BigRedX

Personally I found that to get the best out of the vibrato mechanism you need to stick with the lighter gauge strings that the bass comes with. Unfortunately I didn't like the feel or sound of the light gauge E or A strings for playing "conventional" bass parts and fitting Newtone Axion strings which sorted out the E and A rendered the vibrato mechanism almost inoperable. I eventually gave up on the Squier Bass VI as there were too many design problems that got in the way for my playing, most notably the very narrow neck. I upgraded firstly to a Burns Barracuda which suffered from the same string gauge/vibrato mechanism compromise but had a wider neck, and finally to an Eastwood Hooky which has the best neck width for me and no vibrato mechanism for me to be disappointed about. As someone who also plays guitar and owns two with very usable vibrato systems, I found the various mechanisms fitted to the commercially available Bass VIs far too subtle even with the original light gauge strings fitted. Others seem to get on fine with it, even with heavier strings. The only way to be sure is to try it for yourself.

If it was advertised as a MIDI pedal that you can legitimately ask for a refund because it is not one. I you want to tinker, then it might be possible to convert it but that will very much depend on your soldering skills electronics knowledge and how much time you want to put into it as project. BTW MIDI leads despite using 5-Pin DIN connectors only use 3 of the conductors - the centre pin for earth and the two pins immediately either side of that for the data signal. The other two pins are unused.

I bought mine on a whim just to see what it was like. Right now it's my main instrument, and is the only bass I've played over the last 12 months.

I'm glad you've got some useful advice and contacts, because the only two Norfolk-based musicians I know never play there.

Which means that at some point the band will need to do a full technical rehearsal with all the equipment including the PA that they intend to use at gigs so you can definitely see if there are any problems.

I would think that anyone who learnt piano when they were young would have been at least partially funded by their school, and of course piano lessons and books were a lot cheaper in previous years. In the 70s, my sister who is completely and utterly tone deaf progressed as far through the grades as was possible until her inability to sing or distinguish the pitches of notes counted against her more than her ability to press the right keys at the right time according to the score place in front of her. Our piano at home which was inherited from a relative had several notes seriously out of tune with themselves including at least one that was seemingly in every piece she learnt to play, and which made it painful listening for the more musically inclined members of the family. I'm pretty sure my parents wouldn't have encouraged her as much as they did if it had been costing them any serious money, and if they had the cash then employing a piano tuner would have been a better use for it.

If I'm not mistaken it's a LaFey Remington Steele with a stainless steel fingerboard. Vigier have made fretless basses with metal fingerboards too.

I find that when we come to record the songs I'll often simplify down my bass lines as some of the runs and fills get in the way of the vocals which after all are the most important thing to the average listener.

The synth player in my band mixes all our recordings on a pair of KRK Rokit speakers which allow him to get some excellent sounding mixes and which to me seem reasonably small - although my last set of studio monitors were Tannoy Gold 10" dual-concentrics so my idea of sizes might be a bit skewed. As I said in the recent headphones thread, the most important thing about whatever speakers you choose is that you spend a serious amount of time listening to recordings you know and like through them so you get to know their strengths and weaknesses and then can use them to make objective decisions about your own recordings.

Thank you. As I said in a previous post I don't own the fretless any more, partly because I no longer play 4-string basses (the basses I'm currently playing are all 5-string or Bass VIs) and partly because fretless doesn't suit the current musical path that I am following. It was a great instrument to play, but I struggled to get the sorts of fretless sounds I wanted out of it which was mostly Japan-era Mick Karn. All three of the other high-end fretless basses I owned at the same time - Overwater Original, Pedulla Buzz and Sei Flamboyant were much more suitable for that. Having said that it did get used at quite a few gigs and made it on to a couple of recordings that have been released. I believe the current owner has strung it with flat-wound strings which suit the bass better. I still own the two fretted Gus basses because they are the perfect instruments for me in terms of playability, sounds and looks. I also have a Gus G1 guitar. I couldn't see myself selling any of them. If I found myself needing a fretless bass in the future I'd be looking for a Pedulla Pentabuzz.

Complete and release my band's album. We have 4 songs finished, another 4 that are currently in the process of being mixed and 5 more that still need vocals recording and then mixing, plus one instrumental that needs a bit of additional production. That's almost 60 minutes worth of music. However once we've got over 40 minutes complete which means getting the vocals recorded for 2 of the songs that currently don't have them, then we'll probably release those and save the rest for the next album which hopefully won't take another four years to complete!

Thanks! Here's a photo of all three in a much more conventional setting:

Unless you have vast amounts of money to spend on studio reference speakers and serious acoustic treatment for your control room, the best thing to do is to pick a set of speakers and headphone and spend a couple of months listening to your favourite music on them so that you know how they sound. Then you'll be able to use them to make proper evaluations of your own recordings.

Just like speakers there is no right answer when it comes to evaluating headphones. However for critical listening when mixing speakers and headphones that make everything sound good tend to be of less objective use.

The first photo is of a Born 2 Rock F4B bass guitar. The second photo is a Gus G3 4-string fretless bass. I no longer own either bass but I still have my two Gus G3 5-string fretted basses which are my main basses when I'm not playing Bass VIs.