Boodang
-
Posts
1,423 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Shop
Articles
Posts posted by Boodang
-
-
My first bass was fretless so it seemed natural to use fingers. I used lockdown to crack the pick thing but fingers is still my go to technique.
Influenced early on by John Paul Jones, so mostly play over the end of the neck which also has a pleasing tone on fretless. And worked on the Gary Willis technique of using the ring finger to make string crossing more fluid... also good for triplets.
-
1
-
-
I've been looking at these, they seem like a good idea.
They're on some Warwicks and Fender customs so probably not just a solution to a problem we didn't know existed, more like a sensible evolution.
Do post if you get some although I might pull the trigger myself soon.
-
Flatwounds aren't going to be as bright as roundwounds but they don't have to be dull.
My latest obsession is the Galli Synthesis flatwounds which I've put on my jazz (I've done a thread on them here). They have a synthetic core, and feel and sound great.
If you want to have a listen I posted some clips over in the effects review section; the Seamoon funk machine dub clip gives you a good idea, as does the one I just posted of the Aguilar grape phaser.
Not cheap but strings are an essential part of your sound, so if you like them, a good investment.
-
As always from me, a shout out for Creamery pickups. I got the solo P which is designed to cut through a band mix but if you have something special in mind he'll do a custom. And very reasonable prices.
-
If it's a covers band then it needs to be tight. Sounds like this guitarist needs to be in a different style of band if that's how he want to play.
-
It's interesting because back when this bass was made, Fender were mass producing down to the cheapest price.
I remember reading an interview with Leo about the early production days and they asked him what made his pickups sound special and, to para-phase, he said he didn't know as they were using whatever was around and cheap with no consistency in materials especially the wire used in the pups. I guess that's why there's such a variance from model to model.
Today's manufacturing techniques and the use of things like Plek machines must surely be able to produce a far superior bass.
-
12 minutes ago, Trueno said:
Excellent… I can just imagine pointing a meter at the geetarist’s monster stack and telling him it’s too loud…
A Marshall stack with only one speaker connected! Mind you, there's been a few guitarists where that's been a tempting option.
-
Perusing Bass Direct's second hand page to see if anything interesting had popped up and there, tucked away in the 4 string section, is a Fender Precision for 14.5K.
Now, apart from the ludicrous price (or is it, as it's a piece of history?), does this mean the price and rarity signifies the death nail for it being heard at a gig? To be confined to the studio at best or a museum piece at worse?
If I had the money I play the sh*t out of it live, after all it's not exactly a delicate instrument like a violin. Let's hope it doesn't end up pinned to wall in a hard rock cafe somewhere?!
But another thought occured, I can't afford a 60's bass but I can afford to get custom pickups made. Now given that a big part of the tone of an electric bass comes from the pickup (I know, tone wood, tone wood, tone woods!), can you you get a fair part of the way with a custom wound pup for a couple of hundred quid? I did a similar thing with my Squier Jazz but don't have the genuine article to do a direct A/B comparison... sounds good though.
-
Was thinking recently that in this day and age it might be worth having a calibrated sound level meter so as a band you have an independent means of proving db levels during a gig. This incident shows that time might have arrived.
-
1
-
-
I'm sure these two pedals are familiar to bass players but they've become favourites on my pedalboard so thought I'd give them a quick review.
I was watching the Andertons youtube video where they played the latest Aguilar pedals and these two caught my ear. The octamizer I thought, gave a very organic thickening of the tone and that does indeed seem to be the case. It's analogue and I know some people have said it's not the best at tracking but... I quite like that. If you play too fast or play double stops, it doesn't throw up anomalies, it just doesn't follow you and that's ok. It means you don't just have a double playing everything one octave below with ever nuance of your playing and to me that feels quite organic and pleasing to the ear.
With the octamizer you can also control the filter sound from smooth, for a nice thickening of your tone, to edgy, which almost has a slight overdrive feel to it. Separate octave and clean levels is a welcome touch that makes the sound very controllable, and the tilt eq has a nice pivot point, good for taking the edge off if it gets too bright.
The grape phaser is funky! As an alternative to an envelope filter I love it. The thing that does it for me is the color control which feeds back some if the original signal into the phase circuit and makes it quite funky.
The pedals work well on their own but my fav sound is both together... a sort of hefty funk tone.
Only oddities of note; I got an old style case with the octamizer which because of the overhang on the 'lip' won't allow right angle leads to fit (get the newer design if you're buying s/h), and when you power these pedals from a 9v psu, use an isolated supply. Initially I used a Spot One to power both but as it wasn't isolated to each pedal they were noisy, as soon as I used my Palmer isolated supply they were quiet as could be.
I've added some clips, the last two I've put the octamizer through the Fwonkbeta which is quite fun. The edgy tone makes it a little bit more synthy sounding.
Clip1; octamiser (smooth filter) + grape phaser
Clip2; grape phaser only
Clip3; octamizer (smooth filter) only
Clip4, octamizer (edgy filter) only
Clip5; octamizer (edgy filter) + grape phaser
Clip6; octamizer (smooth filter) + Fwonkbeta
Clip7; octamizer (edgy filter) + Fwonkbeta
235_Aguilar grape + oct smooth.mp3
237_Aguilar grape + oct edgy.mp3
-
2
-
-
So, would twelve thousand three hundred and forty four pounds be an acceptable offer?!
-
13 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:
Sorry, I was addressing the OP.
I got carried away!!
-
6 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:
Where is your amp in relation to the drummer? I set up slightly back from the drummer and slightly angled towards him.
That works for us perfectly well.
If I'm using backline I place it inline with the drummer facing the audience but only because I'm using the combo for monitoring.
That way i can separate the two things, tone that i want the audience to hear and the tone i want for monitoring.
-
....also, any old combo will do, I just happen to have an SWR lying around. It doesn't have to be great as really you're just wanting to push mid range out to cut thru. I've got a cheap old cr*ppy Peavey TNT that does a great job at this, it's just a bit heavier than the SWR to lug around.
-
So, in addition to whatever I'm using for the audience I face the combo across the stage.
For the small trio I only use a backline amp to push out to the room but sit the combo on top and face it in. With the bigger covers band we go through a PA, I don't use a backline except the combo which again I face across the stage and don't put bass through the fold back as it gets messy.
-
For monitoring purposes I use a small combo (an SWR 2 x 8 baby blue) and face it across stage. Works well as a local monitor without having to use the fold back.
-
My latest funk pedal and it's a keeper. I also bought the SGFX Supa Funk and Seamoon Funk Machine (also reviewed here) with the idea of seeing which of the three I like best but they're all so good at what they do I'm going to keep the lot and my pedalboard real estate is suffering as a result!
First off, this thing has balls!! This really is thick and juicy. After playing through this the Supa Funk sounds thin but then going back to the Fwonkbeta you feel like it's missing top end (I'm never satisfied!). But they both do something different; the Supa Funk filter emphasises the vowel like elements whereas the Fwonkbeta emphasises the low end and has massive depth. And you have enough flexibility with their frequency controls to find a spot in the mix to make them stand out.
I have a EHX parallel mixer and like to see how pedals work in this setup. Both the Fwonkbeta and Supa Funk do not have a blend control and you can hear why. Mixing in parallel some of the original signal diminishes their sound and they seem to work best as full on processors. In contrast the Funk Machine has a blend control and seems to work best with some original signal blended in.
The three controls are sensitivity (stroke), depth (fwonk) and frequency (juice). There's no choice of filter direction so this is a dedicated pedal in that respect, as Mr Black says; 'the FwonkBeta works by opening filter sweep (increasing frequency response) as envelope peaks; I guess you’d call that “up?”'. What I found with this pedal is that if you have a lot of staccato or ghost notes the filter doesn't have enough time to fully open so the sounds become very percussive and as you don't have a blend control that's what you'll get. With full notes you'll get the full on fwonk. The percussive sound can be good so not necessarily a bad thing but if you want more nuanced envelope sounds then the Supa Funk is the way to go.
As for the frequency control, well this thing goes sub-sonic bowel moving if you want. You have to turn the control to about 10 o'clock to get into normal frequencies but once you get over to full CW the filter has a top end 'pop' and gets close to the Seamoon in that respect. For me about halfway is that really juicy sound.
The Seamoon has a setting with the depth off (full ccw) where it acts as an eq filter and has a nice bass boost effect. Both the Fwonkbeta and Supa Funk can't do this and at the least depth settings still have an envelope effect. Not an issue but just something to be aware of.
Like the Seamoon, this is more a specialist pedal as it does one thing really really well. The Supa Funk is the more nuanced of the three (and the only one where you can select sweep direction) but can't go as extreme.
The only thing I'd like to see on this pedal is an internal trim pot so you can set the gain, and thus sensitivity, to match your bass output. The Seamoon has this and it's a great feature.
Overall though, this is a great sounding envelope pedal and massive fun to play in the right context. Maybe not in a death metal band but I would love someone to prove me wrong!
-
2
-
-
Just had another thought! Bit left field this one but could be fun; I've got a NS Design CR upright which I play on a stand. The arm movement is obviously more vertical than horizontal. They also do a Omni model which is 34" scale. It's available fretted or fretless, the strap makes it playable in an upright position but there's also a stand.
Not cheap, but if it's anything like the CR it's also great fun to play.
-
1
-
-
Have you tried a 30" short scale? The Guild Starfire looks good... sound great too. Tempted myself.
-
The main difference I've found in price is how much abuse the cables are able to withstand.
I've got a very pretty fender heritage cable, not expensive, great for home use as it's not stiff and bulky but wouldn't last 5 mins on the road.
Cables for stage use I get from Designacable, middle price range and built to last.
-
A couple of clips from my newly acquired Fwonkbeta. The full review includes some comparisons with the Supa Funk and Funk Machine (these two I posted a review of earlier) which I also bought recently.
Initial impressions of the purple funk generator... it's got balls I'll give it that!
Clip 1; frequency at 1 o'clock, depth at 2 o'clock, sensitivity at 3 o'clock.
Clip 2; frequency at 4 o'clock, depth at 3 o'clock, sensitivity at 2 o'clock.
Clip 3; by way of comparison, the classic funk setting on the Solid Gold FX supa funk.
221_Fwonkbeta purple funk generator .mp3
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, Boodang said:
Well, an example of this concept is patents and drug industry.. they rip the *rse out it while they can and then when the patent has ended people start making it for a reasonable profit and the price comes down dramatically. There's no deception involved (admittedly there's an element of recouping development costs) but the emphasis is on reasonable when it comes to profit.
If it's not reasonable then there's an element of taking
1 hour ago, bassman7755 said:Its not ripping anyone off unless there is deception involved. I've moaned in the past about Tech 21s frankly ludicrous prices for their pedals especially the signature series but ... they arn't ripping people off. Noone has duty at the end of the day to sell something for some pre conceived idea of "whats its worth", its down to the prospective buyer to insist on value for money as they see it. Alembics eye watering prices are a down to those willing to pay the money as are Tech 21s pedals.
PS when I got my Sei made, Martin reckoned he could charge way more for his basses but he didn't want to do that as it would making what he thought would be an unreasonable profit and thus ripping people off. In other words charging what he thought it was worth not what he could get away... ie. an honourable guy.
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, bassman7755 said:
Its not ripping anyone off unless there is deception involved. I've moaned in the past about Tech 21s frankly ludicrous prices for their pedals especially the signature series but ... they arn't ripping people off. Noone has duty at the end of the day to sell something for some pre conceived idea of "whats its worth", its down to the prospective buyer to insist on value for money as they see it. Alembics eye watering prices are a down to those willing to pay the money as are Tech 21s pedals.
Well, an example of this concept is patents and drug industry.. they rip the *rse out it while they can and then when the patent has ended people start making it for a reasonable profit and the price comes down dramatically. There's no deception involved (admittedly there's an element of recouping development costs) but the emphasis is on reasonable when it comes to profit.
If it's not reasonable then there's an element of taking the p*ss.
-
12 minutes ago, Muzz said:
If it'll bring things into more perspective, have a glance at the Alembic Price List...but make sure you're sitting down first... 😀
When I had my first Sei bass made I had many a conversation with Martin (owner/builder and someone who doesn't over charge) about charging what something is worth and charging what you can get away with. Alembic feels like the later.
And whilst some people say 'well that's what people will pay', for me there is an element of ripping people off about the later just because they have a unique product.
1960/61 Fender Precision
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Boodang
That's the reason for mentioning custom pickups as they're hand wound, scatter wound, and clued up as to materials to use and over/under wiring for different tone capabilities.
All my basses have custom replacement pups. The best so far was a set I had made for my fretless jazz after reading an article about the pickups Seymour Duncan designed / made for Jaco... scatter wound single coils, alnico2 bridge, alinico5 neck. Interesting the best sound to my ear is both pups full on played over the neck.... good amount of bass from the alnico5 with a nice blend of mids from the alnico2.