thisnameistaken

Depends what sort of synth effect you mean. Do you have specific songs in mind for the sounds you want to make?

[quote name='Basska' post='672769' date='Dec 3 2009, 03:04 AM']see... haha. Thats a comment I can work with! In the previous comment I was trying to cover all bases including Reggae and Rocksteady sorry.[/quote] Yeah I figured, I was being a bit facetious and cheeky. [quote name='Basska' post='672769' date='Dec 3 2009, 03:04 AM']Isn't Reggae classed under 1st wave Ska? Correct me if I'm wrong please![/quote] I'm not a ska historian or anything (I know to some people it's sacrilege to play reggae and not smoke loads of weed and know everything about it). As I understand it the Jamaican pop sound started with ska, became rocksteady briefly because people found ska too fast to dance to, and eventually matured into reggae. I like the feel of the rocksteady sound the most, and from the bass player's perspective it's all about where you put the notes and where you leave space. It can really groove. [quote name='Basska' post='672769' date='Dec 3 2009, 03:04 AM']See I'm an American myself so the appeal probably starts there haha (big Bosstones fan it must be said!) I think that if you listen in depth to each one of them they all have allot to offer and get allot more technical (bass wise) to the Bosstones brigade. Are you an Eric Wilson fan? Could you give me some Reggae/Rocksteady bassist examples? and btw, do you mean sound as in all together or are we still talking bass wise?[/quote] I mean the sound of the whole band, the songs, structure, melodies, etc. I do like Sublime and I think they were probably a big influence on me, but I don't know if Eric Wilson specifically influenced my bass playing. I notice you still haven't mentioned Fishbone. Shame on you!

Nah. My band is more reggae / rocksteady. We have a couple of ska-sounding bits in tunes though. I know all the guys you mentioned but I don't really like the american sound at all, really. It seemed like they were all just following the Bosstones, who were never actually any good themselves.

Are you sure that's not just one of his normal solos played at 1/4 speed?

[quote name='davidmpires' post='672245' date='Dec 2 2009, 04:44 PM']Bilbo although I agree with you, most of time it's not possible to do that at gigs. You get to a full pub place your on stage plug it in have maybe 30 seconds to see if everything is ok and then you wait to get on.[/quote] This is why I've settled on a Hartke head with just three tone knobs. If I can't get a good sound with those and the controls on my bass / picking hand technique then I almost certainly wouldn't have time to get a good sound with an amp with an 11-band EQ, parametric mids, buttons for "bright" and "sub" and "scoop" and so on, or a dozen factory presets with vague one-word names. So long as I can be heard and my sound is leaning more towards Studio One than Korn I'm happy.

[quote name='dirtystatic' post='672207' date='Dec 2 2009, 04:11 PM']Can anyone point me in the direction of a fuzz pedal that'll give me the sound without the hefty price tag? Cheers![/quote] Buy one used? That was my solution.

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='670688' date='Dec 1 2009, 02:21 AM']I just know in my heart of hearts, passive is best, and i'm not some one finger dawdler technophobe, i can out-Marcus most if needs be, but it does seem a lot of bassists are heading back to basics.[/quote] I agree the current fashion is for simple planks. They do sound nice. I wonder what the next fashion will be? Whatever it is will probably sound nice.

[quote name='Huwberry' post='670685' date='Dec 1 2009, 01:46 AM']Although I've taken an interest in music production (I even started a degree in it, which I quickly realised was a mistake, but that's another story for another time), I've never really thought to apply the widely accepted approaches to EQ (i.e., cutting is usually better than boosting, only adjust in small amounts, if it sounds good then it's 'right') to my bass. I guess that area of my brain was in conflict with the juvenile side that demands that everything be AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE I MUST DROWN EVERYONE OUT... EVER. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons why I wanted an active bass when I was 14, haha.[/quote] Well with some active preamps (as you've discovered with your Stingray) turning everything up just results in overdrive when it hits the amp and it sounds like arse. But let's be fair to the poor Stingray here - that's really to its credit. It's got enough boost on each band of the EQ to potentially ruin your sound, nothing wrong with that! [quote name='Huwberry' post='670685' date='Dec 1 2009, 01:46 AM']Now I've come to the conclusion that active electronics are, for the most part, too complex for my simple brain, and all I want now is a decent vintage jazz, then a precision with flats. Ahh, bass as it should be.[/quote] They are nice sounds. I still use a Jazz with flats for a lot of stuff, it's just a really nice sound. But then I love the sound of my Thumb too and I'd never sell it. And sometimes I put that Jazz through so many pedals the only benefit I get from the flats is rock-solid note tracking. It's all good. But don't assume that active electronics don't work for vintage sounds, they certainly can, it just depends on the bass/circuit. I've played a Status strung with flats before that sounded pretty convincing with a bit of the top-end rolled off, and you don't get much more high-tech basses than that.

If you like P bass necks, the old Yamaha BBs are brilliant. I had a BB1100S fretless in the early '90s and it was a fecking gorgeous bass. But I paid £250 for it. And that one had active electronics...

[quote name='markdavid' post='670667' date='Dec 1 2009, 12:56 AM']It probably is down to the character of the bass (woods used etc) although it could be other things such as type of strings used, the character of the pickups (p bass pickups for example are very mid rangey), maybe the preamp has a slightly mid biased sound.[/quote] But it's got tone knobs, so don't worry about it. Some basses have a very prominent tonal character (my Thumb bass is one) which is difficult to totally eliminate, but most really don't, and with a bit of knob-twisting you're good to go. Especially if you're going for a fairly common bass guitar sound.

[quote name='Huwberry' post='670649' date='Dec 1 2009, 12:39 AM']I have an additional question now - my other bass (5 string Schecter) has a 2-band EQ... however, I've found that setting the EQ pots to flat on that one equals a very mid-centric sound, at least to my ears... I'm taking a very simplistic approach to equalisation here, but surely that's just down to the character of the bass, isn't it? When I'm flattening the bass and treble, I'm not still boosting the mid-range am I? Haha, that sounds so ridiculous when I think about it. Don't even bother answering that one, I'm actually being an idiot this time...[/quote] Again, it's not a stupid question. Some EQs are set up to produce more of some frequencies than others when set "flat". Look at the SansAmp line of preamps - they all have a mid scoop when set flat. Just tweak it how you like it and don't worry about where the knobs are. If it sounds good on the record / in the club then you're doing it right.

The lousy 1x10" Laney practice combo sitting behind me doesn't do my OC-2 justice, but my old Ashdown 410MAG-T did. And my current Schroeder1212L does. If your cab's got enough beef for a normal bass signal it'll do fine with an octaver. You might find all you can hear is the second harmonic if you play especially low, but if you find a cabinet that can deal with that you'll have a harder time finding an audience with ears good enough to appreciate it.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='669483' date='Nov 29 2009, 09:10 PM']Why is Pino famous, is he in a famous bad or a session style player?[/quote] He was acceptable in the '80s! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlhQ3iC54QM"]Pino Palladino[/url] To be fair he's been a consistently top-knacker bassist. He's on [url="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ekoe_de-la-soul-feat-chaka-khan-all-good_music"]this too[/url]. John Mayer though? He's this decade's Garth Brooks.

[quote name='ped' post='670490' date='Nov 30 2009, 09:56 PM']Good call - but it's a bit hit and miss (not always even across the strings) and looks crap - and it's something else to lose.[/quote] It's even across the strings (how even does it need to be anyway?) if you cut it right and trim it for five minutes - probably takes less time than installing a Bassmute. And if you lose it - who cares! You found it in your loft. I actually used the first one as a template and cut half a dozen to match it, and sometimes I stick two of them under there if I want to get really thumpy, when I'm done I shove them in my back pocket. As for it looking bad, I like the make-shift look, but I suppose that's a taste thing. [quote name='ped' post='670490' date='Nov 30 2009, 09:56 PM']I think the Bassmute is a bit steep, but if you save money by buying other things wisely (like avoiding the smoke and mirrors claims of some bass cabinets and so on) then for something that just works and is a solid simple piece of kit, then it is worth it in relative terms![/quote] I don't actually know how much it costs but if it works for you then great. I know it's more expensive than £0, so I prefer the £0 option, but honestly whatever works works, I was just pointing out a cheap idea that really works.

Someone on here suggested I just wedge some sliced-up mouse mat under my strings, so I did, and it's ace. Total cost: £0.

Looks like you're having fun.

I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend's really nice and we get along great, but I know this other girl who's much richer...

I've yet to hear how you managed to open your car with them. Don't leave us hanging!

I think it was Cud at Leeds Uni, 1989 or 1990.

[quote name='number4our' post='658090' date='Nov 18 2009, 01:56 PM']I have just got a new Hartke HA3500 Bass Head. I have a Hartke Transporter 4x10 cab (300 watts at 8 ohms i believe?). ... I'm having a little trouble with the volume of the unit when I play different strings (strange yes?). Mainly the difference in the power of the bass sound between notes played on the E string and notes played on the A string. Any notes on the E string are really powerful/noisy/bassy during my band practice but any notes played on the A string will just get drowned out in the noise of the 1 guitar and drums. It bassically sounds like it's cutting out when we practice but I think its just getting drowned out. Can anyone advise on how to get the levels between the strings more equal? (stupid, I know). I was using a mates Ashdown head before this and it was fine.[/quote] Could it be that your cab was positioned somewhere differently in the practice room? You might just have got reflections which were reinforcing the sound of the notes on your E, or phasing out the sound of your A. Try moving the cab further away from any walls and see if things improve.

That looks quite hard to do. Glad I don't have a metronome.

[quote name='Beedster' post='666903' date='Nov 26 2009, 11:37 PM']LOL, no, quite the opposite, it just appears to me that it is breaking in very nicely and becoming noticebly more resonant. I'm just surprised that it would change significantly over three months.[/quote] Are you sure it's not just you getting more familiar with it over those three months, and finding a sound you like more?

It depends entirely on who built it, IME.

Mine plays really nice, no complaints there. One word of warning: Like most Squiers and Fenders, you'll probably want to replace most of the hardware if you're planning to gig it, so factor that cost in. I went to take the jack out of my Squier Jazz in rehearsals the other night and the whole effing control plate came off with it. I don't know if it's because the body is the softest wood they could find or if they originally put the screws in with a hammer, but either way I wasn't impressed. I filled the holes and re-tapped the screws this afternoon. The bridge and tuners have already been replaced on mine, the pickups are next.