The 5 string bass maintains the familiar Ritter curves and bridge arrangement, with two angled pickups and fairly straight forward 4 pot controls. The more striking features include the recessed rear jack socket (visible in the second picture) and the two tone gold/white – no cheesy plastic pickups, knobs of cover plates here!

Having played a few Ritter bases, I’m sure that this one plays like a dream – I’ll look out for Josh Dunham using it! Ritter Basses will be at the upcoming NAMM Show in Anaheim/California (January 14th to 17th) in Hall C – Booth #4182. (Beside DR-Strings), where the first basses will be released. There will be a number of other models on display, so I expect some great pictures to be coming out of NAMM!

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• Stereo amplifiers, with and four 4-inch (10cm) speakers.
• Eight COSM® amps, six Boss digital effects.
• Rhythm Guide function for practical rhythm training.
• Stereo AUX input for CD/MP3 player, Phones/Recording out.
• Battery driven (6 x AA, up to 13-hour continuous use).
• Built-in carrying strap.

You’ll not be playing stadium gigs with this guy, but as a portable practice amp it ticks lots of boxes. It looks the part too.

The four mini-speakers are custom designed, and provide stereo sound (to go along with the FXs) – a fairly unusual feature in a bass amp, and one that you’ll either love or say “meh!” to. I’ve been a user of Roland’s COSM technology for many years (both in the GT6B and the V-Bass that I have as part of my own rig). It produces very convincing simulations of the major amps and is a useful creative tool. The COSM and effects features, combined with the stereo aux input makes this a great little practice device. It feels super-portable, and even has a collection of built-in drum grooves, although how useful they are in the long-term I’m not sure. Either way, it’s easy to plug in an MP3 player or computer and use backing tracks or drum software too. This diagram from the spec sheet gives a better idea of what it can do than me rambling on, so have a look and check out the Roland site.

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“Eight years in the making, our new MiniGrooves are the first and only tiny, lightweight cabinets that are built for the serious professional.”

So says Mark, Accugroove’s CEO, and he’s bigger than me, so I’m not going to argue .

The main act is the 3-Way (8” Woofer, 6.5” Midrange & 2 Tweeters), which weights in at 26 lbs. (just under 12kgs in new speak), and measures 19” High x 10” Wide x 15.5 Deep. It will swallow 300 watts @ 8 Ohms. Quite a beast!

The MiniGroove 3-Way will happily suit upright and electric bass, as well as keyboards, guitar or PA uses. But there’s more…

The MiniGroove Sub, which features two 8” Subwoofers. It is slightly lighter, at 22 lbs., but the same size – 19” H x 10” W x 15.5 D – and with the same power rating – 300 watts @ 8 Ohms. The frequency range is 34-220 Hz. That’s low folks!

The MiniGrooves can be stacked, so a MiniGroove 3-Way will sit on top of a MiniGrooe Sub to make a 600 Watt, 10 inch wide 4 Way system that covers 34 Hz up to dog whistles (18kHz i.e. full AccuGroove fidelity ).

The 3 Way system as a little flip out foot – perfect for those situations where you have to put the unit on the floor, but want to angle it for the best listening. The is also support for pole mounting.

There is some more information on AccuGroove’s Myspace page, and I am sure they will be on the Accugroove main site shortly.

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After much activity we are thrilled to announce that Wal is now back in action, with the original specifications and fanatical attention to detail as before. Electric Wood, led by Paul Herman, who worked with Wal and Pete for over 18 years, brings you the quality, the playability, the exotic woods, and the sheer excitement of these beautiful instruments once again.

I’ve not owned a Wal myself, but have had the pleasure of playing quite a few of the models, both fretted and fretless. They are high class instruments with a sound all their own. The workshop is just a few miles down the road from the office here, so I hope to drop in for a visit and give you a fuller update.

Wal Basses from over the years on Flickr.

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It’s very red! That’s ok by me, I like read. The sound has been taylored to Rocco’s requirements, so will suit anyone who is a finger style funk player. It is much like the RH450 in features, but with a very different tone and tweaked tone controls. The compress and tone shaping has also been tweaked.

Here is a video of Rocco Prestia and his new TC Electronic Staccato’51 bass amp:

There’s more detail about how the amp came about in this video from the TC folks:

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It has been fully field tested with a number of Pedulla Artists, including Tim Landers, Mark Egan, and David Buda.  Tim Landers used the Nuance live and in the studio and sums up the sound as:

“It exudes a boutique quality but with a much more useful array of tones.A bass that not only sounds fantastic on it’s own but remains punchy and distinct even through a dense mix, a winning combination for me!”

The bass is handmade in the U.S.A. It’s stunning good looks come from the Maple Burl, Arbutis Burl, and Red Heart Quilted Maple tops. The back is soft maple, and it has a bolt-on-neck design, with a hard maple two-piece quartersawn neck – the material of choice for a neck on a high end bass these days. The fretboard (where it has them) has 22 frets and is a very nice ebony. From the wood combinations, you can probably taste the sound already. Clear and glassy with plenty of punch from two custom-voiced Bartolini humbuckers, and 9 volt active electronics featuring volume, pickup pan, bass boost and cut, treble boost and cut, and a midrange boost and cut switch.

Options:

• 4-string or 5-string.
• 5-string with either 17.5mm or 19mm string spacing.
• Maple Burl, Arbutis Burl, or Red Heart Quilted Maple top
• Black, chrome, or gold color hardware.
• Fretted or fretless.

The bass comes with the usual Pedulla oil/urethane finish. More on the Pedulla site, including a gallery of images.

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I first saw Michael live at an intimate gig in California. It was at a studio, as I recall, it was a recording for a webcast, in the days when live stuff on the web was a shiny new idea beyond human contemplation. I was blown away, I’d never seen a bass played quite like it. I’ve written a few post that mention Michael Manring. He approaches the bass in a very unique way, and speaks to how he got there in the video:

“I felt like it could do all this crazy stuff, and all my friends kept telling me to play [traditional corny bass lines]“

Well, if you’ve met Michael, you’d know that wasn’t going to happen.

“One of the things I started to do a lot was changing the tuning. Which is not something you normally do on a bass, but… It seemed to me the bass was really receptive to altered tunings, so I couldn’t think of any reason not to do it… Except for the degree to which it made me a social outcast [laughter]“

The most adventurous that most of us bassists get is to drop the E down to a D. Michael took things several times further than that:

“I just kept doing it [playing with altered tunings] and having so much fun that I didn’t really worry that much about what other people thought about it… …Then eventually I got to the point where people actually asked me to play solo shows”

That opened new doors, but also created some challenges with his bass, and a desire for something even more unique:

“In the solo shows I was playing I was using lots and lots of different tunings. For a lot of the shows I played every piece would be in a different tuning… …I decided the next step beyond that would be to try to get a bass that allowed me to change the tunings while I was playing, and not to have to stop to change.”

“I had some ideas for that and talked to a number of guitar builders about this idea for a bass that would allow me to change tuning while I was playing… …most of them advised me to seek therapy [lots of laughter]. But I met this guy, Joe Zon, and he thought it was a really good idea and he had some ideas of his ow.n”

So the two of them set to work to design what became the Zon Michael Manring Hyperbass. As Michael in the video, ”you can by one of these if you don’t mind selling your car.”

There are a number of things that make the bass unique. The first is the tuning system, which has two parts. The head stock has drop tuners on each machine head – basically a lever that tilts the machine head and drops the pitch down. It can drop it anything from a half-step (a semi-tone to us Europeans) to a fifth. The second part of the tuning system is built in to the bridge and allows the tuning to be changed for all 4 strings at the same time, or just 2 or 3 of the strings.

The neck covers three octaves (yes, 3), with a 34 inch scale length. There is a deep cut away to allow access to the higher parts of the (fretless) fingerboard, right up to the bass’s single custom Bartolini pick up.

A very unique instrument for a very unique player!

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The amPlug has been around a while, but Vox has added two new models, one of which might be of interest to us Bass folks. Described as a “palm-sized headphone guitar amp” this little gadget is modeled on VOX’s classic AC100 bass amp. No digital bits or bytes involved here, this pure good old fashioned analogue. A FET circuit provides a compressor/boost effect and even overdrive. Plug it in to the jack socket on your bass, plug in headphones (or in my case the Future Sonics In-ear monitors from the trusty Ampless Bass Set Up) and away you go. If you want some backing, there is a mini-jack input socket, so you can plug in an MP3 player, CD player or whatever else fits. Nice touch.

With the right batteries, it will last up to 15 hours on two AAA batteries – that should cover a reasonable bit of practice! I’ve not heard one for myself, but let me know if you have (hello Vox?). The are around the $50 mark (same in Euros and not far of in pounds). At 40g or 1.4oz you won’t need a roady to carry it for you .

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I say green, but it is actually a two tone iridescent green finish called “Caramel Apple Delight” – the picture gives a feel, but you’ll have to see it in the flesh to capture the full glory of it! Definitely an eye catching paint job – rare on basses, but I’m sure you can point me to some other examples! The bass also has striking custom inlays on the neck which mark it out. Orders are only open for a few more days – August 13th 2009 – I’ve spotted that The Perfect Bass are shipping them out. The limited edition stretches to most of the other models in the Musicman range, so if you aren’t a Stingray kind of a person, there are other options available, but you’ve got to like it green!

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The Classic450 puts out 450 Watts – hence the name – and in line with the name some of the bells and whistles from the RH450 have been trimmed off  for this ‘classic’ model. Gone is the tuner and preset-memories, and the headphone socket too. That still leaves a no-nonsense amp that has a few tricks up its sleeve and weighs spot on 4kg, that’s 8.8 pounds in imperial speak, lighter than many basses!

The amp’s EQ section still features bass, low mid, high mid and treble controls, and there is TC’s TUBETONE valve simulation and Spectracomp compression, so you don’t need a pre-amp or extra stomp boxes to get a polished sound. TC have even got their own TC Electronic YouTube Channel with more videos on the Classic450.

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Traditional strings tend to oxidise as they age. This is natural corrosion of the metal due to the aim as well as sweat and grease from your fingers. This causes the sound of the strings to dull with age. The folks at Gore-Tex set out to cure this problem, using their synthetic coating technology. As they put it “We set out to develop the cure for the common string.” – the aim was to create a set of strings that deliver excellent, long-lasting tone for a long time. Of course it isn’t just the tone, old strings feel different too, and Elixir Strings aim to stay feeling clean and smooth, even after repeated playing.

There are two types of strings in the family: NANOWEB® and POLYWEB®. NANOWEB coated strings are design to sound and feel like uncoated strings,  with a micro thin coating that is barely noticeable, they remain bright soundsing for a long while. POLYWEB® coated strings are designed to sound like they have been ‘played in’ – not as harsh, and with a coating that reduces finger noise.

I have played with both types, and they certainly do last a long time – not forever of course, as the coating does eventually give way. If you are a player that generates lots of grease and sweat, or you have a bass that goes a long-time between plays, they are definitely worth checking out.

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There are many reasons to play fretless, from the instrument’s unique tone, to the ability to slide gracefully between notes. Ultimately it is a matter of personal preference. Recently I asked Steve Lawson about going fretless. Steve is well known as a teacher of fretless bass, on top of his Solo Bass career.

“It’s probably not as hard as you think, particularly if your technique is decent, and assuming you’re going to get a lined fretless. There’s no law against getting an unlined one, but that just seems to be making life difficult! …Anything that is going to help me play in tune, I’m going to do!”

There are some differences in frethand technique and finger placement in moving from fretted to fretless too:

“On a fretted you play behind the fret, but on a lined fretless you are going to be about 2/3 of the way behind the line, so that the contact point of your finger onto the fretboard is on the line.”

Steve picked out one of my bad habits, which turns out to be quite a common one:

“The biggest mistake that people learning to play fretless make is learning to auto correct – sliding in to the notes [rather than getting them on pitch at the start]. The most important practice is learning to hit the notes without any vibrato, bang on. When you get it wrong, don’t correct, look at where your hand is. Try and feel how it was wrong.”

“You have to practice what you ultimately want to have happen – which is that you don’t want to have to correct, you want to be playing in tune from the start… …I spend a lot of time [practising] getting my fingers in exactly the right place. The trick is to start slow, work on accuracy from the beginning. If you play out of tune, it just isn’t going to work.”

Keying against something (like an open string) to make sure your intonation is correct is another neat tip.

“Intonation is the beginning, middle and end of getting fretless playing right.”

It is worth the patience needed to master it, as Steve says:

“If you do, you are opening yourself up to a whole load of expressive potential that fretted just doesn’t have.

Here is the full video of Steve Lawson speaking with me. Sorry if the sound is a little quiet! We also talk about fretless bass compared to upright, and there’s even a mention of my Elrick fretless. My favourite quote from Steve on moving from fretted to fretless bass:

“It’s like taking the training rails off”

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The bass was designed and built by Luthier Rich Toone. It has a 32″ neck, a Trapezoidal Neck Profile, and was specifically designed for it’s player, Halie (aged 16 when the bass was made).

There are certainly some weird basses out there. Check out the world’s largest bass. Actually, I’m not sure it is, as I remember someone making a massive double bass a while back, but do check out the link to Last.FM’s rebuttal of TechCrunch’s journalism on sharing user’s music data in that post. There are also some beautiful basses about, see the incredible carving on this Univox Eagle Bass.

However, it’s rare to see weirdness and clever design in one instrument, as in the Orchid. There are lots of little design tweaks, along with the very unusual body shape. See the Orchid Bass in action in this video to understand what I mean:

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Elrick have been in production since 1993, and are probably best known for the ”Classic” and “e-volution” ranges. The Elrick Expat New Jazz Standard (NJS) model, announced during the NAMM Show, is more traditional in appearance that the wilder extremes of some of the single-cut thru-necks like mine in the rage. Rob oversees the production:

“These basses are not alternatives to my U.S.-made NJS 4- and 5- strings—they are respectable substitutes on par with their U.S. counterparts. That being said, they do have one value-added feature I cannot economically offer on my U.S. basses that is desirable to many electric bass consumers: a paint job.” Says Elrick.

US sourced components include:

• Elrick strings.
• Bartolini pickups and electronics (3 band EQ).
• Hipshot ultra-light tuners and B-style bridge.
• Dunlop Straplok-compatible strap buttons.

Other vital stats include:

• Scale Length of 34″ (for the 4 string) or 35″ (for the 5 string).
• Quarter-sawn ample neck.
• Indian rosewood fretboard.

The Expat NJS is available with a swamp ash body (in natural or amber sunburst finishes), or an alder body (in natural, amber sunburst, antique tobacco sunburst, piano black, or white). Prices start at $1,999 and include an Elrick Zero Gravity ultra-light case.

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I was immediately struck by the sound (I heard it before I saw it). It had the kind of articulation I’d associate with a Ken Smith or a Fodera. Then I saw it. A very striking single cut bass, with at least a nod and a wink to a Fodera – at least in my view.

Wood&Tronics are based in Italy, and join a growing stable of fine Italian bass producers. They have five main models: the Spectrum, the Chronos, the Ergon, the Zoid and the EJ. The EJ plays tricks with your eyes, there’s a little bit of jazz in there and a lot of Wood&Tronics: see for yourself.

The influences aren’t that surprising when you find out that one of the co-founders, Enrico Pasini, spend time living in New York and was a frequent visitor to Fodera’s workshops, hence the influence. These basses are very much their own though, with customised East electronics, the sound is very full-on. They certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, in looks or sound. However, if you are looking for a very distinctive, stand-out bass, this is definitely a luther to try out. Currently they are distributed in the UK by Bass Direct, and in the Netherlands by Fray’s Bass Corner.

A big thank you to Mark for letting me inspect his baby – it had wonderful wood combinations (Zebrano + Padouk + Maple + White Ash with Ebony fingerboard) and the kind of sound you’d expect from a Thru-neck single cut bass. I’d definitely recognise it if I heard it again!

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The use of distortional pedals is another one of those issues that splits the bass community – a bit like Marmite – love it or hate it. I’ve only played with a handful of the distortion pedals on the market. Anyone have any favourites or pet hates?

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Oh dear, I’m having a complete gear victim moment. Normally if a bass is a bit beaten up, you’d pay less for it. That is, unless it is one of those vintage treasures of course. But what about a bass that isn’t vintage, but is still beaten up enough to look road worn? Well, that’s the deal with the new Fender Road Worn series. New basses made to look like old. And with a price tag and quality more towards the vintage than the Squire end of the market.

I have to say, I’m really taken by them, particularly the 1960’s sunburst Jazz here. Just to add a twist to the mix, I’d like a 5 string version though. Yes, I know that makes absolutely no sense – and it isn’t going to happen – they didn’t have a 5 string in the 60s (although there was  an early 5 string Jazz bass – much earlier than most people realise). I do like the distressed look. Anyway, check out the details on the Fender site. They are designed with a 1960’s vibe (nitrocellulose-lacquer finish to get ‘that’ look, with pickups to give the right sound and feel).

There is also a dedicated site: road worn basses and it is offering the chance to enter a competition to give you the gear to get on the road yourself. Oh, there’s a 50’s P Bass as well, for those of the P rather than the J bent!

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The Synergy power amp is a new NAMM introduction for 2009. It is available stand-alone or built-in to a Tri series cabinet (Tri 112L Combo w/ Synergy, Tri 115L Combo w/ Synergy, Tri 210L Combo w/ Synergy.). On its own, the Synergy amp weighs in at 10 lbs and delivers 1,100 watts in to a 4 Ohm speaker. That’s a lot of bass in one box! It measures 17” x 13” x 3.5” – about 2 Rack Spaces (there are optional rack ears available). The Preamp is a hybrid design (solid state, combined with a 12AX7 tube input stage), the Power Amp stage is a Class H amplifier.

Accugroove describe it as “the only amp you’d ever want on a desert island.” – I’m not gigging on a desert island anytime soon, but it still looks like a nice amp and a very attractive addition to the Accugroove line up (I have a Tri 110L which I am very happy with). It is high-power, but still very portable. A straight up amp with the bonus of valve warmth delivered in that Accugroove “hear your bass as it is” way. Full specs:

Power Rating: 

• 1000W @ 2 ohms;  
• 775W @ 4 ohms;  
• 450W @ 8 ohms 

Frequency Response: 

• +0dB, -5dB: 20Hz-20kHz 
• Damping Factor: >500 

More on the  Accugroove site.

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Ah… a blast from the past. I used to own an Ashbory bass. It is definitely one of the most unusual instruments I’ve ever had in my bass collection. It’s the tiny bass that thinks it is a giant upright. It does deliver that URB acoustic bass sound, but in a most unusual way.

In true upright style, it is fretless, but with frets markers and standard dot markers up the neck too. Because it has an increadibly short-scale (at 18 inches – compare that with a normal bass scale length!), it can be quite hard to get the intonation right – a little bit of a wobble puts you half a semi-tone out. I did use mine live, but I think that it is a rather brave soul that does. Have a listen to the clips here.

The strings do tend to break fairly frequently, but are still available. They are silicon rubber, with quite a floppy feel. Sound pick up is via a piezo pick up built into the bridge. Putting the strings on is rather fun, you tie a knot in them at one end them wind like mad. As you can tell from the second sound clip, it does sound good in a full band context. Definitely the most compact way to get that upright sound! Check out the reviews on harmony central and you’ll see that it has some pretty passionate users.

It has a long story, you can read the Ashbory history here. These days it is usually seen under the DeArmond Fender brand (the old link with the official history seems to have disappeared for now – it was sold under a few different names). Alun Ashworth-Jones  (co-inventor, along with Nigel Thornbory) passed away last year (2008), but he leaves us a wonderful and curious instrument behind as his legacy.

It lookslike you can still buy them (via the http://www.largesound.com/ site). And here is a tour of the Ashbory itself:

Ashbory Bass

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Steve Lawson also got a nice shot of them:

Mark Bass Pedals - photo by Steve Lawson

You can see more of Steve’s photos in this post on his blog: Photos from NAMM so far… The Mark Bass Pedal range includes a DI box (lots of the pedals have an XLR DI output around the back), a booster (with filters), a Valve Compressor, Octaver (-1 octave -2 octaves), a distortion, a synth pedal, a chorus/flanger and a reverb (the “reverbaro”). The latter two have USB connections to link to a computer for editing - all very high tech!

Bassists aren’t know for heavy use of effects pedals, but there are a number of multi-effects boxes on the market from the likes of Line 6, Roland/Boss, Yamaha et al designed for bass. Stomp boxes are the predecessor to the multi-effects unit, and give you one dedicated effect in a box. Again, there are a fair few purpose built stomp boxes for bass (for example, those from EBS), but I’m sure the Mark Bass boxes will be a welcome addition. There is something reassuring about having a box that does just one thing, with nice analogue dials to adjust the settings and then leave in place when you’ve got “that sound”.

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A few picks from the new gear so far… I like to look of the all new tc electronic RebelHead450:

A very high tech, light weight bass head. The mail features (mentioned in the video clip) include:

• Rehearsal input – plug in your mp3 player of sound source of choice.
• Integrated tuner – with LED display.
• Multiple user memories – for storing settings.
• Tone controls.
• TubeTone(tm) – tube sound.
• SpectraComp(tm) – compression.

More on this “Bass Amp 2.0″ (oh yes.. even Bass amps are going 2.0 now )  on the tc eletrconic site. 

No big new gear bass news from Roland this show, but they do have couple of new tuners:

http://www.roland.co.uk/guitar_room_catdet.asp?id=TU1000

http://www.roland.co.uk/guitar_room_catdet.asp?id=TU12EX

There are miles and miles of gear… Stroll though some of the NAMM photos here on flickr - worth it to see the Rob Allen Basses if nothing else. How about a spot the craziest bass competition???

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I do, it has to be said, have a bit of a soft spot for single cut basses. So when I came across the home of Aquilina Basses (French site here, English here) I dug in.

Single cut basses have just one cut out, compared to the more usual double cut away model. If you can picture a classical guitar in your head, or an old steel-string acoustic, you’ll know what a guitar with no cut aways looks like. The guitar body near the neck on the top string half was originally cut away to provide better access to the high frets. I’m not sure when or why in the life of the guitar the second cut away became common, Leo Fender just made them that way, giving them their two distinctive ’horns’. 

Bass guitars inherited the double cutaway design of their higher pitched brethren, via Leo Fender, even though the double bass has no cut aways. However, with through-neck designed basses, there are a number of reasons to go for a single cut design.

The single cut allows for more contact between the neck and the body, adding stability. It also allows for more wood in the body, which affects the appearance, and potentially the sound. Their looks are slightly controversial - many players think they look ugly – and some argue that the design restricts access to the upper frets, but it never has for me. Makers like Veillette Guitars do make bolt on models (a nice diagram from them here).

Back to Aquilina and their Shelby bass for a moment, this imposing looking 7 string shows how the neck looks from behind, quite different as you can see:

While I’m here it would be just wrong not to show you the front of this lovely bass too:

The design also shifts the balance of the bass, increases the weight and enhances the sustain. You may see those as plusses or minuses. I think the choice to go for a single cut design is one of personal preference, since there aren’t dramatic differences in tone. They sure do look different though, don’t they!

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• For practice use.
• A lightweight gig set up.

The practice set up is obviously for personal/private practice – simply listening to your bass playing through headphones. Very considerate for co-resident non-bass lovers. The second set up is for playing live, and has some similarities, but is slightly extended, so I’ll describe them both together.

There are three challenges with this set up:

1. Getting a signal suitable for head phones.
2. Achieving a decent tone.
3. Hearing the other music(ians) – for the live set up or play-along practice.

I said there was at least some sort of amp, that’s because the signal out of a bass guitar isn’t powerful enough (or the right impedance) to drive earphones. It needs amplifying, either with a dedicated headphone amplifier, or via something that has a headphone output. Done forget, you’ll need a decent set of earphones (see In-ear monitors).

The sound of a DI’d bass really isn’t all that pleasant – DI means direct injected or direct input – “plugged straight in” in everyday words. Bass amps are carefully designed to flatter the sound of a bass, at least most are. So plugging straight into a headphone amp  isn’t going to give you a very pleasing tone. Thankfully there are a couple of alternatives for getting a good sound.

Pre Amps

The first is a stand alone pre-amp. Imagine it as half of a bass amp – the first half, dealing with shaping the bass signal. A pre-amp will usually have some tone shaping controls and perhaps even a valve stage to warm up the sound. Some have more advanced features such as a compressor or a limiter. They can still be a little bulky, since they are usually designed to be used as part of a traditional rig.

A pre-amp still won’t give you the same tone as a full bass set up, since it doesn’t recreate the effect of a speaker cabinet. Remember, different cabinets have different effects on your sound. This is where technology comes to the rescue, with an alternative to the pre-amp: The modelling amp. It is a bunch of computer processors that simulate (or ‘model’) the sound of a full bass set up. The two most famous are the bass pod from Line 7, and things like the V-Bass and the GT-series boxes from Roland (featuring their COSM technology). You can even get software for your computer that does it (see Virtual Bass Amp), but that probably isn’t too practical, since we are aiming for a light weight set up. I use a DI box that features some tone shaping: the Tech 21 Sans AMP Bass driver.

There are quite a range of options, something for a future post. So, we still need to tackle the headphones and hearing the other musicians. I have a special monitor amp (something like the ART MyMonitor). This has an input for the bass (or from your pre-amp or modelling amp), and input for a CD player/MP3 or for a monitor feed from the mixing desk. There are controls for the headphone output level and for controlling the balance between your bass and the other audio. All in a package that fits in your pocket – if you have very, very big pockets that is.

The Rig

The rig ends up looking something like this:

It means you can have a full set up that you can carry in one arm, without even breaking a sweat. You end up dependent on the quality of the main PA for the sound that audience hears, but if it is a large rig with bass bins, then you are in good shape. It is also makes for a portable right for private practice too. I have even used the set up with a small powered monitor for the occasional band practice.

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The most recent departure is the custom Moses job featured in the “graphite bass” post. So, buying and selling basses has been part of life over the last decade. Here are some tips when selling your bass…

• Try to get an idea of a ‘fair price’ for the bass – with ebay and on-line sites, this is much easier than it used to be. Have realistic expectations and know what reasonable bounds of negotiation are.
• Put on the bass’s best face – give it a good wipe down with a soft cloth to get it clean and free from greasy finger marks. Check it is set up as best as it can be, and that nothing is about to come loose.
• Get some good pictures of the bass – good lighting is more important than a good camera here, use bright, natural day light, or collect together some angle poise lamps – don’t use a built-in camera flash. Get a number of shots, most basses are just too good to fit into one picture.
• Be clear and honest about the condition of the bass – anything less will come back at you, one way or another. Are there bumps, scratches, buckle rash?

Last, but not least, I’ve met some great people through the basses that have come and gone over the years – be friendly and keep in touch!

What tips would you add?

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It is featured on buildingtheergonomicguitar.com and you can read all of the details there. It is the first bass that John has built and is definitely an ambitious project. Three things are immediately striking about it:

1. It is a fan fret design (mentioned back in Bass Guitar Scale Length). The scale length is longer for the lower strings, shorter for the higher ones. This gives an appearance that is almost more distinctive than the body!
2. It is headless. Or perhaps more accurately described as an inverted head-stock, with the tuners down at the bridge end – and, yes, it has seven strings.
3. The pickups are hidden. John wound customer pickups and then embedded them in the body of the guitar.

The body shape was inspired by  Crimson Guitars’ 05Ric. Weighing 11.5 lbs, it is quite a beast. More at  buildingtheergonomicguitar.com.

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• Supra-aural – like you get on planes, that sit on the ears. They don’t shut out sound, and can be overheard – think early loud personal stereos
• Circum-aural – which sit over and around the ears. These are the recording studio industry standard. They shut out some of the external sound, and don’t leak (’spill’) too much sound, which is obviously important when recording with microphones. They are generally quite large and a bit of a fashion statement outside of the studio, not in a good way I hasten to add.
• In-ear monitors -  Which sit in the ear canal (sometimes called IEMs or canal phones). With the right design, these also reduce external noise and also have limited spill.

Future Sonics have been going for over twenty years and pioneered that latter type of earphones in professional use. Their atrio earphones are definitely not to be confused with the kind of earbuds you might get with your MP3 player. These are an all-together different class of earphone. In choosing in-ear monitors for bass, these three factors are top of my list:

• Sound – bass places unique demands on earphones. You want to be able to hear your playing accurately, and when monitoring you want to be able to pick out the other players and singers.
• Comfort – it is no good having a great sound if the earphones aren’t comfortable. Irritation is going to interfere with your playing, and stop you being at your best.
• Isolation – one of the advantages of using in-ear monitoring is reduced volume. For louder bands and venues, I play with ear plugs. If you are regularly standing next to a loud kit, you want to keep the noise down. Well designed in-ear monitors should keep excess sound out, so that you hear what you want to hear, not what happens to be loud and next to you! 

So, on to the Future Sonics Atrio professional earphones (to give them their full title). They feature Future Sonics mg5pro™ dynamic drivers, with a 18Hz-20KHz frequency response. Frequency response figures don’t tell you that much about the sound quality these days, especially when they are quoted without a dB range. Factors like distortion, the overall frequency response curve and resonances are major factors in the sound, and usually not quoted. The only real way to find out is to plug in, and it does say “believe your ears” on the box…

The phones have a 3.5mm (1/8″) stereo jack plug, which is pretty standard these days, certainly on in-ear monitoring kit. 3.5 to 7mm (1/4″) adaptors are pretty easy to come by if you have studio kit or an older set up, I seem to have accumulated a handful of them over the years. First up, I gave them a try on my iPod. I was immediately struck by the clarity of the sound and the depth of the bass. Very pleasing to listen too, but a sound that is accurate rather than flattering. A very good start. Next up, plugging in to the MOTU kit in the studio and listening to the master recording of a recent track. Very nice, the detail really stands out, and the bass holds up well even at low volumes. A very big tick in the box on the sound front then.  

The kit that comes with the phones is impressive. A neat carry pouch with a zipper, and plenty of space for the comprehensive range of fittings, which includes three sizes of double flange silicon sleeves and two sizes of foam ones. A cleaning tool is included as well.

You can choose the sleeves that work best for you. I’ve been using the atrio set for practice. It is nice to still be able to hear the rumble of a low B string, without disturbing my fellow residents or risking my hearing with high volumes. A nice design touch is that the phones can be worn either with the cables hanging down, or the other way up with cables tucked behind the ears. The former being traditional for standard listening, the later for stage use, where you want to tuck the cables out of sight. So, a very big tick on the comfort front too.

You can go a step further and order SofterWear™ Custom fit sleeves. This will require a visit to your local friendly audiologist to get a set of ear impressions done, but the result is custom fitting phones at a price within the reach of a semi-pro. I’m definitely going to investigate going down this path (an affordable step towards the original ear monitors). The ambient noise rejection is quoted at 26 dB. That’s enough to reduce a very loud band down to a reasonable volume, making for sensible (and sustainable) sound levels when monitoring. The design is nice in that there is minimal noise from physical movement – a problem I have had with other phones, where the cables brushing against clothes caused unpleasant sounds in the ears. So, finally a big tick on the isolation front too then.

These seem like the perfect earphones for my amp-less set up. I’m very glad to have discovered Future Sonics. The atrio model is available in either black or blue, with red and beige available soon (ordering page here or dealer list here), so you can choose a pair to blend in or stand out according to your taste.

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There will be more items added over time, so far it is a fairly sparse selection, but it does include Nickel Strings, Stainless Steel Strings and Piccolo Strings, as well as t-shirts, straps and baseball caps. Over on the main Zon site I had a play with the Zon Bass builder, which lets you spec up a Zon, including choosing from the various options and quoting a price. Nice stuff. Now, back to listening…

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The friendly folks at Get Musical pointed us to their bass starter kit. Get Musical are based in the UK and part of the Thompson and Newman group, so they are no strangers to the music instrument and accessories space. A couple of days later and a sunburst version of the Bismak Bass Guitar Pack was in our hands. If you want to giggle at my unpacking capabilities, then here is a video of the unboxing:

Inside the box:

• A Bass Guitar – Sunburst, with P style split pick up.
• A 15 Watt Amp – closed back, with tone controls and headphone socket.
• A softcase/gigbag.
• A Tuner – which can be used in-line and batteries included.
• A black strap.
• A lead.
• Allen Keys – for adjusting neck/bridge sadles.
• A few Picks
• A spare set of strings.

That is a lot of stuff for £110 (about twice what I paid for my first bass, second hand, over 30 years ago). Now, if you’ve come from the world of MTD, Ken Smith and high end Yamaha basses, then this lot clearly isn’t going to blow you away. But that’s not what it is about. This is a way for a beginner to get started at a tenth to a twentieth of that sort of money. With that in mind, I’d say “wow”. Yes, the lead is a bit thin and plasticy and the set up could be fine tuned, but I would have loved to have had this as my first bass set up. A quick walk though and you’ll see why:

The guitar is solidly made. A rosewood fingerboard on a maple neck, with well finished fretwork and a sunburst body with three-ply pick guard gives a pleasing appearance. The bass is passive, with a single tone control and a volume knob. That is probably a bonus for a beginner, since it means no battery to go flat and need changing when (not if) the bass is left plugged in. The bridge is a straight forward set up, much like the Fender bridges of old.

The winding on the low E was slightly over the bridge saddle on our bass, but that was easily changed, and once done the bass played remarkably well. If you know what you are doing, you could even set up the intonation using the included tools and tuner.

Tuning the bass with the included tuner was straight forward. Simple sharp/flat LEDs and an LED that confirmed which string, combined with the chunky tuning heads, soon had everything in tune. The truss rod adjustment can be accessed at the head-stock, but was set about right out of the box.

So, enough of all the goodies, time to plug in!

The 15 Watt amp really surprised me. My youngest son actually said it was too loud and told me to turn it down! I’m not sure how it would do against a large drum kit played by a pro and a metal guitarist, but against a learning drummer on a cheap kit and a similar starter guitar amp it would probably hold its own. It is certainly more than loud enough to practice with and had much more low end than I would have expected for the size – just as well that it has a headphone socket!

 Nice one, Get Musical, more specs on their web site, see: bass starter kit. May be we’ll get some new bassists for Christmas?

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So far, these are things that I have previously received, or suggested:

• Musical Mugs – more of the themed variety, than actual noise making ones. They tend to be a little cheesy. How about a simple affair with notes on or a bass cleff? Just so people know you are a bassist, even when you are sat drinking your favourite hot drink.
• Gear carrying bag or a soft gig case – There always seems to be more ’stuff’ than bags. There are some nice, not too expensive, soft cases around. Protect those pedals or that amp.
• A tuner – a good one that works well with a bass, rather than getting confused.
• Fingerless gloves – if you do outdoor gigs, in colder climates, you’ll know the value of these.
• A nice strap – according to taste and budget.
• CDs – good bass-inspiring music of course. Check through the blog for recommendations.
• Tab/sheet music – chosen carefully, this can be vocabulary expanding stuff, in the musical sense.

The only other good list I found was on Rockband.com. Apparently the right gifts for a bassist are: ear plugs, a cleaner/polish kit and a watch (you’ll have to read the post to see why). Oh, and the worst gift? A keyboard, apparently!

I’m wondering if we are held back by the unspoken rule of presents :- that people shouldn’t buy you something practical or that you would have purchased for yourself. Hey! I’m a bassist, I’m easy! Strings are good.

What bass-related gift would like to receive or would you recommend?

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The ported cab (or vented or reflex design) is basically a closed back cabinet with a very special hole in it. Time for a quick sketch:

I say “hole”, but the port is actually a tube or a long slot (something like a tunnel). This clever design tweak enables the cabinet to produce significantly more low-frequency bass than it would normally for its size. Choosing the exact size and length of the port is critical to getting the desired effect.

Have you ever blown across the top of a bottle? The sound you get is from the air inside of the bottle resonating. Remember that in a sealed cabinet, the bass response starts to fall off at the lower frequencies. Now, imagine a big bottle, tuned to boost those lower frequencies. That is pretty much how a reflex port works. It uses the resonance from the reflex port to artificially extend the bass response of the cabinet. Very neat trick.

There are, as ever, some trade offs. The transient response of a reflex designed cab will not be as good as a sealed box. It may not sound as punchy, giving a slower attack, and some notes may ring slightly. That downside is usually more than offset by the extended bass response and smaller cabinet size, which is why even slap bassists are happy with these sorts of cabinets.

If you want the full lowdown on how a reflex port is designed, knock yourself out here. It is reasonably tricky, and very easy to get wrong. A badly designed reflex port can end up “breathing”, making the sound of the air being drawn into the port become audible, or sounding boomy. That only happens with a bad design, and I haven’t ever heard a commercial speaker cabinet suffering from breathing – although I’ve encountered some slightly boomy ones.

The ports can be in the front or the back of the cabinet, and there can be just one or multiple ports. For most commercial bass cabinets, the design choice is usually a slot or a couple of reflex ports (plastic tubes) in the front of the cab.

Hopefully it goes without saying that blocking the reflex port (with any kind of obstruction!) will stop it working effectively. So , if you didn’t know before, now know what those holes in your cab are for!

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