BigRedX

I've seen Rory Gallagher's Strat up close and I have to say it's minging! I'm glad it was in a sealed display cabinet otherwise I might have worried about catching something from it...

For me appearance does matter. I've owned 3 basses whose wear could be described as more than just a few dings. The first is an early 60s Burns Sonic Bass. It looked like it already had a hard life when I bought it in 1981, although I've now got used to its appearance. However because I've been using it quite a lot recently for recording, at some point in the near future its going have a bit of work done to it to increase the playability, and I will probably get the more obtrusive dings and dents seen to at the same time. The second was a second-hand Gus G3 which I picked up very cheap off eBay because it was in a terrible state. Once I'd decided that it was a bass I'd like to keep, it was sent back to Simon Farmer to Gus for a complete overhaul including a re-spray of the body and neck, and new chrome on all the aluminium parts. When I got it back it looked like a brand new bass. The last was a fretless 5-string Overwater Original, previously owned by a reasonably well-known session bassist who'd used it on sessions all over the world, and was starting to look a bit shabby which wasn't really surprising for a bass that was over 25 years old when I bought it. Had I decided to keep it, I would have probably sent it back to Overwater for a refinish. However I decided that I had other basses that did the same job better and it was sold on.

How important are your cabs to the FoH sound of your band? If there is little or no PA support for the bass, then you really need to have two cabs the same, otherwise the bass sound will not be consistent throughout the venue, which is something that you definitely want to avoid. If the PA mostly produces the FoH bass sound then anything that is the same size will do. Stack the cab you like the sound of best on the top so that you can hear it.

To answer the OP's original question, I've pretty much only played 5-string basses since 1989. I'd just spent most of the 80s playing synths and wanted something that was capable of playing in the same register. It also helped that the first 5-string bass I bought was much better than the 4-string bass I'd been using before, and my next 5-string (an Overwater Original) was an exceptional musical instrument. Since then, the amount of use the B string gets depends entirely on what songs I'm playing and the musical style of the band I'm in at the time. Interestingly the band that saw me making most use of the low B was also the most musically conventional band I've been in, as the original guitarist favoured the keys of B, C and D when he was writing songs, so those notes got a lot of use. In my current bands, I use the 5-string in one, and use the low B on just 2 songs in the current set (one being a cover of She's In Parties" by Bauhaus where I play the bass line an octave lower than the original). In the other band since the departure of our guitarist and the decision not to replace him, I've switched to Bass VI (short-scale 6-string bass tuned E- E) as the higher strings are more useful for the music we play and we have a synth player to cover any really low notes.

That's your problem right there. If your bass isn't producing a decent sounding and feeling low B string it's because either the bass itself isn't well enough made, or that you aren't using the most suitable strings for getting a good low B. This is something I read over and over again on here. People go out and buy a cheap 5-string bass and are disappointed with it. IME there is a lot more to making a good 5-string than simply taking a 4-string design and slapping a wider neck on it to make room for the extra string. The neck and neck joint in particular need to be a lot better constructed than the average 4-string bass, with rules out most sub £1k basses with bolt-on necks. You also need the right strings for you bass. IME most low Bs are far too low tension compared with the rest of the set. For a standard 40-100 G-E you should be using at least 130 B and have it fitted in such a way as to minimise the compliance of the string.

From the same factory that made the Greco GOB Basses? Seems to share quite a few styling features.

I had already been playing guitar for about 7 years when I bought my first bass, so the first thing I played on it was likely to be something I wrote myself.

Just to give you an impression of what Strange Circuits are like live... Also playing will be the excellent Video Tape Machine

Very much this. IMO no modern computer connector is suitable for anything but the most sedate of sedate gigs.

I've got one of the Korean StarBasses as well and not only is it much better than the Rockbass version, but IMO it is also better than both the German StarBasses I've played.

You can always get a relic'd bass refinished so it looks good.

Just done a session for Rodney Bakerr of Strange Circuits, putting down bass parts for his forthcoming album and not a P-Bass in sight... From left to right - Burns Barracuda, Burns Sonic, Gus G3, all going through a Line6 Helix direct into the DAW. DI's on raw bass sound and the effected Helix sound, so he can pick which use to when it come to mix-down.

From what I remember from the 70s, they were better made and looked vaguely like the instruments they were supposed to be copying.

If the bass is going through the PA, depending on the point at which it is DI'd the contribution of the amp will be at best minimal and that of the cabs irrelevant.

You do know that this is Abbey Road in West Bridgford Nottingham, and not the actual Abbey Road Studios? 😉

If all you want you DI box to do is to present a balanced line signal at the appropriate level for a standard mixer XLR input, then I would go for a good quality passive DI Box every time. No need to worry about phantom power or batteries going flat. I'm using EMO DI Boxes. They single and dual DI in stand-alone boxes and 6 and 8-way rack mounted DI units. They are not the cheapest of DI Boxes, but the single and dual units are pretty much bomb-proof and and PA engineer who knows their equipment will be happy to be presented with a signal from them. I've had problems with the Behringer DI boxes with some pieces of equipment in the past so couldn't really recommend them.

While in theory that should work, I'd want to have all of the components specified at 100 Watt minimum - everything twice the output power of the amp. I's also make sure that the L-Pad is efficiently cooled either by a good heatsink or fan cooling. The Power Break gets pretty hot if It is doing a lot of attenuation over a long time. I'd also want to be 100% confident in my soldering skills. If you get anything wrong or any of the components fail you are potentially presenting your amp with either an open or short circuit, neither of which are good for the output stages of valve amps. You'll just have to try it and see. It's a combination of a matter of taste and also how the amp is designed. The other thing to remember is that speaker break-up at high volume can be a significant contribution to the guitar sound, and unfortunately the only way you can get this is by driving your speakers hard. These days I'd either go for modelling or a very low power valve amp rather than having to rely on tricks like this.

I wouldn't fancy using an Android app for doing anything musical with timing critical functions. The OS simply isn't up to the task, and definitely not if you are using it for other things at the same time. Nord Electro is the keyboard of choice for this type of musical requirement.

This.

Wat frequency are you crossing over at?

Sleepify is their best album IMO

I don't understand. It's far easier to play more than one note simultaneously on a keyboard (even with my very limited technique) then it is on the bass guitar.

But most of us can't afford to pay someone to the the programming for us, so unless you get lucky and find a pre-set that is exactly right for your needs (and lets face it nearly all of them won't be 100% perfect) you are going to have to do some programming.

That's right! How powerful is your guitar amp. I use a Marshall Power Brake with my 50W all-valve guitar amp. It is big and heavy and full of high-power resistors with massive heatsink and fan cooling for the components. The fan is only supposed to kick in when required (it's powered by the excess energy from the amp so no PSU needed) but I find more than 50% attenuation of any significantly distorted sounds will cause the fan to come on, and whole unit still gets as hot as the amp itself. Can you provide a link for the schematics of the unit you are intending to build and details of the amp you are planning to use it with?

I've never understood this. To me it's a like saying you don't like turning the knobs on your amp or bass, and just use them how they came when you bought them.