SumOne

Nice one! 35", 24 Fret, 19mm spacing, lightweight, 3 band EQ, cheaper than budget....it's got it all! I've never played a semi-hollow Bass before so I suppose that might be a stumbling block- or might be exactly what I'm after. I think a trip to Bassdirect is needed.

Ah yeah, I'd forgotten that Sandberg have a custom building thing on their website. I'll check that out.

Cheers. Yeah, none of the things I'm after are really a deal-breaker on their own, more of an ideal wishlist. Fewer frets is fine, nice to have 2x octaves if it's playable though (and perhaps I have a bit of OCD for the symmety of it, 24 kind of feels right). I'll check out the Mike Lull Basses, If I could find the ideal dream Bass then I wouldn't mind going up to £2k as I only evert have one Bass and will play it for a couple of hours a day for many years, and as far as I can tell expensive Basses tend to hold their value - so it's not a cost, it's an investment! Then again, I've got nothing against just having one <£500 Bass if it fits the bill and plays nicely

Thanks, yeah all of the things I'm after are just minor changes to TM5 which does do nicely, so this is mostly a case of me trying to justify getting a new Bass! Marginal gains though, I guess quite a few small changes add up.

Cheers. Yeah I think a trip to Bassdirect might be on the cards soon, they have always given me decent part exchange rates too.

Nice! I'll be spending some time on that

Is anyone aware of a Bass that fits this description:? 5 string 35" 19mm spacing 24 frets Lightweight (or at least not a back breaker) Tone: I guess it'd be described as P bass type tone - not bright and modern 'hi-fi', mostly to play stuff like 70's Reggae and Funk and 60's Motown, big solid thumpy low mids, fingerstyle, there won't be intricate tapping going on and no need for any clanky plectrum riffing. I use tapewound strings at the moment which I really like. If it's got active EQ then a mid control would be good but I mostly play in passive. Price: Up to £1,500 Similar sort of Basses I've owned: Sandberg TM5 SL: This ticks most of the boxes so is probably what I should stick with but there are a few little things that I'd change for my perfect Bass: It could be slightly longer (it is 34", 35" would fit me well), ideally I'd like 24 frets (it has 22) and slightly wider string spacing (aparently it goes up to 19mm but it seems more like 18mm if you want them evenly spaced and not sliding off the fretboard). It has active EQ for Bass and Treble - having mids too would be ideal. I'd be selling/trading this if there's anything out there that fits the bill. Dingwall Combustion was good and sort of fitted a lot of the bill other than being relatively big/heavy (I don't think they all are, but I had a relatively heavy one) and very 'modern' sounding and not having a blend between pickups so the tone didn't really change much (just active EQ rather than changes in timbre), and it doesn't have many string options to do things like put tapewounds on it to change the tone. Ibanez SRMS805 was good but the string spacing was a bit tight and the Bass generally felt a bit too small and cramped.

I had one of these little 7 band EQ pedals from Amazon, its okay - good eq points for bass. Small issues are a bit of crackle when moving the sliders and tiny amounts of slider movement making quite a big difference.

I miss it! I've had one sat in my Thomann cart for months waiting for when I need something else from them to save a bit on postage.

. Page 35 to this thread I had the same issue and it's seems there are a couple of solutions-perhaps just closing chrome before plugging the FI in.

I'm keen on getting a Bass synth but I've kind of given up on trying to use Bass pedals to sound like actual keyboard synths as they never sound quite as good and even if they did they can't ever completely replicate the same things that can be done playing with keys. Also, the decent ones with presets aren't cheap: A new C4 and DMC micro preset controller will set you back nearly £380 (£229 + £149), new FI is about £300 with taxes and cables, Boss SY-300 is £550, the new Boss SY-200 will be about £280 and might be worth a look as no extra cables needed & no preset controllers needed. If I was specifically after recreating 80's synth sounds I perhaps would go for an actual synth like those listed in a previous reply, or the Yamaha DX FM. Most are cheaper than the synth pedal options and are going to do a better job of sounding like and playing like a keyboard synth. ........then again, making a Bass sound like a synth is fun and I suppose it's not all about just doing the most practical option!

I like that idea of separate boards that can be combined. I've got one medium sized pedalboard that's quite a squeeze to fit everything on but if playing stuff like Reggae there's no need for fuzz pedals and phasers and envelope filters so a separate 'utility/clean tone' type small board with tuner>preamp>compressor>EQ/DI could be good, then an additional board with all the muck about effects can be added ahead of it when needed.

I thought the Big Muff was okay, some pre/post EQing to your taste it sounds better (but so do most pedals), suppose it depends if you like muff type fuzz or not though. MXR Brown Acid is the muff for me! Something to consider though is how these will be used in a band setting and what an audience will hear when it's played through an amp and compressor and Bass cab. I've recently got the Idiotbox Landphil wich is a Rat type distortion/fuzz, it's less warm and fuzzy than muff fuzzes - more harsh and 'ratty', not so nice on the ears if playing solo'd at home via headphones with only that pedal in the chain - but play it through preamp/compressor/bass cab played along with other instruments at volume and that harshness goes and it still stands out whereas muff type fuzz can get a bit muddy and lost.

Yeah, about the only thing I play that'd go through the Stomp to process for me to then record to the Laptop would be the Bass. Drums guitar, vocals etc are mostly from the Laptop as samples or played on a DAW/VSTs so I'd need them to be got from Laptop to go through the Stomp as an effects processor then back to Laptop to record. I think that doing things the usual route with DAW/VSTs for effects processing would be simlper and probably more cost effective though.

Do any of you use the Stomp as an effects processor for producing music rather than just using as a live Bass Effects pedal? I had a Stomp for a while but got rid of it when I realised I prefer individual pedals for the fairly limited amount of effects I want with Bass guitar, but another other use I think it could cover is as a production effects processer: I used Logic as a DAW for years but recently got a Windows Laptop and started using Reaper - which means I now need to buy VSTs (or get free ones), considering VSTs range from free up to £200+ I'm wondering if a Stomp would be cost effective as a production effects processing tool (and also be there as a Bass Effects pedal if needed). From what I remember, the interface is user friendly and there are loads of effects with adjustable parameters that could be useful in production e.g. If I wanted to do something like add distortion and tape echo to a sample I could send the sample into the Stomp to process with it's various distortion and tape echo processing then run a recording of the affected sample out to the Laptop to record......or is that an overly convoluted and inefficient process and I should just stick with VSTs?

The ones I use depend on how much extenal noise there is as I like to avoid having to turn up loud to properly hear it: Sennheiser HD-25. Great at blocking out external noise but are quite uncomfortable for long sessions, quite a bass heavy sound. Audio Technica ATH-M50X. Block out some external noise and are in-between in terms of comfort, clearer sounding than the HD-25 but still quite heavy on the bass. Sennheiser HD 598SR. Open back and let in almost all external noise so only really work if you're playing in a quiet room but are comfortable for long sessions and have an 'open' sound rather than feeling you have speakers clamped to your ears, less bass heavy than the other two.

I've got a 12 stave per page non-ringbound one which was a mistake - it's too much of a squeeze and the pages want to shut themselves. I think fewer staves and spiral bound would be better.

Good times!

The book does an alright job of covering about 30 years of bassline styles in 30 pages (it doesn't go past the 80s). The notation throws me a bit as it's not exactly the same as the originals but it's usually just a note or two away (probably just far enough to not get involved with copyright). If I get enough time on my hands I'll transcribe the actual tunes. I got a blank music transcript pad a while back but it takes me ages to transcribe anything, I find it quite good practice for carefully listening and music reading though.

The Hal Leonard 'Reggae Bass' book is an alright introduction/overview with play along tracks and notation, it's main problem is all the tracks are 'in the style of' and are just a couple of bars so I made a Spotify playlist with all the actual tunes: ....nothing most of you haven't already heard, but a good collection of classic bassline styles. Goes from Ska>Rocksteady>Reggae>2 Tone>Dancehall. (Dub seems to have been ignored).

I have asked for pedals a few times but the response has always been 'I'm not getting you something you'll just sell after a few weeks' .....I suppose that's basically telling me that I should stop limiting myself to a pedalboard amount of pedals - I need to build up a massive 'wall of pedals' type of collection then I'll get more as presents.