fretmeister

A lot of the misunderstanding about modellers is shown by the last post ^. Modellers do not claim to be the same as an amp in the room. Only an actual amp can do that so far. Modellers generate the sound of that amp after it has been mic'd up. That is a massive difference. A raging JCM800 in a room sounds like a bomb going off. A raging JCM800 with a couple of mic's in front of it and then into the PA (or into a recording setup) still sounds great, but doesn't have that visceral feel that you get when standing in front of the speakers. Modellers are designed to get the best recording sound or the best Front of House live sound. They are not designed to give the "amp in the room" thing because that's just about impossible at the moment because of the nature of cab sims and IRs. Cabs / IRs are made by using microphones and thus whatever sound you get it has been through a mic set up. That is where the difference is. You can get more of an amp in the room feel if you are willing to do it halfway. Modeller, into a valve power amp, then into a traditional speaker cab for your on-stage tones, and then use other outputs with an IR / Cab sim to the desk. You won't be able to change the cab on your stage sound but you will for the FOH sound, DSP permitting. The on stage rig is your monitor and you can have that gutterall feel, and the crowd still get the best mix due to the more controlled modeller / IR signal path. Loads of pros do it this way - even Metallica who do direct to the PA all the time now with the Fractal units still have a power amp and a couple of 4x12 cabs on stage for personal monitors and for feedback generation. IRs and cab sims are not single items. They are a multi parameter signal chain of their own. Say (1) V30 into (2) Royer 121 mic set (3) 1 inch from the cone but (4) at a 45 degree angle aimed at (5) the edge of the dust cap. Until there is a physical speaker that can change characteristics to move from an old Jensen to a V30, to an EV etc the best that can be done is a simulation of the cab with a load of different mics and mic placements. Even if this fantasy speaker could ever be built you still wouldn't want the same microphones (for the FOH desk) for all the possible settings, just like you might like a SM57 on a V30, you might want a 121 on a Jensen.

You got lucky with something then.

Swap the tuners for Hipshot Ultralites and depending on the tuners you currently have you could save another half pound / 0.226kg.

I don't recall those 3 being in our big box of music but I'll have a look tomorrow at rehearsal on the off chance.

I thought the mudbucker sounded excellent!

same as all modellers and multi fx. Most of the presets are there to demo the capability of the system rather than be useable.

Currently at the final prototype stage apparently. Could be a fun pedal.

Stop picking on me, damnit!

Could just get something like this: And work through it. Loads of styles and you'll get a great education as well as having a pretty good repertoire for a covers band. Don't feel you have to only listen to stuff you want to play though. Get ideas from everywhere. If you go beyond tab and learn some basic notation reading you'll open up your world massively. Piano scores, trombone parts etc etc. Notation has the benefit of being a lot more accurate than most of the tabs on the internet, and it provides time information as well as just pitch.

It's too low causing the string to buzz against the next fret. Either 16-20 will need filing down a bit or 16 needs replacing with a very slightly taller one.

Lovely looking thing. Too heavy for me, alas.

A friend has one of their guitars and it's really nice - and that's for a near to the bottom of the range price wise.

The core helix tone is actually accurate - it's just that lots of amps properly modelled are harsh in themselves. A raging Plexi is horribly harsh with new speakers. With old speakers and 20 metres of curly cable (lots of capacitance and high end roll off) they sound great. I think a lot of cab sims and IRs are based on new speakers that haven't had time to calm down. Getting the tone right is definitely about the HPF and LPF settings. Picking any amp and cab at random can be made to sound excellent by just experimenting with those filters. When people complain about it sounding "digital" what they are actually complaining about is accuracy in the model that we don't find appealing and that we are not used to. The fizz is there on real amps and L6 decided to do them accurately. Other modellers went for a glossed over approach. Sometimes the HPF and LPF settings that work might seem to be excessive but controls are there to be used, and once it sounds good it doesn't matter how the result was reached.

Money / budget / storage space / insurance / spousal pressure. Lots of reasons.

The Dunlop flats are amazing - but they've doubled in price in the last year. I always used to use them, but I'm not dropping £95 on a 5 string set of bass strings.

If you are thinking about it - go and get tested. Lots of GP's don't have the kit for it anymore so you'll probably get an NHS referral to SpecSavers - they do loads of the NHS hearing tests now. You'll get a proper understanding of any hearing loss including the frequencies that are most problematic. Then you'll get proper advice on hearing aids if you need them.

Newtone don't do flats unfortunately. Looking at the headstock I think the B will be the issue. Have to measure up some short 30 inch flats and see if the main part of the string would need to go round the post. La Bella make some lovely short flats but they advise against letting the main part get wound on the post.

Source Audio Spectrum. It's amazingly capable.

I'm really sensitive to some nickel strings - my fingers get very painful. So trying steels is a good idea. But even with flats, occasional playing that doesn't build up callous will hurt. Sore fingers until the callous has developed is normal, or use a plectrum.

I’ve never rated stingray 5s unless the low B is about a .140+ to get the tension up high enough. Just something about them that doesn’t work as well as other designs.

You need a j pickup in there. Detuned precisions all sound woolly or downright flubby. It’s just the nature of the pickup and notes that low. There’s a reason why there’s hardly any 5 string basses with just a P pickup, and it’s woolly flub. The answer is a Jazz or a PJ bass. I’ve got a cheap 32 scale PJ that is often in Drop A and there’s no flub.

there is loads of compression in the preamp valves! And it increases as the gain levels are turned up.

My Lionel is coming from Classic & Cool and was cheaper than the configurator too.

Amusingly, this came up on Facebook.