I use Phosphor Bronze on my acoustic - I like the challenge of trying to play cleanly with them, it's good for the technique.

Bootsie played acoustic bass..? Who knew..?

Reading the articale it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the guy is some sort of genius, in the way he has manipulated everything in order to get publicity (and presumably he’s now made a pretty penny from YouTube). However, just remember that the musicians he hired for this have come out of it with nothing, and are probably considerably out of pocket. Personally I feel the idiot has had plenty of time now to weave a story that makes him look less like an loser, and more like some evil genius. I think his brother probably calls it right- trust nothing he says. Robbie

A 10 string bass.

Any setup/maintenance work comes under strings as an allowance I would say. But yes, preamp would be a stretch.....but that’s paid for so..... And with regards to having put down a deposit before committing to this, just whistle and look the other way when handing over the balance ......that doesn’t work for those who are aware/committed to this though lol. Si

Nah! In my books you're completely good. Labour costs on hardware you've already got absolutely shouldn't count. We need a ruling from the ref!

I just had a lengthy session at @thebassgallery and played both of the Bacchus jazzes in the OP. SWEET LORD THEY'RE GOOD. Honestly, I was pretty blown away. Lovely craftsmanship, great feeling necks, sound like a Jazz Bass should. The series/parallel push/pull on the passive red one was very cool too. Kind of gave the bass the versatile feel of an active bass but without thinking about batteries. Glorious. Now I want one even more. May have to move one of my existing herd on, but I have no idea what could go on the chopping block 😨

Ahhhh I can’t pay the balance until it’s ready in feb.. paid more than half though..... I’m still in! 😃👍🏻

Glad to see you're getting into "the season of good will to all men" theme...😆😆

Terrific musician and certainly worthy of the title, 'Bass Legend'. R.I.P

Ahhhh, but it's not necessarily the second thoughts: I traded an amp for a WA, played it for a while, had second thoughts and traded it back, and then bought another, and this one has stuck. If I had a fiver for every Stingray I've bought, had second thoughts about and sold, then a few months later bought another one, only to repeat the process, I'd have at least enough to buy a set of Elixirs... It's more to do with where you are at a specific time with what you need an amp (or any piece of kit) to do. I used to own an SVT and an 810. Never again, and not because I didn't like the sound it made... And on the back of that, one opinion on an amp is just that, and unless I knew that the person whose opinion it was had the same tone goals as I did, it wouldn't be any real use. I had a ToneHammer 500 and didn't like it at all, and I don't like Jazz basses (and they are two of the most widely liked pieces of kit you can buy), but I wouldn't expect a single person to listen to my opinion with anything more than a passing interest...a possibly a mutter of 'weirdo...' 🙂 You've only got to look at, for instance, the difference in the avatar pics of the inestimable Beedster above mine to see that we just might have different tone goals...so something I might be gaga for isn't gonna work for him, and vice versa. And that's a good thing, otherwise there'd only be one type of bass, one amp and one cab, and then what would we all have to parp on about? 😀

Santa needs a good list, a bad list and a people that need to be pulled apart by horses then tossed into the sun list. This guy would be on the latter list...

That's because he's not advertising the rubbish he puts in his adverts; he's actually advertising his shop. His adverts are so outrageous that they attract the curious, looking to scoff. When they see his actual site they realise he's a shrewd businessman with some pretty decent stuff at decent prices. Then they buy something and leave 100% Feedback. Simples.

Hmm a lower Normandy tour, that sounds like an excuse for a holiday

Saw the fabulous Kate Bush tribute 'Cloudbusting' last night at the Half Moon in Putney with the wonderful original Kate Bush bassist/engineer Del Palmer guesting on bass! Beautiful, emotional music.... sublime basslines...... just perfect!

Looks like Xmas is coming early!

Okay, looks like I’m the only person on BC who actually likes and uses phosphor bronze strings then! I have a Washburn AB20, bought it in the mid 90’s. It’s one of my favourite instruments, and having tried various designs of string I still think it sounds best with a set of Fender bronzes on it. Mine doesn’t sound like a DB, but it does sound different enough from an electric bass to justify having it, and has certainly earned it’s keep over the last 20+ years. It mainly gets used in my acoustic duo, where we play all sorts of stuff from old standards to recentish chart material, and I love it. Great neck, balances well on the strap ( neck button...!) and doesn’t have a problem with feedback unless I’m being really stupid with it. The body isn’t really deep so maybe that helps. Only thing I would change is the colour - it’s an okay sunburst but would prefer a natural one. Still a keeper though. 🙂

My best, albeit small, purchase was the Electro-Harmonix headphone amp. I often practice in the a.m. when my wife is still sleeping. This amp does nothing but reproduce the sound of your bass. No hiss, no noise, no bells or whistles. Housed in a metal casing. Instrument cord in one end, headphones in the other. Operates for mucho hours on a 9-volt battery. About $45 on this side of the pond. Made in Brooklyn.

I agree the way he treated his bandmates is pretty despicable but I can't help but be a bit impressed by how he managed to simulate an entire management/label/PR ecosystem, and convincing evidence of a fanbase & successful gig history. Maybe what's unique about Threatin is that using the web to do all this would be fairly inexpensive - I've known/known of a couple of bands who tried to play the system in somewhat underhanded ways, but broadly by chucking huge amounts of money around to see what would stick. One, in the early 80s, got picked up by a management company who thought a good way to launch a completely unknown band with no recorded material was to book the Hammersmith Odeon for their first gig & publicise the show with full-page ads in the big music papers of the day. I think about 20 people showed up. About 8 years back, a drummer mate got offered a US tour with a band, which he did. It wasn't quite a Threatin-level disaster, but he discovered that the bassist had received a massive compensation payment for an injury of some sort - and with that money financed the recording and manufacture of his entirely unknown band's album. He then decided the best way to publicise the album would be to (somehow) singlehandedly book a 15-odd date US tour, as well as TV & radio interviews & live appearances along the way. My pal, and a couple of guitarists got offered the gig as the original drummer & guitarists immediately jumped ship as soon as they realised that the whole thing was the bassist & his girlfriend/singer's vanity project. The gigs were all pretty much unattended, the TV appearances were local garden-shed cable TV stuff, they sold a grand total of zero CDs & t-shirts - and to add insult to injury managed to write-off the RV they hired for the tour before they got to the first show! The trip even involved stopping off at the Fodera factory in Brooklyn so the guy could pick up his new custom-order fretless!

Watching a programme about Christmas cooking right now. Suddenly remembered that my punk band Nigella's Ahrse also got little momentum from its website. I blame Google.

Ray, very much so! Thank you. Looking long term, when you get yours back, I am wondering whether to try and get myself another acoustic bass, or to go down the solid route. Have found a very nice 1992 Fender Jazz Bass (American) in need of some love and a good setup, so been working on that. Got the neck straightened and the intonation sorted, just need to get the pickups at the right night. But yeh, still loving playing acoustic. Robbie p.s meant to say found it at school, so not mine!

Asking myself the question, "Would I be happy to gig with that rig?", my answer would be: Yamaha BB424X - absolutely, very fine basses Ibanez sr500 - don't know because I've never tried one Ashdown 100W combo - no, I'd be looking for something more capable, there's lots to choose from in the Basschat Marketplace If you're looking for something to help you hold your own in a band, pedals won't help you play better - you need a solid grounding in the fundamentals of bass playing.

YouTube seems to be the viewing of choice for the younger generation. My kids (21 & 17) rarely watch tv, but will spend hour after hour watching videos on YouTube given the chance, and the more puerile the better as far as I can tell. The ability to add "witty" comments is a bonus. For a lot of people it seems to be that if you can't become famous, you can at least become notorious through trolling. YouTube comments and Twitter appear to be the main vehicles. As has been said, it's the online (and therefore much more public) equivalent of mindful vandalism. It's a sad part of human nature, so it would seem

Thanks! I tend to see it as a rather pitiful borderline obsessive-compulsive psychological disorder - but at least it doesn't hurt anyone...