Baloney Balderdash

*ba-dum-chi!* Ah, of course, makes sense, must be that Quad Pickup mentioned in the control pictogram. Also just found a video with a recording of a song from that concert. Must admit I was never any big Grateful Dead fan, but actually did sound very nice, and the bass sounded no less than awesome on that recording, also really like Lesh's very meandering bass play, that almost magically just fits in perfectly and never gets in the way despite being all over the place, almost like a paradox. Maybe I really ought to check out some more Grateful Dead stuff, the few songs I have heard just always came off as a bit boring, kind of too straight and off the mill bland, for my taste, but perhaps I just need to keep away from studio recordings and stick to their live stuff, sure does seem like that is where the real magic is happening. Liked just about every live recording I've watched and heard with them so far, but disliked every studio recording I've heard, or well maybe dislike is too strong a word to use, leaving me completely indifferent would be more accurate. This one:

Assuming you already doesn't apply more pressure than needed when fretting notes, Elixir Nanoweb nickel-plated roundwounds, hands down. If you don't like coated strings D'Addario NYXL are a bit smoother than regular XL strings as well, and actually last longer too.

Also is that there in the middle the battery for whole preamp, and attached with strips of copper tape? If that is the case you would think they could have come up with a less hack like and more practical/easily accessible solution with all that overengineering otherwise going on there. I do love the 60's sci-fi spaceship control panel aesthetics of it though, but would have been even better if they had cramped in some flick switches as well, and used a variety of different knobs.

More is Lesh!

As several people already pointed out the default wiring of P pickups are the two pickup halves connected in series. Some people do add the option for having them wired in parallel though, but in my opinion most P pickups, with a few exceptions, the exceptions generally being mid heavy, high output ones, doesn't really sound all that great wired in parallel. And also a J and a P pickup, the latter, as explained above, which would normally already have it's two coils wired in series, wired in series with each other would usually be way too boomy and muddy to be of any real practical use either. My advise would be to just solo your P pickup with the respective two coils of each half wired in series, exactly like a regular P bass. If in doubt just use the setting that works, it's not like you got 100's of options, just try the few you got out, and then use the one that sounds right in the context, simple as that really.

At least they dare every once in while making some really unusual innovating stuff available on the market, and at fairly reasonable prices considering, if usually only for a limited period of time (I guess until the main chunk of the niche segment of customers at that given time potentially interested in the given niche product in question has been supplied, and sales then as a result dips), despite clearly being a niche product, which is a lot more to say than of by far most other similar big corporate guitar/bass companies their size. They actually bother catering the more niche segment of their customers (hard to blame them for only doing so for as long as it is actually profitable, they are after all a business and not a charity organization).

That's the exact tuner I have had a look at, the Gotoh 20600CT Hipshot GB7 Xtender D tuner, or rather the left hand version, since I will be using it for the top string of a 4 string bass with a 2 + 2 headstock. To be exact it would be for my Ibanez GSRM20B Mikro Bass, which I tune in F# standard tuning, 2 half steps above regular 4 string bass E standard tuning, so this would be for the high A string (high G string in regular E standard tuning), for dropping it to G# (Ab), to obtain a third interval similar to that between the G and B string of a 6 string guitar, for chord/chord arpeggio work. So to the point, do you know if this would be a direct drop in replacement for Ibanez basses? Looks very much like it would be, but would be nice to know for sure. Edit!!! : Never mind found the answer myself with some Googling magic, and the answer would be: Yes! This would be a direct drop in replacement for the tuners Ibanez uses for their basses.

Yes, that is the point of my post, it's a full step, hence why I ask if such a mechanism, designed to drop the tuning of a string a full step can be set to only drop the tuning half a step instead.

As the tittle says, can a D detuner tuning peg mechanism be set to only tune a string down 1 half step, rather than a full step?

But there is a difference between the bridges, saying all bridges are equal is nonsense, cause they are not from a construction/design point of view, pretty certain that the saddle pieces that the strings rest on have much better and more direct contact with the rest of the bridge piece on the mono rail bridge pieces, which should translate to better and more direct contact to the body of the bass, that is what I was referring to. It doesn't matter how tight the bridge plate is screwed in if the saddle pieces themself are loose by design/construction and doesn't make proper contact. But guess you answered my question indirectly anyway, so thanks I suppose.

Exactly. With Nylon you do get that specific snappy emphasis of the attack only possible to achieve by using a pick, but without the click sound, which you may or may not like, that comes with harder and stiffer materials like Tortex for instance. Nylon has a slightly rounder tone to it, but without loosing that very specific signature emphasis of the attack that for me at least is one of the absolute main reason for using a pick rather than my fingers, which you would loose using something like a rubber, leather or filt pick, making those seem a bit pointless to me.

The thumb "strumming" thing is called "double thumb". Victor Wooten uses that technique a lot (comes more naturally and also sound wise goes well with slapping).

As the title says, does anyone else make regular use, that is as an integrated part of your regular playing, of the flamenco inspired index and/or middle finger flicking picking technique? I personally started systematically practicing it somewhere around last year, personally using either index or middle finger interchangeably, then kind of forgot to keep up at it, but then recently I went to mainly using my fingers rather than a pick for plucking the strings of my bass, so I took up starting using this technique again, and for some strange reason I have gotten better at it in the meantime without really practicing it. I still don't exactly master this technique, pretty far from in fact, but I do feel like I am actually fairly decent at it already. Doing it with precision, so that you only hit one string and doesn't bump into the one above or bellow the one you intend to pick, and only hitting the string with the outmost edge of you finger tip/nail on both up and down strokes, without frequently missing it entirely, as well as the fact that you actually need to relax in your hands, and with guarantee will fail if your hands/fingers are too tense, does make it rather tricky when you first start out deciding to learn this technique, but I actually can do this pretty consistently now, my main issue currently really just being a matter of hitting a speed limit before I mess up, not being able to do it consistently at the kind of speed I ideally would want to, and then not having quite as much control over my index finger as my middle finger yet, but I totally feel like I am actually slowly getting there, and that I actually got it pretty decently down, to a point where it is actually practically applicable for me, at least at relatively moderate speed. But when one does master this technique it makes it possible to obtain quite high speeds of picking/strumming strings, as well as it is perfect or strumming several strings at a time (kind of a variation of this technique, sort of raking index+middle+ring finger successively flicking across the strings), otherwise only really possible by using a pick, but in fact even actually more effortlessly so, and while also still really having it's totally own thing going that allows for some types of expression unique to this specific way of playing. Mind I don't use it as the only picking technique but combine it with regular 2 finger plucking (regular 3 finger plucking, that is index+middle+ring I only really exclusively use for Steve Harris style galloping stuff), classical guitar style finger picking, double thumbing, as well as faux, thumb + index finger pressed together, pick style (the two former techniques, regular 2 finger plucking and classical guitar style finger picking, being what I predominantly utilizes, and the remaining 3, double thumb, faux finger pick, and flamenco finger flicking, being utilized to a somewhat lesser degree, which one of those depending, mainly in situations where you would otherwise probably had preferred using a pick over the traditional 2 finger plucking technique). Using your fingers this way, combining several different finger picking techniques to play the bass, rather than just a pick, really opens up for a lot more variety of expression. I couldn't find the video I wanted to link to, by someone who really masters this technique, playing a crazily fast picked solo, using his index and middle finger interchangeably with a lot of string crossing involved, and in general I had a hard time finding really good examples of this technique demonstrated, however I did find this quite decent demonstration of the technique, this guy using index and middle finger in tandem, starts at about the 1:38 mark of the video: This cover gives a bit better idea of how it can sound and how high picking speeds it allows for (and yes it does sound great without distorted bass too, I just couldn't find any great examples of it on YouTube): I know Geddy Lee adopted this technique, allegedly from Les Claypool, and started making wide use of.

The Elixir Nanoweb coated roundwound stainless steel strings will be brighter sounding with more edge to them, generally sounding and feeling more similar to fresh regular uncoated nickel-plated roundwounds, whereas the Nanoweb coated nickel-plated roundwound Elixir strings will sound rounder and warmer, less bright and feel smoother than regular uncoated nickel-plated roundwound strings. From Elixir's homepage : Mind the description of the feel of the strings on these packages, under the sound description, respectively "Smooth" and "Natural", really should have been the other way around, that is "Natural" for the stainless steel strings and "Smooth" for the nickel-plated ones.

I consider swapping out the standard bend steel plate vintage style bridge with mono rail bridge pieces instead, so would like to know if anyone got experience with this, and if I should expect any change in tone and if so in what way? I realize that it in any case would be a rather subtle change, but in my experience relatively subtle changes can actually make a quite significant and essential difference when talking tone. My guess would be that mono rail bridge pieces might improve definition, articulation, sustain and resonance slightly, because of the more direct contact with the body of the bass as well as less vibrations transferred across strings. If it makes any difference if I am going through with this it will be mono rail bridge pieces each milled from one piece of solid brass, rather than molded ones.

In my experience high mass bridges in general smooth/round out/off the tone and in a way makes the bass sound more polite and uniform, I'd even claim lacking character and sounding kind of bland, in comparison to a traditional bend steel plate vintage style bridge.

Though how would I go about making myself a Geddy Poo?

"The only one who could ever reach me Was the son of a pizza man The only boy who could ever teach me Was the son of a pizza man Yes, he was, he was, ooh, yes, he was"

I have no personal experience with it, but these guys get nothing but no less than absolutely amazing tones out of it: However as far as i understood from what I read about it it is quite sensitive to input impedance and doesn't cope well with being placed after buffered pedals (or, I assume, active basses), as is actually pretty commonly the case with fuzz pedals.

Thomann sells the 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass (mind at the moment it says 5-7 weeks before they got them back in stock): https://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_gsrm25_bk.htm

Because the amount that the strings are shifted by the nut doesn't add up for how much the strings are shifted overall. My best bet is that the neck is slightly shifted in the pocket as well, likely less than you can determine by simply looking at it, but enough to add up to that string shift towards the low E string together with the shifted nut slots. It's actually a fairly common phenomena, and easily fixed by loosening the neck bolts, giving the neck a nudge, then tightening the bolts again. You would however still have to get a new nut cut as well to fix the issue entirely.

For the better though as far as I am concerned. Both in terms of the colors being more subtle/mellow pastel color like, the yellow one looks awesome in this video, probably even my favorite out of these finishes, which wasn't the case when judging from the pictures, and also in terms of the bridge pickup not being quite as far back in reality. I agree though that it is unfortunate and seems really strange and unprofessional.

DiMarzio Model P