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I'm with everyone else so far in that for an outdoor gig with any signifiant bass that you need to generate on your own, a single 15" cab is unlikely to be enough. With PA support for FOH the audience will likely be happy, but your own stage bass level is likely to sound/feel weak...it's just teh nature of being out in the open. Double up on the cabs and I suspect you'll be much more pleased.

When you really push any cab (and outdoors it happens without even realizing it for me) you may be hearing some port noise. While there could be other things going on with the cab, your experience here sounds like what I've found when I need more speaker area to get me what I need and a single cab is being pushed too hard.

Adding that second cab is going to surprise you with the difference it makes.

Bob_Ross said:

Same here…except, to my ears the School Days album was the first indication that Stan *wasn’t* going to be breaking new ground on every release. It struck me as “more of the same” as his previous two solo albums, and so hasn’t held up to repeated listenings over the years the way they have.

otoh, School Days was still a stronger album than the ones that followed!

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I did not hear his self titled album until I went college. I heard Journey to Love first and the School Days. I thought Journey to Love was funky in spots, but a lot of the Fusion went over my head. School Days was “in your face” enough that it really got 16 year old me excited.

Ok, here we go. I'm back for a few more builds, finding time to get in the shop when I can. Lots of lessons learned from my first builds. Should be fun.

Neck beams and wing blanks. Some laminates and dimensions for quick wins so I can spend more time with the fretboards and neck carves.

srosenthal13 said:

I tried that. Too immobilizing, and not pain-free. For me, at least.

I just had to bite the bullet and lay off bass for a while.

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Yeah, probably why I haven't seen it before? I agree with the previous posts, about laying off sugars, nitrates, processed carbs, cheese, and unfortunately alcohol. I do all of those 7x24 with exception of the last one, which I get to do today in moderation. A couple beers, thus I am in a very good mood and playing very creatively, at least to my ears.

You might try a very fast bass with a thin neck, like an Ibanez SR300 series. If you set it up low, it almost plays itself. Here's my SR370EF which I am playing today, in my stupor, and sounding great!

Welp… I got a third. Another W32. This one feels refined in pretty much every way over the last one, and this EMG MMTWX is really great. I am once again very pleased by what I’ve received from this builder, and I can’t recommend his work enough. I can’t see myself moving on from any of these basses.

This one is mahogany for the body and purple heart for the neck, 32” scale. Sounds like a Ray, more or less. Really like the tone of the pickup.

I’ll post more pics if there is interest, but needless to say I am thrilled. Now having three of these basses, #11, #20, and #31, I can definitively say he seems to get better with every batch, and it’s been a pleasure to see the subtle improvements in each one.

winston said:

True dat, I saw Maron with Groove Collective about 25 years ago, a black and a white BB3000 one with rounds and flats. Fantastic sound but more importantly one of the most dance-inducing bass performances I’ve ever witnessed.

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Yes, amazing band. Really influenced me as a kid. That bassline from Rentstrike kicked in and I was sold right away.

The Yamaha BB basses sound so clear in a mix while also sounding amazing when played solo. Kind of a rare feat to pull off, but that is my experience.

I was really impressed with those coastline pickups.

I've just moved off Fender in general lately, especially with all the lawsuits they have been sending to everyone - but they did a good job on these PBasses and I think a lot of people needing a P will enjoy them.

I have the ibanez wired now as a LHZ Active blend with the Universal blend as the pot. It loads the pickups at 1Meg Ohm, they sound more like EMG pickups with extended treble response now. I kept the ibanez as series only in BEQ3 mode as VM3 has a little less bass/treble.

Heres a diagram integrating LHZ Preamps to the Ibanez power tap. It should show what you need to do to use the pickups with an aftermarket preamp

In my personal home studio, 90% of the time it's a Heil PR-40 moving coil dynamic mic up fairly tight on the speaker grill.
The other 10% of the time -- when I'm looking for a bit more "air" (or "hair") in the sound -- it's an MXL 2001P condenser mic with the Dave Royer/Mojave Audio tube electronics mod, sitting between 1-3' away from the speaker.

In anyone else's studio, it depends on their mic locker. Favorites include the Electro-Voice RE20, Sennheiser MD421, Neumann TLM-170i, and RCA 44-BX.

HolmeBass said:

The venues and concert goers are just ready for rain? I get that. But SF Bay Area having heat at 110+ is something I did not know about! That is dangerous to be out in, unless you are wearing the right clothes and have plenty of water.

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well, just to be clear, I'm talking about the East Bay and Central Valley where temps of a 100 and over are not uncommon during the summer. One summer we hit 115 (!) and I had a big festival gig that cancelled all outside performances due to the heat. It was a big winery and they moved at least some of the music into their big cool barrel room.

Right in SF and right around the Bay generally stay pretty reasonable temp wise.

To make sure I wasn’t going crazy, I did this exactly last night. I changed the pick guard out, removed the neck humbucker. I did swap the wiring to the H setup (the preamp board has dedicated pads for the pickups and switch being in HH or H mode)

Sounded the same but I stopped mucking around with the slider as much. Weirdly, that removing off options makes me play better

Some independent builder should design a pedal called the "It's Not A Tumor" just for the OP.

And so... I found an Ibanez from I believe the early 90's; an RT 450, which includes a traditional non-floating tremolo (no locking nut), but the body and layout are shredder-esque like their RG's. Wonderful fit for me! The super-solid Japanese craftsmanship and great ergonomics sold me on this instrument without even plugging it into an amp before I took it home.

I recently dropped a set of DiMarzios into a Godin Session - a basic "fat strat" with a humbucker at the bridge - and I expected some subtle bumps in the sound quality from that guitar with the swap. But what I got was a profound improvement - I even like what I get with the middle pickup solo'ed... that's a first for me.

The new pickups in the Godin are Area 61's and an Air Classic at the bridge - not ultra high output, but rich and yummy in that particular guitar.

If anybody has successfully dabbled with higher output DiMazios or options from other labels in a H/S/H layout, I'm looking forward to any stories you can share. I also have an old Japanese Electra Phoenix that has what are probably a pair of DiMario Super Distrortions for pickups. They sound unbelievably good and I may go that way with this RT 450 (along with a suitable S in the middle). Many of us have our favorites, so I'm looking for input.

TIA

Don Hergert said:

As a musician, I do have to say that I have not found an ideal all-the-time setting combination that duplicates tone properly. The instruments I play all sound at least a little different than what I perceive without the hearing aids, and that is a little off-putting. There are times that I simply turn them off or take them out of my ears while playing music...

And, that raises some interesting questions about sound perception that is important for musicians. What is compleely accurate hearing where tone is concerned? Are these differences in musical tone that I hear with the hearing aids tones that people with "normal" hearing hear? And, does "normal" hearing really exist? Possibly these are questions for another lifetime .

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To the first point: If the instrument sounds the same whether you are using hearing aids or not, then you don't need hearing aids. It's not just a matter of amplification.
I don't think many people lose hearing equally across the whole audio spectrum, so properly-tuned hearing aids should restore the frequencies you have lost. Wearing hearing aids for the first time can be unpleasantly "crispy," but it's more accurate than the way you WERE hearing. However, some hearing aids are better for musicians than others! For that reason, I returned one set at Costco in order to get the Sennheisers, and I'm happy.

Second point: I doubt that there's such a thing as "completely accurate" when it comes to hearing. Even measurement/calibration microphones in laboratories have biases which probably don't match what an "excellent hearer" might experience. Yes, there may be a few gifted individuals who approach the ideal, whatever that is. For most of us, better is all we can reasonably ask for.

Don Hergert said:

For the most part, communication with my family and friends has noticeably improved. Among other things, my wife doesn't have to yell at me because I can't hear her anymore, although sometimes she does still yell at me : .

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This is IMPORTANT. Happy wife, happy life.

I have the same question, I wanna use Rolls the same way I use pedal, just a knob.
I'll try to connect it through headphones out, maybe that will work, love to have control over how loud is my bass in headphones, but don't want to open app, search for bass and to that on tablet or phone.

That is a raised saddle. It is used to take pressure from the top. Mostly helpful for strings that choke the vibration of the top with too much pressure (typically with older instruments that were built for lower tension gut strings and be used with higher tension steel core strings now).
If your bass sounds better strings tuned down one to several halftones after as bout a week this is for you (or use lower tension strings). Be warned that volume can be reduced, specially if you instrument is not choked by top pressure.

I have an adjustable saddle (Moser HVU) on my instrument with three positions, all higher than the normal saddle height.
The only thing is that you need to use the kevlar/carbon fiber tailgut it comes with.
I did knot it with a slip to be able to adjust the underlength. Slips were secured. It would be impossible to open the knot without the slip and even hard with it. But since the material stretched under tension you need to adjust your first try.

With a single height saddle you can use what you want as tailgut.
You can try a aircraft cable with the Moser HVU, but it might not be possible to find a place for the clamp. (My knot is under the tailpiece.)

So I was browsing eBay and came upon a most curious lot, composed of what appeared to be a half finished bass guitar (“burning fire” style to him), and two books, one of which was the school band oriented Essential Elements series. Then I saw these guys, listed as “finger protectors:



I looked these up and apparently these are finger protectors. I thought I had never heard of them until I realized that Gorilla Tips, which I see constantly on the Alfred publishing page.

I read the product description, and I’m still not sure about their use. Are they are good for anything? Are they commonly found in one genre or another? Are they a beginner only thing? Wouldn’t this greatly affect the tone? Would you be laughed out of an audition if you showed up wearing these?

Inquiring minds……

Hammertime3 said:

Thanks guys..big help....

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One thought:

I have two cabs that are 8 ohms as well as two different heads - both heads require a 4 ohm minimum load. This is great for me because I can use only one cab in a setting that doesn't need a lot of volume, but I can add the other cab and still give either amp a necessary 4 ohm load like that. The flexibility is terrific for me.

I don't worry about having a cab that matches the 4 ohm minimum of my amp so that I can theoretically "get the most performance" from it or anything like that. Either cab will make good sound in a small setting or practice. If I need a lot of volume potential, I just bring the second cab so that I can effectively shake more air.

As our pals laid out above, it seems like you're good to go now. If you eventually want to make bigger sound, you might be able to do that by adding a second cab that's also 8 ohms, but it's hard to say without knowing more specifics with your particular amp and cab.

Lucky Scott the loing time bassist for Curtis Mayfield seen here doing a timely medley then and now.

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Mjt body , all parts jazz neck , Novak bs/ds , seven-eight tort , fender mute

-Asdfgh- said:

The oils polymerise as they dry. And they do dry, so then there's no moisture.

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Thank you. I wasn't hip to drying oils.

(My chemistry background consists of mixing whatever is left in the back of the refrigerator when pay day is still a week away.)

All the momentous issues have been discussed and resolved. Thank God.
Now, all that's left is to have fun.

I’ve gotten a few covers from this fella, great work, fully endorse his product! The magnet cover is a life changer for these basses as I adjust my truss rod pretty frequently. Thank you Barticus

I've owned both and preferred the MBF800.