LukeFRC

I think there's a place for questioning synth bass pedals and pointing out that an actual synth (or laptop and midi controller of choice) would do more better or whatever. But equally, as a non-piano player, I could stick a FI4 on my board and play synth bass stuff straight away with a fairly minimal learning curve (presuming reasonably clean technique), with no additional hardware or stage set-up changes. For what it's worth I'ld love a FI4 vip - it's an amazing little box... but I'ld also like a Arturia MiniFreak... not sure where the money for either will come from and how much I would use either....

Ahh - it wouldn’t surprise me tbh

Cloning circuits if fine ripping off trade dress deff not! having the original makers name on the pcb - awful - if it opens up easily and I get a chance I’ll take a photo of the inside of a real one

this

my last wee project was mashing together a Euna preamp and a Broughton high-pass/low pass ... running at +-17.5v or so, I had a switch to choose 10M, 1.5M or about 500k input impedance - 1-1.5M feels about right without losing something in the balance of the sound of a Bass IMO. I was just using TL072 though, cheap enough in the PCBA process that I didn't experiment with anything sexier. Sounds like you need to filter the DC from the output or something to stop the pops. you'll be no ones friend feeding DC into the PA!

It's not, it's Jost, fender use Futura I think it's the standard from the shopify theme

that's not something you see everyday is it?

what's your input stage built on? Most the things I've played with have high enough input impedance that you can then set it with resistors - though I love the sound of Jfets! I would tend to use active DI for passive instruments for the impedance issue, or passive for active or after anything that is buffering. I think you've reached an inflection point with your design - is it a DI box or is it a preamp? If it's a DI box then phantom power is great. If not, it's a bass preamp and focus on 9v power. what in your design is crackling and popping after you turn it on? Thats a risk and something I would think you want to engineer out. I could live with it in a preamp if it sounded amazing, but in a DI box attached to the PA it just needs to work!

Mine has frets! might stick to the same Earnie balls it came with - yes I’ve had it three years and not changed the strings

It’s fretted! (But yould probably enjoy trying it sometime)

Before @Hellzero disappears - any recommendations for roundwounds strings for my Capone? Ive got Sadowsky blue steels on my Sadowsky that I love, Sadowsky blue nickels on a Lakland which are ok ish, infeld nickle rounds on a p which were good till they died. DR fatbeams are the pricy favourite I had a few years ago … I think originally Lefay might hsve used Ernie ball steel rounds?

@AndyTravis - you tend to put a lot of your energy into your bands - is there an option of them getting you but more as a "he's a sound guy and great bass player, inderstandably focuses more on his family and job but we're lucky to have him" type deal?

You might have got away with it if you hadn’t been flashing photos of that strat all over your socials 🤣

That’s what I’ve got on my Bravewood P - they are ok - the other one is a roundwound version of jazz flats apparently

Two years into a house building project that’s nearing the end of- it’s bloody stressful for everyone - you gotta take care of yourself

The TI jazz rounds or the TI infeld rounds?

£305 online for vip version. I’m tempted! Though if you’re selling one secondhand in a few weeks I can wait…

This week I was kindly allowed into Chateau @Quatschmacher and try the FI4 VIP ... my background, I'm not an amazing player- but not awful and have messed around with synth type stuff in various Zoom multiFX then HX, H9 then the classic octave-fuzz-envelope thing... I've owned a C4 (twice) and sold it each time... One use which is a bit different to the normal synth bass/keybass type sounds is a pad sound I've used to fill in songs while playing at church (small church by US standards so sometimes only 2-3 musicians) I really really enjoyed the FI4 and need to work out if it will fit on my board... My thoughts... - Really premium enclosure - it's really nice metal box. - The tracking is amazing. I've got fairly good at playing clean and slightly before the beat from owning the C4 ... this you don't need too - it's so so fast and seemingly accurate - It can do rhythmic sounds - and works - you can add that little muted thump as a part of the rhythm and works - doesn't trigger the whole sound - a bit of a learning curve but you can choose how it reacts with your fingers - if your next note triggers the envelope again, or just glides to the next. (this has got a proper term in synth land) - The presets... like obviously you can build your own... but from what's available on the top it gives you edits from the preset! ... so rather than an absolute release time for example, it lets you fine tune from what's there! This makes so so much more sense - the sounds are really really good. Im pretty certain if you wanted the sounds of the fashionable MXR synth pedal it would do them... but suspect you have more control over how it articulates... - But most importantly to me - the C4 feels like you're playing a pedal- and the sounds are good enough to do that. The FI4 makes it sound like your bass sounds different. it's feel and how it reacts is so so natural feeling and musical. Honestly it was astounding - I had pretty much given up on synth bass and was going to go buy a wee synth and learn to play it... but now I'm rethinking. - I didn't scratch the surface of everything it could do! Short version: The very low latency makes it feel like a musical extension of your instrument. I like

don't grass him up

What hasn't been mentioned and is slightly more concerning than the lacquer stuff - is why use a mini toggle there on the lower bout? It's too small for there and just wierd!!

I don't think you need to rule out 0.74Bn potential luthiers just because one guy sends out a bass with a load of laquer cracks!

My sadowsky metro has a Pau Ferro board. If I was only able to play one bass for the rest of my life and could choose any - I would choose that bass... so yeah Pau Ferro is fine