paul_5

I'll have punt.

[quote name='icastle' post='1033648' date='Nov 23 2010, 10:42 AM']The MOSFET[/quote] Yes. The Mosfet. Lovely little thing. Also Compressors - properly useful and arguably they revolutionised popular music production forever.

+1 on the bass blowtorch. I wasn't overly keen when I first got it (but it was dirt cheap, so I couldn't really leave it in the shop, could I?) but I'm really warming to it; It seems to cover a lot of bases (and basses too) really well. 3 band EQ and a blend knob, you'll struggle to get a bad sound out of it.

If you're not recording more than two tracks at once why not consider a small Protools setup. Reason being that if you nail [i]that[/i] take on a home demo and want to use that take in an eventual studio recording, then most good studios will be running some incarnation of Protools, and you can simply open your project on their machine. Also you'll be learning how to use industry standard software and getting to know what it can do , so that if you're ever recording in a bigger studio then you'll be able to make better informed choices about editing etc... instead of relying on the in house engineers. Just my 2p worth.

Doesn't Billy Sheehan have a PAF style pickup is that position? I saw him demonstrate it at one of his clinics once - produced some LLLLOOOOOOWWWWWW end!

[quote name='SaxxyBass' post='1030940' date='Nov 20 2010, 10:39 PM']I love that track....now I know why [/quote] Plus Bootsy Collins in the mix. Win.

[quote name='chaypup' post='1030901' date='Nov 20 2010, 10:00 PM']Groove is in the heart Express yourself[/quote] Wasn't the 'Groove is in the heart' line pinched from "Bring down the birds"? - I [i]think[/i] it's a Herbie Hancock tune...

Dirty bass is a bit of an obsession of mine, so here's a couple to try. A Sovtek Big Muff (big green one) are prized by a lot of bass players for the warm, fuzzy sound (though this is fuzz, not overdrive, which tends to be a bit 'thinner' to my ears) but are out of production. The Bass Big Muff does well enough in reviews, but I've not tried one myself. The MXR Bass Blowtorch has an on-board 3 band EQ (with selectable mids) so that you can EQ the distorted sound after dialing in as much dirt as you like. Some players think that the amount of distortion available is a bit limited, but as my bass has a pretty hot output level I've got the opposite problem. The Ashdown Drive plus allows you to distort just the highs (using an onboard crossover) and leave the low frequencies untouched, but build quality can be an issue. To my ears the distortion is a little bit underwhelming, but then I like it [i]really[/i] dirty There's loads of other bass dirt boxes on the market, so have some fun playing/experimenting in music shops, ring round before you go though, as some shops don't tend to stock massive ranges of these; we're a niche market. Failing that harmony-central.com is a good place to go for honest reviews, or the guy at bassfuzz.com tends to play about with most of these boxes. They're not very thorough reviews, but often they're better quality sound clips than youtube. (edit)I've just checked bassfuzz.com and all of the samples have been taken down, leaving just the scores out of ten for each pedal Hope this helps.

Good luck with this - the first 11 months are the hardest. Once you've clocked up those, then the rest is easy!!! I haven't bought any gear for 14 months an..... sorry, I can't lie. I'm a pedal junkie and I know I have a problem. Only two feet...

[quote name='silddx' post='456207' date='Apr 7 2009, 09:24 AM']Fascinating as they are, I think this sort of thing would make any musician feel like they were walking naked in the streets of Riyadh. Isolation of something is to reveal its flaws, and people passing judgment on things like tone, timing, errors and erroneous noises outside the context of the whole recording, is a bit weird. Would you isolate the rice from a risotto and tell everyone you think it tastes bland?[/quote] my intention is do a 'remix' of ...And justice for all' so that I can hear the bass on those tracks; I have no desire to see Jason Newstead naked, not even a little bit.

[quote name='51m0n' post='1027810' date='Nov 18 2010, 12:01 PM']Oh forgot this one, classic, seen variations on this with AKG 414s, Neumans, and my favourite a Heil PR40 - its an end address mic (ie like an SM58) but looks like a big side address valve mic, so people sing into the side of them - oh how we laugh....[/quote] I did this the first time I used an EV RE20. We live and learn. Or not. I've also done similar things with a U87 and got a very 'reflective' sound; turns out the singer was singing in the wrong part. How we laughed...

Welcome on board. Nice to see more Zappa enthusiasts on the forum, I'll be listening to EvL later on tonight, thanks for the link. Paul (Nice name by the way, it's one of my favourite albums).

Same as everything else: slowly, then a little bit quicker...

OC2, I love You!!! There, I've said it.

Now children, play nice... +1 on the 'rubber shirt'. Apparently it's the drum tracks from one piece (in 11/8 or something similar) grafted under Patrick's fretless playing. Hooray for Frank Zappa - a true artist. Massively creative and genuinely passionate abut his music. The world needs more people like this.

Just a note, Crybaby Modders. I've just conducted a rough (by that I mean fairly accurate, but not exact) experiment using my bass, Protools (7.4) a wah pedal (with the 0.068uf cap replaced, but no other mods) and a frequency analyser plugin. I wanted to know EXACTLY how much low end got sucked out of my signal when using the Wah pedal in bypass mode. The results were fairly staggering. It seems that the bass guitar (straight into the MBOX) produced bass frequencies (between 40 - 110Hz) at a level round about -30dB (on average) , with the Wah in the signal path (but not engaged) these key frequencies dropped to -40dB. Let's hear it for the 'True Bypass' mod... That's next on my list.

I used to use an EHX Small Clone, which is VERY chorussy, but a bit of a tone-sucker (to be fair it *is* a guitar effect). I've currently got a Boss chorus which is a little bit more subtle.

My "dead wah" from eBay arrived today, opened it up and a capacitor fell out. Admittedly I bought it knowing that it didn't work, and it's no biggie as I've got stacks of components. On the seller's feedback I gave him full marks for an accurate description . Hopefully I'll start modding it tonight. I'll post some photos / audio as soon as I have any. Nice mods too Bartleby, some SERIOUS modding there! Great sounds too.

Stone Dead Forever - Motorhead.

Today has been mainly random early RHCP (freaky styley / Mother's Milk era) and Primus. Radio 4 in the car.

'Sup lowenders, I've just finished building a 4 string fretless bass out of bits and pieces. My main bass is a 5-string, which I love playing. I'm a huge Primus fan, and so love the sound of a low B on the fretless, but don't want to sacrifice top end. Tomorrow I'll take a tiny file to the nut of my "Desibass" and tune it Low 'B', Low 'E' , then tune what would be the D and G to E and A respectively (the two 'E' strings being an octave apart). I figure that this will let me keep the low boom and still have the ability to do some "Palladino" sliding up the dusty end. I figure this way I can keep the chordal approach going too, as the root, fifth and third should fall readily under the fingers in one position. Granted I'll lose an open 'A' strings, but I don't really play much AC/DC, so shouldn't be too much of an issue... Any suggestions or thoughts on alternative tunings would be greatly appreciated.

My big thing at the moment (with two children 3 and under, so every minute counts) is to play major and minor scales going up in 4ths (G, A, B, C then A, B, C, D etc...) for about ten mins,then come back down again trying to vary positions (i.e. trying to make the notes land in different places). Then I just roll off the front pickup and play chordal stuff way up the neck. Not really got time to dig out and set up a 'nome, so it's pretty much rubato, but works for me. I try to do some reading too, but the kitchen table (my practice room and occasional work/solder shop) isn't always free... I work in a music college too, so lunch hours I'll lock myself in a practice room to shed some wood. For me it's all about making the most of the time I have.

Cool thread, I've just bought an old knackered Cry Baby from ebay to do exactly this. Cheers for the links.

Do it. It's loads of fun and really keeps the old grey matter going. Plus you can still tinker with stuff even when it's "finished"; you can pretty much guarantee that no-one else will sound like you too. Which is nice. Also the skills that you develop will enable you to fix / mod shop bought stuff should you ever need to. I used to have a book (came with a floppy demo 45rpm record thingy) called 'electronic projects for musicians' which was cool for loads of hobby/project stuff, which taught me a thing or two about circuit design. If you fancy I've got a couple of circuit diagrams (Wooly mammoth and Russian Big Muff clones) if you fancy a fuzz project. Arguably this is the place to start, as they're generally not very complicated. Running on 9v also means that they're not going to kill you should you get something wrong (terminal annoyance aside).

Thanks for the reply. Loads of good ideas here, and to be honest I had thought about doing pretty much what you suggested, so it just confirms the way to go.