SebCarr

Hah yeah, eeny meeny sounds good as then I can say to my girlfriend "It's not MY fault it cost so much. The decision was made for me!" Funny thing to moan about though - "Waah, there are too many nice basses in my price range" I did a tour of Denmark Street on Sunday (was passing through). That place is a shadow of its former self

So, I'm in the market for a P-bass, and I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of choice available. I've just sold my only bass to make way for one, but am completely stuck! I mean, if we limit the choices to brand new, Fender (and Squier) only, and no P/Js or anything else, off the top of my head: Squier Affinity P Squier VM P Squier CV P Mex Standard Mex Classic Mex Road Worn US Standard US Special US Highway 1 (a few left over in shops, although discontinued) and that's ignoring the artist models, and I'm sure there are others, too. Then add the wealth of second hand stuff around - JV, SQ, Silver Series, various Japanese reissues, and everything else on here, on eBay etc. I'm completely lost. I can research spec sheets all day, but that's no help. It's how it plays, how it feels, and how it sounds. Obviously the answer is to play a bunch and see what I like, but that's not always practical. Second hand basses are spread far and wide, and with eBay try before you buy is rarely an option. Then there's the question of how much to spend? So many people swear that their Squier VM with a setup and a Wizard pup is as good as any US Standard, but obviously others see the benefit in the US models (or they wouldn't sell). I really wish there were some universal truths about what is better than what, but that can never be the case. Sample variation (which judging by the Mexican Standards I played at the weekend is huge) and player preference make any objective heirarchy impossible. And, of course, when enough people DO form a consensus that a particular model is a bit special, prices rise accordingly. So, setting aside colour choices (which is a stupid but real additional factor!) how on earth am I going to decide what is the right P for me, without wasting the time of every private seller/eBay seller and shop in the UK? I don't think there's an easy answer to this!

Yes, and you also see all sorts of shonky mods to valve amps (and ground wires disconnected in 50 year old amps with 3-400+ volts floating around in a metal chassis... eek!) I had a quick look at a couple of SC schemos and they do isolate B+ on standby

[sup]Should be fine. On Standby the power tubes heaters will be running, but they shouldn't be seeing any B+.[/sup]

As for multi units with decent ocatvers - again, look at Eventide's offerings.

I really like the Electro Harmonix POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator) but I don't own one so don't know what it's like to live with. Or for massive overkill try the Eventide Pitch Factor - but that's much more than just an octaver.

It depends how you play, as well. If you let notes ring out for ages then gate will to cut in at some point (determined by the threshold setting), at which point it has affected your sustain. I've only played with gates in a studio/recording setting, and found them most predictable when gating an already compressed signal. I've also found that they're often more useful when they don't actually cut the signal completely, but instead attenuate by ~20dB or so. It's a lot less harsh and obvious, but still drops your noise floor by a significant amount.

I clicked the option for one, but as of last night it's a big fat zero! This must be rectified quickly!

I write more music when I'm sad, and at the time I'm convinced it's good. It's probably not. It's probably awfully whingey! But I feel like I have something to say. When I'm happy I have less to say. Something awful happened to my brother. He had a stroke at 28, and lost a lot of fine motor control, and a lot of movement in the right side of his body, and had trouble with speech. As a very keen guitarist obviously this was pretty devastating to his musical ability. But the thing is, music became a path to recovery. You have to use and rebuild the neural pathways to recover properly, and learning to play guitar again became a really good way of doing that. And being self taught, he'd learnt in a fairly haphazard manner, with subsequent gaps and weaknesses in his technique. Starting from scratch meant he got to rebuild his technique from the ground up. Sometimes when he's tired or overwhelmed you can still see notice the damage caused by the stroke, but he's made a really good recovery and is a better guitarist than ever (and he was [i]really[/i] good before the stroke). I think his love for music was a great motivator, and instrumental(!) in his recovery.

Bear in mind that with most plugin makers (commercial ones at least, not necessarily freebies) make Mac and PC versions on their plugings, and one licence fee buys you all of the versions (often including Audiounits and RTAS as well). While the onboard sound limitation is irritating, the onboard line is is pretty awful so you'd probably find its use pretty frustrating (hence the various interface options that Apple sell on their store for plugging in guitars, and the USB microphones etc.)

Thanks all. Bass really is a lot of fun to play, isn't it! (And if it's not fun, what's the point?)