Baloney Balderdash

On the silly side I got two dummy knobs on my bass that are purely there for cosmetic reason and serve no practical function, since I wired the P pickup I installed in the bass directly to the output jack socket, yet I am very conscious about and insisting on having them turned up to the max position, which actually does matter a little from a purely visual point of view, since one of them got numbers from 0 to 10 printed on it and the other being a chickenhead style knob, and that despite my bass actually looking pretty battered as a whole and me generally not being overly concerned about how it actually looks otherwise. Of stuff that actually does really matter I am also really specific about and quite a perfectionist when it comes to the tone of my bass, having spend hours doing relatively minor EQ adjustments of my basic always on clean tone (using my Zoom MS70 CDR multi stomp pedal as my main equalizer, having set up a patch with six 2 band fully parametric equalizers, being very specific about the Q value of the different frequency bands I have dialed in, but only cutting or boosting -/+ 1dB on most of them, and non of them more than -/+ 2dB), as well as on my drive pedals, and continuing doing minor adjustments almost every time I pick up the bass, something I didn't use to really pay much attention to, if any, but I think became increasingly important to me as my experience with recording, producing, mixing and mastering my own music grew, gradually making me more and more aware of the finer tonal details of instruments and music in general (which I think would be quite obvious if comparing my musical productions through time), which I guess is only a good thing, even if certainly making dialing in my tone considerably more circumstantial.

Long Gone (by Syd Barrett)

Love You (by Syd Barrett)

Talkin' 'bout a Revolution (by Tracy Chapman)

The Dreamer Is Still Asleep (by Coil)

Girlfriend (by Eric's Trip)

Actually I want it to be really intense as how I use it is parallely blended with a more subtle flanger effect via my Boss LS-2, and I want it to still give that somewhat envelope filter-esque quacky "wauh" sound. It is quite dark though, true, and really darker than I'd ideally prefer it to be, but I actually found a passable solution to that, that also solves the volume drop, by having a quite low gain and relatively bright overdrive placed in front of it. Thinking of it it might be possible for me to use some kind of envelope filter with a character somewhat similar to that phaser like swirly quack instead, if such an effect exists. In that case, any recommendation for an envelope filter pedal that would be capable of producing that kind of sound?

Newer thought I'd say this but I have almost just dropped the EHX Black Finger as part of my setup, along with the Behringer UV300 Ultra Vibrato with a faulty buffer that somehow made my bass sound more mids focused and snappy. The reason why I even considered it was because the preamp tubes in my Black Finger gave up, so I had to find an alternative, and in the same instance I thought I would find away around not having to have the Behringer Ultar Vibrato take space up in my setup, and with a slight adjustment of the EQ, using a patch of six 2 band fully parametric equalizers in my Zoom MS-70 CDR and a Behringer BRQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer, which I guess would be 2 of my other always on tone pedals, and with one of my Joyo Orange Juice pedals blended with clean signal via my Boss LS-2, I found the perfect replacement for those two pedals. The Orange Juice being a sized and pared -down clone of the now discontinued Tech 21 Oxford preamp/overdrive pedal, meant to be an analog emulation of an Orange amp, that in the effort to size it down to about as small as a pedal practically can get had most of the EQ section of the original sacrificed to now only feature a standard Tone control and a Voice control, which is basically the same as the original's Character control, which is a pre gain stage EQ control, only with the difference that while it boost a quite wide curve around a center frequency of 800Hz turned above noon, like the original, instead of cutting the same area bellow noon, like the original, it instead cuts a wide curve around a center frequency of 400Hz. I have it set with the Tone control at dead on noon and the Voice control (aka 800Hz) boosted a bit, I think about 3-4dB, and then the Gain turned up to a light overdrive, blended with the clean signal of my bass via my Boss LS-2, giving me some of the same slight tube breakup I used to get from the Black Finger, as well as some of the same punch and snap I got from the Behringer vibrato's faulty buffer, in addition resulting in an overall much clearer and more articulate kind of tone than before. And after much parameter tweaking in the Toneprint editor I also replaced my always on compressor last in my effect pedals chain, right before my EQ setup, previously delivered by the DBX 160A model in my Zoom G1Xon, with my TC Electronic SpectraComp fully programable 3 band compressor, placed at the very front of my effect pedals chain, right after my bass. The EHX Black Finger might very well come back into use once I've got some new preamp tubes to replace the faulty ones, but this far I actually don't really miss it and am more satisfied with the tone that I got now than I was before. Here is the Joyo Orange Juice with the setting that I use, blended with just about 40-45% clean signal or so, via my Boss LS-2 (and, as you might be able to tell from the foort switch and the plugs of the patch cables, the pedal is much bigger on this picture than it is in reality. Also note that the black part is actually a lid that can be closed over the control area to protect the settings of the pedal, and that the drive setting might seem higher than it in reality is, due to the fact that some of it's initial travel, up till just about 9 o'clock or so, is actually clean, not really adding any overdrive, though of course depending on how hot the input signal is, as well as how the Voice, pre gain stage EQ, knob is set) :

Quite a nudge up in price from the Behringer I use now, which, beside the volume drop and lack of controls, actually sounds no short of amazing. However I will consider it, even if it would be way way more expensive than any of my other effect pedals, and not even an effect that will see much use. Still for the few passages where I do need the effect it will be quite essential, and as I am already considering the Earthquaker Devices Grand Orbiter, which I got recommended in a similar thread that I made on The Gear Page forum, and the Wombtone wouldn't be considerably more expensive than that, if I chose to spend this much on a phaser pedal I might as well pay a little extra and get what seems to be the superior one. In any case thanks for your suggestion.

Although lacking in the department of parameters that can be controlled I found the Boss CE-1 model of the Zoom MS-70 CDR (and possibly others of the multi stomp boxes) to actually be an amazing sounding chorus effect that is not all that far from the effect it seeks to emulate. Really a shame that Zoom didn't update and include that effect for their newer line of multi effects. When that is said the chorus I currently use is actually a vibrato effect, namely the TC Electronic Shaker Mini, and even though you can actually chose between a couple of chorus effects, under the modulation menu, in the Toneprint editor, I programmed the one I use using the vibrato modulation, just blended with cleans (as that is actually what a chorus is, a pitch vibrato effect blended with clean signal), the one described in this thread I made about it : In my opinion one of the best chorus effects I've ever heard, though extremely thick and lush, so might not be to everyone's taste.

So, does such a thing as a clone of the original old EHX Small Stone phaser with sweep/depth and feedback/resonance control and no volume drop when engaged exists? And in that case how would I be able to get hold of one? It needs to be the old original version of the small stone circuit, cause the new version, even if claiming to feature the same circuit, is not nearly as lush sounding, plus there's a hole in the sweep with the color switch set to high depth and feedback, like sweeping too deep, out of range, that the original doesn't have. For now I got the ultra cheap Behringer Vintage Phaser, which is a faithful clone of the original circuit, unfortunately including the volume drop, but I absolutely love how it sounds. Directing me to someone who is willing to make custom effects or mod my Behringer would be fine by me too.

Monster show by my musical heroes since my teenage years :

Liberator :

The World's Finest War (by Liberator)

And who buy boutique effect pedals that are also clones of pedals originally invented and produced by someone else. But I guess it's not morally depraved to copy other peoples work as long as you ask more for it than the price of the originals, seemingly in fact quite on the contrary, since apparently not only being a thief but also ripping people off with your handler goods deserves praise. Shame on you though if you sell your copies too cheap.

My battered main Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass :

To fix the string action you would need to shim the neck pocket, take off the strings and then screw off the neck, then cut an old credit card or something similar to size to fit in the neck pocket (something not too thick that won't compress over time, a little thickness goes a much longer way than you'd properly expect), slide it in there and attach the neck again, that will bring the fretboard closer to the string's minimum position. As far as goes the trussrod when you start to feel resistance, and certainly if the wood begins to creak, you should stop tightening it, otherwise you might strip the trussrod and possibly damage the neck as well, in case of the neck still having too much relief with the trussrod maxed out all you can do is putting on a set of strings of a lighter gauge than those currently fitted on the bass, to ease the string tension pull on the neck, which, depending on how bad the bow is, ought to allow you to straighten the neck up to the desired amount of relief.

It is of course your bass build and your son, so up to you entirely, but I would think your son might feel a 24" or 25" scale length would be more of a real bass, though if you know he will be just as happy with the 17.5" scale bass then absolutely go for it, I just took a look at the videos you mention, and they definitely look like cool unique instruments, and they sound good with an octaver, so the build in Sub'N'Up Mini would be a great idea. I just can't help but being a bit concerned about your son possibly ending up being disappointed about it not really looking quite like a real bass, and I would think at 6 years a 24" or 25" scale bass would be about a perfect fit as a practice bass, in case he actually end up deciding to start learning how to play it properly.

Best version of Comfortably Numb ever! This band really mange to add a whole new meaning to that song :

Are You Shivering? (by Coil)

Seems to me like nickle roundwounds would be your ticket then, I think that is what most of the bands you listed use/used. Flatwounds would properly be good for coping that thumpy Höfner Violin/Beatles bass of McCartney's though, but pretty much everything else you listed I'd say nickle roundwounds would probably get you closest (and as I mentioned in my last reply there are relatively simple ways to get that thumpy flatwound tone with rounds too, but hard to do the other way around). Also please read my last reply again as I edited it a bit, clarifying and elaborating on what I originally wrote.

Favorite genre(s) might help guiding you to the right strings for you, as different string types are more commonly used in different genres? For example if it was punk I would properly recommend steel roundwounds, if it was motown I might recommend flatwounds, and for rock properly nickle roundwounds, though those are nowhere the only string types used by bass players of those respective genres, but as said some string types are more commonly used in certain genres than others. I'd say that even though flatwounds is no doubt a classic P tone, it is just as associated with rock and roundwounds, but nickle roundwounds would properly be the best all round choice for you, as it kind of provides a less specialized sort of tone, somewhat being a more versatile string choice, in many ways a middle ground between the two extremes of the deep mellow thump of flatwounds and the bright aggressive snappy zing of steel roundwounds. In that it is not too hard to make nickle roundwounds sound pretty close to flatwounds, by rolling off the tone of the bass and eventual installing a simple foam mute under the strings down by the bridge, while on the other hand, with a bit of EQ'ing, boosting some upper mids and high end frequencies, with the tone wide open and using a pick, nickle roundwounds also got enough zing and snap in them to being capable of sounding nearly as agressive as steel roundwounds. The other way around would get considerably more problematic, this especially being true for flatwound strings.

You are perfectly right about that. I somehow managed to merge two replies by two different people in my mind, you being unlucky to be the wrong one, but seems it doesn't really add up to actual reality... Doh!