Lfalex v1.1

Found mine in the recycling this morning, where the Postie had "hidden" it... 🙄 Hmmm. Has great potential and some very good points, but managed to hamstring itself due to some technical issues. Pros- Not too expensive Small, light, looks robust. Battery powered Lack of cables (except the headphones, but that's inevitable) Adjustability/Controllability of effects- you can really fine tune the various parameters Cons- App won't install on some older Android devices. The functions vary by which version of the app you have installed; V2.20 trims the number of preset patches from 7 to 4, and removes the delay section altogether for bass presets. Stereo Chorus sucks a lot of the bottom-end out of your tone. "Mono" Chorus is fine, though. Why can't I bypass either the amp or at least the cabinet sim IRs? Previous experience with other devices has shown that bypassing cab sims can really clean up a messy sound. In spite of it being a good design, it didn't sit well in one of my Ibanez jack sockets, resting either awkwardly on the body or propped against the bridge. Sound Quality- Urk! This thing does not like big, hefty high impedance headphones. It simply cannot control them. Kick drums on songs piped in via Bluetooth were smeared and dull. Lower notes from the bass itself were equally ill- defined. Through my regular Sennheisers, every instrument I tried sounded "the same" , as though reduced to the lowest common denominator, in spite of their being vastly different. Messing with the basses' controls made them sound less or more annoying rather than adding sparkling highs or punchy lows. The excellent parallel setting on my Ibanez EDC715 (using the same triple coil HB as the ATKs) was reduced to mush, with the two hum cancelling single coil settings proving better. It took all the fizz and "air" out of the sound of another Ibanez with a piezo bridge, making it sound like a cheap P bass with the tone rolled all the way off. I stuck a pair of Sennheiser ear buds in it to see if that helped. They were certainly easier for it to drive, but were coarse and scratchy sounding on MP3s and totally unsuitable for bass. In short, it's OK. IF you happen to have a pair of low-impedance (16 or 32 ohm) headphones that can do low frequencies some justice. No match for my (deceased) Korg Pandora, nor a Zoom B3 into a small mixing desk. But the Nux is infinitely more portable. The lack of cables is truly liberating. I have a sneaking feeling that it's probably less headphone- dependent if you play one of those "Guitar" things. The bass aspect feels like an afterthought. Even more so if you use v2.20 of the app.

I actually don't know, but they sound like steels. Too much mid for Nickels. Either way, they're lasting really well.

Mine came with DR Lo-Riders. Which sound.... enormous.

(Snip...) Both the pickups are unusually hot. The P isn't particularly linear in the way it gets louder as you turn it up (irrespective of what the J is doing) This means that both pickups are usable across a wide range of volume control positions. If you run the P at about ⅓ and the J off, it'll deliver a classic "P with the tone rolled off" getting progressively brighter and louder as you turn it up. I just use the J for more sparkle ( so basically as an expensive tone control!) I just keep coming back to mine in spite of having "better" instruments to choose from. It just sounds and feels right, and is just "fun" to play.

If (by trying various basses) you can figure out what factors you do and don't like, then that will hopefully enable you to buy second-hand. By so doing, your budget will go much further. Edit- I quite like the look of the MTD Kingston Super 5..

Maxi has already been used. Musicians would like MIDI.

Perhaps (with enough saddle travel) there's more than one point at which the correct intonation might be achieved?

Not me. I'm not sure I'd buy any bass from Dave Ellefson..

I think nearly all the Thompson Twins' bass was keyboard/sequencer derived, but live, it was duplicated by Andrew Bodnar (IIRC) on a (longer scale) Overwater custom 4 string that was de-tuned to "C" (presumably standard) Have a look around the 'net, and it may throw up some of the gear he was using?

It is. I think I was just alluding to the fact that even if it IS in the fingers, some instruments can really complement what you're trying to do tonally, and some just don't.

Whatever I play, it sounds like me playing a... Whatever. Some basses fit (tonally) better with how I play and produce a better overall result accordingly. Worst so far; Yamaha Attitude. Didn't sound like Billy Sheehan. Sounded like me playing an Attitude. All well and good, but it just sounded dull and lifeless. Among the best; Vigier Passion Series3, Warwick Infinity SN, and G&L SB-2 Tribute. Maybe I don't gel with Mudbuckers or I need a bridge pickup?

Jeez. Glad I only alluded to the basses that were worse. Some I found were arguably more offensive.

^^ That might work, too. Maybe 0.115 or 0.120 would also have solved the Warwick issue. Maybe it's just impossible to get it right with 0.125s.

I've found that some instruments lack enough rearward saddle adjustment to achieve the correct intonation on lighter gauge strings (Both my 5 and 6 string Warwicks wouldn't go far enough back on some brands of 0.125 B strings.) Be aware that this may force you to go up a gauge to get it to work. For example; 0.115 up to 0.120 The Warwicks in my case were fine once I started using 0.130s

This'll keep the 2022 abstinence challenge alive for me. Don't worry. The bridge pickup has a volume control...

Deffo Graham Maby (I mentioned him, too) Also like some of Bruce Thomas' work with Elvis Costello. I do like a bit of Suzanne Vega, especially 99.9°F Didn't realise he played on that, too.

The more I think about it, the happier I am with my current collection. There's always room for one more, but it's going to have to be really rather good to make the grade.

So- Peter Gabriel. Nilsson Schmilsson- Harry Nilsson. That part in the full length cut of Jump into the Fire where whoever's playing (Voorman or Flowers) detuned is crazy. Was it just detuned, or are they detuning it on the fly whilst playing? Look Sharp (&) I'm the man- Joe Jackson.

Doesn't look like it's going to be hard at all this year. Went into GAK and saw the most basses in the flesh that I've seen in one place for a while. And was utterly unmoved to the point that I didn't even touch any of them. None of them appealed to me at all. If something on my bass hit list turns up, then maybe I'll buy another, but I don't need anything else except strings and to fix the bloody Warwick and its stupid tuners and exploding JAN II. I'm not Wile.E. Coyote, and they're not ACME, so why have 5 tuners and a nut all gone bang in less than a month?

No mention of cabs.. No need for an extra one? Otherwise, I'd either; a) save up more b) look around the classifieds for a bass around the £500 mark, but not necessarily a direct back-up for the P

Interesting. I look forward to finding out what they're like..

I liked DR Sunbeams (nickels, then) on my MIA s1 Jazz. Warm, but with enough output and top end to cut through when needed.

A further analysis reveals that the AFRs (old and new) are set out in a more Vol, Balance, tone manner, whereas the EDAs are closer to a VVTT set-up. Both are, of course, active with a magnetic pickup and piezo bridge. Played the EDA this evening. I'd forgotten how good it is once it's well set-up.

I bought their bassist's old Trace 1110 combo. You'd turn it on and there'd be a switch-on "thump" that would expel some air from out of the port slots. It smelt like 100,000 cigarettes and God knows what else. Otherwise, it was clean and worked well. I eventually traded it in against an SMX combo and extension cab.

The new ones have a different bridge, and a swift perusal of the Ibanez site reveals no sign of 2 of the controls that the EDAs (referenced by @itu) and, presumably, the mk1 AFRs had; A master piezo output for level matching with the magnetic pickup circuit. A bass tone control for the piezo pickup. The Treble half was on the front. The new AFR seems only to sport a knob designated as being the "piezo tone control". The possibility exists that the Ibanez site is not entirely accurate. I'd have to get hold of a new AFR to be sure that it hasn't got the aforementioned controls. I have an EDA900 that I purchased on here. I'd echo the earlier comments about playability and light weight/ balance. Have you considered finding one of these and defretting it? Surely cheaper than doing it to a new AFR, and I reckon it'd at least get close, in spite of the lack of "woodiness". Some flats or tapewounds might help warm it up a bit.