Boodang

8 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

The bottom line is not what instrument you play, it's how well you can play it.

I absolutely agree but at the end of the day you're going to go out and buy a bass and there's a lot of choice and a lot of ways to spend your hard earned cash. And no matter how well you play you still want the best sound (subjective I know!) and the best playability. If you turned up to the studio for a session with a bass you loved to play but the sound sucked (I know, subjective!), the strings buzzed and the pickups were noisy... well it's not going to be very popular! But these days thankfully quality basses seem to be a lot cheaper.

2 minutes ago, such said:

Except maybe for the neck material, which is not really relevant if the bloody thing is not playable. 

Definitely the quality of finish is going to be related to cost (at least you hope so!) and usually that makes for a bass that plays better as well. But as for neck material not being relevant... well there's a lot of luthiers out there that think a big contribution to the overall sound is the neck, both in terms of construction and materials used. Given the dead spot on the 7th fret G string area of my maple jazz neck and the lack of one on my wenge/ebony 9 piece laminate Sei neck, I'm beginning to think they are not wrong!

7 hours ago, Jimothey said:

But if you don't like a asymmetrical neck and you like the neck profile on a squier then is the more expensive bass better quailty no not to that person a custom made guitar is only worth the money for the person who commissioned it quailty and the value of something are two completely different things, everything is only worth what people are willing to pay for it! 

Absolutely... if a Squier jazz is, for example, your ideal bass to play then you are going to save a lot of money. But as for quality, not value, well, there's only so much that can be achieved at the Squier level of production, even with cnc machining. The level of detail on the Sei is so much better and that makes it play and sound better. One example is the neck, and this might be the woods used as much as the construction, but the Squier has that dead spot in the 7th fret area of the G string, the Sei has no dead spots and the clarity and focus of the notes is superior. It's not that the Squier is bad, in fact it's a great jazz bass, but the Sei is definitely superior in sound and playability but it's the law of diminishing returns and it's a lot more money for a slightly better sound... but it is better.

30 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

The most expensive bass I've played was a US standard P bass and the cheapest is a £25 no brand p bass (both in my hands still sounded S**t tho!) but I prefered playing the £25 one as it felt better to play but I know that some people wouldn't even accommodate the idea of playing of a no brand bass which does seem like snobbery to me

 

My main question is if the attention to detail and finish is one of the reasons you can charge £3k+ why with a bit of time and effort can't you set your bass up and sort out a few of the issues cheap basses may have and get it playing exactly how you like it and like a bass 10 times its value at nowhere near the the outlay? Then would that bass be of any less quality to you than a more expensive one so I think it can be subjective? But as I've never played anything high end I could just be talking out of my derrière? 👍🏻 

 

 

Well, I've got a Squier Jazz, not expensive, plays very well especially since a pro setup and new pickups. I've also got a not cheap Sei custom. No amount of tinkering with the Squier is going to get it close to the Sei which has a custom asymmetric neck and fingerboard profile. Apart from the exquisite finish on the Sei which the Squier could never match at it's price point, the custom element of the neck profile and body make it fit like a glove and that's something a generic bass like the Squier is not going to achieve. 

I was going to do a review on this but in reality there's not a lot to say except that it's a quality cable.

Got it from Design-a-cable, it's the silver coated ofc low capacity series. Can't say I noticed any difference to my normal, non sliver coated, cables with live playing but then I'm going through a pedal board. And it's not really a stage cable, too thick and inflexible for that. Will be interesting to use in the studio though.

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

Mine did well back in the day, I was in 2 reggae bands with it, I think I paid £30 at the time as it was all I could afford then, I played it through a HH ic 100s amp and 2x15 cabs , sounded good from what I can remember 

Good old HH! I inherited a 8 x 10 HH cab from a previous bass player when I joined a band. Thought it strange I got it for free but then after a few gigs I realised what a pain it was to move. I used to slide it into my hatch back car,  after a while it deformed the back so much the door wouldn't shut. I gave it away to a bass player at a gig just so i didn't have to take it home at the end of the night. Knowing HH reputation for being indestructible it's probably still doing the rounds and ruining people's cars today.

7 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

That was mine too, it served me well and I’ve still got it and it still works, it hangs on my summerhouse wall now 

Jedson tele bass..  probably the worse bass in the world, bar none... I should know, I have 2 of them! A 24 inch scale is not a bass, it's just a guitar with thick strings!

Westone Thunder 1a fretless.

My best mate at school was a great guitarist, so I thought rather than compete with him I'd play bass instead. At the time, thinking it was a step down from guitar (I was young!) I thought, how can I make playing bass sexier?! Walked into my local shop and there was an unlined Westone fretless and I thought, that'll do the job. That was early 80s, didn't own a fretted bass until a few years ago, and definitely don't think it's a step down from guitar now.

Sold the original bass but a few years ago a friend bought the exact model I first had. When he found out it was the same, he gave it to me. Plays really well, love the neck which has a flattened U shape to it. Weighs a ton tho! Like the neck so much I might transplant it onto a lighter body.

1 hour ago, ped said:

I don’t like it when pedals have ‘bass’ in the name like it’s some poor relation to the primary guitar version. Also not a fan of screen printed graphics (like illustrations) and really clicky foot switches

When the pedal has 'bass' in it's name it means it's the superior version.... or it could be you've walked into the wrong shop and it's fishing supplies.

41 minutes ago, Thunderbird said:

Maybe not the greatest choice of words but it was a bit funny and it's oh so true lol

Yeah, maybe I should lighten up! Slap bass noodling in music shops is a bit of a cliche. Still, not the choicest use of words.

3 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

PS. I thought this was quite a dismissive and derogatory posting. 'Circus exhibits' and 'w#*kery'.... really?!

2 hours ago, lownote said:

I tried these. They take forever - like, days - to tension up.  You keep on a cranking and crankin and you're convinced they're going to snap.  I'm told that eventually they do settle and then are very good.  But as a gigging sort of bod with the need to possibly change strings quickly it's not an option.

I've done a thread on these strings with some clips as well. They sound good when they get there but yes, took about a week of playing before they would settle down. If I broke one on a gig I'd have to swap basses. I like them enough tho to put up with that. Not a million miles away from the Obligato strings on my DB which have the same issues.

3 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

Marcus Miller, Mark King, and anyone else who slaps will be glad to know they're a circus exhibit!

1 hour ago, TheLowDown said:

I prefer a nice clean organic sound, but for the last few weeks I had considered adding some multiFX just to see how much I can make my sound even worse as well as scratching a curious itch. 

 

I don't think effects goes well with bass unless you're playing rock/punk/metal and fighting for your life for any leftover morsels of sonic space. I think effects are much more useful with guitars that are more front-end instruments. It feels quite wrong adding effects to a backend instrument like drums or bass, akin to having puppeteers in fancy dress.

You've got to have a solid foundation tone to start with but without going wild there are definitely a few fx which can favour the bass (I'm not including pre amp eq and compression in this category as that's part of your basic tone sculpture).

So, not forgetting the ubiquitous envelope filter for your quackingly good funk moments, a subtly blended octaver can work wonders, and I like the Gwizdala trick of using a short delay rather than reverb on the occasion when taste and space permit. And for when an envelope is too much, a phaser is quite funky. 

That's my basic staple but I'm sure others have much more!

Latest string discovery for my Squier jazz... Galli Synthesis flats. Synthetic core strings.

Admittedly these are on a fretless but they feel great, really buttery, and they fit my style of playing, jazz/groove, no slap, plenty of punch without being too dull.

They do rounds in the Synthesis as well. Will try them next on the fretted.

Buy an Aguilar TLC compressor, Fuzzistor, chorusaurus, plus a filter twin or grape phaser.... job done.

No need for a multi-fx.

2 hours ago, paul_5 said:

So, just to summarise:

 

we want more knobs on our pedals, but we hate more knobs on our pedals.

 

We like multi FX units, but also hate multi FX units.

 

welcome to Basschat!!

 

😆

Speak for yourself! Not a fan of multi fx effects. Gave up on the Source Audio 'one' series as it involved programming and not knob tweaking, let alone a helix unit! 

3 hours ago, alexa3020 said:

 

Copied from their website:

Inspired by an old Akai GX 210D reel to reel tape machine from the 1970s, the JIVE - Reel Saturator was made to give you the gooey and warm saturation obtained when pushing the Akai’s pre-amps to the max.

 

https://www.jptrfx.com/dirt-machines/

Yeah, their blurb is still a bit ambiguous. Does that mean it's simulating just the Akai pre-amp or the whole reel unit including the affect of the tape heads as well? I'm guessing by the diode selection switches it's just the pre-amp. 

A bit academic as the proof is in the pudding. But if it's the pre-amp the effect will be more distortion related, whereas with tape heads, up to a point, it will be more compression. 

My biggest pet peeve with pedals... putting the 9v power next to a jack socket. What a pain.

44 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Almost all of these "problems" can be fixed by buying a decent multi-effect pedal and using that instead.

Two issues with just using a multi-effects.... despite what is said about the dsp programming it's not going to sound exactly the same, especially when it comes to analogue pedals, and consequently your not going to get that unique sound that comes with using different pedal makes. 

Plus, knob tweaking of pedals if more fun than digital programming.

On 08/01/2022 at 16:41, alexa3020 said:

It replicates tape saturation & distortion/fuzz. I’m going to run the jive similar to the chap in the video I.e where the signal gets ‘fat’ just before the point of breakup and intend it as an always on pedal.

It seems to me this will be doing a similar job to a compressor. 

Does this pedal simulate tape saturation or just the saturation of the Akai reel to reel pre amp? An interesting pedal all the same.

I like the idea of simulating tape saturation tho, the nearest I've seen in analogue form is the Neve Design unit but it's a bit expensive to get on a whim.

It's sad to say but I remember Budgie mostly for the Roger Dean artwork on their albums.

Nice and cheesy, try the Nils Landgren Funk Unit album 5000 miles. 

For unlimited cheesiness the Instrument Funk mix on spotify, which has some great stuff on it like Cookin' on 3 burners and Funkallisto.

17 hours ago, prowla said:

I have an Aguilar Octamizer and it is the only one I've heard which preserves the essential character of the bass being played. However, for me it only works down to C on the A string (others have said theirs goes lower) and it breaks up as a held note decays. That means you have to think about precisely how you are going to use it, but it can be wonderful when it's right; you'd have to construct your song around its capabilities.

I've also got an EBS Octabass (Mk 1); it's more stable but less characterful.

On the octave-up angle, I've got an EH Mosaic, which is really designed to make a 6-string guitar do a 12-string, but it does interesting things on a bass, albeit slightly synthetic sounding.

I've also got a Mooer Tender Octaver, which is a bit plinky, but might work in a mix.

I agree about Aguilar octamizer, a great sounding, very organic pedal. As for tracking, I don't find it too bad... you have to 'play the pedal' tho. There's a good video by Ian Allison on octaver tips (posted in another thread on bc), by playing close to the neck, using the neck pickup to avoid harmonic overtones, I found the octamizer behaves itself quite well for an analogue device. 

Mostly I blend in a small amount of smooth filter to thicken the tone, but cranked up and a bit edgy is fun, especially with an envelope after it.

Don't resist!! I bought this pedal as an experiment last year and it's so funky it's now one one of my favourites.  The color knob is a simple control but transforms it into something special. 

glwts.... ps why are you selling it?!