ratman

I'm sure I gave my drummer a man hug as we left the studio today. I can sleep better tonight knowing that I did the right thing today. There better be a 'hug a bass player' day sometime soon......

I have a GK3B, and it doesn't track well down the low end. Those low notes are long frequencies and they are harder for the pick up to pitch. I always play an octave up and assign the MIDI to an octave down. It does the job, but the hassle of an extra cable on the bass and the fact that you can't easily swap it to another instrument is a drawback. Although when I bought it 10 years ago it was that or nothing and it has served its purpose well. I'd love to try a Sonnus at some point.

I play a lot of venues these days that have limiters fitted. Although they stop us from working at the volume levels we prefer, it is possible to play within the limits and still pull off a great gig. And not trip the system. Personally I hate them, but if you're in a venue that has one, you can't change that. It helps if the band members can stay at the levels that worked in sound check. Last summer I did a gig with a 75dB limiter. The band played their asses off, we just did it quietly. And the place was jumping. It can be done.

I got as far as 5 minutes of that. That was enough for me. But now I'm really fired up to get to tonights gig and do the exact opposite - keep it simple and swing the t*ts off the thing.

I'm happy to have the B3 on my board to mostly handle flange, chorus, delay, octave & filter. They're the effects that I don't really need too often and I can't justify spending a shed load of cash on the separate pedals. Or having a massive board, unpractical for most gigs, half filled with gear that doesn't get used a lot. But I love my overdrives and distortions. These I do use, a lot. And I have 5 of the real thing on my board. For me, I have the best of both worlds and I'm happy with it for now. Definitely a case of each to his/her own here, but I'm struggling to imagine how an old digital multi fx unit can try to sound remotely useable next to the new breed of digital kit, like Line6, Zoom, Boss etc.

A week? He should be able to do the set up and hand the bass straight back to you. Job done.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1380282242' post='2223191'] Just goes to show that the devil doesn't have all the good music. [/quote] Agreed, he has most of it, but not quite all.

The one that gives me goose bumps is Miserere Mei, by Allegri. The version by The Sixteen gets me every time. Feast your lugs on this.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcWo1hKHu40 I was fortunate enough to see the Tallis Scholars in Tewkesbury Abbey this summer. They were performing a lot of Byrd, Allregri etc along with a couple of modern compositions in the same style, and they were stunning. Such pure voices and no vibrato in sight

I just bought a boost pedal from Lee. Great communication and quick delivery too. Thank you Lee

I use a 1Spot to power 9 pedals, a B3 included, and I don't have any noise issues at all. Like BigBassBob says, is the 1Spot ok by itself, and have you tried using a another daisy chain?

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' timestamp='1379588665' post='2214434'] Not used one of those, but I've been using the polytune mini for over a year now with bass and no issues. Apparently the polytune mode doesn't work with bass, but the single string mode is absolutely fine [/quote] Mine works fine in polytune mode.

Another vote for DHA here. Mine is awesome. My SFX Micro Red Dragon can produce a very similar sound too. And that has a useful tone control on it too, I'm in North London. You're not too far away, an hour I guess. You're welcome to come and try mine out if you want.

Once I started giiging my Squire P all I did was replace the wiring kit and put some decent pick ups in it. Sounds killer now.

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1377797731' post='2192043'] What, no mention of Westone Thunder's...everyones first 'proper' bass [/quote] Ah ha! Westone Thunder 1, my first 'proper' bass indeed.

Ah the 80's. I nearly bought a Wal. I ended up with a Jaydee. Hated the sound of any Status, especially paired up with a TE rig, ugh. But now whenever I see a headless bass I think of the 80's, the headless heyday. Now, I'm off to comb my mullet........

strings?

I'm playing a couple of covers sets with my mate Kristian on Friday, it's going to be a blast. We start at 9. Come on down and say hi

Although I'll never be able to do that, I have figured out a much simpler version. My left hand hammers the root notes, right taps the chorus melody. Put it all through a filter and boost the level a bit, ask the drummer to keep the kick going, and I've got a new breakdown section for the song on Saturday.

Today I've learned Get Lucky and Somebody To Love. The BV's are a lot harder then the bass parts but they're coming along nicely. Good fun, and I can't wait to gig them next weekend.

Mine's in a rack bag.

What a shame.

And once you've got your nice pedals mounted on your board, add up what it is now worth. Now tell me you will be happy with a soft case. IMO, get a hard case if you want to keep your toys in good nick.

Dannybuoy is right. I've never used these two effects, but the PDL Pitch and PDL MnPit can be pitch shifted using the exp pedal. RTFM Ratman, RTFM.........

I think I can help you here. 1. You can set up any patch so that some (or all) the effects are on when you select the patch. Whatever states of on/off you last had the effects when you used patch, they'll be the same when you next select that patch. The B3 only allows 3 models per patch, unlike the G3 guitar version which allows 6. So on the B3, if you want an amp sim and a compressor, that only leaves you 1 slot for a fuzz or whatever effect you want to add there. One way around this is to have several patches with your fave amp & compressor set up identically, and each patch could have a different effect as the 3rd slot. All you have to do then is go from patch to patch to get to your next effect. 2. I use my B3 as individual stomp boxes. It does it realy well. It isn't as easy and quick to jump from one patch to the next as some of the more expensive multi effects units out there. Zoom have packed this unit full of features & sounds and for the price there were always going to be limitations. Quick patch switching is one of them. To change patches you need to press and hold your foot on the no1 footswitch for 2 seconds. This puts the B3 in patch switch mode. Now you can use the no2 & no3 footswitches to scroll up or down the patch list (A0 to A9, B0 to B9 etc all the way up to J0 to J9) and select the next patch you want. Then you have to press and hold the no1 footswitch for 2 seconds again to activate the patch. It's a bit of a faff and if you want instant patch changes and more slots for amps & effects then maybe the B3 isn't what you need. If I need more than one effect for a particular song I just set up a patch with both effects in and I don't need to worry about patch changes mid song. There are so many memory slots you'll never run out. And the bundled Edit & Share software makes it a doddle to save your entire patch list. 3. If you use an expression pedal for the pitch shifter, it controls the wet/dry balance. If you use an expression pedal on the octaver, it controls the output level of the octave down effect. 4. Tap tempo can either be done with your finger using the dedicated button just above the middle display, or, by plugging in a footswitch, so you can do it on the fly whilst playing. Dead handy. The only shame here is that you can either plug in a control switch OR an expression pedal, not both, as there's only one input socket. I did once try to use an A/B box to plug in a expression pedal and a switch but only the switch worked. Then I realised that the switch and the A/B box used mono cables and the expression pedal used a stereo cable. Buggered. Back to the point, it's one or the other I'm afraid. There are some limitations to the B3 but it is chock full of useable sounds and for the money it's a steal. If you're in London, shout me, you're welcome to come and play with my B3 and see for yourself what it does. I hope this helps answer your questions.