|
Rifter17 posted:I have a Sting Ray 5 and I'll never part with it, but that's mostly due to sentimental reasons. It's a solid bass on all fronts and does what it does great. Honestly if I had to do it over again, I'd look into G&L. They make great stuff and are the natural progression of the Fender lineage. I think it straddles the line. I feel like if it's on the fretboard, it's tapping. If you do it over the body, it has more of the slap tone and yeah, doesn't really have a name. Here's a great clip of Entwistle's "finger slap" isolated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80dsyo2Ox-0 Edit: Also, check out Mike Gordon's docu-film "Rising Low." Mike is weird as hell but it's a great little film primarily about the making of the Gov't Mule tribute album to their deceased bassist Allen Woody, but it also explores different bassists and how they approach the instrument. Both in theory and technique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmT_Oj7iQI0 Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUGeYOai2kM Part 2 (Entwistle is featured here) Mike Watt has a great technique that he calls "wrestling" the bass. Basically digging in like crazy to get some gnarly sounds. Scarf fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Apr 5, 2016 |
# ? Apr 5, 2016 16:41 |
|
|
# ? May 22, 2024 17:14 |
|
I picked up a Classic Vibe Jazz Bass on Sunday night and went to jam with some guys Monday night. First time really playing bass in 15years and first time in a band context. Four drinks and three hours later my fingers were sore as gently caress but had a hell of an awesome night. Definitely going to stick with it. I feel like I should have picked it up forever ago rather than just hacking life out as a rhythm guitarist.
|
# ? Apr 5, 2016 17:11 |
|
I was in Brazil on vacation visiting the in-laws, and since I don't speak portuguese they just let me hang out in the music store and try out stuff while my wife and them went out shopping. I tried a Steinberger with active pickups and it was alright, but then I tried a Warwick passive rock bass and it blew the (twice as expensive) Steinberger away. The neck felt slimmer and faster too. For whatever reason, I never took much notice of Warwicks...they've always been kind of 'there'. If I didn't have a Rickenbacker on order, I might've bought it. Anyone know what Warwicks have active pickups? It might be cool to try one.
|
# ? Apr 5, 2016 20:42 |
|
Seventh Arrow posted:I was in Brazil on vacation visiting the in-laws, and since I don't speak portuguese they just let me hang out in the music store and try out stuff while my wife and them went out shopping. Buddy of mine had a Warwick that was active. Can't remember the model, though. It was many years ago. I did a quick search, and there's a model called the Corvette. Musician's Friend has one below $700, so something tells me it's near the bottom end of the scale for Warwick--not that that's a bad thing, necessarily. It's EQ is only 2-band, though, which usually means it's going to have a somewhat dead sound in the midrange.
|
# ? Apr 5, 2016 21:03 |
|
Scarf posted:Edit: Also, check out Mike Gordon's docu-film "Rising Low." Mike is weird as hell but it's a great little film primarily about the making of the Gov't Mule tribute album to their deceased bassist Allen Woody, but it also explores different bassists and how they approach the instrument. Both in theory and technique. Cool, I've never heard of this documentary before! Thanks for the link.
|
# ? Apr 5, 2016 23:30 |
|
I use warwicks, prefer the active pickups due to a really aggressive sound. The Rockbass lines are their low-end models but honestly the quality is still there; what gets skimped on is the hardware such as the pegs and nut. (I believe those are shopped out to China while the "real" warwicks are still made in Germany.) Still, I have two Rockbasses myself, a corvette and a streamer, and think they're great.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 00:00 |
|
Scarf posted:I'm pretty sure all of Ibanez's lawsuit basses from that era were dubbed "Silver Series" basses, so I'd search by that. I think that name also applied to their lawsuit guitars as well.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 02:44 |
|
NarkyBark posted:I use warwicks, prefer the active pickups due to a really aggressive sound. The Rockbass lines are their low-end models but honestly the quality is still there; what gets skimped on is the hardware such as the pegs and nut. (I believe those are shopped out to China while the "real" warwicks are still made in Germany.) Still, I have two Rockbasses myself, a corvette and a streamer, and think they're great. This opinion intrigues me because I have a Corvette, myself, but opted for one without the active electronics. I don't often play with active basses, personally, but have always been interested. Ever so much, more so, because my rig feels much more "hi-fi," than your typical set-up (SWR into LDS cab) to the point where it doesn't even look like I'm in a rock band. I might as well be playing fusion, but that's another day. I know active electronics will boost my signal and really get it clean, which appeals to me for really driving my pre-amp and getting more of that aggressive rock tone. Now, I'm not going to turn around and get a whole other bass, but I've read about how some players prefer active electronics with passive pickups, so that there's an option to toggle between the two sounds. I don't know how that affects the signal to noise ratio, but the passive Warwicks come with good quality "Dynamic Correction" pups already. So, what if I were to get into the back cavity on my Warwick (yes, its still there, even though its passive) and put a preamp unit into the circuit, and maybe install a couple concentric pots to compensate for the limited facial space? I'm not sure if that's been accomplished by anyone here, but it seems like a good way to try something out for just the price of a pre-amp, parts and wiring time. Jeff Goldblum fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Apr 6, 2016 |
# ? Apr 6, 2016 03:16 |
|
Jeff Goldblum posted:Now, I'm not going to turn around and get a whole other bass, but I've read about how some players prefer active electronics with passive pickups, so that there's an option to toggle between the two sounds. I don't know how that affects the signal to noise ratio, but the passive Warwicks come with good quality "Dynamic Correction" pups already. So, what if I were to get into the back cavity on my Warwick (yes, its still there, even though its passive) and put a preamp unit into the circuit, and maybe install a couple concentric pots to compensate for the limited facial space? I'm not sure if that's been accomplished by anyone here, but it seems like a good way to try something out for just the price of a pre-amp, parts and wiring time.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 03:51 |
|
tarlibone posted:Buddy of mine had a Warwick that was active. Can't remember the model, though. It was many years ago. I did a quick search, and there's a model called the Corvette. Musician's Friend has one below $700, so something tells me it's near the bottom end of the scale for Warwick--not that that's a bad thing, necessarily. It's EQ is only 2-band, though, which usually means it's going to have a somewhat dead sound in the midrange. Warwick is definitely a good name, I'd expect a $700 piece to have decent pickups and good quality control. Y'all who own one, Warwicks have pretty flat fretboards, right? Closer to Ibanez than Fender? Personally I'd go for fully passive or three band EQ, that mid control is what makes active basses worth it - otherwise, go to town.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 04:03 |
|
Rifter17 posted:I have a Sting Ray 5 and I'll never part with it, but that's mostly due to sentimental reasons. It's a solid bass on all fronts and does what it does great. Honestly if I had to do it over again, I'd look into G&L. They make great stuff and are the natural progression of the Fender lineage. People swear by the L-1500/1505, apparently it's got quite a lot of stingray grunt. I love my Tribute SB-2, which has enough grunt that I use pressurewounds to tame it a little.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 09:52 |
|
ewe2 posted:People swear by the L-1500/1505, apparently it's got quite a lot of stingray grunt. I love my Tribute SB-2, which has enough grunt that I use pressurewounds to tame it a little. I've owned an SB-2 (Great simple bass, very aggressive) and an L2500 (Didn't like it as much as I had hoped, sadly) but I gotta say, those MFD pickups are absolutely fantastic. I am in love with hi-output bass humbuckers. I ended up buying an MFD L2000 pickup with electronics directly from G&L to chuck into my old Epiphone Explorer bass to make it grunt more than the original pickups ever hoped to, I haven't finished wiring it (I have to get someone to help me) but I am hoping by the end of the whole mess I'll have the look of a munted Explorer bass with the aggression of an L1500... Wish me luck.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 11:59 |
|
I'll get an L2K one day, but yes the p mfd's are insanely strong for a passive pickup. Like many SB-2 players, I use the bridge pickup as a high-mid tone control, great for slap and using chorus with, rolling back the main pup for an older sound when needed. I hope your new pups work well with that bass!
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 12:56 |
|
Anybody have any input regarding pickup placement? My in-progress fretless bass has a limba body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard, so leaning towards darker tone but not headfirst into dark tone. I am using two J-style pickups - Nordstrand Big Splits - and I'm sure the luthier will be asking about pickup placement soon. My initial thoughts are to use 60s jazz placement instead of 70s for the bridge pup, but the heavier tone woods might allow me to move the bridge pup back that little bit to emulate more of that soloed bridge Fender J-bass tone. The neck pickup might not be able to go in the traditional J-bass location, unless I want to sacrifice a few chromatic steps and chop the fingerboard short of that high G. I'm not sure if that inch difference will make a huge impact on the tone compared to moving the bridge pickup, but that's just guesswork. I will likely use both pickups most of the time, with one wide open and one half- to fully-open. Do they need a certain distance relationship to achieve the standard J tone profiles? I know in the long run it'll be capable of some great tones no matter what because it is well made with quality parts, but you can only place pickups once before you have to hack the instrument to pieces...
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 14:15 |
|
Throw a piezo in there
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 15:07 |
|
Scarf posted:Throw a piezo in there I'm trying to keep the electronics basic/fairly traditional, otherwise I would have smushed a humbucker in MM position, added a piezo under the bridge, added active EQ and taken out a second mortgage... it's a very slippery slope once you start talking piezos!
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 16:20 |
|
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/index.html Seems to be a useful tool. For regular guitars I'd always heard people argue that you should position pickups as markers for a root, perfect fifth or major third. So if you play over the pickup, position it right on the harmonic node for the given note but if you play in front or behind the pickup adjust accordingly.
|
# ? Apr 6, 2016 17:09 |
|
I'm digging the DR Nickel Lo-Riders on my Dingwall, but it's been an absolute bastard trying to get the .125 to intonate tuned to A. I'm thinking I'll up that one to a .130, and maybe try some Pure Blues or Sunbeams for comparison.
|
# ? Apr 9, 2016 03:55 |
|
I finally found the pictures from my first cabinet build that were requested a while ago. Turns out I didn't have that batch of pictures backed up on the computer, but they were still on my old camera's memory card... unfortunately I didn't take many pictures while building my second small cab besides what I've already shared. The base cabinet design is from Bill FitzMaurice - the 212 variant of the Omni 15. My smaller cab is the Jack 10. There are many other good designs out there - fEARful and BigE are two that come to mind. I made some minor modifications, such as handle and wheel placement, but I was careful to avoid modifications that would affect interior volume or dimensions. I got a lot of my parts from SpeakerHardware.com, the guy who runs it knows his stuff and runs a good business. I got anything else from Parts Express. All speakers are Eminence. Also, my fretless electric is having its body glued up. The limba looks even better than I hoped, the back of the instrument could look as good as the front depending on how the figured maple neck looks.
|
# ? Apr 13, 2016 04:22 |
|
So, uh, Flea did a thing last night... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8itum6etNcM By "a thing," I mean he played the national anthem, terribly. Holy poo poo that's awful.
|
# ? Apr 14, 2016 15:43 |
|
I love Flea. I love his playing in RHCP. I love his passion for the bass. I could not sit through even a third of that... effort? Just awful. Neat tone, but awful everything else. But full disclosure: when it comes to the anthem, I'm one of those insufferable traditionalists. It's the National loving Anthem, not some random soul song that needs extended vocal runs, time signature shifts, or overwrought embellishment. I don't really care what instrument you use, just play the loving song right. It's difficult to sing, but not difficult to play on most instruments. There are exceptions, of course. Hendrix comes to mind. This wasn't Hendrix-level.
|
# ? Apr 14, 2016 20:59 |
|
Oh my god Flea, that was bad...like he was high or something. Still, I can play as bad as that too so that's a small comfort
|
# ? Apr 14, 2016 22:22 |
|
He did it a lot better a couple years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kQCsDiiyb4
|
# ? Apr 15, 2016 00:12 |
|
tarlibone posted:I love Flea. I love his playing in RHCP. I love his passion for the bass. This is just right. It's a melody with no backing, you basically have to play the drat melody pretty straight, especially since it's a two minute intro to a game, not a concert. At most, you can do some colouring and I guess a couple of harmonies. Leave the jazz to a concert, and then only play the song if the song is cool (or you are literally Hendrix and have a political point or whatever).
|
# ? Apr 15, 2016 10:04 |
|
tarlibone posted:I love Flea. I love his playing in RHCP. I love his passion for the bass. See, I thought his tone was godawful. DrChu posted:He did it a lot better a couple years ago: I feel like there he started out great, but then was like, "gently caress it I'm gonna jack off over all these people." Scarf fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 15, 2016 |
# ? Apr 15, 2016 20:11 |
|
Seventh Arrow posted:Anyone know what Warwicks have active pickups? It might be cool to try one. The Made In Germany ones all will, and it's probably better to grab one of those used vs. a new Rockbass. I'm actually not a super huge fan of the MEC pickups they've been using for a few decades, though. They're kind of like EMG's. ewe2 posted:People swear by the L-1500/1505, apparently it's got quite a lot of stingray grunt. I love my Tribute SB-2, which has enough grunt that I use pressurewounds to tame it a little. These are great. The necks on G&L fivers are a little thicker than the Stingray5 's neck, which unfortunately (because I hate how the Stingray sounds and I hate EB/MM) is my favorite production neck of all time and what I modeled all my Stambaughs after. I believe they slimmed them out a bit in the last five to seven years, though, and now everything gets a PLEK. CaseFace McGee posted:Anybody have any input regarding pickup placement? ... fretless... If you have a chance, really try to play a 60's and 70's fretless back-to-back to be sure. Pickup placement is so important, it'd be a shame to get it wrong. Personally I like where the 70's back pickup sits for both fretted and fretless, especially if there's a neck pickup to fatten things up. I only have one pickup in my fretless, but it's a Nordstrand Dual Coil with the back coil in the 70's spot, but it also has piezos when I want it to sound more acoustic. (Which it doesn't do very well. I think in a solidbody fretless you're fine to skip the piezos in most cases.)
|
# ? Apr 15, 2016 21:54 |
|
DEUCE SLUICE posted:If you have a chance, really try to play a 60's and 70's fretless back-to-back to be sure. Pickup placement is so important, it'd be a shame to get it wrong. There are no fretless basses in any music shops anywhere in my general area. I couldn't even find a single fretted bass with 70s pickup spacing, but I did notice a distinct difference in instrument setup in different shops. All the local stores had every instrument set up to play about as well as they were capable. I spent a ton of time dicking around on a Squier CV that had a neck like butter in one of those shops. Guitar Center, on the other hand, had no playable instruments with a price tag under $700. Mile high action, terrible intonation, uneven pickup height... it reminded me why I don't buy from them. Their American J bass V was an awful lot of fun though, and set up very well... since it was the most expensive bass on the floor. I'm leaning towards 70s spacing. The Big Split pickups and wood choices should keep the tone from getting too brittle, and if I really need to I can just roll in a touch of neck pickup to fatten up the sound.
|
# ? Apr 23, 2016 04:05 |
|
My bass bridge screws have all come loose after a month ~ of use - with every string at unintended heights, all vibrating against the fret board. Is this to be expected with a month of use or a sign of something more serious? or should I just find + buy whatever tiny rear end hex tool fits the screws and adjust them regularly?
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 06:18 |
|
Thom ZombieForm posted:My bass bridge screws have all come loose after a month ~ of use - with every string at unintended heights, all vibrating against the fret board. Is this to be expected with a month of use or a sign of something more serious? or should I just find + buy whatever tiny rear end hex tool fits the screws and adjust them regularly? Sounds like a piece of poo poo. What are you playing???
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 12:37 |
|
These ones? I've only ever touched mine to set the action - they've never moved on their own.
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 12:37 |
|
My experience with those bridges is they either totally work and you never have to really mess with them, or they totally gently caress everything up and make an otherwise good bass almost unplayable. Get a badass bass 2 bridge or another type of high mass bridge. When I ordered mine the string grooves weren't ground into the saddles, so I had to make a trip to a luthier.. So try to avoid buying one like that.
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 12:45 |
|
Fierce Brosnan posted:These ones? This is the bridge - its a fender mim p bass, but yeah. that's upsetting to hear (for me)! Will look into badass bass 2 bridge
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 17:15 |
|
I don't believe the badass is being made any more. Probably can still find a NOS one somewhere but I have no idea what it'll cost. I think the best replacement Fender-mount options are the Hipshot A or B, or wait for Hipshot's BadAss tribute, the "Kickass" ( ) to drop.
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 18:32 |
|
Thom ZombieForm posted:My bass bridge screws have all come loose after a month ~ of use - with every string at unintended heights, all vibrating against the fret board. Is this to be expected with a month of use or a sign of something more serious? or should I just find + buy whatever tiny rear end hex tool fits the screws and adjust them regularly? If you're going to replace it anyway could always just loctite those screws in place in the meantime.
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 18:53 |
|
Just use the non permanent purple or blue loctite. That'll keep saddle screws in place and you can still adjust them later. The high strength stuff will ruin a bridge
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 19:07 |
|
FancyMike posted:Just use the non permanent purple or blue loctite. That'll keep saddle screws in place and you can still adjust them later. The high strength stuff will ruin a bridge Sounds like the best solution, didn't realize how expensive aftermarket bridges are!
|
# ? Apr 24, 2016 21:35 |
|
Thom ZombieForm posted:This is the bridge - its a fender mim p bass, but yeah. that's upsetting to hear (for me)! Will look into badass bass 2 bridge If it's a pre-2008 mim Fender, I'm not totally surprised. They had pretty poor QC then.
|
# ? Apr 25, 2016 01:01 |
|
Haha, playing my new Rickenbacker in church. I await my interview with the Chief Inquisitor any moment. (Scarf shakes his head as I move from one bass to another, like strangers in the night)
|
# ? Apr 25, 2016 02:34 |
|
Which Bergantino cab is that?
|
# ? Apr 25, 2016 02:39 |
|
|
# ? May 22, 2024 17:14 |
|
Juaguocio posted:Which Bergantino cab is that? I think it's the HD112, if I recall correctly.
|
# ? Apr 25, 2016 02:48 |