Boodang

Apart from the sound, for my money, a fretless is more expressive. Lined fretless is a good place to start. If you can find one, get a s/h Squier vintage modified jazz fretless... it has a lined resin fingerboard which is glassy smooth.

Most bass rigs don't do well below 100hz, you'll often see -9db or more at 41hz. So although mids will cut through the mix more, boosting the bass on most rigs isn't very efficient. I've started using a rig with a dedicated sub, but as it's the Mackie DLM it's smaller than most rigs anyway. I find I get a cleaner sound this way and need less mids to be heard. Of course, if you're going thru a bigger PA you're at the mercy of the FOH engineer but if they're any good they should be able to give you a non growl sound that can be heard. Although for that you have to give the FOH a di that they can work with and is sympathetic to the PA setup.

Jack of all trades and master of none?

Or, a bit left field, try a phaser instead of an envelope filter... the Grape Phaser is super funky.

Brighten your board up with a pedal with great artwork! Photon Death Ray comp, a Jam pedal, Walrus have some great pedals, their Slo has some interesting modulated delays, Mr Black Fwonkbeta is super phat. Not as pretty, but how about a phaser? The Aguilar Grape phaser is super funky.

I put a Peterson Stroboclip on every bass I use so it's off my board and they more or less live on headstock permanently.

I quite like the 'fan' effect of the strings on the headstock, quite a pleasing geometry. I'm off to change all my strings!

I love my 4001 but I did have to make some changes.... the bridge obviously has to be swapped out, and nordstrand make a good neck pup replacement, so while I was at it, I went and replaced the bridge pup as well. I wasn't finding it that comfortable to play, so I took the bridge pup cover off, it still wasn't that comfortable and I don't think I got on with the body shape so I swapped out the body as well, but as it's a neck through I had to change that as well. Now the pups didn't really fit with the setup, so I changed them as well, and now it's perfect.

A friend of mine used to run a drum shop. People would go in, try everything, ask advice, and then go and buy from an online shop because it was a dollar cheaper. Now there's no local drum shop, and the punters complain they can't try anything out. Buy online and you don't like it when it arrives, there's a surprise!

.... welcome to motorcycle chat!

Get a used TC Electronic Spectracomp for 50 quid, then use the toneprints to see if you like compression and if you do, what type.

Ah, come back, your local friendly music shop, all is forgiven!

I agree, dual coils don't quite sound as good as single coils. I've fitted my jazz with a series/parallel switch for the best of both worlds.

Not sure about a comparison with Lotus. I mean, Lotus might actually have some 20th century technology in it, whereas Rics, like Harley engines, where designed in the Jurassic period.

Funny enough, EMG quote the impedance of their active pickups as 10K. An opamp would normally have a low impedance output but they've obviously not gone down that route so their pickups can just slot straight into a standard setup, and they have enough oomph for any standard passive or active preamp.

Well, I know you don't want to do much mod'ing but... my fav jazz bass I've owned, a Squier VM, I changed all hardware; pups, bridge, tuners, nut, preamp, and the whole thing came in at around £600. Played better than any USA standard version and I got exactly the setup I wanted. So, get a Squier and stick some EMGs in it.

Active pickup; so few windings the output is v low. Consequently it needs a preamp (normally an opamp) built into the pickup to boost the signal to a usable level. Fewer windings = greater bandwidth. Active preamp; an eq that can boost (passive eq can only cut).

Didn't I hear somewhere that Bruce Springsteen was born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA, born in the USA......

The trouble is 99% of the power produced by a Harley engine goes into making the seat vibrate (part of the self massaging seat feature built into all HDs).

Dictatorship or democracy in the end it all comes down to personalities. Mostly it's been democratic and for the most part worked well, except for one band many moons ago, which in retrospect was funny but at the time was a bit wearing. Everyone had an equal say but we all hated each other. Everyone would threaten to quit each week but the sum of the parts sounded so good no one would follow through with the threat. On one occasion we had a new manager and we all decided to meet up in the pub to discuss future plans. Always sounds a good idea to meet up in a pub, but alcohol, discussion, and this band were never a great mix. It soon descended into a slagging match, followed throwing beer mats at each other, then someone launching themselves across the table and knocking the beers over, followed by getting chucked out by the landlord. The new manager said, well I suppose that's the end of the band then, to which I replied, of course not it's like that every week, at which point the manager quit on the spot! Ah, fun times.

I've yet to come across an effect on a multi unit that sounds as good as a dedicated pedal. Plus the programming on a multi fx I've never found intuitive. And then there's the art work on pedals, multi fx just don't look as good. I buy all my pedals based on their art work, as this seems the most sensible way to do it. And they all sound great.... Seamoon funk machine, Photon Death Ray, Ripply Fall etc, no contest!

Had this custom made and 100% satisfied, and it's my go to bass..... until I change my mind and decide that a 7 string fretted or some such is the next thing I urgently need in my life!