BigRedX

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1489427650' post='3256837'] [size=3][font=Calibri][color=#000000]It’s funny the way in which you hear Wals being referenced in terms of the big 3… Mick, Geddy and Justin as if that is the gamut of the Wal sound.[/color][/font][/size] [size=3][font=Calibri][color=#000000]For me whilst I enjoy Geddy’s late 80s/early 90s sound and the bits of Mick’s fretless I have heard (Japan were never a huge part of my listening list and I can’t honestly hum any tune by Tool) they represent for me only the tiniest corner of what a Wal is capable of. And it’s their ability to sculpt a host of different tonalities which has always been a huge draw for me (fingers arguments notwithstanding).[/color][/font][/size] [size=3][font=Calibri][color=#000000]Think of other notable Wal users and their tones… Flea on BSSM, Bruce Thomas on Elvis Costello’s “Punch the Clock”, Laurence Cottle with his Big Band, with The Alan Parsons Project or with Black Sabbath, Macca on Flowers in the Dirt or the Light Fantastic Live Album, Martin Kemp with Spandau Ballet, John Illsley with Dire Straits, Percy Jones with Brand X, Jeff Ament with Pearl Jam, Greg Lake on the ELP Black Moon album… all broadly different examples of tones that a Wal is capable of producing.[/color][/font][/size] [size=3][font=Calibri][color=#000000]Back on topic, though, it was interesting to see what happened with the second hand price of Wal basses in the two or three year hiatus between Pete Stevens finally retiring and Paul Herman restarting production. If I recall the highest I saw a pretty standard Wal model go for was around $9500 dollars (around £7500 at the time – a decade ago now). It will be interesting to see how other luthier brands go when their makers stop making. However, as others have said, I suspect it will also be driven by distinctives around design. Zemaitis basses were already goig to silly prices before Tony Zemaitis. Real Zemaitis guitars and basses are now eye-wateringly expensive. And if any instrument had a distinctive USP they were one.[/color][/font][/size] [size=3][font=Calibri][color=#000000]At least the future of Wal seems secure for the foreseeable.[/color][/font][/size] [/quote] And what about Leigh Gorman of Bow Wow Wow? I think that the collectability of a particular bass depends very much on interesting players using that particular bass in preference to all others and not just as a passing phase like some of those mentioned above, who for me can just as easily be associated with other basses - like Martin Kemp who for me will always be associated with the Stingray he used in the early days when they were interesting rather than popular.

Thanks that's excellent info! Can you run the Helix with the amp models completely off? You can't on the Pod, so I just picked the model that sounded the best to me from the initial presets and worked from there. From my PoV the models of the actual amps on the bass Pod all sounded a bit on the "thin" side irrespective of how much they sounded (or not) like the amps they were based on. Only the Sub-Dub preset sounded sufficiently fat as a starting point for the bass sound I wanted "out of the box".

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1489418908' post='3256740'] Well, I think Wal and I think/hear Geddy. [/quote] And for me Geddy Lee will always be associated with the Rickenbacker on the cover of "All The World's A Stage".

[quote name='0175westwood29' timestamp='1489418344' post='3256729'] needs to be a load box not a di but this is what i was saying you'd get the sound of your jcm not the svt sim of the vtdi [/quote] If it's going between the amp and the cab you don't need a load as the cab will still be acting as one. However check that the DI is capable of dealing with the current that a modern high-wattage bass amp is capable of producing at its speaker output. IME most of these devices are aimed at guitar amps with a 100W maximum rating.

I don't get why "beginners" are going to struggle with multi-effects. You never see this kind of advice being handed out on synthesiser forums where since the mid 80s everything has been programmable and the user interface can be a lot less friendly than that of a good multi-effects unit. It's impossible to be beginner synth player and not have to deal with far more complex equipment than the average multi-effects device.

I've just been looking at these as I've been thinking of upgrading my BassPod XT... Is there anywhere I can try any of the Fractal units in the UK? I'd like to see if it's worth the extra €400 for the amp models on the AX8. TBH as a bass player, I'm not really bothered about how "authentic" they sound. On the Pod I mostly use the Sub-Dub preset as my starting point which isn't really an amp model at all. IMO so long as the EQ is flexible the "amp sound" doesn't really matter. One concern will be how quickly Fractal keep up with changes to Mac OSX for their editor. I know Line6 don't have the best reputation for being able to respond to the latest versions of the Mac operating system. Finally is there any real advantage to getting the rack versions of either the Fractal or Helix, other than it keeps most of the expensive electronics out of the beer puddles? The rack version of the BassPod XT adds a couple of useful extra functions and some I/O options, but otherwise that's it. I'm not initially impressed with the Fractal foot controller, I don't really like 2 banks of foot switches as I find the second bank awkward to operate on stage, so 3 banks is rather off-putting!

CT basses are an interesting proposition. According to the website he is no longer taking custom orders and the only new instruments being produced are the no frills and semi-frills basses, which will be a lot more consistent in terms of features from one example to the next which will definitely help with future collectability. However I suspect that Les Claypool is the main driving force behind the desirability of CT basses, but the range of instruments that CT has produced over the last 40 years encompasses a lot more than the type of bass that Les Claypool is associated with, so I suspect that while certain instruments will only get more collectable as time goes on, not every CT bass will go through the same increase in value. It would have interesting to see what would have happened with Gus had Prince not passed away when he did. Apparently he was very taken with his G1 Guitar and was in discussion for a matching bass... One of the things that always amuses me when discussing the desirability of Wal basses, especially their distinctive sound, is that the two bassists most renowned for being Wal users, one (Mick Karn) sounded pretty much the same when he was using his Travis Bean TB2000, and most of his best known work was done with that bass; and the other (Justin Chancellor) sound is as much to do with his pedal board as it is with his choice of bass.

I don't know why everyone is so down on programmability. Even in the days when I was only using a few pedals - filter, distortion, chorus, and flanger, I was always altering the settings on them depending on the song, and trying the get a seamless change-over when I needed to turn more than one pedal on or off at the same time was just impossible. For me programmability and the ability to completely change my sound at the single press of a footswitch couldn't come fast enough and I bought my first multi-effects unit (a second hand Roland GP8) in 1990. I had a look at the individual units mentioned in the posts above, but only a couple of them really work in the way I would like without needing extra kit to get the full functionality, and I'd still need a MIDI foot controller to run them all from. TBH live no-one is going to notice that the octave down sound (or any other for that matter) isn't quite as good as it would be from the most suitable dedicated pedal, and in the studio, It'll either be done in the DAW with a suitable plug-in or I'll double track the octave part as a separate take.

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1489333508' post='3256094'] ....and Carl Thompson. [/quote] I don't think so, for the same reason that I don't think that Sei basses will ever be really sought after once Martin Peterson stops making them; for the reason that they are too individual. The reason that Wal basses fit the profile is the fact that there is essentially one model (with a few variations) and irrespective of the top woods used the things that make a Wal what it is, the body shape, the pickups and the pre-amp are consistent from one example to the next. For that reason, should a big name bass player (or two) ever start using a Gus bass exclusively, then they will achieve the same status as Wal because there is little non-cosmetic variation from one example to the next. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 10 or so years with Gus. Simon Farmer got a lot of rather useful publicity out of the fact that Prince used one of his guitars very briefly at his last ever gig.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1489395478' post='3256486'] All the built-in effects loops I've ever seen have the 'send' downstream of the pre-amp in the signal path, so any pre-amp distortion is going to go into the loop. [/quote] Exactly. You run the effects that need to go before the pre-amp drive in front of the amp and those that need to after in the effects loop.

IMO the bass in question needs to satisfy two conditions: 1. It is no longer being made (either the whole brand or a particular model) 2. It is the bass of choice for a well known bassist with a distinctive musical style.

Have you looked at [url=http://www.luminlay.com]Luminlay[/url]? I had them fitted to my Warwick Starbass for exactly the same reason and they have been great. IIRC it cost £50 to have the fitted by my local luthier, although if the bass had a detachable neck I would have probably done it myself.

My playing notably improved when I bought my first really good bass - an Overwater Original in 1993, because that was the point when I realised that I could no longer blame any short comings in my playing on the instrument.

Effects loops are most useful on amps with valves in the pre-amp, so that you can run the effects that sound best post-distortion in the appropriate place.

Just play it like any other gig... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJx_CD-qj2g

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1489076714' post='3254221'] The bass stuff has been up on the ground floor for quite a while. When you consider that bass players generally make up a third or half of the guitarists in a band, the size of retail space set aside for bassists has always been a bit despairing. [/quote] For bands maybe. But I bet that for every bedroom bassists there are significantly more bedroom guitarists.

And Stig Petersen from DAD

The pickup is unlikely to be humbucking despite the outward appearance.

That looks great. On the headstock I'd have gone with all gold except for the ferrules, so as it is in the latest photo but with gold posts. Everything else looks spot-on to me.

The only recommendation I would take seriously is from someone who has made a successful claim on their instrument insurance policy. I would hope that policies have improved from the one my band applied for in the 80s, which when we read the small print exclusions, only appeared to cover our gear whilst we were actually on stage using it! Needless to say it was swiftly returned for a full refund.

[quote name='fiatcoupe432' timestamp='1488974107' post='3253350'] i do agree with bigredx , i m a bass player geek , i love seeing bass player coming up with new techniques , playing at 7000bpm, slapping and all that kind of stuff . the difference is that i ve tried many times to listen to ( example ) Hadrian Feraud full album , and as much as i appriciate is ability as bass player i was bored of listening after the second song . i also try to work on songwriting and even if i do study bass and try to become a better bass player my main focus is to wright a beautiful peace of music even if the bassline is simple and and contain only a handful of notes the hard part is trying to make "That Notes" count . [/quote] I have admit I quite like Hadrian Feraud, but mostly because of the musical ideas his keyboard player comes up with which remind me of Greenslade, a band I was very much into in the 70s. The bass playing itself leaves me cold. Actually if there is an area where technique does interest me at least as much as composition, it's in the more obscure elements of electronic music where I can get very geeky about sound design and synthesis methods.

For me "musicianship" has always been a means to an end rather than the end itself. As regards technical ability in playing guitar/bass/keyboards, my ambition has been little above zero ever since I managed to string a handful of chords together on the guitar without having to pause between changes to get my fingers into position, some time in 1974. That isn't to say I haven't improved since then. I have, but I don't specifically work at it. I don't think I've ever practiced a scale in my life, and I certainly don't work on technique for it's own sake. Where I am ambitious, is in my songwriting. I work on this just about every day. This is the end to which my "musicianship" is working towards. So if I am working on technique it's because I have come up with a musical idea that my fingers can't currently execute flawlessly. To this end, today I will be working on refining the bass line for the new songs we were working on at rehearsal last night. One in particular has some tricky timing with regards to where the chord changes fall and that timing changes from the verses to the choruses and is different again in the final chorus, so I will be aiming to be able to play this without needing to consciously count the beats in my head for the changes and instead be able to listen to the tune of the bass line to know I have it right.

Do any of these apps allow you to create "crib sheets" directly from the iPad. I'm looking for something to help me remember new bass parts I'm writing at rehearsals rather than scrawling loads of hand-written notes on paper, and trying to recall which set of corrections are the most recent when I come to run through the song ideas between band practices in order to refine them.

Fantastic. That's a proper answer. I'm now off the go and investigate all of those. For the compressor, simply because sometimes I want something subtle to add a bit of punch, sometimes I want to use it as a noticeable effect, and sometimes I need to turn it off, and I want to be able to do all of those things in conjunction with program changes for the other effects. And the parameters will all need altering to fit in with what the other effects are doing. Does that make sense?

Really? Apologies, but I don't always get the subtleties of on-line conversations. So please can you explain to me why this was a lubricous response, because I was being perfectly serious and if there are suitable individual pedals available I'd really like to take a look and listen to them.