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mcnach

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Everything posted by mcnach

  1. mcnach

    DR Strings

    mcnach replied to a topic in General Discussion

    eh?
  2. mcnach
    That guy was partly responsible for my going ahead and buying a Schecter Model T Session without even having tried one: the bass caught me by its looks and it had the right configuration for what I was looking for... and this guy on the video had a few interesting songs posted playing along to. It led to my buying the bass (it quickly became my #2, which is as high as any bass could get for me, since #1 is firmly my Stingray) and to creating a cool playlist of music I didn't know...
  3. mcnach
    Maybe you aren't... but what if she is???
  4. mcnach
    Yes, mine was a previous incarnation with slightly different controls:
  5. mcnach
    I had the 4 string version (GB74). The two switches were one for various options on the bridge humbucker (single coil, series, parallel, or only series/parallel, I can't recall because I had a Lakland 5502 at the same time with a similar configuration)... and the other one was what some call a 'slap switch', which gives you a low end boost and treble boost too, while cutting mids a bit. I personally didn't like that:it sounds ok by yourself but mid-scooped sounds are not my thing, they bury the bass in the mix. The knobs were volume, pickup blend, and stacked active bass/treble EQ. The volume knob could be pulled, which bypasses the preamp (you lose the EQ, but it allows you to play if the battery dies). Mine was very light and very comfortable although I found the pickups a bit polite, but it wasn't bad at all. Build quality was great. Gigged mine many times. Very versatile and did the job well. Only sold it because I do prefer chunkier necks and I was preferring other basses to it, so during my last cull it went... but it's one bass I wish I had kept.
  6. mcnach
    But not two preamps are the same. Some do one thing better, and others another... So I can see why people may want both. I personally use the MMSR (3-band Stingray preamp) in a few basses, mostly because of the semiparametric mids, handy at my fingertips. I use it to get a bit more aggressive, or back off a bit, and even to control the drive level when using certain overdrives... I can also get a very musical controlled feedback effect when using overdrive and bringing the bass close to the speaker if I turn the mids up as I do it... and easy to back off to normal without taking my hands off the bass (I use that on the RATM band). The J-Retro (or U-Retro) is a favourite for me on 2-pickup basses, again the semiparametric mids are the main reason, but not only. For me the bass amp controls are to set the 'baseline' sound to fit the stage/room. Onboard is where I vary the sound during the set depending on how I want to sound.
  7. mcnach
    Any chance you could record a little demo? Especially illustrating the tape saturation effect... That pedal looks really interesting.
  8. mcnach
    Indeed. I watched a documentary once and read in various places about his practice of recording parts using his voice. I'm not saying he would never leave musicians to come with their own parts, but he generally seemed to have a very good idea of what each part should sound like. Personal life aside, musically the guy was pretty exceptional.
  9. mcnach
    I don't see it as something to give you a distinct tone from click to click of the control, but more something that can give you a couple of variations on the basic bass sound, in passive form. A bit like my passive tone control, it may change continuously but there's only 3 positions I use it at... I'd love to try one before I go ahead and buy it... I may have to PM @krispn for that
  10. mcnach
    as others must have said already (I haven't read the whole thing yet), poplar does not mean lack of low end, how did you get that conclusion? I only own one example (USA MM SUB) but I've played a handful of other poplar bodied basses (and pine, and other 'lowly' woods) and there's no lack of low end that I can tell. It does have a bit of a boring grain, but that's about it. Not the most exciting natural finish. edit: my fretless Precision is also made of poplar. No problems there either.
  11. mcnach
    It definitely must vary. I'll have to try them in person before letting my cash go, especially as I really don't need another bass: I keep playing the same two all the time and the rest are just extravagant decorations. I'll ask if any of by multiple band mates want to start a UFO tribute band. The length of the neck might be the biggest deal breaker, more than the neck dive, I think. Neck dive may occur or not, it seems... but the whole bass seems to sit a few inches to the right farther than I'd like to. Hmmm.
  12. mcnach
    Yes, white, because they don't make then red 😛 When I see the burst ones... it makes me feel like playing Lynyrd Skynyrd. Nothing wrong with that, I love them, but... I feel all swampy and hot and sticky. Black is cool. Black is always cool. But I like a white Thunderbird. Classy.
  13. mcnach
    Nice bass! I guess you were not going for a T-bird sound, as you put the pickup where a P would be (right?)... either way, that looks very nice
  14. mcnach
    I hate Rics... 😛
  15. mcnach
    Indeed, the look was a great part of the attraction. I hear some people saying theirs do not suffer from neck dive, I think this is definitely one bass I would never buy without testing... or only buy used if cheap and I can move it easily if it doesn't work out... Aside from the neck dive, I suspect that neck must feel really long. I've had basses with short upper horns that even if they didn't neck dive, the neck just didn't feel comfy, with the first fret being quite far... and I use the first few frets a lot. Shame, it's a nice looking bass, and makes some nice noises too. Tone styler! That's interesting... I was looking at those a few weeks ago, they seem pretty cool.
  16. mcnach
    I know what Lewis Hamilton looks like... but I can't say I know much about his life outside a F1 car...
  17. mcnach
    Thank you for all the replies... In the end my old friend neck dive came to the rescue. That's a deal breaker for me. Not keen on necks that feel long (strap button positioning) either... Shame. They sound good and look good. My pocket is safe. Phew.
  18. mcnach
    I never even played one before... But I'm finding myself wanting a white one really badly, and go out and "rawk"... I blame Pete Way. Please tell me they are terrible and I shouldn't bother! 😄 edit: ... and I ended up with a Sandberg VM4
  19. mcnach
    You can't pay me to sit and watch that, so I'll take your word for it, whoever she might be.
  20. mcnach
    A pair of Barefaced Two10. I still keep the TKS S112 (pair) because they're very sweet sounding, but I often need more oomph than I'm comfortable putting through them, so the Two10 see most of the action. As for the top end rolled off on that track... Try playing that on the Two10 (6 or 7 KHz top I think) and tell me if you feel it's missing anything important. That was my point (and I can hear very well up to 15 KHz ). "Bright" is a lot lower than a lot of people think, because they haven't really tested it seriously. It was certainly the case for me. Even the TKS S112 don't really feel 'dark' to me and they roll of at 5 KHz. Most of the interesting mids and treble are very well represented in that range, the stuff they cannot reproduce is stuff that I would usually try to remove anyway.
  21. mcnach
    That's the thing, I had not stopped to look at the sound I liked and I assumed it would contain a lot of higher frequencies. It turns out it doesn't (my hearing is pretty damn good still ) . The Two10 doesn't start to roll off significantly until 6 KHz, and the TKS S112 at 5KHz... and they're as bright as I want them to be. And no, I don't go for muddy old school sound. But whenever I had an adjustable tweeter I ended up turning it down. The sizzle that tweeters produce is not very nice, for me. Multiple driver cabs like the TKS 1126 work better (again, for me) in the top end, with the smaller conventional driver (6" one in that cab) taking care of the treble. That one can go a lot higher without a tweeter... I just looked, it goes to 9KHz. To me that's more than plenty. I had two, one with and one without tweeter... The tweeter was a bad idea. For me Some bass preamps have the treble control centered at 10KHz and I find them completely useless except to turn them down. The frequency range it boosts is something I really don't want on my bass. This is as bright as I need:
  22. mcnach
    Of course it's not counterintuitive once you know that But I really didn't know that a few years ago. My first bass rig was not a problem to choose: I just needed some amplification, any, and I needed it fast and it had to be cheap So I took whatever I found (Behringer BX4500 head and matching 210 - the head was surprisingly good, actually... not bad for £100 all included even if I had to drive 60 miles to get it). But later I'd spend a lot of time comparing specs, frequency ranges... I was very worried about losing 'bassiness' with some of the cabs I saw out there. Then someone pointed out to the graphs and I could see that even when stating a low 40Hz, it could be several db lower than at 80Hz... Then I just played the things and they all worked. Much later, I learnt why. Similarly on the top range... I passed on cabs with roll offs at around 4-6 KHz thinking they'd be too dark and went for extended ones, with multiple drivers and/or tweeters. And eventually found they were not needed at all (for me, and I don't use a particularly dark sound).
  23. mcnach
    Indeed! I use my variable HPF with enthusiasm, and it's counterintuitive initially when you realise how high you can go while still producing a strong punchy bass sound.
  24. mcnach
    But we don't really get much of the fundamental playing the lower notes on our bass, which is why you can 'hear' a strong low B even on cabs that roll off below 45 Hz. I think the classic Ampeg 810 had a threshold around something like 55 Hz, with 40Hz being 10db down or lower... yet I doubt many people find them poor with 5 string basses. Regardless... the difference between 40 and 45Hz nominal threshold is not why one cab sounded brighter than the other.
  25. mcnach
    +1 differences in the low end can make one sound like it has 'more body' or something, but that's not where 'brightness' is. And 40 vs 45Hz is negligible unless you're looking for super low dub performances.
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