Ibanez Portamento Club

[GlueKill]

You'll probably get more grief for wearing shorts on stage but everyone sounds like this when they first start playing a fretless bass so don't worry too much. Plus, the church crowd tends to be a bit more...errr...forgiving to performers. Just keep at it unless parishioners start booing.

 

[tfer]

You seem to be a touch flat when playing the lower notes, but I honestly don't think you are the issue.

In that mix, the guitar is utterly buried.

And trying to find a key from the vocalists is hard, when they are missing their pitches regularly.

Can you hear the guitar well in your personal mix?

 

[kirkdickinson]

You seem to be a touch flat when playing the lower notes, but I honestly don't think you are the issue.

In that mix, the guitar is utterly buried.

And trying to find a key from the vocalists is hard, when they are missing their pitches regularly.

Can you hear the guitar well in your personal mix?

I could hear the guitar on the stage. They ran everything through the PA except the guitar. His amp could have easily covered the room but nobody told him to turn it up more. Live and learn.

I struggle a little with Portamento vs my GWB35 about going flat. It seems that I need to play slightly up the neck more to get the same pitch. It may be the parallax and not having fret lines? I seem to do better when I can hear better and not look as much. In practice sometimes I watch my tuner more than my fingers. That seems to help getting my fingers trained better than watching my fingers.

 

[GlueKill]

My method has been to just play in the dark since the lines on the top of the board are hard to see and basically suggestions.

 

[kirkdickinson]

You'll probably get more grief for wearing shorts on stage but everyone sounds like this when they first start playing a fretless bass so don't worry too much. Plus, the church crowd tends to be a bit more...errr...forgiving to performers. Just keep at it unless parishioners start booing.

Yeah, it is good that the church group is more forgiving. I need forgiveness. (pun intended)

I didn't just start playing fretless, so have no excuse, but have not been playing much or working at it lately like I should. I usually play fretted when I fill in at my regular church.

 

[tfer]

I could hear the guitar on the stage. They ran everything through the PA except the guitar. His amp could have easily covered the room but nobody told him to turn it up more. Live and learn.

I struggle a little with Portamento vs my GWB35 about going flat. It seems that I need to play slightly up the neck more to get the same pitch. It may be the parallax and not having fret lines? I seem to do better when I can hear better and not look as much. In practice sometimes I watch my tuner more than my fingers. That seems to help getting my fingers trained better than watching my fingers.

If you're in tune with the guitar that you can hear, don't worry about it. From that mix, it's next to impossible to hear the only instrument on stage with a fixed tuning to compare you to.

The vocalists, in the immortal words of Randy Jackson, are pitchy.

When you are flat, I think it probably is a parallax issue. You seem nicely in tune when you are higher up the neck.

 

[illbegotten]

Recorded with an iPhone 8.
I would like some feedback please, and if it is harsh, so be it.

Ditch the iphone and get a Samsung, they are better in every way.

 

[GlueKill]

Yep the new Samsung Galaxy Tome XI comes with dual XLR inputs and phantom power and autotune.

 

[Spblat]

@kirkdickinson I think you're in good shape. I didn't listen to too much but as others have said if I was to criticize I wouldn't begin with the bassist. The way I think about it is that I'm doing this for my own enjoyment. Even if your enjoyment is subordinate to the mission of creating spiritual joy, then I would argue that your own joy in playing an instrument you love makes you a more joyful vessel!

 

[Spblat]

So at rehearsal the other night I felt like I wasn't producing that magical mwah we need in a fretless. It turns out it was a mistake to replace my strings. I put on some Rotosound RS775LD's, which turned out to be super-dead on D and G! I threw away the B from my original D'Addario ECB81-5 and moved the rest to another bass. After discovering this issue I moved the 4 surviving strings back to my Porty and voila mwah!

Rotosound RS775LD Sounding Dead :-( - Clyp

 

[jaco1955]

I'm sure this has been gone over before but what Allen wrench do I need for the truss rod on the SRF705? None of the ones I have fit. Thanks!
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[B-Mac]

I'm sure this has been gone over before but what Allen wrench do I need for the truss rod on the SRF705? None of the ones I have fit. Thanks!
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Could be as simple as metric vs imperial or vice versa

 

[rbbrnck]

I'm sure this has been gone over before but what Allen wrench do I need for the truss rod on the SRF705? None of the ones I have fit. Thanks!
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just checked the rod nut on my SRF706: it's 4 millimeters, and i can't figure a reason why the SRF705 shall be different from it [and, once again, and once more, kudos to the designer who conceived the pivoting trussrod nut cover, it was invented just to answer similar questions from forums on the fly :-]

 

[Matthew_84]

After 6 months of waiting, my new 705 came in today.

It's a beauty and so far I haven't noticed any issues with it (well there's a bit of a hum depending where I sit, but I think that's more of a home electrical issue than an issue with the instrument).

Some of you may recall I had some concerns about the "bounded Panga Panga" fingerboard.

The "bounded" part I'm sure is referring to the two veneers on the side of the fingerboard (made of a different wood, likely to prevent the very sharp splinters Panga Panga is known for). The fingerboard does have some sort of oil sheen to it (more so than a raw rosewood board), but it may just be a natural element of the wood. It doesn't seem like there's a finish on it, but possibly some sort of sealer.

I really dig how the Panga Panga board looks:

It doesn't affect me much, but one thing that seems like a poor design choice is that the veneer on the side is a lighter wood. I don't mind the contrast so much, but with it being lighter, it will be harder to see the white lines and dots on a darker stage as there isn't much contrast. Thankfully I'm not planning to play many shows with this, but I figured I'd share the image for others.

Anyways, I'm glad this beauty found her way home and I'm excited to have a fretless in my possession again.

 

[Michael Jewels]

Congrats!

She is a beauty.

Much good luck with her.

Mike

 

[Matthew_84]

Does anyone know if these basses are shielded?

There seems to be a nasty hum depending on where I'm facing in my music room and KBD thinks it may be a shielding/grounding issue.

I'll inspect it when I get home, but I don't necessarily want to open up the control cavity just yet.

 

[Spblat]

I've been inside the cavities. They're painted with conductive paint and I think they're properly grounded/shielded, but I also think there's only so much that can be done. My hum issues a) occur with all my basses; b) disappear when I turn down the volume of the bass; c) are worse when I'm near my very noisy electrical panel; and d) are managed when necessary with the use of an EHX Hum Debugger. Regrettably it uses a non-standard power supply but it's an essential part of my board.

 

[Matthew_84]

I've been inside the cavities. They're painted with conductive paint and I think they're properly grounded/shielded, but I also think there's only so much that can be done. My hum issues a) occur with all my basses; b) disappear when I turn down the volume of the bass; c) are worse when I'm near my very noisy electrical panel; and d) are managed when necessary with the use of an EHX Hum Debugger. Regrettably it uses a non-standard power supply but it's an essential part of my board.

Thanks! Is the Hum Debugger just a noise gate?

 

[Spblat]

Thanks! Is the Hum Debugger just a noise gate?

Not at all. It's a DSP that digitally filters out hum. In contrast, my Zoom multiFX gadgets have hum eliminators that are worthless because as you say they're only gates. The Hum Debugger takes hum out of notes!

Edit: Here's me playing with mine

 

[Matthew_84]

Not at all. It's a DSP that digitally filters out hum. In contrast, my Zoom multiFX gadgets have hum eliminators that are worthless because as you say they're only gates. The Hum Debugger takes hum out of notes!

Edit: Here's me playing with mine

Awesome! I'll look into this. Thanks again!