JPJ

So, I want to tell you a story. A few years ago I had an upcoming acoustic gig so I rushed out and bought a brand new four string Tanglewood acoustic. Now I know these things are marmite but I fell on the ‘like’ if not ‘love’ side of ownership so much so that shortly after I bought a secondhand Warwick Alien five string (Rockbass) off this very forum. Now owning two very similar instruments that have poor residual values has gotten me thinking of going fretless with the Tanglewood as I am mainly playing fretless electric and EUB these days. I have some purple heart strips ready to glue in place but I’ve been looking at fret pullers and nut files on line and there is huge price differential. So my question is, any recommendations for nut files and fret pullers please?

After years of avoiding one I eventually gave in and bought a SansAmp v2. This thing does a really good growl but will go all the way to full on distortion if you need it to. Warms up my fretless P bass beautifully, getting that early Cream era Jack Bruce sound spot on imho.

Gig was out in the wilds of Northumberland on a rainy foggy night and I was driving 😉

So tonight was the night, 20’ish song set, nine on EUB. First doubling gig in a few years and it passed off without issue. Left hand was very tired towards the end of the second set (EUB heavy) not helped by our leader starting a medium paced blues tune (Ma Rainey anyone?) in quadruple time 😂 The NS was very well received and got almost as many compliments as the fretless. Quote of the night “Don’t guitars usually have lines on them so you know where to play? Yes, but I couldn’t afford the lines so I had to get one without” 😂 Oh and here’s a picture of bass corner (don’t worry the Heineken zero moved off the amp straight after the photo 😉

On one of my gigs I double on EUB and fretless bass through a single channel amp. In this setting, and IMHO, a preamp or a true twin channel amp is almost essential if you want both instruments to sound at their best.

It does 😉

I hear you, and it’s also a useful check of your intonation when playing fretless or EUB but I found it distracting hence why I wanted it disabling.

So I received a reply from EBS tech support who told me of a dip switch inside which sets the tuner out to either mute activated or permanently on. A quick flick of the switch has mine now behaving as anticipated i.e. the tuner only active when the mute is on.

Thanks for this, I have shot an enquiry off to EBS directly before going back to Mark at Bass Direct. Let’s wait and see what they have to say, but I suspect I may have a duff unit 😔

Question for the EBS Stanley Clarke users - according to the manual, the tuner out only becomes active when the Mute is on. However, on mine, the tuner out is active irrespective of the setting of the mute switch. Is this normal behaviour or does mine have a problem?

So second rehearsal and the NXT just fits the music so well, so much so I’m playing her on a lot more of the set than I originally thought. Just about got the Stanley Clarke dialled in too and I’ve got to say I’m getting a pretty convincing double bass tone out of the NXT and the secret is definitely all in the fingers. If you play like a double bassist the NXT sounds like a double bass, whereas if you play like an electric bassist the NXT sounds like a fretless bass, albeit an extended range one. Oh and no thumb issues either, which confirms that the stand is the answer to my old problem.

This thread has got me thinking of sticking the original filter preamp back in my Overwater Original series 5 string 🤔

When I was researching before purchasing my NXT, a lot of NS owners recommend the NS Traditional strings as being a big improvement over the stock Contemporary fitted at the factory. I considered changing mine but at £163 a set I might wait awhile 😉

I’ve been using John’s J-Retro and Unipre preamps for years. The battery life is phenomenal suggesting they draw very little in operation. As far as I’m aware the Sims Quad pickups only need power for the built-in LED indicators and will run quite happily without a battery. That only leaves the neck LEDs of which I have no experience. My guess is you’ll be fine running all three from one 9v battery.

So at last nights rehearsal, our drummer tried wired IEMs and has become the second convert in the band following the singers conversion a couple of weeks ago. So now the other two singer/guitarists are interested so I can see me building an IEM rig driven from my X-Air XR18. The singer is currently using my cheapo T-Bone IEM100 UHF transmitter/receiver setup, which works fine but is a little noisy. I’ve read up on the limitations of the cheap digital solutions such as the X-Vive but we have to be realistic about the cost of the rig as we’re only playing pub gigs. So, what’s everyone using? Is anyone using one of these single transmitter/multiple receiver set ups. Yes I know that limits you to one IEM mix but that would at least give the three singers a chance of hearing themselves and each other. As I mix the sound from the side of the stage whilst playing, eliminating on stage monitors would make my life a whole lot simpler!

So first rehearsal with the EUB tonight and the band loved it. Going to take a while to build up my hand/finger strength but I’m very happy with how this sat in the mix. Used it with and without a Nino mute, which was great for the more upbeat walking lines. Got to say the EBS Stanley Clarke is a bit of a revelation too; both the NS & my Fender fretless precision sounded huge through it with very little eq on either channel. 😎

So rewire number umpteenth has resulted in a board that’ll work for gigs where I’m doubling on fretless bass and EUB. As an aside, the SansAmp is now in the effects loop of the EBS and it sounds mighty!

Great video, and some nice playing. In all honesty I prefer the sound of the Wal’ish

Not a silly question at all, and lots of folk doing the same thing who are going for the FRFR (full range flat response) approach. The preamp is certainly capable of driving a line input from the XLR out, how successful this will be will depend on the powered PA cab you are using.

So yesterday I joined the EBS Stanley Clarke owners group when this little beauty arrived from Mark at Bassdirect. First impressions are very positive (through my studio monitors). EQ is nicely balanced, notch filter is a great tool and there are more switching and routing options than I’ll ever need. Just waiting of an insert cable before I shoehorn this onto my meagre pedal board, but this is going to make doubling gigs (fretless and EUB) so much easier 😎

Sorry Bill, I should have been clearer in my post. I have several preamps (both pedal and rack mount) that I tend to run into the return of my amp, hence thinking of a built-in poweramp in a single cab solution.

Just a thought, but a powered cab would make a lot of sense for me at the moment. As I am about to build a Basschat 2x12 I’m considering sticking an extra few cm’s on the depth and adding a plate amp but the question is which one? I’ve previously bought a complete new replacement plate amp for one of my EV ZLX PA tops but this has DSP etc so not really suitable. So I guess my question is “is there a simple plate amp module including power supply suitable to build into a bass cab”?