Baloney Balderdash

I just made up and recoded this little hard rock boogie for another demonstration of how the 1 octave down sounds blended with dry signal, this time using a pick: The way the octave down sounds blended with dry signal is starting to grow on me, and I think it sounds particularly great using a pick, and even the low A string (not demonstrated above) on my tenor bass (that would be the same A as the low A string on a 4 string bass in regular E standard tuning), that would be A0 (a full whole step below the low B string on a 5 or 6 string bass) when taken an octave down sounds pretty damn tight (though admittedly I do have a HPF engaged, so that might account for some of that credit). Utilizing my 28.5" scale LTD B4JR tenor bass, equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, and tuned to A standard tuning.

They ought to make a deluxe version of the Mikro Bass. I would buy it instantly.

Bought this used about a month ago, for what equals about 30$. An ESP/LTD B4JR : It's not in production anymore, and a pretty rare find on the used market, though it is a cheap budget bass, still it usually goes for over 3 times what I paid for this one used. It's a just 28.5" scale length short scale bass, with a Basswood body, and a Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard. And after a thorough setup, and having the stock pickups, which honestly sounded decent enough, replaced for an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, it sounds non less than amazing. Really nice tone, both finger plucked, but especially using a pick. Really punchy and snappy, very focused, tone, and the sustain is pretty substantial too. Even the low E sounds great, despite the short scale length. Though I have now strung it with coated Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings, of the gauges .068 - .052 - .038 - .028, tuned to tenor bass, A standard, tuning. It's also very light, the body being made of Basswood, which does make it prone to neck dive, but nothing a wide grippy strap can't solve (which the strap in the picture has been replaced with). Now the bad things, when I got it it had one of the most horrible setups I ever saw, and with loose input jack socket, that was easily fixed though, however the nut slots are cut way too high, and it got some pretty sharp fret ends, that you can literally cut your hand on if you are not careful, and will probably have a proper luthier fix that too at some point. The thin U shaped neck also took a bit getting used to, it is not exactly beefy, but it kind of felt that way at first, because of the neck profile being so round. The fretboard is pretty flat though, with a radius of 400mm (~16"), which I fortunately does happen to prefer. The frets are not perfectly leveled, but still well enough that I can get it to my preferred string action (about 2mm (~5/64") low E string at 12th fret) without any issues or string buzz whatsoever. Truss rod works as it is supposed to, and neck seems stable. Tuners are not the best, but they work just fine. All in all a lot of bass for merely 400 Danish Kroner (~30£), definitely satisfied with my buy. I named it "Dud Bottomfeeder Jr.". Love this little fella'.

Yamaha needs to get into the short scale game again.

I love how they look, and if I had that kind of money to spend I would be very tempted to buy one. However I also fell for the temptation to buy a vintage 70's Rickenbacker once, when I had that kind of money to spend at my disposal, and it turned out the most expensive piece of absolute crap I ever bought. Hated how it felt in my hands, and I wasn't particularly impressed by the tone either.

I utilize an "amp-less" setup, that took years, a lot of thought and experimentation, to perfect, which purpose is to emulate having an amp and a cab. And my primary reason for this is that I get a very consistent tone whether I practice at home with a pair of decent approximately FRFR studio grade headphones, jam at band rehearsal space through a PA or FRFR cab, play live at a venue through their PA system, or record. And as a welcome bonus it frees me for having to drag around with amps and cabs. It's all on my pedalboard.

A couple of demos of the Boss XS-1, dialed in to seek to emulate an effect somewhat similar to an 8 string octave course bass -esque effect: I feel the 1 octave up effect works best for this, since the dry signal will be dominating, as the bass strings would on a real 8 strings bass, compared to the octave strings, and so the fake octave can kind of hide behind the real bass signal. In any case, a huge improvement over the TC Elextronic Sub'N'Up I used previously, even with a custom made Toneprint, with pre and post octave engine EQ filters to improve tracking, minimize digital artifacts and make the 1 octave up effect sound more natural. Here we go: Sound test of the new Boss XS-1 pitchshifter, testing octave down and octave up respectively blended with dry signal, on my 28.5" scale tenor bass (reverse orientation middle/bridge P pickup), tuned in A standard tuning, seeking to emulate a somewhat 8 string octave course bass -esque effect. Octave Down: 0:00 - 2:30 Octave Up: 2:30 - 4:21 Sound test of the new Boss XS-1 pitchshifter, testing octave down and octave up respectively blended with dry signal, on my 5 string 28.6" scale tenor bass (bridge J pickup), tuned in E standard tuning, seeking to emulate a somewhat 8 string octave course bass -esque effect. Though I avoided playing the low E too much, as it is already pretty floppy sounding on the short scale as is, and E0 is insane, however I did hit it a few times, just for the sake of the demo. Octave Down: 0:00 - 6:10 Octave Up: 6:10 - 9:44

Absolutely, huge improvement, much clearer and natural sounding 1 octave up effect (the 1 octave down for that sake too, which for me is straight out unusable on the Sub'N'Up), and without any kind of glitches or odd digital artifacts. Also try listening to the other test I just added to my previous post. I focused on the 1 octave down in the above demos for the sake of comparison, but what I predominantly actually use myself is the 1 octave up effect, which I think, blended in with dry signal, and the dry signal being dominant, pretty much sounds perfectly natural.

You can judge for yourself here: Sound test of the new Boss XS-1 pitchshifter, testing octave down and octave up respectively blended with dry signal, on my 28.5" scale tenor bass (reverse orientation middle/bridge P pickup), tuned in A standard tuning, seeking to emulate a somewhat 8 string octave course bass -esque effect. Octave Down: 0:00 - 2:30 Octave Up: 2:30 - 4:21 And for comparison, here played on my 5 string 28.6" tenor bass (bridge J pickup), tuned in E standard tuning, though I avoided playing the low E too much, as it is already pretty floppy sounding on the short scale as is, and E0 is insane, however I did hit it a few times, just for the sake of the demo: Octave Down: 0:00 - 6:10 Octave Up: 6:10 - 9:44

Yes, admittedly it is quite Danny Elfman inspired.

Also I now connected a foot switch, to be able to switch to the 1 octave down instead, but with the same amount of blend. This gives me with the 1 octave up on my 5 string, tuned in E standard tuning, a quite natural sounding 8 (10) string, octave course, bass emulation. And with the 1 octave down, on the upper 3 strings, it gives me the lower 3 strings of a guitar in D standard tuning, but played on bass, plus a less pronounced fake 3 lower strings of a bass in D standard tuning, playing in unison with the guitar, one octave lower, but sounding a bit fake, though actually great sounding and absolutely useful effect still. The A strings is actually useful too, though the processed octave would be a whole step lower than the B of a 5 or 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning. But yes, as I already replied, 1 octave up is definitely the way to go for an approximately natural sounding 8 string, octave course, bass emulation.

What you want is a Boss LS-2 effects loops/mixer pedal.

Ok, so here's my contribution, had some issues transposing this month's image into musical ideas, hence the title, but since it is October, the Halloween-ish spin on this happens to fit well : Single track 1st take recording, played on my 28.6" scale 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, tuned to E standard tuning, recorded through my "amp-less" setup, directly into my Zoom H4n handheld recorder, only edited using a simple Wav editor.

Yes, absolutely. For that simple reason that the octave strings on an 8 string bass will have lower output than the bass strings. This way the artificial notes can be lower in the mix and sort of hide behind the real once, rather than having the artificial notes be the dominant ones. That said I am not really looking to emulate an 8 string bass, I just happen to like the tone I get from adding an octave.

Here's a sample of the Boss XS-1 used for obtaining an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string octave course bass, using my 28.6" scale Ibanez GSRM25 Mikto Bass, tuned to E standard tuning (E to C). Just random noodling through my "amp-less" setup, directly into my Zoom H4n handheld recorder, with nothing additionally done post recording, other than clipping/cutting some parts out:

Not my specific unit, just a random Google image of it, but I got this a couple of days ago: Absolutely amazing. I use it for my always on 1 octave up effect, to emulate an effect somewhat similar to that of an octave course 8 string bass. Much clearer and more natural sounding than the TC Electronic Sub'N'Up I used previously, even if I had that running with a custom made Toneprint, I meticulously dialed in myself, with pre and post octave engine EQ filters, specifically for my application. Obviously the XS-1 octave up still sounds somewhat artificial, but it is still a substantial improvement over the Sub'N'Up, and with the octave mix at 50% or lower it does sound completely natural. Gone are all the odd digital artifacts and occational glitches as well.

Same, but the smaller and cheaper little brother Boss XS-1. The demos I've watched sound very promising, and it should be able to do a better job then the TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini I use currently to emulated an octave course 8 string bass -esque effect. Am really looking forward to trying it out. I should have it by Tuesday.

That's what she said...

Almost forgot how absolutely amazingly magical Portishead are, this had me cry:

I don't think it is fair to compare a Fela Kuti to a swastica t-shirt. Also if you can't relate to the song's lyrics, don't play it. This goes as far as I am concerned for everything. You are not going to do a song justice if you can't relate to it. And if all it is to you is a nice tune, maybe you are right that it would be disrespectful to play it. I would hope though that most people can empathize with other people's suffering no matter what color their skin happens to be and no matter where they happen to live.

"Hvide Mænd Spiller Afrobeat" (White Men Play Afrobeat) by the Danish band "Smag På Dig Selv" (Taste Yourself)

Yeah, definitely do not copy the accent and appearance, that would be pretty seriously cringe, and border parody. As always with covers, respect the original material, by doing it your way!

Quite on the contrary, music is an universal language, and I would call it a racist decision if fear of cultural-appropriation is the reason not to play it. But then again I am not a zealot woke, you'll have to ask one of them how it is even supposed to make sense. I am almost certain that Fela Kuti would be really happy about a British white person playing his music. Culture is if any just a social construct, break down some barriers!

Boss ME-90B