BigRedX

Not for me. I sold all my amps, cabs and other effects when I bought my Helix so I've got nothing to "capture", and the things that do the same job on the Helix sound loads better already. The added facilities I'd want - MIDI triggered filters and gates should be achievable with a firmware upgrade.

But not for a massive amount. I suspect that they typical Basschat member would still need to take out extra insurance just cover the equipment they use at gigs.

Passive. For me there is little point to active basses: I have superior tone-shaping facilities elsewhere in my signal chain. I use a wireless system so I already have something that does buffering of the signal from the bass. I have a set and forget attitude to on-board controls. Most of the time it's everything full on and let my Helix produce the sound(s) I want. The only active circuits I have ever found useful are those that either allow individual tone shaping for each pickup or do something that can't be done better elsewhere in the signal chain such as the the ACG filter pre-amp.

IME the amps (and cabs) that weren't designed for bass sound great because there's no real world constraints on having to cope with low frequencies at gig volumes with a modelled version. I rarely use any amp or cab models in my Helix sounds but when I do nearly all of them are ones that were designed primarily for guitar.

No you don't. Just sing. IME singing puts the least number of barriers between "intent" and "performance". And when you have sung something that you like, play it on the bass.

More information about the two Hurtsfall gigs this weekend: 1. In The Bl4ck Midwinter Festival, Saturday 23rd November at Shakespeare's in Sheffield; Hurtsfall will be on at 8.15pm 2. Rock Against Racism Weekend, Sunday 24th November at Saltbox in Nottingham; Hurtsfall will be on at 3.00pm

The last time I saw Squeeze live, Jools Holland was still their keyboard player. I was in the tech crew for the university and helped load the gear in for the gig. His rig included all the heavy keyboards of the time - Yamaha CS80 synth and Yamaha CP80 electric grand piano.

It's all subjective.

The neck would have to be 50mm or 2" shorter than a conventional 34" neck for this to work without needing to move the bridge. Since the photos show the neck to one fret less than a standard Fender P-Bass neck that won't be the case.

Your typical Basschat poster has largely outgrown the typical bricks and mortar music store.

Best practice would be to bring the PSU onto the pedal board so all the low-voltage cables can be firmly fixed in place where there is much less chance of the being damaged and then run a nice chunky mains lead to the board.

What's wrong with altering the EQ elsewhere in your signal chain?

It also depends what sort of a low B sound you want. Some down-tuned styles seem to require a loose floppy string, others don't. IME If you want a nice balanced feeling and sounding low B you need the right strings coupled with a stiff neck and a tight well-made neck/body joint (or through neck construction). Also look at lowering the pickups slightly from what is usual with a standard 4-string bass. The fatter the string the more likely it is to be influenced by the deadening effects of the pick up magnets. Finally I always go for a slightly heavier than standard string for low B. 130 would be a minimum for me - ideally 135.

And maybe a slight slackening of the truss rod as the low B is quite a bit lower in tension than the G.

IME good band photography is mostly down to the skill of the person behind the camera, but it does help if the band and the space they are performing in are photogenic and appropriately lit.

@ped and @Muppet, either I have a completely different version of the NUX wireless system or there is definitely something wrong with your devices. I've just done a fairly critical listening test on headphones turned up as loud as I felt was comfortable, and I can't hear any of the artefacts that you are describing. I'm listening via my Line6 Helix on a patch with all the modules turned off so only the AD-DA convertors should be affecting the signal. Admittedly, now I'm in my 60s, my hearing isn't as brilliant as it could be, but I can't discern any additional background and no "gating" sounds, which from your descriptions should be at least detectable even if my hearing is no longer good enough to consider it a problem. Also the sound with the cable tone turned off is only slightly brighter and louder than using my 5m OBBM lead. With the cable tone function engaged, the jack lead definitely sounds brighter. Also I've done a couple of gigs where the PA engineers were complaining about a very low-level hum coming from our backing playback (which I've since managed to track down and cure), and if my bass system had been outputting similar audio nasties I'm sure they would have let me know about that too. Mine is the NUX C-5RC.

I think we've frightened the OP off...

If there is the option to wire both pickups in series then it has the potential to sound excellent. My old Burns Sonic had pickups in similar positions and due to the nature of the selector switch having both on wired them in series. This was the only sound I used because it was so good. On the other hand I really don't like the "Telecaster" style shape and from my experience I don't find it particularly well suited to bass guitars. I don't know why this new iteration of Shergold simply don't reissue their old models with less dense wood for the bodies. Surely that's what their target audience wants?

The pickup positioning of both the Gibson EB6 and the Epiphone from the OP suggests they were designed as 6-string basses rather than baritone guitars. There were also similar instruments from Danelectro and Horner around the same time.

IME you need to check with each venue that you play. We were told no smoke machines at the gig we did on Saturday and turned up to find that venue had one permanently installed.

Or you could use an external image host.

If had a spare £9k I'd probably go and try it.

But I don't want to play in a groovy modern Jazz unit, or big band, or theatre pit, or... and neither might the OP. In 50 years of playing in bands the only time I needed to know how to read or write music was for a short time in the 80s when submitting new compositions to the PRS it was necessary to score out the main musical themes of my songs. Even that isn't required these days. I've never been presented with tab or a score to play from, so I haven't needed to expand my reading skills beyond knowing what the dots mean, and I certainly couldn't play a piece from sight, but if I wasn't able to pick up a part by ear I'd still be stuck in my bedroom playing to myself. IME it is best to concentrate on the skills that are most useful to you right now. Learn the other stuff later if you start to find that you need it. Since the OP hasn't been back to post more information on their musical goals all this speculation is moot.

When I can find it, I'll dig out and take photos of Mr Venom's old Super 55. I had to replace the foam twice and he chipped a tooth on it more than once. Despite the fact that hasn't been used for a number of years it still looks pretty disgusting...

Are you serious? IME being able to learn by ear is a far more useful skill than being able to read. If you can do this then you can potentially learn to play anything you hear without relying on having it written down as either Tab or notation which may well be wrong. It will also help you work out your own bass and guitar parts if you don't want to do covers or compose your own music. Also IME when starting out it is important to concentrate on learning music that you enjoy listening to. Nothing puts beginners off quicker than having to play stuff they don't like and have not interest in for sake of "technique" and "development". I speak from experience; it wasn't until I started playing music that I liked that I showed any noticeable improvement in ability. I still say that the best thing the OP can do is to get out there and join a band. It takes away the safety net of playing along to records where the arrangement and tempo is exactly the same every time and the original bass line is there in the background to prompt you and disguise any mistakes you might be making.