linear

Can I ask, out of interest, how do you know what temperature to use for a given task? Also, what would be considered a suitable fixed-wattage of iron for making up cables? That's something I have to do at some point, and I do have a fixed-wattage iron in a box somewhere.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a tremolo pedal where you can get a really strong square wave oscillation? Ideally analogue and true bypass. I've been using a Mooer Trelicopter, but even with the bias knob set all the way up it remains steadfastly musical sounding (presumably because it's an optical trem?)

Looks like it would be useful in a pub fight; short scale, good for tight stages.

You guys may mock, but I did a carb free gig once and it was no small potatoes.

Excellent, thanks. I must give this a try. This daft little pedal just gets better and better

I didn't realise it could be used as just an octaver. Is this setting 8 with the Range knob turned all the way down?

Some people just have a hard time with it. When I was at primary school I learned to play the recorder. Despite my half-hearted approach to practice, after many years I could read the treble-clef, replicate melodies I'd heard by ear, and do a passable job of playing songs that I had never heard before from the sheet music (provided it didn't include the few notes I was too lazy to learn the fingering for). It was only many many years later that I realised that the note names go in alphabetical order

Nice. I've had my eye on the larger version for a while. Many years ago I rode on the roller coaster those pedals are named after. It's long since been dismantled though.

I once had a package come from Virginia in the US that took a week long detour out and back to [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Antilles"]Netherlands Antilles[/url].

No compression, it's just as it comes from the bass and through the interface. Based on what you guys are saying it sounds pretty normal. I just wanted to double-check - I was a little surprised with how parpy it sounded. The fret noise is a whole other issue. Apart from the obvious fluffs where I just have't fretted properly, I do seem to find it difficult to lift off a note with my left hand without getting a little buzzy click.

Thanks guys. I have no real reference for what a bass might sound like when recorded direct in this way, hence this thread. I don't have monitors to listen on unfortunately; I'm using Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones. The louder levels - that's probably me being rubbish and pulling a bit hard on the strings. It hadn't occured to me until now, but I think I may have unintentionally developed a tendency to play a little harder on the D and G as a result of me feeling they're not cutting through so well when I play in a band context. However, in that vein, I think a while back I raised the lower split pickup, so I'll try moving it back down a bit. It doesn't look overly close, but I don't suppose that means anything really. I'm recording into a Scarlett 2i2. The bass does seem to have quite a high output - I have to set the preamp level as low as it will go and even roll off the bass volume pot a touch to keep the level meter consistently in the green. It is staying in the the green though.

Sorry, this is a bit dumb, but I'd really appreciate it if a couple of folks could have a quick listen to this recording of the output from my bass and give their opinion of if it sounds roughly 'ok'. This is just my BB414, P-type pickup, running direct into a recording interface. It sounds a bit odd to me, on the D and G strings especially - it's distorted almost, but there's no clipping taking place that I can see. [url="http://soundcloud.com/davidmccreary/bass-sound-test"]http://soundcloud.co...bass-sound-test[/url] thx

Thanks guys. I'm going to take it down to the practice rooms some time and see how it does on the phantom power from the PA - I'm assuming it will be just fine. Just running it off battery would suit me fine too though, as it's not somethhing I'll be using that often. Still kind of wish I'd got a passive box though. I rather naively assumed that active=better, but, after a bit more research, I see it's not like that at all.

That Joyo Ultimate Drive can be had for ~ £18 shipped from UK here: [url="http://www.donnerdeal.com/joyo-jf-02-bypass-guitar-ultimate-drive-effect-pedal.html"]http://www.donnerdea...fect-pedal.html[/url] I think it may be PayPal only for payment (btw, it should be slightly cheaper using Paypal to pay in dollars rather than setting the currency on the site to pounds). Make sure you choose 'UK warehouse' unless you want to wait weeks for it to arrive from China. Mine came within a couple of days, although they did use Hermes, so perhaps I should consider myself lucky that it arrived at all.

Received a couple of daisy chains this morning from Matt. Great guy, who kept me in the loop all of the way. He packed them real nice too

Answering my own question I did a bit more searching around online, and it seems that in some cases an active DI box may actually have more headroom when running on a battery rather than phantom power. Popped a battery in, and it works! Still not 100% sure whether to send it back or not. I'm guessing a better quality box wouldn't have this problem, but I can't afford that. Could it be that the phantom power delivered from my budget recording interface is just a bit lacking in power compared to the norm? I really wish I'd asked Santa for a passive box :*(

Ok, first newbie question: I received a shiny new DI box for Christmans, a [url="http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/processors/s-class-mini/sdirectplus/"]Samson S-direct Plus[/url]. I only got around to testing it a few days ago and I'm getting distortion from it. If I turn the volume knob on my bass down past half way the signal cleans up and it sounds ok. I thought it was maybe because my bass had an especially hot output (Yammy BB414, passive), but I tried it with my old Westfield P, and the same thing happens. This is going straight from bass - DI box - recording interface - headphones. The level guage on the interface is in the green, and I can turn the preamp gain right down and still hear the distortion. As it's a stereo DI box, I've tried both channels, and it's the same thing. Tried a different instrument cable, no change. I've got the Level switch on the DI box set to Guitar (I think, the switch isn't labelled well) and it was running on phantom power. Is this overloading of a DI box a thing that happens? Am I doing something wrong?

Hi folks, I've been lurking on here for ages and even subscribed so that I could buy some things, but this is my first proper post. I've been mucking about with the bass for five years now, but it's very much been an on and off thing - a flurry of effort for a few weeks and then nothing for months - two steps forward one back and all that. I reckon I progress by about a month every year but I am making progress at least. Band-wise, I was briefly in one in 2009 with a few mates; the band was formed specifically to play covers for a birthday function. We needed a bass player, and that's how I ended up switching from pretending to play the guitar to pretending to play the bass. We did a pretty decent job of it and went down well, but we couldn't keep it going after that. More recently I've been involved in a more creative endeavour, again with friends; one of whom is very competent musically, but the rest of us are real beginners. It's a great laugh, even if most of the time it sounds like four people playing four different songs simultaneously. We even managed to do a short set at a new bands night - critical opinion was divided Anyway, I've got loads of questions that I've been saving up, so I hope to be posting a fair bit on here. Nice to meet you all.

Bought a DC9 compressor from Mark, which promptly arrived at my door, hand-delivered by a buxom maiden riding a winged unicorn. Not only did she insist on showing me how to get some amazing sounds out of it, but she also re-biased my amp and gapped my spark plugs, which was all the more impressive as I didn't recall owning a car. A+++ would use again.

Bought a VT Bass from Andy. All original bits included and in near mint condition, it even had the plastic sleeve around the tin. Fantastic guy to deal with. Highly recommended,

Just bought a pedal from korerok. Excellent comms, packed properly, and posted quickly. What more could you ask for? Thanks mate.