thumbo

As mentioned by the other guys, Polar Audio seem to be the best (or only?) option. I ordered mine from them, paid quite a bit in postage and waited a while for them to come from the states. I'd recommend housing it in a 4U rack for a little extra breathing room as they can generate a fair bit of heat when they're running at 4 ohms.

I'd be interested to give it a play, although Ibanez are far from the first brand to spring to mind if I was to have £2k to spend on a bass.

Not to gloat or anything here (well ok, I'm gloating a little), this is what I played through at a jam with a couple of buddies last night. The rig on the right is mine, the rig on the left is my friends slightly older 800RB with his own homemade cab with a 15" full range speaker. Tone heaven. My Yamaha TRB 6 string has never sounded filthier!!

[quote name='Truckstop' post='1208401' date='Apr 22 2011, 03:37 PM']Bleed - Meshuggah. Just the sheer stamina needed. Took probably 3 weeks on and off to finally play the song all the way through. The bend in the main riff's a bitch too. If you go too far, or not bend enough, it sounds awful. Truckstop[/quote] That tune is a monster, keeping those notes precise when your arm/wrist is giving up on you is a challenge! I can't even begin to imagine playing the drum parts. Meshuggah ran a competition on youtube to see the best drum cover of it, not many people could get those double kicks right. Tommy The Cat has always caused me difficulties, not so much in hitting the notes but in getting the groove just right. Some days I can do it, other days I can't.

It's a shame that artists get so little financially from Spotify, but given the popularity of it I think the key benefit is the potential for exposure.

[quote name='jimbaby' post='1208030' date='Apr 22 2011, 10:32 AM']Hi I'm a premium user and stream into a DAC then hifi system, sounds very very good. Remember to enable high bitrate on premium, makes a big difference. Very happy with the service so far apart from the glitchyness when playing tracks from the hard drive through Spotify, I also prefer the sound quality of Spotify to Itunes. Regards Jim[/quote] Your setup sounds cool, I could really do with some nice speakers and a DAC. Spotify have been trying to implement 320kbps MP3's since 2009, iTunes are only just coming around to doing this now. That will be why Spotify sounds better than the average itunes download

£4.99 for unlimited access to millions of songs every month is great. It was awesome whilst it was free but it wasn't gonna stay that way forever.

[quote name='umcoo' post='1206517' date='Apr 20 2011, 10:21 PM']It's definitely punchy. Sounds great and warm for solid state, but then maybe I've forgotten how good solid states can sound with me being used to valve amps. Using it with a Matamp 2x12. Might be a while before I get to crank it at next practice, but that should be jolly good fun [/quote] I bet that sounds cool with a Matamp cab. I think you'll be pleased with the amount of headroom at your next practice, I have mine turned up about 1/4 on the master volume and have the boost on 1/2 with my 6x10. - that's running it at 4ohms.

I bought one of these as a back up for my AD200B a couple of years ago. This amp combined with a Rusty Box pre-amp gave me exactly the dirty tone I needed, so I sold my Orange. It felt kinda strange going from using a £1300 valve head to a beat up old amp that I bought second hand for about £300, but it does just what I need. I like the immediate punchy sound of the 800RB, if that makes sense! I heard that Duff McKagan bought 2 when Guns n Roses got their first advance but he's only ever used one of them because he hasn't needed a backup. Nice little testament to how solid they are! Good purchase dude what cab are you using with it?

I have a drummer friend that just might be able to help. I'll PM you his details.

Good work mate! Digging the EP too

Congrats dood, that's a great endorsement to have.

[quote name='blind pilot' post='1200412' date='Apr 15 2011, 10:57 AM']Thing is my guitarist loves my tone, and tells my the Tool stuff I play sounds pretty spot on, but I feel I am lacking, especially with Justins "gritty" tone on Vicarious and this one, Maybe I am being too(L) anal! lol[/quote] There's nothing wrong with having something to aim for! Being a bit of a Tool fan myself I've learnt a lot of Lateralus and Aenima but I always felt that the lack of a Wal hindered getting that tone bang on. But that's not to say you can't get pretty near to it with a bit of tweaking and careful pedal choice. My favourite Tool tune to play on bass is still 46 & 2, that polyrhythm breakdown puts a smile on my face every time I played along to Danny's incredible beats!

I'm presuming you're using a pick if you're learning Tool songs? - Using a pick will give harmonics the initial clarity in the attack that finger style can't give in quite the same way.

Boost your mids a notch!

That's cool that the strings fixed your issue there It doesn't surprise me as I always found my Markbass amps to be very true to the natural qualities of a bass. Since P-basses can sound a bit lifeless in some settings I struggled to get a tone I liked with mine, but it all changed when I got myself a Rusty Box pre-amp! Punk tone heaven!

[quote name='bigthumb' post='1198404' date='Apr 13 2011, 04:47 PM']£670! [/quote] Shocking! I'm a bit out of the loop with the value of vintage Warwicks. How much "should" this have gone for? It looks like it's fallen short for lack of accurate title, decent description and collection only.

do you know if they were rear ported cabs? was the rig set up in the corner and how far from the wall was it?

It's cool to see all this Yamaha love! I first played a TRB1005 quite a few years ago and was so impressed with the low B that it made me consider 5 (and 6) string instruments a lot more. I tried a bunch of 5 string basses, and bought a pretty high end 5 string that had a similar spec, but it just didn't feel right to me. I snapped up a TRB1006 for £400 last year and it's been my most-played instrument since! Yamaha win!

[quote name='grahamd' post='1195594' date='Apr 11 2011, 12:26 PM']Fantastic band, real visceral rocknroll energy. Love DFA 1979 too (haven't they reformed?)[/quote] I'm not sure if DFA have officially reformed, but at SXSW a few weeks ago they played a surprise set and caused a riot because of the amount of people that wanted to see them!

I own a Thumb Bolt-On and Stage 1 (both 4 strings). They are very different beasts, which is exactly what I like about them. For me the Thumb gets a lot of studio time because I like the natural midrange it produces and the general Warwick character of it tonally. Whereas the Streamer gets to go to band practices and gigs because it's lighter, more comfortable to play (because the 1st fret isn't a mile away!) and tonally I feel like it sits in the mix of a live situation a little better, but then that's very subjective to the style of music being played. My advice would be to try them out, get your hands on old warwicks and new warwicks and I think you'll realise fairly quickly which one is best for your needs. Trying out older models might be a bit trickier, but the difference between the old and new is pretty big.

You have fine taste in drummer/bassist duos Sawtooth, but Lightning Bolt on a Sunday morning, c'mon, it's a family forum!