Osiris

Has anyone tried both the Vintera and JMJ Mustang basses? If you have, are the neck profiles the same? Looking at the specs on Fenders website they have different radius fret boards which I don't mind but it's more how chunky the neck on the Vintera is that I'm curious about. They both appear to have the same nut width, 41mm and both are described as being "60's C shape". Are they essentially the same neck? I tried a mates JMJ a couple of weeks ago and loved the chunkier neck which felt way more substantial than the slimmer profile on my Mexican PJ Mustang. But I'm not overly fussed about the road worn finish, I much prefer the sea foam green or red Vintera finishes. If the Vintera neck is the same as the JMJ (other than fret board radius) then I might go for one of those. Anyone tried both? How do they compare?

I'm only toying with you, Mildred.

Much like one of your gigs then.

Yes he is. Those two are more fluffy than a thousand new born kittens.

Here's a shameless plug for my cracking SR 1000 Prestige that's looking for a new home

In my ignorance I had to look that up. I was expecting it to mean something along the lines of 'of or relating to naff garden ornaments.' But according to the online Cambridge dictionary it means 'short, mysterious and not easily understood...' which sounds like a succinct yet comprehensive description of my very own being. I feel a change of user name coming on... And a pig.

Your post hadn't shown up as I was drafting my reply so I didn't see it until I'd posted mine

On the Stomp there's a global EQ that affects everything, it a 3 band fully parametric with high and low pass filters. I don't know if the global EQ is available on any of the other Helix model's but I'd be surprised if it's not. There's no global compression that I'm aware of but it's simple enough to copy a compression block from one patch to another.

Fred's certainly a great looking bass. I had the pleasure of playing a mates Thomas the tank engine blue JMJ a couple of weeks ago and have been gassing ever since. But the black looks even cooler. Great chunky but very playable necks and the pickup is very big sounding.

Send Calsim your Promethean.

I bought a set of these around 3 years ago and they've been great. Someone mentioned earlier about them going brittle, mine haven't. When they're new they're a little stiff but that's reassuring as it means they're not going to ping off unless they're under a lot of force. I've had one that has got a small crack developing from repeatedly taking it on and off, I only do that as the big thick strap that its holding in place needs to be removed before putting the bass in its case, but the crack is still small and the washer still usable although I'm keeping an eye on it. But in its lifetime it must have been on and off the bass at least 100 times.

Wet wipes may well work. I once used some to clean some molten tar off the car bonnet that some kids had chucked on there on a stinking hot day. They cleared it all off without affecting the paintwork.

Looks like an interesting addition to the choices of 30" short scales. Only problem for me being that I struggle with that nasal Stingray sound. Might have to try one just to rule it out.

I've gone through the same process of having expensive gear but then finding that I'm just as happy with cheap and cheerful gear. 3 years ago my 4 gigging basses would have cost between £1000 and £1500 new, 3 of which were bought new. Then a wrist injury forced me to move exclusively to short scale basses. A few months of chopping and changing later and I now have 4 short scales that I was gigging before leaving my band a few weeks ago. Of these the cheapest was a used Ibanez that I paid £50 for (and it's a cracking bass in its own right too) and the most expensive was around £600. But my favourite bass at the minute, indeed one of my favourite basses I've ever owned in more than 30 years of playing cost less than £150 new. Admittedly it's had some hardware upgrades and new pots, but even they don't add up to more than another £50 on top. The neck just feels right in my hands, the sound is great, it resonates brilliantly and best of all I found that I wasn't precious about it on more rowdy gigs. This is a bass that gives me as much, if not more, of a buzz than basses costing 10 times as much. And there's an additional satisfaction from playing it and getting disapproving looks from the cork sniffing muso brigade! These days with precision machinery and manufacturing techniques there are some truly fantastic inexpensive basses around, stuff that performs as well as basses costing many times more. Obviously there's still some lower quality basses at the bottom end of the market, but over the years I've played a few duffers with 4 figure price tags too. Which leads me to conclude that the price of a bass is only ever indicative of its cost. Nothing more. There's good and bad at all price points.

Try both and see which you prefer, there's no right or wrong answer but generally speaking compression is usually - but not always - before any other effects. If you have it after the Battalion you can use the 4 band EQ to boost certain frequencies to be squashed more than the others which can give some interesting tones. With compression after the EQ you're obviously then shaping the already compressed signal.

Steve just bought a pedal from me and it was an easy, hassle free transaction. He's fast and friendly to respond to comms and he paid instantly once we'd agreed the sale. I'm more than happy to deal with him again and to recommend him to other Basschatters.

I don't know why he does it. 😁

The TC Electronic Mojo Mojo is a great little drive pedal that doesn't cost a fortune, I found it great for a mild drive sound at lower gain settings. It's got bass and treble controls to help fine tune the tone although I found the pedal generally a little dark sounding but in a good way. As for the Boss ODB-3, I found it fizzy and nasty!

I'm not sure if you're being serious or just trolling, either way this should help; https://theproaudiofiles.com/video/compressor-threshold-explained/

So, err, exactly like a compressor then

I don't slap myself but I do like to have a compressor of sorts on when I'm playing. I know you said that you don't want anything on the floor but a very good, cheap and cheerful way to start your compression journey would be the Boss LMB-3. Assuming you use a regular amp head you could have the pedal on top on the amp to keep it off the floor? Funnily enough it's not my first recommendation for the Boss today! On another thread here I'd written earlier; You can't go wrong with the Boss LMB-3, they're cheap as chips and pretty much indestructible. I've had 2 or 3 over the years and whenever I've sold one I've ended up buying another down the line! It's actually an excellent compressor too and has an infinity to 1 setting on the ratio control for limiting duties. The enhance feature is a bit noisy but usable at lower settings if you want that ultra high end thing. The pedal itself imparts a slightly scooped mid range when engaged so it's not really transparent but it's quite a pleasing sound in its own right. With the inherent mid scoop and the enhancer control to add some ultra highs to the sound it looks like the Boss was designed with slappers in mind. Might be worth a look, there's usually a few used ones on eBay for not much money.

You can't go wrong with the Boss LMB-3, they're cheap as chips and pretty much indestructible. I've had 2 or 3 over the years and whenever I've sold one I've ended up buying another down the line! It's actually an excellent compressor too and has an infinity to 1 setting on the ratio control for limiting duties. The enhance feature is a bit noisy but usable at lower settings if you want that ultra high end thing. The pedal itself imparts a slightly scooped mid range when engaged so it's not really transparent but it's quite a pleasing sound in its own right.