Mod_Machine

Cheers, will try later. Dlloyd : Its for live with the band(kilto take). Its difficult to get a true representation of the sound at home because once i wack up the master volume the whole sound seems to change. Ill try a few things out tonight during the sound check as the band are headlining the BBC introducing....beds,herts and bucks tonight, especially as i will be using the amp more as a kick back bass monitor. And the scratchy sound is the string, fingers,nail scraping etc. Ill back off the compression and see what occurs.

Sweet - you guys truly are the don...you have no idea how much help this is proving. Ok assuming i now have a more mid range sound (which i have), in order to provide it a little bite im having to use the second channel. This means that the 'shape' knob comes into play..Not too bad as i can use this on top of the eq settings to indivdulize my sound a little. although any hiss is easily removed with one of the EQ sliders, can anyone advise which sliders i use and in which way to remove some of the snap and scratch i seem to be picking up - the amp compression is set at about 8 - is this impacting on it, and am i thus better getting a compression pedal and ignoring the one 'in amp'?

Cheers. I dont think ive made myself particualrly clear though so apologies! i appreciate that the instrument itself will allow me to actually replicate each ones tone, but buying a new instrument, and/or amp is a no go due to financial requirements above and beyond the band. Im after advice on graphic equalizer/amp settings i can use as a base to then fine tune to get a more individual tone - one that isnt identical to bloc party or The Departure, but that is new wavey influenced and would fit into a band influenced by those guys (is this any clearer!??) One of the biggest probs i have faced when i first started playing bass was that little advice is given on what different tones different EQ shapes provide, or even what different EQ shapes are (ie where to put the sliders on each one of the 7 band graphic eqs). Instead alot of emphasis was put on using preset 'shape' buttons....which dont really help me at all! as if the sound coming from my amp doesnt make any sense to me i cant really progress from there. The only real advice i have had is 'put the eq into a smile shape'! All well and good...but it seems to sound closer to what i want when i start moving it into a sad shape! im after any other ideas and/or explanations i can use to understand better. picking up on the niavity yet?

Hello, As you can see still a newbie and desperately want some help getting a biting crisp indie/new wave bass sound from my set-up. Its not too bad at the moment however although i find it easier to get an even sound accross the range on a Hartke amp, thru mine it sounds a little TOO trebily at times and im now stuck in a rut so any help on the eq settings, the knob positions etc kindly accepted, tried and fedback. Im after that new wave biting sound that isnt too boomy. My set up is BASS : Ibanez Jetking (2 pickups) EFFECT PEDAL : Hartke Bass attack DI pedal (bass, treble and shape and mix knobs,+the tube emulator and 'bright' knobs) AMP : Behringer BXL 3000a ultrabass 2 channel 300watt amp(master volume, gain channel 1/gain channel 2(which is a slightler bittier sound), SHape knob (to select pre set eq shapes to be used on top of the 7 band graphic-can not be bypassed, compression knob) any advice for the settings and graphic to try im much obliged! Mod

Hiya, i was after one of these and when i tried it in store they also had an Ibanez Jetking bass, which although not similar looking did have that same kinda retro feel to it, and i had also never seen one before so tried it out (ive already blithered on about whats good and bad about it in the Jet king thread so wont bore you with it here). In all honesty i found it really difficult to identify any differences between the indie Riki and the jet king in terms of balance, sound, weight etc...and with the jet king being £200 cheaper i got that instead. Definately give it a go as quite comparable to the indie riki, and a lot less common.

Glad it was of somehelp - sorry it waffled a bit!

Ok, you will have to excuse my niavity in some areas...i dont pretend to have played hundreds of different basis, and unfortunately retro looks are one of the first things i go for before trying out a bass..(shallow i know but im pretty much the same with everything) I paid about £240 for it, and like i say i haggled my back teeth out and could only get a £10 off, a gig bag and some leads, thumb picks etc thrown in! WEIGHT wise it feels well balanced (again taking into consideration the price and shape of it). It sounds strange but the best comparison i can give is with my expectations for the epiphone EB0. its smaller and i was thus expecting it to be lighter, however its not - in anyway what so ever. That used to really dig into my shoulder, even when i changed my strap for a wider one. Im still using the same 2 inch width guitar strap as i used with my EB0, and even after 4 hour reheasal sessions i dont have a mark on me and it doesnt feel lie the head is made of lead! However i had got used to playing the EB0 so everything feels pretty light! I move around ALOT when we play live and the weight of the bass doesnt stop that, so cant be all that bad. SETTING UP:a real issue with me as i always do my own, and usually my mates guitars aswell (why dont guitarists bother to learn this???). I had a few probs with my old bass and have found a shop that spent alot of time getting it right and i trusted them...however i havent needed to touch this since i got it. Like i said the -next day before even playing it outside of the shop i went into the studio and it gave a really even sound across the whole range, because of the lack of height between the strings and the pickups i at first found it difficult to use a thumb pick (which most people think im mad for using anyway) as it kept bashing into the pickups. I would have liked a string bridge to allow me to lazily rest my hand in the right place for this not to happen, but what i found instead is that i have moved into finger picking all our new material and changed my playing style to suit. It also helps with the sound no end-this bass definately prefers the softer approach to playing. As such im still holding off from the string bridge. for now ( i still think it may lend to the retro, pawn shop look of the bass) SOUND: rather than selecting between the pick ups using a toggle as i was used to, this bass uses a seperate volume knob for each pick up. meaning that you can turn up one, the other, both, and hundreds of digits inbetween. Because of this the range between warmth and trebly really can be adjusted and fine tuned 'at instrument' to suit each persons requirement-this is something im finding really useful when gigin as a minor twist of one pick up knob can give me a subtle, but much fuller sound for some songs, and visa versa. When i tried it in store, i used the cheapest amp possible to begin with to really see what its like in comparison with the more expensive 'indie' bass. The guitarist in the band was even surprised and yelped out 'it sounds like a real bass' in shock. He definately thinks it was a great investment. I unfortunately run through a Hartke Bass attack pedal into my amps so i find that i get the general sound using the shape button on there, and then spend a while using the pickup knobs to perfect the sound i want. Kilto Take are an indie band so what we want is much more trebly rather than overly booming. This bass definately delivers , although another draw back is that although its great for getting some lovely warm, well rounded tones and vintage vibes it doesnt really lend itself to obtaining a more gutsy, cutting or viscious tone. Also it does 'appear' quite long and may look odd on shorter bass players. Also bear in mind it is still a budget bass, there are definately some things i would like to be more retro and built to last but overall everthing seems durable and it accpts the battering i give it without complaint. (gigging weekly in a soft gig bag, plus reheasals and spending the rest of the time hung on the wall)....unlike my amp. hope this is of some help

I have one of these in sunburst. I was actually playing a 3/4 epiphone EB0 which was, if anything TOO boomy. BUT im pretty short (5ft 7) and it didnt look too silly. However i wanted something a little better looking,i had recently dislodged the bridge of the sg at a gig(!) and was trying out the indie Riki (the rickenbacker copy). The jet king was in the store as well in sunburst so i thought i would give it a go, even though it looked like the neck was MUCH longer than the riki. They played pretty much the same way, they sounded the same no matter which amp i tried them through, and i actually really liked how it balanced in comparison to the indie. The only thing missing early on was the metal bridge across the strings. The first thing i noticed about it was the tonality is much more trebly and warm than i was expecting across all the strings. Anyways i got that as it was about £200 cheaper than the indie and i was able to get a softcase and some leads thrown in (though i really had to haggle) The next day we were in the studio recording a demo so i decided to use it and the engineer was really impressed with how even and warm it was across the whole fretboard when bypassing the amp. It took me a little while to get used to the size difference, and ive found that ive gone from using a thumb pick to predominantly finger picking because it a) feels better with that bass and it sounds so much better!! The only things i have noticed that may go against it slightly are..... 1)when i first started playing it the frets felt a bit 'sharp' when running up the neck - this ceased being an issue within a couple of hours of playing properly 2)the rear of the neck is pretty mat and has a tendency to pick up quite a bit of crud, which again sometimes impedes my hand sliding to the high notes if i dont polish it before each and after each reheasal and gig 3)the rear of the neck is pretty soft wood and will scratch and dent really easy...i still havent grabbed a hard shell case for it, and if anyone knows of a good budget case which this odd shape will fit well please let me know. Gotta say for the price tho i think its REALLY good value and i love the way it looks.

Hello, New member. Bass player with [i]kilto take[/i] and erm.. thats about it really. Constantly have probs with finding a sound, playing, locating stuff, etc and find the guitarist in the band disinterested with my bass issues....so pretty much here for some support from thise in the know. Currently playing predominantely Ibanez jetking, (or epiphone eb0 if feeling REALLY lazy) and using the Hartke bass attack DI pedal and a (this is embarrasing).....a 300 watt behringer bass amp with an alu speaker (however poor you have heard these things are...you probably are not even close!) so hi.