mcnach

Have you considered Labella White Nylon tapewounds? They're not cheap... but they last forever (almost). They're unlike other tapewounds. They are pretty bright but balanced, and strong low mids and tight bottom end. It means they can be used for stuff you'd normally use roundwounds for and will sound good in the band. Very sweet slap tone too (just not the ultra bright Marcus Miller style tone). Of course, you can tame the top end, and then you get into 'old school territory', with strong low mids still, so lots of fat but with definition. They're also very flexible... you can bend strings like crazy. You'll probably have to turn your truss rod a *tiny* little bit. My favourite string these days if I don't want straight up roundwounds. I always found flats very nice but a little limited... and tapewounds usually were not much better. The white nylons changed all that. Very versatile string.

I do like them. Sunbeams or the stainless steel Fat Beams for me. I like their flexibility, they're easy to bend, and have sweet low mids... The Fat Beams are pretty bright to start with, but the Sunbeams lack that extra zing and they're perfect from day 1, for me. I used to use D'Addario EXL170s but I much prefer the Sunbeams.

The white nylons are brilliant. Unlike most other tapewounds, they do bright sounds as well as the more 'thumpy' ones if you want them to and their low mids are just right. very tight and defined bottom end. I love them. Their copper version is even better on the low mids, I think, although their colour can look a bit weird on some basses. Either the standard white nylons or the copper version would be my choice.

Predictably, most people recommend what they own because they're happy with it... I'm no different: Mesa D800+ and a pair of Barefaced Two10 vertically. Chances are you will not really feel the need for a 610 combination, although it would definitely be a sweet sounding solution if you got a Four10 plus a Two10. The Mesa is super versatile, and that adjustable HPF is fantastic. The Two10 cabs are pretty portable yet they move a lot of air together and sound really good. I have tried quite a few different things over the past years but I was never "at home" until I came to this.

I guess you must have been hungry when you typed the title of this thread...

I'd just replace the string(s)... but make sure the band plays a song while you do that without bass. THEN when you come in, everybody will realise that YOU, THE BASS PLAYER, is the most important member of the band

I'm saying that a good drummer can play loud and can play quietly, and a drummer that can only play loud is just not a very good drummer. Hitting the right bits in time is only part of the game, you have to hit them with the right amount of force for the situation. Dynamics. They exist.

It takes me a month or more before I start liking new strings!

I think what happens is that the player no longer becomes part of the ground on those basses... If touching a metal part (bridge) quietens the beast, then that's why coated strings are noisier. It probably means you could do something to improve the grounding on that bass.

I think I know the right guy for them...

Queen, live in Budapest... what an amazing band.

Ah, the things we do... There's pedals I've bought and sold 2 and 3 times... The Aftershock has the potential to be amazing. Reading a bit through the manual I keep going "whoa! it can do what???" but I fear I'll choke soon and switch to some small basic pedal instead if I'm not careful. The editor app is a whole entire world in itself!

I just got an Aftershock and after reading this... my head hurts. But I'll be back when I'm not tired... maybe on Saturday morning with a coffee and at a time I can make noise

I just got an SA Aftershock... what a beast! I just wanted it for one fairly high gain kind of sound, and liked that I can probably tweak it until I'm satisfied exactly with the amount of low end and everything... but this pedal can do so many things! So... presets and an external switch, eh? Interesting...

Oooh, Retrovibe have some cool steel surrounds for MM pickups. Great if you want to have a go yourself but your woodworking skills are not very good! http://www.retrovibe.co.uk/parts/other.html

Might be, or not. Probably worth emailing David at Retrovibe and ask. He was pretty good when I had to get in touch. The blurb also states "this is the only mini MM pickup with 4 wires blah blah" but the picture clearly is not a mini MM... so I'd definitely ask him before buying a pickup, to be sure. The one on the Vantage I used to have (back in 2011 or so) was a ceramic pickup and I really liked it. If they still use the same pickups, they're a great option.

+1 and if you have a solder iron but it's not very good... buy another! I have used an underpowered one for years. I bought it when I was a student so I got the cheapest I could get thinking it would not last long and then I'd buy a better one. The thing refused to die and I still have it... but eventually I went and bought a decent soldering station. Nothing too fancy, but you can set the temperature, it holds the iron and there's a nice bit for the wet sponge etc. It wasn't very expensive. What a difference it made!!! Suddenly all my soldering works were beautiful, and it was easy, quick... So, really, get yourself a decent iron if yours is not up to the task. Soldering becomes almost a relaxing experience

Hmm, they don't seem to have that pickup on the site

Every single MM type pickup I tried (I went through a few on my old OLPs) had perfectly adequate output by themselves. In fact, the Stingray preamps provide tone shaping capabilities but nothing much in terms of boosting the signal (of course it boosts if you turn the bass EQ control up ) So... OP, don't worry about volume issues. My favourite is probably the Seymour Duncan SMB4A, which is not the most Stingray-like in sound (but as you won't get it at the Stingray sweet spot in a Precision it doesn't matter), but it's very good sounding and nicely balanced. For more 'classic' Stingray sounds, the Nordstrand MM4.2 was pretty good, although I still preferred the SMB4A, which was fortunate as it's not expensive and can often find it used for around £50. The GFS ones get good reviews, but it was a bit lacklustre when I tried it, in my opinion. Not a fan of Delanos either. Whatever Retrovibe used to put on their Rick/Jazz hybrid looking Vantage basses... it was surprisingly good, and I bet it was cheap too.