Boodang

7 hours ago, fretmeister said:

But no amount of pedals can fix an arrangement that needs improving.

... and no amount of arrangement can fix pedals that need improving!

I have a thing for sunburst and tortoiseshell pick guards, so want to do the same to mine. Got as far as the tone control plate! Went with the vol/tone, vol/tone with a parallel/series switch from Starr guitars in the USA. Got held up by customs as it was labelled 'tortoiseshell' and they wanted to confirm it wasn't the real thing! 

I control all my effects pedals through the EHX tri mixer. 3 parallel channels each with input and output gain. That way I can keep the gain structure and thus volume, under control. Some of my pedals are sensitive but with the mixer I can make sure the signals are not too hot for them, and then I can set the return gain to where I need it so no jumps or dips in volume when I kick them in. 

Love my Squier VM jazz fretless, one of the best basses I’ve ever owned. Upgraded pups, preamp (still passive) and nut, don’t care what the resell value is as will never sell. Plays a treat. With the resin fingerboard and flats, everyone who plays it loves it.

A park bench in DC. Quite surreal!

Passive pups aren't going to have much response above 6k, so I cut everything above that just to keep noise to a minimum,and boost 3.6k for harmonics. 

11 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Why on Earth do I read so many car analogies when reading posts on bass forums?

 

They are nothing alike and personally I couldn't give a flying shack about cars, and don't know what the shack half of these analogies are even on about.

 

I totally agree, it should be bass & motorcycles analogies. 

http://www.audereengineering.com/index.htm

If you're going for a preamp, I can thoroughly recommend these.

Radical alternative... take up drumming. You spend the whole gig sitting down and it's way easier than playing bass, in fact I don't know what all the fuss is about when it comes to drums. Only downside, way more gear. 

On 08/05/2023 at 23:19, Dandelion said:

Yup.. I read all the above.. Thanks for the input. The side slinging option is interesting.. 

 

I don't know why I play better when I can see all the strings from the top. When practicing sitting down with the bass on my knee things go so much better. As soon as I stand up and loose sight of the strings I can miss notes. 

 

These days I either play sitting down, bar stool with a back so I'm not too low and hunched over, or I just use an EUB, again sitting on a bar stool so I don't expend too much energy. I'm contemplating a chaise lounge for those laid back jazz gigs!

Try to get as close to the sound you want at source, ie the pickups. Preamps can only work with what they're given. 

Jazz, but a custom made one so it's not sh!t.

Also, add a series/parallel switch.

So I'm going to come out and say this.... most of the tone comes from the pickup. 

My fav P pickup from Creamery. 

https://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/custom-handwound-pickups-from-the-creamery/scatterwound-bass-pickups.html

Plenty of others to choose from on the market but I would get the bass that feels right then slap one of these in.

I was doing a gig recently at a club we quite often play at. The manager was walking past the side of the stage and stopped to have a conversation with me half way through a song. I continued playing fine and talked to him at the same time without missing a note. It made me realise this is how not to be nervous at a gig, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until you can do it in your sleep, or at least play while having a conversation. That way you're not thinking, oh g*d the next bit of the song is coming up and what do I do / this is always the bit where 'x' screws up!

If the whole band have total confidence it what you're playing you can concentrate on having a fab time. Of course if you're under rehearsed then it's time to poo your pants!

I started playing bass on a fretless (it was the coolest looking bass in the shop!) and didn't pickup a fretted bass until 20 years later. I find a fretless much more expressive and actually struggle with a fretted. As has been said, work on getting accurate fingering but also make that fluid when playing phrases so you save the fretless expressiveness for when it's needed ie. not all the time! Also, don't forget the plucking hand.... I play mostly over the 15th - 17th 'fretless' area. Moving the plucking fingers around makes a big difference in tone and affects how I play. There's more 'bloom' to the notes when you play in this area, so it definitely slows you down.

It's the mutts nuts! 

Maybe it's feeling discombobulated.

We've just bought a Behringer XR18 and gone full in ear monitors, so between the Ekit and the IEMs we have a silent stage (at least as far as amps are concerned).

The guitarist has always used Zoom pedals to get his sound, so no change for him by going amp-less. I use an SWR electric blue amp just as a valve di.

The only speakers we bring to a gig now are foh. The guitarist has spent a long time honing his tone from the pedals and it works perfectly. Plus, I have to say, the processing power of the xr18 has helped tremendously and we're getting our best, and most controllable, sound.

7 hours ago, stewblack said:

Looking for video of my incoming Meridian Funkulator pedal I kept stumbling across this 

It appears to do nothing more than reduce the 800 Hz frequency. I stand to be corrected of course.

So I made one. Cheap graphic with a slider set to control the 800. Pulled it down. Bingo.

And you know what? It makes a big difference.

PS meant to say that the main reason for a passive rlc circuit over an active eq, is that in theory there is no phase distortion. Whether or not you can tell the difference is another matter of course, although given that inductor based circuits will inevitably cost considerably more might be one reason people reckon they sound better!

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

I can’t imagine that it’s that high! 

Well according to the specs of their Redeemer circuit, it has a 2Mohm input impedence and a 300 ohm output.

For me the Funkulator would be a more tempting purchase if they had a frequency select, something like the Pultec EQ5 with selectable mid frequencies but then the price would shoot up. Having said that I've been tempted to put my own version together as a tapable inductor of the type used in the Pultec is about £50, and the circuit around it is well known by now.

3 basses... fretless jazz, 5 string fretted Sei, strung high C, and an EUB. If I could only pick one it would be the fretless jazz. If stage space is limited I only take the 5 pedal board, otherwise the 14 pedal board comes along.

Yep, it's just a mid scoop but the Funkulator does it by using an inductor, as in the classic rlc passive circuit (a decent inductor coil is not the cheapest thing). It also has a line driver built in with a buffered 300ohm output.

15 hours ago, petebassist said:

Bass sounds awesome on there, Yamaha Attitude by the looks of it...

I think that's the worst bass tone I've ever heard! It sounds like the speakers are broken. It goes to show that there's no such thing as the perfect tone as everyone will perceive it differently. 

'A' seems to be a common troublesome note in terms of acoustics. We have the same issue with our rehearsal room and a couple of local venues.

Solution... rather than buy extra eq's, change the key of your songs to avoid any use of the note. It's much cheaper that way! 

12 hours ago, jimbobothy said:

… taken from the bumf:

 

Shape sound that no full band compressor could ever provide, and at an affordable price.

 

… is £1289.00 reasonable 😁!!

Well, a brand new Spectracomp is £111 and has one knob, the Drawmer has 16 knobs. So per knob the drawmer is better value for money!