NancyJohnson

The Scarlet gets the signal into the DAW on computer via the USB; it simply converts the analogue input to digital to facilitate this for recording. [Edit: it also allows for live anologue monitoring.] As a rule, effects (or processing, similar emulation as to what the Zoom did), would be applied via a VST plugin after you've recorded. I understand you can use VSTs on the fly, but they will be laggy, which makes them unusable in a live context.

Little confused here...I truth don't wholly understand the question or the reasoning behind it. The Scarlet 2i2 is purely a USB powered audio interface with monitoring facility; you can take an audio out from either of the rear 1/4" jacks and push that to powered monitors or amp, same goes the headphone output, but the headphone output will be a bit hotter than the rear sockets. The Scarlet won't offer you any processing other than the potential to push a hotter signal into the amp. You'd get pretty much the same result just plugging into the front of your amp.

Ying/Yang. They're a bit like Weezer for me; on paper I should adore them, but I really don't. A mate of mine once said something along the lines of, '... they'd be really good if they had a decent singer.'. True, dat. I've seen them live three times I think, maybe four, but this was only down to obtaining guesties through Warner Bros.

I got BSSM for my birthday just after it came out, it was alright, but didn't do much for me. Can't believe it's 30 years old. Never owned anything after this, but I have heard/suffered all the rest of their output (actually quite surprised at their lack of catalogue; averaging out to one album every five or six years). From a fan perspective, I have no idea why they're so adored; musically it's all a bit meh to my ears, hate the vocals.

First out, I'm not a fan of stomps and as I've yet to find an amp that offers a single step solution to make me sound like I want, my signal path is simple, pretty much bass>DI-2112>effects return and I play with everything open/full on the bass. That's it. I've seen guys with mahoosive boards containing multiple drives and effects and most have zero idea on how to balance their board so nothing on there overpowers anything else or where their chorus should sit in the signal chain. It makes my heart sink when I see someone toe-poke a pedal and the bass just disappears and they're just about miming until it's turned off again. As I mentioned earlier, honestly, nobody watching cares whether you're using a certain pedal that cost £££ any more that they're interested about my gear or what I sound like. They're all watching the singer or looking at their phones.

I had an Ashdown head (a racked UK built ABM one) that worked to a fashion. You needed to go into the effect loop return, but at the same time you needed to trick the head into believing it had something plugged into it. I just used to leave a jack to mini-jack converter plugged into the input socket and it worked fine.

On the OP, I've had maybe five-ten people comment on my tone in 30+ years of playing and most of those were bassists. It always makes me laugh seeing these guys, their feet dancing and tapping over these huge boards full of every conceivable pedal, all the while front of house there's zero discernable change to what's coming out if the PA. Sure these stomps alter tone in isolation, but in a live/band context those nuances are lost. In general, the audience doesn't care what you sound like. They really don't.

Truth is you can use any amp with an effects loop and just plug into the effects return, bypassing the amp's pre-stage and just utilising the poweramp side. Nothing is truly transparent though, all circuitry will add colour. Alternatives would be the poweramp route; while everyone who has gone with one has their preferred make/model, I used a Matrix GT for a while and would recommend it to anyone. Lightweight, loud, stereo or bridged mono. The only downside is that you'd need to put it in a rack. [Edit] I always route my bass through Sansamps; I've run a variety (BDDI, VT-BASS, GT2, RBI), currently I have a DI-2112 and a dUg DP thing. I'm running either of these into the effects return on a Darkglass AO/900 head; I rarely go in the front. I'd prefer a Demeter Minnie 800D and know someone who is selling one, but need to shift the Darkglass first.

My wife is covering the cost, so I have to do the dutiful thing, I suppose. I'm still working from home and it's just in the box still.

After playing regular basses for 30+ years, I'm going to be new to EUBs shortly (iI have an NXT5s, it's here but remaining in the box until my birthday in 6 weeks); curious about clipping a tuner to the bridge. I have a few clip-on tuners and tend to favour Snark units over anything else; as you're not going to be busy down the bridge end, would you actually have enough meat on the bridge to clip the tuner and perhaps have it poking up through the strings? Would attaching a tuner to the bridge have any detrimental effect on the piezo?

Better burn my Osmonds records, too.

Well for now things are parked. I still search for Taylors, but I've got an NS EUB incoming (this was always going to be a birthday gift from the missus). It's still on my radar, but not just yet.

While I'd concur with this, I feel the advice is more of a cautionary thing; the approach of leaving to let it settle should perhaps be more a case of allowing the neck material/glues/finish etc to settle. While it's unlikely you'll experience failure, truss rod adjustment should be little and not very often rather than lots once in a whwile,

This is a new phenomenon to me...we all have our own kit, we all bring our own kit, we all look after our own kit.

The beauty of mid-boost is all about getting yourself heard...finding the sweet spot tonally and boosting that; it may make your bass sound horrific in isolation, but remember you're not losing the lows and highs, you're appending it, finding and filling a frequency pocket nobody is generally sitting in. That said, in isolation, I just keep the mids flat. I love John's kit.

This may help someone moving forward - I spoke to John, he said there's a method of putting a jumper over the terminals that the switch uses so the bass is always active (ie no passive switching option). He just said that if you want this at an option you need to include this in the order and he'll include this jumper in the pack. Good to know. I suppose once I convert a bass, realistically I'm never going to go passive again!

This is up for sale somewhere, isn't it? Saw it earlier today.

If Austin made an Allegro that looked like a Ferrari, it wouldn't be a Ferrari. I've owned about a dozen Thunderbirds, they were all different, but there was one was head and shoulders over the others. I have no idea what Gibson-esque actually means from a tone perspective.

The TSE BOD VST is quite excellent should you need something to emulate a Sansamp BDDI and it's free. My last couple of projects were a mix of this and Sansamps; with the BOD, the only thing that I didn't particularly like was recording with a clean tone, but it all turned OK in the end.

Leamington Spa's most famous band. I bloody love(d) The Shapes. I'm not sure whether they did a Peel Session, but it was certainly Peel who played them.

A few years back I used the word ponk to describe a dull, lifeless, flat, tone - Brian Helicopter of The Shapes used a Rickenbacker 400* (he still does) - and pretty much nailed ponk with mids with The Shapes, if that makes sense. I suppose ponk with mids (Allegrissimo) was pretty much the punky tone/style of my youth. Or yoof. We have to remember that EMI/CBS/Polydor/UA (and to a lesser extent RCA/Stiff) were the big money behind those early definitive releases and in truth they weren't going to release anything that sounded too shoddy because it wouldn't sell. Noisy, yes, badly produced, no (although I'd say the first Clash album does, for a band that adored ska, sound very thin). It was all about money, even then. So what you hear on those old records shouldn't necessarily be the start point for a definitive tone. I guess (from recall) everyone who played bass locally used flats and in hindsight, ponk was the thing; I didn't even know roundwound strings existed until I broke a flatwound G and replaced it with a roundwound because the local music shop (Adam Music, Staines/RIP) only sold singles in rounds. I couldn't get over how zingy it sounded and I then went on to play almost everything on the G-string. Happy days.

Being around that time, it was primarily Precision basses or Rickenbackers. Interestingly, mainstream bands aside, there was a lot of boosted mids going on; if you want to saunter over to Spotify and dial up 'Batman In The Launderette' by The Shapes, that's the tone right there.

Years ago, my wife summed up guitar shopping in a different city as being akin to 'going to GAP'. Same stock everywhere, nothing to see here. The days of walking into a music shop and finding a wall of vintage Fender Jazz Basses for under $800 each (yep, New York, 1999) is gone. You're just going to see the same stuff everywhere. Blame Thomann and Andertons. My advice? Do your diligence before you travel, target the one or two places that may have what you want and spend the time gained exploring the city.

Luckily, I've got a few basses that - along with piles of outboard kit - are more than capable of delivering an approximation of the tone in my head, the rest is all about what the basses look like, if that makes sense. I dread to think what my profit and loss account would look like if I added up everything I've spent over the last 30+ years. My wife (I'm a guy, BTW!) always says 'never look back, always trade up', so whenever I start querying kit or wondering whether it's fit for purpose, then you've kind of made the decision to move along. Try some different stuff. Consider secondhand too. Also, consider some emulation to get want you want (I'm a sucker for Tech 21 outboard gear); the discovery of what a Bass Driver DI could do could have saved me thousands on amps!

I think 99% of people here have probably gone through the dilemma you're having now. I've got an old beater P-Bass that I've modded way over it's value, but that was largely down to these mods being necessary - when I acquired it there was a bridge saddle being missing, the knobs were sheared off and half the pickup wasn't really functioning - so I can see the desire to bring things up to spec. You have a bass that you enjoy from a playability perspective but it's pushing ten years old (and possibly has a resale value of c.£200); as you've said, putting new Simms pickups in it and/or adding a pre-amp will cost more than the instrument itself is worth. Personally, I'd go and try a few basses, see what ticks your boxes, if any. If you find something within a £600 budget, sell on the Ibanez and add the £400 and throw that at something new. There's a ton of great basses out there for well under £600 (a Sterling by MM 4HH will leave you enough change from that for a hard case and a fish supper).