itu

I was working in a broadcasting company long ago. I had the chance to use some high end equipment then. I opened my then MG Quantum SPi 5 custom. She had triple (neck) and double (bridge) coil bartolinis which I decided to analyze. With the system (I think it was Philips or Rohde & Schwarz, but anyway something that cost awfully lot!) I measured 50 Hz - 10 kHz. The -6dB limit was already passed at 1 kHz, and from 2kHz the response went down really quickly. At 6 kHz the signal was 25 dB (!) less than at 50 Hz depending on the coil. If your amp is capable of boosting 5 kHz surroundings by 15 dB, there will be something, maybe. On the other hand: is it feasible to go to the g-word and keys territory? I try to avoid that area, because there simply is not too much space there. Bass is a low frequency instrument, we are filling lows. Mark King may disagree, but he is an exception.

How about some song you have wanted to play? Here are several gentlemen offering their expertise and transcriptions. Theory, transcription, and some analysis, maybe?

Fretless and pick: Paco de Lucia - One summer night (Carles Benavent) Fretless 5: Tribal tech (Gary Willis), CAB (Bunny Brunel) Fretless and drumsticks (funk fingers): Tony Levin Slide: Morphine (does not have to be a fretless, but...) E-bow: Michael Manring - Thonk Octaver: Paul Young - No parlez (Pino Palladino) Nylon strings, and piccolo tuning: Brian Bromberg Fingers, just plain fingers: John Giblin Someone has certainly used a bow, a looper, a synthesizer, and whatever. I need to add one record from a double bassist: Edgar Meyer - Dreams of flight

This is pretty complicated topic. Values, costs, impacts... any single number is a simplification. Some years back a multidisclipinary team used quite a lot of time to understand customers. Of course cost is always one thing. I think, to be honest, that we have the possibility to think about other values, too, as western world is so rich. The less we earned, the less we would be concerned, and interested. Somehow the problems raise interest, because we have the possibility to be aware. Not too many people go into details, many know maybe only some terms, but do not really understand the big picture. No wonder: there are numerous details, and it is a minefield. I certainly didn't understand it, I still try to remember at least some aspects that were found by the team. Logistics, factories, workers, lifetime of the product, spare parts, tools, serviceability, advertising, packages... many of these are related to each other in a really complicated way. Overall costs are hard to calculate, but it seems to be possible to some extent. An example, and just one detail: Apple watch is a popular unit. The first ones we studied had a silly amount of package material that was hard to put back to circulation. Tapes and glues were very sticky and were not so friendly to remove (complicated recycling). This affected logistics, too, because the small unit became bulky. Off white colour, well, I think you get my point.

So sorry, @DTB, my bad. I do have chinese products, too, because as said, lots of electronics are made there. Like my work phone. I try to find and support local. Not an easy task at all. But we are getting better, and there are already some possibilities. (Last time I bought headphones, they were 2nd hand. Head. Something.)

Now the bass has travelled back to the luthier. When it's ready, Al parts have to be anodized. I think black will be fine.

In my previous work I was in mainland China to source reputable companies to produce high end products. There were quite a few problems to be solved, and our decision was not to move the production to China. I did some research and studied their culture with the sourcing team. IP and patents are less than important, and many technical solutions were impossible to take there because of this. Logistics would have been a nightmare, and the decision not to move production was proven right after few years. @tauzero iPhone may not be cheap to the end customer, but check its BOM and come back again.

Definitely not. I thought that I should add that it is possible to get good stuff, too, but hand on your heart, @dyerseve, do you see these product brands mentioned as quality stuff?

Beats? Silvercrest? Should the heading be: "Cheap headphones from China"? Why is it so hard to save a bit more and buy some quality? Every time I see text "cheap", it makes me wonder how many Chinese kids or slaves were involved.

I love the feel and the sound. Flats are dead even before the first tuning, they don't talk to me on a short scale instrument. I need the sound of flats, I'll go to level 42 (inches of scale, that is).

Oil: slick and fast! Forgot that!

You asked for two different, so a cheap one is probably a beaten and modified fretted, and the good one is something else. A bad fretless can be really bad. Avoid. If you want to get the best out of it because of ergonomics and short learning curve, buy a similar bass like you already have. Just fretless. Then you have the same placement of the instrument relative to you, the player. Soundwise try roundwounds (many have said that nickel is the thing) and flats. The ones that sound and feel better are the ones you need.

I like flanger more than chorus. My tce SCF has both. I like it even more when it is driven through a X-over (>400 Hz) because all mud is gone.

Find a pot with switch first, then you can have series and that common parallel - with no extra holes.

I have read the whole story. My background in some research shouts me: we need absolute numbers instead of relative talk. So @Basso what thickness is thick, what is thin, where are the limits, and what is optimal? Or had Leo it right in the first place with his bass playing friends? Shall we move to scale lengths soon? So sorry, I forgot string spacing, gauge and material, # of strings, neck profiles et al. I think this discussion will last some time.

My hands are different than yours, my reach is different than yours. I still may - or not - like your bass' neck. You are lying. I have two abyssinians.

There's a certain mindset out there that makes people think that learning your tools will destroy all creativity, but I think, no, I know that it opens lots of new territories. Go further, or stay home.

T sells Göldö single bridges, and I think they allow tight spacing.

There are X-overs in pedal format, too, like Schalltechnik, KMA (Tyler), and Iron Ether (Divaricator). I think their use case is to put certain fx to a frequency limited loop. Your rack units are functional in line level signals. I think you could find something smaller meant for car stereos. They may be cheap as chips, but powering can be slightly complicated (12 volts). About the X-over frequency: the best way to find the right f is to do trials. I like 400 Hz with my fx board (chorus, flanger, fuzz...), but your amps may like something completely different.

Quality Alps pots, the system resembles bartolini, but this is just a hunch. bartolini preamps have had their name printed in the black box.

The rigid tear drop case has a V inside. Easy to recognize.

Specialites TA, but I got your joke...

Has your bass a preamp or is it only vol + tone? If there's a preamp, is it enough, or what do you need from the tone shaping? An example: you can have parametric one channel Artec, which is dirt cheap and then use practically any DI after it.

This is the material, I got a small piece from a friend of mine. He bought it from the manufacturer years ago: https://www.uddeholm.com/uk/en/products/alumec-89/ I only have a small machine and hand tools in my one car garage (no, there's no space): https://www.bernardo.at/en/metall/metallbearbeitung/bohr-und-frasmaschinen/bohr-und-frasmaschinen/kf-20-super.html If I need to do anything complicated or big, my friend has an Aciera (F3, maybe?). His three car workshop includes two CNCs and two 3D units among others. The string holder is attached to the neck with two 2" wood screws. They seemed to be sturdy enough. The crazy luthier wants to have some age old bone saddle, and I am interested in zero fret... you may get the idea of changing specs, do you... this will be solved during next week, I hope.