krispn

Surely the Boss BCB90x is the obvious choice.

looks like a scene from Spinal Tap 2 *there is no Spinal Tap 2

I think the JMJ is based off a 60’s Mustang. I know very little about Mustangs other than my jmj is a cracking wee bass. It’ll do a lot of the p bass type stuff and loves a bit of synth and sub stuff.

Nope I’m a nurse who has done some additional training in vaccinations/immunisation- helping out with our annual flu jab clinic and some community immunisation stuff a few years back. We have a lot of concerned patients who want to discuss all aspects of Covid 19 so it’s important to be informed when they ask us about restrictions lifting, when they can go see their family or when their delayed discharge will eventually happen. We’ve a couple of folk who would have moved to their own accommodation by now (back in March in fact) so you can imagine the frustrations. I’d love to tell them my ‘educated guess’ is they’ll be moving on in May but I can’t really pull a figure out of the air. Instead we’re all dealing in the reality of the situation and we’re all trying manage that as best we can. My missus is studying microbiology as part of her degree course so I’m getting some great info and discussion (vicariously) through listening in on her lectures - some of her uni lectures are involved in Covid research (I ask her to listen to her online lectures without headphones so I can earwig in).

It's why I've asked a few times as other's may have too where does this end of May idea come from?

Optimism is a wonderful thing but I've mentioned before it needs to be tempered with some realism. Look at all those poor folk who, right up until midday on Wednesday, were expecting Trump to remain as president. What is their fall back - It's still a fix? He didn't lie to us? Deep State? and other self talk to convince themselves that they're right and everyone else is wrong? @Al Krow I'd be keen to know what inside track you have on this fixed date of the end of May? To me it reads a bit like the old Donald Trump 'double down'! The whole world, I think, can acknowledge the collective effort to get a vaccine developed and out to the public as well as the logistical task of getting it distributed. What raises concerns for some of us and I'm in this camp is we're effectively looking at giving the vaccine 'off license' and it's not really, nor could it really have been, the panacea that it's been promised due to what appears to be the evolving strain and this off license use. I'd be surprised if the Boris Government don't suggest the cold snap is another goverement plan to stop the virus in it's tracks and will somehow lay claim to the weather as part of their strategic roll out across the country!

I found switching to iem (very cheap behringer kit) in conjunction with the stomp IR’s made for a very convincing tone for me and the band mates. The same tones coming out the FOH were great too. Folks can argue over better or not but it’s nice to have options.

Foot switch FS?

Bravo Sir! 👏 👏

No flurry of updates following today’s news?

Yup I have also put a cab IR on a footswitch so I can darken things a touch. It’s basically a very simple eq option run in parallel on one patch. Depends what you want as an end result but it works on that patch for me.

Fair enough.

So do I but then we’d never have met 🥰

Just do what I did - get a Cali CB and pair it with a Hudson Broadcast pedal! Bingo! A transformer based pedal and a killer compressor. I ran that set up for some time but sold them both for the big box TX

aye the prices are now daft. I have the big box with iron core TX wonder what the Bass Gallery would give me for it 😀

I had a MacBook fail and while apple claimed it was outside their 1 yr warranty they suggested I go to the reseller- Curry’s and make a complaint as it wouldn’t be expected to fail within that time period. Ironically Apple didn’t see fit that it should be fixed by them while telling me to go back to Curry’s. Luckily the store manager was from N. Ireland as am I and I threw a bit of thick country ignorance at him and he understood (I told him I had Applecare on an iPad Pro which meant two free replacements. I explained to him how I’d be up to collect my new iPad Pro tomorrow as I felt my current one might be about to have an accident and I might just “accidentally” break that one too so he could expect me back the following day for my second free replacement). Needless to say he agreed to fix the issue!

Or use the clean tube pre amp amp setting add a bit of comp (if you like) and a bit of the parametric eq and you can tune it to suit more or less exactly the clean sound you’re after.

I said somewhere else recently but those early Fender 51-54’s with the ‘baseball bat’ necks sounds great because of the chunky necks not in spite of them.

I’ve had a few and if you want clean, flexible and a solid platform for using existing pedals a Basswitch preamp is hard to overlook. I’ve owned one since 2012/2013 and it’s got a host of features which made it and continue to make it a great all rounder. Twin inputs and two channels A/B - one passive, one runs into the eq (plug in one bass and you can switch between channel A or B) One input has an impedance switch for piezos so good for an upright etc. dual fx loops - one series, one parallel (series is always on, parallel is switchable via footswitch), clean blend on the switchable fx loop. It also functions as a clean boost or can boost the fx in that loop - and it has a phase switch! ‘Studio grade’ Four band eq with dual semi parametric eq, DI which runs via a transformer , Mute switch etc etc etc It’ll also drive a power amp or powered cab and can take 9-24v power and does internal trickery to filter and stabilise the power coming into it. Ive used it live for years, my fiddle player used it for a while when deciding on which preamp to get and honestly while this is a bass DI I think it sounded better than the preamp she ended up buying - likely due to the semi eq, the impedance switch and the quality DI! It’s a lot of pedal!

Or a job at Which

I have a used CV Jazz (which I repsrayed ad upgraded the pick ups) and a bitsa P which I’ll likely never shift. Not had them longer than any other bass but they’ll be here a while. Previously my longest running bass was a Dingwall Super PZ5 into a Monique amp which I gigged for years in a pub band and out with a bigger gig I had and loved it but sold them to boost my savings. Like @peteb I bought them to gig- it was always with the intent of gigging them. As much as I loved the look-design-craftsmanship they were both well crafted instruments as much as they were utilitarian tools to do a job. The discussion about fancy basses and whether to gig them or not... I couldn’t imagine owning a Ken Smith or the BBNE as mentioned in the first post and not take them out to a couple of gigs just to hear them in context but if the basses are collectors pieces, bought to gaze upon and rarely played then so be it. Many of these higher end basses are investment pieces and bought for their quality and craftsmanship but it does feel like a terrible waste to some folk who see owning the best bass they can afford so they can actually play it. “basses are also musical instruments and many high-end basses can also be fantastic pieces of craftsmanship.” Some might argue that first and foremost a bass is a musical instrument. Ken Smith designed and built his basses to be played fancy as the woods are and the time invested in crafting them. Sure he wanted to ‘craft’ a killer instrument but he didn’t make it to be a piece of furniture. Nathan East had Yamaha build him a bass which he could gig. Everyone has an opinion on it I suppose!

It could just be that the bass is lacking presence in that region. A pick up raise might help but you’re potentially looking at some eq trickery to put it where you want it. If you have access to a DAW such as GarageBand/Studio One/Reaper etc. it’s really worth 30-40 minutes having a look and again seeing what you can do with the eq on there and see/hear of you can get the bass sounding more to your preference... If you have an EQ or multifx pedal they will obviously help you find the sweet spot too (especially a semi parametric) but the beauty of a graphic eq in a DAW is you can ‘see’ where the gaps are and then know what might remedy it. I had three p basses at one stage and they all were a little different. I knew one of them was more balanced so when I did the odd recording for my old band I always brought it as it would already sound ‘balanced’. For my other P’s I knew one might need a bump at X to push a bit more or pull out a bit of Z! Now many will take this with a pinch of salt “I just plug in and play” but there’s no harm in understanding the pros and cons of your bass which ultimately will make it sound good for your ear. As an aside many of those old 51-54 style P basses with the baseball bat necks sound so good because of the fat neck not in spite of it.

I should have said try my suggestions in passive mode first and you’ll know if it’s just the ‘voice’ of that particular bass but yeah the active eq options will dictate how much you can remedy this on the bass itself.