fretmeister

Just looking for a black/white/black P bass pickguard without any pickup holes.

So far I've not had any luck with my google-fu.

3 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

When I went to the Yolanda Charles bass clinic a few weeks ago she played the pre-recorded vocal track that she and the live orchestra had to follow when she toured with Hans Zimmerman. it had variable tempo because the singer performed live to the movie - the click was just constantly varying and it was incredible to think how anyone could follow it. Yolanda and her guitarist demonstrated how they had to speed up and slow down from somewhere around 60 bpm to about 140 over just a couple of bars... in perfect sync with the orchestra and the pre-record. Honestly. It was one helluva feat of musicanship from those two and I grew another level of respect for pro musicians who do that kind of thing.

Yeah, That Hans Zimmerman Live in Prague video is mind blowing.

I loved the bit with Guthrie when HS wanders over him for a solo. In an orchestra with genuinely elite musicians Guthrie then finds another gear and HS is clearly in awe. Amazing stuff.

Wouldn’t surprise me.

I might start a thread and get everyone with a P, MM etc to measure from the nut to the start of the pickup casing.

Could be interesting to see the variation.

I've measured up my existing P bitsa and the P pickup is in the right spot but that would mean the MM is about 2mm out of position towards the bridge.

I'm guessing that 2mm won't make a lot of difference as intonation settings change by more than that when string gauges are changed and so on. Or of course I could take out the split P and get a hum cancelling 50s P pickup instead and then  have both in their traditional positions.

I've never tried a 50s P pickup. Could be interesting!

2 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

My Maryszczyk Jake, factory PMM. All-passive, Vol / Vol / Tone. 
 

Nice and simple, well balanced, sounds immense. If anything happened to it, I’d get another.

 

That's a lovely looking thing.

I think I want my MM pickup more in the traditional place.

I'm not sure the East will fit - it's a bitsa build with a P bass body.

I'm not familiar with Retrovibe - I shall investigate.

I've been looking at the Aguilar 2 band as that is available as a stack knob, but what else is out there please?

ta

I wouldn't have quite as many switching options though. 

Just P / P+MM / MM

And then have a series / parallel on the MM only.

I have a good MM pickup lying about already...

2 minutes ago, kwmlondon said:

Yeah but I saw him with a full band. They were really good … the drummer did a helkuva solo. They were not miming. 

Maybe some of them were?

More.

Seems to be a real ‘hole.

That sounds really good.

Pole piece spacing maybe?

Or maybe the casing size? Fenders sometimes have different size J pickups.

Not soundchecking is extremely unprofessional.

No faster way to clear a busy pub than starting the gig and sounding shit. You'll never get booked again.

The best bit about the video is showing that 15 inch cones do not have "a sound" and that they can be very very different.

As much as I am a Mark Bass fan, their 15 inch cabs have always been a bit flubby. I did the common 151HF with the CSM 102p combo for quite a while and I never could et the EQ to work well with the 10 inch cones and the 15. Sounded much better with one or the other. Eventually I got a pair of MB 121 Club cabs instead and used them for a while. Two identical cabs = dead easy to EQ without a problem.

I have come to the conclusion that 99% of drive pedals were designed by someone using a P or J bass as their test instrument.

Over the years I've had endless drive pedals and almost all of them sounded good with the controls at noon with a P or a J but needed a lot more work to sound like that with anything active.

I don't know if it's a low impedance thing that EMGs and others have, or if the active nature is producing a wider frequency range or what, but I haven't come across a single pedal that was better with an active bass straight out of the box. It is definitely not just a signal strength thing as with an active bass lowering the volume usually results in keeping the frequency curve just at a lower level. That doesn't happen with a passive pickup.

If it is true that most designers are using a P or J as the test bass then it is normal to assume the pedals would work best with those options. A designer would have to be mad not to use P and J due to the massive amount of users of those types, but I do wonder what would happen if they picked a Stingray or something as an exclusive test bass for a pedal.

I love that. 

BTW reviewed the Michael League signature model a little while ago..

Sounds nice... like any good P bass.

Well my T2 failure is an absolutely wonderful fuzz on guitar, and balls on the bass! 🤣

If it had a clean blend I think it would probably be very good though.

On 24/04/2025 at 15:55, Woodinblack said:

From what I see the age requirements are only to avoid seeing age appropriate things in your 'feed' and checks to ensure no access to adult only content.

Basschat has no algorithms to give you any 'feed' - that is obviously based on facebook / twitter style feeds, and we have never had adult only sections, apart from maybe the sections on P basses in sunburst and tort that you have to be at least 70 to have an interest in

 

Tort anything ought to be considered a war crime so if I'm ever appointed as the head of the ICC that will get a lot of people in a lot of trouble.

10 years in the dilithium mines at least!

You could stick one of these in it:

https://www.emgpickups.com/bass/accessories/btccontrol.html

It's the smallest option. Treble and Bass on a single stacked control.

I’m a big fan of those EMGs. I pair them with an EMG EQ and I always add some bass end from that. I hardly ever touch the middle and treble controls but they do come alive with a bass bump.

1 hour ago, BEADist said:

Depending on the use-case the 8 blocks on the Stomp are not that many. For example if you want to replicate a DG X7 you need:

 

1. compressor

2. LPF

3. HPF

4. a distortion

5. EQ

 

If you then want a noise-gate,  a volume-pedal and some amp/cab thingy for FOH you are already on its limits.

 

To me the biggest drawback of such a 'replication' is, you have to surf 5 different block menus and their pages to fine-tune it. Not a nice thing to do at a rehearsal (I did this with a HX Effects that has a superior UI compared to the Stomp, still not nice).

 

The Anagram is MUCH better with such tasks having the configurable rotaries!

You've used too many blocks. The LPF and HPF are in a single block. But I take your point.

15 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I don't know enough about Darkglass' products, especially their digital devices, to make an informed comment, but as a totally new platform, one would hope they will work on developing and supporting it well.

 

That said, on paper, it appears to be capable of doing everything my Helix LT does, but in a more compact form factor, which is very welcome. I have considered downsizing to an HX Stomp previously, but I would struggle with the limited block count for some specific situations.

I recently got a Stomp to go with my Helix rack and I'm quite enjoying the challenge of making my bigger patches work with a single path on the stomp. It takes some effort, but I feel I'm getting to know the HX system all over again.

9 hours ago, Russ said:

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. 

 

I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps. 

Kemper have never upgraded their hardware (unless you count the power amp version) and it's significantly older than the Helix and still sells well.

I suppose they'll do it when the sales numbers drop enough.

New hardware usually just means more DSP rather than new physical features. 

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Take all their hamsters!

what about the elderberries?