itu

Artec is super cheap, but has only one channel and band. The written specs differ from actual. Yes, I have measured it. An age-old tce parametric pedal has two bands. Do not mix with Sustain+ that is semiparametric. Pricey, pretty rare. WMD Utility https://wmdevices.com/products/utility-parametric-eq lacks LPF, but has three bands. tce 1140 and 2240 are rack mounted but definitely effective units. Rane PEQ 55 has bands and knobs...

I am very aware of the theory and temperaments as well as scales. At the risk of being picky, we try to utilise mathematically correct tempered scale, but there aren't too many instruments that actually use it per se. The base is there, but the usage is not. The exactly tempered acoustic piano sounds ridiculously bad, and many stringed instruments are everything but tempered. I am sure you know Pythagorean comma et al. and you get my point. As a bassist my instrument is tuned slightly low. Not many cents, but still. My tuner (Peterson SAM) has this option.

@stewblack, could you please send few photos of the circuitry?

Actually not literally, but you are right because it is quite complicated source. It generates high voltages (up to hundreds of volts), but the internal impedance is so high (mega or even gigaohms), that the output is weak without decent buffering. The reason for this is that while the impedance is very high, a low impedance input (low compared to the piezo) would reduce and limit the frequency response. This is the reason the plain piezo tends to sound so thin. When the piezo output is buffered, any amp can handle the output and the sound becomes usable.

My Glockenklang Duo (2 x 10") is very good, but weighs a ton. Usually I take my alusonic (2 x 12") to gigs just because it is lighter. I use the Glockenklang Soul amp.

I am sorry, that my expression was unclear. I mean here that any passive component in the signal chain will affect the pickup response. It is not a question of quality or brand, it is the nature of the component. Changing a pot to another does not help. But if your preamp is a true active mixer (John East, Audere...), the blend or vol do not affect the signal and the pickup response.

Well written, this was the only thing I had to point out (and I do drift slightly away from the original topic). There are similarly many hues of green and red (yes, I have done some professional photography). We can usually compare two, because our relative senses can figure even tiny differences very accurately. But absolute measures are not so easy, because that is how our senses have evolved. Think about taste, angles... Absolute perfect pitch is not so common, but players usually have an absolute relative pitch. That is what I think is more important to have, because we usually play with others and we need to play together.

We learn the scales and the frequencies. A has been 415 Hz during Baroque, and now we are heading past the 440 Hz: many symphony bands are using up to 445 Hz as an A. There is no celestial mathematics behind Western music, just agreements. There are cultures that divide the octave to 24 or 32 notes. We use approximately equally tempered scale, while there are many others that sound better with certain instruments. If there was only one scale and tempering and A, perfect pitch could be something special, now we have people that have learned one specific system. Come on, Wolfgang had perfect pitch, although his A was around 415, not 440 Hz. The frequencies have been chosen, because our ears can hear certain frequencies better than others, namely 1 - 5 kHz. If the center frequency would be 3.36 Hz or 100 kHz, our ears would have been very different. Even basic quantities are chosen because they represent us. This kind of an article is quite some fun.

EMG BTS/BTC, bartolini, Aguilar, Delano, Seymour Duncan... What are you after? If you need a full mixer, consider EMG, Audere, and John East. Only EMG offers pickups, too. John East has passive circuitry in his system. If the blend and volume pots can affect the response of the pickups, any other system is just fine.

Have you been thinking that the electronics can be bypassed? Pretty easily, even without extra holes, just replace one pot with a DPDT switch. Then you can have both in one bass.

I do not find spending lots of money, two bags have been slightly used. Because of the quality, I would say they were practically new. The quality equals long term use, which means pretty small long term costs.

I use mono one and two bass versions. Good carrying straps, good pockets for tablet, spare strings, tools, cables etc. Newer versions have rings for mono fx case, the Tick 2.0. Useful detail, if a smaller pedalboard is enough.

After I found functional compressors (for the basses and me, that is), and learned to use them, I have used them when needed. That is quite often depending on the sound I am after.

I have one bass without vol or tone. Simply a pickup and an output jack. My amp has a switchable eq that is most of the time off. So when the bass is connected to the amp without one of the three fx boards I have, my sound should be very spartan. All setups have their place and they all work well. Does your bass or amp have any tone tweaking circuitry? If yes, then I find that not pure. Even the volume pot in the bass modifies the pickup response. How pure is your signal chain, @dave74200? This discussion reminds me of photography. Every photo is tweaked somehow, no matter what equipment you use. It is not possible to do nothing to the picture if you want to take one. You only change the basic stuff like aperture, time, or the sensitivity (and the choice) of the film/sensor and you are already tweaking something. Lenses, oh dear! I could go into details, but please not here.

I saw something very similar just the other day: https://www.rautiaguitars.net/

I tune my basses with an external Ibanez (MU-40, with a metronome; one in each mono case), Korg (MT-1200), or Peterson (V-SAM) tuner. But only tune, then I connect the bass to a board, or to the amp. I want my basses to be stable - love the graphite - and I do check the tuning of the bass before the gig or rehearsal. No need for a pedal tuner.

(Now he is playing the next 200 hours in a row, so we need to wait for his response a bit...)

Michael Tobias designed asymmetrical necks to his instruments around 40 years ago.

Holy Paderewski, a new split-fret from Steve Chick! Straight from maestro himself, or does he have a distributor at this end of the world? How much was it? A lot, presumably.

I am too far away, but bartolini has reasonable and legible pages. Their electronics are not so complicated. Blend, vol, active tone capsule, output.

As Rics are discussed here in general, was it so that the 4-string models are 4000 (single pickup), 4001 (double pickup), 4002 (rare special model?), 4003 (a renamed 4001), 4004 (Cheyenne or so), and the semiacoustic 4005? Rose-Morris had few special model names of these. Oh dear and of course... answers to my questions can be found from: http://www.rickbeat.com/

If you even think about preamp (John East...), you can tweak the basic sound quite some. On the other hand, if the pickups do not produce something, the preamp cannot create that either. I see a preamp as an enhancer. bartolini, Delano, Lollar, EMG, q-tuner, SD, DiMarzio, there are so many possibilities... if you even consider individual makers, the possibilities become endless. Body, a chambered one, if the weight is an important issue. Screw inserts, top loaded bridge helps while restringing, and lightweight tuners... remember to grease the truss rod before installation. Helps a lot in the future.

Very good points! Hi- (passive) and lo-Z (active) basses drive certain pedals very differently. My experience has been that compressors and OD/fuzz/dist are the ones that need test driving. I discussed about this with one pedal maker, who was saying the same: different signals, different results. Try before you buy. Many pedals have circuitry that change the signal level or impedance, and these fx combinations may become very different when working together.

Yes, I know, Guild Ashbory fits the bill only partially, but I would add it to the list. Fun to play, complicated body shape.