deepbass5

Interesting thread, have not noticed a drop in mine if anything a boost when in. Set mine Oct2 off, direct level at 3 oclock and Oct 1 between 11and 1. I saw this setting suggested in a bass Mag and find it about right for most of my numbers. Thanks for the heads up

What do you guys do when it comes to mixing pedals and those with attenuation switches when using you active basses? Do you set them to active or passive and where in the chain if you think this changes things. My board = Boss OC2 - then - Boss Dynamic Wah AW-3 - then - Boss Flanger BF-3 - then - Boss Chorus CEB-3 - then - EBS Comp set to active - then - Aphex Xciter set active then into Amp just not quite happy, I need each of these at various times in an evening, but would prefer no pedals as I feel they degrade my tone. Any suggestions I have tried the Comp up front but feel the OC2 works best in front. Or would all the others benefit from a hotter compressed signal pushing through them My basses as below Warwick active SS1 and an 18v schack though not overly hot in output.

Thanks for putting that link on, just had to sit and watch that right away. I was lucky enough to see them live twice, He was so charismatic as a front man, they were a real Lads band I don’t remember seeing a single girl in the audience at the time. The Rocker epitomised the band for me, but his ballads were a beautiful contrast. Great Cheers

I'll Take the TRP5II off you when you get used to the Carvin !!!!!

These are excellent basses, and the BB is the best in my opinion due to scale and offset board string spacing etc. The boards are ebony and computer machine ground for accuracy. It should be worth £700. But timing and the name does not carry the price. It is worth more as a good solid accurate instrument than what you will sell it for so hang on to it. I would rather have one of these than a Trace amp at the moment. So probably a good swap

Having all jumped from the (Do you need a 5 string tread). My comment here would be a 5 string bass is as different to a 4 string as a 4 string is to a guitar. Don’t get sucked into the manufacturers that just turn out cheap fives because they can. A bad 5 is not a nice instrument to play and will put you off, go for a good second hand bass from one of the guys on here. And then play nothing else for a couple of years. Then you will start to understand what is good and bad about them, everything becomes more critical than in a 4 string, woods used in body and neck, pickup placement, EQ. even the strings used can change the whole feel and tone and balance across the instrument. Then you will yearn for those days when you could take your old 4 string down the pub and knock seven bells out of her without a thought, but there's no going back you'll be hooked

This will run and run I think the main thing to all agree, is there is no 'Good' or 'bad', 'right' or 'wrong' Hip, cool or nerdy It's what best suits you and the music you play. If I played the typical broad range of Indie style main stream Festival rock music, I would invest in a nice 4 string and be very happy. But I have to copy these guys who played sessions on Pop records through the 80's, 90's 2000's. Using synths and 5 and 6 string basses. So had to follow suit. Now that I am used to it, I use them for big band swing gigs. And yes even String of Pearls by Glenn Miller goes down to Eb. As Bilbo pointed out Upright bass can and do have 5 string and first appeared 2-300 years ago, so it is not a passing fad.

Just to clarify my last post, Sorry I was not trying to be disrespectful, Two similar 4x10 would be ok if you need that sort coverage and more useful than an 8x10. But modern cabs and speakers tend to be a lot more efficient than older designs. I do rate PV gear but the 10" scorpions are not as efficient as the PV black widow 12" and 15" speakers so without checking I recon the Epi will be pushing the 100dB level where the PV 4x10 will probably be in the low 90's. My last rig was a PV 15 with Carvin 2x10 but I did bi amp these. I still think pound for pound the PV 15 is one of the best out there regardless of what fancy name or colour the speakers.

From your first statement it seemed you wanted to bi amp these cabs, or was confused about the crossover. As from everyone else you can just link these to this amp as it will handle the impedance, the Epi will be twice as loud as the peavey due to the in-efficient peavey speakers compared with the Epi. This fact alone will drive you mad. When you get the new cab you will not want to use the Peavey 4x10 again and will not need it so problem solved. The only way to solve the imbalance in volume would be to bi amp so you can turn down the Epi to match the Peavey output, but again can’t see you needing the complication of getting another amp to do this. check out the extra volume of the amp with the new cab before worrying about using two. note. this extra volume you will gain is nothing to to do with the stated wattage of each cab but the speaker efficiency, a reason you should avoid mixing cabs like this

Played a four for years always put off going to a five, used an Octave pedal instead. But eventually gave in because I play Pop covers, dance music, everyone recording them was using 5's so you can't ignore it. That was ten years ago and now would not go back. It’s about economy of movement and it opens up two octaves under your fingers.

My Bubinga Schack weighs in at 11 lbs as pictured, you notice it picking it off the stand compared to an Ash bass, I'm 6' 2" and it is Ok on. I wouldn't want to go heavier. I do have bad posture and starting to pay for it. But the tone you get from these dense basses is worth the pain.

I have asked around and the general consensus is someone mentions recession and the phone stops ringing. I'm lucky to have always been in function bands so the money is better, but the corporate Market has dried up. This is affecting the Pro end of the market as well as the semi pro. So the knock on effect is we all get squeezed, the pro's are aggressively seeking dep work and forming multi band web sites offering Agency style portfolios when they are all the same faces from the west end or music academies. I know good guys who are scraping a living at the moment and good Jazzers taking £50 pub gigs. Last year started the same then picked up; this year seems to be going the same way. We have eleven confirmed so far but have done two of them. We have also lost alot of enquiries to price, despite being 5-10% lower than two years ago. Still It will make us all get better at what we do and give the customer what they want, there is work out there but you need to work harder for it off stage than when youre playing on it. still mustn't grumble Note, we are a four piece, how the hell are you 7 - 9 piece soul bands getting on.

I had always used Rotosound solo bass these used to be made to make up your own tail piece ball ends in the 70's-80's they latter changed to fixed ball I found these a good halfway house and used them for over ten years then couldn't get them, then they re-appeared a different length like most rotosound strings did. went on to ordinary round wounds, Elites were about all was stocked by most shops through the 90's then I chanced on Elite ground wound, and have to say they are the best most meaty heavy tone sounding I have played, I have tried Thomastik-Infeld and rotsound flats and found them just too flat. So try a pressure wound or ground wound set, they maybe just what you need

An interesting and Important Topic. But be careful to get sound electrical advice the Musicians union will help. But find a friendly local electrician I am lucky to be a qualified electrician and often wonder how any band survives without a spark in the band. Firstly playing off a generator always worries me. It’s the unknown. If it’s down to you, get one that will do twice what you need, it will be more stable, just like your bass amp you need some headroom. Small sets tend to fluctuate with load that means Voltage and current going up and down. Volts x Amps = power so if the voltage is down you will draw more power than normal. (Your gear may not be tolerant to that) Do not have anything else running off it then you know where you are. Modern Alternator sets are fairly stable. But note they are often designed for the construction industry; I got caught at a large steam rally where we were the evening band in the big Marque. They had provided a couple of sets one for the Bar and tent lights and one for the band. Looked new about 6KVA but I always test sockets for polarity and earth even in hotels etc. and it showed an earth fault. I rejected the first set so the organiser swapped it with the Bar Geny. That showed the same fault. It wasn't until after the Gig I realised that because the sets had a 240v socket and 110v socket, the 110v is centre tapped to earth so you can only get 55 volts shock to earth (construction site rules). The 240 socket came from the same source different tapping so was also centre tapped to earth. Probably would have been OK. But I had already used up all my spare set up and sound check time and was now in panic mode. One of the fairground people we were playing to offered his set from the Dodgems drove it round the back probably 50-60 KVA set perfect No faults. We were cooking on gas that night. I carry as part of my kit a blue 240v round geny socket to double RCD outlet socket. Sits under the van seat just in case. If you do nothing else use an RCD socket, so whether damp grass or no earth stake, if something leaks to earth it will protect you. Never attempt to link Alternators together, that’s for engineers with the right monitoring kit. Keep them well apart. I wouldn't even trust having two running different bits of kit in the same stage area. Buy a Martindale socket tester and use it on every gig. Write into your contract that it is the venues responsibility to provide a safe source of electricity as defined by the electrical supply regulations. And that you reserve the right not to play if you find an unsafe supply. You would not believe the times I have ended up sorting venue wiring problems when I should be sorting my sound. The Hammond organ storey above made me smile, it happened to an old band of mine. They have tone generators inside that is voltage and frequency dependant, the Stranglers comes to mind. A fairground was off the generator that night and every time a ride started up the Hammond changed key. Be safe not sorry.. Just to add, A single 13A plug will deliver 3000W (3KW) So think back to what you need indoors. If you use PAR cans you can soon get to 3kw on lights alone. Our band used to draw more than 3KW and I was always looking for two wall sockets to avoid a problem, with LED lighting we are now back under that figure which is handy. Work out what you bands current usage is, write it down so you know next time you have to share power with the Caterers or DJ.

Good choice, it was missing two of those second-hand last year that got me looking into the two small separates as a flexible approach to different gig situations. shed loads of great reviews too All the best

There are quite a few guys on here using Techamp cabs with Markbass amps. I'm in my 5th year with this combination, sounds great. Don't let the colour put you off, there are too many Pro users out there into them to be a fad, and they're passionate about them not just in it for the cheque.

My observations are that any cab will sound different with a particular amp and your own Bass. As stated we love to Praise what we have just purchased, and so I thought I would add I now have two 12" EA M-Lines. These go deep without having to dig in. and they are light and small compared to some cabs, I’m Very happy (Generalising, I believe bigger cab designs actually sound better than those compromised smaller for the sake of it designs) These two identical cabs sound great with the EA 350i Amp; I have also tried them with my Markbass LMK on the same Gigs and had to EQ it totally differently than with my usual 4X12" Techamp. With cut on both low mid and high mid. But sounded great. My Warwick SS1 5 which fills allot of space in the low mid was almost overpowering, ended up with no bass boost on bass or amp. With my Active Schack 5 which has a more natural tone was easier to control and needed some slight bass boost and no high mid cut. Basically try everything and all combinations because it will all go out the window when you hit different venues, and you need to know which sits in the middle ground so you can find your sound. So in a shop situation take your bass's along and change cabs keeping the amp bass combination, when you think you have found the best cab, slap a different amp on top or change your bass over. Of course I didn't do any of this and just believed the sales blurb so know I have the best Cabs in the World...and I'm gunna sign out now before anyone tells me different.... Worth trying the EA M-lines though, they do produce a very nice B string without the EQ required on other cabs, but you will have to scoop your own mids on your amp.

Loads of good pointers above Could be a wiring issue in one of them if they have been put together wrong, speaker output crossed over. But as stated the only way to check is a nine volt battery I usually use one that is in the yellow just to be kind to the speaker. As one is a combo's does it have external speaker cables. I usually do this after making up my own leads just to make sure. Put the live to the jack tip and swing the negative pole onto the body of the jack whilst watching the cone it should jump out, if correctly wired. All this could be just down to efficiency of the speakers involved. Again as stated above Watts don't necessarily = volume you ears are not lying to you. I bought an expensive 4x12 with a variable crossover switch that was wired wrong from the factory in one position it put the full power across the horn a blew it. They sent me a new horn and switch But it does happen.

Like others have said trust your ears if you get a chance to trial the intended cabs, but my word of caution would be that Cabs do sound different and you could end up fighting yourself. A bass and amp setting for one of the cabs may not suit the other. This could be a problem at Gig levels. You would not be able to dial out an anoying frequency from one of the Cabinets without affecting the one you did like.

Well Good Luck Its a nice bass I'm sure you'll sort it

Can't see that clearly but there does look to be some downward tension there. The fact you said you shimmed it with paper and it stopped, sounds like you have tracked it down to the nut. But I was going to say the fact you can hear it tells me this is when played acoustically, and possibly sat down with it on your knee, I thought it could have been coming from your sraplocks rattling if you had your strap on whilst sat. It has happened to me and drove me mad trying to find it until you figure out it is only when you’re sat. Other than that do you have a very high action and so only happening when releasing a fretted note and the string jumps up and rattles? ??