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Naetharu
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[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1444765974' post='2885853'] ... and where are we on the 'monstrosities' scale with this..? [url="http://imgur.com/DJWYV0W"][/url] [/quote] Not a bass that suites my personal taste but that wood grain is beautiful. The grain just follows the body shape in a way that I have never seen before - nothing ugly about that one in my opinion. This one on the right however, reminds me of a little shovel you might see a dwarf from one of Tolkein's stories using to bury treasure. Saying that...I kind of like it. Too easily impressed with all the nobs and buttons I think - probably should have been a keyboard player
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Hi folks, In an attempt to become a better bass player I've banned myself from using TAB for the time being and I'm trying to learn songs by ear instead. However, I am finding it quite difficult. Mainly because quite often the bass tracks (at least on noisy rock-style songs) are buried deep in the mix. I've got some good headphones to make sure I can hear things as clearly as possible, but are there any good tips/tricks/systematic methods that I might try to make things a little easier? All the best James
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Up for sale is my Ibanez Sound Gear SR-300 in pearl white (it has a kind of metallic sheen to it). I purchased the bass new around five months ago when I was just starting out playing. It’s a fantastic instrument to play, with a thin fast neck, nice quality finish, light weight and well balanced on the strap. The bass is made from Mahogany, with a five-piece maple/rosewood neck. The fingerboard is rosewood. It’s fitted with the standard Ibanez active pickups and three-band active EQ (Volume/Blend/Bass/Mid/Treble). It has only ever been used in my flat and is in perfect condition. I’ve looked it over carefully and I cannot see any marks on it what-so-ever. When not being played it has always been stored in the Black Rat ABS hard-case show in the photos. I’m selling the bass as I was recently fortunate enough to be able to order myself a custom-built Maruszczyk and to this one has simply become surplus to my needs. It makes more sense for me to move it on to a new home where it’ll get played more than once in a blue moon. I’ve just re-strung it with a set of Warwick Round-Wound medium gauge stings and I’ve replaced the battery in order to make sure that the bass is in great shape ready for whoever takes it on. I’ve also gone over it and checked the relief on the neck and intonation so it’s ready to ‘plug-n-play’. Here are some photos of the bass: I’d prefer collection / face-to-face meet-up as a courier is quite expensive. I’m based in Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex but I’m frequently in Colchester, Chelmsford and Harlow and would be more than willing to meet up or drop off the bass anywhere around those areas. Also, it goes without saying that anyone who is interested in purchasing the bass (or even just fancies a noodle on it regardless) is more than welcome to pop around any time. No pressure or obligation to purchase what-so-ever. I’ve tried to include some good photos but if anyone would like more information, better/different pictures, a quick chat on Skype or just about anything else along these lines please feel free to PM me. Also, if anyone wanted the hard-case to go with the bass I am willing to sell that for an additional £20 (i.e. £170 for the bass & hard-case) All the best James -
[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1444692470' post='2885180'] I believe the guy from Avenged Sevenfold uses a Sansamp of some kind [/quote] He (Johnny Christ - gotta love those hair-metal names >.< ) actually uses an MXR-M80 into a GK 2001RB. Found out thanks to Premier-Guitar doing a 'rig rundown' of his stuff. That was where I first got the idea that a pre-amp pedal might well be what I am after. I just want to check the options out before I leap for the MXR one. The Darkglass B7K is certainly looking tempting at the moment too - saw a wonderful demo video of it on YouTube by Patrick Hunter (great bass cover videos btw if anyone feels like checking them out). [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpOeLqBnVSg[/media] [Quote] [Quote] I think that he meant pedal>power amp>cab [/Quote] Oh I see... sorry I haven't had any coffee yet this morning. [/Quote] Aye, I was thinking more in terms of my personal rig here, but it's actually really helpful to know that you gig with just the pre-amp/DI too. Do you not find that you have issues with monitoring on stage that way or do you have some other means of hearing your own sound while playing?
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Buying a used bass.... the Truss rod; do you check it?
Naetharu replied to Grangur's topic in Bass Guitars
[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1444679653' post='2885081'] Interesting answers, but isn't asking about the function of the TR a bit like asking about a car: "Oh, er, and does the engine work?" [/quote] The difference being however, that (I would hope) most car owners would be aware of the importance of their engine and its current state. By contrast, I would imagine quite a lot of bass-players may have only a passing awareness of their truss-rod's purpose and may not have used/tested it in years. It's quite possible that someone could sell you a bass as 'perfect condition' with a busted truss rod because it never even occurred to them to check it was working. Asking directly would at least eliminate the chance of being sold a duff bass due to someone's honest lack of understanding. As a testament to this, I had the misfortune to try a bass owned by the guitarist in my band a few weeks back. He kindly offered to bring it along to save me carting a bass around town all day. Upon seeing the thing it was clear that the neck would have made a far better boomerang than a musical instrument. It soon came to light that he had no idea what a truss rod even was. He's not a newbie to guitar either - great at playing music but no technical knowledge what-so-ever. -
Buying a used bass.... the Truss rod; do you check it?
Naetharu replied to Grangur's topic in Bass Guitars
I've not asked about this when buying basses but actually I kind of feel I should have. I'll certainly do so in future if in any doubt at all. [quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1444664016' post='2884885'] Imagine, in a shop, 'Excuse me do you have some tools so I can adjust this truss rod? Just a little tweak.'' I don't think so. [/quote] I'd have to disagree - I'd be perfectly fine asking them to demonstrate that it works. I'm sure they would want to do it themselves rather than let me get my paws on it but if they outright refused I'd walk. Same with a private sale - if I was selling a bass and someone asked to check the truss-rod I'd offer to demonstrate it working for them. I'd not let them do it themselves since I'd be worried they could be a 'prize special' and try and doing a 1080 spin on it and bust the neck. But I'd have no issue demoing the rod being moved in order to confirm the bass was in good working order. -
Hi folks, I had a band practice tonight where our lead guitarist turned up with his new 'axe'. It's a BC Rich he picked up for a chuckle and has to be one of the craziest shaped guitars I've seen in a long time. One of these: So anyhow, this got me wondering about crazy shaped basses. Do any of you own ones that, like this tasteful instrument above, should only be used while wearing spandex and sporting a poodle perm? I'd be most interested to hear about (and pref see pics!) of anything you have along these lines.
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Hard call really since it's a pure matter of personal taste. I'm keen on the block & binding look for the most part - it just looks a bit more classy and finished to my eyes. I find this especially true with sun-burst and natural finish basses. Anyhow, looking forward to seeing your finished bass soon!
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Cheers for all the great advice folks! It's been really helpful seeing what you have to say about them. [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1444656309' post='2884805'] Don't buy blind (or should that be deaf?), go out and meet real bassists and try their stuff out. [/quote] Great advice there - I may just have to put out a call to see if any kind souls are willing to let me noodle some metal riffs on their gear. It's just a case of finding the time to do it as the days are busy and the evenings taken up with band-practices at the moment in preparation for a big gig at the end of the month. Out of interest, would anyone recommend skipping a proper amp and simply using a pre-amp pedal into a PA/Power-Amp?
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Just to lob another option into the pot I'm going to mention the Ampeg SCR D.I./Pre-amp pedal While on the more expensive end of the options here (circa £200 at the moment) they are pretty fantastic. I tried one out today and it's [b]very [/b]impressive as a headphone amp. I was able to directly compare it to an SVT-Pro going into a 4 x 10 SVT cab and the results were good. Obviously the headphones sound different than a live amp but it is very close tonally and by far the most impressive headphone amp I have yet to use. Add that it also works as a full blown pre-amp and D.I. box for those non-headphone practice sessions / jams / gigs and the price tag looks very reasonable. Depends on what you are looking for in the end and what your budget is, but if you're after a more authentic bass tone then you could do a lot worse than one of these.
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You're a star! Cheers bud
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Hi folks, So I have myself one of Zoom's MS60-B pedals. Now I am probably being really dumb here but I cannot figure a way to switch all of the effects on/off at once. Is there a way to do this? My situation with it is as follows - I have a song with a breakdown in the middle during which I need some delay and synth sound but for the rest of the track both before and after the breakdown I want to simply bypass the pedal and have my normal bass tone. Now when I set the pedal up the foot-switch only works with whichever effect is on the screen display. So, for example, if I have a patch with both a Synth and a delay I can turn one or the other on/off but not both at once, which is not much use to me. I've looked at the manual and googled it as best I can but I cannot see any clear mention of this issue - I assume I am just being really silly so apologies in advance for that. All the best James
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[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1444548816' post='2883895'] Northants is not easy to find bands in unless you are prepared to travel. Joinmyband is the most popular site here, but you might need to post an advert in surrounding counties, too. The size of Northampton notwithstanding, it is a very rural and un-diverse county. [/quote] This sounds like solid advice to me - I live in a very rural area (turn left out of my front door and all you can see is 10 miles of fields and nature reserve before you finally hit the sea) but there are bands around if you're willing to travel. It takes me about 90 mins to travel to band practice each week but it's completely worth it. Also, don't dismiss bands based on their self-proclaimed sound - a good band will let you help shape that sound and one metal band can be very different from the next and so forth. I ended up joining a 'prog-rock/metal' band here which was about the last thing I was looking for. You were far more likely to find me listening to Bonny Prince Billy and The Mountain Goats these days than anything close to 'metal' yet I've found it a complete blast. On the one hand it's really given me a newfound appreciation for metal as a style of music. At the same time the guys I play with are great chaps and more than willing to let me contribute with ideas etc. so I feel I get to help shape the sound / songs too. Get out there and have a crack playing with a few bands - you might just be surprised how much fun it is regardless of the style label they place on their music. Edit: I just thought I would add that in my experience getting out playing with a band is a great way to meet other musicians and get chances to play in all manner of stuff. If my local area is anything to go by then loads of the bands / musicians know one another and so this is a great way to make some solid contacts which may in turn open up more chances to playing something along the lines of what you have in mind for the long run.
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Done Good luck with everything - I'll keep my eyes out for your pedals!
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Hi folks, I'm new to this idea of a DI-box/Pre-amp and so I am hoping that you might be able to give me a few pointers to help me along. I'm after something that can offer me the following features: Balanced Line-out with ground-lift as the line-out from my amp is horrid (lots of unwanted white noise) A good flexible EQ that will allow me to get some gritty boosted mid-frequencies to cut through the noisy guitars Some nice overdrive / fuzz / distortion that I can subtly blend into my clean signal to give a growl The addition of an Aux-in / Headphone out would be a great bonus but I can live without that if there was a great box that had all the above features nailed. At the moment the boxes I have been considering are: (1) MXR M80: http://www.thomann.de/gb/mxr_m80_bass_di_plus.htm (2) Darkglass BK7: http://www.thomann.de/gb/darkglass_microtubes_b7k_bass_overdrive.htm (3) Ampeg SCR DI: http://www.thomann.de/gb/ampeg_scr_di.htm I'm kind of torn between them and I'm finding it hard to get a good comparison video / review. Does anyone here have experience with these and perhaps could give me some indication of how impressive (or not) they are when used both live into an amp and direct into a mixing desk? I'm especially interested in how effective you found the EQ shaping and whether or not the over-driven sounds on them were usable for getting the kind of mild grit you hear from the likes of Johnny Christ's bass work with Avenged Sevenfold. Also, if you happen to know of any other similar DI/Pre-amp pedals that I could consider I would be really interested to know about them and hear your thoughts. It's pretty confusing to me at the moment so any guidance you can offer would be great. All the best James
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Hi folks, I have an MXR M87 compressor for sale here. It's in 'like new' condition save for the addition of two Velcro strips on the underside.I'm asking [b]£115 [/b]for it. It comes complete with the original box and manual. The price also includes insured shipping to anywhere in the UK - please contact me first if you would like it shipped outside of the UK as I would need to check what the shipping cost would be. I'm also more than happy for anyone to pop around to try it out first if you happen to be in Essex. No obligation to purchase at all I'm sure most of you know all about the M87 but for anyone unfamiliar here is a link to a nice little video offering a quick demo of the pedal: [media] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sstKZ-Rilc [/media] Here are some photos of the actual pedal along with all of box and paperwork stuff: [b]Trades[/b]: I'm selling the compressor to raise some funds to purchase an MXR M80 DI box so if anyone has one of these in 'as new' or 'very good' condition and would like to trade I would certainly be open to that too. All the best James
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Hi folks, Please place all of your comments on business dealings with me here
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Welcome! You sound like you're pretty much in the same boat as me. 31 years old too and just started playing this year having previously only noodled around on guitar in my teens. These forums have been utterly invaluable to me so far so I advise you to ask loads of questions as you'll always get tons of great advice. Great bass btw! I've yet to play one but on looks alone it has to be one of the coolest basses ever what kind of music are you into? On a side note you mention you've not yet got an amp. I thought I would mention these B3 pedals from zoom: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/zoom_b3.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/zoom_b3.htm[/url] They are a lot cheaper than even a modest practice amp and you can use them with headphones. They come with loads of amp-models, cab sims, effects and such as well. Added to that you also get a load of drum tracks built in and you can run an mp3-player into them to play along with which makes practicing so much easier. If there was one thing I could do different six months back when I was in the same place you are now it would have been to grab one of these as my first 'amp' rather than faffing around with practice amps. Even better is that if you decide to get big amp for playing in a band sometime then the B3 will make a great live tool too so no cash wasted.
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Right now the tone I'm in love with is that used by Avenged Sevenfold's Johnny Christ. I believe it's an MXR-M80 running into a GK 2001RB head and it just sounds fantastic. Wonderful example in their classic 'Bat Country' for anyone not familiar with the band. [media]http://youtu.be/kr0ynt4CCG8[/media]
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Hi folks, I'm wondering if any of you use a keyboard workstation for song-writing / demo making rather than a computer based DAW? I've been playing around with Pro-Tools and REAPER but I would really like something a bit more portable and quick to use so that I can bring it along to the practice studio for writing sessions. Has anyone got experience with the Korg Kross workstation for this purpose? I understand that the Kross allows for actual audio tracks to be recorded onto it in addition to the usual midi stuff, so I could in theory lay down my bass tracks onto it and then use the synth & sequencer to fill out the other parts. I'm very interested to know how easy / effective the audio recording onto the Kross is. If anyone has experience using one in this way I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. All the best James
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There are a few good options. If cost is an issue Vox do a little device called an Amplug which sockets directly into the bass and allows for an mp3 in too. Runs on batteries and even has some drum patterns built in. The down side is that the build quality is aweful and they are notorious for breaking. Another option would be a di box of some kind. My money would be on a zoom b3 as for the price you'd get a looper, rhythem tracks loads of amp models and it would double up as a handy pedal for live stuff too. Or you could just go for a class D amp. I use an Ashdown MiBass for just this reason. It can run without a cab connected and has a dedicated line in volume control. Many (but not all) other class d heads will also offer aux in and headphone sockets for silent practice.
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Aye, flats are wonderful sounding - kind of smoother yet punchy at the same time. I'm actually using La-Bella black nylon flats now and they're a dream. Given I play in a prog/metal band perhaps not the obvious choice but they just cut through the mix wonderfully and the tone really compliments the harsher sounds of the driven guitars.
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I picked up one of these a few months back and they are lovely instruments. Very light and well balanced so good for your back, and they sound really nice. One thing I especially love about mine is the slap sound - it just has the most fantastic percussive 'click' to the sound that I've yet to find on any other bass. Hard to explain but no doubt you'll know what I mean the second you try your new one. Anyhow, congrats on the new bass!