jrixn1

You have to be carefully when Googling. If it's the "4kg" review which flashes up on the first page, what it actually says when you click though is: "I read that a 5-string Harley Benton Enhanced MP-5EB with an Alder body weighs up to 4 kg! FALSE !! My weight is 4,780 kg"

The only way you should wind the string on is by turning the tuning key. Don't loop the string manually around the peg a few times first.

I twice used a borrowed Orange setup. With an acoustic folk singer-songwriter, it was an Orange Terror and was ok on bass guitar, although it only seemed to have two settings: off, and extremely loud. The other time, a straight-ahead jazz gig on upright, I can't remember exactly which Orange it was - it might have been a combo - but I struggled to get a good sound from it.

You wouldn't gain any quality going through both a Zoom and MXR. The MXR on its own should be better quality than the Zoom on its own, because the MXR is all analogue. In contrast, the Zoom first has to convert from analogue to digital, then digital back to analogue. It has to do the double conversion even when it's in bypass mode. Having said that, I used Zoom pedal for years and could not hear any issues. The advantage to the MXR (or any analogue system with real knobs) is that you can see at a glance what your settings are, and tweaking is really easy of course. On the Zoom (or any digital system), you have to dig around in the menu system. MXR are very well made kit. I used the MXR M81 DI which is very clean and has the useful semi-parametric mids.

The circuit for a fully-open tone control would be a resistor and capacitor in parallel to the pickup.

You can't do this on the B3 because the limit is three simultaneous effects, so you could only have: (1) compressor, (2) preamp, & (3) any other effect. However, you could on the newer B3n (which has five slots). You can choose which of the five are controlled by the three footswitches. So (1) compressor & (2) preamp, not assigned to any footswitch; leaving you with slots 3, 4, and 5 for any three other effects, controlled by the three footswitches. You can use any Boss-shaped 9V power supply. The official current draw for B3 and B3n is 500mA. I know for B3 you should be fine with 200mA; not sure about B3n.

Sounds like you want a P bass! I had a G&L L2500 which was really nice. Similar to Lozz196, I spent my time trying to dial it in to sound like a P bass. It gets quite close but yes in the end, I sold it and got a P bass. There's a P bass available at every budget. I got a Classic Vibe 70s P, knowing I had the option to return it and move up the price point if I wasn't happy. But I like it a lot and kept it, and ended up getting a second CV 60s P as well. You can get two CV for the price of one Player. I keep them set up slightly differently, to cover all eventualities: one has flats and the other has slightly different flats 😀

Checking my old sales, mine was 4.2kg on a bathroom scale (not the most accurate method).

Yes, connect ground and shield together. The pots might already provide a connection to the cavity shielding. Check with a multimeter? Often all grounds connect to the same physical point: the back of a pot, or a lug screwed into the cavity.

I'm not completely sure what you're asking for. At first, you say you want to sound like an ACME Motown DI, but cheaper; but then you also say "transparent and uncoloured [...] just a pure DI signal". But the ACME is designed specifically to colour the signal to sound like the console from the Motown studio. For Motown, try a TC Electronics MojoMojo on the lower gain settings. Then what I do for live use is go through an RCF powered speaker (which is transparent and uncoloured); or at home, use the phones output of a Behringer interface. Or if you're otherwise happy with the Veyron, run it into a headphone amp or interface.

Just completed another sale with Mike, with his usual good comms and fast payment. Thanks Mike!

But I like the overdrive and the tuner in the MicroBass 3. I'll contact EBS and have them make a jrixn1 signature edition pedal!

Does it help if you lower the pickups on the bass side?

"Plastic/synthetic" is a bit broad as there is crappy plastic vs TUSQ. I've occasionally had crappy plastic nuts break, but never had a problem with TUSQ.

Yes, and I'm glad it does - sounds great with my P bass. It's my almost ideal pedal; just a HPF on channel A would make it perfect.

What's your budget in pounds? A popular combo is Markbass CMD 121P, £579, 12kg, footprint 38x36cm. It hits a sweetspot, which I mean that you could find something cheaper - but that won't be as loud, or it will be heavier. You could find something smaller or lighter - but it will cost more, or it won't be as loud. Etc.

I wouldn't describe the Microbass 3 as just for electric bass: the option for 10 Mohms input impedance and the notch filter are acoustic features. The Stanley Clarke does have the HPFs though, but no tuner! They both have good features. As a doubler, I have the MicroBass 3 and am not going to swap it for the Stanley Clarke.

Update of my experience of the Sandberg/EU/Covid/Brexit situation. Ordered the pickguard on 6th Jan via Synergy (the UK distributor). Arrived this morning 22nd Feb; delay due to German lockdown and then courier delays. Alan from Synergy is responsive and helpful. I actually decided not to keep the bass in the end, so the pickguard is currently in the basschat marketplace if anyone's interested.

ZipCar (or similar) is another option for a back-up car, if you're in a city where they operate. Sign up in advance though, as they run a document check which takes a couple of days to process.

I've had the rattley tuning machine on two of the current line of Yamaha BBs. Try a couple of drops of thin superglue where the key meets the shaft (use the thin stuff so it wicks into the gaps).

I have (had... it's for sale) a Sandberg VM5 which has a reverse P, with each coil swapped place with the other. It had a lot of clarity in the lows; perhaps too much for me (because I wanted it to sound just like a normal P bass). I'm not sure whether to attribute that entirely to the reverse P, or just the overall character of that bass; it's the only Sandberg 'V' series I've ever played. In particular, I'd have liked to compare it to a Sandberg VS5, which has the normal P position.

Yes, true, we do. Ok, but then in your case, if you/your band had £300 earmarked for back-up gear (the original poster's budget), I would say you'd be better off with a spare RCF 310A or mixer than a spare 200W bass head. A RCF 310A can play the role of FOH, floor monitor, guitar amp, or bass amp; but you can't put the vocals, sax, and guitar through a Trace Elliot Elf. I'd take my RCF 732A over any bass head and 1x12 cab 😀