Baloney Balderdash

In that case fitting one of your basses, if you got on a short scale bass, with a set of piccolo strings, and tune it in piccolo tuning, that is as the 4 lower strings of a guitar, will give you by far the best result.

No swapping between the same two sets of strings on a regular basis definitely isn't common, and strings are not really made for this. That is to be slacken off totally then tightened up significantly, and bent a little more, sometimes slightly different directions, from time to time, at the bridge and at the tuner end, over and over again, on a regular basis. This was bound to happen sooner or later with your use. And yes metal fatigue is a thing, and what would be at work here. So yes, if you insist keep swapping between two different sets of strings getting a second bass would indeed be the only sensible answer to avoid this.

Ah, right. Thanks for clarifying that.

What is this then: https://www.fender.com/en-GR/accessories/pickups/cunife-wide-range-humbucker/0992297002.html

Studio headphones and a small mixer or headphones preamp would be the obvious and most straightforward practical and easy answer. On a really low budget the Behringer BH 470 studio headphones are actually surprisingly decent for bass practice: https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_bh_470.htm But if you are willing to pay more I'd recommend the Sennheiser HD-300 Pro studio headphones: https://www.thomann.de/gb/sennheiser_hd_300_pro.htm If you insist on a real speaker though I can't recommend the The Box PA 502 A, that Thomann sells, enough, simply amazing sounding active flat frequency full range PA speaker, with an impressive low frequency response, perfect for bass, and just overall amazing sounding, and not just for the price: https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa502a_aktives_fullrangesystem.htm Biamping regular SS, not Class D. 300W 1x15" bass/mids woofer/driver and a 100W 1.7" high mids/high frequency tweeter :-: 300W RMS/1200W Peak :-: Crossover Freq: 2.3kHz :-: Freq response: 35Hz-20kHz (-10dB)/40Hz-18kHz (-3dB) :-: Sensitivity (1m/1W): 96 dB. Comes in a passive version too, the The Box Pa 502. Weights about a ton though. The The Box PA 502 or PA 502 A would work great as a backgear on stage bass monitor too, or at band practices in place on a dedicated bass cab/amp, if you want a sound that approximates that of a venue PA.

I use this following link contains the custom settings in the Toneprint editor of my TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini (works just the same on the regular standard big Sub'N'Up) that I used to get an about as realistic sounding fake guitar sound from just a regular polyphonic 1 octave up effect as is possible : But I really would wish EHX would make the bass equivalent to their Bass9 pedal, that makes a guitar pretty realistically/authentically sounding like a real bass. That is a Guitar9 pedal to make a bass sound like different kinds of guitars.

At Thomann they are sold as "B-Stock" products at a slightly reduced price, depending. And all returned items goes through testing to check that they work as they are supposed to.

Given you don't break it and keep the box intact Thomann will let you try it out for 30 days (and the 30 days actually counts all the way up till the day you post it), and they'll pay for the shipping back. Full refund of the cost of the pedal, and no questions asked. It would cost you the initial shipping Thomann charges to have it send to you though (or actually I think that pedal costs beyond the minimum amount that gives you free shipping), and you would have the inconvenience of having to pack and post it back.

No More Mr. Nice Guy - They Might Be Giants Damn, that's not the actual tittle of that song... Then: No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper

Poop Ship Destroyer - Ween

I'd have this build: A custom made 4 string, 28,6" scale, bass, with a slim modern C profile, bolt on, clear satin finish, 5 piece laminated Jatoba/black Ebony (just 2 relatively narrow layers of Ebony in between 3 wider layers of Jatoba) neck, with graphite rods enforcement and a double action truss rod, a tilted 2+2, gold plated tuning mechanisms, classic B.C Rich inspired, headstock, but overall slightly more narrow, and with the "devil horns" slightly shifted, so that the upper slightly larger "horn" is sitting a bit more forward than the slightly smaller and slightly retracted lower "horn", and a 24 medium jumbo stainless steel frets, 12" radius, figured Ebony, fretboard, with an ESP LTD F-204/F-1004 style inspired Mahogany body with a spalted maple top, in a transparent matte black burst finish, with a blood red solid circle figure with a black OM sign in the middle, placed approximately right above the bridge, and equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler reverse P pickup in the neck position, and in the bridge position a gold plated DiMarzio Relentless Middle reverse P pickup with a gold plated series/parallel switch, with an active stacked LPF/HPF tone filter control for each of the 2 pickups, and an active pickup blend control, equipped with knobs made of solid transparent red plexi glass encapsulated in hollow gold plated cylinders with a thin spiraling gold rib going upwards around them, gold plated steel mono rail bridge pieces, milled from solid brass, with a string spacing of 17,5mm (or perhaps instead even a wammy/tremolo bridge with 17,5mm string spacing), and an accordingly more narrow neck, with a 38mm wide graphite nut. Equipped with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings of the gauges .074 - .056 - .042 - 030, and tuned to tenor bass, A standard, tuning, as in the upper 4 strings of a 6 string bass tuned to regular B standard tuning.

It does really balance the tone between the thicker lower and thinner upper strings out well (instead of emphasizing the difference as traditional regular P orientation actually does). And split coil pickups are a nice compromise between single coil and full, double parallel coils in series, humbucking.

I get a really full range and snappy finger plucking tone, actually by applying less force, rather stroking the strings, with the outmost tip of mu fingers/nails, in a slightly inwards lightly slapping motion, than really striking or pulling the strings. Using flamenco guitar index and/or middle finger flicking technique is a great way to emphasis the attack as well, and once you got it down you can actually strum faster then even using a pick. Both takes quite a bit of practice though, as you need to be quite precise, only hitting the strings with the outmost tip of you fingers/nails, and in both cases you need to actually relax in order to get up to speed, too much tension in your and it gets impossible to get right. Also lighter gauge roundwound strings will help with getting a brighter more snappy tone.

Shiny Happy People - R.E.M

No! And even if you swapped to a set with a gauge .095, or even .090, low E string it would still not be an issue. I am speaking out of experience here. The way the nut slots are cut they form an U, almost V, shape, meaning that thinner gauge strings will just sit a bit lower in the slots, but exactly just as well. And say you wanted to change to tenor bass tuning, that is A standard tuning, and use a gauge .080 or similar string in the nut slot otherwise intended for a low E string, fitting a small cut to size strip of a layer or two of adhesive shielding copper tape down in the nut slots would make that perfectly viable as well.

But surely bigger is better, and makes you more of a real man!

Well, mine is as good as perfectly quiet. The trick is to keep the input level high, it tends to get noisy if you boost the output level too much, which of course is a useless piece of information if you prefer/need a setting where the opposite is required, but works for me. Also as far as I've gathered allegedly there was quite a bit of inconsistency between units, so you might have gotten a bad one. Mine has served me well for about 20 years, and I haven't exactly pampered it, still works it's magic noiselessly and flawlessly. And actually as far as I am concerned where this pedal really shines and gets magical is if not being used as advertised, but rather primarily being used as a tube preamp stage, with minimal compression dialed in and the input gain (Pre Gain) cranked fairly high to keep the input tube on the verge of breakup.

N0 Fin 4 m3. Thumb Fin 4b0u7 17 Cm5 4 B7 Gmm1cky 2 m3, 4nd nu7 ju57 T n4M. Bu7 m4B 17 S ju57 m3.

Personally I prefer Slip Girls.

As a sort of status update on the results of this poll so far, what really surprises me is that it seems that there are more people preferring their bass to have an extended scale length, that is 35" and above, than there are people preferring a 32" medium scale length. The remaining numbers though are pretty much in the ballpark of what I suspected them to be. I am quite sure though that had this poll been put up just 10 years or so ago the percentage of people preferring short scale basses, that is basses with a scale length of just about 30" or so, would have been considerably lower. Short scale basses has really received a massive attention in recent years, becoming a regular trend, with most bass/guitar brands offering at very least one short scale model, and short scale basses are no longer considered lesser second grade "beginner" instruments.

Long Distance Runaround - Yes Here as an amazing cover by the Danish band "A Kid Hereafter" :

And... I present to you, my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, tuned to G standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above the upper 5 strings of a 6 string bass tuned in regular B standard tuning, "Mr. Growley - The Noodlemancer" : Dud Bottomfeeder is a snappy raw and rough dirty Rock'n'Roll/Punk beast, with more attack, but less dynamic subtleties, whereas Mr. Growley - The Noodlemancer is more of a growly, but overall cleaner and clearer, if not exactly polite, lush and very resonant jazzy beast, with more sustain, and a much more delicate/detailed dynamic response. They are both pretty punchy though. I love them both to bits and they complement each other well, each respectively inspiring me to play different stuff. Dud Bottomfeeder having a blunt and straight-forwardly simple and raw personality, while Mr. Growley - The Noodlemancer is more complex and ostentatious. Dud Bottomfeeder by the way is tuned to A# standard tuning, that is 1 half step above the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bass tuned to regular B standard tuning. And they both feature a just 28.6" scale length. Also oddly enough Dud Bottomfeeder features an unusually light Mahogany body, whereas Mr. Growley - The Noodlemancer features an unusually heavy Poplar body.

The greatest song Pink Floyd never wrote:

Optimized sonically, and even more so ergonomically, to what, and compared to what, exactly? To being basses, and compared to all other basses in existence? Or to drop A/A standard tuning in specific? (though what have that to do with ergonomics?)

No! - They Might Be Giants