Baloney Balderdash

I use my Zoom G1Xon for my reverb needs, among those my main always on really subtle plate reverb, and the build in expression pedal comes in handy for a thick lush reverb patch with some tape delay as well that I use as a reverb pad effect with volume swells. I also until recently used the DBX 160 compressor model as an always on compressor, until I got my TC Electronic SpectraComp, which I use now instead. Really has no use for additional effects from the other Zoom multi effects, as I only use the Plate and HD Hall reverb models, as well as the original Tape Delay model, but having the option for additional effects from the other Zoom multi effects is certainly handy, and who knows I might find use for it in the future. Also got a Zoom MS70 CDR multi stomp, but again no use for additional effects as I exclusively use it as an always on equalizer with a patch of six of the 2 band fully parametric Parametric Bass EQ model. Personally I wouldn't use these previous generation Zoom multi effects for dirt or amp modeling (honestly wouldn't even use the current "n" and "Four" generation for that), but I honestly prefer the expanded tweaking possibilities, due to more adjustable parameters, of these previous generation Zoom effects over the newer ones, and I honestly think that many, if not even most, of the modulation, reverb and delay effects in these older units are not just passable, but, with the right amount of tweaking, great sounding effects, so even if I actually recently got a Zoom G1 Four I don't really use it, and, at least for my use, prefer my MS70 CDR and G1Xon. Zoom certainly made a great leap from the absolutely horrible digital multi effects they came out with in the 90's, and personaly I prefer their previous generation of digital multi effects (G1on, G1Xon, B1on, B1Xon, G3, B3) to the more expensive digital Boss multi effects, which certainly was far from the case in the 90's.

How are they as straps though? As in how do they feel to wear and play with, do they hold your bass in place well enough? Ordered the purple one I had in mind getting, but it's out of stock at Thomann, and they aren't getting a new batch until mid December, so will have to wait on mine.

Sounds to me like the wire that was torn loose when you took out the PCB already had a weak connection/bad solder point to begin with, which is why it fell off, and which is why your problem was fixed when you soldered it back on properly. In fact that would make absolutely perfect sense to me, and answer you original question as to what caused the issue you described in the first place.

Oh, absolutely, I agree, and perfectly understand that kind of mindset, even if I can't say I am big Waters fan. I myself have developed into and see my self as more of a composer/song writer kind of musician these day than really an instrumentalist kind of musician. Still I love playing bass and consider bass as my main instrument of choice. It's just that I love composing and writing songs even more and that I am a much more skilled composer/songwriter than bass or guitar player (which I guess, like in the case of Waters, is mainly due to where my main focus has turned to).

But... Then you have something like this : Pretty horrible bass playing as far as I am concerned. He did however record some pretty incredible bass lines for Pink floyd's first two albums, after that it kind of went downhill for him though, as a bass player at least, and as far as I am concerned. Guess he was more focused on writing songs and taking over leadership of Pink Floyd than being a great bass player. But I suppose Gilmour is right when he says Waters could be, or rather could have been, a great bassist, if that is what he really wanted.

Children of Stone (by Espers)

"But kids I've had, and they are sung Upon folks' ears my babes are hung Rhythmically they live among And grow but don't get old"

Pretty much what the headline says: Anyone tried to use the EHX Tortion JFET preamp/overdrive/distortion as a clean/cleanish preamp for bass? Seems to me like it potentially could be great as a clean or just on the verge of breakup kind of preamp for bass, but can't find any demos of actually demonstrating it for bass, not even as just a dirt effect.

Long Distance Runaround (by Yes)

Viva Ultra (by Palace Music [Will Oldham])

Thanks for you suggestion, but I just looked up their homepage and I don't see any bass pickups listed. Can you make a custom order, or don't they have all the pickups they make listed? https://www.geminipickups.com/ Edit!!!: Ah, found another page where they list a lot more of their pickups : https://www.geminipickups.co.uk/ And their Thunderbird bass pickups : https://www.geminipickups.co.uk/bass/thunderbird-bass Thank you. Looks great, and really reasonable prices too.

So I kind of pondered for some time on having the J pickup cavity of my P/J Ibanez Mikro Bass, which is my main, routed out for a humbucker pickup of some kind, the DiMarzio Model P pickup I have installed in the Mikro currently being the only pickup on my Mikro that is actually connected, and as I love the classic gnarly Thunderbird tone I kind of settled with the idea of having the J pickup cavity routed for a Thunderbird pickup (I don't mind if some of the J pickup caviity will be left sticking out after routing it out to fit a Thunderbird pickup, minor cosmetic mess ups doesn't bother me at all), but I think at least using the edge of the existing J pickup cavity towards the neck actually will fit pretty well with where the bridge Thunderbird pickup cavity also stops towards the neck on a real Thunderbird. Making it look something like this : Now my question is if I want that gnarly traditional Thunderbird tone what are my options for pickups that will deliver that (I am fine with cheap pickups, just as long as they are also great pickups, but more expensive suggestions are welcome as well)?

People Are Strange (by The Doors)

I will most likely have a clone of the Fender Blender octave fuzz build at some point in the new year, which is capable of some pretty out of control over the top fuzz tones and might be the most wonderfully abrasive and harsh fuzz ever made. Also I am quite certain that I'll buy the 27" scale Harley Benton Baritone CLG-414BCE NT acoustic baritone guitar, which has gotten some amazingly great reviews (even the Fishman piezo/preamp system it comes with allegedly is supposed to sound great, very natural and close to the acoustic tone of the guitar), but only costs 269£/291 Euro. Most likely already placing my order on one coming either January or February 2021. And I've also already settled for which strings to get for it, namely a gauge .070 to .016 set of 80/20 Bronze Elixir Nanoweb acoustic baritone guitar strings. Really looking forward to get one of these, and most likely it will replace my electric guitar as the main instrument for the songs I am working on for my alternative folk project. Here's how the Harley Benton acoustic baritone guitar looks : Here's the link to it on Thomann's homepage : https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_baritone_clg_414bce_nt.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjQiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0%3D And here's a thorough YouTube demo/review of it :

Some fairly big changes since my last post (still planing to get a proper pedal board to attach my pedal setup to within the not too distant future) : Making my entire signal chain look like this : 4 string Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass (strung with gauge .090 - .068 - .052 - .038 D'Addario XL nickle roundwound steel strings, tuned in G1 standard tuning, 2 half steps bellow A standard bartitone guitar tuning, and having a DiMarzio Model P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket) ->> TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on compressor) ->> TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini (always on digital polyphonic octaver, used as an 1 octave up effect mixed with clean bass signal, giving an effect similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ->> ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (low gain overdrive, with some highs cut via the tone knob, always stacked into the Metal Zone in front of it and mixed with the Black Rat distortion in parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> Boss MT2 Metal Zone (high gain metal type of distortion, always with the Orange Juice behind it in the same effects loop stacked into it, and always mixed with the Black Rat distortion in parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser (EHX Small Stone clone, used in the high feedback and deep sweep mode, almost always used mixed with flanger in parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on, except for when using my high gain distortion setup, relative low gain overdrive that is always mixed with the clean {bass+octave up} signal from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> Mosky Black Rat (Rat clone, in [Turbo] Rat mode (diode clipping), quite raunchy and fairly dark sounding high gain distortion, always mixed with the {Orange Juice -> Metal Zone} from parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> Monarch MFL-22 (flanger, most often used mixed with phaser in parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 50/50 ratio) }=>> Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz (Boss FZ-2/Univox Super Fuzz clone, octave fuzz, set to [Mode 1] with the gain at noon, often used with the {Orange Juice [Loop A]//Clean signal [Loop B]} stacked into it) ->> Boss TR-2 (tremolo, almost always used combined with the chorus effect in front of it) ->> TC Electronic Shaker (Vibrato blended with clean signal, via the Toneprint editor, functioning as a deep lush chorus effect, almost always used combined with the Boss TR-2 tremolo) ->> NUX Tape Core Deluxe (Roland Space Echo tape delay emulation) ->> Zoom G1Xon (exclusively used for reverb effects, which are as follows:: a very subtle, always on, main plate reverb :-: a more prominent plate + hall reverb :-: a thick lush plate + hall + tape delay reverb :-: and finally an extremely thick and lush reverb pad used with volume swells consisting of plate + hall + tape delay reverb) ->> Zoom MS-70 CDR (exclusively used as an always on EQ, utilizing six 2 band fully parametric equalizers to fine tune the tone by cutting/boosting various frequency bands -/+ 1 to 2 dB, 2 of the bands used to sculpt an about -9dB/Oct downward slope, starting at about 4kHz) ->> Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer (always on, with the 50Hz, 120Hz, 400Hz, 500Hz and 800Hz bands boosted ever so slightly) ->> [Effects Return] (poweramp input) of Peavey Solo Special 112 (160W, solid state guitar combo, with the build in 4 Ohm 12" speaker unit disconnected and instead hooked up to the SWR Triad I bass cab) ->> SWR Triad I (400W bass cab, equipped with 1x15" + 1x10" speaker units + high frequency tweeter horn, the 15" speaker unit receiving the full signal, the 10" unit only receiving the part of the signal that is between 100Hz and 5kHz, and the high frequency tweeter horn receiving everything above 5kHz of the signal, with the build in tweeter attenuator set at noon, which according to the manual is the "normal setting", practically meaning an about -4dB cut of the signal send to the tweeter) =>> The Box PA 502 (300W full range passive PA speaker, connected in parallel to the Triad I cab, equipped with 1x15" + 1,7" high frequency tweeter horn)

Now's the Only Time I Know (by Fever Ray)

Well, I have to break to you that you are wrong, in fact the Ernie Ball 2837 Slinky Baritone string set is made specifically with Bass Vi type instruments in mind, despite having Baritone in their name, though a bit too short for the specific Fender model (because of the bridge positioning/how the strings are attached needing a bit longer string length), I think in specific these Ernie Ball strings are made for the Gretsch Jet one. And as I mentioned the set that D'Addario make specifically to fit Fender Bass VI got a low E string that is just gauge .084, though I agree that would be way too thin and floppy for a low E, so not sure what the reasoning behind such a thin gauge for the low E is. Most Bass VI string sets will feature a gauge .090 or .095 low E string (the Schecter Hellcat Bass VI in question is fitted with a gauge .090 low E string from factory), and in my opinion that is quite fitting for a low E on a 30" scale instrument. Personally I have always used a set with a gauge .095 low E string for 30" scale short scale basses, and to me they always felt just right and never too floppy. What most people doesn't realize is that even though the tension of the strings will be lower on a shorter scale instrument they will actually feel much stiffer, contrary to common believes, just think of guitars which usually will have much lower string tension than basses typically would, or how a wooden stick laid out between two points, kind of like a bridge, gets more flexible and will require less force to bend the further the two points are apart. A gauge .105 for the low E string on a 30" scale instrument in my opinion would feel way too stiff (and be way too thick with the tight string spacing of a Bass VI type instrument), despite having lower tension than it would on a 34" scale bass. On top of that comes that the way you would typically play a Bass VI type instrument compared to how you would typically play a bass doesn't require for the strings to be quite as rigid and stiff, in that a Bass VI type instrument in many ways, beside the lower tuning, and in in some cases a bit longer scale length (some baritone guitars will have a 30" scale length as well), actually have more in common with a baritone guitar than an actual bass in terms of how they are typically used and played.

What about a LFO based auto "wah"/filter pedal? Like the Mooer Funky Monkey for instance?

Ernie Ball 2837 Slinky Baritone is a great set for Bass VI type instruments, with a gauge .090 low E string, versus the just gauge .084 low E string in the D'Addario Bass VI set which would get way too floppy, in my opinion .084 is way too thin a gauge string for that tuning on a 30" scale instrument, and I honestly don't understand why D'Addario would do thing, a gauge .090 or .095 low E string on a 30" Bass VI type instrument will be much more fitting.

On the silly side I got two dummy knobs on my bass that are purely there for cosmetic reason and serve no practical function, since I wired the P pickup I installed in the bass directly to the output jack socket, yet I am very conscious about and insisting on having them turned up to the max position, which actually does matter a little from a purely visual point of view, since one of them got numbers from 0 to 10 printed on it and the other being a chickenhead style knob, and that despite my bass actually looking pretty battered as a whole and me generally not being overly concerned about how it actually looks otherwise. Of stuff that actually does really matter I am also really specific about and quite a perfectionist when it comes to the tone of my bass, having spend hours doing relatively minor EQ adjustments of my basic always on clean tone (using my Zoom MS70 CDR multi stomp pedal as my main equalizer, having set up a patch with six 2 band fully parametric equalizers, being very specific about the Q value of the different frequency bands I have dialed in, but only cutting or boosting -/+ 1dB on most of them, and non of them more than -/+ 2dB), as well as on my drive pedals, and continuing doing minor adjustments almost every time I pick up the bass, something I didn't use to really pay much attention to, if any, but I think became increasingly important to me as my experience with recording, producing, mixing and mastering my own music grew, gradually making me more and more aware of the finer tonal details of instruments and music in general (which I think would be quite obvious if comparing my musical productions through time), which I guess is only a good thing, even if certainly making dialing in my tone considerably more circumstantial.

Long Gone (by Syd Barrett)