Bassnut62

Went to see top drawer Steely Dan tribute band Nearly Dan in Nottingham last Sunday. Absolutely brilliant gig, great band, exceptional musicianship, great voice and such great material to work with. Always loved Steely Dan, even as a kid back in the '70s...sheer class band!

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1443708814' post='2877068'] No i'm afraid the keytar is beyond redemption... It isn't even cool in an ironic way. [/quote] Damn! I was going to be so cool.

I first heard this on vinyl and it blew my funking mind; but just came across this live recrodign and video that is pretty cool.....The Headunters playing God Make Me Funky in 1975......with the bass right where it should be ...UPFRONT! [color=#BBBBBB][font=Roboto, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][url="https://youtu.be/q0n-iZiDWAc"]https://youtu.be/q0n-iZiDWAc[/url][/size][/font][/color]

Can't you be ironically cool with a keytar these days?

Fender Bassman 135 head has great tone and v clean for guitar or bass, even with everything above 7 on the gain and master. You can jump the channels to get extra grit and bight too. The old 70s MusicMan 150 head is great too; though pre-amp is solid state, which is NOT a bad thing; sweet tones mostly come from the power stages of valve amps anyway. Another one to check out would be a Burman head, also from 70s - that has both more clean, more tone and more dirt (if so desired) than anything on the planet and often incredibly good value for the money; although people are starting to get wise to these overlooked classics. Any of the above would come in at under £1k and only increase in value and probably be more reliable than any modern gear too.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1440155057' post='2848676'] Interestingly, Musicman make (and are about to discontinue) their Musicman Albert Lee 3 x MM90s. The original Albert Lee SSS is very Strat like. I have the HH model, and it is absolutely superb. Top of line quality IMO. [/quote] Spookily I went to see Albert Lee play (for the 4th time) at his annual pilgrimage to Ravenshead Village Hall in Notts earlier this year and he was playing his MusicMan of course. It sounded great as usual; but I didn't realise it is loaded with some kind of MM P90s.

Has anyone ever heard or played a Strat with three P90s? I bet that would be a very interesting sound.....

Yup, LPJ does sound fantastic. I fell in love with their sound when I saw a mate's band; the guitarist had a beautiful Les Paul and an LPJ, both proper and old Gibsons. The LPJ sounded so much better to me than the LP.

I picked up my guitar for first time in about 3 weeks today and feel guilty for practicing so little recently; but the band has no gigs coming up and I feel proper burnt out at the moment for numerous work/chore/band-management reasons.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1437744042' post='2828731'] You need an amp that goes up to 11 for that... [/quote] In a way an old Fender valve amp does go up to 11........they stay clean forever; so you can push them to 10 on all dials and they still sound pretty damn clean, full tone and loud. If you want to get to 11, you have to jump two separate gain channels with a pedal cable, to get both sides of the pre-amp tubes working simultaneously into one channel; here you will find much growl and attitude! This is true and works on a Fender Bassman 135 head anyway!

I always found best tone comes from a simple one-pup P Bass or a Stingray, straight into an old Fender all-valve head with some good speakers, preferably 2x15. Set all the controls on 10 and enjoy.......adjust your playing style to get the tone, which really is 'in the fingers' to a great extent.

I met Paul Jackson once, backstage after a Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters gig at The Barbican in London. He was an excellent and very big chap. I said I am a bass player and that he's been a big inspiration to me for years. He said let's grab some beer and talk back in his dressing room. He plunged his huge paws into a big tub of iced beers, pulled out 2-3 beers between the fingers in each hand and headed off with me following and thinking to myself, that's a few beers and I have to drive later. PJ stopped, turned round and said: "Ain't you gettin' any beer?".....!! Anyway, we had a good chat. I asked him how he got that incredible tone of his. He turned his paws over to show HUGE welts about 3mm deep running through his left-hand fingers and mashed-up finger tips on his right hand and said "Hit those strings as hard as you possibly can; that's where the tone is!"

Ta Chili I know you were impressed with that bit of sensible acquisition going completely off-piste due to GAS; so check this out........ [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/261200-3-door-estate-cars/page__st__30__gopid__2823292#entry2823292"]http://basschat.co.u...92#entry2823292[/url]

Used the Phaser, Autoswell, Chorus and Flanger at gig last night.....fantastic sound!

Now I am in the deep end without a clue what to do!

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1436215418' post='2816146'] Yeah, the filters will never win that battle!!! Great to hear you're loving it, nothing better than loads of great to sounds to tap into and inspire. Check out The Fretboard forum if you haven't already, Strymon gear comes up on there from time to time, they do some very interesting boxes and The Fretboard has a good fx for sale section. I've got no room left on my purposely small board..... Just too many nice boxes out there to tempt us [/quote] Thanks for tip on The Fretboard, not heard of that forum before; will check it out. As it happens I have same problem, I restrict myself to smaller boards deliberately too!

No question, it has to be the MuFx TruTron3x, made by Mike Beigel himself and Bootsy is a fan.... You can get them direct from Mu-Fx and while you are at it, I would recommend getting the Octave Divider too. There are some seriously GAS-inducing vids online of both on their own and used together. The TruTron3x is a modern upgrade of the original legendary MuTron, which is exactly what Bootsy used to get those funky sounds. They are not cheap though and you need to get a 12v AC power supply into an unusual connection; but you can pick up UK 240v supplies of this type online for about £8 I think. I bought both pedals and negotiated a $15 discount to leave out the US PSUs to help me buy UK PSUs instead. If you go down this funky path, message me and I'll dig out details of where I got it all. PS. I used to have a mini Q-Tron and found it a bit too uncontrollable with nasty volume spikes. When tame it sounded great; but not a patch on the TruTron, which is actually better than the original MuTron, as confirmed by bassplayer in my band who has both. The Q-Tron was designed by Mike Beigel too, after he lost control of Musitronics; it was based on the MuTron, but made cheaper for EHX to produce.

Cheers Chili, I've been doing just that today. Man, the preset tones are SOOOOOO good, I almost don't think I will need to create my own. Some of the Chorus and Flange sounds are about use best I've ever heard. The Rotary and Vibe stuff is v. Good too and there are some crazy fun Destroyed and Quadrant sounds in there from loose connection crackles sounds to playing the our an old analogue phone to some fun ring mod alien sounds and plenty of other goodies. The Tremolo is excellent and the Phase is good too. I am probably least impressed with the Wah and Filter tones so far; but they are competing with MuFx TruTron3x, so it's an unfair comparison. The depth of parameters on tap is astonishing, including how much Headroom you want your effect to have....v.nice. As I've learnt my way around the Möbius it turns out it is v simple and intuitive to use too. Obviously more complex than a simple 1-4 knob single stomp box; but still pretty easy. I think main problem will be choosing from so many good modulation sounds.

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1435841942' post='2812931'] On the subject of Paul Jackson, you might want to check out some of these Youtube clips with my old mucker and bandmate Jimmy Copley on drums. Some lovely playing from Paul, Jimmy & Char [url="http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=paul%20jackson%20jimmy%20copley%20char&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=paul%20jackson%20jimmy%20copley%20char&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk="]Paul, Jimmy & Char[/url] [/quote] that drummer is tight! And great to get a view of what PJ is up to with those nimble fingers that almost never seem to move.

My name is Bassnut and I am a music-equipment-aholic. It all started when.....[i]fill in your own lame excuse[/i]

I have not used a Phase 100; but I have used other one or two knob simple phasers and I have almost always found a problem getting them to sit well in the mix, due to either gain suck or gain addition. Personally I think all phasers and in fact many modulation effects need a gain control on the outside (some have micro gain pots internally). One alternative might be to get a Clean Boost/Cut pedal to put in front or after it.

Haven't watched this for a while - it's one of my fave bits of music video and great to hear so much more of the tone and subtlety of these funk gods.