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Club Fbass (Part 11!)

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#602
Highpost said:
Wow that's great Jason got another red fbass
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Yeah, I played it a bit... it sounds so great. It has an ash body with a rosewood fingerboard and the pickups in the 70s positions... a nice combination. I was struck by how consistent the slap tone was with the finger style tone.

It was GREAT to spend the day with Jason Langley in the orchestra pit of Dream Girls too. A day I won't forget; so cool.
 
#604
Hi guys,

I'm from France and "joined" the club a few years ago. Actualy I have a BN5 and a BNF5. I have no picture yet to get my club number here, but I'll post them as soon as possible !

I read in a past Fbass Club (I guess it was the #9) that some of you tell what set up they use on their BN bass preamp, in order to get a great tone (even if it's quite impossible to get a bad tone with those basses, right ?). I found it interesting.

So my question is now for those having a BNF : what set up do you use currently on your bass preamp ?

Thanks !
 
#605
mikey69 said:
Hi guys,

I'm from France and "joined" the club a few years ago. Actualy I have a BN5 and a BNF5. I have no picture yet to get my club number here, but I'll post them as soon as possible !

I read in a past Fbass Club (I guess it was the #9) that some of you tell what set up they use on their BN bass preamp, in order to get a great tone (even if it's quite impossible to get a bad tone with those basses, right ?). I found it interesting.

So my question is now for those having a BNF : what set up do you use currently on your bass preamp ?

Thanks !
Click to expand...

I most often play my BN5 with vol/vol/tone all the way up, and the bass/mid/treble all the way down. I typically leave it in active mode, though I'll go passive mode when I play through tube heads, as I feel like it is more "touch sensitive" in passive mode. Pickups are pretty much always in single-coil mode.

However, if I am playing through a rig that needs a bit more "life," or if I need to stand out in a mix a bit more, I turn up each band (bass/mid/treble) about 25-30%. The F bass preamp will still sound great, IME/IMHO, with all three tone controls fully boosted, and that's a rarity among on-board preamps. This means that there really are no "wrong" settings, which is cool. But as George's instruments tend to be pretty well balanced, in my experience, you don't need to use a lot of EQ, either.

The bottom line is, of course, set it how it sounds the best to your ears. :cool:
 
#606
Great advice, Tom.

I start with the boosts flat too and boost them to taste with each room.

I dial back the "tone" control when strings are fresh and dial those highs back in as the strings settle in.

And generally speaking I play with both volumes full up. When both are full on, the bass is just a bit crisper, however --

There is another sweet spot too on my BN5 with the neck pickup at about 90% and the bridge at 85% and the tone full up.

And of course I also play that BN5 with the neck pickup soloed and the bass and mids boosted a bit.

But I also like the shape the bass tone takes with all three boosts full up.

Okay, but all that was for my BN.

I don't have a BNF (which is what I think you were asking for), so I can't really give guidance on that.

BTW, why DON'T I have a BNF?! ;-)
 
#607
I want to say this carefully because I don't want to offend anyone on talkbass...

Today my wife went into a fabric store... that meant a good hour of waiting for me so I ducked into a nearby music store. For the first time in probably 7 years or so, I played a bass off the wall -- in fact I played about 6 of them, all Fenders.

I was very surprised and left with a renewed appreciation for my boutique basses.

Brand new Fender basses, brand new Fender amps, about 1:15 hours and I could not really find a sound I really truly liked, just tones I was okay with. Moreover, the playability was nothing like what I was used to and it must have been about 30 minutes before I could play a bass without sounding like an infant.

I'm sure a far better setup, new strings and a different rig would bring most if not all of them to life, but even then they just felt so dead in my heads and didn't respond to subtle things like I am used to.

Again, this was extremely surprising to me. You guys that get to pop into bass stores all the time probably knew this all along, but I've been so long playing nothing but very nice, hand made basses that I had no idea how spoiled I'd become.

Thanks George and you other great luthiers out there!
 
#608
I do know what you mean. However, I just bought a Mexican Fender Jazz fretless 4 and I'm having a ball with it. I'm sure that it's not even close to an BNF, AC or AC Classic but it's 1 of only 3 fretless that I've liked out of all that I've tried. One of the others was a BNF5 but one of those is way out of reach for me at this point.
 
#611
Near the end of last year I bought my first Fender in over 25 years, a 2012 American Jazz Standard. This is also the first passive bass I've had in that time as well. This model does have the CS pickups. I got the passive bass since I put a GK3B pickup on it to use with a Roland V Bass. What I have seen on other TB threads is those that have purchased Fenders in the last couple of years compare them with their older Fenders and some even claim them to be better. Even in the 70's when I bought my P Bass I played all that were in the store until I picked up the one that spoke to me. The trouble now of days is that stores don't stock many of the same model.

Back to the regularly scheduled F Bass program!
 
#615
After went over 50 basses the last few years, I found my perfect bass: The Fbass VF4
 

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#616
Tom7 said:
I was just listening to David Hughes's latest album, Hopeful Romantic and checking emails when I noticed Fbass official posted a new Youtube.

The video has impromptu jams by guys in the Fbass booth... really fun stuff.

Karel, you are a mad soloist my friend; I loved every second of it.

http://youtu.be/u3DahXj5mRg
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lol thanks for the kind words, Tom :) i "lol'd" because you apparently didn't see the bead-sized sweat coming from my forehead. oh and that's not the camera shaking...it's just me. :crying:
 
#617
Wally Malone said:
Near the end of last year I bought my first Fender in over 25 years, a 2012 American Jazz Standard. This is also the first passive bass I've had in that time as well. This model does have the CS pickups. I got the passive bass since I put a GK3B pickup on it to use with a Roland V Bass. What I have seen on other TB threads is those that have purchased Fenders in the last couple of years compare them with their older Fenders and some even claim them to be better. Even in the 70's when I bought my P Bass I played all that were in the store until I picked up the one that spoke to me. The trouble now of days is that stores don't stock many of the same model.

Back to the regularly scheduled F Bass program!
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I have a 1976 Fender Jazz (ash, maple and 70s positions), and a mid-80s Fender Jazz (alder, rosewood, 60s positions), and my '76 is the sweetheart of those two Fenders. I haven't played either of them, however, for years.

To be clear, I was not saying Fenders are bad, although I have read that you have to try several to find just that right bass, I was trying to say there is quite a difference between the basses I tried yesterday and the basses I've owned for years. A huge difference -- both in tone and playability.

I just wasn't expecting that at all; it was a reminder that I've got someone nice basses.

I came home after that music store visit and played some of my basses and quietly thanked heaven for my fantastic wife who lets me get 'em.
 
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