Baloney Balderdash

I use all my strings. And yes, I do very often use the G string too. I am a very melodically founded bass player, that seldom just do root notes unison with the guitar.

And my contribution this month: A mystical glass of whiskey, with a quite oriental side effect : 3rd take, played on my LTD B4-JR, 28.5" scale length, tenor bass, tuned in A standard tuning (as in the upper 4 strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning), directly into my handheld Zoom H4n recorder, and only edited through a simple Wav editor.

Still really happy with the steal of a used buy of my LTD (ESP) B4-JR. Just 28.5" scale length, maple neck, with rosewood fretboard and a basswood body, 24 frets. Perfect for A standard, tenor bass, tuning (that is as in the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning). Strung with Elixir Nonoweb guitar strings, which got the perfect length, of the gauges .068 - .052 - .038 - .028. Sounds no short of amazing with the stock pickup swapped for an EMG Geezer Butler P.

I strongly consider covering Wolfpack with Syd Barrett, one of my absolute favorite songs, but is quite difficult to get right as it has a very free flowing structure. I ponder on playing along with bass to the original tune, of course only record my own bass, and then record the vocals after. Just 2 tracks, tenor bass, and vocals, which doesn't exactly make it any easier to do it justice. I am quite likely not to be one of the first to post my contribution, as is otherwise custom. I basically never did any serious covers before.

I have just bought this one, for a great price, used: Should have it by the end of this week.

Something new: Something old:

And just to follow up: I have voted! But wasn't easy...

Yes, now, but again, not back when I actually wrote the message, so maybe someone read it and corrected their mistake.

Well, it said 2 at some point, I am pretty certain he changed that later to 3, also that means someone only voted for 2. And yes, that is great, however not in terms of having to make a decision, only allowed to choosing 3 of them.

This is really hard. I want to cast a vote on them all. So many great contributions this month. I'll have to ponder more and come back and listen again to every one of them again, before giving it my final decision. Also someone voted for 3 songs!

It is though. And they downgraded the tuners to keep the same cost while upgrading the electronics with a pickup switch and the associated extra labour.

I switched to the .77mm Gravity acrylic pick, mostly using one of the round corners. Gives a fuller tone, while still being somewhat snappy.

Much of the bass on later Pink Floyd songs was actually played by David Gilmour though, even on songs Water's wrote. As great a song writer Roger Waters might (have) be(en), he has somewhat degraded as a bass player.

While not exactly virtuous levels of bass playing Krist Novoselic's play in Nirvana, unlike Adam Clayton from U2, consisted of far more than root notes, and he did quite a few lines that has become iconic, and are very melodic. I can't speak of the bass in Foo Fighters, haven't really listened to any of their songs, other than what I haven't been able to avoid, it seems like pretty plain boring rock to me. I do agree though that most of these bass players listed are not exactly what I think of as master players.

As said I really like it both looks and spec wise, but considering I could get a custom made bass made exactly to my preferred specs for that kind of money, and honestly likely at higher quality too, if I ever had that kind of money to spare for a bass, it is highly unlikely I would chose the Rickenbacker.

Wouh! That looks awesome! I want the yellow one!

Just got a Zoom MS-70CDR, old model, in the door, that I bought used, but it is in mint condition and works perfectly, cause the one I had sucked tone. I use it as kind of super 8 band fully parametric EQ, kind of a budget Source Audio EQ2, as EQ based cab sim, which I found I prefer to IR based cab sims (and yes, I realize I am missing out on the real dynamic frequency response of a real cab, that IR based cab sims are capable of, but it sounds great). Here are my settings for a faux bass cab sim, in case anyone is interested (using 4 of the 2 band "Bass Para EQ" model in series): Freq: 20Hz - Q: 2 - dB: - 20 Freq: 70Hz - Q: 4 - dB: + 4 Freq: 1kHz - Q: 4 - dB: + 3 Freq: 1.2kHz - Q: 4 - dB: +1 Freq: 3.6kHz - Q: 2 - dB: +6 Freq: 12kHz - Q: 1 - dB: - 12 Freq: 16kHz - Q: 1 - dB: - 20 Freq: 20kHz - Q: 0.5 - dB: - 20 I should probably add that this is followed by a HPF with -3dB cut off point set at 40Hz (something this pedal do not feature, though one could use the "AC Bass Pre" model on the Zoom for this function only, and just set it flat otherwise, I believe the "Depth" parameter of this model set to a value of "9" essentially is a 40Hz HPF). And this is the pedal, in case you are not familiar with it (just a random Google photo of it, not my specific unit):

Well, back to normal, except for this being a multi track track, and in stereo, which is something entirely new and different from the norm in the context of my contributions to this competition. Also thank you!

Dark secrets lure in the ocean for the foolhardy surfer, shattering the seemingly idyllic beach life, in this unsettling electro surf metal piece: Programmed in Reason 5, based on a 1st take recording I did of my tenor bass, used as a full sample loaded to the ReDrum machine in Reason.

Oops poste din the wrong thread...

Solo bass improvisations, recorded through my "amp-less" setup directly into my Zoom H4n handheld recorder, and only edited through a simple Wav editor.

Not to play the thread police, but just for fairness of the competition, someone has cast 3 votes, I am sure by mistake though. Edit: Never mind seems to have been corrected now, this was at 3 voters.

A new 1st take, but less improvised, improved and more compact version of a little hard rock boogie I made up, for a demonstration of how the 1 octave down of the Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter sounds blended with dry signal. Utilizing my 28.6" scale 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass tenor bass, tuned to E standard tuning, using a pick. Also starring is the EHX English Muff'n (Marshall based genuine tube overdrive). (track illustration by me as well)

Joyo Orange Juice, if you are after a grindy type of overdrive. EHX ENglish Muff'n, for a fat genuine tube overdrive (which despite it's name is actually a Marshall based genuine tube overdrive, discontinued though, but a pretty common find on the used market, and for quite reasonable prices too). I just happened to have just recorded this little hard rock boogie, utilizing the latter: