Linus27

23 minutes ago, Gareth Hughes said:

I can’t - after the sound I heard through the amp, and out front (my son was playing while I listened) - I don’t think I’ve any need to replace the Fishman. The Tech21 SH1 - with blend set fully clean - is a great double bass preamp.

Perfect, thank you. The Fishman is high on my list for my EUB and for a moment, I thought you were saying the SH1 was even better. I'm currently toying over the idea of either a Sansamp Para Driver or Fishman Platinum Pro to cover both my fretless electric and Ibanez EUB.

16 hours ago, Gareth Hughes said:

Honestly - the Tech21 SH1 is turning out to be the best all round pedal preamp I’ve come across. Recently did a gig using it on double bass - blended out the Sansamp circuit and had a great 4 band eq plus tuner all in one. For electric bass it’s a no brainer. I can’t see myself replacing my Fishman Platinum Pro for double bass as the SH1 just does everything righteously.

You can or can't see it replacing your Fishman Platinum Pro?

I guess the good thing is it will be a one time payment as they'll never need replacing. Still, I doubt they are any different to regular Ernie Ball Flats so you are paying for the name. 

I echo the above, I have one and they are amazing little amps, loud, punchy and super clean. I'll never part with mine and actually considering getting the 600w version as well.

27 minutes ago, Maude said:

I'd never heard of this and had to look it up.

Now, I'm fully aware I can be a bit of a cynic, but isn't this just a way of selling 'putting on headphones and closing your eyes' as a new, trendy thing to do? 

Whilst I can appreciate the idea that it's the aural version of going to the cinema, I just can't see paying money to sit in a dark room (probably not pitch black due to H&S/fire regs etc) and listen to music with loads of other people coughing, whispering and shuffling off for a pee to be particularly enjoyable. 

Listening to music in the dark is a hugely immersive experience, and to be encouraged, but I'd rather just do it on my own terms in my own house, as I, and probably many others have, for years. 

This is my thoughts and why I am hesitant to go although the event I am thinking of going to is a 5.1 surround sound mix and played loud though uncompressed audio on our powerful cinema sound system. I still ask the question, is it going to be that good that I am left with wow, what incredible detail and clarity or am I going to think, wasn't much better than through my system at home or through headphones.

Has anyone been to a Pitchblack Playback event? I'm thinking of going to one and I'm really not sure if it will be worth the money or something that will be an incredible listening event.

1 hour ago, Alanko said:

I saw some Barts listed (their 8S P-Bass set) for over £200 yesterday. Maybe a blip, or symptomatic of tariff-geddon.

Yeah that is way over priced, Bass Direct has them for £122.

I'm a big Fender fan and have and have had some killer basses over my time. I'm on the lookout for a backup to my Japanese Fender 60's Classic Precision and will probably buy the Harvest Green PJ. Green is my favorite colour and I adore the look of this bass, it is the perfect bass for me aesthetically so thank you Fender for making it. I'm not a fan of active basses though so I'll likely just use it in passive mode and I may even gut it and fit Barts to it.

My updated fretless pedalboard. 

1. TC Electronic Tuner

2. Boss OC5 Octave

3. Harley Benton Custom Line Chorus

4. Walrus Audio Slo Reverb

5. Mooer Ambient A7 Reverb

6. Sonicake Boost

7. Ampeg Optical Compressor

8. Sansamp BDDI V2 Preamp

Super happy with this and it sounds amazing. The only thing I would like to try for a possible change is replace the two reverb pedals with a Strymon Cloudburst. I'm happy with these two reverbs but the Cloudbust has a few features I would like to try out and still does what my current reverb pedals do.

14 minutes ago, Beedster said:

I'm afraid the neck sold in the interim (there was already quite a lot of interest), sorry  

Ah bugger, ok not to worry

47 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

 

 

 

 

@Beedster Beautiful sir. How much for that combination?

Would love to see body 3 with neck 2 😉

Very nice indeed. This is something I thought about doing and even looked at putting a fretless neck on the yellow Mike Dirnt when I had one. he pickups are awesome and the original Mike Dirnt neck is a baseball bat so it would have made it quite playable with a fretless neck.

It does look mighty impressive but being an old skool bassist, even the Helix HX Stomp seems too fiddly for me so this totally blows my brain. It does look bloody brilliant but I'll stick with my Sansamp, Compressor, OC5, Chorus, Reverb, Tuner pedal and bit of foam under the strings 🤣 

27 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

Phew, glad it’s just not me. 

Me to, I think I might of listened to one Rush song in my lifetime.

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Another trick with fretless is to use opened (sorry, but it's a past participle) strings to check your intonation while playing.

 

Use your ears to play, not your eyes and you'll improve very quickly.

 

I really started playing on a fretless bass something like 40 years ago (wow, I'm that old 😳 now) and I now suck on fretted bass as I tend to make it sound like a fretless... 🤦🏻

 

You can also add a tiny bit of reverb on your tone, it's great with fretless.

 

Welcome to the family!

I kind of started the other way, my bass lines sounded like a fretless despite starting out on a fretted Jazz some 38 years ago. So I eventually moved to a fretless and my bass playing came alive.

I also totally agree about the reverb pedal, I actually have and use two on my fretless board.

@Ben Jamin if you want to try an excellent but inexpensive reverb pedal as suggested by @Hellzero then I use the Mooer Ambient A7 pedal. It's an awesome little reverb pedal and with settings 1 with everything at 12, it will do the trick. However, setting 6 has this string pad setting which sounds brilliant, especially with harmonics.

28 minutes ago, Ben Jamin said:

Thanks that's a very helpful mindset to go in with! It's pretty daunting as my band's in the process of recording right now, but I have no idea how soon I'll be able to play with reliable intonation!

Also thanks for the excuse to check the Effects For Sale section 😂

You're welcome and you might actually surprise yourself at how not so daunting it is. My first introduction to fretless was in 1998. I had just signed and we were recording our debut album. The album cost £120k which at the time was more than my sister's brand new 4 bedroom house in Preston and was producer was Mark Wallis who did the Travis, It Bites, Primitive's albums and engineered U2's Joshua Tree so quite serious stuff 😂 The studio was owned by the singer/bassist of the prog tock group Asia and the keyboardist of the 80's pop group, Buggles. We turned up at the studio on day 1 and in the live room on the wall was about 20 basses including a beautiful Washburn AB20 fretless. I thought, let's give this a go and I ended up recording the hardest bass line on the album on it. The intonation was a bit off so I put a few bits of a post it note in places to know where to fret accurately but it was fine.

So just go in with an open mind and play the bass lines like it's a fretted and you'll be fine.

This is the track in question.

4 hours ago, Ben Jamin said:

Got the last one from Andertons arriving on Tuesday 🥳

 

A wee bit nervous as it's my first fretless! Any tips??

Just approach it just like a fretted bass, so don't try and make it sound like a fretless and do lots of slides and trying to get that mwah sound. It is no different to play than a fretted bass, you just have to be more disciplined with your technique and train your ears. Good ears and strong technique are the two key things you need to play a fretless well. Don't be scared of it either or think of it as different, just play what you'd play on a fretted and you'll be amazed at how normal sounding it can be. Over time, you'll then start to bring out the nuances of the fretless as you become more competent. The Jack Cassidy is also an unlined fretless so you either play ON the dots or in the gaps, it's that easy. Oh and buy an octave and chorus pedal, you'll thank me later I promise 😂

19 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

SamIAm

 

I had been concerned about Sam for some time and decided to see if the web could provide an answer. Unhappily so. It seems she has left us. The link is to a MacMillan tribute, so I guess we can assume how she passed.

 

How very sad.

 

https://samanthamargerison.muchloved.com/

Oh, that's super sad, I never met her but she seemed lovely. I always think of her as the ukulele bass player.

Just remember, Victor says there's no wrong notes 🤣

Seriously though, I would of transposed on the fly and played a simplified bass line.

3 hours ago, fretmeister said:

The little blue Mooer is a perfect clone of the Boss CE-2. I have both.

 

The Mooer also has a volume control so it’s actually more usable.

Is that the Mooer King or Queen? The Ensemble King is light blue and the Queen is a darker blue.

Clutching at Straws is one of my all time favourite albums.

I was on the hunt for a compressor pedal to use with my fretless and as a total noob to compression, I contacted @Osiris who recommended getting an optical compressor and to try the Ampeg Opto pedal. I could not be happier and it is a fantastic pedal. It really tightens up my tone and just adds some magic. I've been using it well over a year now and the other week I did a rehearsal without it and boy did I notice the difference. It's placed just before my Sansamp BDDI v2 which is my last pedal in the chain and run clean with no drive. Before it I have Octave, Chorus and Reverb. It works brilliantly.

I am now on the hunt for a second compressor pedal to use with a fretted P-Bass and again, it will go just before the Sansamp with no drive enabled. It's more of a thumpy Motown/America sound I'm going for. I've been looking at Boss BX-1X but the Boss LMB-3 looks interesting as does the Keeley options that seem super popular on here.

My gig last night I have to say was one of the most enjoyable gigs I've ever played. It was my first gig with a new artist called Andrew Maxwell Morris and we were playing at the Bedford in Balham. Both myself and the drummer are both new to the group as Andrew has decided to expand from a three piece to a full five piece band. So after two rehearsals, we were out gigging.

I've been super fortunate to have played some incredible venues in the past, including Brixton Academy, The Roundhouse, G Live, The Hacienda and various festivals to many thousands but wow, what an incredible venue The Bedford is. It's like The Roundhouse and Ronnie Scott's had a baby, so beautiful and intimate and the sound was out of the world. I was just using the in house Ampeg Rocket 210 which sounded great and my Japanese Fender 60's P-Bass strung with LaBella flats.

Anyway, they also film the performance so if anyone wants to watch then here it is.

3 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I wish the compressor could be used with the other 2 preamp tones.

Then that would be ace.

Yeah I totally agree.