akabane

*has another heart attack and a free bump*

I tend to slightly change what I like in basses as the years go by.

However, the few things I’ve never liked, and perhaps never will:

-Maple/light fretboards 

-bad quality quilt/flame quilt on tops (I do own one like this though)

-sunburst finishes

-Fender body shapes and headstocks

-Fender design copies

-Lipstick pickups

-Oval pickups

Love seeing all the different opinions on here

On 01/08/2020 at 13:51, Pete Bish said:

Metallica - Orion

Hey everyone. I decided to give this track a stab. It's an old favourite, and there are definitely some special moments. The classical interlude and final solo especially. 

It's not a 100% perfect cover. A couple of slightly cringey mistakes. Either way, the whole process of learning and recording it has certainly improved my playing. 

Hope you enjoy. Very best, Pete.

Well done, I liked that a lot

Why do you keep doing this to me?? 

I can't deplete my savings right now  

As always, such a beautiful, beautiful, unique and rare instrument. I'm sure it will go in a breeze. 

You all keep throwing up rainbows about how horrid this is.

On the other hand, a 6 string Contra fretless is what my dream fretless bass is like. It's BEAUTIFUL, masterfully done and sounds fantastic. Just wish I had the dough to order it. (for what it's worth, I think the Contra design only really works as a 6 strings in terms of proportions)

You keep hating on it, so maybe someone who has one will feel guilty and sell it to me

I keep drooling...

2 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

I'm watching all the Helix news with interest. I currently have a Boss GT10B which is bl00dy huge and very heavy in its flight case. I went from separate pedals where I could never get exactly what I wanted and all the issues with noise and cables to the Boss. However, I want something smaller, lighter, and it would be nice if it worked for guitar too. What I'm seeing with the Helix range is that unless you spend mega money then you don't get an XLR out (my pedal is basically my backup if my amp fails or supplied backline isn't up to scratch), you can have effects but no amp sim, or amp sims and limited effects, or no expression pedal. .. There's just not quite an "all in one" that could replace my Boss, which does infinite more things than I'll ever use, but I know its all there in a single package if or when I need it. And weirdly, though I love chorus and a bit of drive and now octave, my most often used effects are EQ / amp sim type effects. I'll keep an eye on the developments with these in case something comes up. 

Hello! 

Pitching my 2 cents here: I was eyeing the boss 1000 (the new gigantic board one, the Helix Floor/LT competitor let's call it), the Helix LT, the Hotone Ampero and the Pod GO.

Which one did I go with? The Helix Stomp. Reson is the size and weight. It's offensively small, it's got ALL the amps + cab sims + IR + effects of the full Helix unit, limitation being the number of slots in your signal chain available (6 on the Stomp) and the lack of a DIRECT XLR out. What it DOES have though, is BALANCED 1/4 jack out. So it will give the exact same signal for your PA - if you're worried that the sound guy will look at you weird handing him a 1/4 jack, literally just get a 1/4''->XLR cable - again, the signal is exactly the same, just the connector changed.

Oh, it does NOT have an expression pedal BUILT IN, however you can add one (or two) via the exp slot. 

I would say that for bass use, 6 slots are more than enough. I've actually managed to have a parallel signal chain that gives clean bass + distorted octaved guitar heavy sound in one signal chain, and everybody knows how many fx one should use to get a heavy distorted tone if you're a guitarist  (three thousand!) So you might just want to get creative with it.

All in all, the reason I didn't go with the Pod GO (which I think it's an almost perfect size vs. buttons/pedal layout) is because it's not a full Helix product, meaning that the order of the fx/amps/etc...is mostly pre-defined for you - and from time to time, I do like doing weird things with my sound, and in that case, the full customisability of the HX Stomp gave me all I needed. 

(EDIT: I keep saying that the Pod GO should have been the Helix LT)

This is a very interesting discussion to me, as I pretty much never low cut my bass signal! (surely why I sound like crap! Or is it because I need to change the strings? Or was it a cold wrist? Can never remember! )

I start cutting around 30 if my B is booming in the specific acoustic setting, but that's all - I only use it for modeling the sound to work well in the current ambient I'm playing in, if needed.

Only time I'm cutting <80hz is when I'm trying to simulate heavy distorted guitars (as it's the 'accepted' "will work within the mix" cut phase along with cutting high around >120khz) - and can feel the difference if I cut <50hz.

Very interesting how you are using your low/hi cuts - what's the type of sounds you're using that require those cuts? Clean bass/compressed/driven/distorted/synthy? If on clean bass, do you use those cuts to 'tighten' up the sound?

1 minute ago, 4000 said:

Ah, I get it. You’re actually Ken Smith. Now it all makes sense. 😂

Damn *flees back to talkbass* 🤣

6 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

I'm not sure that Sibelius, Mozart et al immersed themselves in listening to music all the time. I think a lot of it was in their heads, between their ears, and they wrote some of it down. That's more like my take on being a musician, with its obvious spectrum of definitions. Hearing music does not a musician make, nor yet listening to music (although it's a Good Thing...). Being a bass player does not imply any necessity to listen to, nor hear, any genre at all, although most folks would not be completely cut off. I can understand folks wanting to listen to bass being played, for any number of reasons, but I can equally understand not wanting to, again, for many reasons. To me, they're not connected by any hard link, no more than an F1 follower being even of age to drive. S'not the same thing, being a racing driver and having an interest in driving fast all the time.
Still, we each have our different perspective on things. Mine are just, apparently, that much more 'useless' than others. 

I said your EXAMPLES were useless. Not your perspective. As I supported in the rest of my reply. Thin skin, from grown up people, weird. 

Also, I am not suggesting people should IMMERSE THEMSELVES IN MUSIC ALL THE TIMES...where have I been extreme in my view? This reply makes more sense than the original one I replied to. No, you are not a musician BECAUSE you hear nor listen to music. 

However, you do not even GET to become nor even THINK about becoming a bass player without being exposed to music or heard the instrument before. Jesus, what is hard to understand about this? You all are making it sound like I'm trying to do mental gymnastics here.

7 minutes ago, 4000 said:

I’ve known plenty of musicians who play without listening.😉

I’m not really sure what your point is. I’m sure the majority of the people who stated they don’t really listen to music anymore meant they don’t actively seek it out and then sit down and immerse themselves in it like they used to. And I’m sure you know that.

Also interesting that you post something that comes across as pretty rude and then end it with “peace!”, like that makes it ok. 

There, changed the salute at the end of the reply - hope it makes you happier

My reply was aimed not generally at OP's question, rather at some of the other replies that came through in the thread. I obviously know what you mean by that - although an argument could be made that ANY music plays itself and gets put to your ears. So, again...of course it's a more rethorical discussion.

What do you find rude about my reply? The fact I consider sad who finds listening to music unpleasant but keeps doing it because 'they have to learn it'? Because I said the reply someone made doesn't work in the context of their own reply? Why?

2 minutes ago, 4000 said:

But surely some people may enjoy playing music without necessarily needing to put a record on when they get home. In the same way someone might like having sex without needing to watch someone else doing it.😉 

But...the moment you are playing music, you are also listening to it.

You can't really use that argument in the more abstract sense: it would be like saying "I like to speak Finnish" when I not only do not know the language, but I do not even know that such language exists in the first place. It's just an impossibility.

4 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

This came up on another thread and I though it was an interesting topic for discussion. 

If a venue where you played regularly asked you to play for free, given that the current social distancing measures make it difficult for any venue to make money, would you do it, at the risk that without your support the venue may have to close for good? 

As long as you're not the only sucker who's not getting paid, and the venue has historically been good to you, then of course. 

Obviously any help I can get (as in, if they put up their PA so I can just turn up with my instruments without having to lug around amps etc) is welcome - and no you shouldn't have drinks on the house either(since we are talking about a situation where the pub could close soon - you don't want to give them something for 'half-free'), since consistency would be key for me in this circumstance.

That being said, careful when you say "This place could close down UNLESS I GO PLAY THERE FOR FREE". I hope it's not something the venue told you. Everywhere is full of musicians who're willing to play a night out for free, so if that were the case, you might be the only one who's actually considering it from the roster of people they asked from.

That is, unless you are a big local name band who can turn up at least a hundred people or MORE by yourselves - in that case, the bigger your following is, the happier I would be to do the gig for free, as that would LITERALLY mean that by your only presence there, you are actively saving the place by overflowing it with money. If you're the guys who can bring 20 friends to a gig, well then, your contribution would not be anymore than your casual footfall, actually. 

So, again, if you genuinely think it will help AND you're not the only one being taken for this (meaning they actually are not paying promoter, PA, etc either), absolutely, go for it!

3 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

I wonder how many followers of football actually play..? Or F1 enthusiasts race their cars..? Playing an instrument (or even being a musician...) doesn't mean one listens to any music, just some music. How many here, whilst listening to so much music, actually put Schubert, or Mozart, into their sound systems..? These things are not related; I'm not at all surprised.  

All your examples are useless, and you make them useless yourself in the very next sentence.

Followers of football might not play the game nor even know its rules but they watch the games. 

F1 enthusiasts who own race cars might leave them in the garage for a lifetime, yet they enthusiastically watch racing videos.

A 'music enthusiast' by the same parameters might not create music, nor play an instrument and just hang their beautiful Fodera on the wall to never be played, but will enthusiastically listen to music. 

It's how incidental development happens - you get exposed to things you're not necessarily always looking for even just by looking for what you like specifically. 

That being said, the only way the type of reasoning you want to put forward might be: "however, we are not on a music forum, we are on a bass instrument forum", which opens a whole another can of worms. 

Also, you then go on with the complete non-sequitur about the relation between what you like/listen to and other unrelated genres/styles (your Mozard and Schubert example) is, well...unrelated by definition. By the way, funny you should say that: most young people will never put Schuber nor Mozart in their 'sound systems', yet they will have heard or know their melodies. I wonder why, right? 

Doesn't mean everyone should actively go listen to Mozart. What they need to hear, the world will take care of. It's how popular music gets popular, it's how masterpiece become and stay masterpieces. Wheter you like it or not, you are going to get exposed to it. This naturally leaves out all the more niche genres, for which then we have all the smaller communities built around - and is where a lot of more interesting development can come from, like in everything else in life.

If we stay within the realm of 'bass players and musicians', then a prerequisite would be enjoying listening to music. Here I read of people who not only do not listen to music at all(life is busy and I'm not talking about who doesn't listen to other people's music because they're composing their own - which is still a big mistake in my mind, and ask any good composer) , but who actively recognise that listening to music is not a pleasurable activity to them anymore. And it hasn't been for more than a decade. To me that's just stupid. Not that it happened, of course everyone has their own reasons for whatever happens, but the fact that someone stayed in a situation of unpleasantness for so many years without getting out of it. We're talking the music world. Not the mafia.

The only other reason I can think of is that those people wouldn't be even good at flipping a burger at McDonald's instead, so they're forced to stay into playing music because it pays for their food and they don't have a choice, since the 'craft for life' they wanted to invest in was 'learning to play bass well enough to do covers'. Thus, as I said above, I feel sad for them in either case, not as a personal attack, as a genuinely sad feeling.

Peace! War!

That song I always wanted to learn, however it is one of those pieces one has to commit to paper transcription (as I see you've done) in order to get a lot of the nuances and keep executing them right! I was really happy to see you smashing it and with a killer tone at that

It's really interesting indeed how our journeys have been inverted!

I still remember fondly my time with my JP2 (although it was an Amber and not Red. Always thought the Red one looked the BEST, especially with the perloid tuners!) - was not a happy time when I had to let it go (needed the money, sigh). Then I fortunately came across my Smith, which is literally incredible. As you say though, they are completely different instruments with completely different sound profiles - and what I like about the JP2 is the aggressive and defined character it has. And that flat fretboard...sometimes I miss it with my radiussed Smith board. I probably got so used to it back then...

Same with you and Smiths, every time I see a JP2 on sale here I bite my tongue and disgruntly look at my expendable money supply. My problem is that I constantly fight my GAS with my "One in, one out" (for fretted instruments) rule - which would mean getting this = getting rid of the Smith...and I really can't do that 

But...I could get this off your hands...then start the hunt for a Smith 6 fretless..hmm...

*slaps himself* I need to stop gassing from this! I think it's also because I'm too close too you (you're in E&C, I'm in Brixton) and snatching this would mean one short uber drive...AAAAARGH! 🤣

1 minute ago, Woodinblack said:

We all have different priorites and relationship with music.

I think one of the interesting things about this thread is that clear indication that there is no 'normal'

Absolutely agreed! And there shouldn't be any 'normal', we're all different people.

On 26/07/2020 at 18:43, dave_bass5 said:

I tend not to listen to music for pleasure. I just don’t find enough time to do it. We have Absolute radio on at home a lot of the time,  but other than that and maybe YT on my ipad i dont have privatetime to put music on, unless I’m learning songs. 

I’d say over the past 15+ years most of my music listening has been learning those songs. 

Must have been sad being you for the past 15 years 

Damn. You can't do this to me!!! I did not need to see this. Let me see if I can come up with the budget quicker than this getting snatched by someone else...

By the way: fantastic playing on the Camilo track! Anthony would be proud

17 minutes ago, stewblack said:

I am not buying any sort of Helix, oh no, that is literally out of the question. Don't need, can't afford totally happy with my three effects boards, and anyway lost most of my work.

 

Now that's cleared up, say some other fictitious (not me) person were to be looking, are we any the wiser on the differences between the Line 6 Helix HX Effects and the Line 6 POD GO?

Seeing as they are both the same price but appear different in some ways. If a young bass player were to ask me, what would I tell her (or him)?

It depends; I'd say that if that young bass player definitely not you cares about going with weird, experimental sounds, the HX FX might be a better choice.

Whereas, if they're looking for a still compact all-in-one solution to replace their (kind of...more common, perhaps?) chains, then the Pod GO would make sense. 

The limitation in order and paths you have on the Pod GO is going to serve you very well (and it also looks like what the actual Helix LT should have looked like, in my opinion ), looks better, and has integrated volume/exp pedal.

If you're looking to be more experimental, then the complete freedom and the HX FX's 9 blocks will serve you greatly instead. Perhaps you might find a use for 2 return loops it has. 

The only thing I would be wary of is that I wonder if there's a reason for this not to be an official part of the Helix family - be it hardware or software architecture - it might require very specific updates instead. Whereas I would be kind of more confident in the HX FX to keep up with the whole Helix's family of updates/fx.

All in all, I like both - I would probably get an HXFX + external pedal though. I do like doing weird stuff with my bass sounds though

Just now, Maude said:

This made me laugh much harder than it should have - well done, you! 🤣

5 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I would imagine ped has a howler in his inbox then.

Really curious to see how this pans out. I'll flip my lid if I see this content disappear  

This is magnificent! I love it

If I weren't saving for a specific fretless 6er, I would be jumping all over this! Good luck with the sale!

6 minutes ago, Radchenko said:

This neck is difficult to see in other brands, but this 7 months were a bad experience. Adrian was not happy if I wanted a brown Clay dots (loosing time), was not happy if I put as a example the color of one Fender bass (buy a Fender), well you are the first one who is copying Fender. Not happy if I asked him for a picture of the bass during process (we don't have time), but hey, we have time to record a video of your bass without my permission and maybe cause damages...etc etc.

I'm really sorry to hear about all that. However, all those parts here is what really make my shoulders fall with defeat.

Really incredibly bad customer relationship throughout the whole process - even now, after all this time, he's dismissive and thinking he's in the right. Someone really needs a metaphorical slap in the face here.

Starting to think there were no pictures 'during process' because the process is done in a factory before rebranding the bass and selling it out, so he might rarely have access to 'in progress' photos himself.

Every development of this makes me more sad.

12 minutes ago, Mudpup said:

Adrian could address this in 10 minutes if he wanted to.....all he has to do is suggest a couple of options and follow them through. 

He’s either unaware of his business going down the toilet on this website - which is probably where he gets a large amount of his UK sales from - or he doesn’t have any intention of resolving the situation.

This has been going on for way too long for me not to consider the fact he just doesn't care.

He has been pointed at THIS specific thread. Additionally, if you look around on the net, you'll find plenty of people lamenting the bad QC of his instruments. 

Doesn't care. People should just put their money in somebody else's pockets. It's a shame, as I was eyeing an Elwood 6 build. Oh well. He's not the only one who makes mid-range super jazzes

I'm just really bitter for the OP. If it were me, at this point I'd have flewn to his door and personally gave the bass back just out of principle

Different strokes and all that

That being said, I've only ever only found a couple of Jens' basses "beautiful", and those include one of his pure white builds and one of his black matte ones (unfortunately not remembering the model names). I've never played one and definitely looking forward to. They are definitely out there, and Ritter seems like one of the few bass luthiers around that keeps making statements (whether we might like them or not ) and I can only applaud him for that! 

By the way, to whomever said they look like child drawings of a Carl Thompson...to me Thompson designs have always looked very, very bad (all the proportions feel wrong every time I've put my hands on one, or seen one). And I am a person who tends to like more 'baroque' design choices (which his designs are full of), so it's not even that I don't like the style. Just THOSE particular designs - almost never seen a CT I liked aesthetically. However, I did have a chance to play a CT and it was an absolutely impressive instrument! Which I reckon is the same experience I'd have playing a Ritter. So...who gives?

Wow, a lot of talk on how to achieve an awesome high gain dist sound, with people saying "yeah I achieved this amazing sound, it breaks boulders and retains bottom end and high gain highs its fantastic", and nobody posting even a 4 second clip of their sounds or reference sounds they'd like to get? Is it just me? 🤣