cord.scott

On 27/09/2020 at 08:31, hooky_lowdown said:

The biggest affect on your tone is the strings. Before you change pickups it may be an idea to look into the strings you use.

I spent years and years thinking I needed the right pickups to get me sound I want. Turns out finding the right strings got me pretty much there. For pickups you need to decide vintage or modern sounding, that's pretty much it. 😎

I think strings are most important just like you said. Pickups 2nd most important.

What are your favorite strings?

29 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

Designers design (or should design) for worst case conditions, different regions have different needs and a product needs to be able to be used in most habitable locations. Your choice may be different than another player's choice, therefore (most)  amps are designed for everybody's possible choices and if a fan bothers you enough, you can seek out an amp without a fan.

Sure. The amp you designed is just fine in that area. I can't hear it 1 foot away. The other one sounds like a jet. I've even contemplated trading it in for a 2nd mesa, probalby a wd-800. 

5 hours ago, Drax said:

If your passive J is 'dull thin and lifeless' to your ears, sounds like you need a P bass.

Or - and I mean this genuinely - some lessons. Find a new way of approaching it and fall back in love. 

Well, I do have a pbass, well a P/J, but I still feel the same way about it.

What would lessons do? Have me play the string closer to the neck? Closer to the bridge? I've tried it many times and I'm pretty sure that after 4 years its just not for me. 

I'd never play in condition that hot anyway. I just don't like fan noise lol.

Odd question...but what is "opposite" of the classic Fender passive bass (Jazz or Precision)?

Why do I ask? Well my Fenders just aren't doing it for me. I quiet playing from about 2006-2016 and when I got back into it I followed the herd and bought some J basses.

But to be honest, I just don't like the way they sound or feel. I've spent 1000's of dollars on pickups, amps, strings, external preamps, and I just just think that they, like most passive basses sound dull, thin, and lifeless. 

I know many people love them. I'm not trying to dunk on them, I just was wondering, what is the least fender like bass that isn't too "radical"?

Back in the day I played active Ibanez basses and I'm thinking of going back. Just don't know 100% what direction to go.

On 10/09/2020 at 06:14, Dan Dare said:

Given that you only notice the noise when you use it as a DI for quiet or silent practice, why not use something designed/intended more for that purpose and keep the AG for live playing? I use a small mixer, a DI box and headphones for silent practice. If I wish to play along with something, I can route music through it and blend the bass with it. Works fine.

Because it has an amazing sounding preamp that I love. I run its di through a small mixer and blend as well.i can't stand bad tone and think all basses, yes literally all basses, sound awful without a good preamp heading in to the console. I dont like the pure sound of any bass I've ever owned. Yes, I'm picky about tone.

Because of the fan noise it gets used less than my other amps.

2 hours ago, agedhorse said:

The fan on the Subway amps (and other amps that I have designed in the past) are quiet by design. It's not something that can really be retrofitted AND still have acceptable performance under hot ambient conditions, 

As an example, it's not uncommon to reach 100 degrees F in my area so I typically design to somewhere around 105 degrees F as the high ambient temperature condition. At these temperatures, I doubt anybody would want to either play bass or listen to bass or a band or much of anything IME.

Sure I get all that and agree.

Maybe my logic is too simple. I know the mesa amp and the aguilar are based around the same power module. Knowing that you made the mesa work with quiet fans it seems reasonable to assume other manufacturers could do the same thing. I'm sure there are several variable here. Where is the flaw in my thinking?

If there is a choice of a quiet fan to do the job vs a louder one, I don't see the reason that would lead to a designer choosing the louder one.

7 hours ago, pineweasel said:

I have a Tone Hammer which is similar. The noticeably loud fan comes on after 20 mins or so then never turns off, even if you're just using the DI. Aguilar told me it was normal, and it's not a problem for gigs so I live with it, but it's annoying

Yeah I'm not saying there is a manufacturing defect, that it operates any other way than as designed. I'm just saying the fans should and could be quieter. 

On 01/09/2020 at 17:51, agedhorse said:

Be careful swapping fans to be sure the characteristics match what the designer intended. the is ESPECIALLY true on amps that have variable speed fan control circuitry. These circuits and the fans must track for the cooling to be the same. 

I agree and its probably beyond me to do it. I'm comparing it to your amp, the d800+, which is my main amp now. The d800+ is very quiet. 

I own the d800+ DI too, so perhaps I'm making an issue out of nothing, but was kinda just wondering. 

On 01/09/2020 at 19:15, Dan Dare said:

I have an AG700 and it isn't loud at all. You can hear it faintly when you're standing close to it and no music is playing, but it isn't intrusive. I wonder if there's an issue with yours.

I've owned 2 of these amps (AG700) both had the same fan noise. It kicks on after few minutes of playing. Most of the time I'm using it as  a DI for silent practice and it is annoying. I'm comparing it to my mesa d800+ which is dead quiet and its fans run the whole time. Just don't understand why if there is a quieter option, a manufacturer would not use it.

I have two main amps

Mesa d800+

Aguilar AG 700

The mesa is dead quiet and the Aguilar sounds like a jet taking off. Well maybe not that loud, but you get the point.

Has anyone every swapped these fans out for something quieter? 

On 05/07/2020 at 06:14, thebrig said:

We met up for a rehearsal at our drummer's place where he has a massive marquee set up in his garden, so no problems with social distancing, but it was the first time that I had played for longer than about 15/20 minutes since I severed two tendons above my forefinger nine week's ago, and I have to admit that it was not only quite painful, but it felt really strange because the scar tissue is still very tight and my movement is restricted, so my fingers weren't going where they used to go automatically, but I was told by the surgeon that it would be at least six months before things return to normal so I'm not too down about that.

What was more worrying though was the fact that we were all really rusty and our timing was all over the place, I'm sure it will be much better next time, but I'm wondering if this is normal after such a long lay off, and how have your first sessions back gone?

Had the same experience (minus injuries) a few weeks ago. We were awful. Drummer ( or should I say ex-drummer) is freaked about pandemic, and that's ok of course, so we had to make a go of it without a complete band.

We did three rehearsals and actually played a "gig", no drummer of course, outdoors at the singers company picnic at his lake house. It get's better, so no worries. 

People aren't getting music live entertainment these and days and a couple of people asked if we'd be playing all summer at the lake lol.

On 31/05/2020 at 13:50, SICbass said:

I live in Germany. In all honesty, given the necessary rules of social distancing, I can’t see gigs in any sort of venue being viable before we have a reliable vaccine. This means, for me, finding a whole new living. I have lived from playing for 30 years.

Gotta be optimistic. Hopefully vaccine or no vaccine we all can play gigs in 2021. 

Myself I played in front of people at a small company picnic last week. First of 2020. 

7 hours ago, ped said:

Same here! Many of the basses I have had simply don’t go low enough or have necks straight enough. It’s really disappointing when you like everything else bout a bass but just can’t get the feel you want. Adverts often say ‘super low action’ but the G string is about a CM off the board! 

Yep. Agree 100%. Now people will say yeah but once you give it a good setup it will be fine. Not always true. Some necks are just messed up. Some sit in around with some much relief that they "take a set" and never come back to a good position.

I'm picky, I'll admit that. I can tell if my action changes by 1/64th. 

I want low low low action. I want to play a touch screen lol. For example I considers Fender's recommended action/relief to be sky high. 

On 05/06/2020 at 10:50, MOSCOWBASS said:

I have a D800 which is great, but I wanted more bright lively sound, so I bought a D800+ di pedal. It goes into the d800 aux in and is effectivly a d800+. Gives me a choice of both worlds and at the time of buying the d800+di it worked out cheaper than selling the d800 and buying a new d800+ amp. I think these amps have a great "feel".

My mesa d800+ and the subway 210 and 115 cabs are the only gear I'd never get rid of. 

I don't buy without trying, generally, because I'm SUPER SUPER SUPER pickup about how basses play. Its gotta have a fast neck and low action or its a deal breaker. If I ordered 10 basses I'd be returning 10 of them. I know people say you just gotta get it set up, but I've owned basses that no amount of work by myself or qualified luthiers would get them to play right. 

On 26/05/2020 at 07:56, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

True, and it goes deeper than that. As far as the actual tone controls are concerned a 12:00 setting may be neutral, as in zero boost, zero cut. That's the case with most SS front end amps. But with a valve front end 12:00 could be 6dB or more boost. As for flat, most amps are incapable of flat response, and you wouldn't it any more than you'd want flat beer.

Yep, Try a GK at 12:00 vs an Aguilar and see if they are "flat". If they are flat they'd sound the same, but they don't, of course. 

I have a lifetime membership to Scott's site and also his technique course. I really like both. 

I guess the Marketing is over the top. I know some here called it "American Style" marketing, but as an American the first time I saw it, I thought it was odd, thought it must have been British style marketing.

The only downside I see to Scott's videos is he has a very long-winded guy, very chatty, as opposed to Mark at Talking bass, who gets right tot the point. Scott's videos kind of remind me of Anderton's reviews where they talk a lot, but if you have patience, there are some good things in the videos. 

On 16/05/2020 at 11:46, BillyBass said:

I ask because I had a similar issue when I started learning slap, quite recently.

I'm not a big fan of slap bass music.  RHCP I like, and one or two others come to mind but most of the music I listen to is finger or pick stuff.  I just thought I should learn slap, as I'm learning the bass.  I have three basses: a P, a J and an Ibby SDGR 500.  The action on the Ibby is quite low, I generally set the action to be as low as possible without fret buzz happening (finger style), and this bass had a lot of fret buzz when being slapped, not so much the J which had a higher action.

I wasn't sure whether the action just has to be higher if you are slapping rather than just using fingers or a pick?

It depends. I know I saw a rig rundown with Flea's tech and he sets his basses up with 3/64's (1.17mm) and almost no relief. Marcus Miller plays with super low action too. 

Fender jazzes. Well these would probably actually go in my Squier VM 5 String. Amps? Aguilar ag700, Mesa d800+, gk mb 200.

I don't play anything heavy, just covers, no overdrive. I just like a nice smooth mellow bass tone. 

Seymour Duncan Apollo jazz bass pickups. Has anyone tried them? Opinions?

5 hours ago, DiMarco said:

Since class D became a thing and all the powersections in bass amps started sounding exactly the same the only thing that matters is headroom and how good the preamp was designed so it won't screw up your signal.

On top of that, making your tone with the amp is pretty oldskool since bass players have been starting to use more and more pedals that shape your tone (and there's amazingly good sounding stuff out there that goes on your pedalboard!). What many players do is make their tone before it hitting the amp, and even having a D.I. that incorporates bass cabinet impulse responses to make life very easy for FOH. This makes having a flexibile EQ and built-in fx like compressor, drive etc. on the amplifier pretty much obsolete.

That said, I do use an amp that sounds different since it isn't class D but full valve. Still, my EQ on that is completely flat except when I need to make up for any bad room acoustics (ie take the boominess out if needed).

I am not saying having the best possible class D amp is a bad idea, just that making your sound before it hits any amp is seen more often then it used to.

So just how important is the amp, and specifically its preamp section in your rig at the end of the day?

My 2p.

 

I get your broader point, but while lots of class D amps use the same power module but the power sections aren't exactly the same. 

My Mesa d800+, my Aguilar AG 700, and the mesa WD-800 all use the same ice power module. But they have some thing built into the power section around those modules.

But the d800+ and the WD-800 have tube simulation built into their power sections according to their designer. You can run them down to 2ohm. The Aguilar goes down to 2.67 only and no tube emulation in the power section. The tube emulation (the d800+ plus model has it in the preamp as well, and the WD actually has tube) means they don't sound the same. Heck the WD even has adjustable damping. 

I like Scott's Bass Lessons. I have a lifetime membership. But for me his technique accelerator course on teachable was a game changer. 

I don't think I've really had any bad experience with online content. Something to be learned everywhere.

6 hours ago, bassfan said:

Oh! We’ll use the price of the flight to put towards the BAmp. 😂 

No it’s not an overdrive  (it does have a built overdrive you can use along with a compressor and fuzz) it’s more of a tweak to the software to make it sound like a tube amp. Of course there is a version of the OS without this which can be loaded. The vintage cab profile is a separate option within the cab profiles that will always be available in the software. 

I see, so its more like a whole OS update that a preset? Curious to hear it.

8 hours ago, bassfan said:

I waited 18months. Don’t regret it for a second. I bought a very cool Bluetooth footswitch which allows you to essentially have a 3rd preset channel. The new software BFT (Big Fat Tube) sounds really great. I had an email yesterday from @Bergantino Audio with a new software update and a separate cabinet feature “vintage”. I’ll be trying that this week. 😃

@Dood has done a great online demo, on you tube. 
If you are close to Essex you are welcome to come and have a blast through mine, post lockdown  

Thanks appreciate the offer but I'm a few thousand miles away lol. The BFT is an overdrive?