Always wanted one - Bullet bass

[godofthunder]

 I have never been a fan of compression, seems to be the recording industries fix all for bass. My interest in it peaked with Entwistle and the MXR Dyna Comp.

[Highlander]

I screwed around with my RD's wiring to let the compressor and expander run simultaneously when I ditched the original clunky switches... got some weird effects that way...

[Dave W]

I understand why a little compression can help with recording. Live, not so much.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Compression has surpassed EQ as THE most misused effect for anything. With the advent of digital brickwall limiters and complex harmonic distortion generators making even sparsely arranged pop ballads ear bleeders, it's just plain disgusting, and most folks with their blown-out hearing from mp3's are completely oblivious to it. Ironically, it's the indie folks and even metal bands that are keeping average levels at sane relative volumes while pop, country, and anything meant for mass download or airplay is peak limited to hell and back and has an average level of -3 to -6 dB. To put that in perspective, even the most heavily compressed albums before the advent of 90's loudness wars averaged -12-16dB, literally less than a quarter of the audio power of today's trash! ...and yes, I did say audio power; that means a Taylor Swift radio hit literally has four times the volume of the original release of Black Sabbath!

RE the Mesa compressor killing the tone- that's how it works: compression takes the peaks which have the most energy and reduces them by the ratio above whatever the threshold voltage is set. Since upper mids and extreme lows tend to be the frequencies where peaking occurs, the sound becomes more dull. The "punch" of a properly set compressor is the low mids momentarily grabbing the spotlight when a huge bottom or gnarly top end is tamed.

[Pilgrim]

As an ex-upright player, I operate under the possible delusion that I understand dynamics and can play so as to control them. No criticism of anyone's choice is implied - just seems like one pedal I have not identified a need for.

[drbassman]

Compression has surpassed EQ as THE most misused effect for anything. With the advent of digital brickwall limiters and complex harmonic distortion generators making even sparsely arranged pop ballads ear bleeders, it's just plain disgusting, and most folks with their blown-out hearing from mp3's are completely oblivious to it. Ironically, it's the indie folks and even metal bands that are keeping average levels at sane relative volumes while pop, country, and anything meant for mass download or airplay is peak limited to hell and back and has an average level of -3 to -6 dB. To put that in perspective, even the most heavily compressed albums before the advent of 90's loudness wars averaged -12-16dB, literally less than a quarter of the audio power of today's trash! ...and yes, I did say audio power; that means a Taylor Swift radio hit literally has four times the volume of the original release of Black Sabbath!

Interesting!  There's so much about this I never knew.  The nice thing about the Mesa is the compression circuit is built in and I can easily toggle back and forth with the foot switch.  I'm rethinking my use of compression.  Going to try my humbucker basses without it and see what happens.

RE the Mesa compressor killing the tone- that's how it works: compression takes the peaks which have the most energy and reduces them by the ratio above whatever the threshold voltage is set. Since upper mids and extreme lows tend to be the frequencies where peaking occurs, the sound becomes more dull. The "punch" of a properly set compressor is the low mids momentarily grabbing the spotlight when a huge bottom or gnarly top end is tamed.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

As an ex-upright player, I operate under the possible delusion that I understand dynamics and can play so as to control them. No criticism of anyone's choice is implied - just seems like one pedal I have not identified a need for.

Used properly, a compressor is more a tonal effect than an actual dynamic control, as evidenced by what the Mesa's compressor was doing tonally to the Bullet.  When set properly, very, very few players would even be aware of ANY alteration in their natural dynamics of playing and would in fact feel like the compressor is augmenting their own playing dynamics. Overall dynamic levels are set by limiters, the most extreme form compression can take. In the studio, the compressor helps to keep the bass audible in a dense mix by raising its average level, and even the lowly fader can function as a very slow compressor. Without compression, you'd never be able to hear quiet passages of songs in a moving car and television and radio programming would be terribly audibly incoherent, much worse than it is anyway. Besides, ALL amplifiers compress the signal of the electric bass to some extent anyway; it's an incredibly dynamic instrument, much moreso than is almost ever possible on an upright.

 Like any other tool, it has its place when used responsibly. Major labels actually dictate an average level value for the releases to mastering houses, so if you've ever wondered if the the music biz was even more about the numbers than song formulas and PR, there it is: even the biggest artists songs still have to "make their numbers" before the master recording is even finalized to be duplicated for sale.

[drbassman]

This great insight for me.  I'm still new to using amps with ten knob EQ and compression, so I'm learning as I go.

[slinkp]

In the studio, the compressor helps to keep the bass audible in a dense mix by raising its average level

That right there is the reason I used to occasionally use one live. With two guitarists roaring away, it was hard to find the right amp settings where I could hear myself well but wasn't TOO loud.  A little compression seemed to make that much easier.
 
I used to use a homemade one from the PAIA kit from Craig Anderton's old book, "Electronic Projects for Musicians". It was quite good sounding, but my build was pretty bad so it wasn't reliable.  The one I was last using was an EBS Multicomp, which is a nearly idiotproof dual-band unit.  I didn't like how much it made the attack pop though, and that wasn't adjustable.

Back then all I had was clean-sounding solid state amps though. (I used GK, Eden, and Acoustic Image at various times). Now that I have an amp with preamp overdrive that works for my taste (Genz-Benz Shuttle), I find that I prefer to have a bit of grit in the preamp and it has the same dynamic range smoothing effect I liked about the compressor, and I have no trouble sitting right in the mix; but the added bit of grindy growl suits me much better than my old clean compressed rigs did. So I haven't felt I needed compression live in a long time.

With hindsight I'd probably have preferred a tube amp all along, but I never could handle lugging that much weight around.

[hieronymous]

Compression in and of itself isn't evil, and the compression and loudness wars in the music industry aren't necessarily related to compression for bass. I personally have a compressor on at all times - a CAE/CAJ tube compressor. I still tend to play pretty hard with a really heavy pick a lot of the time, and I like to be able to go from medium to hard playing strength without necessarily an increase in volume. I can still play softer and be dynamic, but up near my top volume I don't mind less dynamics. Unfortunately, a lot of this stuff is in my head, since although I've had two bands in the past three years, they both broke up before we could really start playing out.

One kind of compressor I do hate is one that doesn't have an indicator to show you when it's working. I want to be able to look and see how much I'm hitting it, especially if I'm using different instruments.

Back on topic, I never realized the benefits of the Bullet! That one looks like fun! I liked the MIJ Mustang I had, kind of regret selling it when I moved back from Japan...

[Pilgrim]

Back on topic, I never realized the benefits of the Bullet! That one looks like fun! I liked the MIJ Mustang I had, kind of regret selling it when I moved back from Japan...

If you're a short scale fan, the whole Bullet/Mustang/Musicmaster/Bronco series has a lot to recommend it.  Light weight, nice necks, decent balance.  And for the less expensive (especially the Squier Bronco) they're easy to mod with a simple pickup change.  The pickup location is good, so one pickup is enough.

[drbassman]

Finally got around to weighing the little beast.  It comes it at 8.5 lbs, much closer to a p bass than a Mustang.  Not too heavy for my tastes and the weight probably adds to its beefy tone.  It is a keeper in my short scale gallery.  Going to practice again tonight along with the Harmony RI.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I've played lots of long scale Bullets but I don't remember trying any shorties. On the long scale models, the pickups are too thin and midrangey because the longer scale has more harmonics, and would ironically, benefit from compression.

 BTW, I never said that loudness wars were bass motivated; I was just weighing in on what had demonstrated itself to be a misunderstood subject. I think we'll be stuck with loudness wars until a lossless audio data compression format replaces .mp3, which in addition to shrinking audio file data size, has been shown to dramatically increase total harmonic distortion in the audio stream; not only is an .mp3 acoustically louder than an equivalent voltage uncompressed audio file, the distortion it causes is in the bandwidth where the human ear is most sensitive, causing hearing damage. The more the file is compressed, the worse it sounds and the more harmful it is to hearing. Instead of radio, which is all but dead now, jacking up volume to get attention on the airwaves like in the 90's, commercial .mp3's are separately mastered for maximum volume because the format itself causes hearing damage, even at low volume. Until pop music ears no longer expect blaring upper mids and icepick highs, popular music will continue to be overlimited.

On a related side note, I want to find every network who runs "reality programming" based around women and sidechain a de-esser (an upper midrange bandwidth-limited compressor) set to -30dB. It seems that every wannabe "attractive" female on television has decided that sounding like a snake with a tongue piercing is "sexy."

[drbassman]

I've played lots of long scale Bullets but I don't remember trying any shorties. On the long scale models, the pickups are too thin and midrangey because the longer scale has more harmonics, and would ironically, benefit from compression.

 BTW, I never said that loudness wars were bass motivated; I was just weighing in on what had demonstrated itself to be a misunderstood subject. I think we'll be stuck with loudness wars until a lossless audio data compression format replaces .mp3, which in addition to shrinking audio file data size, has been shown to dramatically increase total harmonic distortion in the audio stream; not only is an .mp3 acoustically louder than an equivalent voltage uncompressed audio file, the distortion it causes is in the bandwidth where the human ear is most sensitive, causing hearing damage. The more the file is compressed, the worse it sounds and the more harmful it is to hearing. Instead of radio, which is all but dead now, jacking up volume to get attention on the airwaves like in the 90's, commercial .mp3's are separately mastered for maximum volume because the format itself causes hearing damage, even at low volume. Until pop music ears no longer expect blaring upper mids and icepick highs, popular music will continue to be overlimited.

On a related side note, I want to find every network who runs "reality programming" based around women and sidechain a de-esser (an upper midrange bandwidth-limited compressor) set to -30dB. It seems that every wannabe "attractive" female on television has decided that sounding like a snake with a tongue piercing is "sexy."

I can attest to my dislike for many female singers these days.  One in particular sounds like total crap to me:  Carrie Underwood.  There is an added electronic edge to her voice in recordings that drives me up the wall.  There's no way that's her natural voice.  It's an abomination.

True about high pitched sounds being more detrimental to our hearing than the low frequencies.  The hair cells in the cochlea are very susceptible and take a beating from the highs.  Ask anyone who has worked in a manufacturing plant where metal on metal sounds have destroyed many a worker's hearing.  At least we bass players will have more hearing left in the end as long as we stay away from the guitar player's amp!

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I can attest to my dislike for many female singers these days.  One in particular sounds like total crap to me:  Carrie Underwood.  There is an added electronic edge to her voice in recordings that drives me up the wall.  There's no way that's her natural voice.  It's an abomination.

That's a mixture of minor pitch correction (she can sing OK) and intentionally added distortion artifacts to make her voice "stick out." If you want to hear the same effect taken to the extreme, the old "Transformers" cartoons from the 80's all used the same effect but much more obvious imparted by a vocoder (the plugins her producers use are vocoder emulations) to have a human and robotic voice at the same time. Wally Burr Studios did all the audio post work for that. So the next time you have to suffer through one of her synthetic tunes, picture her as a robot that transforms into something else.