Mr. Foxen

Pickup balance needs to be judged by ear rather than by distance. So fiddle with it till it works. If half the pickup is on its way out then it will be apparent by tapping the poles, but unless it is a split pickup (like a P type or some Dimarzio Js where there is a coil for each pair of strings) it is unlikely half will go.

"Analogue watts" gah. 300w might be a bit underpowered I reckon, think another member had troubles with his Sansamp amp clipping.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1067837' date='Dec 23 2010, 03:14 PM']Have a good tech install an XLR out. He only has to tap both sides of the inverter stage, capacitor isolated and resistor padded, with an output level pot for good measure. You probably don't understand a word of that, a good techie will.[/quote] Won't this give you a preamp out only, whereas between speaker and amp will give the tone colouration from the power stage also?

All of the copper needs to be earthed, and connected to each other piece, if it isn't the stuff with conductive glue. Really, you need to check it all for continuity with a meter once it is all in. Easier using paint.

Listen out for farting out, don't turn it up loud enough to do it. If you aren't loud enough, bump the mid and cut the bass.

[url="http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/"]This program[/url] is quite informative as to eq curves with passive tone stacks. Especially how scooped the Fender one is.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1066040' date='Dec 21 2010, 07:16 PM']All Orange gear appears to work on the same simple set up. If you like it, great, but if not then it isn't for you.[/quote] Old/proper Orange stuff has the bass and treble no mid Bandaxall tone stack, which is pretty linear, both in the middle is flat style.

I had a 4 string Grind (or possibly the immediate precursor) and I found the neck to slim but it was otherwise a very well made bass.

Any dedicated power amp for PA purposes, will be much cheaper for what you get for anything dedicated to bass, and probably be equally or less coloured (because they aim for uncoloured, rather than bass pleasing).

Des that one have the 3 band eq? Fender style tone stack means you can't boost the mids, try stating mids full, treble and bass right down, that is roughly flat. What cab are you using? The Fenders with that tone stack were generally pair with middly cabs in the day, doesn't happen so much now.

Maybe they know what the best rig for metal is? I don't think many of us appreciated the prices you get for scrap currently. And I think many bassists tend towards hoarding, and having a great deal of spare cable laying about, judging by the content of the House of Bass.

The most important thing to do is to listen to what you are playing. If you don't do that, everything else is moot.

I think Japanese stuff is metric and American stuff is Imperial. That might have a little to do with it.

On thin skinny necks, the tension change can put your other strings out a little. I tend to think of it as giving you two lower notes rather than a means to be in drop d tuning sometimes. Bit of practice and you can thumb the lever as part of your playing.

Ebony is pretty variable stuff, both in properties, and what actually gets labeled as 'ebony'. It also tends not to be as black as fingerboards suggest.

[quote name='TimR' post='1063386' date='Dec 19 2010, 11:43 AM']For each of us the tone comes from different parts of our chain in different proportions. To say the amp is 5% is nonsense. It could be 0%-99% depending who you are.[/quote] The who you are bit is the 85% part. When I said 85% fingers, I mean in the sense that a slap is gonna sound different from a gentle pluck whatever rig it goes through (provided the rig is working right).

I realised why I can play descending scales loads faster than ascending ones a while back. I use three fingers: ring-middle index, and that corresponds to the three fretting fingers order, so it co-ordinates easily. So I figured to play ascending as fast I need to learn to reverse the finger order going up, so when I want to do extended widdling I can go up and down rather than falling off the bottom eventually. Problem I'm having is that I'm pulling practicing faces that I haven't for years and my face really aches after about half an hour.

[quote name='BTS_Spacebass' post='1063193' date='Dec 19 2010, 03:12 AM']Then I play the same through my nice new equipment and to me it sounds like it should do.[/quote] Is that fresh gear shine, the fact you know how to use the gear to best create your tone, or the inherent tone of the gear? I've always aimed for having the shabbiest, most cobbled together ugly looking stuff I can figure how to make work. A chunk of that is because I figured should I ever become a known figure nothing will have that 'as used by Mr. Foxen' tag stuck to it that I hate. As it worked out, I drifted toward quite nice stuff because I liked the way they sounded (and have a good resale value when sacrificed to the altar of GAS), and sort of mildly begrudge the fact they are known names (sort of, Matamp and Aguilar aren't really popular type well known brands, but are top bollock in their niche).

Basically, don't get the Bugera Nuke. Even if it is fine, it has no resale value and you might not like it. Loud comes from the cabs you use, not the number of watts.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1063183' date='Dec 19 2010, 02:55 AM']If you think you can trust your ears, are they better than your eyes? How many colors in this picture and what are they? [attachment=66730:colors.gif][/quote] What point are you going for there? My eyes are significantly worse than my ears, which is why I wear glasses. There will always be three colours, because I use a CRT monitor, I know this as a fact. And it is entirely irrelevant to the fact that bass players sound different to each other.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1063175' date='Dec 19 2010, 02:17 AM']The tone was identical as far as what could be bought.[/quote] Er, gear was the same, tone was different. That is kind of the whole point. Unless you both sounded the same. Tone is a sound.

Only the same tone if you ignore the influence of fingers there. Gear is all tone shaping, but the sound in the air is the tone, and fingers is a pretty big influence there.

[quote name='TimR' post='1062921' date='Dec 18 2010, 08:42 PM']I believe that the bass is a lot more than 10% but the 5% for the rig is probably close although the rig part is pretty essential component in the final chain. I think that a lot of rigs are transparent enough that if you are producing a good tone from the bass you don't have to worry too much about the rig.[/quote] Thing is, some tones rely on the rig, and not very transparent ones at that. I'm mostly thinking the driven SVT stack, which is a classic tone, but also all the other driven amp tones, which now I think often feature a Rick too, but really, does anyone play a Rick squeaky clean?

[quote name='4-string-thing' post='1062846' date='Dec 18 2010, 07:45 PM']I may still do this when funds allow! I guess it would be cheaper than a Barefaced cab....[/quote] Pound for pound, you get more for your money.