thisnameistaken

The Q-Tron is Flea's current filter. I rate it, for the money, but I replaced mine with a Meatwad (much more versatile, much more expensive). I haven't found another filter that sounds that funky for that sort of money.

[quote name='redzombie' post='428028' date='Mar 7 2009, 02:43 PM']Haha, it's not nearly as interesting as it might look to some, but it works for me The LS-2 to the left has a VT Bass in each loop, set to A<>B (on VT Bass for cleaner sounds, one for more overdriven). The LS-2 to the right is used to blend the DD-3, Cool Cat, Hyper Drive and Bass Auto Q with a clean signal. The EQ is used just for when I'm using my passive bass, as a kind of outboard preamp.[/quote] Cool, sounds nice and practical. You must really like the tone of the VT Bass. Is this why they're so hard to find - because you bought them all? I still haven't tried one, been meaning to.

Damn that thing sound great, and a pedal demo that actually demos the pedal properly - how rare an event is this? I told myself if it tracked better than my OC-2 but still did that OC-2 growly sound I'd get one. I'm think I'm going to miss my OC-2 a bit though...

I once got a brand new USA Jazz for nothing when our guitarist stole it from the shop he worked in. Turned out it was worth nothing when we got familiar with the build quality, so it was a pretty fair deal.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='428064' date='Mar 7 2009, 03:59 PM']That's ridiculous. For a start it pisses me off so much people who use the word "gay" as an insult it suggests to me that you're homophobic.[/quote] I thought it fit the rant quite well, that's why I used it. Most of my friends work in theatre, if I was scared of gays I'd have nobody to talk to. [quote name='EdwardHimself' post='428064' date='Mar 7 2009, 03:59 PM']As has been said, you might like a warwick as much as an amlebic but the warwick is a mass produced bass whereas the amlebic is a custom built bass.[/quote] To me the prices are insane. I can understand people spending five figures on an acoustic instrument (although I don't play upright myself), but when you can get a perfectly servicable bass guitar for a few hundred quid that will play and sound great, I don't see the point in paying much more. Two or three grand for something really special, maybe, if you've just fallen in love with the thing, but ten grand? They're having a laugh.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='427805' date='Mar 7 2009, 02:27 AM']Don't believe everything you read on ebay, the electronics on Alembic series basses are expensive but not that much.[/quote] So two grand for the pickups? Three? [quote name='jakesbass' post='427805' date='Mar 7 2009, 02:27 AM']All James Taylors multi million selling Albums since 1990 feature an Alembic playing bass player as do Grateful Dead, 70s Frank Zappa, Fleetwood Mac some Genesis, Level 42, countless country tracks.[/quote] Countless more country tracks feature Fenders, I imagine those records sold better too. Fusion doesn't sell all that well, except to bass anoraks. [quote name='jakesbass' post='427805' date='Mar 7 2009, 02:27 AM']And clearly by your definition I'm a "f***ing mug"[/quote] I should've known you'd be the first one with his head over the parapet! [quote name='jakesbass' post='427805' date='Mar 7 2009, 02:27 AM']I've compared it to Wals, Fenders, various customs Stinrays etc etc and it is by a big margin the best bass I've ever played, but don't believe me cos I'm a "f***ing Mug" still at least it is tax deductable (WDA) for me as a self employed musician, so really you bought it for me with your massively inflated PAYE tax code so thanks for my bass, you "f***ing Mug" [/quote] It's unfortunate that you didn't compare it to Warwicks, because I bought my Warwick for dirt cheap and it pisses all over your Alembic and doesn't look as gay. Incidentally I don't pay any tax through PAYE, most of my tax is collected through corp. tax as I'm a company director and take most of my earnings through dividends. I'm glad you got a silly-priced bass though, even if you did justify it to yourself as tax-deductible. You still could've saved yourself thousands and got a bass that sounded and played just as good and looked a lot less stupid, if you hadn't got suckered by the name and the blingy wood on the front. f***ing mug.

According to an eBay listing I read once, just the Alembic electronics cost £6000. That gives you a pretty good idea of what a total f***ing rip-off they are. If you have to pay six grand for two pickup, a hum-bucker and a preamp, you're doing it wrong. How many hit records featured a bog-standard Fender and how many showed off an Alembic? f***ing mugs.

[quote name='redzombie' post='427686' date='Mar 6 2009, 11:42 PM']...and the GAS it was no more. For once I've decided that I'm quite happy with my set up and I can't be arsed with any more pedals.[/quote] You can't post a photo like that without explaining why there's two LS-2s and two VTs.

Always seemed a bit limited for the money, to me. Seems you could buy a Moog MF-101 and plug some sort of CV generator into the cut-off input and get basically the same effect.

[quote name='burno70' post='427605' date='Mar 6 2009, 09:40 PM']Hey - The Everyman was part of my regular pub crawl during the 90's, we always used to get a banana bolls in there for some reason?[/quote] I can't remember what I used to drink in there, but the food was ace, and so cheap. My girlfriend went to LIPA for a year so I ended up living in Liverpool for a bit (L8, Princes Road, just on the edge of Toxteth) and I never felt more at home anywhere in the city than in the Everyman. The Phil's a nice pub though. But not very far away. And our "local" I suppose was Kavanaghs on Egerton St., and they had a great dane, so we liked that place.

I think this was the best rap band that ever lived, and they had a full live band backing them with a not-inconsiderably-skilled bassist: That tune kicks ass. Love the Bush T-shirt with the Swastika "S", surprised I didn't see more of those for Bush Jnr.

What are their prices like? I can imagine they'll get sick of people coming in to try stuff and then ordering it cheaper on the interwebs. Haven't been over to Liverpool for a few years, I miss the Everyman.

For fun I like to sing and play tunes like Kinks, Housemartins, Cud, Elvis Costello, etc. Singing always cheers me up.

Send your bass(es) to a trusted friend's house for a couple of weeks, just two or three weeks, then take them back. I bet you'll not only be dying to play, you'll also find you've improved. Worked for me a couple of times anyway.

My most expensive bass would go for £700 or less on here, but I wouldn't sell it for all the tea in China. If it was stolen I'd kill everybody to make sure I got the guy who did it.

I've still never been in a Starbucks, I'm proud to say. I'd feel weird asking for a "normal coffee that normal people drink with none of your sh*te in it, please".

A Boss Octave pedal might be a good idea, classic bass effect. If you're looking at modulation effects I'd suggest a flanger over chorus or phaser, but it's very much a matter of personal taste - go out and try each of them, and if you can try several examples of each to make sure you didn't just try a "bad chorus" or a "phaser that doesn't sound good on bass". A fuzz might even come in handy sometimes. Maybe look at the EHX Bass Big Muff.

Since the OC-2 discussion earlier I've been thinking maybe a little mixer would be handy. That way I could have four parallel FX chains but also the possibility of feeding them into each other, creating feedback loops, etc. But it would mean having a little mixer plus some custom stomp switches taking up half my board. Not entirely practical.

Squeezer #007 if I'm not mistaken! How have your first days with it been?

[quote name='cheddatom' post='426294' date='Mar 5 2009, 03:41 PM']I wasn't being cheeky, I meant it would be good if you could switch modes without turning the mode knob. I'm pretty sure there is an A->B mode, as well as the A+B mode.[/quote] Sorry maybe I didn't explain properly: There's no mode that runs loop A return into the loop B send - you can't use it as two loops in series. That's what I meant. There's a few ways I use my OC-2 and I'll never find a setup that works for all of them just using footswitches and one OC-2, because sometimes I have the direct level up and sometimes I just solo the -1 octave, so I'd have to bend over and turn that knob at the very least. But assuming I didn't do that, I'd need it to go before fuzz, or mixed with fuzz, and you can't do that with an LS-2.