paul_5

5 swear by my Blade B15 - £600 and every Jazz Bass tone you'll ever need, also lovely playable neck. Useful 'mid boost' switch for recording DI'd - works every time.

The [i]free[/i[ solution is to bounce the tracks with amplitube on and then use those instead of trying to process all of those in real time. You can then simply 'disable' the tracks that have all of the plugins on (I'd also recommend hiding them from the arrange window and the mixer to avoid confusion), so that if you need to revisit the amp settings later on, simply 'enable' the track again, fix what needs fixing and then bounce the track back out again. Admittedly this is very time consuming, and requires more patience and organisation than simply doing everything through RTAS plugins. Also you could bus the guitars through the same plugin to reduce RAM usage (if all of the guitars are sharing a similar reverb patch for instance). This is a great way to free up your machine's resources at a stroke. Other than that I can't really recommend any specific hardware, 'cos I'm a bit of a troglodite when it comes to recording - I prefer to move microphones than reach for EQ knobs. I have had some good results with the Sansamp PSA plugin (comes free with PT 8+), and I can run multiple instances without overloading the CPU. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I've used the 'bounce workaround' on my old G4 powerbook (single 1GHz processor), and managed to mix a 20 track song for radio just fine.

How about 'Tom Sawyer' or similar. Early Rush can lend itself really well to a female singing range. Also you get to play a great riff in 7!

My current 'project' is a 'Yamato' maple neck and fingerboard (which I defretted) frankenfitted onto a Hondo P bass body (I think it's ash, it's bloody heavy) that I pickey up from thievebay for £25. I've bought all new hardware and pickups (GFS) and have a really playable, smooth sounding bass for a smidge over £100. Really quite pleased with it. Pictures to follow.

As a degree lecturer I've often had to question whether I include TAB in my handouts or not. In these days of 'inclusivity' TAB often wins out as it ensures 'quick results' which, to be honest, is what students (and management) like to see. Students who can see that they are progressing (i.e. last week I couldn't play this, and now I can) are the ones who 'stay the course' because they don't get disheartened at an apparent lack of progress. That said, as educators our job isn't just to keep 'bums on seats' and teach students to simply pass the course; we SHOULD be preparing musicians for a career in industry - and that doesn't include TAB (or didn't the last time I depped for anyone). Why not try to wean students off TAB? You could print the first couple of pages fully tabbed, then just the stuff past middle 'C' / double stops etc... then as the book progresses, move into more established forms of notating position (sul A etc...)? Just a thought.

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1054940' date='Dec 11 2010, 01:33 PM']Definitely. The funk is in the mids.[/quote] and of course - "tha one"

Thanks for that, I really enjoyed it.

[quote name='nick' post='1053735' date='Dec 10 2010, 09:23 AM']I've found them [url="http://www.banzaimusic.com/EH-knob-current-design-push-on.html"]here[/url]. I've also got to order some 1meg log reverse pots for some 'SFT' clones I'm building, from Banzai - only place I can find them. If you want me to order an extra EHX knob, let me know (save you postage). Will probably put order inthis weekend.[/quote] That'd be great, as I'm hoping to do my mod this weekend also. Will PM you details etc...

[quote name='nick' post='1052244' date='Dec 8 2010, 11:09 PM']Reminds me, I've got to get a matching EHX knob for the new control. [/quote] Let me know if you find one, as I'm about to put a volume control on the output stage of my Q-tron +.

Cheers Doddy, nice to get a little bit of background. Just to sum up - I'm probably of receiving stolen goods on the strength of that.

Just purchased the download of this - can't wait to get started...

Are you sure about the true bypass mod? That's a 24 volt pedal and has arguably a very high quality buffer in there. If I kept only one 'buffer' stage on my current board then it would be this one.

Playing bass with 'the kings of Leon'. Oh no wait, that would be the worst job...

Yup. I was raised on Queen (mum's choice) and the Beach Boys (Dad's choice). I try to give my kids (a 3 year old and a 12 week old wee man) a varied spectrum of stuff. We've had Bartok, Stravinsky, Zappa, the Beatles, Rush, Bach and a fair bit of Jazz too (Love supreme, Bitches Brew, Mingus etc..). Last week in the car my 3 year old asked me "what's this one?" and my startled reply was "it's Motorhead, do you like this one?" he nodded his head ever so quickly - obviously been practicing...

I do, but only by default. I write all the 'song' bits in the band (melodies and lyrics, but everyone contributes riffs etc...), but we were looking for a dedicated 'singer' to front the band. We auditioned loads of people but they were all a bit below par, so I gravitated towards singing as we had gigs booked and no 'proper' singer, mainly'cos I was the one who knew the material the best. It was really daunting at first, but we were really well rehearsed with the material, and I could 'switch off' my bass playing brain and concentrate on the vocals and front man thing. Les Claypool is right, it takes buttloads of practice, but I'm sure that anyone can do. If you're thinking about having a stab then I'd say "go for it", you have nothing to lose but your inhibitions - and when is that a bad thing?

Big Muffs are ALWAYS welcome to my ears, especially when blended. If you fancy something that's a little bit special then the MXR Bass Blowtorch has a 3 band EQ (with selectable mid frequency) and a blend control (amongst others). Basically you'll have an EQ for the dirty bass, and leave the clean signal alone. Gets my vote. MUCH more flexible than the loved/hated Big Muff 'tone stack'.

[quote]But there were some complaints - some people wrote that there's no sound coming through, some complained that the sound is coming through, but unaffected (without wah-wah)[/quote] Hmm, probably due to the switch being the wrong way round. It's easily done with a 3PDT. I'd suggest that they desolder the switch and then turn it through 90 degrees,. Then use the same diagram (using bottom Left, top Right etc...) should make a big difference. Using a 3PDT on a Wah is a bit of an overkill, as the third bank of contacts is really only useful if you're putting an LED indicator on the casing, and as there's nowhere to put it on a wah then it simply confuses matters...

That's a blast from the past. I know Brian (who made this) and have even gigged with him once or twice. He's a lovely man with some very, very, unique ideas about musical instruments (sewing machine, flip-over guitar etc...). The quality of his 'serious' instruments is exceptional. He's also dead helpful when it comes to setups and repairs on just about anything else too. Just thought I'd mention it.

I use my 'air bass' and let the guitar double the bass line...

[quote name='mazdah' post='1048702' date='Dec 5 2010, 08:38 PM']And which one is suitable for 105Q ? I think my friend could help me with this mod, but I need scheme that WILL work for sure...[/quote] Ah, didn't realise you had the 105Q. In theory it's the same mod (as far as the switch goes), because with the replacement switch you're switching the input signals, not the outputs. as long as the wiring's the same (and I have no reason to doubt it) it's a simply a case of fitting a new switch (follow the link for 'see diagram'). Without a good schematic I'd steer clear of the buffer mods, which means that you'd still get the 'tone suck' when the pedal is engaged. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[quote name='mazdah' post='1048638' date='Dec 5 2010, 07:58 PM']I love the sound of my Dunlop - so much mid range growl and funky sounds coming out from this toy, but I have a major problem with bypass - it takes a lot of my punch and clarity in bypass mode. It's not noticable on roundwound strings, but I prefer flats and I like to have a big thump which is impossible with Dunlop in signal chain. I can have a G-lab BWW-1 Wowee-Wah for my Dunlop, but I don't know how does it sound. On youtube videos the G-Labs sound is very trebly and quite thin, but it has a lot of switches and filters so maybe it's just a matter of tweaking. And it has a greater bypass. What do you think?[/quote] Try this - works a treat and takes about 15 minutes. [url="http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/"]http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/[/url] Look under the DIY resources tab, then choose 'true bypass mod' the 3PDT switch (or even DPDT is useable) will cost about a fiver. I've just finished doing this to mine, and it's made a HUGE difference.

Behringer kit actually doesn't sound too bad. For the most part their pedals are cloned from Boss etc.. kit anyway. The only thing to watch out for is that the build quality can be dicey - obviously for this price bracket you're not going to have a cast metal case and top quality components, so bear that in mind if you're planning to back-flip onto it as part of your act... I had a Digitech chorus pedal last year, and it was VERY hissy - the circuit sounded like it had a gate on it to mute the level of noise when I wasn't playing. I'm currently using an old Boss CE2B (about £50 on eBay) which is just lovely, also, check the 'recent posts' on BC, as someone is selling a Boss CEB5 pedal, not sure what he wants for it; you might get lucky.

[quote name='Norris' post='1047500' date='Dec 4 2010, 04:21 PM']A mate just emailed me this link. A bit of... erm... slap bass. Warning: Contains scenes of a chap with serious identity issues [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_X7mMU6Gb0"]YouTube link[/url][/quote] THIS is surely one for the 'daily awesomeness' post...

The best recorded sound I ever had was an ampeg SVP pre into a power amp into a Hartke Hydrive 4x10. We took a DI from the Ampeg, close mic'ed the cab with an AKG D112 (dynamic kick drum mic) and then put an SE2200 (large diaphragm condenser) about 18" away slightly off axis. We did this for all of the tracks on the EP and varied the mix depending on the sound we were after - lovely. If time's tight then I just use the Ampeg and boost about 1.6kHz to emulate some of the 'punch' from the cab mic.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1046837' date='Dec 3 2010, 09:26 PM']They must be queuing up to make programes about the old master. Paul Gambaccini presented a programme about him on Radio 4 yesterday. Anyone interested can listen to it for another week at: [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w7cmk"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w7cmk[/url][/quote] I'd recommend this - a wonderful piece of radio. Made my day.