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Well that's nice and simple to understand...

I found the Notadumble fairly useless with my Sandberg that's got pretty hot passive pickups, even the clean channel distorts it a bit more than what's pleasant to my ears. On the Ibanez that's got passive EMGs, it's very different, and gives the tone some beautiful saturation that I like. So I am guessing it's not really for anyone who plays an active bass.

Amps vary, many have scoop built in, but on Saturday I dialed in about 1 o'clock of bass and treble for my Flea jazz... partly intuitive as we were in an outdoor marquee so I felt the bottom end would need a bit of help, and the treble would add clank when I needed it. Lots of slamming the strings agsindt the frets later I don't think I suffered any lack of presence or cut through. One of my brothers was in the audience and made an interestng observation... my sound had a good full bottom end, unless he stood close to the pub wall that was opposite us.

And I just hung with a guy who plays on a ton of big country records who switched off of Sadowskys years ago because they disappeared for him as well. I don't play on country records, but the point is that it is contextual based on the musical material. Also huge difference between live and on a record. I'm speaking of in the studio. Live, I love the light weight of the sadowsky, it is a joy to play, and a go to for me. A Passive fender jazz with both pickups on full is great if slapped or overdriven and played with a pick. That is personally the only time I would have both volume puts fully open on a jazz bass though. It is trickier to mix a jazz bass - active, passive - whatever brand. But the secret many times is in the low mids, which is where I prefer the old passive Fenders.

this brings up a good point. I agree and use a preamp as well. And it’s a different sound than with the active bass. One big reason is the buffer from the preamp. Another one is the tone knob on the passive bass is rolled off before you eq. So it’s quite a nice sound with a little boost. Sounds like we have the same experience with the mids. Also the traditional fender volume knobs let me roll them both off a bit which takes the scoop out of both pickups being on. On a sadowsky that is not an option. So they really are different beasts. Both great at what they do, but they do it in a different manner. There is no doubt about that.

I fitted a Retrovibe Stinger preamp to my Sterling Sub5 and it's transformed it from an indistinct mush to a gorgeous sound. However on my latest gig towards the end of the night it felt like it was running out of steam. The Duracell battery has been in for a few months, so it might slightly past its best. Alternatively it might be running out of "head room". Has anyone got any experience of running this preamp with 9v vs 18v? The bass has a single battery compartment. I'm fine fitting a dual compartment, but would it be worth it? When the battery gets a bit low does it suddenly die or gradually fade away?

nah. It’s a different sound. I’ve been playing on records for years so I know what sound I need for certain tracks. And there is a difference in mid presence there. We sat and A/Bd it. Will Lee plays very different music as well. it’s not user error in this case. It’s just a case of being lucky enough to have both basses and picking which one works best for which tracks.

What's the collective term for these online banking services that don't require you fronting up with ten forms of ID?

Dave bought a mic from myself. Was a fast transaction with no problems at all. Absolute pleasure to deal with, 5/5 bass chatter, you can sell with confidence. 🙂

I like the durability of poly but the fact that it doesn’t “melt” into the previous layer like nitro makes it an absolute nightmare if you get a run or burn through when sanding. With nitro you can just sand back flat and then re -coat but with poly, you get witness lines around the sanded area. My favourite option is oil finishing then nitro clearcoat over that when it’s fully dry or lots of coats of wipe on poly if I am not so worried about getting a massively uniform finish. I am still perfecting my poly/white spirit ratios for the wipe on to get the best trade off between self levelling after wiping off and not too thin a coat; 60 - 70% white spirit to poly varnish seems to be about the sweet spot especially the more layers that go on.

Well my demo video is like 15mins long which is usually a sign that something should stay 😅

Honestly, SA dropped the ball on marketing - if they'd called it a utility pedal with endless distortion possibilities it'd have went down much better. Its basically a tone processor, with both semi and parametric eq, top quality compressor, endless drive/dist/fuzz options, as well as mad tremolo stuff too. It does the best gated fuzz tone ive ever used but it's capable of simple EQ changes, drives and more stuff than im capable of understanding

That looks grand; I also agree with you that a great result is easier to get in nitro than in poly.

Will doing a pat test on this amp without a cab plugged in damage it? Fussy venue, band getting rigs tested but I'm not there, so no cab plugged in.

Another song i really enjoyed playing was Do Anything You Wanna Do by Eddie & Hot Rods. Dave

Rock Salmon - The Police

I mean for the price it’s worth it simply to use as an amp & cab modeler - you’ve got an insane amount of free open source NAM models/captures out there. From what I can gather you can run 9 fx blocks too making it more powerful than the Stomp (I’m not actually surprised, cos as great as it is, the technology is a decade behind). There is midi control too so you can presumably set it up so you can control those fx blocks via midi? I think this is a sign of things to come - over the next couple of years (or sooner!) the technology for all this stuff is going to fit on a tiny chip and it’s going to be able to be sold from manufacturers in China for buttons. I know you’re paying for all the R&D with something like the anagram but I think the days of paying a grand+ for modelers/digital rigs are coming to an end - the technology is going to be too good and too cheap elsewhere

Another compressor deal a month later 😂 This time I sold to Jim - top top Basschatter!

sorted. One of the good guys on here, constantly helpful, constantly there for others.

It's hard to say without a lot more detail but putting a sub next to a wall is going to effectively double it's output on top of the reinforcement from the floor. I think having any mic within a foot of a sub is going to create issues. The sound coming from the sub may not sound very loud but at those frequencies the mic 'hears' better than you do. All of the sound from the sub is omnidirectional The tops point most of the sound away from the mics but behind the subs is just as loud as in front. Using subs isn't as easy as plug and play, be prepared to turn them right down, keep them well away from any mics and consider whether you need to use HPF. It may sound counter-intuitive to filter the bass from your subs but if sound below 50Hz is causing feedback problems and sets off room resonances it has to go. Percevere and you'll get there

I needed one of these last year but couldn't find anyone selling them locally. Shops said they're not worth stocking as they're so cheap and demand is very low. I ended up getting one from All Parts for 50p plus £3 postage.