Baloney Balderdash

A Jerry Jones Longhorn (a now discontinued, sort of high quality, high end, version of the Danelectro one, from a now retired luthier/company), just with a solid body mahogany body (the Longhorn is semi hollow), a Musicman pickup (the Nordstrand Big Blademan) in the P pickup position, an ebony fretboard, and a 28,6" scale length, I would pretty much have my dream bass. Here's how the regular real Jerry Jones Longhorn, that I once owened, but was stupid enough to part with looked, 24 frets, 16,6mm string spacing, 14,5" fretboard radius (not my bass on the picture though, just a random google one): Here are the specs: http://www.jerryjonesguitars.com/longhorn-bass4.html Though I love this body shape as well: And the B.C Rich headstock shape:

Fodera did nothing wrong! That there is a very special custom set for experiemntal musicians doing prepared bass stuff. They call it the "Ab/D - F [major] ck U p" set. All they did wrong was packaging it as an "Anthony Jackson Signature Strings" set, but I am sure he wouldn't mind.

On a more serious note, or well, I guess, in reality just to fulfill my urge to display my personal opinion on this matter as well, mostly because I am bored right now, and don't seem to care about doing anything that might have been more constructive, useful and needed : I get what you are saying OP, believe me, I too like my clean basic tone to sound great as well (even if we might not be of the exact same conception of what that is), and I guess there are really some bass players hiding their lack of skills behind using fancy, or less fancy, but rather perhaps more like flashy, in a tacky, questionable taste, kind of way, effects, often with little thought going into actually making them sound great or even just at least somewhat fit the context. And I guess such people would likely be a lot more common than those who play their effects artfully as instruments in their own right, or even than people who at least just put some amount of thought into making their effects sound great and actually having them add something to the context that a regular clean basic bass signal couldn't quite do with the same effect (no pun intended). I for one like to think I am one of those people who, at least post production when sitting quietly and working my magic in a DAW with VST effects, falls into the second category, when the music calls for it that is, live is another considerably more clumsy and crude affair for me though, even if I still like to think I here at least still manage to fall into the third category. Point being, as said I like my clean basic tone to sound great, but I also like the stuff that effects allows you to do that a clean basic tone wouldn't, not mindlessly used to add unnecessary tacky flash, necessary tacky flash when called for though, but mostly just what is needed to get the job done properly and make it sound just right, and fact is that far from all music is best off with no effects on the bass at all, perhaps most of the most common forms of classic traditional rock and pop is most of the time, but being traditional and common is not exactly the same as embracing all the lush diversity that music as a craft, art and advanced form of communication actually got to offer, in fact most often the exact opposite.

I took the risk and actually bought one of these PA speakers, the passive version though, but the exact same speaker, just without a build in poweramp, and I can actually confirm that it has excellent low frequency reproduction, more balanced between high and low frequency representation though than my SWR Triad I bass cab, the SWR being an early attempt of a full range bass cabinet, equipped with a 15" speaker unit receiving the full frequency range of the signal, a 10" speaker that via the build in crossover filter only receives the part of the signal that lies between 100Hz and 5kHz, and a high frequency tweeter horn that only receives everything from the signal that lies above 5kHz, being able to control how much of that part of the signal it receives via a build in attenuator. To be perfectly honest I did end up preferring the tone of my SWR Triad I, but actually not in particular just because of it tone wise balancing slightly more towards the low end, really more so simply because the, no doubt higher quality, speaker units of the SWR cab, compared to the units used in the cheap The Box PA speaker, simply sounded better to my ears. However I would still claim that The Box PA 502 full range PA speaker would be perfectly passable for use with bass, as it doesn't actually seems to struggle with reproducing the low frequencies of a bass signal whatsoever (at least down to and including the low E of a regular 4 string bass tuning), and I am quite sure using just right cab IR and EQ'ed just right you could get quite decent results from it, despite the obvious relatively cheap speaker units it is equipped with. In my opinion what likely eventual would disqualify this particular PA speaker as a proper candidate for a full range speaker to use with amp and cab IR sims for bass, would really rather be more of a case of the sub and tweeter units it is equipped with not exactly being of top notch quality, not exactly sounding great, though absolutely not exactly bad either, than because of any inability to reproduce the low frequency content coming from of a bass properly, since I don't think that would actually be true. So I guess the conclusion, as far as I am concerned, would be that nothing inherently about full range PA speakers seems to prevent them from being a great option for full range speakers used with amp and cab IR sims for bass in mind, as long as you are just willing to spend the money required to get one equipped with proper quality speaker units that match your tonal ambitions.

Always loved the look of a the Peavey T-40.

Absolutely nothing, but a set of new strings that accommodate the lighter tuning, except possibly a truss rod adjustment if the overall string tension happens to change, and the usual string change setup, setting intonation e.t.c. There's a slim chance that you might need a new nut too though, with nut slots that fit the thinner gauge of strings, but only a slim chance, I fitted a string set with a .100 gauge E string on my 5 string to tune it E to C and it fit just fine into the nut slot originally intended for a .125 string, as did the other strings of the set.

I would be concerned about the frequency response of those new cabs, they are rated to only go down to 60Hz, even the 15" one, their old, now out of production ones, as far as I recall it, were rated to go down to 35Hz.

I'll warmly recommend wiring the 2 single coil lipstick tube pickups in series. I once owned the Jerry Jones version of this bass (sort of a more expensive, higher quality, high end version), which I still regret being stupid enough to part with, and one of the stock options on the pickup selector switch of that bass was the 2 lipstick tube pickups wired in series. Actually it was the only pickup setting I ever used, gives it more punch and power, and in my opinion makes it better suited in a rock music context or similar than any other combination of those 2 pickups. In fact I loved how it sounded with the 2 pickups in series, and it might save you bothering about upgrading the pickups at all. You might consider upgrading the stock bridge for one with adjustable metal saddles too, I've seen a relatively cheap one on Ebay made specifically to fit these type of Danelectro basses, making it a relatively simple swap, basically a perfect drop in (be aware that a standard bridge won't fit, since the string spacing is much more narrow on these basses, though I guess you could go for monorail bridge pieces): https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Danelectro-Adjustable-Bass-Bridge-CHROME/333684117683?epid=2256127977&hash=item4db11f90b3:g:oNcAAOSww~FfNBEc As a suggestion for a visual mod, though I honestly think a black Longhorn bass looks great just as it is from stock, you could consider cutting out a photo, drawing or pattern on a piece paper or fabric and fit it under the clear pickguard.

So as the headline says, what relatively cheap but decent microphones will I need to mike up an acoustic drum set, when I only have 4 tracks at my disposal to record on, for a bass and drums duo where I play the bass? I am thinking a kick drum mic, a snare/hi-hat mic, a crash/tam mic and then an overhead/room mic, but other suggestion that will likely give better results are welcome, and I am completely at loss when it comes to choosing the actual microphones for it. I am planing to buy a Tascam DR-680 MkII for recording the drums and bass live, which can record on 8 tracks total, but only got 4 XLR inputs and 2 Jack inputs, intending to use the 4 XLR inputs for drum microphones, and then 1 of the Jack inputs for a DI recording of the bass and the other for miking up the bass cab, running it through a microphone preamp, and then transfer these 4 recorded drum tracks + 2 recorded bass tracks to my DAW later for mixing and adding vocals and eventual additional programmed and physical secondary instrumentation. I am open to the suggestion of using 5 tracks for the drums if it will give a considerably better result, and then just using a single DI'ed bass track though. The reason why I chose to use a small recorder is for ease of transportability to our rehearsal place, since I don't own a laptop or a car and I don't need the recordings to be super hi-fi.

Go USA!!! : Jefferson Airplane - "Plastic Fantastic Lover"

As I explained in my OP I am specifically speaking of how I use my bass in the musical project that has my main focus currently, a bass(or 4 string baritone)/vocals and drums sort of progressive psychedelic stoner rock duo. And as I wrote I don't play the bass particularly traditionally, but rather as you might imagine a down tuned 4 string baritone would be played, kind of a hybrid between between traditional bass playing and a more guitar like style, probably with slightly more weight on something that could be categorized closer to traditional baritone guitar playing, though stoner rock rarely tend to get all that twangy, even if I guess my clean tone might have a slightly twangy character. The instrument is however still technically a 4 string bass, even with it's short 28,6" scale length being closer to a typical baritone guitar scale length, and the G standard tuning that I use being exactly 1 half step closer to A standard baritone guitar tuning than E standard 4 string bass tuning. And technically speaking for this project it would kind of fill both the role as the bass and the guitar, as, as I said, I run the signal through an always on 1 octave up effect, giving an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respective bass and octave strings. I think I have settled for using the term "Baritone Bass Guitar" in future credits though, , as suggested by some people in this thread, but would still be curious to how you would define/categorize it.

My EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, that acts as much as a fairly moderate compression as a tube preamp stage, then going into a Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer with the 50, 400, 500 and 800 Hz, as well as the 4,5kHz, bands boosted ever so slightly, approximate just about 1 or 2dB, then going into my NUX Solid Studio IR & Poweramp Simulator, using a 3rd party Dr. Bonkers Poly Pro 1x15" + 2x8" cab IR and the EL34 tube poweramp simulator, the NUX also functioning as a DI. Works really well for my use, really punchy, kind of slightly aggressive, tone, with a nice crisp high end presence and bite and a gutsy tight bottom end, but with a prominent hint of nice warm tube flavor and slight compression as well.

Thanks for your inputs, "Bartitone bass guitar" seems like a good way to categorize it, think I might end up using that definition for the credits.

So my main bass for quite some years has been a 28,6" scale Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass, even if I originally started out playing on a regular 34" scale bass, more specifically a great Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic, which I by the way still own. And for a while I haven't played in a band but had my main musical focus on working on the bass parts for some songs with a work in progress solo sort of progressive psychedelic stoner rock bass project, where the idea was that the primary instrumentation was going to consist of just bass, vocals and mainly programmed drums (in the meantime I have just found a skilled drummer I have played in a band with before, who is willing to be responsible for the drum parts though, and we will have the first band rehearsal in less then 2 weeks from now), though with some additional secondary more flavor oriented instrumentation here and there. And for that I tuned my bass in standard F# tuning, as in 2 half steps above regular E standard 4 string bass tuning (F#1 - B1 - E2 - A2), and run the bass signal through an always on 1 octave up effect, placed as the very first thing in my signal chain right after the bass, giving an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass (with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings). However now I have discovered that the bass parts for the songs I have been working on sounds better when I tune my bass an additional half step further up, as in G standard tuning, which means that my bass technically is now actually tuned just exactly one half step closer to A standard baritone guitar tuning than regular E standard 4 string bass tuning, so would that mean that I should consider my 28,6" scale bass more as a down tuned 4 string baritone guitar than really a sub-short scale up tuned bass, especially considering that my playing for this musical project is somewhat closer to how you traditionally would play a baritone guitar than really how you traditionally would play a bass (the 3 highest strings is even technically going to be guitar strings for this new tuning (as of now I have it equipped with the lightest bass string set, .095 - .040), threaded through bass string ball ends to not slip through the bridge string holes)? To sum up my question: Can a 28,6" scale 4 string bass, tuned in G standard tuning, as in 2 half steps below A standard baritone guitar tuning, and played somewhat closer to how you probably would a 4 string baritone guitar than how you traditionally would play a bass, further more with the 3 highest strings technically being guitar strings, and finally run through an always on 1 octave up effect, giving an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass (with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings), still be called a bass, or would it rather be a down tuned 4 string baritone guitar? I might add before anyone comment on it that it's not like the answer to this question really matters much to me, it's not like it will actually make me reconsider how I play and use my bass whatsoever or anything like that, just curious how you would categorize my instrument taking the information given above on how I play and use it into consideration, like for instance if you hypothetically should assign my role in the credits of on let's say the project's Bandcamp and Facebook profiles or a physical album release. Personally I am not even quite sure, but will properly end up going with just "Bass" or perhaps "4 string baritone guitar", for the sake of simplicity when writing credits, right now actually kind of leaning towards just "Bass".

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing" : Quote : - George Bernard Shaw -

They are truly a great band, one of my all time favorite bands in fact, a couple of members from "Goodspeed You! Black Emperor" started it, and it is somewhat similar, yet totally different. Those two songs might not be the most accessible to start out with though, but you might still like them, I'll recommend "Mountains Made of Steam" and "God Bless Our Dead Marines", from, in my opinion, their best album, "Horses in the Sky". They altered their band name several times, they started out with the name "The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band", and is currently going under the name "The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra", other names they have gone by are variations on that. Here's four of my favorite songs by them:

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - "This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird's Fallen" Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - "Blown-out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole"

So anyone got any experience with the relatively new tiny AMT A-Bass and AMT O-Bass tube preamp pedals from their Bricks series, which were just released earlier this year, the two pedals being repectively an Alembic style preamp and an Orange style preamp? I am pondering on acquiring one of them and use it in combination with the NUX Soiid Studio that I just bought, for cab IR and poweramp simulation, since these tiny tube preamp pedal doesn't feature any form of cab sim. So I am interesting in knowing if they are any good to use primarily as a clean preamp for dialing in my main tone, and what to expect from the two pedals respectively, so I have an idea of weather I should chose the Orange or Alembic style preamp? Here's the link to the A-Bass on AMT's homepage : https://amtelectronics.com/new/amt-a-bass/ And Here's the link to the O-Bass : https://amtelectronics.com/new/amt-o-bass/ They are quite reasonable priced as well, just about 175 Euro/156£ (Thomann prices, though they only seem to carry the A-Bass in their stock), and the tubes works at proper high voltage too, around 250V to 300V. Edit!!! : Just found these YouTube demos featuring the 2 pedals, and judging from those it seems like the A-Bass will be closest to my personal taste, plus the A-Bass got a Mid and Treble frequency shift switch, unlike the O-Bass, both got a Bright switch though (in fact to me the A-Bass sounds great, while the O-Bass sounds like crap, though that might be the fault of the guy demoing the pedals) :

I got a GRSM20 Mikro Bass, which is actually my main, that I owned since April 2011, and I have never has any issues with the tuners whatsoever, even if this is a cheap budget Ibanez, on the contrary they work exceptionally well for being tuners on a such a cheap instrument, and the bass holds tuning extremely well too.

Not according to my taste and opinion, I like the way a P bass sound soloed, and much prefer it over the thin burpy tone of a J bass, it needs to be played through a proper cab or cab sim though, not through a full range speaker or even worse a set of headphones without going through a proper cab sim before. If you only option for practicing is through headphones then you need to get some kind of decent cab simulator pedal, preferably with the option for loading 3rd party cab IRs, to place between your bass and headphone amp. I can warmly recommend the NUX Solid Studio IR & Poweramp Simulator, which use over double the IR resolution of for example the Mooer Radar, while only being ever so slightly more expensive, although not having as many features, though I'd prefer the higher resolution of the NUX Solid Studio over the extra bells and whistles of the Mooer Radar, since all you will really need is 1 great cab IR (the NUX will require of you to find a 3rd party cab IR, the Mooer got a couple of bass cab IRs unlike the NUX, which only features guitar cab IRs from stock, but you'll likely want just the right 3rd party cab IR anyway, so I don't really see that as much of an issue, for that I recommend you checking out https://www.drbonkerssoundlab.com/ , his trademark HyperReal cab IR mixes sounds amazing (included in all the IR packs he offers, I personally prefer the ones recorded with an AKG C414 XLS microphone)).

I have often cut roundwound strings made to fit a regular 34" scale bass to size to fit my on my Mikro Bass, and if done properly, making sure to make an abrupt break on the string below the cut and making the cut as clean as possible, I have never ever experienced the strings starting to unravel, have tuning instability issues, or any other sort of issue usually associated with cutting bass strings to size. However I am pretty sure from what I have read and heard, even if not having any specific personal experience, that cutting flatwound strings to size is considerably more problematic, and might cause exactly issues similar to the ones mentioned above, so sorry, can't really help you. I guess your only option really will be to have custom strings made specifically for your needs, I know for a fact that some companies do this, but as I have never had any use for this I can't name any of them, I am sure someone else can be of help with this though. And as a fellow sub-short scale bass enthusiast I wish you the best of luck.

So I ordered 4 pieces of neodymium magnets that size wise should fit pretty closely to the 4 ceramic magnets that is glued to each side of the pole pieces of the 2 split coil parts of my DeMarzio Model P, P pickup. If I go through with this what should I expect, beside increased output, tone wise? And since these neodymium magnets are supposed to be much stronger than the current original ceramic ones, would it be wiser to only use 2 of the 4 neodymium magnets that I bought, as in just placing 1 neodymium magnet right beneath the pole pieces of each of the P pickup's 2 coils, instead of using all 4 by placing 1 on each side of the pole pieces, as is currently the case with the 4 original ceramic ones? Also if so, will that have influence on the pickup's tone as well?