thisnameistaken

I think there are some designs from the '80s that are becoming classics now. Like the Steingberger L-series, the Warwick Thumb and the Status Series II. There are already lots of established classics from the '70s. And it would be too soon to find classics from the '90s even if there were any new designs of note from that decade, which I'm not sure there were. The Godin Acoustibass / A4 was quite a good bass and a new design but was never very popular.

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1357347393' post='1921580'] Pedal order only really matters if you plan to use them at the same time, so Octave first will be still be the most likely to please. Usually lower gain before higher tends to work better, although the unpredictable results of the opposite might turn out to be a hidden gem, depending on taste. [/quote] Yeah but if it's something chaotic feeding into an octaver the results will be unpredictable in a bad way. If that's what you want you'll get much more satisfaction with a ring modulator. Actually I think everybody's first pedal should be a ring modulator. Or maybe it should be their second pedal. Once you manage to use it successfully live you should be allowed to have more pedals. And you would be presented with a gold-coloured programmable ring mod by the elders of music.

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1357324807' post='1921163'] Try a few bassses where they're identical apart from the fingerboard material[/quote] I have done with Fenders. I can't guarantee they were identical apart from the fingerboard material although they are the most mass-produced (and therefore likely identical) basses in the world. I always picked the rosewood-boarded basses but not because of any perceived difference in the sound, but purely because I preferred how they felt under my fingers. [quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1357324807' post='1921163']Better yet, talk to a few luthiers about it...like Jon Shuker, Rob Green or Ken Smith, like I did.[/quote] What did they tell you? Did they all tell you the same thing? Did it marry up with your own experiences? Maybe there is a barely-perceptible difference. I doubt it's important enough to worry about. I can understand the importance of construction materials and methods in an acoustic instrument or the importance of the fingerboard material on a fretless bass guitar, but the fingerboard material on a fretted bass? Nah. And it seems the guys you spoke to are all the the business of selling prestige bass guitars. Of course they'll suggest that the materials used are very important - they want to flatter you. The bass guitar is not only an electric instrument where the materials used aren't especially important, but it's a bass instrument! In most situations it's going to get obscured by the rest of the band anyway, and you want to worry about whether the fingerboard material is going to make it sound intolerably 'zingy'? Like I said. 'Lol'. And 'You crazy'.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1357337250' post='1921445'] I did grade 8 on the double bass when I was 17. [/quote] BALLS OF STEEEEEEEL. Seriously though, kudos.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1357342843' post='1921531']Its not as if theory is even very complicated, or that the information is hard to get at (especially these days).[/quote] I think the issue is that a lot of players - especially bass players - only ever do covers, and they learn them from tab, so there is almost no incentive to understand anything about what they're playing - all they need to do is memorise the part. But if any of those people have ever busked a tune by watching the guitarist's hands, I bet they learned a bit more about how the tune worked from doing that than they did from reading a tab. And anybody who even just noticed the similarities with the distances between the chords in a blues tunes has learned at least some pretty fundamental theory of western harmony. It's all theory by the back door. I think the tipping point is when you realise how much you've learned without trying. At that point you're either overwhelmed by what you're now aware you don't understand and you start to dismiss the importance of it all, or you're excited by how much there is to learn and you begin to take a more active approach to learning what you don't know. I reckon I'll never understand the more complicated styles of jazz and I'll never be able to play a decent accompaniment in, say, a quick bop tune, certainly won't ever be able to solo, but I'm still fascinated by it and I do try to understand what's going on. It's slowly sinking in the more I get involved but it's pretty scary stuff for me having only ever been self-taught. All the guys around here who I see do it well all graduated from the same course at Leeds. If that's not an argument for the value of theory I don't know what is.

I can see why people are suggesting an overdrive. If you want something less heavy/thick than the Zvex pedal then it could be a good idea. If you really do just want something with more of a high frequency bias maybe an Analogman Sun Face.

[quote name='Master blaster' timestamp='1357321203' post='1921075']I wasn't saying that, I was saying would he have been constantly thinking about the rules of music and as a bass player when composing? I don't think so. He took an instrument that backs other musicians and instead of playing roots 3rds and 5ths, he got other people to do that for him and he took the lead. Knowing lots of theory can make you a great musician. But at the same time being ignorant, curious and inventive can also be a great musician.[/quote] To be honest, given that Jaco arranged tunes for a big band amongst other achievements, it suggests that he had a better grasp of theory than you credit him with. And soloing in a jazz context requires you to internalise a lot of information. I don't imagine there are any great jazz soloists who didn't have a very solid understanding of harmony - you don't just pull music like that our of your arse you know. I agree that there are people who've made really engaging music but never knowingly learned any theory. But put those people in a different musical situation and they will probably fall flat on their arses.

[quote name='Protium' timestamp='1357320129' post='1921047']Knowing lots of theory doesn't necessarily make you a good musician[/quote] It doesn't make you a bad musician either. But it does make you a musician who has made some effort to learn about music, suggesting that you care more about it, which I expect is likely to make you a better musician. Shrugging off theory as not being important doesn't necessarily make you a bad musician, just probably a very limited one.

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1357087441' post='1917462'] Jon builds [i]extremely[/i] stiff maple necks. So you may risk having a brittle and sizzly sounding instrument if you go for a graphite reinforced, maple and phenolic board in the same instrument with stainless steel frets. I'd recommend thinking about some dampening in the neck if your heart is set on a phenolic fingerboard. Maybe consider putting a significant chunk of mahogany into the laminates just to warm things up a little but keep enough maple so you don't have to adjust the neck with every change in the weather. Otherwise I'd suggest putting a rosewood or pau ferro fingerboard on a maple neck to take the sizzle out of the fretnoise a little. [/quote] lol. You guys are crazy. The fingerboard is what, maybe 2 or 3% of the mass of a bass, and you're all freaking out about the effect it will have on the sound? This is a fretted electric bass we're discussing here right? Straight tripping.

[quote name='Master blaster' timestamp='1357319234' post='1921023'] Also I'm sure jaco wasn't thinking music about theory when he played otherwise we wouldn't have pushed the boundaries as he did. [/quote] You don't think that knowing lots of music theory would allow you to play more extreme-sounding music when you want to?

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1357308476' post='1920714'] He is wearing a "Hot Hand" controller, so that means a Source Audio pedal of some sort was involved: envelope filter more likely. [/quote] Source Audio also do a unit to convert the Hot Hand's output to MIDI data, so you can use it with any unit capable of taking MIDI input. Edit: Turns out it's got an output for expression pedal sockets too, so you can use it with pretty much anything.

I suppose if other musicians call you and ask you to make music with them, that probably makes you a musician. Or it makes them desperate. Or deaf. Or mentally ill.

Maybe get another dirt box for the other sound in your head. Perhaps something based on a Fuzz Face would be a good idea - they have quite a cutting, sharp sound. There's no rule that says you can't have two fuzz pedals. I don't really like the sound of compression after fuzz. I think it sort-of ruins the fuzz sound.

[quote name='alstocko' timestamp='1357315280' post='1920901']Sounds nice, what's G-Funk?[/quote] The sound of Dr Dre's early '90s productions. Listen to The Chronic or Doggystyle.

[quote name='Jellyfish' timestamp='1357316369' post='1920932'] If you play music, you are a musician. [/quote] If you can write your name does that make you an author?

What does your bass sound like now, and what would you like it to sound like? It's really difficult to help you when the only description of the sound you want is 'sweeter'. 'Sweet' on its own is a rather vague word that is open to interpretation, but 'sweeter' complicates things further, requiring a knowledge of the existing sweetness levels you're achieving. Then you go and suggest that a Stingray would fix your problem, and I don't think any of us would describe a Stingray as 'sweet-sounding'. Difficult thread. More information needed.

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1357303802' post='1920613']Maybe off-topic as it's out of the price range of the OP, but when it comes to blended bandpass vs lowpass, I like the bass wah preset on the Sonuus Wahoo - fixed bandpass at 100Hz with the auto/pedal filter acting on another bandpass in parallel. I prefer the sound of a swept bandpass to a lowpass as it just sounds funkier, but this allows you to do that whilst keeping the lows intact![/quote] Whereas I think the low-pass on a Q-Tron is the funkiest sound you can get from just a filter on bass. One thing I do like doing though is setting up an envelope-following band-passed fuzz on my Octavius Squeezer, with a pretty quick attack and decay, and mixing it with a soloed OC-2 -1 Oct signal. The envelope BP fuzz sounds really nerdy and weedy but if you add the octaver underneath it's a great sound. Very G-Funk.

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1357301129' post='1920555'] The Gear4music 'Archer' basses are used by a few people on here (Bilbo?) and have a good reputation. [/quote] Apparently they have the potential to be decent basses but they ship with a totally unplayable setup, and I've seen one with a bridge that was bent so I'd imagine changing the bridge might be a good idea too. To be honest from the examples I've seen and tried on their showroom floor I wouldn't touch one. Seems like a gamble.

I don't really like rock music but even I like Thin Lizzy. If more rockers were like him then I'd probably like more rock music.

You don't need any effects to sound like Pino Palladino (in current P-bass-swinging blues-rock mode anyway) or Adam Clayton.

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1357293882' post='1920389']of the few i've tried i'd recommend the MXR bass envelope filter - the separate volumes for the clean and effected signals is great. assuming you like the sound of the filter, that is.[/quote] Bear in mind that the MXR - and indeed the DOD FX25 - are band-pass filters, and as such they are more in need of a clean volume control or a blend control than low-pass filters are. Personally I prefer the sound of low-pass filters on bass.

I don't like the way the envelope follower behaves on the FX-25. Try one out, compare it to other units (the EHX Q-Tron for example) and you'll see - it feels like there's a very steep sensitivity curve. It takes a big push to get the filter to open, and it closes quite quickly too, there's not much subtlety to be had. To me it feels like pushing a heavy trolley up a steep hill. A lot of other filters are based on the same circuit and feel the same - the Tonefactor pedals and BYOC designs included. On a budget I think the Q-Tron is a really good pedal but it can be awkward on a pedal board because it runs on 24v. At the more expensive end I like filters based on the Lovetone Meatball (so the 3Leaf Groove Regulator or the Robot Factory Meatwad). I imagine it's also worth checking out the EHX Enigma:Qballs which seems to have a lot of the flexibility of the Meatball but with the quacky funk sound of the Q-Tron, and runs on a 9v supply.

If you can get a double bass player to try out any bass before you buy it then do. Most of the cheaper laminate basses available don't sound too great and if you can't really play it then you might not be the best judge. I would look at the lower end hybrid and carved basses sold by Thomann and Gedo-Musik, both seem to have good value basses in their ranges. There's probably not much point spending a lot of time hanging out for a used bass as good double basses don't tend to depreciate from 'new' like bass guitars do, or if they do it's because they're not very good or they've got problems that will be expensive to fix.

If you want to get rid of all the 'Little Englanders' on your Facebook friends list it's really easy: Just drop everybody who you only know because you went to school with them. Ta-da! Facebook is tolerable again.

The guitarist in my band's dad introduced us to The Meters when we were all 16. He used to bung us the occasional record to see what we thought and they were all great - lots of funk like The Meters and Graham Central Station, but mostly stuff like Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Modern Jazz Quartet, Art Blakey, etc. We never would've gone looking for that stuff ourselves so he did us all a big favour.