Damonjames

Done

True bypass is your friend here, your signal chain is not too long, so if your ebs pedals are the new true bypass versions, your life will become easier. If tu are not, then you may want to look at getting a effects loop box. You can get them off eBay, and they may seem expensive, but having just built a four way effect loop box, I think I would just buy one ready made! I enjoyed making it but it does take a while, and it becomes a bit tedious if it doesn't work properly first go. Try an keep a high quality buffered pedal in the middle of you chain, not sure what the ebs pedals are like in this respect but do some research on a suitable pedal, I use a MI Audio boost n buff. Then look at your patch leads, I have just rebuilt Mine using lava solderless, and in hindsight this was probably a major contributing factor to the tone suck on my board. Hope this helps!!

You could sell it as not working and just state the fault. I'm are I saw one for sale with the same issue for £30 odd recently. What is your current board running? I have (hopefully) just sorted mine out as it was horrendous!

I have finally got those lava cables out, and I can see why people don't like them! You can't put them together without a lot of patience and a multi metre, end of!! Some jacks took 4 goes to get right, without really doing anything different. They sound great though and hardly take up any space, so well worth it!

The led staying on is a sign of a burnt out power circuit cause by inadvertently running at 9v as previously mentioned. Are you the first owner of the pedal?

[quote name='stoo' timestamp='1393008185' post='2375274'] I've got one. Bought a passive one by mistake - had been watching a few on eBay and got mixed up when I put a bid on. It's heavy. Haven't got round to weighing it but suspect it's around 3 or 4 tons. The neck is fairly chunky in profile. It plays nice and it's usually not an issue, but sometimes it can get a bit uncomfortable, despite me having fairly big hands - probably due in part to me having broken my scaphoid years ago, but my OLP stingray copy doesn't set it off in the same way. When I got it, I was never that impressed with the sound of it. It had a fair bit of stingray character, but there was definitely something missing. Since then I put a John east preamp in it and it sounds spot on. [/quote] Sorry Stoo, but I disagree on all fronts! Although mine is an active, and a 5 string, I find it really comfortable to play, is lighter than my mike dirnt precision (having said that, a '57 Chevy is lighter than a mike dirnt precision) and the neck profile is really manageable for a fiver considering I have lady hands! To the OP, it's horses for courses mate, I think they are spot on and for £400 for a 5 string or £350 for a 4, you won't find anything of this quality or sound. If you can get past the painted neck and horrible textured body paint, and horrendous scratch plate, the are perfect!

From what you have said you are afternoon, neither pedal will give you what you want, both are far too aggressive. Maybe look at some sound clips for the bass blowtorch, it's sounds like it's a beast, but it is quite far from it. Can give some very mellow tube tones if you set it correctly

Tonal issues, with effects pedals?? You don't say??? :-) Congratulations on openin Pandora's box my friend, I feel your pain as I am in the process of trying to sort out my board. I am sure the oracle will be along shortly, but I will offer my two cents. Firstly, the boss pedals are all buffered, and the buffer circuit is notoriously bad, let alone 3 of them in a row. It's pretty much guaranteed to suck the life out of your tone. Try putting an effects loop box on your board, and run two of the boss pedals through the loop, so they are not in the circuit when not in use. Then use maybe the eq pedal in the middle, and I think the mooer pedals are true bypass? And possible the last pedal on your board, so you should be ok with them left in. Next make sure you have a power supply big enough to do the job, and preferably one with isolated outputs, this should give you a one stop solution without any noise from one pedal affecting another. Make sure your patch cables are as short and low Capacitance as possible (this may be disputed by others). Remember it all adds up. The buffer in the eq should be ok to do the job, which is to put a electronic buffer in the circuit, otherwise your pickups have to drive through all the cable, putting a buffer in the middle means the buffer will do half the work. Feel free to shoot me down here guys, but this is where my research has led me, I am just trying to get it all sorted!

Jason may have "pushed" his ideas in metallica, but they were almost entirely "pushed" into the nearest bin. It's a large part of why he left, he felt he had little to no creative input his entire tenure with the band.

I too was initially immature in that I didn't rate Jason cos he played with a pick. I have never said he was a rubbish bassist though, and the more I learn about his style (I was a guitard when I was first into metallica) the more I see how punchy he was and his timing is exceptional. His energy on stage is also amazing, and helped drive the band along. Personally, I think his tone on the intro to my friend of misery is unrivalled, to me it is the perfect example of how great an ampeg can sound. I just think that stylistically he may not have been the best choice, but then again, who else was available? Who from that time would WANT to step I to Cliffs shoes? Anyway, let's not start ANOTHER. Cliff/Jason/Rob thread, they all have more energy, style, chops and raw talent that most of us could ever hope to achieve. I did enjoy the film, however, and am now gassing for a fender jazz with emg bts active pickups.... Mmmm, growly!!!!

Cheers mate, simon has got back to Me and we are just trying to work out a time. I will let you know how I get on though! I don't think it hurts to learn from as many people as possible!

Hi Jake!, Ironic you ony offered for a one off last Month!! And her I am asking again. The guy that I was getting lessons from is great for one offs, but I think I need something more regular and he is just too far away. I have sent simon a message so will see if he gets back to me. Cheers mate!

I'd disagree, people don't think Rob fits the "image" of metallica, I'd like to think we could look past that nowadays. I have never really been a fan of jason, I have always been a massive fan of cliff, so no one would ever compare IMHO. I do think rob is a great fit musically and prefer his tone and style. But that's just me! In my personal taste, I never got some if the things jason did with his bass lines, enter sandman for example doesn't sound quite right. Much prefer robs chops, and he looks pretty menacing in stage. As for the movie, I'd give it a 7/10, if it was any other band I think I would have switched it off!!

Can anyone recommend me an amazingly talented bass teacher near wigan? I have a contact for A great teacher but he lives on the other side of Manchester and need to reduce my travel time. Can anyone recommend one or volunteer? Feel free to pm if you would prefer. Mods, I appreciate this could go somewhere else in the forum, but I thought more people might see it here than in the theory section. Feel free to move it if necessary :-)

So I finally got around to watching metallica through the never, an jut wondering what your thoughts were? Loved the concert side of it, brought back the experience of seeif them live, the story line was a bit bizarre though. The great thing is that rob featured prominently in the mix throughout, so I finally got to hear the bass line to and justice for all!!! Only one question.... What's in the bag????

I'm going through this (of sorts) at the moment. I play in a covers band which requires multiple sound so I have a lot few pedals, down side is it sucks the life out of my clean sound! So now I am trying to go true bypass etc to get the pure tone back when I don't need effects. If I was playing originals, I would be far more simple with my rig, an active jazz a dirt box or two into my GK rig and sorted. Glad you found your sound!!

I have tried via his site, but got a response from the site manager saying he wasn't taking on any new students. Shame.

Any love for lava cables? Have just bought one of the tightrope patch lead sets, and was wondring if anyone has used their instrument cable? Ovnilab rates them too of their value for money in the crazily expensive guitar cables poll

I also have a demanding job (I don't want to call it a career, that sounds too grown up and I am secretly hoping I can one day play full time!), am married and have two young children so bass comes third in line unfortunately. Lickily for me I have an amazing wife who understands it is important to me, and doesn't bust my balls for the amount of time I play. Usually around 2 hours a night from 9-11 (have just finished now) with one rehearsal a week and a couple of gigs a month. I would love to be involved in more music relates Projects, but that would mean compromising in my time spent on work or more importantly family so at this point in my life I am greatlfull for what I get. You will however have to work this out for yourself and what is most important and allocate time accordingly. Good luck finding the balance!!!

If you are ina covers band, and want to nail the sounds, you have no option but to run multiple Basses, and in this instance, you may have to go through several basses with te same configuration before you find the make and setup that suits you. Don't feel bad, just enjoy it, and be greatlfull that you are in the position to be able to swap and change. There would be members here that could only dream of affording the bass you are unhappy with!!! If you are in an originals band, the situation is a bit different, you can get by with one or two basses and have your own signature tone, eg jaco with a jazz, flea with a stingray (before he went all posh) etc. Relax, this music malarkey is meant to be fun, forget what anyone else thinks. Just my two cents!

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1391610340' post='2359165'] The 1980's was the Golden Age of the bass guitar! If you look at the records in the Top 40 from this week thirty years ago and compare the bass guitar content on them to the music of today's hit parade, there is no contest.Prominent bass guitar parts in mainstream pop music was a trend throughout that decade. To be fair to Damonjames, though , I think he means the music was crap rather than the bass playing. I love a lot of music from the'80's myself but I suppose others may not for whatever reason. [/quote] Thanks Dingus, this is exactly what I meant. I had discounted most the this type if music largely out if ignorance. As I am learning and developing as a bass player, I am coming across amazing bass lines (albeit it trashy songs) all over the place, Nathan East's work on easy lover for example springs to mind. I'm not out to insult anyone, my comments were actually directed at me an my ignorance on the subject and having to eat some humble pie!

I recently got a chord oc-50 and I have to say, I quite like it! I had a boss oc-2 and for whatever reason, I didn't get along with it that well. Also if it is your first octave, for £25 used it's a pretty safe bet!

I am a complete compressor Virgin, and have just bought my first one. After spending hours on ovnilab reading reviews, I would have for the mxr if it wasn't for the price tag! It really depends what you need it for as they tend to be designed to maximise one part of the compressor spectrum I ended up going for the seymour Duncan double back, which has low noise, some peak limiting without gettinging too squashy and some great sustain, if I hadn't got this I may have also looked at the aphex punch factory but so far I am really Happy, the pearl track just ring really nicely with beautifull harmonics!

This is really a personal preference, only YOU will know the answer. I agree that boards are never "final" as such, but I am on my third incarnation in 12 months, so hopefully my picture is becoming a little clearer. Once this board is set, I would probably build a second board to suit whatever that was. The only word of caution I would offer is to be wary of buffered effects pedals. My first setup sucked the life right out of my tone, which led to me splitting it up. I then started to build a true bypass only rig before discovering that it's not the answer either!!!! I would suggest playing through your board, then without changing any settings plug direct into your amp and see if there is any difference, I found they were world apart! Remember that buffered (boss style) pedals will suck tone even if they are not on, I'd suggest investing in an effect loop box so you can true bypass the pedals when not used, I found a great article about this recently and it suggested you should have your distortion/overdrive pedals first (pedals through an effect loop or true bypass) then have a signal buffer or a buffered pedal, then whatever other effects also on a loop or true bypass. Reason for this is the distortion pedals are not design to have a buffered signal put into them, so the effect of the tone suck is more pronounced, especially with multiple buffered pedals. The reason for the buffer is to put something in the signal chain so your pickups don't have to overcome te capacitance of the whole board, without it, the more buffered pedals and patch leads you have is equivalent to rolling the tone pot back!!

Am just about to rebuild my board with a lava tightrope kit. I went this way after reading really positive reviews on them, and managed to pick up a kit second hand at a reasonable price so was happy to have a stab.