Doddy

For me, picking a cab is still ultimately about tone before anything else. That's always the main thing for me with any piece of gear. Weight is definitely a factor when you have to carry your own gear, and unfortunately I prefer the sound of ceramic speakers over neo ones. That's why I've been using 2 1x12 cabs instead of my 4x10. Price can be a big factor but there are so many good deals on used gear, that you can get a quality cab for a very good price.

It kind of worked a bit.

It depends. All my heads are Ashdown and for the most part I've been using 1 or 2 Ashdown 1x12 cabs, however for big gigs I use a Bergantino 4x10, and I've just picked up a Schroeder 1210r to save carrying 2 cabs.

For aftermarket pickups, I really like Dimarzio, EMG, and Bartolini. In fact, I'm currently trying to decide between putting Dimarzio Relentless or EMG LC in my Precision. Bartolini pickups are some of my favourites but I find Dimarzio and EMG to be a bit more aggressive. I like what I've heard from Avedissian Pickups too.

Well, Jaco used to use the fuzz in his Acoustic 360 amp and an MXR digital delay live, so a statement like that would just be plain wrong.

I just bought a Schroeder cab from Chris. Top man to deal with and gave me detailed answers to all my questions. We had a good chat about gear when I picked the cab up too.

I think Behringer pedals are a bit hit and miss. Some of them sound great (like the Vibrato), and others are a bit poor (I really don't like the reverb), but mostly they are fine. People seem to have a problem with the plastic casing, but they'll be alright under relatively normal use. They will always sell for next to nothing, because they are pretty cheap to begin with. There's no point buying a used pedal for £20 when you can get a new one for a fiver more. I think Behringer make some great gear generally, but their pedals will never be at the top of my list.

With all the pedals you've had, I thought you'd have had one of these at some point? I love old DOD pedals, and the FX25 is a bit of a classic.

I pretty much always have some pedals in my chain. My standard set up is Bass>volume pedal>tuner>octave>envelope filter>overdrive>amp, but I'll often add to that depending on the gig. It all starts with this. A good sound starts with the hands,bass,and amp. Effects are then used to add colour. All the heavy effects users have a great clean tone to begin with.

Any delay caused by a digital octaver is going to be so negligible, that it's not even worth worrying about.

I don't completely agree. I agree that the music comes first, but sound and tone is super important for any musician. That's why every great musician, be they a prominant band member or session player/sideman has their own unique sound.

I've got a black Russian Bassballs. I find it an odd pedal. It's not the best filter and the distortion isn't great, but it gives a sound that is more unique than just stacking other pedals. The Big John Obama Wah does a kind of similar thing, but with more of a cocked wah sound.

While the pickup position does make a difference, I think the classic mid-late '70s Fender Jazz sound is as much to do with the Ash body/Maple fingerboard combination.

If presets are a deal breaker, then I guess it's basically either the Future Impact, Boss SY1000, or C4 with midi controller. To be honest, as much as I love pedals, for the cost of the latter two I'd be more inclined to find an actual synth like an Akai Miniak, Korg Monologue, or Novation Bass Station and play some key bass instead.

I still really like the old EHX Micro Synth. It's not as fancy as new pedals like the Future Impact or the C4 but I think it sounds great and is dead easy to use.

Most analogue octave pedals will start to glitch when you go lower than around an A. You might be able to get it a bit lower by doing things like putting it first in your chain, or favouring the neck pickup on your bass. Some people run a compressor before it, but I never do. Digital pedals will generally track better, but I don't think they sound as good. To me, the glitching on an analogue octave pedal is part of the charm.

I've seen him use that too. To be fair, he uses a load of different fuzzes- 3 Leaf Doom, Way Huge Pork Loin, Moollon Lotus Octah, Mantic Vitriol, Amptweaker Tight Fuzz, and others.

I'm pretty new to the whole DAW thing, but I went with Presonus Studio One. It's pretty easy to use. I've used Cubase a bit, and that's good too.

I guess it depends how much you want to spend. I think it's worth buying quality cables. I've used nothing but Spectraflex for years, but makes like Tsunami and Klotz are great too. The Fender ones are cheaper and seem pretty decent.

What about something like the Way Huge Pork Loin? Tim Lefebvre uses one pretty often for his synth bass sounds.

The Whammy Ricochet is ace, it's just a shame that you can't detune a semitone . I would have thought the Drop would have been very similar but with more intervals.

It doesn't really make a difference, because even though the interval has changed, it's function within the chord or scale is the same. So if we're in C, an E is still functioning as the major 3rd even if you drop down the interval of a minor 6th and play the lower octave.

Yes,but no,but... Yes, in that if you play C and go up to G it's a 5th, but if you go down to the lower G it's a 4th. No, because chords and scales are spelled and counted going up from the root. So in C, G is always classed as the 5th no matter which way you go.

Would you say that about a guitar player who just plays clean or a keyboard player who only uses a piano patch? No difference. Clean bass sounds great, but it doesn't make it right.