Baloney Balderdash

My current 4 string set of D'Addario XL Nickle Plated Steel Roundwounds, tuned in F# standard tuning, as in 2 half steps above regular E standard tuning, on my 28,6" scale Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass I deliberately chose to be pretty balanced: .040 - A2 string = 28.90 lbs .055 - E2 string = 30.92 lbs .075 - B1 string = 31.20 lbs .095 - F#1 string = 27.73 lbs Really just a standard short scale D'Addario EXL 220S, Nickle Wound, Super Light, 40-95, set, with the .060 string (usually tuned D2, but in my case E2), swapped out with a seperately bought single .055 string. And it actually works really well, plays, feels and sounds great. But honestly not that much of a real difference from just using the usual much higher tension standard .060 string. The 40-95, Super Light, EXL220 set is one of their most tension balanced sets already though, even if they do actually offer a .040 - .055 - .070 - .095 set, called EXL 220BT too, actually labeled as a balanced tension set, where the .070 string, in my situation, tuned to B1, would have a tension of 27.53 lbs, technically not really all that much more balanced than using a .075 string from the regular EXL220 set instead, compared to the average tension of the other strings, I just personally prefer it to have slightly higher than average tension, instead of slightly lower than average tension, hence my choice. Using D'Addario's online string tension calculator "String Tension Pro" : http://web.daddario.com/StringTensionPro/

Admittedly I did let my assumptions get the best of me there, and as it often is with assumptions they turned out to be a bit hit and miss, rather randomly, and mostly misses in this case it seems. I apologize for that. And no, I haven't actually got any first hand experience with any of those units, but as far as I can tell from the controls and manual of the Tech21 DP3X the build in crossover does in fact leave an empty gab somewhere in the mid frequency spectrum, weather you then chose to call it breathing space, room for improvement or Harry Fonder's imaginary unborn son from an alternate universe. Strictly though, as I haven't actually tried it in person, I can't really say exactly how it would actually work in real use, but I can only imagine that it likely could turn out to respectively either be just the right thing or potentially ending up exposing more or less of an issue, depending on the context. The demos I've watched featuring it admittedly actually sounded quite good, even if it still didn't seem to be a pedal I likely personally would have much use of. Regardless Tech 21 certainly do offer a wide range of very interesting products, some of which I personally wouldn't mind owning either, though the 3 you mention is not among those I am glad they work for you. Yes, indeed this thread was intended as a place to share people's personal experience with, thoughts about and solutions to utilizing dirt effects in their bass setup, mainly high gain distortion, I guess I just misinterpreted your initial post pretty badly, and kind of let my assumptions take the lead from there and onwards, sorry about that. I am actually kind of intrigued by the Oxford and the Leeds pedals from the old Tech 21 Character series of analog amp emulators/preamps, though those two specific ones unfortunately have been discontinued, and the clone version that Joyo makes of the Oxford one, the Orange Juice, even though I love it, they chose to size down considerably for some reason, and in that process shaved down the 3 band EQ section of the original to just a standard Tone control, though they did keep Character control, just labeled Voice instead on the Joyo clone, and to my knowledge no clones exist of the Leeds. I could also possible see myself potentially having use of the Geddy Lee YYZ Preamp in a more regular band context, if I should ever find myself in such again, quite liked the demos I watched featuring it, and the SH-1 Steve Harris Signature pedal kind of temps me as well, though in the end I would probably end up finding alternatives elsewhere that would be better suited for my taste and needs. For one the new Trace Elliot Transit B preamp would have much higher priority as part of a possible future ampless rig, as I absolutely love that classic Trace Elliot tone, and then pared with some sort of decent cab simulator with the option for using third party IR's. But really for now I am actually genuinely satisfied with the rig I got, honestly can't say that I can imagine any obvious improvements to how my bass, pickup, pedal effects, amp and cab sounds and works for me, seems to really meet all my expectations and needs, at least for that solo project I mentioned in my OP that I am currently focusing on, and that even if the majority of my bass rig consists of relatively cheap gear. Can't exactly say that I found the cure for GAS though, or managed to break the illusion of the much greener grass on the neigbor's lawn, so there will always be that perpetual persistence itch that scratching will only sooth momentarily, though I think the most sensible thing to do in my current situation gear wise would be just to keep what I got now, and then as the next thing aim to get, well first a proper pedal board to mount my pedals on, as I always have just carried them around in a bag, and then as part of the same pursuit to improve ease of transportation and free mobility of my gear, just get a good preamp to my liking, as well as a quality cab sim to go with it, in order to make it possible for me to carry everything I need for jams and eventual gigs on my person, making a gigbag for my bass, a shoulder bag for my pedal board, and eventual a backpack for additional pieces of gear, all I really will need in order to transport my entire rig, freeing me from being dependent on available car rides and the struggle of having to carry and set up heavy amps and cabs. Well.... That kind of wen't far far off topic. I guess the essence though was just an apology to you for letting my assumptions get the best of me, somehow mysteriously straying off into the spinoff conclusion that I already got everything I really need, and if I am being perfectly honest with myself actually even genuinely love how works for me too, so instead of continuing to pursuit the illusion of imaginary improvements, that ultimately will just conclude in disappointments and utter waste of money, I really ought to instead focus on investing in utilities that will make the gear that I already own easier and more practical to use, as in improve mobility of it, easing setup and transport.

You obviously didn't bother to read my admittedly quite wordy OP. The fact is that there's an area somewhere in the mid frequency spectrum that the crossover of the DP3X simply doesn't cover, no matter how you set it there will always be that gab with no signal, but as I also pointed out that isn't necessarily a bad thing and might even be desirable in certain situations, but regardless of weather it will be a desirable effect in the context you plan to use it in or expose an issue for you in a different context I think it really is a piece of information people should know about this unit before buying it. The fizzy highs will be on your own account entirely, I mentioned that absolutely nowhere. Neither did I say anything about any kind of ponies. But if you had bothered reading my OP I actually think you would probably had been able to understand that with my bass as the primary and often only driving melodic instrument, beside vocals, in the specific context that I use it, I would personally most of the time want my bass to fill out as much sonic space as possible, as there would by far most of the time be literally no other instruments to really leave any sonic space to, beside drums and percussion. No need to get offended because the approach you use, that I by the way have no doubt works perfectly well for the music you play, wouldn't work as well in the context of the music I happen to play. It seems to me like you are suggesting that there is only 1 right way to approach this that will work absolutely perfectly and flawlessly in any possible given situation and context, and to be frank with you to me that seems like pure utter nonsense. Non of the pedals you suggested can do and even less sound anything like the setup I use and described in my OP, that is not to say that they are somehow bad pedals in any possible way, or that everyone else should do exactly the same as I did, and will have no use of those other pedals, that is just to say that those pedals won't do what I need them to do and that what I did is what works for me in the context I happen to use it in.

Well, as I wrote I am not a subscriber to the otherwise very popular clean bottom/distorted top end solution, and have somewhat other specific needs regarding high gain distortion tone, partially due to how I tend to use my bass. The units you mentioned are fine options for someone who are after that type of dirt effect though. One should probably be aware though that the Tech21 DP3X, due to how the build in crossover works, kind of leaves a hole in the mids, neither filled out by clean or distorted signal, which might or might not expose an issue, or even be a desired feature, depending on what it is you are aiming to achieve and the context it is used in.

Have you managed to get at least close to what you believe might be the ultimate high gain bass distortion setup, and would like to share how you approached it, or do you just want to share your general thoughts about this topic, then this thread would be a chance to do so. I for one think I may have found the ultimate high gain distortion tone for me, at least for the musical project I am currently working on . I know that these days it seems popular to split you bass signal up in a lower clean register and a parallel upper frequency register distorted signal and then mix the 2 signals together, or even use a separate wet and dry rig to do so, but personally I don't really subscribe to that recipe. As an example of a professional bass player who doesn't use this approach either I know Lou Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. doesn't either. As far as goes for his heavy overdriven tone, which in my opinion sounds awesome, at least live he overdrive both his lows and highs and then leave his mids clean, though he doesn't exactly isolate the specific frequencies either, starting by splitting his bass signal up in 3 separate parallel paths, one path going to an overdriven Xotic Bass BB Preamp boosting a Ampeg SVT, for kind of his lower register overdrive tone, then a second path going to an old solid state mids heavy Peavey bass amp, which he runs clean for his sort of mid frequency tone, and finally a third parallel path runs his bass signal through an overdriven Marshall JCM 800, for a more upper frequency emphasized overdrive tone . All 3 signals just kind of mixed and overlapping a lot frequency wise, without any kind of fancy crossover or further EQ filtering going on, just as they come out of the separate cabinets of the 3 amps, and the result os an absolutely crushing, yet quite well defined, fairly heavy overdriven main bass tone. Anyway back to the topic of my personal take on heavy bass distortion, as said, I think I finally managed to nail the perfect tone for me. Mind though that this is specifically for a sort of progressive psychedelic stoner rock project of mine that I am currently working on some songs for, and since the plan is for my bass to be the main instrument of this project, with the additional primary instrumentation predominantly consisting of just drums/percussion and vocals, though with some more sparingly added extra instrumentation that exclusively is going to serve a secondary, more flavor oriented, function, also the bass lines for this project typically won't primarily have a supporting function as otherwise is the most common traditional role of bass, but will serve a much more structural dominant and explicit melodic role, and doesn't necessarily strictly has to fill out the traditional sonic spectrum of a bass either, for one it is tuned 2 half steps above regular 4 string, E standard tuning, as in F# standard tuning, F#1 to A2, like the 4 lowest strings of an 8 string guitar, and is further more run through an always on polyphonic octaver, adding a 1 octave up effect in addition to the regular bass signal, giving an effect similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings. This of course does give me some more freedom of choice regarding my high gain distortion tone, compared to if I needed to still primarily fill out the more common traditional role of a bass. What I managed to achieve is a massively heavy and absolutely thunderous crushing distortion tone with a quite raunchy fuzz-esque quality, but at the same time having a grinding somewhat clanky overdriven edge that actually prevents it from getting too muddy, despite a lot of low end heavy distortion going on, and which contributes to the distortion still having a great deal of well articulated definition. The first attributes to a Moksy Black Rat, Rat clone, in Vintage mode (classic Rat type distortion), with the gain turned about half way up (which would actually equal to a fairly high gain distortion tone), and the high end slightly rolled off, though still enough to give it some of that typical raunchy fuzz-esque grid of a classic Rat type distortion, stacked in front of a Joyo California Sound, which is a Tech 21 California preamp pedal clone, meant to emulate a Mesa Boogie type amp/drive, and which is fairly dark voiced, set to a medium gain but quite hefty kind of overdrive, both placed in parallel effects Loop A of my Boss LS-2 (parallel effect loops mixer/switch pedal), and the latter attributes to a Joyo Orange Juice, which is essentially a seriously sized down and scraped clone version of the Tech 21 Oxford preamp pedal, meant to emulate an Orange type amp/drive, set to a somewhat clanky and quite grinding kind of medium overdrive, placed in parallel effects Loop B of the LS-2. Loop A and Loop B is then mixed together at an about a 50/50 ratio, and actually kind of fusing relatively smoothly/seamlessly together, without ending up sounding like 2 distinctly different signals sitting on top of each other (which is kind of my biggest issue with how the popular clean bottom/distorted top approach often end up sounding), but as said, with the grinding, relatively bright sounding, medium gain overdrive from the Orange Juice preventing the quite bottom heavy, raunchy and fuzzy, high gain distortion from turning into a muddy blurry mess, but in fact actually ends up making it sound surprisingly well defined and articulate. I realize this is a lot of relatively abstract explaining, filled with more or less vague adjectives that people will have no possible chance to get any kind of verification of, but I hope it might still be of at least some interest and inspiration to some people, and I will try to pull myself together to actually record some audio samples of my miked up rig, demonstrating how this actually sounds in reality in the nearest future, and update this post with some links to the uploaded examples of my high gain distortion tone. In the meantime I hope others will contribute to this thread with their thoughts about and personal approach to high gain bass distortion, and even though I initially failed to provide any actual audio examples to back up my words, I hope others might be more capable of maybe delivering some audio clips or videos to back up their thoughts and claims on this topic.

Agree on all your points, except this: Absolutely not true in any possible way!!! ... Well, as far as I am concerned at least. To me this amp has a very full and meaty, yet really clear and punchy tone when set flat, and that goes for most of these old Trace Elliot amps really, in fact back when I owned this exact amp it was the absolute best bass tone I ever had (mind with some relatively insignificant minor adjustments of the build in graphic EQ, but essentially pretty much used flat), and I still regret selling it and ponder on getting another old Trace Elliot amp at some point. Personally even prefer it over the Ampeg B-15S 60W tube amp I also owned at some point, even if that no doubt was an amazing sounding amp as well, just in a completely different way. Also I for one absolutely hated the 2 terribly horrific and obnoxious sounding mid scooping pre-shape presets that you could activate on that Trace Elliot. Might in fact be the only truly bad thing I have to say about this amp, well beside it's monstrous weight, but hey, just don't activate the pre-shapes ever and you'll have an absolutely truly amazing sounding amp. No one ever sounded good with the mids scooped out of their tone, and that goes for both bass players and guitarists, in my opinion at least. I agree though that this amp isn't exactly anywhere near transparent but does add quite a bit of coloration to your tone, though I have a hard time imagining anyone not liking what it does to your tone, but apparently people who don't does exist, as the above quote from your post should be proof of. I for one absolutely love it. Also kind of doesn't agree that it won't be worth more than 100£, I mean they do go for quite cheap these days, and it would definitely be stupid to pay much more than what they typically go for for sure, but to me at least these old Trace Elliot amps are really worth much more than what they typically go for, some of the absolute best amps ever made, and the only issue they really got, as far as I am concerned, compared to today's standards is their ridiculous heavy weight, in every other aspect they are superior to most more modern amps on the market today, and certainly compared to similar priced amps.

Happy Birthday Ian, RIP.

So, what is your favorite delay pedal? Tell us a bit about it and why you like it. My absolute favorite delay pedal got to be the Nux Tape Core Deluxe, which is a truly amazing, but actually quite cheap (about 63 Euro / 59£), digital emulation of the legendary Roland Space Echo tape delay. Sounds absolutely amazing, and with the software editor you get access to all the features of the original tape echo unit, plus a handful of additional very useful ones. Only downside really (I guess some downsides have to come with such a cheap price), is that the quality seems to be somewhat inconsistent from unit to unit. Mine for example I discovered sucked my tone slightly, which though was fixed completely by the buffered pedal that I have sitting right in front of it in my signal chain anyway, as well as, even though every other settings dialed in with the editor was saved perfectly well to the individual respectively 7 modes of the pedal (representing the 7 possible combinations of the 3 tape play heads), just as they were supposed to, it refused to save the "Auto Tap" setting if activated (a setting that makes the pedal automatically detect every time you tap the foot switch more than 2 times in a row and make that your tap tempo, saving you for having to activate the tap function by pressing the switch down for 2 seconds first), which I managed to solve as well though, by downloading the Firmware Updater and Editor software again, even if it actually appeared to be the exact same versions as the ones I had previously installed. Also heard reports from some people having some noise issues with this pedal, which I think though was mainly an issue with some units out of the earliest batches of this pedal, and which seems to have been fixed with later versions. Also this is not exactly common issues, even if it does certainly seem that issues are considerably less rare with these pedals than usual with more expensive and generally acclaimed brands. But if you make sure to buy it from a company with good return policies it should really only be a minor annoyance that won't actually cost you anything but your time, and for the sound quality of the delay you get, if the pedal works as it is actually supposed to, which by far most of them in fact still does, for the relatively cheap price you'll have to pay for it, I'd say it's all absolutely worth it. In my opinion the Nux Tape Core Deluxe is simply the absolute best sounding delay effect in pedal form at any price class. Here's how it looks: And here's how the software editor looks: My preferred settings (this is for my bass setup, currently working on some songs for sort of a progressive psychedelic stoner rock solo project, which primary instrumentation is going to consist of just bass, drums/percussion and vocals, with the bass tuned in standard F# tuning, as in the 4 lowest strings of an 8 string guitar, 2 half steps above E standard tuning, and running the bass through an always on 1 octave up effect placed as the very first effect in the chain, mixed with the regular clean bass signal, giving an effect similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings): Wow: 70 - Flutter: 70 - Bass: 38 - Treble: 38 - Saturation: 80 - Reverb: 14 And then I have the Auto Tap feature turned on, so I can just tap the tempo without having to repress the foot switch for 2 seconds first to activate it. Mostly using just Head 3, and without rhythmic note values synced, with the Mix control knob set at about 1 o'clock and the Repeat control knob set at about 11 o'clock. But I might find use for the other play head combinations and other settings at some point as well. Probably not going to ever use the SOS mode (the loop function that this pedal features as well) though, as I will probably get a dedicated looper pedal at some point anyway, but what a delay effect! Here's a couple of YouTube demos demonstrating it (on guitar though):

Out of those options the black looks best no competition. I am an incarnate tortoise hater, looks kind of smarmy in the cheap synthetic kind of way to me, sort of gets my associations falling in line with the absolute worst sides of typical 70's style (mind there were lots of cool things about the 70's too though in my opinion), as well as somewhat reminding me of a dirty and smelly old pub with a thick layer a nicotine and char from years of heavy smoking and far too little cleaning covering everything, including the heavily outworn and partly holed red leather covering the furniture, and accompanied by the pungent stench of urine from the, in line with the general sanitation of the place, rarely cleaned toilets and way too drunk customers persistently having failed to aim their golden bodily fluids in the direction of the devices designed for that purpose properly. Though if I had the option for freely choosing any pickguard for that bass I'd probably try out an anodized/oxidized copper or iron one. Or perhaps even an engraved brown or black leather one. Or how about a dark wooden one, a piece of thin ebony plywood perhaps, or maybe oil treated mahogany?

Well, 4 string basses actually cover a lot of ground. That is not to say that there aren't any real use for basses with 5, 6 or even more strings. 5 string basses actually even seem to be pretty common in certain forms of what I would call mainstream music, whereas 6 or more strings probably will remain a niche thing. And nothing wrong with that really, I for one mainly prefer non mainstream and music that would probably be considered pretty niche for most people. True innovation rarely happens within the mainstream anyway, and while that can be considered a fairly sad fact it's not exactly anything new. It's more or less always been that way really. And even if I don't consider myself belonging to the mainstream movement I still prefer playing my 4 string bass. Nothing wrong with that either really. Instruments are just tools after all, it's what you create with them that matters, and while a 6 string bass definitely got more potential possible uses than a 4 string, it doesn't necessarily mean it is automatically always the the better choice or that it in any possible way is always the right tool for everything. If you expect truly new ground to be covered within the mainstream you have seriously lacked paying attention to the music scene for ages. Just not going to happen, and if it does, be sure that they weren't even the first to do it, or even the best, they just managed to degrade it into a pop form, that's all. And while there are plenty of truly and genuinely amazing 6 string players if you dig a little, there will still be people who do just as amazing stuff on an old fashioned 4 string. The instrument is just a tool, what matters is the player, and if he or she happens to be a genuinely and truly great one he would be able to do amazing absolutely mind boggling stuff stuff on whatever instrument he prefers playing, regardless of the number of strings and amount of fancy advanced features it might or might not have. For instance I seriously doubt this would have been even greater if he had just used a 6 string bass:

Well, if you like that, then you are going to love the pick storage box I just invented. Depending on the thickness of the picks it can hold up to 10 picks at any given time. Unfortunately it doesn't have a hip brand name on it, but for just 15 Euro extra you can get your own name engraved by hand. Here the magnificent wonder box of pick holding is: And it can be yours for the ridiculous cheap giveaway price of just 45 Euro. And in all 100% genuine pure aluminium.

I always welcome more options for short scale bass choices on the market. Though I am not personally really in the market for a vintage specked short scale P bass, even if I converted to playing almost exclusively short scales long ago and I like the tones P pickups are capable of, but when that is said I think that headstock looks awesome, would far prefer it over a traditional Fender one, which to me has always come off as a bit bulgy and clumsy looking, regardless of the fact that I really prefer 2+2 kind of headstocks in the first place. I think that headstock looks absolutely great though, but I realize that is not to much use for you since you clearly have a completely different taste in aesthetics, at least when it comes to bass headstocks, than me. To me though that there is a vast improvement over Fender's headtstock design, and as far as I am concerned it fits the rest of the bass perfectly fine as well. To each their own I guess.

Adrian Belew Power Trio with monster female bass player Julie Slick and of course the legendary guitar wizard, former King Crimson member, Adrian Belew himself:

Just out of curiosity, anyone who also uses an always (or almost always) on 1 octave up effect to emulate an 8 string bass, or a real 8 (or 10) string "octave" bass as your main? Currently my main bass is an Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass with just a DiMarzio Model P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, tuned 2 half steps above E standard tuning, as in F#1 to A2, which I run through an always on TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini octaver pedal,. which is set with a 1 octave up blended with the clean signal. Actually manged, thanks to the EQ'ing of the input signal that is fed to the octave engine and the processed output signal that the Toneprint editor allows for, to make the octave up tone sound pretty realistic without any digital artifacts whatsoever, just using the stock polyphonic octaver, on which the octave up signal has as good as perfect tracking and very short, almost unnoticeable, latency, and in my opinion already without utilizing the Toneprint editor sounds much more natural than for example the EHX POG pedals, which while also tracking as good as perfect with very short latency (and for some reason lower latency on the octave down signal than the Sub'N'Up), , has a somewhat organ or synth like quality to it. I use it as the main instrument for a progressive psychedelic stoner rock solo project I am working on at the moment, which instrumentation I plan predominantly to consist of just bass, drums/percussion and vocals.

I owned a couple of 1000$ + basses as well as some cheap budget ones, and while the basses that costed above 1000 dollar definitely were nice instruments that I loved and that sounded absolutely awesome, and which I would wish I hadn't been stupid enough to let go of, as well as you can be sure about getting an instrument of great quality almost every single time you buy a bass in that sort of price class, which isn't exactly the case for all budget instruments, where quality control seems to be quite lacking and very inconsistent, the cheap budget Ibanez GSRM20 4 string Mikro bass that I own now, though with upgraded pickups, is on my top 2 favorite basses that I ever owned (in doubt if the Jerry Jones Longhorn, which costed 1200$ from new, back when it was still in production 10 years or so ago, that I once owned might have been my number 1 over the Mikro, if I hadn't been stupid enough to sell it, but not even positively sure about that), and luckily having as good as perfect fretwork from factory as well as what might be the most stable neck of any guitar or bass I ever owned. In my opinion and experience it is absolutely possible to get lucky and find a cheap budget bass or guitar, where accidentally all stars seemed to have aligned when it was made, that with a pickup upgrade, and eventually some other electronic and hardware upgrades, is every bit as good as a much higher end bass or guitar. Cheap budget basses might not been quite as fancy, but in pure functionality they might in some cases be every bit as great instruments as higher end ones, just considerably more of a rarity and dependent on pure luck, due to the typical randomness of production and quality control in that sort of price class.

I had this exact amp, and kind of regret selling it. Sounded absolutely fabulous, like most of the old Trace Elliot amps really, and was loud enough to keep up with a drummer and gutarist in a loud and heavy playing rock band, even with the master volume kept below the 12 o'clock position at all times. The old Trace Elliot solid state amps are known to push a good deal above rated wattage. Really sturdy build too, though that reflects in them also being quite heavy weight. These old Trace Elliot amps sounds no short of amazing in my opinion, and I kind of ponder on getting one again at some point, or perhaps the new tiny Trace Elliot ELF class D amp instead, which is supposed to actually sound very close to the old classic solid state Trace Elliots. Really love the classic Trace Elliot sound, though I should probably add without the mid scooping "Pre Shape" buttons activated.

Peter Gabriel cover:

Thank you, I'll try that. Cause as it is now it is extremely annoying.

Starting to happen to me too, every once in while, actually every 2 minutes or so this warning pops up in my anti virus, which happens to be AVG as well, if I have a tab opened in my browser with the "Bass Chat" forum loaded.

A blast from the past...

Stickers on my Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass:

So how long have you been playing bass, and why did you start? I think I started playing bass around when I was around 16 or so, a couple of years after I had started to learn how to play guitar, which makes the time I have played bass about 27 years by now, most of that time having had bass as my main instrument of choice, although having continued to play guitar on the sideline all along. It all started one day at band rehearsal where I by pure incident picked up the bass players bass and started playing, fell in love with the sound and feel of playing it, right there on the spot, and soon after answered an add by a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist seeking a bass player for their original band. After an audition session I got accepted as their new bass player, and even got a lot of praise for my capabilities on bass from the drummer, who happened to be a, for his age at that point, really skilled musician that knew how to sight read music, and who beside drums, played both piano and guitar on the sideline (that drummer and guitarist/vocalist being the same two people, though in a new different original band, that I much later since recorded a 2 track Single and a 4 track EP with, which were released on a small independent record label that some of our mutual friends owned, before I eventually decided to leave that band, much to my later regret, though I did get to contribute to a few of the compositions of their later full length album, even if not recording anything for it). The first few months with that first original band I didn't even own my own bass yet, but had to borrow one. Though soon after I decided to put my primary focus on playing bass over playing guitar. For some reason playing bass just came much more natural to me than playing guitar, like the instrument just felt exactly right in my hands, and as if I must have been thinking much more like a bass player than a guitarist all along, like apparently I just had a natural understanding for how the instrument worked and talent for coming up with and playing just the right bass parts for songs relatively effortlessly, that I for some reason just didn't possess on even just remotely the same level and same degree on guitar (even if eventually I have gotten quite good on guitar too, but ironically mainly from the experience I have acquired playing bass).

I guess it's really a matter of having some measurements as guidelines, rather then set in stone rules, and then make fine adjustments according to feeling and verifying with your own ears.

Great. I wish you the best of luck. As for adapting, at least I hadn't that much of a problem with it. Think it might seem more of an issue than it in reality is. Way back I personally switched from having guitar to having bass as my main instrument of choice, and I didn't experience any major issues, I actually think it is really mostly a matter of attitude, turned out I had really been thinking more like a bass player all along, and I felt sort of a relieve when I started to play bass, playing bass just came much more naturally to me than playing guitar ever had, and I also started out on a 34" scale bass, and stuck to that for over 10 years, before I eventually had yet another revelation when I first discovered, and then later switched to almost exclusively playing, short scale basses. Also please read my edit/update of the post you quote me for.