Chris2112

If you're looking for a big, crisp slap tone on the TRB you could try a Seymour Duncan preamp. The only thing you have to watch out for in these cases is corrupting the integrity of the midrange sound. SD can be quite 'brash' sounding to me in some basses, whereas say, Bartolini or Glockenklang might sound a little more culutred and balanced. Ultimately though, I think you could be barking up the wrong tree. TRB's, and especially the high end ones, are some of the best sounding 'production' basses you can get. If you want better you'd probably be looking at spending some serious cash with a custom builder. This thread has got me wondering how good a TRB would sound with an ACG/East preamp though!

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1327361160' post='1510147'] Playing piano parts on semi- or unweighted keys is rubbish and feels unmusical IMO. Even with weighted boards, a truly decent hammer action mimic is hard to find and a personal thing. Synth bass is fine for me on a cheap sprung board tho! [/quote] Yes, this is absolutely true. I used to have a Roland SH-201, and whilst it sounded great and was brilliantly laid out for tweaking your sound on the go, the keys were proper flappy-paddle items, which didn't feel great. But then if you want a synth with a really good keyboard on it you'll easily pay thousands of pounds for one!

This needs a link for the lazy amoung us!

To sum up what we've learned here: * Basses from smoke free homes are good *Smokey basses stink

I've got a new set of strings waiting to go on the Streamer, and a stack of Depeche Mode songs to start transcribing. If only my tuner hadn't ran out of battery! Means I'm having to hold off changing the strings until I can grab another 9v battery!

[quote name='geoffbassist' timestamp='1327327683' post='1509330'] Unique to them. You can't get the same results elsewhere so they charge accordingly. [/quote] Whilst Fodera are quite simply stunning, I can think of a few basses of similar design and construction, that would probably rival a Fodera in a blind test with ease. Fodera craftsmanship is superb and undoubtedly top level, but the gulf in the market has closed very quickly over the past few years and Fodera/Ken Smith etc etc can no longer say they are top of the leage simply because they are the best builders. And so I am forced to ask the question of what exactly is unique in Fodera basses? The Pope preamp? Possibly, but the best sounding Fodera (IMO) has a Haz Lab preamp in it! If you buy a Fodera preamp pedal I expect you could get some fairly similar results, though I refute that there is a distinct Fodera tone in the same way as there is a Wal tone, or an Alembic tone, or a Ken Smith tone. A big part of sitting down with a Fodera for the first time was coming to terms with the fact that it sounded great, but not particularly distinctive. There is some variation in the basses, if you go for Aero pickups, Barts or EMG's etc etc, and to me this is where the differences lie. I do think it's as much about the name as anything else, as evidenced by Hadrien Feraud getting a Fodera (as well as a US Ken Smith, and then promptly going back to his Ken Smith Burner!). Not that I disagree with that, Fodera have many great fusion players on their books (and maybe some not-so-great ones like Janek Gwizdala ). As much as I love Fodera though, I don't feel the craftsmanship is quite up there with Alembic. I find some Alembic guitars and basses a little fussy and ornate, but their ability to produce something that is absolutely flawless in every minute detail is spectacular.

[quote name='Shambo' timestamp='1327321982' post='1509202'] A couple of posts have been delivered with such sanctimony and vitriol as to take my breath away better than any cigarette could. [/quote] They won't give you cancer though. I remember my first Kubicki bass, a white 1989 model (#1777). That had been gigged in smokey pubs at some stage of it's life, and was an off-white colour (which I quite liked). What I didn't like so much was the fact that it always smelled slightly strange, the violent stench of the smoke had faded almost into the background, but there was an ever-present 'ozone' type smell to the bass, which had obviously seen a lot of Febreeze or Odor Eater before I got my hands on it. The case was a write off, the smoke was soaked into the fur lining of the case and it was a write off. I chucked it in a skip at the local tip the same day it came. The bass always smelled a bit strange. I don't think anything would have ever truely gotten rid of the smell of smoke and cleaning product from it though, I had it for over a year and even in a new case it still smelled like it did the day it arrived.

[i]Lie to me[/i] by Depeche Mode. Quite frankly, my favourite band at the moment. I usually relish driving to work on a nightshift, with the Alpine cranked up and the Depeche Mode pumping out, getting me in the frame for a night at work. I love this tune, one of their more 'atmospheric' efforts, deeply brooding and with some lovely synth tones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlMBs_HUcxQ

Despite the fact that it takes a lot of work to be god-like slap player, this is a neat trick. I picked it up off Stuart Hamm's first instructional video years ago.

It's always good to get to grips with a decent EQ if you have time when you're gigging live. It gets you some of that control over your sound that you have when you're in a decent studio with your amp sat in front of you!

The Gaia SH-01 might not be the sort of thing you're after. It's an analogue modelling synth, designed to work sort of like old synthesizers did when they had proper analogue workings inside. It strides the gulf between proper synthesizers and synth/samplers. It's definitely more focused towards analogue sounds though, so will do a great synth bass sound (Roland have always been really good at this). You won't get it to make a convincing piano sound with just the analogue modellers, though IIRC it has a general midi soundbank of sampled instruments that will no doubt include a piano, but these can be pretty hokey sounding. Go and check one out before you buy it and see if it will suit your needs.

Buying basses is like buying a car. Crap pictures in the advert? Don't bother.

[quote name='Shambo' timestamp='1327018777' post='1505454'] No guitar ever lost value because it was owned by a smoker. The ony reason people say from a "smoke freee home" is because they're trying to validate their non or ex smokieness. I kinda knew what sort of responses to expect. [/quote] You are completely wrong. I do not mean to embarrass you unduly, but please read back over your post and see how ridiculous it sounds. When I say my basses are from a 'smoke free home', I'm not trying to 'validate' my stance on smoking. I am simply informing potential buyers that they are going to get an instrument that doesn't smell of anything, and definitely doesn't smell of toxic fumes. It's the same with my cars, I don't smoke in them and I don't let anyone else smoke in them. I cannot cite a case where an instrument has lost value because it stinks of smoke, but I'm sure it has happened. It certainly happens with cars. If I were viewing a car I'd want at least £300-£400 of the price, to cover the time it would take me to get it valeted and then to pay for the valet. So you are completely wrong, because non-smokers will let their money talk when it comes to buying soiled goods. Frankly, the last line of your post says a great deal to me, you sound like an embittered smoker who feels increasingly isolated from society by his foul habit.

Stunning, and fabulously expensive as you would imagine!

I'm guessing you're new to all this? Now is not the time to be getting hung up on the nuances of whether your Squier jazz bass sounds like the bass in the video with it's MM position humbucker. Get playing it and enjoy it! There is much time to faff about with tone in the future, when you are more sure of what you're after.

[quote name='andytoad' timestamp='1327100989' post='1506600'] you never heard of funky fingers? Tony Levin stylee? [/quote] Definitely not for Sledgehammer.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1327069024' post='1506004'] No, I've not heard much... maybe a couple of stories years back.... certainly not as much as other brands. [/quote] The only ones I've played were either Rockbass items or Corvettes. The Rockbass and Streamer Standard model, understandably never going to set your world on fire. The Corvettes that just seemed naff were early millenium ones like the FNA, the necks were massive and the set up was poor, and it just sounded naff. Even with a setup, I don't think it would have impressed a great deal. And then there are the $$ basses and other ash bodied Corvette types that never sounded great to me. The proper top end Warwick stuff is quite genuinely incredible, to be fair.

I'd go for the Roscoe. More modern sounding with those lovely Bartolini pickups, compared to the F Bass, which to me have always sounded like a jazz bass with fairly 'cool' output.

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1327064614' post='1505899'] None there at the moment, but they come and go fairly frequently. Keep yer eyes peeled Eude [/quote] I will do, Always wanted a Thumb NT. Getting the Streamer was the bass that reminded me why Warwick suit me so well.