Recent content by BarfanyShart

Nordstrand Big J Blades (clean and clear version)? They are colorful and dynamic, they pop, with lots of high mids.

That old Bassman had some features that made particularly useful for piezos - -6db input, semi-parametric eq, active DI with adjustable level, and the coloration of that fender tone stack smoothes out the rough edges. And my kids still use it, so built to last.

The Talman posted above looks like the winner at $250, to me. Two of my kids have the Mikro and Danelectro Longhorn, respectively. The Mikro is darn good, but under 30" (he has it tuned like a cello now). The longhorn is more expensive, but it is a weird, neat bass that plays and sounds great.

The nice thing about piezo pickups is that they all stink, so you don't have to worry too much about which one you get or how much it cost. The preamp you plug in to is kind of more important than the pickup. Those used to all stink, too, but apparently there are good ones now - like this Red...

And, of course, a humble metronome or cheap drum machine might be the best investment for a beginner bass player. If you are determined to spend money on pedals, buy this thing Singular Sound BeatBuddy Mini 2 Drum Machine Pedal | Sweetwater

You can cover a lot of ground with an overdrive and a chorus. Whenever you hear bass effects in recorded music, it's usually just some combination of drive and chorus. They don't even need to be on a board, the pedals sit fine on the floor. As a beginner you may want to invest first in an...

If you want to sound a little more like an upright, the tapes. If you want the classic country/folk/60's sound, the flats. If you want to sound a bit like an acoustic bass guitar a medium-bright rounds (the High-Beams can probably do that, I used to like StringJoy nickels for that kind of...

I ordered Big Blades, and when they said it was coming in six weeks I thought it was because I selected plain black covers, which isn't standard. They came in exactly six weeks, with the regular covers, and I found out they cannot make that puckup with plain black covers - so why is it an option...

Electronics is also not my strong suit. The first time I took a hard look at a switch was when this one came in the mail (and it wasn't what I meant to order). I also ripped out my preamp rather than deal with it. I suggest trolling guitar forums for wiring diagrams - they outnumber us and do...

One of my basses is perfect ... what I can't find is a perfect strap.

My main bass is an Ibanez EHBSMS1005, which is a headless 32/30 multiscale - so what you are describing is interesting to me, and I own the most affordable version of a similar thing.

Play one note over the changes. The pedal note is almost always the I or V of the key.

Once you put in the work to learn, music notation is very intuitive - compared to tab, you can read it much faster and it conveys a lot more musical information. 5-string is also not a big deal, it's just one more string to mute.

In retrospect, I realize that I lost a number of gigs back in the day because I played a 5-string Warwick, and BL's thought that looked too Metal. And it's weird because I was an DB guy (not at all metal), and I chose that particular bass because it had a huge neck and a very dark woody tone...

Dude ... don't buy old amps unless you're starting a little bass amp museum in your drummer's garage.