Kiwi

Without wishing to take sides, I think its important to look at the instruments as having their own character. Comparing a stingray to a status is like comparing a Ampeg scroll bass to an Alembic. They've been designed in different eras with different parameters in mind.

The main reason I've plumped for the MIDI thing in the bass is that my keyboard playing is so crap. Still have to see what impact MIDI lag will have on any playing though. But even if that doesn't work live, I can also use the bass with a Roland V-bass which has an interesting range of bass synth capabilities with no noticable lag. The only thing I won't have is any ability to eq the piezo signal unfortunately, but will have access to the bright/dark voicings. That doesn't bother me too much, I'm unlikely to need a muffled piezo sound as far as I can tell at this point.

LOL, ok, nothing I didn't know then Glad its looking ok though. Jon likes a challenge, although it seems he's shooting for perfection on this bass!

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='409092' date='Feb 13 2009, 10:03 PM']i saw this yesterday [/quote] Oh really? Are you gonna leave me hanging like that matey? Actually Jon's just emailed me again (at half past 10 in the evening) to say he'll send through a couple of shots tomorrow.

[quote name='Finbar' post='409083' date='Feb 13 2009, 09:52 PM']Photos can lie. The camera might not have picked the gloss up?[/quote] Yeah its possible although I would have expected to see some sharp highlights on the edges at least. I guess there's also the possibility that he might be saving the final spray and polish until he's done all the installation work but no way of knowing at the mo either way...

hmmmm, Jon and I were emailing for most of this afternoon over the controls. He said he couldn't do option 2 because there wasn't enough room between two of the controls. So we've been looking at other options and we seem to have gone with a pair of inclined straight lines. So I guess Jon will have drilled the holes this evening and taken the bass home to work on over the weekend... [attachment=20269:IMG00037.jpg] I tried to get Jon to send through a couple of larger shots so I can see what the bass looks like when I collect it next week but he didn't reply. The suspense is doing my head in. Looks like he's gone for a satin finish on the bass rather than full gloss. Maybe he couldn't get the gloss to work properly.

A number of people mentioned Overwaters to me when I sold the Smiths. I found the sound on the instruments I have played to be a little too scoopy in the upper mids for my needs but I haven't played any recent Overwaters (ie made in the last 6 years) so I'm really curious to try some out next time I'm near a stockist.

We played a coporate gig at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford...almost. We were all dressed up, tuned, line checked and ready to start and then the event organiser came over to say they were going to cancel the gig because it was snowing so hard outside they didn't want to risk people getting stranded! So we thought WTF and played 4 songs for the hell of it and then started packing up. We had Steve Turner depping on keys again and he's apparently just finished recording [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/livelounge/artist/081121_aleshadixon.shtml"]a live lounge session with Alicia Dixon for R1[/url].

[quote name='cetera' post='406321' date='Feb 11 2009, 02:18 PM']Wow! Great line up... Great song... Lovely bass playing on a gorgeous Wal... Beautiful Kate... Anyone know how to get that tone on their Wal? I can get close but are there other tricks being used?[/quote] You're talking about the chorus used, or something else? The chorus is similar to the sound you can get out of most eighties japanese analogue delays - Yammie E1010/1005, Roland Space Echo etc. I really enjoyed the Princes Trust stuff, I've got the 86-90 concerts on DVD. I would love to have the early 80's ones too at some point.

I really, really like the stuff he did with Joni Mitchell. There was an amazing synergy to their creative partnership and the bass and vocals combination is hard to beat in terms of musical purity. The rest of his stuff I can take or leave however.

That doesn't look as bad as I thought it might. I have a feeling that the controls will be a little more spaced out generally though. Thats a relatively tight cluster and I think you're right about brushing things. I think the controls in my version are still slightly too chunky still but I haven't had time to reduce their size.

[quote name='OldGit' post='407042' date='Feb 11 2009, 10:19 PM']You could put the LED switch on the back like mine are. That would free up the vol push pull (I assume) for something else. Knob size variations sounds like a good idea. Doubt it.. Half term next week He'll be child wrangling ... [/quote] What makes you think he's going to be working on it during the week? He's been working on the electrics during the weekend for the past three weeks because its the only time he can focus on it undisturbed. Talking to him about it I can hear his eyes glazing over when he starts talking about how the various signals are fed into the preamp. I have to say I really admire what he's managed to get his head around in terms of understanding voltages, impedance mismatches, pot resistances etc. as he tries to get the whole bass to be powered off the MIDI cable when its plugged in (thereby only needing batteries when in non-MIDI mode). He says the control cavity looks like a complete birds nest at the moment too and half the battle isn't fitting the components its stuffing all the wiring in!

also, the bass might be finished the weekend after next!

Yeah, the second layout might be OK, if I make sure the piezo and MIDI volumes are almost mini pots. It would simplify the clutter a lot I think. EDIT: Just spoke with Jon and he's going to have to check if the mini pots (similar to what might be found on an effects pedal) are going to be available for digital applications in the right impedance. He's happy to go with the second control layout too. Jon might send me a photo this evening possibly...

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='406017' date='Feb 11 2009, 09:42 AM']Maybe you could get a little groove routed into the top that could form a boundary round the clusters of related controls. If it was only a fraction of a millimetre deep, it wouldn't be visible from the front, but from the player's perspective it would be just right.[/quote] That would be like relying on signage to help people get around a shopping mall rather than using logical organisation of shops, don't you think?

Fair points guys, I'd prefer a simply layout as well. I guess the thing I'm a little conscious of is not being able to remember whether the piezo volume is third or fourth knob along and stuff like that. Ideally what I wanted was a layout based on the design principles of the Yammie TRB and Fodera layouts where difference control knob sizes are used to imply function. [list]For example: [*]Large control knobs - master volume (+LED) and pan [*]Small control knobs - eq [*]Isolated cluster near MIDI socket - MIDI switches and volume [*]Isolated cluster near bridge - piezo volume+voicing and on/off switch [/list] Unfortunately the bass isn't big enough to provide all the space necessary to make these clusters distinct. But I could use three control knob sizes, with an extra small control knob for the piezo and MIDI volume.

[quote name='Rich' post='405365' date='Feb 10 2009, 02:19 PM']Well as you know, I'm a big fan of controls that follow the edge of the body... so how's this? [attachment=20039:kiwi6.jpg] The cyrillic characters are supposed to be switches... they're the closest things I could find in Word... [/quote] Thats not too far off one of Jon's suggestions too. But I sent him this tonight: [attachment=20073:Shuker_b...controls.jpg] I was going for something logical (believe it or not). There's also a MIDI volume control that might be useful too. I anticipate many of my patches will be normal bass under another instrument pitched an octave higher. BTW, "acoustic" refers to the piezo and the acoustic volume can be pulled for bright/dark voicings. [attachment=20081:alternat...l_layout.jpg] EDIT: I've done another that includes the MIDI volume but combines the LED on/off with the master volume.

[quote name='peted' post='405283' date='Feb 10 2009, 12:50 PM']Has this bass surfaced yet? Can't wait to see some photos of the finished product, some sound clips would be great too.[/quote] Jon sent me an email last night asking me for opinions on the control layout. There's something like 4 switches (three for MIDI control, one for the piezo) and 5 or 6 knobs. Some of what he had sketched wasn't clear so I'm waiting for him to come back to me before I make a decision. Its the last thing that needs doing, apparently.

I had a go on Ped's V-bass system the other weekend. Although it was still east to tell the difference between some sounds and the real thing, it probably wouldn't be noticed by the punters. The emulations also knocked the sounds from Line 6's Variax into a cocked hat. I wish I'd bought one a year or so ago, it would have saved me lugging three basses to gigs at one point.

Good on ya, it might be a bit of that stuff is collectable. People like DJ Joey Negro and DJ Dimitri have spent years listening through old 70's disco records looking for overlooked grooves and they've paid small fortunes for the rare stuff.

+1 Go toiga!

I've found Stevie Wonders bass lines to be uniquely challenging mainly because they weren't written for bass guitar. The fingerings take me all over the place and well outside the standard 1 finger per fret. Its also really interesting when the bass line is almost as complex as the melody in places. As for the singer, I can't add anything to what has already been said. Some good advice there and I can identify with your situation closely having just left my band this week for a whole host of good reasons. I'll still miss it though.

I kind of agree with the sentiment in Macdaddy's original post but think it also depends on what you're looking for in an instrument. The biggest difference I've noticed between budget and pro basses is the feel. But I do like low action and no fret buzz. The cheaper instruments are all made (obviously) to a budget but if a player tends to prefer high action then they're less likely to see the difference between good and bad fretwork. Sound doesn't bear a whole lot of relation to price beyond £1200 new I think. It's all relative.