itu

There's a neat story here about Overwater. Use find.

Would it sound strange, if you would go and tell the drummer, that the hihat is ugly, or the keyboardist should only play Rhodes? I parted from my Quantum 5 only, because the string spacing was 17 mm. Now I play a Genesis 5, which has 19 mm spacing and suits me better. I did not ask my fellow players whether it fits their taste.

Bolt-on neck can be put together from shorter wood strips, and the warping can be handled a bit easier. Also the bolt-on neck can be shimmed, which is not an option with a NT. Well, the bridge is... The comments, or rather descriptive words, are not possible to use everywhere. My Quantum SPi had far more compressed sound than my fretless NT, or Passion II. I do understand that there is a need for simple words. There just isn't a list of terms that is comprehensive and mutually accepted. You are right that instruments vary a lot. Sometimes I wish woods would be more even in quality. We are able to find the subtle details, because the variation is there.

You tell us that bigger parts of instrument quality woods cost as much as smaller. I don't think so. Those big chunks of usable wood are rare, and expensive, than let's say a fretboard. Try to find a one piece body of some hardwood and you may be amazed of the price. If a luthier wants to produce instruments that are loyal to some design, or that the construction serves the machinery of the shop, it is another story. This bolt-on vs. NT and those irrational comments about sustain and "punch" are just funny. Without real world blind tests the words are meaningless. And as woods are not as consistent as many man-made materials, the same design sounds very different from unit to another. Tonewoods, constructional differencies, no more of this, please.

Pretty grave simplification. I would say this is a feel-based opinion rather than scientifically measured and ABX tested. What's your research data, and where can we find it?

Stan the Man - Alembic - Carl Thompson - Löwenherz - Spellbinder - EBS - strings, power amps, cabs... - all the double bass stuff...

The kink should be bent back. It is not easy but far more effective than trying to break it with higher tension. Take your time.

And that instrument is...?

Vigier Passion series II 5-string wide carbon neck basses in see-through red. Fretted and Delta metal fretless. Ability to train myself in a thought manner towards a multistyle and thinking player. No extra notes anymore. But this topic was about dreams and dreaming.

Which year was this? MG hadn't truss rods until late 1990's.

- fretted 5, sometimes a fretless or an EUB - amp - cab and its cover - FX board & page flipper in a mono bag - tab (notes, scores) - tab stand The bass mono bag has neatly coiled cables, tuner, tab, spare set of strings, spare battery, tools, foldable scissors, DMM, ear plugs... If I am taking two electrics, I use the mono dual bag. Amp rack case has power and cab cables.

Noll Mixpot. The first situation might work with an HPF before the Mixpot. The Mixpot has adjustable inputs on both channels.

What's your x-over frequency at the moment? I've stuck to 400 Hz.

There are other electronic devices, too, that run on Phantom power: preamps, DI-boxes... It is a power supply that is usually around 9 - 52 VDC (tolerances included), and few milliamperes. P48 is very common. Electret condensers are usually fed with less voltage, like from 1.5 to 12 VDC.

...but doesn't.

Historically the bass (tuba etc.) has been the lowest sounding instrument. But nowadays we have multi string instruments, we have piccolo strings, short scales, synthesizers and so on. I think that if you use your instrument like bass, it is a bass. The form or the design does not hinder us, bassists. (By the way, check g-word players, most of whom are doomed to play only Stratos, Teles, and LesPauls. Maybe there is some Youngster trying to play an SG, or even a PRSantana, but those instruments may be too radical in the long run.)

As an owner of two Passion series II basses, and that I have had the chance to play few others, I have to thank him for producing quelques instruments extraordinaires. Vigier wasn't my first lesson in French. But very important. Merci beaucoup, M. Vigier.

No problem, the coating is so thin, that it bends easily. It will not break. Silver will oxidize after time. I have seen silver getting tarnished under a thick clear plastic. It just took longer, but as plastics are not hermetic in the long run - years - the oxide got through. I suppose that whitish metal can get spotted over the years. To clarify things: It does not affect performance.

What is your sound preference? A very compact idea of strings and sounds: Stainless steel roundwound (SS RW) - lots of zing, brightest sounding Nickel RW - flatter response than SS Flatwound - the other end, the dull end of the sound spectrum Thickness varies a lot. Lighter touch, and you could try a 40 - 100 set, or even lighter. Probably the most common set is a 45 - 105. If your sound is dull, buy a good flat set and play it for the next few years, or a decade. You want zing, buy a set few times a year. They really aren't that expensive.

I am always amazed to see people talking about sound quality enhancement after buying a hi end cable. It might be feasible to look inside the bass, and get amazed of how tiny wires are delivering the signal to those £100 cables. A good quality (silicone) cable is thick and robust because it can withstand the abuse in rehearsals and gigs. Learn to coil it well, and you have a friend for decades.

A Zon and a Wal? Your third fretless must be from a brand that is written with three letters, like MTD, ACG, TLC, BBC...

I had the previous version of the Tyler. Now I use the IE Divaricator as the smaller size suits me better. But the main point is that it is a wonderful tool for us, bassists. Clean low end and screaming highs. You can put chorus/flanger to the high side, too, but an envelope does not work too well there. Put that before or after the KMA. If you have two compressors, you can put them to separate bands. If you have not nailed the placement and the cabling, yet, please do some experiments, like put the distortion to the low band. Crazy trials may open up new horizons. Tightening the sound may be possible with the HPF. Try something like 30 - 60 Hz. That reduces both handling noise and the lowest end, which consume lots of power.

This may become one long post... After reading this some may think I am into Hi-Fi. No, I am after expected functionality. The power restriction is true, but I would say "partially". A preamp consumes energy depending on its components. There are many very good opamps (operational amplifiers), that consume only a little energy. Therefore I do not see the battery powered preamp to be so much less powerful than a power supply powered pedal. But it is true that a pedal may have extra features, because of the extra power capacity. John East is making excellent preamps with very convincing specs. I have no reason to believe that his creations are already flashy without any extra power. On the other hand Alembic has been using the power hungry NE5534 (which is a neat opamp), and because of that they have used their external supply. Modern components and layouts allow lots of parts in a small footprint PCBA. I do not see space is a restriction. OK, you want tubes, then the space and power are an issue. About high impedance circuitry (passive, pots, caps...), it is very cheap, usually made with the cheapest quality parts, and mostly degrading the audio quality. But it is also the basic choice, and common in every price point. (Note: AJ Fodera has only the pickup and the output jack, but AJ surely connects his instruments to very high end boards, and does not want any degrading stuff between his fingers and the end result.) You want better performance, omit all pots and do the adjustments in the amp. This takes you to the amp, and on the fly adjustments sure are slower. Lo-Z circuitry ("active") has few interesting features. One is, that the pots (most of which are of mediocre quality at best) do not have to be in the signal path. But, and here it comes again, most "active basses" are only partially "active". Pickups are followed by the blend pot (hi-Z; lo quality). Blend is followed by the vol pot (hi-Z, lo q). Then there is the simple preamp that can tweak tone somewhat. Artec's T&B pre costs about £20 and Sadowsky is around £200, but they are not mixers. Yes, there are few true mixers like John East, but they are rare. Others that I know of, is one EMG, and the other is a US company that I have forgotten (VAT, shipping etc., you know). Why would I need a mixer? Because the high impedance circuitry affects the performance of the pickups. When any hi-Z pot in the signal path is tweaked, the response of the pickup(s) is affected. For example the frequency response is reduced. That may be fine with you, but I am not happy with that. Not any more. I have heard the light. No... no... it was... how was it?