Baloney Balderdash

In chronological order, every bass I have ever owned: Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic (still own and love it) Rickenbacker 4001 (vintage 70's, that I quickly came to absolutely hate, went under the couch at the band rehearsal space to stay there, until it eventually it got stolen, don't miss it one bit, but do regret missing out on the resale money, most expensive piece of crap I ever bought) Jerry Jones Neptune Longhorn Bass (loved it, but was suppid enough to sell, still regret) Westone Violin/Beatles Bass (great for what it was, but just wasn't for me, short acquaintance before selling again) Dan Armstrong Plexi Bass (didn't care for it, neither the sound of any of the two swapable pickups it came with or the feel, sold it fairly quickly, kind of regret though) Warmoth 28 5/8" scale 4 string bass, made out of Warmoth baritone parts (loved it, but was stupid enough to sell, and for pretty much peanuts compared to what it costed me to have build, still regret) Ibanez GSRM20 and GSRM25 Mikro Basses (still own, and absolutely love the 4 string) Egmond vintage late 60's short scale bass (worst piece of crap that I should never have bought, pretty much completely unplayable, that I am now stuck with) Harley Benton GuitarBass (great take on the Fender Bass VI concept, still own with no plans to ever sell)

I used to own the guitar equivalent, with a DiMarzio Super Distortion bridge pickup and a DiMarzio PAF neck pickup from stock. Greatest guitar I have ever played, and was my main for many years. Felt no less than amazing in my hands, just absolutely perfect, and sounded astonishing too. Unfortunately at some point I was stupid enough to sell it. One of the greatest seller remorse experiences I've ever had (up there together with the Jerry Jones Neptune Longhorn Bass and Ampeg B-15S all tube 60W bass amp). Still regret it to this day.

Me in the music school band I was playing guitar in when I first started to learn how to play guitar. Though that was more a case of them having to suffer my playing. Did however also force me to play quite a few tracks I would otherwise never have dreamed of suffering to listen to voluntarily, let alone do covers of, so suppose to some extend it was a mutual painful experience.

Very unlike Reaper, where the creator, bar a slight 5 seconds to get access annoyance (no commercials in that time span though) after the initial trial period, offers a fully functioning, full featured, amazing music creating tool and DAW completely for free, including full free access to all updates, and being exactly just as great as any of the commercial offerings on the market if you ask me. Unfortunately however, to my knowledge, there are really no such alternative when it comes to great drum VST's. That said I don't miss an EZDrummer grid editor.

Reaper/Midi and EZDrummer 2. For electronic music, if I want a more electronic/less realistic/authentic drum sound, I often also use Reason 5, though including some external 3rd party drum samples. Hardware for playing/recording the drums, in those cases where I'd rather do that than program them: a M-Audio Oxygen Pro 49 Midi keyboard that features weighted keys as well as drum pads.

Don't have any suggestion regarding inexpensive drums, I'd warmly recommend EZDrummer, but that's not exactly cheap, for programming midi though I can't recommend the free DAW Reaper enough (do have the decency to pay the maker the small amount of money (compared to commercial solutions that isn't one bit better) he optionally asks for though, for making such a great music creation tool available for free), in my experience as great as any commercial DAW (it's my preferred one).

Another thing you should be aware of technique wise, other than what BassAdder60 mentions, and the part about gripping the pick close the tip for better control that I mentioned, is to not use your arm to strum the pick, by far the majority of the movement is supposed to be in your wrist, not your elbow.

Maybe try different picks (a lot of brands offer variety packs). The actual pick, thickness, material and flexibility has a larger say in not only tone but also feel than most people realizes. You might find that simply finding the right pick for you will make picking a lot easier for you. Most bass players prefer relatively thick picks, but there are no rules, or such a thing as the ultimate one best pick for everyone, and I for instance really prefer the Dunlop USA Nylon .73mm, which is relatively flexible. Also to add what other people have already suggested, grip the pick close to the tip for improved control.

Is this a "find the two basses that got the P pickup oriented the proper way" kind of puzzle?

It might work on a modeler. Since a modeler will only replicate the EQ of the speakers not the actual excursion of them. And your small 10W combo amp might had been different too. But as someone who actually tried to play bass, and not very loud even, and not even a very bassy bass, for a recoding, through the Roland JC120 Jazz Chorus amp I once owned, I wouldn't recommend it. The speakers didn't like it that's for sure the way they behaved and violently moved about, and sounded pretty donkey too. To OP: As someone else has already pointed out I would hook up the actual amp part of your combo to an external cab made with bass being played through it in mind instead, that is unless you want to build the amp into a completely new combo cabinet with a design and dimensions fitting an actual bass speaker. Guitar amps can make great bass amps, guitar cabs and guitar speakers not so much.

No! Never! I am always right, even when proven wrong! And I have never unintentionally made myself look like a jerk! Never! Just ask your mom.

Happy as can be! Let's see how far off topic we can derail this, right? 🙋‍♂️👨‍🔧🦹‍♀️👩‍🎓🥷👩‍🚀🧛‍♂️🧙‍♂️👮‍♀️

Context, context really is everything: So does guessing right when judging people make it right to base your judgement on pure guesswork? In my book the decent thing to do is giving people the benefit of a doubt until proven otherwise. And I by far prefer to be proven wrong over being a jerk.

Ah, well, in that case I would say that the people here pointing out it not really being the right approach would actually be right. Get a more efficient active HPF to place in the effect loop, an extra one, or set the frequency of your current one to cut at a higher frequency.

A passive HPF will introduce resonance peak, not really the same as a regular EQ pedal at all. Also how exactly would a passive EQ be less complicated? You might as well ask why they just doesn't swap strings or use the amps EQ instead. I don't know what it is with certain people being so eager on various OP's getting it all wrong, and that they should rather do it their way, cause certainly that is much better and not least not stupid. It's like these people presume that people don't know what they are talking about by default, frankly it's rude.

I assume the active HPF that they are running in the effects loop of their amp currently is for filtering out unwanted sub bass, to get a tighter bass response and have the amp and speaker work more efficiently, whereas he passive HPF that they are asking about here and plan to place first in their signal chain is primarily for tone shaping purposes? Sort of like an extra, but working in reverse and being more flexible, and possibly switchable too, external (reverse) tone pot.

It's very easy to make your own passive HPF. Basically just a resistor pot and an adjustable capacitor with the right range, or if you don't need it to be adjustable simply just a resistor and a capacitor of the desired value, and then of course 2 mono jack sockets, some wires and some sort of box to fit it all in. Regarding active HPF's I find it strange how few companies actually offers a stand alone solution for this in a pedal format. The cheapest solution on the market for getting an active HPF would probably be buying a Zoom G1 Four or B1 Four, which both features a HPF model. Personally I use the one build into my NUX MLD Bass Preamp + DI, set @ 40Hz, previously using the switchable build in HPF fixed @ 40Hz of my ART Tube MP Project Series tube preamp.

A jazz tune by me, that features a real music video that I clipped together myself from stolen clips from various YouTube videos. The foundation of the tune is a loop from an improvised session I had with a friend years back with me on acoustic guitar and him on percussion, then midi programmed piano and trumpet, as well as the chaotic percussion towards the middle of the song, and then improvised electric bass and electric guitar on top of that played and recorded by me as well. It accompanies a reciting of an original Danish poem that I wrote, but it is probably for the best that I don't post the English translation I made here on the forum (if you click the video though both the Danish poem and the English translation is to be found in the video description). I should probably point out that the translated English title is not meant as a comment on the woke movement, the original Danish title is a word play on on the title of a famous poem by the Danish poet Søren Ulrik Thomsen, "Det Skabtes Vaklen", that just happens to translate best this way, though the original Danish title does not really hold this co-notation.

*sigh* What exactly are we even arguing about at this point? A hypothetical case that you imagined up, coming out of nowhere, totally out of context? Certainly has nothing to do with my point or my original message, or anything I wrote in this thread for that matter (in actual context to the discussion and that specific neck it is evolving around), anymore. Yes, they can do it close to perfect, and that's exactly what they do on that separate neck, then have a disclaimer that says it might still need work to get dead on perfect, cause it is not dead on perfect, I know they don't word it that way, but that's basically what it is. (feels like I've already said this numerous times by now, but seems like it mysteriously gets lost in the transfer to your side of the internet or something every single time). I give up! You win, here you go an imaginary price for your imaginary arguments.

Well, that was my point, wasn't it, yours seems however to have suddenly changed. That it ought to be at those kind of price points is a whole other discussion, but simply not possible on a separate new neck, regardless of well made with attention to details it otherwise is, as I already said in my original reply that you chose to argue with.

It constantly amazes me how blind people are, they can neither see pictures or text, or at least fail to make sense of them and connect the dots rationally, and in place of that instead turns to crazy presumptions.

As you can see on the picture of that neck the nut slots are in fact already cut, they are just not cut to dead on correct depth, which is what I am talking about, and I am pretty certain what they are talking about too in that disclaimer.

Well, hard to cut the nut slots correctly without the neck and strings being mounted, so not much of a surprise there, it would be the same no matter how well the neck otherwise was made, what shocks me is that it might require fret leveling, that definitely should not be the case for a neck at that price, heck my super cheap budget Ibanez Mikro Bass as well as my likewise budget Harley Benton GuitarBass had perfect fretwork right from stock.

Yeah, but that doesn't add up to the actual OP (original post). To OP (original poster): To me, since you describe how string action and neck relief makes no difference, it sounds like the D string for some reason might be rattling or resonating behind the nut or behind the saddle on the bridge, making sure to set witness point and having a sufficient break angle both at nut and saddle/bridge should rid you of this issue, if that is in fact what is happening. In that case you could also try to tie a broad hair band tight around the headstock, just behind the nut. That's my best bet at what might be causing the issue you are experiencing. Could of course also be due to a defective string, as suggested by the poster above. Edit!!: Could also possibly be caused by the string getting twisted when you strung it on your bass, in that case uninstalling and then reinstalling it might help.