Lozz196

This is what was explained to me when I was at Ashdown, they said that they have their volume controls so that they go louder the whole way round, rather than peaking at 3 or 4.

These posts nail it for me. If an amp is loud enough for my needs, and sounds good in my band then although I think it’s a tad sneaky to label it as something it’s not, well it’s not the label that either I or the audience are going to hear. I’ve had a couple of TC amps and irrespective of their advertised wattage they were plenty loud enough. I didn’t push them mind, so can’t say if the volume was available all round the dial but for the gigs I did with them they were fine little amps.

Not at all in my experience. I’ve had a shed-load of their gear on my trek to establishing the best gear for my needs and none has been at all problematic. Plus they’re a great company to deal with and UK based with so should there ever be an issue it’s easy to sort.

For rock the Ashdown RM-C210-500 would be a cracker. 18kg, 500 watts (with ext cab, so prob around 300 on its own), 2x10, drive, compression, pre-shape (which is excellent for rock sounds). A good few on here are realising the RM range from Ashdown now, def worth checking out. I have the amp head and it`s a cracker, really powerful and strong sounding.

Depends on size and weight (and value of course) but I`ve had pretty good service from Parcel2go.com, using either UPS or MyHermes. One thing I would say though is if the item is a musical instrument do not use Parcelforce - their terms & conditions list musical instruments as prohibited items, so although you can pay for extra insurance, there is no payout should the item get lost or damaged.

Yes, a mate put me onto the Boss WL20, saw his band play and he went right out into the audience, pretty much to the back of the venue and there were no noticeable issues. Not that I`m ever likely to do that, but to me that just reinforces that I`m even less likely to have any issues when I`m on stage with it.

Yeah it seems like a sort of sport to them, hear a band and think now that Lemmy, he just needs far less top end and gain, why a James Jamerson sound would fit in that Motorhead of his far better.

Yep, only downside is that this way the DI signal is your bass only, no eq/gain etc from amp. So if your specific sound is an integral part of the band, this way the audience don`t hear it.

I look on with envy at bassists who turn up to gigs and just plug straight in, one lead, with a clip-on tuner attached to their headstock, but it just doesn`t work like that for me. If I had a generic Precision tone then it would but even then I`ve found the clip-ons to be iffy on the E string so would still need my trusty Boss TU2.

I found the Ray34 and Stingray I had to be pretty identical, Marc. Both had nice chunky Precision like necks, similar weight, I`d say from memory - was 6 odd years ago - about 9lbs2 something like that.

I use a Tech21 Para Driver to get my sound. I can get the sound I want with both my ABM600 and RM500 but as most of the gigs I do are with gear shares, which more often than not means me using a rig I`m unfamiliar with it`s easier to just always have the Para Driver set-up and going. The plus point is no matter what gig I do FOH gets "me", irrespective of what the on-stage sound is through whatever rig is there as I DI straight from the pedal. I`d like to be a bassist that was pedal free but there are many amps that can`t get the sound I have.

Nice one, the RM is a really good range of gear imo.

I remember your Orange set-up Tim, sounded great and if recall correctly that was flightcased?

The Ray34s are very good basses, I had one and a "real" Stingray at the same time and there really wasn`t much difference between them. The Ray34 maybe slightly toppier in sound, but the Stingray was nearly 20 years old so could put that down to older parts etc. But playability wise, nothing in them for me.

I have a Boschma plastic utility case that I sometimes place my cab on. My cab is on 4" castors anyway so including the fittings etc normally 5 " off the floor, whereas on the case it`s about 10" off. Doesn`t really seem to make that much difference to my ears but I suppose that I have to take into account that I have a trebly/twangy/driven sound rather than a warm bassy sound, so any coupling of floor/bassiness wouldn`t be to my liking anyway.

I had a 78 Precision that I nicknamed Ian Paisley as it simply barked at you. It was a difficult bass to tame, luckily with me playing punk that wasn`t on my list of considerations.

I`ve recorded through a guitar amp in studio and it sounded fantastic. Admittedly it was only low volume but we were trying to get a sound we liked for ages, the producer suggested the guitarists amp, think it was a Roland Jazz Chorus, and away we went.

I’ve played a few older basses, 50s & 60s ones and they were ok. I preferred the 70s ones I had to those, and I much prefer my 2012 - 16 ones to any of them. Age may make them desirable but not having heard them in the mix I can’t comment if they sound that much better or not.

That’s probably it for me too, I have a trebly/twangy/overdrive sound and that harshness coupled with the warmth of the ABM600 makes for a great onstage sound.

I’ve used my ABM600 through Barefaced cabs but I preferred it through Ashdown cabs. Each to their own, it wasn’t at all bad through the BF cabs, and indeed a good few other Basschatters love their ABM600/BF set ups. I will add that having had previous ABM amps and MAG amps that imo the ABM600 slays them, they’re not bad amps, just that the 600 is so good. So if you liked the 500RC with the rest of your set up I reckon you’ll be over the moon putting the 600 in its place.

Uh-oh

My first bass was a Kay EB-O copy, and yes, taxi from the strings to the fretboard is a pretty accurate description. It cost me £45 in 1980 which was well over the cost of a 100 pints of beer back then. My current cheapy backup, a Vintage V4 Tony Butler is around £300 new (I lucked out and got it for £120), which is less than a 100 pints nowadays, yet the difference in quality is amazing.

Yep, for some reason Trace watts are louder. A TE 80 watt combo is a lethal instrument and can be as loud as that scene in Back To The Future. No idea why, their amps just seem to be majorly loud, irrespective of the power ratings.

Virtually all my gigs are through FOH, in theory I could gig with just my D.I. pedal but I just prefer to have an amp on stage that I can hear. It doesn’t have to be loud either, I prefer a quiet amp on stage to a loud monitor mix.

Pretty much any Precision works for me. My faves are the US Standards, 2012 - 2016 Series, but I’ve gigged with Squiers and been fine. I’ve been through the journey - ahhh, X-Factor speak - of replacement pickups/bridges, high-end cabs etc only to realise that a stock Fender Precision and my Tech21 Para Driver are all I really need for me to be happy (along with fresh steel roundwound strings). Amp-wise I’ve been through many makes and realised that Ashdown are the brand for me, they’re a lot more affordable than many others but are great sounding, hard wearing, a good company to deal with, and an hours drive if I need something repaired. I’m glad I’ve bought/sold loads of gear, it was great fun, but I don’t need to go looking anymore, my current gear is what works for me. Additionally I have been surprised to see that many pros are happy with much lesser instruments than we would expect. A good deal on the Punk/Oi circuit seem happy with Mex Fenders or Squiers, Epiphone guitars etc and a great many are happy to use any amp that is provided, confident that they’ll get a sound that works for their band.