Thorpe posted:

I run a baritone 8 string tuned down to as low as low C# below bass E.

Schlieren posted:

NonzeroCircle posted:

Holy poo poo man, what sort of music are you playing? If you're in a band, what is the bassist tuned to (if you have one)? My bass cab, admittedly only a 4x12, barely handles my five string.

Noise Machine posted:

Depends what kinda sound you're going for. I know a local band that has a guitarist using a VI on two songs, he plugs into his musicman head and matching 2x12 and he runs that really hot. That's if you want a more mid-heavy sound.

Thorpe posted:

I run a baritone 8 string tuned down to as low as low C# below bass E. I play loud a decent amount and haven't blown out a speaker yet. Using Century Vintage speakers and just EQ out the sub lows.

Agreed posted:

is that not just everyone's go-to thing regardless of tuning? Sure, in the studio you can dick around all you want with fancy stuff to get it just so, but live, if you're not cutting bass heavily on your guitar channel in the first place, you can just about bet the audience won't hear somebody else.

edit: I thought this was the guitar thread, whoops! obv. if you're still new, you don't really have standards n' practices yet, but that's one to keep in mind. I don't like hard/fast rules but a highpass at 100-125 for guitar is pretty much necessary, often higher (I like the way a very heavy guitar sound turns out when highpassed pretty aggressively at 250hz personally, but that doesn't work very well at all for non-distorted guitar).

Back to extended range bass talk, I've been chewing on the idea of getting a Schecter Hellcat. Anyone have any experience with one? I have a MIK Schecter from 2007 that's the tits but I'm fairly certain that their quality control (or something) took a massive nosedive with the move to China, based on experience with the MIC Schecters from 2009 onward anyway. Or maybe it was growing pains and things are better now, a lot of poo poo can change in seven years.

Handen posted:

I'd be curious to know your impression of this once you've put it through its paces. I own a Traveler mkII and 8pre mkII — both firewire — with the 8pre's ADAT-out feeding the Traveler. 16 channels, never had any problems. Then as I was sourcing interfaces for my workplace I discovered that the 8pre went USB only, and I was like, wtf? I ended up going well out of my way to find two old firewire versions because of my irrational hate-on for USB interfaces.

Allen Wren posted:

I'm not cool enough or good enough to gig

iostream.h posted:

I don't know a thing about you, your post history or your skill level, but bullshit.

I hear this so often from so many people and barring a physical or mental issue, there's absolutely no truth to it, EVER.

NonzeroCircle posted:

Thorpe, that sounds pretty cool, guess anything that low is gonna be heavy, and it sounds interesting that you are approaching it with bass techniques.

Although not strictly 'new' my last guitar was a very cheap Harley Benton 7 string off eBay, the neck feels nice and solid but the intonation is out by the third fret when tuned any lower than B Standard, probably due to the dreadful floating trem, which I've now blocked. My advice to anyone looking at extended range instruments is spend that bit more, and for the love of god get a hardtail! I've had numerous cheap sixes that have all played ok, and sold my first cheap 7 years ago for the exact issues I'm having with this one. Maybe this time I've learnt my lesson!

Allen Wren posted:

I'm not cool enough or good enough to gig, and what band I had is basically a non-extant thing, so even though I'm not new (sucking for seven straight years now), I'm basically trash with bad opinions so whatever. I just get to play in my apartment.

The Gasmask posted:

I go through phases of playing live in bands, then moving exclusively to studio stuff. At the moment I'm amassing a huge collection of songs which may or may not ever be played live, but like a lot of "bedroom" players I'm doing it for my own entertainment. Making songs I want to hear, variations on music I listen to that I think could be better.

I think the experience of playing live is not to be underrated though. There's nothing like getting lost in a song on stage and coming out of it at a random point to see a bunch of people either staring in rapt attention or dancing or moshing. First couple of times I got self conscious, but the band was playing shows and I wasn't going to halt that because I didn't want people staring at me.

Side note for Agreed: I don't think anyone answered your Schecter quality question. From everything I've heard, their 2013-2014 models are high quality for the price. It surprises me every time I hear it, since my only Schecter experience came during their crap years. But that's what people have been saying now!

Thorpe posted:

Mostly chuggy stupid metal, but I like to use the extended lows for two handed tapping and slapping it. Sort of a guitar bass hybrid. I'm not in a band at the moment (newish job who coincidentally forgot to tell me they regularly like to work 60+ hour weeks during the interview) but I like to crank up when I can.

When I have played with bassists we'd generally tune in unison, I'd cut out a lot of the lows from my tone and let the bassist bring the bass. Meshuggah does it that way and it works pretty well for them.

Argali posted:

Meshuggah's bassist actually tunes up a full step.

The Gasmask posted:

He could tune down an octave

Argali posted:

I think MIK guitars in general have been getting steadily better, to the point that they're pretty much the MIJ of the day. Personally I still steer clear of Chinese stuff though.

Allen Wren posted:

I'm not cool enough or good enough to gig, and what band I had is basically a non-extant thing, so even though I'm not new (sucking for seven straight years now), I'm basically trash with bad opinions so whatever. I just get to play in my apartment.

Agreed posted:

I've said the phrase "MIK is the new MIJ for import quality" before, back when Agiles first started getting big, PRS' QC for the SE series MIK was kicking rear end at the time (they still have really good quality control), Schecters back in like 2005-2008 (when I first started seeing Made in China pop up was 2009 iirc), but I am not /totally/ confident that it's true. Mainly because MIJ instruments tend to be so nice, and Korean manufacturing facilities are closer to Mexican ones in terms of working conditions, especially in the instrument world. Cort is the go-to example here: controlled 30%+ of the guitar market coming up to 2007, but put workers in conditions with exceptionally poor ventilation (yes, even around that fuckin' poly spray). Cort shut them down the moment they unionized looking for better wages and/or conditions (seriously, or). Then they were in a position of really needing the work so they begged that lovely company to reopen their closed facilities. Not a universal problem in Korean manufacturing, but enough that it got to be too pricy for a lot of manufacturers who were ostensibly trying to use a "good" country to make their poo poo super cheap (because nationalism, imo - people have very "gut" reactions to Made in China).

There are some excellent factories in China in terms of quality control, they tend to have very new factories compared to the U.S. (lol I worked in a factory from the '60s and that poo poo was nightmarish, got so hot it'd throw the robots completely off and we'd have to fix a shitload of welds) - I see it as a problem of having generally great working stations but sometimes very frightening working conditions, and expectations from the folks paying the wage. People still line up in the Southern province factories anyway if there's an opening, but that's not especially optional from their perspective.

Wait nobody comes to the gear thread for that poo poo. Apologies! I'm glad that Schecter have improved the quality of their instruments again, because they had great guitars for a little while there, then suddenly didn't and it hosed up my whole perception of the brand. Pick up several adjacent $700-$1000 instruments made in China and they ALL want your blood (lol what is fret crowning) and looked like they'd been set up by somebody who had only ever heard of the concept of a guitar, never actually seen one... I mean the new locking tuners on the higher end models were cool but I've never had issues with my tuners, whereas that poo poo was unplayable and inexcusable at the time as far as I'm concerned.

The Bass VI has such a weird loadout hardware-wise... I'm factoring in a nut replacement for it as necessary if I go down that route, but I don't like the idea of that style bridge for a bass. I dunno, though, I need to find one local-ish and try it so I can quit talking poo poo and make a decision one way or another. I want an extended range bass very badly, or a Hellcat. I kinda think I ought to get a Hellcat just to know for sure whether I like it, since my whole thought process seems to be running "well I could get either a Hellcat or some other extended range bass idk" and I probably wouldn't be able to call out the Squier VI by name if it weren't pretty big lately. Hm.

muike posted:

I feel kinda iffy on buying import guitars new other than from South Korean places since their collective bargaining thing

quote:

In any case, I spent a good deal of time with it today and I must say I really enjoy the Soul Food.

To disclaim for clarity, the overdrive and overdrive-esque effects that I have spent the most time with are the Boss SD-1, EHX Hot Tubes Nano, Catalinbread Naga Viper, Zvex Box of Rock, and a ProCo Rat 2. Out of all of these stompboxes the one I found the most usable was the SD-1, the biggest reason why is that it worked with pretty much everything I had and it did everything I needed it to do gain-wise; but I never really gelled with how extreme the mid-hump was, some days I loved how boxey it sounded and others I needed more treble and bass. Meanwhile, the one I liked the second best was the Hot Tubes, I liked how it sounded different from almost anything else, and it still sounded good when the gain was cranked; but I didn't use it too often because it tended to be muddy depending which amp or guitar was into it.

The reason why I bring up the SD-1 and the Hot Tubes is because it highlights the two kinds of overdrives you can find; one's meant to push an preamp, and one's meant to provide a dirty sound. If you've been reading about the Soul Food or the Klon then you know that the number one claim is that it excels at the former. I can say personally that it is a great clean boost; on the other hand you can get a much cheaper clean boost with EHX's LPB-1, so why the Soul Food?

It's all in the 'Tone'.

I don't mean that in the 'warmth, tube-like, and harmonics' buzzword sense, I mean in the literal 'way it is voiced' sense. If you have one of these and a looper, do an experiment; kick in a muff or other dirt pedal, loop a simple chord progression with it, and then solo over it playing with the Soul Food. You'll find that it's easy to stand out in the mix with the pedal on, that's why a Soul Food is valuable. You can accomplish similar things with a Tubescreamer or other clones, that's part of why I liked the SD-1, but that leads into the second reason to like the Soul Food.

That reason is 'Transparent Overdrive'

With a Tubescreamer, there are two things that help it stand out in a mix; there is the whole extreme mid-hump aspect that everybody and their antediluvian piano teacher is familiar with, the second is the compression which helps keep that guitarist in a particular spot in the mix. This is why it became popular in the first place, and it's also why there are a lot of people looking for alternatives in this day-and-age where people play on things other than Blackface or Silverface Fenders. With the Soul Food, you don't get the boxey sound when playing with a Tubescreamer through a Vox; and you get the dynamics of playing with a naturally overdriven amp again while keeping the volume down (somewhat ).

The most impressive aspect of the transparent overdrive is apparent when you do something dumb and play it through a modelling amp; the Soul Food literally works with every single piece of equipment!

I mean literally, I played it with all of my guitars into all of my amps, and every single one worked; from my Squier JMJM with antiquities to my Fender Pawn Shop '51. And as much as I hate to use this cliche, but it literally did make my normal 'clean' sound just louder and dirtier. Which made me realize something; why do we all clamour for tube amps for that 'beautiful tube overdrive' and then grind them with dirt pedals that change that sound entirely? I mean I understand why we don't crank Plexi's and Twins whenever we want, but it feels a bit silly to use Muffs, Tubescreamers, or Rat's and more-or-less ignore amp overdrive.

But I digress hypocritically, because I have also been experimenting with other dirt pedals with this thing and have found a few interesting things. With a Muff down chain, you can get a bit of the TS+Muff sound if you crank the gain to the point where the mids are pronounced. The Soul Food also works good after the Muff if you crank the gain to about 9 o'clock, it compresses the sound to where it's smooth but not muddy. My favorite use of the Soul Food (somewhat hypocritically) is as a boost into my Hot Tubes, I run my Soul Food as a dirty boost with the tone knob a bit past noon and then the Hot Tubes as a hot overdrive with volume at unity and the tone also a bit past noon. If I kick on the Soul Food on with the Hot Tubes I get an actually great 'not quite distortion, not quite fuzz' sound that still works well with whichever guitar or amp I kick in.

The only thing I didn't quite love with this pedal is that the pedals onboard dirt sounds are no great shakes, it's hard clipping for better-or-worse. It doesn't work well at all with a traditional solid-state amp because of this, a tube or good modelling amp will cover this up with their own clipping but don't expect it to be your only source of distortion.

Agreed posted:

I've said the phrase "MIK is the new MIJ for import quality" before, back when Agiles first started getting big, PRS' QC for the SE series MIK was kicking rear end at the time (they still have really good quality control), Schecters back in like 2005-2008 (when I first started seeing Made in China pop up was 2009 iirc), but I am not /totally/ confident that it's true. Mainly because MIJ instruments tend to be so nice, and Korean manufacturing facilities are closer to Mexican ones in terms of working conditions, especially in the instrument world. Cort is the go-to example here: controlled 30%+ of the guitar market coming up to 2007, but put workers in conditions with exceptionally poor ventilation (yes, even around that fuckin' poly spray). Cort shut them down the moment they unionized looking for better wages and/or conditions (seriously, or). Then they were in a position of really needing the work so they begged that lovely company to reopen their closed facilities. Not a universal problem in Korean manufacturing, but enough that it got to be too pricy for a lot of manufacturers who were ostensibly trying to use a "good" country to make their poo poo super cheap (because nationalism, imo - people have very "gut" reactions to Made in China).

There are some excellent factories in China in terms of quality control, they tend to have very new factories compared to the U.S. (lol I worked in a factory from the '60s and that poo poo was nightmarish, got so hot it'd throw the robots completely off and we'd have to fix a shitload of welds) - I see it as a problem of having generally great working stations but sometimes very frightening working conditions, and expectations from the folks paying the wage. People still line up in the Southern province factories anyway if there's an opening, but that's not especially optional from their perspective.

Wait nobody comes to the gear thread for that poo poo. Apologies! I'm glad that Schecter have improved the quality of their instruments again, because they had great guitars for a little while there, then suddenly didn't and it hosed up my whole perception of the brand. Pick up several adjacent $700-$1000 instruments made in China and they ALL want your blood (lol what is fret crowning) and looked like they'd been set up by somebody who had only ever heard of the concept of a guitar, never actually seen one... I mean the new locking tuners on the higher end models were cool but I've never had issues with my tuners, whereas that poo poo was unplayable and inexcusable at the time as far as I'm concerned.

The Bass VI has such a weird loadout hardware-wise... I'm factoring in a nut replacement for it as necessary if I go down that route, but I don't like the idea of that style bridge for a bass. I dunno, though, I need to find one local-ish and try it so I can quit talking poo poo and make a decision one way or another. I want an extended range bass very badly, or a Hellcat. I kinda think I ought to get a Hellcat just to know for sure whether I like it, since my whole thought process seems to be running "well I could get either a Hellcat or some other extended range bass idk" and I probably wouldn't be able to call out the Squier VI by name if it weren't pretty big lately. Hm.

umalt posted:

It's a Soul Food!

Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:

Korea makes fine instruments but I'm not sure why every one that I touch feels like it has a half inch of poly on it. Even the ridiculously expensive Deusenbergs have that plastic feel to them.

And when MIJ is still relatively cheap and great....