Mornats

I'm proud of the Squier logo on my VM personally. Flaunt it for the good quality brand that it is! Mine has a KiOgon wiring loom, Entwistle JBXN pickups and a Scratch-It custom scratchplate on it. It plays and sounds brilliant and to be honest, it was bloody good off the shelf too. Here's some eye-candy: [url="https://flic.kr/p/qc8w2i"][/url]

The "jazz" reference is down to the two J-style pickup configuration I think. The old 5 string Bass Collections had two J pickups where the rest of the range (except the SB330 range) had P/J pickups. Here's a pic of my old SB315 5-string so you can see the similarities with the JD bass in the first post: [url=https://flic.kr/p/g3xGbF][/url]

[quote name='MarshallBTB' timestamp='1420614895' post='2651238'] Like the finish, the high frets look a little difficult though. [/quote] [quote name='Conan' timestamp='1420615909' post='2651246'] The bridge seems awfully close to the end of the body... [/quote] Yeah it looks like the body needs moved down from the neck a few inches. Imagine everything in that picture staying static and just have the body moved a bit. That would make it a bit more "right" to me.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1420591436' post='2651178'] It doesn't matter how fast you can play or how many scales you know. If you can't play or hang with the blues, you might as well hang it up. Learn the blues and then build on it. You can apply the the blues to every genre of music. Blue [/quote] Isn't most, if not all, of modern rock and pop and every music style related to those genres derived from blues? I think I may do as you suggested and go back and try and nail a lot of blues patterns. There's a tonne of backing tracks and apps out there with blues styles on so there's no shortage of material to jam to.

[quote name='Bassbadger' timestamp='1420470264' post='2649658'] Hi Mornats, Although the pickups on the Zygote have their coils wired in series as standard, they are 4-wire output so you can add series/parallel switching to either or both pickups for a huge range of tones. This is a mod I do to all my personal basses...of which there are way too many! [/quote] Oooh now that sounds like a whole lot of fun! Out of curiosity, do you make any basses to order? Perhaps with that mod and a custom see-through colour? No worries if not, I'm just considering my "next bass" options (I'm a basschatter after all...)

Thanks for doing the comparison (and glad you've given the SGC a little TLC - I bought a 301 new in 1994 and it was utterly fantastic, as have all the ones I've owned since). I actually meant to ask about the Zygote vs. the SGC oops! Same thing applies though I guess except the Zygote doesn't let you do the single coil thing with the pups?

My modified Vintage Modified Squier Jazz: [url=https://flic.kr/p/qrgrJu][/url]

Another vote for option B. You can get some absolute cracking basses for £300 or so. As already mentioned, the Squier Classic Vibes, or even the Squier VMs (I have a Squier VM jazz which is amazing). Then definitely invest in some lessons. If you have a good tutor they're the best place to put your bass money. You'll be able to make a cheap plank of wood sound half decent Then once your playing has improved you can treat yourself to a more expensive bass as a reward. And by that time you'll know a bit more about what you'd like to have. p.s. there's a bloody amazing-to-play grey Fender Aerodyne in Windows in Metro Centre (or there was the Saturday after Christmas) for £657 I think it was. Played very very nice although I found the sound a bit dull and flat for my liking. Almost had it on the 0% interest free option but managed to resist

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1420362917' post='2648336'] In defence of MIMs, the post 2008 ones are much better than those previous. [/quote] OMG, I've only ever played post 2008 MIMs. They must have been dire before then!

No rush mate, was just curious as I can directly compare

I see you've got a Nanyo Bass Collection there. One of my favourite basses and so easy to play. How does the Evo compare to that?

I studied under Matt Downer (http://www.matthewdowner.com/) for a while and learnt a lot and improved my technique no end. I did however, struggle with reading music. I would always have to point and count up the lines and gaps on the notation to work out which note it was. Even if I memorised the positions it would take me a few seconds to work out the position. Too many lines and gaps and little reference to an anchor point for me. However, Matt taught me that if you know the key the song's in, and you know the chord you're playing over then you'll know which notes are in the chord. If you know the spacing between those on your bass then you look at the notation and kinda just judge the spacing in between those you can play along. You end up not reading each note but rather you read the pattern they form on the page and adapt that to the position of the notes on your bass. So that all made sense to me but I still sucked at it. Maybe it works for you though. Try not and read the notes individually, but see them as the ups and downs in the scale. He also taught me theory (chords/modes/etc.) and technique and practice routines. Bass Fitness http://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.do?itemid=660177&menuid=500&subsiteid=7& is a very good book of finger exercises - play them very slowly - 60bpm then slooowwwwly increase the tempo. Those exercises now make it easy for me to flow up and down a scale with ease and fluidity. The theory means I can look at a chord chart and know what to play over the top of them. My timing is better too. So that's what I got out of lessons myself. I struggled with theory a lot as I need to have a practical implementation of anything in order for it to sink in. An hour of theory will only get 5 mins of that sinking in. 5 minutes of theory and 55 mins of playing around with it and implementing it in a piece I'm recording will work nicely. I'm sure someone on here said that even if you don't need to learn to read music to play, it'll open up a whole world of study material that uses it. But I'm like yourself Evil, I can't see a situation where I'll use it. I play in originals bands so don't play songs that are written down. I do still try and go back and learn it a little though. At the very least I would be able to write down my basslines so I don't forget them...

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1420289234' post='2647529'] I should have put a big smiley there really... [/quote]

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1420257707' post='2647296'] [1] It's not "Squire", no matter how many times you dullards try to spell it like that. You really should have it tattooed in mirror writing on your foreheads. [/quote] It's an easy typo and one that auto-correct loves to use. And "dullards"? C'mon, don't start that!

It's worth checking out the ASIO4ALL drivers if your interface's own aren't up to the job. http://www.asio4all.com/ I tried them with my Focusrite Forte and noticed lower latency. Not a huge amount, but even small amounts count in this situation.

Nah Kiwi, that wouldn't help with and of his gaming needs

I find that Reaper can do anything you want it to. I don't think I've googled anything that's come up with a nope, it can't do that. But I can totally get how using another DAW that highlights some working practices/features more than others, or even offers them up in a more usable manner, can help you discover and try new things. I do like that Recording Revolution site. Graham speaks my language.

Check out the thread about Entwistle pickups. A few people on there have put then in the Tanglewater classic jazz: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/235314-entwistle-bass-pickups/ I've got a classic jazz, and have a pair of JBXN pickups in my Squier but haven't changed the pickups in the Tanglewater. The output from the bridge pickup in my Tanglewater is quite low and I've had to push the P pickup down and bring the J pickup way up to compensate.

I've never ditched a Fender for a Squier but I've "dropped consideration" of an MIA Fender and an MIJ Fender Aerodyne because of the Squier I bought. If you can get a bass that good for £246 I don't see the point in spending almost £900 more. The MIA Fender (USA standard jazz) was a bit lighter than my Squier and sounded a bit sweeter but some pickup and electronic upgrades sorted that. Not that the Squier sounded bad, it sounded really good still. The USA Fender just felt less than average to play. The Squier played and felt like a more quality instrument. I tried two MIJ Aerodyne's over Christmas from the two Windows stores in Metro Centre and Newcastle. One played superbly but sounded dull and average. The other sounded better but I had to ask if there was a problem with the E string as it was flabby as hell and not positioned over the pickup poles. Also there was a 1-2mm gap around the bridge where the recess had been made too big for it. It played dreadfully. I wasn't convinced a setup would have completely solved everything either. [quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1420204054' post='2646639'] Fenders are as basic as it gets, I struggle to understand why such a simplistic mass-produced instrument should ever cost more than a few hundred quid. [/quote] So yeah, this. USA Fenders should be priced around the MIM mark and MIM Fenders should be abandoned in favour of Squier.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1420189649' post='2646422'] Dave brought a few down to a Bass Bash we held in Somerset and they are very nice basses. Great necks and punchy pickups and he personally sets every one up before sending it out. [/quote] I was going to go to that one but I think a mahoosive hangover prevented me from going. Dang! [quote name='Bassbadger' timestamp='1420198161' post='2646533'] Hi Everybody, I'm now back from the Christmas/New Year chaos and I'm in the process of re-opening the ProBass website. I expect to start sending basses out again next week. Any other questions, please ask. Happy New Year! [/quote] Whoop Although I probably need to sell a couple of basses before I think about buying another...

My Ashdown Touring combo has a hi and lo input and the manual (not that I've read it of course... of course...) says to plug an active into the hi and a passive into the lo. It even says plug an active into the lo for an earlier breakup of the tone from the tubes.

There's a lot of love for the J&D jazz basses but I just wanted to say I have that exact same Squier VM jazz and it's superb. You can't go wrong with either in my opinion. If you fancy a bass to modify then the J&D is cheaper and gives you more cash to try out pickups and the like.

I now have GAS for a Zygote!

8 or 16GB should be sufficient for home recording. I recently upgraded my PC and went for an i7 4790K (overclocked to 4600mhz) and 16GB ram. I have a few song with 16 or so tracks stuffed full of virtual instruments and it plays it in real time without any effort at all.