LukeFRC

[quote name='TheButler' timestamp='1379883150' post='2217885'] The Mesa's EQ doesn't give me enough to play with. I can't really 'sculpt' - there is little deviation from what is an overwhelmingly thumpy rumble. I'm just starting to get complaints from band members that I sound out of the mix on everything except Jamerson-ey/Motown stuff. [/quote] ? that sounds a wee bit odd. Time for new strings then. If round wounds messed with your hands was that cos they were nickels or just generally? Set of cheap strings costs what £10 - try it out see what happens. Also how old is the lead... old leads if they get damaged can act as an extra tone control...

aye - on a bloke

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1379882877' post='2217875'] ...which are then attached to a bloke, presumably? [/quote] I'll need to check, hang on a mo

amp Eq. Tone out the thunder when you need it.

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1379851318' post='2217372'] This is the reason I ONLY have Ibanez basses (with the exception of my acoustic), as I have small girly hands and small girly fingers. It's the only bass that feels natural and comfortable to me. [/quote] i have small girly fingers too. But attatched to odd looking spade like hands....

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1379870584' post='2217604'] That calibration and adjustment business means that , unfortunately perhaps given the beautiful hi - resolution of the sound these basses seem to be capable of , pickups like this will remain a niche product , I'm afraid . That extensive circuitry is also a major sticking point regarding mass -market appeal . Like the original Alembic systems with an external power supply , cost aside for the moment , it starts to border on "hair -shirt " technology and risks alienating potential consumers . The reality is that most people just can't be bothered when magnetic pickups and relatively simple active electronics can give generally satisfactory results . [/quote] the pedant in me would suggest that folk who Lightwave are marketing too possibly would already be in the hair-shirt group. It's not a mass appeal instrument to begin with. I wouldn't mind seeing a photo of the front of that bass BigRedX

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1379582963' post='2214349'] It's nice that they've come up with something Roscoe Beck-ish. They did that very well. [/quote] I was sat there racking my brains trying to think what your bass was that it reminded me of... that and a G&L.

I do think there should be some photos

[quote name='funkyspuke' timestamp='1379604961' post='2214752'] They have this way of 'making' you order something rather than 'forcing' .. I think it's whatever they put in the tea/coffee they offer you instantly on arrival haha! [/quote] i've resisted so far. Mind you if they hadn't utterly aced the frets on my wick I might have been tempted by other basses....

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1379780491' post='2216723'] Managed to get in touch with the seller - forwarded the crime reference number and the officer dealing with the case so hopefully they can sort something out between them. Its a real long shot as this happened six and a half years ago but who knows... Need to get in touch with some old buddies and get hold of some photos of me and the bass. Rob [/quote] this is so random. Hope you get it back!

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1379779831' post='2216710'] We do a lot of work on producing text that is easy for kids with literacy difficulties (including dyslexia) to read. Even the use of the now ubiquitous Comic Sans font! [/quote] have you tried other options that arn't as typographically nasty as comic sans? http://www.k-type.com/?p=520 my personal fave is FS Me which I think is what the DWP uses for most things

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1379775585' post='2216669'] WOAH THERE ! You are assuming[u] [i]way[/i][/u] too much much knowledge on my part , my friend ! As I have just been explaining on another thread , I have no idea what I am doing . I normally have other people do all my word processing for me . ( I have other people do most things for me nowadays , to be honest ) . I took me nine months to work out how to use emoticons , and figuring that out made me feel like I was a computer genius . It takes me all my time to justify my own existance . If I had to justify my text on Bassschat too , it would be too much effort to get out of bed anymore ,. I will see what I can do , but don't hold your breath . ( Just showing off my new-found skill with emoticons ) . [/quote] two things you could do if you wanted to make your text slighlty easier to read... 1. You don't need a space before a punctuation mark. Look at these two examples and see how one scans easier. I like bass , I play every day . Mainly on a warwick streamer , sometimes on a fender type bass . either a Precision or a jazz . I like bass, I play every day. Mainly on a warwick streamer, sometimes on a fender type bass. either a Precision or a jazz . 2. While paragraphs are nice line breaks like this, or even spaces like this break up the text into easier segments. While paragraphs like in a written report are fine on a page on a screen and on screens of different sizes more regular breaks help reading.

ah there you go Dingus .... can you try switching the editing mode button? (top left of the reply box) this mode will set your replies out in a nicer way and organise line breaks better.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1379773556' post='2216648'] Why does everybody have such a problem reading a paragraph? ( I am currently fielding other complaints ). I just don't get it . [/quote] because your posts are displaying really oddly with the line breaks in the wrong places and so on. Looking at you last post the open parenthesis of the "and couldn't" is on the line above, and the text seems to be trying to justify itself - which messes up the spacings - so everything has become spread out and your eye can't flow across the line easily. So if you have the text justified try left aligning it, if you have to have it justified like it is increase the leading (line spacing) - or if you are using something like a phone or tablet which doesn't give you these options use line breaks more.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379771991' post='2216627'] But surely a decent on-board pre-amp should be buffering each input separately? And if you've gone to the trouble of putting an active circuit in there why on earth is the pickup blend and output volume passive? To my thinking these are the things that would benefit most from active electronics. I can't help but think that in a lot of active basses the pre-amp is nothing more than a compromised EQ circuit that can fit in the space and be driven from a 9V battery and has been specified with no real concern for either the acoustic qualities and the instrument's sound or the sound as produced by the pickups. [/quote] I would kinda agree. It was your comments on preamps that partially steered me to look into and buy the ACG preamp I have in my main bass! So you're to blame for me spending that £200! I think some of it is to do with how onboard preamps came about on basses. The high end Alembic stuff.... people sticking simple buffers into basses after the volume and tone... increasing to buffer plus 2 band EQ cos it's easy to do.... and so on.... I picked up a cheap 80's japanese bass a few years back - and guess what - cheap pickups into a pickup switch into a volume and into a cheap nasty 2 band preamp. For the price of a dollar or two preamp they could sell the bass as more top of the range. and so on. A lot of the time cheap preamps into lower end bass amps can hide the limits of a bass - it's when you stick it through a PA that the PA guy (and the crowd) realise that your bass sounds a bit rubbish. I think if you sat down and designed your own bass guitar, from scratch it would either be pure passive, or have a fully buffered active blend preamp... possibly with different switchable impedance loadings for the pickups....

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1372947395' post='2132001'] If I honestly felt that most of our Big Series customers would be better served by typical active PA speakers then I'd say so and we wouldn't bother making them - [b]the rest of our range has far outsold them to date[/b], anyway. [/quote] why do you think this is Alex?

Was practicing at the same place this week- new drummer who's a lot louder so the HK D.A.R.T. got cranked.... it sounded even better! Mind you thinking about it i dunno if I'm going to change owt with my setup. my cab is only 18kg and sounds fine. Berg IP's don't come up enough (and weigh more) and while the Barefaced Big Baby looks amazing... it doesn't have the DSP that would make it worth the upgrade (tho weighs less.) In terms of Hi-fi stuff... i'm still a bit weary of selling my rig to go with a PA monitor/speaker for some reason.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379765002' post='2216538'] I hardly think a few mm vs a few cm in the length of the lead between the pickup and the buffer is going to make any real difference. [/quote] yes and no. Partly depends on how many pickups you have. It's a buffer for each pickup. So it would only make no real difference if we were talking about one pickup or a preamp with each input buffered and then an active blend. Here you're talking about the higher end preamp designs... A lot (most) of onboard preamps put the pickup signal through a passive blend and volume and then into the preamp for buffering and Eq. As an aside the original musicman preamp was quite cool in that it fed the pickup straight into the preamp and then used the volume control on the output gain stage of the preamp.

A point to note - the "flat" setting on any active eq might not actually be the flat in terms of sound. Some onboard preamps are built this way (glockenklang for instance springs to mind) whereas others set flat will display characteristic bumps in your Eq curve. [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379759919' post='2216474'] BTW What exactly are "active pickups" and how do they differ from a normal magnet and wire coil pickup attached by a very short lead to a pre-amp? I can't help but think that it's all marketing bullshit. [/quote] Active pickups, EMG being the main proponent is where each pickup itself has a preamp and possibly tone shaping built into the pickup. This can then be fed through a pretty much standard passive volume and tone control (different value pots though) and into an amp, or into a onboard preamp. Effectively you are right that they are normal magnet and wire coil with a tiny lead to their own preamp... but it's good to make the distinction so people understnad where it is their signal is being buffered. EDIT: as can be seen here:

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1379671394' post='2215458'] I don't have small hands by any means but find skinny and shallow necks much more comfortable to play. Even to the extent of just a couple of mm - recently bought a lovely Silver Series Jazz bass - beautiful old battered thing that sounds great - but for some reason the neck was 40mm at the nut. I am going to change it to a Mighty Mite Jazz neck as I just feel that much more comfortable with it. Just the way it is - big guys play Jazz basses, ladies with tiny hands play 5/6 string basses - no logic. [/quote] I have a similar age japanese squier precision neck on my bitsa jazz - oddly it's also 40mm - i think they just all went similar sizes. Nice necks though. It must onyl be a few mm between that and the streamer (narrower necks) and the Precision (wider) but it makes such a difference- mind you Dave-the-bass I think may have a point and I may pushing with too much/little pressure as the neck's thinner - which suggests I could get back up to speed on it... or might just chuck it and replace it with something with a thinner neck!

I'm not that sentimental about things - Ive a box of trinkets and stuff I've picked up over the years that is nice to have, and some books I like. Gear wise I sold my first bass to buy something better when it wasn't getting used so don't regret that. My japanese '57ri I had was great - that was my first gigging bass - and kinda wish I'ld kept it - it got sold to afford the JV I currently have - which looks identical and plays better... but it doesn't have the same history. The SS1 i didn't like at first, but changed parts, fret job, and almost 5 years of playing and... I couldn't find a better bass.

[quote name='pietruszka' timestamp='1379693568' post='2215838'] I'm in the same boat as Machines. My dad (sadly not with us any more) got me my Stingray for my 18th birthday. That will never leave me if it's the last thing I do! I can't bare the thought of parting with it, and one of the last conversations we had about gear was him saying "that bass was the best thing I ever got you". Dan [/quote] that's such a good story.

For years and years I played a certain bass, then I replaced it with another bass essentially the same. It has a big wide flat neck. Never a problem I have small short fingers. Then I started playing another bass with a narrower neck accross the fretboard. My playing has progressed. The original bass doesn't fit my hand any more. I can feel myself straining to reach, and some things I can't do quick enough that I can on the thinner necked bass. It's all a bit odd, anyone else experienced this? Is it just that one fits my hand (it does) and the other one is a compromise - or is it that I've just got used to what I'm playing and with practice and time I will be able to go from one to the other no problem. I was always a tiny bit proud I could get by on the wider necked bass with no problems given my stubby fingers - no moaning from me! but it does make a difference. (and does it mean no 5 strings for me ever?!)