Baloney Balderdash

Depends, sometimes just 24.75", but can go all the way up to 34" when in the right mood.

My Harley Benton GuitarBass, a genuinely great instrument and take on the Fender Bass VI concept: - Jack Skellington (character from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" animated movie) skull sticker on the lower part of the body to the right of the controls - Green and red electrical tape (also known as insulating tape) cut to size and shape and stuck onto the top of respectively the Volume and Tone knob - Strip of red electrical tape with "Noodle VI" typed on it with a permanent marker stuck over the "Harley Benton" logo on the headstock (I do this with almost all brand names, regardless of price, cover them that is)

Ah, that explains it.

I am normally a D'Addario man, I tried several other strings but always settle back with regular nickle plated rounwaound XL strings. Well, that is until recently when I decided to take the chance on Newtone strings, and I am extremely satisfied. They actually sound and feel a lot like D'Addario strings, so it won't be a big change for someone used to D'Addarios, same basic character, just better, like feeling ever so slightly smoother on your fingers, without though being unnaturally smooth or slippery, like for instance Elixir strings, they seem to have just about the same tension in relation to gauge and scale, and then they sound somewhat just slightly more articulate and present, it's subtle though, definitely not enough for them to have a drastically different character from D'Addarios, just somewhat slightly better, and at a more than reasonable price for custom strings, not much price difference from D'Addarios really, but to your exact preferences and measurements that fits perfectly to your specific instrument and application. I at least can warmly recommend ordering from Newtone, and would think it is absolutely worth a shot, my bet is is that if you like D'Addario strings you by far most likely going to love Newtone strings. Note that Diamond series hex core strings will be the closest match to regular XL D'Addario strings.

Judging from your avatar you wouldn't even know the true meaning of that!

What I meant by hand was actually manually)*, as in not automated or computer controlled, which in it self will allow for a certain degree of variance in production within an acceptable margin. But my actual main point was that back then, late 50's/early 60's, Fender literally didn't have a standard recipe to exactly how many wounds e.t.c a given pickup should have, as in there weren't any strict specs carved in exact numbers that the pickups needed to adhere to (aside of course for gauge of coil wire (I strongly assume, at least), size of pickup pole magnets, and obviously being able to fit inside the pickup covers and cavities, and I strongly assume that there likely still would have been some more loosely defined, approximate, numbers/requirements within a predefined acceptable margin that needed to be met as well), or at least that is what I have been told. I might be wrong though, but it does kind of makes sense to me. Like a case of on the estimation of feel and close enough for Rock'n'Roll is good enough for Rock'n'Roll. Though I am pretty sure that by the 80's they probably would have had introduced more strict and exact standards to ensure consistency. *) manual (adj.) "of or pertaining to the hand; done, made, or used by hand;" c. 1400, from Latin manualis "of or belonging to the hand; that can be thrown by hand," from manus "hand, strength, power over; armed force; handwriting,"

Would: "....absolutely love it... except for the nut width is just 40mm" be another of those silly rationalisms of yours? Cause the way you phrase it to me sure looks like that would be to do with how 40mm nut width sounds to you, what you think it means for your playing, rather than how it actually feels and plays in your hands?

Back then all the pickups were handwound, and there weren't really much consistency between the individual units, so a comparison between two random units of each would be pretty pointless, as far as I am concerned, they were more or less all different from each other.

The Kick Inside - Kate Bush

I own and use in my setup both a Zoom MS-70CDR and a Zoom B1Xon, even plays a quite central role in it, both loaded with my own custom set of Zoom effect models, via the unofficial 3rd party Zoom Effect Manager firmware hack program (that in my opinion Zoom really ought to have offered something similar to anyway long ago), especially love the Zoom B1Xon with the easier on the fly switching between different patches and the, by the way great, build in expression pedal that can be assigned freely to whatever one parameter of any one effect of any given patch, at any range and working in any direction you should wish for, though undoubtful the stomp box format is really practical from a space saving perspective. I really do believe that the Zoom B1Xon and G1Xon (which I also own one of as a backup should my beloved B1Xon ever stop working) is the best multi effect Zoom ever made, so genuinely great sounding (well admittedly this doesn't go for all the effect models of that generation equally, there are in fact some pretty horrible sounding effects on these units as well, but generally speaking) despite it being a bit aged budget digital multi effect, and so amazingly versatile and tweakable. As far as I am concerned the newer generation of Zoom units and digital effect models is a step back in the wrong direction for Zoom (they most of all remind me of the equally horribly crappy digital effect units Zoom put out in the 90's), much less versatile and tweakable, and in my opinion also sounds like crap, and I should know, being stupid enough to have bought and own both the Zoom B1 Four and G1 Four, which I am sure I will never use again, and really ought to sell, was it not for me feeling bad about passing on such crappy pieces of gear. Love my Zoom B1Xon, and I am pretty sure it would still earn a spot on my pedal board even if I at some point should acquire a more contemporary high end digital multi effect unit, like for instance the widely popular Line 6 Helix Stomp, or the, on paper at least, even greater (more processor power, and a relatively large touch screen, which for instance allow you to draw EQ curves freely) and more recent, but also actually slightly cheaper, HoTone Ampero II Stomp, which I have been eyeing and actually seriously pondered on weather I should maybe buy at some point in the future.

I own and use the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz too in my setup, as my go to high gain fuzz tone, placed right after the Mosky Black Rat, Rat clone, in the same effects loop of my Boss LS-2, and use it either blended with parallel "clean" (really lightly overdriven) signal from the other effects loop of the LS-2, where the always on Joyo Orange Juice (for my basic "clean" tone I have this higher low/lower medium gain overdrive blended with parallel clean signal from the opposite effects loop of the LS-2) and Boss MT-2 Metal Zone is also placed, or blended in parallel with the Metal Zone, which I, as stated in my previous post, have dialed in to deliver sort of a higher medium gain distortion, depending. Sounds amazing either way, though obviously not indentically (regardless though with the Metal Zone blended into the equation it predominantly still sounds very much as fuzz, just a bit heavier, but somewhat smoother (less raspy and spluttering), and with the octave aspect of the Super Fuzz being more subdued). The Behringer Super Fuzz works no short of amazing as a bass fuzz, and that actually totally regardless of price, dirt cheap, as it undoubtfully indeed is, or not. I dare say that it might very well even be one of the absolutely best bass fuzz pedals out there. I also own the Behringer clone of the Boss TR-2 Tremolo, and used it for the longest time as my go to tremolo, but, even if it is indeed an excellent tremolo effect on it's own terms, I discovered that it actually doesn't sound much like the original Boss TR-2 (the Behringer having a somewhat more throbby/choppy quality in comparison), and I personally came to prefer the original TR-2, which I therefor now use in my setup in place of the Behringer (that, and Boss finally, in the, newer, more recent years's batches of this pedal, actually fixed the slight volume drop that this pedal otherwise caused when engaged, whereas the Behringer clone still suffers from this issue (mind it really is just a slight volume drop, and absolutely something you can live with, but it's there)).

And this YouTube video featuring jazzy post-rock pioneers Tortoise is another of my all time favorite YouTube concerts :

Too square for me! This is where the real jazz is at : But yeah, seriously speaking, to be honest personally I do much prefer above, I think it is safe to say "all star", avantgarde/free jazz band, in fact this is one of my absolute favorite YouTube concerts. Just absolute ferociously uncompromising. And also they are all playing like as if their life depended on it.

I've posted this before, just when it was released, but I think it deserves a repost, have become a part of my list of all time absolute favorite songs. So incredible powerful and heartwrenchingly beautiful, and the video, which Emma Ruth Rundle directed herself, is just as amazing and suits the song perfectly. "Return" from Emma Ruth Rundle's most recent album "Engine of Hell", just absolute breathtakingly sublime! :

Great piece of advice. I already tend to do this though, mix notes from different scales as I see fit, as well as adding some chromatic notes here and there. Mind though that this won't work equally well for everything, so as with everything you need to be mindful of the context. One thing is something fitting in strictly harmonically, or not so well but creating interesting tension, in case of added chromatic notes, but mixing the Pentatonic Minor, or the "Blues" Scale with added chromatic "blue" notes (b5), Minor and Dorian scales, which is exactly what I would do, won't sound very traditional, say in the context of playing traditional blues for instance. But otherwise sound advice to not let staying within a specific scale dictate your playing/note choice, but rather see scales as general guidelines that you can add to and subtract from as you see fit, depending on the specific musical context within they are played/used.

Without knowing I would think the Ultimate Overdrive being an OCD clone, borrowing the name after Joyo's OCD clone, the Ultimate Drive. The Low/High switch on the pedal seems to confirm this assumption, since this match the switch you'd normally find an OCD based pedal, including the original, and not the Vintage/Turbo or Classic/Turbo you'd normally see on RAT clones, as well as the Tone control on RAT variants usually will be called Filter, from the original RAT, and this is just called Tone, as it would on an OCD drive. The Pocket Metal I am pretty sure being an EHX Pocket Metal Muff clone, which the single Mid "Tone"/EQ control knob seems to confirm.

What would the point being of making each half of a P pickup, that by design, being 2 coils in series connection, already cancel out noise, having an additional stacked coil each, they won't cancel more noise for that reason? Each half having two side by side coils in series, like a true humbucker pickup would, now I could see the idea of that, like for instance the DiMarzio dual blade Split P, but I very much doubt this is the case either, with only one row per half of pole pieces on those pickups of yours. Bar magnets under the pickup also usually means Ceramic magnets, with steel pole pieces above to distribute the magnetic field, whereas Alnico magnets used in pickups will usually be the pole pieces themself. So almost certain yours are Ceramic magnet based pickups. Also magnets always got 2 magnetic poles, a North Pole and a South Pole, regardless of type, which is something entirely different than pickup pole pieces.

Basses doesn't automatically adjust themself to whatever you throw at them, that is your problem. Adjust the bass to the lower tension of the lower tuning with the same strings, and I bet your issues goes away. As several others pointed out this is a neck relief, or rather lack of, issue, that is fixed by loosening the truss rod. If that doesn't help you might need higher tension/gauge strings.

I recently bought the Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion, Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion clone, after having listened to the few YouTube demos (that is predominant the original Boss MD-2) in existence that demonstrated it used for bass, which are all rather lacking, either not being very thorough or just overall having terrible sound quality, as well as I watched a fair share of demo videos featuring it used for guitar. But I thought I could still hear it being right up my ally as far as going bass distortion, and it really is. Genuinely great distortion for bass. With all knobs at noon, except the Bottom knob just boosted ever so slightly, like just barely 1 o'clock, it sounds surprisingly close to my preferred high gain distortion setup, which is: Boss LS-2 [A+B<->Bypass] => [ Effect Loop A: {Joyo Orange Juice (dialed in to a higher low/lower medium gain kind of overdrive) -> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (dialed in to a higher medium gain kind of distortion)} ->|blended in parallel with|<- Effect Loop B: {Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, in Turbo RAT mode, dialed in to a high gain distortion}] I would say that The Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion is probably just lacking the last 5 to 10 % or so, that is lacking some clarity and definition, and also some depth (as in complexity and spatial "3D" like effect), in comparison to my more complex high gain distortion setup, which I guess though is not really surprising, being a single distortion pedal vs. parallel blended respectively medium and high gain distortion with two quite different kind of basic characters, but the actual basic character of the MD300 alone using the above stated settings is actually extremely close, which I think is quite amazing and impressive considering, and if for some reason I had to use just 1 single pedal for my high gain distortion this would definitely be it (except I would probably get the original Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion in that case). Really captures that raunchiness of the Turbo Rat, but with a slightly smoother and somewhat slightly more modern quality, which sort of accounts for the parallelly blended in Metal Zone of my high gain distortion setup, but then a bit tighter sounding, which accounts for the Orange Juice overdrive that I have stacked into the Metal Zone. In a mix with other instruments I think it would be really hard to tell the difference between this cheap Behringer pedal, using the mentioned settings, and then my preferred high gain distortion setup, and by blending in a slight bit of clean signal (which though I have not tested yet), for instance using a Boss LS-2, it might even be possible to achieve some of the clarity, definition and sense of depth that I think this single distortion pedal lacks in comparison to my more complex high gain distortion setup (also it might be possible that the original Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion would have a bit better definition, clarity and sense of depth, compared to this cheap clone of it, though I wouldn't know if this is actually also the case, since I don't own the original Boss pedal). And if one have to stick to a single pedal and is on a budget I can definitely warmly recommend this pedal as a high gain bass distortion. These are the settings I used :

We have been brainwashed by the 4/4, and to a much lesser degree 3/4, unnatural straightjacket dictatorship of the Western music tradition, and any musician, or just music lover in general, ought to do themself the favor of de-programming their brain from this unnatural fixation and misapprehension to make themself comfortable with so called "odd" meters/time signatures. Once you get there a whole new world, quite literally, of musical experiences awaits you. I was lucky being called to arms to serve as the second "lead" bass player in a couple of my old friends and jam partners's math rock project, which eventually set me rhythmically free. One day rehearsing with that band I, quite physically, felt the oppressive bond of the rhythmical norm's restrains in my brain snap. Almost as if I had finally managed to solve some kind of Zen koan. And to this day I navigate fluently in shifting odd meter rhythmical patterns. This is an amazing guide to odd meters/time signatures (well, time signatures in general really) : "Time signatures 1/1, 2/2, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/4, 8/8, 9/8, 10/4, 11/2, 12/8, 13/16 & 14/8 exposed"

!!! Please Delete !!! Posted in wrong sub forum

WOOHOO!!! YES!!! Do I get a price too?

Why on earth would you want to cut everything bellow 8kHz? On a bass there's hardly any signal left at that point, and for sure is way past all fundamentals. You are aware that this is a High Pass Filter NOT a Low Pass Filter or High Cut Filter, right? Even then 8kHz seems high for a bass, regular bass cabs, without high freqeuncy horns that is, usually have a pretty steep cutoff of frequencies beyond about 3.5kHz or so, and, as said, above 8kHz there won't even be much signal left coming from a bass in the first place anyway. Though a High Shelve Filter set at 8kHz on the other hand would kind of make sense for a bass, because a sufficiently large enough cut would create a curve that would start the decline way bellow 8kHz, but then again a 10kHz or even 12kHz High Shelve Filter would probably make even more sense if the purpose is to kind of mimic the roll off of a regular bass cab, however yet again a second order, that is -12dB/Oct, Low Pass Filter set to around 3.5Khz or so actually would be a much more appropriate tool to achieve this and much more likely to give a satisfactory result. Telling us what it is you want to achieve would help, cause honestly to me, and I assume most other people reading your OP, it does sound like you might not be aware of the right tool for the job you want to get done, whatever that might be, but then again I suppose it is possible that you actually do know exactly what you are doing, and that I just can't imagine what application a HPF set to 8 kHz could possibly be good for.

Not quite, I think you somewhat misunderstood the famous ladybug bass pickup trick here. The real trick is to find a handful of 2 dot, and this is essential, ladybugs, and then place one on top of each of the pickup poles respectively. After you tried that there is no going back, absolutely magical tone enhancement.