BigRedX

Pity the photo in the OP doesn't show the top of the headstock...

As Frank Black said the ideal environment for an acoustic bass is playing on your own at home. As soon as you need to accompany anything more than a single gently strummed guitar you will need amplification. The good news is that the majority of acoustic bass guitars come with pickups fitted already, however tone and feedback issues may mean that you would be better off with a hollow-bodied/semi acoustic bass for "acoustic" ensemble playing, being the best compromise between image and sound.

For me current bands I have a separate patch (with up to 4 snapshots) for every song. The other instruments in both bands use lots of different sounds (synthesisers or two guitarists both with multiple-effects pedals) for the various songs and the bass sound needs to change (even if it's only a slight variation in volume/drive/EQ) to balance the overall mix. And trying to to do what I do with Hurtsfall where I am playing Bass VI and switching between "bass", "guitar" and "synthesiser" sounds would be completely impossible without programmable multi-effects. However even when I was playing with The Terrortones and essentially used a single sound (with a variation for more drive during the guitar solos) I still used my standard multiple-effects set up because I knew that I'd always have the right sound as soon as I powered up my rig.

Probably broken off a long time ago. More seriously, I bought one of these about 15 years ago with the pickup surrounds still attached but only just. The problem is that they are made out of very thin pieces of wood and the two holes for the fixing screws removed over half the width of wood! Unsurprisingly over the years they would snap around these holes and then the surround would fall off. They looked great (and IMO the bass looks wrong without them), but they are completely impractical in terms of durability. Out of interest what are you intending to make the replacements out of?

When you said fancy materials I thought it was going to be aluminium or carbon fibre. Not boring old wood.

Yes, but it’s one of their “less authentic” copies. Looks nothing like the bass in the OP.

This is the problem with accurate reproductions of instruments they have all the limitations of the originals and since most organs don't have a sustain pedal, neither do the plug-in equivalents. Are you running the organ as a stand alone application or inside a DAW? If it's inside a DAW you may find that one of the other MIDI CCs can be mapped onto a function that mimics having a sustain pedal. You'll need to do a bit of digging in the MIDI implementation chart for the Organ plug-in and maybe some lateral thinking about MIDI functions within your DAW.

IMO the slightly aged burst looks nicer than what should be the original colour under the pick guard.

Almost word for word what I was going to post. Add to that there were also a surprisingly large number of instruments with fan-frets compared to a couple of years ago. Unfortunately from an aesthetic PoV nearly all of them were horrible looking.

Plus they had released two albums before that, and while the musical style might have been different to "Quiet Life" the bass playing was much the same.

Unfortunately the Terrortones came to and end some time ago when Mr Venom became too ill to be able to do gigs any more. I am currently playing in two post-punk/goth influenced bands - In Isolation and Hurtsfall. The idea I'm working on is for the latter.

I don't think I've ever had a cheap and lifeless sound out of any of my multi-effects from the very first one in 1989 - a second-hand Roland GP8, right up to my current Helix. It's all about the programming and how you use it. The moment you stop trying to chase sounds made by other devices and just concentrate on getting best out of what you have to sooner you'll learn this. Maybe it's because I spent most of the 80s playing synths that I think this way. Every time I bought a new synth I would have to create new sounds for all the songs, and invariably it would be impossible to exactly replicate all my old synth's sounds so I would have to come up with something new that would still work in the context of the song. It was never a stumbling bock to creativity though. And, there's plenty of crap analogue pedals too - I had a load of them before I swapped over to the GP8, and in most instances AFAIAC the amp is just something to makes my line-level signal loud enough for the audience to hear, the less it affects the signal other than making it louder the better. To this end I have now dispensed completely with all my traditional amplification for both bass and guitar.

Just getting some ideas together to play to the rest of the band at the next rehearsal.

Does it even matter that the emulations on a modelling multi-effects are "as good as the real thing"? Is the "real thing" really the pinnacle for that particular sound? For instance, at the moment I'm working on patches for a couple of new songs. I like a good chorus and there are 5 discrete chorus effects on the Helix as well as some Flangers that can be tamed into chorus sounds and a couple of other modules that have Chorus parameters included. The one I pick won't have anything to do with how authentic it is, but the one that produces the right effect to fit with the other sounds in the arrangement. I don't even use any amp or cab models on any of my bass patches and when I do they are normally chosen for the "drive" sound and tend to be guitar amps. Ultimately my choice of effects etc will be down to whether I like the sound coming out of the output and not about how close they are to the device they are supposed to be emulating.

The fact that when I hit the foot pedal for Patch 1A Snapshot 1 (Lucid V) on my Helix Floor and I know without needing to play a note that it will be exactly right sound for the intro and verse of the first song (Lucid) in our set, is worth far more and any supposed improvement in tone achieved by using separate pedals. TBH even with one of my band's minimalist line up (vocals, synth, Bass VI, drum machine) I doubt whether anyone would be able to spot the difference between the Bass VI being processed by the Helix against using individual pedals. I've been in bands with people using individual effects who seem to need to reinvent the wheel every time they set up their gear, and I simply don't have time for this kind of nonsense anymore. And what is more of a compromise? The fact that you can't quite get right distortion/chorus/filter effect out of your multi-effects unit, or the fact that you are stuck with the same distortion/chorus/filter sound for the whole song even if ideally it needs to change between the verse or chorus or middle section? I suppose you could have multiple instances of each pedal for each different setting that you need, but where do you stop? When you run out of room on stage for the pedal board? My next sound is only ever one button push away whether it is a slight increase in volume or drive, or turning three effects off, two others on and adjusting the 6 parameters of the effect(s) that are common to both sounds. I suppose it is easy for me since it's over 30 years since I last had individual effects, and I went from a big, heavy 12U rack case contain a mixture of rack units, half-rack units and pedals all cobbled together along with a massively complicated switching system, to a 1U rack device controlled by a MIDI floor unit. There were a few sounds the new set-up couldn't do, but I just learnt to live without them, and the advantages of programmability and recall-ability and the new sounds my multi-effects could do more than made up for it.

I had been toying with the idea of adding my Linn Adrenalinn to one of the loops of my Helix... However I have come to the conclusion that even this small addition will make things too complicated and have decided that if it can't be done by the Helix alone, I'll not bother with it. Having said that since both the bands I play in use backing from a computer, I've been able to do some lateral thinking (and with a little help on another forum) make use MIDI control of the Helix parameters to achieve the kinds of effects that I thought I needed the Adrenalinn for.

I should be working on the design of two books - I currently have cover typography to do on one (a children's story book) and maps to draw up for another (D-Day actions involving ex-members of the 151 Parachute Battalion). Failing that I would be doing drum programming for a couple of new Hurtsfall songs. Instead I'm wasting my Sunday afternoon browsing music forums on the internet.

Big Red X is the tile of the song on the B-Side of the first Underworld single. I was also in a band with the same name in the early 90s.

I've never touched the truss rod of most of the guitars and basses I've owned. In countries like the UK with a moderate climate if you need to be adjusting the truss rod often there is something wrong with the neck. The only basses where I've had to do any major truss rod changes were one I bought from Florida in the US where the climate is very different to here, and one that came fitted with some very high tension flat wound strings which I immediately replaced with my favourite round-wound set. I've also owned several basses with no truss rod. At one point I had almost 50 guitars and basses. I was using one guitar for songwriting and two basses for gigs. Apart from a few I had out on stands on the off-chance that I might pick them up and play them, the rest were packed away in their cases. Right now most of my possessions, including the instruments I don't need for either of my bands, are in storage. None of those have been played since they were packed away 4 years ago. I'm not really a guitar player or a synth player. Hasn't stopped me from owning them (or even doing gigs playing them). I'm not much of a bass player really either... I've sold several things for friends who only had a couple of things to sell and couldn't be bothered with the hassle of starting an eBay account. I did make sure I knew what I was selling though, mostly so I could describe them accurately so they would sell for their true value. When I had my big clear out a few years ago, other than to get some money for the instruments I sold, was so the ones I wasn't using and would be unlikely to use at any point in the future would go to musicians who were more likely to use then on a regular basis. Among these instruments were my very nice Sei Fretless, a limited edition Japanese Yamaha bass, and two very old Overwater Original Basses (one of which may have been the first 5-string bass ever made by Overwater and previously owned by a well-know session player). I hope all of them are getting more use than they would if I'd kept them.

Reverend have form for obscure signature bassists - Brad Houser anyone?

If you like what you are hearing from your HX Stomp you might not want a traditional bass amp and cabs adding additional colouration to your sound. Therefore you should also consider an FRFR (powered PA cab) from the likes of QSC or RCF. Have a look at the many FRFR threads for more ideas.

Great singles band up to an including "Trash" after that they are pretty boring. The albums from that era normally include one decent track that wasn't also a single. But there' s a lot of filler on there too. All IMO.

Isn't this related to the idea that cats purr to promote bone and tissue health/growth because they spend most of their time asleep rather than being active?

I think it's more to do with the songs rather than the bass sound itself. Yes, the bass works with the arrangements and the production of those songs, but only really in that context. So by all means if you're playing that kind of music then it's a bass sound to emulate. If you are playing something else don't be surprised if it doesn't work as well. That's why I've always found the idea of chasing someone else's sound baffling. Unless you are playing covers or in a tribute band it's much better to listen to what the other musicians are doing and find something of your own that works in that context. We're musicians we should be listening not blindly (deafly?) following.