Baloney Balderdash

Questions In a World of Blue (Composition: Angelo Badalamenti/ Lyrics: David Lynch, performed by Julee Cruise)

My Name is Mud (by Primus)

Love Calls You By Your Name (by Leonard Cohen)

( $ $ $ $ $ $ ) O o

115 strings, now that's something. Sure it's a bass and not a harp?

I usually try to aim for about two, that is one half wound, then one full, and finally one more half.

I always adjust saddle height first, then tune, then relief (trussrod), then tune once again, and then finally intonation (with whatever fine tuning that might require).

The first 3 sounded very similar, but I am slightly leaning towards the 1st one as my favorite, as it sounded more open and had a bit more sparkliness going for it, something that the other 2 perhaps were slightly lacking at, all 3 had a nice thick lushness to them though, the 3rd to me sounded pretty much like the 2nd one, just with a bit more low end, I think maybe from having the balance between the modulated signal and the clean signal tipping slightly more towards the clean signal than the 2nd chorus, out of those 2 I personally preferred the slightly wetter and slightly brighter tone of the 2nd chorus. The 4th as several people already has pointed out had a quite flanger like quality to it, actually to me it sounded more like a flanger with a strong chorus -esque character than an actual chorus effect, it didn't sound bad in anyway though, as far as I am concerned it actually even sounded pretty great, just not something I would pick if I were going for a straight chorus effect. The 5th was brighter than the others, but not in sparkling kind of way, rather in a slightly unpleasant/annoying, at the same time both somewhat anemic and biting, way, to my ears at least, seriously lacking lushness, and to my ears it also had a somewhat artificial/synthy flavor to it that I personally don't think suits a chorus effect. My guess is that the 1st one could very well be the Zoom emulation of the Boss CE-1 from the stomp box multi effect pedals, which happens to be my own favorite of all the Zoom chorus models, including those of the newer Zoom line of multi effects, though if the Zoom chorus you chose is not actually the Boss CE-1 model then the last, 5th, one could very well also be the Zoom chorus in this test, my first guess however still is that the Zoom chorus is the 1st one and the CE-1 emulation. As for the 4th flanger like one my best guess is an EHX Deluxe Electric Mistress, or at least some variant or clone of that circuit. @stewblack Please PM me the results, as I am very curious.

Will do. But please note that it will sound close to the clip I referred to, and pretty far from your 8 string bass in your clip. I don't happen to have an actual 8 string bass, so I can record reference clips, so I'll have to refer to a video with someone playing one that sounds like what I am going for, right?

Well, the purpose of the clips of 8 string basses was to explain what I considered a good 8 string tone and therefor was trying to achieve with my Sub'N'Up, which is quite different from the tone of your 8 string bass in the clip you provided and the sound of your Mosaic pedal, which did cope that tone pretty closely. As I said after listening to your clips I realized we were not exactly going for the same kind of tone, or had quite the same idea of how an 8 string bass s supposed to sound, and I think this is pretty essential to know before listening to the clips of my bass through the Sub'N'Up, so you know what I was going for and that some 8 string basses does actually sound like that. Just proofs, once I have pulled myself together to record some clips, that it does actually sound like an 8 string bass, like the one in the video I linked, even if not sounding much like yours in the clips you provided. Like you need to have a reference for what I was aiming for, since it is definitely the same you are aiming for, or else we are just comparing apples to oranges. I don't happen to have an actual 8 string bass, so I can record reference clips, so I'll have to refer to a video with someone playing one that sounds what I am going for, right? Also if this is not the tone you are going for, which it seems not to be from the clips you provided, I doubt you will be blown away with how I use my octaver.

Sorry, I haven't pulled myself together to record anything yet. But as I explained in my last post in this topic I don't think we are really looking for the same thing in an octaver or have the same idea of what a good 8 string bass tone is (a somewhat more dry, less synthy/chorusy kind of tone). Try to listen to the clip of the 8 string bass that I explained sounded pretty close to in that post and I would think you'll get the idea of the kind of tone I have dialed in on my Sub'N'Up : I'll still try to get to record some clips though at some point though. Also this: "...has only come up with dare I say...baloney, with no dash of evidence to back up his claims!" Was totally uncalled for, I didn't exactly attack you or had intentions to brag in my replies, just sharing my honest opinion, it's not like I owe you a proof like you put it up like there.

Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head (by They Might Be Giants)

Cue the Strings (by Low)

Man is that guy annoying, and I am not exactly a big fan of pop either, hell I am not even interested in playing bass synth on my bass, yet for some reason I found the video interesting enough to watch the whole way though.

Very basically and in general, yes, that seems to pretty much sum up what to expect from a short scale bass. Though instead of using negations, as you did, to describe the general tone characteristics of a short scale bass it could be formulated as deeper, thumpier, with heavier emphasis on the fundamentals. When that is said depending on the specific bass model, pickups, strings and other gear that might influence on the tone some short scale basses will have a brighter and more harmonically rich tone than some 34" scale basses. And depending on the specific bass model, mainly neck dimensions, the players physics, mainly hand size, as well as personal preferences, some 34" scale basses will be easier to play for some people than some short scale basses.

Use what I used, an old credit card. I used a full neck pocket non angled one, but it ought to work just fine as a partial shim as well. It won't compress or decay with age and will be easy to cut to size, even if being thicker than a playing card.

To me it looks like it got just the right amount of vertical relief.

They left out gutsy, growl, snappy, bite and zing and I am sure many more, not least words like griddy, grindy and raunchy that is more commonly used for different overdrive and distortion characteristics, where the word crunch(y) from the above graphic really also belongs. And boomy and punchy are definitely not the same. I have a feeling that the above graphic is very much homemade and home-thought, like as just one more example what about definition, as far as I am concerned something sounding defined is not frequency dependent, or well it can be I guess, but I mean then it will be more of a question about EQ'ing the individual instrument just right than a strictly defined limited frequency spectrum common for neither all types of or individual musical instruments.

So it seems like there are not a lot of short scale fretless basses around, but if I can find a decent one within my budget limit I sort of ponder on buying one in the near future. I'll like it to be max 30" scale length, preferably be a 4 string, and my budget limit would be about 400£, but I'd prefer cheaper, as long as it is still decent (I would suspect a pickup upgrade down the line being necessary anyway in this kind of price class). Does such a bass exist? All suggestions are welcome.

Sisters of Mercy (by Leonard Cohen)

Heaven Can Wait (by Iron Maiden)

I love my cheap budget Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass. In fact one of my all time favorite basses out of all the basses I've ever owned, despite having owned a couple of 1000$+ basses. Amazingly comfortable to play and after swapping the stock pickups for some quality ones (first a P/J set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups and then currently a DiMarzio Model P, with the Geezer J pickup disconnected and lowered considerably), it also sounds wonderful (even the stock pickups were actually quite decent, just not to my personal liking). Has the most stable neck I ever had on any of the guitars and basses I've owned, holds tuning extremely well, and the fretwork was as good as perfect from factory (it did however have a horrendously bad setup when I received it, in fact the absolute worst I've ever seen, but that was easily fixed, and I'd always expect to do my own setup on a new bass anyway. But seriously, the one who did the factory setup must have been seriously intoxicated, the string action could be measured in centimetres, and whoever did it had adjusted the pickups accordingly insanely high up). Quite amazing quality for such a cheap bass, especially considering this one is from before they moved production from China to Indonesia. Guess I was lucky getting one of the great ones.

So the same as if you had doubled up the amount of watt of the amp into a similar cab of half the load? I have a hard time believing that can actually be the truth. Where do those +3dB come from? Logically it would have to depend on the specific cabs and the specific speakers in those cabs, or else you would get +3dB no matter if you used 2 cabs each equipped with 1 x 5" with a sesitivity of 70dB@1W1M or 2 cabs each equipped with 4 X 15" with a sensitivity of 110dB@1W1M. Consequently meaning I could compete with an 8 X 10" cab hooked up to a 200W amp in loudness if I just added 4 16 Ohm 1 x 5" cabs in parallel to my 50W 4 Ohm amp. And that can't possibly be how it actually works. Also please read the post you quote from again, I edited it to explain my point a bit more thoroughly.