skej21

5 hours ago, sargeriño said:

Afternoon!

First time caller, long time lurker. I've got a Sire MM P7 that I'd like to convert to passive VVT as I believe @skej21 has had done himself.

Are you the man for the job?

Cheers,

Ant.

He sure is!

15 hours ago, ezbass said:

Just revisiting this, the TGI Extreme from Bass Direct measures 106.5cm internally. Given the Mustang is only 1.5cm longer, you’d think it would fit with a bit forming at each end. Just £39 plus postage. I’m tempted.

Dunlop flush Mount strap locks on the mustang to reduce the length at the bottom strap button and it’d be snug as a bug in a rug!

11 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

The Russians are known as the middiest.

Whenever it come to fuzz or distortion disappearing in the mix though the issue is usually volume. The heavy clipping and resultant emphasis of upper harmonics make fuzztones sound a lot louder than they are. A test for this is on anything with meters- set a fuzz to sound balanced in level by ear, and then compare the actual level on the meters. It's usually dramatically lower than bypass. Set it so that the levels match on the meters and the fuzz sounds immensly louder- however, this will translate much better when in the mix.

The real key is to set the fuzz to sound as you want in the mix, rather than beforehand in isolation.

Must agree though, the mix is the crucial bit. Obviously in a demo, it’s hard to translate the truth, whilst also not letting it throw off the mix. Personally, in terms of mixing generally it’s the Rams head and Green Russian I find are the easiest to manage. They’re the ones I’ll be keeping too. Rams Head in particular is really nice and easy to handle when mixing with other effects 🙂

2 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

Great comparison but the shootout vid doesn't do the BBM justice, having it set to clean mode with the volume so low. It would've been a fairer comparison having it set to normal mode.

It's a major flaw of the pedal though that dry mode always has 100% dry signal, so to use that mode effectively you have to pump up the volume to get a satisfactory wet/dry blend then somehow reduce the volume again after (which is why the master volume mod is popular on these!).

Yeah, to be fair I have a video dedicated to each (Nano and BBM) where the switch wasn’t engaged, so it’s there if you want it. Lesson learnt because a few people complained. I could redo it quite quickly with the switch off in the comparison, but I’d rather just learn the lesson and move on. Might redo it some time 🙂

Last two in the series - I also added duplicate videos without the drum tracks for any one eager (sad?) as me to really hear the subtle differences. I still think Green Russian setting six with a pick from the shootout might be the holy grail?! 
 

Next up, the Bass Big Muff - pretty honky to my ears and plays nicely with octave pedals!

It’ll be interesting to see what you all think of this one. The addition of the Op Amp really differentiates this from the other traditional Muff sounds!

Written record aside, I did speak to Bass Direct once on the phone and was basically made fun of for wanting something too “mainstream” - at the time I’d been working in a non-specialist music retailer and knew what I wanted (just couldn’t get it through the shop I worked in!) and  was spoken too like I was buying my first bass from Argos for £20 and that I wouldn’t know quality if it slapped me in the face.

From then on, I thought trying an email might make things a little more business-like but then got no response...

I’m all for supporting independent stores and bass specialist stores but equally, you’d hope they would try and meet you half way and support you if and when something doesn’t work out!

7 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Clearly there are two camps here - those who are unhappy and those who are really happy.

Every contact I've had with mark as been really positive, including emails I've sent late of a Sunday evening.

Remember they are probably the biggest small Bass trader in the UK. They stock gear you don't see elsewhere and are pretty much my "go to" trader when I'm looking for something.

I think you’re right. The fact it’s a fairly big independent store has its downsides and when that is combined with their attitude (which is publicly known to be very clearly polarised) probably results in similarly polarised customer experience!

As a customer who has had issues, it’s also not a nice feeling to be ignored and then hear loads of people saying how great and responsive they are to sales enquiries.

I’ve used them three times. Twice for strings because I couldn’t get them elsewhere (and they turned up looking like they’d lived in someone’s gig bag for 10 years), and a set of hipshot lollipop tuners (one of which was opened, had a massive scratch down the middle and was covered in fingerprints). Tried to email them on all occasions (after delivery was received) and got no reply.

I did also try to call to ask about buying a bass that was on their website at one point and was basically told I was an idiot because the bass was a predictable and old fashioned, and wouldn’t something with an on-board preamp and wonky frets be loads better?

Needless to say, I’ve found alternatives.

Hi all

Next up: Green Russian Reissue! 
 

Setting Six on this is 🔥🔥🔥

Just now, Phil Starr said:

I wonder if this was more to do with faint praise, you dissed his new love maybe. Tried her out and found the bass of his dreams somehow lacking? 

Not lacking. Just average. Had better 🤣

5 hours ago, MrDaveTheBass said:

A couple of years ago I bought a second-hand EBMM Sterling Fretless. When I arrived at the house to pick it up, the guy who opened the door turned out to be a grieving guitarist, whose best mate and bass player had recently died, and he was selling his off gear for the bassist's family. The bass was (and still is) amazing - it's the perfect instrument for me, but was absolutely filthy, and I took a long time cleaning the previous owner's DNA off it. The weirdest part was that the guy obviously had very acidic sweat, and his thumb print was etched into the tuning pegs. A tube of metal polish and a new scratchplate later though, and the bass finally started to feel like my own. Although I never met the guy (or even know his name or saw a picture of him) when I play this bass I quite often think about its previous owner.

The beautiful side of a strange coin! 
 

For those interested, he sold the bass and ordered a new one. Exactly the same but untouched. He loves playing slap bass so I’m tempted to tell him that if he gives up the slap, he’ll be rewarded in heaven with 1,000 virgin MIM Fender Player basses 🤣

Hi all. Next video is up  Hope you enjoy it (the Ram’s Head Bug Muff reissue seems to divide opinion with bass but personally, I’m a big fan!)

4 hours ago, Thunderbird said:

great stuff triangle muff sounded great I want one now lol looking forward to more

Rams Head is my favourite, closely followed by the Green Russian!

1 hour ago, Salt on your Bass? said:

Video looks great! I'll watch all of these I'm sure! Top work ✌️

I’ll just post each link in here to make it easier for people!

So I own a number of effects (around 100 😬) and in particular, a few of the EHX Big Muff variants; Triangle reissue, Rams Head reissue, Op Amp, Nano Bass, Bass Big Muff and the Green Russian reissue.

Due to masses of Covid boredom, I decided to try and put together some YouTube videos showing off the capabilities of each, ending in a video which will pit all six against each other.

There dont seem to be a lot of videos showing these types of pedals with bass specifically, so thought I’d share, as it might be helpful to someone thinking of purchasing?

Due to my slow/new video editing skills, I’m planning to do one a week until all are finished. Hope they’re useful!

4 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

if it stops people having to go into hospital and dying why can't we just treat it like normal flu? life doesn't stop for that

Because we can’t treat it like normal flu. With normal flu, we vaccinate the elderly to protect them against it annually. That vaccine is effective, and is also given to those caring for the vulnerable. That means transmission is a lot lower and risk is lower (hence why a small number experience severe of fatal symptoms). 
 

Until there’s a similar vaccine for Covid, we can’t deal with it in the same way. Accepting deaths because we don’t try to protect the vulnerable in the absence in of a vaccine, IMO isn’t the same.

3 minutes ago, ambient said:

Meanwhile they’re discussing tightening the travel restrictions, and possibly banning foreign holidays this year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/23/summer-holidays-cancelled-uk-faces-big-decision-on-border

It’s funny how quickly people were willing to sign up to closing the borders over fears of immigrants, but a deadly global pandemic and we wait almost a year 🤦🏻‍♂️

The one positive is the amount of hearing damage incurred at guitar shows will be significantly reduced 🤣

29 minutes ago, DaytonaRik said:

When I read the title I thought it was going to be an in-depth observation on people you've never met and/or don't know...but alas not!

I think the cliche response is something like “chance would be a fine thing”?

16 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Don't get me started! As a former music shop owner I have a real problem with the concept that once something has spent a nanosecond hung up on the shop wall it becomes ex-demo, and yet everyone loves the idea of being able to try new stuff out. Funnily enough I dien't last very long in that game - it would have been fine without the punters 🤔

My favourite when I worked in the shop was a bloke who literally smashed the headstock off another guitar (accidentally) when trying it out, went off to have lunch and think, and then came back with “it’s ex demo, so what’s the best price you can give me?” 🤣

We all know it goes on, but never really give it much thought. We turn a blind eye and pretend it’s not happening. It’s almost taboo to mention... yesterday I broke that rule and seem to have created a significant divide between myself and a very good friend (who is also a bassist), by muttering three small words... “I played that!”

My friend had just bought a new MIM Fender Player series precision bass that had been sat in our local music store for a while. It’s in excellent condition and he finally bit the bullet and bought it, before bombarding me with pics and messages about how it was the bass of his dreams and that he was ‘in love’

Once I muttered ‘I played that... it was a really nice bass’ it seems like he is treating me like the guy his partner cheated with. Even though 6/7 other locals players commented saying the same thing. Surely he realised that other people have touched it!? That it gets passed around a lot in a shop. Even strangers!

Anyone else been on the receiving end of this? Anyone else feel it’s justified?

Just trying to understand the mindset 🤣

54 minutes ago, Beedster said:

My point was to do with them describing it as a US Fender 

It’s also a pretty bad attitude to have to just bung it on a website with a poor description and make no effort to improve its condition to improve the chances of the sale. 

You’d have thought they’d offer some expertise and say “maybe if you did X, Y and Z you’d have a better chance of it moving” (ie getting a nicer fit on the neck etc)

2 hours ago, CookPassBabtridge said:

Yeah I saw that one, inlays aren’t my cup of tea but it looks pretty sweet. Bet those Aguilar pickups sound good. 

I have them in my Geddy Lee jazz and they sound amazing!