Al Krow

Haha - not particularly harder to slap an E string on a 5 string bass than the A string on a normal 4.

Plug for a freebie lesson Mark has recently posted:

Just started working through Mark from Talking Bass's slap course** I must admit to being a big fan of Mark and glad I've found an excuse to sign up to one of his courses rather than just taking advantage of his (excellent) free tuition. We've all gotta put food on the table at the end of the day - don't we? I've found that setting up works well: 1) use the bridge rather than the neck pup The bridge pup is generally going to be better at picking up the overtones and also has the advantage of being further away from where the strings are being slapped so less likely to clip your amp / overload your speakers than when using the neck pup. 2) dial the treble up on either the bass and / or amp Slap bass very much relies on higher frequency zing. Quite a lot of 'advice' seems to also suggest cutting / scooping the mids for a classic slap bass tone. I've not found that necessary to get the slap zing but I guess it provides a different tonal colour and you go with what you like. In my case, I'm holding on to the desire to continue to cut through the mix by not losing the mix but maybe a wrong headed approach? Those of you far more experienced in this arena than me (which will be just about anyone proficient at slap!) - does that tie in with what you guys are doing in terms of setting up? **the sort of pointless stuff you find time for when you join @bassfan's 2020 GAC so that you can no longer spend many productive and happy hours drooling over the latest bit of gear that's going to deliver that tiny nirvana difference to your tone that you're never going to hear wearing ear plugs when playing live and no one in the audience will notice or care about 😉

Jackson have just launched their X Series Spectra Bass SBX range. Pic of the 5'er below. This ticks a LOT of boxes for me: Dual passive medium-output humbucking pickups Two-way toggle switch for pickup coil splitting 3-band active EQ, blend control and volume control with push/pull selector for passive mode 35”scale HiMass™ hardtail bridge Neck through Graphite-reinforcement rods flanking the truss rod provide even more neck stability Expecting it to be around £600 to £650 in the UK. Seems to me that they are going toe to toe with the Yamaha TRBX range and throwing a few additional goodies into the pot. I've been very tempted to get a Yammy TRBX 605, but this looks like it could give the Yammy a very good run for the money.

Only if you're partial to a bit of rum. Oh.... and don't forget your hat.

I mean, fair enough you sign up to give it a go and then you crash and burn (as we will all inevitably do by year end other than the trainee monks amongst us), seems entirely reasonable to show the offending piece of kit that caused you to stumble. But not participating in the thread in the first place and then telling us struggling mortals who have signed up (we had another fallen brother just today, also a 'Dave', I guess there's a certain weakness to being a 'Dave') about your recent amazing bit of new gear, well what sort of kind and caring person does that, eh, eh? 😁

Yeah, just not on this thread please 😂 For the avoidance of doubt this is NOT a NBD thread for folk who have a weird understanding of the word 'abstinence' 😁😁

So have you hit "buy" then or are you still with us for just another day... 😪

Awww mate, half a bottle of rum and the best you could come up with is a mini amp head that you're never going to be able to gig with your full band?! ** Can I recommend you seek solace in the other half and hope you come up with something better? 😁

Be really interesting if this same mod could be done to the OC2's arguably closest pedal clone, the Valeton OC-10. If so, I'd be very tempted to get another one to replace the one I moved on!

Mine's a late 2016 build so hopefully one of the more recent Tonepump models? I'll go have a rummage in it's bowels ...

Same thought processes must come into play whether you are pro, semi-pro, or passionate hobbyist if you're ever considering getting a high-end bass, particularly if there's no 'need' for an addition to your herd? It's not always just about the money.

Thanks for that @cetera I've got the EMG 40TW (or '40CS-TW') pups on my Euro 5LX which has both a single coil and a ceramic steel (‘CS’) dual-coil humbucker . A push/pull volume pot allows me to change from the clarity of the J pickup sound to the fatness of the CS humbucker, which is a nice set of options, although I tend to default to the single coil settings. Are TWs also considered particularly hot? I've not found them to be overly so (other than small point of the bass tone dial needing to be rolled right back to avoid blowing my windows out!)

This sounds like excellent advice! With my Tonepump on factory setting, I currently have the bass tone dial set to 1/10, although I make almost full use of the treble tone dial to go from vintage to zingy slap. But a couple of Qs if I may: I presume that this advice is geared at the higher output EMG 40s rather than models sporting the lower output EMG Hz pups? Again a bit of newbie Q but if the output from the bass is too high, any reason to not simply adjust the volume dials down? For bassists who are less than proficient at electronics like me, is adjusting the Tonepump down from 100% to 50% a pretty straightforward exercise? Any tips / hints welcome!

I think you're being unduly pessimistic. DG have established themselves as a top name in bass amplification. You don't do that in the space of a few years by being a mickey mouse outfit. Sure they will make mistakes along the way (hey who doesn't - remember that small company Apple nearly going bust? Or Sony not cutting it with Betamax?) and indeed their first gen cabs could be said to fall into that category. But it's ALWAYS great to see innovation and great design coming together, rather than folk sitting on a bye-gone era's laurels (Gibson anyone?). Bravo Doug and DG, I say.

I seem to recall that the Helix Floor came down in new price pretty sharpish within 12 months of launch. There'll no doubt be a fair few QCs coming up used in 12 months' time. Well I'm hoping that'll be the case anyway 😉

The thing that you fell off, never having been on it - also down to those terrible folk from Ashdown, I recall 😁

@dave_bass5 if you want more evidence: I started playing a couple of songs in the wrong key recently too.... won't be long before my bandmates put me out to pasture.

The noise blocker John is referring to is the Joyo ZGB. I ended up getting one but not needing in the end, so mine is lying about spare; if the OP would like it I'd be happy to send it to him (no charge).

Very nearly got me excited and thinking about falling off the GAC 2020 wagon! This is getting pretty close to a pedal board amp that I would snap up. But 140W RMS at 4ohms => 100W at 8 ohms won't quite cut it for me, sadly. [INCORRECT - PLEASE SEE UPDATE BELOW] But, seriously, bravo to Ashdown Engineering! If they can get to 200W (ideally 300W) at 4ohms they will have cracked it IMO i.e. TE ELF power territory, but in a package ant sized. [IT CAN!!] I'm guessing that efficient heat dissipation is the engineering limitation to this nirvana.

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What did you settle on in the end?

You're on. Deferred challenge till Jan 12th 2021 accepted! We could maybe start a 'penitents' list'. 😁

That's gotta be the most spectacular falling off the wagon in 12 days...ever! You really are shi*te at this particular game aren't you, Dave? 😄

@Maude just to confirm, you weren't part of the challenge but failed it anyway? Are you maybe getting the thinking behind this thread confused with a NBD thread? Easily done, I guess. 😁