fretmeister

While I love the sound of Roto flats, it turns out I'm allergic to the Monel wrap used. After only a short playing time they leave my finger tips red and painful.

Lowering the pickup solved it. Which is annoying as I wanted to use it for a bit of a ramp. Might have to make a couple of plastic pickup toppers to get the height back!

Mariah is great - especially when I swap the last verse and chorus bass part for a big band walking line.

I will try those things later. Thank you.

I’m getting a warbling almost chorus type sound on my G string when playing above the 12th fret on my shorty p bass. It’s got brand new La Bella DTF on it. Any ideas? It’s quite annoying!

Not that I've heard of. I'd be surprised. The number of possible combinations of cab designs made in the last 50 years must be into the tens of thousands.

I've just put some La Bella deep talking flats on my shorty. Can't wait to give them a proper try. Mind you, at the same time I put some long scale White Copper Nylon Tapes on my Sandberg just out of curiosity and I think I really like them. Might have to look into those for the shorty too - maybe in 10 years when the Deep Talkin's finally need replacing!

Dusty's rig rundown on youtube was interesting. Elwood (when he was still 'just' the tech) pointed out that people are surprised how filthy the bass tone is.

If you have the budget the Boss Waza Air Bass is great. It needs a smart phone and it's wireless. It's headphones with a wireless dongle. Or if you have a smart phone then a cheap interface and a free download of Amplitube is a great option. Bass into interface, that into the phone. Headphones either plug into the phone or the interface depending on what make and model. Amplitube can import from a music library as well and change the speed and pitch of the thing you are playing along to. Amplitube Free comes with a few guitar amps and a nice Ampeg. More models can be bought for a few quid if needed. Or an interface for your PC and any number of free or cheap amp sims. Do you have a budget in mind?

The best headphone approach is the Boss Waza Air system https://www.boss.info/uk/products/waza-air_bass/ It's very clever.

Never said it did. And I'm not talking about good production -v- bad production. I'm talking about production styles.

I think it's tradition and ease of manufacturing. It's long been established in people's minds that a Jazz has 2 pickups and a skinny neck, and a P has 1 pickup and a fat neck. Giving too many options actually ends up with fewer basses in the shops to try. Shops aren't going to order both neck options on everything just for the showroom. So they order the common and popular items. Then the other option doesn't sell as well... and then gets discontinued. It's very circular. Sandberg use the same neck shape for all their basses so from a neck POV you either like them all or none of them. Works for them very well. Occasionally I see a "Can I have a 44mm neck?" type question on their social media and the answer is No. They'd have to either build an entirely new neck production line for them or interrupt the existing one and reprogram for the occasional orders. Either way that is time and money they don't need to spend. They are a relatively small company so don't have the assets to just decide to order a load more machines - or get another building set up etc etc. But - if you want to make a bitsa, there are hundreds of options for fender compatible parts.

How hot is the output from the compressor?

No- that would suggest that production values are a preset curve rather than being task specific. The Black Album production is very good and it would suit a Britney record perfectly. It has that radio friendly sheen to it. It would not suit an opera production or a grindcore album for different reasons. As an aside - I really think the production has aged quite badly in a way that RTL hasn't. It's the music equivalent of Silence of the Lambs. Wonderful at the time, but now, not nearly as impressive even though the writing itself is excellent.

I've got that Behringer - mine is really low noise / quiet with the gain at zero. So you've got something else going on there.

Ok, I'll rephrase - the songs are metal (as shown by live performances of them), but the sound production of the album isn't. It's a polished radio friendly album that is far too polite. It is devoid of attitude. It's like they wrote some banging tunes and then decided to take a load of ritalin before recording them.

The Black Album isn't a metal album. It sounds like a pop record with guitars.

Sandberg are 39.5mm at the nut which is 0.3mm difference to your archaic units. They are quite full front to back though - certainly deeper than many J's I've tried.

Nah. Ride the Lightning is head and shoulders over the rest.

They've done their companies house filings for this year and that says Active.

Depends entirely on the music I'm playing. For metal I like a jazz type but I don't play a lot of metal these days. For the stuff that I am playing now, a P or PJ can be the perfect thing. I could really do with 2 of them though - 1 with flats and another with rounds!

The rehearsal DVD that came with St Anger was far better. It's still not great, but that snare drum is a big issue on the sound of that album, as well as the rest of the mix. When the songs are played live they are much better.

I'd love to try one. I'm so sensitive to bass weights (injuries etc) that I won't buy anymore without knowing the exact weight of the one I'm getting. Thomann will weigh an expensive bassm but understandably they won't get a bunch of cheap ones out searching for a special one. Still - give it a year and they might start showing up used for about £125!