BigRedX

I've just put down my deposit on the Eastwood...

The Comsat Angels supporting U2 at Rock City in1981. I'd seen both bands playing separately at the Boat Club the previous year and enjoyed both gigs immensely - especially U2 who I'd never heard before going to the gig. However whilst the Comsat Angels had matured into a band worthy of playing the main stage at Rock City, U2 seemed to be unsure about what they were doing there. Pointless grand piano and Bono playing the guitar (badly) and a distinct lack of decent new songs (from the October album) and the whole performance was distinctly underwhelming.

I ditched my amp and speakers when it became apparent that I could consistently hear more of myself in the PA foldback than I could from my rig. For the kinds of bands I play in, it doesn't look strange, in fact IMO it looks more balanced than it did when I had a huge bass rig and the guitarists I was playing with were all using tiny combos. However I can appreciate that for some genres a big wall of amps and speaker cabs are expected, and if I was playing in that kind of a band I'd have a collapsible dummy rig made up for looks only. A lot of the gigs I do the headlining band will have a traditional bass rig, and so I just set up in front of that and no-one in the audience realises that my sound is coming 100% from the PA rather than the bass rig.

First concert - Dave Greenslade, Palace Theatre Newark, 1976 or 1977 Last concert - Rome Burns, Lending Rooms Leeds, 2019 Last concert where I wasn't also playing - HIM, Rock City Nottingham, 2018 Best concert - None So Blind, Arts College Chesterfield, 1983, or Kraftwerk, Rock City Nottingham, 1981 Worst concert - Propaganda, Rock City Nottingham, 1985 or 1986 Loudest concert - Polysics, Islington O2 Bar London, 2004, or Mansun Assembly Rooms Derby, 1998 Seen the most - None So Blind (too many times to know how many) Seen the most that wasn't a local band - Polysics (8 times) Most surprising - U2, Boat Club Nottingham, 1980 (went without having heard any of their songs, completely blown away by the music and the performance) Next concert - Probably IAMX on their next tour Wish I would have seen - The Human League when Martin Ware and Ian Marsh were still in the band

Are we sure that's a bass? Judging from the surroundings it looks more cello size.

I can't see the point of a cab sim. Just use EQ to get the sound you want.IME the fewer places to apply tonal changes in the signal chain the better. All an ideal cab should do is to translate the electronic waveforms produced by the rest of your signal chain into moving air. It should be colouring the sound as little as possible. Any inherent sound a cab has is a function of the limitations of the technology and the need to build to a particular price point.

What's the actual string spacing at the nut E-E? The Ibanez site only give the overall nut width which tells you little as IME the wider the nut on a bass VI the further from the edges the outer strings are.

On the Squier in particular I found that adding a bit more "drive" to the sound than I normally world did wonders for the sound. Also don't forget if you shim the neck and raise the bridge to get a better break angle over the bridge, you'll need to raise the pickups as well. For those who are interested all the bass and guitar parts on these recordings with the exception of the fretless bass in the breakdown section of "12 Long Years" were done on the Burns Barracuda Bass VI.

Many times. That thread is at least 3 different ones merged together.

The size of the speaker is only one component in how a cab sounds. There's all the other technical specifications for the speaker itself as well as the size and design of the cab the speaker(s) are mounted in. It always amazes me when people start threads about a specific speaker combination, as if they are going to be all pretty much the same. IME the only thing you can say about cabs with a particular speaker configuration is that they have the same number of speakers of a particular size. Everything else about them such as their size, weight and especially their sound will be different. Add to that the fact that unless you have no PA support for the bass guitar what the majority of your audience hear will have zero to do with what cabs you have in your rig.

IME if you want a Baritone Guitar get something with a 28" scale length and tune it B-B. This gives usable sounding chords with any of the standard guitar shapes all the way down to the nut and isn't too much of a stretch over a typical guitar.

As others have said getting to grips with the fanned frets is a matter of seconds once you pick one up so long as you don't want to play chords wit more than 2 notes. For me the important thing is the getting a good compromise between the scale length of the low and high strings to get the optimum feel and sound, and that's where all of them other than the Dingwall 5-string models fall down. IME there is no point in extending the low B scale unless you are going to go to at least 36". So for me the Dingwall 37"-34" B-G is about right. Everything else I have seen and tried the fanning simply isn't extreme enough to be worth the bother.

I think you mean heavier strings... 😉

As someone who plays Bass VIs exclusively in one of my bands (I own a Burns Barracuda and a Squier Bass VI) here's my take: The 30" scale models with 3 pickups tuned E-E (an octave below standard guitar tuning) are most definitely basses, but with an extended upper range. The voicing of the 3 pickups allows bass as well as guitar type sounds. Don't expect to be able to play full chords in the first (or second) position on one of these though, it's just an undefined bassy mess. However two or three note chords in the upper register can work well, if you pick your notes and pickup voicings and arrange the song for it. Bar chords are unplayable unless you a have a vice-like grip on your fretting hand. In my band I alternate between bass parts and mid-range melody lines, but we don't have a guitarist and live, the synth player takes over with a bass sound when I'm playing melodies on the Bass VI. As I said it's all about the arrangement. The Squier Bass VI can be a good starting point, but there are a number of things you need to take into consideration first. 1. The neck is very narrow even by guitar standards. Of all the Bass VIs currently available the Squier has by far the narrowest neck. Think 70s Fender Stratocaster width, which with the much thicker strings you need very Bass VI tuning doesn't make the string spacing low down on the neck very comfortable. If you are used to very narrow guitar necks then you might be OK. I play guitar as well but all my guitars have wider necks so I find the Squier a bit of a struggle hence it's been relegated to being my spare Bass VI for live work only. On the other hand the bridge spacing is much better (wider) than a lot of the competition. IMO you have to try them all, but you may well find like me that it is a compromise between narrow string spacing at the nut or narrow string spacing at the bridge. This is a function of many of the instruments using standard guitar parts when they should IMO really be using specialised ones to account for the thicker strings. 2. The supplied stings are too light for decent bass playing - especially low E and A. This problem affects all the Bass VIs I have tried. What you change them for will depend on the sound(s) you are after. 60s style bass VI and you'll probably want LaBella Bass VI Flats. If your inspiration is more late 70s post-punk (Cure, New Order) you'll want either LaBella Bass VI Rounds or Newtone Axion Bass VI strings. I like the Newtones - the lower strings are the same gauge and feel as standard short-scale bass round wounds but the G, B and high E are lighter for a more guitar-like feel. 3. On the Squier you will also need to shim the neck to get a better string break angle over the bridge. You might also want to change the bridge for a StayTrem model that doesn't rock back and forth on the posts. This is fine if you are playing MBV guitar parts, but doesn't really add anything to a Bass VI except more opportunities to go out of tune. You will also find once you have changed the strings that the vibrato mechanism now barely works with the increased tension of the heavier strings. Again this a compromise. You can have a working vibrato but only if your bass lines can cope with the sloppy sound of of the lighter gauge strings. 4. You'll need to think about your amplification if you want both bass and guitar-like sounds from one. I run mine into a Line 6 Helix multi-effects and then direct into the PA with an RCF745 FRFR powered speaker for on-stgae monitoring. Otherwise I'd need separate bass and guitar rigs to get the appropriate sound for the different parts. Again experimentation is the key to find what works best for you. Occasionally at multi-band gigs I've forced into using the bass rig for on-stage monitoring. In these cases I always find that the higher parts end up sounding like bad jazz guitar. I know it's going to sound fine FoH so I don't worry about it too much, however if you are a player who needs to be hearing the right sounds on stage to be able to get the best out of your playing, that is something to consider. Hope all of that helps.

We should be told what?

Unfortunately IME it doesn’t work as strings need to be matched to the bass. Just because a set sounds and feels good on one bass doesn’t mean they will sound and feel good on another. I currently have 5 basses. Alll of them are strung with different strings because that’s what works best for each bass for me.

Maybe, but there was nothing in the documentation that came with the bass that had Dunlop-style locks fitted to tell me this, so the first I knew was when the mechanism seized up at a just before going on stage and I had restrain my performance to prevent the bass falling of the strap mid-gig. Examining the mechanism after the gig, there did not appear to be any way to get it working again, so I ordered a set of Schallers to replace them. Conversely, other than fit them properly in the first place, I've never had to do any maintenance on Schallers - even the ones that are 35 years old.

The bridge conversion is a bit more involved than that, and Frettrax have already looked at my basses of choice and said that they can't be adapted to use their system. And the open strings are very important to my sound. A lot of the songs I play use open string drones alternating with the melody line played on one or more of the higher strings. Unless you have most phenomenal technique and a huge fretting hand stretch (I don't have either) I can't see any way they could be played without the use of open strings.

I think it depends what you want to get out of playing an instrument. For many the playing is the most important thing and learning as many different techniques as they can is what it is all about. For others, being able to play an instrument is means to an end - in my case to be able to compose music that I like, so I haven't bothered to learn techniques that aren't relevant to the music I want to create. For me the time would be much better spent writing more songs. Because of the way I write there's nothing potentially stopping me from learning a new technique if it become relevant, but unless I had an immediate and definite use for it, I find it a poor use of the limited time I have available for playing music.

That's not true. There's a spring-loaded ball-bearing mechanism that holds the two parts together. And that's what failed within 3 months on the only pair I've owned. On the other hand I have Schaller StrapLocks from the mid 80s that are still functioning perfectly. There is IME more room for user error with the Schaller StrapLocks, but once you have worked out what needs to be done to fit each part securely to the instrument and strap, they work perfectly. In the end it's each to their own. We stick with what we know and what works for us. None of the methods are 100% perfect or fool-proof. Having tried all the different methods, the Schallers work for me. I can appreciate that they are not for everyone.

But still no MIDI on open strings which is an important part of my playing style, and your bass needs to have a Fender-style (or similar) bridge which none of the basses I play do.

My two Originals were big and heavy (36" scale) but they balanced beautifully on the strap so that you never noticed the weight.

I just wish both of them would either offer some more interesting body shapes or license the technology to luthiers who do. I think that for every musician who welcomes the comfort of the familiar Strat/Tele/Jazz designs there are an equal number who want something more "out there" to go with the advanced capabilities these instruments bring. I know for a fact that I couldn't consider something like this with a Jazz Bass shape because I just don't find them comfortable to play.

I think it depends on the instrument, there's lots of different models and some are more interesting than others depending on your PoV. I used to own two 5-string Originals (the one with the part-Thunderbird shape) one of which was a historically important instrument being one of the earliest 5-string (low-B) basses made. Both sold for what I considered to be a fair price that covered the cost of buying them originally (second hand) and took into account how long I had owned each for and the amount of use I had got out of them. Some of the more conventional style Overwater basses might not attract so much interest.

Taking the neck off only works if your bass has a bolt-on neck. Not all of them do you know. I've travelled with a guitar in a gig bag that got put in the business class suit locker. However I was travelling business class and smartly dressed, plus I arrived at the check-in with moments to spare, so even if the cabin crew had wanted to put my guitar in the hold there wasn't really enough time and it was simpler for them to let me to bring it on board into the cabin. IMO that's too many variables, and I certainly wouldn't want to risk being able to do that again.