The Last Bass Outpost

Happy Birthday V!  (and gumby too, dammit)




Here's a couple more Vees in action - w/ Cornelius, and Ash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8SaSFneQw&feature=related

Congrats!  I was even tempted by that one, but I'm making progress - I exercised restraint!      I especially like it, since it reminds me of what the offspring of two of my personal favorites might look like:

Does anyone know if it is safe to assume that these S-1 pickups spec out the same as the G-3 pickups?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Gibson-Parts-NOS-S-1-Style-Single-Coil-Pup-2-Pk_W0QQitemZ260207923355QQihZ016QQcategoryZ33040QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If not, how do the single coil RD pickups (also available) compare to the G-3s?

Thanks!

Whenever I read Ebay ads in all caps, this is the voice I hear in my head:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOWcGYTHnw&feature=related

Oh sorry - I misunderstood.  Yeah if this guy gets a grand out of that bass, then smashin' Epis might be a lucrative business venture! 

yeah,but can i get an anolog sound from a 'puter?is it possible to make it sound like tape?

It's possible to simulate analog-like characteristics, but digital recording is a different animal.

Digital clipping sounds really bad, so you probably won't be pushing tracks into the red as much as you might when recording to analog.  Also, the frequency response curve and signal-to-noise ratio in the analog gear influences the sound of the recording.  I think its these type of things that contribute to that sterile "digital" sound.

As was mentioned, using outboard analog gear seems to help warm things up (tube pre's, etc...).  There are also software tools that attempt to simulate some of these characteristics of analog tape recording - like this one:  http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AnalogChHD/

One nice thing about digital is the virtually unlimited tracks.  You could record your two cabinet mics, and simultaneously run DI thru a tube preamp (taking up as many tracks as you like), and have a lot more flexibility in tweaking the sound during mixdown.  Then again, for capturing the raw emotion of punk, this might be over-engineering. 

It's all a big trade-off - cost, quality, speed/flexibility (pick any two - isn't that how it works?).  I'm also a proponent of using the right tools for the job.  Digital works great for me, because of the style of music, and the fact that I'm multi-tracking everything by myself.  I wonder what Bad Brains' Attitude/ROIR Sessions would have sounded like in ProTools!    I'm guessing not as good...

oh while we're at it: are these EB3's really as muddy as they say?

They kinda sound like this:

However, I can't help but think that Hofner gets more credit than it deserves.  When I look at a lot of the songs that Paul McCartney played on that sound so great, many times it's when he was playing a Rickenbacker. 

My favorite McCartney tone came from the Ric (Hey Bulldog and Dear Prudence, for example).  Nothing against the Hofners, but the pricing premium for the celeb association always kinda put me off, and I guess I had incorrect assumptions or expectations of their sound based on what little I had heard of them in the past.  My bad!   

What really struck me most about this clip was that nice growl that he gets out of the thing, and also the authority that the low notes had in that vamp towards the end of the song.  Pretty cool.