BigRedX

If you think that Bass guitar GAS is expensive wait until you get seriously into synthesis... For your first synth it doesn't really matter what you get so long as it has at least two oscillators, Filter, Amp, LFO and two envelope generators. Other than that it's heather you want to be able to play chords or not. Monophonic (one note at a time) will be cheaper, polyphonic will be more versatile. Once you've played with it for a while you'll start to learn what features are important to you and what you can't live without. If you really want to get to grips with synthesis buy something without patch memories, because it will force you into creating your own sounds rather than relying on the presets that are already in there.

I always liked what Aria Pro II did with their take on the single-cut solid electric guitar in the late 70s, where the knobs were recessed into the carve of the top.

It's all very impressive until you realise that two keyboardists could do the whole lot in real time and more accurately too.

I think the last update switched the sound back on for notifications even if it had been previously switched of before. That was certainly the case for me on both desktop and iPad.

Are the pole pieces on this pickup actually supposed to magnetic or should they be attached to a magnetic base plate?

It think it depends very much what stage lighting conditions your band plays under. These days most of the time normal white side dots and suitably dark fingerboard for contrast are perfectly sufficient. When I was playing with the Terrortones, because we wore sunglass on stage as part of our image, in some of the less well-lit venues it could be a problem seeing the side markers. I had Luminlay inlays fitted to my Warwick Starbass, but they were never bright enough in the conditions where they were required. In that case only bright LED markers would have done the job.

The (K)ARP Odyssey is monophonic (single not at a time) with a fake duophonic mode where each of the two oscillators can be assigned a separate not from the keyboard but they still share the same filter and amplifier envelopes, so if you need to play chords on it then you'll have to look elsewhere.

Won't they wear off? I did a guitar back in the 80s with stick on dots on the fingerboard. They lasted just over a month.

What’s wrong with set necks?

Well I'm now the owner of a Burns Barracuda. Full report after I've had a couple more days to play it.

The best way to get a bolt-on neck snug in the pocket is, with the strings off to undo the neck bolts very slightly (no more than half a turn each) so there is the smallest amount of play in the neck joint. Then string up and tune to pitch. Once the tuning has stabilised tighten up the bolts all the way. The tension of the strings will have pulled the neck as far into the pocket as physically possible and then tightening up the bolts fixes it in place. There's no need to repeat this procedure when you restring, unless you have to take the neck off for some reason.

However in Fender's case the extra expense of the engineering and fitting of the micro-tilt adjustment system cost a lot more than they saved on losing a single bolt.

There's nothing theoretically wrong with the 3-bolt system. Unfortunately when Fender introduced it back in the 70s, their engineering tolerances and quality control wasn't up to the job. It's not just the oversized neck pockets that were the problem. The micro-tilt mechanism uses a screw which pushes against a metal plate set into the underside of the neck. If this plate is not set completely level with the base of the neck, the action of the screw against it will not only move the neck up and down, but also, depending on the angle of the plate, sideways as well. With a proper snug-fitting neck pocket it wouldn't be possible for the neck to move sideways, but of course Fender neck joints from the late 70s were anything but snug. Hence the infamous mis-aligned necks of 70s Fenders with the 3-bolt micro-tilt system. These days the engineering tolerances of CNC machined neck pockets are sufficiently tight for no sideways movement to be possible, so even if the micro-tilt mechanism hasn't been installed properly, the only direction the neck can move is up and down.

I think what the comments in this thread boil down to is not whether analogue is better than digital but what are you favourite effects and what compromises are you personally prepared to put up with. Sound/tone is entirely subjective, and IME a lot of it is to do with familiarity, rather than actual quality (if that could even be quantified). I also think that term "modelling" does a lot of multi-effects (even the very best ones)a complete disservice. I don't know how close the emulations of the various effects, amplifiers and cabs on my Helix are to the originals (because most of the time I've never tried the originals), and in all honesty I DON'T CARE. All I do care about is that amongst the various different distortions/choruses/EQs there is one that will give me the sound I am looking for to fit into the band mix of a particular song at the particular point. Everything else is irrelevant.

That's not the first time this has happened with Bass Direct. A couple of years ago I ordered some rack ears for a TechAmp Puma and got someone's brand new pickups and pre-amp instead. The mistake was rectified and Bass Direct did refund the return postage on the wrong items, but due to the mix up, the rack ears arrived too late for me to complete my small(er) bass rig in time for the gig so I had to take my set up as a bag of bits rather than a ready assembled rack.

Just heard back from the seller. Nut width is 42mm but the distance between the two E strings at the nut is still the same as my Squier. I thought it looked as though the strings were set relatively far from the edge of the neck. So that's another one ruled out...

I don't know how I missed this thread. As you will have doubtless discovered by now there are very few semi-acoustic 34" scale basses, and TBH if you are after a proper vintage vibe both in sound and feel then you should be looking at a 30" or 32" scale bass. I have a Warwick Starbass which certainly fits the 34" criterion and IMO is an excellent bass, but only if you get a proper Warwick and not the Rockbass version as they are 32".

For me the joy of live performance is playing brilliant crafted songs as a band and entertaining the audience, and I'm not going to let a some discrepancy in my sound ruin that. With programmable effects my sound for any given song is exactly the same every time and if it isn't that means that there is something very wrong acoustically with the venue, which is beyond my ability to correct and therefore it is pointless to worry about it.

Thanks for posting that. There aren't any string spacing measurements so I've asked the seller if they can supply them. However, two humbuckers puts it more in Baritone Guitar territory rather than Bass VI IMO. I'm not particularly keen on either the shape or the colour TBH.

My "standard" Helix patch started off with nothing. I took memory 01A and cleared all the modules out of it, and then added what I wanted one module at a time, experimenting with the different types of modules for each effect and their parameters, until I had a sound for each effect that I liked. Then I started combining the individual effects together experimenting with the order and tweaking the individual effect parameters to compensate for how the different effects worked together in a patch. Pretty much how I would have done with a set of individual analogue pedals.

The Schecter Hellcat VI has been discontinued and I've already discovered from trying the Revelation Bass VI that that a 43mm nut is still too narrow for me. TBH if I was going to spend time tracking down discontinued instruments second hand, I'd probably be looking for Shergold Marathon 6 String bass.

If I need a different tone, I just pick the appropriate patch on my Helix. Job Done. Also I would never take any new device (or even a new bass) to a gig (or even a rehearsal) until I was familiar enough with it for me not to be spending all my time fiddling between songs. The first time I used my Helix at rehearsal I had the spend maybe a minute after each song adjusting some of the effects parameters from what I thought would work at home to what I could tell I needed once I'd used them in the band context. At the second rehearsal I still had a little bit of work to do on the more complex and exacting tones. By the fourth rehearsal I had all the patches sorted and programmed in the correct order for the set. With all my sounds being set up before I play I don't really need any real-time control. There's one expression pedal built-in (and connections for adding two more) which can be assigned to any parameter(s) I want. There's a tap-tempo switch which will synchronise any effects that require it. Everything else is done by setting up my patches before hand. And in 30 years of using programmable effects I've never been in a situation where I've needed to tweak my settings for an unfamiliar environment. I set up my bass rig, switch on, and there is my sound ready to play. Leaving aside the fact that EQ is not the right tool for correcting room problems (it can fix the problem in one place in the room - usually where you are standing - and probably make it worse in 2 others out in the audience, and you can make a bigger different most of the time by moving the direction your bass rig is pointing in), the Helix has a global EQ setting which could be used to tailor the overall sound for a particularly problematic environment. For the vast majority of my gigs what the audience hears of my bass is through the PA (which is why I've dumped my amp and cabs in favour of a powered FRFR cab) and as long as I can hear myself and a reasonable mix of the other instruments on stage, I'm happy. Chasing your tone at a pub gig, or when you have less than 30 minutes to set up and sound check the whole band who are sandwiched into the tiny bit of stage left over after the big-name headliners have set up all their gear, is for bands who aren't going to be asked back to play/support again. I want to be set up and ready to play with the minimum amount of fuss, and the Helix lets me do that.

If you look through the small print for all the big courier companies, you will find that they could potentially exclude any solid electric instrument, amp or speaker cab simply because they contain magnets.

I had thought about that, a but wider neck would require wider pickups, bridge and tail piece/vibrato unit. By the time you've done all of that you might might as well have made a new bass. And if I did John Shuker would be very much my last choice - I love the way his original design basses look, but I have yet to play one that I like the feel of.

I could probably get by with two five string basses - one strung as normal and the other ADGCE, but some of the chord shapes would be a bit of a stretch for me on 34" scale length. I've looked at 6 string basses but most are 34" and the necks are considerably wider, and last time I tried one, much too wide for me. Hopefully I'll be getting to try out the Burns Barracuda some time very soon, and then I'll know if a 45mm nut width is going to do it for me.