What gear have you bought or acquired, simply because you thought you ought to..?

[peteb]

10 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

OK. . . .  a few years back, I did buy a Thumpinator, but either it was broken or I didn't have a problem in the first place, because I didn't see or hear any difference.

 

That's kinda the point of them isn't it? The idea is that they take out inaudible sub-bass frequencies, thereby making your amp more efficient and making it easier to get a decent sound in bass-trap rooms. 

 

[Terry M.]

12 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I have three five strings. They have their uses,  but why use a Stanley knife for jobs you can do easier with a scalpel?

There was nothing in my post to suggest struggling with a 5 string over a 4 string if the 4 is easier to play.

[chris_b]

5 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

That's kinda the point of them isn't it? The idea is that they take out inaudible sub-bass frequencies, thereby making your amp more efficient and making it easier to get a decent sound in bass-trap rooms. 

 

True, but I didn't see any excessive cone movement before I used the Thumpinator. I assumed  the amp had an internal HPF (which many do) which was doing the job for me.

[peteb]

25 minutes ago, chris_b said:

True, but I didn't see any excessive cone movement before I used the Thumpinator. I assumed  the amp had an internal HPF (which many do) which was doing the job for me.

 

Maybe your amp has an internal HPF, but none of my amps do. I never saw the point of a HPF, until I did. 

 

There are some rooms we play that get a weird bass response, most notably a community centre come sports hall in Chelmsford. The only way round it was take all of the bottom end off the amp. I added a thumpinator to my board and next time we played there, no problem! 

[Boodang]

9 hours ago, Russ said:

I'd always encourage anyone who's not convinced by the 5-string experience to restring it with a high C and try it again. It becomes an entirely different beast. 

Definitely this. Thought I'd ruined my Sei custom as a five string low B, restrung it high C and it's awesome. 

[Sean]

18 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

OK. . . .  a few years back, I did buy a Thumpinator, but either it was broken or I didn't have a problem in the first place, because I didn't see or hear any difference.

With and without a Thumpinator would make an interesting comparison for a Bass Bash. 

 

I've got a Microthumpinator v1 and a v2 that I can bring along. 

Edited 12 hours ago by Sean

[Len_derby]

Anyone else tempted to buy something because they read about it on this thread?
 

😂

Edited 10 hours ago by Len_derby

[HeadlessBassist]

15 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

Anyone else tempted to buy something because they read about it here? 
 

😂

 

I've been guilty of hearing about press releases (either on forums or on't'internet) featuring new instruments I've wanted to try, and duly travelled to a dealer to try them... where I'm usually disappointed, as they're badly set up examples, or have dead strings from other customers playing them.

 

The worst one is when a serious player demos them on YouTube... like when Lars Lehmann demo'd the Music Man Classic Sabre all those years ago. I did buy one and it was a lovely instrument, but it sadly didn't work out for me live. I sacrificed one of my favorite basses ever to get it, too. 😢

[peteb]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

With and without a Thumpinator would make an interesting comparison for a Bass Bash. 

 

I've got a Microthumpinator v1 and a v2 that I can bring along. 

 

No, it really wouldn't be interesting in a situation like a Bass Bash. The Thumpinator filters out frequencies below 25Hz, which you can't hear, but the amp still tries to boost.

 

If you are trying to A/B a bass with or without a Thumpinator, in a room at a normal volume, then you will not be able to hear any difference. But if you are putting the bass through a PA in a large room with a wooden floor, brick walls and a high ceiling, then a HPF stops the sub-bass frequencies (that are too low for you to hear anyway) from bouncing around causing havoc with the overall sound.  

 

https://sfxsound.co.uk/microthumpinator/ 

 

[SimonK]

17 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

No, it really wouldn't be interesting in a situation like a Bass Bash. The Thumpinator filters out frequencies below 25Hz, which you can't hear, but the amp still tries to boost.

 

If you are trying to A/B a bass with or without a Thumpinator, in a room at a normal volume, then you will not be able to hear any difference. But if you are putting the bass through a PA in a large room with a wooden floor, brick walls and a high ceiling, then a HPF stops the sub-bass frequencies (that are too low for you to hear anyway) from bouncing around causing havoc with the overall sound.  

 

https://sfxsound.co.uk/microthumpinator/ 

 

 

This - and also I view my HPF as protecting amps/speakers, or at least improving their longevity.

[peteb]

6 minutes ago, SimonK said:

 

This - and also I view my HPF as protecting amps/speakers, or at least improving their longevity.

 

True - if your amp isn't trying to boost inaudible low frequencies, then it won't clip unnecessarily and can be more efficient in amplifying useful frequencies and of course, you are protecting your speakers from those frequencies. 

 

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Boodang said:

Definitely this. Thought I'd ruined my Sei custom as a five string low B, restrung it high C and it's awesome. 

 

Or as I did, retune it to F# (F# B E A D) - works well on my Sei!

[Woodinblack]

Lots of things. P basses, J basses.. I guess fender basses. There is this whole 'you have to have one' but the P is like the Harley Davidson of the bass world, iconic, clunky and not that great The jazz is better but not that much. But yet I keep wanting a Jazz, buying it, realising it has too few strings to be useable and getting rid of it.

Effects Pedals - they all basically do the same thing don't they, but they all have faults or are too expensive, or you just don't have the space for them

Small mixers, like the flow 8 - too small and restrictive to do anything with, maybe unless you were keyboard players, with not many keyboards

Iconic bass guitars - they are no better than the others, they just cost more and noone can tell the difference without using their eyes

 

[thodrik]

When I was 15 I had saved up enough money to buy a Fender American Standard Jazz or a Musicman Stingray. I went to Denmark Street in London for the first time, tried a bunch of basses and ended up buying a 1974 Gibson EB3 purely because 'Jack Bruce and Andy Fraser played them'. 

I rarely use it, but I still own it 24 years later. 

The other one would be a Boss ODB3 (the yellow bass overdrive) because every bass player I knew had one. I used it a lot, but ended up selling it for £30 during lockdown because I was fed up of even looking at it after 20+ years. I probably should have kept it. 

[tauzero]

14 hours ago, Agent 00Soul said:

I used to always mod my instruments in my teens and 20s - putting a Precision pickup on a Jazz Bass, EMGs on a Rickenbacker 4003, Seymour Duncans in my Jazzmaster (although that was a swap, no mods needed), installing a pickup selector switch on the same Jazz and then changing it to a blend knob.  It was a popular thing to do in the 70s and 80s,  I stopped all that in the early 1990s.  It just dawned on me: "Do you really think you know better than Leo Fender or <fill in the blank pro designer>?"  I'm now kind of mortified I ever did those things....especially to that Rickenbacker.  Presumably it's still out there somewhere.

 

You should have been thinking "Do I really think I know better than Leo Fender's (or John Hall's) accountants?". 

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, peteb said:

 

True - if your amp isn't trying to boost inaudible low frequencies, then it won't clip unnecessarily and can be more efficient in amplifying useful frequencies and of course, you are protecting your speakers from those frequencies. 

 

 

Plus if you have a compressor, it won't be trying to act on sub-audio frequencies and messing up its response to audible sound.

[simonlittle]

3 hours ago, Len_derby said:

Anyone else tempted to buy something because they read about it on this thread?
 

😂

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been looking up Thumpinators again…

[Marvin]

Compressors. I've had rack mount and pedal. The rack mount looked pretty because the lights went up and down, which is also 😎 cool.

Pre-amp pedal. Although they were bought more as DI boxes as well. Otherwise I just feel I should have bought a different amp.

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, simonlittle said:

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been looking up Thumpinators again…

 

Well, obviously everybody will be going out and buying soldering irons if they haven't already got one, so you could build a Thumpinator equivalent for a lot less: https://guitar-electronics.eu/en_US/c/SUBSONIC-FILTER/84

[Agent 00Soul]

6 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

You should have been thinking "Do I really think I know better than Leo Fender's (or John Hall's) accountants?". 

 

I once got chastised by John Hall on Facebook.  I took it like a man.

[Agent 00Soul]

6 hours ago, thodrik said:

The other one would be a Boss ODB3 (the yellow bass overdrive) because every bass player I knew had one. I used it a lot, but ended up selling it for £30 during lockdown because I was fed up of even looking at it after 20+ years. I probably should have kept it. 

 

I have to say, that's far and away my favourite bass distortion pedal ever, and I've used lots.  It was the first stompbox on my board and it's the only original one still left.  Never stopped using it lots.