Baloney Balderdash

Minutemen :

Paranoid Chant (by Minutemen)

I like the tone a reverse P is able to get me with the right equalization and a bit of low gain sort of grinding overdrive mixed in parallel with clean signal, sort of a more polite version of that typical bright biting, snappy and grinding 80's punk tone like for instance JJ Burnel use, that is mainly boosting the frequency area around 200Hz to 300Hz for some low mids punch as well as the frequency area around 800Hz to 1200Hz for some snap and bite, and then as said using a low gain overdrive with a sort of grinding character as mixed with clean signal for some grit and grind. the TC Electronic SpectraComp that I run as the first thing in my chain right after the bass contributing to a great deal of snap and punch as well, loaded with he custom toneprint that I made, and then my EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, that I run at the end of my signal chain, just before the tube preamp that goes to a poweramp, dialed in with a very subtle compression but with the tubes pushed to judge at the verge of breakup, preventing my tone from getting too harsh, subtly but beautifully rounding it off, without in any way dulling it or making it sound any less snappy and biting, and without affecting my playing dynamics whatsoever. What I use currently in my main Ibanez GSRM20 neck + GSRM20B body Mikro Bass, which has a reverse P/J configuration, but with the P pickup being shifted slightly more towards the neck than traditionally is the case and the J slightly towards the neck than traditionally, is just an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, wired directly to the output jack socket, but I had a DiMarzio Model P installed before that, and while it did sound great as well, fuller and ballsier with more lower mids emphasis than the Geezer, the Geezer has more upper mids bite and generally a more open and articulated, dynamic tone, which I prefer. What I noticed from having tried several different basses throughout the years and watching countless of YouTube demos is that I prefer 1 pickup soloed over any combination of pickups, and that I also tend to favor the tone of pickups placed around the middle position, and beside the split coil P pickup, I am quite sure I would love a Rickenbacker neck pickup or a similar voiced soapbar installed around the middle position as well, and I also love the tone of original single coil early P pickups.

My main Ibanez Mikro Bass, after I successfully transplanted it's GSRM20 Mikro Bass neck onto a GSRM20B Mikeo Bass body in Weathered Black finish, also relocated the output jack socket from the stock side mounted barrel type one to a front mounted regular jack socket, and currently having an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup installed, wired directly to the output jack socket, and not a DiMarzio Model P as on this picture :

Properly Earth's best album "Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method" :

Me and my drummer in a newly started bass and drums sort of progressive psychedlic stoner/doom rock duo, at least so far, are thinking on giving it a shot at doing vocals, both of us, so what mic would you recommend for vocals for band rehearsal and live use?

Elixir coated bass strings have relative high tension, at least compared to D'Addarios of similar gauge.

Edit!! : Sorry I misunderstood the premise of this thread, I think it's supposed to be exclusive for vintage basses with scars, not vintage basses and basses with scars, right? So I deleted my off topic reply.

I'm basically a one bass kind of guy, and even if I own a couple now I almost exclusively just play one of them, here's my relatively modest list though, chronologically listed from my very first bass acquired somewhere around the mid 90's all up till currently 2021 (the ones that I don't own any longer in [Red Text]) : - Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic - My first bass ever, 34" regular scale length, that I got used around the mid 90's, and which served me about 10 years going forward, except for a brief love affair with a Rickenbacker 4003, which I ended up hating shortly after, one of the last models made in Japan at the legendary Matsumoku factory, before they moved their production to Korea, still own it. - Rickenbacker 4003 - Bought at a whim for it's great looks at a point where I had that kind of money to spend, turned out that I hated how it felt in my hands, and it was exiled to a case under the sofa at the rehearsal place the band I played in at that time had, until eventually it got stolen, don't miss it one bit but for the resale money lost. - Jerry Jones Longhorn - My first short scale bass, which from that moment on became my preferred bass scale length, a high end high quality "butique" version of the Danelectro of the same name, played and sounded no short of amazing, and I loved it, though still I was stupid enough to sell it at some point, which I regret deeply to this day. - Westone Violin/Beatles Bass clone - Which I never really liked, neither the feel or tone, and quickly passed on. - Dan Armstrong Plexi Bass - Again a short affair, loved the look, hated how it felt and sounded, even with the two different flavor, easy swap, slide in pickups it came with, so ended up selling it relatively shortly after I had first acquired it. - 28 5/8" scale 4 string bass, build from Warmoth baritone parts - Sounded amazing with a Seymour Duncan Rickenbacker Neck humbucker pickup in the neck position and a Seymour Duncan Strat guitar Hot Rails humbucker in the bridge position, regret very much selling it to this day. - Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass - My main, just 28,6" scale, bass for the last 10 years, from I got it in beginning of April 2011 and up till this day end of March 2021, which I love and find absolutely perfect for me, plays amazing, had perfect enough fretwork from stock to get the action exactly as low as I prefer it, and the most stable neck I ever had on any bass or guitar, it sounded amazing as well after I swapped out the cheap, but admittedly still pretty decent, stock pickups with a P/J set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups, I recently successfully transplanted it's amazing neck to a GSRM20B Mikro Bass body in Weathered Black finish (mahogany like the original body, but with a super thin finish that shows the grains of the wood, rather than the insanely thick poly finish of the original, also much lighter, more resonant, and with a much tighter neck pocket, in fact super tight, just exactly enough for the neck heel to fit in it), and currently I have just the EMG Geezer Butler P pickup installed, wired directly to the output jack socket. - Ibanez GSRM20B Mikro Bass - Had horrible unplayable fretwork, buzzing all over even at ridiculously high unplayable string action, but still didn't want to go through the trouble of returning it, but after just having laid in a corner unused for a couple of years, I eventually transplanted the amazing GSRM20 Mikro Bass neck from my main Mikro Bass to the beautifully Weathered Black finish and extraordinarily light weight mahogany body of this bass, which is more resonant and with a super tight neck pocket, compared to the original thick poly finish heavy mahogany body of my first Mikro Bass. - Egmond late 60's short scale bass - Was stupid enough to buy this used with no chance of trying it out or inspecting it first, and as it turned out it had newer, even from brand new, been an even just remotely decent instrument, made of the worst garbage quality multi laminated plywood equipped with horrible sounding pickups, and in it's current state frankly being the worst piece of crap firewood ever, totally unplayable with a stuck trussrod and a totally banana bend huge baseball neck. - Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass - 5 string Mikro Bass, again just 28,6" scale, with an, of this kind of price tag, and even for pretty much any mass production, bass, unbelievably great fretwork, could get the action insanely low if I wanted to without any fret buzz whatsoever, literally absolutely dead on perfect fretwork, plays great too, however the 2 J pickups suck big time and a couple of the nut slots are cut too deep as well, so not getting any play before I have had the pickups and nut replaced (pondering on eventually having the 2 J pickup cavities routed out to fit 2 soapbar sized pickups and string it to be tuned it E to C). - Ibanez Ibanez SR306EB - A very short love affair, looked stunning and sounded great, I really wanted to love it but just couldn't get used to the full 34" scale, after almost exclusively having played short scale basses for so many years, and even less to it's wide 6 string fretboard, so had to let go of it and return it within the 30 days full refund return guarantee it was bought under.

Coil from the album "Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1" :

Giant Sand from the 1992 album "Center of the Universe" :

You forgot to mention that they are absolutely dead silent, even in basses without additional shielding, no electromagnetic interference noise whatsoever. And they even continued to be so after I accidentally pulled out the bridge ground wire in the bass where I had them installed. These pickups are shielded internally and the connection wires are also shielded, as in the ground running as a braided shield all along the insulated hot wires.

I edited the last paragraph of my last reply, about how to set the drive control of the American Sound, to be a bit more thoroughly explained, like this: One thing to be aware of though is that boosting the [Drive] control on the American Sound starts to introduce overdrive a lot sooner than the [Drive] control on the VT Bass, so if you want a clean tone you need to keep it fairly close to it's minimum position, though I found you get the best clean tone result if you still have it opened just a little, just a slight smidge above the minimum position, exactly low enough for it to stay clean even when you dig in the hardest, which in my case seems to be about the 8 o'clock position, though this will depend on how hot the output of your bass is, as well as how you otherwise set the EQ of the pedal, especially the pre gain stage [Voice] control, as in the more you cut it the more [Drive] you can dial in while still keeping it clean, and the more you boost it the less [Drive] you can dial in before it starts to get into overdrive territory, as I mentioned earlier me having the [Voice] control boosted a bit till about the 2 o'clock position, and the output of my bass being fairly hot for an otherwise completely passive bass, using a DiMarzio Model P, which is considerably hotter than the most common, closer to vintage speced, P pickups.

This thread got me curious of trying to implement my Joyo American Sound in my current setup, placing in the other effects loop of the always on Boss LS-2 that got an always on Orange Juice (seriously sized down clone of the Tech 21 Oxford, Orange amp style preamp/overdrive, but with simplified EQ controls and without cab sim) in the other loop set to a low gain overdrive with it's [Tone] control, basically acting as a standard LPF passive tone control, slightly cut to around the 11 o'clock position and it's [Voice] control slightly boosting a broad curve around the center frequency of 800Hz pre gain stage till around the 2 o'clock position, now instead of just blending the Orange Juice overdrive with clean in parallel, blending it in parallel with the American Sound instead, which I have set to a clean tone, the [Drive] control being set just slightly above it's minimum position, with the [Low], [Mid] and [Voice] control boosted to around the 2 o'clock position, and the [High] control cut till around the 11 o'clock position. And the result is actually really good, a considerably more focused and balanced, slightly rounder, tone, than just the Orange Juice blended with clean signal, with overall slightly less low bass frequency content and slightly less high treble frequency content, but overall a bit more mid frequency content, all across the mid frequency spectrum, from low mids to high mids. I actually thought I had managed to perfect the tone for the current application of my bass setup, but adding the Joyo American Sound did actually manage to improve on that quite a bit. Can't speak for how it would work on it's own, but my best bet is that it actually could very well actually work great, at least if you have an additional cab sim added towards the end of your chain, or if going through a regular bass cab. I personally got a simple sort of faux, EQ based, cab sim at the end of my chain, which I actually prefer to a more detailed, and therefor intrusive, IR based cab sim, using the bass specific fully parametric equalizer model in my Zoom MS-70CDR, set to [Freq=4.5 Q=0.5 Cut=-2dB] ; [Freq=10kHz Q=1 Cut=-20dB] ; [Freq=20kHz Q=0.5 Cut=-20dB], in an always on patch, that additionally is used for an always on subtle plate reverb, as well as some minor additional EQ'ing for fine adjustments of my tone, for the latter also utilizing the bass specific parametric equalizer model of the MS-70CDR, set to various specific center frequencies, with various specific Q values, that all, except for one of them, which has been boosted +2dB, has been boosted with just +1dB. Beside that, placed right before the LS-2, used to blend the Orange Juice low gain overdrive with the clean American Sound, as the very first thing after my bass in the signal chain, is an always on TC Electronic SpectraComp, loaded with a thoroughly customized toneprint, followed by an always on TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini, also loaded with a thoroughly customized toneprint, giving me as an natural sounding 1 octave up effect as possible, blended with clean signal, to give me an effect similar to that of an 8 string bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings. And that is practically all that makes up my main basic, core "clean" tone in my "ampless" setup, beside the Art Tube MP Project Series tube preamp placed as the very last unit in my "ampless" setup, right after the Zoom MS-70CDR (simple faux, EQ based, cab sim, additional EQ'ing, and subtle plate reverb), with the build in HPF, fixed at 40Hz, activated, and the gain set to just on the verge of the tube breaking up when digging in the hardest. Sorry for the wall of text, with what seems to be off topic information, but really just meant to give an idea of what else I use to obtain my main basic, core "clean" tone, beside the Joyo American Sound. But as said my best bet is that the American Sound potentially could very well work well as a main preamp on it's own in a bass setup, at least if followed by some sort of additional cab simulation, or of course if going through a regular bass cab. One thing to be aware of though is that boosting the [Drive] control on the American Sound starts to introduce overdrive a lot sooner than the [Drive] control on the VT Bass, so if you want a clean tone you need to keep it fairly close to it's minimum position, though I found you get the best clean tone result if you still have it opened just a little, just a slight smidge above the minimum position, exactly low enough for it to stay clean even when you dig in the hardest, which in my case seems to be about the 8 o'clock position, though this will depend on how hot the output of your bass is, as well as how you otherwise set the EQ of the pedal, especially the pre gain stage [Voice] control, as in the more you cut it the more [Drive] you can dial in while still keeping it clean, and the more you boost it the less [Drive] you can dial in before it starts to get into overdrive territory, as I mentioned earlier me having the [Voice] control boosted a bit till about the 2 o'clock position, and the output of my bass being fairly hot for an otherwise completely passive bass, using a DiMarzio Model P, which is considerably hotter than the most common, closer to vintage speced, P pickups.

The Joyo American Sound's Mid frequency control is tuned to a center frequency of 400Hz, unlike the Tech Blonde, also the pre gain stage Voice EQ control on the American Sound cut 400Hz bellow the 12 o'clock position, but boost 800Hz above the 12 o'clock, also unlike the equivalent Character control of the Blonde. Other than that the consensus seems to be the the American Sound is slightly brighter and slightly more open sounding than the Blonde, a fair share of guitarists at least owning both actually preferring the tone of the American Sound over the Blonde, even if arguably the Blonde is of better build quality. https://www.tdpri.com/threads/joyo-american-vs-tech21-blonde-comparison-many-graphs.786013/

The Norwegian singer/songwriter St. Thomas (R.I.P) :

I've properly posted this song before, but man, those lyrics, just absolutely sublime, such a beautiful song :

Most recent picture of my Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass, after a successful GSRM20B Weathered Black body transplant :

Don't worry, I got small nuts too.

A merry funeral song by They Might Be Giants :

Added some white stripes :