Musicians check in here. If you play, tell us about it!

[Pipeous]

I have looked at the zero frets but never owned one. I think the idea is awesome. This Tusq nut will be similar in properties to metal. super dense. I have one custom wound pickup on my electric mandolin with a push pull. Electrics are so easy to deal with when it comes to pick ups. I still haven't found a pickup I like on the octave mandolin. I have moved that LR Baggs all over the top, tried the thin glue strips, putty. next I will try a better pre amp, even though I have an LR Baggs gig pro. I wish octave mandolin was a little more mainstream and they had specific pickups and pre amps built in like my guitar, ukulele, the m bass. they all sound great.

I gave away the squire guitar to a friend that was down, though nowadays I rarely touch the electrics aside from recording or bandhub.

I had P90's in that Godin 5th Ave guitar. Loved the sound but I hated that guitar. I have never owned a guitar that was as hard to stay in tune (though after changing the strings on my classical, a La Patrie which is Godin hehe, those strings take forever to stretch in). I traded that guitar in on the Taylor.

and yes I am super happy with this builder. we chat often. I picked all the hardware out; Grover 18-1 tuners, Allen tailpiece. we tried to get a different wood for the fretboard and binding but none was available, so I went with ebony. there won't be any fret markers ether aside from little dots on the top edge and I too am getting a radius with the edge bevelled.

SRV was one of my fav guitarists. My strat is the same color minus all the wear lol. He used a Fender amp for dirty and a Marshall for clean. Opposite of what the norm is

 

[Pipeous]

Oh and I love 12 strings. I was actually going in the store to buy one when the Taylor popped out. It had just arrived that morning to the store. I was going to get the Taylor 12 string... The octave mandolin is sort of like a 12 string sound except it is unison pairs. Wanted Dead or Alive sounds very cool on it

 

[Skold]

Nice bass Taylors are awesome guitars, I wanted an acoustic 12 string one

 

[DaveP]

I have seymore duncan humbuckers on my fender mustang, love them! give em a try eh

The Red/Yellow Sunburst Les Paul in my previous photo has SD Pearly Gates pups. I changed them out soon after I bought it. They seem to respond better to picking technique and they give me the ability to create pick harmonics at will. All it takes is a little thumb rub alongside the pick and they're screaming. They put a little Billy Gibbons in my hands!

 

[Skold]

Awesome.

 

[BreSha6869]

Me too... but more so, I prefer a large radius on the fingerboard. Which equates it to a wide flat neck top and back. My 7 has 2 truss rods and 3 carbon fiber rods in it... plus all the neck & fingerboard was Acrylized (put in a vacuum oven and impregnated with acrylic resin)

I have brass nuts in my 2 Benavente 51p style basses... but Bee uses a cool set up the removes the need for a nut and makes open strings and fretted stings sound identical. It has a Zero Fret and the fingerboard is extended with notches to guide the strings to where they need to be.

For me they have a rawness and edge that you just cannot get from a humbucker, but I understand having the preference on the other side. I've played with a few guys that feel the same way you do, and they all had great tones.

The Bee bass is beautiful but I have no idea how you play a 7. I have owned a few 6ers and I just can't get my head around them. Weird as I only play 5ers and can no longer comfortably play a regular 4 string. To each their own and all that. Do you tune F#-C? If so, do all 7 strings cut thru the mix?

I've had a couple of basses over the years with a zero fret (MTD US, maybe?) and it is a useful thing IMO. Really evens out the open string levels.

 

[James Hart]

The Bee bass is beautiful but I have no idea how you play a 7. I have owned a few 6ers and I just can't get my head around them. Weird as I only play 5ers and can no longer comfortably play a regular 4 string. To each their own and all that. Do you tune F#-C? If so, do all 7 strings cut thru the mix?

Thanks, I still catch myself staring at it all the time... the "Worker Bee" body style has become my all time favorite looking. I tune BEADGBE on it. Back in 1990 when I ordered my first 5 string, I had to ship the maker a custom set of Rotosounds to have it strung EADGB (now it is called "tenor tuning", it was the bass on the Age of Fable and Bebop Gypsy tracks). Where I grew up, the only bass teachers were country or traditional jazz guitarists that taught simple walking... so I took guitar lessons for a few years from Stan Penridge and used that knowledge to learn bass. The High C on bass seemed foreign, and in 1990 I wasn't looking for lower, I was looking to expand chord voicings. I have found the C works better on my fretless, but I'm considering tuning that one F#BEADG

I use Kalium Balanced Tension sets of strings based off a .090 E string (.118 B). It takes a light touch, but the advantages in tone and expressiveness are worth it to me. I've not experienced issues with any one string on any of my basses sounding out of place or not cutting through equally.

I hadn't played a 4 string in 15-20 years when I bought my Ibanez Destroyer (early mid-life crisis buy... reclaiming my first real bass), now I have 3... they are fun to noodle on

 

[Skold]

Sounds like you've really got your head round the bass James, I've never tried playing a 5 string! Played a 6 string, 4 string & once upon a time an 8 string but I've not played bass for a few years now. I have had an Ibanez Destroyer electric guitar & it was awesome so I can imagine the bass version will have the same quality standard that I love with the guitar.

 

[James Hart]

Sounds like you've really got your head round the bass.

I'm a hack, but I keep playing, keep learning, and most importantly... I keep having fun

 

[Skold]

I'm a hack, but I keep playing, keep learning, and most importantly... I keep having fun

That's all that matters

 

[BreSha6869]

Anyone play a Squier VIntage Modified guitar or bass lately?

I picked up a used VP Precision 5er for about $220USD and it is a killer bass for the $$$. I bought it as a backup due to a recent scare with a drunk falling over my backup bass on a gig ($3000 bass) but it will likely see some gigging time.

My main basses are MUCH more expensive and are better basses, but for the $$$, these are fantastic.

I have a Squier VM Telecaster guitar and it is great as well.

We worth checking out as a backup or for a new guitarist. Blows away any Rocker, cheap Ibanez or Epiphone IME.

 

[Skold]

I've had a squire strategy but never a squire bass

 

[Skold]

Squire strat sorry auto correct

 

[James Hart]

my strat is an early 90s Squier... I've played a few of the recent Squier guitars and basses, you cannot go wrong for the money.

 

[Skold]

Actually sounded okay with a blackstar amp and big muffins pedal

 

[Skold]

I'm soon to be getting the orange micro terror head an orange terror cabinet, for only a little setup it packs a good punch

 

[James Hart]

I'm soon to be getting the orange micro terror head an orange terror cabinet, for only a little setup it packs a good punch

If I was looking for a low watt tube head, I'd get the 15 watt version of mine....
Egnater Tweaker: 15-Watt All-Tube Amplifier Features

 

[Skold]

Nice one man

 

[BreSha6869]

If I was looking for a low watt tube head, I'd get the 15 watt version of mine....
Egnater Tweaker: 15-Watt All-Tube Amplifier Features

Those are great amps and not expensive. That or the Blackstar both sound good IME.

I don't play much guitar but I have had Jule Amps in Santa Cruz build me a couple of Monique bass preamps and Jule gave me such a good deal on one of his Paycheck 40 guitar amps a few years back that I couldn't pass it up. Expensive now, but they look as good as they sound IMO....

Paycheck Guitar Amp by Jule Amps

They make a 15w model of the Paycheck, but $1700 for a 15w head is nutty IMO.

 

[DaveP]

If I was looking for a low watt tube head, I'd get the 15 watt version of mine....
Egnater Tweaker: 15-Watt All-Tube Amplifier Features

15 or 20 watts is probably what I should be using on stage. I could crank it into the sweet spot.

We mic everything on stage and run levels from the board in the back of the Church. It took a while to get used to wearing earbuds for monitors, but it seems normal once you get used to it. We have personal Ipods set up for individual mix changes. There's an Ipod channel bar for every instrument , including 7 or so for drum mics. Drums are in a plexiglass drum cage with a mic on each drum to mute on stage drum volume.

I run my 60W Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 master voume on about 1 and there's a fine line where it breaks over from silent to low volume at the 1 setting. Volume setting is a little touchy, but once I get it where it needs to be it stays. I probably need a lower watt amp for that purpose.

We use Shure earbud/ beltpack monitors. It's nice to be able to adjust your own mix in your ears.