bnt

I’ll find out soon enough. I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen so far, particularly with the bridge. There are videos of guys having to cut intonation screws in half because they were catching on the strings.

You've basically described the kinds of issues I'd read about and hope to avoid. I'll hang on to the stock strings, then. Odd thing is that I'm seeing videos about heavier strings improving things, not making them worse.

Yup, I've jumped on the Bass VI bandwagon: I've been thinking about a short-scale bass for a while, but also something that will lend itself more to plectrum playing. I already "play" guitar tuned in all fourths (EADGCF), and this will get the same treatment. Not quite yet, though, since I had it delivered to the office and a couple of people are interested in seeing it, so it's there for the weekend. So I don't have a photo,but it's identical to the one on the Fender site, in black. I've seen a few YT videos of people documenting the problems with these out of the box, and spending a lot of money to remedy their shortcomings. Sometimes more than the cost of the instrument itself. I won't be doing that. Some known issues and my conclusions so far: Strings: yeah, the stock roundwounds are crap, with a 0.084 low E. I wanted flatwounds anyway, so I got a set of LaBellas with the 0.095 low E at the same time. Haven't installed them yet. Pickups / Electronics. Working, but I haven't done any critical listening tests yet. I want hum-cancelling with the 1+2 and 2+3 pickup selections, and if I don't already have that, I'll try and make it so. I'm getting conflicting information about this. If I have to swap the #2 pickup wiring phase, I hope I can also invert the magnets to bring it back in phase. (Or maybe I want some out-of-phase quack.) Neck: action seems pretty good, it has been set up for those stock strings. I will need to tighten the truss rod a little for the new strings, and a quick test shows it's very tight under string tension. I'll try again with the strings off. Frets: very happy so far. They seem level with no sharp ends at all. Indian Laurel fingerboard is extremely dry, as expected, so it will get lots of lovely lemon oil. Bridge: others have reported severe intonation problems. on the low E in particular. I didn't find a problem there with the stock strings, and I can see room for adjustment in both directions. There's more room for adjustment forward, and they say that's what the heavier strings will need, but I won't know until I try it. The adjustment screw won't contact the string at all. In a quick test I was able to lower the bridge to "too low", which hopefully means that no shimming will ever be required. (I do not like shimming at all.) Vibrato: it's not going to get a lot of use, and I'm not expecting much, but in a quick test it didn't seem worse than a typical cheap vibrato. After pushing down, a quick tug up to get it back in position, and tuning seemed OK. One thing I only learned recently about this type of vibrato is that the bridge is designed to move when you use it. The strings do not slide, the bridge moves with them. It's on the Jaguar and Jazzmaster guitars too. Some YT-ers have replaced the stock bridge, but I think I won't need to. So on first inspection it looks like Fender / Squier has addressed many of the problems that have been reported. It's a new area for me, and I'll need some time to get used to the scale and string spacing, and I expect to do a lot more with the plectrum. I wish it was smaller and lighter, though; with the long body and big headstock, it's definitely a full-size instrument.

I've gone a bit mad: home board, I doubt I'll need all this stuff live: Peterson StroboStomp Mini out in to the Ly-Rock "Complicator", using both its effects loops: Parallel Loop for lows: KongPressor (almost always on), MXR bass octave deluxe, T-Rex Diva Drive, JHS 3 Series Phaser, Lekato Loop Auto (looper). I've settled on no LPF, so I can have just the KongPressor for an un-effected tone. Only just got the looper & stiil thinking about how I might use it. These pedals are all bass-friendly, even if they aren't "bass pedals". Preamp Loop for highs: first the internal preamp set to a little dirt with a mild bass cut. Out to a Donner A/B switch so I can turn this whole loop off. The A input is where I would insert a guitar (at home), or the bridge pickup if I start playing with "stereo" bass wiring again. Then to the Mosky Silver Horse (Klone) - still playing with tones there, but quite low gain. Tone City Matcha Cream fuzz set to fairly aggressive. Both pedals can reduce the bass if turned up, but that's not a problem now. The SoniCake Sonic Ambience: basic delay and reverb in a pretty cheap pedal. Then both channels back in to the "Complicator", blended about 50% each, and in to the cab sim. Headphone out for practice, amp or DI if I need them.

I recently picked up a Ly-Rock Tone Monster DI pedal - see this thread - which has opened up some more possibilities around split processing of my signal. I've been looking to avoid the expensive bass drive pedals - DarkGlass etc. - while trying to avoid the dreaded bass suck associated with using pedals made for guitar. I have two drive pedals before this latest purchase: a Tone City Matcha Cream Fuzz, which acquits itself rather well as long as I keep the tone control down, and a T-Rex Diva Drive, which is basically an inexpensive Tube Screamer with a Mix control. With split processing now available, I thought it was safe to try a Klon type pedal. For this NPD test, though, I used it on its own without splitting the signal. The Silver Horse has a voice switch for two modes: switch down for the classic low gain "golden" Klon type, and up for the higher gain "silver" Klon type. I found the "silver" mode less useful so far, and I think I could have gotten away with the Mosky Golden Horse instead, but it only cost me about a tenner extra for the option. In "silver" mode I think the distortion comes in too quickly and heavily, which may be more suited to guitar. At the highest gain levels it just kills the bass frequencies. In "golden" mode, things are much better on bass, I think. After I placed the order, I read that the Gain control on these pedals is essentially a blend control anyway. With Gain down and Volume and Tone at 12, switching the pedal on or off made no difference to the tone at all, so I can believe that. Increasing Gain also increases the volume a fair bit before you hear much distortion, which makes sense given the way some folks talk about using the Klon as a clean boost. So "golden" mode is low gain in normal use, and on lower Gain settings it didn't seem like the pedal was doing all that much until I turned it off. I think this will work well in combination with an amp (or cab sim) and sit nicely in a mix. Higher gain tones are less useful and I'm not so keen on them. Amazon UK has the Golden Horse for under £40 today. This is where your input signal level can have an influence too. With my "always on" Orange KongPressor, the gain was too much and weakening the bass by the 12-o'clock position in either mode. With the KongPressor off this didn't happen until I boosted the Gain further. I'm not too concerned about this since the split signal will have different gain structure, and I may find myself using the "silver" mode again with the parallel bypass signal blend.

I should have mentioned this one before: I haven't been to this shop, but do look at the website occasionally. https://www.jimismusicstore.ie/product_info.php?products_id=6060 It is a 4003 (not 4003S), no year given but it has the old bridge, so pre-2019. Listed for €2,750 (about £2,350), which includes 23% local VAT. I've been meaning to go there some time, actually.

I got one of these delivered yesterday, ordered through Fruugo, also slightly guilty. I won't get to use it fully until the weekend, when I plan to rebuild my board around it. I've been meaning to try something like this for a while, for split processing and also to accommodate a possible return to dual-output bass. I have an ABY switch pedal on the way that will let me turn off the high channel easily, since this has no foot switches. So far impressions are generally positive. The cab sim seems pretty good, does improve the sound, though the effects of the various controls on it are quite subtle, at least through some not-too-great headphones. The preamp seems to need a hot input for real dirt, which it will get since I'll have the Orange KongPressor in front. PS the full name is Ly-Rock Tone Monster-Amp.DI Bass. Yikes.

There’s also a new EHB1505SMS, upgraded version of the short-scale. I like the colour on this one:

I’m still learning about this stuff myself, but from the descriptions on this thread, it sounds like neither the Beebo nor Dwarf has the raw CPU power to run the “full fat” NAM models. They run “nano” or “ feather” version i.e. lightweight. PS I see there is an official amp capture website for capturing your amps and converting existing NAM files. The descriptions on firmware updates like this appear to confirm it’s NAM Nano models only on current hardware. That thread is about a proposed new pedal to run all NAM models - still some way off.

Not from them directly, but they link to Poly Effects who make the Poly Beebo. So I suspect that NAM technology is used there. This pic shows the Amp selection screen with "AMP NAM": PS: yep, in this recent video the reviewer shows us how NAM works in the Beebo. PPS: the mod.audio Dwarf also uses NAM. It looks more like what I would want e.g. USB Host support, headphone output.

I heard about this recently, and spent some time with it this morning. It's free amp & cab sim software, standalone or plugin, for Windows or Mac. Not to be confused with NeuralDSP or mod.audio, which have been discussed here before. (NAM code is used in the mod.audio amp & cab sims, I believe.) The cab sim uses standard impulse responses (IRs), mono only, while the amp sim uses a custom capture format called NAM files. Lots of both types can be found for free on tonehunt.org. I tried it on my M1 Mac Mini, as a plugin in Apple MainStage and GarageBand, with either my pedalboard first or with other effects in MainStage. (NAM itself has no other effects.) These apps come with amp models too, though pretty limited e.g. for bass there only are a couple of Ampeg models and a generic "modern" amp and studio preamp. You can use the guitar amp models, of course e.g. virtually attach a 1x15" to a Vox AC30 if you like. The whole field of amps and cabs is something I'm trying to learn more about and figure out what I want. While I have a hankering for the Bass Beast Of Terror tone that John Wetton got with King Crimson through HiWatt stacks, I get that it's not going to be appropriate in all situations. I didn't look for HiWatt specifically, but I did load up an Ampeg SVT model with a 8x10" cabinet (of course), Fender Bassman 50 amp, and tried various IRs including the DarkGlass 4x10" models I've had for a while that use different mics and miking techniques. The first problem you notice when doing this is that you have no gain control within NAM itself: it's baked in to the loaded model, along with other settings. You can see this if you download other amp packs e.g. the Fender Bassman 50 pack contains 145 models covering the normal channel, deep channel and jumpered configurations, Bright Switch on or off, and gain from 0 to 10 in 0.5 steps. Plenty of options as long as you know what you want! Other amp packs include multiple amp EQ settings, though NAM has a 3-band EQ. Still, it's free, and there seems to be a decent-sized community behind it, taking captures of their real amps. It's great for someone like me who never gets the chance to feel my trousers flapping in the breeze from a SVT stack.

I haven't put any oil on my TWB43 bidy, now I'm wondering whether I should. I'm not at home at the moment to check. I'm not sure mine needs any, it doesn't look quite the same as yours.

Kyalami is another cool F1 track name: home of the South African Grand Prix back in the day.

I had the honour of taking some pictures of @Smanth with @Betsy - hope they came out OK. About the only annoyance was @Wolverinebass & I having to get a taxi from Weybridge after South Western Trains caused us to miss the connecting train there. I had a great time geeking out about bass with you all, at one point I think I was even bloviating about the engineering meaning behind the Modulus Graphite name (it’s all about the stiffness).

On stage now!

Cool! If you fancy company on the trip, tell us which carriage you’re in. I’m almost at Clapham Junction, will look for some breakfast here before the train.

I’m aiming to get the 09:19 from Clapham Junction via Weybridge, then Shanks’ Pony for the last mile. Anyone else slumming it in that direction? 🚃

I also plan to bring: a cheap and nasty pedal with a challenge to get a usable sound from it. 😑

Oh, good grief - I'm going to be a kid in a candy cake store, surrounded by bass and hopped up on sugar. I'll have to stick to tea! 🫖

The only recent photo I have of me playing is a still from a video, but it’s something, I suppose: That’s the modded Harley Benton Shamberg (MP-4EB with active EMGs) I’ve posted about before. They gave me a medal for this gig, literally.

I'll make sure to not wear a spiky belt buckle, I don't want to give anyone's bass a rash! If there's anyone there who doesn't have to drive away, I'd also be interested in maybe hitting a pub in Addlestone for grub and a pint. Or no pint, whatever. 🍻

When I put my name down the Bash was nearly three months away, now it's only three weeks away. Don't forget to pack spare strings: it's better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them, yadda yadda. Are we going to have some of these things? 🤔

Are the raffle prizes to be donated by us? I have a pedal I kind-of bought by mistake, because I forgot to remove it from the Thomann shopping basket, and I'd be happy to donate it for a good cause.

Looks like some real bass royalty will be in attendance… plus a few BCers! 🙃