thisnameistaken

I've been having another play with my Bass Micro Synth today. I've got a lot of synthy-noise-producing pedals (and another in the post) and I hadn't switched the BMS on for a while so I was trying to establish whether I was going to keep it or not. In short: Yes I am. It's so flexible and easy to tweak, there are a whole bunch of different [i]and useful[/i] sounds in there. The lack of memory settings is a shame I'll concede, but once you're familiar with what the sliders do it's not too hard to find the sounds you want. The only downside is you can't switch between two sounds with your foot. But for me that's not a huge issue, given that I've got other pedals which have alternative synthy-noises ready to switch to.

I've never spent more than £700 on a bass, and I don't think I would. Ultimately I won't buy anything I won't gig, and I'd be nervous about gigging anything more expensive than that. The good thing is that most of the basses I'd want will show up on the used market for £700 or less anyway, so it's not much of a limitation.

Look up some Curtis Mayfield, Lonnie Liston Smith, Roy Ayers, Isaac Hayes, etc.

The old DOD FX-30 Gate/Loop has this feature, can't tell you how well it works because mine's on the fritz, sorry.

[quote name='mike257' post='298541' date='Oct 3 2008, 12:57 PM']I just can't get on with those dinky little bodies![/quote] I wish more basses had those dinky little bodies. I've got a dinky little body - I'm 6'2" and about 11 stone - and a Fender looks like an XXL T-shirt on me. The Thumb bass, though, is perfect.

Yeah it's a good sound, that old sound. You didn't mention Graham Maby (Joe Jackson), he played some nice stuff.

I don't read bass guitar magazines so all I know about Jeff Berlin is what I've learnt from Youtube in the last few minutes. I've concluded that he plays cheesy music and he looks like Super Mario. Paul McCartney, on the other hand, I have heard of. He's that bloke who wrote some of the best pop songs ever. Yeah he wrote some throwaway tripe like 'Get Back' but I think it's offset by Eleanor Rigby, For No One, Hey Jude, Let It Be, Yesterday, etc. I know whose musical brain I'd rather pick, but for all I know they could both be proper twats.

[quote name='finnbass' post='298193' date='Oct 3 2008, 12:29 AM']For such a tiny body, they really do weigh an absolute ton. Particularly the earlier ones.[/quote] Mine's heavier than my mate's Stingray 5. Considerably.

[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rDDAd3j6gxo"]Forgot one of my favourites[/url]!

Quick snap of mine, then

[quote name='mr_russ' post='298087' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:21 PM']I've never understood the 'sound of wood' motto when used to sell primarily active, and zingy, honky sounding instruments.[/quote] My (stock, '91) Thumb doesn't zing or honk, it purrs. I think that's the "trademark" sound that people think about when they hear the name Warwick. To be honest I haven't played a lot of their more recent models so maybe things have changed. The most recent one I had was a '94 Corvette 'Proline' 6, and I was surprised by how excellent it was, given that it was a bolt-on "budget" model. Although mine had Bart soapbars in it, not MEC kit.

[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AtbD8wmIKU0"]For the attention of everybody but Bilbo[/url].

The Goats - Blind With Anger The Goats - Rumblefish Subhumans - No Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Kill Your Television Dead Milkmen - Taking Retards To The Zoo Anthrax - Got The Time Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead Curtis Mayfield - Superfly The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon RATM - Bullet In The Head RHCP - Higher Ground Pixies - Debaser Sly & The Family Stone - If You Want Me To Stay A few.

People who take the E string off their basses to fit a C higher up should be given guitars. Especially when they start tapping. A slap and a guitar, that's what he needs.

I'm happy to let people talk Warwick prices down, given that I can only see myself buying them. Plus, the less people who are playing Warwicks, the more unique my tone's going to be, so please everybody, sell me your Warwicks at knock-down prices. I'll be happy to take them from you. A friend of mine plays a Stingray in a folk band (or "Your old man bass in your old man band" as I prefer to say) and he loves his Stingray and he's always banging on about his Stingray, but every time he sees my Thumb he picks it up, and after five minutes he always says the same thing: "It's a proper bass this, isn't it?" Strangely, he never goes for the fretless Stingray I've got standing next to it.

My board is such a mess I am embarrassed to show it, that's why I'm cable-shopping. I'm looking at George L's in particular because their right-angle plugs are so small (compared to normal plugs with the 1"+ of sleeve after the right-angle) and in places where I get a bunch of plugs in a tight space (Boss LS-2 is the biggest PITA in this regard) they would be a huge help. Whoops, just went and bought a Korg G5. I'll never learn.

I do have a few I need to sell actually but I never seem to get around to it. And the hard part is not buying more to replace them...

My pedalboard could really benefit from those compact right-angle plugs, but the cheapest price I've seen online is £3.59 per plug - I need (at last count) 16 patch cables, so that's over a hundred quid just on plugs. Anybody know where I can get them cheaper?

I need a couple of custom footswitches building, and I need to sort out my pedalboard wiring because it is laughably bad and it's been like this for months now. Oh and I need another switching mod doing on my main filter which probably doesn't have room for another switch. The sounds I'm making I'm almost 100% happy with, it's just changing between them doesn't always work that well.

I don't really use overdrive but I'd be surprised if there aren't half a dozen pedals that sound as good or better for less than half the price.

Funnily enough House of Fun was my favourite song when I was a kid, long before I started playing bass. Other favourites at the time were Bad Manners - Walking in the Sunshine, Specials' Too Much Too Young, and of course Hit Me. I fell into playing bass quite by accident but it turned out I'd always preferred songs with ace bass parts.

Now try House of Fun - one of the bonkersest pop basslines ever.

I'd like to see more small-bodied basses like my Thumb bass. I'm pretty scrawny, so if I strap on a Fender/Musicman/G&L-style "traditional" bass it's like wearing an XXL T-shirt. More small basses for us scrawny folk, please, manufacturers.

I've got two basses at the moment. The most I've ever had at one time is three - and that included an upright. I could see a use for a few more, but I couldn't get into double figures unless I bought a bass on every whim that struck me. Fair play to the people with big collections, but I couldn't keep anything that I wasn't using, or that didn't have some sort of niche purpose that came in useful from time to time.