cameltoe

[quote name='bass5' post='780629' date='Mar 20 2010, 11:21 AM']I am sure you would have seen this video already, if not, check it out, it's a shootout between the 3 Classic Vibe basses and their Fender counterparts, by none other than the great Ed Friedland [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Cd98DH__U"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Cd98DH__U[/url][/quote] They just look cooler don't they? They sound pretty damn good too- maybe a tad 'brighter' to my ears, but then they are brand new. I don't know about the rest of you, but as good as this video is, you only really find out about how the bass sounds and what it can/can't do once you're playing with a band. Hopefully the squiers would be as powerful as the fenders to either drive a band or cut through the mix.

Great Thread! I'm a fan of Precisions, it's just the way it thumps it's way out. Lock in with the drummer, and you can literally feel your chest pounding. As for stingray's, I've never played one. I'd be interested to know how people describe the Stingray sound? More mids than a P? There was a guy playing one in the band I saw last night. I think they look amazing, his didn't sound too great last night though, it was too loud for a start, and sounded kinda 'farty', if you get me. No discernable lows or highs really, a very flat farty sound. It was a real one, by the way, but I understand the bass is only gonna sound as good as the guy who sets the EQ. How would you describe the sound compared to a P then? That pickup looks quite far back though- must be a bit twangier than a P?

I almost bought the '51 reissue last year, can't think why I didn't in the end, as I love the telebass look. Between the '51 and the '60's I'd be very torn- the '51 does have the maple neck! I'm trying to establish whether these are actually better pieces of kit than the Mexican's full stop. I know better is subjective! My mexican does everything I need it to do, but it doesn't look as cool as either of the squiers. If they're better, than it's a no-brainer for me!

I've been hearing nothing but good things about the Classic Vibe Jazz, and I wondered if the praise was as appropriate for the '60's Precision version? My local music shop had a bunch in the other day- no precision unfortunately, but I did test out the jazz and it felt nice, although I wasn't blown away, primarily because it was wearing stainless strings which sounded really clanky, and the set up was poor. Out the box they should be wearing nickel strings right? Maybe the shop messed around with it. Anyway- I have an '08 Mexican precision which I love, and was wondering if the Classic Vibe Precision would be on a par (or even better) than the Mex? (I read a review where some guy said it blew his mex out the water and wasn't far away from the Am Std.) If so, I have a cheap Aria knocking about, might consider trading it in for the CV and then selling the Mex..... On a different note- would a switch to a Mighty Mite neck on either a Mex P. or a Squier CV be a good modification to make? Reason I ask, is because my Mex has rosewood fretboard, and the CV has rosewood, but I love Maple necks! If it would improve either bass to whack a maple Mighty Mite on, then I may consider it. A sonic blue CV P with a maple neck gets my GAS flowing.....

Dreadful neck dive on these. If you want to have a good technique, don't buy! This was my first bass and I've been in the habit of 'cradleing' the neck in my palm of every bass ever since this, for fear of neck dive. Big, messy, muddy sound. No tightness to the bottom end at all. Looks awesome though!

cheers!

I'm undergoing some mods of an Aria J-bass copy I picked up, and one thing that interests me is to add a switch to allow the pickups to be switched to series wiring. Can anyone talk me through how to do this? Or direct me to an easy-to-follow guide? I'm fairly handy with a soldering iron, can get my mitts on a switch, and have a few lengths of wire left over from a previous project. Cheers

I'm wanting to brush up my technique, have someone assess my left and right hand positions, and generally make me a better player all round! A lot of teachers near me are guitar players who also teach bass. I'm not suggesting I won't learn anything off them, but for fear of being taught theory by someone who seldom picks up a bass I'd like an actual bass player, one with experience I can draw from, who can push my playing on a bit. Any ideas?

I think this is the route i'll go down. I've never had anyone assess my playing so......

I might take a few lessons at some point, however I think the majority of teachers near me who teach bass are primarily guitar teachers. Thats not to say I won't learn something from them, but they may approach it from more of a 'theory' point of view when it comes to teaching bass. I'm fairly comfortable with the technique I use, but it's only once i try and do it correctly I realise how much easier it gets to reach all the frets without moving my left hand- with my technique, I slide my hand around more than I should have to, and any kind of big stretches are a pain. At the moment though, the 'correct' technique (apologies Will Lee and Randy Jackson) feels unsecure. And the thought of doing it WITHOUT gripping the neck with my thumb seems completely unrealistic for me at this point!

I've noticed recently that I tend to hold the neck in the palm of my left hand whilst playing, especially while hitting the D and G strings. Almost how you would hold a guitar whilst playing chords, the bottom of the neck sitting right in my palm. I think it started because it feels more secure in my hand than the correct technique, which would obviously be to have my thumb pressing off the back of the neck, with my fingers more 'square on' to the fret board. The way I play I often lead with my ring finger (if I'm not going to be subsequently going up the fretboard, in which case I'd lead with the index). I noticed recently as I've started to find indexing the 1st fret a bit of a unnecessary stretch. It feels a tad uncomfortable. But then again, so does the 'correct' technique. Obviously I want to be as good a player as I can, and be as comfortable as I can, so I wondered if this is something I should nip in the bud now? I've only been playing 18 months or so, and I blame many years of guitar playing and a neck-heavy Epiphone EB-O as a first bass as the culprits. Interestingly enough, I tend to use a more conventional technique when I'm playing sat down, so maybe I am doing it subconciously to prevent neck drop? My P bass doesn't suffer from that thank god. Does anyone else do this? Should I learn the correct technique or is it not a problem?

I figured I'd probably be advised to sell! I may try and trade first- I'd rather that than try and sell it all. Those two Hartke cabs look really good- just what I'm after. That and a head and I'd be sorted. Cheers guys!

I've got a Hartke VX3500 combo that I hardly ever use, purely because the majority of gigs we play just aren't big enough to warrant me lugging the thing around, plus I have a much smaller AC Euro amp, 200w, that does the job for everything but the biggest venues. I bought the Hartke from new, and I love the way it sounds. I like a nice, punchy sound so with my precision the 4x10 speakers do the job nicely. This is hard to replicate on my AC Euro that has just the 1x15" driver. Although loud enough, I'm not crazy about the sound I get from it. It was a fairly cheap second hand purchase. Ideally, and looking back now, I should probably have bought a seperate amp head, with maybe 2 2x10 cabs, that way I could just bring the extra cab when I needed to really crank it, and the rest of the time I'd be using the head I like, with a 2x10 combo. There was a good deal on at the time with the combo though and it was a good price. It was my first bass amp, so I just kinda rushed into buying one without thinking it through. A solution would be to sell the combo, and the AC Euro, and buy the stuff I need, but that's an awful lot of hassle, plus potentially lost money. A trade would be good, but that could take ages to find someone willing, and I may still end up worse off. Being a fan of finding a DIY solution, and realising I have all the components I need, I wondered if it would be advisable to basically hack my combo to pieces, and buy (if possible) or make new enclosures for the drivers to create the 2 cabs, and also to box the head seperately, thus allowing me to use the amp I like! Has anyone done this before, would you advise it? All suggestions welcome.

[quote name='JackLondon' post='756219' date='Feb 24 2010, 04:23 PM']Right chaps, Seems like there's a lot of people on here building their own effects so it might be a good idea to have one thread where we can have all of the hard work in one place. Hopefully one of the mods will sticky this for us. What got me into effects was 2 separate things. 1st was a request from my guitarist to build him a loop pedal and 2nd was all the recent threads about the effects which made me think ''I can do that'' and of course the fact that I'm unemployed until 11th of April and have loads of time on my hands. My first project is a double bypass loop kit which can be found here [url="http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/info/p380_Double-Bypass-Looper.html/XTCsid/39234f691992d87833cb450a8ffe5743"]http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/i...3cb450a8ffe5743[/url] It's a very simple thing for the first project so I'm happy with it. Progress so far : The box has been pre-drilled [attachment=43460:IMG_0119.JPG] There's another little box on there about which you can find out a little bit down. The second stage will be to apply the decal of which the template is this, not that it has the position of LEDs and switches on it as a reference point. [attachment=43461:Loop.jpg] The second project is a fuzz face pedal which can be found here : [url="http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/info/p1619_The-Face-Silicon---Fuzz-kit.html/XTCsid/39234f691992d87833cb450a8ffe5743"]http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/i...3cb450a8ffe5743[/url] I believe that it's a good project to be my 2nd attempt, you saw the pre-drilled box for it in one of the pics above and here is a template for a decal : [attachment=43462:Fuzz.jpg] I am waiting on some toners for my printer as well as some paint so as soon as it arrives I can start putting it together. For now I'm going to put my mind into making myself a proper workbench as I think that my Mrs does not aprecaite me using kitchen worktops Expect a build report on a workstation tomorrow.[/quote] A step by step would be awesome if you're feeling up to it! I've always fancied building my own pedals, and as I'm in the market for a fuzz the idea of making my own on the cheap is even better. Unfortunately the only electronics work i've done is a basic wiring upgrade. I can handle soldering wires, but how to all the little resistors, capacitors, chips and whatever else, attach themselves to the circuit board? Witchcraft? I've got a Behringer DC9 compression pedal and it's got a fake stomp switch. It annoys me a bit so I bought a real switch thinking it wouldn't be too hard to change over. I gave up just looking at it.