Baloney Balderdash

The Jerry Jones Longhorn that I once owned, but unfortunately was stupid enough to sell, sounded great, especially with the stock option on the pickup selector rotary switch putting the 2 lipstick tube pickups in series.

So I used to have a P/J set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups installed in my main Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro bass, both permanently full on wired in parallel directly to the output jack socket of the bass, but swapped them about a year ago or so for just a single DiMarzio Model P pickup. I loved the tone of how that single Model P pickup sounded, but a couple of months ago I started getting huge random occurring fluctuations in my tone, and after much frustration trying to find the source of this mystery I finally manage to isolate it down to the fact that somehow the pickup must had gone faulty. I suspect that the pickup poles in my Model P pickup gets slightly connected with the lead somewhere, as there's an increasing loud buzz noise when I touch the pole pieces, and that after I tried to shield the pickups a while ago, swapping out the thin single core wires with shielded ones and attaching conductive copper tape to the bottom of the pickup touching the pole pieces and connected to the ground, the pickups hardly had any output when I tried them out after this procedure, and what little output there was was very noisy, buzzy and scratchy as well, which changed back to normal as soon as I removed the grounded copper tape from the bottom of the pickup. Anyway, so with the issue having been identified I planed to buy a new Model P P pickup, but as it happened to be all the dealers in Europe are out of stock at the moment, and Thomann, where I usually buy my gear, lists an estimated waiting time of approximately 6 weeks before they will have them back in stock, so I thought what the heck and went to install the old EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, from the P/J set that I used to have installed in my bass, instead, never really having tried it out on it's own, without the J also being full on in parallel. And I got very positively surprised, after having balanced the pickup for approximately even output from the strings, dialed in my EQ, an always on patch of stacked fully parametric equalizers on my Zoom multi effect, to suit the Geezer pickup, previously having been dialed in to fit the Model P, and made up for the less hot output of the Geezer by turning up the input gain of my EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, that I really use more so as a tube preamp stage than a compressor, I discovered that the Geezer P on it's own sounded even greater than the Model P. Perhaps slightly less fat and full sounding, but in exchange much more responsive to playing dynamics, articulated and defined, but, with the EQ dialed in right and with the less hot output made up for with more gain dialed in, every bit as aggressive, punchy and snappy as the Model P, but with an added nice bite to it's tone, and a beautiful open sounding clarity, that while it sounds slightly less fat and full than the Model P, make it's tone just as big sounding, and personally I discovered that I actually personally prefer that open clarity to the more compressed fat fullness of the Model P. As said I have it connected directly to the output jack socket, with the J pickup still siting there, from back when they were installed as a set, but currently disconnected and lowered considerably. Damn, I am glad I went for trying this out, stupid of me not even having thought of trying the Geezer P out on it's own before, such an amazing sounding pickup. I could have saved the money and trouble with the failing Model P, even if I'd say that is still a great pickup (that is if it works as it supposed to), as it turned out I just personally prefer the Geezer P. Another added bonus to the Geezer is that it is dead quiet, even without having the bridge grounded, as it unlike the Model P that comes with thin single core wires, is shielded internally and got shielded wires as well, with the ground running as a braided shield all along the insulated lead wire. In comparison the Model P was horribly noisy, though some of that noise might had been due to mine being faulty. But what an outstanding great pickup the Geezer P is! Don't get me wrong, I loved it back when I had it wired in parallel with the J from the set, both full on, too, through the old Trace Elliot rig I owned back then, but as far as I am concerned where it really shines is the P pickup on it's own. And here the old Geezer is installed in my Mikro Bass (the big blemish above it near the neck stems from a haphazard attempt to drill (Doh! ) an extra far neck pickup cavity, that then subsequently in similar haphazard hack style was filled up with filler mass and painted over with black paint and a couple of layers of clear varnish): PS: The bass on the track in the video linked to in my signature by the way was recorded with this Mikro Bass back when it had the EMG Geezer Butler P/J set wired in parallel directly to the output jack socket, though a lot of post production magic was applied to this first take improvised bass.

I love that design! Here's a picture of the black version with the Musicman style humbucker pickup, for those too lazy to click links : Wonder if an Ibanez Mikro Bass neck would fit the neck pocket, that would be a dream come true for me. Way too expensive to buy one in case it won't though. Man that design!

The sound of it or the looks of it, or both, and in what way? What does that word evoke in you and what does it reminds you of that makes you like it? I would have to agree though, actually, no doubt it has a nice round fat ring to it, but slightly counter weighted by the second syllable, that while still having a quite voluminous quality got a sharper character to it thanks to the over representation of consonants, in particular the F and T, while the O, and in particular because it is followed by an R, contributes to it still balancing nicely with the round quality of the first syllable, all in all making it an extraordinarily wholesome word, in many ways sort of the Yin/Yang of English words.

I realize you have to play the notes that fits the music you happen to play, but what is the scale that you enjoy the sound and mood/character of the most and loves to noodle, jam in, and eventual to use when composing music, the most? Mine absolutely has to be the Dorian Scale, love that somewhat folkish/medieval character of it that also can get quite jazzy, depending on how you chose to combine it's notes, to me there is something very warm and organic to it, an almost ancestral familiarity (I guess sort of solemn in a very down to earth and grounded way), that makes me feel good, although it is also lends it self to more melancholy moods. Another top favorite of mine is the Double Harmonic Scale, also called the Byzantine Scale, which is pretty close to the Phrygian Major Scale, also called the Flaminco Scale or the Spanish Scale, but has an even stronger oriental character, which to me gives it sort of a mystical and slightly psychedelic vibe, beside obviously leading the thought onto Indian, but especially Middle Eastern, music.

The saying stems from a guy who once commissioned a custom 5 fret bass, thinking his custom order was in safe hands he let the luthier finish his work without bothering him further. But when the man went to pick up his custom order it turned out that the luthier had used a 24 fret neck for the bass anyway. The guy who ordered the bass got furious and demanded 19/24 to be cut off the initially agreed on price. The luthier had no way around admitting to his mistake and give the man his demanded discount. And such the saying "There is no money above the 5th fret" was born.

The TC Electronic SpectraComp is an amazing compressor, but when that is said I liked non of the pre-made templates and artist toneprints, so at first I kind of just had it lying on a shelf, that is until I decided to give it a second chance and delved deep down into the Toneprint editor and discovered how detailed you can customize you compression with this, now I absolutely love it and couldn't imagine my pedal setup without it. So with a little basic knowledge about how compression work, a good amount of patience, trial and error, listening carefully to the result of your tweaking and readjusting accordingly, and not least the Toneprint editor that makes it all possible, you can get the compressor to act almost however you want it to. Do yourself a favor and do it, you won't regret spending the time needed. The 3 band crossover, parallel clean blend and the detailed customizeable compression parameter for each of those 3 bands really allow for some thorough detailed customization. The compression I have dialed in enhance the punch and snap of my tone beautifully but while largely leaving my playing dynamics intact, just smoothing out the upper most edgy spikes off it slightly, overall really enhancing my tone.

The Danelectro Longhorn Bass has a pretty narrow fretboard, even if it, as far as I recall, has a 41mm nut width, the neck doesn't widen much as you get down further towards the body, and I believe the string spacing is only 17mm, it also has a slightly shorter scale than 30", and 24 all very accessible frets, and it sounds absolutely killer, even if you wouldn't expect that kind of tone from a semi hollow bass with lipstick tube pickups, it is also incredible light. Otherwise the Ibanez GSRM20 and GSRM20B Mikro Bass is am awesome bass as well, with it's quite slim neck profile and only 28,6" scale length, though I would recommend a pickup upgrade if you go in this direction, absolutely worth it though.

Stina Nordenstam :

30" short scale basses are quite often, I'd even say commonly, advertised as 3/4 basses, even if they are not mathematically/technically speaking.

It's an ironic satirical piece, the [italic font] meant to indicate that this is a fictional piece, not my actual real personal opinion.

The bass ought to be a 2 string instrument! Anthony Jackson was wrong! All music without exception is far better off with the bass sticking to root notes! Tradition is there to be followed, who needs all them fancy new ideas, only spell troubles as far as I am concerned. In my opinion electricity was a mistake, look where it got us with global warming and all. Hell, we should never have invented the wheel to start with, it all went downhill after that. Just think about how many fires and deaths the discovery of how to make fire has cost us by now. ... Jaco who?

2 sideways Boss sized pedals stacked depth wise, but slightly slimmer, and tilting slightly upwards and a little higher than a Boss sized pedal towards the back end. About the size of the original big box EHX Small Stone (same as the original Small Clone chorus), but slightly higher towards the back end, maybe slightly wider too (but not entirely sure, though if it is not by much). About 8,5 cm wide, 13,5 cm deep, 3 cm high at the front end, and 6 cm high at the back end.

To be perfectly honest with you I'll probably end up with buying that One Control True Bypass Looper to solve the issue, but if it isn't too much trouble for you I would still appreciate to have a look at those diagrams you got, so I can get a more realistic idea of if it is something I'd likely would be able to pull off myself and get a better idea of how much work it would then eventually require, before making the final decision on weather to chose to mod it myself or just go for the easy, but perhaps less ideal, solution and get a true bypass looper pedal.

I don't really use filter based pedals, like ever, but if I was forced to get one and I could chose any I'd wish freely I guess I might chose the Source Audio Manta, that is unless the EHX Attack Decay counts as a filter pedal (not entirely sure of the exact definition), in that case it would be that one, since it is already on my list of pedals to definitely get at some point, though not exactly an urgent priority either (It is listed under filters on the EHX homepage, so guess it is?).

Someone on TalkBass suggested another solution that would be less intrusive on my signal, and likely both cheaper and take up less space than a noise gate. Namely a true bypass looper. Don't know how come I didn't think of that myself, it seems like a pretty obvious solution to me. Like this one that Thomann sells, the One Control True Bypass Looper : But I am still interested if a relatively simple and easy mod exists that I could do myself, so I don't have to add extra pedals to fix the issue.

After having tried several phasers, some considerably more expensive ones too, I finally settled for a Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser, and I absolutely love how it sounds. Exactly the right effect for my application. However when not engaged it bleeds a swirling background noise that really annoys me and makes it unfit to use for recordings. It's not really like it actually modulates my signal when not engaged, just adding this annoying background noise to it. And just so that you know I've already tried running it on it's own dedicated power supply, but without it fixing the issue. It's a pretty accurate clone of the original big box EHX Small Stone but the new version just doesn't sound the same, and far from as great, even if EHX claims that it is the same circuit, so getting that instead is not an option. So my question is if there is any way to fix the swirling background noise that the Behringer phaser produces when not engaged, some kind of mod, preferably not too advanced, as I, even if I do know how to solder, am not exactly all that well versed with electronics or comfortable doing complicated procedures? I would even be willing to pay to have a mod done to it that fixes it.

I'll recommend an Ibanez GSRM20B Mikro Bass. Even shorter scale, just 28,6", but in my opinion not with any obvious trade offs, on the contrary it will be even easier to play, and lighter, and they are truly great little basses. And if that matters to you with 3 more frets than the Harley Benton and the Bronco, and considerably better upper fret access than the Gretch. As for the difference in quality between the Bronco and the Harley Benton my best bet is that they'll be pretty much about the same level of quality, and personally I'd prefer the flatter fretboard radius and P pickup configuration of the Harley Benton to the small Strat guitar like single coil of the Bronco (though it could of course be upgraded to a Tele/Early P Bass single coil, but that then would be extra money, on top of it already being double the price, likely without any obvious improvement gained for that money), plus the Bronco will be hard to get to intonate properly with it's just 2 saddle bridge arrangement vs. the proper 4 saddle bridge of the Harley.

I prefer symmetric headstocks, aka 2+2, 3+2, 3+3, and actually quite like the one Ibanez uses for their current production bass models, though admittedly it works best for their 4 string basses, I could have wished that Ibanez would have expanded it slightly for my 6 string bass, as it somewhat gives me association to those shrunken heads that used to be popular among certain cannibalistic "primitive" tribes, and additionally, unlike the 4 strings, can't keep the strings in a perfect straight line to avoid pull on the nut. Not from any of my 3 Ibanez basses, but here's a random modern Ibanez bass headstock from Google : My all time favorite head stock is the classic B.C Rich one though (even if it got even more of an issue of the strings being impossible to keep in straight line to avoid pull on the nut) : Finally I also really like the ESP headstock, which seems to be somewhat of a middle ground between the Ibanez and the BC Rich ones : But actually, the headstock on this sub-short 28 5/8" scale bass that was build out of Warmoth baritone parts and on which I designed the headstock myself, is by far my most favorite headstock design ever, even if it doesn't really suits this bass at all, and could do with a black finish and a slight down shrinking as well before it would be just perfect (but the basic design and shape is there, just needs to be slightly smaller, but while retaining the same relative proportions), it ought to be quite obvious that I clearly draw it with heavy inspiration from the B.C Rich headstocks, just with asymmetrical staggered horns and a few other minor differences that in my modest and honest opinion though makes it look both much cooler, and one might even say somewhat more artistic and classic, as far as I am concerned having a bit less kitschy/cartoonish edginess and a bit more class, compared to the B.C Rich one (unfortunately I was stupid enough to sell this bass at some point, really a shame cause it was quite unique and actually sounded really great as well) :

Well, examining the 5 piece laminated Maple/Walnut/Maple/Walnut/Maple neck I actually discovered what, as far as I can tell, might be a tiny knot in the center piece of Maple towards the lower end of the neck (as in just about right before the neck joint), not sure if it is actually in fact a tiny knot though or just a small discoloration and minor abnormality in the grain. Looks like this (in the red circle) : And zoomed in really close (to the point where it is actually magnified considerably) to what I believe might be a tiny knot : So does that look like a tiny knot to you, or just a minor discoloration and abnormality in the grain that I probably shouldn't have any reason to worry about at all? And yes, I do realize that this might all look like silly needles worry to someone who knows there would be nothing to worry about, I don't however, but am generally concerned as I love this bass and like to know if there is any possible valid reason to worry about the long time stability of the neck, based on these what to me look like abnormalities, even if they might very well actually all be within perfectly normal variations in wood that should't cause any need for concern.

Sounds like a good plan. Unfortunately very unlike Johnson's... My condolences. And yeah, I only started to read up on and understand compression better fairly recently my self, still not exactly an expert, but with a good deal of trial and error, dialing in and carefully listening to what it changes and then re-adjusting according to that I still succeeded to get an end result I am really satisfied with.

Not sure if this was intended as a comment on my reply above yours, but my comment wasn't really aimed at you, I kind of figured you would be perfectly fine with not sounding exactly like playing a pick, but just needed to get in the ballpark, and that is perfectly valid as far as I am concerned, my reply was more a general notion aimed at people who seems to honestly believe that there are no situations where your fingers would just not be the optimal solution, but where using a pick would be the only right choice.