mcnach

Well, my MB-5 SBK has been shipped with UPS... but given the current situation I doubt I'll actually get my hands on it until the eleventy of Blebruary or thereabouts... The good news is that the PB20 SBK (Precision) has arrived and it's all wrapped up ready to be given to my girlfriend. I hope she drinks a lot tonight and falls asleep early so that I can play it too It's very light and looks better in person than in the photographs... which does not help my patience waiting for the MB-5...

Same here. And another that I ordered around the 14th was delivered on Monday. Fingers crossed. Both appeared to be shipped by UPS.

I agree about the 40Hz. It seems pretty common on bass onboard preamps and I was never a fan, I would prefer a bit higher... but as it's common I'm used to how it behaves. One preamp that caught my attention recently with what I think are more suitable EQ points is the Darkglass Tone Capsule with bass at 70 Hz, then low mids at 500 Hz and high mids at 2.8 KHz. If in the future I want to put a preamp on one of my basses I think I will have to look at this one. No, what I'm doing is not what you describe. I set the HPF higher than the Thumpinator, quite a bit higher. The Thumpinator is essentially transparent, and I am talking of audible effects. The centre frequency for the bass control may be 40 Hz but it is not a sharp peak and it affects quite a lot the frequencies around it too, which is the key. By combining the adjustable HPF and the bass EQ you can get a noticeable bump probably up to 120 Hz or more (where and how pronounced the bump will be depends on the exact settings, you can move that peak around). You could experiment a bit in your favourite DAW, with the advantage that you can see the EQ curves, and you'll see what I mean. It's a very useful 'trick' when mixing.

Uf, you have me for a more technical guy than I am: I am more 'a bit of sugar' than '12g of sugar' when it comes to bass (but sweet nonetheless if you're nice to me ). But from what I recall, the Mesa D800+ bass control is centered at 40 Hz. How much would I boost normally? It varies, I find it's generally a balancing act between the bass EQ control and the variable HPF and it can depend on the place I'm playing at, but usually the bass control would be turned up to around 1 o'clock or so (not a lot, but noticeable). Sometimes more, but not often. I would first boost bass a bit, then turn the HPF until it starts thinning the sound too much, and back off a bit. Then just listen to the mix and see if it needs more of a bump or less. My EQ usage is pretty sparse, both on the amp itself and on my bass, I seem to get where I want mostly through the HPF/BassEQ/voicing controls on the amp, and anything else will be treated as an 'effect' (for specific songs). I'd use the LPF gently to reduce the top end, resulting in a smoother tone, but sometimes you want more presence, and others just a very bottom-heavy sound....

No, I never tried your pedal, but I've been into HPF and LPF filters for a bit. I was finally about to order the Broughton one a few months back, but a chat with SFX made me get a unit from him instead (it was available immediately).

Close your eyes, imagine it's... I don't know, sunburst. Shaped vaguely like a Jazz but with soapbar humbuckers. Add tortoiseshell if you fancy. Better? Seriously, apart from the looks, that's a pretty normal sounding bass.

Indeed, the ability to bump the threshold frequency can be very interesting. I realised now that I guess I sort of do something like that often with my Mesa D800+, I 'discovered' by accident that setting up the HPF threshold a bit higher than I would normally and boosting the bass EQ at the same time produces what seems to be a similar bump, which does wonders for the bass sound I go for: definitely fat, but with definition and no mush. I thought I had discovered something cool and then I was told that it's a very common technique

Well, you can't possibly buy every single pedal that comes out For me it comes at a good time: over the past few years I've come to realise that my favourite tonal shaping options would be a LPF and semiparametric mids, none of that bass/mids/treble nonsense 😛 so if I can get my hands on one, it'll probably replace my SFX unit (although the LPF goes very low on the SFX and I find it very useful, it makes my bass playing sound a lot better than it is for some dub style material I play, almost studio recording quality)

Beautifully explained, thanks!!

It's useful sometimes to RTFM But I can understand the confusion. The -3/+15 is nothing to do with the slop, but rather what happens to the 'bit just after the cut off frequency' (technical AF), which can be boosted with that control. It's a pretty interesting kind of filter, on paper, I have never tried one like that.

The slope is -12db/octave according to the blurb. It's a bit shallower than what I'd prefer, but the combination looks really neat in a single pedal format. I have not experimented with any HPF that has a slope shallower than -24db/octave so I can't say how much/little I'd notice it but I think it'll do the job that I want: tightening the low end a bit. It's the adjustable LPF (I came late to the party but once I started experimenting with them I can't imagine how I managed this long without) with the additional tweakability on the mids that really attract me to this unit. The HPF even if a bit shallower than ideal looks like it would be very useful in combination. I just wish it had a level control too, as once you start removing frequencies it's easy to have a noticeable drop in volume. Right now I have a pedal made by SFX that combines an adjustable LPF (two ranges, actually: 45-500 Hz or 145-1600 Hz) with a Thumpinator (fixed HPF at 30 Hz), which also has a level control. In my opinion it's needed in a unit like this. It's not a deal breaker for the Broughton RFE as there are ways around that, but I wish they had added one.

Of course it's out of stock (more in January), but this looks great! https://www.broughtonaudio.com/product-page/resonant-filter-equalizer I wish the LPF could get a bit lower (I have one that goes down to 145 Hz and while it's not an everyday sound, it has surprisingly a lot of good uses at the very low end, although I'd typically set it somewhere higher than 300 Hz so the Broughton unit would be fine), but having both HPF and LPF in one pedal, plus the semiparametric mids to tweak the note definition just so... I can see myself getting a lot of mileage out of this.

Are the pickups cleanly routed under the pickguard? I think it would look really good without the pickguard. I should stop checking this thread... I'm still waiting for the MB5 (Christmas present so it may be at home already, hidden away... hmmm, maybe it's time to pretend to sleepwalk, although it didn't work when I was 7, I don't think it'll work now )

So we can only opine if we want to buy, gotcha.

same here, sometimes just used the sticks alone but I prefer adding a bit of wood glue. The result is solid and it stays for years as far as I can tell.

It's also available for Windows and Mac. I used to use it (on a Windows PC) back in 2013-14 or so, and I also had Guitar Pro. Guitar Pro tried to add a lot of additional features which was cool as a way to create a quick backing track, but as a tab editor I preferred Tuxguitar too. Good price too

While I wait for my MB-5... I ordered the Precision too. Well, it's only fair, my girlfriend bought the MB-5 for me and she seemed to like very much the look of the Precision, so I ordered it for her. Note: yes, she plays bass too.

I think it was this song that made me change my (admittedly shortsighted) opinion that rock bass is boring/uninspiring. Fool for your loving, to me, is a great example: the bassline goes places, and it's busier than most thing until they pay attention, but it fits perfectly and doesn't get in the way. I just love everything about it: the notes, the sound (the sound!)...

Not a fan of the nails myself either, I would have preferred maybe tied down with a bit of thin rope: easy, secure, safe, and it would look good I think. However it wouldn't be a deal breaker if I were interested in what the pedal offers, to be fair.

Okay, now I had the purple Squier for a bit, my impressions have changed somewhat. I was a bit disappointed at first because the CV series basses (early ones, 2013-14) I've had were perfect out of the box, so I had very high expectations. I had heard that the CV series had lost a bit, and it makes sense when you see everything else has gone up in price but the CV pretty much stayed at the same price. After taking care of the nut a bit... things are a lot nicer. I didn't really do anything else to it, I've been too busy and I didn't want to spend too much time on it. That neck is fantastic. Very smooth edges, low profile, fretwork is very good... it plays extremely nicely, and the pickups are better than I was expecting. It's a great guitar. Don't get me wrong, I still love the SX and I would be very happy with just that one, but the neck on the purple CV Telecaster is worth the extra money, for my liking... However, if I just wanted a Tele for around £100, yeah, very happy with the SX.

I suppose that a book aimed at bass players would have limited appeal outside our 'little universe', even if I would for one devoure it! However, I find that people who are at your level (the handful I've met, not exactly a large sample, but...) often feel as you describe: "ah, it'll be boring, who will even care? people will just want gossip", but I think their experiences can have a wider appeal than you imagine when approached simply as "the trials and tribulations of someone trying to make a living as a musician". A lot of us could write books along those lines, but very few got to 'make it' and become part of so much music that became the soundtrack of our lives, in some ways. My book would be really boring. It would start with my 'discovering' music and trying to play melodies and rhythms on anything I could get my hands on, until my parents made it clear that they thought music was something just for fun on the side and that I should go study at University instead and become an engineer or something. And I went "erm... ok". So rock'n'roll, eh? Well, I went to study Electronic Engineering (while listening a LOT to early Whitesnake, in particular ) and I thought I'd try to follow on the footsteps of Tom Scholz (Boston) and if I was not going to be a proper musician I could design and build equipment. Eventually I dropped out and became a biologist instead, and in my 30s I returned to playing music... and I've got a lot of stories: some crazy, some silly, some sweet... like that 5 year old dancing like a maniac in front of the stage at an afternoon festival in the park, who'd take turns to be in front each one of us, watching with attention what we were doing, and after we finished he kept insisting we continued playing and he wouldn't stop until we invited him over and showed him what the stage was like (he LOVED the drums and we let him make a bit of noise with them)... The look on his face will stay with me forever. Through the years, playing bars, festivals and small clubs, music has shown to be a great leveller. People with very different backgrounds, jobs, different skin colours and religions, brought together by music. Music has helped a lot of us through difficult times, it gives us strength, it can inspire us, or can soften our steely hearts and bring out emotions like nothing else can... and this is just from my observations at a very small/local level (the closest to a 'tour' I've ever done was spending a week travelling in a minibus around the UK, sleeping on floors and dirty pub seats when we were lucky, spending mindnumbing hours each day just waiting for those 2 hours we'd get to do our thing in front of some people, regardless whether they were 1000 or 50... and sometimes not even 50, hell, I've played to two barmen and kitchen staff! ) but still met lots of interesting people and had lots of interesting conversations, with music being the common thread. If I have that, I am positive that your book could be a LOT more exciting. I tell you what, if you write yours, I'll write mine

I suspect that the sunburst and black versions are essentially 'different' models commisioned at different times perhaps at different factories and likely different specs to some extent.

I would gladly give up all my guitars and keep just one if I could be in the same league as Neil, whose CV looks like my favourite record collection It's amazing to be able to hear these stories, first hand, here. Thank you @neilmurraybass for taking the time to indulge us, and of course, for all that music.

Delivery truck left. I may be unreachable for a while. First impressions are nice, but the SX was built better. There are a couple of minor cosmetic flaws (a tiny bubble on the neck lacquer, some small flaking of the lacquer by the nut) and the nut slot for the high E is a tiny bit too low, so the open string chokes a bit against the 1st fret but fretwork is otherwise good (on the SX I had to level 2-3 frets around the 12th-15th fret area on the treble side). It is beautiful, the neck is really nice, a bit slimmer in profile than the SX... I like both, to be honest. Sounds... the pickups are a bit meatier than the SX, but not substantially better or anything: it's just a slightly different tone. With what I know now, if you just want a cheap but nice Telecaster, I'd pick the SX over the Squier... but the Squier is purple, so... Let's see after I adjust and set it up more to my preferences, balance the pickups etc.

Oh, a large box? Being delivered today? I wonder what it contains!