barlemniscate

17 hours ago, Maude said:

I can only speak for the Variax as it's the only one of the four I own. It sounds like a completely normal bass on 90% of the models. The only ones that can get glitchy are the ones that use an octaver and the synths. But this can be the case with some similar pedals. The two that use an octaver are the 8 and 12 strings, the 12 is worse that the 8 and it's trying to add a third octave 2 above the normal bass. It's actually fine but if you play Jeremy by Pearl Jam (it's the law on a 12 string) then it gets glitchy when doing the intro harmonics. I can forgive it as it's trying to play 3 octaves of a harmonic simultaneously. The 8 string is fine. 

The synths have to be played really cleanly as they get confused by multiple notes, again a lot of pedals have this issue. 

All the other normal basses sound like normal basses as it's really just very clever eq'ing that's getting the tone. 

I run mine through an X3 Live and can change amp, cab, bass (including tone settings) and effects chain by stepping on one switch. 

In the first video I watched (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgq9hlJysj8), it sounded great. The second video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjnoQXDOGH0) made it sound artificial. I want it to sound like a real bass, which is why I'm mostly on the fence between Sims and the T40.

8 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

How versatile do you need? 
and if you are going for a known sound, how close does it need to be?

a couple of years back I scratched an itch and built myself a versatile bass, two pickups, one in MM spot, the other kinda as close to the p spot, series/single/paralell on each pup, loads of switching options for blend and then a 2 band MM preamp... it was great and could do most things... 

but versatility got in the way for simplicity of playing for me. 
I would probably tend more towards having at least two basses, or if you don’t need super accurate something like the Lakland 55-94 I’ve got gets in the ballpark of a fair few sounds and weighs a lot less than the T40 I used to have

I'd really like to be able to get the J, the P, and the Ray sound in one house, and I'd like it to be as close as possible.

Versatility is more important than simplicity for me.

12 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Very much this!

I've said the same about amp and cab sims. I really don't care if they are perfect reproductions of "the real thing". I'm much more interested in the versatility and range of tones available and the fact that they are all instantly and accurately recallable at the touch of a switch/button. 

After all there is no bass/amp/speaker combination that sounds perfect without some fiddling with the pickup balance, EQ and gain structure.

That's fine and all, I'm just worried about it sounding like a MIDI bass and not a real one - in that respect it's probably between the T40 and Sims, I assume. 

So I'm looking for a way to make my main bass "do it all."

The three main systems I have found are

• Sims Bass Pickups 
• Roland Midi Pickup with Synth
• Peavey T40
• Line 6 Variax

I already made a thread on the Variax, but I figured I'd just do one big one.

So which one is the most versatile and which the most accurate?

So I've been eyeing the Variax bass for a while now, and, while I love the versatility, I have a jazz bass that I would prefer to keep its spot as my number one.

So, my question is this - how do I get all this into my jazz bass? Could I just get a piezo bridge and do some fancy wiring things - or do I have to suck it up and spend a bunch of money on one just to gut it, and have a luthier do all the routing necessary to install it into my bass? I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money, but I will if I have to.

I also want to be able to switch between the pickups and the Variax system, just so I have a backup in case my battery runs out or something.

Thanks!