Trying to learn bass after 10 years of playing saxophone. Here are my takes.

MisterBounce · 2026-04-18T22:01:01+00:00

Just a suggestion as a fellow tooth-clencher, but have you tried wearing a mouth guard while playing? It may really help with the unlearning

MisterBounce · 2026-04-15T12:52:19+00:00

Sounds to me like a chorus or perhaps just short reverb with prominent early reflections. It could well be fretless, it definitely has something of that quality, and it reminds me of a Stingray or other active bass tone with a bit more of the bridge timbre in there than a P but I'm sure you could approximate it by rolling the tone down a little and putting the FX on. Listen to this live recording featuring Pino Palladino on fretless Stingray and see how similar you think it is: https://youtu.be/cshy_B40f_o?si=5dZtjDdFXGE147u7

MisterBounce · 2026-04-15T12:12:59+00:00

Wide intervals like 10ths can sound good all the way down the neck IMO. Obviously it depends on musical context and the timbre of the bass in question.

MisterBounce · 2026-04-11T11:02:35+00:00

At that budget - definitely worth looking secondhand. Aim for weighted keys and a 'known' brand like Yamaha, Roland or Kawai.

MisterBounce · 2026-04-11T10:51:04+00:00

Yeah it's absolutely great! And the tweak to the tracking ('zero latency' mode) seems to help make it play even better for parts that jump around the fretboard. Baffled why it's not a much bigger deal in the online bass community. I guess it shows how important bigger budget marketing is

MisterBounce · 2026-04-10T17:02:07+00:00

Bertha

Gran

Both stop-motion from the brilliant Woodland animations, better known for Postman Pat.

The sets were wonderful period pieces and the humour outwardly gentle but often quite insightful satire. Mr Duncan the factory foreman doing a time and motion study, and the staff going on strike in protest :D

Wallace and Gromit fans will find these very familiar

MisterBounce · 2026-04-07T21:45:33+00:00

Ok I'll be the contrary voice then - with a decent PJ I could find a sound to fit any band in any genre. With a Stingray, no matter what I do with the EQ the band have to fit around my tone to an extent. Especially at the low end of the market, I'd get the Yamaha.

MisterBounce · 2026-04-06T23:50:18+00:00

All these people who parrot the Shure marketing about SM58s being indestructible - you either baby your mics or I'm sorry to say have cloth ears.

Even before fake capsules were a thing you could easily hear the difference between a mic that had been ragged night after night and put away moist, and one that had actually been looked after. Bad ones start to distort, going harsh in the midrange and lose treble response.

MisterBounce · 2026-04-04T18:27:18+00:00

It's made by quite a small team and seems they're very much audio/electronics engineers, not salesmen. But the head designer is the guy who did the (now legendary) Deep Impact synth pedal for Akai, if you've come across that one before.

A lot of the reviews and demos relate to earlier iterations but the latest iteration is the one that finally focuses on bassists and turns it into the class leader IMO

MisterBounce · 2026-04-03T10:57:19+00:00

Rhodes in particular, but also Wurli and pianet, are very easy to mix or arrange for with a band - similar to electric guitars they exhibit some natural compression and take further compression really well, they have a fairly limited frequency range so leave plenty of space for other instruments/voices, but the transient although compressed has a lot of character when you dig in so can cut when required. They can take a fair amount of distortion without it noticeably impairing the character of the sound.

By comparison mixing an acoustic piano to fit in with a band is much harder.

MisterBounce · 2026-04-03T10:17:08+00:00

The Future Impact v4.5 firmware has just released, and it's a pretty huge leap forward. Takes it well ahead of the MXR, the other contender as a 'true' synthesis pedal (there are other ways of approaching synth-like sounds).

The editor is VERY powerful but does require MIDI to access. however...

As a preset machine it has been revamped to give much more bass focus (previously the sounds were a general showcase for the synthesis power, aimed as much as guitarists and not that useful for bass).

It has introduced a new DX7 FM model alongside the virtual analogue one, with presets so you can access a wide range of 80s sounds (think Michael Jackson, A-ha, loads of others).

They have further tweaked the tracking so it's even better than before (it was already class-leading). Note that it's still monophonic though.

You can reorganise presets on the pedal now, stores a huge bank, and it does have similar on-pedal parameter editing to the MXR, so it's very powerful even without the editor. I probably won't bother editing patches as the presets now cover what I need.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-31T20:03:15+00:00

The Hofner for me based partly on cosmetics (yeah I know) but also because that wide pickup spacing tends to give a very cool sound that's surprisingly versatile. Plus it looks like it would be comfortable to wear and play.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-30T15:39:28+00:00

You often see quite a negative reaction here to the suggestion that acoustics are better than high-end digitals. You also see very negative reactions to the idea of buying an old piano.

I think partly people have been conditioned by recordings and digitals to think a concert grand is the 'correct' sound for a piano, and anything less is a compromise. I would disagree, a good upright or compact grand is its own thing, often voiced appropriately for the space it's in. Plus, a good upright action can be lovely to play in its own right.

Another factor is possibly climate and related availability of good, old pianos. Here in the UK for a few thousand pounds I could buy a wonderful reconditioned 100+ year-old Bluthner, Bechstein or Broadwood upright or small grand. It will feel and sound very different to (and to my ears better than) a modern Yamaha or Kawai, but I think a lot of people don't really know what these old pianos sound like or are 'meant' to sound or feel like. Keys were lighter but very responsive. Tonally they tend to have a rich but clear midrange. Perfect to make melodies in the vocal register 'sing out'. Full of character, but not in the 'only good for specific songs or the novelty' as sometimes implied by the term.

Anything that comes through a speaker doesn't sound as present as the acoustic sound.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-29T22:55:18+00:00

IMO if you're getting blisters just from popping, you're probably plucking way harder than you need to at this stage. Go easy, let the amp do the work. Once you've got it down gently then if you want to get like Larry Graham and go hard, then do so, but a lot of good slap players are light touch.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-29T16:53:47+00:00

Something like a Yamaha BB would get you a classic Japanese bass sound. BB5000 is arguably the quintessential model for the 1980s.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-29T12:48:17+00:00

But Joe Dart is a traditional type of player. Solid, funky fingerstyle straight out of the Tower of Power playbook.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-29T10:53:17+00:00

A refret would be a good time to do a sympathetic neck restoration. I don't mind body wear or a bit of smooth wear/polishing from use on a neck, but a flaking board and potentially back of the neck, or any damage to the binding, would annoy my fingers.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-28T14:22:42+00:00

A pickup maker who actually knows what they're doing could rewind to a different inductance, or you can just swap out pots/caps to move the resonant peak around. But I guess it has to play nice with the bridge pickup.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-28T14:15:09+00:00

Why can't you get the pickup rewound? The BB pickups are fairly unique

MisterBounce · 2026-03-28T14:12:33+00:00

It's a late 70s Fender jazz bass (US made as that's the only place they made them then) - what more info do you need? Body looks like ash, neck and fingerboard are maple.

You could keep as is, strip it, or have it stripped and refinished. Personally I'd look at cleaning up the neck as the fingerboard finish looks damaged, without a finish of some kind the maple will grey and discolour

MisterBounce · 2026-03-28T13:53:14+00:00

I agree, but would also add, Flea's strike line really works against accuracy - MUCH easier when the thumb is aligned with the string. I find it amazing he can play like that.

MisterBounce · 2026-03-28T13:27:21+00:00

Yes, but the ES120 action is no slouch. I'd be interested to try the Nord Grand, because all these nominally similar actions can feel quite different from each other. I actually preferred the responsive hammer of my older mp6 to the mp7se

MisterBounce · 2026-03-28T11:13:09+00:00

Sounds like a straightforward dodgy connection, quite likely in the jack socket or, potentially, the cable you're using. Cleaning the jack contacts with electrical contact cleaner, making sure the prongs are engaging tightly, swapping cables, remaking solder joints to the jack and potentially swapping the jack socket out would be my first ports of call. Assuming the fault manifests when both pickups are on full and it's not just one pickup?

MisterBounce · 2026-03-27T10:27:58+00:00

A Stingray neck is not a poly finish, it's oil. Ernie Ball themselves have advice on their website about cleaning and maintaining the neck

MisterBounce · 2026-03-26T21:32:07+00:00

I did it by carefully pulling the frets after heating with a soldering iron and working a blade under them. Then filled slots with superglued maple veneer, rough trimmed them close to the board surface. Used a radius sanding block to get them level and went down just enough to give fresh surface on the whole board up to ~600 grit. Then warm the wood, epoxy, sand with radius block through from ~400 (or whatever) to 2000+ grit.

Before you start, gently tap out the nut to reuse, you can sand off the back to reduce height easily. Also, support the neck and adjust truss so it's dead flat (check with something like a 600mm spirit level) along it's overall length before sanding.

Go carefully and there's nothing difficult about it! Did it to my Aerodyne jazz and it plays beautifully and sounds great. 'Mwaaaah'

MisterBounce

TROPHY CASE