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Correct, this is my work. Good question and I agree (in general) somewhat, but we now have 3 different hybrid models, and all 3 are very different from each other in tone, texture and feel. The WD-800 is modeled after the Walkabout, with the updates that many players asked for, this amp is modeled after the Bass 400+ with significant player driven updates as well. I spend most of my time over at TalkBass, there were over 300 players over there that provided input on what they would like to see if we were to do an amp like this, and a LOT of the suggestions made it into the final version. Here's a link to the thread, there are informative comments and a couple of our test players have contributed to the thread, including some gig videos. For a (refreshing to me) change, we deemphesized the obligatory bass slap w**ker videos because that's not representative of real life, and instead are focusing on gig and studio demos. I would expect there to be more of these in the next week or two, once players receive their amps. I also begged for better EU access to these amps (we all share your frustration), and it looks like making a fool of myself groveling may have produced results! Thomann says they will have them available within the week on their website. Here's a link to the thread: (sorry, link won't embed) Here's a link to the owner's manual: https://www.gibson.com/cdn/shop/files/MESA_Boogie_Bass-800D_Product_Manual.pdf?v=14438764719515208578

So I thought it would be interesting (decide for yourself how interesting!) to document the setup of a new band... Read on if you want to, or don't if you don't. I've always wanted to have an 80s covers band. Ideally I would be the lead singer and bassist, alas my vocal chops just aren't there. I tried once in the past to set up a band using people found on joinmyband and other sources and it wasn't a great experience but a valuable one. Earlier this year my main band, a 2000s covers band, had a hiatus and the drummer and I cooked up a scheme to do something as a side project. This is one of the big lessons I learned a few years back: work with at least one person you already know! Well, that makes bass and drums... I contacted a guitarist I was in a band with four or five years back, I love his style and attitude and we have remained friends loosely keeping in touch, he was excited to join in. In the middle of August we met up with a handful of songs to bash through. I found it a real struggle to sing and play, my voice was knackered at the end of it, but we agreed we had something that worked and if we had a singer and ideally a keys or sax player we could really have something worth progressing. I got too excited and advertised for a singer much earlier than I had wanted to. I got a handful of responses: a guy aged 28 who sings modern metal, a classic rock vocalist in a covers band id heard of, a female singer who recently left an indie band, and a lady who only wants to do backing vox as she doesn't want to fully commit. I have not yet met the singers, we want to get the songs tight first. But we have rejected two of them already! Now, the lost of songs we are working on is a handful of "male" songs and two "female" songs. The classic rock singer contacted me to say words to the effect: "you do realise that Holding Out for a Hero is written for a girl??? You know it's about a Man???" That told me all I needed to know about this person. Didn't say "hey I might tweak the words" which I'm happy with, just basically came across a bit old fashioned and hinted he could be difficult to work with. Luckily, the recordings of heard of his vocals weren't great so I was comfortable saying we had better fit singers already. Also, he didn't notice, or at least raise, that "I wanna dance with somebody" is also a female perspective song. I have no issue if a man or woman wants to change the gender perspective of a song, or keep it. But we had not at this point said we want a male singer, or we want a female singer. We just wanted a good singer and to do good songs, so we have a mix. Anyways, onwards and upwards. In the meantime we wanted to get the songs tight but also I kept hearing sax in a lot of the great songs of the decade so I advertised for a sax player. I got a great response from a guy local to where we rehearse who plays sax and keys. I sent him the long-list of possible songs and five mins later got a reply of "f me that's my childhood!" And I just knew he would do for us. This week we met up again and invited our sax and keys player. We also had a friend come along to sing so I could concentrate on bass and arrangements. Magic happened. We did two or three runs through of each song, had a ten minute break for a chat. We instantly bonded with our new multi-instrumentalist: a decent person, a proper musician, and he LOVES the genre. There are still details to work out such as better transition to solos, proper endings of all these fade out songs, but we were really solid and the keys and or sax just really added something. It felt special. We will meet again in a few weeks' time, now with a handful more songs that really prominently feature the sax. Our best candidate for singer isn't available until mid October so hopefully we can be really tight by then and ready for him. I'm getting quite excited about this side project! Playing with a drummer and guitarist I know really helps, and striking gold with a chap who plays sax and keys is just sheer good fortune. More to come soon....

I’ve just joined Basschat and wanted to say a quick hello. I’m fairly new to the world of bass and really excited to learn more, share experiences, and hopefully connect with fellow bass enthusiasts here. Looking forward to being part of this awesome community!

Another good question, nothing is off the table and personally it's something that I would like to do... in part to honor my dad's memory since he started his engineering career during the (all) tube era designing servo amplifiers (which are similar to audio amplifiers). He then went on to handle spacecraft attitude control on the Mariner Mars project which allowed him to step away from strictly hardware design and into the control systems side of servo theory. My dad passed away 2 years ago at the age of 90, this model was the last amp that he provided his insight on (he remained interested in engineering and math until his death). It's also why I followed in his engineering footsteps at university. I wouldn't rule this out either, but there's nothing immediate on the table either. I'm always open to hearing what YOU PLAYERS would like to see, sometimes that's what provides the impetus for new projects.

I had one and used it for years. It was during my time playing on the Americana circuit, as well as doing a bit of old school rock 'n' roll. In fact, I seem to remember I used it in a CCR tribute band too. It held up against the loudest drummer & guitarist that I have ever worked with. In the Americana band I tended to be on volume 2 1/2 and coming through nicely and with the louder guys I was nearer volume 5 or 6. I tended to put Fender basses through it and run it through the matching PF cab (the 4x10, 2x10 or 1x15 at different times). Plenty of old school thumb. It's heavy for what it is but because it is small, it is light - if that makes any sense!?! I sold mine on here a few years back and mine would have been when they first came out. Looking at my Basschat pics, I must have had it for years as this was around 2018 so I must have run it for a good 4yrs.

Had a practise with one of my bands last night. Almost all originals. It was good to mee up with the other two, but I'm not sure about some of the material the guitarist is coming up with. He's getting overexcited and churning out a lot of samey material now but he's a very nice guy and fun to play with. The drummer has moments when she clicks and it works well, when she's confident with the song but when uncertain can go very much out of time. I did try a few exercises to try and start listening to each other and get them to both slow down as they really do race away. Anyway, hoping we can get into enough shape to do a gig by the end of the year. Some of the material is pretty good and fun to play and they're great people. What WAS really good though was that I got to play through a 4x10!!!!! God, I love this configuration. I have an ultra-portable MarkBass NY121 that I can take to gigs on public transport, but the luxury of a big old cab filled with lovely ten-inchers was a total joy and pleasure. I think that this is "my" sound. Definitely my sound of choice.

I stuck a pedal pcb clone of a broughton HPF/LpF at the start of chain and it had a really nice effect. also tried the Euna clone which was an ok buffer too so i mashed them together… with variable input impedance, the bass switch from Euna and the ability to switch the HPF in and out … it works not sure if it’s an improvement as I’ve rearranged the pedalboard since and it has way less effect also doesn’t fit in the spare gorva m45 I have … made the board a couple mm too wide

Currently just rocking the JMJ for specific gigs/bands I work with, and do still migrate back to a P or J for other projects. I am another on the pile of fallen soldiers in the fight for that Atelier Z @DanDoesBass - so much so that I currently have Danny Stewart from Bass Japan Direct trying to specifically hunt one for me. Have you ever seen the insanely rare Ocean Turqiose? Because I would sell an organ for it 😂 I've spoiler warninged the picture because it's definitely one of those... Once you've seen it you can't unsee it type of basses. I am unsure if he'll be able to actually find one in the wild.

Not doing the gig until Friday but I think this will amuse you guys...

Also a Subsequent 25. Modulation into delay into reverb. Nothing else that beast needs. The Canvas line injector serves some good utility - the effects here are stereo, so it gives me a stereo out to the desk, but also lets me sum to mono via the thru for on stage monitoring or if I just need to rehearse with a bass amp. I use this on the tabletop next to the synth, not on the floor.

Empire Music first out of the gate as always. 😊

Must keep away from the Gardiner Houlgate auctions, they're a dangerous place for me, or at least for the integrity of my anatomy if I keep buying basses and can't manage to sell any. Went down to near Bath to pick up this lovely Shuker Uberhorn today. Body: African blackwood topped mahogany body Neck: seven piece wenge/mahogany with CF strengthening rods, 35" scale Fretboard: phenolic resin Electrics: concealed EMG pickup system and Graphtech piezo saddles All in an original branded Hiscox hard case. There's also a card from WM Guitars whose hands it has obviously passed through giving the specs (and the price they sold it for). The strings are described as D'Addario tapewounds in the WM Guitars description, and that's still what's on it, looking a bit worn, especially the long thumb rest string. It will be getting some nickel rounds. The action is ridiculously high, mainly (I think) due to the relief being absolutely huge. The battery is in quite reasonable nick, should get a bit of use out of it. There's a couple of little dings around the edge but nothing major. For some reason, it hasn't got straplocks on it, which I see as a significant omission to be rectified very soon. Pictures are from the Shuker website and the auction website. When I summon up a bit of energy, I'll take some more.

This looks very very cool https://www.gibson.com/en-gb/blogs/gibson-gazette/how-the-mesa-boogie-bass-800d-channels-50-years-of-bass-amp-innovation

The battery went flat (my fault) and I wanted to check active mode worked after putting new batteries in I knew that the passive mode does a fairly good jazz bass sound but switching to active with it’s totally separate tone control (para mid eq plus treble plus bass) you can get a fairly good p bass tone. the levels are about the same, so I can switch the two sounds instantly using the active switch and it’s a 5

Lots of kids parties 🥳 😂

From the product website site: "Very water, dirt and abrasion resistant. Highly resistant to common liquid spillages such as water, juice, tea, cola and wine. Saliva-resistant and sweatproof." What sort of gigs do you play @ped??

Thanks for that Andy, a really nice story. I'd guess that the success of the Ampeg small format all-tube models from the PF-20 through the 50 and up to the V4B suggests that there is a market for all tube heads below the more usual 300w plus, in part perhaps because for example the post power stage DI on some of the models makes them a far simpler gigging and recording proposition? I have to say I'm currently looking down the back of the sofa to see if I can scrape the cash for the 800D, had it been the all-tube model I initially thought it was, I'd be parked outside Anderton's already

Some great clips of this amp in live use.

I believe a couple of guys on Talkbass road test the prototypes and have input to the manuals. While they might not make the final cut, @agedhorse is open to suggestions and ideas, and is consequentially a good guy to have designing our bass amps.

That’s charcoal frost is giving me the Sean Hurley sig vibes.

"The 80s" is a very broad church ranging from "New Romantic" and synth-pop via jangly guitar bands all the way through to acid house. Of course most people tend to forget about anything post 1985 unless the band had already had hits before then. The problem I have with bands like the one in the clip above is that for me music in the 80s was as much about the image of the artists as it was about the songs. If the music is going to be performed by a bunch of beardy old blokes in crap shirts then it doesn't matter how well they have nailed the sound, the audience would be better off someone playing the records. I hope the OP is taking note...

eBay made a big thing about making listings free, so they got rid of fees on transactions and then added a manditory buyer protection fee, that the seller pays, that was higher than the fees in the first place. Means all the prices look stupid and it is not clear that when you make an offer to someone for say £100, it comes through to the seller as 'they made an offer of £87.32'

I had a 100 watt Carlsbro valve PA head that (with a similar amount of cab) would stay fully clean at the sort of volumes where the PF50T is starting to get grindy. But for some styles, the sound of a valve amp sailing close to the wind is fun, and the portability, more useful EQ and DI outputs of the PF50T are good to have. The Carlsbro got left at home for a lot of gigs just because it was a heftier lump and sound guys tended to just want a DI in front of it anyway.

I'll be depping with the Spandau Ballet/Duran Duran theatre tribute show 'From Gold To Rio' on Saturday night at the Gainsborough Trinity Arts Centre: https://trinityarts.co.uk/whats-on/from-gold-to-rio/ Cool basslines aplenty!

Don’t laugh… that’s exactly how luthier Rob Armstrong came to design his “Baby Guitars”… he mucked up a case order and decided to build something to fit the mandolin cases that arrived.

Just seen this on Instagram… Billy Sheehan mod.

I've been looking around for a compact yet more substantial case for my Anagram and came across THIS case on Fleabay in the UK. I have no connection with the seller but thought some of you might be interested in it. I also wanted it to hold my MVave midi pedal and the Anagram power supply. It seems well built with the only drawback being the inner foam which is a bit flimsy. I'll be changing that out at some point. Here some pics of my process to fit the Anagram etc in it.

For me intent is everything. To take the piss in some way - bad. To honour the song / subject - good. A few words spoken before playing it will clarify intent for the audience. "We have been asked to play this song. It is one of the greatest protest songs ever written about a subject that doesn't get enough attention and we just hope we do it justice" Something like that.

Personally I feel culture is something to be shared and celebrated by everyone. I think if you are celebrating and sharing culture it’s not appropriating it but absorbing it, being influenced by it and changing your mindset and behaviour because of it. It’s a positive not a negative thing. Appealing to soldiers not to blindly follow orders, which I think this song is about, is as relevant to any culture or race and no more so than in the current world situation.

Re Dreadlock Holiday I suspect that 10cc would agree. There's a post on here somewhere from about 10-15 years back when one of the members was playing in an Americana band that, as many did, used a Confederate flag as a stage prop. A member of the audience took offence and I think there was some discussion about the legitimacy of that response. For me the bottom line is that I would never want a member of the (relatively small) audience I play to feeling in any way uncomfortable at one of our gigs. Our guitarist suggested a track a while back and we were all a little surprised that our drummer said no, and did so categorically. It's quite well known song and the lyrics in question were (I assume) intended by the writer as deeply ironic. But the drummer was firm and argued that if he felt uncomfortable with the ambiguity about the irony, so might others. It was quite a helpful process because it allowed us to get to a point at which we agreed that given the sheer number of bloody decent songs out there, we should never feel any pressure to play a song that might make us or any of our audience feel uncomfortable. Does this mean that I feel that music shouldn't create discomfort? Not at all. My view is that all art should have that power. But I think there's a big difference between us lot playing a song that creates discomfort for either us or the audience, and the original performers doing the same. I suspect the difference is the the artist/entertainer distinction, the original performer was the former, while we are in real terms the latter.

That’s EXACTLY the challenge, showing what the amp is capable of for the average real world player. The videos are very real world, Gus is a great player in multiple genres and has extensive experience with the new amp. He snuck it out on one of his tours, stealthy like, and there were no issues or problems over numerous shows. I worked with Doug Johns, a great slap player (and a lot more than that) while at Genz Benz. Well worth checking out, imo.

we have tried hard to make the bass product owner’s manuals solid, accurate and educational documents. In the bass team’s opinion, players buying premium amps with a premium price tag also deserve a premium manual. It’s just part of a premium experience. Correct, one of our test players (also an engineer) has been helping write and edit the manuals since the WD-800, and the other came onboard starting with this model. They are really solid players with good communication skills, so the manuals contain a strong player perspective. They both have extensive playing (and gigging) experience with the new amp too.

Luv 'em or hate them, I bought one of these from the big Az, was £20!? I was wanting a pre-amp so I could plug my BG into the line level computer interface, this does it. I also use the XLR into my mixer desk which is also connected to my computer audio interface at line level. For my purpose there is a lot of tonal variation to be had 🙂 I can get all kinds of BG tones. There is some "distortion" available when Drive is >90%. There's so many variations of distortions, this is just one. My BG is always very boomy bassy on the E, I can easily "correct" that with this unit. I'd need to measure the current drawing from the PP3, anyway I now use a mains PSU. By using this unit, I am trying various VST fx to see what works for me, knowing the impedances are correctly "matched", so even in bypass I believe this unit still presents the correct Z to my passive BG.

Sounds ideal as an all in one bass. Just need another one as backup…… But seriously it sounds great, ideal for a covers band and for studio work having both sounds at your fingertips.

Just shows that the best things sometimes need time & perseverance, keep us all up to date on this.

Lovely. The Chapparall weighs less than the regular B12 that I own.

Downstrokes with a pick get the very best out of a 12er when the drones are uppermost. Fingerstyle tends to / can be muddy. It loses the attack and clarity, but then again you do get a nice thick sound. Basses with the fundamental bass string on top are awkward, as you may not hit the drone strings when playing.

Bass Direct have two used 5 string Maruszczyk basses @£950 each currently. Guess which two colours each pickguard is? 🤣

I’m so glad you’re getting on with your new Xotic. It was a pleasure to meet you in store, and to help you find the right bass. ☺️

Stage times for Friday's gig (19th September) at Liquid Light in Nottingham: 7:05 - 7:35 Joshua Todd 7:50 - 8:30 St Lucifer 8:45 - 9:35 Hurtsfall

Not sure what you mean. If you mean "how come the mixed feelings" its because there seems to be a modern trend to ruin otherwise awesome Mustangs with a J pickup. If you mean "how come you don't like PJ" its just because it never works for me. The J is too weedy/too noisy/too unnecessary/just doesn't balance. I am a huge fan of Jazz basses - its P, or JJ, or go home IMO!

It'll turn up as soon as the replacement arrives.

Yes I’ve been using one for a very long time now. I don’t use the synth parts any more but instead it’s my audio interface and multi fx for my basses and for driving my headphones and Bassboard. I love the form factor and the usability (though probably only because I’m so used to it). I think it’s a fantastic preamp with superb effects built in. I haven’t felt the need to to replace it despite its age - if it sounds good, it’s good.