ribbetingfrog

There was definitely one guy playing one of those guitar things... lies!

After a few dodgy monitoring experiences my band only play gigs where we can use our own PA and monitors, Upshot now is I never bring an amp so less to carry. I know I can rely on good monitoring. Always makes life unpleasant when you struggle to hear half the band. If your using house PA I think an amp would be good just in case. There are lots of great bass DI and preamp pedals around, finding the right one is just like finding the right amp. I use the Orange Bass Butler and love it. Never used a DI pedal I haven’t found to be at least useable. They’re all fine, it’s just finding the right flavour for you. It does give you some useful control over the flavour of your tone.

I got one of these a few weeks ago. very happy with it in many ways. electrics are my only area of concern. i find the pickups really dark in passive mode but liven up considerably as soon as it’s in active mode. They are unusable for me in passive mode, far too dark but sound great in active with just a little treble. I agree that the preamp has no headroom. Distorts as soon as much Bass is added.

Just realised the yelllow silks will match my yellow strap 😀 bonus!

Just ordered 3 sets, looking forward to trying them. Nice discount.

Pointless twiddly nonsense

I had the same rig, bought it as I saw one one somebody’s house and loved the look. Sold mine for the same reason, far too loud!

I have a cheap Tele (£120) and a cheaper Strat (£30 used) just to noodle on and add some non bass tones on any home recordings I do. i did have a good few nice geetars, there are a lot of them knocking around in the used market and I keep getting tempted. eventually I came to my senses, sold them all and bought a posh bass instead. i play bass Seriously in a band but just mess around at home on the geetar.

Just got my enhanced series bass. First impressions are good. made in Indonesia. I’ve had only good experiences with Indonesian basses, always seem good quality. This thing is really well made and looks amazing. It’s got a lot of very nice features. Stainless steel frets are all level, the edges are not as good as my Musicman but not bad. You can feel the edges when you run your finger down the edge but it’s more than acceptable. Zeroth fret set up perfectly and works as it should. Tuners and high mass bridge are excellent. The ebony fretboard and block inlays are superb. The white binding on the neck looks great next to the ebony but the binding has several dirty marks in it. I took a few minutes to roll the edges on the fretboard as the edge was a bit severe. Feels much better now. The neck is really thin and has a very premium feeling oiled finish. Plays great. The body is perfect, no flaws, even the neck heel is done absolutely perfectly. There was an annoying fret buzz I couldn’t put my finger on which I eventually worked out... The neck needed a shim. I popped the neck off and shimmer it, plays perfectly afterwards. No buzz and lovely low action. The neck heel is really tight, holds the neck very snugly. Both pickups are a fraction off centre but only a tiny fraction. I’m quite picky about such things and it’s well within acceptable. I popped the scratch plate off to have a peek inside and the electronics are very neatly done. Only complaint is that a bit of wood in the cavity where one of the screws for the pick guard goes in had broken off. Not a problem as it’s only a tiny bit and under the pickguard. Little dab of glue and problem solved. Plugged in to my studio and gigging rig it sounds excellent once you get it set right. pull the volume pot for passive mode, it all sounds dark and a bit muddy to me, no tone controls in passive mode and I really don’t like the sound. I do like my bass tone bright, those of us who love 5 year old strings might be happier . no matter how I adjust the blend in passive I can’t get a sound I like, all too dark and muddy. it sounds like a tone pot turned all the way down. Push the pot back in for active mode and it’s a lot better. At full volume it is far too loud and kicks in far too much distortion but ease the volume off to about half and it’s perfect. In active mode, eq flat the tone is far less dark and muddy. The 2 band eq makes a lot of difference, big adjustments affect the volume and distortion a lot so a little goes a long way. I find adding a little treble is all it needs, then all tonal adjustments I need can be done with the blend pot, which makes a wide range of tones. All neck pickup is bassy and has a real kick to it, all neck is nasal and gets funky. inbetween are a wonderful variety of sweet spots. Around the mid point the blend of the two pickups sounds really sweet, and I do t stray too far. slight tweak to the bridge to ease off the bass and add definition, tweet to the neck to add bass and thump and ease off the treble. Really happy with the sound in active mode. At home I play through my line 6 firehawk or my Orange Bass Butler. Get the right settings and it sounds really good and records well through my Focusrite Scarlett interface. Overall, it’s a very well made, great looking and great playing bass. Sound wise don’t want to commit till I can try it at my studio. My home set up isn’t as good. For the £261 price tag it’s a whole lot of bass with a whole lot of features. Whilst it doesn’t feel premium compared to my Musicman it does feel premium compared to the PB50 and JB75 I have owned. A serious amount of features and nothing in the price range will come near it. maybe the Sire Marcus Miller v3 I used to have would give it a run for its money, less features but played and sounded as good. The sire has been my go to recommendation for a budget bass but this is alongside it. Plays, looks and feels great, stunningly well made for the price point. Recommended.

I’ve got one arriving tomorrow,

I have a bass en route. processing the order was slightly slow but it was in transit after 3 days.

I’ve ordered three items from them. all delivered ok. the last pedal I got was faulty and they processed the return and refund with no problems.

I’ve gigged the Line 6 g30 for a couple of years, it’s great. the receiver fits nicely on my pedal board and runs off the same pedal power supply.

My band always play with their own PA system and monitors. i only ever use a DI into the mixer . saves having to lug a big heavy amp around. My weapon of choice is the Orange Bass Butler, that saves me having to lug two amps around!

One tip I would give is to try Dunlop maxi grip picks. I use the 1mm for bass. they are far easier to keep a good Hold of. Still needs practice though!

I fitted a p to an Ibanez talman I had. Huge improvement on the stock. really nice tone and character, medium output. very versatile, works well with pedals to shape the tone but has a lovely tone all on its own. as mentioned before, you can often find a pj set cheaper than a p! i flogged the jazz pickup for £30.

I’ve just booked them to take a guitar, I will update once they have delivered. their website clearly states they specialise in musical instrument cover but they do say a hard case is needed in their guidelines for packaging.

Have you ever thought about where the wood comes from for instruments? —no. If a wood looks amazing but came from an unethical source, would it bother you? —no. I don’t earn enough to afford to be picky. Would you buy an instrument from a company that refuses to use a certain timber? --yes, happy to use a different timber How important do you think the wood is to the overall sound of a bass (i realise there may be many, many discussions about this on here but can we keep it specific to exotic timbers vs native european timbers) —Good sounding wood is crucial but doesn’t have to be a particular species. Do you like decorative timbers, or prefer a more simple aesthetic? —i like both! Variety is the spice of life.

How did you guess?????

I could tell you, but then you’d have to kill me. My job is my dirty little secret 😈

Hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

Be careful! you’ll start a mass panic!

You don’t go shopping in Manchester then?

Completely unrelated? Both are basses, both have 4 strings both have pickups, necks and bodies Both have tuners both share a similar layout both made by the same company both are designed to make the low down groove in a band sounds reasonably related to me 😂 And as for meta tags (I prefer to think of it as a name) I’d rather they reuse a name and keep the history alive than abandon names that have gone dormant and always use new ones. Paying homage to those that have gone before.

Someone else on the music man Facebook group felt the same! As a newcomer to the Ernie Ball world I don’t have the emotional investment in the old Cutlasses. I take this for what it is, which is the nicest P bass I have ever played. I don’t worry about what it shares a name with. I love p basses and wouldn’t have looked twice at the original Cutlass, as great as it is, but this one, this Is what made me want a Music Man.