uncle psychosis

Hey guys I'm really tempted by a B3, but I have a few questions. 1. Is tweaking the effects and amps as simple as it looks? In the past I have not enjoyed multifx because tweaking the sounds was too complex and I find just having the simplicity of single effects much better (I don't have hours and hours to be sitting delving through menus to alter sounds). 2. Has anyone tried theirs with a guitar (not a bass)? I play guitar a bit too so if I can get some decent sounds for that too that would be a very attractive prospect. 3. I would be using it as a practice tool and plugging it straight into a mixer (I play with headphones at home) but I'd also want to use it live sometimes and probably go straight to desk. Has anyone else done this and did it work OK? 4. Do the effects actually sound like the real pedals? What are the distortions like? 5. Is it possible to split the signal and have a clean blend on some of the effects? Cheers

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1393008601' post='2375286'] Victorian buildings have a tendency to look better and to last longer than modern buildings. Same goes for mediaeval cathedrals.[/quote] ..and modern people tend to last longer than Victorian people did. Buildings and people are not basses though, and so both are almost irrelevant to the discussion [quote]Anyway, do you really think that luthery skills have changed very much in a mere fifty or so years? But I do hope the poor things aren't too insulted.[/quote] I think that the skills involved in designing and making bass guitars have moved on a lot in fifty years. Instruments would have to be a very, very unique subset of manufacturing in order for the earliest models to be superior to the most modern versions. Nobody buys cars from the fifties because they are technologically better than modern cars---they buy them because they're interesting pieces of history that have some kind of coolness about them.

Big Muffs are far from light drive! I like them, but they're not a subtle effect.

[quote name='cclowend' timestamp='1392982735' post='2374874'] I have never used fx but have just bought a used zoom b1 to use as a tuner/vol/delay. Can I get some guidance as to which (send or return) the pedals output goes into. Obviously the input goes in t'other hole. Ta. [/quote] I don't really understand your question. "Send" is typically always an output "Return" is typically always an input. If you want to put the pedal in the effects loop of your amp then connect the amp's send to the pedal's input and the pedal's output to the amp's return. If you want to put the pedal in front of your amp connect your bass to the pedal input and the pedal output to the instrument input on the amp.

I am a much better flute player than I am bass player! I don't play all that much anymore but I was grade 8 standard for a long time and If you have specific questions I can try to answer them. I can't recommend enough that she get a few lessons. Getting the embouchure (shape of your mouth and lips) right is difficult and it will be significantly easier with a teacher to help out. The easiest note to start with is C5 (the C right in the middle of the treble clef). She should work on trying to produce clear notes that are consistent in tone. Each note should be articulated with the tongue, if you imagine saying "taw" at the start of each note that gets you pretty close. Posture is important, you need to support each note with the diaphragm and so you need to be upright and not horribly slouched. Warning: she will get dizzy at first. You waste something like 65% of the air you blow out whilst playing. Have a chair nearby!! Good luck, its a wonderful instrument.

The thing that I always think about in these threads is "does anyone actually think we've got [i]worse[/i] at building stuff in the last 50 years?" Thats just an insult to the skills of the modern luthier.

I wrote this on another forum recently. if you do properly controlled double blind testing, it appears that professional violinists prefer modern violins to old ones. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/01/02/1114999109 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/science/in-play-off-between-old-and-new-violins-stradivarius-lags.html?_r=0 I've got a PhD in musical acoustics and know a fair bit about musicians and their perceptions of their instruments and it turns out that a lot of musicians are very fond of making definitive blanket statements like "trumpets made from white gold sound completely different to trumpets made from brass". However, subject these ideas to double blind testing and the results are never conclusive. Musicians are very perceptive, but a lot of the time they are just victims of psychoacoustics and confirmation bias. Old guitars are just inherently cool. We guitarists love "mojo". Some old guitars are absolutely fantastic, but that doesn't mean that modern guitars aren't capable of being equally good. Same goes for violins---you may need to play an old instrument to be taken seriously as a solo violinist, but thats got just as much to do with societal pressure and expectation from within the musical community as it does the quality of the instrument. Even classical musicians love a bit of "mojo". We should also bear in mind that the guitars that have survived from the fifties and sixties in playable condition are almost certainly the good ones. The ones that weren't as good haven't been taken care of, been cannabalised for parts, or just plain forgotten about and lost. The good examples are far more likely to have survived the years than the rubbish ones. Don't get me wrong, I'd love an old guitar. But more for the inherent coolness of owning a piece of history, rather than because it was better than a modern equivalent.

You'll find that as a beginner you do that on all basses! Keep practicing, you'll get there before you know it. Different basses offer different string spacings, yes, but I wouldn't buy a new bass instead of just practicing your technique! (of course if you have other reasons for a new one then go right ahead )

I didn't see it but Nile Rodgers was on so it can't have been all bad.

Over the last few years I have managed to wean myself off endlessly eyeing up new instruments, new gadgets, and new toys. I'm a player, not a collector, and if it won't get used then I don't need it sitting around gathering dust. Two basses is my limit now. One main one and a backup that does things slightly differently. However, everyone is different. Some people just need one bass. Some people like collecting things. Some people need lots of slightly different sounds. There's probably even some people out there that have convinced themselves they really [i]need[/i] 5 different Precisions. Just do whatever works for you. Its all cool.

Was going to say, for the price it'll cost you for a courier with that much insurance you can get a train pretty much anywhere in the UK and deliver it yourself

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1392198064' post='2365750'] edit, I really don't see why this thread should be locked as long as we keep it adult, stick to the facts and avoid juvenile name calling [/quote] It'll be locked in about 3 posts time then

You guys traded a BB2024 for a Roscoe Beck? I'd have been delighted with either side of that deal

[quote name='olliedf89' timestamp='1391370881' post='2356425'] Incidentally, is there a post here, or anywhere, that lists the fuzzes that definitely do / definitely don't work with actives? If it doesn't exist... is that something that could be started? [/quote] Problem is---especially with fuzz---that nearly everyone has a different view on what "works" and what doesn't, especially because it also depends to an extent on exactly what preamp is in your bass, your settings, what you're trying to do, etc.

Why not use the volume knob to balance it out? Have I missed something?

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1391528742' post='2358178'] If you knew about Flea at all, you'd know that he absolutely abhorrs those who go on stage and mime [/quote] [quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1391562688' post='2358728'] I never insisted that Flea hates people who mime.[/quote]

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1391559462' post='2358706'] You guys make me chuckle. No matter how big RHCP are, they were humbled at the opportunity to play at the largest sports event in the world and didn't want to turn down the gig because they insist on playing live, Anthony got to sing live and they recorded the track especially for the gig. I don't get the issue; would you have wanted Flea and the rest to not play? I very much doubt such an event would be dictated to by a guest act (Bruno Mars was the hired artist)!! When all of you guys make it, I trust you will be turning down such once-in-a-career opportunities to play on such a stage [/quote] Lighten up! You've got to admit that there's something more than a little silly about Miltys insistence that Flea hates people who mime (apart from if the gig is REALLY big, and lots of people are watching) and that the RHCP don't mime on principle (apart from when they do)... "we're totally vegetarian, man, apart from last Tuesday when someone cooked us these awesome steaks which we felt really bad about eating, but yeah, totally meat free diet man... "

Real Comical Ali stuff there Milty. Keep up the good work :-D

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1391538709' post='2358348'] If the NFL want me to mime during the break at next seasons Super bowl.......I'm in! [/quote] Me too, I'd happily do it. I just wouldn't release cryptic comments afterwards to pretend I'd been forced into it ;-)

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1391532811' post='2358256'] How do you know he had no choice? Do we know what's in his contract? Do we know what his management say? Do we even know what the rest of the band say? No. He may well have had no choice. [/quote] Keep clutching at those straws, Milty

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1391528742' post='2358178'] If you knew about Flea at all, you'd know that he absolutely abhorrs those who go on stage and mime and do their best to trick their fans into believing that what their hearing is the same as what they are seeing. Flea obviously didn't want anybody to think that he was genuinely playing right then and there, so he removed his wireless transmitter, and thus removed any doubt that what people were hearing was not actually what they were seeing. [/quote] Yeah, abhors them so much that he happily took money to do it himself. Only a tiny percentage of the viewing population will have been aware or even cared that he wasn't plugged in, to everyone else he was on stage, with his bass, playing along to the music. If he wanted to "remove all doubt" then why was he waggling his fingers about as if playing the damn thing? [quote]Your final statement is that if they had mimed convincingly, it would have been less insulting to the viewers? Please. [/quote] "no choice" says Flea. He had every choice, he could have said no. Coming out with that obvious tripe is the insulting part.