Baloney Balderdash

Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats Of Fire Are Falling From The Sky! (by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra)

There really isn't such a thing as professional or amateur instruments , only professional and amateur players.

As I wrote in my last reply in this topic I temporarily dropped the EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, that acted as sort of a tube preamp stage in my setup, more so than a compressor really, becuase the tubes in it went bad, but, while I still think it is an amazing pedal, I have now decided to drop it permanently, after getting lowly Art Tube MP Project Series (which I replaced the crappy cheap stock chinese tube in with an EHX 12AX7EH tube). Now while this tube preamp actually is a step above the cheapest tube preamp Art offers, it still utilizes a straved tube plate circuit and is a bit under half the price of what the EHX Black Finger costed from new when it was still in production, however I really love what it does to my tone, and I've read up on it and actually starved tube plate circuits is supposed to result in the tubes coloring your tone more than tubes run at proper high voltage, rather than less as it is commonly believed, just in a much more nonlinear way, meaning that they will break up earlier and produce more uneven harmonics. I've managed to find a blog with someone claiming they measured the actual plate voltage of this Art preamp, and they claim it is 70V, which, while being nowhere near anything like the 200 to 300V voltage that would be considered a proper tube plate voltage, would still be higher than most other straved plate tube circuits on the market. Whatever that means in practical terms I have no idea of, but replacing the cheap stock Chinese tube with a proper quality Rusian made one made a huge difference tone wise, and the effect this preamp has on my tone, as the last device in my chain before the amp, is incredible. It adds a really nice touch of rich warm tube flavor and slight compression that sort of rounds off the upper most sharp edge of my tone, eliminating any harshness, but while still retaining the bite and zing of it. This is a full thorough walk through of all the always on pedals in my signal chain that technically could be considered "tone" pedals (used for my ampless setup for my 4 string 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass, tuned to G1 standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above regular E standard 4 string bass tuning, equipped with a DiMarzio Model P P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, and run through an always on 1 octave up effect mixed with clean signal, giving an effect similar to an 8 string "octave" bass with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings) : TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on, fully customizable, 3 band, compressor, with my own customized toneprint) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ->> ={ [Loop A Send] ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on, relatively low gain, Orange amp style, overdrive, with the Tone control at noon, and the Voice control at about 2 O'clock (which would mean an about +4dB pre gain stage boost of a quite broad curve around an 800Hz center frequency), that is always mixed with the clean signal from parallel effects [Loop A] at an about 60% Orange Juice/40% clean signal ratio) ->> [Loop B Return] }=>> Zoom G1 Four (exclusively used as an always on EQ, utilizing five 1 band fully parametric equalizers to fine tune the tone, using following settings: Frq: 63Hz Q: 3.6 +1.5dB /-/ Frq: 200Hz Q: 2.6 +1dB /-/ Frq: 250Hz Q: 2.1 +1.5dB /-/ Frq: 400Hz Q: 1.5 +2dB /-/ Frq: 1khz Q: 3.1 +2dB) ->> Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer (always on, using the following settings: 50Hz ~+1dB /-/ 120Hz ~+1dB /-/ 400Hz ~+1dB /-/ 800Hz ~+2dB, and the 4.5kHz band cut about -1dB and 10kHz band cut about -15dB) ->> Art Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp)

One of the best and most beautiful songs ever written :

Low from "Things We Lost in the Fire" :

Syd Barrett :

I don't think his tone is really all that special and unique (though I do really like it and thinks it sounds awesome in the context), and to me it is even pretty obvious that it comes from a P Bass, sounds very much like most mildly overdriven/distorted P Bases equipped with steel roundwound strings played with a pick and an EQ leaning towards the upper mids/lower treble frequency region would. To me, while maybe not being the traditional P Bass tone for pop and more mellow types/genres of music, but still being a fairly common kind of P Bass tone (or at least something somewhat around that ballpark) in punk and similar types of more aggressive music, it's definitely an undeniable and unmistakably P Bass tone. And if I was going for that kind of tone my first thought would be to use a P Bass, since they, equipped with roundwound strings and played with a pick, got that very specific kind of raunchy/unpolished, sort of griddy/dirty bite and snap to them, which to my knowledge is pretty unique to P Basses and similar basses with a P style middle position pickup (a Rickenbacker for instance in comparison in that same kind of setup/context would produce a slightly thinner, less snappy and more clanky, but also somewhat more polite, less raunchy, kind of tone, not having quite the same bold/"rude"/careless sort of rough "in your face" edge to it). Ironically it is that very same somewhat dirty/unpolished character unique to P pickups that gives such a warm, round, thumpy fat tone to a P Bass equipped with flatwound strings, when playing non aggressive finger style, and using a more bass focused EQ.

Proco Turbo Rat (or clone, for example the excellent Mooer Black Secret, or really cheap but non the less great and particularly great for bass the Mosky Black Rat, in Turbo mode) + Boss LS-2 (for clean blend). Or for much more options and incredible tweak-ability, almost guaranteed to be capable of just the right high gain bass distortion that you hear in your head, the Source Audio Aftershock (capable of blending 2 different distortion or overdrive effects in parallel or stacking them in series from an impressive list of models + clean blend, as well as a really extensive EQ section (for each distortion/overdrive effect used, clean signal, pre/post, you name it). Don't judge it on being digital, I guarantee you or anyone else won't be able to tell the difference, really high quality modeling, just watch the YouTube videos featuring it). Edit!!! : Sorry, didn't read your OP properly through, neither of my suggestions would really work if you insist on keeping your nano pedal board, but I would still recommend you to at least look into the Source Audio Aftershock bass distortion and consider weather it might be worth it, you should be able to fit it on your nano pedal board if you scrap one of the pedals currently on it, or eventual just use your Diamond compressor as a single pedal detached from your pedal board that you then would just place beside the board and connect to the other pedals like that and then let the Aftershock take it's current place on the board.

The Cure :

Is a cheap, lightweight, minimum 200W, powered, full range, flat response cab, with a flat response at max. 50Hz, and ideally with some kind of control over the high frequency tweeter as well, too much to ask for? I would think yes, by far most likely, but I am open for suggestions of something that at least somewhat approximates that.

I use my Zoom G1 Four exclusively as an always on equalizer, utikizing a patch of 5 of the 1 band fully parametric equalizer model. I also own and use a Zoom G1Xon that I use exclusively for my reverb effects, having 4 different reverb patches set up, consisting of following : a very subtle, always on, main plate reverb :-: a more prominent plate + hall reverb :-: a thick lush plate + hall + tape delay reverb :-: and finally an extremely thick and lush reverb pad used with volume swells consisting of plate + hall + tape delay reverb Finally I also own a Zoom MS-70CDR multi stomp pedal, but unfortuanately it is faulty, sometimes randomly not actually adding the effects of the active patch or to random degrees sucking the tone of my signal, though other times functioning exactly as it should, both tried re-installing the firmware and re-set it to factory settings, but unfortunately not helping the issue. I wouldn't ever use any of the Zoom digital multi effects for dirt effects or amp modeling but beside that I think they actually do a wonderful job with most of the featured modulation, delay and reverb effects. Zoom came a long way from the absolute horrible digital multi effects they came out with in the 90's, to such a degree that I personally prefer the current and previous generation of Zoom effects to the corresponding more expensive Boss digital multi effects.

Been working on my amp-less setup for a while (for my 4 string 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass, tuned to G1 standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above regular E standard 4 string bass tuning, equipped with a DiMarzio Model P P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, and run through an always on 1 octave up effect mixed with clean signal, giving an effect similar to an 8 string "octave" bass with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings), and I think it finally has reached it's final form with the arrival of the Art Tube MP Project Series tube preamp that I ordered from Thomann last Friday night. I did however replace the "hand picked premium selected" ( ...yeah, right... ) cheap Chinese stock tube, which had a prominent exquisite thin fizzy and harsh top tire Chinese premium crapiest of all crap tonal quality to it (which I suppose must have been the parameters Art instructed their official "tube hand-picker" in chief to aim for), with a proper quality Russian made EHX 12AX7EH preamp tube, which made a huge difference. So the tube in this preamp is definitely no cheap gimmick (don't quite understand the reasoning behind Art choosing to save a fairly minimal amount of production bucks by equipping this preamp with a horrible sounding tube from factory though, as it definitely doesn't give the customers the right impression of the overall actual quality of the unit). Though I am perfectly aware that this is in the cheaper end of tube preamps on the market, and that it utilizes a starved tube plate circuit, however I've read in a blog somewhere, written by someone who actually measured the tube plate voltage of this preamp, that it still runs at about 70V, which, while quite a bit more than most other starved tube circuits on the market, still is a long way up to the about 200 to 300V that, as far as I know, usually is considered the optimal plate voltage to run preamp tubes at. Non the less it does a great job at adding a really nice touch of rich warm tube flavor and slight compression, just taking the upmost sharp edge of my bass signal (not to be confused with tone sucking), sort of rounding off the harshness of my signal in a really beautiful way, while still retaining the bite and zing of it. This is how the Art Tube MP Project Series tube preamp looks : This is the specs sheet : And here's how my always on amp-less setup looks in it's entirety on written form : TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on, fully customizable, 3 band, compressor) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ->> ={ [Loop A Send] ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on, relatively low gain, Orange amp style, overdrive, that is always mixed with the clean signal from parallel effects [Loop A] at an about 60% Orange Juice/40% clean signal ratio) ->> [Loop B Return] }=>> Zoom G1 Four (exclusively used as an always on EQ, utilizing five 1 band fully parametric equalizers to fine tune the tone by boosting the 63Hz, 200Hz, 250Hz, 400Hz, and 1khz frequency bands +1 to +2 dB) ->> Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer (always on, with the 50Hz, 120Hz, 400Hz, and 800Hz band boosted ever so slightly (~ +1 to +2 dB), and the 4.5kHz and 10kHz band cut repsectively about -5dB and -15dB) ->> Art Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp) ->> [ Either : ->> headphones preamp ->> headphones (for home practice) /Or/ ->> mixer/poweramp ->> PA speaker/full range cabinet (for band rehearsals/jamming/gigging) ]

I actually once owned the 60W 1969 version of the B-15S. Got it cheap, for what equals just about 300£ from a second hand music gear shop in the mid 90's (including the original flip top cabinet). Was one hell of a great amp, and I regret much being stupid enough to let go of it again, after it having served me well for over 10 years, even if I these days actually really prefers the tone I get from solid state amps. Still I wouldn't mind getting one again, or the newer still in production Ampeg PF-50T, or even just the PF-20T, for that matter, if I ever get that kind of money to spare again. Just to have that kind of tone in my arsenal.

That could actually work, yes. But, yeah, definitely not worth it.

Seems to me like you might be missing the context. That solution would still have the issue by the transition from the fretless part right after the headstock to the first fret on the upper part of the neck towards the bridge, don't see how this solves the issue of that transition. Beside I am not getting worked up by the person suggesting it, we all suggests some stupid things from time to time without thinking things properly through, but I am just honestly puzzled why that person would still insist on being right after being explained how his suggestion wouldn't work and why.

I don't get how you refuse to accept some quite simple and basic principles of physics and common sense. I really honestly don't. Doctor J already explained perfectly well why what you suggests wouldn't work and how you can test it yourself if you for some reason are unable to visualize the issues it would result in. But whatever, as long as you don't try to talk anyone into actually doing it and succeeds I guess no harm is done, so let's just leave it at that.

At this point I have hard time believing you are not joking.... Seriously?.... It's all most on the same level as in don't understanding why a time machine would be so complicated to build when you can just turn the time on your watch backwards. Answer me this, how does frets work, how come a tone is produced when you press a finger behind one of them, and what happens if your string action is too low? It's really really basic physics to the point where it's really more of just being common sense.

That fretboard is indeed quite an oddity. Not sure how I feel about the pickguard either, but I absolutely love the burned natural finish of it.

Did you read my reply, about looking into the possibility of enlarging the speaker mounting hole in your little guitar combo a couple of inches to make it possible to fit an 8" bass driver speaker unit into it, as that would likely, with the right 8" unit, give a much improved, actually even quite decent, result over what any 6.5" speaker unit, even if specifically designed as a bass driver, likely would for use with a bass guitar?

Though the stock speaker would by far most likely be voiced for guitar, which, especially at only 6.5", would most likely make it extremely poor at reproducing the low end of the bass, but which a speaker designed specifically as a bass driver, even at the just about 6.5" of the stock one, would no doubt do a much better job at. Though in any case you should properly still expect from a just 6.5" speaker unit, no matter the design, to not exactly work optimally for use with a bass, so if it is possible to enlarge the speaker mounting hole in that little combo like a couple of more inches it might be worth looking into your options for fitting an 8" speaker unit in it instead, since there are actually a few options for 8" speaker units on the market specifically designed to work as bass drivers that got a quite decent low end response for use with a 4 string bass (that is of course given that the space/volume of the speaker enclosure of the combo otherwise happens to actually accommodate that).

Yes, but I think it is important to make sure that OP actually realizes that he is most likely exchanging perfect fretwork for better looks if he swaps that bass, in this case and in this kind of price class (even higher end big factory production basses will often have less perfect fretwork than the bass he got now, as he mentions allowing for a 1,7mm action at 12th fret for the low E string without any fret buzz, and as this is a budget bass the risk is even higher that the new better looking one won't have as perfect fretwork, in fact I would say that it is even to be expected to be the by far most likely scenario). If he knows that then he got a fair chance for making a qualified decision. Not informing him about this risk, and how high it actually is, is not really helping him making a fully informed and qualified decision. The actual choice however is of course still entirely his and his alone, but I assume he made this thread and mentioned the state of the fretwork and action he was able to get on the bass in question for a reason.

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