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Super group of NY jazz cats:
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trout fishing said:

Can’t your Manne be strung with long scale strings because of the bridge and through body? Not sure what yours looks like, but a friend’s works that way.

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Yeah it's through body. The long scale B string didn't work though.

TomB said:

I like kids !

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I could get used to the lava.

FYI, I just talked to Mo at Nordstrand. He confirmed that these are not their pickups.

@sikamikanico and @Benny4P, I came here today, after all this time, just to say that wow, how do I now know what you were talking about with regard to the plucking hand.

It’s been just one day with the bass here at home and I’m trying to figure out how to adjust, but now I realize how much I do a pendulum movement starting from the elbow when moving towards the first string, so I naturally move closer to the bridge. I’m trying to re-learn it so that I move the arm down parallel to the bridge and this works, I just have to develop muscle memory. When I move toward the low B it’s weird too, as the tone gets warmer and less defined, as one would expect from playing closer to the fingerboard, but it’s ironic that, if you don’t sort it out with your technique, it kind of risks diminishing the benefit of a multiscale bass in the first place.

An update to post #79
Always Gold.
The EHB?Is wish I could.
Maybe someone will make a set of headless tuners that can fit the EHB.

Some people desire or require more complexity than others. That's OK with me. I like simplicity whenever possible. We have worked with musicians who have a complicated setup, and when for example the guy with a guitar, keyboard, and a violin, all running through a Windows OS laptop on stage had a problem, I learned the hard way that I should limit my assistance to proving that our signal chain is 100% functional, and leave it to the guy who brought all this stuff to a bar band gig to figure out why he is not getting any signal out of his setup. The delay caused by equipment that was not our responsibility was interpreted by the venue owner as incompetence on our part. He commented to the band that it seemed as though I did not know what I was doing because it took so long to figure out the problem. The guy did not take responsibility for the problem being caused by a configuration issue in the Windows machine sound setup, which I resolved after he could not figure it out on his own, even though I was unfamiliar with what he was trying to accomplish with the computer at first.

When I see a gigantic pedal board and there is a problem with the signal out, I connect a microphone to our cable to the board, and say test, test, test, to prove our stuff works, and get off the stage.

I played a show a while back for a vocalist from the 50s and 60s whose big band charts had all been rewritten a half step lower from the originals to help an aging voice. This put them in some really interesting keys- many sharps and/or flats that made for some unusual fingering and sight reading challenges. The music director was pleased and maybe a little surprised that a "small town" band could do as well as we did. It's definitely a skill that can come in handy.

Thanks @bass player 53 ! Much appreciated. I also have to give credit to Nnick Lloyd for the fantastic set up he did on that bass. It’s been pretty much trouble free for decades now.

It's also important to manage weight distribution when trying to reduce weight on a bass. In the above MM/P bass I had both the bridge and tuners were too heavy. If I only replaced the bridge that would have introduced neck dive. If you route a bunch of body wood to reduce weight it'll throw off the balance on your bass.

Guild by far, sounds brutal.

Kevin Doyle said:

Mine came yesterday. So far I like it very much. There’s still plenty of tinkering to get the set up I like, and I haven’t tried to move the truss rod yet… so fingers crossed. It is a very, very nice feeling bass clearly well-made, and the least amount of 60 cycle hum I have ever heard. I had been concerned that there would be shielding/wiring issues but it really seems perfect. I am initially disappointed with the general output. Definitely everything about the preamp works, but the first thing I did was raise the pick up and then I had it too high, and the strings were of course hitting it so I lowered that down and I am still noticing the overall power and output is not what I thought I would be getting with these Nordstrand pick ups.

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Yeah, they aren't that high output. I find the Big Singles output on my SR1350B is comparable to the P p'up output on my Sire P5R, or the Lace p'ups output on my '90 Jazz Plus. There is a huge jump in gain when you switch on the preamp at neutral settings. Perhaps they are designed to be played mainly with the preamp on?

Mystery solved!

Mine came yesterday. So far I like it very much. There’s still plenty of tinkering to get the set up I like, and I haven’t tried to move the truss rod yet… so fingers crossed. It is a very, very nice feeling bass clearly well-made, and the least amount of 60 cycle hum I have ever heard. Reading what you just wrote Iridescentone, I kind of see what you mean and I am initially disappointed with the general output. Definitely everything about the preamp works, but the first thing I did was raise the pick up and then I had it too high, and the strings were of course hitting it so I lowered that down and I am still noticing the overall power and output is not what I thought I would be getting.

Lammchop93 said:

Go used! They are usually available on reverb or other sites.

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Frankly, I am not looking for one. I merely posited a question that might make a phaser more useful for bass. Then the thread blew up.

yeah man, this is a great groove

But …… also it’s black?

Get some easy classical pieces like Bach or Telemann etc. read something every day. In no time you’ll be reading.

If I could get some Midi help with my Boss ES-5 it would be most appreciated. I have a DD-200 as Midi channel 2. When I hit footswitch 2 (FS2) currently it turns on loops 1, 3 and 5 and the DD-200 turns on and sets it to PC5. What I need is to then be able to hit FS2 again, have none of the loop assignments change, and have it toggle to PC2, then hit it again and select PC5. AI took down a hours long rabbit hole. I should know better by now. Cheers!

Iristone said:

Currently I'd prefer the Joyo R-30 for the mid control, and I'm actually thinking of getting one right now. As for supporting the original designer, I may buy the DI-2112 or PSA 2.0 one day, I'm definitely a big fan of the PSA concept

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The Joyo R-30 sounds great! I believe it's more rugged than the Behringer, but it could benefit from a built-in 9V battery. I especially like the tone of the 80's (Gallien-Krueger?) setting on the Tech 21 manual, playing my active Steinberger-type bass into it.
Tech 21 totally deserves the kudos for designing the Sansamp topology, which I've always preferred to say Darkglass. I'll definitely buy a Tech 21 product, maybe the VT500 head? I kind of wish they'd make a BDDI head or PSA head, though.

I’ve been searching for black nylon strings for 7-string basses for ages. I reached out to LaBella first, but they said they don’t accept custom orders. I then contacted Pyramid Strings from Germany, who confirmed they could make custom sets. Their standard stock starts with a .035 High F, and other gauges are optional. I immediately placed an order for a few different gauges to try out, though the set didn’t come with a Low B — I’d been using LaBella’s .135 Low B all along.

I received my custom strings around a month later, and they turned out incredible! My only thought was that thinner gauges would be even better for lower tension. It would be ideal if they could produce a .125 Low B. I messaged Max at Pyramid to request slimmer gauges, and he said he would look into it. And wouldn’t you know it? They actually made the .125 Low B exactly as I hoped.

If you’re after custom black nylon bass strings, I’d highly recommend getting in touch with Pyramid Strings in Germany. Max responds to emails very quickly, and their production lead time is short too.

Hi. I’m also curious about these pickups and can’t seem to find any sound samples. Has anyone else tried these? And how are you finding them after a few months @57pbass?

wondering if this little quirk with the editor is happening for anyone else?


when using the default editor skin (on MAC) the tracking priority cycles between the 3 options "SPEED/ACCURACY/ZERO" but when switching to the LCD skin it only cycles between "SPEED/ZERO"

Yep they probably do sound different to varying degrees but out in the mosh pit we all sound pretty much the same. And dont even get me started on FOH dudes and studio dudes who will destroy your tone in a trice.

Pitch shifter latency isn't as easy to measure as it is on headphones, where it's just related to the length of audio buffers. Depending on the algorithm, it may get longer as the pitch drops, or on what notes you play. Modern shifters blend in a part of the dry note's attack to make the effect feel snappier - Capo definitely does this. I'll guess 5 to 10ms.