SumOne

I suppose it just comes down to semantics but it is the amount of 'craft' or technical knowledge/training that many 'artists' have to have that got me thinking that it is often more about learning and applying a craft than being artistic. e.g. a Ballerina, no doubt it is a highly skilled thing to do and takes years of technical training, but when it comes down to it - how much is actual artistic expression, and how much is by applying what has been taught and doing as instructed? Me playing a cover version of a song on the Bass? I think that is almost entirely down to having spent the time to learn the craft of playing, I don't think I'm really adding anything particularly artistic. And even when I make up an original bassline - I think I'm just applying knowledge of all the other basslines I've heard and played and applying some music theory and technical playing skill, but art - from the soul communicating my inner emotions?!?...I'm not so sure! It's more 'minor key = sad' 'major key = happy' 'phrygian = exotic'!

The general consensus/cliche is that musicians are artists - creative, expressing themselves, communicating emotions n'all that. But is that what you think of yourself? Seems a bit pretentious to me! Perhaps I've got no soul or artistry, but the more I play music and learn about it the more I think of it as a process, a technical skill. Is being in an orchestra and sight reading artistic? Is playing a cover version with some embellishments? Is even playing some sort of free-form Jazz? After all, even that is mostly about applying technical skill and music theory. Is making original music? Usually that seems to very heavily rely of pre-existing musical formulas. I think there are some musicians that are genuine 'artists', people that really do something original that transcends technical skill and know how, that's only a small % of musicians though.

Now I think of it, the list is probably quite long! I started the list with Boss but will need to get back to it for all the others when I get time/memory! Boss AW-3 Auto Wah Boss BB-1X Bass Driver Boss BF-3 Flanger Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus Boss GEB-7 Bass Equaliser Boss GT-1000 Core Boss GX-10 Boss GX-100 Boss LMB-3 Limiter Enhancer Boss LS-2 Line Selector Boss OC-5 Octave Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive Boss RC-5 Loop Station Boss RE-20 Space Echo Boss RE-202 Space Echo Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer Boss TU-3 Tuner

Yeah, there is that added issue with keys being a new instrument to play. Luckily I have some basic piano skills from a couple of years playing as a kid and occasional noodling about on the piano as an adult, and generally the synth basslines that I want to play are pretty basic (in fact, most of the bast synth basslines seem quite basic e.g. the ones mentioned above 'Thriller' and 'I just can't get enough'). There is also some demand in the band for offbeat chord stabs in our Reggae tunes which is partly encouraging me to get an MPC Key 37 (for those organ and piano sounds as well as synth bass). I'm a bit cautious about going too far down that route though as it means handing over Bass duties to another bandmate for those songs and I do still find bass guitar the most fun instrument to play (especially for Reggae), I wouldn't want to turn into a keyboard player!

I like playing Bass synth on a bass guitar and can certainly see the attraction to pedals like this and am tempted - but the more tempted I got the more I've look into it and am finding it difficult to look past the advantages to a small synth keyboard, something like the Korg Monologue, Novation Bass Station, Yamaha Reface CS, Behringer MS-1. I know it's an extra thing to take to a gig and probably needs a stand and the faff of wiring up to the PA etc. so there are definitely downsides, but on the other hand the upsides are they're just so much better at playing synth sounds (physically with the keys - playing chords etc and having on-hand parameter editing, and also sounds available etc), and most are a similar sort of price to the MXR (especially second hand). So I think personally, I'm going to go for the classic envelope filter + octaver + distortion + modulation pedal combinations for my synthy sounding bass guitar, and a small synth keyboard for pure synth sounds. (Then it has got me considering the MPC Keys 37 to also have drum loops and production stuff....but that's a whole different story!)

I had been considering getting the MXR Bass synth pedal, and recently thought a a small drum machine will be good to have, and my stage piano doesn't get bought along to gigs as it's too much faff/too big for the limited parts I'd use it for....so in a round-about way that has put a MPC Keys 37 right to the top of my wishlist!

New Chronixx album 'Exile' is worth a listen. One of my favourites from it:

When Italo Disco was good, it could be really good :

The rules are: 1. Say a pedal is great while you own it (knowing you might someday want to sell it) 2. Continue to say it is great while you try to sell it (say something like 'best pedal ever, but doesn't fit with my current projects') 3. Out of politeness to the new buyer don't publicly disrespect the pedal for a while. 4. Move on to hype of a shiny new thing being announced, openly criticise the old pedal. I think we're still only up to stage 3!

I might have it wrong, but I think the chorus sort of effect (a detune/doubling effect +/- 20 cents) was via the pedal. Ah yeah, my semitone maths wansn't on point! So in that case he has basically dropped down the low E to a C and that sounded okay to me, hopefully one more semitone would be okay. I guess it is the sort of thing you might feel when playing (perhaps a bit of latency) more than being an issue in how it sounds in a recording. Although come to think of it, I don't think I ever play a low B in my current 90min set, the lowest is a D a few times. So getting used to just dropping down to that is probably better than dropping all to BEAD. I'll add it to my expanding wishlist of pedals! (along with MXR Bass synth, Boss RE-2, and some sort of analogue envelope filter).

Sounds good. Could replace an Octaver, Chorus, and a hipshot drop tuner, and things like the Digitech Drop as I'd find it useful for stuff like blending in a shifted up 5th into a fuzz. It could even convert me from a 5 to a 4. He goes 2 steps down in the video but I wonder how good it'd sound switching 4 steps down (EADG to BEAD), there are a couple of songs I'd find that useful for with a 4 string and mentally that just feels like it'd keep things simpler than mucking about with different semitone settings for different songs or different parts of songs. One problem I have with pitch shifting is potential for getting confused (I was in a band with a guitarist that kept getting caught out by his pitch shifter being set to the wrong amount, or engaged/disengaged at the wrong time - it wasn't technically the fault of the pedal but I think they can easily lead to confusion if the player hasn't really mastered it).

Yeah, like I said - not all Dingwalls are that heavy....but they do all tend to be on the hefty side of things, I see a Combustion currently for sale on here is 4.7kg and that isn't unusual. An average Combustion or NG3 seems to be at least 4.2kg. I'd hope something that sort of weight doesn't have neck-dive or something is quite seriously wrong with the design. The trickly thing is making a well-balanced lightweight 5 string - like the Ibanez EHB MS average of about 3.3kg.

Doesn't stop them being more innovative than a traditional headstock. e.g. this new Dingwall hanging mechanism, quite unique looking string clamps at the headstock end and a fairly unique looking tuning mechanism. More innovative than slapping some generic hipshot tunes onto a headstock. Isn't that what Dingwall are saying - it took a long time because it is headless and needs new innovations?

Indeed, opinions are just that (including saying my opinion is nonsense!). How are Headless 'certainly not innovative' (noting that opinions are just opinions) Headless to me seems more innovative than just having a fairly standard headstock - it requires different things like new bridges/tuners/headstocks/string clamps/hanging mechanism etc. Balance is more of an issue with light basses, it's not too difficult to stop a bass having neck-dive if the body is heavy...but people don't tend to like heavy basses. I had a Combustion and it was about 4.5kg, I think that weight would be quite a downside to a lot of people - even though it balanced well (I guess it needed to be that heavy at the body partly to balance a 37" scale with a headstock and tuners at the far end). Not all Dingwalls are that heavy, but a lot are whereas something like a Ibanez EHB is about 3.3kg and well balanced. Going headless is an obvious way of being able to make the bass well balanced and light - especially on a bass with 5 strings and a long scale. Strandberg led the way with headless multiscales way back in about 2007, Ibanez released cheaper multiscale headless bass in 2020 to a mass market - they have been popular and other companies like Hils and Sire have since followed....and now Dingwall are doing the same at least about 6 years late to the party, how is that not dropping the ball on it?

Nice one. I've been hoping for a headless Dingwall for ages. I think they dropped the ball on this and are now playing catch up on multiscale headless with Ibanez (and Strandberg, Hils, Sire). If you're making basses for people that like innovation (which is generally the Dingwall selling point) then it seems crazy to have old fashioned impractical headstock (heavy exactly where you don't want weight) when headless technology is what it is now.

I agree that the GX-10 that I already have is the simplest way to switch between different EQ and drive sounds at a click of a footswitch and I think on reflection that is probably what I'll stick with. And there is tone shaping on bass controls (although that is limited, and I'm wanting instant 'click now' for tone change). ...but there are certain drawbacks to multi-fx (particular ones for me: hands-on adjustments live, and adding fx that the multi-fx doesn't do well like envelope filter and synth leading to a large and complicated pedalboard needing two power supplies etc.), there are pros and cons - if multi-fx was the absolute best solution for everyone there would be no market for things like 2 channel amps with footswitches, EQ pedals with presets, Preamp pedals with presets (like the VT Deluxe), loop switcher pedals.

Cheers, yeah my Boss GX-10 can do a similar sort of thing where each of the footswitches is a preset so that's what I'm doing at the moment (e.g. 'dub', 'punk', 'clean'). My main issue with that is it feels a bit restrictive but to be honest, I think all of what I want is all do-able on the GX-10 as a multi-fx with presets/snapshot (or whatever Boss call it) and then adding external things like synth and envelope filter as individual pedals in the fx loop (and the fx loop can be on/off controlled by presets). It is just that classic thing of the multi-fx being more convenient/cost effective etc but being a bit less 'hands on' for on spontaneous stuff. ....and probably the biggest factor is I've had the GX-10 for long enough that I'm trying to find excuses to buy new pedals! This caught my eye in the 'shiny new stuff I want to buy but probably don't need' category: ,

Yeah, I think you are probably right. The main issue I have with programmable presets is I tend to completely leave them alone when playing live or even when rehearsing - as having 7 other people in the band stand around while I kneel down and click through menus to try and adjust parameters and hit save etc. seems risky or at least just a bit of a faff. But that is something I could get more confident with if I actually edited the presets more in a band setting. Also, I find multi-fx are still a bit lacking with stuff like synth and envelope filters - once I add them, I need a power brick, and a pedalboard, and the multi-fx to change EQ presets, it all seems to get a bit big and complicated and looses a bit of the spontaneity individual pedals on or adjusting dials. But yeah, multi-fx is probably the most sensible and cost effective option.

I like the look of the 2 channel Markbass LMK 58R https://www.markbass.it/product/lmk-58r/ ... the main drawback is the £700 price tag so I'll keep an eye out for cheaper alternatives.

I have a couple of songs that need quick EQ change to go from punky stuff to dub/reggae. At the moment I'm using a multi-fx (Boss GX-10) with presets and that probably is the simplest option, but my eye has been wondering towards a few individual pedals lately (synth and filters) so might be on the path back to a pedalboard - I could incorporate the GX-10 but it the whole thing starts getting a bit big and complex. Any suggestions? Multiple EQ pedals? e.g. nothing too fancy needed, a couple relatively small/cheap graphic EQ pedals with one set to dub EQ, the other with mid/high boost..... a switcher pedal would be used for it to be a single click between them and to also add turn on distortion to the punky stuff (I already have a Bright Onion loop switcher). An EQ pedal with presets. Not many of these around though, the Source Audio EQ2 looks like the one to get - but at £280 new it isn't far off decent small multi-fx costs and is more than getting a couple of GEB-7 type EQs. I feel doing 'long press' footswitch or button press stuff won't really work live where I need to switch instantly or perhaps adds a bit of complexity/room for error. Multi-fx for different EQ presets and add the individual pedals I want (e.g. synth and envelope filter). this might mean changing the GX-10 for something more pedalboard friendly though (back to the GT-1000 for about the 3rd time?!). ....Or get quick at knob twiddling on the amp!

I think we can all agree that Steven Seagal singing "Me want the poonani, see for make nice" in a Jamaican accent is perfectly acceptable:

The Cab cover I bought from Hotcovers on Wednesday afternoon arrived at my door 48hrs later. It seems well made and tough, fits nicely and is quite thick padding. I'd recommend.

Left handed Basses, especially Jazz basses. They are just the mirror image of the right handed ones but they look gross!