Ableton Forum

That looks like a really fun project, and the bass itself looks groovy. Good job!

stringtapper wrote:One other thing to be aware of is that a bass guitar E-string is not an ideal midi controller. They've gotten closer in recent years with some of the pickups but there are some problems with bass midi due to the inherent physics of a large string. What it can amount to is latency between the attack and the triggering. I don't know, Squarepusher seems to do just fine but I haven't looked into what exact kit he's using and how he's using it these days.

+1 When I use my synth pedal, I don't even bother with the E and A strings. Just too slow. Sounds great on the G though - that's what I'd string it with, although not sure if you'd have to readjust a bunch of stuff to do that.

nullpunkt wrote:Because I had a pickup laying around the last few month, yesterday I decided to put a diddley bow together. Wasn't shure if that works ... but it does! Today I took a little video and a short sound-example. Maybe that helps.

http://vimeo.com/23057361

Nice! Reminds me of Dan Rathbun's "sledgehammer dulcimer" - "a custom-stringed bass instrument referred to as the Sledgehammer Dulcimer (or, alternately, the Slide Piano Log), which uses piano strings and is possibly more than 7 feet long; it is played with two sticks: one in the left hand generally used as a fret, and another in the right hand to strike the strings."

See some footage here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id6zRkX7a2g

thanks for all the advice and comments and suchlike fellers....

from trawling through the interweb it seems that an axon 50 might be the way to go, only they aren't available anymore.. which is odd and annoying...roland make guitar midi convertors too but they seem really pricey, and dont have as good reviews. i only want to send midi into the pc to play synths and trigger stuff in ableton. if anyone has one they want to sell let me know

its really fun to play as a bass with pedals and stuff but i need to sort out the midi thing

checking ebay....

slatepipe wrote:yeah, pretty nice sounds

Thanks. It is fun playing it.


...by the way: Like your "Ant Issue"-Video-Thing! Looks unbelievable!

I think it needs a couple of '59 PAF's or a couple of Burstbuckers to enhance the tone.

pulsoc wrote:

nullpunkt wrote:Because I had a pickup laying around the last few month, yesterday I decided to put a diddley bow together. Wasn't shure if that works ... but it does! Today I took a little video and a short sound-example. Maybe that helps.

http://vimeo.com/23057361

Nice! Reminds me of Dan Rathbun's "sledgehammer dulcimer" - "a custom-stringed bass instrument referred to as the Sledgehammer Dulcimer (or, alternately, the Slide Piano Log), which uses piano strings and is possibly more than 7 feet long; it is played with two sticks: one in the left hand generally used as a fret, and another in the right hand to strike the strings."

See some footage here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id6zRkX7a2g

Sleepytime FTW!