BigRedX

It's not the angle that's a problem, but the fact that the neck and head are a single piece of wood with a minimal volute. If the head was a separate piece (still cut from the same blank as the neck) and scarf-jointed to the neck it would be far stronger.

Considering that the amp has run for at least 15 years before this problem occurred and then has occurred twice in a short period of time, would suggest to be a new fault has developed somewhere else in the pre-amp.

Looking at what has happened to that transformer, and the fact that its replacement has also died (has it displayed the same overheating symptoms?) would suggest to me that there is a fault somewhere in the pre-amp that is causing this and you/your tech will need to sort this out as well as replacing the transformer.

It might be a misplaced bridge or it could be a duff set of strings (more common than you would like to think). Measure the distance from the nut (or zero fret if your bass has one) to the 12th fret. Double this measurement and measure from the nut (or zero fret) and see where the bridge is in relation. Ideally the furthest forward movement of the saddles should be just shorter than this length. If the bridge is too far back then its in the wrong place. If the bridge is in the right place but you still need to move the saddles further forward to get the intonation at the 12th fret correct then there is something wrong with your strings and you should try another set. The intonation setting is to compensate for the fact that you bend the string (and consequently sharpen the pitch) when you fret it. Therefore the saddles should always be further back than the scale length measurement, never closer. Also the heavier the string the further back the saddle should be, so normally the problem with fitting heavier gauge strings is that you can't move the saddle far enough back, not far enough forward. If the bridge is in the wrong place and this is a new bass, don't waste your time trying to get it fixed. Take (or send) it back to the shop you bought from for a properly made replacement or refund.

For me the optimum number of pedals is one that does everything that I want. I may even dispense with the Helix Floor and just use the Native plug-in on the computer. The computer is already our drummer and second synth player, so it would reduce the amount of kit we need to take to a gig, plus it would also apply all the patch changes in the correct places in the song (something I sometimes fail to do).

If you're a gigging bassist then you need a second (ideally identical) one as spare in case you break a string or have some other technical mishap. I play two different types of bass in two different bands so nowadays I have a total of four basses - two 5-string basses of one band and two Bass VIs for the other.

If you've got a Helix why do you need the Eventide?

IIRC this is the transformer that supplies the HT for the valves as well as power for the rest of pre-amp circuitry. Have you checked that they are all OK? A fault with one or more of the valves might be causing the transformer to fail.

Are you in the right thread?

When you view the list of topics in a sub forum (in this case "Other Instruments") any thread that I have contributed to has a star on the left had side next to the thread title. This particular thread "Decent Keyboard Forum anywhere ?" doesn't even though I added a post: ny ideas?

@Cat Burrito That's a lovely looking Bass VI. If they made that with Shergold Marathon 6-string Bass string spacing rather than that ridiculous skinny neck I would be ordering one now!

The top is actually printed paper. Which might count as wood since it's made from it? What about the ink though? Tone ink? Tone toner?

Glad you got it to work in the end. However the fact that the Mac required a restart for it to recognise the plug-in would make me somewhat cautious about it's continued compatibility with future OS upgrades. The whole point of CoreAudio and AudioUnits plug-ins is that they should be recognised on install and not require these kinds of interventions for them to work. Personally I blame iLok and I won't entertain any plug-in that requires it to function.

The Fender (and Squier) Bass VI is a strange instrument, and the way it is best set up for modern players does not always use the intuitive adjustments you would make for your typical guitar or bass, where you would only fit a shim if the bridge didn't have sufficient adjustment to go low enough. For the Bass VI the bridge should be raised higher than normal and then the neck shimmed to compensate. This is to increase the downward pressure of the strings on the bridge which firstly makes the strings feel "stiffer" which IMO even the heavier sets still need, and secondly reduces the tendency of the bridge to wobble on the posts (although you can also prevent this with custom sleeves on the posts).

A few months ago when I was in the market for a keyboard controller for my DAW I went into the Nottingham branch of PMT and found the all displays in the guitar and bass sections woefully bare compared with my previous visit in 2019. The high-tech and keyboard areas were cordoned off with no explanation as to why and none of the staff appeared to be interested in helping me, so I left and bought a controller from Amazon instead.

When you apply a plug-in to a track in the default settings all the Logic Plug-ins appear at the top of the list by category, and the 3rd party ones are right at the bottom under "Audio Units" and then in sub-menus for each manufacturer. I believe there is a way to change this order but I haven't felt the need to do this. If you have done this either on purpose or inadvertently then your new plug-in could be anywhere (I'd start by checking the effect type in belongs under - delay?) Also check in Preference > Plug-in Manager. Again 3rd party plugins will be at the bottom of the first column list.

If you're not going for original authenticity but making this a player's instrument to sell, then almost any serious prospective purchaser will want the shim refitting and the bridge raising up to compensate. String choice is a matter of taste, but if you can get the intonation right with that Fender set, anything else the next owner might want to fit will also be capable of being correctly intonated.

If you are going to string this with modern heavier strings (i.e. those from LaBella or Newtone) you will eventually need to refit the shim to get a decent break angle over the bridge to reduce the compliance of the string. Without the shim the strings pass over the bridge and on to the vibrato mechanism at too shallow an angle which makes them feel even floppier than they would be normally. This is standard procedure for anyone buying a Squier Bass VI these days. I assume that the lack of bridge posts means you can't raise the bridge high enough to allow for the shim at the moment.

It's probably more people than you would imagine. I've been interested in being able to control synthesisers from guitars and basses for the past 45 years, but for my playing technique the technology still isn't quite there. In the mean time I've built up almost enough keyboard technique to render the quest redundant. I would imagine that due to the nature of the instrument and it's accompanying interface, they have been affected by the current world-wide chip shortage. However if they are not prepared to communicate this to customers or potential customers, then that's not good business practice IMO.

Which version of Logic? Which version of Mac OS? Have you checked all the plug-in sub-menus - the two 3rd Party plug-ins I have are hidden away there. I trust you have downloaded the 64bit AU version of this plug-in and not any of the others?

Just about to add a reply to this thread when I notice that I have already answered. However the thread doesn't have a "star" next to it like all the others to which I have added a post. Any reason or is it just a random glitch?

Because they essentially have no competition if you want a bass guitar capable of generating MIDI note data with close to zero latency.

But in my case it was. What I wanted was a Bass VI with comfortable (for me) string spacing at both the nut and the bridge. However as I discovered the width of the neck at the nut has little bearing on the distance between the two E strings. My Squier Bass VI which started this whole quest off has a narrow nut at 40mm and 35mm between the two E strings. This string spacing was far too close for me (it was even closer than my guitars) so I started looking at Bass VI alternatives with wider necks. I soon discovered that a wider neck didn't automatically mean a proportionally wider string spacing. It seemed to me that the wider the neck got on most Bass VI type instruments the further from the neck edges the E strings were, so adding another 3-4mm to the nut width would only result in the overall string spacing increasing by only 2-2.5mm. Also having owned a lot of very different bass guitars over the past 40 years, I can say while on P and J style basses there may well be a direct correlation between the nut width and string spacing at the nut, once you step away from these designs pretty much anything goes. Also there is no direct correlation between nut and bridge string spacing. Of all the basses I have owned, the one with the widest string spacing at the bridge also had the narrowest string spacing at the nut. That why IMO all those measurements are important, because they tell you what the actual relationships are between the strings and edges of the neck rather than simply making assumptions which based on my experience may well turn out to be wrong.

I just thinking some more about who does promotion, where and why. And IMO it really does depend upon the band and the gig. The next gig I'll be playing is at the Lending Room in Leeds. The venue is a decent sized room above a pub called "The Library", whose core clientele couldn't be less interested in live music. The last time I was there the main pub was rammed full of students in Superhero costumes, seemingly all intent on getting drunk and then hopefully getting laid. The venue part even has it's own separate entrance (although you can also get to it through the pub). Advertising at the pub consists of one poster for each gig happening in the next two months, and TBH thats all they need as the various "nights" are so disparate in genre, that punters attending one evening are unlikely to be interested in any of the others, certainly apart form the two other Carpe Noctum events coming up there was nothing I had any inclination to want to attend. Also at all the gigs there that I have attended either as a band member or as a punter, I could guarantee that the vast majority of the audience are members of the "It's Goth Up North" Facebook page and that's how they know about the gig.

Depends on the band and depends on the gig. I play in two goth/post-punk originals bands and these days I rarely have to do any promotion. Most of the gigs my bands play are well organised, and run by established promoters on the scene. We're often supporting much better known bands who will be the ones pulling in the majority of the audience. We'll put a couple of posts up on the bands' social media pages but that's really all that we need to do. It will probably be a different story if you're playing covers in a pub.