This was also my opinion between the LM and LG I had, which is how I landed on the LG first.
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Really? Any nickel strings in particular? Are you talking overall stiffness or the "feel" of the string surface, or both?
I ask because I took a set of HB's off one of my basses and put a set of D'Addario XL175's on there and it seemed like night/day to me... both for stiffness as well as the slickery feel (as well as how long they "didn't" last
). I attribute the stiffness diff mostly to the hex vs round core tho.Compared to what? I always felt the LR's were pretty darn stiff as strings go... especially if you get SS LR's, but even with the Nickels.
I gotta' jump on this again. I know the LM is totally Ken's main thing, and all three sound great in his hands, but at least on these bare naked clips (outside of a gig environment), as well as my personal experiences, the LG just seemed to have more going on in general than the LM.
The "good news" is, there's absolutely NOTHING custom on mine. It's one of the least expensive AC's you can get, and yet remember how awesome it turned out.
Now, I know the key to the LM for Ken is mainly his gig settings and how that LM tone works better for him in that arena, but at least for me, man, I don't miss a thing with the LG on stage or at home. Drool. That said, as I've mentioned before, if I do get another AC, it will be an LM.
I gotta' jump on this again. I know the LM is totally Ken's main thing, and all three sound great in his hands, but at least on these bare naked clips (outside of a gig environment), as well as my personal experiences, the LG just seemed to have more going on in general than the LM.
The "good news" is, there's absolutely NOTHING custom on mine. It's one of the least expensive AC's you can get, and yet remember how awesome it turned out.
Now, I know the key to the LM for Ken is mainly his gig settings and how that LM tone works better for him in that arena, but at least for me, man, I don't miss a thing with the LG on stage or at home. Drool. That said, as I've mentioned before, if I do get another AC, it will be an LM.
It's a fantastic bass, and I'd be very happy playing it on any gig I have! I again like it much better with the nickels than the SS rounds, which are a bit of a disconnect with that spec and voicing to me.
It's kind of fun that the 'preference' among the three basses seems pretty equally divided in both the thread posts and the PM's I've been getting, and my guess is, would correlate highly to the type of gigs and contexts each player works in, and the era/type of music that most speaks to him/her.
Really? Any nickel strings in particular? Are you talking overall stiffness or the "feel" of the string surface, or both?
I ask because I took a set of HB's off one of my basses and put a set of D'Addario XL175's on there and it seemed like night/day to me... both for stiffness as well as the slickery feel (as well as how long they "didn't" last
Compared to what? I always felt the LR's were pretty darn stiff as strings go... especially if you get SS LR's, but even with the Nickels.
I'm talking about the nickel versus SS versions within each string type. I find, in general, the SS LoRiders, for instance, to have a tighter 'feel' than the nickels, and the Hi Beams to have a 'tighter' feel than the Sun Beams, and the Sadowsky SS to have a tighter feel than the Sadowsky nickels.
I find the nickel Lo Riders about in the middle of the pack in tension, with, for example, the Sun Beams being MUCH looser, and the Sadowsky Black Nickels (never played the Blue nickels) being on the 'tighter', higher tension end.
I like what I hear from your LG, Ken. I'm going to have to order some DR Lowriders. I used to use the SS ones a long time ago. What size B have you been using?
125's on everything (Hi Beams on the LM and RA, Low Rider Nickels on the LG). The Alleva necks, as you know, are very stiff, so the B strings on mine don't seem to need the heavy wire to sound good. I very much like the feel of the even .20 diameter change from string to string across the neck. It reinforces my goal of the B string being a 'natural extension' of the E string in both feel and tone versus the "BIG B' that some go for.
Ken...I never played thru Techamp stuff, so this is purely speculative on my part, but my guess would have been that I was hearing a fair departure from 'transparent' there...'revealing yes' but isn't there a bit of a slant towards the high end in that rig...
I mean, wouldn't your LG sound a bit less zingy/boingy in the studio vs that rig????
Bigger, smoother, less growl... IMO, not as good. I dig it with the AE410/F1 though... even more growly!
On the recording clips, there really is no one "correct" way to record them. On the one hand, Ken coulda' gone DI, which would describe what the bass would most likely sound like on a typical recording for a CD or something, whereas the "live" way he did the recordings would probably do at least a little more to describe what the bass would sound like on a gig through a rig.
Personally, I'm almost strictly a live player, so Ken's choice applies to me more directly, so I'm good widditt.
Personally, I'm almost strictly a live player, so Ken's choice applies to me more directly, so I'm good widditt.
On the recording clips, there really is no one "correct" way to record them. On the one hand, Ken coulda' gone DI, which would describe what the bass would most likely sound like on a typical recording for a CD or something, whereas the "live" way he did the recordings would probably do at least a little more to describe what the bass would sound like on a gig through a rig.
Personally, I'm almost strictly a live player, so Ken's choice applies to me more directly, so I'm good widditt.
+1 in that I'm trying to impart a bit more 'real life' tone than doing some sort of plug in thing to a PC, which from my limited experience, can be just as or even more 'voiced' as a rig. However, I'm obviously not doing rocket science, and am relatively clueless on recording technique.
My attempt is to make the basses sound as close to the tone I get on a real gig in a relatively decent room, versus a more 'artificial', pure 'direct' tone. I do use that TecAmp rig as my reference rig, since I hear the most similarity to the acoustic tone of the basses (there is a LOT of upper treble coming out of those basses when played acoustically!) of all the rigs I currently own, or quite frankly, have owned in the past.
Anway, I spend a whole 3 minutes on each recording
, so take it for what it is+1 in that I'm trying to impart a bit more 'real life' tone than doing some sort of plug in thing to a PC, which from my limited experience, can be just as or even more 'voiced' as a rig. However, I'm obviously not doing rocket science, and am relatively clueless on recording technique.
My attempt is to make the basses sound as close to the tone I get on a real gig in a relatively decent room, versus a more 'artificial', pure 'direct' tone. I do use that TecAmp rig as my reference rig, since I hear the most similarity to the acoustic tone of the basses (there is a LOT of upper treble coming out of those basses when played acoustically!) of all the rigs I currently own, or quite frankly, have owned in the past.
Anway, I spend a whole 3 minutes on each recording
+1...and much appreciated.
Was just a bit curious about the rig and it's impact.
Have you ever had the Sunbeams on the LG5?
Thanks, so it is "too much of a good thing" in some ways.
Tom7
I'm so bright, my mom called me son! ;-)
OOOH YEEEAH!!!What the heck, I'm on a roll! Here's a very brief clip of the LG5 with relatively broken in DR Lo Rider Nickels....
Here's the clip (same everything from the previous clips... rig, volume, location, EQ, etc.):
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And, here's the bass again:
Those strings, I think, match the character of the bass much better. Nice choice.
I have not. I've played them on a few other basses at GTG's and didn't dig the feel (a bit loose).
+1
I've played them on other basses and didn't dig them. I'd much rather use the LR nickels. The slinkiness of the HB's works ok for me because (as Ken said) SS is a bit stiffer than nickel... or at least it seems that way to me. So a slinkier core and a slinkier metal combined (SB's) is just too much for me.
Jimmy makes his PU's Single coil correct? How is the noise factor?
I was recording last night with my Nordstrand Bass with Big Singles (Nordy). I favored the neck PU on one tune and for the first time ever, I heard a little hiss that was disconcerting. Didn't work for the recording. I dialed the blend to equally balance the neck and bridge PU's and the problem was solved. But I wanted to favor the Neck PU for the plumper Vibe, but ..without hiss. Just thought I'd ask if anyone has recorded with their Alleva and how well the PU's reject hum?
I was recording last night with my Nordstrand Bass with Big Singles (Nordy). I favored the neck PU on one tune and for the first time ever, I heard a little hiss that was disconcerting. Didn't work for the recording. I dialed the blend to equally balance the neck and bridge PU's and the problem was solved. But I wanted to favor the Neck PU for the plumper Vibe, but ..without hiss. Just thought I'd ask if anyone has recorded with their Alleva and how well the PU's reject hum?
He only makes and uses single coils. Like any other well made instrument (shielding, etc.), the A-C's are as quiet as any other instrument with both pickups wide open. And, like any other single coils instrument, if you totally solo one pickup, you will get single coil hum (ranging from hardly noticeable to screaming hum, depending on the wiring, room, lights, etc. where you are playing).
This is a zero issue for me, since, as you can hear from those clips, rolling back either pickup 5% to that 'sweet spot' (i.e., where you still get, for example, plenty of bridge pickup burp but no hum at all) gets me close enough to a 'single pickup solo tone' that it is not an issue.
That being said, I guess due to all the wire, I found my Big Singles to be among the 'noisiest' of single coils when solo'd.
Remember, when you dime both pickups (or set them to exactly the same level), you in effect have one big humbucking pickup that happens to be split into two locations. So, you won't get any more hum than normal between HC loaded basses and single coil loaded basses.
Yeah, as Ken says, he only does single-coils. HOWEVER, not all SC's are created equal, and while I do like Nordstrand pickups a lot, I do agree they tend to be noisier than some others, and Jimmy's SC's are among the quieter SC's I've played.
That said, SC noise will typically not be a hiss. It'll be a buzz or hum (at 60Hz, to be exact... at least here in the USA
). Had you not said you solved it by blending the pickups, I wouldn't be as confused as I am now. Hiss type noises are most typically from gain stages... especially those with EQ. Oh well. FWIW anyway.- Status
