fretmeister

[/Orders a lot of Slimfast]

I wonder if this was supposed to go live on Saturday

My bass rack is next to my desk and I'm having real trouble getting any work done now!

After 11 months almost to the day my special order bass is here in plenty of time for my birthday. After trying a much cheaper shortscale and really enjoying it, particularly when playing with a plectrum I decided to get something from my favourite bass brand. The Lionels are often quite lightweight anyway but they do sometimes get up to a massive 8.5lb... So I asked if a Superlight version was possible and it was, for only a modest extra fee of about £140 over the usual price. I also went for a rosewood board with abalone dots. I am informed that this is the first Superlight Lionel that has been built. It arrived this morning and I've had a 20 minute play. From previous experience I often find Sandbergs to be quite bright sounding basses and I was halfway expecting to swap the pickup or the pots or both. As it happens this bass is not excessively bright, in fact the top end is pleasingly mellow. I think I'll be keeping the electronics as is, at least for now. As expected the stock strings are not to my taste at all. I've got a couple of used sets of strings to try to see what suits it best - Ti Flats and EB Group flats (not cobalt ones) and I'll give each set a proper go before deciding on what new set to get. Now the big question. The weight... It's just under 2.6kg / 5.7lb !!!😲 It balances perfectly too. Massive thanks to Mark at Classic and Cool Guitars for the excellent service throughout the process - he's been top notch keeping me fully informed and replying to questions really quickly.

I bought a used John Deacon shortie P bass on here for a little over £100. It's a great little bass - they come up between £80 and £120 ish from time to time. Worth having a look for one.

In the house I almost always play using a pair of Yamaha HS7 monitors. I'm using them with a Helix but any modeller type unit at any price would work well. I have been really impressed with them. If you are not worried about stereo, or using them as PC speakers as well then a single one would do. Even before my Helix I used them with my PC and a cheap Focusrite interface. I use them for everything now, not just playing and recording - Netflix / Zoom calls etc etc.

Blimey - Thomastik TI Flats shortscale strings have gone up a bit! Cheapest I found was £62 delivered.

About a month early. I suspect I’ll be allowed to check it over and then have to wait until the day. 🥲

It has arrived with Sandberg UK! With a bit of luck it will get into my hands before the weekend! Cannot wait! Just need to buy some good strings for it.

If it's on a board with a power supply, why does it need to be passive?

If you take the damaged one of and measure the hole you'll have more info needed to decide if something else will fit.

Just get them both!

I have one of those too. It's a great pedal. The Jackhammer has an equally bass friendly EQ as well.

You are not helping my GAS!

that does depend on the orientation though. Having 1 cone LPF’d helps massively with horizontal dispersion when the cab is used Landscape/horizontal. Doesnt really matter at all when the cab is used portrait/vertical. That’s why all cones on one side of the Four10/Six10/Eight10 are LPF’d - to stop them cancelling out frequencies from the other side cones. If it was eg 6 cones vertical in a single column then the LPF wouldn’t be needed. So using two One10 next to each other, horizontally has a disadvantage against a Two10 in landscape mode, but the pair of One10 stacked should be better for dispersion than the Two10 in portrait/vertical. EDIT Cabs that are not designed to be used in both orientations - like the BF Super Twin - do not have the LPF on one of the cones because it's not needed in a vertical array like that.

@elfrasho @Elfrasho Those were perfect. I used a craft knife to make them a bit shorter and then hot glued them on. Thanks!

Other than EMG I'm not sure there are any completely solderless options - mainly because of the need for a stereo jack socket. Some do have little screw connector boxes for connecting the pickups to the preamp, but I'm not aware of that approach for the socket. John East is quite accommodating though - if you decide on one of his, then he might be able to supply the preamp and socket with push on spade connectors instead. Call him rather than email though!

Your stage amp has a volume control

Are the basses the same model?

I bet that was a fun gig! I love Deacon's live sound. It's always plenty loud but fits perfectly, no doubt helped by BM's vox amps not having a lot of low end but being really harmonically rich. I do wish there were more accurate bass transcriptions of Queen songs though!

I had a 2x12 guitar cab from them. It was excellent. Traditionally built and quite heavy though.

I think my approach would be to blend the regular bass tone with the synth tone in a way that hints at the original tone rather than trying to match it. Probably with quite a hard gate on it to get the note cut off right. I've only had my C4 for a week and I'm very much in the learning phase but I'd be surprised if it couldn't do it. Another pedal that I've had great success with for this "close enough for a gig" approach is the old Digitech Bass Synth Wah. It tracks very well (actually better than the C4) and has a great thick tone. They can be a little low in output but if blended with some clean using a LS-2 the level of that loop can be boosted a little to match. The biggest secret to making it sound like 1 tone is to make sure the attack and the decay of the tones match. I do that by compressing each side separately. Then gate it for the hard cut off like a keyboard. you can always turn the gate on and off for different parts of the song as needed.

Re: the weight. If you can cope with having an extra little hole, swapping the tuners to Hipshot USA Ultralights will knock off 1/4 - 1/3 of a pound on a 4 string. Doesn't sound a lot but it makes a lot of difference in comfort. I really fancy one of these too but the weights vary so much, and so many shops refuse to weigh them so I ordered a Sandberg Lionel instead. They don't sound exactly the same, but it's close enough with a traditionally powered pickup. Maybe in the future I'll find a 7lb one.

An EQ in a pedal is just in a different place. So your comment about changing your amp for something else contradicts using an EQ elsewhere, whether it's programmable or not. I realise you are using a Helix now but you weren't in 1989!

I use EB Group IV flats on my long scale basses. They are brighter than traditional La Bella thumpy flats, but not as bright as the EB Cobalts. They are somewhere in the middle. I use them for everything - modern metal to old RnB. There's no finger noise and unlike some flats, they are not grabby on the fingers when sweaty in hot weather. I've got Dunlop flats on my medium scale 5 string - they are more old fashioned in tone with a deep natural fundamental. And finally, I've got La Bella deep talking flats on my 30 inch P bass for a real old thumpy sound - but saying that, with the tone control up and playing with a pick it's got a great rock tone. Lynott / Deacon sort of clear thickness about it. When I play in a rock setting it's always in a 3 piece power trio arrangement and they all work well for me.