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My point was along the lines of that there's a global standard for Alkaline batteries, but the world has moved on to more power hungry stuff but instead of there being a standard for lithium every device has a different size and shape of battery, making swapping them out impossible. Nothing really to do with this preamp.

You're right that's probably the reason. Shame really. I get 60 hours from my Pocket Blender on a single charge, but no 9v would cut it if the current requirement is too high. <whinge> Why isn't there a standard battery size for Lithium so you can buy and replace batteries across multiple devices? Keeping AA/PP3 stocked in shops shows there's clearly still a market for swapping out batteries rather than waiting 9 hours for your device to charge.</whinge>

For those that don't usually read it, there's a very good writeup of this preamp in May's edition of Sound On Sound. Not often you get bass-centric gear in that mag but they gave it a thorough explanation of input combinations and what switches there are on the box. One missing feature I would have liked would have been battery operation, perhaps with the loss of 48v. My Fishman Pocket Blender, which I adore and would cry if it broke, can do dual input with electret phantom power with a PP3 battery

Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but what does the extra extra B stand for in NBBBD? Lovely bass btw, and happy birthday!

Thanks. Is that not modelling which I don't like? Modelling sounds quite fake (to my ears) in the upper register, and has poor tracking in the lower. Even at its best there's a lag, although it may be better now since I last tried.

These are perhaps the answer I was expecting but didn't want to hear. I was hoping that technology was advancing enough that a conventionally shaped pickup could pass as a piezo these days (and I wasn't prepared to hack up the Streamer, that's why I'm asking for conventional pickups!) For what it's worth, I probably would have bought an Ibanez by now, but space is at a premium here and the upright bass is already already taking up a fair chunk of our living space. As for swapping, yeah I may be up for that, but I've been on the same two electrics (other is a fretted Sandberg in case you wonder) for over 10 years now and have grown somewhat attached. Just to throw it in here, after some searching I've found an Ibanez with both magnetic pickups and their aerosilk piezo system: the Ibanez SRF700. If it's close to the SRH500 when on piezo that would be a killer versatile bass. Thanks all for the very helpful replies.

I can't see a cable coming into the cavity from the bridge directly. My guess without removing the pickups is that the earth is daisy chained from the bridge pickup.

It's fretless.

Thanks. Even with a Warwick-made part it would still be quite an invasive procedure no? I'd rather swap pickups than route wood.

My only thought was that there's some form of capacitor there. It does say it needs charging. I'm not sure which pickup I'm supposed to be looking at on that page though...

That would have been an obvious thing to post. When I've been in a shop (remember those?), I tried the Ibanez SRH500F. That thing was amazing. I could get an acoustic bass with the treble up, and something approaching a double bass when you rolled the treble off, across the entire fingerboard. I think the following post covers what I'm after. I can always roll-off the top when I want so it's the last section from 2:08, although all the tones here I wouldn't say no to: Less for tone, if you could tell me how to play like Marco in the following solo, I'd be much obliged Warwick PJ, similar to the one pictured below. Even if I was brave enough to try a piezo pickup on it, the procedure would be quite invasive on this bass because of the bridge system.

Agreed, an amp does go a long way, but my amps are about as good as I can get it and they still aren't good enough in my opinion. If I played a short passage on my bass and uploaded a clip, I'd be genuinely interested in how close people could get to an acoustic sound on EQ alone. Maybe I don't need to do anything more than twiddle knobs, but I've been twiddling a while now with no joy. I've never heard of them, thanks! The words on their website talk a good game, but the clips they post aren't exactly helpful to me in making a decision. I'm not one for playing an entire piece using just harmonics, nor distortion.

Greeting basschatters. There seems to be a market for magnetic pickups, each with their unique sounds and tones. There's also a (smaller) market for piezo for their large frequency response and acoustic-like sounds. I would like to retro fit the latter's sound to one of my basses, but I don't have the brains to retro fit a piezo pickup to my bass. So, in short, is there a magnetic pickup (single J coil, or split P coil) that even approaches an acoustic-like tone? The Fishman Fluence look like manufacturers are starting to look at augmenting the humble magnetic coil, but nothing that I've seen outright says it can give a wide and reasonably flat response. The Fluence is also frustratingly humbucker size. I'm aware of modelling, but this isn't really what I'm after and I've been disappointed with the results of that in the past. Any help appreciated!

@Joebethell Sorry to take this thread off topic, but did you order your come with tweeters? Is that a possibility? I was originally in the market for a GSS cab with this speaker and tweeter, but they're based in France and so it's harder to order them in the UK now.

I'll put in another vote for Reaper. One thing that separates Reaper from the rest, at least in my opinion, is the collection of top quality video tutorials on YouTube. I've watched them and come away with tricks that I didn't even know I wanted. At the same time I've never encountered something I couldn't do with Reaper, although my needs are modest. I'd at least give it a spin. It's free to try so it's only time you'd be wasting. Even when the trial expires you are free to continue using it. All that happens is that a pop-up appears when you start the program asking you to puchase. You can close this pop-up after 5 seconds. To boot there's a free-to-use licence valid until 1st April 2021.This has been extended multiple times already so 1st April may not even be the end date.

That's true, but I don't see the relevance here, unless you think the cabinet isn't designed around the speaker. If that is what you're saying, how do you know that?

There are two 2x12 cabinets on their website, including one containing a pair of BN12-300S https://www.zillacabs.com/bass-fatboy. Now that speaker seems to polarize opinion here on BassChat as to whether it's appropriate for bass, so much so that I contacted Celestion about it. This was their response: I don't think I've come across anyone on this site who owns these speakers and dislikes them, so there's that in their favour!

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I bought a set of Kaplan strings and I cannot fault Geoff's prompt service and great communication. Would definitely buy from him again. Thanks Geoff.

If I may stick my oar in here. I've just taken delivery of a set of Kaplans from geoffbassist. The service was excellent and I'm indebted to him for the good price, but that's an aside and not what this thread is about. The strings were replacing a 12 year old set of Obligatos. I don't actually know what sound I'm after, but I know a good price when I see one which is why I thought I'd take a punt. For me this was a punt and a miss, but as with all things there are too many variables to blame the strings as such. I'll happily answer any questions as they're on my bass at the moment though. In comparison to the Obligatos, the strings are quieter, and that's an objective observation. Also objective is the ease of bowing. It's much more reactive and easier to get an even volume across the strings and to choose the dynamics. In terms of tone, that's where opinion creeps in. To me the pizz is lifeless but functional. To me the bowing with the Kaplans has with less scratch than the Obligatos and more body, although bear in mind that these Obligatos are 12 years old. I've elicited feedback from someone who has exceptional taste in everything (my wife) and she said that she preferred the Obligatos in both bowing and pizz. We ran two strings side-by-side at the same time which, while not scientific, is good enough for us to compare the two sets at the same time. She said there was more definition in the Obligatos and I'd say it's her opinion that's important as after all it's the tone from a few feet away rather than on top of the bass that's what you get paid for. Perhaps that's what D'Addario were going for: something which blended into an orchestra better rather than something that stood out. Absolutely no sense in getting any high frequencies out of a bass in an orchestra with so many other instruments. For me, while I do try to keep my bow warm, it's not in an orchestra pit. The pizz with the Kaplans just isn't doing it for me. It's not old-school warm like the Obligatos. It's just dead. This is totally appropriate in an orchestra, but just not for me. The bowing again is very much an orchestral bow. I preferred it. My wife didn't. Update: Actshwally, I'm starting to warm to the Kaplans. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with an updated appraisal, but the bowing is much, much better than the Obligatos after some extended playing.

Chin up, surely a prophetic statement too?

It's as if @Ashdown Engineering reads basschat/my mind! Thank you Ashdown, your new Bluetooth Tone Pocket is the product I've been waiting for. Once I am unshackled from lockdown's restrictions I'll be heading to my local music shop to try this out, and let's be honest I'll probably buy it. https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/new-for-namm-21/products/tone-pocket-bluetooth

Ashdown Ant seems to fit your bill, but for the power requirements. I'm just throwing this in here just in case anyone searches the site for a pedalboard amp. I don't own one, but I definitely want one Totally anecdotally, I was able to keep up with a savage drummer with 150W, but I did have a 15" cone behind me. You could replace your cab, but then you're trying to cut down on gear. Guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch https://ashdownmusic.com/products/the-ant