BabyBlueSound

2 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

I recently come across one who does everything I dislike. Charles Berthoud. His entire thing seems to be taking a decent song and cramming in as many extra notes as possible to ruin it

To each their own. I really like Charles, he does something unique, his stuff is really unlike any other bassists' out there currently. I am not just talking about the pristine technique, but for me, he keeps it very musical. I'd like to highlight, I am usually also one of those people who dislikes cramming in too much and overcomplicating simple stuff, I can't listen to the likes of the bass gods like Victor Wooten for too long before their complex interpretations overwhelm me. But somehow with Charles, it does not cross a boundary for me, he keeps it fun.

He basically made me restart playing after skipping 10+ years.  

If you believe in heavyweight basses, you can now buy Davie's new diamond play button bass, which is only 9.1kg / 20.1 lbs

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374006218473

2 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Never in the history of the world has a single instrument screamed out for a black pickguard. Ooh, a beautifully painted bit of wood, if only it were covered up with some black plastic. 

Good to know everyone in the world has to like exactly the same stuff  

Hey @Eudridge do you still have this beauty?

5 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

At least you don’t have to drill out the post holes.

Actually now that you mention, the post holes are once again not standard, they're 1-2mm larger in diameter than the rings for the Schaller. The Schaller rings were a little bit loose and even if I tried to pad it with some masking tape, it resulted in head buzz. So I spray painted the original post hole rings black and used those  Not perfect as it chips off quite easily, I could scrape it off with my nails, but that's a part you hardly touch anyway so it works.

That little string holder thingy in the middle is also spraypainted 

2 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

the machine heads are big old vintage style, so lots of choices

Only problem with that is I tried two sets of similar machineheads and 2 out of 4 screwholes were always just 1mm away from where they should be. So seems like Ibanez went for something non-standard there. Ultimately just used some bamboo, wood glue to plug in old holes and then drilled new ones for the black Schaller machine heads.

24 minutes ago, dmc79 said:

 It also has a contoured back which I’ve learned not all shorties do, a nice shape and I guess is comfortable? There is a massive Talman club topic on a certain American bass site which I’ll have a look at, as no doubt many users have upgraded stuff on these. 

 

I find it comfortable, yes. It is certainly a great upgrade platform  I changed the screws and the machineheads to black, installed EMG PJ pickups and since I had to replace the knobs for the EMG potmeters, those got changed too. Long-term project is to get a black bridge.

Here's mine from an earlier post:

2 hours ago, dmc79 said:

Regarding budget, it kind of depends if I’d want to go all in at some point or not. If I did, I’d drop 1K for the likes of a Sandberg. As an experiment though, perhaps a Squier Mini P or Ibanez Talman TMB30 would offer a good trial run. I’m just a little hesitant to get something that cheap, only to find I like SS and soon want something better then have the hassle of moving el cheapo on. 

 

I guess if I did make the switch, I’d want something as close to a P as possible

 

For what it's worth, the TMB30 has a very nice P sound once you dial down the J, and the nut width is 41mm, fairly close to a P feel. Not sure if the regular 43mm P would even work on a shortie  I really really enjoy my TMB30 and it put me off from buying more expensive basses for a while now, as I just don't feel I'd need one. It just feels nice, it's just... friendly when you play it, without feeling too small.

But it IS a cheap bass. I had smaller cosmetic issues, loose screws, but even bent machinheads.

So if you're going down the cheap trial route, get one, inspect closely for any faults, play it for a while, and send it back if you don't like it. For £150-ish, you might as well keep it even if you choose to get a Sandberg or something, it really is a nice bass to look at.

it's all very nice but where are the retrovibe evos  

On 03/02/2022 at 18:43, Dood said:

On the subject of shorts scale ray-alikes, this review has just gone live:

 

I really enjoyed this one. Quirky, fun and a bit different!

 

Please sub to my channel too

 

 

Still enjoying that Vox? How's the hardware/build quality for the £500-ish price? I am so in love with that one since I have seen it here...  

On 19/12/2021 at 14:20, JapanAxe said:

What hasn’t worked for me:

- Behringer BDI21;

- Korg PX4B.

What was the problem with the BDI21?

17 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

What controls does the HPF have?  Can you change the cut off/roll off frequency?

Yup the HPF knob controls the cutoff between 35Hz and 150Hz, apart from that there's the volume and that's it.

Keeping it simple. I made the board from a piece of wood cut to the right size  Compressor is the first, HPF is the last.

I like to keep it at the end, as my main goal is to clean up the resulting sound and eliminate the unnecessary lows. If it's not at the end, some other pedal like my Behringer might re-add lows. But that's just the sound I am looking for. You might want something completely different.

https://www.facebook.com/RaffertyGuitarPedals

Steve is a pleasure to deal with and some of these pedals look SO cool. I have a HPF from him.

8 hours ago, scrumpymike said:

Just pulled the trigger on one of these puppies! I love quirky stuff and this sits right at the top end of the quirkiness scale.

 

Vox Starstream S2

Your link says S2 but on that video, it's the H1 with the Humbucker. Which one did you get?  

On 04/02/2022 at 20:34, Ander87 said:

Now that I have 3 basses, one P on rounds, the other on flats… thinking whether I should try nylon tapewounds on the JMJ…! The 760F-MUS labellas are great but they’re greater yet on my P bass, I may fancy a change. 
 

Any experiences on shorties with tapewounds? The medium scale would do for the trick for the thru body strings on the Mustang. 
 

Best,

 

Ander. 

I had black D'addario tapes on my Ibanez Talman (finally some tapes that come in short scale version), and just recently I've been thinking about putting them back on. My favourite tone is still the regular D'addario / Elixir round sound, but the D'addario black tapes come very close with their characteristic woody thumps. I haven't tried Labellas but I was told the D'addario is much brighter and sounds less like flats, which is very important to me. With the Behringer amp modeler pedal I can enhance the highs further if I want to, and get a round-ish sound, so I feel they're very versatile as a whole. And for me, nothing beats the FEEL of these blacks, they're just soooooo smooth and fun to play. Plus they look great on my black&blue bass  

Thanks for this NBD, I am still trying to decide what should be my 2nd bass... this one, or the Chowny Retrovibe Evo (once they start manufacturing it in Bristol as they're coming out with a short and a medium scale). They're both so beautiful, I'm a sucker for blue & green basses.

On 26/01/2022 at 10:02, Woodinblack said:

 

I don't do tapping at all (on a bass), but the volume of tap at various points in the string would be purely down to the action at that point. If the action is higher in one place than another, it will be louder as it has a bigger runup before hitting the fret (which is why you have a really level action on a chapman stick!). If you are finding it too loud on the talman your action is presumably too high. Failing that, get a compressor!

I think you misunderstood me, I never said volume/action is higher at one place than another. What I meant is, when I tap e.g. the high G at fret 12, the sound that the left side of the string makes (between nut and 12) is actually louder than the one that should be ringing (between fret and bridge). I guess it's physics and the longer part of the string rings better which seems reasonable, I just don't remember this extreme difference from a long scale. And I don't have one now for comparison. Compression does not seem to mask these "overtones" from the left side of the string, and where I have my action does not seem to have an impact either on this volume issue.

But anyway, I do have a compressor set up, and my action is so incredibly low you would not believe it  

Hey Shorties, I don't know if this is specific to my Ibanez Talman, or short scales in general, but I find tapping really hard in the higher register, as the longer part of the string towards the head is much, MUCH louder there. I know, I know, I should improve my muting, that's true, and I am indeed a noob. But actually I don't do "real" tapping just the odd note as an "effect" here and there, and I absolutely don't remember this being so hard on a long scale. What do you think?

The Bronco is pretty nice, I'm a sucker for the maple neck!

Have you guys seen the Squier Jaguar in the "for sale" topic? It's so beautiful and cheap! Someone already swooped in, no surprise  

1 minute ago, bassist_lewis said:

When I put the deposit down at the end of October Jake said it would be a year, but they've had supply chain issues and he posted on the socials to add an extra 6-8 weeks. Everything I've read about them says it'll be worth it.

Good Lord, in the age of next day delivery, this makes me feel like being in a weird Twilight Zone episode or something!

12 minutes ago, petetexas said:

Just got a Gibson Les Paul DC from Bax . At the price they were throwing them out , l could not resist (£575)

Always fancied one .

I see they have gone back up to £800 ish now .

Some small quality issues 1) end of fingerboard not stained correctly - patchy 2) scratchplate screws going in at an angle 3)small "ding" on back of neck .

Could have sent back , but at this price l was expecting some quality issues .

Plays and sounds BEAUTIFUL . 

Show us the loot!

On 06/12/2021 at 18:05, theplumber said:

I won't be walking away...but I will be buying myself a set of in ear monitors and headphone amp. I will give it a bash and they may follow. Its hard to get folk to break the habit. If they want to go deaf thats up to them....

Consider walking away. I was in one of these "but but but we HAVE to be loud" bands back in 2005. My right ear never stopped ringing since, yes you are reading that right, it's been 16 years. Does NOT worth it, believe me.

6 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

... and the gorgeous Ibanez Talman SS.

It IS gorgeous (I have posted mine here a couple pages ago but please allow me to do it again as I'm really loving it   ), but it's a £150 bass and it sort of feels like it. I am still writing up my personal review about it after using it for ~4 months now. No, I don't have THAT much to say, I'm just a lazy bum  

(it's body looks a bit fat on this photo due to the perspective)