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The Official 7-String Bass Club.

#281
InNoRush said:
Huh... So I ordered 3 sets of Kalium on Oct 18th. I got an email on Oct 21st that the order was complete, but when I check the tracking number it just says a shipping label was created and USPS is still waiting on the package. I reached out to Kalium twice with no response. What gives?
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Call Skip (phone number on website) tomorrow around lunch time. He's also on the left coast so that would be noon for you. All the times I've called he picked up the phone himself. It was about 3 pm my time (ET) so I figured he was taking a break or something.

And similar thing happened to me - placed my order WITH HIM ON THE PHONE - no shipping info until I called a week later at which time they were shipped. Not sure what is going on there with that as orders in the past came quickly.
 
#282
InNoRush said:
Played the BTB some more today. Had a few observations:

I play with fingers, around the neck pickup. Experimented a bit with playing around the bridge pickup today, and was surprised at how drastically that changed how tight/loose a string felt (seems obvious in hindsight...) Might explain why I didn't like .170 for the F#, but others are happy with it.

Going straight from 4 to 7 strings, I'm noticing a few ways in which fretting hand technique changes a bit (or becomes more critical.) I imagine those players already used to 6 strings know a lot about this area. Any recommendations for info on technique that's specific to wider necks?
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Try to pivot on your thumb only, while not resting your palm on the back of the neck at all. I've found that is key to wide necks, at least for me. If your muscle memory already includes palming the neck, it will take awkward repetition to "unlearn" that. The good news is that it makes your playing better on 4 and 5 string basses as well. At least it did for me, YMMV.
 
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#283
Jack Deth said:
Try to pivot on your thumb only, while not resting your palm on the back of the neck at all.
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This is excellent info and actually pretty important on most ERBs. I don't know what your technique/style is, but a large number of electric bass players really palm the neck when playing. In order to navigate the wider necks you have to be able to pivot off the thumb, not at all unlike how a double bassist works the fingerboard.

As a lifelong DB player it was very natural for me to let my thumb do the work and keep my hand free to pivot around as needed on those harder/wider reaches. If you do rely on your left hand palm for balance, as Jack said, it will be a muscle memory adjustment. But it is, indeed, well worth it not just for ERBs but for all basses.

That's excellent advice .... ^^^
 
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#284
Razman said:
Call Skip (phone number on website) tomorrow around lunch time. He's also on the left coast so that would be noon for you. All the times I've called he picked up the phone himself. It was about 3 pm my time (ET) so I figured he was taking a break or something.

And similar thing happened to me - placed my order WITH HIM ON THE PHONE - no shipping info until I called a week later at which time they were shipped. Not sure what is going on there with that as orders in the past came quickly.
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Wanted to post the follow up on this. On Tuesday I finally got around to calling at noon, and sure enough Skip answered. As soon as I explained what happened he set to make things right. Seems like he dropped off the strings weeks ago and they somehow got misplaced at the post office. He asked for a day to sort it out, and today they arrived in the mail.

So 2 things:
1. I confirmed with Skip that he gets overwhelmed by email and doesn't do a very good job of keeping on top of it. If you want to reach him, phone is the way to go.

2. I had been pronouncing "Kalium" incorrectly. :smug:
 
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#285
Hi,,,,May I Join The Club ?
My Two ''Ken Smith'' 7'ers.
Thanks,!
IMG_2695.JPG
 
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#288
#294
Jack Deth said:
Try to pivot on your thumb only, while not resting your palm on the back of the neck at all. I've found that is key to wide necks, at least for me. If your muscle memory already includes palming the neck, it will take awkward repetition to "unlearn" that. The good news is that it makes your playing better on 4 and 5 string basses as well. At least it did for me, YMMV.
Click to expand...

This really needs to be reiterated as a really important point. It should be made clear to all bassists in the beginning that you should never grasp a neck as you would a baseball bat. The centre of your palm should never be in contact with the back of the neck but I see it in a lot of players, irrespective of how many strings they're working with. It may feel comfortable or natural when they first pick up a bass but if you let your palm rest on the back of the neck you limit the dexterity of your fingers - you end up with your finger tips wrapping around the edge of the neck to the string, rather than coming down from above to precisely press the string down. It's the difference between fretting with the pads of your fingers rather than the tips. The finger tip is so much more accurate. You will really hear this on a fretless bass!
 
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#296
Been playing the 7 exclusively for my church's worship services and I really enjoy it. I'm hoping to integrate it into the metal band soon also; my Bartolini NTMB pre is arriving today (ordered back in December) so I hope to get that installed this weekend and see how it differs from the stock preamp.

@Dr. Cheese, you might like this - although because I was limited on positioning my little camera I don't feel I got the best sound.

 
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#298
D736016D-3406-4290-A196-5A8D7C347946.jpeg


All done! Learned a little about the GT-7 in the process:
  • The factory Bartolini pickups it comes with are amplified (like EMG's) - there is a red wire coming from each one along with the thicker black wire (pickup signal +/-).
  • I believe this is why they hiss slightly, and I still get some hiss even with the Bart preamp.
  • Since the positive lead was connected to the preamp circuit, I added the second 9v battery harness in series with the first and soldered the pickup red wires to its positive lead to avoid splicing the wire (plus I wanted to run 18v like my custom).
  • This had the effect of sending 18v to the pickups and producing a VERY HOT output signal. It was already a hot bass, but this was like OMG, face-melting hot! Definitely not what I wanted.
  • To reduce this, I eliminated one battery by jumping the harness connectors with a jumper wire and soldered it in (it was the easiest solution). Output is back to normal (regular hot signal).
  • Note the jack sitting in the upper right corner of the 'lectronics cavity. Since it had three ground wires soldered to one tab, and none of them were long enough to stretch out to the Conklin's Neutrik jack, I added a jumper wire and kept the original jack intact to use as a ground point. It made installation easier, it isn't hurting anything, and it was less of a pain.
When it was done, everything worked as designed - volume (push/pull active/passive), blend, bass/treble (it came with the knobs) and midrange (with push/pull frequency switch). Awesome!

I had one leftover knob, which was nice as I installed it in the Jeep I just bought onto the subwoofer control pot on the dash. There was just a splined shaft sticking out of it! Eventually I'll need to pull that panel and properly affix that control pot but for now it works. Bonus!!

Tomorrow morning I'll test it but I need to run it through my other rigs to really say if it's better or not. Bringing the backup bass just in case.

Cheers,

Raz
 
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#299
C9AC268A-83F2-418A-B801-DE5495B48DC5.jpeg
Razman said:
...I installed it in the Jeep I just bought...
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I'm starting to get worried. Just got done playing the BTB7, drove my Jeep to the store earlier to grab something for dinner, started up the motorcycles this morning to keep the blood flowing in them, and then I noticed your trackball. If I wasn't so short, I would swear we were twins or something. Side note, it's almost time to restring the 7 as the E, A and D are losing their harmonics. I'm still thinking about going with F#, but I just set up a Schecter Studio 6 with that tuning (F# B E A D G), and I'm still digging the high F. So, I may skip it this time.
 
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#300
Jack Deth said:
View attachment 4149741

I'm starting to get worried. Just got done playing the BTB7, drove my Jeep to the store earlier to grab something for dinner, started up the motorcycles this morning to keep the blood flowing in them, and then I noticed your trackball. If I wasn't so short, I would swear we were twins or something. Side note, it's almost time to restring the 7 as the E, A and D are losing their harmonics. I'm still thinking about going with F#, but I just set up a Schecter Studio 6 with that tuning (F# B E A D G), and I'm still digging the high F. So, I may skip it this time.
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Jeeps? Motorcycles? Trackball mice? Seven string basses? Amazing... wonder if we're related somehow....

Raz
 

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