dannybuoy

Don't cables only need to be PAT tested if they are a certain age? I worked at a company once where the IT guy claimed it was cheaper to bin our old cables and buy new ones than it was to get them PAT tested!

Definitely give the big triangle shape a go if you haven't already (I like Dunlop Tortex blue 1mm). Smaller picks are better when it comes to guitar, but when you have the wide string spacing of a bass you can get away with something bigger that offers better grip and feels nicer in the hand. Small picks just feel awkward now, like eating with toddler size cutlery!

+1 to the Orange wiping the floor with the Streamliner. Not tried the Tonehammer, but it's certainly good enough for George Porter Jr!

£200 budget, first bass, but something that can cover a variety of tones and is well built enough to serve even pro players? You'd be hard pressed to do better than this Classic Vibe Jazz: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/228581-squier-classic-vibe-60s-jazz-olympic-white-l199/ If you do go the Thunderbird route, it's well worth the extra money for the Epiphone Classic Pro version - it's pretty much the same spec as the Gibson model. They fixed the position of the strap button on this one too so it doesn't neck dive as much!

A standard Tarkin is not going to be that different from the other muff fuzzes I guess. Not sure about the Dwarfcraft stuff, but considering the builder plays passive basses and is more of the mad scientist than sensible engineer type, I would hazard a guess they were not designed with actives in mind!

I would get anther fuzz that plays well with actives. E.g Iron Ether Oxide, Darkglass Duality, or anything based on a Big Muff. The latter would work well for stoner sounds, I quite like the look of the new Swollen Pickle that has the internal controls on the outside. Or the EHX Big Bass Muff Deluxe or Wren & Cuff Tall Font Russian come highly recommended too. BTW, the active/passive switch on the Big Bass Muff Deluxe is just a pad to lower your input signal in case have a really hot signal from the active bass which overloads the pedal. You probably won't need it unless you use massive amounts of boost on your EQ, the standard Bass Big Muff doesn't have this switch yet works just fine with actives that I've used.

I think you are barking up the wrong tree I'm afraid! Magnetic pickups have a high output impedance, and many vintage style fuzzes are designed to work well directly connected them. A buffer converts this to a low impedance output, which is better for driving long cables without signal loss, but doesn't play well with some fuzzes. The preamp in an active bass is essentially a buffer, so adding another one is not going help things. What you need is a pickup simulator. There's not many off the shelf solutions to this that I know of, although I have seen some pedals (Seymour Duncan?) with a 'drag' control. Here is a circuit that does what you need: http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm I think BC member (Toasted?) made a few of these up a while back for people. If anyone knows of a little mini pedal to do this job, I would be interested too! Actives don't play too well with my Team Awesome Fuzz Machine.

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1391256783' post='2355007'] Can't name many from the top of my head but there are plenty of sets out there with a taperwound B - check out the Fender 82505M (although these have a tapered E as well): http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/p/912338/fender-super-bass-82505m-nickel-plated-steel-bass-guitar-strings-45-130-long-scale-5-string/ [/quote] These are the strings that come on the P5 stock by the way, as seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THITANX322E

Cheers, should have mentioned I already tried the sites listed in that other thread and came up with nothing. I got a couple of chrome ones in the end anyway and just wired em up today!

The Greasebucket tone circuit prevents the bass boost that comes in when you roll the tone off. I doubt it's what you're looking for as you want that bass boost playing reggae!

And these Dunlop's could fit the bill, only a .125 B here but they do a .130 in their other sets so they might make them tapered in that size too: http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/p/919536/jim-dunlop-5-string-nickel-plated-45-125-medium-tapered-b-string-long-scale-bass-guitar-strings/

Can't name many from the top of my head but there are plenty of sets out there with a taperwound B - check out the Fender 82505M (although these have a tapered E as well): http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/p/912338/fender-super-bass-82505m-nickel-plated-steel-bass-guitar-strings-45-130-long-scale-5-string/

Anyone looking to do a similar project would be advised to pick up this Westone for the bargain price of £100 including a hard case: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/228093-westone-thunder-1-now-with-pictures-l100-incl-hard-case I bought Hamfist's last Westone P/MM project from him for more than twice that amount. They're well made basses, with great necks and a unique body shape!

I've had this problem with digital pedals before, they usually feed noise to other pedals via the daisy chain. I've tested plugging a digital pedal into the daisy chain and found it to introduce noise even when it's not plugged into the signal path. A separate power supply will sort it, as will a fancy supply with multiple isolated outputs, or alternatively a Diago isolation adapter / Gigrig Virtual Battery should do the trick too (but check the max mA rating on those first).

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1391190857' post='2354468'] Do your current basses lack something that you think the replacement(s) could supply? If so, what? [/quote] Stop trying to reason with him - he has GAS, and the only cure is to buy more basses!

Fancied a Yamaha 5'er but more of a PBass man? Yup, should've bought a BB!

Worth buying for the parts, then throw the rest in the skip!

Only tried the nickels, but love em! Used to use DR Sunbeams but found these better and cheaper. I bought a 5-string set of steels by mistake once, they will be going on next time I change to give them a try too.

Sounds right to me. But 'finalize my board' - yeah right. No such thing as a final board!

The Ed Friedland one linked up there is great, and less than seven squid! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Bass-Essential-Techniques-Leonard/dp/0634089358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391032502&sr=1-1&keywords=ed+friedland+blues+bass

Btw, I anyone's thinking if putting together their own U-Bass on the cheap, you might want to look into this option first! £100 for a Kala clone: http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass.htm