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Geoff Gould Pulse 5 string. Gould was the guy who created the Modulus Graphite neck and this thing has one as well. A bass shouldn't have a neck that thin, it's immense. Bought it when I was in Japan a few weeks ago, can't wait to get back and make filthy horrible noise on it. Picked it up second hand for £700, price new is about £2k so I'm happy with that!

Got a custom Rio Grande Powerbucker 5 ordered to replace the EMG as I'm not a fan of the "black box" look.

Also bought a limited edition Darkglass Electronics B7k Overdrive/Distortion pedal. Sounds so good.

 

 

[edit] Also, neepheid - yer a dick. I've wanted one of those for the longest time! [/edit]

Edited by imprinted
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19 hours ago, imprinted said:

Also, I don't think I've ever played a 35" scale bass before. It's quite fun. But makes me think I should try a Dingwall Combustion before buying it: 37" to 34" fan might be a step too far, even for me

 

Surpringly not as weird as you'd think on first try. Only spent a few mins with a Dingwall but I think I'd be over any weirdness in an hour or so.

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On 12/22/2015 at 1:33 PM, neepheid said:

Surpringly not as weird as you'd think on first try. Only spent a few mins with a Dingwall but I think I'd be over any weirdness in an hour or so.

It's more the fact that both my hands are the same size as Beadles "Pringle Paw" that has me worried.


"Take my strong hand child!"

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  • 4 weeks later...

Two changes casa Matt

First off, I modified my Yamaha SBV to give it active EQ (a spare EMG-BQC 3 band I had lying around) so I could beef up the sound a bit - someone whose ears I trust told me it sounded a bit too mid focused and lacked a bit of bottom end.  So now I can dial in more bottom end and scoop out whichever mid frequency is too prominent.  Not much space in there, so the only way to fit it all in was to make the controls from left to right as you're looking at them - bass/treble, freq/mid, stacked volumes - arse for elbow basically.  Gave the neck a good sorting out while I was at it - too much relief so I couldn't get the action as low as I'd like without invoking the wrath of the fret buzz.

05_stacks!.jpg

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I also bought myself a wee Christmas present the last time I was in Glasgow (dangerous place) - a G&L Tribute SB-2 in 80s-tastic white (stock image):

TI_SB2_110R47R20-1200.jpg

Time to sell a couple methinks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rio Grande Custom Powerbucker for my 5 string - they're building it to Modern Specs and to fit an EMG DC-40 housing. Not bad for $20 extra over the standard. And I get exposed pole pieces. Lovely.

If I don't like it then I'm going to give a Delano SBC 5 HE/S-4 a spin. 

Thinking about giving a set of Fishman Fluence Modern Ceramics a go as well, if they're good enough for Devin Townsend & Stef Carpenter...
 

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Bass VI arrived. It is great fun to play.

I am surprised with how good it is right out of the box. I was reading reviews of them and everyone seems to immediately change the bridge to a Staytrem or a Mastery bridge due to intonation problems. I tuned mine up and the intonation is on the money. Barre chords all over the board sound great. Every note frets fine. No issues with tuning or strings falling out of saddles. The nut isn't a mess like it can often be on Squiers. The pickups sound big and meaty too. No need for any serious upgrades. I just got some new knobs because I don't care for those pointy Jazz bass knobs. Got some big Boss style ones on the way. And then I'll layer it up in stickers, because punx.

It's a versatile instrument. Can't quite get my head around just how much it is capable of. With all the pickups on, it sounds like a bass, but oddly it doesn't play or feel like one, but is much much nicer to play than my crappy Jazz copy, because I have puny guitarist fingers, and not muscle-bound bassist fingers.

Once you start switching pickups and using the low-end strangle circuit, it really opens up. With just the bridge PU and the strangle on into guitar amp distortion, it just sounds like a grindy, aggressive guitar. Twangy and prickly, for Jesus Lizard/Shellac sort of tones. Really nasty. Put it into a fuzz and bring the middle PU into it and it is a village-destroying doom-machine. Sunn O))-ish low end. Barre chords through the neck PU with just a bit of OD just sound glorious. Open chords just sound sad and gloomy. Harmonics just pour out of it with a bit of OD ahead of it.

I haven't even got around to putting it through my pedal board yet!

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On 2/2/2016 at 4:08 PM, Soda van Jerk said:

Bass VI arrived. It is great fun to play.

I am surprised with how good it is right out of the box. I was reading reviews of them and everyone seems to immediately change the bridge to a Staytrem or a Mastery bridge due to intonation problems. I tuned mine up and the intonation is on the money. Barre chords all over the board sound great. Every note frets fine. No issues with tuning or strings falling out of saddles. The nut isn't a mess like it can often be on Squiers. The pickups sound big and meaty too. No need for any serious upgrades. I just got some new knobs because I don't care for those pointy Jazz bass knobs. Got some big Boss style ones on the way. And then I'll layer it up in stickers, because punx.

It's a versatile instrument. Can't quite get my head around just how much it is capable of. With all the pickups on, it sounds like a bass, but oddly it doesn't play or feel like one, but is much much nicer to play than my crappy Jazz copy, because I have puny guitarist fingers, and not muscle-bound bassist fingers.

Once you start switching pickups and using the low-end strangle circuit, it really opens up. With just the bridge PU and the strangle on into guitar amp distortion, it just sounds like a grindy, aggressive guitar. Twangy and prickly, for Jesus Lizard/Shellac sort of tones. Really nasty. Put it into a fuzz and bring the middle PU into it and it is a village-destroying doom-machine. Sunn O))-ish low end. Barre chords through the neck PU with just a bit of OD just sound glorious. Open chords just sound sad and gloomy. Harmonics just pour out of it with a bit of OD ahead of it.

I haven't even got around to putting it through my pedal board yet!

I wouldn't mind having a go of one, but being purely a bassist and more of an arpeggiator than a chorder I'd probably play it like I play a regular bass, mumble something about the strings being too close together/there being too many of them and put it back down again.  Glad you're having fun with it though :)

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44 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I wouldn't mind having a go of one, but being purely a bassist and more of an arpeggiator than a chorder I'd probably play it like I play a regular bass, mumble something about the strings being too close together/there being too many of them and put it back down again.  Glad you're having fun with it though :)

They do seem to garner better reviews from guitarers than bassers. Quite hard to play with fingers due to the spacing. And I don't think you get the same sort of thump you get from a real bass. Probably due to the stock strings being a fair bit thinner. Not sure the bridge and nut could handle much thicker without a bit of tampering with, but I could be wrong. It may not satisfy real bassists like it does guitarists pretending to be bassists, like me.

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Did a gig at the weekend with a Baritone Guitar running through a guitar head and 2x12 as well as a bass amp and 8x10.

I split the signal to the 2 amps before my effects chain and it sounded massive but i'm wondering whether I should run effects through the bass amp to make it sound massiver? 

I dunno how reverb and delay would work through a bass setup - and I don't really have the opportunity to try things out through 2 amps with our practice setup....

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6 hours ago, colb said:

Did a gig at the weekend with a Baritone Guitar running through a guitar head and 2x12 as well as a bass amp and 8x10.

I split the signal to the 2 amps before my effects chain and it sounded massive but i'm wondering whether I should run effects through the bass amp to make it sound massiver? 

I dunno how reverb and delay would work through a bass setup - and I don't really have the opportunity to try things out through 2 amps with our practice setup....

 

Can you not just book an hour at Toms or MV or something?

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6 hours ago, colb said:

Did a gig at the weekend with a Baritone Guitar running through a guitar head and 2x12 as well as a bass amp and 8x10.

I split the signal to the 2 amps before my effects chain and it sounded massive but i'm wondering whether I should run effects through the bass amp to make it sound massiver? 

I dunno how reverb and delay would work through a bass setup - and I don't really have the opportunity to try things out through 2 amps with our practice setup....

 

nah, I would keep it one dry and one wet, perhaps try swapping which amp handles each.

 

 

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3 hours ago, colb said:

Rooms are too small to really hear what the reverb/delay is doing - I should probably just go to Downstairs one afternoon and let rip...

If you're not competing against drums you can probably compensate for that by keeping it at a lower volume, so the room size shouldn't make much difference, especially the rooms at Toms. The shape of the front section of Downstairs would be similar so echo-projection and decay would be similar at lower volumes because the "energy" of the sound would be less.

I agree though, If Gav will let you have a go during the day with a long lead so you can stand in the middle of the stage out the font (which I'm sure he will), that would be a good option!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bah, today was going to be New Fuzz Pedal Day. I was close to getting the Raygun Meatropolis. Instead, the bridge on the Bass VI has gradually become more and more unplayable since I got it. A very common complaint it seems. The saddle screws just vibrate out of the saddle with each strum, until the action sinks and the strings just flap against the frets, and the teenytiny saddle screws are somewhere in my carpet. So I bought a new bridge. An utterly underwhelming gear acquisition.

If anyone is planning on getting a Bass VI, set aside £65 for the Staytrem bridge, or be forever disappointed.

staytrem-bassvi.jpg

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2 hours ago, Richard Pictures said:

Has anyone had much experience with a loop switching system, like the super famous mega guitarists use?

I used a little one in Callahan - two loops and a master bypass, good for switching three pedals on and two pedals off at the same time. 

This guy made mine: http://www.buzzelectronics.co.uk 

The programmable ones he makes look very useful for loads of different pedal combinations rather than just a couple of loops. 

 

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