ped

I reckon if @BigRedX was burgling a house and saw a Precision (even just on a stand) he'd put everything back and leave 😂

Tbh that’s not a bad price for an official one (no idea if you need a special fodera one or not though). Any European supplier will probably change more for the item to factor in the import anyway.

Ah no I haven't done one.. I'll try and get something sorted next week, wife is returning to work (at nursery with our son) so I'll have some time to think!

FWIW Ken has always outsourced much of the work, so all he's doing here is outsourcing to someone new who people recognise the name of.

Gonna lend him my Vigier at some point I think 🤔

Nah I’m just glad he likes it. It was a great bass for sure and I’m happy to have had it for a while. Really glad he’s keeping his word on the puppets 😂

Why does everyone say it’s a MIDI system!

I did that for a while (even but a hole in my case so the bass still fit inside) but ended up doing an internal install on both basses because I liked it so much. 99% of the time I play clean with it bypassed (though I still use the VB99 as my pre-amp/multi fx/audio interface because it's amazing). When you do the internal install you can choose what you want to add to your instrument, from just the pickup and the 13 pin output to adding an assignable knob, two buttons, an LED and a mix switch.

OK I've turned them off until they fix the issue - you shouldn't see them any more. Will update when they have fixed them!

Hm not something I’ve done. I’ll ask our ad people if something’s broken. Can you upload screenshots if you have them? Thanks

In which case you can install the kit and just not add the knob and buttons to the main board in the bass. I don't install the LED or the mix switch.

Yeah I think that's best - however I bet someone on the Guitar forum will be able to do the work for you. Are you going to install the internal kit, or have the 'brain' on the bass instead? Maybe a good idea to begin with. It's nice being able to choose what parts you want when you do the internal install, so you can have an assignable knob which you can set to do whatever you like on the unit (reverb level, A/B pan, synth shape, tone, drive level, EQ curve, whatever you can think of) and the buttons which can also be set to turn effects on and off and everything else or simply set to scroll up and down through patches.

I think Gary Willis also took a GK3B apart to get rid of the ends he didn't need https://garywillis.com/ask-willis-gk-3b-minimized/

I had someone personally inspect my replacement set and they were rusty too. I quite liked them but found as they aged they sounded a bit harsh, I liked them fresh though.

The Roland system isn't MIDI (thank god) and I think it's the best thing out there now. I've been using it for so long now that I've got perfect* additional sounds of a Jazz, P, MM, and a whole lot besides all on my main bass. In the mix, and even solid at home when practicing, I'm more than happy with them when A/Bing against the instruments themselves which I have since sold, most of them the best examples of their breeds. But then it does take a lot of know how and a steep learning curve, but once set it's purely plug and play. By the way you can even move virtual pickups around and 'design your own' bass, so anything is possible.

Ah ok. What two devices are you using? I’ve always been tempted with a Godin A4 SA but haven’t seen a fretless one which would be my preference

What splitter?

Actually maybe not, 16mm might be the minimum.See page 8 http://midimanuals.com/manuals/roland/gk-3b/owners_manual/gk-3b_om.pdf

The GK pickup uses bar shaped magnets so it will cope with any spacing I think.. there are tabs to switch to change the magnet placement a little but I think it would be OK. if not you could use piezo saddles.

Yes I think it would be per patch but quite easy to set up once you know how, and you can probably cut and paste the setting to make it a standard patch to then adjust further. Good luck with Roland, they told me there would be absolutely no way tat the Wingbass would work with a GK pickup. I knew it would, because after all the VB99 thinks I'm just fretting a normal bass above the 12th fret, but it seems that anyone who was involved with the VB99 doesn't work there any more! The Vguitar forums are great though, although sometimes I feel like I'm being drawn down a rabbit hole. The fact that I've never tried making a two string synth and the rest clean just shows how massively flexible this unit can be - I've had mine probably 10 years now (about 20 if you could the previous model too) and I'm still finding new things to try and know that if I can hear a sound in my head, I can basically make it one way or another.

Just to confirm, I just created a patch for my five string wingbass with a synth on the B and E and clean on the ADG strings so that works fine. Also worth noting that you can dynamically shift between the two (VB99 has two) 'instruments' on each patch, so for example I have one set up clean but when I dig in I get a synth. It takes a lot of adjusting to get right but can be a good way to achieve what you are after (I think) too.

I think so yes - for example if I choose the Vigier setting and plug in my Wingbass it still works but affects the way things sound, or the way the unit perceives the signal, to a degree. All you then do is set the direction of the pickup and how many strings you want to process (and if using on a five string, is the fifth string at the top or bottom of the pickup). Next you dial in the distance of each bridge point to the pickup, then adjust the sensitivity. If I plug in my Vigier I can tune the bass however I like and it doesn't make any difference beyond the difference you'd get plugging into anything else. That's the genius of the unit IMO; it does so much but you end up taking it for granted because it's so easy to use in terms of 'playability' - once you've set it up it's as easy as plugging into any multi effect. No latency or anything like that.

I'm using a GK3B on my mini half scale bass and it works fine - I don't think you need to worry about what note the unit is expecting because it'll work with whatever you give it - downturning etc is done manually from whatever pitch you put in, if you see what I mean.

You can get a breakout box here to send each string to a separate output https://www.separate-strings.co.uk Not sure re the multiple instruments with strings muted but I’ll try it and let you know.