paul_5

Just purchased the download of this - can't wait to get started...

Are you sure about the true bypass mod? That's a 24 volt pedal and has arguably a very high quality buffer in there. If I kept only one 'buffer' stage on my current board then it would be this one.

Playing bass with 'the kings of Leon'. Oh no wait, that would be the worst job...

Yup. I was raised on Queen (mum's choice) and the Beach Boys (Dad's choice). I try to give my kids (a 3 year old and a 12 week old wee man) a varied spectrum of stuff. We've had Bartok, Stravinsky, Zappa, the Beatles, Rush, Bach and a fair bit of Jazz too (Love supreme, Bitches Brew, Mingus etc..). Last week in the car my 3 year old asked me "what's this one?" and my startled reply was "it's Motorhead, do you like this one?" he nodded his head ever so quickly - obviously been practicing...

I do, but only by default. I write all the 'song' bits in the band (melodies and lyrics, but everyone contributes riffs etc...), but we were looking for a dedicated 'singer' to front the band. We auditioned loads of people but they were all a bit below par, so I gravitated towards singing as we had gigs booked and no 'proper' singer, mainly'cos I was the one who knew the material the best. It was really daunting at first, but we were really well rehearsed with the material, and I could 'switch off' my bass playing brain and concentrate on the vocals and front man thing.

Les Claypool is right, it takes buttloads of practice, but I'm sure that anyone can do. If you're thinking about having a stab then I'd say "go for it", you have nothing to lose but your inhibitions - and when is that a bad thing?

Big Muffs are ALWAYS welcome to my ears, especially when blended. If you fancy something that's a little bit special then the MXR Bass Blowtorch has a 3 band EQ (with selectable mid frequency) and a blend control (amongst others). Basically you'll have an EQ for the dirty bass, and leave the clean signal alone. Gets my vote. MUCH more flexible than the loved/hated Big Muff 'tone stack'.

[quote]But there were some complaints - some people wrote that there's no sound coming through, some complained that the sound is coming through, but unaffected (without wah-wah)[/quote]

Hmm, probably due to the switch being the wrong way round. It's easily done with a 3PDT. I'd suggest that they desolder the switch and then turn it through 90 degrees,. Then use the same diagram (using bottom Left, top Right etc...) should make a big difference. Using a 3PDT on a Wah is a bit of an overkill, as the third bank of contacts is really only useful if you're putting an LED indicator on the casing, and as there's nowhere to put it on a wah then it simply confuses matters...

That's a blast from the past. I know Brian (who made this) and have even gigged with him once or twice. He's a lovely man with some very, very, unique ideas about musical instruments (sewing machine, flip-over guitar etc...). The quality of his 'serious' instruments is exceptional. He's also dead helpful when it comes to setups and repairs on just about anything else too.

Just thought I'd mention it.

I use my 'air bass' and let the guitar double the bass line...

[quote name='mazdah' post='1048702' date='Dec 5 2010, 08:38 PM']And which one is suitable for 105Q ? I think my friend could help me with this mod, but I need scheme that WILL work for sure...[/quote]
Ah, didn't realise you had the 105Q. In theory it's the same mod (as far as the switch goes), because with the replacement switch you're switching the input signals, not the outputs. as long as the wiring's the same (and I have no reason to doubt it) it's a simply a case of fitting a new switch (follow the link for 'see diagram'). Without a good schematic I'd steer clear of the buffer mods, which means that you'd still get the 'tone suck' when the pedal is engaged. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[quote name='mazdah' post='1048638' date='Dec 5 2010, 07:58 PM']I love the sound of my Dunlop - so much mid range growl and funky sounds coming out from this toy, but I have a major problem with bypass - it takes a lot of my punch and clarity in bypass mode. It's not noticable on roundwound strings, but I prefer flats and I like to have a big thump which is impossible with Dunlop in signal chain. I can have a G-lab BWW-1 Wowee-Wah for my Dunlop, but I don't know how does it sound. On youtube videos the G-Labs sound is very trebly and quite thin, but it has a lot of switches and filters so maybe it's just a matter of tweaking. And it has a greater bypass.

What do you think?[/quote]

Try this - works a treat and takes about 15 minutes.

[url="http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/"]http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/[/url]

Look under the DIY resources tab, then choose 'true bypass mod' the 3PDT switch (or even DPDT is useable) will cost about a fiver.

I've just finished doing this to mine, and it's made a HUGE difference.

Behringer kit actually doesn't sound too bad. For the most part their pedals are cloned from Boss etc.. kit anyway. The only thing to watch out for is that the build quality can be dicey - obviously for this price bracket you're not going to have a cast metal case and top quality components, so bear that in mind if you're planning to back-flip onto it as part of your act... I had a Digitech chorus pedal last year, and it was VERY hissy - the circuit sounded like it had a gate on it to mute the level of noise when I wasn't playing. I'm currently using an old Boss CE2B (about £50 on eBay) which is just lovely, also, check the 'recent posts' on BC, as someone is selling a Boss CEB5 pedal, not sure what he wants for it; you might get lucky.

[quote name='Norris' post='1047500' date='Dec 4 2010, 04:21 PM']A mate just emailed me this link. A bit of... erm... slap bass.

Warning: Contains scenes of a chap with serious identity issues

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_X7mMU6Gb0"]YouTube link[/url][/quote]

THIS is surely one for the 'daily awesomeness' post...

The best recorded sound I ever had was an ampeg SVP pre into a power amp into a Hartke Hydrive 4x10. We took a DI from the Ampeg, close mic'ed the cab with an AKG D112 (dynamic kick drum mic) and then put an SE2200 (large diaphragm condenser) about 18" away slightly off axis. We did this for all of the tracks on the EP and varied the mix depending on the sound we were after - lovely.

If time's tight then I just use the Ampeg and boost about 1.6kHz to emulate some of the 'punch' from the cab mic.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1046837' date='Dec 3 2010, 09:26 PM']They must be queuing up to make programes about the old master.

Paul Gambaccini presented a programme about him on Radio 4 yesterday.

Anyone interested can listen to it for another week at: [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w7cmk"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w7cmk[/url][/quote]

I'd recommend this - a wonderful piece of radio. Made my day.

[quote name='absolutpepper' post='1040149' date='Nov 28 2010, 05:31 PM']Please don't buy the Boss, its terrible and the tracking is aweful.[/quote](sic) I have a Boss SYB5, and I agree that the tracking does leave a lot to be desired, even for a high output bass. 95% of the sounds are unusable in a rock band scenario; I tend to use it to hold a drone note when I go walkabout up the dusty end... other than that it's good fun to play with, but not the most useful pedal I have. I'd go with an OC2, fuzz and Q-tron. Oh, and a loop pedal

EDIT: just had a listen to the track, and I reckon an EHX Bassballs will cover that quite nicely (fire up the distortion circuit and it's certainly close enough for a pub full of p*ssed up punters!).

Now it's 'Your Arsenal' by Mozza, suffice to say that #2 son is now in bed asleep (dour mancunianism isn't for the under 5s).

I'll keep it nice and simple: Mainly 5, but my fretless has 4.

Disc 1 of the White Album (again and again). I have my 3 month old son asleep over my shoulder; musical education starts early in the _5 household...

Mine's using Safari, so I get the 12 most popular sites on screen when I open my browser. BC is in there. Always

I'll have punt.

[quote name='icastle' post='1033648' date='Nov 23 2010, 10:42 AM']The MOSFET[/quote]
Yes. The Mosfet. Lovely little thing.

Also Compressors - properly useful and arguably they revolutionised popular music production forever.

+1 on the bass blowtorch. I wasn't overly keen when I first got it (but it was dirt cheap, so I couldn't really leave it in the shop, could I?) but I'm really warming to it; It seems to cover a lot of bases (and basses too) really well. 3 band EQ and a blend knob, you'll struggle to get a bad sound out of it.

If you're not recording more than two tracks at once why not consider a small Protools setup. Reason being that if you nail [i]that[/i] take on a home demo and want to use that take in an eventual studio recording, then most good studios will be running some incarnation of Protools, and you can simply open your project on their machine. Also you'll be learning how to use industry standard software and getting to know what it can do , so that if you're ever recording in a bigger studio then you'll be able to make better informed choices about editing etc... instead of relying on the in house engineers.

Just my 2p worth.