BigRedX

At a gig any 2.4GHz wireless unit will be competing for bandwidth with every single mobile phone user in the venue. After a few of problems with the much more professional Sony 2.4GHz system I have (In particular I had two gigs where the transmitter unit mysteriously changed channels mid-gig, both were venues where either the FoH or monitor mix was being controlled by WiFi connected tablets) I've stopped using wireless. ATM I no longer play enough venues where a standard 20' jack lead isn't sufficient to cover the whole stage area. When it gets to the point that I need to look at wireless systems again I'll take EBS Freak's advice and go for a professional standard system that doesn't use WiFi frequencies.

Really? Not my experience at all. No matter what I have ordered (so long as it is in stock) whether it be a bass guitar or a single set of strings or anything in-between it always arrives on the Wednesday of the week following the one when I placed my order (irrespective of the day on which the order was made). Actually it appears that the cut-off point is some time around mid-day on Friday, so anything ordered Friday morning will arrive the next Wednesday while anything ordered in the afternoon will arrive the Wednesday after that. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

How to play all the songs I wrote for one of the bands I play in, after having spent very little time on them during lock down. Even the new song we wrote is a dim and distant memory... We have a fairly important gig coming up in two weeks time.

It's strange how any discussion of HiFi especially when it comes to playing vinyl descends into some weird "willy-waving" one-upmanship of ever more ridiculous cost and complexity. It is in my nature to be suspicious of anything that requires massive amounts of money spent on it in order to be "properly" enjoyed. Ultimately it is the music and not the delivery medium or playback system that is important. For many years my music listening was done on a Dansette purchased from a junk shop in the mid 70s for £7, and which played one side of the stereo image considerably louder than the other, to the point that when I did finally get a decent hifi system it revealed all sorts of additional instruments I hadn't previously been aware of in the mix, and not always to the improvement of the music IMO, which all goes to show that we end up liking the sounds we are used to, and not necessarily those that are technically the best. These days I own reasonably decent Project turntable that is used for one purpose - to transfer recordings only available on vinyl to my computer. Then I can remove all the pops, clicks and other unwanted artefacts that will detract from my listening enjoyment. However this is not a simple or straight-foward process, and therefore I have found it more effective to buy the CD or digital download copy of anything I have only on vinyl and rip that instead.

A lot of the vinyl Vs digital is down to what we are used to hearing and whether the imperfections of the delivery system are intrusive (or not). For me listening to a lot of independently produced records in the late 70s and early 80s the pressing quality was variable at best, and pretty appalling at lot of the time, and that got in the way of my listening enjoyment. Pops, crackles and general surface noise do not enhance the experience for me no matter how much more warm delivery medium supposedly sounds. The loudness wars of CDs only existed because the medium allowed it, without any adverse physical effects. At least the CDs were still playable (even if the music didn't sound as good as it could have done), unlike several records I owned where the amplitude of the pressing would cause a lot of styluses to jump to of the groove on playback. The true test of vinyl vs CD is to take albums that have been released on both media and separately mastered for the appropriate formats and ask the musicians who produced them which they prefer. In my case the Díck Venom & The Terrortones album "SnakeOil For Snakes" was done this way. The vinyl pressing isn't bad (although these days it has to be - if they were as bad as those made 40 -45 years ago no-one would stand for it), but the CD version is far closer to what we heard (and liked) in the studio when we were doing the final mixes.

I don't slap and therefore none of your 5-string problems affect me (also I've being playing 5-string pretty much exclusively since I came back to bass guitar in the early 90s so I'm well used to it). However I can't imagine that a down-tuned E string will be any easier to slap then trying to avoid hitting the low-B (you ought to have your string-muting sorted out to avoid this anyway). If you really want to go the drop tuner route, I suggest that you retune a 4-string bass and see how you get on with it for a week or two before you spend any money.

I think maybe the import question to ask is why you are conserving moving from 5-string bass to 4-string?

I haven't used the Hipshot drop D tuner, but for me down-tuning the E string to D makes it far to slack for my playing style. Therefore I've stuck with 5-strings with an extra-heavy low-B. You can try this for yourself by simply doing what I did which was to change the tuning of the E string and see if you can get on with the feel. I couldn't, nor could I find a compromise by going slightly heavier on the E (tuned to E it was too stiff and tuned to D to slack, but I am very particular about my string tensions/compliances and even when playing guitar, I have a separate instrument permanently tuned to drop D with an extra-heavy E string). Bear in mind that on a standard bass guitar string set, every 5 semi-tones of down tuning is handled by a string 20-25 thou heavier, so it shouldn't be surprising that using a single string to handle tunings two semi-tones apart is always going to be a bit of a compromise.

Is September 24th 1991 the greatest day in music history? No. I have almost no interest in any of those bands or records.

I'm sure if I'd been a snotty teenager just discovering music in the early 90s I'd have loved Nirvana. However I was in my 30s and to me it just sounded like a dumbed-down version of The Pixies. Grunge held little interest as I was mostly listening to (and playing) House and other electronic dance music.

I think I either: own, have owned, or would like to own, every bass featured in this thread except the Bongo. I've tried one on several occasional and have always been underwhelmed by both the playability and sound, especially when you consider the price, and the fact that's it is essentially a mass-produced instrument.

Which typeface is it? I'll have a look as well. I suspect given what you have reported is that it's an extra glyph in OTF set and most modern applications will recognise when "x" is being used as a multiplier symbol and when it's simply a lower case x. Just as a test will it replace * with the multiplier glyph if I type 2*10? Edit - that's interesting it keeps the glyph but moves it's position. Now I need to do some more investigation with the actual typeface.

I used to be in a band with a guitarist who worked for the company doing the UK distribution for Parker. I was massively impressed with the guitar version of the Parker Fly, and couldn’t wait try the bass. Unfortunately it is possibly the most uncomfortable instrument I’ve ever had the misfortune to play. Weird considering that the concept originally started life as a bass.

I think it’s a combination of both. The typeface supports an extended glyph set which differentiates between “x” and when it is used as a multiplier symbol. I’d have to download the typeface and check it in the glyphs palette of InDesign to se if there are actually two separate glyphs or it’s simply a positioning algorithm. Now if typeface designers can just do away with typewriter quotes and implement proper feet inch/minutes seconds glyphs then we’ll be on our way to typographical perfection.

According to the documentation, Reaper comes with "ReaSynth : basic synthesizer", so start by getting to grips with that (I assume there will be some details about how it works in the manual) and then start looking at others once you've worked out the limitations and what extra features you need.

@dave_bass5 It seems strange that you are so keen to change something that has finally been made typographically correct back to the old way when it was wrong. Consider this: I'm mildly dyslexic (you can probably spot from my posts) and proper typography helps me, as I've learnt to recognise patterns of letters, symbols and punctuation from professionally produced books that recognise all the rules of typography. As soon as those rules start to be broken, it makes reading for me much more difficult. There are several people on my Basschat ignore list, not because I don't agree with what they say, but simply because they type it in such a way that makes my brain hurt trying to read and make sense of it. Admittedly I can live either way with the instance that appears to be causing you such a problem (for me it's a very mild aberration), but others, like the insertion of a space before a punctuation symbol (something I think comes from posting from a phone), make reading what has been posted for me much, much harder. I always look at these posts and think "have these people never seen a properly printed book or newspaper before? Surely it is obvious that they are wrong?"...

As @Stub Mandrel has said the tuning of the fretted notes on all instruments is something of a compromise. So long as the intonation is set correctly so that the note at the 12th fret is exactly the same as the harmonic at that position, then that is the best you are going to get. You will have to accept that all the other fretted notes will be slightly flat or sharp by a few cents. It's the nature of trying to set the positions of the frets by mathematics alone. And that's before you consider the inaccuracies of trying the cut fret slots and fret-dressing itself. Just consider all the various methods that try to cure all these problems on fretted instruments from the Buzz Feiten tuning system to Just Intonation frets. Unfortunately all of them are still compromises, just different ones. Besides you don't want every not to be perfectly in tune, it's the slight discrepancies that make the music interesting. If you ever want to go seriously down the rabbit hole of tuning check a professionally tuned piano, with an accurate electronic tuner. You'll be horrified at how far some of the notes are out according to the tuner.

Looks exactly like a Ripper copy to me. What is different to the Gibson version?

IME trying to work out the exact amount payable in VAT and duties on something you've imported from another country is a fool's errand. It's far simpler to take the price of the item, the cost of shipping add them together and then put another 25% of that total on top. This should adequately cover you from the complexities of trying to find the correct commodity code and then working out if duty is payable on top of VAT or VAT on top of duty and finally the addition of the courier's clearance fees. TBH if you need to work out the price to the exact £, you probably shouldn't be importing it in the first place. My advice has always been that only items which are impossible to get without having to import yourself them from their country of origin are worth the hassle. Trying to save a few pounds on a new Fender or similar mass produced instrument that already has an official UK importer/distributor will generally end in tears and/or disappointment. As for trying to sneak an instrument through customs at the airport - don't even think about it. While everyone has success stories to tell, you won't be so pleased when customs seize your newly bought bass and hit you with a fine as well as the import taxes before you can get it back.

I also play Bass VI (this the way I describe a short-scale 6 string bass tuned E-E to differentiate it from long-scale 6-string basses either tuned B-C or F#-G). It's used in a post-punk/goth influenced band - Hurtsfall - where the only other instruments are synths (and of-course vocals). It allows both myself and the synth player to swap between bass and melody parts as required by the arrangement of the song. I currently own three bass VIs - a Squier Bass VI, Burns Barracuda, and the Eastwood copy of the Shergold Marathon 6-string bass. For my needs the Eastwood is by far the most suitable and the Squier the least (and will consequently soon be up for sale) most due to it's very narrow neck. I don't find any of these instruments suitable for playing chords of more than 2 notes, unless it was in the extreme upper register, and TBH if I was playing a lot of parts that required that I'd use a guitar instead.

I've been a Gus user for over 20 years now and a big fan of theirs since I first saw photographs of the prototypes in one of the musical instrument magazines in the mid-80s. I currently own two G3-5 basses and a G1 guitar (I did also have a G3-4 fretless bass which now belongs to Happy Jack). Everything apart from the machine heads and strap buttons are either made by Simon Farmer himself or specially commissioned for the instruments (AFAIK the pickups are made by Aaron Armstrong and the bass pre-amp by John East and both are unique to the Gus). Like most carbon-fibre instruments they are made in a mould, but there is added complexity as they have a wooden core to the body and neck and the carbon fibre is a "skin" around that. All the metal-work is made in-house although I believe the chroming is outsourced. Somewhere in the "Gear Porn" section is a thread about the refinishing/refurbishing of my Red G3-5 Active which shows some of the final processes in the making of a Gus bass. There is also a workshop tour on the Gus website although this is now quite old and many of the processes have been updated. Regarding cost, I had Simon price me up a custom Bass VI a couple of years ago, using his G3 Baritone 30" as a starting point and we were looking at something around £6.5k although that includes a lot fair amount of extra and custom options. I believe it may still be possible to order a standard 4-string passive bass for under £5k. However I was told that there is currently a 12-18 month waiting time for new orders. When I had my G1 guitar made at the end of 1999 it took about 3 months from placing the order to receiving the finished instrument. The Prince connection (Prince used the purple and gold G1 guitar at his last ever gig) has significantly increased the profile of Gus Guitars and consequently Simon's work-load, which is good for the future of the instruments. HTH.

What DAW are you using? Most of the major DAWs come with at least one synth plug-in which should get you started and let you work out what features you need.

Like a lot of instruments they make a lot more sense when they are actually being played rather than being viewed in isolation... That me BTW for those of you who are relatively new to Basschat...

They're great!

And I find myself wondering when someone posts a photo of a Fender P or J bass (or copy of one whether it be high or low end) which attracts lots of admiring replies, what exactly makes this particular instrument any different, and worthy of special attention, from any of the other hundreds of P or J basses that get posted (or indeed any different to the hundreds of P and J basses hung on the walls of shops waiting to be sold). I'm sure if it's your P or J bass then it is special to you, but that AFAICS is it.