Boodang

Ahh, the perfect tone... one minute you have it, the next it's gone! I currently love my setup but sure by next year I'll wonder what I heard in it. When I do get the itch to change tone, it'll start with strings, move on to pickups, then onboard preamps, and finally I'll change all my pedals. If I'm lucky the whole thing will extend to amp and speakers! And the whole thing will only last 12 months before starting again.

When I play sitting down I rest the bass on my left leg, classical guitar style. To make this work, as the end of the neck is further away, I use a classical guitar foot rest to raise my leg and tilt the neck slightly towards my body. In this way my left hand is not too stained when down the low end and the body is at the right angle to make it easy to keep my wrist straight. If you want an example of someone doing this well, check out Janek Gwizdala and some of his YouTube vids. In the long run I definitely think this technique is worth persevering with.

Not yet.... busy this half of the week but I will get a chance later and I'll do some clips of both pedals and a write up.

I'm going to post a review of both pedals on BC later this week. I'll do some sound samples as well.

I've had a Solid Gold FX Supa Funk now for a few weeks. I'm running a passive jazz through it and yes, it doesn't take much to clip it. However... I connected a spectra comp in front of it (I wouldn't normally put a compressor in front of an envelope filter) and it's cured the problem. I thought the compressor might make the pedal not respond very dynamically but that's not been the case, in fact it seems to prefer it. I've also got a Seamoon funk machine, that doesn't clip and doesn't like it when you put the compressor in front of it. Now I've cured the clipping issue with the supa funk I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

...or even an Ashbory...

I went through a phase of only taking unlined fretless basses to gigs. Did cut down on the number of times I got asked to lend one out!

Good luck with the physio, hope it works out and you can keep playing. Just a suggestion in case it might help, when I play sitting down I rest the bass on my right leg when I'm predominantly playing in the lower register and on my left leg (classical guitar style) when it's higher up the neck.

So... I now own both pedals! Once I've had a play with them I'll do a review and post in the BC review section. Suffice to say they are both keepers and between them make super funk machines.

I'm now looking at getting a custom stool made in steam punk style with lots superfluous dials, pipes etc just to make a feature of it on stage!

Out of interest, would sitting work? I've got to a stage in life where I can't be arsed to loon about on stage live, I use a musicians stool and do the whole gig sitting with no strap (admittedly it's jazz and no one in the band is standing). I remember seeing Herbie Flowers play with Sky and he did the same thing only with more talent.

The Ibanez 7 string comes with a plain F string but I'm sure you could get custom sets made. Just got to pay attention to gauges so you end up with a balanced set.

No experience but was looking at the 7 string Ibanez. I string my 5 as high C but it looks like once you go up to F it's a plain string ie. not wound, which might feel a bit weird.

Replacement pickups definitely the quicker and easier route to a vintage tone. Put some Creamery 60s style pups in my Squier Jazz.... what a transformation.

This was back in the 90s, a small venue in Luton with an indie band in the style of 'power of dreams'. Can't remember the name of the band other than they obviously didn't make it big. Their 'professionalism' might have had something to do with that!

Had the same thing in reverse, we were the support to a 'pro' band and their bassist broke a string (no spare bass, no spare strings! What a pro!). I had spare strings, he broke another one! I gave him another one and he didn't break any more. I had to leave before they finished packing up after the gig and was cursing that there was no thanks from the band. Some time later at the same venue, the sound engineer recognised me and handed me one of my wind up extension leads I'd left behind. When I opened it up out came a load of cash and a thank you note from the string breaking bassist! Restored my faith somewhat.

The only bridge I've seen that actually has made a difference on an oscilloscope... a Ray Ross saddle-less. It's a weird bridge... any body got one?

According to the blurb from (some) bridge manufacturers, the key element in transferring string vibrations, regardless of the mass involved, is the amount of contact the saddle has with the base of the bridge, thus, 2 grub screws are quite inefficient at doing this. Having a saddle that sits flush is apparently much better but the engineering solution so that this can happen whilst still being height adjustable has to be quite elegant. KSM and Babicz more or less manage this, but that's why they are expensive.

There is an arguement for low mass bridges! But to be honest the only difference I've found with either is that after market bridges like KSM etc are just better engineered than a standard one.

Well, an update after a couple of weeks of playing... they've needed tuning up every day (how stretchy are these strings!), but they stay stable for a whole session. I've given them plenty of abuse, picking, slapping (yes, even on a fretless!) and they've shown no signs of the delicacy mentioned on the packet. So, these are now my fav strings... great sound and feel, especially on the fretless.

Not so much to replace the guitar but more to create a bigger sound, I use an octaver and, instead of a chorus, a phaser for the more rhythmic parts. For more radical sounds i use a EHX mono synth pedal. Really big sounds and some of them you can tame for normal use.

At least you don't have to change DB strings that often! I still think there should be a campaign to make sure EUBs are made with proper tuners.