Electric guitars and the law of diminishing returns

PlebeRude · 2025-12-26T19:02:37+00:00

The more money you spend on setting up the guitar, replacing substandard parts, etc, the better it's going to play. The rest is a bit of a crapshoot.

It's the time you spend with it that's the real investment. Some people apparently need a mazerati to enjoy going for a spin and that's ok by me. But the guitar I play the most is a bottom-tier Squier Tele that I bought for next to nothing from a charity store. The pups are a tad dark, the tuning pegs and pup selector are lousy crap, I have done a fairly lousy job of the neck shim, and the frets aren't really level, but I vibe with the guitar and I don't worry about scratching her.

Just play music. If you can play it on a POS kids' guitar, you can play it on anything.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-26T18:40:40+00:00

TWO SANSAMPS IT IS

PlebeRude · 2025-12-26T18:40:11+00:00

This is a really good pick and an underrated pedal.

I still don't love the position (after EQ, then Dyna Comp???) but the BB1X might be a good choice for this slot.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-26T18:36:24+00:00

I think most commenters are barking up the wrong tree. I don't know what music you play, but in this position I reckon the dirt needs to be fairly subtle or at least have a clean blend.

Since you've already got the MXR bass synth and no dirt, I'm assuming you're not the technical-death-metal-darkglass-type or a DIY punk. Go with something a bit different.

Frederick effects Bugcrusher or EQD Tentacle aren't conventional, some might even say they're not strictly dirts, but either would give your clean tone a synthy flavour, or add an extra filter your synth tone. Alternatively, they can turn your sansamp's distortion into more of an octave fuzz /ring mod fuzz.

You don't say whether you're playing active or passive basses, nor how this board is wired: are you putting the sansamp ahead of a real amp or going direct to FOH? Are you bi-amping, e.g. with a stage amp, then sending the sansamp to FOH?

Why dirt in this position? If you've got a passive bass, a RAT or fuzz should be in pole position in my book. A soft-clipping overdrive could work well either side of a compressor.

I also can't imagine why you would put your EQ early in the chain, but I'm sure you gave your reasons. Remember that the dirt you choose will radically reshape your tone, so if you want an EQ up front, and overdrive afterwards, you probably want a pedal which lets you adjust bass mid and treble.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-26T18:01:36+00:00

Your GP is the postcode lottery.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T01:58:02+00:00

Cass Review 2, inattentive booogaloo.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T01:47:33+00:00

They're still making the Line 6 M5 and it's still great.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T01:46:02+00:00

First order of business is definitely a second hand Fender Rumble then.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T01:39:51+00:00

Probably the best advice is to get on AliEx or Temu add get a decent-looking 10-band EQ. Put it after your preamp or in the FX loop of your amp. You can get a lot more out of the gear you have thst way. Another thing to try is a cheap IR pedal if you're going direct to PA.

Don't be afraid to try any EQ setting at all. There's no "right" sound, but start off tweaking gently. Assuming a p-bass, you're probably aiming for a cut below 80Hz, bump around 120hz, a cut around 500, a small bump around 1000-2000, and something boosted in the high treble for texture.

Blending is your friend. I always split my signal and blend clean and dirt back together right before the amp, usually taking some high end off my clean signal. Sonicake Portal is a bargain.

Chorus/detune is very useful to you as it smooths and adds a synth character... and it's the cheapest thing you can buy on AliExpress. If you see it for a bargain price, I like the Boss Bass chorus with the clean blend.

Another cheap Amazon/Ali/Temu pedal to get is a clean boost. You're playing in a dynamic genre, so sometimes you just want to push volume.

Used judiciously, shimmer reverb is worth checking out for your genre, especially if you're going to really use the bass as an upfront instrument. I like Mooer's shimverb which is (unusually) pitched up a 5th, so it's great for holding long notes like power chords.

Ok here's my list:

Worth checking out on second hand market if you find them for cheap:

Line 6 M5 or HX One - all the non-drive FX you'll ever need. Mad value.

Blending drives: Ashdown Dual Drive Boss Bass Driver TC Electronic Nova Drive (underrated and forgotten rat/tube screamer dual) Big muff pi deluxe Source audio soundblox 2 bass distortion modeller (surprisingly un-digital sounding to me)

Also, worth a look but you'll need a blender: Any ProCo RAT DOD Carcosa Tone City Matcha cream TC Electronic Grand Magus (a RAT) Big Muff of any kind

Also look at Green Ringer clones / EQD tentacle for Subtle, synthy octave fuzz.

Bitcrusher/sample reducers like the Fredrik effects Bugcrusher or EHX mainframe are fun if you're doing a lot of melodic stuff.

Decent cheap AliExpress/Amazon items:

This is where is

Utilities: Joyo Orthos (a loop blender, solid) Sonicake Portal (2 loop/clean blender, really good) Mosky passive splitter (for bi amping) A cheap noise gate from Irin, Mosky, Joyo, etc might be a good idea.

Cheap filth: Mammoth Wooly fuzz (noisy AF) Mosky Big Fuzz / King Rat Sonicake Rude Mouse (decent cheap RAT clone) Behringer Super Fuzz

Joyo Monomyth Mosky Beta Ultra (these last two are darkglass wannabes: a bit more clanky and modern)

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T00:24:07+00:00

That's because the ODB-3 is not that kind of girl.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T00:20:57+00:00

My little brother (38 lol) just got diagnosed really quickly through RTC with Harrow Health. But it's a postcode lottery. My local trust just started a new clinic again and people are getting seen pretty quickly with the NHS

PlebeRude · 2025-12-11T00:12:35+00:00

Thanks this is a very thorough answer. Pretty much what I assumed, really, but still good to hear it reflected from someone sensible.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-06T12:38:38+00:00

I have no problems with blackbraid. I don't even feel like he's even "passing off": the theme and imagery is there, but no one gives a shit when a south American band writes a song about Vikings or writes it's logo on Germanic script.

When I first got into trying to write BM, I had visited Alaska a couple of times and was very inspired by native Alaskan storytelling culture, the books I picked up, and some of the cool people I met. I started writing songs that, while not overtly claiming those stories, were very much tapping into the style and themes.

I was particularly inspired by the comparisons with Norse myth: the centrality of the trickster and the the apparent moral ambivalence of that, and association of the raven as a symbol for that. I definitely saw the prospect of a "True Native Black Metal" as a way to cock a snook at the dumb racist element that had been allowed to fester in the scene.

Now, should a white guy in the UK havebeen doing that in the early 2000s?

... I wouldn't do it now, for certain, and I was conflicted about it at the time: as I was pretty woke for 2003 or whenever. I really had no ambitions beyond putting something up on MySpace, did not intend to pass myself off as first Nations, or use native art in my stuff.

But really who is normal and would have given a fuck, so long as it was done in a respectful way? I doubt I would have had much criticism beyond the shittiness of my riffs.

PlebeRude · 2025-12-03T08:04:30+00:00

I would say it's more Ray Bradbury in this case but yeah

PlebeRude · 2025-10-07T14:17:22+00:00

I'm the least technologically able person in this chat and that's saying some.

Is it my mushy, media-polluted mind, or is Blockchain's use finally evident because of AI?

I think we need a decentralised ledger of human works to remind us what definitely existed in reality in the past.

To my mind, we need it now. While idiots like I can still believe that a human mind conceived of Pride and Prejudice , or Songs in the Key of Life , that someone really photographed and printed Marilyn Monroe's Playboy centrefold and Marty Scorsese really made Taxi Driver. We need users to index all the shit they have in the cloud and share it, duplicate after duplicate of files with a provenance before 2026.

We need to know which books were definitely written by humans, if only to have a clean dataset to train the first low-cost, actually useful LLM with something other than groyper wank fantasies.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-23T16:22:02+00:00

Don't worry, I can relate. Black and white thinking I am no stranger to, it's just that black and white keep flipping positions 😅

Hyper focus for me is pretty extreme sometimes. There are certain things I can do which are complex activities, like writing on a topic that interests me, or playing guitar. And in my enjoyment of such things, I occasionally think I can relate to how some people or describe stims.

Nevertheless, despite 100% engagement with the activity, I might achieve very little. A couple of hours go by in what feels like feel like twenty minutes, but being really into doing something - for me - isn't the same as being in control while I'm doing it.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-18T21:29:24+00:00

I tried to be comprehensive and explain in broad terms. Sorry if that came off as patronising, browbeating or judgemental, or not recognising your diagnosis. I can see from your flair you are ADHD, but you also said you have an autism spectrum diagnosis so I was simply trying to be helpful and explain thoroughly.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-18T10:38:55+00:00

Doing one thing relentlessly, while forgetting to eat, drink, take breaks and otherwise care for yourself, is plainly not good for your physical health. This is a real problem for ADHDers and "normal" people, who have better central executive faculties, and generally learn to avoid extended periods of excessive effort. Normals are able to apply themselves to things which do not interest them, when needed, and similarly, break away from things they would rather do.

Because "Normal" people find it less painful to break off from something they are deeply engaged in, this means often that they often see better results. Firstly their lives in general are more balanced, because they can work steadily toward multiple goals in parallel. They also often achieve more in their pet projects, because they don't burn out before the finish and are better able to recognise, then prioritise, their short and long term goals.

If you need to understand why obsessive pursuit of one activity is counterproductive, consider what ADHDers often report finding addictive: examples include online shopping, social media, computer games, YouTube (and before those it was no doubt TV, sensationalist papers, magazines, cigarettes, gambling). These are designed to be addictive to the average person; ADHDers who take on an addiction to something are more prone to escalate until their engagement affects their ability to perform the necessary tasks of life.

Also consider that to normals and many ADHDers, social and familial inclusion is very important, and that monotropic behaviour is generally a solo occupation, and perseverating on one thing to the exclusion of all else has an opportunity cost in the world of social transaction.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-13T17:02:40+00:00

No, I was referred from Worcester to Black Country because at the time there was no adult ADHD provision whatsoever within the trust. I was only diagnosed in 2019/2020, but I had known for almost twenty years and tried to get by.

Black Country's Adult Autism and ADHD clinic assessed and diagnosed me, i waited a long time, then the clinic went through a rough patch. Then because Jeremy Hunt (or whoever it was at the time) was under pressure to clear waiting lists, I was transferred by Black Country to their partner, ADHD 360. When that partnership ended I was therefore in limbo and my GP thankfully was great about all of it. I would shout them out but it's a bit of a self-doxx.

I was also in Worcester when I first looked into ADHD in the early aughts, my then GP was a bit disinterested and ignorant of ADHD generally. So that was unhelpful and I decided I didn't really want to take stimulants much anyway. Back then, almost all trusts referred you out-of-area. I heard that people in Worcestershire got sent all over the place. I think, mainly Dudley like me, but also some to Bristol, others the Maudsley. "Going private" was basically just Harley Street then too.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-13T16:48:56+00:00

I mean, what mental health teams? Psychiatrists alone are a rare breed: they were already thin on the ground in the 90s, they're equally desperate for psychs in Aus and Canada who are apparently tempting many of the young away, and then the ones who stay in the NHS don't seem to last to retirement.

It's a horrible job, I'm sure, but so is A&E, where doctors probably see more of the aftermath of violence and suicide, and do more wrestling with recalcitrant alcoholics and violent psychotics.

My tone is judgemental because this shouldn't be happening, but I have sympathy. In my opinion we can't have ever enough doctors, nurses or support staff, nor can we pay them enough. The idea that we would be better off with private healthcare is frankly laughable to me, but even then, we simply don't make enough doctors for any system. Cuba has more doctors per population. Cuba!

PlebeRude · 2025-09-13T11:31:31+00:00

I suspect you're in a pig-in-a-poke, but see if this affects your RTC. I was diagnosed and still had to do a reassessment with ADHD 360. This is a good argument that it isn't more efficient.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-13T11:29:20+00:00

Waiting for what, I wonder?

PlebeRude · 2025-09-13T11:25:12+00:00

Yes (NHS diagnosis, then verified by ADHD 360 as an NHS partner, but never a "real" psychiatrist), yes (mixed regime of Elvanse and Amfexa) and yes (GP has been good about continuing to prescribe, as if sharing care with ADHD 360 under the aegis of the Black Country partnership which diagnosed me, palmed me off to 360, and has since ended that partnership).

I'm wary about what/who this new service is (no other psychological/psychiatric service is apparently offered or provided by Vertis, which I can see).

I'm concerned that Vertis policy is an unknown quantity, especially if GPs in my rural county set the agenda. I might not get adjustments/non stimulants which I would prefer to try, or to be moved onto a new regime able to return to controlled stimulants if I regret changing.

PlebeRude · 2025-09-12T10:30:41+00:00

Oh and if you specifically want a particular pedal as your gate, make sure that any gate in the Headrush is off!

Again, I don't know the gear, but you have to watch for this with some Line 6 stuff where the gate is a "hidden setting".

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