BillyBass

I have a 2019 Tidepool blue Jazz with a maple neck.  Lovely bass, no issues with the hardware.

Just assume a Fender Player won't be shielded and if you don't like the pickups you can always stick in some others.

Has anyone got/tried one of these?

I'm wondering whether something like this could do a good impersonation of a valve amp?

I also own one.  Like @andy67 above, I like the Ampeg tone so I'm keeping mine.  I also have a TC Spectradrive which has compressor tone prints; the few I have tried aren't as good as the Ampeg, to my ears.  

Music lessons at my grammar school in the 1970s were a complete waste of time.  The teacher paid attention to the (mainly middle class) kids that were learning instruments but not the rest of us.  He was a miserable git that inspired no one to get involved in what should have been the most enjoyable and fruitful subject in the curriculum.  Just like what I have read in other posts in this thread, to him anything that wasn't classical music was not music at all.

My parents being working class Londoners didn't push me to learn an instrument, they had been brought up in the war, when food wasn't guaranteed so playing musical instruments was a different world.

A couple of months ago I ordered an Ashdown Norman Watt-Roy pre amp, the gold one from PMT.  It was on a clearance deal, for £250 odd, about £80 cheaper than usual.  I also ordered a pedal board at the same time.  The pre amp and pedal board came on time but the pedal was scratched, had no included power supply and was missing a foot (if new, the feet are in a plastic bag, not already stuck on).  The pedal board came without the velcro.

I called them top to complain and a very apologetic PMT employee offered me a pack of strings by way of an apology and said they would take the pre amp back and send me a new one, and the missing velcro.  

I chased them up the following day to ensure I received a new pre amp and it tuned out the 4 Norman watt-Roy pre amps they had in stock were all ex display and they couldn't guarantee the one I would receive was without flaws.  I was offered a refund, which I took, but still wanted the velcro.  They assured me it would arrive; it did, but only about half as much as should have come with the board.

An £80 reduction for an ex-display pre amp is still a good discount and if they had stated on their website that the items were ex-display I would not have been disappointed should I have ordered one.  But they didn't, they implied they were all brand spanking new.  And only sending half the required velcro after I chased them up was ridiculous!  The courier fees they paid would have cost more than the velcro.  I didn't chase them up again, I just ordered some velcro from Amazon.

PMT were very courteous and apologetic when I complained but this good side of their service is let down by some of the plonkers that send stuff out.  

I would be happy to buy stuff from one of their shops but I won't order from their website again, and I look on their discounted items as probably B stock or ex-display.

I answered an ad on Bandonkers during lockdown and have joined a drummer and guitarist/singer.  Well, sort of joined; the drummer and me meet up once a week at a rehearsal studio for a 3 hour session but the guitarist only wants to meet online as he has some vulnerable family members.

The drummer and myself have been going through a set of covers and we are adding to this each week.  In some ways not having the guitarist there isn't a bad thing as it is giving the rhythm section a chance to gel, but it would better to have us all there.

The guitarist and me were going to meet in a park with acoustic instruments but the weather took a turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago and so this hasn't worked out.

5 hours ago, stewblack said:

Brown live green/yellow earth. I thought that was the only bit I'd done properly! 

I beg your pardon.  I didn't think that was an earth lead.

@stewblack The connector block you have used in your last photo will become loose over time.  The vibration from the driver will loosen the terminals.

If the wires that go from the connector block are solid core (from the photo it appears you have used a bit of twin and earth, discarding the blue sheathed neural core?) then push fits would be ideal, connect and forget.  If the conductors are stranded then push fits would be difficult, but normal Wago style lever connectors would work.

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Manufacturers/Wago_Connectors/Wago/index.html

When not playing bass I'm a spark.

P.S. I won't say anything about your incorrect colour sheathing.

If anyone visits your home and sees it, just tell them its for when you practise the bass with headphones.  if you leave a bass nearby you might get away with it.

Our drummer lives south of the river in Brixton, so a rehearsal studio next to a tube station is perfect and the Holloway tube studio also have their own parking spaces, so great for us that drive.

I looked at the Mill Hill place's website during lockdown. but perhaps, just like the Muswell Hill studio, the grime doesn't show up very well on a computer screen.  I've never been to the Mill Hill place so I shouldn't comment.

Drummer and myself just had a session in a rehearsal studio next to Holloway tube station (our guitarist has some vulnerable family members so isn’t joining us yet).  ‘Storm Rehearsal studios’.  The place was very clean, they clean the rooms after each session.   They opened up this week and are struggling as very few customers are walking through their doors   So I am giving them a plug.

They have Ampeg, Marshall and Blackstar amps; there was a lovely SVT & 8x10 in my room.

Last week we couldn’t go to Storm rehearsal studios as they hadn’t opened so we went to a place in Muswell Hill, N10,.  This place shall remain nameless but there is only one place in N10 so google it if you are interested.  The place was disgusting, hadn’t been cleaned in ages, so we won’t be going back there again.

If anyone lives in north London and wants to use a rehearsal studio, Storm is a good place.

I've bought a new MarkBass head and 8 pedals since lockdown started.  I had too much time on my hands to look at various websites selling gear.  No regrets though, I like Gas.

And now the rehearsal studios around North London are starting to open and I have a weekly session with a drummer so there are songs to practise and less time to peruse Andertons 

6 hours ago, Al Krow said:

That's a tidy haul! How are you liking the Subspace? Doesn't the Spectradrive have a built in tuner?

I've just totted up - actually I've not been any more restrained than you! £800 on pedals and £1,100 on a bass and cab - although the latter two were right at the start of lock-down, when none of us knew how long our purdah was about to be and and there was a chance that they would soon be used on gigs. Haha! 

The Subspace is a knob twiddlers dream.  You can get any sort of dirt you like out of it, from glitchy or clean fuzz to lightly overdriven tube warmth to distortion.  Hamstead Soundworks supply a booklet with a few different settings which produce a variety of dirt to suit one's palette and also suggest a starting point on the knobs, from where you can experiment.  If you want a particular sound you will get it on this pedal.  It also has a nice clean tone too and could be an always on pedal.

If you need fuzz for one song and distortion for the next then you either have to knob twiddle between songs or get another pedal.  It would be absolutely perfect if it was a Cog effects style 2 or 3 pedal in one but you can't have everything.  

The Spectradrive has compressor and dirt toneprint options but nothing else, no tuner.  I got it for the headphone out and aux in to practise at home with (the Zoom B1-four not being available) and thought it might be useful as a pre amp too.

And I also bought Strymon and MXR power supplies and a Little Marcus 500w special edition head, my Elf was going back to Peavey for repair so I had to buy another head while waiting for it to be returned😉.

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Sounds like I was lucky to manage to snap up my B1-4 from the FS a few weeks' back then! 

£1k is an impressive sum: what did ya get?!

My wife is less than impressed!

Since lockdown started I've bought a TC electronic ditto X2 jam, TC Electronic Spectradrive, Ampeg Opto Comp, SFX microthumpinator and some fun stuff: Jam pedals Ripplyfall bass, Hampstead Soundworks Subspace and I 'won' an Aguilar Octamizer on eBay on Wednesday.  I have to pick up my Elf from GuitarGuitar in Camden over the weekend, after a repair, and I'll buy a Polytune 3 while I'm there.

On 15/07/2020 at 19:01, Al Krow said:

Saw someone mention in the FS that a new Zoom B3n was selling for nearly £200 and I've just checked and seen that some of the other Zoom multi pedals have sky-rocketed too.

Is that just Zoom? Is there a supply / demand issue all of a sudden?

 

The Zoom B1 four has been out of stock at Andertons, Guitarguitar, GAK, Thomann etc, not sure about the rest of their catalogue.  I don't think other pedal prices have gone up.

I've spent over a grand on pedals during the lockdown.  Lots of spare time during lockdown to peruse bass gear websites, stay in for deliveries and let GAS take over😟

Thanks for replying all of you.  All I want is just one teeny weeny T-47 but maybe I'll try something else.

Does anyone know whether Cog Effects are still making pedals?  Their Twitter and Facebook accounts don't appear to be updated and they don't appear to have any pedals for sale.  I messaged them via the website but have not heard back.

9 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Also check the JAM Pedals Waterfall as there is a model dedicated for bass too. Not cheap is the least you can say, but once you've heard it, you'll throw all others to the bin...

https://www.jampedals.com/waterfall/

I have the 'Ripply Fall', which is a 2 in 1 pedal with the 'Waterfall' chorus and the 'Ripple' phaser and I love it but its the first chorus pedal I've owned so not had to chuck anything else away.  Thomann have many of the Jam catalogue in stock at reasonable prices but if anyone is keen on ordering one, make sure you get the bass specific version.  Your link is to the guitar waterfall, there is a 'Waterfall Bass' here: https://www.jampedals.com/waterfall-bass/

The Stranglers Live X-Cert

J J Burnel's bass on the track 'Straighten Out' is killer.  It was the first track on one side of the LP and I played that to death when I bought it in 1979.  Its a much better version than the studio version, which was a B-side, I think.

51 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

I like the nifty way they rhyme 'Hersham boys' with 'cockney cowboys'. It's right up there with this little peach, 'Generals gathered in their masses, Just like witches at black masses'. 👌

While we are on the subject of crap rhymes:

I am an antichrist

I am an anarkyste (spelt how John Lydon sung it)

Hope this isn't off topic.

12 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

just started playing this with the band and I was thinking a similar thing as I was doing the backing vocals the other night

Its a good catchy song and I can see why it charted but the lyrics are cringeworthy.  The Cockney Rejects "The Greatest Cockney Rip Off" was a p*ss take of it.

Sham 69

"Hersham boys, Hersham boys, they call us the cockney cowboys"

No Jimmy, they don't, they call you bumpkins because Hersham is in Surrey

8 hours ago, CliveT said:

I bought the Spectradrive recently and it's great for headphone practice.  It's quiet, the aux in works well an the preamp was good too.  The compressor and tube sim worked well too but I couldn't find a drive I liked really.  In the end I returned it because I already have a Markbass and didn't see the need for another preamp but if you want a preamp pedal with headphone out it'll do the job well.

I now use a VOX Amplug and for the money it's great.  Simple and light, good tone and drum patterns.  It can be a little hissy but turn the tone down a little and it's fine, and once you play along with the drums or the aux in track you wouldn't notice it.  

I ended up buying a Spectradrive and I am very pleased with it, it is perfect for my needs.  I haven't put it on my pedalboard, I just use it on its own.  It fits on my music stand, next to my iPad or I can plug it into the fx return of my MarkBass for a change (I do like the tone).  For £145, its a bargain.

I downloaded a couple of toneprints for the compression and drive, but as I will be mainly using this for home practise, I'm not too fussed about this.  I will play around with these later.

I'm just pleased to have something to practise with without disturbing the neighbours.

A quick search on Wikipedia reveals this all to be true.  He flogged Chinese bullets to the Afghan army, contrary to US law, got nicked and did 7 months house arrest.

He now supports a charity called 'Guitars over guns' that donates musical equipment to disadvantaged kids, so maybe he is feeling a little guilty about his past.

11 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

I used Zoom pedals happily for many years for home practice.  I switched only because I needed to do some recording so got myself an interface, which also has a headphone amp and aux in - maybe that's another option to consider, if you might ever do some recording at some point?

An interface!  Don't know much about these.  Any recommendations, something small, that can sit on top of my amp or next to the pedal board would be nice.