thisnameistaken

This is a good idea but could use more clarity in the design. It would be much easier to use with a bit more attention to the visuals.

Long version: I've done 20 years of playing bass guitar, all in originals bands, mostly just knocking together 2-bar patterns as it happens. And I got old so I bought a double bass and I've been muddling along with the double bass for about 18 months now, and I've tried to be good about using the correct fingering and not doing anything bad with my wrists and so on, and I've practised every day and made some progress but generally felt like there were too many aspects of my playing I wasn't confident about, and when I've seen good players perform I've wanted to be able to do what they can do. So I saw BC'er Geoff Chalmers announce he was back in York and available to take students, and I decided to get in touch and see if he could target the things I felt I was particularly lacking confidence in. Two hours of tuition (mostly spent beaming a harsh spotlight on my intonation and demonstrating approaches to changing position more reliably and accurately) and a week or so of practice later I feel like I'm a considerably more capable bass player already and - most importantly - that the time I spent practising privately is now time very well spent. And I've also identified many more areas I'd like/need to work on, and rather than being worried about them like I used to be, I'm excited about how much I can improve once I learn how to do it. Once I feel like I've got enough double bass instruction to chew on I'll be going back with a bass guitar to start filling in the gaping chasms in my theory. Too Long / Didn't Read version: Just get lessons, it's quicker and easier and better than not getting lessons. But make sure you get a disciplined musician, not your local hotshot music shop slap bore.

Aw man stop putting up pictures of Moog synths I'm supposed to be saving for another double bass. :/

Just read it back to yourself out loud at an average pace and any place you pause, put a comma. Any place you take a breath, put a full stop. That's enough punctuation to make your posts easy to read and that's all anyone really cares about. Edit: I see you've already been through your post and improved it. Thanks man much appreciated.

Last time I saw Billy Bragg his bassist was playing one of these, it sounded ace.

[quote name='umph' timestamp='1317661791' post='1392924'] Put in a stereo jack run your neck pick up clean and the bridge distorted ;D [/quote] Last time I looked he didn't *have* a neck pickup! Still, I suppose that makes a stereo mod even easier in a way...

I would also suggest the original 24v Bass Micro Synth. It might seem like overkill but even if you don't use the suboctave on it or the filter sweep you've still got sliders to mix your clean signal, a distortion signal and an octave fuzz signal, plus the low-pass filter afterwards which you can operate as a static filter if you want, and the resonance slider could be useful for making it uglier / peakier / bassier whatever.

How about an octave fuzz like the MXR Blue Box? If it loses too much bass stick it in a blend loop.

Yeah if I just wanted the fuzz they do a pedal called the Brown Dog, the O.S. includes that and a filter and a pair of oscillators, a digital brain, mixer, etc. It's pretty full-on and notoriously difficult to use. I love it though.

I got one for my double bass, put it in my bag full of stuff to take to gigs, next time I got it out the display had snapped off the clip because it was connected by a tiny, weak plastic joint. Good thing they're cheap. Mine's now mostly gaffa tape.

There aren't a lot of them around - they're built by hand by one guy and he seems to be fairly relaxed about how fast he produces them, mine was a few weeks later than expected. So I doubt you'd find one you can try unless there's a generous user here who could be without his for a little while. I swapped mine with a guy in Ireland for a Woolly Mammoth because I didn't really need a Muff, as much as I love the sound, I needed a gated fuzz. I've since shifted the Woolly Mammoth and I'm using the gated fuzz in my Octavius Squeezer instead which I think is ideal for me - it gates nice and tight but it doesn't sound choked and nasal like the Mammoth does. If it's definitely a muff you want though, IMO it's the best bass muff on the market. Bit pricey compared to the EHX pedal but it's up to you whether it's worth the extra money.

Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie 'B'. It's a blendable bass-friendly Muff in a smaller box. Great pedal I had one a couple of years back.

I am probably going to give the Super Silvers a go at some point, but a mate's got Rotos on his bass and I think his G sounds terrible, really twangy and synthetic sounding. I think the G in this Silver Slaps set sounds much better especially slapped.

Cutting out? It definitely shouldn't be doing that unless you've turned the preamp gain trim pot (the pot inside) way, way too low. The BMS gates its output when the input level falls too low, and if you've lowered the input gain that might be happening too early. But since you say you raised the input gain level that shouldn't be happening. It might be a faulty pedal, it really shouldn't be doing that.

More neck pickups, less dead spots.

Must've taken the work experience lad all of five minutes to design those.

Another vote for La Bella 'Deep Talkin' here, although I use the 760FL set on my Jazz. Really authentic '60s soul sound from them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb7jna8iQQM

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1316853332' post='1383623'] ... [/quote] Interesting stuff. Cheers.

Depends how much I over-do it. More seriously: I needed a lot less rosin on my Spiros and Evah Pirazzis than I need on my Silver Slaps.

I think the Q-Tron filters are really good for that sort of thing, you would have to spend a lot more to get a more suitable filter. The Chunk Systems Agent 00Funk (and Octavius Squeezer by extension) are very wet-sounding filters too. You can also get big peaks and warbly sounds out of the Lovetone Meatball circuit, so that includes the Robot Factory Meatwad, Barge Concepts Grinder, and 3Leaf Audio Groove Regulator. I think specifically the envelope follower in the Meatball circuit is the best one I've ever used, and the Q-Tron is probably the second-best. The Source Audio BEF Pro does look interesting in terms of its feature set, but I haven't tried one personally.

Moloko - Fun For Me. I think it's a bass guitar - Mark Brydon is a bass player after all - but it just as easily might not be.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1316674216' post='1381135']When the band has someting that justifies a highl level of commitment then you can put a few pointers in place, but not for a handful of songs and gigs and the position you are in atm.[/quote] On the other hand, how are you going to get more songs finished and book more gigs if you are struggling to organise rehearsals? I can appreciate where your band are coming from - it can be frustrating trying to book rehearsals, either because the band can't all find common dates they're free or by the time they agree a date all the rehearsal rooms within 25 miles are already booked up. The more you can formalise this or make it more regular the better. If someone regularly can't make it then either you've picked a bad time for that person to rehearse or that person is a bit pathetic and flaky. Working out which is easy, but the flaky people tend to talk about themselves as being 'committed' in my experience. Not saying this is you, just that agreeing to regular band activities and sticking to those agreements is a really important part of making a band fun and successful.

I've got an O.S. and it's a great pedal and yes it does qualify as a 'synth' in every sense of the word, but the thing with the EHX Bass Micro Synth is that - regardless of how it does what it does - it sounds excellent. It's a brilliant little package with a lot of very useful sounds in it. The O.S. on the other hand isn't as flexible in some ways because you're relying on digital pitch tracking and it can get quite ropey if you're not careful, so while it has a massive variety of sounds there is stuff you just can't play on it. Fast arpeggiated synth bass being one example, or anything that relies on quick retriggering of an ADSR filter envelope - both are pretty valuable for doing '80s sounds. I think it's better suited to hip hop sounds, early '90s stuff and G-Funk sounds - it excels at that. The BMS is a whole lot easier to play and therefore more useful, IME.