StingRayBoy42

Following as I'm also interested in a simple compressor. I quite like Bass-specific stuff though. There's an Aguilar DB599 on marketplace OP - two controls AND it's fetching shade of hideous yellow.

Christ in Londis, that is criminal. Even for him. The hole in the headstock! The extra tuner! The bridge! The rear mounted controls! The bit of cardboard under the neck! Is it possible he's some sort of satirical Chris Morris-esque performance artist?

Depends what you want to do with it... I use an SA C4 for covers stuff - there's a database of patches that people have made to emulate various sounds, so if you want Stevie Wonder's Phat Moog Bass on Living for the City, or the Bass sound from Toxic or the squelchy intro to Radio Gaga or whatever, someone's almost certainly made one (in some cases three or four) so you can just download it, and you've got that sound in your C4. No fuss, no muss. There's hundreds if not thousands of sounds available for it, some go into great detail about what they are and what they sound like, some are called things like "Bass Synth sound #40867" If you do like a bit of knob twiddling, there's a fully programmable/utterly incomprehensible back end for your tablet/phone/laptop where you can build your own sounds and twiddle with all sorts of knobs, oscilators, square waves, octaves, filters and all sorts to your hearts content. Way beyond me, I much prefer the "find a sound for the song I want and download it with two clicks" option. It is pretty expensive (About £150-180 ish second hand?) but it will hold its value and someone on here will almost certainly give you what you paid for it if you want rid of it. Also, if you want instant access to more than six sounds, you'll need a controller - I use a DMC micro that was another £90 or so. The Boss SY-1 is another fantastic pedal. - 120-odd sounds that you can fiddle with using the (fairly?) intuitive controls. Some are more useable than others IMHO. The sequencer ones are amazing - play a note and it's instant 90s dance music. About £110 second hand? The Boss SYB-3 is a bit older (possibly cheaper?) and a bit more limited but to be fair, I used to get some lovely Phat/evil sounds from it. The SYB-5 is the later version... never used one but I'm sure it's as good as the SYB-3. The only drawback with the Boss ones I mentioned are that there's no option to recall sounds, so if you find a sound you like, you'll have to take a photo of where all the controls are! Also, it's impossible to flip between different sounds mid-song, unless you put a 128 bar drum solo in while you get your phone out, scroll through your gallery to find the picture of the sound you want, kneel down and fiddle with the controls on a dark stage. Boss do a couple of versions that do have recallable sounds - the SY-200 and SY-1000 if memory serves. I've never used them, but *if* they're basically an SY-1 with storable presets, I bet they're ace. Hope that helps!

Did you play a StingRay?

Wow!

Done plenty of those - Used to have a semi regular gig at a bar in Manchester where I had to move out of the way to let people leave.

Toss up between a pre EB StingRay and a 74 (YOB) Precision. Or a Ricky.

Tonight! Katie O'Brien's Irish Tavern in Leicester with Azura - 3 piece as singer/guitarist was away playing army. Early start, we arrived about 6 once we'd found the loading bay round the back. Horrendous load-in, down a dark, slippy, uneven alley that looked like a great place to get murdered. Big place, decent stage, packed (at 6 o'clock!) with a semi-feral mob. Could go either way tonight, lads! Loaded in (didn't need the PA speakers, which helped) and the manager told us the solo acoustic act who was supposed to start at 6 hadn't shown up, so we might as well set up. Half way through setting up, the solo acoustic act who was supposed to start at 6 showed up, so we had to stop setting up and watch him play for about an hour and a half. Joe something, he was called (AKA the solo acoustic act who was supposed to start at 6) He was really good, nice set of upbeat modern and classic covers (including half of our setlist and half a set of stuff we're going to nick), great crowd interaction, good voice, lovely solo/chord thing going on in Isn't She Lovely... really good. Once he was done, we finished setting up around the people sitting on the edge of the stage and tried not to kick any of their drinks over. The place was rammed by the time we went on about 9, first set went down a storm, it was like a cross between the last days of Pompeii and Sodom & Gomorrah. A girl at the front (a music teacher we later found out) conducted us all the way through (?!), people trying to ask for requests mid song (while we were wearing IEMs), packed dancefloor, whooping and hollering... the works. Fantastic! Three sets, the last one nearly blew the roof off. The manager loved us, the bar supervisor told us loads of punters had said how good we were... really fantastic gig. Packed down, loaded up, back down the M6 with Snarky Puppy and Vulfpeck to keep us awake, back home about 2:30 for an Aldi vinage cider. Played the P for a change -> amp board (VTDI and Thumpinator) -> MB 121H. I didn't bother with pedals as the front of the stage was littered with drinks and people. Red socks and peppermint green DMs, foot fans. Really great night, the sort of gig that'll keep me going through the next few shockers.

Not much to look at, but pretty efficient.

Me too! Any idea what they do?

An example of how ace Basschat is.... I asked for recommendations for a clean DI, someone offered to lend me a really nice pedal to see if I liked it. He's not selling it, he just... offered to send me a 200-odd quid pedal to play around with for a bit! You don't get that on twitter.

Thanks for all the replies folks. The Eden WTDI looks lush but 15V DC means an extra wall wart, which I could do without. The Basswitch and EBS MicroBass both look like killer bits of kit, but massive overkill for what I need. I still kinda want them both. I've gone for an MXR M81 from this here forum - it seems to have everything I need, nothing I don't and the reviews reckon it does clean pretty well. If not, it'll be back on marketplace and I'll be back asking for more recommendations. Cheers all.

Like I say, I can't promise it will sort your problem, but it is definitely less bulky and kickoverable. It comes with a straight-straight polarity reversing adaption which didn't fit under my mini board. When I asked if they sold an angled one, they sent me one for free. Little things like that are why I'm recommending them!

Not sure if it'll sort your problem, but I got a replacement adapter for a Harley Benton PSU from myvolts. It's great and their customer service is fantastic.

My first Bass was a Hohner Arbor P copy that I inherited (stole) from my brother. I played it for a couple of years until I got my StingRay in 94 or 95. I thought it would be a good idea to strip the paint, spray it blue, stick a huge Birmingham City badge on it and defret it... none of these ideas were good. Unimpeded by knowledge or proficiency, I took a pair of pliers to the frets and pulled them out using a subtle blend of brute force and ignorance. Realising this hadn't ruined the fretboard enough, I attempted to fill in the fret trenches with some sort of plastic wood stuff, which covered up some of the splinters AND covered the fingerboard in dark brown gunk. It's still at my Mum's. Every time I visit, she asks hopefully if I'm going to take it with me. I really admire her optimism.

She didn't filp my D x-tender or pluck my G string... and she didn't touch my Bass either.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/03/aston-family-man-barrett-bassist-with-bob-marley-and-the-wailers-dies-aged-77 Fantastic, tasteful player. Another sad loss.

Tonight! The Pickle (?!) social club in Acocks Green, Birmingham with the Cantina band - Rock, heavy rock and more rock. Standard stuff, first set met with bemusement, folded arms and polite applause, second set had enough up dancing to make it feel like a decent gig.. The drummer was on fire, despite having a torn rotator cuff. Sterling -> small board -> MB CMD 121P, leopard print Converse. Highlight was getting manhandled by a gorgeous blonde when I went for my wireless foray on to the dancefloor for the last two songs. Two lime & sodas and a Thatchers Gold on the house, paid, home about half midnight for a Dunkertons Black Fox Organic Cider (6.8%), a cheese and Laoganma bagel (toasted) and an Old J Tiki Fire spiced rum (75.5%) Not the worst evening I've ever had!

Wow! High praise indeed!

Can anyone recommend a modern sounding, clean preamp/DI pedal? Playing Dua Lipa, Britney, Arianna Grande, Beyonce, Destinys Child type stuff on a StingRay 5 straight to PA with IEMs. Aguilar Tomehammer? Tech 21 Q strip? Can I get the sound I want from my VTDI? All and any input welcome.

I've got five six and I'm skint. Come to think of it, that might be why I'm skint...

Depends which version you watch, apparently! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first

We're called The Cantina Band because we always play the same songs. Also, we generally play wretched hives of scum and villainy.