JPJ

So a nice trip into GuitarGuitar in Newcastle after my contact lense check resulted in me being the proud owner of a Snark. Initial testing show the Snark is happy attached to either the bridge or the headstock 😎 I'm not sure the guys in GuitarGuitar were quite prepared from my arrival complete with dyed 'bloodshot' eyes 😂

So I'm finding my reliable old Boss TU-2 is struggling with the KK Baby Bass, so what do you guys recommend. Will a clip-on type like the TC PolyTune cope better, or should I go for one of the newer Boss type pedals?

Simply awesome, out with the nine piece line up at the Cluny in Newcastle, at least half the set was new material, and I played Db on three songs. Despite being up against a Thunder at the City Hall, we still attracted a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, and made some great new friends. One of those gigs that make it all worth while.

I'd say go for it. But please remember we are a Rickenbacker free forum after several threats from the Rickenbacker organisation. I have had the displeasure to play an original Ric five string and the the string spacing was so ridiculously tight it went straight back on the wall.

First outing and happy ending to the ParcelFarce debacle (with appropriate head gear?) [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/6FE5D889-32FF-4E9A-890D-E5511750C344_zpsj8cdnv2h.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/6FE5D889-32FF-4E9A-890D-E5511750C344_zpsj8cdnv2h.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/6338B3D5-1A94-43EA-BB3D-11673E75F915_zpsavpr67wx.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/6338B3D5-1A94-43EA-BB3D-11673E75F915_zpsavpr67wx.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

So, as some of you know by now, I recently bought a KK Baby Bass. Now whilst this sounded pretty good on its own, and has tons of 'thump' from the stock under bridge magnetic microphone pickup, I couldn't get enough 'mwahhh' without dialling out the 'thump'. Talking it over with a more knowledgable friend, he suggested adding a bridge wing pickup, so I took a punt on one of the J-Tone Reds being sold on eBay. Straight out of the packet, the transducers (yes two, because two have to be better than one yes?) were too thin for the bridge slots, and whereas the J-Tone fitting instructions refer to 'baize' material in their installation guide on Facebook, mine came without this material. Fortunately I had some 4mm balsa wood that I was able to sand down to about 1.3mm to shim the transducers into place. Second gripe was that the supplied washer and rubber piece designed to clamp the jack socket between two strings was too small for the gap between my strings, so a trip down the shed later two new rubber faced aluminium washers were fashioned and are doing the job perfectly. With it all in place, I fired up the bass through my Headway EDB1, running a stereo OBBM cable between the bass and the Headway and instantly I had the tone I was after. Lovely big thump at the beginning of the note but enough mwah to let even my dodgy vibrato shine through. Whereas the KK on its own is either really dark or quite thin, the J-Tones have a sort of fretless bass sound to them. But mixed in combination, and the tone in my head is there at my fingertips. All in all, for the price you pay, these J-Tones seem pretty good. Proof of the pudding of course will be tomorrow's gig, but first impressions are very favourable! [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/646558A3-7BEA-4373-9D31-703C66A81AD4_zpspevvgedn.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/646558A3-7BEA-4373-9D31-703C66A81AD4_zpspevvgedn.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/266D7700-684E-4ADA-9050-895C89CE06CD_zps1nzbrwdo.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/266D7700-684E-4ADA-9050-895C89CE06CD_zps1nzbrwdo.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1489659549' post='3258674'] JPJ - what pickup did you upgrade it with? Any recommendations (from you or anyone else) for beginner's technique material? [/quote] Congratulations on the purchase, the Stagg is a great starting point imho. My 'upgrade' was out of necessity as the bass side piezo on mine stopped working. I went with a locally sourced Artec unit which proved to be warmer sounding and higher output, so a win-win. As to beginners technique material, our own Geoffbass has some excellent YouTube videos on hand position and techniques etc here [url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUXgtLdATSU6LQLd6Qlp0bQ/videos?feature=guide&view=1"]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUXgtLdATSU6LQLd6Qlp0bQ/videos?feature=guide&view=1[/url]

I am feeling the gravitational pull of the big old doghouse, but I need one or both of my daughters to leave home before I dare bring one into this household 😎

Hi Al, Well my other thread 'Beware of ParcelFarce' tells the sad tale (and happy ending) of the KK Baby Bass purchase. Because of the repairs, I've only managed one rehearsal with her so far but she did sound amazing and matched the tone and thump I had in my head. In truth, I'm finding it difficult to get sufficient mwah out of the upper strings without dialling out the thump so I will be trying a wing pickup in parallel with the stock mag microphone pickup to see if I can coax this out when amplified as its there in spades acoustically. First gig with her will be this coming Sunday. I'll only get to use her on a couple of songs, but I'm still really looking forward to it. Its a strange thing, but despite having played normal electric bass off and on for the last forty years, the upright 'feels' more natural to me.

I think the issue here is that the Cetus is actually a semi-acoustic instrument meaning it's too loud to be played comfortably for late night practice whilst the rest of the household sleeps. I had a Stagg EUB and that was virtually silent when unplugged (or as near to silent as you are going to get) whereas the KK Baby Bass is loud enough to be heard throughout the house in the dead of night.

So she's reunited with her fingerboard and restrung and sounding as I hoped she would. Now all I have to do is work on my hand strength! [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/64981F55-2EDB-4B24-804F-5A9326B4C49B_zpsszri2mi8.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/64981F55-2EDB-4B24-804F-5A9326B4C49B_zpsszri2mi8.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Well the clamps came off and the fingerboard stayed attached, so I'm calling that a result. A little bit of fine filler in one or two spots where I may have been a little enthusiastic with the glue removal and a lick of lacquer and she'll be as good as new. I have some enamel paint inbound too to touch up the chips on the body, so hopefully by next weekend she'll be back together and looking good.

I had the BG500 2x10 combo which I didn't like, I couldn't get a tone out of it that didn't sound 'brittle' to my old ears. I've now got the BG250 208 combo and its great. Lovely warm sound, surprising loud for 2 x 8" speakers (I've upgraded to get the full 250 in 4 ohms) and so portable. Its ideal for rehearsals and acoustic style gigs. As someone else has already said, the SpectraComp toneprint adds a lot of warmth and girth to the overall tone so I'd also recommend this.

So the patient is on the operating table. Tuners have been disassembled, straightened, and reassembled onto the bass, and the neck & fingerboard have been block sanded to remove the old glue residue, and the fingerboard reattached. The glue recommends 24 hours in the clamps so I won't know until tomorrow afternoon whether this has been successful, so fingers crossed! [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/6BD6E3EE-68A6-43FE-A3F9-D85C9B99A8E9_zps44ltc9vn.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/6BD6E3EE-68A6-43FE-A3F9-D85C9B99A8E9_zps44ltc9vn.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1488497938' post='3249570'] Their online tracking is also so far behind the competition. It's almost non-existent. Have you seen DPD's? It tells me who my delivery driver is, where he is at that precise point in time, what number delivery he is making (i.e number 30 of 73), which number parcel is mine, and an incredibly accurate (in my experience, within a couple of minutes) expected delivery time. Sorry to hear about the breakage, and I hope something comes through for you to sort it. [/quote] Yes, DPD are pretty much leading the field in terms of tracking. Their app is good too :-)

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1488462096' post='3249156'] That's awful, and it's always a worry when you courier stuff. However, I can only speak as I find and I have used Parcelforce a number of times and had no issues. Maybe I have just been lucky? [/quote] In hindsight, I was 'pushing the envelop' a bit expecting them to safely carry something this large. The good news is a plan has been hatched for the repair and she should be back to pristine condition very soon (I hope so, as I wanted to use her at our Cluny gig on the 19th)!

Ooh nice result! The satin finish looks gorgeous, there is something undeniably more 'expensive' looking about satin finishes, to me anyway. Nice accident with the Stingray sounding neck pickup, but that has reminded me that I really need to complete my own Status graphite necked blingray build As I find myself playing my fretless more and more these days out of choice not necessity, I'll be interested to hear how build no2 turns out.

Stagg do a good folding stool that I've used for sitty down acoustic gigs I think I got mine from Thomann? http://www.staggmusic.com/en/products/view/MT300BK

That was the issue, I could get to the support page, but no open tickets. I guess this is because I requested support via email before registering on my.presonus.com Mind having said that, the other comments about the app still stand

I went to the app store to look at Notion but Progression seemed to be more applicable for what I needed. Avoid this app, its buggy, the registration tool for the 'free' ebass option doesn't function, you will receive an error message from your iPad saying the developer needs to update the app or it may slow down your iPad (a sign of an abandoned app) and Presonus' technical support is a joke. I emailed them about the problem, the emailed back with links to a support ticket with "updated information" on their support site. Click on the link, and you are required to register. Registration completed, and guess what, no open support tickets nor anyway of finding the ticket they say they have created. At that point I gave up and processed a cancelation via iTunes.

Lots of chat on the Behringer x-air forum about this, and one guy even offering to build a custom footswitch which will issue the necessary midi command. However, there is currently no 'out of the box' solution available for switching one of the four effects processors in/out of signal chain be it on insert or bus mode.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1488042371' post='3245345'] Regrettably I think the first assumption you need to make when packing anything is; assume it will be dropped as a direct hit on it's most vulnerable side/corner/edge... more than once. All that said; good luck in getting it fixed. PS - I know packing wasn't in the OP's area of control. 2nd rule - read the small print. There's no point in paying the insurance cover against risk of damage, if the small print says "all instruments must be in a flight-case", and you didn't pack it in a flight case. [/quote] To be fair to the Seller, he had done an excellent job of packing the bass, and there wasn't a mark on the box to suggest the damage that lay within. Let's see how far we get on pursuing a claim against ParcelFarce. My local luthier has had a look at the damage and thinks it's fixable without too much effort.

Take a rubber band, cut it into sections, place a section between each string and it's saddle. Takes the edge off new strings a treat 😎

So I decided to take a chance on a KK Baby Bass as my next steps in the world of DB. A lovely five string came up on eBay and after a couple of friendly exchanges with the seller, a deal was hatched and the bass was bought. Only problem was the 369 miles between me and the seller So the plan was further developed to include insured shipping and the bass was packaged up and dispatched. Now when I learned the bass was coming with ParcelForce (aka ParcelFarce) I was a little concerned, and I awaited delivery with baited breath. ParcelForce give you a helpful eleven hour delivery slot with no online tracking, and of course they chose to deliver within the precise 30 minute window when the house was unoccupied, so this morning I trekked over to the local depot to collect the bass. The packaging was extensive and looked intact, so I was somewhat relieved, and even more so when the ParcelForce lady commented that this was just as well as they don't insure musical instruments. Dashing back to the batcave, I eagerly unwrapped the cardboard and nine miles of packing tape, and eased the substantial padded gig bag out of the box. Again, everything looked good, so I unzipped the gig bag and 'bang' the fingerboard, complete with truss rod fell out first! Easing the rest of the bass out of the case showed, three substantial chips in the finish of the top (probably from the truss rod retaining brackets), two bent tuners, the bridge knocked out of position, and the end pin driven so far into the body that the rubber foot had come completely off, and the end pin locking bolt bent. Its pretty clear that despite the 'fragile' stickers all over the packaging, something heavy has been placed on top of the bass, levering the fingerboard off (tearing the ebony at the nut end). Also, it must have been dropped on its end (both ends) to dislodge the end pin and bend the tuning pegs. As i type this, the seller is contacting ParcelFarce and I'm in contact with my local luthier about reattaching the fingerboard, but once again, a beautiful instrument has been virtually destroyed in the hands of couriers. My advice to my fellow basschatters is avoid couriers like the plague and avoid ParcelFarce in particular after this episode. Will keep you lot posted as this develops. [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/84E0ADDE-13B1-49B0-B5B0-3861FBE64768_zps6fmlsvfy.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/70B997FC-8550-41F9-8BC5-3AAF4A408373_zpsikxmcg3w.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/FA6D5E55-46D6-4FC9-ABF4-571EA56BE587_zpsojopmihf.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/1B944A7E-45D8-4CCF-B3EC-472E1C0E705D_zpszubygxdk.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/6C149797-CFFD-4290-9BA9-865821DE6953_zpszxcu7ftq.jpg.html"][/url]