Boodang

5 string niche... interesting! And vaguely preposterous. Had a similar thing with fretless, but to be honest it's not unusual. Went in to a shop a few years ago and asked about the Squier VM fretless jazz only to be told not in stock as fretless doesn't sell and would be hanging on the wall for years. As a fretless player that's vaguely depressing and quite preposterous!

I own the worse bass in the world.. literally. A 70s Jedson that actually couldn't be made any cheaper without falling apart. For a laugh I put an EMG MM pickup on and it sounds awesome..... plays awful though! What I've learnt from this, well... pickups are an important part of the sound and craftsmanship is an important part of the playability of the instrument. CNC machines certainly make craftsmanship easier to achieve at lower costs, it's just the more special you want it the more the cost.

I've got a custom Sei, not cheap, and a Squier Jazz, cheap. One doesn't play or sound better than the other but obviously with the Sei it's made to my custom requirements and that's going to cost. And the Sei's attention to detail is way beyond the Squier but that doesn't make it sound better, it's just nice to have. I think what I object to is something like the Wal bass that's currently up for sale at £6500!! There's no way a bolt on neck, solid wood bass is worth this (don't get me wrong, they're great basses, I've owned a few, but they're not actually worth this kind of money). If I went to a luthier to have a bass made I don't think it would be possible to make it cost that amount no matter what spec I ordered. As for the £400 theoretical limit, well, my Squier now has custom pups, huge improvement, custom electronics, and a new bridge and nut! Diminishing returns of investment but does sound better than stock (sounds great actually) and way less than a Wal.

All my basses are passive and other than a pickup selector switch and series/parallel switch where appropriate, they are wired straight to the output jack, no volume, no tone controls (P bass and MM go straight to jack, nothing in between). Outside of pickup selection and series/parallel, all tone shaping is done with outboard as it's more flexible.

TC Electronic Spectracomp. Tri band with toneprints that have been setup by someone who knows what they are doing. I found it gave me a puncher sound on the Nathan East print and now it's always on. Cheap to buy and lots of fun trying the different toneprints.

Whilst deciding which pedal to purchase I seem to have ended up owning both! Not a problem though as they are both keepers. The Seamoon has a more specialist remit but if you like it, and I do, there's no substitute. The SGFX is more what you would expect from a filter pedal with some classic funk settings which has found a permanent spot on my pedal board. Seamoon Funk Machine; This basically has two sounds, the classic Brecker Brothers 'sponge' envelope filter and a 'sub-dub' deep filter tone. The Funk Machine is a 'down' sweep only filter. The 'sponge' setting is very funky with that pronounced down sweep 'talk- box' sound and an almost pop, vowel like opening to the filter. So much so that if you slap a note the pop will almost take your speakers out! Great for finger style and more extreme than any other filter, but there is a blend control so you can get the right mix. The sub-dub setting is with the depth control off, letting the filter act almost as an eq control to emphasise a part of the bass frequencies. At it's extreme the emphasis is so low that it gave me a headache! But at less extreme settings it really gave a punch to my bass sound. Blended with the original signal it really shines. This was the surprise setting and I'm using this as my straight tone as it adds depth, punch and clarity. I thought this pedal would be for specialist use but the sub sounds make it far more versatile. There are a couple of internal trim pots you have to set to get the sensitivity of the pedal right for your bass, but once done getting the right sound is easy. The build quality is top notch and this has to be the quietest pedal I own in terms of noise. SGFX Supa Funk; Forward and reverse sweeps, and some classic funk sounds. At first you think the sounds are good but you want them to go further, but when I recorded the bass through the pedal I realised on listening back that they were about right and any more would be too much (judge for yourself on the clips I've posted). The pedal doesn't have a blend control but does have a 'color' knob which adds a second low pass filter to bolster the bass frequencies of the original signal and this I really like. The 'classic funk' setting is a great forward sweep filter sound and having the color control means you can easily beef it up. The reverse sweep 'talky-box' sound I wasn't so keen on at first until I recorded with it and realised how well it fitted in the mix, especially with the fretless. Talking of which this pedal is very responsive to playing dynamics and fretless playing. You really feel as if you can be very expressive with the way you play and how it responds. No internal trim pots on this pedal and I know some people have mentioned clipping issues with hot active outputs but with my passive jazz I've had zero issues (going straight into the pedal caused no clipping). Also, I use all my pedals with an EHX parallel mixer so I can control the send and return levels, if you do have a hot output on your bass this is a good solution and means you won't be put off using what is a great sounding pedal. As with the Seamoon the build quality is excellent and has a great old school feel to it as it's quite chunky. Not as quiet as the Funk Machine but nothing to worry about even in the studio. Overall this pedal really lives up to it's name of supa funk. The combination of both pedals feels like a funky ball of teats from outer space! And they are now both permanently on my board. More versatile than I thought they'd be, the Seamoon for it's sub punch and the SGFX for the reverse talky, and when you put them in funk mode they really make you want to walk like a chicken! As it says in one of the manuals, but applies to both, prepare yourself for the path to funk enlightenment. And to top it off the paint jobs on both do look great. I've posted some clips on another thread if you want to have a listen... for out and out funk, and maximum value for money, I'm particularly in love with using both pedals in parallel for total funkulation!

What I've done with my last 2 basses is to buy Squiers then replace the pups, electronics, bridge and nut. It comes in cheaper than a fully blown Fender but I have exactly the hardware I want.

https://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/custom-handwound-pickups-from-the-creamery/scatterwound-bass-pickups.html#bass In case you're still looking.

Have you checked out the review on YouTube by Steve Lawson? Although a biased owners review he is a bit of a pedal guru.

Yeah, sound no. 5 was a surprise. By rolling off the depth completely on the Seamoon and just using the filter it acts more like an eq and really gives a deep but still punchy tone ( I'm using the blend control to balance the effect with the original signal). I'm using that a lot. Sound no. 2 is the classic Brecker Brothers setting and is very controllable with playing dynamics. Sounds like the Seamoon Funk Machine is for you!

Can you hear that.... ? It's the sound of flatwounds calling you over to the dark side!

I have a CR4 and I agree, it sounds more like a giant fretless. And yes, great fun to play. I found the TC Electronic Bodyrez pedal helps with the sound. Designed to put life back into piezo pickup guitars, works well on the CR.

When I use the spark I have the switch in the 'fat' position. However, I don't find the spark very transparent so mostly use the spectradrive where I prefer the flexibility of the 4 band eq, especially when it comes to fretless.

This was recorded using Galli Synthesis flatwounds but thru a Seamoon Funk Machine (Squier VM Jazz fretless with Creamery pu's). I'll do another clip later that better show the strings in the 'raw' as it were. 60_Seamoon sub-dub.mp3

I can't comment on the NS Omni but... if you want that upright sound I believe a big part of that is the scale length which physically let's the string 'bloom'. I think you'll more likely to achieve this with a 41" NS CR (or NXT) rather than a 34" omni.

For anyone who wants to hear, I've posted some sound clips of the SGFX Supa Funk and Seamoon Funk Machine, over in the 'reviews- effect' section. I know some people have been posting distortion issues with the Supa Funk... it seems the pedal can't take hot signals, and it's certainly more sensitive than my other pedals, but I've had no problems with clipping going straight into it with my passive jazz.

Some sound clips. I'll do a full write up soon. 1. Supa Funk with classic funk settings (forward sweep). 2. Funk Machine in 'sponge' mode. 3. Supa Funk & Funk Machine in parallel. 4. Supa Funk with 'talky-box' settings (reverse sweep). 5. Funk Machine 'dub-sub' mode ( not as dub as it goes but as much as I can cope with!). Squier VM Jazz with Creamery pu's and Galli Synthesis flatwounds. 50_SGFX classic funk.mp3 53_Seamoon Sponge.mp3 55_Supa Funk + Seamoon.mp3 57_SGFX Talky-box.mp3 60_Seamoon sub-dub.mp3

Some clips of what the SGFX Supa Funk and Seamoon Funk Machine sound like. 1. Supa Funk with 'classic funk' settings (forward sweep). 2. Funk Machine in 'sponge' mode. 3. Supa Funk & Funk Machine together in parallel. 4. Supa Funk with 'talky-box' settings (reverse sweep). 5. Funk Machine in 'dub-sub' mode (not as sub as it will go but as much as I can cope with!). Squier VM Jazz with Creamery pu's and Galli Synthesis flatwounds. 50_SGFX classic funk.mp353_Seamoon Sponge.mp355_Supa Funk + Seamoon.mp3 57_SGFX Talky-box.mp3 60_Seamoon sub-dub.mp3

I'll do a clip later in the week. Not sure these will give you that upright sound, they don't have a lot of treble but they are quite punchy. Where my double bass notes 'bloom' these are quite forceful. It's less so when I pluck over the fingerboard though.

If you're going straight from bass to amp, don't forget to install a line driver to reduce cable capacitance.

Ahh, the perfect tone... one minute you have it, the next it's gone! I currently love my setup but sure by next year I'll wonder what I heard in it. When I do get the itch to change tone, it'll start with strings, move on to pickups, then onboard preamps, and finally I'll change all my pedals. If I'm lucky the whole thing will extend to amp and speakers! And the whole thing will only last 12 months before starting again.

When I play sitting down I rest the bass on my left leg, classical guitar style. To make this work, as the end of the neck is further away, I use a classical guitar foot rest to raise my leg and tilt the neck slightly towards my body. In this way my left hand is not too stained when down the low end and the body is at the right angle to make it easy to keep my wrist straight. If you want an example of someone doing this well, check out Janek Gwizdala and some of his YouTube vids. In the long run I definitely think this technique is worth persevering with.

Not yet.... busy this half of the week but I will get a chance later and I'll do some clips of both pedals and a write up.