BottomEndian

[quote name='alexclaber' post='568820' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:27 AM']...The Vintage has more upper midrange bite...[/quote] And lordy, it was niiiiice on WoT's fretless P. Added so much growl, bark, bite, woodiness (hat-tip to The Bass Doc for the terminology ) and all that.

[quote name='Mr.T' post='568795' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:14 AM']Oddly (or not?)..... I thought the Fender had the most 'full' sound.[/quote] The Fender's got bucketloads of top end. Absolute masses of it. And that's from two 15s, remember. It's not a sound that suits me -- I love the roll-off from the Vintage. It's useful for taming the stupidly aggressive fuzzes I use.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='568777' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:01 AM']I love my Bergs, and the modularity they provide, but the outcome of a real-world test could be.... interesting![/quote] I don't have much time to chip in now, but I'll just point this out for our dear readers: the Vintage weighs about the same as [b]one[/b] of those Bergs, or [b]one[/b] of the Aguilars. And (IMHO!) it absolutely wipes the floor with them.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='568720' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:07 AM']Never mind that - what about that shootout?![/quote] Patience, grasshopper. There's video to edit and all sorts! It was a very, [i]very[/i] interesting evening...

[quote name='Aussiephoenix' post='567690' date='Aug 13 2009, 09:42 AM']I've got a question for you all that's been nagging at me... I'm powering all of this using a boss transformer that's connected to the Boss Tuner, and from there, I have DaisyChain-age (2) that feed all the other pedals. a mate has brought it to my attention that the DC out of the Tuner shouldnt feed more than 200mA, and at the moment its feeding a lot more than that as you can see below. what are your thoughts on this?[/quote] Lawks. I'd have thought that lot would be drawing much more than 200mA, what with the Headrush in there. Stuff like digital delays and loopers tends to pull a lot of current. If there's genuinely a 200mA limit on the supply, that means you'll eventually either fry the power supply (or the tuner that's acting as a power-thru connection) or it'll have to drop the voltage supply to compensate. That means everything is getting less than 9V, so things might get noisy or unclear, and (speaking from experience with my Unibass) the switching on the Akai might get unreliable if it's not getting fed the full 9V. IMO, get something like a 1-Spot, which can supply about 1700mA, and daisychain from that, not through the tuner. That's what I do, and it all works nicely.

[quote name='Rich' post='567583' date='Aug 13 2009, 07:53 AM']That guitarist is neither psycho nor billy enough. He needs a huge Gretsch or something, and some silly hair. Perhaps his mum won't let him have a daft haircut?[/quote] Later picture, I think: Halfway there, but Mum's still in control. "Now Peter, if you're going to have that silly Grinch guitar or whatever it's called, you [b][i]must[/i][/b] wear your glasses. No, no arguments."

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='567308' date='Aug 12 2009, 09:11 PM']Is it just my imagination.... or were they on the go 20-odd years ago when I lived there? Surely not.. but sounds very familiar.[/quote] Well, their Myspace says they formed in 1998, but there may have been precursors that shared members. Certainly a couple of them (and definitely their old drummer) have enough years on them to have been going 20-odd years.

[quote name='chris_b' post='566887' date='Aug 12 2009, 03:58 PM']Has anyone used an upright bass in a punk band?[/quote] There's a band called [url="http://www.myspace.com/52pickuphateyou"]52 Pick-Up[/url] in Newcastle who do just that. Well, they're apparently "psychobilly", but the ethos and image seems to be fairly punk:

[quote name='umcoo' post='563586' date='Aug 8 2009, 05:26 PM']I could make a joke about a nice, clean muff, but I won't.[/quote] Well, I like your muff's huge shiny nubbin. Seriously, it's lovely, and it must be worth a pretty penny.

[quote name='umcoo' post='563477' date='Aug 8 2009, 02:04 PM'][/quote] Oh, f*** me. That's beautiful. The essence of simplicity and brutish function.

Anybody know who's responsible for the awesome bassness on Diana Ross's "I'm Still Waiting"? Wikipedia says "assorted LA musicians", so fat lot of good that is...

[quote name='EskimoBassist' post='561185' date='Aug 5 2009, 02:43 PM'][/quote] Niiiiiice. But barefoot switching is surely a bit painful on the Wobo? Have to ask... what's the signal chain?

[quote name='cheddatom' post='560954' date='Aug 5 2009, 10:23 AM']Plectrum GAS sounds like a serious psychological issue. Perhaps you need some therapy?[/quote] Absolutely. But at least it's cheap. GAS solved for 79p:

[quote name='cheddatom' post='560946' date='Aug 5 2009, 10:13 AM']I used to blend 2 loops of distortion and fuzz all the time. I then blended that with clean. Very punchy!!![/quote] Is it ridiculous of me to have "blended loop GAS"? Actually, no. I had plectrum GAS a few weeks back...

[quote name='cheddatom' post='560937' date='Aug 5 2009, 10:02 AM']Cool, I quite fancy a kit pedal. RE the "both" option - you can never have enough dirt pedals on at once. It would have been better if it was a blend of the two though.[/quote] I'm pretty sure a blend would be reasonably easy to do. If David at [url="http://www.loooper.com/"]Loooper[/url] was taking orders, he'd be able to do it, no problem. [url="http://redonionsolutions.co.uk/index.htm"]Red Onion[/url] could probably do it, and cheaply too. Hmmm. I'm tempted by that thought now.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='560909' date='Aug 5 2009, 09:34 AM']That is a nice rig!!![/quote] Ta. It's been building up over a good few years... [quote name='cheddatom' post='560909' date='Aug 5 2009, 09:34 AM']On your looper, when you select both, is it A->B or A+B and if it's the latter do you get volume issues?[/quote] Well, I never select "Both". It's actually on long-term loan from my guitarist. He's got a [url="http://woboge.com/boxes_proglooper.html"]Wobo Proglooper[/url] now, so the Loooper was sitting idle. If you switch "Both" on, it just connects the return from loop 1 to the send of loop 2, so it's 1 -> 2. He used to use it with drives in loop 1 and reverb/delay/crazy noisemakers in loop 2, which was quite nicely effective. If I switched on "Both"... well... structural devastation would probably ensue, especially if [i]everything[/i] in both loops was switched on. Two fuzzes, a drive and a distortion. Hmmmm. I just use the Loooper to switch from chunky drive (Hjärt Müller) to balls-out fuzz (Big Muff), then switch back over to the original loop (having switched Hjärt Müller off and Pickle Pie on) to get an even more balls-out fuzz sound from the Pickle Pie. An extra problem with the "Both" option is that it doesn't have an LED, so there's no visual indication if you've switched it on accidentally. Easy to notice if you've got reverb/delay in one loop. If it's all dirt boxes like mine, it just sounds like poop, and there's no obvious reason why your rig sounds like poop. [quote name='cheddatom' post='560909' date='Aug 5 2009, 09:34 AM']WTF is a Moodysounds Hjärt Müller?[/quote] [url="http://moodysounds.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_15&products_id=2"]Behold![/url] It's a DIY kit for about £45. The demo video on the Moody site doesn't really do it justice. It's just a nice, crunchy drive (compared to the Pickle Pie, anyway!) that retains a lot of bottom.

Here's my newly rearranged board: Signal comes in top-right: Sonic Research Turbo Tuner -> Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor -> Loooper (in Send/Return loop of NS-2) Loooper loop 1: EHX Bass Big Muff Pi -> Boss DF-2 Super Distortion & Feedbacker Loooper loop 2: Moodysounds Hjärt Müller -> Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie B Loooper out (via Return for NS-2) -> Boss RC-20XL Loop Station -> Line6 Bass PODxt -> Tapco J800 power amp -> Barefaced Vintage And obviously the FBV Express controls the POD.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='560381' date='Aug 4 2009, 05:10 PM']Is username "JanekGwizdala" Janek? or is "Gwizmon"? I'm confused... have we an imposter? Or multiple IDs? Anyway, top post Dave. Wolverine is a champ.[/quote] Gwizmon doesn't exist any more, and all of Gwizmon's posts have had their author changed to JanekGwizdala. So Janek must have had his username changed. Simple.

Another random thought for BGM staff/contributors to consider: It'd be nice if a consistent house style was applied to the chord symbols in the notated examples. For example, we've got Cm7 in Dave Marks' B-flat jazz blues bit, but Janek's got his minor chords notated as A-. Now, I know that A- = Am = Amin, but someone with less knowledge might assume -- because they're in the same magazine and they look like different things -- that they [i]are[/i] different things. Years of confusion ensue. Personally, I'd go for m=minor, maj=major (seventh), dim=diminished (none of this circle stuff) etc. IME, triangles and minus signs are much more common in the US.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='558729' date='Aug 2 2009, 08:30 PM']Hmmm. I'm not sure that the intonation as such is actually "wrong", it's more a matter of where Ibanez have put the markers. If I try to adjust the intonation to move the "right notes" to just behind the markers, I suspect that I'll open a can of worms. [/quote] It's what [url="http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/intonation3.html"]Gary Willis recommends[/url] -- and who am I to argue? It definitely makes it easier for me to switch between fretted and fretless like this.

[quote name='Moos3h' post='557717' date='Aug 1 2009, 12:30 PM']Alex James (Blur) - Best Bass Line = Beetlebum. What the hell?[/quote] Yeah, there're a few weird choices for "Best Bass Line". I mean, what about "There's No Other Way" or "Girls & Boys"? And "This Charming Man" for Andy Rourke? Probably one of his most staid, root-heavy lines. Hmmm.

I haven't even been near any incarnation of the NME for years, and this page sums up why: [url="http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&title=greatest_bass_players_have_your_say&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1"]Greatest Bass Players - Have Your Say[/url] Here's my favourite bit of bulls**t: [quote]You look at Johnny Marr, or John Squire, or Eddie Van Halen, and you think, yes, I'd kill to be able to play like that. Conversely, you observe the masters of the bassist's art – people like Jaco Pastorius and Pino Palladino, with their liquid, fretless, floppy-fingered ways – and you think, hmm, perhaps I'll leave it.[/quote] No, I don't think that at all. I think the opposite of that.

[quote name='toneknob' post='557668' date='Aug 1 2009, 11:28 AM'][url="http://www.nme.com/rate/bassplayer/start"]http://www.nme.com/rate/bassplayer/start[/url] Last time I looked, Jaco was on 4.63 out of 10, and the chap from Arctic Monkeys was doing better than James Jamerson.[/quote] Apparently some guy called Roger Walters plays bass for Pink Floyd.

So no one's mentioned [url="http://www.eversonguitars.com/"]Paul Everson[/url], even though he's a member here and he's got three pages in this month's BGM? (Beware: the website's hideous.) I don't understand (looking at the "Nouveau Simple") how a bass made of solid wood can come in under 4 lb.

From your list, I've only got the Moody Hjärt Müller, but there probably aren't many people here who've got one, so I'd better give you my opinion. Just be aware that I know nothing of the others on your list, so I've got no comparisons. For a start, it's an easy build. Having said that, I've built quite a few things over the years (including a theremin), so it might not be great for a beginner. But there's nothing overly complicated -- a couple of hours at most. As for sound, it's a very straightforward drive, but with plenty of bottom. The tone knob ("Klang") takes you from duvet-over-the-speaker to brash, balls-out rawk, and the drive knob lets you set it to just give you that "edge". For me, it's a little unexciting (compared to something like the Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie B :wub:), but it has a job and it does it nicely. I reckon if this pedal had a name like MXR or EBS on it, it'd be £120 instead of £45.