Hellzero

So you are going to buy me another bass these days ? 😁

@ped managed to get us discount with EuroSender and their insurance can really cover up to 2000 Euros (they are based in Europe, Luxembourg for the administration part), just for the info and just in case. But do as you feel it. Karma is a good, but strange thing.

Ok, this fear of shipping is totally legitimate, but if you do it right, I don't see the point. Seems to most people that the stuff you buy in stores appear the Star Trek way there... First of all, you'll have to remove all the tubes and put them in plastic bubbles wrapping before putting them in a box that you'll put back in the amp itself as there's enough room. Then buy some 2 to 3 centimeters thick polystyrene panels and cut them to make a made to measure polystyrene box that will exactly fit your (amp) head, you can wrap it with adhesive tape to be sure it won't disassemble, but that's a bit tricky to do. After that you can cut to measure some thick cardboard to make a real fit for it box. You can put this box in another box with some polystyrene panels again (if you're a bit paranoid) and then ship it using, for instance EuroSender (10% discount for BC members) WITH THE MANDATORY INSURANCE for such things. Done it hundreds, if not thousands, of time with only two issues in more than 30 years : one (organised by the recipient himself) theft and one serious damage to an instrument totally covered by the insurance as, even with the best package in the world, something dropped from the height of plane will not survive the ground impact...

If you prefer the educated French version of flop total it's fiasco complet. Translators are great fun : if you don't know the language you're translating to, you might end up insulting someone. Strange digital tool, indeed.

Thanks again.

My mémoire about the subject, published in May 2001, is still there, if you understand French. Second time this Audiovox #736 is coming back to BC. By the way check out Igor Saavedra work with his ERB 8 strings. Here it is : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14bent_Two9apqU44qPxGepgRFpsl0DaI?usp=sharing

I firstly listened back to the original to be sure that I heard what was "wrong". Just a few things in fact, and I only used the Mastering Rig in WaveLab with two modules (Equailzer and Saturator) as I only needed a few "things". I started by attenuating a bit the frequencies at 6 kHz as they were really hurting my ears (that's the weakness of almost all modern recordings, just like as if people couldn't hear these frequencies anymore) with a very narrow Q (to be natural), then I slightly boosted the 120 Hz region (again with a very narrow Q) because it's the frequency of the low end and rolled off all the lows below 70 Hz and all the highs above 14 kHz in a nice bell form (to get in line with the bandwidth of those days). After that I used a tape saturation simulation by large regions +3dB's in the lows, + 2dB's in the low mids, +1 dB in the high mids, and letting the highs flat, so emulating the way a tape can act in the real life when the view meters are going in the red, not necessarily back in the days. This saturation being part of the sound itself. As I told earlier, it's all about ears and knowing what is "wrong". They made a terrific recording and mastering work, but forgot how tapes were sounding and the poor quality of the reproducing material of the (late) 60's. In fact, they simply made a too modern mix. Then I mastered it to avoid any peak and that's all. I made it very quickly yesterday evening and listened back to it today (ear fatigue is a b*tch) and asked my wife to listen to it and she said : "Send it to these guys !", so I sent it here instead. 😉 In fact, it started as a challenge as I showed to my wife the work done by these musicians and this sound engineer telling her what was "wrong" and she simply said : "Make it better, then". So I had to...

I reworked their "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" stereo and mono versions, just for fun, using WaveLab, trying to get closer to that Motown sound using their final mix (certainly not the best way, but that's all I had). Just let me know what you think : Ain't No Mountain High Enough Mono treated.wav Ain't No Mountain High Enough Stereo treated.wav Listen to it with whatever you want, just for fun too. 😉

To me, what makes the Motown sound is, of course, The Funk Brothers, but especially the great coherence in the mix that's makes everything out of the "factory" listenable on whatever source available at the time, which means poor radio broadcasting, poor low-fi record players, even poorer quality jukeboxes and ultra low bandwidth and quality radios, without forgetting the slightly becoming available car radios with even poorer sound quality. That was the Motown tour de force : the coherent and clever mixes making their records listenable and enjoyable on whatever you used to listen to them.

Make another thread, there is no other way, but it's a bit painful, when there could be a "bump" button. Next upgrade maybe ?

Just like the one whose name shall not be said : The bass freak show. 🤮

And I'm going to be crude, but those guys at Motown had ears which is something that seems to be disappearing in this digital world. If you've got some (ears), you can get that Motown sound without any problem even with totally digital gear. Do we have to start that compressor and digital versus analogic war again ?

You need one when you play 12 strings ERB necks. 😉

Hope you like bass and especially fretless ERB.

Agreed. 💪

Don't want to derail the thread any more, so if you want the answers to your questions, just PM me. But you're on the wrong path with this bass since the beginning. So back to these headless Ibanez(es).

Same for me. Funny, no ?

Even if I don't smoke, I have a miniature Ibanez AFR bass lighter. The most "funny" thing is that that very lighter was used by my godchild's brother at the time to start a fire in their parents camping bus. The lighter was a gift for me. The bus burned to ground. I don't know if he understood the lyrics of Smoke on the water back then. 😂 No one was injured. True story, no kidding, even if he was a kid. Still have that lighter somewhere, but there was no more gas in it when I got it, strangely...

No, it's been stolen a few days before he died.