uk_lefty

I've had the 500 for quite a few years now, bought 2nd hand on here. It's got everything you could possibly need. My favourite was running 2x Root aster 1x15s off it, but I'm currently running a 1x15 and a 2x10, both Root master of course. Settings wise it depends on the bass. When I had a Sire because the EQ was so incredible I used to disable the amp EQ and use the Sire on board. Now it's a bit of bass and treble boost for most, or a mid boost for fretless. I carry it around in an old laptop bag.

I was the lead bidder on an EHX Soul Pog pedal which I thought would give me this kind of thing (it combines the soul food and POG) . As usual I got excited and bid before doing my research. Phew am I glad I didn't win that pedal. No professional demo makes it sound remotely usable. Will look in to the Fission if I can't raise cash for a Helix Stomp.

No pointy headstock... That disappoints me. Its not a Charvel if it doesn't risk snagging your spandex pants with the headstock.

I've got the smaller Q502 and it's great. Great as in, I want to make multi track recordings with a USB interface and I can have a mic and acoustic guitar or bass in at the same time. It's a bit cheaper, and I'm sure there's more complicated mixers out there but this just works, and I've never even bothered with the manual.

Ta. I'm not going for a relic though 😉

It's one of those things that starts off funny but quickly tunes sad. Best not say any more and move on.

To get the neck ready for the eventual arrival of the body I've lined stuff up... Is it normal that this may need some persuasion to get in to the hole in the neck?? It doesn't fit in, might need some gentle sanding...

So far I've just been playing riffs through the various presets trying to find the sound I need for certain songs, haven't tried clicking it in and out yet. I have been advised to put it in the loop of my multi, even though EHX say its best not to, so I can try and give it a compressed signal and see if that evens it out a bit.

I had one of those years back and the sounds were just far, far too extreme. Same with the Boss SYB pedal I had. They're fun for two minutes home prattling about but if you want to contribute to a cover of an 80s pop song you're just going to ruin it frankly. Same with the synth presets on my Boss GT10B. I don't know who they think would ever use those sounds.

Update: A couple of good squishy envelope filter type sounds in there as standard with the tweak ability on sensitivity, control, dry volume... On all settings finger noise has to be controlled or it can glitch. Will be looping this in to my multi effect to push a compressed signal, maybe a driven signal in to it. I might even go crazy and send a dual octave signal in just to see what that does to the monophonic processing (or have it pushed out as a dual octave... Or BOTH!!!) The possibilities are... Not endless but the maths is quite hard.

Has the pound slumped that much already??! 😉

Well this hasn't really moved at all. I ordered a body on 5th December. I haven't received it yet. The seller, guitarandbassbuilds. Com told me 20-25 working days for a custom body. I'm unwilling, tempting though it is, to even do the simple stuff I can with the neck just in case there isn't a good fit of neck to body. I have no reason to believe there won't be, I'm just being very cautious so I don't sink in money I can't claw back somehow. Hoping for the body any day now so I can stain it, fit the machine heads to the neck, put the nut in the proper way round, really get to work!

Spector Euro 6LX 35” scale (Neck-Thru) Left-handed lefty left hand handed https://reverb.com/item/38115033-spector-euro-6lx-35-scale-neck-thru-left-handed-lefty-left-hand-handed?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=38115033 If anyone is feeling flush... Beautiful bass here!

Ta mate, I'll do some clips on sound cloud on the next few weeks and stick em on this thread.

I'll see how much use the EHX gets and if I need to upgrade later. There's a bit of a cost difference between these and the price of the C4 is getting towards something like the second hand price of a Novation Bass Station type thing which may eventually be the way to go. I'm just trying to persuade my 80s band that 3 musos plus singer is the max we need. The guitarist is happy to play synth on some songs, and I'm happy to play some rhythm guitar if he needs to play synth and he can cover the bass line too. Having said all that I recorded a version of Take on Me with bass and guitar, no synth at all, to demonstrate how you can still capture the essence of the song without needing to be a poundshop Rik Wakeman.

Under two guitars I often just run by bass clean in to the amp. The effects I use most in that band are EQ based, like amp sims. In that particular mix distortion would lose me under the guitars, so would Wah or envelope filter in most occasions, and so would chorus! Often because one of the guitars is using the effect I want to, but none of them do big round meaty bass, so that's what I stick to. Horses for courses, find what works best in your situation instead of what sounds good at home or on other peoples recordings.

Well, I had a bit of success making synth sounds on my Boss GT10B by combining envelope, fuzz and octave but it couldn't do everything. And being impatient I got an EHX Bass Mono Synth which has arrived today. I've got an 80s band starting up, lockdowns interrupting a lot of it, and I really dont want to bring in more musos than we need, I want to keep the band lean, so the guitarist and I are working out ways to make good 80s covers that don't need a keyboard player. Hence the synth pedal... So far I have easily been able to get the "Danger Zone" synth sound and I've been exploring getting sounds passable for Sweet Dreams and Don't you Want Me. I've had less than 15 mins with the pedal, but here's the first impressions... It can't run off batteries. If I'd known I wouldn't have taken the back off. The monophonic Ness is a bit annoying. You have to really attack the string on some settings, no subtle or soft touch allowed or you won't get any output from the synth, even with the dry signal on full you'll just drop out unless you give the string a firm pluck. Having said that playing with a plec isn't the answer, you lose a lot of nuance. The tracking is not great. This wants long ringing out notes, not fast intricate lines. It feels like combining this with the attack I need to be very careful how and when I try to use this, it's not going to get kicked in to a song in a moment of spontaneous improv. The issue with the tracking is the complete drop out, if it just let the uneffected note out I could probably live with it. Maybe it's my technique/ approach. I'll persevere. I've been playing a fretless through it... I might get some Pino sounds, I might just be emphasising the pitch wobble too much. Will try a fretted bass through it later. None of the base tones sound like stupid gimmicks, which is how I feel about most synth tones on multi effect pedals. So with dedicated tweaking I can get some good stuff out of it. The controls are intuitive too, you don't need to be a brain surgeon to change it how you want it. I think this is a keeper for my 80s band. It's unlikely to get any use in my "function" band that has 2 guitars, the songs and the 2 guitars make any bass effects other than EQ and the odd bit of drive redundant. However, for some songs I think I can get close enough for authenticity, and that's what I was aiming for!

I picked up an unlined Warwick fretless Corvette that is incredibly light and has bags of mwaaaahhh. Decent bass.

There's some good lefty options in these, like a jazz bodied fretless PJ, but you're right, safer with a Sire for now. There's a few B stock of the Sadowsky Warwicks (or Warwick Sadowsky's) up on ebay already. Something doesn't look right with them, the bodies look tiny and the necks look huge, like it's a badly scaled down version for kids or something.

I asked the teacher, a full time quality musician and bassist, specifically about expanding my creation of bass lines beyond major and minor scales. I said I have books with all the modes etc and I could parrot fashion learn them but I want to know how and when to deploy them. I sent him recordings of recent gigs so he could hear my playing and so the lesson was geared instead around how I can create more within those songs, study what the original player was playing, get out of bad habits, rather than learn a load of scales and modes and then be more confused about what to play. I've really benefitted from just one hour with a much better bassist, but luckily he is a great communicator too who can quickly understand what I really want to know and how to get there. I don't think a prescribed course would do that for me.

Do what you're enjoying the most! I came very close to knocking guitar on the head a few months back to be a "pure" bassist then had an idea, recorded it with a few different guitar tracks and I am glad I didn't sell off my electric guitar and related other gear. For me these things go in cycles, I bet if you pick up your bass again in a few months time the guitar experience will give you a new perspective, and isn't that what life is about? Know what you mean about endless drills. Had my first ever lesson after 21yrs playing last month and though I'd asked for drills and theory I was told words to the effect you can pick up what you need to know by playing different and interesting songs that you like. Any other theory stuff might not be that useful to you. And after one inspirational lesson I agree!

I'd emailed Andy Baxter saying if he ever comes across one of these to let me know! Not sure it's ever going to happen, I really like the look and the idea of them though.

This could go either way. Pubs will go out of business and bands may be asked to play for nothing or a whip round, then again if the vaccine gets rolled out people could go crazy and live music may be what people think could keep punters spending. I know in my band of five two of us would play for free but two can't afford to, one wants the money but no idea if he could compromise or not. Difficult to call, but we are going to book a venue in our "home" area as soon as we know we can gig and just get out there with a private party. How we charge for that I don't know... Pay what you want type thing so people who are tight for money can still come along for the good time and put in £1 and those who are saving hundreds a month by not commuting to London can stick in a tenner or whatever they think? Who knows. I just want to gig, and see people without having to worry about how far apart we are stood.