MartinB

My One10's got black cloth instead of silver - looks great! Also the black is slightly less expensive than any other custom cloth.

It's a useful bit of kit! EQ, pre-amp, overdrive... or all of them at once. Great on guitar too. The "cab sim" (really just fixed low- and high-pass filters) helps to tame rumble and fizz. When I'm using it for overdrive, I like to keep a compressor in front to prevent it getting farty - but that's the case for pretty much any bass OD.

No problem. It actually relieved a bit of GAS, by reminding me what I've already got! 😄 I had the bass knob at about 5:00 (edit - I mean 2:00 🤦‍♂️) on both TC pedals, so they are capable of a bit more low end. The SFT does have something nice going on in the low mids as well though. One thing I will say about the SFT is that it's very touch-sensitive - you only have to play a tiny bit harder to go from "slight breakup" to "fart noises". For me, this makes it hard to use without a compressor in front.

I have three of the pedals that have been mentioned to hand, so here are some very quick-n-dirty Motown impressions: TC Electronic Spark: https://picosong.com/wKSre/ Catalinbread SFT: https://picosong.com/wKSdM/ TC Electronic Mojomojo: https://picosong.com/wKSdi/ Not a comparison as such - I reckon you could dial them in to sound pretty much the same. More like an illustration that they can probably all do the job. It's the Precision, flatwounds, and rolling off most of the tone that gets you 80% of the way there. edit: Wait, no-one mentioned the Spark? Try the Spark! 😄

I don't think you're being picky - it feels weird because it is weird. If they don't have a sense of where the downbeat is (especially the drummer!), I'd be wondering what other surprising... interpretations might be in store 😆

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Squire-Bass-neck/333172205426 I swear the headstock is half the length of the fretboard! Trick of perspective, maybe? Then there's the odd-looking tuners, and the "I think it was made in Indonesia" when it says "Crafted in China" and has a CY serial number... 😆

Microbass, maybe? I've still got one of these from the 90s - it's loud enough to rehearse with a drummer. They don't make 'em like they used to!

Keeley Bassist is superb. The other day I noticed I'd chipped the paint on mine, and just for a second I thought, "Oh no, the resale value!". Then I realised that this is the only pedal I can't imagine ever wanting to sell 😄

I used to take mine off, thinking it might get in the way. But then a couple of times I forgot - which made me realise that it doesn't make any difference.

I use the B string: - as a thumbrest: all the time - to transpose songs downwards for the singer without needing to re-tune: regularly - to move patterns up the neck to make them easier to play: a fair bit - to play songs that were originally in Eb standard tuning or on a 5-string: sometimes - to play any note below a low D : almost never

Spot on - the line out on a Rumble 100 v3 is post-everything. If you turn up the gain/EQ/master on "your" amp, you'll also be increasing the signal to "his" amp. Since the older Rumbles don't have a gain control, this could cause clipping. You'd have the same situation if you used the effects send from the 100. I don't know if the older Rumbles have the same layout - it may be worth trying your bass into the 25, and the preamp out from the 25 into the input of the 100. An alternative might be to split your bass signal in two (e.g. with an ABY pedal), and send it to both amps separately - that way, you and the drummer get full, independent volume control.

I absolutely adore my GHS Precision Flats, but they are the only flatwounds I've tried.

Contradiction in terms 😉

Mint on white 🤤

There are many reasons to play your own thing, and they're not all bad: Because the whole band has completely rearranged the song in a different style, and truly made it their own. Great! If no-one ever did this, musical history would be stagnant. Because the original part is full of variations and was probably improvised, and you're not in a warts-and-all tribute band. And none of those variations are prominent hooks that people will miss. No problem! The only people who'll notice are other bass players 😉 Because the band has had to rearrange the song to work with the instrumentation that you have, and so you're pretending to be a synthesizer or a piano player's left hand. Or there was no bass part to begin with, so you've made up something that fits the style. Okay! Because, as an amateur, you don't have the ability to play it "right" yet - but you're working on it. Fine! Because you're tone-deaf and you genuinely can't tell that you've got it wrong. Understandable! But perhaps music isn't the right hobby for you 😅 Because you think the original part is boring to play, and your own entertainment is more important to you than the audience's. It depends! Do you have taste and restraint, and have you come up with something that is sympathetic and doesn't trample over the song? Hint: Slap bass is never the correct answer! Because you know it's wrong, but you're too lazy to learn it and "the punters won't know the difference". Questionable! Kinda feels like you're insulting both the audience and the original artist 🤨 Because you've just learned how to slap / tap / sweep pick / etc. and you are determined to shoehorn it in wherever possible. Nope! I think that's why this is such a contentious topic whenever it comes up - folks assume we're all talking about the same thing, and some of them take it personally. I don't think anyone's got a problem with cutting down a long song, or repeating bits of a very short one, or making up an ending for something that fades out on the record. That's just practical.

Gear4music have them for £349, which is £50 more than Kenny's but still a damn sight cheaper than anywhere else

Very cool! I'd be a bit concerned about the breakability of the Timing and Mix controls.

If you want to test the waters before splashing out on a boutique pre-amp, these are some budget options: Behringer MIC100 / MIC200 Art Tube MP

True... the crap ends up stuck to the much larger surface area of your pedalboard instead 🧐

So much 80s songwriting was ruined by naff-sounding production that you're almost certainly doing it a favour by rearranging it!

If you're feeling spendy, a Turbo Tuner Mini is as about as fast and accurate as you're gonna get: https://www.turbo-tuner.com/index.htm

Good to know! I guess the moral of the story is "check the measurements"

I have one of these in Satin Pewter Metallic. It's only got 13 screw holes. Haven't tried an official Fender scratchplate, but a generic 13-hole one needed quite a lot of filing around the neck and pickups, and a couple of screw holes had to be moved slightly. Another fun thing about it is that the bridge J pickup is actually a (shorter) neck pickup, so you can't swap in a standard PJ set without routing 🙄. Still a great bass though!

If everyone already has a Google account, then Google Calendar is probably the first thing to try. Otherwise, Teamup Calendar (https://www.teamup.com/) is great because it doesn't require anyone to create an account - you can just generate a unique link to the shared calendar for each band member.

Can't find a band? Start one! You never know how many drummers/guitarists/etc. are out there in the same position as you - waiting for the right band to come along.