MikeStockport

Raising the pickup heights isn't going to be easy without spoiling the look of the bass. It's something I'll consider as a future project, but not as a quick fix. So I've purchased (from Amazon, using the gift vouchers I received for Christmas) a Laney DB-PRE Digbeth preamp pedal. I'll let you know how I get on...

Looks like my first step is raising the height of the pickups, which currently is quite low. Are there any downsides to this, such as an inferior tone? I've never messed with pickup heights before.

Currently I’m using a Trace Elliot Elf 200W bass head and the matching speakers, a 1x10 and a 2x8. I find that when I play my Munson custom fretless, I have to turn up both the input gain and the master volume to nearly maximum to be loud enough in a gig. I was wondering which would be better: buying a preamp, or getting a more powerful amp head, such as a Markbass 300W?

I play in a covers band that does gigs in the Greater Manchester area. One issue that's puzzling me a bit at the moment is that, using one or other of my multi-effects pedals (I have a Zoom MS60B and a Mooer Prime P1), I can get a sound that sounds great when I listen to it in isolation at home, but when we're gigging in a pub and there are drums and lead guitar and keyboards playing at the same time, the "great sound" gets lost and I either get an indistinct bassy noise or a sound that doesn't sound bassy enough and doesn't drive the sound of the band. Fiddling with effects and/or EQ while playing isn't very easy. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to defining a sound that sounds just as good in a live setting as in a rehearsal? (We don't rehearse at gig volume, by the way - if that's the only answer then it's not all that helpful.)

I'm a small guy with small hands and so I really don't like playing a 5 string. I prefer short-scale basses and low B strings on short-scales generally sound muddy and indistinct. Besides, the band I play in (a chart covers band) plays maybe one or two songs in an entire set that requires a note below a bottom E, so most of the time, a low B string will go to waste. I have the Digitech Drop pedal and I do really like it, but it does have one problem: to change the number of semitones it drops by, you have to bend down and twiddle the knob on the pedal (no sniggering, please), which is not the easiest thing to do on stage, especially when you're more, er, senior and bending down is something you want to keep to a minimum. It would be nice to have a drop pedal where I could change the drop interval with a footswitch. At the moment I'm using a multi-effects unit with three presets, all identical apart from the drop interval, but it does seem like using the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. Any alternatives? And I'm another of those awkward people for whom drop tuning does my head in.

I've used it a few rehearsals now, after paying £35 for a setup and having the electrics sorted. It plays and sounds great, and it balances well, but there's one problem: while I can loosen the strings (to make the pitch lower) without any difficulty, the tuners are so stiff that to tighten them (to increase the string's pitch) I have to use a pair of pliers! @Prosebass

I bought a Smooth Hound system towards the end of last year. In rehearsals: no problem. But in my first two gigs since the easing of lockdown restrictions last weekend, I had a number of interference problems. A previous poster noticed that all three columns of LED lights flashed. The same thing happened to me. Some of the time the signal cut out completely, most embarrassingly during my bass solo during "Wish You Were Here". Is it just due to an overabundance of wifi transmitters in a pub or small club, which I can do nothing about, or is there a solution? @SmoothHoundChrisIncidentally, I don't stand more than five feet from the receiver. I play an active Ibanez bass if that makes a difference. I was using fully-charged rechargeable AAA batteries in the transmitter.

I've just bought this bass on eBay. Anyone know who made it? Jon Letts, perhaps?

The first one I tried was a cheap Chinese one from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Octpus-Polyphonic-Octave-Electric-Guitar/dp/B08HHZ6GP3/ref=sr_1_33?crid=3HTFC6XGFRYBV&dchild=1&keywords=octave+pedal&qid=1600781261&sprefix=octave%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-33 It sounded horrible. Then I saw this: https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fishman-fission-bass-powerchord-fx/53647?gclid=CjwKCAjwwab7BRBAEiwAapqpTOry_7PfmgVcfdBEuBAVPbHbtYVItncun76etF8-MkxPwKaBpTk-3RoCIAgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds This was better, but still very limited. The second octave above the source pitch still sounded out of tune, and the overall sound of the unit, if you turned off the distortion, still sounded like a not-very-good organ. After reading lots of rave reviews, I decided to give the Hotone Ampero One a try: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Hotone-Ampero-One-Multi-Effects-Unit/3B56 But the octave and harmonist effects sounded as bad as the cheap pedal from Amazon.

I've tried a few pedals that claim to give an octave up but the higher octave always sounds horribly out of tune, like an organ that's been dropped from a sixth storey window. 😊 Does anyone know of any pedal that produces a nice clean tone that's genuinely one octave higher, or is it that none of these effects can track the low notes of a bass accurately enough to do that? (I'm not interested in sub octaves.)

@inthedoghouse Just listened to "Ruff 'n' Ready" - very catchy, really good sound!

I wouldn't be surprised if it were a Chinese fake, I only paid £400 for it on eBay. Still, it plays nicely and it's got decent EMG pickups on it.

I've decided to go for the 10-string, as it seems a shame not to use it as such. What was worrying me initially was the thought that having so many strings might irreversibly pull the neck out of shape, as happened to me with a Washburn 12 string guitar a few years ago. But I think the truss rod is up to the task. I bought this bass because I play in a band that has two guitarists (and no keyboards), but occasionally one of them can't make a gig due to work commitments and we have to go on with only one guitar. I've tried using octave-up pedals to fill in some of the middle frequencies but it never sounded particularly good. Here's a picture:

I've bought an odd bass on eBay. It's handmade, and it was originally made as a 5 string (roughly Fender Jazz shaped) but someone at some point has converted it to a 10 string. I'm now wondering whether I should re-string it as a 10 string, or as a 5 string piccolo bass and use an octave pedal? Any thoughts?

Hi, I'm Mike from Stockport in Greater Manchester. I've been playing bass since I was 18 and I've played in a few amateur bands over the years. I now play in Blind Tiger, a covers band based in South Manchester. I also write my own songs and would love to get one published one day! https://soundcloud.com/user-778056209/sets/running-up-a-waterfall