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DrChu posted:Unless the stock bridge has some problem spend the money on different strings first. Might take you a couple sets to find what you like, but that will have much more of an impact on your tone than the bridge. Yeah I would do that in any case anyway, I have ghs flats on my SB-2 basically to tame it and I wanted to go more rounds on this. I've fiddled with action and pup height and it's more in the ballpark but I think once these strings (pretty sure they're d'addario XLa) play out I might give some DR Sunbeams a go on them, they're nice strings. I'll see how things go as the bass settles in, some things take time.
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Apr 8, 2020 07:13
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DrChu posted:Unless the stock bridge has some problem spend the money on different strings first. Might take you a couple sets to find what you like, but that will have much more of an impact on your tone than the bridge. Any recommendations for someone playing mostly rock/punk with a pick and sometimes fingers?
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Apr 10, 2020 14:27
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nitsuga posted:Any recommendations for someone playing mostly rock/punk with a pick and sometimes fingers? Brands are all a matter of personal preference (lots of factors like string life, packaging, price) and gauge is also a matter of personal preference (feel) with a little bit of "I like this tone more than that tone." Try the light or medium sets from ernie ball or D'addario as they're pretty inexpensive for bass strings. Stick to roundwound, nickle-plated steel for now. For example, this is the set I prefer the most for a 4 string. Over time when you can afford it, try out different gauges/brands and see what you like. Lots of people rave about DR, Elixirs, and Labella bass strings, lots of people play flats (makes it sound more like an upright bass), and lots of people love all steel strings (it adds a poo poo-ton of clank and growl). Give each a shot if you're up for it, you may discover you like a weird combination of stuff and really love it. Also bass strings last a long time, even playing every day you can basically only need to change strings like every 4-6 months. Spanish Manlove fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Apr 10, 2020 |
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Apr 10, 2020 14:35
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you will lose a lot of the brightness over time though, so if you want that aggressive zing or chimey quality you'll probably need to replace them a bit more often just in general, I think stainless rounds are brighter, but nickel retains its high end longer? I usually go for nickel
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Apr 10, 2020 16:21
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You will also find that different basses will like different strings, there's no hard and fast rule about it. Truisms like "flats on P-bass" are just a wish-list, a tone preference that doesn't take the individual instrument into account.
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Apr 10, 2020 17:14
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iospace posted:So, I picked up a Dean Edge 09 Lefty a while back (second hand, and it was under 100 dollars with some lacquer damage, but hey, it's mine), well before this poo poo happened. im in the same boat iospace lately i've been following along with the lessons on this channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeD9_tDVA1wvqv1IF9QyP-A
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Apr 10, 2020 20:19
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My finger tips hurt. But I can play an E scale somewhat reliably now! Also I'm finding you have to pluck a lot lighter than you think you have to. If I pluck super hard I get fret buzz like mad.
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Apr 11, 2020 03:09
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iospace posted:My finger tips hurt. that's called "clank" and it's sometimes a good thing depending on the style of music you're playing
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Apr 11, 2020 03:13
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buzz and clank can be very good! but if you don't like it, set the bass up for your playing style. you don't need to play hard at all with an amplified bass, and especially with fingerstyle you can vary your dynamics a lot to control the sound - but if it feels like you need to be really careful, your action is probably too low e- ^^^ yeah!
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Apr 11, 2020 03:17
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Neural DSP have 30% off their plugins if you're after Parallax or the Darkglass vst plugins.
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Apr 13, 2020 01:42
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I have been playing a lot of guitar lately but found my MusicMan 5 String and want to use it as an occasional diversion What’s the go to home amp these days? Don’t see myself playing outside of the basement anytime in the near future so just something to get me going Any worthwhile ideas?
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Apr 18, 2020 21:26
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A 50w combo with a 10" driver like a fender rumble, or DI through an interface if you already have one.
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Apr 18, 2020 21:33
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Risky Bisquick posted:A 50w combo with a 10" driver like a fender rumble, or DI through an interface if you already have one. Any recommendations for interface in this context? Thank you for the help!
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Apr 18, 2020 21:47
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I got a Behringer U-phoria UM2 for pretty much this reason. Inexpensive and does the job.
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Apr 18, 2020 22:30
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I just picked up a Focusrite scarlet 2i2 on sale on reverb and tried it out last night through GarageBand. Signal chain was fender Marcus Miller into sans amp para driver into interface and I got some cool tones out of it
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Apr 19, 2020 00:35
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I recently got a focusrite and it does work good with my bass but getting the drivers downloaded was a pain in the rear end and they bluescreened my PC a handful of time in the first few days after getting it setup. All fine now though but maybe be prepared for some turbulence
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Apr 19, 2020 00:44
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Change of subject here, but has anyone tried out these MJC Ironworks strings? I am currently testing them out after finding a 110 stainless set on eBay. I liked them but lost a bit of tone on the 110 itself but since it held such tension in a lower tuning, I figured the 105 would be able to drop to B without getting too floppy so I am now trying one of those sets. There doesn't seem to be much info about these around, but no bad reviews as far as I can see an so far I am liking them. VERY bright and full tone, I have a G&L L2000 and it just radiates ***shine*** and can really push that piano tone that G&Ls have stored away. Dialling back some knobs on the bass made found some great dynamics. I had previously used Martin & Co. Darco strings, which were also very bright and zingy but felt much looser in tension so didn't downtune as well, I still have a set on my 5 string which they play fantastically on, though. There's 6-month comparison playthroughs with these that sound amazing, apparently, they have a hell of a lifespan that rivals Elixir (I am yet to find out) but for a fraction of the price (I think I got some old stock at a very low price) You tried them? What do you think? If what I have said sounds good, give them a go! Hell, they come in their own can so it also provides you with somewhere to put your picks, your cigarette butts or could be used as a portable spitoon. 
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Apr 19, 2020 04:02
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Amp chat Ended up with a Darkglass Microtubes 500 head as it gives me a direct out and headphones for now; plus I was gonna get the pedal anyways and it was a good deal. Assuming the extent of my jamming is probably gonna be with friends and family on a small scale (acoustic and/or small electric guitar amp) what’s a good cab to pair with it? Not in a rush there but something to keep an eye open for
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Apr 19, 2020 18:37
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warplain posted:Amp chat It does 500 @ 4ohm and 250-300 @ 8ohm, match the ohms and have equal or more power in the speaker cabinet. Do you like a particular artists sound? Check out their gear pages to see what they play through and check those out. Otherwise, you could bring the head with you to test some cabs, but these are trying times so maybe youtube? e: also checkout the difference between speaker sizes, 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 on youtube Risky Bisquick fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 19:45
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Just ordered a cheapy Ibanez gsr200 4 string and a Rumble 15 to dick around with, no experience but tons of free time.
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Apr 19, 2020 20:53
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Some quarantine pros and cons. Been practicing with my thumb nail and absolutely loving it. Grew it out and its like I dont need a comp pedal anymore, the tone is so bright. Loving it right now. But man not being able to practice with my bands or gig, I can feel my sharpness as a bassist starting to stutter or roll back. I miss the constant deadlines playing with other ppl makes you meet. Not exactly the worse thing happening ofc but thought I could share
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Apr 20, 2020 20:23
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I, too, miss playing with people. You can't replicate that feeling.
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Apr 20, 2020 23:32
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Shageletic posted:Some quarantine pros and cons. i've been having health issues since before the pandemic that have kept me from regularly gigging, i feel the sharpness part of this post innately. one thing that's been big for me in keeping at least a portion of the sharpness has been playing with records; you don't get the feedback/direct response of playing with musicians who react to what you're doing, but you can still keep your microtiming pretty sharp, and react to unexpected things on the record if it's not one you have the nuances of memorized.
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Apr 21, 2020 00:15
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Risky Bisquick posted:A 50w combo with a 10" driver like a fender rumble, or DI through an interface if you already have one. Any particular reason for 50w Fender Rumble over, say, 25w? I too am looking for a bedroom/practice bass amp and would like to know what the current hot poo poo is.
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Apr 21, 2020 17:29
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It’s loud enough to keep up with 10-20w guitar combos mainly and generally the 50w range have 10” drivers.
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Apr 21, 2020 17:40
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creamcorn posted:i've been having health issues since before the pandemic that have kept me from regularly gigging, i feel the sharpness part of this post innately. one thing that's been big for me in keeping at least a portion of the sharpness has been playing with records; you don't get the feedback/direct response of playing with musicians who react to what you're doing, but you can still keep your microtiming pretty sharp, and react to unexpected things on the record if it's not one you have the nuances of memorized. Yeah thats a good tip. Gonna try to tackle Danny Coffey's and Bob Babbit's Scorpio, if I can get thru that satisfactorily I'll feel real good about myself.
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Apr 21, 2020 20:17
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I jammed out alongside some Cocteau Twins songs and that was first time since I got it in December that I felt like I was actually playing the bass. It was a blast.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:28
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skooma512 posted:I jammed out alongside some Cocteau Twins songs and that was first time since I got it in December that I felt like I was actually playing the bass. It was a blast. Which songs? I’m disappointed I hadn’t considered learning anything of theirs yet.
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Apr 29, 2020 02:47
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Alright tone nuts. I'm playing with bass distortion. Using a bunch of plugins. Ergo I have options and hopefully somebody out there has a solution to my gripe. The issue I am finding is that either I have just enough distortion on my low strings, which then creates WAY too much distortion up top, OR: I have just enough distortion on the high strings, but not enough down low. How do I balance the distortion\gain between high and low strings? Is there a clever dick way of doing that or is this just kinda the nature of the beast?
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Apr 30, 2020 07:15
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From the description, I'm guessing that one side has different output gain compared to the other side. There are a couple things that might help...
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Apr 30, 2020 08:25
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I'm finally a Peavey Mark IV owner! Bought the whole stack of junk for $75. The cab is a complete monster: 18" and 2 10". The amp itself is like 80% functional. When I brought it home, the amp would only work with the "B" channel gain at like 1, so I took it apart and hosed down all the pots with contact cleaner, did a lotta fiddling, put it half back together, and the sounds started coming out. Kinda. The Graphic EQ switch was super touchy, when I pushed it even a little bit, the whole amp would cut out, so I took it apart again and hosed down that and literally every other pot/switch on the board and left it to dry. While it was assembled, I noticed that the channel "A" controls aren't affecting anything, which is fine with me, but I read in the manual that that isn't supposed to be the case? Anyone know how to get the amp to switch channels without the footswitch? H13 posted:Alright tone nuts. Rifter17 posted:From the description, I'm guessing that one side has different output gain compared to the other side. There are a couple things that might help...
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Apr 30, 2020 15:37
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If it's not a pickup balance issue and you don't want to mess with the tone by EQing it, you could use a multiband compressor to tame the sassy range (Normal compressors are like riding the volume knob, it affects everything equally. Multibands are like riding EQ knobs, you can bring ranges up or down independently as they get too loud or quiet)
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Apr 30, 2020 17:10
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Can anyone hear what the main bassline in this song is? Starts 28 seconds in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKtuURl3Ls&t=27s It seems simple enough for me to play, and I really like it, but I can't find the tab online. I don't have an ear for this at all
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May 1, 2020 14:22
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You don't have the ear for it yet... but you will, with practice! It's not at the usual A440 pitch - they probably sped the master tape up after recording it. Find yourself some software that can correct the pitch (about -40cent in this case), slow it down, and adjust the EQ so you're mostly hearing the bass. I like Transcribe!, but there are plenty of alternatives. Work it out a few notes at a time. You can do it!  pre:It's approximately
G
D 3/4 444
A 2 4\ 00 00 4 5h6h7 2 2
E 2 2 4 40
with some variations; some notes are played twice with a bouncy swung feel
Fierce Brosnan fucked around with this message at 15:52 on May 1, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 15:47
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Do you guys have a good recommendation for a free multi-band compressor VST?
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May 1, 2020 15:57
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nitsuga posted:Which songs? I’m disappointed I hadn’t considered learning anything of theirs yet. Iceblink Luck and Frou Frou foxes. For the latter there wasn't a tab as such but I just followed a chord chart and played around with it, it's fun! What I'm liking about bass is how easy it is to pick up stuff by ear, I got REM's Remind without looking at anything beforehand. Iceblink has a tab out there and it's super fun.
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May 1, 2020 16:46
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If you are looking for some fun quarantine bass materials to watch, Leland Sklar started a youtube channel with him just playing whatever he wants. For those who might not be in the know about this fella, he is a big session player who is associated with James Taylor, Joe Jackson, Phil Collins, and many many more as his Wikipedia page will show you. I started watching a couple videos and he's an...interesting guy. He says that he gets banned from a bunch of online things.
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May 4, 2020 04:14
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Getting back into thumping and need an amp. I don't have a band or anything and will be primarily home recording, but if we ever get out of this lockdown, i'd like to have something that i can play with people and hold up to guitar+drums. A few things that have caught my eye on CL: * SWR Workingman's 15 combo, $175 at a local shop * GK Backline 210 combo, $200 * Ashdown Evo 500 2x10 combo, $275 obo (this looks really nice?) * Ampeg BA115, $175 Style ranges from metal/hardcoreish to dnb/electronic loopey stuff. Right now I have a 5 string Jazz copy that i quite enjoy, been thinking about picking up a cheap 4 with active pickups to complement it. Used to have a big old 6 string that was really nice, but the neck was roughly the size of an interstate.
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May 4, 2020 07:29
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I'm a GK guy, and that 210 has a kickback design, so that's my vote (can eventually be used as a monitor if playing with PA). Otherwise, ashdowns are really nice amps.
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May 4, 2020 15:19
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I haven't used GK much, but a kickback is super handy for live situations when you don't want stupid high stage volume (your ears aren't behind your kneecaps). I like SWR cabinet tone but haven't used their combos or heads at all... and they are heavy as balls. Of those options, I'd go with Ashdown if it's in the budget, otherwise GK. And I'll also give a shoutout to Leland Sklar for his YouTube antics. He's very opinionated and goes on entertaining political rants in between his bouts of fun anecdotes and tasty playing.
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May 4, 2020 15:32
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