Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

itu

Member
  • Posts

    3,288
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by itu

  1. Marcin has told somewhere that he likes those old basses. Here's one:
  2. http://www.zonguitars.com/zonguitars/gallery.html Modulus Vertex Is that Roland synth bass with a bow neck suitable to this thread? How about Jerry Auerswald and his creations? Takamine had black and pointy instruments, but were they a success, I doubt.
  3. Have you tried the Spectra settings that were in the web a few years ago? They made the HG a competitive beast. It was some tweaking though...
  4. I did this trial a few years ago. The units I tested were Jan Rey Vemuram (for guitar, not bass), an old russian Muff (that big box weighs a ton), RAT (fun 'n' thin), Darkglass B3k (good, but not for me), Darkglass Duality (yes!), Way Huge Pork Loin (a good unit), EBS multidrive (lousy), MÖG (slightly complicated and for heavy), Overlord (tube wonder with a good eq), Spruce Effects OGF (modified for bass by the maker), RaingerFX AirField (now that's what I call strange!), Rochambeau Musical Apparatus Crustacean (just like previous), Amptweaker Bass TightFuzz (tough guy), and Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive (this has good basic sound). On top of this I have had both IE FrantaBit and Oxide in different occasion. Franta is not actually a distortion, although there were sound possibilities that sometimes amazed me. What was left after the trials? Amptweaker, because it works with various signals and has really good sound - for me. Spruce Effects is clearly a hi-Z unit, but a really good sounding one - again, our tastes vary... Crustacean is still somewhere in my house, just because it is totally different. I also loved Sparkle Drive and Duality for their basic sounds. I tested a few compressors, and there are few left in my three boards: tce HyperGravity and mini, they both work well at the end of the signal chain. They do have to be adjusted quite a lot before the actual use, but the work pays off. Very good sound, and price. Daring Audio Phat Beam is not at its best with lo-Z signals, but it loves hi-Z signals AND fretless basses. I have not met anything similar so far. A real keeper.
  5. I did not mean that they would not work, but they do behave in a different way. I have tested several compressors and fuzz/OD/dist boxes. Their behaviour as well as sound has been different with my lo-Z and hi-Z basses. No, I did not believe there would be any difference, but after quite a lot of testing I found substantial change in sound dependent on the bass' output impedance. I talked about this with a seasoned pedal maker who confirmed my findings. I have compressors that work better in the beginning of the signal chain: I do understand that the placement in the pedal board affects effect's behaviour. When there are buffers in between, the results are naturally different. FX loops is another story with their varying levels etc.
  6. My teacher started with the simplest lines: chord notes. For two-beat I needed to use half notes, and only first and fifth. Then four-beat consists of 1-1-5-3. Simple and functional. Walking was far easier after mastering these two in the first phase. Walking in its simplest form is simply going up and down the chord notes: 1-3-5-6 for 6th and maj7 and 1-3-5-7 for 7th. This was the start and helped substantially to understand the form. Additives, like passing notes are just ingredients to the basic formula. My favourite book is Mike Richmond's Modern Walking Bass Technique. Nice exercises, reasonable start, and lots of challenges, if needed.
  7. I have played some music from a CD or similar through the bass system to adjust the response. If something is not flat, it is usually the bass head and the cab. "Flat" eq is nearly a joke, more likely some sound that the designer likes. My Soul head has an eq ON/OFF switch, and most of the time it stays in the OFF setting, because I have found a pretty flat amp. My bass does not have any adjustments: I have moved the eq stuff to my pedal board. An adjustable LPF is the thing I use the most.
  8. I used to play with one natural for years. Not a Status, though. The neck could be bowed a lot! I used Rotosound 30-90 sets and it was a real twang. And it could sing. But compared to carbon neck instruments the Washburn was only OK. I went to Modulus and Vigier and they are different and far better beasts. Yes, their prices are different, too. Find a used bolt-on Status instrument and you do not need a Washburn at all.
  9. Bass signal path looks like this: pickup(s) - blend (or vol2) - vol - tone circuitry - output If there is even one battery powered part in the signal chain, the whole system has low impedance (lo-Z) output. Understood? If the pickups are true lo-Z (buffered output, battery operated), the following adjustments (pots) have less effect to the pickups. Here this can be compared to a hi-Z system... "Passive" system usually consists of pickup(s) and vol(s) and tone. No batteries. Here pots - even vol - affect the sound by cutting some of the highs and output slightly. Usually an "active" bass has a battery operated preamp for tone tweaking. Now get to the beginning of my post and repeat the first chapter: there are (passive) pickups affected by blend and vol, which load pickups and reduce highs and signal level (although slightly). So actually many of these so called "active" basses are passive with an added battery powered tone circuitry. There are few battery powered pickups available like MEC and EMG. They have built-in buffers and thus a lo-Z output. There are also few mixers like John East, and certain Audere, EMG and Noll preamps. These mixers do not load pickups. I am not sure, what do you actually meant with "active" pickups, so hopefully you can refine your question after my answer. One thing you should be aware of, is that the output type has effect on the following units, too: A hi-Z output drives a fuzz/OD/dist effect in a different way than its lo-Z counterpart - even when the output levels are exactly the same. I also want to point out that some hi-Z outputs are actually "hotter" than lo-Z ones. "Active" does not equal higher output level.
  10. IE Xerograph, OnkartGromt Funky Fellow, FI.
  11. This has both options: https://www.roland.com/us/products/fs-6/ https://www.thomann.de/gb/boss_fs6.htm
  12. Listen to Brothers Johnson and wonder why the StingRay slapping sounds like that. Well, he used to use flats. SS RW isn't the de-rigeur choice for slapping. My basses are all strung with SS RW (GHS long scale plus or similar D'Addario, 40 - 100 (120)).
  13. Sorry, dear Q, I am not able to help you, but please specify latching or non-. Might help with the offers.
  14. This is the answer: nearly year old strings. I tend to change strings 2 to 4 times a year. M. Miller changes strings after three hours in studio...
  15. *-* and hands These alcohol based liquids for cleaning hands could work well, but they may dry your hands a lot if used extensively. My fingers are not compatible with most detergents.
  16. Then you might like the late Pekka Pohjola. He was considered first as a composer and then as a bassist and a bandleader. Give this a try, there's even a solo.
  17. We were having the same issue few years ago. We heard that Soundcraft 16 and 24 have different mic preamps, so we bought the Ui24. Good choice, there are never too much channels. We had a strange issue with the wireless. It nearly worked every now and then. One colleague said that the IEMs have to be further away from the desk. 1 m / 3 ft was enough and now the system is reliable. Cheap, light, functional and has a nice set of presets like comp, eq and so on. Learning curve is quite short because 3 out of 4 singers can use it already, after three years! The rack is a must, buy a short one.
  18. If you play with any acoustic instrument, your tuning should not be calculated from some basic "sixth root of two" because instruments like piano cannot be tuned mathematically straight. Otherwise they would sound funny (read: terrible). My Peterson SAM has tuning temperament for bass. It tunes lowest notes slightly too low. Works and sounds like a dream. And yes, our band has a piano player and some brass. The answer to the original question is: "No". I would be far more interested in the stability of my bass necks than the tuner accuracy. Modern quartz tuners are very good and stable - and I have half a minute to tune my carbon neck instruments before the rehearsals or gigs start, so I will sleep my nights just like before.
  19. My dear father had somewhat similar issue with his iPad. Updates were not happening anymore. I did not find the answer right away. The problem was that the updates are already 64-bit and they won't go in to an older 32-bit system. Solution: went to a store and bought a newer unit to him.
  20. An all white Moon with a mic has not been mentioned. A 36" Overwater C... what else? Yes, a two string fretless played with slide! Adventurous people, have to say.
  21. Where's Billy Sheehan? Stan the man? Phil Lesh (Modulus, Alembic, Ritter...)? I love those experiments, not so much the basic models while talking about "signatures". Stingray is a Stingray. And after saying this, the Pensa-Suhr of the late Victor Bailey looks good, while I do not like the maple colour of MM's bass.
  22. It can be read through several comments here already, but I want to point out that adjustments should be done with a new set if strings. Old, worn and dirty strings may give strange results.
  23. Some obvious and some not so obvious suggestions: - Daring Audio Phat Beam for comp and LPF - an auto wah, like Subdecay or IE Xerograph - an octaver, like the small Cog T-16 or Valeton OC-10 - a decent distortion or fuzz combined with the octaver and the comp would make... noise!
×
×
  • Create New...