mcnach

I'd add a vote for Reaper. It can do a lot, but if you just want basic functions they're generally pretty intuitive and there's a few great tutorial videos on youtube.

I'd like to add also this thing called n-track. I used that back in the 90s! They're still going and of course grew with the times. I used it a couple of years ago when I wanted to use a tablet/mobile phone to do some recording while on the move, there's android, mac and windows versions. It's probably the simplest but still nice to use multitrack recording software I've come across.

https://ntrack.com/features.php

9 hours ago, AJ567 said:

 

Easier said than done! USA Stingray bridges don't come up for sale often. 

 

The Sterling Ray34/Ray35 basses are excellent quality. I believe the pickups and electronics are the same as used the USA models. And the bridge is more or less idential to the real thing (except the engraved logo, but who can tell from a distance).

The Ray34/35 are pretty cool, but they've gone up in price a lot recently. The Ray35 I've got was £1300... not that long ago this was EBMM money, but those have gone stratospheric...

The pickups/electronics are not the same as the USA ones, by the way, but they're pretty decent.

16 hours ago, Rayman said:

 

Overrated: Markbass CMD121P (Italian) combo and the 121 extension cab… to me amazing quality but also amazingly dull tone. Hopeless for rock, probably decent for jazz fusion.

 

 

Completely opposite experience here, that thing always sounded right to me without fuss. Playing rock, funk, ska and reggae...

7 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

If someone says to me they have a problem with their PayPal account I halt the sale and block them. There is no reason to have a “problem” that isn’t self made and all genuine issues can be sorted in minutes as PayPal are very helpful. 
Been using PayPal for over a decade I think for personal and commercial reasons and if you follow their guides you will never go wrong. 
PayPal goods and services and I pay the fees for any private sales I do without having the item in my hands. 

I wouldn't be that fast. I've had my account blocked for having the audacity to try to pay for a bass in the UK while on holidays in Spain.

It took a while to straighten it out.

Check out the Gator mixer gig bags. They're sturdy and come in a range of sizes. I used them for a MarkBass LM3 among others, fitted really well with enough room for the cables, and they have a pocket for smaller acessories too.

tough crowd! 😄

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

I'm old enough to remember when members here were going nutso about Sue Ryder basses.

Mine (now fretless) is still going strong!

38 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Agree (even though I use one)... now if only you could ditch the useless plastic and just put the chip internal on the bass!  No dongle, no cable; it would drive tech savvy watchers mad at a gig.  LOL

 

oooh, that's an interesting idea! Especially the bit about driving observers crazy

2 hours ago, Paul S said:

Could always stick the dongle in a strap-mounted holder and use an extension lead into the output jack?

That's what I would do.

(That's what I do with a Nux MP2 AmpPlug thingy, as I don't like it sticking out on my bass)

On 23/07/2023 at 19:52, Smanth said:

I prefer a solid body ... and if you can get a 23 inch scale length all the better (I've a Kala, @3below has a Goldtone).  I find the solid body is thinner so more comfortable for me.  Having said that, whilst an acoustic body cannot really be played without an amp, I imagine that the body resonance might alter the sound ... I've never done any experimentation tho.

 

I've never had any feedback issues, the only issue I've had is that on a uke with a single piece saddle (which sits over the piezo pickup) one can get unwanted variation in signal strength from the different strings, especially the D & G strings ... a multipiece saddle does not suffer this (One can turn a single piece saddle to a multi piece, but it is quite a fiddle) as each segment can move more freely.

 

 

My 5er is B->G ... the composition of uke bass strings mean, even with the short scale length, that floppy low B strings are not an issue and I like the low range this gives me.

 

Fretless has the advantage of allowing one to adjust for any intonation issues and can also give a lovely mwah sound!

 

Playing a few would be of great value I suggest, sadly the Southern Ukulele Store is quite far from you, but I believe there is a Hobgoblin Music in Manchester.

 

S'manth x

The one piece saddles can 'easily' be cut to allow each saddle to be independedn from the others. I haven't done it but the videos look easy if a bit fiddly, indeed. It involves lifting the saddles and carefully cutting the thin plastic between saddles. The good news is that those one piece saddles with the piezo sensor are pretty cheap, so not too scary to do.

On 23/07/2023 at 19:21, Dazed said:

@Smanth so solid body over hollow? Do they have issues with feedback? 
5 string tuned E-C or B-G?

Thanks for the other points, I’ll look at the sites and hop over to the thread on here. 

Feedback is a good point.

I have used both the solid body and hollow body basses at band practice, and I did have some trouble with the hollow body one. Nothing too serious, I just had to avoid a couple of orientations in the room, but yes it can happen. The more rigid the top the less of an issue it would be, so I imagine it will vary from bass to bass. No issues with the solid body, of course.

12 hours ago, Dazed said:

Hello all. Some of you may have seen my Uke post in General and some have replied, thank you. Though I’d drop in here and bother you some more 🙂

 

As much as I enjoy researching instruments, borderline ocd, I also hate researching instruments 😄

 

I didnt there was so much choice, brands scale lengths strings etc. 

 

So far I’m feeling drawn to the slightly longer scales, 23” up but having trouble finding stockists and I guess being able to a/b them in one place may prove impossible. Is there much difference intonation-wise in the couple

of inches of the Kala’s 20/21” and say the Shortbass or Goldtones that are 23/24”? 
 

Are strings more difficult to find for one or the other? There seem to be quite a lot of different types for the shorter scales, I presume they won’t work on the slightly longer scales or am i wrong?

It's easy to find strings for both scale lengths, and different kinds too. I find the 20" harder to play (I have a 20" and a 23" both fretless) in tune, the fingerboard is tiiiiny when you come from a regular scale bass, but both require a bit of concentration for a while until you sort of 'internalise' the intervals on the neck. The hollow body doesn't really add that much to the sound, and it's still very quiet. I'd get a solid body. I really like my GoldTone 23" fretless one. The 2-band onboard EQ is decent and while still small it doesn't feel like I'm a giant when I play it. 

I first bought a 20" Batking fretless, just to try. It was cheap (around £100) and looked nice so I figured if I ended up not playing it at least it would look nice on the wall  I enjoyed playing it, tuning is far more stable than the old silicone strings on the Ashborys used to be, but it still requires retuning frequently initially until it settles. Then I got the 23" fretless GoldTone after hesitating for a while, as it seemed a lot extra money for something that would likely do the same job as the Batking. Soundwise it's not very different with the stock strings, although the GoldTone still sounds a bit nicer and less boomy, you can make a pseudo acoustic type of sound, or soemthing that in the mix would not sound far off an electric bass with flats. But the playability is much nicer, with those extra 3" really helping me find the right notes where I expect them to be.

Another thing I liked about the GoldTone (and possibly many other solid bodies) is that they make other strings (nylon wrapped in steel?) that sound more like a 'normal' bass, if you get bored of the other kinds, but I haven't tried them. Check them out on YouTube, there's a few demos of different strings.

IN short: I'd get a solid body and preferably 23". I'd also favour fretless, as intonation can be tricky to set right with some strings and fretless allows you to adjust easily.

On 23/07/2023 at 21:05, Smanth said:

This is rather nice!

S'manth x

 

I bought one of these earlier in the year, after having bought a 20" fretless bass uke. The extra 3" don't make it that much bigger, but I find it a lot easier to play accurately. I love it.  

12 hours ago, uncle psychosis said:

 

You didn't get rid of that Vintage, did you? 😲

I'm afraid so  

I had to downsize and it was a great bass, but that supernarrow neck that made me love it initially became the thing that made me not play it anymore...

18 hours ago, pst62 said:

As long as you go for either the Classic IV Pro (getting harder to find) or the Vintage Pro (now renamed the 60's bass), IMHO either one will wipe the floor with a Jazz all day long!

 

 

Literally, if you add a mop head to the headstock, as every one I've tried had terrible neck dive.

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Not shipping to UK is enough to put me off buying their basses again.

Dave

That's easy for you to say, you already have a couple!

didn't say whizzed

40 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

We are a blues band. I gigged my Flea Jazz for the first time last night, and when he’d set up our guitarist teased with the intro of Under The Bridge. 

At half time we were asked when we’d be playing it! Thankfully we didn’t try. 
 

Any similar stories?

 

Originals band, playing a mix of ska/funk bouncy stuff at a busy local venue.

"Play Wonderwall!" kept yelling the special brigade (you know the type, upturned collars etc). Finally our singer acknowledges the loudest guy and indicates we will next. Next song is inroduced as Wonderwall... but we play another of ours. It was funny to see the guys face turn from happiness to confusion. He protested and singer motioned "next one, really". Next one... he did the same thing. Ah, was the boy whizzed... and his mates making fun of him... 

55 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

Did anyone ever find or order replacement Sandberg knobs for their bass?  I'm after 1 nickel aged jobbie which is 14 euro plus shipping from Sandberg... seems steep.   

I ordered some back in April, because I wanted that look and didn't find the same anywhere else... expensive for what they are but if they must look like that...

At ordering I found that they did not deliver to the UK (bite tongue, don't mention the B word) so I had them sent to my parents in Spain. If they haven't changed their ways, that will be another problem. 

17 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

I did a thing!  

 

Uff, what a beauty!

3 hours ago, ped said:

They've arrived at Bass Direct now, if anyone wants a spare cable or clip. I spoke to them yesterday and the app will be 'a few months'

A few months, or 'a few months' BD style, I wonder... 

59 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I like that bag but not sure i'd use the screwdriver holders but something like this would do the job better than the laptop bag i currently use.

Dave

Yeah, there's only so many pens you can carry  but they will hold string cutters etc, so it's nice to have a handful of those. Look at different bags, some are a bit longer than others, and the compartment number and type do vary.

On 08/07/2023 at 16:46, LeftBass2022 said:

I think I prefer my Squier Jazz to my Fender Jazz.  Anyone else feel this way?   I dug out the Squier and I just think it sounds better.   The Fender is a new Player series,  nice enough,  the Squier is just a Squier.  But - if I had to give one up right now, I’d keep my second-hand Squiggly.  I’m even thinking about getting a Squier P.bass to see if it compares to the Squier Jazz.  Maybe I’ll sell the Fender?  Any opinions welcome guys.  😎

Keep what you like, of course.

At one point I had 6-7 Jazz basses, 4 of which were Fenders. I only kept one, a '94 Korean battered Squier (no, not for deep frying, I just meant it had a lot of little marks and scratches) 

On 11/07/2023 at 11:18, dyerseve said:

It's a musical instrument at the end of the day and it's paint scheme shouldn't dictate your ability to enjoy it as such.

Not planning on having it refinished as I am not bothered by the way it looks. 

 

You are right of course, but I suspect I'd get tired of having to answer questions if I used it live. To you it's just a design, to many others it's a lot more. Same reason I would not use a bass with a swastika or (name your political party) or football team emblem.

As long as you aware of the attention it'll attract...

I would consider something like the Zoom B14: small, cheap, programmable, and sounds pretty good! You can have a preset for guitar and another for bass easily. Or many of each. It looks like you can import FX from other similar units online, so if you get the B14 (bass) you can still import guitar-oriented models, and if you get the G14 import bass oriented models, but you can get decent guitar sounds from the B14 for sure (I've got one).

About £70-80 new, but often found used around £50