reesource

Hello Mod Dwarf users. I saw this article - https://cdm.link/2022/05/mod-devices-made-a-guitar-synth-you-can-actually-play-like-a-synth-so-your-guitar-is-the-cv/ - and wondered whether any of you have tried triggering a synth patch using your bass? If the tracking is good enough, this is a 100% must-buy for me! REALLY hoping it's a possibility...

Fair enough - perhaps there has been progression. I’m only judging them on what I’ve heard, and I haven’t gone out of my way to listen to anything since By The Way, so it was unfair of me to say that to be honest. I’ve only heard bits and pieces. I’ll have to watch some recent live stuff with John. Ultimately I just miss the funk and the rock - the energy that they used to have. But they gave us some great records back in the day, and I guess they’ve earned the right to do what they want.

I haven't posted here for years, but seeing the new Chili Peppers video for some reason made me come here and see what people thought. I was a massive Chilis fan in the 90s, and Blood Sugar and One Hot Minute are both really good records. More than a little problematic lyrically in places, but I can't imagine a better Frusciante record than Blood Sugar, and One Hot Minute was exactly what I needed from them at the time. I wish Navarro had been able to do more with them. BUT... funny you should mention lead singles @Kev - when Frusciante rejoined for Californication, the lead single was Scar Tissue, and I remember thinking "stinky poo, I hope the rest of the album isn't like this - where's the damn funk?!". But that was the beginning of the end for me. The album was a massive disappointment, with a few decent songs but terrible guitar tones throughout, and not enough of what I loved about them previously. And I've got to side with @steantval on this - Frusciante's lead playing seemed to go down the toilet during those heroin years in the 90s. And I just don't hear any progression since 1999. Up until then they'd kept developing and changing. But hey, the stuff I hate is what made them more popular than ever, so what do I know?

Yep, it's truly terrible - but now I really want to know the number 1 worst website you've seen this year! I really don't need to put a graphite neck on any of my basses, but this thread has got me tempted...

This one:

When you say you float, do you mean you move your thumb around and rest it in different places, or do you mean you don't rest it anywhere and just kind of hover your whole hand?

Good question - and I'd be interested to know how people manage to play without resting their thumb somewhere. If I want to play hard and really dig in, pushing my thumb onto the pickup provides the resistance I need against the motion of my fingers. Does that make sense?

Ok, here's a technique question. For years, I've played basses with a P/J pickup configuration. My thumb rests on the P pickup, next to the bit that sticks out for the screw. It's a good solid corner to really dig into. I recently got a G&L L2000 Tribute, which I'm loving, apart from one thing - the pickups don't have that bit for the screw on the part of the pickup where I would rest my thumb. Same problem I found when I owned a Jazz for a few months. So my thumb keeps slipping off the pickup! So my question is: Where do you put your thumb, and how do you stop if from falling off the pickup? Am I putting too much pressure on my thumb, i.e. pushing it onto the pickup too hard? And if so, how do you really dig in and play hard without leaning hard on your thumb? [Edit: just realised I should've posted this in the Technique section... mods, please feel free to move it]

I had a plan. But I think I've realised it's silly. I am definitely rehousing the FI in a compact enclosure. That's a no-brainer for saving space on my board. Then I was going to leave the FI activated, and use a line selector pedal to route signal through the FI when I wanted the effect, because I don't want to accidentlaly step on the rotary encoder. Plus I was going to make a homemade Arduino box with program down and program up footswitches (MIDI CC 67 and 88). BUT it's just occurred to me that I could get rid of the line selector, and instead put an extra footswitch on my homemade unit to switch the FI on and off (MIDI CC 69). Then I may as well add a 4th footswitch in case I want to make it to do something else for a specific program. I know that @Quatschmacher will try again to persuade me to get a Morningstar MC6 but I think I'm happy with my plan for now. Can anybody see any flaws in this plan or does it make sense?

Mine is usually not sideways - just need to dig out some different length patch leads to make it work. It's either that, or design a replacement top graphic so it looks like it's meant to be that way round! I know, I know... But I just don't need that kind of functionality. It would be fun but completely unnecessary!

Here we go then. This is not the final board (is it ever?) but for now I've got: Compressor > COG 66 > LS-2 (loop goes through the Future Impact) > Zoom (only used for the A-Filter effect) > Chorus > TU-3 > VT Bass DI. I've got the LS-2 so that I don't squish the Future Impact's rotary encoder. Eventually I'll rehouse the FI in a Future Compact enclosure, and also add a homemade patch up/down MIDI footswitch so the FI can just stay out of the way of my clumsy feet. Also I'll put the COG after it - it's only where it is because of the cable lengths I currently have to hand. One day I'll replace the Zoom with a dedicated filter, but it actually sounds way better than I thought it would. Not sure what to replace it with... Spectrum maybe?

Ha ha, yes, true... Thanks, I think so too! But again, this is my only "natural" bass. A lot of them look too "Luther Vandross" for me, but these G&L basses look like they mean business! That's what every musician says about their most recent album though isn't it! I've only tried it on headphones so far, but that combination sounds best to me too. Will be interested to hear how other settings come across in a band setting...

The recent post about the cheap orange L2000 Tributes at Andertons got me thinking, but even with the discount I couldn't justify getting one, plus I wasn't keen on the colour. So when I saw this one second hand I couldn't resist! This is my first non-Fender for over 20 years - it's also my only current bass with a chunky neck (I have 2 bitsas with Geddy Lee necks, and a Reggie Hamilton Jazz) so it might take a bit of getting used to. But the first 30 minutes I've spent with it have been very enjoyable. I'm a happy boy 🙂

Lots of improvements, and that new skin is a VAST improvement! Excellent stuff.

What you're assuming here is that the keyboard has a MIDI INPUT, and can then merge the input signal with its own MIDI information and send it all to the computer via USB. It's more likely that if the keyboard has any MIDI ports at all, it will be a single output. I would suggest 2 simple solutions: 1. Get a MIDI Mouse (there's one on eBay at the moment with a £50 starting bid) and a basic 1 in, 1 out MIDI interface for the computer. Assign a different program change number to each patch in MainStage and you're good to go. 2. If the keyboard has any buttons on it which send CC messages, you can get MainStage to respond to 2 of these as Next/Previous patch commands. It requires a small amount of setting up but it's not too tricky. Then you can drag your patches into the required order in MainStage and that's pretty much it. No extra purchasing necessary.