SamIAm

Having mucked around with the MOD Audio (MOD Devices) open source ecosystem (Which is rather amazing IMO!) on a raspberry pi + hifiberry sound card ... but was not getting the audio quality I hoped for, I managed to find a good deal on an 'as new' unit (Here on BC of course) and hope to collect it at the weekend. It would be great to hear of the pedalboard/effects that any MOD users here on BC have found to work well (or not so well), controllers that do/don't work, tips, tricks, niggles, workarounds, etc ... Edit: 31-Dec-2023 For those of you yet to discover the MOD system, here is a cool video of what it can do ... "All of the backing instruments and the guitar tones were generated from the MOD Dwarf -at the same time."! Sam x

I Taunt U ??? S'manth x

Something needs redoing! If I had produced that result I'd be well embarrassed ... and I'm almost a rank amateur! S'manth x

An approach that has worked well for me in the past is to purchase a unit from a retailer with a good 'I've changed my mind' return policy and give it a thorough going over (whilst wearing kid gloves). Actually using something in 'anger' for a week or two tends to highlight any 'OMG this is awesome' or 'Oooo ... I don't like' elements. Worst case is I had to pay return shipping (Tho with Thomann they arranged it). S'manth x

Pleased to start a feedback thread for @Basslearner who bought my Zoom B1on. Nice smooth transaction with great comms and rapid payment ... 10/10! Thanks R , hopefully it will arrive when your new bass does ... have great fun grooving! S'manth x

Pleased to start a feedback thread for @jimmyb625 who bought my Boss RC-30 Loopstation. Nice smooth transaction with great comms and rapid payment ... 10/10! Thanks J S'manth x

Or my experience of buying a multi-fx then selling it to buy a different multi-fx and then ... S'manth x

Good observation! I actually play with the neck more like this (even when seated), I try to ensure my forearm and back of hand are parallel, reducing to a minimum any bending of my wrist. S’manth x

It was an approach I had to take with Twiggy (my homemade tuning machines were not sophisticated) but I think it will also work well in my next build. It may also let me explore adding piezo to the saddles. S’manth x

The staggering of the tuning machines to accommodate the different positions for intonation across the the strings has been one of the greater challenges I've found when I've investigated a headless setup. So much so that I may end up using them just for tension/tuning and add separate individual saddles for intonation and action adjustment. S'manth x

Something outside my own experience! 🤣 S'manth x

Being a more recent entrant to bass playing (and an IT geek)I’ve had a play with quite a variety of mfx units. From a flexibility perspective I’d suggest ŷou consider the Mod Dwarf, it has a huge selection of effects available and an insanely flexible internal routing capability. The drawback with it (and the HX Stomp IME) is the lack of onboard stomp switches, requiring an external extension switch unit. The Stomp XL resolved this but was just too large and heavy for me. In the end Ive decided to self build one (BOME), using similar tech to the Dwarf but much cheaper and battery powered and I’m using a Zoom B1XFour in the meantime. The feeling I am left with regarding mfx is that it allows me to try out loads of things, but some (like octave effects) are not as good, especially as I play a 5 string. I can foresee one day settling down on a really small rig with analogue pedals as the lofty heights of things like the Quad Cortex are way beyond my budget. S’manth x

I’ve been using 1-2-4 fingering on a 34 inch scale for about a week, just simple exercises a few minutes each day to try and get my muscle memory sorted. So far: I’m finding my pinkie gets tired quite quickly, but the pain/cramping in the back of my fretting hand has not revisited. For simple ascending, descending semitone runs and simple riffs, I’m starting to find the new fingering is bedding in, for scales I’m nowhere near as fast or fluid (which was not very fast or fluid to start with!) as with OFPF … partly as my ring finger keeps wanting to get involved and partly the increased position shifts required. Overall I feel it is an approach that will work for me and that in the not too distant future, these issues will reduce and allow me to comfortably play the two long scale basses I have. I’ve not yet tried switching to OFPF when I play higher frets as it is likely to confuse my wee brain just now! In other news I’ve managed to locate one of the GSRM25 sub short scale 5 stringers I’ve been looking for, hopefully it will arrive Thursday … it will be interesting to see how I get on with it being ultra light and with a 28.6 inch scale length. S’manth x

Some folks bass in hats ... some don't. S'manth x

I’ve only played Kala bass ukes (tho many different makes of tenor ukes), this video may shed some light. S’manth x

OMG how did I miss this before now! Love the tuners … do you have a ball race between them and the bridge? I found the ones I made needed them. What technique did you use to make them? S’manth x

Not a lot of forward motion at present My attempts to incorporate onboard display capabilities into the ElkOS have not been successful, I am going to have to wait until they release their next version of their OS (Which was due end of lat year) to try again. In the meantime I have reverted to trying an installation of pi-stomp, but I was getting really disturbing audio artifacts (random popping as well and pops when activating/bypassing individual effect plugins). I then tried patchbox OS again, but I am still getting random pops (tho no bypassing artifacts). Both are MOD open source software based (which only supports LV2 plugin) but now use a much more current version and work well if I can resolve the audio artifacts; they both run on the normal PiOS linux, so tho their latency will be higher than ElkOS, there will be no issues with onboard display capabilities; pi-stomp already has some tho they will need some tweaking to run on my BOME configuration. As I run BOME off a high power USB battery bank, I do not think it is any mains based interference causing the artifacts. I need to install some decent shielding (as the current housing is cardboard!) to reduce any EMI and see if that resolves the issue. S'manth x

Check it out here. S'manth x

So ... a long time since my last update. A flare up of a back injury has made visiting/standing at the shared workspace I'm a member of difficult; coupled with my difficulty in getting a CAD system up and running again has led to a prolonged stall in moving forward with Phoenix, but I'm hoping to get active again in the next few weeks. It is possible even that the big CNC at the makerspace will be operational soon which will make the build easier. S'manth x

Yep. The BC community came to my rescue and I was soon grooving again ... and, undaunted, I have the materials to build another better version of Twiggy (To be called Phoenix). S'manth x

My very first Bass Guitar (I owned a ukulele bass at the time) was a Greg Bennett Corsair MCR-1 mini bass (24.6 inch scale length). Over the course of a few weeks, I made the following mods: Changed to a 3D printed black pickguard. Changed to a black high mass bridge. Upgraded to an EMZ Geezer Butler pickup, I shielded the electrics cavity with copper tape at the same time. Swapped in better quality (and black) tuning machines. Added in a diy passive diode based fuzz and a diy rotary multi-position tone control (Similar to the Tonestyler Bass 6 but much less expensive), this required enlargement of the electronics cavity (and reshielding!). I later changed to an EMG active MMCS pup (no photo) with active EQ, which required further enlarging of the pickup cavity and a reprinted pickguard. Being small and all black (nearly) I named it 'Ponty'. I loved the sound and playability of Ponty. It was the success with these mods (which just a few months before would have seemed impossible for me) that got me into building my first bass, Twiggy. (Sadly both Ponty and Twiggy were destroyed in my flat fire) S'manth x