fretmeister

Very nice! Even better that the pickup has been changed. The stock one in the VS4 passive is not very P bass like. It has too much bass and treble and doesn’t have a lot of the traditional mid range poke that a P should have. It’s the only fault of my Lionel too. But plans are underway.

Trades?

I don't think I've got one. I suppose my realy musical awakenings was about 1986-1996 (I changed schools in 1986) and I have a soft spot for the stuff I discovered in that time - AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden etc etc but there's just too much good music in other time periods too. I mean, who wouldn't swap "Load" for just about anything done by Chic?! But that time period was a big part of my youth and while I don't often listen to it now I'd be upset if I couldn't.

It's a really smart idea, but the price is a bit steep. I wonder if they just don't sell enough of them to have a lower price point.

Those knobs look exactly like the ones on Darkglass amps and pedals. I had them on a Sandberg bass until I put an EMG preamp in it and I needed stacked knobs. I thought they looked cool.

I had one (not a FR version) many years ago. I loved the sound of it, but I never could get used to the width of the fretboard. Or having a C string for that matter!

My aversion to naming instruments is so strong I'm actually annoyed one of my Sandberg's is a 'Lionel'. VS4 Shortscale is a far superior description. I can just about cope with ships having names. Probably because of the very long history of it and the nature of the providing an honour to (occasionally) worthy historical figures. But to call a bass 'Derek' because, I don't know, it has control knobs that look like dominoes just confirms my view that humanity must end.

Ashdown are not Apple. They don't come up with an idea (or pinch it from Star Trek) and then worry about how to market it. Ashdown build things their customers want. If that approach starts to affect sales, then they will change. But they are customer driven more than innovation driven. If you want to blame anyone, blame the customers.

Very true. My home bass sound is vastly different to my live sounds - no matter what the genre. If I use my live sounds at home at modest volumes they sound a bit nasal and farty. When live, they sound ace. (Well, I think so anyway!) I reckon a brilliant example of this is John Deacon with the Queen Live at Wembley recording. When Sir Brian's guitar drops out sometimes the bass is surprisingly farty but all together it sounds massive. Just a P bass, flats, and at that stage of his career, almost always with a plectrum.

I've had Pressurewounds in the past and I quite liked them. Except on a 5 string. The B just didn't work at all for some reason. Ti Flats are my favourite but I can't use them anymore due to a nickel allergy so I now have different ones for different basses La Bella Deep Talking Flats - thumpy old tone Ernie Ball Group 4 flats - quite modern but still flat sounding, not trying to be a roundwound Fender 9050L - actually quite similar in tone to the Ti Flats. Plenty of mids, less pronounced lows, no flub at all.

Or get a 4 ohm Barefaced 8x10 and not worry about volume needs ever again. For anyone. Because we'll all be deaf!

That's where the tone is! Don't do it!! Don't over oil the board either. Depends on how often you change strings of course.

Speaker to ear latency is about 1ms per foot. Sound moves at about 1043 feet per second - depending on atmospherics. So with the Xvive at 6ms if you were right next to the speaker it would be the same as you standing 6ft away from the speaker. If you weren't using a wireless (or indeed any other digital device with ADA converters that add latency) then you don't have to move very far away for physical distance to be far more of an issue than the wireless latency could cause.

Such a simple idea that I'd never have thought of that!

5ms or under is usually fine, but lower is always better. Moving a couple of metres further away from the cab actually has a bigger effect on the time between playing and the sound reaching the ears than that. My L6 is 1.5ms and my Smoothhound is 5ms. I can't tell the difference when I'm moving about.

The L6 G70 was very good as a consumer item. There were complaints of dropouts but that seemed to be from people too lazy to read the instructions. It specifically recommended that every time it was turned on it should be put in scanning mode so it could find the best frequencies. Even if soundcheck was ok, it should be redone at the beginning of the gig when 200 people with mobile phones come into the room. Then it was excellent. I liked the adjustable cable length simulation and boost options it had too. These days though... it's perfect for not having cables draped all over the lounge upsetting the wife!

Nope! I use the pickup tops as a finger ramp. With a ruptured and repaired tendon in my right hand I need a ramp. So lowering them is not an option, alas. That's a good idea, I'll try that. I have some of that somewhere. Cheers!

Make sure you tell all the Cash Converter type places - once they have knowledge of it (Photos / serial numbers etc) if they accept it knowing it is stolen property it's far easier to do something with them. Easy to say after the event - but get some insurance. It's not expensive. I pay about £130 a year for a stupid amount of gear including theft from cars and venues etc.

I use the pickup tops as a ramp so mine are always as close as I can get away with. I'm definitely making the P -v- J volume output problem worse! but I find it a lot easier to play that way with a damaged finger. If I play someone else's bass with lower pickup heights I have to swap to playing only with a pick. I just can't do fingers without a ramp anymore. At least not competently.

You don't have to stick with cables - but make sure you have a cable as a backup. Some pedalboard receivers have a dedicated Guitar Input socket so you don't even have to faff around disconnecting the wireless. Just plug the cable in, swap to that input, and off you go. 30 seconds max. The discontinued L6 G70/75 does that, the new model Shure GLXD16+ has it, and others. If I was in the market now I'd get a dual band (Like the new Shure) that automatically swaps between 2.4 and 5Ghz as needed to reduce congestion and dropouts. https://www.shure.com/en-GB/products/wireless-systems/glx-d_plus/glxd16p?variant=GLXD16+UK-Z4#explore As BigredX says - there are no 100% reliable systems at any money. Even the monster stage stuff like Metallica use where the players can be 30 meters apart have multiple back ups and have cables ready just in case. Sometimes the local conditions are just not what you need. That is not the fault of the gear though. There's no 100% reliable amps / basses / power supplies / singers either.

I've had a Boss LS-2 forever. It just works great. Sometimes I use just a single loop to turn on 2 or 3 at once in a single loop, sometimes I put different things in each loop, and sometimes I use it as a clean blend. It's the least exciting pedal in the world, but it's so useful! And it's a Boss so if you buy a new one you can leave it to the next generation in your Will. It will still be working just fine.

Funny you mention the selector switch. I used to prefer that too. I thought they sounded better but I also thought that was just in my head! Then after talking with a pickup maker I got my first lesson about insertion loss when 2 pickups are competing with each other via different pots or a passive balance control. Using a selector switch and just a single vol & tone solves that but then there are no blended tones available other than 50/50. Or more like 70/30 on a P because the P pickup is much more powerful. So on my j type I put in an EMG active balance control that removes insertion loss issues. Now I get the full J type tone no matter where the balance is set. I liked it so much I’ve done the same with my Ibby Mezzo too albeit with the EMG PJ-X set. The P alone sounds just like a P should, and the combined tone is much better. The P usually overpowers a J but with this set up I can balance it properly without any of the frequency loss that annoyed me when trying to balance passive PJ sets. The only trouble is that EMG active blend - 2 models, ABC and ABCX, are a bit expensive to buy as a single item, but for their full preamp systems that include a blend it is an active one.

Does Sadowsky do a 40-100 set instead?

It’s wonderful when something clicks and everything works!