mario_buoninfante

does it have an actual tube, or is it an emulation?

I see the point about the true bypass. I personally still think it's a good idea. I don't usually play with really long cables and only use few pedals, so I think I'm fine. but it's an interesting topic. buffered pedals cause tone suck too, not all of them though found a couple of interesting things here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eEzqSRReA this (https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/the-truth-about-true-bypass) talks about both, and it ends with: "You could do what I do: use true bypass pedals, and build (or buy) a dedicated buffer to run in front of them. That way you get the strength of the buffer to drive your signal home to the amp, and you can rest assured that your bypass tone will be untouched by tone goblins." this not to say one is better than the other. I think my conclusion is: as long as you know what you are doing, you'll be fine - aka check your buffered pedals and don't chain 7 true bypass pedals!

in a way yes, but worth keeping in mind they are separate things though. I assume (I don't know the schematics of the pedal) that they have a fixed threshold and so you use the gain to get closer to that threshold. but having both might be useful. think about a situation where you have a signal that's too hot and you want to move away from the threshold, with the MXR you won't be able to do that, since the threshold is fixed. that said, I'm sure they set the threshold to a sensible value.

Just found out they are not true bypass. Got the answer from their Service Support: The audio signal is fully buffered at all times, and not true bypass. The buffers are fully transparent and provide an excellent constant load to reduce any losses etc. I also realised, after the fact, that it was stated in the manuals too

I think it depends what your needs are. Assuming the compressor on the amp is a good one, not a cheap implementation (never tried the Ampeg mentioned above), the main difference between that and a (good) compressor pedal is the control you have over its parameters. If we take the MXR M87 comp as an example, there we have the following controls: attack release ratio input output basically, all the standard parameters are exposed, and this will inevitably give you a wider sonic palette. That means that you could start using the compressor not only as a "utility" pedal, but as an effect too and start experimenting with it. On the other side though, this won't be ideal if you're looking for something quicker and simpler to use. For this you have pedals with less parameters exposed like the Ampeg Opto Comp, that has only compression release output that is probably more intuitive and quicker to use, but will give you less choice. Then there are the 1-2 knobs compressors you might either find on amps or pedals. They use presets, internal parameters the user can't see (ie attack, release, input, etc.) with a fixed value. These are not worse than anything else mentioned above, they can even be better made than the pedal alternatives. It's just that they don't leave you with much choice. So basically, I think it's matter of what you're looking for from a compressor and probably also down to your playing. If you use different styles (fingers, pick, slap, tap, etc.) you might need more control based on the way you are playing. My only thing about on-board compressors and more in general compressors with only 1-2 parameters exposed, is that they need to be tried before buying, because they have their unique settings that might either suit my style or not. One last question I'd ask myself when thinking about any on-board effect is: what about the times I can't have my amp with me?

I'm really interested in this, why do you think it's a terrible idea?

Hi all, Has anybody tried any of the "new" Laney pedals? I'm particularly curious about the Digbeth preamp and the Bass-Interval, but reality is all of them look interesting. Does anybody know if they are true bypass? Cheers, Mario

actually the Laney Digbeth pedal has few of the things you are looking for at what it looks like a good price

worth checking out the MXR M81 Preamp too - that doesn't have comp and drive though

Long time since I listened to them last time! Facts and Fictions, Refi's Revenge and Community Music are solid albums! don't really know the ones after those

just found this on YT and thought I'll share it here

Hi all, I recently noticed on my Spector Legend 4 Classic with a Tone Pump Jr, that the EQing seems to happen after the volume. I noticed this when recording the bass, so using headphones in a quiet environment. I don't think I'd have picked this up simply using the amp. When on the bass I crank the treble all the way up I get some noise (nothing extreme tbf), so I noticed that the noise stayed there even after turning the volume down. I didn't check the schematics of the preamp/EQ yet (I will at some point ), but I thought I'd ask here if you guys can confirm that. Also, is that a common design? Any reasons why that would be the case? Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but I'd expect the volume to be the last one in the chain, so that when I turn the volume down, I'm 100% sure no sound comes out of the bass. Cheers, Mario

apart from all the great recommendations listed so far, I'd recommend this too, with Adrian Sherwood at the console

in the last days I've been listening to Jeff Parker live

Fender Jazz MIJ anyone? https://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Fender_MIJ_Jazz_LH.html

hey, new to the party but I thought I'd contribute with a really good Italian shop based in Bologna. few lefties listed there too https://www.scolopendra.it/strumenti

Hi all, I just spotted 2 new Spector left-handed basses on Bass Direct, the Dimension 4 and 5. I didn't know they were available LH too. Even if I'm not interested in these basses myself, I thought it was worth sharing. So far I was only aware of the Legend LH and of course I knew that Euro and US models could be ordered left-handed with a +10% upcharge (info found on the official Spector website). It seems like they are adding more lefties to their arsenal, and to me this is good news

@Urban Bassman, yeah I read good things about them! I think the scale there is 36.5"/33", or something similar. that said, I'm not into the whole fan fret thing, but that is just personal taste. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about the Fishman pups. Don't get me wrong, they are really good pups, it's just that I'm after the classic Spector/EMG combo at the moment!

@Sibob, yup, I'd defo expect to feel the difference between 30-32" and 34" scale basses. But also, I only played 1 short scale in my life, and it was matter of hours more than anything. I think the 34" vs 35" difference seems to be down to the manufacturer and bass. I found something online that "confirmed" the fact the Spector move the bridge back by 1", so playability, neck-wise, shouldn't be affected at all. BTW I also found the video about the MTD Kingston 5, where the reviewer mentions the neck thing

Yap, they sound good for sure. At least based on the videos I've seen, they seem to have a solid B string and are also well balanced, tonally, across the whole range.

Never tried one, neither Spector nor other brands. I had an entry level 34" scale 5 strings Cort when I was 18y, but I can't really remember much about it as it was several years ago and I moved back to a 4 strings quite quick (for no particular reasons tbh). Reading articles and watching videos online, I now (at least partially) get what is the impact the scale has on the sound - ie short scale ones sound "boomy" but less defined, long scale basses have more definition, but I assume reduced low frequencies contribution too. I was particularly curious about the impact on the neck and more in general on the instrument position (eg Does it push the neck further away? Does it feel different? What about the weight? etc.). Because I remember watching a review of one of the 35" scale MTDs where the "longer neck" feeling was mentioned. Tbf, I don't even know if that would be an issue for me, since like I said I haven't played one yet, but I'm curious to hear people's opinions about it.

Hi all, I have been looking at some Spector 5 strings basses recently, and I noticed that almost all of them are 35" scale (Euro Classic being the only exception among those currently in production, I think). I couldn't find any more info about it, but was curious to understand how that would affect playability. From what I can gather, mainly from looking at pictures online, it seems like they have pushed the bridge a little bit back towards the edge of the body and so as a result, one doesn't get the lowest end of the neck pushed further far away. Thus, since I saw that there are few Spector enthusiasts and owners here, I thought I'd ask the question and see if anybody can confirm, or not, my assumption. Thanks in advance

Hi all, I'd like to share my solution for what some say is a "balancing problem" with the Spirit Steinberger XT basses, but I would probably rephrase as an issue with its "positioning" (see this post on talkbass). I saw few solutions online that either required drilling an extra hole in the body of the bass or the use of really long brackets (fixed in 2 points where both strap buttons are). I decided to go for the former, but I accidentally found a solution that doesn't require neither drilling holes nor using really long brackets. I ended up buying 2 standard steel brackets at Wilko (I coluldn't find one long enough, these were 9-10 cm) and few nuts and bolts, with the initial plan of sticking 2 brackets together to make a longer one and drilling a hole in the bass so to anchor that to it (1 hole is already there for the strap button. Once I joined the 2 small brackets using nuts and bolts, I fixed that to the bass only using the screw hole for the strap button, so that I could measure where to drill the extra hole. In this configuration (ie 1 fixed point being the strap button), the bracket could move up and down. In doing so I realised that no extra hole was needed, because the nuts used to join the 2 brackets was acting as a stop for the "hook", when touching the bass body (ie the weight of the bass would let the brackets move up until the nut hits the body and this finds its "resting point"). The brackets I used are similar to this. It's 2 of them overlapped and fixed in 2 points/holes. Hope this is useful.

Hi, I'm Mario, an Italian musician and QA engineer currently based in Bucks. I started playing bass in my late teens, continued for years and then dropped it a little bit (ie no more exercising, rehearsals as bass player, etc.) for years and years, despite still playing in bands (ie guitar, keyboards, live electronics). I moved to the UK in 2017 and it is slightly more than 1 year ago that I started playing bass again and dedicating a reasonable amount of time to it. I studied piano for few years and got a bachelor degree in Electroacoustic Music Composition. I'm interested in several genres: electronic music (I know, that's a bit vague ), dub/reggae/rocksteady, jazz, rock, funk/soul, etc. - just recently got to know a little bit more about metal and other "heavier" genres, that have been a little bit of a black hole for me so far. I owned several basses/amps in my life, but at the moment my setup is: Steinberger Spirit XT-2 - left handed Spector Legend 4 classic PJ - left handed Epiphone Nikki Sixx Blackbird - right handed (for years I was playing RH basses with standard string settings, so upside down) - this one is not with me, but in Italy GK MBS-III Really happy to join the forum!