thisnameistaken

Just bought Dan's Sonuus Wahoo, which he kindly shipped for me immediately and wot I have now got on this here desk. Thanks Dan.

There are some better bass players than us, so what's the point in us? We should stop playing now.

Before you look at replacing pickups or installing a preamp, try changing the pots for different values (250k is standard on a Jazz, try 500k for a brighter sound) and the tone capacitor (.047uF is standard on a Jazz, try .1uF for a bassier sound with the tone control rolled off), and try adding a pickups-in-series switch if you want a beefier sound. It's easy to find a schematic for it online and it's a simple mod to do. These are much cheaper modifications and can bring out some very different sounds from your existing pickups. Maybe you don't really want/need aftermarket pickups. Also, buy a good compressor. See if that's the sound you're looking for.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1397515068' post='2424804']... and you're more likely to write a good one if you've read some good ones.[/quote] To get back to music rather than continue with an analogy: I doubt there is anybody playing in originals bands who hasn't sat down and worked out some of their favourite bass parts from other peoples' records. I've only ever played originals but I've certainly spent time at home, especially when I was younger, working out other peoples' bass parts. The point is that some people eventually began having their own ideas.

The Pigtronix Philosopher King can apparently do rather a lot of sustain, but I imagine in the end you'll end up with a dominant harmonic rather than the note you played, that's just how these things work out.

There's having a 'band image' and then there's looking like you're taking part in an unimaginative stag do.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1397476329' post='2424205']Better to read a good book than write a rubbish one.[/quote] If you don't finish the rubbish one you'll never write a good one.

[quote name='jakenewmanbass' timestamp='1397207301' post='2421718']I'd put it like this. There are times when nothing other than a precision will do. I think it's rarer (but sometimes true) to say the same for other basses. I say this as someone who currently doesn't own a P bass (but is stealthily looking )[/quote] I felt the same, but I've never liked Precisions, so I bought some cheap parts and a Fender Vintage P pickup and made one for very little money. It sounds bang on. I haven't used it since. I guess I could've probably bought a used Squier CV though. I probably should've done that but I wanted an ash one.

Your main problem is that the Motown sound is the sound of flatwound strings, and most stuff '70s and later is roundwounds, so yeah if you want an authentic Motown sound you might need two basses; a J strung with rounds and a P strung with flats.

I make an effort to keep myself in shape because I'll be 40 this year and I would rather look a bit ripped than a bit ripply, but I wear what I want to wear. I wouldn't go on stage in dirty clothes and I do wear different clothes depending on the gig, but I wouldn't wear a 'uniform'. I don't play in any bands that would want me to do that anyway, so it's not an issue.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1397073193' post='2420459'] As someone who only plays bass, bass would be a long way down on my list of instruments to play simply for my own enjoyment. [/quote] I have to say at home I only play the upright. At the moment all my gigs are on bass guitar, but it hardly seems worth practising, it's pretty straightforward.

I've never seen the point in boards with dedicated input/output points either. I suppose it means you won't wear out the socket on your pedals but it's just as easy to replace a socket on a pedal as it is a socket on a board. And given how many times you plug/unplug your bass it's not really an issue is it. Oh and for trivia's sake: I had my first George L cable failure last week in rehearsal. After five years of using them one finally gave up, because my expression pedal was rubbing against it and managed to unscrew the cap, then the cable fell out of the plug. On the positive side it was easy to spot where the failure on my board was because the end of the plug was missing, and all I had to do was stick the cable back in there and screw the cap back on and it worked again. You just don't get that with soldered cables.

Should add I'm a big fan of the LH500. I remember when I was starting out there were these Peavey MkIII heads everywhere because they were simple and reliable and they sounded good. I wouldn't be surprised if the LH500 ends up being similarly ubiquitous.

[quote name='gelfin' timestamp='1396820393' post='2417760'] Just love hearing a full orchestra live. I'm lucky, we two great venues in Cardiff, St David's Hall and the Wales Millenium Centre.[/quote] Oddly enough I've seen a symphony orchestra in St David's Hall, they did some Mussorgsky and some Humperdink. That venue sounds amazing.

I'd put it in front of the amp. That's where it's designed to run, and it will give more drive to the tube in the LH500's preamp too. Just take it easy with the EQ - the LH500 sounds pretty scooped by default and so does the VT Bass, so you might end up wiping out your mids completely.

FWIW I usually go with pedals that make the greatest change to the sound first, that way the more subtle effects can be used to augment the more dominant ones (rather than having their effects obliterated by the more dominant ones). And I like to have filters last for similar reasons. So I'd go Octave > Dirt > Chorus > Wah.

I set mine up so I don't get any buzz played without an amp. I use a lot of pitch tracking effects so I try to give them the best opportunity to work properly.

I find Spectors sound very scooped where Warwicks are full of mids. It seems the rockers prefer Spectors which would bear that out. Personally I've never played a nicer bass than my '91 Thumb and 10 years in I doubt I'll ever sell it, but I can imagine that players used to American basses would find it a bit weird. That said, everybody who has played it from luthiers working on it to visitors to my home buying other gear, have all asked if I wanted to sell it after playing it. :-)

I thought he had a custom Shuker P. Is he not using that any more?

Also bear in mind if you've got a low-pass filter with resonance control you can cut that off as low as you like and increase the Q the hump the frequencies around the cutoff. Every bassist should have a good low-pass filter.

[quote name='burno70' timestamp='1396641095' post='2416057'] ... the 4 up 5 up on Whammy 4 is now 4 up 5 down on the new bass whammy. I use that setting for a couple of riffs and they sound pretty crap now. There's no 3 up 4 up equivilent so that's killed off another riff completely. ...[/quote] Why are people still using these pedals when, for example, the Line 6 M5 does an excellent Whammy model where you can set the toe and heel anywhere from -24 to +24 semitones?

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1396612303' post='2415666'] Try getting in a band where there's genuine camaraderie then... [/quote] One of the two bands I'm doing at the moment is a three-piece, we've been in bands together before and we all get along very well, there's no blokey nonsense either. Thankfully the other two guys are also sick of gigging.

My amp is pretty flat-sounding and my cab is 2x12 with a tweeter so it handles effects just fine. Live if I get any time to soundcheck I send two signals to the desk so FoH can have a separate effects channel, but usually I just give them one DI and expect them to turn the whole lot into the usual awful flabby mush that sound techs in metal band T-shirts seem to think is a good sound.