Latest Posts

robert_stuart said:

This weekend, I’m giving this recipe a try on a $50 bass. The video did a good job persuading me to give it a shot. He goes slowly through the process and truly uses only around $40 in easy to find supplies.

Login to view embedded media

Click to expand...

I've not used one brand (Rustolium) for each stage but after watching this I may eventually give it a try. At one time using hardware store rattle-cans was not ideal but paint technology has evolved to the point that these products, many times for automotive purposes will lead to a decent result. I'm especially interested in the 'filler-primer' and the 'triple thick glaze' product.

Do post your insights after using this system - YouTube vids always make things look easier/go smoother than doing it oneself. Good luck!

JohnnyBottom said:

Its a thing. Repeat success.
New flats.
1 night of Eucerin = about a couple months of playing.
Perfect

Click to expand...

Nice!

SoonerBill said:

Just talked to my BIL. The bank could put pending charges on hold which would remove them from showing as pending. But if the bank doesn't see them any longer in their system at all that's different. The charges would only disappear if the vendor or the service they use like was mentioned earlier that placed the charge cancelled it. Or a very, very skilled and motivated hacker. I'm not sure what motivation that good a hacker would have.

Click to expand...

Possible it’s someone I know and when they found out I caught it they decided to cancel the transaction purchase? How would that complicate things with it being disputed and being refunded I wonder?

Thanks all for the replies and thoughtful suggestions. I have some ideas swirling and I think something custom might be in order.

One last thought I had though—it seems like a mustang bass pickup has a bobbin that’s about the same height and width as a ‘51-‘57 P pickup, and one pole piece per string. These are usually thought of as “thumpy” pickups, but I think that’s maybe more a function of the mustang’s short scale.

Would a mustang pickup with the coils in parallel be pretty close to a single coil P? What do you guys think? To keep the split P aesthetic, I’d have to figure out how to fit them into a cover.

fclefgeoff said:

Thanks! I’ve never owned or seen the ‘Blue Dawn’ finish in person, so I can’t say with any certainty. I did a google search for Ernie Ball Blue Dawn vs New Dawn, and this was the AI summary.

View attachment 7542510

Click to expand...

Thanks. My first EBMM was a Blue Dawn/maple USA Sterling from Elderly Instruments. Loved that finish; should have held onto the bass.

Pj DiMarzio pickup wires

I see a pultec too!

mambo4 said:

So if you (and/or the band) go ampless, how do you hear the mix? Monitors, IEMs, is there a standard?

Click to expand...

I suppose the standard is IEM. That's what I use.

mambo4 said:

How do you mix the mix you hear? Does it come form the board or is there dedicated hardware you bring?
Does everybody get the same mix from one box, many mixes from one box, or many mixes from many boxes?

Click to expand...

Many mixes from one box. We bring a dedicated IEM mixer in a rack unit.

mambo4 said:

How many cables and box connections are we talking about?
Do you bring your own PA or do you send a multi track feed to FOH?

Click to expand...

The rack we bring features:
1. A WiFi rack unit
2. A battery storage/charging system
3. IEM transmitters
4. The IEM Mixing console
5. An XLR Signal splitter.


The routing on stage is simple. We place the rack beside the FOH stage box and connect all the XLR cables from microphones and amps to our mixer. On the back of our mixer, there's a multicore coming out, which will be connected to the FOH stage box. That's the additional work that has to be done: Instead of plugging straight into the stage box, we plug into our stuff and our stuff into the stage box.
FOH works just like they are used to. We take our split of the signal, run it into our mixer (a digital one - popular models would be the Behringer XR-18 or X32R (or the Midas equivalents), or the Soundcraft UI series - a digital mixer with enough aux paths to run the IEMs. Every band member brings a smart device (I mostly just use my phone) that connects to the mixer and can control the IEM feeds, so every member can adjust their own IEM mix at any time.

mambo4 said:

Do you feel it is simple compared to the old ways?

Click to expand...

I must admit that on bigger stages and festivals and such - basically anything where you can expect a decent monitoring system and a dedicated monitor mixer person that is available to you at all times - I don't mind playing a 'loud' stage.
What is a huge difference is small spaces and clubs. When the place and stage are so small that one generally uses the bass amp (in part) to carry the room, I find that when I am standing about three feet in front of my amp, whenever I turn it up enough that I can properly hear myself, the people in the back rows will drown in bass and I'm asked to turn down. Since I'm standing much too close to my amp, the lows can't properly unfold before they reach me and I usually feed off the reflections of the back wall.
On those gigs, both the audience and me enjoy a much better signal since everything is running through the PA system with properly placed speakers for the audience and I have my own mix on my ears. I usually mix my feed by starting with a balanced mix, something I'd enjoy for listening, and then raising the drums a tiny bit and the bass a tiny bit more - back when I started, I set the drums at +3dB and the bass at +6dB (starting from a balanced mix), but that was too much for my taste. Now it's just a tiny bit.

Toptube said:

Why are you concerned about humbuckers?

Why are you concerned about short scale?

Click to expand...

Toptube said:

Good questioins.

Click to expand...

Toptube said:

Humbuckers: Because of the potential lack of clarity in a mix.

Short scale: Because maybe they're too tubby sounding, particularly the E string and lack of sustain.

These concerns come from a lack of experience recording with them. So they may be bunk concerns.

Click to expand...

I just put an order in for the 72-79 Philter…

For me, I set it so its too low and buzzes and just back off a bit. Thats how I like it. An in-spec set up is too high for my tastes.

Lakland makes great basses and the 55-02 and 44-02 model are so versatile. Enjoy!

Now that we’ve devolved into tasteless bass beef videos in a thread about how a female bassist dresses and whether she’s showing the right amount of skin in her videos, I think it’s safe to say that this thread clearly no longer represents what the owners and admins wish this site to be about.

YARAH8 said:

Sorry ~ correct... i need a preamp with REVERSE TAPER POTS

Click to expand...

Ah. I see. There are a few threads about that. Here is one with a couple of comments that might be useful.

Good luck!

I played in a Catholic church for a few years. First I only played bass, then only singing baritone in the choir. To be honest, my wife was bugging me to go to church with her and I was more comfortable in the choir loft than the pews.

Main differences? Well the obvious was no goofing around, no substance abuse, no profanity on or off duty. We were not allowed to sing the word “Hallelujah” during Lent. Because it was a volunteer choir, the level of musicality varied widely. As a holdover from the “folk mass” phenomenon of the 1960s, we had odd instrumentation: organ of course, banjo, acoustic guitar, flute and bass. That’s why I stopped playing the bass, it was like backing up newbies at a jam session. The music director convinced me to stay and sing instead.

In a Catholic choir, it’s limited to playing music associated with the readings of that particular mass. For you non-Cathlolics, the calendar is fixed so every year, the same readings are used on a given Sunday. This restricted us to using songs that had actually used phrases from the readings in the lyrics. We used the “Glory and Praise" series of books:



The only time we got to break loose musically was at events like a church picnic. The musical director was a jazz organist and he chafed at not being able to play any music from the Afro-American gospel tradition. We also performed a passion play, separate from the mass, once a year. It was a prog rock opera written by a former parishoner back in the 1970s, so we had a full rock band up in the loft That was how my wife talked me into to coming to church in the first place. She came home with the bulletin one week and showed me the item saying they needed a bassist for the play.

I quit the choir when the pastor was reassigned by the diocese and his replacement was totally unsupportive of the choir. The music director left not long after I did. The new pastor managed to alienate much of the congregation, many of the members left for other churches. Added to fallout from the Catholic pedophile scandal (not at this church thankfully), my wife and I both left the church. The only time I’ve been back in a Catholic church has been for weddings and funerals.

AllanBass said:

The oversized cab is meant to provide the volume to allow the speaker to put out 39hz, I was quite taken aback by how big it is, really wasn't expecting it to take up so much space.

Click to expand...

-3 dB at 39 Hz. Fine. But at what RMS power level?

Wasnex said:

If you have a quality stereo reverb...let it run stereo.

For the rest of the band, the idea is not to create stereo for the audience. However, IMHO, there are some things I find useful. This is YMMV so try and decide for yourself.
1. If an instrument such as guitar is too loud on one side of the audience and not loud enough on the other, consider panning the instrument to weak side.
2. Gentle panning can be used to open up/make a bit more space in the mix.
3. I would consider gentle panning for a good piano patch. Overall the panning should be fairly narrow. Again the idea is to open up the mix, rather than create an obvious stereo effect.

Click to expand...

As I often do, I wander into a thread to find Wasnex has already made my point for me. I work with one guitarist who is in the process of going either ampless or too a very small amp, but for the moment there is backline guitar in stage right and not on stage left. His signal is panned to stage left. Sometimes I'll slightly pan some things maybe 10-15% just to make space, but barring practical things like the above guitarist nothing is hard panned as both sides of the audience need to hear things.

I have and had many compressors. Empress, Broughton Omni, Lusithand Alma, Union Tube&Transistor Lab, Origin Effects Cali, Fairfield Accountant.

The Diamond is easily my favourite. Tone, simplicity, design, aesthetics, ergonomics.

If Diamond is planning for a new version someday, I would think a Blend, higher gain, and internal voltage multiplier.

But really, if this interfered with the current looks and simplicity it should just remain as is. That Mid control is genial.

pcake said:

nice - i really like the red heads!

Click to expand...

I've always had a thing for redheads. And gingers, of course.

JimmyM said:

Sounds surprisingly good, too. And of course, as a Yamaha endorser, I approve, even though my own set is Ludwig

Click to expand...

It does! The kick drum in particular is a cannon and despite its size I needed to muffle it a little bit to reduce both volume and sustain. I experimented with different things and ended up using a Chihuahua couch. Being a very small kit, tuning range isn't very wide but it works.

Fondsdale said:

Nice, those Evans Hydraulics with the smaller shells would make a great lower volume setup.

Click to expand...

That was my plan: going 100% acoustic with manageable volume. Hydraulics work very well when played softly, as well as those thin Jazz cymbals. Since the space isnt't treated acoustically it doesn't sound very well, but it's doable. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try my EAD10 with the new kit and it worked wonderfully. Since it picks up the sound before it crashes around the room, everything sounds beautiful through headphones. Practicing and playing over songs is absolutely fantastic with this setup.

Bassragerstitch said:

So many years ago the original BB circuit and pickup went out so I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan music man 3 band eq, and a Bartolini W4CBC. well last week I ordered the re-issue BB circuit from Aria and it arrived this past Wednesday. I took pictures of the before, during, and after. So bare with me its the first time i've posted something like this.

This is what it started as: 1986 Aria Pro II SB-1000
i've made a few mods, sperzel locking tuners, Bartolini P/U
Seymour Duncan music man 3 band eq
View attachment 1837874

Close up of the body
View attachment 1837875

Control Cavity covers
View attachment 1837876

Control layout up close
View attachment 1837877

Covers removed showing the Seymour Duncan Preamp which i wired to 18 volts
View attachment 1837878

My bass is now gutless
View attachment 1837879

New Aria BB circuit installed, i taped some of the wires together just to make it a little neater looking, it is wired to run on 18 volts, as you can see the batteries are under the circuit board
View attachment 1837880

Finally installed, this was kind of a pain for me because i had to figure out what wires from pickup went to the open lugs on the toggle switch but a few minutes on the phone with a tech helped me out a lot
View attachment 1837881

A cable plugged in to show the LED works, it is used for a battery life indicator, also the toggle functions as an active passive switch and Jazz bass knobs for the volume and tone controls and the original pointer knob for the 6 way selecter switch
View attachment 1837882

This bass sounds soooooo amazing now I'll post sound clips soon

Click to expand...

Hello, I experience also some trouble with the EPC653 kit (in my 1982 SB1000). Could you explain the toggle switch change you had to make ? With the batteries in, it has a weak output active and passive. Without batteries it is normal output in passive mode (and no signal on active).

I've seen the Anagram mentioned a few times now on TB, so I looked it up.
Wow.
Expensive and way too complicated.
I understood about one word in ten of the description of what it does and honestly don't think I have enough years left to learn how to use one.

Minbe was already faint as it was walnut over ebony and then I re-dyed the neck, I did not do anything. I have memorized where my hand goes and got lucky that way. If you practice against a drone it will be better t6han any marker Drone Tone Tool practice all keys minor, major dominant, diminished. I will probably F it up if I drill

I love my vintage SVT/810, but I SURE get a lot of compliments now that I am in a clean-stage band.

I’ve also owned a few Casady’s, and my personal fave strings for them are Dunlop flats. GHS flats are ‘the sound of dark chocolate’, very sonically rich, but are a bit light tension-wise, TI’s are too light, Ernie Ball Group III feel good, but are a bit bright. Haven’t tried the Olinto’s on a JC yet, but sure sounded good on a friends ‘58 Precision.
The ultimate / now unobtainium flats are the original formula Sadowsky Black Label flats, the perfect flats for tone, tension and feel..sure wish Sadowsky would bring those back…