Roger2611

The late Paul Raven on bass, in the video he is using a Status bass but that doesn't mean the recording was done with a Status but personally this has always been my favourite bass guitar / drums sound combination

To be fair, you are moving from what was possibly the classic set up of the 80's A Status bass through a Trace rig to a very different set up, as an owner of a MB rig, personally I love it but it doesn't sound like a Trace Elliot rig.

Careful set up of the VLE and VPF controls will hopefully help, with my Status Energy Matrix I have the VLE control set to about 9.30pm and the VPF control set to about 2.30pm which works nicely for me, however, I don't use a 1x15 cab just a 2x10 I did find the 1x15 made the rig a little bass heavy.

I hope you can find the right sound for you from the MB rig.

I am being really good and not buying any more basses at the moment, it is not because what I want isn't currently on sale anywhere in the internet world at the moment, other than Japan and their prices are ridiculous .....obviously I haven't been looking 

As both @Teebs and @The Greek have already said, the Yamaha's are great basses, they have always had a great reputation as bass builders, the Sterling Sub is also a very good bass but probably doesn't have the universal approval that Yamaha seem to have.

Personally it would depend on the sound you want and prefer, the Musicman style basses do have a distinct sound to them, they are by no means one trick ponies but the sound isn't for everyone....I have an old USA built Musicman Sub which, after owning and selling at least 5 USA Stingray's, has finally given me the sound I want out of these basses. 

From personal experience of the Yamaha basses, I owned a 1024x a couple of years ago, it was a great bass but was very heavy (well over 10lbs in weight) and hence was sold on very quickly and it was also sold on by the guy who brought it off me....I am not sure what the current range is like for weight but, if weight is an issue, I would want to check that out before buying one.

A pretty pathetic image really but as a 15 year old seeing it for the first time and with all the narrative that came with the band at the time, this was coolness personified!

I wonder if it is a phase issue, I have a feeling Seymour Duncan uses opposite phase to standard on their pickups, I have a SD59 humbucker in the neck of my Les Paul and a Lindy Fralin in the bridge position, on the middle switch position (so both pickups working) I get exactly the same issue you describe....I know that is down to phase differences between the two pickups....if I back one of the volumes off a fraction it totally transforms the sound to when both are on full volume.

The fact that you are using two SD pickups should negate the issue but wiring can do very strange things!

3 minutes ago, Jakester said:

Thanks Rog - fairly sure it’s not pinch harmonics as it happens generally irrespective of where the plucking hand is. 

I am not really sure then, I have just grabbed a bass with pretty fresh strings on and cannot replicate the harmonic overtones you mention and trying to achieve pinch harmonics on a bass doesn't appear to be very easy either!

Hopefully others will be along before too long that can better advise

By the sound of things it sounds like you are achieving something that I think is called pinch harmonics...I may be wrong, but it is a technique that some of the best guitarists use and that many lesser guitarists would love to master, I think what is happening is, you hit the string (with a pick usually but possible to achieve finger style) then almost instantly another finger or the edge of your hand also hits the string creating a harmonic note? You may need to be a little bit firmer with your muting or if it is a stray finger causing it then you may just have to re-position your hand slightly.

Try having a listen to Billy Gibbons guitarist of ZZ Top on the track Rough Boy he is brilliant at using pinch harmonics to create what is probably my all time favourite guitar solo and that is because of his use of the pinch harmonics

I hope this helps

Rog

I can't help you with guidance towards online tuition but I pretty much always play with a pick, from what you describe you are either digging in too hard or your pick is way too soft if it is effective turning in your hands and scraping your fingers down the strings.

You don't have to play especially hard with a pick, if anything you can use a pick more gently than you would with finger style and still achieve the same volume.

When it comes to knowing where the strings are, I am afraid that is going to be down to practice and just getting used to playing with a pick, keep going from one string to the next, up and down until you start finding it becoming automatic.

Having started out some 35 years ago as a guitarist I found playing with a pick was far easier than finger style when I went over to the bass.

Good luck

Rog

The simple answer to avoid this idiot's regular rubbish is to search by UK only, I have honestly done that for a while purely to avoid being annoyed by his stupid listings, he may sell great stuff via his shop but if a seller deliberately wants to annoy me by listing overpriced crap then I would not buy from him irrespective of whether I really wanted something he was selling or not!

Like others, modern single cut basses leave me cold, also high end basses that look plain, I have seen a couple recently on sale for many bucks that look similar to an £80.00 cheap Chinese starter bass, no nice swirly woods to entice me in. 

3 hours ago, casapete said:

I've been wondering about fitting a set of these to my P-Lyte so interested to hear opinions too. Seem well priced compared to other brands as well.

 

I am amazed you are considering swapping out the pickups in a P-Lyte, if it is an early one (so with the P-J pickup configuration) like mine it is the best sounding bass I have got, I haven't even done the resistor fix that cures the short battery life as I wouldn't do anything that changed the sound of it at all!

I saw this the other day, very sad, I am guessing DAF were the starting point for the  EBM / Industrial scene and the likes of Rammstein, Apoptgyma Berzerk, Covenant and VNV Nation?  

Great band with music ahead of it's time

Got to be a Precision, it has been the weapon of choice by many bassists to wallop an errant punter over the head so it shouldn't have too much difficulty with an annoying virus, Jazz basses are for nice people!

My personal favourite would be Pino on Paul Young's Wonderland

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Yep, slightly loose tuner, or a string (usually the A on Fender type basses) not all the way down on the tuning peg, both can cause a really irritating rattle.

Totally with Lozz on this one, loosen the strings slightly and just push them down on the tuning peg whilst you tighten the string back up, hopefully that will cure it.

I have a 1981 Precision which rattles like a rattly thing on the A string if the string is not pushed all the way down on the peg...Lozz do I own your old bass 

I have reported this and the rest of this pathetic scammers attempts to rip people off! 

The neck is a concern to me, the seller doesn't make reference to the age of the bass which doesn't help but the old Tokai Jazz I owned had a truss rod access at the heel of the neck, the unbound headstock truss rod access on this bass is the normal for the cheapo Chinese necks, it could be a later bass which may have that type of truss rod access but I don't think that neck is from an early and hence desirable Tokai so personally I would walk away.....however, I don't profess to be an expert on Tokai basses

3 hours ago, Baxlin said:

I’ve thought about recording a bass line, and WhatsApp-ing it to the drummer, so he can record his playalong and pass it onto other band-ists to add their contribution, a bit like Chinese whispers...

(Unfortunately we’ve had to suspend the band, not only for CV, because our lead guitarist has just started chemo, as has the drummer's wife)

We do most of our recording this way, probably easier if the drummer can send you a guide track and drum track, you add the bass file and send it back, we currently use either Dropbox (or Crapbox as I like to call it) or WeTransfer to move stuff about, as long as the band members have the facility to drop the tracks into a DAW and the gear to be able to record their parts with decent quality then you can turn out some really good quality tracks.

The attached was recorded remotely and was mixed and mastered by our drummer

IBTFTY 2 (16BIT) STREAMING MASTERED 24feb2020 - 13.09pm.wav

it's probably not that difficult a bass line but The Jam's Going Underground was always the one that I was pleased to get right, there are a fair few different parts to it and some unusual note combinations

The very beautiful Soul in Isolation by the Chameleons

I have already said to Mrs2611 this is an ideal opportunity for me to spend time improving on the bass, she did suggest that I could teach her to play the guitar whilst we are isolated......I have said that is a terrible idea as I doubt isolation would be seen as a defence for a murder charge.....I jest, but I still am not teaching her 

I shall  do more bonding with my Status Energy Matrix, the love affair is going well so far

1 hour ago, therealting said:

The petition is now being checked, so it may take a little while before people can sign again.

Will you monitor it and let us know when it is back up and running?