pineweasel

I see, so workable for modest volumes. It probably wouldn't work for my band as we have a loud drummer, and the required vocals volume would become too high.

I saw a band recently in a smallish pub, and I was intrigued by the positioning of their PA speakers. A 4-piece, they had the drums and keys next to each other along a wall, with bass and guitar in front. All instruments plus the kick were going through the PA (no amps), and all four players had a vocal mic. The PA mains (15” Yamahas) were either side of the drums and keys, next to the wall and hence well behind the front mics. No sub as far as I could tell. The guitarist and bassist both had wedge monitors. They sounded pretty good and the volume was decent for the room, which was full with a raucous crowd. I can see the appeal of getting the PA mains out of the way, but how do you get an arrangement like that to work without feedback?

The fretless fives have caught my eye. Does anyone have any experience of the PJ version of these basses?

It’s true that the strings on the SR5 do run close to the edge of the board, a deliberate decision by EBMM to keep the neck slim, and some players don’t like this. But I’ve never seen one that’s badly off centre. You’ve been rather unlucky.

Lots of good info here on the changes made over the years: http://www.musicmanbass.global And if you are considering a used EBMM Stingray, you can check the serial number here, which will tell you the model, colour and date of manufacture: https://www.music-man.com/serial-number-database

I don't think so, you only get to choose one effect for each of the four knobs, or you can turn that group off by rotating its knob fully counter-clockwise.

One issue with the Express is that the control of each effect appears to be severely limited, consisting of just the sweep of the effect knob through that effect's range, which "increases its intensity". What does that mean for, say, the OC-2 clone?

Looks like it, see page 10 of the manual https://line6.com/data/6/0a020a40152f865e216d6d6b24/application/pdf/POD Express Owner's Manual - English .pdf

It's no good if you need more than one effect at once. But if, like me, you use effects sparingly, and only one per song, it can work well. It's replaced a board with octaver, envelope, distortion, phaser and chorus, and it fits in my gig bag.

It’s interesting that EBMM have dropped them from the latest Stingrays though, and nobody seems to be complaining.

You need to connect the L tape deck output to the XLR and R to the instrument/line input (or vice versa), so a different cable or adaptor for each.

The Scarlett Solo has a one mic input and one instrument/line input, so you'll need to connect your L & R tape deck outputs to those inputs using suitable cables or adaptors. The two tracks will be going through separate input circuits so there might be slight differences in the levels and EQ, though maybe unnoticable when the source is an old cassette. Record onto two audio tracks in your favourite DAW, ensuring you don't have any processing set up on the inputs. From there you can edit into individual tracks, process if desired and export to whatever stereo format you like.

I'm not aware of the pickup wiring ever being changed. Where did you hear about it?

I’ve had a Bass Sleeve for years and regularly walk a mile or two with it. I find it perfectly comfortable, but I am over 6ft.

I bought a few over the years for my lefty Fenders and found it simplest and cheapest to get Bass Direct to order them in.

Also available as audio only from the usual places. An interesting listen.

If you've not played a bass guitar at all, the simplest first step would be to try a regular 34" scale model for a while to see how you get one with it. You'd discover if you really need an extra long scale, an upright position or a very thick neck.

Assuming it's not something obvious like the disk being almost full, you can run the built in diagnostics https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102550 The internal clean suggestion is worthwhile. We had a couple of slow MacBook Pros in the office that turned out to have badly clogged fans.

They were in the Mod Shop for a while, then removed, but now reintroduced.

Music Man’s NAMM announcements include the Custom Design Experience, coming in the spring: ”The all-new Ernie Ball Music Man Custom Design Experience will allow customers to design and build unique StingRay Bass guitars in both right and left-handed and 4-string and 5-string configurations.” https://blog.music-man.com/instruments/ernie-ball-music-man-new-at-namm-2024/ Sounds like the Fender Mod Shop for EBMM instruments. Deep pockets required, I expect!

I think it’s the bridge. You can draw a straight line down through the fingerboard dots and the pickup centres which doesn’t end up in the centre of the bridge. Still inexcusable but it’s more easily explained than both the pickups being misaligned.

Certainly worth thinking about. Here’s an impressive job from a few years ago: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/256290-nbd-fender-precision-american-special-fretless-conversion/

I’ve had two new Sandbergs, a TM5 and VM5, and both played superbly straight out of the box, with actions of about 2mm at the 12th fret. Have you checked the neck relief? They are easy basses to adjust.

Was about to post the same thing. I have these on several basses and they always work well.

Murphy’s Oil Soap is the stuff Music Man recommend. See their FAQ https://www.music-man.com/faq