acidbass

Just treated myself to a Gruv Gear Solo Strap Neo 4". Just looked like the most comfortable out of all the straps I checked out! There's a bit of a backlog on them at the moment although it should be here in 2 to 3 weeks

Really interesting vid here too for the Squire gear aficionados:

I owned the TH500 for a couple of years and could never get a clean sound out of it at gig volume. The Drive control is completely redundant.

Do you need either? There are some awesome plugins available with tube amp sims that sound identical to the originals, and it'll save you a lot of cash, maintenance and setup!

Let's face it, a 5 string P Bass is going to sound like a 5 string P Bass. What magic sauce is going to be worth an extra $3000 US, if say you compared a Squier P Bass with a Nordy P pickup to an Olinto with a Nordy P Pickup? You can't deny that dodgy alignment is the fault of either the builder or the designer.

Echoing BigRedX above, I wouldn't expect anything less than perfection when spending that sort of money. They made a 5 string P Bass in a mocha sort of colour with no pickguard that actually could have been designed and crafted by GCSE woodworking student. I do believe alignment makes a difference to tone also - the Stingray weak G problem can largely be attributed to the fact that most G strings float off the side of the pole pieces on Rays (modern Rays aside).

I criticised how poorly designed and manufactured they were (neck alignment issues, pickup pole pieces off centre with the strings, inlays off centre etc) and Mas Hino blocked me on Instagram!

Who's music? Just not for me but I'm glad you enjoy them

I dunno, you go to any jazz or funk gig at any city in the world and you'll see musicians of an equal standard to the Scary bunch, doing funk/soul covers of popular songs in exactly the same manner.

Scary Pockets are just an average cover band really, some good musicians but are they doing anything original?

I have had this viewpoint for quite a while now. Interesting link, thanks! I would also add that choice of fingerboard material doesn't matter at all to tone, as the strings never actually touch the fingerboard on most fretted instruments, they touch the frets only. In theory, if you mounted pickups, a bridge, a nut, some frets and strings to an old wooden workbench, and kept the proportions the same as a Jazz Bass (scale length, pickup position etc), and then ran the signal to an output jack, it would sound like a Jazz Bass. I think choice of woods and finishes are for vanity only.

To my ears, the reverse P sounds better in every situation. It just makes more sense from a physics/engineering perspective.

I use the pitch shift feature on my HX Stomp to shift all the notes down 5 semitones, have a patch specifically for this which I flick to when I need that low B. The tracking is excellent.

I didn't think it was possible to set the input gain on the Stomp? AFAIK that applies to the full fat Helix.

I find that any class D hybrid head I've ever owned hasn't been able to produce clean tones at gig volume. Just seems to be an inherent issue with valve low end not being reproduced without fuzz!

I've been running a wired ethernet for gaming for a long time and just can't imagine how worse I'd be with the added delay of wireless!

Definitely HX Edit is a good starting point. I would be lost without it! I use a good set of studio cans to make sounds at home but sometimes they don't work live due to different EQ requirements etc. Another tip is that most amp models are very highly gained and distorted, the first thing I would do is turn down the gain to hear what they are really like.

String to pole piece alignment is such a bug bear for me. Why can't manufacturers just get it right in the modern world of CNC machines? The bridge and neck pickups on a Jazz are different sizes so surely this can be addressed/standardised - obviously with slight differences for 60s and 70s spacing.

I liked the Rotosound Monels on my Jazz but the tension is very high, even more so than a lot of rounds I previously tried on the same bass. I have settled now on my flatwound of choice which is the La Bella 760FS - have these on a P and J and they just sound proper!

To be fair, Slipknot live at Maida Vale was superb

Worst brand name ever! People like Ed Friedland are compensated to review instruments by the manufacturer (financially or otherwise) so I always take these videos with a pinch of salt. Without even watching this video, they generally follow this exact template no matter who the reviewer or instrument: Any J Bass - lovely traditional Jazz Bass sound with both pickups on full, great for slap bass, the neck pickup soloed is nice and warm and close to P vibes, the bridge pickup gets you that Jaco or funk sound Any P Bass - with the tone up full you get a nice modern tone across the fingerboard which slots into any mix, back off the tone control for that Motown/Jamerson vibe

I still struggle with understanding how a Chinese built Dingwall NG series sells for around £2k. Surely they only cost a couple of hundred to make on a CNC machine, plus maybe another hundred for the DG preamp. They are effectively telling us a setup in Canada adds £1700 to the value? Strewth!