SlapbassSteve Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Hi all, Due a bit of money in October if/when my student loan appears and I was wondering if one of these is worth blowing(...investing?) my food budget on. I'm in a covers band and like the idea of being able to go between various famous tones at the turn of a knob, especially as these are going pretty cheap at the moment compared to what they sell for new. Are they actually any good? Goes without saying there's no way the Rickenbacker preset for example would sound as good as the real thing(tonewood, construction, circuitry etc...) but how close would it get compared to an EQ'd Jazz bass? Difficult to tell from youtube vids without comparing head to head with the real thing. And if anyone owns one, what's the neck like? For some reason without having ever even seen one in the flesh I'm expecting a P-style profile. Cheers in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 ask yourself how many people you hear of - even in internetty land who play one..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 and also if you look in your bedroom there are two jazz models, one precision, one stingray type, one fretless 6 string, 2 ricky types, one more modern one and one hollow body...... what exactly does the Line 6 do that you can't already!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapbassSteve Posted August 11, 2012 Author Share Posted August 11, 2012 Good point about the lack of players, cannot think of anyone I know that uses one. Main appeal to me is that while I do have all those sat in my room I can barely fit one of them into the car each gig, never mind one of each! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumnote Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Ive had a five and a 4 At first they sound ok, the acoustic bass for example sounds ok in the studio, but doesnt really come across live. The electric basses really need fine tuning on your amp which kind of defeats the object. They are heavy on the strap, and powering them is a pain, I think line 6 discoontinued them wonder why Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 [quote name='SlapbassSteve' timestamp='1344729407' post='1768621'] Good point about the lack of players, cannot think of anyone I know that uses one. Main appeal to me is that while I do have all those sat in my room I can barely fit one of them into the car each gig, never mind one of each! [/quote] how many different bass sounds do you need at one gig? you know most the audience doesn't even know you're there aye? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapbassSteve Posted August 12, 2012 Author Share Posted August 12, 2012 These are sounding more and more pointless by the minute. Can't help but wonder if they'd be any better if made with today's tech though... [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1344730520' post='1768629'] how many different bass sounds do you need at one gig? you know most the audience doesn't even know you're there aye? [/quote] Now that's very true! Might unplug for a couple of tunes at the next one and see if anyone notices, if not I'll consider using my Strat with an octave pedal from then on to save space... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Had a look at a Tyler gtr..and that was better than the Line version, but not by £1800...ish..!! Sounds were ok on the flick of a switch... and would have been useable for a gtr but bass..??? No, A Jazz has 3 sounds...how many more can you use..? Studio..?? er...No, so I agree, I can understand why the idea died Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raslee Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 (edited) I have recently acquired a 4 string Line 6 Variax in a trade on here. I guess i'm still in the honeymoon period but i am actually quite impressed with mine so far. Agreed the model replication probably only comes mildly close to the real thing but it is a great idea to have many bass tone options on just one bass. The bass qualityitself is pretty decent too, i would say similar quality to a CV Squire/ decent Mex Fender. The neck profile is more jazz like than precision which i prefer although it is slightly chunkier in profile than a jazz. Quite heavy! Sounds wise, i am quite liking the 77 Stingray sound and the obviously the Steinberger sound for some reggae. The J & P sounds are quite convincing, particularly the P to my ears. A lot of the other basses it aims to model i have never owned so its hard to compare those really but i like some of the tones - the Alembic model is quite good too. The fretless & upright sounds are predictably a bit pants as are the 8/12 string models... although can be a good bit of fun for some ballad picking. The synths are not particularly great with the tracking as others have mentioned in other threads on here but you can certainly get some interesting sounds...for example i managed a nice Herbie Hancock 'Chameleon' bass sound - Moogey!. All in all I could see how this bass would be really useful for the studio...not sure live yet...perhaps to many options for me - i will probably gig it at some point though. I don't find powering the bass via power supply to DI box too bothersome either...in fact i quite like the idea rather than rely on batteries - you can however of course use batteries if you so choose. So to conclude I think they're an interesting piece of kit and definitely worthy of a dabble....plus i think these things deserve a bit more credit...but as i say 'i am stillin the honeymoon period' Edited August 12, 2012 by Rasta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Would've thought , you'd be better off buying a bass pod instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I've just picked one up so am in the same situation as Rasta above. The way I see it is that I usually use an Aria STB Series P bass with flats and an RBX374 with rounds in my covers band, the Variax does sound remarkably like a P bass and I can get a tone like the RBX out of a few of the other more 'modern' models so it's one bass instead of two and no swapping basses which can break the flow when a gig is going well. If I look at it as a replacement for the P bass, then it does exactly what the P bass does with the addition of being able to 'move' the pickup with the blend knob to get even more variation in tones and all the other models are a bonus. On the 'normal' models (not synth or multi course) it is not in the slightest bit digital sounding even when the notes die away and I like the way the sustain changes on different models. I don't know (or care) if the differing models sound like the real deal or not, I look at it as a massive range of usable tones in one bass. As to the problem of excessive cabling I keep seeing folks refer to, bass lead into box, box into mains and amp, then I have to wonder if they've ever used an effects pedal, exactly the same cabling. I can see the point to the posts about not seeing anyone use one and I agree to a point, but, in my twenty five years of gigging and going to gigs I have never seen anyone use a Rickenbacker bass (not including touring signed acts) does this mean that they are not worth using as well? For the price they go for now I think they are well worth it, no they aren't the best built bass but they are far far from the worst, I have no issues with the quality of mine even if it is a tad on the heavy side, but then so are a lot of basses. The neck is nice and slim, more Jazz than Precision, plays as well as any other bass in the £300-£400 bracket. I am going to put a passive neck pickup in mine with a simple tone/volume circuit and either separate or switchable output just in case anything ever went wrong live, either with the electrics or me forgetting the power supply. If I put a nice pickup in then I have a really nice passive bass with all that Variaxness as extra. To me it's a no brainer ................. at the moment, only time will really tell . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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