andruca

More photos, PLEASE!

Voilá, I'm GUYKERed, for good. These blow the Barts out of the (indistinct) mud. These are single coils and Barts are wired in single coil here too (they are MUCH WORSE than you hear here stock, in series). Only con is the Guykers have less gain, so I've recorded both passive and active with a +6db connection the onboard has (still, flat EQ). It compensates for the colder pickups. Didn't move any gain nor relative volumes between changes, so the volume proportion is faithful.

'round here they're nowhere to be seen used, I think I've only seen a 1505MS offered some months ago in my usual 2nd hand online outlets. I just guess the pickups might be a turnoff. I got fed up within 3 days of having the bass, then rewired them for good.

Hi y'all! Just 2 weeks ago I wouldn't have even imagined I'd ever own a bass like this. I accidentally ran into an ad for an Ibanez EHB1005MS for less than half the new price (presumably because of an issue with a tuner). I made my homework, checked for monorail bridge+tuner prices and made sure I could repair whatever issue for cheap, and pulled the trigger, with MOSTLY questions (many firsts, first headless, first multiscale, first bass with the horrible Bart BH2s, etc.), but that of the "investment", being that cheap, if I don't happen to like it I can get rid of it losing no money, or even earning some. On a side note, I've been looking for a cheap travel bass. I know this is not as cheap as I'd wanted, but it's a hell of a travel bass (as per dimensions) and much more, a perfectly competent instrument. The bass happened to work OK, no tuner problem, 100% user error AFAICT. I don't know what string gauges were on that bass, but they were THICK, and the SUPOSED G string measured thicker than my regular (.065) D. Being that the scale for that string is 33", you will always max out the tuner threading before reaching pitch. WIth my usual strings it works perfectly and I have lots of threading left in the tuner. BTW, no need for weird string sets on this bass either. The same as a Schecter CV-5 I used to own, my usual Warwick Red Label Nickels are long enough, there's about 1cm of string winding left past the nut. Surprisingly I like the bass a lot. Plays wonderfully and has lots of nice features. It has 2 problems tho', one's stupid, the other is a REAL problem. The stupid thing has to do with fret markers. The front markers apparently aren't for the player, as you CAN'T SEE THEM, the low B string completely covers them from your viewpoint when playing. The side Luminlay dots are nice... IN THE DARK, AS IN NATURAL LIGHT THEY GET COMPLETELY LOST. I don't rely on markers much, but being this my 1st multiscale I'd love to have clear markers for the upper register, where frets are more tilted, at least while I adapt, as I occasionally might get lost. Nothing some stickers won't correct. Now the real issue with this bass is the crappy Bart BH2s (not real Bartolinis, but a "licensed copy" some chinese manufacturer produces for Ibanez), which come wired in series and sound totally DEAD (excessively and unnaturally scooped). I don't have a problem using a soldering iron, so I rewired both as single coils (neck side coil of each PU). I don't discard going the Nordy Big Splits route in the future, but the change to single coils at least made that necessity les urgent, it's the only way I find these BH2 pickups acceptable, they're beyond crappy. It's silly that Ibanez offers this bass with such poor pickups (IDK about you, but I DON'T PAY 1200-1300€ FOR DEAD PICKUPS). But also, the next EHB/MS model up is simply paying 200-300$/€ more for just pretty wood, USELESS. You have to pay 500$/€ more to get Nordstrands (plus the useles fancy wood, guess you can't avoid that). Just don't get it, my Sire V3, at 1/3 the new price, has 10X better pickups. I insist, once rewired to single coil the bass sounds a lot better. Not as good as the demos I hear with Nordstrands, but definitely a "normal" usable bass guitar. The rest of the bass is awesome, comfortable, light, steel frets, the finishing, the neck profile (sorta' D, but as skinny front to back as SRs), the roasted maple, the birdseye in the fretboard, I even find the aesthetics on this graceful, or let's say it could be worse (it could also be a single cut, for the ultimate aberration). Here's a clip I've recorded with the EHB, a song by Argentinean supergroup Divididos. The EHB here does a great "impersonation" of the original neck pickup Jazz Bass tone, with highs cut and lows slightly boosted. My stable looks like this now...

I haven't tried the RainSel, but AFAIK, when you use the stock LineSel effect you just bypass the rest of the chain (after the LineSel) when it's on. With the RainSel it's the same, you just have 2 extra parameters to blend in dry signal (from the input) and wet signal (so far int he chain, remember everything after the RainSel is bypassed). The stock LineSel is simply ment to do the bypassing. You get your sound, as wet as it might be right before the LineSel.

V2 works fine. Windows will just just ask you to exhaustion if it's legit, but it should run.

Just early this week I laid down 2 bass tracks for my band (fast melodic HC), both in drop D. Really like the tone. Jazz Bass definitely, but more aggressive and "glassier" highs. And it plays amazing. Will link a drums+bass sample once I have one.

Oh, yes, just go to the folder C:\Program Files(with or without "x86" and there should be a directory "ZoomEffectManager", and inside there's a .EXE file for ZEM. Create a shortcut to it and move it to the desktop. Went thru' the same when I installed, just didn't remember that when answering before, sorry.

AFAIK it's legit. I use it often and have version 2.1.1 (latest, released feb-2023) since some 6 months ago. Works great, even let me convert my MS-60B to an MS-50G (6 FX slots, it will do that too). The download page is https://zoomeffectmanager.com/en/download/ Make sure no antivirus/antimalware rule is blocking your download.

After my last acquisition (the flying samurai Yammie) I think my collection is gonna be stable for some time now. L to R: Epiphone EB-0, 2003&1997 EBMM Stingray5s, 2011 MIK Warwick Pro Series Star Bass 5, Harley Benton P bass kit (now a fretless 5 string PJ), Harley Benton PB-20, Sire V3 5er, 2000 Yamaha SBV-500.

Standard 34" scale. Looks small, I know, even my Stingray5s look like guitars on me 🤣

Hi everyone 😘 I've been good in 2023, so the Three Wise Men brought me a 2000 made in Taiwan Yamaha SBV-500, which I had been craving for the last decade or so. Bass came from Japan for a great price. It's in good condition, has a small (non structurally compromising) crack going on from the E string tuner screw, apparently repaired (doesn't move and closer inspection reveals what looks like a glue line). Also it had a lot of surface rust on polepieces and screws (pickguard, pickups). Looked like it lived in a demanding environment (highly humid or beach zone, I guess). Nothing to worry too much about. I scraped it all away with sime sandpaper and steel wool (only steel wool for the polepieces). Also swapped the factory knobs (which I don't like) for those chickenheads. Took some time to scrub the back of the neck with some scotchbrite pads too, not that the finish was sticky bright, but it's even nicer to play now. Also I shielded the bass cavities. This is the 3rd bass I shield (did it to a G&L L-1505 and a cheap parts Jazz before). I WON'T DO IT AGAIN, NOT WORTH IT, no results really, hum reduction is negligible or inexistent. The sounds amazing. It's like a more aggressive Jazz Bass tone. Has a really skinny sharp C profiled neck (less than 20mm thick @fret 1), which makes it also play awesome. Here's some pictures (or it didn't happen)... This is how she looked all rusty... Thihs is how it came out after cleaning rust... This is the aforementioned crack... Time and coper tape miserably wasted... Detail of the scrub work on the back of the neck... And last, but not least, a bass cover vid (very appropriate song for the bass), so you can hear how it sounds...

Holy... Z7! I owned a SBMM Ray35 for over a year. I expect that Z7 to be better. My Sire V3 5er is definitely same quality league, at 1/3 the price new. Now, "P style"? Why?

There should be no difference in fact. Just higher headroom => lower distortion, which is not an issue if your pickups' gain don't clip the onboard preamp in the first place. Some claim a cleaner/richer tone, that's exactly how lack of distortion sounds to me. Some poorly designed/fitted onboards do benefit from the 18V upgrade. Most if not all are designed to work with a wide power supply range, so manufacturers/builders/upgraders decide whether to prescribe 9 or 18V based on the output gain of their pickups of choice. I know a couple examples of instruments with onboard preamps clipping from factory. One is most entry level Sterling By Musicmans. You don't even have to boost anything to get them to distort (in an ugly non-musical way), you're out of headroom just by digging in. The other is the Q-mix some Yamaha BBs used to come equipped with. Slightly boosting anything would make mine (2 BB-615s I owned) fart. They stopped distorting when fed 18V (the preamp still sucked, ended up swapping both for ~20€ 3-band Artecs, WAY better, and OK at 9V). So. If your EMGs were already clean sounding the gain might perfectly be, as you've experienced, close to none.

That was only because I already had the hole in there. Otherwise I would've gone with a single 22nF cap (my fave value for passive tone).

My finest upgrades are probably in my Star Bass. Got a MIK ProSeries Star Bass 5 for real cheap in 2020. First thing I changed was the stupid strap pin at the heel. Relocated it to the upper horn. It helped both with neckdive and most important with the bass facing down when strapped thru' said heel located pin (can't describe how much this sucks, sucks the same in my Epi EB0, but it's somewhat more tolerable due to its nimbleness). I drilled a pilot hole... ...filled the tip of the upper horn with epoxy using a syringe, then screwed the the pin in and left it headstock down to cure. Absolutely solid. I managed to take this photo of the inside of the horn with a mirror and a mobile phone thru the upper f-hole. You can see the solidified pool of epoxy and the tip of the pin screw back there. Then I also added an "armrest" to play more comfy when seated. Yes, it's crappy foamy rubber cornering, the kind you put on furniture edges/corners when you have little kids. Comfy a/f to play seated now. Finally, I don't like VVTT at all, so I changed it to a VVT arrangement, with a tone cap selector rotary switch (values 10, 20, 32, 43 & 57 nF), much more useful now. Chickenhead knob for the win! I also did a mod to both my Stingray5s (both pre-2008, 3-coil ceramic pickups) to be able to use the neckside coil on its own (from factory, the single coil -plus phantom- position gets the bridge side coil sounding). With the use of a 4PDT switch I swap the bridge for the neck coil and also invert its coils/change its phase (so that it'll still be humcancelling with the phantom coil). Barely noticeable in terms of timbre to the untrained ear. Made a world of difference to me (was using the single coil position, now this is definitely MY Stingray5 tone). It's like a slightly P'ish Musicman (a more mid/lo-mid focused tone), close to the series tone, but throatier. You can hear al 4 positions here, the 3 stock ones and the neckside coil one.

Finished adding support for 1 Series (G1/B1ON/XON, custom firmware or not) and G Series (G3/G3X/B3, these can't be customized). So far tested with models MS50G, MS60B, MS70CDR, B3, G1XON and B1XON. Should work with G3/G3X/G1ON/B1ON too but I haven't tested them yet. Will test G3 when I get mine back in some days and I think I also have access to a B1ON from a friend (that could allow for G1ON testing too, with a firmware swap on Zoom Effect Manager). ZOOMIDO-UTILS Just a backup/restore/organize tool for your G/MS/1 series patches, no matter if your firmware is custom/hacked or not.

I've owned both a ZOOM BFX-708 and a 708II back when they were released. The 708II was a great piece of gear. Sounded great given enough tweaking and it had outrageous features, such as the non volatile samples (in a SmartMedia card, brilliant for its time). I had been using the 708II for bar gigs (+ a combo) for years, until I got an MS-60B as a gift from my wife in 2015. From then on I only gigged live with that Zoom and whichever amp (provided or mine) or even (lately) no amp at all. As time passed I also got a B3, a G3, a G1Xon, then an MS-50G (and also a B1Xfour, which I don't use much, prefer how the G3/B3/MS/on stuff sounds). All of them (except the B3/G3) are hacked inside and out. My MS-60B indeed has been recently converted to an MS-50G (6 FX slots and all, yes, Zoom Effect Manager version 2 on can do that). I have set up a ONE STOP SITE for everything Zoom effect hacking, both for the MS/on generation and for the more recent n/four models. As an example, my G1Xon (least memory available for effects) has 163 effects in it. My MS-50G holds 177 as of today. Usually it's everything relevant for bass & guitar (amps, drive, EQ, dynamics) and some selection within the the MOD/SFX/DLY/REV types. Check that out as you might find your Zoom is capable of way more than you believe. Also have recently added some patch export/import/copy/move/swap Python scripts to at least be able to backup/restore stuff on devices with custom firmware (no available editor/librarian will do that, at least this way I can backup/restore/reorganize my custom firmware patches). (photo of my usual live setup, wireless->Zoom->DI)

One more thing I've progressed into. I've been forever frustrated due to the lack of a proper editor/librarian that will work with devices with hacked/custom firmware. No existent app will handle effects "foreign" to the connected model (not even a browser/js app that claims to do so -even has a checkbox to indicate your firmware is custom-, I've exhaustively tested it, doesn't work either). I didn't even need an editor. I edit my patches in my Zooms. But I definitely needed a BACKUP/RESTORE tool. So finally I had a go at it. I used a collection of Python functions from https://github.com/PhilDaThrill/MultistompMidi and so far came up with a series of Python scripts for simple tasks, such as: - switch to a certain patch # - copy a certain patch # to another position - swap 2 patches with each other - export a certain patch # to a file - import a file to a certain patch # - activate/deactivate the tuner (useles for my purposes, just for testing purposes) The patch handling is RAW, I mean, TOTALY "BLIND" TO WHAT'S INSIDE PATCHES, scripts don't care if the effect mentioned in a certain patch belongs in the connected device model or not. For my needs (backup, restore, patch reordering) these scripts are more than enough. But you're welcome in case you want to go deeper and develop a full fledged editor/librarian (I'd use it, for sure). So far these work only with MS50G, MS60B & MS70CDR, but next thing I'll do is add B1/G1on/Xon support (as soon as I have some time to play with these and my G1Xon). Utility scripts are thoroughly commented, so anybody can take it from there and make their own thing. Still, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. My utility scripts won't brick your device, but they can sure mess with your patches if you screw up the params enough.

Sorry for the "threadsurrection". Just a few days ago I found out version 2 of the Zoom Effect Manager can install a "foreign" firmware into your device (provided hardware is the same). So, I installed latest version (2.1.1, from early 2023) and now my MS-60B is an MS-50G, 6 FX slots and all. I have an MS-50G I bought last year, and had degraded the MS-60B to backup/home duties. Now they're twins. Then there's new unofficial effects included: RTFM & Div0 (together they make separate processing of left and right input signals possible in the MS-70CDR), RainSel (like the LineSel but with a dry/wet balance when on), BaPEQ NoiseMod (the good old 2-band bass para EQ but modified to reduce some high noise that could show up in certain circumstances). Also includes OCDrive, Parallel Reverb, ROUGHVERB from MS-100BT (removed for copyright reasons, later reissued as Dynamic Drive, DualRev and LOFI Rev). Last, but not least, ZEM 2 does some "compression" on effect files (apparently removes debugging data) so they take up some 20% less memory. That way, both my MS-50G and "re-firmwared" MS-60B are now home to 177 effects (in my case an assortment of bass and guitar effects), at 100% memory usage according to the app. I have mixed guitar/bass FX list files (.zem) for all models of the MultiStomp/on/Xon generation in my resource compilation site on the subject. All are using the whole memory for each device (ranges from 163 to 182 effects, depending on model). Amazed at this expansion in functionality. The "alien" firmware thing is only really useful for the MS-60B, due to its silly 4 pedal slots limitation (I'd just prefer DSP limit to be the judge). I just wish my B3 (3 slot misery) was hackable like this.

Mine is simple. Sort of a Jino Stingray5, like the Jino Jazz, but starting from a Stingray5, with 2 added J pickups. A 5 string Jino Jazz would be a nice step forward, but I prefer the ergonomics, neck profile and 3-band preamp in my ceramic Stingray5s to anything else.

I've used mostly 5 string basses since 1993, some 4 years into playing bass. In my case it just happened that 5 string basses shaped me into a lower bass player. So much so I could get away with a 4 string tuned BEAD for most of what I play these days really (have done it many times). I feel lucky I let that happen and the low B is not a thumbrest for me, but at the same time I'm taking my G string out almost new most times I change strings in my 5ers'.

I've used a SansAmp RBI since 2004. I've keep it, but it's been rackmounted in my studio since forever (at least for the last 10 years), I don't think I'll ever go gig with that again. I've switched to Zoom boxes and can sound pretty mean with them no problem, either SansAmp'ish or Darkglass'ish (or both combined). I've set my patches so that they sound perfect with my array of old Peavey combos (TKOs, TNTs) with the set EQ flat, which happens to be a great reference (also sounds perfect on your regular SVT set flat). I carry any Zoom (MultiStomp, ON or FOUR models) plus a 10€ DI box with me and I'm done, my tone comes with me everywhere, as "mastered as possible", compressed, "compacting" EQ, noise reduction when necessary, etc. Sound guys love it. I can connect to any amp (mine or at the venue) or go ampless, which I often do too. I fell in love with the CMOS/B3K sound aesthetics too after my strictly SansAmp years, but that was after I already had several modern Zooms, so I never even got to buy a Darkglass. I had one of my brothers build me a GUMA-Drive clone tho', which is now also never leaving the studio. After 2 weeks of it being built I too was easily able to reproduce the tone with Zooms, even in those models that don't emulate Darkglass (only latest gen does), using the blendable RAT emulation for the grit character instead. Here's a side by side comparison. I would've never bought a SansAmp if these Zooms (say, from the MultiStomp/B3/B1on generation onward) existed 20 years ago. So cheap, functionally unbeatable and extra reliable (I've had a G1Xon fall from 7ft high, to a desk -where it made a hole- and to the floor, not a scratch, 4 years later it works perfectly). They sound great, IF you're willing to do the detailed tweaking (not for everybody, I know).

I own and play mostly 5ers. Even tho' I've owned several Jazz Basses, they had all been 4 strings. I've never owned a Jazz 5er but played A LOT (Maruszczyk Elwood, Sandberg California TT, several Fenders, etc. -in fact had a friend's Am Dlx P5 for almost a year-). Have also owned several Fernands Gravity 5ers, several Yamaha BB 5ers, a Maruszczyk Jake 5a+, amongst others). Lately I've got a Sire V3 5er and I prefer it over any o other 5er Jazz. It's only second to my Stingray5s and Star Bass 5 in my stable. Nothing remotely close in bang for the buck.

I play mostly 5ers. Have been a Stingray5 guy since forever, but also owned several other 5 strings. Most expensive of them were an EBMM Sterling5 HS (doesn't count, still a Musicman), a Fender Am Dlx P5 (worst "expensive" 5er I've owned) and a Maruszczyk Jake 5a+ (& was indeed about to buy an Elwood 5er a few months ago). Also have played countless Sandberg 5ers, which I find barely OK for their price. I'd take the Sire V3 5er over any Fender/Maruszczyk/Sandberg 5er I've played, no doubt (also I hate DEADlano pickups). Feel really stupid for not getting a Sire years ago.