Linus27

29 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

Why not just use your existing MS-60B, and then only change if after a number of gigs it transpires you are not happy with it.  I used a MS-60B with a Behringer DI400P DI box for ages.  In the end I was pulled to EBS preamps for their feature set (as I am doubling nearly all the time), but I was never unhappy with the way the Zoom sounded.

This is my other option, to use the MS-60B but it has no DI out which is something I would like so I can run direct to the desk. So I'm happy to do this and I know the MS-60B is great so it would be recommendations on a good DI if I went this route. I'll into the Behringer DI400P DI box if you think its a good option. It might be a good short term option until I can afford a Fishman Platinum Pro or EBS Preamp which I've heard is excellent.

I've just bought an Ibanez UB804 Upswing EUB which I absolutely love. I'd like to get a fairly uncoloured preamp with DI that I can then run straight to the desk rather than going through the DI in my amp. I don't really want to spend a huge amount but I do want to get something that's going to be half decent with a little bit of tone shaping. I was looking at the Fishman Platinum Pro which has great reviews but is a little pricey for my budget. They do also have the Platinum Stage which also looks good but no idea if it is any good. I could go super cheap and get the Behringer DBI21 but not sure if this would be suitable for a EUB. The other option is use my Zoom MS-60B for tone shaping and buy a decent DI to run to the desk.

Anyone got any recommendations for a half decent preamp with DI that's good with a EUB or even a half decent DI if I use my MS-60B. Open to other suggestions or recommendations

I was asked to appear in a charity video for ELO in the late 80's miming bass. Went to a studio and just played along to the track whilst we were all being filmed. I can't remember much about it and only being 18, I didn't really know much about ELO but they were all very nice.

Recorded an album at Paul Weller's studio in Ripley which Paul played on a few track. I had to teach him a few of the piano parts and at the end of the week we all went for a curry in Ripley. We then supported him on his Sonic Kicks tour.

Recorded an album with Mark Wallis who produced the It Bites album, Travis albums, engineered on U2's Joshua Tree to name a few. The studio was owned by Geoff Downs of Buggles fame and John Payne from Asia. Geoff played Hammond on a few tracks and John sung backing on a few tracks. They were both super nice people.

Hung out backstage with Cactus World News and Deacon Blue at a festival we were all playing at in the 90's.

A few mates of mine went to see Mike Peter's play in Bath Moles. Mike asked if anyone could play guitar and my guitarist friend stepped forward and was his roadie for the night. Got to hang out and chat music with him and talk about our band with him. A few months later, I interviewed Derek Forbes and then saw him when he was playing in Portsmouth. Mike Peter's was also singing in the band and he remembered us and we ended up having a good chat again about music.

I played bass with a band for a few months as a dep that had Jodie Hawkes (Chesney's brother) on drums and a few other siblings of famous musicians.

Supported 80's pop band Breathe at Guildford Civic Hall (G Live) in the 90's.

One of our roadies, Patch, was the drummer in The Audience with Sophie Ellis-Bexter and The Sunday's. After a tour in London, we headed back to his studio for a party which happened to be some old mill and he played us the early demo's of track's from Natalie Imbruglia's first album and Robbie Williams - Millennium which started out as a reggae track. Paul Nicholls who was in Eastenders was there as well as other people who I can't remember.

To now go full circle, I recorded an EP in a studio in Soho in the late 80's. There was a guy working there who was super kind and let me use his amazing Vintage Fender basses. It turns out to be our very own @Steve Browning 😁

I can definitely see me getting one of these but I'll probably settle for the MS-70CDR+.

1 hour ago, JimmyN2 said:

Took delivery of a MarkBass New York 121 yesterday to add to my CMD121. Quick delivery and good price from Bass Direct.  Anyway the difference in sound without changing any settings is quite surprising.  Let’s see what the other band members make of it on Tuesday.  I won’t bother at church as I put a mic in front of the cmd121. 

When you say different, in what way? 

4 minutes ago, JimmyN2 said:

That’s really good Linus, so glad it worked for you and you had fun, excellent!  
 
Trying everything out is the only way.  
 

But if you really want to sound like a DB then the Ray Brown method is your best route.  Plucking at 90o will never sound like a DB.

 

Really pleased for you. 
 

Cheers,

 

Jim

Thanks Jim, really appreciate your help and kind words. It's only been 2 weeks so very very early day and certainly a long but fun road ahead.

Thanks @JimmyN2 and @JPJ, your help is really appreciated and invaluable, thank you. So last night I did my first gig after only getting the UB804 2 weeks ago and it was a huge success. I've been putting in hours of practice each night to try and get comfortable, work on my technique and to tweak my bass lines as I'm normally a melodic fretless player. I needed to simplify them and play some parts in a lower octave. I knew the sound guy already and he's very good and knew exactly what I usually sound like with my fretless and what sort of sound I was after with the double bass and he got it absolutely spot on. I even got compliments afterwards and despite this being our first unplugged setup and mine with the double bass, we even got a standing ovation at the end so I'll take that as a hit 😁

As for compressor, for fretless, its vital for my sound but for the double bass I also found this had more of a negative effect than doing good so I kept this off. Reverb also is an essential part of my fretless tone but I found for the double bass, things got a bit mushy so I kept this off. I run it through my Warwick Gnome and TC Electronic BC208 and the settings were bass dialled back a little to 11 o clock, mids dialled back to 9 o clock and treble left at 12 o clock. The UB804 had the tone rolled all the way back and I got a nice warm rounded thumpy tone. Not necessarily pure double bass but nothing like a fretless bass. I did still run through my Sansamp but just as a DI rather than any tone shaping but I did dial all the blend off which helped.

As for how I play, one thing I learnt very quickly is a softer touch really really helps and the softer I played, the fuller the notes swelled but also stayed cleaner. I was finding some of the lower octave notes like F and G on the E string could get a bit mushy and boomy but with a lighter plucking hand, the notes would sing more and this seemed consistent across all the notes. I've also been trying plucking 90 degrees to the string and also side on like Ray Brown. The latter is much harder but something I'm going to keep working on for sure. 

As for something to use instead of the Sansamp, I'd read the Fishman Platinum Pro had great reviews. I will of course look into the Artec Parametric EQ but I have also managed to get a great tone from just going direct into my amp so it's more the DI option that's important to me.

I've got 4 basses and an electric upright bass and I wouldn't mind a couple of other basses to add to the collection.

Fender Japan 61 Reissue Fretless Jazz: This is the best bass I have owned. I bought it new around 87 and its seen thousands of gigs. Its fretless with an ebony board, Bartolini pickups, incredibly beaten up and sounds amazing. Strung with Rotosound 66 Swing Nickel rounds and really sings.

Fender Japan 62 Fretless Precision: When I don't play the Jazz then I play this bass as its lovely and is a nice player when I fancy something different. It has a rosewood fretless neck, 62 vintage pickups, is strung with Rotosound 66 Swing Nickel rounds and has a really nice expressive, punchy tone.

Fender Mexico FSR 70's Reissue Fretless Precision: It has a maple fretless neck, is natural with an Ash body, 62 Vintage pickups and sounds fab. Strung with flats and is brilliant for recording and is different to the other Precision and Jazz basses.

Music Man Fretless Stingray SR4: It has a Pau Ferro fretless neck which is lovely but very different sounding to the three other basses I own. I'm still experimenting with strings and would like to try and use some Nickel strings on it at some point. I do occasionally gig with it as well but nothing really beats the tone from my Jazz bass.

Ibanez UB804 Upswing EUB: Very different to anything I own but a wonderful fun instrument.

After that, then I am always on the look out for interesting fretless basses so who knows what might pop up in the future.

Just out of interest, does anyone use a Sansamp pedal or similar with the Ibanez Upswing? If so, any recommendations on settings that you use. I'm trying to get as close to a nice organic, thumpy double bass tone as possible.

We played to a mildly iffy crowd last night. No trouble as such but a very odd crowd who all seemed to know each other from all ages with guys strutting  around like peacocks and girls, done up to the nine's with tits hanging out, swearing their heads off. Pissed as anything treading on cables, standing right in front of us with their backs to us and showing no respect to anyone. Just a very odd crowd.

Some of my favourite Jazz numbers.

Miles Davis - On Green Dolphin Street

Bill Evan's - Minority

Soil and Pimp Sessions - Summer Goddess 

19 hours ago, JimmyN2 said:

Hi Linus

I’ve been playing on of these beauties since 2020 and I can’t recommend it highly enough, and very easy to play for an ex Fender player.  The strings from new are Daddario ECB81 and I wouldn’t use anything else. I play a lot and have replaced them once. 
At jazz gigs people often come and tell me how like a double bass it sounds. 
 

Jim

Thanks Jim, that's really good to know. I think mine came fitted with Rotosound rounds which really were doing the bass no favours. I had a set of Rotosound Flats spare which are strings I'm very fond of anyway, so I fitted them and they've transformed it. I'm still going to try a set of the D'addario ECB81's as I've read others have rated them as well. Thank you for your help.

1. 1988 - 1990: Band was disbanded for legal reasons so legal action couldn't be taken against us.

2. 1990 - 1992: New band was formed with the same members as the band above but with a different name to avoid legal action. After 3 years, the singer left and the band ended.

3. 1995 - 2001: Band was signed but due to suing the record company for breaching contract we disbanded after winning the legal battle.

4. 2008 - 2009: Quit the band after a year after wasting way too much turn on flaky band mates who never turned up and who did the talk but not the walk.

5. 2011 - 2012: Quit the band after a year and a half after the two songwriters refused to credit myself and the drummer on the album as musicians who played on the album but credited themselves.

6. 2018 - 2020:  Gave notice to the band leader that I was leaving in 6 months after being with them for 2 years. Band leader threw a huge wobbly, went AWOL and did not turn up for the gig that night. The band disbanded soon after.

7. 2019 - 2020: New band formed with same members as above but with a new name. This band and the above band had been together for 3 years and was doing about 100 gigs a year but decided to call it quits when Covid hit.

8. 2019 - 2019: Played with this band for a year but the guitarist was a fraudster and conman so 3 of us quit the band.

9. 2021 - : Still going strong and with the singer who was in band 1 and quit band 2.

How are you guys powering your MS pedals? Are you using batteries, individual mains power supply or lead into a power pack?

9 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

You should run the 2 B1on pedals through a Boss LS-2 or similar so you'll achieve parallel effect signal patch blending capabilities, or global clean blend when on of the units is bypassed.

 

It really does add an extra dimension to your tone, doesn't it?

 

But without muddying things up.

 

And yes, to me it sounds as great as any reverb effect, not 2nd grade quality.

 

I do have some additional more lush reverb patches, an extremely lush reverb patch that is used for a pad effect with volume swell ins, using the build in expression pedal on my B1Xon assigned to input volume (though I suppose you could use the Slow effect for a similar automatic volume swells effect), and I I got a great bass wah pedal patch as well, but again that is utilizing the build in expression pedal, you might be able to use it by dialing in the resonance parameter, to make it envelope controlled instead.

 

I'll have a look at the parameter settings later and post them.

 

Thank you so much, I would so appreciate it. I am a big reverb fan being a fretless player so any you have would be amazing. The Wah patch sounds interesting as well. Thank you

On 24/09/2023 at 12:58, Baloney Balderdash said:

So this is the thread to share you pictures, thoughts and patches for the precious generation of Zoom digital multi effect, which includes the still in production Multi Stomp pedals, that is the MS-50G/MS-60B/MS-70CDR/G1on/B1on/G1Xon/B1Xon as well as G3 and B3.

 

 

I made this thread because I love these cheap multi effects, and think they are superior to the current production G1 Four and B1 Four and the digital effect models these comes with, I do actually own both of these newer generation Zoom multi effects, but to me they sound as they look, plastic like/artificial and somewhat boxy, and the possibility for tweaking the effects are limiting in comparison with the previous generation of Zoom multi effects.

 

For one the effects are way more flexible and tweakable, and the G1Xon and B1Xon allows for assigning every one parameter of any one effect of each path to be controlled at whatever range and direction one should wish with the great build in expression pedal, or it can be set to control either pre effect input level, or post effect output level, as well (and again range and direction can be set to whatever one should wish), and that without taking up an extra effect slot, whereas the expression pedal of the G1X Four and B1X Four is limited to only work for a handful of dedicated expression pedal controlled effects.

 

Further more with these precious generation of Zoom multi effects you can, via a 3rd party unofficial effect manager/firmware hack called "Zoom Effect Manager", load any effect you should wish from any of these pedals to any other of these pedals, opening up for a huge library of effects at your disposal (something Zoom in my opinion ought to have offered themself long ago. This app doesn't work for the G3 and B3 though).

 

Admittedly the octaver/pitch shifter, drive and amp/cab models on these units leaves something to wish for, and are in my opinion pretty awful, but just about any other effects on them are good, some even great or amazing.

 

 

I personally own no less than 4 of these effects (beside the current generation G1 Four and B1 Four, which I am pretty sure I will never use again), all loaded with the same effects, thanks to the mentioned 3rd party firmware hack program, an MS-70CDR, a B1Xon, a G1Xon and a G1on, and currently actively using the B1Xon in my current main setup, mainly as my reverb effect unit, with a variety of different reverb patches, including in a huge lush reverb that is used as a swell in pad effect, using the build in expression pedal to control the input volume), though the patches I have set up also includes a trippy reverse delay patch, and a LPF envelope filter based "wah" pedal patch, controlled with the build in expression pedal, among the patches I use.

 

The B1Xon is even one of my absolute favorite effects, out of all the effects I own, probably only beaten by my EHX Black Finger.

 

 

I'll start out with sharing the subtle reverb patch that is part of my basic always on "clean" tone, a very subtle plate reverb stacked into a subtle spring reverb, which I actually think sounds pretty amazing (surely much much better than anything I could get out of the G1 Four or B1 Four I own, and believe me I tried, and even gave them several chances), I'd say as good as any good reverb, and absolutely perfect for my use :

 

- Effect 1: "Plate" : / PreD: 10 / Decay: 33 / Mix: 25 / Color: 45 / LoDMP: 80 / HiDMP: 85 / Trail: On / Level: 100 /

 ->

- Effect 2: "Spring63" : / DWELL: 25 / MIXER: 15 / TONE: 50 / LEVEL: 100 /

 

I punched your subtle reverb patch into my MS-60B and it sounds really good. Actually used it on Friday night and it sounded great. If you have any other patches then please share.

Great gig on Friday night at the brilliant Login Lounge in Camberley. We've played there a few times and it can be a bit hit or miss with the audience but this time it was pretty busy. The sound is always fantastic though and the sound guys really know what they are doing.

During my soundcheck, the soundman said I was getting quite a bit of buzzing from my setup. I suspected it was my pedals but by going direct into my MarkBass LM IV and Barefaced Two10, the buzzing was still there. I'd just recently added a Sansamp BDDI v2 onto my board and suggested trying the DI on that. At that point an older guy who I think was the main sound man who wasn't working came over and asked what's up. The main sound guy explained and said we were going to try going through the Sansamp. He said that its probably their DI and going through the Sansamp will give a really clean sound and the Sansamp is an awesome bit of kit. He seemed to know what he was talking about and low and behold, no buzzing and my bass sounded incredible all night. Just as he walked off, he turned back and said, oh and by the way, your fretless playing sounds amazing 😁

We played amazing and the sound on stage was incredible, especially my bass. After the gig, I then got a couple more people come up to me and compliment me on my fretless playing so I went away super happy.

Gorgeous bass and anyone who buys this will get an absolute beauty. Plus, Mick is an absolute gent so buy will confidence.

Just to say that I've just picked up an 804 and I am thrilled to bits with it. I'm a fretless bass player but my band who are quite acoustic sounding already will be doing some gigs this year where we are stripping back even more and the 804 will be perfect for this.

Transitioning from a fretless Fender Jazz/Precision wasn't as bad as I thought, however my right hand technique really needs the most attention. When I try and play with the side of my index finger like Ray Brown, then it's a bit hit or miss but playing with my fingertips with my wrist 90 degrees to the strings worked really well. So something to work on and I'll be watching lots of double bass videos on YouTube to improve. I'm also a very melodic player and do play a lot of runs and parts high up on the neck. I'm finding this is a little tricky but moving to stand facing the fretboard of the 804 has made it a bit easier. Again lots to learn and work on.

One other thing, mine came with strings that have red silks whereas pictures I've seen seem to have them with blue silks. Do the original D'Addario ECB81 strings come with blue silks? I've no idea what strings mine have but I think Rotosound as the ends are multicoloured like Rotosound strings. They don't feel smooth like flats nor do they feel rough like rounds, sort of half way.

Anyway, loving the 804 so far and if anyone has any tips and advice then I'd really appreciate it.

Really enjoyed that and inspiring seeing some of pedals and basses.

Beautiful bass and an amazing price. Mick's an absolutely great guy so whoever buys this is not only getting an amazing bass but can also buy with 100% confidence.

47 minutes ago, Kowad said:

Ok so not my only fretless, but oh my god. Is it absurd to say I was expecting just a touch of buyer’s remorse? Not even a smidgen. Just glorious in every way. I have been lost in it since it arrived - I think only a couple of weeks back, but it feels like a year 😂

 

Beautiful

2 minutes ago, three said:

I'd be very interested to see what Martin (Gallery) says and can do to help here.  I have a very similar problem with a fretless four, though it's the E string, and to a lesser degree, the G string that are problematic.  Dead spots from B to E/F on the G, but the E is just generally lacking sustain.  A plucked open E dies much more quickly than A/D/G and it feels like there's something absorbing or countering the energy in the string (there's a peculiar sort of counter vibration that I can feel in the neck).  I suspect it's a truss-rod issue (or a loose components somewhere) so probably off to a good tech in the next week or two - I'll update when I know more, and good to hear the Gallery's opinion on the MM   

Will update for sure. My E, A and D are absolutely perfect, just the G but it also has these weird overtones/harmonics on certain notes on the G. Mine also feels like there's something absorbing or countering the energy in the string on certain notes. Either way, I'll update as well when I know.

Thank @Doctor J and @Beedster

It's not a new bass and I have checked the string height and neck relief. I've given it a bit more relief as the neck was quite flat but the strings height if anything if a little higher than it could be. It is also noticeably worse around the 4th - 7th fret but generally, overall the whole string doesn't sing or sustain as well as the other 3 strings. I'm gonna take it to the Bass Gallery at some point to ge looked at but I'll also look into the Fender Cat Finger as well.

I have a fretless Musicman Stingray and the G string has little sustain and sounds like it's being choked. If I play certain notes on the D string, the sustain can last 10 seconds or so but when I play the same notes on the G string, the note can die off after 3 or 4 seconds. I've tried 3 different sets of strings from roundwounds, flats and tapewound strings and the results are the same. The bass has a brass nut which I'm not sure if that's standard on a fretless Stingray with a Pau Ferro board.

I'm wondering if the issue is with the nut. Anyone got any ideas or had anything similar?