Lozz196

Pretty much the same for me too, Blue.

Until my current band, which needs the twang/grind of new rounds I always used to leave my Rotosounds on for at least a year, as I preferred the sound for what I was doing back then, and dislkiked the sound of new strings. Just shows, tools for the job really.

Were The Stranglers punk, weren`t they punk, difficult to tell. They certainly had the aggression in their music associated with punk, but when you look at the first wave of punk bands they all sounded very different so it`s difficult to pinpoint it. I`d say that a lot of punks liked The Stranglers, and that a good few did not. I belong in the former camp.

I’m a Precision man through and through, my faves are the 2012 - 2016 US Standards. But there are so many variables, the main thing for me being the neck. As such it’s a difficult one to say “these are best” as what suits one of us for whatever reasons may be the exact reasons as to why another 20 of us aren’t keen. I have to admit though to having been really struck with my Vintage Tony Butler V4, so much so that I have a regular V4 on it’s way. I’ll use it as a backup and for gigs where we fly, save me taking a US Precision with me but I wouldn’t do that with a bass I wasn’t comfortable with.

Do it for the enjoyment of doing it, remember that first and foremost it’s your hobby so treat it as such, hobbies are what you do for fun and to chill.

I was in 3 bands at one point and followed what Phil said, first gig that came in was the one I would honour. It got to a point where I knew which direction I wanted my music to go in so left 2 of the bands. And now I wouldn’t have time for another band, this weekend it was Stockton on Tees last night, Edinburgh tonight and Doncaster tomorrow night.

Difficult one as my two fave amps are Ampeg SVT and Ashdown ABM, but with the ABM I keep the pre-amp valve off for live, only put it on when recording.

They`re nice sounding amps, the bassist in The Cockney Rejects uses one and he gets a great sound.

I`m not that familiar with the HH, but to my way of thinking if it were set up to be just the right amount of bassiness/bite on the bridge pickup alone, surely when addingnin the other pickup, or playing that pickup only the sound will be over bassy. Pretty much the same as a Les Paul guitar, get a great sound on the bridge pickup, select the others and the only person in the world who can sound good is Slash, everyone else sounds over-bassy and rotten.

Yes I know what you mean Paul, B&Gs lyrics are even described by themselves in one of their songs as not too smart. But in their last album, Chapter IV they`ve progressed and take on a greater depth - mainly staying away from singing about football, skinheads and drinking, funny that. I`m not sure if DBDs lyrics have much meaning at all, as I`m generally yelling along with them with a silly grin on my face - as I will be this Fri/Sat/Sun as we have gigs with them on those nights.

A bit of a strange one this, I like to listen to new bands, but in the genre - punk - that I`m familiar with. On the punk scene we do have a fair few nostalgia merchants who will only listen to/watch their fave band from 40 years back, and will ignore the support acts but that`s their choice, I wouldn`t slate them for it but they really could find some great new music if they were a bit more open-minded. I only got into my fave band, Booze & Glory by accident, didn`t know any of the bands on the stages at Rebellion on eve, stuck my head in all the rooms, heard B&G and that was it, instant fave current band.

Next cause could be amount of windings on the peg - with strings with silks on the end I used to cut them at 10cm and this was ok. When I changed to strings without silks, just the metal ends I had to up it to 15cm, as similarly used to get a buzzing that seemed to come from inside the neck on both E & A strings.

Yep, I had this on one bass, turned out to be one of the fixing screws on the back was slightly loose and was vibrating/rattling.

If I didn't already have the 500 I`d have snapped that 800 up, it`s a great price and Dave who is selling it is a great guy to deal with.

Yes, I think SVT type tones can be pretty easily obtained from it, pre-shape on, drive up, add in upper mids for some bite.

I`ve got the original version and until you get to pushing volumes very high on much bigger stages there isn`t much difference between the RM500 and my ABM600. At that point the ABM keeps going whereas the RM starts to sound less "hefty" for want of a better word. But we are talking very big stages where you would have FOH anyway, so you`d expect some bass through monitors anyway. I`d thoroughly recommend the RM series, def the best Class D amp I`ve had by a mile.

I`ll have to keep my eyes open to see if there`s a 4x12 available.

I had a PF500 which was great, had another which wasn`t due to it not making it through one rehearsal. Re the SVT3-PRO, a change of valves can really help, I bought a set of higher gain ones for my old one from Watford Valves and it made the amp seem much livelier than the stock ones. People do seem to like the 7-PRO, but if the Ampeg head you used at the festivals were the heavyweight ones, sorry but not many amps are going to get there in terms of that sound.

Not good, dreadful news

It`s the cabs that are voiced - they have quite a big top-end roll-off, so for on-stage use to be as near as possible boost the highs - even add in an eq pedal maybe, as Markbass highs on that amp are very high, and adding in lower highs (if that makes sense) may yield better results.

To cover 5000 people outside a 500 watt amp won`t make much, if any difference. More speakers may well help a bit but I`m in agreement with the guys above, the sound-people who made the decision to not have instruments going through the FOH need taking to the side of the stage and shooting. That`s - I`m assuming - people paying good money to have to listen to that because that sound crew can`t be bothered, those people deserve the best sound possible, not the worst possible.

Without wanting to appear sarcastic it means use your ears and watch the volume and bass controls.In reality if you manage to blow a 400 watt cab there is some serious volume going on, but it can happen. Markbass do an 8ohm version, in your position I`d look at that one, less potential for accidents, even though your amp puts out 500 watts at 8ohms.

Yep, and usually a very quick turnaround too, RoqSolid are a great company to deal with, great products too.

Nick bought a bass from me - Precision of course. Good comms throughout, including swift payment. As there was no case with the bass we met up, and as it wasn`t in a motorway service station there was no need for the regulation sheepskin coat - always a bonus in August! Anyway we had a good chat about music, basses etc like you do. Great transaction all round.