Baloney Balderdash

In Memory of the Truth (by Coil)

Nick Drake - "Three Hours" from his debut album "Five Leaves Left", 1969 :

Third Uncle (by Brian Eno)

I am sure the people who make DI boxes with this purpose in mind have thought of that and taking account for it. It's not like converting a hot signal to less hot signal is magic or even all that advanced technology. It's fairly common practice.

For everyone who doesn't want their amp just to be a glorified stage monitor, and I would think that would at least include those people who still bother dragging a tube amp with them to gigs, getting the actual tone that their amps produce would be by far to prefer. In fact why bring an amp at all if you are not going to use it anyway, and would be as good off with a regular stage monitor.

Can't see how that would be more difficult to understand than for example a post EQ DI out from the preamp of your amp, or even just a DI box placed between your bass and your amp input, sending the signal of your bass untouched through to the input of your amp and a line output level to a mixer.

Yes, but then you wouldn't get the tone of your amp, which is the whole point in doing it the other way. Some DI boxes are designed to be able to handle a speaker level signal, so you can place them between the speaker out and the speakers of the amp.

Dropout Boogie (by Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band)

History is getting old, now is the new future!

Not ultra cheap and technically Ibanez's step above their GIO budget line of basses, which my 4 and 5 string Mikro Basses belong to, namely the Iabanez Soundgear Standard line, but my new Ibanez SR306EB 6 string bass, and my first 6 sting bass ever, plays and sounds no short of amazing. Best damn bass tone I ever had, despite having owned a couple of 1000$+ basses. Just amazing value for the money (just about 2999 Danish Kroner/372£ at Thomann). Here it is, tuned in D standard (as in 3 half steps above regular 6 string B standard tuning, or 2 half steps bellow regular 4 string E standard tuning), and strung accordingly :

I haven't tried it in person, but watched quite a few YouTube demos featuring it, and judging from them it's an amazing unit that can cover a lot of ground, and even doing so astonishingly well, far from only for Steve Harris fans. Congratulations.

21st Century Schizoid Man (by King Crimson)

No such thing as a digital poweramp, I am sure you actually mean Class D, which is still fully analog. As to your question as other has said, yes it will be perfectly fine.

The question though then is if they can do so without also having to add to the price to such a degree that they will run into other competitors already occupying that sort of price and quality class market currently. Line 6's great strength as a company has up until now been that they were about the only company that took up a certain market for multi effects, where all other companies focusing respectively on either much cheaper but also somewhat lower quality digital multi effects or super high end and really expensive digital multi effects, Line 6, until quite recently where other companies has been opting in with somewhat similar solutions, has been alone on the market with sort of upper middle ground offerings. It seems as if the Japanese and Chinese finally have caught up with Line 6, and quite likely at offering prices Line 6 won't be able to really compete with. Will be interesting to see for certain though what will actually happen. For the consumers though it can only be seen as a positive development.

The EHX Steel Leather pedal was made exactly with this purpose in mind : The right compressor dialed in just right (the attack and release time set so that the transient of the attack is let through fully before the compression kicks in, and with a hard knee) and boosting some upper mid frequencies (in the about 800Hz to 1,5kHz region), ideally with a fairly narrow Q value (bandwidth of curve around the center frequency(s)), might get you closer to a picking tone using fingers as well. Though nothing really beats using a real pick for that specific snappy emphasis of the attack.

Finally plugged the bass into my setup, and wauh! It sounds amazing. Fairly aggressive with a nice amount of punch and snap, a somewhat Jazz Bass like burpy character, just much more meaty and ballsy, but at the same time with a very well articulated, somewhat modern and hi-fi, definition. The tone I preferred was with the pickups in series mode and the blend knob set to about 20-25% bridge pickup/75-80% neck pickup, and the preamp EQ set completely flat. However it seems that no matter how I adjust the pickups the low D string (which on a regular tuned 6 string would be the low B) has a slightly higher output then the rest of the stings and the low C string (which on a regular tuned 6 string would be the low A) has slightly lower output than the rest of the strings, which is a bit of bummer, even if I guess I can live with it. Overall though I am really satisfied with the tone I can get from this bass. Slowly getting a hang of the wider fretboard too, and think it is quite likely that this will become my main bass. Update!!! : Just plugged the bass in again, and I discovered that I got the pickup blend the wrong way around in what I wrote above, so it was actually more like 20% neck/ 80% bridge. I also lowered the bottom string side of both pickups to minimum height and raised the top string side of both pickups to about maximum possible while still having the sufficient couple of mm distance to the highest string when fretted on the last fret, and succeeded in almost entirely balance the output across the strings. And after some more experimentation I discovered that I actually preferred the tone with the balance tipped even more towards the bridge pickup, with a very specific sweet spot that seems to be about just 5% neck pickup and 95% bridge pickup, and then with the treble control boosted to around the 2 o'clock position, the mids control boosted to around the 1 o'clock position, and the bass control still set flat (and still with the pickups in series mode). Really powerful snappy tone, still with enough low end to give it a plenty of punch, and completely gone is the somewhat Jazz Bass -esque burp the tone had to it, which admittedly was about the only aspect of the tone I wasn't really crazy about before. This bass sounds massive! I think I am in love. Best bass tone I ever had! And sustain for days (which, even though that is a good thing in my book, means that I am going to need to be more careful about muting the strings I don't want to ring). Also playing on the wide neck is getting easier and easier and doesn't feel awkward at all anymore, this bass is definitely going to be my new main. Consider me a full fledged 6 string bass convert. So glad I decided buy it.

I know I already spammed pictures of it in the thread I made when I ordered it and the Ibanez owner club thread, but pretty thrilled about finally owning my first 6 string bass, and I am actually slowly getting used to play it too. I tuned it in D standard though (as in 3 half steps above regular 6 string bass B standard tuning or 2 half steps bellow regular 4 string bass E standard tuning), using D'Addario XL bass strings gauge .105 - .080 - .060 - .045 - .032 and the .024 string from a D'Addario's Fender Bass VI string set, which makes the tension of the individual strings pretty similar to that of the strings of a D'Addario 4 string bass gauge .095 to .040 string set. An Ibanez SR306EB in Weathred Black finish, 34" scale, 54mm nut, 16,5mm string spacing, Naytoh body, 5 piece Maple/Walnut neck, 24 medium frets, Jatoba fretboard, onboard preamp with 3 band active EQ :

Checked my mailbox just to be sure the strings hadn't been delivered there... But they were! So now the bass has been equipped with the new strings, D'Addario XL bass strings gauge .105 - .080 - .060 - .045 - .032 and the .024 string from a D'Addario's Fender Bass VI string set, threaded through the cut off ball end of a bass string, and tuned to D standard tuning, which makes the tension of the individual strings pretty similar to that of the strings of a D'Addario 4 string bass gauge .095 to .040 string set, and the bass has been set up and intonated to accommodate that, seems to work quite well, though I still need to get used to the wide fretboard. This is a new, and I think slightly better, picture I took of the bass after it had been set up with the new strings and tuning :

My brand new Ibanez SR306EB in Weathered Black finish that I just got in the door with the mail service today, my very first 6 string bass, as good as I could shoot it with my fairly old digital camera, and with the best I was able to edit it in PhotoShop, though it still looks better IRL : You can read more about it here :

This is how it looks shot with my fairly old digital camera, and with the best I was able to edit it in PhotoShop, though it still looks better IRL :

Jack Skellington, not Jack Frost. And I might end up not adding the chickenhead knobs anyway, though I love chickenhead knobs. Think they give off sort of a 50's/60's electronics vibe that I really like. I am not one that really is attracted to stuff that look too streamlined and neat, I prefer soul and personality, and I think we might not share the same taste. The Jack Skellington decal though I will apply for certain. -*--*- Also I've set up the bass, just with the stock strings and in regular 6 string bass B standard tuning, and it was possible to get the string action just as low as I prefer it, which is about 2mm at 12th fret for the bottom string and about 1,5mm at 12th fret for the top string, with a quite minimal neck relief, just the way I like it, without any fret buzz, so that bodes well. Unfortunately though the strings I ordered, to accommodate the D standard tuning (as in 3 half steps above regular 6 string bass B standard tuning or 2 half steps bellow regular 4 string bass E standard tuning) that I plan to use for this bass, has not arrived yet. As it is now the bass feels really awkward for me to play, but hopefully the slightly thinner gauge strings I've ordered and spending some more time playing it will change that. Even if I am a tall 6"4' guy unfortunately my hands are fairly small in comparison, and my pinky in particular is quite short compared to the rest of my fingers, so 12th fret is about as far as I can still reach to fret the bottom string with my pinky with my thumb still placed behind the neck, though I kind of expect that not really exposing a big issue, as I won't likely ever need to play the bottom string above 12th fret anyway, and that if it turns out that I do will still be able to fret it with my other fingers.

Just got the package in the door! When I am done smoking this cigarette it's time to unwrap it! Yayh!!!!

Japanese Cowboy (by Ween)

According to the tracking service the bass has entered Denmark, my country, and is now under transportation out to the delivery depot, and the estimated delivery says 1 day left, but I still doesn't trust 100% percent that I will actually get it delivered tomorrow, Wednesday the 23th, though of course I hope so, if not I won't have it before after Christmas, Monday the 28th. Also according to the tracking service the package is weighting 8,55 Kg (18,8 lbs), which, even with the packaging subtracted, is going to make it one hell of a heavy bass, considerably more heavy than I expected, as I read somewhere someone claiming that these basses were supposed to be really light for a 6 string bass (though that might have been from back when they got a Rosewood fretboard and a Mahogany body, as Jatoba and Naytoh respectively both are heavier types of wood). Not really an issue for me though, just quite surprised. Still haven't got the strings I ordered from another shop, to accommodate the fact that I will be tuning it in D standard tuning (as in 3 half steps above regular 6 string bass B standard tuning or 2 half steps bellow regular 4 string bass E standard tuning), either, so if I get the bass already tomorrow I hope the strings will arrive as well (as I said in a previous reply there is no tracking service on that shipment). Also I think I've finally settled for what visual mods I am going to do on the bass, which are black chikenhead knobs for the balance and volume controls, and applying a different Jack Skellington (a character from Tim Buton's stop motion animated "The Nightmare Before Christmas" movie) decal than the one I pondered on in a previous reply, which will make it look something like this PhotoShopped image :