JapanAxe

Woah! I can’t unsee that now.

Or an ironing board.

I started to teach myself guitar at 17, and quickly realised I wanted to understand the theory too. At around 40 I decided to learn bass too. I was well aware that it was a different instrument which required a different musical approach. Initially I played with a plectrum but after a couple of years I cracked finger style, just by dogged persistence really.

For a long while I had used music notation to write down material that I was working out, so I did the same with bass. I was then thrown in the deep end when I started playing with a dance band that used 99% written charts. I’m now a reasonable sight reader!

I would say that I’m still learning, particularly when it comes to theory - every so often I stumble across something I didn’t know that I didn’t know - hats off to Adam Neely!

I’ve heard one played with a big band, which can have a huge dynamic range, and it more than kept up.

10 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Our guitarist used an original POD for years, now he's using a Nux modeller, always straight into the PA He always sounds amazing! 

I think a lot of it is down to the guitarist. Around 20 years ago I played in a couple of covers bands where the guitarist used Line 6 Flextone amps. One guitarist always seemed to make the thing work for him and he sounded great; the other invariably had a thin sound, frequently with an overcooked (and usually completely unnecessary) chorus effect.

10 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Looking for video of my incoming Meridian Funkulator pedal I kept stumbling across this 

It appears to do nothing more than reduce the 800 Hz frequency. I stand to be corrected of course.

So I made one. Cheap graphic with a slider set to control the 800. Pulled it down. Bingo.

And you know what? It makes a big difference.

I guess we're talking scooping out the mid-range to benefit slappity-poppity shenanigans?

23 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

A Kemper would be great, but quite a high-end unit, our fella is going to need to save up to get something in that league. 

 

Would Helix be able to cut it? 

All of the different amp modelling units have their adherents. I was looking at the HX stomp but I dread the option overload that comes with programmable do-everything gadgets.

I have been depping on bass (sometimes) and rhythm guitar (other times) in a tribute band where all the regular guys use Kempers. Both guitarist sound absolutely stellar, having done the hard yards in setting up their sounds beforehand.

Was trying to contact a member, contact now made

8 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I ran a pseudo surround set up for years in my hifi, called a Hafler Circuit. In effect it puts a difference between left and right channels signal into a pair of rear speakers. It gives a surround experience for any stereo recording, though some were more successful than others! But it doesn't have to be a surround recording...

You wire your front speakers as normal. Then you put a 2nd set behind you listening position - if they're more sensitive than the fronts you'll get more from them, they also do't need to go very low as bass is less directional. You get a single bit of wire from amp R+ to 1st speaker R+, then from speaker R- to other speaker L-, then from R+ back to amp L+.

I used to have this setup in my car. It could sound a bit weird...

@hooky_lowdown please check your messages!

I had one of these and you definitely need to turn up all the stages to get the full beans out of it.

I re-biased mine and ended up fitting a multi-turn trimmer to achieve this reliably - see this thread (sorry, pics are long gone). Be aware that if you blithely twiddle the bias trim pot you risk sending the output transistors into thermal runaway, which will burn them up before you even realise something is wrong.

The one I chose to start with had flats and just wasn't cutting it, so I switched to the other (with rounds).

52 minutes ago, Cato said:

 

Just in time for my birthday.

And mine! And Christmas of course. Sorry - used the C word…

I’ll add my own ‘ooh’ to those already expressed here. If the pickups are like the one in the MIM Mustang that I had, they may be all ‘whumpf’. Mine was greatly improved by reconnecting it as parallel coils instead of series.

EDIT: ‘Expected in stock December 2023’? Screw that, something shinier will have come along way before that!

I went from Chromes to LaBella  760s on one of my Precisions. I didn’t notice any change in feel or playability but the LaBellas sound fatter in the mids. No way would you get the same effect simply by rolling off the treble with the Chromes - I know because I often do this anyway.

9 hours ago, Machines said:

 

Well, it's still here. Used on many gigs and recordings and still looks brand new other than light pickup shining. I will say however it is not my 'every day' bass, as it's not one for a subtle sound and sometimes it's a bit brutish where a delicate touch is better. I have Yamahas 6's and an MTD for those jobs.

 

My band has a new single out on the 16th, i'll drop a link to the recording when it's out so you can hear it doing it's thing.

 

It also now has a friend which will feature in a video shoot in 2 days.

 

As a current player of solely P-basses I'm used to brutish!

5 minutes ago, krispn said:

Just an overall feel for me. Although comfortable it just didn’t feel as natural as a F style guitar but I’ve always struggled with TB shape basses. 

OK cheers - guess you just have to try these things and see how it pans out. I've got my eye on something else on here but if that doesn't come to fruition then a trip to Bass Direct may be in order!

34 minutes ago, krispn said:

I moved mine on as it just wasn’t as comfortable as the Super P. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t a match for me. I’ve been spoilt😀

Are we talking neck or body comfort? Still got my (your old) Super PZ5 btw

The unfretted strings tend to be higher off the fretboard as you go further up the neck, and fretting them then moves them closer to the pickup. This will be more noticeable if you are playing with quite a high action.

@Machines and @krispn - how are you both getting on with your D-Rocs?

And why am I asking? No reason really, definitely not Dingwall GAS.

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

To the OP, you'll hopefully get a bit of time in the soundcheck to work out an IEM that is comfortable for you, but unless you need the click for the count-ins or to keep time in sections where there are no live drums (personally if I had created the backing I'd have these elements separate to the main "metronomic" click), I'd keep it low in the mix and work off the live drums instead.

I keep it quite low, just high enough that I can hear the cues e.g. 'chorus-2-3-4'.

I believe Stew is referring to a band that I have done some gigs with, and in fact I have 3 wedding engagements with them this summer.

To answer some of the questions/comments above:

- Yes they have a drummer.

- There is no option of keeping things going without completely abandoning the click.

- The light show is automatically controlled by DMX form the same program that provides the click.

Also each player can control their own mix using the Qu-You app on a phone or tablet.

Enjoy the gig @stewblack!

Well I just found my NBD post about the bass I bought that day (Sandberg VM4), and I have the Dingwall down as an ABI 5! Feel free to weigh in if you know better though...