bnt

Well, if I think about sustain and tone, I hark back to my previous reply that mentioned how energy is lost, absorbed in to the body etc., and the properties of the material means that it doesn't happen evenly across all frequencies. Some frequencies sustain more than others -> there's your effect on tone.

Case in point:

I was always under the impression he used the Mouradian on Owner Of A Lonely Heart, and articles like this seem to support that. I think I can hear it on Big Generator tracks like I’m Running.

If I take a geeky engineer-type view, than (like most things) it all comes down to energy. You put energy in to the strings when you hit them, and it's dissipated in various ways: starting with the acoustic sound coming off the bass. I could go on in too much detail, but something like a Steinberger, or neck-through Status or Modulus Graphite, would be my ideal configuration, because they are the most stiff (carbon fibre composite) and have no neck joint. I still agree with the Modulus Graphite folks, who started the whole carbon fibre bass thing, that stiffness translates to less energy loss and therefore more sustain. We talk about "high mass" bridges, but if you had one made of lead, it would probably suck the life out of the sound. So it's not about weight as such, but more about stiffness. Energy can also be lost in the connections too, which is why I would prefer no neck joint at all. The energy loss is not uniform across the frequency spectrum either: a structure has one or more resonant frequencies, which depend on the mass and the stiffness of the material as well as its dimensions. Lower and stiffer mean higher resonant frequencies, so (as I understand it) something like a Steinberger XL (being so light and stiff) has resonant peaks well above the bass range, meaning it doesn't absorb bass frequencies as much. But that evenness may be why a Steinberger bass sound has less "character" than e.g. a Fender Jazz.

I wouldn't say I'm obsessed, but I felt I wasn't getting enough and I wanted more when I was looking at a bass about six months ago. The one I bought, the Harley Benton MP-4 Enhanced (this but blue) has a couple of features that work towards that end: heavy bridge with through-body stringing, a zero fret, and chunky construction that means it's happy with quite heavy strings (EXL160BT, 50-120). I didn't know what the pickup would be like, but it's powerful, which means I have it further from the strings than usual, which also helps. Why? I don't always want it, but I have control e.g. muting is an option. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

The thing about Progressive is that there can be huge variations in the music, not just between albums, but even between songs on the same album. So you can't take one album, never mind one song, and think you've heard Yes. You mentioned the song Going For The One, the title track of an album that also includes the very different Awaken and Turn Of The Century. Many have praised Awaken as their finest work, but I would disagree and go back six years to The Yes Album and its opening song Yours Is No Disgrace. The lyrics are more on point (anti-war) and the music is fresher, particularly the middle solo section. which is just a great composition, musically. It's in songs like this where we can more clearly hear what Chris was doing: he had a musical background as a chorister, and used counterpoint very effectively: more exciting than just sitting on the root, but more focused and relevant than walking bass in jazz. He developed a reputation for spending huge amounts of time in the studio, fussing over every note, but it got us results like the section after the 5 minute mark. The bass is loud, doing its own thing, yet still locked with the drums and supporting the music. Chris is doing this while singing complicated harmonies too. I'd never heard anything like it, and it's still something I aspire to. Oh, and 90125 is a great album too, I don't care who disagrees. 😝

The tall bloke with the long guitar is 70 today. I honestly thought he was older, it means he co-founded Genesis when he just was 16-17. Now he's one of the richest (and nicest) people in Surrey. 🎂

I like that idea - I have some weird synth apps on my iPad, such as Synclavier Go, a recreation of the Synclavier II digital synth that was in all the top studios in the 1980s but cost as much as a house. Tony Banks even took one on the road with Genesis and it's all over their 1980s albums. One of the presets, "Galactic Cymbal", is the weird sound at the start of Michael Jackson's Beat It. About Behringer - over the last few years they've been on a mission to recreate some classic analogue synths at much lower prices and with some modern features added. Sometimes their recreations are too good and replicate some of their flaws too, such as the quirks of the MiniMoog interface. Their Pro-1 is a version of the Sequential Circuits synth that e.g. Vince Clarke used heavily with Yazoo and early Depeche Mode, which was more flexible and usable, I thought. But their most impressive synth so far, I think, is the DeepMind, which started as an attempt to recreate the Roland Juno-60, but they kept going and added capabilities that are far more up-to-date. So it became its own thing and left the original far behind. The 6-voice model is a bargain, which I hope to get at some point.

Once you have a suitable controller, you have more options than Moog alone e.g. I would also consider one of the Behringers such as the Model D (which is on sale because it's being replaced by the Poly D) or the Pro-1 (the one I'm most interested in as a general synth). The Minitaur looks to me like a fairly standard 2-oscillator analogue synth module, but with fewer options e.g. no noise source, no pulse width control, oscillator sync control by MIDI only. Maybe simpler is better if you're focused on getting that sound only and aren't looking for a synth for more general use.

Short video on Thomann's cheapest T-style: that simple Candy Apple Red isn't quite Purple (see above), but still has me thinking. Whatever I decide, I want a maple fingerboard on it.

My anti-Fender Bass of choice would be a Steinberger XL, given the number of times I have been impressed by its tone over the years. I still want one, but prices are now in the silly money regime. To my ears the tone is characterised by a very strong fundamental but still snappy, thanks to a very stiff composite construction and EMG active pickups. Think Rush’s Distant Early Warning or Broken by Tears For Fears. It’s also been a favourite of reggae bassists e.g. it’s in your face on UB40’s Red Red Wine, and Robbie Shakespeare did some of his best-known work with one.

I see Sire have started making guitars, with Larry Carlton in the Marcus Miller seat this time. The folks at Anderson’s are impressed, but they sell them, so ...

The only guitar I've had for years is one of these, a Thinline nylon-string semi-acoustic by Harley Benton (Thomann). I wanted something semi-acoustic, not too loud in person (though it's not exactly quiet), along the lines of the Gibson Chet Atkins CE for much less money. I don't think it spent one day in standard tuning, since I went all fourths straight away (EADGCF, a la Alex Hutchings), and it's now in my experimental major/minor chord tuning (G B D F# A C#). Anything to not be a busker, basically. But I do have an eye open for a Cheap Telecaster ... maybe in Purple.

It’s not crazy at all: car culture was huge in the USA in 1950s, and articles such as this describe how Fender got on board. Also: back when TV was black and white and studio lights were harsh, people had to wear yellowish makeup so that they would look white on TV, and Gibson produced guitars in what they called TV Yellow. It was a weird greenish yellow, but people grew to like it and they still use it sometimes on new guitars.

Guy Pratt has just posted a video about his work with Kirsty McColl, and he's playing a bass discussed in this thread:

If we’re talking carbon fibre composite necks, then we can’t leave out the company that started it: Modulus Graphite. The founder (Geoff Gould) had an aerospace background, and did some experiments and concluded that sustain was a function of stiffness (Young’s modulus) than weight. One of their neck-through instruments has been on my “ship came in” list for decades now.

It was a feature I looked for and got when I bought the Harley Benton Enhanced MP-4 a few months ago. This was not from any expectation that it would make a major difference to the sound, but simply because I have seen bridges pulled up or bent because of how the forces are applied. With string-through-body, the forces push the bridge down, rather than pull it up at the back.

Quick update: I've been trying a couple of unsuccessful tone control experiments, but nothing really necessary. I'm happy with the split processing tones I can get: I get the feeling that I need to hear how these tones sit in a mix with other instruments, but right now it's a solution in search of a problem. In the short term I'm going to leave it, in the long term, if I need to make it gig-worthy, I would consider replacing the lot with EMG electronics. I'm happy enough with the construction and flexibility of this bass that I'm trying heavier strings than I've ever used before: I found a D'Addario EXL160BT set locally. This is the balanced tension set, 50-120 (201.7 lbs) instead of the typical 50-105 (189 lbs) or EXL170 45-100 (165 lbs). I gave the truss rod about 1/3 of a turn before installation, and it's pretty close but will need a check later. The increased tension on the low strings means a stronger tone that handles drop tuning well. The other day I had it down to CGCF so I could tackle Anesthetise by Porcupine Tree, and they didn't go floppy on me. (A .120 string is a light low B string as it is.)

If you don't mind a Sandberg feel, Thomann has the Harley Benton Enhanced range which includes 5-strings in P and J styles. (The natural finish is on back order, but they have the blue in stock.)

I was surprised to find a D’Addario balanced tension set in a shop here today, so I snapped them up for my HB. The neck is fatter than my other bass and would seem to lend itself to drop tunings, so I have the EXL160BT set, gauges 50 - 67 - 90 - 120. Guitarists (ptui) would call this a light top / heavy bottom set, I suppose.

I've been trying to spec a custom set for either CGDA or GDAE (fifths), and found this string gauge calculator helpful. If I try to balance all strings for about 40lbs each, I get something like this: My "takeaway" from this is that the relationship is not linear: for a given tension, the gauge roughly halves for every octave up.

Well, that and his EBMM signature model, :