Delberthot

I'm thinking that this is what I am looking for but I can't get my head around if it is or not. I am finding that some of my effects sound ropey on their own so want to mix the effected sound with the dry sound from the bass in order to retain the basic tone of my bass in with the effect. I think that I should plug my bass into the main input and run a loop into A which will have my effects in it then out of the main output into the amp. I can't see a setting that mixes the main input with loop A but if I plug my bass into A and have the effects running through B then I can mix A & B together and adjust the levels for each - does that sound right? Or do I plug my bass into return A, effects into loop B and output using the main output? My brain hurts

I love music as a whole but actually find most bass players boring to listen to on their own, regardless of how widdly they get. I don't like solo instruments at all really, I much prefer a whole band playing I actually get more enjoyment listening to drummers which is odd in itself but not so odd in the fact that my drummer prefers to listen to bass players than drummers

Winking?

Most bass string gauges are pretty unbalanced anyway - especially 40-100 sets with heavier A & D strings and a fairly limp E. I have mine pretty close with D'addario EXL165 strings but I substitute the 105 for a 110 E string. It also comes in handy when I drop it to B The perfect solution is something like 45, 62, 80, 110. Certainly with D'addario

Anything that you put on your fingers to make them slippery is going to shorten the life of your strings. I'm a bit OCD about having clean hands when I am playing plus I point a fan at my fingers so they don't sweat in the first place and keep a clean microfibre towel nearby to give my hands a periodic wipe inbetween tunes

Off the top of my head - Billy Idol, Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton & Peter Gabriel. I love their music from the bands they were famous for but associate them more with their solo work

Although technically not a combo, my Barefaced One10 & GK MB500 are small & great for rock (in fact any style really). I have the amp attached with ultra high bond tape to the cab so that they come out of the cajon bag as 1. Bonus is a top hat fitting so I can put it on a standard speaker stand to have it at ear level. I think with the amp, cab and the wireless unit stuck on top it comes in at less than 10kg

I've decided to go for it and order a set of the licenced ones. Worst case scenario is that I will need to wrap a drill bit in sandpaper to make the tuner holes slightly larger for which I will be taking my time to do.

Occasionally I have to learn songs that I don't like for wedding gigs so I always have something ready at the end that I enjoy playing. At the moment it is this version of What Is Hip - I find it easier to play than the original despite being a lot faster

Hipshot have just got back to me to say 13.8mm for the US ones.

I am looking at a set of ultralites for my RIckenbacker. Everything fits the bill with the HB6 tuners except the mounting hole of 14mm. The diameter of the hole on the Rick is only 13mm. The same 1/2" version recommend a 17.5mm hole but the tuner is only 16mm at the widest point of the nut part that screws in from the front. Does anyone have a 3/8" licenced HB6 that they could measure for me as I'm hoping that they will fit my existing 13mm tuner hole. The reason for licenced is that I have read that they are ever so slightly smaller than the US versions

The more you do it the easier it is to adjust. I have 2 4 string basses but my Sterling has a detuner so I can drop the E down to D or B if I want. At the moment the Rickenbacker doesn't and I tend to use an octave pedal and play higher up the neck. It is just a matter of getting used to changing positions to suit the bass you have in your hands. I went from a 4 to a 5 to a 6 then back to a 5 I think. I've hovered between 4s and 5s over the past few years but have now decided to stick to 4 strings

To add another option - if you get the chance, try a Sterling - not the Asian made ones but the US Sterling. I've had quite a few Stingrays over the years and just couldn't get the Stingray sound that I had in my head. Turns out it was a Sterling that gave me the sound that I had been looking for. Plus it has a smaller body, narrow jazz-like neck. That is a funk machine

I think that if we mean songs that we hate listening to rather than crap then Uptown Funk and Beyonce's Crazy in Love and would the on my list. In fact there's nothing on my band's set list that I listen to outside the band but I enjoy playing the vast majority of it

I'm also in this camp. When I was playing my Rick last weekend I looked down and the neck looks twice as deep as the Sterling. It didn't really feel any different but as above it was the perceived tension that I did notice. Personally the more basses I've played over the years the less I notice what size the neck is

These are the same strings that I use on my Sterling but the slightly shorter scale means that each string is 2lbs of tension lighter. I also play pretty close to the bridge on the Sterling so that will also make the strings feel less compliant than playing towards the neck. I always wind the string so that when the string leaves the nut it is wound to the lowest point of the tuner so the break angle is as high as it can be as far as that is concerned. Raising the string height at the bridge will increase the break angle at the other end which should also help. I don't really want to change gauges as I like my current brand and I wouldn't be able to determine if the replacement strings felt the same as D'addario are one of the few companies that publish string tensions for different gauges. I haven't looked but I don't think that a 47, 67, 87, 108 is available I think that if I lift the strings then that should balance everything out so that the perceived tension is closer to what I am used to.

It was an odd gig last night - we were booked to play 10-12 but 2 x 45 minute sets. It ran over as these things do so we didn't start until 11.20 and played on until 12.20 when the DJ took over. It'll take some adjustment to how I wear the bass and where I position my right hand but I did enjoy playing it. At gig levels of adrenaline I am going to need to raise the action as well but that's good in that I found the strings ever so slightly floppy compared to the Sterling, presumably due to the slightly shorter scale. Raising the action will increase the compliance(?) I think making the strings feel slightly higher tension.

Exactly - we don't know what combo and what gig.

Personally, I've never owned a combo loud enough to gig on it's own without PA assistance for anything other than background music with a drummer using brushes apart from my old Trace 1110 4x10" Unless your band is very quiet and it's a quiet audience then I don't believe that a 1x10" combo would be loud enough for anything more than as a monitor for on stage but then I don't know what combo you have - if it was a Trace 1210 4x10" or an Ashdown King Combo 8x10" then yes it probably would be.

I think that you are complicating things unnecessarily. I have two completely different basses, a Musicman Sterling and a Rickenbacker. I set up my sound using the Musicman and then adjust the BDI21 to suit the Rick. The BDI21 is off when I am using the Musicman and just functions as a DI and when I switch to the Rick, I turn on the BDI. Any sort of EQ pedal should do the same thing, the BDI21 just gives more options than, say, a Boss GEB7

I completely agree with the comments above - I've only bought 3 out of the 6 or 7 Ricks I've owned brand new and 2 of them had finish issues. Personally I think that the main reason is that the finish they use takes a while to dry properly and given the backlog of orders that RIC have for these, they just can't keep them long enough for it to set properly before sending them out and so issues are going to arise. Well, the good news is that I did get a replacement which was perfect. I also swapped the surround with the thumb rest for one without and much prefer it. The pickup on this one isn't as wonky and, again, the setup out of the case was perfect. I did have to open up the nut a little on the D string to accommodate the D'addario EXL165s (original string being a 55 and this one was a 65) but I was careful and used an old string to gently rub the nut enough (ooer missus) to open the slot so that the string sat in the channel properly. I will be gigging this for the first time tonight at a corporate gig in Edinburgh and it will also be the first gig for my Behringer BDI21. I'll try to get some pics tonight at the gig

Was the email from Strings Direct or D'addario? I subscribe to the D'addario one but when I clicked on it, it only covered the US & Canada.

Our of interest, where did you see the bogof option on the Stringsdirect website? I got an email, noticed it was only USA & Canada so PM'd Adam (D'addarioUK) who gave me a list of who was doing it in the UK and when it was running from but never managed to find anyone actually doing it, including Stringsdirect.

CCR - I heard it through the grapevine

I've had about 140 basses over the years, give or take one or two. I did it because I saw something I liked and wanted to try it - on some occasions several times over as I've had several Precisions, Stingrays and Rickenbackers. It's been a lot of fun. I've had some corkers, some that should have been great but turned out to be terrible despite having 4 figure retail prices and it's been a real blast trying out different basses. The truth is that if we're talking solid bodied basses, you only really need 1. Not a bass for this and a bass for that. The average person in the crowd couldn't give a monkeys if you are using the right bass for the right song as long as it sounds good so that's it. 1. I've been playing in wedding/function bands for the past 25 years and the right bass was the one I had at the time whether it was a Thunderbird or a Yamaha TRB6 fretless. I remember turning up to a wedding gig with a Warwick Thumb NT5 and a Modulus Flea bass. I played an entire rock gig with a 12 string once as well. If you play in a band that requires an acoustic, upright, uke etc then that's different but solid bodied basses it's 1. That being said, if you have the money to buy them & the space to store them then have as many as you want. have 10 precisions in different colours to suit your outfits or one of each of: a Jazz, Precision, Musicman, Rickenbacker, fretless, 5 string, 6 string, 8 string and 12 string to satisfy yourself that you have 1 of everything. Don't sell them because you feel you have too many unless it's one that you wouldn't miss