Leaderboard

One day, many decades ago, in maybe 1980, I was walking down the street wearing a grey trilby. A man stopped me and said 'Why did you buy a hat like that when instead you could have spent your money on drugs?'

Think it's a Kay. Maybe 1980s? No sound, and action like the Grand Canyon. Took about an hour to sort. Action now well playable. Set of used flats after cleaning and oiling the fingerboard, half a can of Servisol and a quick solder job. All working. Never had a short scale before (had to chop the strings down a bit) but looking forward to giving it a blast at the weekend.

Or not. Just watch. It's compelling. I suppose this experiment - with a bit if jiggery-pocket - would apply to any stringed instrument that requires pickups.

That would have been factory spec

Being proficient in a technique doesn't mean you're tempted to use it all the time. It means that it's there for when you need it. I'd hate to be required to play something and not have the means to play it- even if it's only on one gig a year. Nonsense. Knowing your scales doesn't mean you won't play anything interesting. Knowing stuff doesn't automatically shut off your ears.

I am not a Darkglass user, but I do feel their market is saturated with a very similar high gain tone. Dingwalls and this high gain. I love high gain, but personally I prefer the grind from an Orange or Ampeg (the Tech 21 pedals nail this). I am not really sure who this is aimed at. It's very expensive; it's like an expensive take on the TC toneprints. I'd rather use a HX Stomp into the power section of a something like a Genzler or Mesa Boogie.

I have an A/O 900, honestly thought it was going to be a revolutionary solution to my tone needs, but it wasn't and it's ended up that I just use the poweramp side with a GED2112 or dUg plugged in. My ears did prick up earlier today when I saw this, 500w or 900w is academic, but the tech just seems to reflect what TC Electronic were doing with their TonePrint kit a few years ago and what Line6 were trying to achieve two decades ago. Realistically, the natural conclusion is that Darkglass just need to bring out a small-box poweramp with a lone volume control on it. No tone controls, just let your phone control everything.

IMO that's sad in both the traditional and modern meanings of the word. Firstly no one will really cares about the bass you use, unless they mistakenly take pity on you for apparently not being able to afford a Fender or at least a Squier. Secondly I'm sure that most people on here own a car that has the potential to perform way above their level of driving skill, whether it be a 4x4 that has never seen anything more off-road than an unsurfaced car park, or just a normal car that is capable of more acceleration and speed than you could comfortably handle. At least if you play your expensive bass badly no-one is likely to get injured or die. And finally for most bassists on here even a US-made Fender is probably more bass guitar than they NEED. Most of us could quite happily get by with a modern cheap no-name P or J bass copy. But why should we want to?

Surely the question ought to be: 'Am I good enough to play a cheap piece of sh!t and still sound great?'

Got a dremmel? not sure if it’d work. obviously screws are made of butter… carve a slot into the “head” of what’s left. Flat head screwdriver…get it started out and then back it out…

But do you play by ear?

Tosh. You won't paint great pictures if you don't know how to combine the colours at your disposal. Knowing your notes is what every good bass player does from Dusty Hill to Jaco. You'll play interesting lines more regularly if you know the notes that fit and can put them together in interesting ways.

This is very true. Even where they do, of all the many basses I’ve played live, only my Rics are consistently recognised/commented on, subsequent discussions showing usually due to Macca/Lemmy/Bruce Foxton playing them (strangely never Geddy or Chris). Someone once asked if my Warwick Dolphin was an Alembic. Nobody ever said anything about my actual Alembics, or the Wals, Seis, Fenders, Statii, etc etc. I’m sure hardly anyone would have a clue what a Fodera was, other than (almost) a hat. 😉

It's a mid 70s Kay, the wood colour headstock were the early ones, later they had a gloss black headstock in the late 70s and early 80s. A secret with these is ordinarily they have an ok vintage sound. But put an overdrive or fuzz in the chain and it'll sound awesome. Lots of fun.

Bloody expensive hats, way out of my league.

It might not for you, but there are plenty of musicians I know who treat musical theory as hard and fast rules and never step outside of those boundaries.

Most people don't even know it's a bass guitar. Anything with strings my father called a banjo and anything you blew into he called a trumpet.

Is this related to imposter syndrome, where we don’t believe we’re good enough for whatever it is we’re doing?

I knew it reminded me of something…

I'm paranoid enough to think that people look at me and think "knob" whichever bass I take to the gig.

I can honestly say it has never occurred to me. I buy what I like and could care less whether anyone else thinks I’m good enough.

I dunno, £70k a month outgoings to an ex would spur me on to make songs happen.

I'm not really good enough on bass to give advice from a bass technical point of view.. it's a second instrument. Musically, Charlie Parker's phrasing is where most of the beauty is, I'd recommend slowing it down until you can really get into his feel and duplicate it when playing along then gradually speed it up, even going a bit past the original tempo. You could forget the bass at first and just sing along, or even tap the rhythm, before taking it to the bass. A lot of blues and history has gone into what he's playing so don't worry if it doesn't fit into a binary definition of straight vs swung.. forget about all that, just keep listening to get 100% into what he's playing, that's all it is.. absorbing, internalising and replicating. Software like Amazing Slow Downer lets you loop sections and slow them down, even a couple of bars at a time, then work up the tempo. If you work on smaller chunks and really internalise how he's playing, like a couple of bars at a time, it'll pay off when you join it all together. Just bear in mind if you're doing this and slow it down a lot, there tend to be 'gears' of swung 8ths feel... so slowing down recordings with uptempo swung 8ths will very likely have a different feel to how it'd actually be played if it was a tune at that slower tempo. And give yourself enough time, Dave Liebman recommends around 50 hours per transcription, being able to sing it perfectly alongside the recording then play it. Good luck Caroline

Cheers all, I'll drop the bi-amped sub idea and will start considering new amp/cabs. Barefaced cabs looks like a good contender.

Those who might scoff at the idea of Zoom producing a multi effect in the HX price bracket, might do well to listen to this. Unscientific it may be but compelling it is nonetheless.

I think the reason why they haven't really developed the bass cabs is that most people seem to move towards using IR. Bass amps though... The XT live had: Acoustic 360 - On Helix Aguilar® DB750 - On Helix Alembic F-2B - On Helix (Alembic is a fender preamp design so use the Fullerton Normal I think) Ampeg® B-15A - On Helix Ampeg® SVT - On Helix Eden Traveller WT-300 - Not On Helix Fender® Bassman® Combo - Kinda on Helix, you've got two channels of a Bassman Fender® Bassman® Head - Kinda on Helix, you've got two channels of a Bassman Fender® Dual Showman® - Not On Helix Gallien Kruger 800RB - On Helix Hiwatt® DR-103 - On Helix Hiwatt® 200 DR - Not On Helix Marshall® Major - Maybe - there's 4 different Marshall amps most with multiple channels Marshall® Super Plexi - On Helix with two channels Mesa/Boogie® Bass 400+ - On Helix with 2 channels Polytone MiniBrute® - Not On Helix Sunn® Coliseum - On Helix SWR® SM-500 - Not On Helix Versatone Pan-O-Flex - Not On Helix Vox® AC100 - AC15 and AC30 but no AC100 Line 6® Classic Jazz Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Brit Invader Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Super Thor Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Frankenstein Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Ebony Lux Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Doppelganger Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Sub Dub Don't know what this is like so... Line 6® Tube Preamp On helix like studio preamp Bypass def possible Plus the Helix has... . SVT bright channel, Mesa M9 carbine Pearce BC1 - two channels and jumped SVT-4 I would respectfully suggest that apart from something in the SWR/Eden type sound the Helix has more useful amp models for bass....

Pics added with Boss type control knobs on mine.............. LOVE THIS PEDAL NOW I CAN SEE THEM ! Pete

WARNING: JAZZ CONTENT If easily offended by be-bop, please stay away Nobody ever played recorder like this when I was at school. I wish they had!

Fela Kuti ought to be in any Hall of Fame.

Wonder how many of these new fx are going to be available on the Pod Go - all of them? Just persuaded our guitarist on a new project to replace his 12kg (!!) pedal board and case, which was taking his arm off on public transport, with a Pod Go - which we got from the FS on here. Daft fella had been thinking about getting a Kemper, which would have only cost 5 times as much, lol, but when he checked the reviews of the Pod Go and Helix Stomp found that a) that they sounded great and b) the Pod was good to Go for gigs with his amp & cab and covered 90% of what the Stomp could do, and he wasn't particularly fussed about the remaining 10%. All in, should be a very good result and am looking forward to hearing it in action over the next couple of weeks, albeit on guitar rather than bass.

That's the classic 'folding Ric'... the neck pickup route is way too big and takes a huge chunk out the neck/body wood; then string tension slowly folds the bass around the neck 'joint'. Add in a bit of tail lift and you have what we see here. It can be fixed by inserting a hard maple block to fill the pickup route, then re-routing a new, smaller, pickup size hole. My 4003 started to go this way and I ran out of adjustment on the bridge saddle height - as the tailpiece was also showing some lift I replaced it with a Hipshot Ric bridge (a simple drop-in replacement). This eliminated the tail lift and also allowed the saddles to go much lower, restoring a playable action. Lighter gauge strings (40 - 100), as factory fitted, do help.

I usually DI straight into the fishing tackle box

The folks above are right to raise the issue of intonation, @mojobass as the intonation adjustment range on bridges can vary enormously. None of the saddle apexes are going have to be set shorter than the scale length but the G will usually be the closest to the scale length (usually around a mm longer). The saddles for thicker strings are usually set at progressively longer positions with the bottom E often 4-5mm longer than scale. So to set the bridge, what I usually do is: - I wind the G saddle fully forward and then back off a mm or two to allow a bit of wiggle room for fitting inaccuracies - I check that the other saddles will adjust at least 4mm further back than this (if they don't, then sometimes that means the bridge will need to be tilted - but this is rare for bass bridges) - I then set bridge so that the forward-wound G saddle apex is at scale length - I pop a piece of easy peel masking tape along the front edge of the bridge so I don't lose that position and then hold a string from the G nut slot to the G saddle and the same between the E nut slot to the E saddle to make sure that the sideways position is central and that the strings are going to be equidistant from the fretboard sides. - I double make sure that the front edge of the bridge is still exactly in line with the masking tape (it's very easy to knock the bridge off position when checking sideways position) and mark my drill hole positions That way, I can be sure that all the saddles are going to be capable of adjusted back far enough to intonate correctly and that the top and bottom strings are equidistant from the fretboard sides

I think a sub is overkill. It fills the stage with super-low, mostly in-usable freqs, gets sent to FOH and muddies up the mix, and eats up your amp's power. I play in a reggae band during the summer, and don't try to push to much low end. I have a little going on back in the 'engine room", by me and the drummer, who loves that deep stuff. Beyond that, I DI to three board and let the pa do that work.

That's great but it's spelled descant. You're welcome.

BAN THIS SICK FILTH!!!!

Good question. But in reality, the question is 'are you loaded enough to play a Fodera'? Jaco never played an Alembic or a Fodera. He changed the world on a second-hand Jazz. I think if the instrument improves your music, then go for it. But, in these days of wonderful Sire instruments, simply doesn't matter.

Happy Friday .you will recognise this one