MartinB

Black's the best of the those options, but would look better with black pickup covers. A plain white that matched the covers would also work. There's too much going on with the control plate to have a pattern on the scratchplate as well, IMO.

Ooooh... sparkly! 🤩

https://www.thomann.co.uk/tech_21_progr_sansamp_bass_driver_di.htm
 

3 settings, 3 buttons. You're paying a fair bit for simplicitly, mind. It'd be a lot cheaper to buy three of these and tape them together:

Edit:
 

Quote

Id like a pedal that would allow me to run a SVT cl sound and add fuzz, distortion or boost etc

I'm asssuming that "etc" means varying levels of drive, and not other stuff like phaser / delay / bitcrusher - in which case you would need a multieffects pedal

On 24/01/2025 at 08:12, SumOne said:

But I suppose it is like 'what is the best food/bike/car etc' in that there isn't a definitive answer, depends on specific tastes and needs.

Exactly! If you tell us about some songs where you've heard the sort of tone that you're after, it'll help you get more focused replies

The distance between the nut and the saddle hasn't changed, the unit weight of the string hasn't changed, and the tuning hasn't changed, so the tension must be the same. The string length behind the nut or saddle acts like a spring - when you push on the main part of the string, it may stretch a little and allow a bit more "give". So in theory, your strings should feel more loose/bendy/compliant because you've added length behind the saddle. But since we're talking ~1cm of difference, it's probably not even noticeable.

Genz Benz Shuttle 9.2
Keeley Bassist

I absolutely love Rocksmith 2014/Remastered. Hundreds of hours on bass and guitar, and I've never even touched CDLC yet. I imagine that being able to read sheet music at a high level gives you a similar sort of experience, in that you're able to skip the "learn the song" part and jump straight to "play the song". Without Rocksmith, I'm not sure I would ever have knuckled down and practiced consistently enough to be confident in auditioning for bands.

What they've done with Rocksmith+ is a tragedy.

8 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

I wonder if the Aliexpress version is like the Gear4music version. I spent ages trying to  get the stereo in on XLR working, brought new cables, even sent the first one back and got a replacement (actual they said to keep the first one as it wasn't worth the cost of sending it back). Neither seems to be wired, or at least working, for stereo XLR. The middle 1/4 works fine in both modes. SameXLR cables on the P2 work as expected.

Here's what I found:

Source		Connector	Mode	Output
======		=========	====	======

Stereo		XLR		Mono	Mono
Stereo		XLR		Stereo	Stereo
Stereo		TRS		Mono	Mono
Steroo		TRS		Stereo	Stereo

Balanced mono	XLR		Mono	Mono
Balanced mono	XLR		Stereo	???
Balanced mono	TRS		Mono	Mono
Balanced mono	TRS		Stereo	???

Not sure what's going on with a balanced mono source on the Stereo setting. It's doesn't sound the same as Mono - it's quieter but "wider". Possibly it's panning one signal to each side, which then results in weirdness because each ear is out of phase with the other?

Or ESP

I've got both the Behringer P2 and the Aliexpress version now. The Behringer claims

Quote

Integrated current limit protects your ears and headphone

but both units will turn up to unholy volumes with no suggestion of any kind of limiting. I saw a post elsewhere suggesting that this is really more about protecting the amplifier from being damaged by short circuited headphones than protecting the user's hearing.

So a no-score draw there. The battery access, belt clip and mono-stereo are definitely better on the Aliexpress job, though to be fair Behringer "inherited" their design from Fischer so it's not strictly their fault 😆. Weights are very similar. Behringer is slightly smaller in cross-section. The locking input on both applies only to XLR cables - a TRS will pull right out of there.

Don't get me wrong - I like a nice tort. That one just isn't a nice tort 😆. It's dull, and too red to go with the blue paint. I'd want a much darker brown with more pattern  - but an off-white pickguard would be better still.

2 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

This one is bad. Hutchins Beachcomber. Nothing flows and the whole thing looks a bit lumpy. 

 

Aside from the ugly tort, I think this one's pretty decent. It follows the outline of the body properly, unlike a lot of the disasters in this thread. Just needs a little tweak in the area next to the neck:

It looks way more interesting this way than it would if the screw holes had been filled & painted and it was just a flat mass of colour

13 hours ago, Twigman said:

Eastwood EEB-1      ( Ampeg AEB-1 copy) I actually quite like it - anyone know what the neck feels like?  I'm tempted.

As someone who mostly plays Jazz necks, the word I would use is "chunky"

On 10/12/2024 at 22:44, meterman said:

I haven't got any decent pictures of it, but surely someone's going to post the original cut-down homemade bass that Bill Wyman made (Dallas-Arbiter with the frets pulled out?) in the early 60's that had a hilariously bad DIY pickguard.
 

Same goes for some of the early (late 50's / early 60's UK made basses. And some late 60's or early 70's plywood MIJ basses too. The pre-lawsuit "we're not really sure what we're doing but we're doing it anyway" ones. Teisco were repeat offenders.

 
 

Italian company Meazzi also made some pretty wild looking basses, the Jupiter models in particular. I sort of admire their Italian bonkers-ness in a way.

These are pretty cool! Also:

The figure-8 cable I was looking at (https://custom-lynx.co.uk/product/2sj-2sj-_-rean/) says the following:
 

Quote

Figure 8 Audio Cable
• Flexible, Noiseless, Oxygen Free Cable
• Copper Screen 38 x 0.10mm per conductor
• Copper Spiral Shielding
• 8.2mm O.D (4.1mm O.D per side)
• Flexible PVC Jacket
• 24 AWG

Think I'll just get one and see what's what, since I've got a use for it elsewhere if this idea doesn't pan out. My Aliexpress "P2" should be here this afternoon - will give it a test to see if it really does have a limiter or not.

2 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

The links are all in the opening posts - but admittedly, this one was out of date.

 

If you are handy with soldering, heres the cable you need - https://www.sommercable.com/en-gb/Instrument-Cable-TRICONE-SYMASYM-1-x-2-x-0-14-mm2-PVC-11.3-x-11.3-mm-black/301-1101#neonCfg=pulength::pu100

Yep, I saw that - thanks! That's what the made-up Designacable one uses. I'm wondering whether there's a middle ground between this premium option, and lashing together separate mono and stereo cables.

I'm looking at options for a single cable with the unbalanced mono bass signal going one way, and a stereo or balanced-mono signal coming the other way and into a headphone amp (Behringer P2 or similar).

The pre-made options seem quite spendy:
- Ernie Ball Instrument And Headphone Cable ~£60

- Designable Combo Cable for IEM Systems ~£80

Plus they need an additional patch cable to connect to the headphone amp.

Could the same thing be achieved more affordably by using a dual TRS cable? e.g. this for ~£15

The second core (Ring) on the connection from the bass would be unused; if this was going to cause an issue (e.g. with an active bass that uses a stereo socket for switching), it ought to be simple enough rewire those plugs to join Ring and Sleeve.

Does this seem viable, or am I missing something? Possibly something to do with shielding and grounding?

You could try using the "Ba PEQ" (parametric equaliser) effect to see if there's a specific range of frequencies that sound harsh to you. Set Q1 to maximum and Gain1 to minimum, and then adjust Freq1 while playing. This will be removing a narrow band of frequencies, so when you find a spot that makes the pickups sound, you can try reducing Q1 to make it wider and Gain1 to make it less dramatic.
If you're having trouble finding the offending range, try setting Gain1 to maximum instead, and twiddle the frequency until it really emphasises the bad sounds - then you can turn the gain down to knock them out.

Yeah I figured it was most likely identical - just odd that they don't mention it. I'll give it a test when it arrives 🙂

Do the AliExpress versions have a limiter like the Fischer/Behringer?

You may need to look at "other sellers" to see the £18.99 deal - I was shown the more expensive price by default

We've had all these arguments before - it's time to shuffle them around for new and exciting match-ups:
Pick vs. 5-string

Tort vs. rounds
"Play it like the record" vs. active
etc.

This might be a stupid question, but how does a "passive gain boost" work? Some sort of transformer wizardry?
Or more likely that the "normal" position is attenuated, so that the "boost" is comparatively louder?