MisterFingers

Timecode is is useful to have when recording digitally into a DAW, as it time stamps the audio files, but it's not absolutely necessary, unless you want to synch to video. The Motu audio interface that Jake recommends is a good one, but there are many other brands out there that have 2 ADAT ins. Firewire connection is a better bet with an interface as you can stream (and then record) more tracks/channels at a higher quality simultaneously. Recording at 24 bit will give you a lot of headroom, so clipping wont be a problem, even if you stream before your live compressors/limiters. If you're going for a PC then there's quite a bit of choice in software - Cubase, Ableton Live, Cakewalk Sonar, Avid Pro Tools or Cockos Reaper (a great open source type DAW app that is much cheaper than the rest). Pro Tools is by far the most common in recording studios, of course. I don't know what budget you have, but you could get a useable set up for about £1k - cheaper if you buy used. Try and get a decently fast processor in the PC, at least 8Gig of Ram, and a BIG hard drive for storing all that audio...and a Firewire port! Once you get by the set-up of all the stuff, it's remarkably easy to record and edit audio on computers these days - before you know it you'll be wanting to mix the live sessions yourself and flog the live album masters to the bands!

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1376503779' post='2175140'] P/J configurations -- they never seem to be like either. Foderas. Owned one-- sold it. Nice and solid feeling but zero tone, even with 3 pu changes and a pre-amp change. They also look dorky. Yeah, white pickguards look cheap. Every Warwick I've ever played felt stiff to me. Sadowsky's. Good basses but I just can't justify the price. Most effects pedals -- they just compromise the original signal too much. Aquilla heads. They have 20 knobs that don't do anything. SWR heads. No way are they the wattage they claim. Light rosewood fingerboards. They just bug me. Rosewood should be a deep dark brown. 20, 22 or 24 frets. 21 is perfect. Thunderbirds. Good luck finding one that's balanced. Synthetic fingerboards are fine but synthetic necks feel like plastic. Headless -- of course. Fiesta Red -- It looks like the color of a toy to me. Maple finish -- except with Rics, in which icase it's my favorite Ric color. Go figure. Acoustic bass guitars. You can''t hear them from 2 feet away and once they're amped they sound like an electric, but not as good. Electric uprights -- neither fish nor fowl. Obvious splits in the body wood grain. Yuck. Lakelands -- for some reason I'm never drawn to play one. 18" speakers -- slow response and muddy. Vintage Modified -- any way you slice it, they're cheap basses. The CV however are outstanding. They're not in the same league. Boutique Ibanez's -- the SR is a great bass for $500. The Prestige is the same bass for $1500.00 Ultra fancy finishes. It looks like you're trying too hard. That's off the top of my head. I'm sure I can think of more . Give me time. [/quote] I like the cut of your jib Sir, but guitar shop assistants must hate you!

Yep, definitely "roadworn" - paying a premium for an instrument that looks like it's been treated like sh*t by previous owners? Why, oh why? Thunderbirds (the basses, that is). R*c's - basses for frustrated guitarists and Lemmy wanabees- and the same goes for 6 string basses. Pah! I like children and animals though.

I was in the same situation a couple of months ago - although my budget was about £1500. I wanted a 4S Jazz, and tried out about 10 or 12 different basses in local shops. MIM Fenders, De Luxes, Specials, Roadworns, Re-issues, Sandbergs... I never tried out any Sadowskys or Laklands, in case GAS got the better of common sense. There is such a wide variety in feel and tone that you really must try out before buying, but that's (of course) not often possible. To cut to the chase, I took a risk by buying blind a Mayones Jabba and although it took me a few weeks to adjust to the slightly wider 'board, I think I have found my modern J-bass. Build is excellent, tonal range is wide and the sustain is uncanny. It's heavy though - cue a comfort strap.

[quote name='EMG456' timestamp='1376428276' post='2173970'] This does come up regularly and I must admit that I don't understand what the issue is. If you like the sound of flatwound or tapewound strings on your fretless, use them. I personally don't and my fretless basses have never been strung with flatwounds. This causes wear on the fingerboard, just like it does on frets. After a while, if there are softer spots on the board, it may need dressing. If you play a LOT on that one bass, the fingerboard may eventually have to be replaced - a decent luthier can do that easily. I just kind of view a fretless fingerboard as a consumable which can be fixed or replaced if it wears out. My bass is for making noises with and the fretless noises I like to make are made with roundwound strings. Just my 2p Ed [/quote] It's going to cost a lot more to get a new finger board than get a re-fret - and metal wears a lot slower than wood, but I get ya.

I had a good look at all the pics and got the gist of the thread, and I'd not accept that terrible level of "finish" on a £200 bass let alone one that costs $6K. This is weird, no two ways about it.

I had violin lessons as a youngster, so no rock vibrato here... I shall develop a more restrained and cultured pressure on the 'board.. Gracias!

Thanks for the replies folks- the bass is one of the very few Tanglewater Aspiration Elite Fretlesses (bought from a fellow Bc'er) and I'm pretty sure the board is rosewood rather than ebony, which would explain the wear on a bass which hasn't actually been played much since it left the workshop. It's a lovely bass to play, but there has been a few niggling issues with it to be honest. I'll keep my eye on the situation.

Apologies if this has been covered many times in the past, or is in the wrong section... I changed the strings on my fretless a few weeks ago from the factory set (Overwaters) to flatwounds and change for the better it is too. What I noticed though, was that the rosewood fingerboard is showing signs of wear because of the (presumably) halfrounds that the bass came with. Having done some googling, I'm noticing that there are a few handmade fretlesses about that are coming straight from the makers with nickel roundwounds on them, which are surely going to cause problems with the fingerboard - and they don't seem to be epoxy lacquered either. I don't get it, quite frankly. Anyone any advice on this? Should I rub some oil on my Fless' board to minimise any wear and tear, even from the flats? Cheers.

Like having 2 guitar slaves doubling every note ...I had a 1969 Hagstrom 8 string job years ago and I couldn't hear the point of the doublers, so never used them. Each to their own I s'pose...

Oh, I'm assuming it's a small system you were after - but if it's bigger separates then the Cambridge gear is pretty good budget stuff. Richers again I suppose..

A reasonable turntable for £150 is the Marantz TT5005. It has a built in phono pre-amp, which means you could buy any mini CD Tuner that has a standard analogue in. I'd check out Richer Sounds - they have the Marantz and a wide range of Mini Systems. I'd guess that your old system's speakers are ok so be sure and check the power and impedance on them so that you can use them. You should be able to what you want for about £300 - and it'll no doubt handle ipod ins to.

These basses look (and sound) pretty good. Hmmm.

By all means cautiously mod the Squier, but you might not find the new pups and circuitry to your taste, so have a revert option, just in case. I would strongly recommend trying out as many J's as you can in a local store to give you a feel for the (wide) variety of necks/sounds/action. There's a lot of people here still buying and selling basses through the For Sale and are still searching for that special J but never seem to find it- but you seem to have found it...

An original UA edition of Can's 'Tago Mago" (with the pocket sleeve) or a 1978 Jamaican pressing (complete with glue on the label) of 'Leggo Dub"?

Like the OP - my first bass was an SG copy - brown or dark red, I think. It could have been a Kay or maybe a Columbus. A friend gave it to me to learn on - it had black tapewounds on it, an action as high as an orbiting satellite and a plywood body, but I was still bitten by the bass bug with it. I can't remember what happened to it...

I love this cover version: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj7-tNmIjMs[/media]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1374137243' post='2145600'] But unlike death and taxes, you don't have to upgrade if you don't need or want to. The recordings I'm making now with Logic 9 are only better than the ones I made with Logic 4 because I have 10 years more experience. I'm less likely to have to use tricks to save on processing power and hard disk bottlenecks, but that's down to improvements in the hardware and little to do with the software. [/quote] Absolutely...until you have to upgrade because you want some increased functionality or plug-in that you can't install on your set-up, or your files become incompatible with other systems. I had a recording session at a mate's at the weekend and he's still using Logic 5 on Win XP - absolutely no issues and of course I can seamlessly open the song on LP9 on the Mac to correct our er...'interesting' chops. (although my awful fretless intonation is a challenge to fix in the mix). To be honest I really detest the whole upgrade culture that we have - phones, cars, furniture etc. Basses are (natch) different though.

The only thing that's interesting to me is the Flex Audio...and the hope that nothing has been dumbed down for the sake of that "Let's Make Music Now!!" ethos which seems to infect a lot of Apple and other DAW apps. (And before anyone jumps on me - I tutor HE students in Logic & Pro Tools and it's not a good thing to hide advanced but common audio engineering tools under sub-menus!). I've been using Logic since V5 and apart from a few gripes V9 is pretty much there already..but upgrades are like death and taxes - inevitable. The pricing is very fair, which the new version of Pro Tools is not (but don't get me started on Avid). It's also only a 64 bit app now, so I'm not sure how favourite 32 bit plug-ins will work - still the bit bridge? The new virtual drummer -for me -meh..but I can see how it slots in between Ultrabeat and 3rd party things like Session Drummer and EZ-Drummer. A hesitant thumbs up..maybe, but I'll have to upgrade my OS to try it out.

Anyone? I've put on a set of monel flats and it's certainly helped, but I'd still be interested to hear how Bart's or Fralins compare with the Delanos.

Sennhesier HD650's, Beyer DT770's or Audio Technica ATH-M50's. I use the HD650's for critical mixing and even some mastering. I've heard good things about the Grado PS1000's.

[size=4]Having had time to get a handle on my new Mayones Jabba 4, I'm finding that there's something about the tone that is slightly annoying me.[/size] [size=4]Acoustically, the bass has lovely resonance and sustain, but I have to really push up the LF on the amp (or on the active controls) to get any deepness. The mids and highs are really clear and defined on the bass, but I can't get anywhere near that tone roll off woof that you get with J's. The pickups are Delano JMVC's (the active circuitry is either a Gregory or Mayones' own job BTW).[/size] [size=4]Would I get more of a vintage vibe if I swapped out the Delanos for Bartolinis or Lindy Fralin split coil jobs? I've got a new set of flatwounds on the way as it's nickel rounds on the bass just now, and they're too toppy for me.[/size] [size=4]Would changing the value of the capacitor on the passive tone pot help? As it is just now, even with the tone set to minimum, the lower mids are still pretty much there.[/size] [size=4]I know that the Jabba isn't on a vintage tip, design wise, but it's a beast of a body and I should be able to get more low end action on it as standard..(he said, hopefully!).[/size] [size=4]Thanks for any advice in advance, BC'ers.[/size]

Seems to be quite a few 'Closet Classics' in this thread methinks!

He just can't stop can he? I think he's grooming you for some ugly P-bass pleasure Dingus!