Baloney Balderdash

Same Old, Say Mold (by Sentridoh/Lou Barlow)

I really wish Harley Benton would have more short scale bass offerings. As it is this is the only option they offer for this. My dream is a 28,6" scale bass (like both Ibanez, Jackson, Squier (Fender) and ESP now offers options for) in the upper quality range of what Harley Benton offers, preferably in a bit more experimental design and with either a Thunderbird, double Music Man or Rickenbacker kind of pickups configuration. If they did it would instantly become first priority on my to buy list.

I like Lightning Bolt. Noise Rock has been around as a genre since the early 80's though, and got increasingly popular in the 90's (though largely remaining an underground kind of genre). Sonic Youth properly being the most popular band of this genre. I played bass in a noise rock band myself around the mid 90's, and later in the 00's in a noise rock and hardcore influenced math rock band with the same lineup, but with an added extra bass player (where I had more sort of a "lead" bass player kind of role and the other bassist sticking mostly to a more traditional supportive bassist kind of role). Basically it is just more or less experimental rock, partially drawing inspiration from early punk and incorporating noise/atonal and sometimes improvisational elements from avantgarde music and free jazz. This is a great album from Lightning Bolt :

Add to that no dead spots issues on the fretboard.

My first bass amp was a Dynacord Bass-King T, 50W hybrid amp, with something as unusual as a transistor preamp section and a tube poweramp section, I played it through a 1x 15" cab + a 2x 15" cab and it was plenty of loud enough for band practice with a noise rock band that I played bass in back then, I even played a couple of open air festivals with this rig and had no issues with being heard and hearing my self, though it did go through a PA and we had monitors on stage. Only time it struggled and just barely was loud enough was a show in a sort of mid sized venue, an old cinema, with only the vocals going through a PA. But for smaller bar sized kind of venues or gigs with PA support and stage monitors I never had any issues with it only being rated at 50W, despite playing fairly loud and noisy rock. More recently I've owned the earlier original 50W Bass-King model, which is a full tube amp, and I kind of regret selling it, should have kept it and used it for my guitar rig. Both were great amps. Congratulations with your find.

As already said every bass, strings, pickup(s), amp, speaker/cab and even EQ will sound vastly different with the exact same settings, so wouldn't make much sense to suggest general EQ settings that'll fit all, cause they by far most likely won't, then add to that personal preferences and it gets totally pointless.

The red paint is based on panda blood and the blue on blue whale sperm.

So I just made a sort of "4x 10" + high frequency tweeter horn" faux cab sim (not completely accurate, really just set to my personal liking, but perhaps not all that different from a 4x 10" cab with its high frequency tweeter attenuated some) on my Zoom MS-70CDR by stacking 5 of the 2 band parametric bass equalizers, "BassParaEQ", and thought I'd share it in case someone else could have use of this experiment of mine. Of course this could be made with any 10 band parametric equalizer, and one could eventual skip the boost of the 400Hz and 800Hz bands, if they only got 8 bands available, eventual the 50Hz and 120Hz bands as well, in case they only got 6 bands at their disposal, also technically one might be able to get away with skipping the 20kHz band too, as the signal from a bass won't produce much frequency content above 10kHz anyway, and finally one might want to set the 400Hz and 800Hz bands differently, slightly boosting or cutting them according to the preferred character of the simulated cab. So here's how I have the EQ's set, listed in the order of the signal flow: Freq: 50Hz Q: 1 Boost/Cut: + 1dB Freq: 120Hz Q: 1 Boost/Cut: + 2dB Freq: 400Hz Q: 4 Boost/Cut: + 2dB Freq: 800Hz Q: 2 Boost/Cut: + 2dB Freq: 1.6kHz Q: 2 Boost/Cut: - 1dB Freq: 2kHz Q: 4 Boost/Cut: + 1dB Freq: 4.5kHz Q: 4 Boost/Cut: - 1dB Freq: 6.3kHz Q: 4 Boost/Cut: - 1dB Freq: 10kHz Q: 1 Boost/Cut: - 20dB Freq: 20kHz Q: 1 Boost/Cut: - 20dB

Cab sims are not always necessarily needed to make a bass sound good going direct, they are though if you want to mimic your bass signal going through a proper bass cab realistically. Personally though I experimented with an amp-less setup for a while, including using a relatively high end cab sim IR loader, but settled with just EQ'ing myself to the exact tone that I like, and am really satisfied with how my setup works now. Basically beside some other EQ'ing of my signal the main faux "cab sim" is just my ultra cheap Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic EQ, which is a pretty accurate clone of the Boss GEB-7, with the 10kHz band (which is a shelving type EQ) cut all the way down to -15dB and the 4.5kHz band (which is a regular notch/bell type EQ) cut about -1dB or so (edit!!!: revisited this and perfected it with a bit more nuanced EQ'ing via staking 5 of the 2 band parametric equalizers in my Zoom Ms-70CDR multi stomp pedal in an always on patch). As said with some additional but fairly subtle EQ'ing, boosting a band here and there just 1 to 2 dB, using a fully parametric equalizer with the right Q values, it sounds as close to perfect as I can imagine, really satisfied with my DI sound, via a simple tube preamp, either into a headphones amp and then headphones, or into a poweramp and then a full range, approximately flat response, PA speaker. I personally much prefer what I get out of this setup to when I used a proper cab sim. My point being a cab sim isn't a must for an amp-less bass setup, it just possibly will make it easier to get the tone you are after, unless you know how to and got the means to specifically EQ yourself to it.

Off topic I know, but the TC Electronic Spectra Comp in my opinion is an absolutely astonishing pedal, and it can actually be used as an amazing subtle tone sculpting pedal too, along with compression, if that is what you want, depending on how you set the crossover, makeup gain, mix and compression parameters for the 3 bands. Personally I very much has taken advantage of this, it just give me the final tiny touch needed to tonal perfection, actually having set it to a fairly subtle compression with some uncompressed signal blended in, it having very little effect on my playing dynamics (though definitely adding a nice amount of punch, snap and bite), but, even if also relatively subtle, a, to me at least, quite essential impact on my tone (I believe though it should be possible to still dial it in in a way so that it will affect your tone much less and do more of a traditional compressor job). Just offers so many tweaking options if one dare diving into the Toneprint editor (I actually didn't really like any of the pre-made templates and artist Toneprints) , but even me, with a fairly layman level of understanding of compression, was able to get out of it exactly what I wanted, with some trial and error, just listening carefully to how my adjustments affected my signal and re-adjusting accordingly.

This is absolutely amazing : I also absolutely love Bill Fritzel on guitar, and unlike with Victor I love almost all the music Bill has been involved in (love the above tune though and The Flecktones, but everything Bill made is just astonishing beautiful).

Only works for the B1(X)on, G1(X)on, as well as the multi stomp pedals (MS-50G, MS-60B and MS-70CDR), as in the previous generation Zoom digital multi effects, yes. Non the less a great tool.

I bought the Zoom G1 Four, as it got a few more modulation models, and I believe a few more reverb and delay models as well, compared to the B1 Four. But really all I use it for at the moment is as an always on 5 band fully parametric equalizer, stacking 5 of the 1 band parametric equalizer model in a patch. And it's really effective as such, nice to be able set the gain of each band with 0.5dB intervals and the Q with 0.1 intervals, allows for some very specific and quite surgical EQ adjustments, which is exactly what I use it for, having non of the 5 bands boosted any more then 2dB at maximum. Sounds great, and I doubt for something as simple as EQ'ing that any higher end digital equalizer models could do a better job, might very well be the absolute cheapest solution on the market if you want a great 5 band fully parametric equalizer. Well fully parametric EQ'ing except for the fact that there are some jumps between the selectable frequency bands, but they are still close enough together for my use (and I would guess most people), and with the more specific choices for selecting Q value and gain I was able to have the 5 stacked 1 band parametric equalizers replace the 5 2 band parametric bass equalizers that I previously had set up on my Zoom MS-70CDR (1dB gain intervals and only 0.5 - 1- 2 - 4- 8 - 16 as selectable Q value), and even with a better and clearer end result. Meaning that I with the more specific controls I could cut down the bands used to dial in my desired tone from 10 to just 5 bands and still get a better overall result out of it.

A true master piece, both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of "Musick to Play in the Dark" Especially the track "Where Are You?" range among my absolute all time favorite tracks of all music, so astonishing dark and heart-wrenchingly beautiful. And overall Coil happens to be one of my absolute favorite bands, probably even among my 2 most favorite bands, the other being Low.

In the cheap end Cort Action Jr. :

Yes you can! As Bill suggested, if you use this a lot and like going that low, maybe get a crossover filter (cutting out the ultra low end from the signal fed to your bass cab and feeding it to a subwoofer instead) and a subwoofer, which are designed to handle those ultra low frequencies. Also if you are feeling pressure in your ears it's time to wear earplugs, or if you already do get some that dampens the sound level even more.

Have you actually listened to those tracks (I mean the isolated bass tracks on YouTube)? Of course I have no way to know the authenticity of them, and they could also be live tracks, but the horriblyness of them is very real, and it seem consistent on the ones I have been able to find. Now listen to isolated bass tracks by someone like John Entwistle and it's a whole other deal, those sound absolutely awesome. Also making something work doesn't mean that it couldn't be better, I guess it just speaks of how small a role bass plays in Queen tracks, as said imagine Freddie Murcry doing a similar sloppy job and the tracks would have been unlistenable. And I am not talking about them not being perfect, I am talking about them being right out horrible, there's a big difference.

Just listened to some of those isolated tracks you are talking about, and not to talk bad about John Deacon, but I am just flabbergasted with how right out terrible that sounded, first of all it just didn't sound good, as the actual tone of the bass, sounded like a wet fart, next the intonation was way off in many of the isolated bass tracks I heard, like no one bothered setting it at all before recording, or at any point for that matter, and lastly they were all a pure slop fest, inconsistent in every possible way, dynamics jumped up and down and were all over, not just the different sections, which could be explained by song dynamics, but between single notes, really often not hitting notes clean, extremely sloppy slides, and really bad timing too, which clearly couldn't just be the natural flow of the songs, were talking about a serious tempo slur, especially when he was playing several fast notes in a row, almost like he stumbled over his own fingers every time he attempted to do so. If it was me playing that bass I would feel very bad about it and demand a retake, or even ask if I could come back and do my takes another day (I assume they didn't actually had a very limited studio budget that wouldn't allow for this), cause that day I clearly just didn't seem to be able to play bass properly. I know this sounds harsh and seems like I am just putting John Deacon down for the sake of it, but it's really just that I am honestly shocked by what I heard and how consistently bad it was between the 5 tracks of isolated bass I heard. 1 track like that could be excused, but at this point I am getting the impression that he simply was just not a very skilled bass player, but just got lucky being in a very successful band and that non of the other or their record company seemed to mind, imagine if Freddie Mercury's vocals had been this sloppy and poorly produced/mixed. I know, it sounds fine in the mix, but in my opinion that is despite how carelessly it was played and produced/mixed, not because of the people responsible for it, mainly John Deacon as he was the one playing it (and I guess you could argue that the producer/mixing guy actually did a good job, making something so badly played actually work), did a good job. Sorry for going off topic too, I am just genuinely in shock.

Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats Of Fire Are Falling From The Sky! (by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra)

There really isn't such a thing as professional or amateur instruments , only professional and amateur players.

As I wrote in my last reply in this topic I temporarily dropped the EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, that acted as sort of a tube preamp stage in my setup, more so than a compressor really, becuase the tubes in it went bad, but, while I still think it is an amazing pedal, I have now decided to drop it permanently, after getting lowly Art Tube MP Project Series (which I replaced the crappy cheap stock chinese tube in with an EHX 12AX7EH tube). Now while this tube preamp actually is a step above the cheapest tube preamp Art offers, it still utilizes a straved tube plate circuit and is a bit under half the price of what the EHX Black Finger costed from new when it was still in production, however I really love what it does to my tone, and I've read up on it and actually starved tube plate circuits is supposed to result in the tubes coloring your tone more than tubes run at proper high voltage, rather than less as it is commonly believed, just in a much more nonlinear way, meaning that they will break up earlier and produce more uneven harmonics. I've managed to find a blog with someone claiming they measured the actual plate voltage of this Art preamp, and they claim it is 70V, which, while being nowhere near anything like the 200 to 300V voltage that would be considered a proper tube plate voltage, would still be higher than most other straved plate tube circuits on the market. Whatever that means in practical terms I have no idea of, but replacing the cheap stock Chinese tube with a proper quality Rusian made one made a huge difference tone wise, and the effect this preamp has on my tone, as the last device in my chain before the amp, is incredible. It adds a really nice touch of rich warm tube flavor and slight compression that sort of rounds off the upper most sharp edge of my tone, eliminating any harshness, but while still retaining the bite and zing of it. This is a full thorough walk through of all the always on pedals in my signal chain that technically could be considered "tone" pedals (used for my ampless setup for my 4 string 28,6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass, tuned to G1 standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above regular E standard 4 string bass tuning, equipped with a DiMarzio Model P P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, and run through an always on 1 octave up effect mixed with clean signal, giving an effect similar to an 8 string "octave" bass with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings) : TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on, fully customizable, 3 band, compressor, with my own customized toneprint) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ->> ={ [Loop A Send] ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on, relatively low gain, Orange amp style, overdrive, with the Tone control at noon, and the Voice control at about 2 O'clock (which would mean an about +4dB pre gain stage boost of a quite broad curve around an 800Hz center frequency), that is always mixed with the clean signal from parallel effects [Loop A] at an about 60% Orange Juice/40% clean signal ratio) ->> [Loop B Return] }=>> Zoom G1 Four (exclusively used as an always on EQ, utilizing five 1 band fully parametric equalizers to fine tune the tone, using following settings: Frq: 63Hz Q: 3.6 +1.5dB /-/ Frq: 200Hz Q: 2.6 +1dB /-/ Frq: 250Hz Q: 2.1 +1.5dB /-/ Frq: 400Hz Q: 1.5 +2dB /-/ Frq: 1khz Q: 3.1 +2dB) ->> Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer (always on, using the following settings: 50Hz ~+1dB /-/ 120Hz ~+1dB /-/ 400Hz ~+1dB /-/ 800Hz ~+2dB, and the 4.5kHz band cut about -1dB and 10kHz band cut about -15dB) ->> Art Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp)