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King Koa - Now With Nordy's!

#181
King Koa rules! I just finished my first gig since my little identity crisis began a couple weeks back, and I've just got to wonder what the heck I was so worried about. Even using the CA4, I was plenty loud. And the UBER Quad and UBER 115 sounded great, due in large part to me running the 115 as a sub. My tone was big and fat all night long, but still with plenty of definition and attack.

Makes me want to try the Bart pickups again, now that I've identified the culprit (CA4 just a hair too weak)... :rollno: NOT!!!
 
#182
Awesome Greg! Great to hear that you've zoned back into your tone.

Are you guys recording this weekend's gigs?
I'd love to hear some more "Shed" live clips. Especially with "King Koa" sporting a new Bart preamp.
 
#186
Too funny... King Koa is now back to Bardens and the Audere 4-band 3ZB preamp. Right back where I started. :rollno::D

It's once again volume/volume instead of volume/blend, and the Audere gets rid of that annoying minor volume dip you get when the blend is centered (or both PUPs are wide open). As much as I've gotten into playing with tone by changing my pickup bias, that little volume dip was driving me crazy.

I'm also realizing that I'm just more comfortable with the less drastic tone changes that the Audere provides. With the Bart pre, I felt like I could blow the PA system apart if I set it wrong. The Audere is a little more tame, and that works better for me (I've become such a knob twiddler).

And, yeah, 4 bands is more than 3 bands. That's better, right? Well, it is for me... :rollno::D

I'm kinda psyched to have it back to "stock" so everyone can get a taste of it that way at the GA GTG: Bardens PUPs, Audere pre, THG wood knobs.

It's good to be the King! :hyper:
 
#188
Can't wait to hear it in it's original configuration (at the GTG). I've always thought that was a killer sounding and looking bass.

I know the feeling that you're experiencing though. I ordered a set of Roscoe Barts for my mahogany 6 from Gard last week. I'm all over the map on which I prefer in the bass.
I was all ready to install them and a friend brought over the Ziracote 6 yesterday (with the Roscoe Barts) and after an A/B comparison we both preferred the sound of the the mahogany bass.

So was it the Bart CB's verses the Roscoe Barts? The mahogany body verses the Spanish cedar? The walnut top verses the ziracorte? The wenge wedge neck verses the maple purpleheart? The cocobolo fingerboard verses the maple?

:confused::confused::confused:
 
#191
Ya gotta love being me... or not!

The Bart "J" pickups are back in King Koa! After recording "Amazing Grace" with the 4-string Roscoe J that has Barts, I just had to give them another shot.

I re-recorded the main riff I played in "Amazing Grace", and sure enough King Koa now sounds much closer to the 4-string. Which is a good thing, that's the tonal direction I want to head (classic J-bass tone).

My only problem now is that my bass sounds awful through my rig. I was growing unhappy with the sound of the Bardens through my rig, and the Barts are even worse in some ways. I think my prejudice against neo-speakers is just rearing it's head... I never can seem to get the warmth and projection I want out of neo cabs... I smell a cab change in my future...

Oh, and my pickup choice is far from settled. I'm on a waiting list for some Delano JC5-HE pickups in Fender sized shells... anyone got any experience with Delano noiseless J pickups? I'm also looking for some empty 5-string Fender pickup covers so I can have Nordstrand make me a set of custom pickups that will match the Fender size and the Roscoe string spacing... I need a neck cover 101mm long and a bridge cover 104-105mm long. No guts and no pole piece hole cutouts. Anyone got a connection for those?

I think part of the problem is I'm stuck with rail sort of pickups because of the non-Fender string spacing on my Roscoe. I imagine all of the pickups that start from that design point will sound similar to some degree. The Nordy's would be individual pole pieces, which I imagine might take me even further into classic j-bass tonal territory...

As Jerry says... it ain't easy being me. :rollno::D
 
#192
Greg,
You need to put some quick disconnects on your pickup wires.
After hearing your bass at the GTG, I can't imagine it sounding better.

I think you may be on to something with the cabs though. There is something about the sound of a bank of 10's.

Best wishes as you resume your quest.

Maybe a Mahogany body could round off those Bardens....hmmn.
 
#193
LOL. Danny's probably happy that I've stopped asking him to do this work for me. I dusted off my soldering skills and have done the last couple replacements myself. I figured it was getting a little ridiculous asking Danny to keep changing crap for me. But he's just so gooooood at it. :)
 
#194
It's the pre. :ninja: :D :ninja:

Good luck with everything, Greg. But seriously...any chance you can try a Bart (or even an Aggie OPB-3) without too much trouble?

FWIW, and not at all to be critical, but...I'm in agreement on the cabs. Those Genz Benz boxes are just not my cup of tea. (And hell, since I'm being a pain in the butt...I can't make heads or tails out of anything that's spelled Audere...or Demeter.) For giggles, how's the bass sound through an HT112ER or AE212? We know your Alembic pre isn't a concern....that thing is freakin' awesome. :) One of the things I wanted to do at the g2g....but we all know how short my attention span can be, so I forgot....was to try your top with one of the Berg cabs. I have a suspicion that would be an amazing rig.

In any case, always factor in anything I say with your, "Oh...it's Jerry..." envelope filter. :D
 
#195
I'm with Jerry on going Bart/Bart. They just work for me and it makes sense since they were made to be used together.

Not to to be rubbing it in 'cause it can fun to search for that ultimate tone but I'll have to say that it's really nice to be totally settled on basses and a rig (for now anyway)!
Of course I don't have to play the high power gigs that you do but if I did I'd like to think my single Berg HT112-ER (elevated), the GB SHuttle Max 9.2 and a DI would work just fine me. That's a very inspiring tone!

I'm also in aggreement on the neo cabinets. They just lack "that tone". Roland ended up trading the Berg AE410 for a HS410 and is very happy. I haven't heard it yet but the AE410 definitely had a bump in the upper mids and he said that the HS410 had a bump in the lower mids. That's typically more pleasing to my ears. Just an opinion of course.

Good luck my man! This is becoming quite a large thread!
 
#197
I did try the Bart pre for a while along with these Bart J PUPs and along with the Bardens. I loved it initially, it was a bit fuller sounding than the Audere. But I didn't dig the range of cut/boost, especially on the bass knob. It was too much of a good thing for my tastes. I also missed having the 4 bands of EQ...

I think all my paranoia about my tone is stemming from my switch to neo cabs. Before that, I used Genz-Benz XB/XB2 cabs (ceramic) and then the Berg NV-610. I never really had a problem getting a nice round, warm tone. But now with the neos, it's damn near impossible to get it.

So my plan is to leave the bass alone until I get my cab sitch sorted out. It sounds great when recorded direct, it's just not playing well with my rig...
 
#198
RocketMusic said:
I did try the Bart pre for a while along with these Bart J PUPs and along with the Bardens. I loved it initially, it was a bit fuller sounding than the Audere. But I didn't dig the range of cut/boost, especially on the bass knob. It was too much of a good thing for my tastes. I also missed having the 4 bands of EQ...

I think all my paranoia about my tone is stemming from my switch to neo cabs. Before that, I used Genz-Benz XB/XB2 cabs (ceramic) and then the Berg NV-610. I never really had a problem getting a nice round, warm tone. But now with the neos, it's damn near impossible to get it.

So my plan is to leave the bass alone until I get my cab sitch sorted out. It sounds great when recorded direct, it's just not playing well with my rig...
Click to expand...


Time to try a Berg NV-412?:hiding:

:D

God Bless, Ray
 

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