BigRedX

Having done some more research on 6-string basses, I now have GAS for this: Gibson EB6. Depending on who you believe they might have been made in 1960.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1458254056' post='3006139'] Does 'Groove is in the heart' by Dee-Lite count? Great use of a Herbie Hancock baseline too. [/quote] [quote name='fleabag' timestamp='1458254429' post='3006143'] Yuuuuuuuuuuuuup ! Great song. That Lady Miss Kier or whatever she called herself, looked like she'd been injection moulded into that multicolour body suit And what a dancer - like a Black Mamba on grease [/quote] Nope! Their follow-up single "Power Of Love" also made the top 40.

[quote name='ians' timestamp='1458246342' post='3006021'] Airport - The Motors [/quote] Unsurprisingly not one-hit wonders. Although the song that I thought was also successful - "Dancing The Night Away" - didn't quite make the top 40. They did have a hit with "Forget About You" which got to number 13.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGeKXD12sto

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1458232548' post='3005852'] Okay, so some acts had more than 1 "hit". Let's just revel in the pop-tastic glory of the main hits of the acts listed. [/quote] But in that case you could make a pretty good argument that James count as a one-hit wonder with "Sit Down" despite the fact that they had another 18 singles that made the UK top 40, because no-one apart from fans of the band will have remembered any of the others - I certainly couldn't have named another one before I went and looked up that information.

Will very much depend on what effects you are using on the Zoom. Probably Compressor > Big Muff > Zoom, but if you are using anything on the Zoom that is dependent upon the envelope of the note such as an auto-filter then you'll want that first in the chain.

[quote name='lowhand_mike' timestamp='1458221687' post='3005740'] looks like something walt disney would have barfed up, and it has a gloss neck, so no no no [/quote] What's wrong with a gloss neck? It matches the body finish so a win for me.

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1458212038' post='3005580'] I know Ritter know what they are doing when it comes to guitar construction, but that top horn looks worryingly fragile to me. [/quote] Wood (especially hard woods) is amazingly strong stuff. You don't have to make everything as chunky and lumpy as a Fender.

[quote name='keeponehandloose' timestamp='1458139102' post='3005039'] They had Rock Lobster as recently covered by Peter Griffin [/quote] Rock Lobster was a Top 40 hit twice in the UK. They also had hits in this country with "Roam" "Good Stuff" and their cover of The Flintstones theme. Hardly one-hit wonders.

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1458134335' post='3004990'] Edelweiss - Bring me Edelweiss. [/quote] Produced following advice from the KLF book "The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)". Although it only reached number 5 in the UK chart.

[quote name='pmjos' timestamp='1458130545' post='3004938'] I have tried, the Boss and Zoom and found that they break up on low frequency effects. Some of the effects are weedy. I'll have a look at Fractal and eventide. Any others out there? [/quote] I think if you are after really good quality you are going to have to "roll your own". A big box full of your favourite studio-quality rack-mount processors and boutique pedals all hooked up to a MIDI controlled switching and routing system.

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1458130442' post='3004936']So I would class Falco as a one-hit wonder in the UK, because I remember Rock Me Amadeus and could sing the chorus, but couldn't name any other songs. [/quote] Even though his follow-up single also reached the top 10 here? TBH I didn't remember it until I went and checked out the video on YouTube. And you'd be surprised at how many people actually know "Der Kommissar" without knowing it's also by Falco.

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1458130603' post='3004940'] I imagine this policy would have been something of a surprise to Queen, David Bowie, etc.! I take your point that there was a certain pretentious sneering at singles as the lesser art form by some bands, though. [/quote] But both Bowie and Queen had at least one foot planted firmly in the "pop" market, and had a proportion of their audience who mostly bought singles. Bowie even released "John I'm Only Dancing" as a single only. The thing that surprises me is that so many "album" bands even bothered with singles back then when their chances of daytime radio play and consequently getting in the charts were close to non-existent. Other than as a taster for the forthcoming album I really couldn't see the point, especially since the B-side was likely to be taken from the album as well.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1458127975' post='3004904'] I did a little digging around for surprise one hit wonders - I mentioned Black Sabbath who did have another couple of top 40 charting singles, but released a whole lot more. Pink Floyd were another surprise as though I knew they had at least two and possibly three hits (Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, Another Brick in the Wall), they've actually released 27 singles. And Led Zeppelin have a rather pathetic one song getting to number 21. [/quote] In the 70s though, if you were a "serious" rock band you didn't really do singles. Your audience were all album buyers. Apart from Freeman and Peel you didn't hear the music on the radio, so there was little point releasing a single. if there was one it was simply 2 tracks off the most recent album that the majority of fans already had, so no wonder there were so few hits. Apart form some initial single buying when I first discovered pop/rock music I only bought albums until the late 70s when DIY post-punk made the single/EP rather more essential, as in many cases that was all the band released and if there was eventually an album there was no guarantee that the singles would be on it. And I thought that Led Zeppelin had a strict no singles policy?

What do you actually need from your multi-effects? Lots of new sounds that no-one has used before? Programmability? MIDI control? What's wrong with the technology of 5 years ago? TBH once you beyond the products being offered by Zoom and Boss you are into the realms of niche and specialised uses. I'm still perfectly happy with my Line6 Bass Pod and Linn Adrenalinn - both over 10 years old and still going strong giving me all the sounds and controllability I need. My guitar rig is built around a Roland GP8 from the mid 80s! If money really was no object I'd be filling a rack-mount flight case full of hand-picked effects and routing them through a MIDI controlled switching system. It would be big heavy and probably cost thousands of pounds.

[quote name='pougema' timestamp='1458125087' post='3004862'] I taught over all the show was good, got a lot out of it, came across a lot of nice people with bass in common, very helpful people like bass direct which will be my first stop in the future for buying gear, the ceo of roto sound offered to make strings for my sons mini bass which are hard to get, people I came across were very helpful, went to the after bash party with some guys I met and had a great night, Iam looking forward to next year [/quote] Living in Derbyshire have you not tried [url=http://www.newtonestrings.com]Newtone Strings[/url]?

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1458123714' post='3004837'] So it was a one hit wonder then? If if's and and's was pots and pans.. [/quote] I'm not denying that it was a one-hit wonder. It was posted more as a piece of pop trivia. Most artists achieve one-hit wonder status because they only have a single song worthy of being a hit. In Furniture's case the record company could have released pretty much any track off their album and it would have been successful provided that people had been actually able to buy a copy! The demand was certainly there. "Love Your Shoes" was getting lots of radio play, but very few singles were making it to the shops. I recall having great difficulties getting a copy at the time. And to give you an idea of the kinds of financial and contractual difficulties the band and record company got themselves into, it took almost 25 years for their album "The Wrong People" to get released on CD.

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1458122992' post='3004822'] Rock Me Amadeus! [/quote] "Vienna Calling" was a Top 10 hit in the UK. And "Der Kommissar" was a massive hit everywhere in Europe except the UK.

But what counts as a hit? Although a lot of the songs mentioned were the best known or most successful, a lot of the artists mentioned here had other singles that made the Top 40. Without even needing to look it up I know that Lene Lovich, The Ruts, Kraftwerk and Sigue Sigue Sputnik all had multiple Top 40 singles. Does Edwin Collins count? He'd already had a hit as the only original member left in Orange Juice by the time they released "Rip It Up" "The Model" by Kraftwerk wasn't originally released as a single in the UK and only became a hit after being the B-Side of "Computer Love". "Ça Plane Pour Moi" by Plastic Bertand is actually the backing track to "Jet Boy Jet Girl" by Elton Motello with a new vocal recorded over the top. "Brilliant Mind" by Furniture was only a one-hit wonder because their label Stiff Records had run into financial difficulties and were unable to press up sufficient copies of the follow-up single "Love Your Shoes" to meet demand.

[quote name='keefbaker' timestamp='1458075184' post='3004532'] They made a strat out of cardboard, so I wouldn't worry about it. [/quote] To be fair that strat was made out of just as much epoxy as it was cardboard.

[quote name='linear' timestamp='1458045742' post='3004144'] What type of strings does one use on these? Are they the same as the ones on a baritone guitar or are they a bass-specific short scale set of six? [/quote] No baritone guitars are shorter scale (27-28") and tuned to B or A. The Bass VI is 30" scale length and tuned E-e like a normal six string guitar but an octave lower. There's a full discussion on what strings to use on the Bass VI in the thread I linked to in my first reply.

[quote name='keefbaker' timestamp='1458036481' post='3004014'] Believe it or not I actually use it loads. [/quote] That rules out the Schecter then. However I have just found this rather nice-looking [url=http://www.gretschguitars.com/products/guitars/jet/g5265-electromatic-jet-baritone-rosewood-fretboard-black-sparkle/]Gretch Jet with a Bigsby vibrato[/url]. It's sold as a baritone guitar but with a 29.75" scale length it should make a decent bass VI when fitted with the right strings.

If after all that you decide that you still want to look for an alternative bass VI, then I suggest you work your way through [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-short-scale-six-string-club%C2%97for-the-original-six-string-basses.391343/"]this thread from the other place[/url] which contains a wealth of information and lots of actual examples of instruments from other manufacturers. What you are going to find is that the majority of designs date from the early 60s when these basses were generally studio instruments for doubling up the double bass line for the "tic-tac" sound and technology was still relatively primitive. Even the modern examples tend to follow these old designs rather slavishly - like the bass you currently own. I haven't gone all the way through the thread but AFAICS if you want a truly modern take on a bass VI the easiest one to find will be the [url=http://www.schecterguitars.com/international/guitars/hellcat-vi-detail]Schecter Hellcat VI[/url]. BTW do you use the vibrato on yours? If you do that will limit the number of possible alternatives.

Firstly before you go looking for alternatives have a good read through [url=http://basschat.co.uk/topic/211505-2013-squier-vintage-modified-bass-vi/]this thread[/url] especially the bits about replacing the bridge and vibrato units with aftermarket versions and generally about how to set these instruments ups with regard to bridge/saddle height, string break angles and shimming the neck. It may well be that this will contain all the information you need to solve your problems.

Also check the filtering and routing on your MIDI interface. You'll probably need MotU Clockworks to do this. IIRC a lot of the more esoteric MIDI messages are blocked by default.