Ed_S
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Everything posted by Ed_S
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However I try to justify this it's going to be the 'too many' option, but I choose to see it as 4 rigs... - Markbass 1x12 combo for those jump in a taxi type gigs. Probably all I strictly need as it would cover most gigs I play. - Barefaced G2 Super 12 and Midget as either a 3x12 stack for anything big, a 1x12 for anything small, or a 2x12 for anything medium. - Barefaced One10 (x2) for rehearsals as they fit in a lockable flightcase that I can wheel into the studio store and leave there. - Barefaced Two10 because I wanted a one-hand-portable version of my rehearsal cabs to keep at home, ready for medium-small gigs. And then a few lightweight amp heads to use with the cab combinations. Though I'm currently considering moving the combo and the 2x One10 stack on, and just using the Midget and Two10 in their respective places as they're essentially the same things. Could be down to 2 before long!
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I used to do this with my very first amp - a Park B25 mkII - so I could jam with a couple of guitarists after school in the music rooms. I used a Boss GEB-7 with the EQ left flat and the Level control pushed up, but it sounds like near enough the same idea. From memory I'd say my first bass was set up pretty well (late 90s Yamaha, straight out of the box and un-messed-with) and the pickups didn't need to be any higher; it was just on the polite end of passive and there was only so much output level available, so pushing the preamp with a pedal was a reasonable fix and never hurt anything as far as I'm aware.
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Just a 5 string black P-bass, no more than about 3.5kg in weight, 16.5mm string spacing, roasted maple neck with a plain ebony board, and big stainless frets with perfectly rounded ends.
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Next, get yourself a Cali Central - it's got a P thing and a Ray thing going on at the same time
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I'd go with "£50 - post cash through letterbox" - somebody will usually 'steal' something they think has value much quicker than they'll take something labelled as having none, and the less time it's out there, the less chance that somebody will come along and just destroy it for fun and leave you to clean up the mess. My faith in humanity is perhaps a little worn, but I'm rarely disappointed.
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I guess history has proven out that for me it'd be a superstrat type. I haven't played properly in a long time now, but at the point where it fizzled out I had the ESPs in these pics so they are what's available for the very occasional noodle. The tele in the first pic was really nice but not at all 'me', so it moved out when the stupid black shred machine in the second one moved in. I sold the last of my amps, cabs and effects in the recent cull so I could probably sell up completely and move on happily enough, but these two aren't eating anything in storage so I figure it's probably more cost-effective to just keep them than get into a sell/re-buy cycle every time the delusion resurfaces, as I'd never be able to justify anything close to their quality again.
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When I switched back from 4s to 5s I sold my Precisions to a local shop. Had they been rare or unusual it would have made infinitely more sense to list them here and await a discerning buyer, but in the event I decided to sell my utilitarian instruments in a befitting manner and avoid all the negatives that come with private selling. Can't speak for anyone else, but that's why you didn't see mine for sale in the marketplace.
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Did you end up with https://www.jimdunlop.com/dunlop-deluxe-guitar-stringwinder/ instead of https://www.jimdunlop.com/dunlop-deluxe-bass-stringwinder/? It's the bass specific one I have, and I'm yet to find anything it doesn't work with.
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Using your fingers isn't massively difficult to begin with, but everything's relative and in my experience it is significantly easier using a tool designed for the job. It's easier still if it's a good example of that tool, so when the best example I've discovered only costs a fiver I can't see any downsides to using it.
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I’d recommend the Dunlop one without any hesitation - had mine over 6 years according to Amazon and it’s the best I’ve found. Had a fair few over the years and whilst I’ve never broken one, I’ve binned plenty for being useless.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Ed_S replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I do really like the Warwick two-piece, especially when you follow their setup guide to follow the curvature of the last fret, but I'd probably make a mess of the routing to recess the baseplate of the bridge section. I'm good with a drill and might even award myself 'nifty' with a soldering iron, but I'm much more Cisco than Bosch when it comes to routing 🙂 I considered dropping the bridge on mine back a bit and filling in or covering (or just dropping a couple of decorative screws into) the existing front mounting holes, but it wouldn't get me much more than 1/4" before the intonation became problematic on the higher strings, so I decided against. Reckon you're definitely on the right track with the separate tailpiece. Switching the 10mm grub screws for 8mm ones that sink below the surface instead of scratching my hand was a small but significant step, though, and well aligned with my modding and tinkering capabilities. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Ed_S replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
For the 5 string miKro, it's a shame that Ibanez went with the '3 over 2' headstock layout common to the cheaper models, instead of the '2 over 3' layout you get on the premiums. Switching to the other template would have shifted the tuners for the thickest strings back an inch (measured roughly but consistently-so using GSRM25, SR655, SR1105 and SR1305) and probably solved a good few of the string choice problems related to the scale length. As it stands, I'm going with Dunlop super-bright short scales as I use the long versions on other basses and like the feel of them, and they seem to fit well enough with only a bit of the tapering - not the full thickness of the string - going round the peg on the B. That's the same as the Ibanez set which I found really rough, so not really losing anything by ditching those. Now I just need to order some NPS as I could only find plain steels in stock to test with. -
Can obviously only speak for myself but I find deep bass on stage really unhelpful as it just makes everything harder to hear and mix, so if my stage/amp sound is my room sound then both will be a bit lacking in deep bass. Where the amps are just for stage monitoring I provide a lightly driven and moderately EQ'd signal from my Sansamp to the desk rather than a clean DI, and I work on the basis that if the FoH engineer feels it needs the low EQ boosting a little more for the room, they have that option. If the stage is big enough that the amps are just visual props and there's a monitor desk/engineer I'll always ask for my low EQ to be reduced in the foldback and it's never been questioned so I've always assumed it's not uncommon. I suppose that if you're stood right in front of the stage you might have a less bass-heavy experience than if you're more under the influence of the house PA.
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The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Ed_S replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
I did actually have a short scale Talman a while back but it went along with the rest of the 4s. In terms of mods, it was an early one with a standard BBOT bridge so I put a nicer looking one on it, along with a PJ set of quarter pounders and a rewire. It was a nice bass, but it was just missing a string. If I'd kept it, I was contemplating getting a pearl guard made for it to match a 'berg superlight I also had at the time. At one point it had chromes on it, but it was a set of EXL160S that really made it come alive. -
The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!
Ed_S replied to Baloney Balderdash's topic in Bass Guitars
Not really a full pimp-out of a cheap Ibanez, but I just did a bit of reverse-logic purchasing and ended up with a GSRM25. I had a 'cosmo black' Ibanez B305 bridge, matching Gotoh GB707 tuners and a set of knobs left over from a past project, and instead of just selling them on and getting some cash back I decided that I'd get something cheap and different to use them on, so now I have a short scale that should fit in a guitar bag. It felt chunky to begin with, and feels even chunkier now it's got the new hardware fitted. I'll get it some matching (or black) strap-lock buttons at some point. The fretwork is nice but the finishing on the body is absolutely woeful up close. Still, better it be that way round; a mirror gloss finish and an unpayable neck gets you nowhere. And then there's the strings - the ones that came on it were cut far too short, and the new set of Ibanez made-for-the-bass ones are so rough they'd be more at home fitted to a tile saw. But having played it for a while I do like it in a funny sort of way, hence being in the appreciation thread. I guess I'll start researching suitable strings! -
I have my LM2 and LM800 in Gator G-MultiFX-1110 bags, which are about £25. They're a snug but just about perfect fit, and I think your 250 is the same size chassis. They're not live-in bags like some of the official ones, though.
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For electric bass in an acoustic band, D'Addario EXP Reds used to be my favourite as they were copper coated and had a suggestion of acoustic bass strings in their sound. Sadly they're not available any more and I've not seen anything similar coming to market of late - though I'd be interested to know if anyone else has. Of the strings that you can still get I personally favour Dunlop Super-Bright Nickels as they have quite a light and flexible feel, they sound nice and clear, and I find them comparatively easy on my fingers. I like the sound (and the feel - some people don't) of Ernie Ball Cobalt Slinky flats, but it seems that every time I put flats on a bass I end up selling it within a year as I'm just not using it any more.
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My 104HR departed in a recent thinning and I'm using Barefaced as well, though I've used my Markbass gear for plenty of metal gigs and nobody's bemoaned the yellow. Ok.. they're a bit more Party Cannon than pile-of-twigs, but they're still 'good for metal'. Agree about the DI as well.
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I've been using Markbass gear for 17 years (LM2, F1, LM800, LM3, Nano 300, Nano 2, CMD 121p, MiniMark 802, MicroMark 801, NY121, 104HR) and not had anything go wrong with any of it yet. Never experienced any negativity towards it either. I had one guy warning me that my amp was unreliable, but that turned out to be because the Nano 300 faceplate is red and he thought it was a TC Electronic.
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I just worked out what my HB project actually owes me, and it turns out that from its £120 purchase price I've managed to add £240 in parts and supplies, and do work which a couple of luthier price lists suggest could be another £120 in labour. Given that the 'nice' version of it would be a USA Fender, I could have 4 of these modded to my satisfaction for the same price as 1 of those. I actually just sold my American Pro Jazz 5 and kept the Hardly Benton so perhaps I've made my decision, but if I took the HB to the local shop as it is right now they'd offer me £80 and sell for £120, so they probably don't make much financial sense if you can't/won't just take them out of the box and use them.
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I personally don't think it's living in fear to mitigate a plausible risk, so I might play my backup bass as main if I thought it was more likely than usual to come to harm at a particular venue.
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If I was just playing and recording at home, one nice bass would probably appeal. As soon as any gigging at all was involved, though, if the only way I could have a backup was to have all HBs then I guess they're what I'd be using. Multiple HBs could be a possibility if I was in (or a frequent dep for) a number of cover or tribute bands, and to get the various different looks right I needed multiple recognisable shapes and styles of bass. Of course, in this deliberately restrictive scenario I'm granting that every HB turns up 'cheap yet playable' as stated in the OP, but in reality that's not been my personal experience so I'd be aiming for 6 instead of 8 and saving some money back for sundries and spares to get them in shape.
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Looks to have been investigated a while back and turned out to be a development site that never went any further.
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Interesting question, because I was about to say... [Ashdown ABM1000] Because it's just the most hard-hitting clean amp I've ever owned. It fires notes like bullets and never seems to run out of power. [Orange Terror Bass 500 - original model] Because it has nearly as much on tap as the ABM1000 but with some power and control traded for bark and aggression. [GK MB200] Because with everything at noon it captures one of 'the sounds in my head' - it's just the perfect rock tone with a Precision. But then you specified "for gigging", and that's a different trio because the ABM is overkill, the original OTB is unreliable and the MB lacks power, so... [Markbass Nano Mark 2 - or Nano 300] Because it's light, loud, and with everything at noon it has that characteristic Markbass sound which I find works really well live to cut through and be heard. [Hartke HA5500 - or HA3500] Because it's just so easy to get a useable sound from no matter where or what you're playing, and it's a loud, reliable workhorse of an amp. [Fender Rumble 500 v3 - Combo] Because the 2x10 combo is a light, loud and great-sounding "put it down, plug it in and play it" rig, which can be an invaluable thing to have at a gig. But in all honesty, the answer is actually a Sansamp Bass Driver DI v2 sent to the PA in one direction and any amp you didn't have to cart there yourself in the other.
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I bet that's epic. I just thought you'd listed the Mystic Prophecy version of Paranoid until I actually engaged my eyeballs. We used to play Demon's Blood alongside our own lower-tuned songs and I reckon most people thought it was another original.
