Baloney Balderdash

The Orange Burst is an Xotic BB Preamp clone, right?

I never really played with a mute, but from what you describe it kind of sounds like what I get from the technique I recently started to apply a lot when playing and really enjoy the effect of, that is cutting the notes short by only lifting the fretting finger in question partially, gradually (but this graduation in reality actually happening fairly quickly) slightly loosening pressure of the fretting finger on the string, so that the pad of the finger now will sort of mute the string in question naturally. The advantage of that over a fixed mute it obviously that you can freely alternate between this and then having then regular fretting, as well as this way you will also have full control over exactly how and how much the fretted string is muted. Not sure if we are actually talking about the same effect though, as I, as said, never actually played with a string mute. Edit!!!: Thinking about it I don't think the above technique will give the same result anyway, not sure what I was thinking when I wrote it, but it wouldn't be able to give that initial damping effect on the fretted notes as a mute would.

I think the current production Squier Bass VI's actually got a slightly wider nut width, but I was about to post a somewhat similar reply, that is that the nut width of the Bronco most likely being way more narrow than OP likely would want, or even quite possibly what will strictly physically allow for proper fretting of the individual strings near the nut. My Harley Benton GuitarBass, which is also a take on the Bass VI concept, but with a much flatter fretboard radius and a fixed TOM style bridge, in fact more similar to the Shecter Hellcat VI, has a 42mm wide nut, and that is about as narrow as can be for me to be able to still fret the individual strings properly near the nut. Mind while being a real issue when I first got the instrument all it took was a little practice and getting used to it, and the tight string spacing it is actually not really an issue for me now, not even at the first fret, but as said I would definitely want to go any narrower, as I think that would make it physically impossible for me to fret the individual strings properly at the first few frets. OP might want to consider the Harley Benton GuitarBass, it generally gets amazing reviews, and I was generally impressed myself with the quality of mine, some claim it is better quality than the over twice times more expensive Squier. The stock pickups sound great, the fretwork on mine was perfect from stock, heck, even the nut slots were cut perfectly, and overall it plays and sounds amazing. The Harley Benton GuitarBass is genuinely great instrument and not only for the money.

Just don't get the EHX Nano Small Clone, its' a different circuit and doesn't sound as great as the models mentioned following, get either the original big box Small Clone, which I think is actually still in production, the Neo Small Clone, or the Bass Clone.

So, as the title say, what is your favorite overdrive pedal(s) for bass? Preferably leave a bit information about your chosen overdrive(s) and why you like it as well. My, hands down, must be the Joyo Orange Juice, which is based on the Tech 21 Oxford, which again is an all analog emulation of an Orange amp type preamp/overdrive, but with the Orange Juice being seriously sized down, without the build in primitive analog cab sim filter of the original, this Orange Juice being more aimed for functioning as a drive pedal, rather than a preamp, and, compared to the original, with a simplified EQ section as well, to accommodate the truly miniature size of the Orange Juice (smaller than the standard mini size 1590A pedal enclosure). It can do everything from perfectly clean, to just on the verge of tube like breakup, to light low gain overdrive, and all the way up to seriously grinding medium gain distortion, it is quite sensitive to picking dynamics, and it retains low end exceptionally well, even on higher gain settings (no need for a clean blend really, as far as I am concerned). It is capable of a lot of different overdrive tones as well, but beside working really great as a very touch sensitive lower gain tube like overdrive it really excels at higher gain overdrive and distortion with a quite grindy quality as well. The controls are Volume, Drive, Tone and then Voice, the Tone control functioning as a regular standard post gain stage Tone control, and the Voice being identical to the Character control of the Tech 21 Oxford, which is a pre gain stage EQ control, which means how you set it has a great influence on the actual character of the drive (rather than just EQ'ing the already distorted signal it actually determines how the signal distorts, as in which frequencies distorts more or less). Not entirely sure exactly which specific frequencies the Voice control adjusts though, but it seems to scoop the mids progressively bellow the noon position, cut a bit of low end as well, and generally making the low end sound more loose or floppy, while it seems to boost the upper mids as well as tightening up the low end progressively above the noon position, that is generally loosening up the tone progressively bellow noon, and tightening up the tone progressively above noon. I own two Orange Juice pedals, and just ordered the third one, the two I currently own functioning respectively as an always on higher low/lower medium gain overdrive, mixed in parallel with about 55-60% or so dry clean signal, being part of what shapes my basic always on "clean" tone, adding a touch of light grit and producing more harmonic content, and then as a post reverb medium gain distortion, and my plans for the third one that I just ordered is to be part of my regular pre reverb drive section, functioning as a medium gain kind of distortion as well, with more or less the same settings as the post reverb one. That will be that no less than 3 Joyo Orange Juice pedals will be part of my current pedal setup. A random Google photo of the Joyo Orange Juice :

The Joyo Classic Chorus is supposed to be an Ibanez CS9 clone, whereas the Joyo Analog Chorus, as I mentioned, is a Boss CE-2 clone. The current production Ibanez Mini Chorus is also based on the CS9.

You might have ruined the tuner by now, and you might need a whole new replacement tuner at this point, but I'd say it is still definitely worth a shot getting a replacement screw and see if you can fix it. And as a general advice for the future, it's a good idea to assume screws are not just there for the looks but that they actually serves a function, especially if something comes lose right beneath a missing screw.

Mooer Ensemble Queen maybe, which is essentially a Boss CE-2 clone, but specifically tuned for bass and with a dedicated tone and mix knob. Or a Joyo Analog Chorus, which is a straight up Boss CE-2 clone. Or the now out of production, but should be cheap if you can found one used as this too was a budget pedal when it was still being made, the Valeton Aquaflow Vintage Chorus, which is a take on the legendary Boss CE-1 circuit, but, unlike the original, with a dedicated respectively depth and rate control, and an added mix and tone control as well. I personally use the Valeton Aquaflow Vintage Chorus in my current setup, and am really satisfied with it. It can go from extremely subtle to really lush chorus and sounds absolutely beautiful. Mind though that the taper of the knobs, bar the rate knob, which seems to function as one would expect, act bit weird on that Valeton chorus, that is that while the full range of the respective parameters are in fact actually there it mostly seems to happen within a relatively small part of the knobs entire travel, like within the last 1/3 or so of the travel of those knobs (on the tone control that would be 1/3 or so of the travel on each side of the noon position, though as said the entire range from very subtle to very lush is in fact covered there).

I personally use these Harley Benton strap lock rubber washers, and am really satisfied :

Luckily I am a free man with no sworn allegiance to any big corporate multi national companies. Or at least that's the lie I like to tell myself, even if deep down I am perfectly and painfully aware that the truth of reality is that we are all slaves with a barcode printed on the back of our necks and a price on our heads. Guess I, as the poor man I am, would be in the pocket of China.

I like to maintain the dynamic integrity of my pick playing, I love how the single coil pickups react to every little nuance of my playing, and just want a tiny bit of high threshold, low rate, compression to enhance that as well as the attack slightly, rather than killing it, while leaving my dynamics all intact. So no, definitely not for me. Otherwise I might as well have played a bass synth with non touch sensitive keys or have my right hand replaced for a robotic prosthetic. I know I sound harsh here, but I just discovered how sensitive and responsive true single coils are to picking dynamics and I love it, how expressive it allows you to be with your right hand, and I do realize big fat dynamically completely flat even bass notes do have their place in some specific music, just personally would make me feel crippled, if it was an always on thing at least.

This is the thread where the controversial, but undeniably equally popular, hated and loved, and perhaps most misunderstood distortion pedal ever, the Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, gets the love it deserves. So my history with the Boss MT-2 Metal Zone starts back when I just started to play guitar, and actually in fact even before I knew how to play guitar properly. Yes, I started off on guitar, until I a couple of years later discovered the blessing of the low end and bass became my main instrument of choice, though continuing to this day with playing guitar on the side line, my very first pedal ever. And the Metal Zone followed me on bass where it was go to bass distortion pedal for many years. I since have sold, only to later buy again, this pedal numerous times, and admittedly there was a time where I, misguided and wayward from the rightful path, didn't have very high thoughts about its capabilities, but I have since opened my eyes to the one foreordained and infallible truth and repented for this former diluted misconception, and this time my current Boss MT-2 Metal Zone is staying for sure, as I have found an application where it absolutely shines. This is how I use it currently, for an absolute monstrous ballsy and massively heavy high gain distortion tone, with a very raunchy fuzz like quality to it, but still actually impressively well articulated and defined: 6 string 30" scale Harley Benton GuitarBass (Bass VI type instrument, strung with Newtone custom nickle plated roundwound hex steel core guitar strings, gauge .080 - .060 - .045 - .034 - .027 - .020, tuned in F#1 standard tuning, as in 10 half steps bellow regular guitar E2 standard tuning, or 2 half steps above regular bass E1 standard tuning) ->> ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (always on parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, in Turbo RAT, LED diode clipping, mode, quite raunchy, fuzz-esque, high gain distortion, always used mixed with the Metal Zone distortion in parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz (Boss FZ-2/Univox Superfuzz clone, octave fuzz, always mixed with either clean {bass+octave up} signal or Metal Zone distortion from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->|+|<- [Loop B Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on upper low/lower medium gain overdrive, [Tone] set at about 11 o'clock, [Voice] set to boost a wide curve around a 800Hz center frequency about +2dB pre gain stage, always mixed with either clean {bass+octave up} or Black Rat from parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (distortion, dialed in at a rather moderate gain setting, always used with the Orange Juice behind it stacked into it, and always used either mixed with the Rat distortion, or sometimes the Behringer Super Fuzz, in parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 50/50 ratio) }=>> Though actually the Metal Zone does hold it's own all by it self, or blended with clean signal from that other effects loop. And while it is still a good pedal for guitar I think it is a genuinely amazing for bass. Unfortunately I haven't got any audio clips where I demonstrate this setup, but here are the settings I use for the Metal Zone: High = 10 o'clock ; Low = 1 o'clock ; Mid Freq = 9 o'clock ; Middle = 1 o'clock ; Dist = 10 o'clock And here are a couple of YouTube videos that I think do the pedal justice demonstrated on bass (I know these videos features other stuff than strictly the Metal Zone used on bass, but non the less I feel like these are the videos, out of the ones I could find, that represents it best) : Also personally, while not owning or even actually having played the MT-2w Waza Craft version, judging from the YouTube videos where it is demonstrated alone, I prefer the distortion tone of the original Metal Zone for bass.

*Doh!* Already posted this once, so deleted again.

It's actually a thing, and here's a bit on the theory behind it: https://www.premierguitar.com/pro-advice/bass-bench/bass-strings Done right it is supposed to improve intonation apparently.

Most recent incarnation of my "amp-less" pedal setup (If I recall right the main difference from last I posted my pedal setup is that I swapped the TC Electronic Shaker vibrato, which I used as a chorus, with a custom Toneprint, utilizing a triangle wave vibrato blended with parallel clean signal to obtain a lush chorus effect, for a Valeton Aquaflow Vintage Chorus, which is an all analog take on the legendary Boss CE-1 circuit) : For full signal chain description see my forum profile: https://www.basschat.co.uk/profile/50585-baloney-balderdash/?tab=field_core_pfield_1

Individual mono rail bridge pieces would allow for any string spacing your could wish for, only limited by the width of the pieces. It might be necessary to use guitar mono rail bridge pieces for the tight string spacing, which would limit you selection of strings to custom made ones, I can warmly recommend Newtone for this, or strings made specifically for Bass VI type instruments, as the strings would need to have guitar sized ball ends, also depending on how thick gauge you go for for the lowest string and of course the specific mono rail bridge pieces you chose to use for this it might be necessary to drill the insert hole of the bridge piece for the lowest thickest string ever so slightly larger (I did this on a 28 5/8" scale 4 string bass I had build for me out of Warmoth baritone parts, and it worked perfectly well, without any issues whatsoever. Just be mindful when drilling and chose an appropriate drill piece specifically made for drilling in metal and of the right size, you would only want to drill the hole ever so slightly larger in order to not affect the stability of the bridge piece negatively).

Do you often find yourself getting hold on the wrong end of the stick?

I am not interested in a .100 string, a gauge .095 low E string is what I normally use both on regular 34" scale basses, and for short 30" scale basses like this, and actually a thinner gauge string will give you a richer harmonic content and will sound more piano like than a thicker gauge string, thicker strings are stiffer, and especially so with the shorter vibrating length of a short scale bass, which prohibit the strings ability to vibrate freely, which again kills both harmonic content and sustain, so thicker gauge is the completely wrong direction to go if piano like tones is what you are after, thicker strings are for thumpy and thuddy tones. In any case I am not interested in tuning my Harley Benton GuitarBass in E standard tuning either, the F# standard tuning, 2 half steps above, it is in now fits perfectly for my specific application. And actually if I were to tuner it in E standard tuning I would personally even use a just gauge .090 string for the low E. The relatively lower string tension is only an issue if you apply too much force when picking and uses too thick picks, you shouldn't expect to play a different instrument, a short 30" scale bass in this case, exactly the same way, as you would a regular 34" scale bass in this case, without adjusting to the realities of that instrument, the shorter scale and lower string tension is really no issue at all, and has never been a real issue, the real issue is people's unwillingness to adjust their technique accordingly to the actual instrument they play. Also I do use a pick, and it is not the string spacing towards the bridge and the right picking hand that is a problem, it is fretting the strings with the left hand near if you don't want to mute the strings above or bellow the fretted note that is an issue, and trust me, a gauge .100 string would be an issue with the tight string spacing near the nut. I am actually perfectly fine with the string spacing for my picking hand, and really the tight string spacing as far as goes for fretting only causes issues close to the nut where the neck width is narrowest and therefor the string spacing tighter (and not really an issue for me personally after I have gotten used to it and with the just gauge .080 string I use for the low F#). Further more I think it is kind of missing the point with this kind of instrument to try to make it sound exactly like a regular bass, if you want a regular bass then get one instead of a Bass VI type instrument. Also the Harley Benton GuitarBass got a fixed TOM style bridge, not a tremolo system bridge like the Squier or Fender Bass VI, in fact really being closer to being a clone of the Shecter Hellcat than the Bass VI.

In my signature My SoundCloud profile is where most of my musical output get uploaded to, including both serious compositions for my musical project, just for the fun of it recordings and experiments, as well as various sound tests, my YouTube channel is more exclusively dedicated to more serious recordings, though also working as a cross project channel like my SoundCloud profile. Here are a couple of samples:

Forgot if I replied to this topic, but here we go: My #1 is my Harley Benton GuitarBass, which is a take on the Fender Bass VI concept. That is a 30" short scale 6 string bass, but usually tuned exactly like a guitar, just an octave lower (that is E1, like a 4 string bass, rather than E2, standard tuning), and with narrow guitar like string spacing as well. I got mine tuned to F#1 standard tuning though, that is 10 half steps bellow regular guitar E2 standard tuning, or 2 half steps above regular bass E1 standard tuning. Strung with a Newtone custom made set of roundwound nickle plate hex steel core guitar string gauge: .080 - .060 - .045 - .034 - .027 - .020. And I run it through an always on TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini as well, for blending in a polyphonic 1 octave up effect with the clean dry signal, using a custom Toneprint I made myself specifically for this purpose, giving an effect somewhat similar to that of a 12 string guitar/8 string bass, though I have the 1 octave up effect dialed in less obvious than it usually would on such a guitar/bass, blending in almost seamlessly with the dry bass signal, sort of most of all enrichening the harmonic content of the signal, filling out more sonic space, rather than sounding like an extra separate faux guitar or anything like that. Here it is, my beloved Harley Benton GuitarBass :

Lower output pickups, in particular single coils, will be more sensitive and react more naturally and directly to picking dynamics. Like being less compressed and having a wider dynamical range. And it is actually not just a matter of the output getting quieter when you apply less force and higher as you apply more force, beside the fact that lower output single coil pickups will react more sort of linearly this way, that is a more direct relationship between picking dynamics and the volume that is put out, additionally a tone change according to your picking dynamics is happening as well, so that gradually softer picking will also actually result in a gradually softer tone, and gradually harder picking will result in a gradually more aggressive tone, caused by the fact that more high end frequency content gradually is being picked up by the pickups the harder you pick, which doesn't happen to quite the same extend with higher output humbuckers, and finally single coil pickups will actually also react slightly faster to your picking as well, which adds further to the sense of a direct immediate relationship between your playing and the signal that is put out. I don't know if you could call that more musical, but definitely lower output single coil pickups will be more dynamic and expressive, having a more direct relationship, that feels more immediate and natural, between how you play and the tone the pickups reproduce, in comparison to higher output humbucker pickups. To me this feels more alive to play, but it does also kind of require of you to have a greater degree of control of picking dynamics for it to really be an advantage, otherwise it might even become a disadvantage, resulting in an inconsistent tone, rather than an expressive one. And if you happen to like a consistently big fat compressed tone all this won't matter much anyway, since in that case you would definitely be much better off with high output humbucker pickups.

Looks great, especially great for that finish in particular, not tacky at all!

"Sleeping Inside" from the album "Transmission of All the Goodbyes" by Lilium