Oh man, the ARP 2600 is such a classic. I really like the one in V Collection. Nice.
Behringer’s synth division just nails it.
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Ain’t that a kick in the pants solid sounding bass? I was well surprised in the tone and feel of that bass. It doesn’t look very traditional but it’s a must have for jazz bass type recording. They should put something like that on the American made one.
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So, it is great looking. That’s really the only reason I traded, because I’ve never been a big fan of straight-up P/J basses. But this one looks super great, and it’s HH instead of JJ. I figured it was worth a shot… didn’t cost me anything and if I don’t like it I can try to sell it.
But it’s quickly growing on me.
So, the knobs are volume, pickup blend, standard tone, and stacked bass/treble boost. I’m playing it right now through my Carvin PB100-10 with just the neck pickup, tone about 2/3, and bass/treble boost both off. Amp has bass slightly over 0, treble slightly below 0, and mid sweep at 0. Low pre-shape is on, the others (mid and hi) are both off. Strings are brand new D’Addario NYXL, .45-.105. It sounds… surprisingly good.
It’s also surprisingly nice to play. I’ve shied away from the P/J basses because the necks were always too thick for me, but this isn’t bad at all. It’s definitely not Ibanez/Carvin thin, but it’s definitely in my wheelhouse. Very comfortable.
And it’s not heavy at all.
So far… it’s kinda impressing me.
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HH would definitely be my preference there as well. If I had to order my pickup preferences among the usual suspects, I think it would be:
- H/H - by far my favorite for tone and versatility
- P - though I have never owned one myself, just going by sound I like and how I usually bias my P/Js
- P/J - I have owned more P/J than any other combo, and would not have minded losing the J on any of them
- single H or MM - never owned, like them well enough but I would always go for a HH instead
- J/J - owned one, not my thing
Guitars I have less experience with but I like HH there best as well so far, and suspect I would like H/P90 more than HSS; I never used the middle S on my superstrat 
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My Carvin is a PH. I wish it were an HH.
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Is it 7 or above? If so then it’s a base.
Sorry everyone, I’ll get my coat.
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Just arrived today, late Xmas present to myself. @John_E is on the money with this thing. It sounds amazing through a bass amp. Like seriously amazing. Just for John I’ll do a little Reggae tune to demo it 
Ridiculous fun. What are my neighbours listening to at the campsite all summer? Me! lol
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It’s called “fix it in the mix” 
For reaper, get the plugin ReEQ if you don’t have it already, it’s very similar to Pro-Q but free ReEQ is a free plugin so good, it's a reason to use REAPER - and it keeps getting better - CDM Create Digital Music
You can usually minimize/get rid of string noise using a notch filter with a narrow Q. Same technique is useful for getting rid of resonance and other noise from drums.
Generally you want to low pass/high pass bass tracks to make sure they fit in the mix with other instruments and get rid of any offensive noise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuCZplNeltM
What sounds good as a solo instrument often sounds completely different from what sounds good in the mix.
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Reaper already comes with a decent free parametric EQ, ReaEQ. But ReEQ looks better, yeah.
Reaper actually comes with dozens of plugins. The problem is they all have a really spartan UI.
But yes, once you are asking questions like “I have recorded something and now want to fix how it sounds” - this is the time to take the next step and really learn how to use plugins and effects in the DAW. This is what makes up over 90% of music software.
Yeah one thing that will horrify bassists in love with their low end is that the first thing you usually do is filter/EQ much of it away, so it doesn’t add to the low frequency mud. All the instruments contribute to it but the bass is the worst offender, along with the kick. If you don’t EQ it to some extent the mix sounds muddy and indistinct.
Edit: just checked the video you posted and sure enough, the first thing he did:
yep, that looks very standard to me. I do almost exactly this to the bass first thing in my own mixes - and it makes them sound much, much better in the mix.
So fall in love with that deep low end as much as you want in private; it’s probably not gonna live long in an actual song
The need for this is not apparent at all until you start mixing multiple raw instrument tracks, either. It would not manifest for covers where you’ve already EQ’d the bass away from a backing track.
For sure. Luckily there’s lots of tools to fix it. But this is the biggest reason that dry tone from a bass is now much lower on my list when choosing a bass than
it used to be - it doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think, because it never survives to the final mix without modification anyway.
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Taking out the real sub bass low end is what is needed in the EQ for the bass, don’t always need such an aggressive slope either, sometime -12 db works, but you have to listen to it solo’d first to zero in on any problem ranges and make sure you are making room for the kick.
Really what most folks overlook is the low mids, this is where you get a lot of mud and cloudiness in the mix around the 285-325 Hz range usually. Only need some light touch by a few db with a bell shaped filter. Really had my ears/eyes opened in my last class on Mixing & Mastering at Berklee…it doesn’t take much to clean up a track…some eq, compression, etc even if you are only mixing your bass recording with a backing track.
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Current EQ on a track I am working on
The little mid scoop there is a bit higher, but serving the same purpose.
And the filtering to trim the low end:
cutoff 100Hz, standard 12dB/octave - a little higher frequency than I usually do, usually I start to roll off around 60Hz; this is for a specific sound though.
The filter is part of this initial track conditioner I modified from a Multipass preset that does my initial gain staging, multiband compression and very slight multiband overdrive (light, like an exciter more than anything).
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without hearing the actual tracks hard to say, but from what I have seen, I would up the Q val and be a little more precise on what you are carving out in the low mids. Soloing it in Nectar, you should be able to dial in the frequency.
What style is this in?
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Coldwave/post-punk, and the bass never gets below D2. I have a really wide Q there because it’s a little too bright in the mids in general (partially due to reverb); low mids aren’t competing with anything else in this song so there isn’t much need to reduce them, they aren’t muddying things up.
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Tiny bit of organizational GAS today.
Needed a place to store and charge the WAZA and Sennheiser wireless stuff Vs it being connected to a half an octopus of USBs when charging….
So this key rack is now storage for all the plugs with a usb hub/headphone hook for the WAZA headphones all under the desk.
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I likey! That looks neat. I assumed that the Wasa is mono. So you are running 2 channel Bluetooth? One for instrument and another is for Aux? How’s the lag? I’m sure it’s virtually none with Roland. They are know for having lowest lag on the V-drum system.
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The two units in the front are Sennheiser wireless system, unrelated to WAZA.
The 3rd unit and headphones are the WAZA. No latency in either system that I notice.
Sennheiser was a reco from @RuknRole and are great great great. Last just about 5 hours on a single charge.
Haven’t pushed the WAZA charge to see how long it lasts.
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So… anyone want to buy a Squier Contemporary Jazz Bass HH in the limited edition satin graphite metallic finish?
It’s not a bad bass at all, but for an earlier birthday present my GF/CFO authorized the funds for one of my “Holy Grail” basses:
That is a 2013/14 MIM Fender Deluxe Dimension IV bass. I say “Holy Grail” with tongue-in-cheek; it’s not like a top-end Carvin was for me, but once I got back into playing bass last year, and I saw one of them, I knew I wanted one. Much like the Carvin Xccelerator I have, it’s something of a red-haired stepchild. They’re both new designs and approaches that weren’t as popular as they’d hoped, and were only sold for a few years. I kinda like that.
Anyway, I think they look awesome, and I can now say that I think they play and sound really good. I’ll probably throw some half-rounds on it, though… that humbucker runs hot.
And yeah, I am going to list the Squier. And my Ibanez. So if anyone’s looking, let me know. 
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Is that the one that smells of hippies?
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Congrats. It’s the most underrated fender for sure. You get so much for your money with that bass. Love mine.
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That’d be the one. I’ve taken it apart and cleaned it. I haven’t completely obliterated the smell, but it’s greatly diminished. Definitely not overpowering.
I agree. And mine is NOS, I’m the first non-music store owner it’s ever had. I even got to peel the plastic protecting film off the pickguard. It still had the knob-detail-placard thing on it:
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