SumOne

Cheers all, I'll drop the bi-amped sub idea and will start considering new amp/cabs. Barefaced cabs looks like a good contender.

Nice! I Like their lairy NG designs too: I like lairy designs and don't really care what others think about the look - until it comes to whether it negatively affects me getting into a band. I think something looking like that NG could be a negative factor to getting into certain bands that care about their specific image so it has the knock-on effect of me being more conservative in the looks of Basses I get. I can't see many bands saying 'we would have you in the band, but that white Jazz Bass just doesn't work with our image' (well, perhaps some particularaly image concious death metal bands would).

I'm monogomous with my Basses but the marriges don't last long! My Bass selection is mostly down to ergonomics as technique, setup, strings, pedals, amps & cabs can do a lot for tone but can't do anything to solve a Bass that's difficult or uncomfortable to play. I'm not fussed about looks but I know others are - so that makes me fussed! e.g. I like the idea of the Ibanez fanned fret headless Basses (given that one of their selling points is their ergonomics) and the looks are fine with me but one thing that's putting me off is if I do something like audition for a classic 60s/70s Reggae/Ska band (which is the sort of stuff I'm into) it could negatively affect my chances if they feel the Bass doesn't fit the look.

I'm not sure about the 'a Bass is a Bass - it's all about the player' or 'it's all in the fingers' cliche's, they seem a half-truth from my experience. For starters, they don't apply for situations like wanting to play a low B on a standard tuned 4 string, or to do fretless slides on a fretted Bass, or to do tapping with Tapewound strings etc. And discounting those technical limitations, my first £200 Squier Jazz Bass was heavy, needed a high action to stop fret buzz, had a fairly severe dead spot, it had some clanky steel strings, the bridge pickup control was all or nothing, and it had a noisy hiss. I'm sure putting it in the hands of a great player it could sound good but it'd be lot more effort to do so than if they used my current USA Fender Jazz which has none of those issues. I imagine going from a Jazz to a higher end things like a Fodera would be another step-up in playability and ease of making it sound good.

The way I approach it is that just because a Bass looks like a Guitar doesn't mean it should be played like one - it evolved from the role/sound of the Double Bass and should be played with the mindset that providing a solid harmonic & rhythmic foundation is the priority. There are many other instruments (almost all of them) that are better suited to displays of fast melodic virtuoso stuff and people should play them if that's their musical interest. (Obviously just my opinion, I do find virtuoso lead melodic Bass players impressive but it just isn't my bag as a listener or player).

Yeah why not, if you've got the spare money might as well get something that sounds/plays/looks how you want. It's a refundable deposit after all: If you can buy either a £500 or £2k second hand Bass and play it for 2 years then sell it - either can be sold for about the same you bought them for so it doesn't really make a difference financially in the long run, but you'll have had 100s of hours paying a better Bass by getting the £2k one. Saying that though, I think there is a fair bit of jealousy/reverse snobbery 'he spent £2k on that and can't even play X which I can play on my £500 Bass'. And I think some good players revel in playing cheap Basses well and letting everyone know about it - subtext being 'I can play that well on this cheap Bass imagine what I could do on an expensive one' (and the answer probably is they wouldn't sound that different with the more expensive Bass but it might look better or be more comfortable to play).

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A big % of 70s Reggae (and since then) was played on Jazz Basses so I don't think lack of low end is a problem with them... Any lack of low end probably comes down to a combination of technique, strings/setup, amp & eq, cabs. I don't think the Jazz Bass itself is the issue though - or it wasn't for Aston Barratt, Robbie Shakespeare, Flabba Holt etc.

Cheers, yeah probably the bigger amp & cab is simpler (I'm using a 500w with a 112).

Some play Bass as a lower register guitar (skill = how many notes you can play quickly) but I always think of it as an evolution of a plucked double bass, it's in the rhythm section where skill is more about tone and timing. So it's no sign of lack of ability to play a 'simple' Bassline really well.

I've seen a lot of people bi-amp their Bass through Bass Amp/Cab and Guitar (Royal Blood sort of thing) but not noticed it being done with Bass & Sub. Anyone here done it and have any tips? I mostly play Dub and Reggae, and occasionally some electronic/dubstep* sort of stuff that goes into sub territory. I'm thinking that I could beef up the sound with something like a DOD Meatbox or a Mantic Density Hulk with clean signal going to my normal Bass amp/cab and the sub signal going to a dedicated sub - I guess the simplest solution would be sending that signal to an active PA sub. It could potentially go to venue's PA if they happen to have decent enough subs but I'd prefer my own rig for the times they don't have it. *I feel dubstep gets a bad rep a lot of the time as the stuff that got popular was the screetchy/agressive style, there's plenty of actually dubby stuff like this though:

Do you like the Nux Tape Core? I've twice owned Boss RE-20 Space Echo's and moved them on when getting multi-FX but it's an effect I enjoy using (even if it's not that appropriate for Bass!) so I've had my eye on the Nux which is a more pedalboard friendly size and about 25% of the price.

It means the signal can go: Bass > Digbeth (adding EQ and drive) > FX loop (e.g. Delay pedal) > Digbeth outputs (DI and line output). Without it you'd only be able to have your delay placed in the chain before it goes through the Digbeth (a delay feeding into EQ & drive sounds different to having it after) or placed after the Digbeth (so it wouldn't be affecting what goes out of the Digbeth outputs like the XLR).

Octaver before fuzz sounds pretty massive in a wall of stoner doom kind of way, but if that's not your bag - perhaps a Phaser, can sound good either before or after dirt.

Hold your horses everyone. What I actually meant to say when I started this thread was that Xotic Bass' aren't worth owning - look elsewhere, or if you're unlucky enough to already own one you might as well offload it cheaply to me! 😏

My new downsized travel pedal board: They're velcro'd on and it packs into its protective box (which I think was about £5 worth from Homebase). The power supply and all that power cable mess is probably overkill, I might just use daisy chain power which woud make room for a few Pedals that have been evicted (fuzz, Overdrive, filter). Or pedals can sit on top of it. I've got a Fishman Platinum Pro incoming so that'll do EQ and DI and replace the tuner and perhaps the compressor. It works on battery power so it will probably be the only thing I take with me to some practice sessions when I want to travel very light.

I only use online reviews/demos as a rough guide, there are too many variables to really know how it'll sound with your setup so I make full use of online shop return policies, and buying/selling from here doesn't usually end up in much of a loss. I found it useful to find out about the general sounds of the main 'parent' groups of the gain family tree (e.g. Rat, Tube Screamer, Tube drive, Muff, Super Fuzz, Octavia, Gated Fuzz) because most pedals are a variation on them. Personally though, my favorites (so far!) are: Tube drive - DHA VT1 EQ Tube Screamer - Way Huge Green Rhino Smalls Rat - Idiotbox Landphil Muff - MXR Brown Acid

And it's worth knowing what power outlets it trips.....e.g. kitchen plugs will stay on. I did a DJ gig once where the noise enforcement people came along and said to turn it down, I asked the soundsystem operator/promoter if we should (they had control of the amps and it was their equipment just there for that night) and the reply was 'no we're turning it up!' ....police turned up and night came to an abrupt end and the venue was closed down and has never re-opened. I'm not entirely sure that the promoter had the same priorities as the venue owner!

More 4 string Xotic temptation here: ......I think I'm fairly set on sticking with 5 strings nowadays though. Not that I play much below the low E but I think I'd miss the B string.

Yeah, the 4.8kgs seems a too much like unnecessary effort for my generally lazy attitude though! My currenty 5 string is about 4kg and previous one was 3.3kg though so I've probably been a bit spoilt.

Yeah they both look good, I'll probably stick with 5 strings but the 10lb 12oz/ 4.8kg of that one puts me off a bit. It's a shame Bass Bros don't seem to have a physical shop to try them out but perhaps something can be organised.

I only play 5 string nowadays but this could turn me! https://bassbros.co.uk/product/xotic-xj-1t-4/

The main thing I found myself needing to learn on a 5 was the extra muting, and I still find it slightly more tricky to slap the E string on a 5 (having to mute the B and avoid hitting it). Neither are a deal breaker though. I don't actually play much below the low E on the B string but it is useful to not need to play E as an open string and for the added variety of fretting positions. The other disadvantages people tend to mention are the added weight, and extra thickness of the neck (or tighter string spacing if getting a thinner neck). I haven't found either of those to be an issue (I don't like tight string spacing but that's alright as I don't mind wider necks, and had a Sandberg TM5 SL that was only 3.3kg) but I guess they are fairly important things to consider when getting one.