Osiris

I personally won't leave home without one, compression has become an essential tool for me, and like you I've been playing and gigging for 30 odd years. Compression is a very decisive issue among bassists, some love it as I do, some people hate it and most people are probably indifferent to it. But as with most things there's no real right or wrong answer, just what works for you. However, I do think compression is widely misunderstood by some people who expect to hear it as an obvious effect - it isn't. Effective compression is subtle and not always obvious, until you turn it off that is! Some people when experimenting with compressors assume that they are not doing anything so tend to set them until they can hear the squash working, the trouble is by that time you have completely squashed the life and dynamics from your bass tone, which seems to be the main complaint from those who do not like them. Less is more with compression. Properly set up they do not kill your dynamics, but allow you a more controlled bass tone that sits better in the mix than an uncompressed one, in my experience at least.

Good shout on the J&D, I played one that @Thunderbird had and it was superb, as you say the neck is great.

I have a Peavey Zodaic, the short lived mid spec one between the basic BXP model and the highest spec Dave Ellefson signature model. Bought it new around 10 to 12 years ago for less than £200. The neck is super slim (it makes Ibanez necks feel like tree trunks ) and the build quality are hardware and faultless. It's still stock other than a Dimarzio model P pickup (and disabling the bridge pup). The only issue that I've had with it is that it needed a fret level on the upper most frets after a few years. Other than that is has been great. I regularly gig it alongside my other (£1K+) basses.

I have been using the G55 for about 3 years now and always have the receiver sat on top of my amp and I've never had any drop outs. However, the receiver is housed in a different casing so maybe there's some additional insulation or whatnot to help shield it from interference from the amp? No idea if the transmitter is the same as the one that comes with the G30, but mine is metal cased and like most of the guys above, I've had issues with the belt clip, mine is metal and very sturdy but virtually impossible to prize apart to slip over my strap. The battery door hasn't caused me any problems but it is a bit fiddly so I can see how it is problematic for some users. To get around both of these issues, I use a mobile phone pouch that came with a Targus laptop bag, it fits the transmitter perfectly and covers the battery door to prevent any issues there. Plus it Velcros onto my strap. It also offers a thin layer of protection to the transmitter when the bass is on the stand as the transmitter tends to be on the floor due to where I've positioned it. And the little corner cut out for the aerial is perfect for the stubby little Line 6 aerial too. I've been trying to find a link to something similar but can't seem to find the pouch on its own. If I find something I'll update this post with a link.

"The white bits on the neck are just masking tape. " And what's with the carving of the bananas (that are presumably mating?) above the bridge pickup?

I was about to chip in with my thoughts and experiences of the Magellan as well as link to my review that I'd posted on Basschat a while ago but @karlfer has beaten me to it In summary, an incredibly versatile amp that is virtually impossible to get a bad sound from. Bags of the elusive heft that folks say is lacking from many class D amps. Oh, and the drive channel is astounding; low gain vintage tube like warmth through to a smooth, rich overdrive that is perfect for Motown and dad rock.

I used to use a little Mark II about 10 years ago and although I thought it sounded great, the trouble I had with it was that the treble eq is voiced at 10 KHz, which for me is too high to add any useful treble frequencies when playing with fingers. It might work great when slapped for that glassy top end, but that's not a sound that I personally use. It's the main reason I moved it on (as well as finding the bass eq voiced at 40 Hz to be too low and only really useful for cutting low end on boomy stages). My guess is that if you feel it's a bit dull it's possibly because the eq is not suitably voiced to give you some useful treble. My preference is for a lower voiced treble, something around 4-6 Khz, which I find works better for brightening things up without getting too shrill. As others have said, maybe try an external pre-amp which can give you more control over the frequencies between the upper mids at 800 Hz and the treble at 10 Khz. I'm also not personally enamoured with the Mark bass cabs, they'e not inherently bad but I too don't find them that exciting tonally, let alone the sunflower aesthetics Someone mentioned earlier about using some compression, which may also help.

https://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Sympathetic_Vibration.html

It sound like whatever is rattling is more susceptible to the relatively higher frequency in that case. But that still doesn't necessarily mean that the cut at 25 Hz is ineffective.

But cutting at 50 Hz would be more noticeable which is why I suspect you found it to be more effective.

Assuming you're playing at in-house volumes, it would be very hard to discern any noticeable audible difference with a cut at 25 Hz. That's not to say that it isn't doing anything though

While this may be true (I'm no expert on these things so I'm quite happy to accept what you say ) I have had some great results using the Ba PEQ model on my Zoom MS-60B for reducing the lowest of the lows with my little 1x12 cab that I use for rehearsals. I use it with my Genzler Magellan 350 which has excellent built in HPF'ing, so it may well be due to the diminutive dimensions of the cab that is the limiting factor, but the speaker seems to 'breathe' more easily, for want of a better description. There isn't a massive impact on the low frequencies other than a subtle tightening up of the low end. It may not be a true HPF but it certainly helps for what I use it for.

No problem, my life is pretty chaotic too Valid point about the notching (is that even a word?) but I have set the Q's wide so hopefully this stops, or at least significantly reduces, any affect on the tone. To my ear there's nothing obviously noticeable. But I have changed my settings since the last post but as I'm at work I can't tell you what they are off the top of my head!

Thank for the the information so far folks. It's proving more difficult to share files between us than we thought (although this may well be down to ignorance of what we are doing) so at the minute the current plan is that I carry on recording ideas on my PC using the Zoom as an interface into Audacity and send him these as m4a files. He's then working out guitar parts and we're recording on his iPad as his interface (can't remember exactly what it is) works just fine with it.

No problem mate

Hey Paul, I've just found these contact details for Hartke UK buried away on their website; Hal Leonard MGB Limited 48 Broadley Terrace Marylebone London NW1 6LG t: +44 (0) 207 395 0382 e: [email protected] web: www.hlmgbdealers.com Countries served: Ireland, United Kingdom Brands represented: Hartke, Samson Audio, Samson Wireless

Agreed. I read a copy of his auto-biography, Anger is an Energy, last year on holiday and although I'm not totally convinced he'd have a pint and a chat with you like Joe Elliott potentially might, he's clearly an intelligent guy who is true to his convictions, and someone who doesn't take any crap from anyone. But I think he suffers from being widely misunderstood and may not get the respect he deserves - whether you agree with some of the things he says or not.

I've never really been a Def Leppard fan but listening to Joe Elliott on his Planet Rock radio show, he just seems to be a genuinely likeable, honest, down to earth bloke. For someone who has sold as many records and been around for as long as he has, he gives off the vibe of someone who'd quite happily have a pint and a chat with you if you were to bump into him in the street. Still not sure that I'll ever be the biggest DL fan though, but he doesn't seem to be your stereo-typical rock star. And for that I've got a ton of respect for the guy.

A mate of mine has approached me with a view to do some writing and recording together and he wants to use the iPad as a portable entry level recording tool. He uses GarageBand, Cubasis and a couple of other apps for drums and guitar amp sims. He's lent me his old iPad so that I can jot down some bass lines and rhythms, the plan being to share ideas between us so the other can work on their parts in their own time. I'll be using my Zoom B3 as a recording interface. This is all new ground for me, the last time I did any recording was around 20 years ago on an old Marantz cassette based portastudio, so we're looking to keep things simple for now before possibly investing and upgrading at a later date if things work out. It looks like I need to buy the Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter, which costs a whopping £39, which I personally think is a lot of money for what is basically a no frills cable. There are cheaper non-Apple versions of the cable on eBay for a far more palatable sum of £10 or so. Has anyone used one? Are they just as good as the official cable or are they a waste of money? Does anyone know of any alternative cables etc that would fit the bill?

Despite having a load of effects it sounds like you'd never use, take a look at the offerings from Zoom (B3, B3n, MS-60B, B1on) if you're not looking to spend several hundred pounds. I have both a B3 and MS-60B and both have numerous tone shaping options available including graphic & fully parametric eq's, pedal style pre-amp models as well as amp modelling, so there's a ton of options to play with. You can use more than one type in a patch too, for example on the B3 you can run 3 different models at once, 4 models at once on the MS-60B and I think the B1on can run 5 at once. I've had great results with them, my personal favourite eq's being the Bass Pre and the AC Bs Pre for general tone shaping and the Ba PEQ for use as a HPF/notch filter. I gig with my MS-60B and while not being the most gig friendly layout if you're looking to change patches all night, for a single set and forget patch (which is how I use mine) it is perfect. You can save patches too so for example if there's a particular venue you play that has a booming stage for example, you can save a patch with the appropriate eq to notch out the problem frequencies. You can even edit the patch name so you can instantly recall it the next time you're there.

My issue with the Aguilar TLC was it's apparent inability to control dynamics. No matter what I did it just didn't give me the subtle compression that I want. Admittedly I didn't try it in a band situation, but being a devout compressor user for many years, I have my ear attuned to the sound that I want and works in a band situation but was unable to get anywhere close to that with the TLC. It was just bland and lifeless, no dynamic control, no punch, not even any likeable tonal colouration - although it claims transparency so that is hardly surprising. The EBS was subtle but at least it did have a degree of dynamic control, albeit one that wasn't for me. All IMO, IME etc etc. Which compression models were you using on the B3n? In what regard did they not meet your needs? I'd argue the opposite, that in a band context compression is more obvious on the bass in so far as it smooths out the peaks and makes the bass more consistent across all the strings and allows it to sit better in the mix, with the caveat that you've set it up properly and don't have any radical eq settings. There are many people who don't like compression but I think this is because it is widely misunderstood, they are expecting it to be an obvious effect like the ones you listed above so they set it up so they can hear an obvious difference. By that time you have squashed the bass tone to within an inch of its life and are left with an unusable bass sound. Less is more with compression. Set it up with the band playing behind you to optimise your settings and it brings the bass to life, IMO.

@ped, am I right in thinking you're a slapper (insert innuendo here)? In which case a limiter is likely to be the more obvious choice. For my heavy handed finger-style compression is my preferred choice.

I've not had this issue myself but I can fully understand how it can easily happen. Just a though, there is a setting somewhere for auto saving any changes you make on the fly, I'm wondering if this is turned off so that when you change patches the unit recalls the last save where a particular effect was turned off instead of the last time you actually used it with the effect in question turned on, if that makes sense? Might be worth a look if only to rule it out as a possibility?

Yes, it can be done easily. See page 10 of the manual. Hope this helps

I didn't know that there were different versions of the EBS pedal, but looking online there does appear to be at least 2 different models. The one I borrowed was the one with the blue stripe graphics like this one, (not the black wiggly line through the blue box like the other one) which is presumably the older of the 2? I tried all of the different modes on the EBS with a variety of active and passive basses and spent an hour or more fiddling about with the internal trim pots. I just couldn't get a sound out of it that I liked - I like subtle compression but the EBS was too subtle for me and didn't have the punch or dynamic control that I like.