bassbiscuits

Hello, I’ve got a load of Markbass kit but have fallen in love with the sound of an Ashdown ABM Evo II head that’s in the rehearsal room we use. I want to see if I can borrow it to try through my MB cabs. I’m aware it might be a bit like mixing Silk Cut and Marlboro as they are aiming at rather different sounds. Anyone else tried an Ashdown head through Markbass cabs?

Rather than picking the clever heroic ones, I've been more influenced by solid players whose groove, tone and contribution I've probably tried to emulate something from in my own way (not saying I've succeed mind you). I'd go with: Dee Murray (Elton John) Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses) Trevor Bolder (Bowie era) Norman Watt-Roy Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) Gene Simmons (Kiss) Aston Barrett (Bob Marley) Also an honourable mention to whoever was responsible for the thumping bass lines and four to the floor drum beats in the electronic dance music I loved in the 1990s. Instilled in me the satisfying power of thumping away on a solid root note. Sometimes less is much more more.

Here’s my budget bass. Yamaha BB604 from 2013, which cost me £200 seven years ago. It’s alder, maple, rosewood, active 9v circuit. Nicely balanced, weighs 3.8kg, and dead loud. Was bought as a spare at the time but quickly became my go-to bass.

At the risk of stirring the pot, I think you can go wrong with a Yamaha too. I had one very dull Yamaha bass some years ago, and a Yamaha acoustic whose neck decided to go awol and turn corkscrew shaped. Rare, but not unheard of. But in general yeah they’re pretty cool bits of kit.

I’ve got a pair of BB604 basses which are incredible considering the two together cost only £500. Do they sound great? Absolutely. Do they give me a really good P bass sound? No. That’s what I use my P bass (or my Mustang) for. So depending on what you want, it might suit you better than a P, but if you’re after specifically a P bass sound, you should look at a P bass really.

Looks mint! Steve Harris was also my inspiration for learning to play bass over 35 years ago now. In fact I was having a bit of a rough time of things last week and ended up watching a few songs from Live After Death on Youtube which soothed my soul and took me back to being a wide-eyed teenage metal fan. I met him once at the British Music Show in Earls Court in 1997 - I queued up at the Rotosound stand for ages to get an autograph, but was then too starstruck to say anything to him!

My pair of BB604 basses. One I’ve had since 2017, one since autumn 2023. Both identical 2003 models made within a month of each other.

My entire rig (not sure where my pedal board was when I took these tho!) And the bit I’m currently using as my main small / medium gig rig. The other stuff in the background of the bottom pic isn’t mine - it’s the Cinelli Brothers’ kit from a gig where we opened for them.

I use KZ ZS10s too and my only complaint is that they feel quite heavy and large in my ears so once I get sweaty I have to keep adjusting them to stop them falling out. Decent all round sound quality tho for £40. Also heard good things about the Ultimate Ears ones mentioned above too and will probably upgrade to something more comfortable than the KZ set when the time comes.

I use the big yellow Dunlop picks that look like rounded off triangles. I play guitar and bass and have used them for both for years. Below is a pic from the Strings Direct website.

My non-scientific approach involves going (up/down a bit) “yup that feels about right.”

I find my plucking / picking hand to be most comfortable when the bass is low, and the fretting hand prefers it if the bass is a bit higher. So I kind of aim in the middle (roughly the full extent of a long Comfort Strapp) which is the best of both worlds for me. But some basses - I’m thinking Thunderbirds and Epi Jack Casady basses - I can’t get comfortable at any height. They’re just the wrong shape/balance for me whatever I try.

Think I’ve only got about half a dozen gigs booked in all year so far. Mix of solo, band and depping. We’ve booked two holidays and annoyingly I’ve since had to turn down four well-paid gigs which clash with the school holiday dates. Hope it will even out a bit as the year progresses.

He was good tho! The voice, the moves, the spangly see through vest, the lot. Good on him!

I thought You Spin Me Right Round with Rylan as guest singer was also far better than it had any right to be

Rick Astley was awesome tho! Go Rylan!

I’ve fallen back in love with mine. It’s a 2013 MIJ one with a jazz-width neck. I wasn’t using it much this year, as I’ve done lots of function gigs for which my active Yamahas were more versatile and better at covering a lot of different styles and sounds. However I took it to a gig on Friday and it fitted in perfectly. I took the Yamaha too and swapped to it halfway thru but it didn’t suit the music anything like as well as the Mustang. I’d had a bit of a downer on it and was going to sell it but my eyes have been opened once again to its charms. And of course, they look very cool.

Due to handing in my notice at work to retrain, I’ll have no money for instruments so I suspect I’ll be abstaining whether I choose to or not!

Here’s me from a couple of years ago at a beer festival in Bedfordshire if I remember correctly. I felt sick as a dog the entire gig but it went well enough.

The rehearsal space we’ve been using since the summer comes equipped with a fairly old Ashdown ABM300 head into an 8-ohm MAG 4x10 cab. Much to my surprise it’s a stonking sounding bit of kit, and really loud. Especially surprising since the various Ashdowns I’ve owned weren't my cup of tea at all. But this one has magic inside it somewhere. It sounds lovely.

That little run at the end of the choruses took me a while to nail. And the bass line in the chorus itself is all over the place, plus with BVs on top. Cool tune tho 👌

Yeah definitely! Dee Murray I think was the bassist on a lot of the earlier stuff and he’s really inventive. I guess having Elton’s left hand already rumbling away on the low end means finding some other space for the bass lines to occupy. Step into Christmas has a fiendish bass line too!