itu

Agree, that is probably the worst "feature" of the unit. I have adjusted the knobs so, that I can turn the knobs to certain values between songs. Helps a lot, because then I know what the settings will be - after a while.

An unorthodox, but costwise solution is to leave the preamp out and put that money to a better pickup. 1 bad + 1 bad = not good. 1 better = same price, isn't it? I have one bass without any adjustments and it is my main bass at the moment. I know the price of the pickup was steep, but I can control the sound through my bass amp, or the pedalboard when in need. https://www.q-tuner.com/product/transparent-q-tuner-q2-0-bass-5-string-pickups/

For me the comp is nearly like a leveler. If I want to make my sound pretty flat dynamically, I will put it in the beginning of the pedal board. Then the effects will get (dynamically) flatter sound and I can not control the behaviour of the effects so much. When the comp is in the end, I have more control over the effects through my playing. An envelope filter is one good example here. But it is also true, that when my hands do not follow my brain, things get more complicated. Another thing is that comps tend to be different with different basses. That's why I have few. Basses. And compressors. At first sight the t c electronic SpectraComp may be misleading, because it has only one knob and still is so powerful. But if you are ready to step on a thin ice, please follow me and try a Hypergravity. You can do the same as with Spectra, but have also three extra pots to adjust the parameters. And yes, the Spectra's adjustments including presets are published. They offer good templates that you can tweak to your own preferences. Love it - but it takes quite some time to adjust and master the details. You must have the Toneprint app.

Dear @Stuart Watson, any chance to share any pictures of these amps?

No. Check this video at around 1.50 - 3.30. There you see how to restring and how to reach the reasonable breaking angle at the nut.

Open string ringing may also tell something about the stringing: is the angle at the nut big enough?

Carved frets were mentioned earlier. I remember seeing a Lane Poor Minima and a Bond g-word. The first Ashula (the white one) was a chore for me. The sound change was so big, that changing between fretted and fretless was not a option within a song. Soloing up with two strings could be a possibility, but I am a true bassist which equals no so lo.

tc electronic spectral comp is 1U, and can be found in mono and stereo. Cannot be very expensive. Triple-C.

This might fit (to remind the build year):

If it was constructed like a Gretsch Bikini, that would be very, very tempting.

https://www.spaltinstruments.com/instruments/special-projects/vviper/

Actually, it is very helpful to learn two beat first. When it is functional, it is time to take a step forward and learn four beat. Check youtube, as there has to be lots of examples. If the chord theory is clear, playing will be very easy. In short two beat is playing half notes (just play 1 and 5 in one bar), and four beat is like playing quarters 1 1 5 3 in one bar. After these two, walking bass is much easier. Just play the seventh chord notes - one exception is that usually maj7 is played as 6. Try to play the notes ascending and descending, because when you go up, you have to come down sooner or later. Mike Richmond's book "Modern Walking Bass Technique" has many of the "tricks" used while playing walking bass lines. Recommended reading.

With model MN, you need a multimeter. Start with the top of the pot. 1) Number the lugs like in the picture below. 2) Turn the pot axle to the middle position. 3) Connect the test probes to the lugs 1 & 2 or 2 & 3, you should see 500k or 0 k. Ground is on the 500 k side. If the 500 k side is 2 & 3, then the top ground is #3 and bottom pot ground is #1. Outputs are #2s.

Very rough estimation is that nickel RWs have flatter response (more middle), and SSs sound a bit like smiley eq curve.

At one point I wanted to be Louis Crandell, but I had no nerve to grab the line... A former GF of mine, a teacher, told me that one of her pupils wanted to be famous, a satellite!

DC7 is able to push continuous 600 mA and maximum of 660 mA / output. That is 7 x 600 mA x 9 VDC = 37.8 W (continuous) 7 x 660 mA x 9 VDC = 41.5 W (maximum) Your digital FX units are very power hungry, to say the least. Their input power figures are very high, although it may be so that the numbers relate to their short time maximum consumption: C4: 165 mA SDrum: 500 mA JamMan: 900 mA HX: 3 000 mA (3 A!) In total this is 4565 mA = 41 W (@ 9 VDC), which is about the same as the DC7 is able to push out. It is no wonder your power is hot. If you have a 40 watt lamp at hand, put it on and feel the heat. No, please do not burn your fingers.

Fake books are usually feasible. For reading, I recommend Standing in the shadows of Motown, because it includes the book and the CDs. Very good stories, songs and transcriptions.

Wow! What kind of a process you have?

I am very sorry. If single coil g-word pickups are mechanically similar (including magnets), the DCR may be the factor that describes the many differences somewhat. Other than that, no one can reduce sound quality parameter matrix to a single number or word: "How did the band sound?" "56.3!" (Here the number 56.3 equals the word "round".) A new variable frequency professional LCR-meter seems to cost around £10k. Ouch. But an ebay unit "ET4501" and its variations (ET4502, ET4510) seem nearly affordable. Interesting.

I had one. A fun unit, it was definitely not a transparent one, my use pushed it closer to an effect. Turn the knobs liberally from end to end, and find your thing.

If you want to use no strings, please sing. If a stringed electric bass is a must, Atlansia Solitaire is available as fretless and fretted. I see the fifth string good for me, as many of the singers (4 + 1 + 1) in the bands (3) I play tend to transpose many of the songs. I can go a second, or a third down, and still play in the area, where others do not play (piano, g-word etc.). Am I doing right things with wrong instruments, or should I always play with unsuitable instruments and create something funny instead of functional? Do you think the camera is the reason for a good picture? Tom Kennedy is simply an excellent musician, no matter which tool he uses.

http://www.matweb.com/search/DataSheet.aspx?MatGUID=4f19a42be94546b686bbf43f79c51b7d&ckck=1 Steel is different, usually resilient compared to Al. Different materials, different sets of properties. Anodized surface does not affect the base material.

Impedance, you should try to read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance When a (bass, or g-word) pickup has different physical measurements, the electrical parametres may already change. When the distances to strings is different, the output is different. It is possible to find similar pickups, but just looking at any single figure does not give you trusty answers.

OK, this will be the theoretical part... The wire is one part. It can be thick, thin, twisted... usually it is lacquered copper. The amount in the coil is related to the pickup's resistance (R). A short amount of wire equals low resistance and so on. When the amount of wire is low, in theory the frequency response is wider and output lower. This depends on few other parameters, too, but is a very rough generalization. If the output is very low, the signal level can be amplified with an opamp (operational amplifier + a power source, like a battery; EMG), or the voltage can be raised by a transformer (Alumitone). The coil has impedance (Z) and it changes over the frequency range. At 0 Hz, or DC, the Z is R. A pickup is practically a low pass filter. Most of the pickups have limited response, and the output starts to go down after few kilohertz. Coiling a pickup: yes, there are (stories of) magical hands, or machines, or makers, but the basic idea is to put some amount of a wire to a coil. There are also multi-coil pickups, please check https://www.herrickpickups.com/ Now we get to the basic principle: when the string (a conductive wire) is moving (vibrating) in a magnetic field, it produces small electric (AC) signal, which can be amplified in an... well, you know the rest. The power of the magnetic field, and the parametres of the coil affect the output - and the sound. Magnetic material is actually a bit on a sidetrack. What is meaningful is the magnetic field (1 Tesla = 10 000 Gauss). Now it is so that the materials differ not only with each other but also within one "species". Because of this, a very weak neodymium could be weaker than a very strong ceramic. Neodymium is considered the strongest (i.e. the power/weight is the best so far) following by AlNiCo, Sm-Co, and ceramic. Now we have the parts (wire, frame, magnet). The next step is to put them together. The ready set may be single, or multicoil, stacked, or a parallel humbucker... The sound comes out from a complete construction, where we have lots of parametres, but not a single will guarantee the end result. A practical approach If you are really into pickups, an LCR-meter would be very helpful. While I was working in a broadcasting company very long time ago, I had a chance to use a high end LCR-meter and measure my former Modulus Graphite Quantum's bartolinis. Very interesting, although expected results, by the way. Prices of the meters are really high, though. There are single frequency units, but one f does not tell much about the overall response. As an example, this second hand Agilent costs over £1k and has only 6 static frequencies: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Agilent-Keysight-4263B-LCR-Meter-100Hz-to-100kHz-RPG/253214470569?hash=item3af4c231a9:g:81AAAOSw6KVZhUTA