JPJ

In a small form factor pedal would be perfect. Now I just need to find a pedal builder😎

There are circuit diagrams out there on the web but I wouldn't trust myself to even attempt to put one together, especially when I saw a voltage of 250v!

So I've been thinking....(dangerous I know). I own the rather splendid SWR SM-1500, and this for me is the ultimate bass amp, but she has one big downside - weight. She is so heavy that any gig with stairs or a long load in is a no no and to be fair she is a bit overkill for a gig down the Dog and Duck. I remain on a constant hunt for her smaller sibling the SM-900, but so far I have been unsuccessful. It got me thinking about what makes the SWR tone that I (and others such as John Paul Jones) like so much, and I've concluded its the magic sparkle behind the Aural Enhancer knob. As SWR are now sadly no longer with us, I was wondering how hard it would be to recreate the SWR Aural Enhancer circuit but in pedal form? Would this even be possible? Is there something similar out there already (I've tried the Aphex 1402 and its not even close). Any ideas?

If you want a full size bass and you are on a budget, I can wholly recommend the Harley Benton basses. If you fancy dabbling in the world of Ukulele bass, then Harley Benton also do a great Kala'esque fretless version. If you have a little more money to spend and staying full size, the rockbass Aliens from Warwick are very good value, as are the Takamine and Crafters.

The single best bass I've ever played was a '68 jazz, full of mojo, and just had that Jazz bass tone. She was for sale in a local guitar shop around 1990 - 1992 and whilst I could have afforded her, there were rumours that the owner of the shop could be a little economical with the truth and that all that glitters might indeed not have been gold or even from 1968. The second best bass was an Overwater J series five string, but that doesn't count on this thread as I bought it, and its been my main gigging bass now for the last ten years.

I’ve been looking for a ‘live in’ flightcase for my venerable old SWR Goliath cab for a while and after advertising on Facebook for a used one, Stephen Bullock of ARB Custom flightcases contacted me. I sent Stephen a sketch of the dimension of my cab, and the position of the back panel, and three weeks later, he delivered this. Already been gigged and has been nicknamed ‘the fridge’ by my band mates, I’m one happy bassist. 😎 If you are in the market for flightcases, I recommend you give Stephen a shout. https://m.facebook.com/ARB-Custom-Flightcases-833556419995113/

I fitted some of those Luminlay dots to my EUB for darker stages (the KK already had side dots). Mine are without the black outer ring and they are subtle but effective.

You can relax! Came home last night, restrung the Alien, tidied up the fret ends, lemon oiled the fingerboard and left it overnight to settle. Picked it up this morning and it’s like a different bass. Definitely louder acoustically without all the finger noise from my poor technique. Amazed how authorative the B string is, it sits really well against the rest of the strings. You can definitely ‘feel’ the low tension part, the strings feel played in already. Thanks for the recommendation!

Thanks for this, I’ve taken your advice and ordered a set. I’ll report back at the weekend once they are fitted and I’ve had a good few hours playing time.

I’m a huge fan of John East’s work. I have a J-Retro in my main gigging bass, a U retro in my fretless, and an original Overwater filter pre in my original series, which I understand John was behind the design and building of. I also have his treble & bass, and mid boost units in my homemade P5. id say hover no more and hit that buy-it-now button. 😎

So I recently scored a very nice Warwick Rockbass Alien 5 string acoustic bass. She arrived wearing a nice new set of Warwick acoustic bass strings (phosphor-bronze I think). Now on my Harley Benton 5 string acoustic I keep at work in Holland, I fitted a set of Fender 90505 flats and she came alive but alas it appears Fender don’t make these anymore. So I’m looking for recommendations for 5 string flatwounds. I’m considering the La Bella Deep Talkin Bass strings as they are a medium’ish gauge with a .128 low B. Any other recommendations before I take the plunge?

What he said!

Like a lot of folk on here, I too started with the Stagg, but couldn’t get the ‘sound in my head’ out of it so moved it on. i currently use a five string KK Baby Bass which on its own gets pretty close to the sound of an amplified DB, but has come alive since I added some bridge mounted piezo pickups. I blend the piezo with the underbridge magnetic pickup using a Headway preamp and I can get the sound I want. Quality wise it’s also a huge leap up in class and I can play it for hours without fatigue unlike the Stagg that was always spinning around in my hand (possibly as a result of my bad left hand technique). Having a reasonable sized body means you can lean the bass on your leg and use arm weight to depress the strings which again helps to lower fatigue. Interestingly, Emmylou Harris’s bassist used an Eminence on a couple of tracks at last weekends Country to Country gig. Sadly, the sound wasn’t the best and as a result it just sounded dark and boomy. id say try before you buy, I bought my KK secondhand blind based on other folks recommendations, but on reflection I was lucky.

So after years of playing active five strings, and after watching Nick Fyffe ripping it up with the Temperance Movement, I have serious gas to add a nice original looking precision to the stable. I don’t want to pay the ridiculous F prices, so I’m thinking Squier. VM’s look nice but most seem to have the added J pickup? Classic vibes look better but in my opinion blocks and bound just looks wrong on a P bass. My question is, what are the other sub £500 options for a good standard P bass with a rosewood ‘board?

I’m not a Barefaced hater, and I’ve always liked the look of the 2x12 and 2x15 variants for a single cab solution, but the price and lightweight construction has always put me off. When Alex started, his mantra was to be different from the main stream box shifters, and he talked a lot about three-way crossovers and separate mid-range drivers, but the current range appears to be lacking these ideas?

If it’s for home cinema, then you’d probably get a better effect from a single centre speaker directly below or behind the centreline of your screen. The longitudinal centre speakers in 7:1 really need to be at ear level when you are sitting in the ‘sweet spot’ of the room to be effective. For 7:1 to work effectively you need the right shaped room finished with the right materials. I have customers who spend literally hundreds of thousands on cinema setups and if the room is the wrong shape (which we tell them at the outset) then no amount of speakers makes a difference, even from high-end brands such as James and CAT.

Am I right in thinking KK are no longer in business? Since receiving my secondhand KK five string I’ve tried to contact them on more than one occasion without success, and now all pages (with the exception of the home page) of babybass.com are blank?

Just bought a Behringer DI from Greg. DI box was in A1 condition, still boxed in original box with instructions. Fast friendly comms, next day delivery, I’d say trade with Greg with confidence.

So I restrung her yesterday with the Aquila Reds I bought at the same time as the Uke. The Aquila’s are noticeably lighter gauge than the Harley Benton strings, but sound no different in use. Add bonus is they do not smell like smokey bacon crisps, and it’s possible to slide up and down the neck without killing the note. Access for the string change was incredibly tight with my not so large hand only just fitting through the sound hole. The D string was a particular P.I.T.A due to the proximity of the bridge hole to a longitudinal stiffener. I also had to shorten the E and A strings to reduce the number of winds on each machine head. Other than this, the Reds are a massive improvement over the stock strings 😎

I’m not sure what’s standard in terms of size. If it’s any help, it fits snugly in a half-sized acoustic guitar gig bag? The preamp is a fairly simple affair, treble and bass sliders, volume control on a knob and a built-in tuner. The tone controls are useable and plugged in it sounds just the same as a fretless bass. A little bit of req and it’s a passable dB sound.

So a little while ago, I decided I wanted to try a bass Ukulele for fun and the odd acoustic gig we do. Not wanting to throw away the type of money Kala want for a U Bass, and after a couple of false starts, I decided on giving the Harley Benton fretless bass ukulele a try and ordered one from Thomann. As usual, thanks to UKMail, my delivery arrived two days late, and as I work away from home all week, meant I didn’t get to play with it until last night. A year or so ago, I bought a Harley Benton five string acoustic bass for my weekday home in Holland, and once that was restrung with some decent flatwounds, it’s been an unbelievable bargain, so I hoped for the same with the bass ukulele. First impressions are that the quality far far exceeds the price. The woodwork is excellent, the finish is light and uniform, and the woods even look good quality. The headstock is scarf jointed, and the inside of the body is clean and well constructed. The stock strings look like Aquila Thunderguts, but I have bought some Thunder Reds to try when I get around to it. But the best bit is playing it. It is so much fun to play and I haven’t been able to put it down this morning, oh and it’s one of those things that just makes you smile every time you look at it. And all this for the princely sum of £127.

I’ve just posted a “NBD” thread about a little Harley Benton fretless bass Ukulele I’ve bought. Amazing little thing for the price.

The advantage for me is as all my main electric basses are 5’s and that I only use the EUB live occasionally and then only on a few tracks, the mental translation is easier. In all honesty, the B string isn’t as authoritative as the others, and you need to be much more precise with your right hand technique to get a low C or D to really bloom. Maybe as I progress as an upright player I might get more out of the low B, but for now it’s little more than a visual/tactile reference when moving from the electric bass. My only DB experience prior to the KK is a Stagg EUB, so I don’t really feel the extra width as the KK neck isn’t as chunky as the Stagg.