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I will. But it's really less combative than it might seem. The necessity for using compression is borne out of the laws of physics and well-recognised good practice in sound engineering. It's not something subjective, like whether a new set of strings makes your tone sound 'better'. It's proven by the measurable behaviour of sound traveling through air. All quite dull and predictable, really. The short story is that every bass player should use a compressor. Because the bass guitar is an instrument capable of producing extremes of both low and high frequency energy, and there's not a cat-in-hell's chance that anyone can compensate for that by 'good technique' alone, least of all during a live performance. This is why 100% of sound engineers apply compressors to bass, to compensate for the 50% of bass players who apparently don't. Ultimately it's not essential. Just like changing your strings regularly isn't essential. But the question as to whether it's beneficial has been answered long ago, which is why I find threads like this a little tedious (no offence). Compression is complex and very different to the majority of other FX we apply to our instruments, where we plug something in and turn a dial until we hear a noticeable difference. And I think that is partly why it confuses some people and leads others to believe that it's a case of the Emperor's New Clothes. What I find odd is how this confusion seems most prevalent amongst bass players - the very people who stand to benefit most from compression. You just don't get threads like this appearing on sound engineering forums. Instead, you just get endless debate about 'which compressor is best for bass'... and that's just as tedious! Anyway. Next time I record some bass I'll post some clips of the dry signal and the same signal (at the same volume) run through a compressor - and also both again in the context of a mix with other instruments - so you can hear the difference. Until then, my advice would be to cease tilting at windmills

Did Anyone Notice or Comment When You Switched Your Compressor Off? The proper question would be, "Did Anyone Notice or Comment When You Switched Your Bass Off?" Blue

Should we not do the same for:- If you played a wrong note Got the timing wrong Used flanger instead of chorus Kicked some form of distortion/overdrive/fuzz on in a song you wouldn’t normally do it I take it if only 1 person notices that’s enough, or does there have to be more than that...... I have to say IMHO this survey misses the point of how you use compression and so won’t really prove anything either way

Pleasantly I had an opposite experience last night - I've been getting increasingly fed up with the others in the band having lower standards and saying we'd "nailed" a song as soon as we could mostly play the right notes at the right times, always at the same pace and volume, and because there was no communication - none of us were even looking at each other while we were playing. I thought we sounded clumsy and boring, but the others seemed to think it was good enough. I've had words about it, gently, a few times to no effect, and last night I was ready to say if they didn't raise their game I'd be off out of it. What I actually did was to pick one song that was crying for a dramatic change in dynamics in the middle, and asked them to give me a short bass solo at that point - just the main riff played twice high and staccato, and then twice low and slower with sustain. Nothing fancy - but because it was my solo, the others didn't have to worry about making the change with me, they just had to pick up the slower beat when they came back in after it. And they had to watch me so I could cue them. As soon as we tried it, they got the point, and we ended the night with everyone happily agreeing that we'd taken a step up and would continue that way. Very glad I didn't throw my toys out of the pram. And credit to the others for understanding and agreeing quickly and positively.

I’ve gone stereo bass!

Genzler magellan sounds like a starting point?

A Viking chicken of war

Not really interesting. Just evidence that we bass players are perhaps deserving of being viewed as the ‘slow learners club’ amongst musicians. PS: when I can be arsed, I’m going to post a thread explaining the necessity of compression with some audio clips to help illustrate; just so this topic can finally be taken out back, shot in the head and buried for all time. Until then, as you were.

If it's anything like the V3 500 (350W without an extension cab) it'll be bum-hurtingly loud and won't need an extension. Unless you're playing very big rooms, of course. In any case, you'd think Fender would have matching extensions in the pipeline?

Those are uglier than Fenders. Which is not something I say very often.

I left a band once after a blazing row at the rehearsal rooms in the coffee machine area, stormed off back into the room, packed my kit...and then had to go back and ask for a hand getting my Ampeg 810 up the stairs and into my car. This is why lightweight cabs are the way forward...Flouncing Ability is an often-overlooked plus point...

How about a bit of the late great Donny Hathaway?

Don’t pull the trigger until you have tried Vanderkley

I have found the same thing happens when I play different music.I am in two bands that play essentially the same type of jazz/swing music but one is a quartet where we just use a lead sheet for melody and chords and the other band is a seven piece swing band where we play professional arrangements from charts and that demands real concentration and accuracy.Each band requires a different type of playing, in the quartet I can be more creative and in the septet I have to be right on the money or the arrangement doesn't work.One result is that my reading skills have gone up a lot and using some ideas from the arrangements I have started to be more inventive in the quartet. I also feel better playing bass after a session where I play guitar or banjo, like you, bass is the right instrument. And we are all so lucky that we have music in our lives!

You know when someone bakes you a birthday guitar cake and that person hasn't got a clue what the difference between a Les Paul and Double bass is, this bass looks like that cake.

I had the fiver. Loved it to bits but the weight (> 11lbs) led me to sell it. I missed it so much that I bought another one. Loved it to bits but the weight (> 11lbs) led me to sell it. GAME OVER INSERT NEW COIN

I used to have one of the Aspirations - great bass for the money - very versatile. I still have my Jazz Custom - anytime I have any questions I'll fire a question off to Chris or Laurence (have both their email addresses) and wait for their response - normally within 24 hours. Great customer service.

skidder652003 mentioned Enfield & Painy the Aguilar AG700...not sure where you live (Im in Northampton) I have a Enfield Canon for sale which is very versatile....which you can try with (not for sale) AG700 & Aguilar 112 also a small FOH PA & Schertler combo I use for small gigs..if that helps...good luck

Good luck with that

So the point of this thread is: you got suckered in by russian propaganda designed to fool old people, and also you don't understand what compression is so you're going to make a song and dance about it both on here and Talkbass. Great job.

The pickup chambers need some care. There will be less than 5mm thickness under the chamber so precise measurement and cutting is essential. Many of you know that I hate routers and I hate using routers. But for a flat-bottomed deep chamber, it's almost unavoidable. So personally, I use the router for the least number of operations. I start with defining the depth and corners with a drill: Then make a relatively shallow hog-out with a forstner bit: I then straighten the cuts around the outline with a sharp chisel down to the depth of the amboyna top. And only then do I use a bearing router. I use a very short one so I can safely tidy the sides of the existing shallow chamber before I start cutting the chamber bottom. So again, I basically use the top as my template - I know that is not the usual way but all I can say is that it works for me and I've massively reduced pickup routing c**k ups since I started doing it like this Then, using the bearing trimmer against the tidied up chamber sides, I just deepen a couple of mm a time to the required depth. And here we have the chambers with the sub-5mm thick bottoms: And the inevitable mock-up. I may well use black pickup rings on the finished article - but I happened to have these gold ones in the spares box so they will have to do for the mock up: As always, folks, thanks for looking and for the ever encouraging feedback.

What happens when the electronics go on the blink, once the warranty is over? Or 5 years from now Fender no longer provide downloadable updates for these amps. The problem with the amp and guitar/bass business model is that amps and guitars have a very long lifespan. If you get a guitar or amp you like, you probably won't buy a new one for years/decades.. Successful manufacturers always make sure their products are obsolescent within a few years, so that people have to replace their phone, car, computer, computer program, operating system at regular intervals. Maybe Fender are getting in on the 'built in obsolescence' bandwagon, with these type of amps. How many of them will be out there and working properly in 5 or 10 years time?

My dad worked for Mike Oldfield when I was young, I've played on his kettle drums!

SSD dives and a lot of RAM - at least 8GB

Silver slaps are pretty low tension you'll probably fine with them, although they are considerably fatter than the Thomastiks, so you may need to do some filing on the bridge and nut.

Wow, what a great score! I never find things like this. Those people who buy a bit of tat from a car boot sale for 50p and find out it's a ming dildo worth £250,000 really get on my nerves!!

Oh and to remain on topic, I can confirm that the neck is very slim

I heard Nate Watts endorse Hartke by saying that their amps don't fade under pressure. I've never played loud enough or in hot enough conditions to make any amp fade, you understand, so I just take it on faith from one of my bass heroes. Rickies seem suited to bi-amping. I read time and time again about the pups being significantly out of balance on some models. I suppose this is the best reason to separate the signals and process them independently. Secretly, I dream of building a Bootsy inspired five with independent outputs for each string AND each pick-up. I might limit myself to two pick-ups at first though. Just 'till I get used to tiptoeing through the vipers' nest of cable that I'll need.

Yup, we used to do satisfaction which I found a doddle, we now have sympathy for the devil on our ‘to learn’ list. On paper it’s an easy one but getting the sound just right is a pig and half.

Weird - I’m sure it came up as the most recent post yesterday! If anyone with too much money and not enough to spend it on is interested in those things they should shop around - if you try hard enough you can pay $199 for them: https://www.moon-audio.com/jh-audio-iem-stand.html

@NancyJohnson philistine

I have a board of pedals and send that straight to PA without using any kind of proper digital modeller if that's what you're after? IME many preamp pedals (Ive had or have the M80, Sansamp, BDI21, and a few more) don't have the output to run an FRFR cab directly. This kind of makes sens as they're designed to go pre>mixer>powered cab and if you miss the mixer out they can be too quiet. Many cabs have switchable input sensitivity, which can negate this. I worked around by using a Behringer MIC100 (although similar units are available in every prive range) to make sure that I had LOADS of gain on tap to run any frfr cab. In short, if you had a 'normal' board with whatever pedals on it that you wanted such as the comp and SVT-type thing that you're talking about and then stuck a 'proper' microphone preamp on the end rather than an amp you'd be golden.

......aaaaaaaaaaaand all those basslines were compressed. I would say your band is tight and sounds great together because you have used compression wisely as well as playing really well together as a unit

mine as it stands now! A brief spell of unemployment forced me to sell my cali cb! but I got sorted and got myself another cog T16 a Mooer lofi machine and an MXR bass compressor. The your doom,sweeper and lofi machine are in the cog T65 loop and all in the wonderloves loop! it makes some very responsive synth sounds!! love it to bits

I find anything simple and repetititve difficult as I get bored and zone out and start thinking about having coffee and wedding cake at the break

The back carve is pretty close to being done and the neck carve is also starting to get there. I've also recessed the control chamber enough to be able to cut the hatch shape, although - depending on how deep the electrics are - either the recess still has to be deepened or the hatch itself thinned a couple of mm. The swifts are also fitted in the headstock plate... ...and so, in terms of the front, probably the next job is fitting the bridge so that I can properly line up the pickup chambers before forstner roughing and then chiselling them out.

Exactly. If Fender had released the P-bass with that Tensor shape at the time, then Tensor now released the P-bass shape, I'm pretty certain the comments would be the same: 'It's fugly', just because it's not the familiar shape.

Do the gig. Come dressed like Bootsy Collins.

You really are a funny old lot. The Fender Precision, and its stable mate, the Jazz, provoked pretty much those same reactions from the staid, fuddy-duddy bass players of the day when they were announced. I don't think many, if any at all, were saying 'Now there's a nice-looking bass'. The terms of reference were very different; folks had the idea that 'bass' meant 'upright double bass'. Now, it seems, 'bass' means 'Fender', and any deviation from the terms of reference seen as 'ugly'. As an object of beauty in its own right, I'd put up very few bass guitars; even very few instruments at all. Bongo, anyone..? Firebird..? Seriously..? Amorphous slabs of painted wood; nothing graphically exciting in any sunburst (maybe, perhaps, a violin finish on a semi-acoustic, if I stretch a bit...). Still, it's healthy, I suppose, to pitch tar and feathers on anyone trying to break the mould, but those wishing for innovation and progress seem hard to please, somehow. Yes, it's ugly. In exactly the same way, and for exactly the same reasons, as most basses are ugly. You really are a funny old lot.

How often have you run both cabs together? Was it at low volume? You don't have to sell anything. Just run 2 rigs and daisy chain them. Run an instrument lead from the send on one to the return on the other. So you'll be running the preamp in the amp your bass is plugged into and both power amp sections into their respective cabs. That will get you your extra volume from the second cab without risking any damage.

Some pics I took at the Basschat stand! MacDaddy, Ped, Tina (Mrs Ped), Charic Transistorbassman (Roger), MacDaddy, Charic And MacDaddy demos his Snapdragon folding bass:

Peculiar as it’s very hard to analyse exactly what’s going on and how it works. Unlike a good train beat or the groove to Night Train where it’s got a very calculable degree of swing (still very hard to pull mind) the Stones are so scruffy and skew whiff it shouldn’t work, but yet it does. Not everybodies cup of tea I know but it’s certainly special to me.

I think anything heavier than around 20kg would seriously hamper an effective flounce. But if you were using the house rig and a cheap bass it would be great to smash it on the floor, Who-style, before storming out. The bastards wouldn't forget that in a hurry.

this is what I sent to Jon:

Horses for courses