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Question about the Union Lab compressor pedal

I was really torn between the Lab and Cali76. Had them both for a while but in the end preferred the parallel and hpf side chain options of the Cali because in worship I go from a soft acoustic song straight into heavy pick with drive and fuzz, into a sub octave synth. The Cali covers more styles and the hpf side chain is clutch when running a sub octave first in the chain.

If I was only doing cleaner genres like indie, r&b, or country I’d pick the Lab. It sounds amazing with a P bass.

Great feedback @wolffire99

I’ve had the Cali76 Compact Bass, the Union LAB, Source Audio Atlas, UAFX 1176, Walrus Audio Highpoint, and the Empress. I recently got the Becos CompIQ MINI Pro Comp and love it. It checks all my boxes and gives many options. A friend told me about Becos two years ago but I resisted the small format. It packs a punch in a small format. It is flexible for a variety of genres. I highly recommend it. zZounds.com | Musical Instruments Music Store. Shop for Guitars, Drums, Amplifiers and Equipment. is a great place to buy.

ZZSounds

Has your taste in basses grown simpler or more complex?

Simpler.
'69 Les Paul Bass rewired to stereo, 5 way pickup selector, neck/both/bridge/stereo/reverse stereo.
Explorer body with Thunderbird pickups vol/vol pickup selector neck/stereo/bridge no tone pots
MIJ Dan Armstrong
Modified U-Bass with DiMarzio "rail" pickup. No controls. When you are 3' from the amp you don't need them. Alembic F2-B preamp.
Les Paul_Dan Armstrong.JPG
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U-Bass repair_5.jpg
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Sorta dumb question- what woods would work for a lightweight build?

Ah. Sorry for going MIA.

I'd given up on building for a while, with all the toddler drama that was going on. Then, two friends died last month.
I figure it'd be my reminder to get off my ass and get to building.

I'm planning on making a laminated neck black with port orford cedar, and doing something like Sebastien Gavret's dragonfly bass:

It's a bit ambitious, but I figure that I'll at least have something that be like a Steinberger with wings.

Sterling Ray34 Sparkle Basses... New for 2022... Unfortunate Situation...

Figured I'd chime in. In 2022, I bought a brand new Ray34 in poplar burl. When I initially got it, everything was fine, but eventually developed the same issues with the tuners. Only reason I'm posting this is because I've pretty much put that bass away for the past couple of years since I couldn't tune it. Well, for some strange reason, I was like, 'I'm going to see if I can replace the tuners' so went googling to find what would fit the existing screw holes and found this thread. I figured, what the heck, and emailed Sterling yesterday to see if they would possibly replace them since it was a known issue (or at least hoping, before I go through buying some). They responded today asking which tuners were affected and told them all 4 and sent them some pics. I know I'm way past warranty on this bass, but hoping they will do the right thing and replace them for me.

Here's some pics of the bass along side a sub 5HH I got super cheap (and absolutely love.. sounds amazing). I replaced the original clear pickguard with a 3 ply B/W/B.

View attachment 7531108

Here are pics of the tuner gears.
View attachment 7531113
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View attachment 7531117


So I can confirm that Sterling has offered to replace all 4 of my tuners free of charge. They shipped today. Got to say. I'm pretty impressed they would still offer to replace them 4 years after I bought the bass (3 years past the 1 year warranty). I might just have to jump online and find another Sterling to buy!

Double Bass Focusrite Tone Factory on EUB

I’ve been doubling for about 25 years.
Mostly with an Azola Bug Bass and some type of BG. I also have a hybrid Upton. I purchased a Stanley Clarke preamp to use with my various rigs and it has been the best tool in my arsenal for doubling. Great tone control and easy to get a sound with any of my basses. I also owned a NS for a short time. It was a great instrument with a unique tone, but didn’t do the upright thing justice.

Best fun live playing bass vs. best sounding bass in your arsenals

I'll sacrifice a bit of tone live for ergonomics/comfort. The nuance gets lost in the mix if it sounds good enough.

My 32" 5 string Muckelroy is the most comfortable live bass I've owned. And it sounds fantastic.

I have basses I like more for recording. And that's a convenient excuse to own more basses...

Some of my best sounding basses have ergonomic issues that keep me from grabbing them for a gig.

Advice request for pickup/preamp options

The thumb bass parallel really helped in pointing me in the right direction. My fender combo amp has amp preset buttons (bright, contour, vintage) and I never usually use the vintage because its too boomy with my other basses, but perfect for this bass. I also dropped the high mids to almost nothing, centered almost fully to the neck pickup, got my preamp mids down and I'm really liking what I'm hearing now. I just keep everything set like that and play with the passive tone to dial in what I want. This thing is sounding nasty af now. Appreciate all the tips everybody.
As a Warwick fan I knew exactly what you were having an issue with. Especially thumbs but most of thier other basses have mids baked in that will sound crazy if you push them too much but sound killer if you balance it right. I pretty much run eq flat in many cases and it pretty much kills it every time. Once in a while I might move a couple sliders for lows or mids but just a little bit is all you need. The key is rounding out the barky growly tone with getting the lows there but not too high and keeping the mids in a place they won’t overly dominate. The pickup blend is your friend too. If I had that bass I probably would run it blended to the neck a little bit or just straight up at detent. Also plucking it a little bit closer to the neck helps add some rounded punch. I’d love to hear some examples of what you came up with for tone. And just to mention, I have a Tobias and mtd and the mtd tone really gets into Warwick territory especially with the bridge pickup. I found myself right at home with my Kingston z5. That bridge tone is absolutely biting.
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Finally.........a proper backline!!

I've always chuckled at the assumption that every SWR cabinet is about to blow up at any moment. Maybe it's because I never abused any of my SWR gear and it all still has original speakers. Sounds like the OP's experience was with a well-maintained and likely not-abused SWR setup.

I beat the piss out of a Henry the 8x8 for years and never had a problem… I will say, I used discretion while whooping on it, but whooping all the same.

People expect too much from cabs. If I ever question… I use more.

AI photos (before and after)

Post your “before” and “after” photos.

It’s the latest craze and a blast to have photos redone. Here’s a photo of my wife and I from a few years back. I submitted it through an AI app and asked for a theme where were are wrestlers and she has me in a submission hold.

Before:

View attachment 7430663

After:

View attachment 7430664
Too fun!

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