SumOne

One of my favorite dub albums:

I'm asking myself the same question - basically to justify buying new stuff! I suppose it depends how different the genres are but for me it seems more to do with strings and setup rather than actual Bass. (I'm finding that high action with Tapewounds is great for Reggae, not so good for slap though, so ideally I'd have Basses set up for both - but they could both be identical J Basses). I've got a Helix with effects and amp sims, clean amp, and a cab with tweeter (that can be turned off) so that covers any genre okay.

Version excursion!

Sold a pedal to Paul and it all went well. Thanks!

Here's a list of classic riddims I'm gradually adding to and putting on a Spotify playlist I've mostly stuck to ones with a Bass Guitar rather than digital basslines, most are the original versions but not all. Any other well recycled classics you reckon should be added? I'll get to 100 and will leave it at that otherwise madness will ensue! (I've also got sub-lists of quite a few of these in my mp3 files where I have different versions, useful for DJing when you just have to pull up Sleng Teng riddim 5 times with a different version each time!). 1. A Love I Can Feel (John Holt) 2. Afrikaan Beat (Lester Sterling) 3. Agony (Pinchers) 4. Answer (Dillinger – Answer my question) 5. Ba Ba Boom (The Jamaicans) 6. Ballistic Affair (Leroy Smart) 7. Baltimore (The Tamlins) 8. Bam Bam (The Maytals) 9. Black Cinderella (Errol Dunkley) 10. Bobby Babylon (Freddie McGregot) 11. Boops (The Ethiopians- Train to Skaville) 12. Boxing (Cornell Campbell) 13. Cherry Oh Baby (Eric Donaldson) 14. College Rock (Mighty Diamonds- Natural Natty) 15. Cuss Cuss (Lloyd Robinson) 16. Darker Shade of Black (Jackie Mitoo) 17. Death in the Arena (Soul Vendors – Whipping The Prince) 18. Declaration of Rights (Abyssinians) 19. Dem Bow (Shabba Ranks) 20. Diseases (Michigan and Smiley) 21. Drum Song (Jackie Mittoo) 22. Far East (Barry Brown) 23. Fever (Horace Andy) 24. Freedom Blues (Roy Richards) 25. Full Up (Sound Dimension) 26. General (Dillinger) 27. Get in the Groove (The Heptones) 28. Gun In A Baggy ((Little Lenny) 29. Gunman (Michael Prophet) 30. He Prayed (Burning Spear) 31. Head to Toe (Frankie Paul) 32. Heavenless (The Skatalites) 33. Hot Milk (Jackie Mittoo) 34. Hypocrites (The Wailers) 35. I’ll Never Let You Go (Slim Smith) 36. Java (Augustus Pablo) 37. Joy Ride (Wayne Wonder) 38. Kuff (Tiger – Bam Bam) 39. Lecturer (Jo Jo Bennett and the Fugatives) 40. Love Is Not A Gamble (The Techniques) 41. Love Me Forever (Carlton and the Shoes) 42. Love Won’t Come Easy (The Heptones) 43. M16 (Lone Ranger) 44. Mad Mad Mad (Alton Ellis) 45. Mean Girl (Horace Andy - Do your own thing) 46. Mr Bassie (Horace Andy) 47. Mud Up (Super Cat) 48. My Conversation (Slim Smith and the Uniques) 49. Night Nurse (Gregory Isaacs) 50. No Warrior (Junior Delgardo – The Raiders) 51. Peanie Peanie (Shabba Ranks) 52. Pick Up The Pieces (The Royals) 53. Please Be True (Alexander Henry) 54. Pressure and Slide (The Tennors) 55. Punanny (Admiral Bailey) 56. Real Rock (Sound Dimension) 57. Revolution (Dennis Brown) 58. Rockfort Rock (Sound Dimension) 59. Rope In Riddim (Cornell Campbell) 60. Rougher Yet (Slim Smith) 61. Sara (Frankie and Paul) 62. Satta Massagana (The Abyssinians) 63. Shank I Sheck (Babba Brooks) 64. Skylarking (Horace Andy) 65. Sleng Teng (Wayne Smith) 66. Solomon (Derrick Harriott) 67. Stalag (Techniques) 68. Storm (Gregory Isaacs) 69. Swing Easy (The Soul Vendors) 70. Taxi (Lil Roy – Prophecy) 71. Tempo (Anthony Red Rose) 72. Things and Time (Wailing Souls) 73. Three Blind Mice (Max Romeo) 74. Tonight (Keith and Tex) 75. Vanity (Sugar Minott) 76. World A Music (Ini Kamoze) 77. Youthman (Wayne Jarrett)

I think they might have hooked me in with that strategy. I started with a Squire and then got a Mexican, now I'm eyeing up the USA ones. What I'm really after is though is something lightweight rather than nearly a dozen different price points of a similar thing, so my custom has gone to Sandberg who are filling that lightweight J Bass shape/tone niche.

I was very close to buying the more purple one to then sell my darker one!

Are any of you Reggae Bass players using a P Bass? I guess anything goes and most Basses with flats followed by some EQ and the right Amp/Cabs can sound right for Reggae with the right player but I'm just wondering if there's any particular reason that such a ubiquitous Bass for over 70 years doesn't seem to have been used by hardly any Reggae Bassists. Alpha and Omega being the only exception I've noticed. I tried a few P's the other day and they sounded good for Reggae/Dub withthe tone rolled back, a bit more 'thumpy' in the low-mids than a Jazz, and I think I prefer the feel of a P Bass neck in a 4 string (probably as I'm used to fat 5 string necks) so I might do a bit more investigating.

Another Reggae/Dub Bass effect that I like is one Mad Professor uses a fair bit, seen here at 47 seconds: I think it's a low pass filter with reverb.

I don't often find much use for effects in Reggae other than mild compressor, EQ, and perhaps a little bit of tube overdrive/amp sim colour but I quite like mucking about with occasional reverb and delays for dubby stuff to do things like that Scientist sound. I like that Don's video flashes up a warning 'don't use this effect too much - you're supposed to be holding down the low end'!

Nice! Just tried day with my Helix and it works well for that Scientist sound.

Flabba Holt interview:

The idea of 2022's gear abstinence is kind of having the opposite effect on my end of 2021 GAS! Somewhere in the back of my mind is a ticking clock (less than 8 weeks now) to get all of next year's worth of buying done so I can then tell myself I'm disciplined and bought nothing in 2022.

I'd recommend them too. Quick build/delivery, solid quality and the pedal still works as it should after a couple of years. I got a dual reverse looper and only went as far as choosing the LEDs but it still feels like a (very slightly) custom built pedal.

Sold a pedal to Jimmy and all went well - thanks!

It doesn't come with any instructions either, somebody got this response from Mr Blowerbox though: "The top 4 controls are just like my Blower Box. Low/high cut/boost, distortion, volume into the 2nd part of the circuit. The bottom set are more like enhanced lows/highs, the bottom distortion control changes the frequencies that receive the most distortion.........The bottom volume is the master volume."

Supersize it! https://joespedals.com/products/landphil-bass-distortion

The Zoom B1 four is great value but is quite different to the Nux so it depends how its going to be be used. For a second practice room I'd go for the Zoom, for being completely mobile I'd go for the Nux. The Nux is rechargeable, it's small, light, clicks directly into the Bass and it streams bluetooth music from your phone so you're cable free (other than your headphones). It's the sort of thing you can easily walk room to room around the house using or use in the garden etc. or take in your pocket to a practice session/gig/bass shop if you want a quick private noodle! (and who doesn't like a quick private noodle?!) The Zoom needs batteries or power cable and a cable from the Bass and a cable from your phone (and the cable to your headphones), that's quite a lot of cables if you want to be mobile. It's also heavier and big enough that it needs to sit on a floor/desk (not able to click onto the Bass as you walk about, and is not pocket sized unless you've got some massive pockets!). It beats the Nux in having tuner, more effects, drum loops and footswitch control though so is what I'd go for if I wanted a semi-permanent second practice room in the house and didn't plan on moving it around too much.

Same here. I've just got a Nux to replace the Vox, early days but it seems to be a massive improvement for only about £10 extra. The Vox is bad build quality (jack snaps off), crackly fiddly dials, noisy (hiss), takes batteries. The Nux is good build quality, no annoying levels of hiss, rechargable, lots of decent effects and amps and cab IRs available to save into 6x presets (accessible via a button with 6x colour coded light on the unit), has drum loops/metronome and also works as a bluetooth receiver so can play music through it and play along. The benefit of the Vox is that it has built-in drum patterns/metronome and volume controls which are all available on the unit itself whereas all you can do on the Nux without a phone is scroll through the 6x presets - it needs to be linked to a Phone via an app (which keeps saying it needs an update although it's the most recent version) to make changes to volume and effects and launch drum tracks/metronome and adjust bpm and volume. I suppose in an ideal situation the Nux would have a way controling those things on the actual unit so no phone connection is needed but I guess that'd increase the price. If you've got the ££ then the Boss Waza Air Bass look very good.