neepheid

Oh no, the square string tree is a peculiarity of these basses, you can't shear it of part of its identity, can you?

If it's Hipshots you want, but balk at the price, Licenced Hipshots are cheaper and only slightly heavier. Just make sure you order the correct ones because, unlike their USA made counterparts, they're not reversible.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to return the Hotone pedal. It has an intermittent fault with the dial at the top, it sometimes fails to register the transition between positions 1 and 2. Sometimes it stays on 2 when you turn it to 1, and sometimes it stays on 1 when you turn it to 2. Bummer. I'm going to give a replacement unit a chance because I do like it. If it happens again then I'll be out. Can't work with it if I can't reliably know which pitch it's in - especially at a gig.

I did some quick and dirty recording of it. Deets - G&L Tribute LB-100 bass going through a Boss TU-2, Hotone Harmony pitch shifter/harmonizer, Yamaha CO-10 MII compressor, Joyo Monomyth preamp/OD. DI out from Monomyth with a slight low mid boost and cab sim on.

Not a sale, but I traded a very rare Guild B402-A for a G&L El Toro (itself not a super common beast), thought I had done the right thing at the time but now I think I should have held onto the Guild. I think they only made about 335 of them. Oops!

Ah well, I was not aware of that so I will record this year's attempt, better luck next year!

I already have two single pickup basses with minimal controls, and once you factor in the shipping and tax it costs the bulk of what my existing two cost. There's nothing here for me, especially because I dislike that unnecessarily large bridge plate those cheapest SBMM basses have. Apart from that effin' bridge (wouldn't have made it that much more expensive to use the Ray24/34 bridge, would it?), it is a handsome looking bass in its minimalist style. But it's a no from me.

Lookatthelittleguy! Boss TU-2 > Hotone Harmony > Yamaha CO-10MII compressor > Joyo Monomyth.

The fact that you capitalised it shows deference. Also, this exists... and this The defence rests...

Nice score. You're out Not that I knew you were in - did I miss your initial pledge?

So, a quick (late) roundup of the state of play at the end of April. 4 brave soldiers fell, an increase of 2 on the previous month. That leaves 27 still standing. This news is already out of date. But that's for May's report.

Gotta catch 'em all

I say Ho-tone, but that's because I'm peurile like that. It's probably Hot Tone, but smashed together into one word so hard that one of the letter Ts got squashed.

Your joke was funny the first few times, now it's not because you've told it too many times. That doesn't make me a grumpus. That makes you lacking in material. Peace.

Awesome, another Gibson guy. Be prepared to defend the three point bridge - I could use some help around here! Welcome!

Do it as two purchases of equal value?

Go to page 1. You think I've been sitting here sucking my thumb this whole time?

Also, it's been done to death. New jokes, please.

With new singer comes requests to change the key of some songs. It is inevitable. No, I will not buy a 5 string bass. Our guitarist recently swapped his pedals out for a multi-FX unit and one of its tricks is pitch shifting. So that got me thinking, after I faffed around with retooling Whole Lotta Rosie and basically said "hell no" to retooling and just detuning all the strings for Hallowed Be Thy Name that maybe I could get in on this. So the research begins. Digitech Drop, EHX Pitch Fork seem to be the go-to devices. HOW EFFIN' MUCH? (full on outside Scots voice, inside voice didn't even draw breath). So I dig deeper into the more budget conscious end of the market. Spot the Mooer Pitch Box, ok, that's £60ish, that's getting a bit more reasonable. I look/ask around and the feeling I get is "OK for live work, wouldn't record with it". Then I stumble upon the Hotone Harmony - brand new, £47. Hmm, it's probably hot garbage at that price but I can easily return it if that's the case. Watched some videos (admittedly mostly guitar-centric) about it and no-one said it's awful. So I bought it. Well, I laughed out loud for about two minutes straight when I got it out of the box... I mean look at it - it's so cute, it's like doll's house furniture. I kid you not, for two straight minutes I just looked at it in my hand and laughed. Then I put it on my pedalboard and laughed some more... This has no chance, I thought to myself. Wrong! It's not bad, not bad at all. I've tried it through headphones, and live with a band in rehearsal. It seems to track OK and latency is acceptable - it didn't put me off or was noticeably off in the live context. Used it to go -1,-2 and -3 semitones and tuning seemed fine, it does get a bit warbly down at -2 and -3 on the lowest notes but I suspect that it's not strictly speaking designed to handle bass. It's not noisy when engaged, it does suck a little high end off the signal but that can be EQed back in a bit. I also used it in harmony mode to add in an octave above and found that surprisingly successful with added OD in a one guitar band, really helped fill the sound out. I did give the "detune" mode a try, again, pretty good, sounds a bit like the intro to Come As You Are, it's chorussy, and watery if that makes sense. Haven't fully explored that one yet. Despite being teeny tiny, it's a doddle to use - the top controls are just far enough apart and the top knob for the pitch setting is disproportionately large (probably and most disconcertingly larger than the knobs found on most full size pedals). And in case you were wondering how to tell if the effect is engaged or not... All in all, would I recommend the Hotone Harmony? Yes, with caveats. It's in the same ballpark as what I gathered about the Mooer Pitchbox - fine for live, probably wouldn't record with it. What it does, it does very well for the price, and if you can't find room for it on your pedalboard then you're not trying hard enough! The bad news is that it's discontinued by Hotone, who seem to have repositioned themselves upmarket with multi-FX, multi purpose expression pedals and inscrutable looking programmable pedals. So hoover one up while you still can! Or don't - I don't care, I've already got one!

If it was directed at you, then it was in error. You used one apostrophe, correctly. It was in the word "they'd" which is a valid contraction of "they had" or "they would" according to Oxford Languages (and take your pick from a plethora of other sources) Not only that, but you used it technically correctly, as it is not the primary noun in the sentence. So I honestly must assume that Dad is not an idiot and the Apostrophe Police weren't looking for you. Otherwise, it's an erroneous arrest, guv!

That sounds like hell to me - I'm one of these odd bods that don't like a bass to be too light. Well, we're all different, and thank goodness for that. Best of luck with it!

Well, that's me out. With new singer comes key changes, my laziness got the better of me and I dipped my toe in the pitch shifter market. I bought a Hotone Harmony mini pedal. I'm not going to insult your intelligence with loopholes and justifications - while it may not be a bass specific pedal, it will be going on my pedalboard and used with basses - I don't play any other instruments. I can now concentrate fully on keeping score...

What's the matter with the stock tuners? Just curious, not being argumentative.

I'm late to this party, and I would never tell someone what to play, or what they're playing is wrong (unless a tongue-in-cheek reference to my hatred for Jazz basses, in the right company). If you like it, you're not wrong. I am not a fan of short scales, I've owned several (Epi EB-0, DeArmond Starfire, Squier Bronco, Fender Starcaster off the top of my head) and my fingers just can't get over the "toy-like" feeling I get from them. My brain can't take it seriously. I don't think short scales can be pigeonholed into any particular sound - you can't seriously tell me that a short scale, active, headless thing like an Ibanez EHB is going to sound muddy, thumpy or old fashioned by default? Poppycock! I don't know what the point of all that was except for me to bump my gums and feel important, but there you go, my 2p, which may or may not be worth 2p. Also, SBL can get in the bin. I've told YouTube to never show me another of their clickbaity thumbnails.

H'eh', Iv'e cr'eat'ed a r'ule in uB'lock Ori'g'in s'o I ne'ver see that effin' Po'lice ca'r again. ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' - so there!