WinterMute

On 24/04/2022 at 17:23, Bankai said:

I love the idea of using a Rupert Neve Shelford rack channel for bass and I think it’d sound excellent. However, the price is prohibitive..

 

I run a Shelford in the studio as the DI for my bass, then into an HX Stomp, mix the 2 as required, the Shelford's harmonic circuit is brilliant for bass, and the compressor is an excellent recording tool. Yes it's pricy, but it's my goto input channel for vocals, acoustic guitar, almost anything really, a very versatile unit.

22 hours ago, gjones said:

I've owned a couple of Geddy Lee Fender Jazzes but I don't really like Rush - they're just really classy basses.

 

 

The only "name" bass I've ever owned was a Geddy Lee, great bass, not enough strings. I'm a massive Rush fan, and have owned Wals and Jazz basses, but I've ended up with SR5's, a Bongo 5 and an ACG, not brands played by anyone I could point to as an influence TBF. 

A while back when I was lecturing, I'd ask students to bring in examples of what they considered good production, one lad brought in a well worked grimy/hip-hop version of Sgt Pepper, I'd never heard it before, it was interesting and well done. At the end of his presentation I jokingly commented, didn't the Beatles do a cover of that? He looked and me and said "who are the Beatles?".

Much hilarity ensued.

There's no reason that kid should have known who the Beatles were, half of them were dead before he knew what music was, the other half old or narrating Thomas the Tank Engine, but it made me smile. The music we revere is not the music everyone reveres.

Beatles, Coldplay, anyone who sounds like a pig stuck in a drainpipe, Foos output of late, most rappers, nearly all Jazz can get in the sea.

I do quite like Nickleback though...

They would be, but I don't want gig my recording basses, so I have gigging basses and recording basses now. 

A 20th Anniversary SR5 and an ACG Krell fretless for the studio, and a Bongo 5 and "SR5" frankenstien fretless for stage, That way I'm not too worried about dings and scratches.

Alan builds some very special basses.

Looking good, it's the last few weeks that hurt the most I think, knowing it's out there, but it's not here...

On 28/03/2022 at 14:30, Woodinblack said:

Wow, that is one hell of a wide neck!

 

Typo: 16 string...

3 minutes ago, White Cloud said:

Alan would have been gutted, I know how much he loves fitting fretboard LEDs 😂

TBF, I didn't even mention it to Alan, I'm not a big fan, but they are bloody useful on dark stages.

On 28/03/2022 at 22:14, Russ said:

Stunning. Are those tiny white LEDs in the fingerboard, or Luminlays or something? Or is it a trick of the light?

It's aluminium dots I think, there are luminlay dots to the side, but it's just reflected light in the pics.

I toyed with the idea of LED's but I don't play live very much at all these days and I thought better of it in the end.

19 minutes ago, Sibob said:

SR5’s are 17.5mm aren’t they?

Stunning bass though, Alan is one of the best! I’d like another someday.

 

Si

My 87 thumb was 16.5, a bit narrow, the 20th anni SR5 I have is 17 I think, as I based the Krell on the dimensions of that bass and I measured it from that bridge. Having played a couple of 18mm basses I’ve found them uncomfortable. 
 

So yeah the Krell is 17, not 16.5. 

45 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

That looks utterly phenomenal. I’m currently finalising a Krell build with Alan myself!

 

That extended rear carve is very cool! I’m guessing you specced that as an add-on? Tempted to ask if I can have that done to my Krell too…

 

Also loving the dots being ON the lines. A small detail but very well implemented.

Nope that’s the standard Krell bodyshape. I didn’t see any need to change that. All I did was choose the woods and the spec, and add a mahogany core through the centre. 
 

It’s pretty standard.

The only thing I messed out was the multi-coil pickups as they only come in 18mm spacing and I prefer 16.5mm, which is standard MM SR5.

4 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

It even matches the sofa and flooring: will look good in house sale pictures

 

Joking aside: lovely bass. Very fretless indeed, wonder if there are some slightly fretless ones out there.

Semi fretless? I've seen some half and half fretboards, NS did one for their 8 string, maybe one with a slightly bumpy fingerboard?

I've a Frankenstein SR5 fretless, and it's not got the sustain and tone of the ACG, it fretless with a capital "F".

49 minutes ago, naxos10 said:

A terrific lòoking bass, nice one WnterMute.

I just paid the bill. Alan Cringean did all the graft and has all the talent.

Been waiting a year for this, there's a build diary some of you have been kind enough to comment on.

Awesome build quality, the pictures don't really do the complexity of the grain justice.

Plays like butter, Alan commented that it was "very fretless" and he's bang on, tons of mwaaaa all day long. Absolutely love it.

Has arrived, is awesome.

What a finish, I'm used to bubinga having a grain to it and I think I imagined the feel of the bass to be more textured, but it's absolutely flawlessly smooth. 

Gong to take some time to get used to it and the filter based pre, which seems to be capable of some very wide-ranging settings.

I'll out a few more pics in an NBD post in Guitars.

29 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Easily managed with a click track these days as I mentioned in my previous post.

 

TBH. IME the biggest problem with using a click is that often the drummer is completely unused to having to play in time to another instrument, as their default mode is to set the tempo and the rest of the band play to them.

Exactly, and provided you've a drummer able to set and keep the tempo correctly, this is a much better option for keeping DAW's and synths in sync, extract the timing template from the drummers performance and use that to drive the DAW timeline. The preservation of feel and the ability to lock MIDI and loop parts to it is essential.

I've never had fun with waves, I've ditched the bundle I used and I have literally 2 plug-ins now, the Abbey Road Plates and an analog EQ model thats very funky, I bought perpetual licenses for both so I don't have to deal with the subscription service...

If they're hooky, you're going to have even more problems, I've had to strip whole systems down to get rid of pirated Waves plug-ins.

There are better sounding plug-ins by the bucketload, Sound Toys, UAD2, Sonnox etc.

Used them live and in the studio, pretty much always to sync the drummer into pre-recorded tracks or MIDI arrangements.

I've found that some drummer will prefer to work with a percussion loop rather than a cowbell or woodblock banging away in their headphones, and I've often programmed dynamic clicks that are extracted from the drummers natural performances using Beat Detective or the like, these work really well for studio recordings as the retain the natural pushing and pulling that a drummer will impart to a performance, but keep the synths in time.

The main advantage in the studio is locking the drums to the audio timeline for editing later, if the timeline moves with the performance, all the better. You can do it the other way round and extract the timeline sync from a performance, which works just as well.

It takes practice and determination for a drummer to work well with a click I think, it's not a instant thing for most players.

8 hours ago, BreadBin said:

Leonard Cohen is hilarious. 

 

Edit - I should say was, really...

I've long maintained that Leonard was a p*ss-t*k*ng m*th*rf*ck*r who laughed heartily at the human condition and benefitted greatly from it. Sadly missed.

Those resin filled bodies are the very funky.

58 minutes ago, zbd1960 said:

Enjoy - got mine last week

It’s shipping next week, needs final checks and a set up, can’t wait.

Latest from Alan, final checks and set-up shipping next week...!!

I'm not a big fan of either headless basses or single cut designs, but that Salace E makes perfect sense of both, what a cracking looking bass that is.

On 01/03/2022 at 21:28, itu said:

There are other electronic devices, too, that run on Phantom power: preamps, DI-boxes...

 

It is a power supply that is usually around 9 - 52 VDC (tolerances included), and few milliamperes. P48 is very common.

 

Electret condensers are usually fed with less voltage, like from 1.5 to 12 VDC.

Electrets generally run on batteries as the voltages are so low, stuffing 48v up them can have hilarious consequences.