HazBeen

Coming clean, at 44 I am alas too young to have been able to see the great man live. My intro was through my brother in law (13 years my sr) when at 14 he decided I should listen to Bongo Fury. I had just graduated from “now this is what I call music” into Beatles and Hendrix and he felt I might appreciate it. The Muffin Man blew my teenybopper mind and it changed my life, literally. It was the moment I realised that music can touch you in the most deep/viceral way and it made me decide to pick up guitar, then bass. I have branched out into all types of music, from Grunge to Metal to Jazz, my record collection can most def be labelled eclectic. But it has one constant, one thin red line connecting it all ....... Zappa. A fan boy anecdote: When he died in ‘93 I was at uni, but worked in a pub part-time and was working an 8 hour shift “the day after”. Much to the dismay of most customers I played only Zappa that day, but I didn’t care. Zappa, THE Zappa was no more and he deserved a tribute. 😁

He will, sure of it. Maybe we need to start a thread about our favourite Zappa period. For me it is ‘73 Overnight Sensation - ‘88 Broadway the Hard Way .... 15 years of just ridiculously good music and musicianship.

I am very much against idolising people, but Zappa is my one exception..... major fanboy. The guy was a friggin’ genius (but also a nasty piece of work at times according to the many books, memoires etc I have read on him and the family.

He might.... I must admit that in part the ridiculous fued between Ahmet/Diva and Dweezil/Moon may be colouring my judgement (I even bought Dweezil’s No Fake Frank t-shirt ;)...). The family has resolved their differences but this is very much a Diva/Ahmet event (Gail’s preferred kids). I am of the opinion the 2 have squandered a lot of their Dad’s legacy for cold hard cash. I am a sensitive soul when it comes to Zappa 🙄 It will be a great show though, Scott Tunes is a joy to watch I am sure, all 6’5” of glorious bassist.

Clearly not the preamps I am thinking of.... but Ali and Ebay certainly offer pres that would enable you to keep it sub 80 quid. Let us know how it pans out.

I can’t seem to get over the entire hologram thing. To each their own of course and it will undoubtedly be a great event, but I am not going. It doesn’t feel the right thing to do for me (I know, but if I ask myself what would Frank do.... I cannot see him want to be a hologram). Dweezil is the closest thing for me. I saw Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F he wants last year, best live gig in a few years. And I have seen the Z plays Z thing a number of times. May regret it, but passing on the hologram.

Apart from the full bypass this is it. If you rewire the mute to be a bypass aren’t you there? https://www.thomann.de/gb/providence_dbs_1_dual_bass_station.htm It is a great clean 2 channel pre. Clearly you could stick 2 onboard preamps in a box, and wire up etc, but this gets you there without much fuss methinks.

If you take it to the pub on Fridays probably yes...

It also cooks breakfast

HoTone actually make really good and well built gear. My Xtomp is a great pedal with a good interface, enough bass stuff on it so I can imagine it will be very good. Will it be Helix good? Time will tell. Will it be a solidly built? Time will tell. Will people buy them as they find Helix's "expensive"? Yes. I am very happy with my LT and am abolutely fine with the cash I spent on it.

What a weird and nasty response to a request for help. Right answer, wrong attitude.

It’s done, and it sounds glorious! Not only the pickups, also replaced the preamp and bypassed the piezo. Now it is well and truly how I want it.

Just put a screw in it....

Gorgeous bass, proper skills!

Love it!

Can I just give a shout out to the Dremel router base. I am replacing the pickups in my Status Electro (I know, how dare I) and literally had to take a few mms off the back pickup route to make it fit. Felt my normal router (blue Bosch) would a bit overkill so invested £30 in the Dremel base. Fantastic for the small/fine stuff! Will be using the Dremel for mods/tweaks moving forward.

For me the interesting bit will be the neck/body connection and how that aides or hampers playability. Concept is fantastic, so fingers crossed.

We can develop our own app Crapatalk

Subscribed! Interesting concept.

Beatles? I only ever listen to the Quarrymen.