Kiwi

OldGit

R,5,R,5

Lefty Steve

Here's the tone I referred to earlier with the Pentabuzz in action. I looked for a better known example but couldn't find one. [url="http://www.myspace.com/crazykiwi/music/songs/strength-courage-and-wisdom-26638110"]http://www.myspace.com/crazykiwi/music/son...wisdom-26638110[/url]

I suspect its also a question of their priorities, if and when they actually get time to relax.

The ones that I'm aware of are: Andrew McKinlay - James Taylor Quartet Dave Swift - Jools Holland Joe Hubbard - 80's session giant Jimmy Sims - Saturdays/Mika Rob Burns - 80's session giant Guy Pratt - Pink Floyd Ed Hetherton - Elliot Minor Janek Gwisdala and Steve Lawson occasionally show up to promote something. I know Randy Hope Taylor, Nick Fyffe, Paul Turner and Lee Sklar have browsed but not joined, I strongly suspect Mark King is aware of the site. Any others haven't made themselves known. The pros I've conversed with find forums threatening and overwhelming, especially with how arguments tend to escalate out of all proportion. Sometimes I have my work cut out trying to persuade them that this isn't always the case.

I did my own sort of warm, punchy enveloping wash on the Pentabuzz with chorus and a little delay. I've heard it before somewhere but can't remember where.

[quote name='funkypenguin' post='1103062' date='Jan 26 2011, 01:00 AM']ah right :S still not happy with the sound. would a refret and passive pickups perhaps help OOI?[/quote] Attack and fretnoise tends to be most heavily influenced by the fingerboard in my experience. I don't think the refret would solve much. The pickups are already passive, unless you mean dispense with a preamp which I'd be reluctant to do. If I was going to design the bass again, I'd put as much mahogany in as I could before the neck lost stiffness. That way the bass would sound warmer and growlier. Update: I had a discussion with Klaus over some improvements to his parametric preamp and he's made me a couple of custom jobbies with passive bypass. I'll do a full review once I've fitted them. But in brief the changes were: passive bypass gain trimpot so I can match output to other basses adjusted freqency bands so the 250hz sweet spot is accessible by the mid sweep control The four MEC concentric pots are deeper than most pots but the active/passive bypass push pull concentric vol/pan pot requires a particularly deep control cavity. OK for both Spectors but not so OK for the Shuker so I'll fit the original preamp instead which is currently in the natural spector. I'll have to get a control plate arrangement or deep insert socket for the backup Spector too.

Rack based effects are a mixed bag depending on how prescriptive you would like to be. If you have a fully scripted performance which involves the same songs in the same order then you can programme your patches in sequence and just one stomp between songs will take care of things. Alternatively if you do a lot of changes and play with a sequencer then you can set up each patch and have the sequencer programmed to change it for you but you'll need a few dress rehearsals to soundcheck the patch gain levels and eq. Alternatively a number of more recent rack effects like the TC Electronic G-Major and the Lexicon MPXG2 will allow you to create 'rigs', which means to say a patch with multiple effects that you can switch in and out independently of one another, plus specialist patches. I have a mix of both on my MPXG2 with a 'rig' for each bass. You can also purchase software for your laptop that has more processing power than most multi effects units. Take a look at Native Instruments Guitar Rig Kontrol for example. If you have in ear monitors you won't need to take an amp. Just the IEM unit, laptop and USB foot controller. It can be MIDI automated as well.

I've had mixed results. Mostly disappointment from unplayed basses off Ebay so learned my lessons the hard way. I will probably never buy another unplayed bass now because I've got as close to my perfect sound as I feel I'm likely to get. It will take something truly exceptional to take the place of the natural Spector. Or maybe something highly collectable...in which case the sound will be less important.

good to see you back Rich

its great how they can use this process to compensate for defects in the fingerboard

Welcome Xtof enjoy the forum - Do you have any pictures, please

Moses necks aren't built in that way but the GUS guitars necks are.

[quote name='RhysP' post='1106211' date='Jan 28 2011, 02:54 PM']No mention of Zon? I'm stunned! [/quote] Did you read the bit at the top which said 'Work In Progress'? Include Zon if you like.

Steinberger necks are resin based and a completely different design to the monocoque Status/Modulus/GUS construction. BTW, graphite neck wiki entry for anyone who is interested: [url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:tech:use_of_composites_graphite_necks_in_bass_guitar_design"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:tech:use_o...s_guitar_design[/url]

That'll be one of the Series 1 Stealth models using an MDF core A little heavy compared to the Series II design which used epoxy foam in the core.

Unless the recipe of the phenolic fingerboard resin was wrong and it didn't give the necks enough stiffness. Rob Greens approach to neck construction been trialled and tested over 20 years to help tune the necks and make them sound better. Graphite necks need VERY selective dampening to sound good.

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='1104663' date='Jan 27 2011, 02:40 AM']Spector NSCR5FM (i owned this for a while and it was a gorgeous 5 string. Crazykiwi now has this and he's improved it by all accounts. CK got it via john kemo who I did a deal with for the bongo 4HH below as I was getting pangs for one of those again [/quote] Guilty as charged! I played it when Homerplaysbass brought it to a bass bash and even then it made me think 'ooh'. I then missed out on it when Dubster sold it but I got my hands on it eventually. It sounds fantastic and after the modifications is extremely versatile too...absolutely without any question a keeper and a once-in-a-lifetime instrument. It replaced my Smiths and its gone up against other instruments (Overwaters, Status, Wals, Fenders, a Fodera MG and all the other instruments I own) and NOTHING I've played beats it for the sweet, warm, growly and tight low end tone....not even the other Czech Spector 5 I have is as warm. Its the PERFECT sounding house/funk/RnB bass.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1104652' date='Jan 27 2011, 02:13 AM']Or whatever non committal description is being used today.[/quote] "a cheeky little maple with a softly spoken, coquettish charm that flirts with the ear before one realises ones head has been firmly grasped and is being dragged, screaming, into the savage, quaking, thunderous depths of B string territory..."

Be aware that it's not a straight forward process. You might have a few failures before hitting the right balance between rigidity and sound. It took Status YEARS.

[quote name='GeeCee' post='1103764' date='Jan 26 2011, 03:54 PM']Their customer service is or was pretty bad too.[/quote] Yeah I remember something similar at the time I ordered the jazz neck. It took three months to arrive after three separate claims they'd loaded it onto a container to the UK with other stuff. The UK distributor was really apologetic and didn't know what on earth they were playing at. I got a free t-shirt by way of recognition I'd been dicked around which was kind of him. Moses eventually claimed they'd been moving facilities at the time but that didn't really explain why it took three months. [quote name='GeeCee' post='1103764' date='Jan 26 2011, 03:54 PM']As CK has indicated, their standard jazz necks do shift with changes in ambient temperature, which to me rather defeats the point of a graphite neck in the first place. Oh and the one I had was fabricated with the truss rod access at the body end so you had to take the neck off every time you needed to adjust the truss rod as well.[/quote] I encountered the same truss rod access issue too because it was hidden under a fingerboard extension...you'd imagine their design QC would have picked that up before the neck went into production...

Series is having the coils in a line so they share a path. Parallel is where the coils each have their own path. Series has higher resistance so sounds a little warmer and less clean. Parallel is a little brighter and punchier sounding but lacks weight. There is also a volume difference. Series is a louder setting because of changes in voltage that happen. Depending on whether you're running a passive or active bass, or whether there's a buffer preamp between the pickups and the amp in an active bass, other impedance related changes to the sound can happen too. This means you may not get the same results using the bass with different amps or same amp but different pedals. All of the above can be compensated for with a decent onboard eq, but it does involve more knob twiddling on your part. I don't bother with switching into series because of the volume changes. I just switch between parallel and single coil settings.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1103092' date='Jan 26 2011, 02:09 AM']Well, I quite like Moses necks, but back in the day they had a reputation for being poor quality and a lot of US customers were less than impressed. By all accounts, I think they've gotten better these days.[/quote] Moses just designed their necks differently to other manufacturers. I didn't like the one I had on my custom jaydee jazz bass because it lacked rigidity and moved around with temperature extremes. But moses never designed those necks to be like other graphite necks, they were designed to more like wood. Their steinberger necks are pretty damn good - very rigid, warm and not brittle sounding in the slightest.

Heheh, I know what it is and you're right about it being a long time.