Fionn

Best Purchase: Aria Pro II SB1000 ... 1981 Japanese classic awesomeness. Possibly my new favourite bass. Tooooo much love for this thing 🏆 Worst Purchase: Westfield Thumb Bass Copy ... bought as a cheapy. It was absolute murder to play, sounded gutless, and is now well gone ☠️

Bought a set of flats from SM. Good price, good comm’s. All straight forward, and no problem whatsoever 🙂

I love the idea, but hate the reality. I’m all over the concept, which is why I’ve persevered. I’ve had 4 of them now, fretted and fretless. I’ve experimented with flatwounds and tapewounds, and with lots of emphasis on technique ... yet I’ve been consistently underwhelmed and disappointed. The basic physics of sound lays massive limitations on these things. I reckon they’re all pigs to play, and I’ve yet to hear one that sounded good acoustically. I’ve since given up on the idea.

Superb band. I absolutely love them 🙂.

Wow ... Just watched the Chic/ Sister Sledge performance at the Budokan, Tokyo. April 17th, 1996. STUNNING playing and superlative tone, from the fantastic Bernard Edwards. Great concert really. Something notable of that event ... During the performance, Bernard wasn’t feeling so well, even saying ‘I’ve got a touch of the Tokyo Flu, but I’m still here’ ... It was in the early hours of the morning, after that very show, that he died in his hotel room. The cause was pneumonia. If he’d gone to see a doctor, a simple treatment would have prevented the tragedy. If you’re a fan of The Nard, this is something I’d recommend watching. It’s emotive too, given the circumstances. What a great player, and such a terrible loss. RIP Bernard

Just received a beautiful old Aria bass from Derek. Great communication, well protected, fast delivery, all good! 🏆

I intend to add a volume pedal to my board. This will mainly be used for volume swells. It will be at the end of the chain. I play active basses. Seems there are three basic types. Low impedance passive, high impedance passive, and active. Because of the active bass element, I realise that it’s down to choosing between either a low impedance passive pedal, or an active one. What would be the pros and cons between the two? Like, is there any tone-suck with the passive variants? Are there any specific issues with one type or the other that I should be aware of? Also, I’m after a swell with a nice even taper. Recommendations appreciated. Ta’

Thanks man. I’ll check that out 👍🏻

I use the same Fender ABY. For switching between fretless and fretted basses. One is active and the other passive though, so I need to change it for something with level controls for each channel. Same issue as you big-bass-playing folks.

Could be a number of reasons for that, but it’s not the design of the pickup that is causing the buzzing.

Mine sounds very clean. No buzz whatsoever.

Yes, two single coils ... but there is no buzz. They have a hum-cancelling dummy coil.

Two single coil pickups in that housing, with a dummy coil.

Thanks for that. I’ve got a ‘98 Pro M. Stock electronics, but not this set-up, like most of the Pro Ms. Mine is original, although with stacked Bass/Treble, Pickup pan, and Volume (push-pull active-passive). Passive mode bypasses the preamp, so the pickup pan basically becomes the tone control. I’d love one like yours too.

This has the two separate preamps, for each coil then? Could you show us what it looks like inside the control cavity?

At a mere £23, a cheaper alternative ABY box, reversible, with gain controls for each channel. Can be run passive, or 9v if you want the led... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gear4music.com/amp/Guitar-and-Bass/Belcat-ABS-520-Dual-Input-A-B-Box-True-Bypass/FY4

I get you. So, I basically need an ABY with level and eq controls for each channel. I don’t have the physical space on the board to add an EQ in front of my current ABY. Wondering if I could swap out what I’ve got with another pedal. Google, here I come ...

Wondering if you could give me your suggestions on remedies for this. It seems obvious, though I’m open to being taught something ... I like to have both a fretted and fretless bass plugged into my board simultaneously. This is so I can change between instruments quickly and smoothly when looping. I currently have an ABY splitter at the front of my effects chain. Both basses plug into this, then go to the tuner> compressor> octaver> etc. My ABY splitter is simply that. A switch which has no other controls. Problem is that one bass is an active Warwick, and the other a passive Aria SB. The output levels of each instrument are radically different. When I switch to the passive bass, I boost the output level on the compressor to make up the difference. I’d like to remove that step though. Am I right in thinking that a line selector with level controls for both input channels (like the Boss LS-2) would work for this, simply keeping the active Warwick’s input at unity and boosting the input of the passive Aria? Could I simply replace my current ABY with one of those (or similar)? If I’ve failed to perceive any problems with this, or if you folks have any better suggestions, I’d be keen to hear them. Thanks in advance

Aye, I also use an RV-3 ... and I LOVE it. I have two common uses for the reverb at present, using various reverb settings in conjunction with various synth sounds, and alone, subtly, when playing fretless. I love the thing. It works beautifully for bass. The delays are fun though, truth be told, I haven’t really put the time in there. I need to explore that section a bit more when playing without a looper. I tend to use the delay on the effects section of my looper (Boss RC-300). That’s not the greatest delay, I admit, but it’s synced to whatever loop I’ve got happening, and there’s a lot of value in that. I guess I could use the delay in the RV-3 for looping, but I’d need to become a bit more precise, haha!

I’ve got an ABY splitter pedal at the front of my effects chain that has both a fretted and fretless bass plugged into it simultaneously. Just a click on the pedal and the input switches from one instrument to the other. Rapid changeover when looping. You could do it that way. At the other end of my effects board is the looper. I use a Boss RC-300 multi-track looper, which itself has multiple inputs. So that too.