Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"
- Thread starter B-string
- Start date
- Status
One 'like' per post.
I thought that it was a stereo posting.
I guess I have an 'advantage' having never been a guitar player. My guitar abilities can be described as "I gots A and E and I'm workin' on D".
In one band I played bass with the bottom four strings of a guitar run through an EHX pedal to get one and two octaves lower. It was a noisy distorted version of a real bass.
Last edited:
Yes. Now they are heavily in debt trying to pay off student loans.
My one and only pedal is an EHX Micro POG. I use it 'octave up'-@ 1/2 or less- when we go out as a trio to fill things up during guitar solos(or mine). One octave down when I 'need' a low Eb or D. Always with the played note @~3/4.
That's a cool pedal. Because it's digital, you get tighter tracking. Way better than the EHX octave box that I have. Their digital pedals are all impressive.
At the studio I worked at in the early '80s, we have both a 44 and a 77, along with a bunch of other pretty nice mics, the U47s, U67s, U89s, 414s, RE20s, Schoeps Colettes, etc. The usual assortment of classic mics!
I had a Boss Octaver-one of the older models-that only went down an octave. Great for the previous lineup(G, D, B, Vocalist). I'd play the bass line up 1 and the octaver 'did' the bass. This one is a lot more versatile for my needs. I listened to a 'shipload' of demos b4 choosing it. The most recent Boss[OC-3]does more stuff but is really more for guitarists-which I ain't.
Nice to have a selection like that!
Telefunken makes some nice reissue mics including a replacement for the VF-14 tube that was used.
Large Diaphragm Condensers - TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik.
We are also in a time where some pretty impressive lower cost mics are available. There are so many options that sound really good.
From Vienna Austria, Studio recording
The LCT640TS is one example of, if I could only have one mic...
Last edited:
GP's comment reminds me of a joke (at least I think it is supposed to be a joke)...
A Bass Teacher is excited about getting a new, young student.
The kid is comes in for his first lesson and learns all the notes on the E string.
Next week he comes in and the instructor shows him all of the notes on the A string.
The third week comes, the teacher is waiting, but the kid never shows up.
Annoyed, he calls him to see where he is.
The kid picks up and says, "Oh, sorry man, I got a gig..."
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,167
- 256,992
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Strings too skinny for me on the little six-string melody instruments.
Been playing with an MXR Vintage Bass Octave now for some months. Allegedly it's based on some famous design I have no experience with, and "tracks better" than the original design. It's got a button I've got set for a tiny (2 db or less) 800 hz bump. There's a DIP switch inside to switch between a 400 hz and 800 hz bump, an a screw to turn that adjusts the decibels.
Been playing with an MXR Vintage Bass Octave now for some months. Allegedly it's based on some famous design I have no experience with, and "tracks better" than the original design. It's got a button I've got set for a tiny (2 db or less) 800 hz bump. There's a DIP switch inside to switch between a 400 hz and 800 hz bump, an a screw to turn that adjusts the decibels.
Not so bright after all then....eh?.....
The MXR Octave is another good one. Being digital, they are better than the old ones. They pick up the note accurately, no blurry response.
There are inexpensive analog clones, even kits, of every good pedal out there. The clones often offer more flexibility. The solution by the big manufacturers is to release digital versions like Dunlop has done. They perform way better. Most new pedals these days are digital, it slows down cloning.
I've thought of getting pedals but it seems my bass sounds great straight into the amp. My flip side says it might sound better with a Tech 21 VT or Ampeg Scrambler or something like that. I guess I'm not very adventurous on my gear. When it works and sounds good I leave it alone. But next time I'm in Seattle I'll drop by GC and try some pedals. We don't have Sweetwater or Sam Ash in the Northwest.
I would be all for gifting the young people with total debt forgiveness on education. And I remember when I was young if you were a Washington resident going to the UW was very economical. A student could actually work and get a degree and not go into years of debt.
There's a place for a different style of playing, but I like to see that reserved for prodigies and novelty acts, for the most part. People like Michael Manring come to mind.
You can play chords on a bass as if it really were a guitar if you're not trying to be the one holding down the groove below the other instrumentation. It becomes more of a melodic rhythm instrument at that point. But if you're playing actual bass lines the way you play lead, that never really sounds very good because no lead guitarist ever thought about sitting in the pocket.
I've been through an octaver, or many, and this, by far, Is the Queen of them all....
Humble ops etc...)
Edit: Forgot to mention...It does fifths.....
Humble ops etc...)
Edit: Forgot to mention...It does fifths.....
We were able to acquire such a nice array of mics through the generous support of our PB
Which category is Michael in?
Stanley Clarke uses (or did a few years ago, anyway) an MXR Octave Deluxe. He'd play his tenor strung bass and use the pedal if he needed to go lower than A.
I had a EHX MicroPOG. Very cool pedal, that tracked well down to even the B on my 5 string basses. The octave-up section wasn't very useful, to me, though. I made good use of the dry and wet outs when recording my basses, or guitars (those are those skinny string things! At the time, in my case, they were my 1967 Rick 330 or 2013 PRS Custom 24) in stereo.
Last edited:
- Status
