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baka kaba posted:Yeah I love me some clunks and grinding buzzes too, not so much when I'm pretending to play smooth jazz though! I'm still fairly new to bass (well I guess 10 months now) so I don't want to pick up bad squeaking habits when I'm building up speed. But I also don't want to waste time learning unnecessary clinically accurate fretting techniques when I could be playing faster and having fun Sounds like its just a bit of technique that'll be ironed out as your fingers begin to stretch more. Just work higher up the neck where you can successfully fret four frets without moving your hand position, and be sure you can 'rid yourself' of the errrk there, and it'll translate down the neck as your fingers develop.
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Oct 17, 2010 19:16
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A lot of the squeak gets lost in the mix anyway.
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Oct 17, 2010 21:55
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Any diabetic bass players here? I have type 2 and recently starting having numbness and pin-pricking sensations in my right hand which makes playing fingerstyle really hard. I'm not against playing with a pick, but I'm just curious if anyone knows of a warm up/treatment/miracle cure that will let me keep playing fingerstyle.
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Oct 17, 2010 22:56
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baka kaba posted:Yeah I love me some clunks and grinding buzzes too, not so much when I'm pretending to play smooth jazz though! I'm still fairly new to bass (well I guess 10 months now) so I don't want to pick up bad squeaking habits when I'm building up speed. But I also don't want to waste time learning unnecessary clinically accurate fretting techniques when I could be playing faster and having fun You could try Elixrs. They're coated so they don't squeak nearly as much. You also pretty much never have to change them if you play fingerstyle (a pick will eventually trash the coating down by the bridge) I have stainless Lo-Riders on my Yamaha and Elixrs on my Ibanez and the difference is night and day. I'm not sure how tapewounds and flatwounds go vs rounds as I've never really used them but I'm sure someone else can chime in on that.
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Oct 18, 2010 02:58
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Ackbarf posted:You could try Elixrs. They're coated so they don't squeak nearly as much. You also pretty much never have to change them if you play fingerstyle (a pick will eventually trash the coating down by the bridge) I have stainless Lo-Riders on my Yamaha and Elixrs on my Ibanez and the difference is night and day. I'm not sure how tapewounds and flatwounds go vs rounds as I've never really used them but I'm sure someone else can chime in on that. I've had the same Rotosound nylon coated tapewounds on a 4001 for more than 10 years, and often play with a heavy jazz pick. No deterioration yet, and the sound is as crisp as when I first put them on (comparing recordings over the years).
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Oct 18, 2010 08:06
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Underflow posted:I've had the same Rotosound nylon coated tapewounds on a 4001 for more than 10 years, and often play with a heavy jazz pick. No deterioration yet, and the sound is as crisp as when I first put them on (comparing recordings over the years). Yeah, Roto's tapewounds have a much clearer tone than most others I've tried. Very high string tension as well. I found they have a very "woody" sound to them. Hard to explain. On the other side of the spectrum, La Bella's tapewounds are much more mellow, kind of carry the feeling of a gut-string you'd hear on an upright. Much less tension as well. As for string noise, I found getting a set of groundwound/slickround strings to be a good solution. Reduced noise and smooth feel of flatwounds, but you still get a good bit of the growl and twang of roundwounds.
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Oct 18, 2010 18:20
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Lots of talk about the tech 21 VT but a quick ctrl+F isn't yielding much mention of the MXR M-80. I've been looking at it over Sansamps mostly because it has a three band EQ and most of the Sansamps don't (I think maybe the early ones did but whatever). Also, the MXR is pretty cheap. It's also pretty small, which means it could live in my gigbag without adversely effecting my health too much when I schlep everything on public transit. The VT is also a contender now- it seems to yield super usable sounds played straight into a board or recording input. I'm really impressed with the demos I've heard. I play an Ibanez Roadstar P/J configured bass. The original dimarzio pickups are still in it and it's now strung BEAD with Dimarzio half-rounds. I play fingerstyle and prefer a pretty dark sound. I'll boost mids to cut through but I like to have the highs rolled back. I don't really use gain, but if I had access to a ridiculous Ben Folds Five type sizzle I'd probably kick it in from time to time. I think Sledge used to use an MXR Blowtorch for that so maybe the M-80 can do something similar? I dunno. The only thing stopping me from going with the M-80 is that I can't tell from the extant demos whether it can kick out a really usable sound through the DI into a desk. I'll use it on an amp some of the time but not always. I've heard enough of the VT to be convinced that it can sound very amp-like and good. I don't know how it likes the low B though- I want to be sure that the modeling won't automatically overdrive because of it. It's also marginally more expensive and doesn't have the ability to kick in the OD on demand (again not essential, but nice). Thoughts? Also, Baka Kaba: As I mentioned above, I've been using D'Addario half-rounds and I like them a lot. Some people recommend "pressurwound" strings (like GHS makes I think) because the windings are compressed instead of ground off. I'll probably try them when find a five string set, but in the mean time I've put in a fair amount of play on the half-rounds (on my third set and I almost never change strings) and have found them very satisfactory in terms of feel and sound.
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Oct 18, 2010 18:48
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Ferrous Wheel posted:Lots of talk about the tech 21 VT but a quick ctrl+F isn't yielding much mention of the MXR M-80. I've been looking at it over Sansamps mostly because it has a three band EQ and most of the Sansamps don't (I think maybe the early ones did but whatever). Also, the MXR is pretty cheap. It's also pretty small, which means it could live in my gigbag without adversely effecting my health too much when I schlep everything on public transit. The VT is also a contender now- it seems to yield super usable sounds played straight into a board or recording input. I'm really impressed with the demos I've heard. If you've got the $ to drop, I'd suggest the VT Bass Deluxe. You can have 6 presets for one bass, or 3 presets each for 2 basses hooked up. Plus built-in DI, phantom, parallel out, boost, blah blah blah. The thing that sets the VT apart from others like the M80 and the regular sansamp BDI is that it seriously sounds like a loving Ampeg SVT... The others can get kinda close but it just nails it, flat out. As for the B-string, assuming you have your string and pickup heights properly set up, it shouldn't cause any problems. If it does, pull back the drive a little bit.
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Oct 18, 2010 19:03
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Scarf posted:Yeah, Roto's tapewounds have a much clearer tone than most others I've tried. Very high string tension as well. I found they have a very "woody" sound to them. Hard to explain. Funny you should say that about the woody tone; I was thinking the same thing the other day. When I put the mute down just a bit and play with my thumb, it's very hard to distinguish it from an acoustic bass; especially when gently miked through a 15" cab. And DI'ed with a felt pick gives quite a good imitation of the picked Precision & double bass Wrecking Crew sound. Not sure about the string tension, though. I see a lot of people mentioning bridge lift on their older 4001s, but mine's okay.
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Oct 18, 2010 21:53
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Underflow posted:Funny you should say that about the woody tone; I was thinking the same thing the other day. When I put the mute down just a bit and play with my thumb, it's very hard to distinguish it from an acoustic bass; especially when gently miked through a 15" cab. And DI'ed with a felt pick gives quite a good imitation of the picked Precision & double bass Wrecking Crew sound. Well assuming you're talking about the Roto 88 Tru Bass strings... hell the gauge of the low E is .115. That's pretty fuckin stout considering a low B is typically in the .125-.130 range. Speaking of "woody" and acoustic bass, I've been playing around with trying to replicate an upright with my hollowbody bass by mic'ing the F-hole. This is just from my headset mic, no foam mute. With the mute and if it were fretless I think it would be dead on. 
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Oct 19, 2010 00:15
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I've noticed my teeth resonating with the noise/vibration of my bass guitar, and moving out of alignment. Is there any safe way of holding the bass in such a way so as to "feel" the sound of the music?
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Oct 19, 2010 01:03
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Nosy_G posted:I've noticed my teeth resonating with the noise/vibration of my bass guitar, and moving out of alignment. Is there any safe way of holding the bass in such a way so as to "feel" the sound of the music? Your teeth are about to fall out, go to a dentist immediately. Really though, if the bass itself (I'm assuming you mean the vibration from the strings and not through an amp/cab) has enough power to move your teeth out of alignment in your skull, I'd be utterly shocked.
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Oct 19, 2010 01:14
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So awhile ago I bought one of these babies: It's a Danelectro '63 reissue (long scale), I fitted it with flatwounds and I like the nice thumpy sound I get. Unfortunately, the action is also a mile high...I think this due to 1) the nut is too big and 2) the extra tension from the flatwounds has made the neck bend somewhat (ok, a lot). I took it to a jam night and my hands were crying for mercy by the end of the first song. Thing is, it doesn't have a truss rod as far as I can see, so I may be hosed as far as fixing the neck. It's just an el cheap-o $300 bass and I could always switch to something else, but I like the way the lipstick cover pickups sound with the flats.
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Oct 19, 2010 02:41
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Seventh Arrow posted:So awhile ago I bought one of these babies: Is the neck bolt-on? You may have to take the neck off to adjust the truss-rod. Edit: And from looking at this vid of a Longhorn bass reissue... that may just be what you have to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mam7mIAKN2M Scarf fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Oct 19, 2010 |
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Oct 19, 2010 02:56
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Scarf posted:If you've got the $ to drop, I'd suggest the VT Bass Deluxe. But... My spine...  I haven't held one in my hands but the deluxe looks like it would add a lot of weight to my gigbag, which I carry often and far. I'll compare it against the standard VT to see if the extra functionality would really be that much more useful for me. Part of the idea was to have something small and convenient to tote around though. Scarf posted:As for the B-string, assuming you have your string and pickup heights properly set up, it shouldn't cause any problems. If it does, pull back the drive a little bit. I might throw a compressor/expander in the chain to even out levels as well but this pretty much settles it. I'm playing through a crappy little powered speaker right now for a performance class at school so the low B is more prominent than it would ordinarily be through a PA or normal amp. And yeah Seventh Arrow, the Dano reissues adjust at the heel and you need to completely remove the neck to get at it. It's a really bad design- they could easily have routed the body so you'd have access with the neck attached. But they didn't so you're hosed. I'd recommend trying out some lighter or lower tension flats if you can. They exist, they sound just fine, and to be honest Danos were never really designed to stand up to the kind of tension a P bass or Ric can take. This goes double for the reissues (in my experience). Fake edit: Well gently caress me running, it appears the basic VT has no XLR out. Guess I'm about to spend some money I don't really have. Spinal column be damned, VT Deluxe here I come. Ferrous Wheel fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Oct 19, 2010 |
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Oct 19, 2010 05:28
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Scarf posted:Is the neck bolt-on? You may have to take the neck off to adjust the truss-rod. Yeah, that sounds about right...I'll have to check it tomorrow. Although I seem to recall those kinds of truss rods require a screwdriver (and an unusual amount of wrist strength) to adjust. Guess we'll see.
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Oct 19, 2010 06:05
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Scarf posted:Well assuming you're talking about the Roto 88 Tru Bass strings... hell the gauge of the low E is .115. That's pretty fuckin stout considering a low B is typically in the .125-.130 range. Yes, those Rotosounds are pretty chunky; I prefer heavy gauges both for bass and guitar. But really, I haven't noticed any tension related problems with the TruBass on the 4001. Neck doesn't seem to move, and the bridge has been stable for years now. I like the sound of that recording. I'm sure that if you went at it with the appropriate gear and mixed the miked f-hole with a DI or miked cab in parallel you'd have that nice combination of oomph and natural attack. I've tried the same thing now and then with an ES-175; worked vey well.
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Oct 19, 2010 12:37
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Ferrous Wheel posted:Fake edit: Well gently caress me running, it appears the basic VT has no XLR out. Guess I'm about to spend some money I don't really have. Spinal column be damned, VT Deluxe here I come. Actually there's a more affordable solution if you don't want the Deluxe, or have no need for the presets and just want a DI. Go talk to Mike over at https://www.putnamguitars.com. He does a DI mod (as well as several others) to the VT and other character series pedals. Great guy, and he does fantastic work.
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Oct 19, 2010 12:47
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Seventh Arrow posted:Yeah, that sounds about right...I'll have to check it tomorrow. Although I seem to recall those kinds of truss rods require a screwdriver (and an unusual amount of wrist strength) to adjust. Guess we'll see. My Danelectro (Korean reissue) has the trussrod adjustment in the heel and it was a standard allen nut. Also, when you say the nut is too big, do you mean too tall? If the action is still bad after you adjust the neck you may need to get that worked on as well. Do the new ones have metal nuts?
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Oct 19, 2010 17:15
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Yeah, I'm working on it now and it does indeed take a standard allen key. However, I've been forgetting the whole "subtle adjustments" thing and have had to take it apart a few times to try and get the action where it should be. The nut appears to be plastic and it does look a bit too high to me...maybe it needs to be that way to get the right amount of clearance, though.
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Oct 19, 2010 17:38
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Seventh Arrow posted:Yeah, I'm working on it now and it does indeed take a standard allen key. However, I've been forgetting the whole "subtle adjustments" thing and have had to take it apart a few times to try and get the action where it should be. Can the string-height not be adjusted via the bridge? It's probably just semantic differences, but it always makes me cringe a little bit when people talk about adjusting the truss-rod and the word "action" comes up.
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Oct 19, 2010 18:36
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Well I agree that sometimes adjusting the truss rod for action is sometimes not the answer, but there are those occasions where it is. Anyways, in this case the bridge doesn't really offer a lot of room for adjustment, so there's not much choice. It's not too big a deal, just a bit of a hassle to readjust.
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Oct 19, 2010 19:24
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Ferrous Wheel posted:But... My spine...
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Oct 20, 2010 00:52
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DrChu posted:It weighs like two pounds, quit complaining about the weight. I was gonna say, if that's something you consider "heavy" maybe bass isn't the instrument for you :P
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Oct 20, 2010 01:29
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Jeez guys, I was exaggerating for comic effect like how we do on the internet sometimes. Since the idea is to carry my whole rig in one bag, space and weight conservation are selling points. And hey for all you guys know I'm really small, or old. Weak people can play bass too.  But in any case I'm buying the Deluxe and I fully expect to love it. The Putnam mod looks interesting but since I can swing it at the moment I'm going to go for the extra functionality of the bigger version. If I hate it I can always downgrade later on, but I think I'll find uses for the various memory banks. Especially once I finish assembling my fretless P, whenever that is. What I may do in the meantime is reserve one set of presets for recording and use the others for live play.
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Oct 20, 2010 01:56
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 Aguilar SL112. 25lbs. Want.
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Oct 27, 2010 05:07
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DEUCE SLUICE posted:
Neo?
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Oct 27, 2010 14:09
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DEUCE SLUICE posted:
On this subject, what do you guys think about switching from a 2x12 to 2 1x12s? I've gotten by fine with my 2x12 Avatar and 300 watt Eden head for all the minor gigging I've done as far as volume is concerned, but the 2x12 is kind of awkward to bring to friends houses to jam in their bedroom and stuff like that. Also, while not really a big deal, the 2x12 is kind of awkward to move, and if that was improved it'd be kind of nice. I guess I already have to make two trips unloading--1 for the cab, another for everything else. I suspect that 2 1x12s would probably distribute that more evenly, and with less awkwardness. I'm not particularly attached to 12" drivers--but 1x10s are probably insufficient (unless I get like 4 of them), and 2x10s are a lot bigger than 1x12s. How does the sound typically vary between a 2x12 and 2 1x12s? Is loadout really easier? The obvious counterargument to this whole idea is that it'll be a good deal more expensive.
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Oct 27, 2010 17:14
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I have 2x12 and 2x10 avatar cabs. 2x12 stays in the practice room and I take the 2x10 to random jamming and practice since it fits in my trunk easily. If your ohms line up I really recommend this setup.
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Oct 27, 2010 20:03
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Scarf posted:Neo? Yup. Pair of 1x12's is a lot nicer than a 2x12 in my opinion, and it doesn't really sound any different.
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Oct 28, 2010 00:46
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DEUCE SLUICE posted:Yup.
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Oct 28, 2010 01:23
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I want to start buying effect pedals for my bass and the bass-specific ones are looking quite expensive (and less plentiful than guitar pedals). How good do Danelectro pedals sound with a bass? Does anyone have any hints on places online that sell bass pedals? Some more info: I'm mainly looking for some decent fuzz and delay and looking to pay less than $80 per pedal if possible.
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Oct 28, 2010 01:30
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DRP Solved! posted:I want to start buying effect pedals for my bass and the bass-specific ones are looking quite expensive (and less plentiful than guitar pedals). How good do Danelectro pedals sound with a bass? Does anyone have any hints on places online that sell bass pedals?
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Oct 28, 2010 01:48
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DRP Solved! posted:I want to start buying effect pedals for my bass and the bass-specific ones are looking quite expensive (and less plentiful than guitar pedals). How good do Danelectro pedals sound with a bass? Does anyone have any hints on places online that sell bass pedals? Don't know how much it really counts as an effect pedal, but I bought the Dano Fish & Chips from a goon and let me say, it is a nice piece of equipment. I've run both a guitar and a bass through it, both sound great. Fuzzhugger has great stuff and sometimes has demos with bass as well as guitar.
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Oct 28, 2010 02:11
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EHX's Big Bass Muff is an excellent fuzz, a bit out of your pricerange though. Mine is broken at the moment  I'm gonna get a clone Woolly Mammoth soon, can't wait. That thing is a real monster fuzz.
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Oct 28, 2010 03:01
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The Russian Big Muff makes a pretty badass bass fuzz, within a certain range of settings. I don't know what the market is like now, though, since they've apparently been discontinued.
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Oct 28, 2010 05:28
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Dyna Soar posted:EHX's Big Bass Muff is an excellent fuzz, a bit out of your pricerange though. Mine is broken at the moment I have a clone sitting on my desk and I just need to box it up. It was extremely easy to build. 8 resistors, 7 capacitors, 2 transistors - it's ridiculous that zVex sells these things for $300! I haven't tried it obviously but all the clips I've heard sound pretty excellent.
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Oct 28, 2010 05:28
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Dyna Soar posted:EHX's Big Bass Muff is an excellent fuzz, a bit out of your pricerange though. Mine is broken at the moment I love my Big Bass Muff. LOOOOVE it. It's my only pedal I use on a regular basis and I have a half dozen to choose from.
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Oct 28, 2010 05:36
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DRP Solved! posted:I want to start buying effect pedals for my bass and the bass-specific ones are looking quite expensive (and less plentiful than guitar pedals). How good do Danelectro pedals sound with a bass? Does anyone have any hints on places online that sell bass pedals? I actually have a Danelectro fabtone pedal that I use for my bass and I've gotten some good sounds out of it for fuzz bass that's just barely fuzzy. (The higher end of the fuzzy has a tendency to get a bit muddy). It's unfortunately broken right now, and I'm not really sure how to fix it.
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Oct 28, 2010 05:39
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There's a Boss DS-1 mod that I did for my fuzz needs and holy poo poo it certainly nails everything that I could want it to do. Could probably find out where the changes were made (there's about a dozen on the IC board) if anyone's handy with a soldering iron and wants to try it out! Total cost (not including tools) was about $45 including the DS-1 and parts from mouser.com.
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Oct 28, 2010 08:46
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