The Last Bass Outpost

Anybody tried one for bass?  I'm thinking of getting one for low-cost, no-fuss home headphone practicing for both guitar and bass.

Living in a small apartment with a family of 3 has its drawbacks, one of which is I can't really practice electric guitar anymore, and I kinda miss it.

I brought my circa-1999 dano DC bass to rehearsal the other night. I'd forgotten how much I love playing it! It has a feel I really like.

And I remembered the reason I don't: way too anemic in the mids for my taste. I cranked up everything from about 500hz to 2k and eventually felt like I could hear myself okay.  But I've never been especially thrilled with the lipstick pickup sound.

Has anybody tried the replacements on the market?
GFS has 6k and 8k models. Duncan has some too but not sure if they sound different than the originals.

I recorded with my favorite bass (1992-ish Gibson LPB-1) a couple weeks ago and it sounded great. Haven't played it since then. Today I took it out of the gig bag and started playing and - what's this?  I can barely play the lower frets, or open strings, especially on the D and A strings. No sustain, all buzz.  The note just goes PLONK, and dies very quickly. It sounds like the string is almost lying flat on some other frets.  It doesn't improve much until about the 7th fret.  Visually it's hard to see what's going on... the action does look very low up there, but I can't spot any curvature of the fingerboard by eye or anything.  Not sure what I should be looking for.

Has anybody experienced something like this?  What could cause it to begin all of a sudden in between last time I played and this time? What should I do to diagnose the problem further?

In another thread http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=9939.0 it was noted that the bass sounds growly.  I didn't hear it as especially growly. The main thing I could hear was a lot of strings vibrating against frets due to aggressive pick playing with a bright amp, which is a sound I happen to like, but ... is that "growl"? I never thought of that as "growl" per se.  The mids sounded pretty scooped and I couldn't really hear what sort of texture the lows might have with the example played.

To me, "growl" is something that happens when the lows have a sort of purring texture not unlike a big cat rumbling ... I don't know quite what causes this impression, but I think it's happening in the lower overtones more than the fundamental  ... but I just intuited that meaning of "growl" from the literal meaning of the word, and since it's not like there's a dictionary we all agree on, maybe it doesn't mean that to other people at all and I'm out on a limb here.

What do you guys think?  Sometimes we use these weird metaphorical words and they're hard to pin down...

Don't get me started on "warm", which is probably the least meaningful audio adjective ever.

Hi all,

I know some people here have done builds with the Warwick 2-piece bridge, right?
I gather from some old threads that if built on a bass with a straight (not angled back) neck, you need to route the body to prevent the bridge sitting too high.  Is that true?

I like the 2-piece look, and reputedly they're quite adjustable (string spacing too).  Anything else similar I should be looking at?

Price looks decent if they ship to the US...


(it may be over 10 years ruminating in my brain but I will get a custom slink-bass built one of these years dammit)

Anybody got a tracing or measurements of an ampeg (or Johnson) Scroll bass body?  I'm pondering a project based on that body shape.  Thanks.

Not all of them are equally good, but some of these are hysterical...





... from http://bassdogs.tumblr.com/

The same guy also does "piano sharks" and "guitar slugs" 

I'm headphone shopping... but it's hard to find places that will actually let you try on a bunch of headphones.
I thought I'd ask if the LBOers have any favorites?

In the past I've been pretty happy with AKG K-240 (fit me fairly comfortably, the sound is pretty "natural" to my ears, not fatiguing)... but they can seem a bit muted at times, I don't feel like I'm getting all the detail.

So before I buy another pair of AKG, I'd like to look around and see if I can go up a step and get a bit more accurate.  My ideal headphone is one I can forget I'm wearing because the sound is so "natural".

This is mostly for just listening to music and keeping people from interrupting me at work   But will occasionally be used for home recording.

I've tried a borrowed ATH-A700 which was really impressive - quite comfortable. Good background isolation. Really smooth clear bass and mids. My only complaint is the high treble is a bit "pingy", it's pretty subtle, but it seems like there's a bit too much of the very highs.
I could probably get used to it.  These are currently my top contender, but what else is out there? 
They are also at the top of my price range, about $120 is the lowest price I've seen for this discontinued version, the A700x goes for $160 and I don't know what's different about it.

I tried some Sony MDR-6... ouch, did not fit me well and hurt my head, the sound was too harsh for me, I wouldn't be able to wear them for five minutes without physical pain and ear fatigue.

A store around here had some Sol Tracks V8 ... never heard of them, cost about $100,  comfy to wear and pleasant to listen to but rather hyped: way too much mid-bass,  and I think some midrange scooped out ... it sounds nice but it's definitely not a neutral sound.