Truckstop

Personally I would die before I bought an amp simulator pedal. The characteristics of my bass, amp and cabs would alter the sound too much to make it worth using. Maybe useful in the studio, but then there are lots of plug-in's one can use that are cheaper and far more adjustable. In my experience bassists that use effects have already spent a lot of time and money getting their rig to work with their pedals, I can't see an amp simulator fitting in to anyone's rig! Maybe if it were marketed as a preamplifier-type pedal (like the sansamp, hartke vxl, behringer bdi21) then yes it'll have stuff competition. Sold soley on the merits of being an amp sim, I don't think it'll sell very well. Especially at the £120-£150 mark. But of course ymmv, IMO/IME etc etc Truckstop

Excellent choice! Keep us updated! Truckstop

+1 Fuzz with clean blend ftw! Also DI and a White LED that flashes faster and faster the further you turn the grit/destroy/enlargement/drive/testosterone knob. Cheers Truckstop

I'm based in St. Albans, but cos this is quite a niche tribute group, I realise I'll probably have to travel quite a lot to rehearse! You? Alex

Bah, luxury! etc etc Looks good! I have an old cigar box that might make a suitable thump-producer! Truckstop

No love for Trent?

Hello all, I've always loved NIN and Trent Reznor since I started listening to proper music and I've always thought it'd be pretty cool to actually jam some of their/his songs. Initially this is just totally a vanity project, but I reckon if we got good enough and made an effort to properly replicate all those funny little samples and synth sounds I'm thinking we could put together a really entertaining live show. We could invest in some cool lights and costumes (dont worry, nothing from the Downwards Spiral/Marilyn Manson tour era!) and go crazy with it! Obviously the bass position is taken, so I'm looking for guitarists, drummers, synthists and/or keyboardists. I'd like to think I could cover the vocals seeing as I've been singing along to the songs for years, but fully appreciate that I dont have a good voice so if there's anyone that thinks they're a ringer for Trent, drop me a line! Cheers Alex

I have two basses but they're the same. One's natural and the other's gonna end up black when I'm done re-finishing it! Funnliy enough though, they do sound a little different. A variation on the same theme if you will? I prefer to adjust the tone to the situation using my amp anyway. I usually whack the tone on full on the bass and then let the amp sort the rest out depending on whether I'm doing some gnarly NIN sounds or some smooth soul lines. I think I might end up setting the basses differently anyway; one with mutes and a higher action with flats, and the other with rounds and a low action. I imagine they'll both fulfill different jobs when they're both sorted out and can then justify owning two of the same bass! Truckstop

Christ, if £900's your absolute limit then there is an assload of stuff you could go for! Second hand, you could be looking at Sandberg, USA Fenders, G&L, Musicman, top range Yamaha BB (Nathan East signature springs to mind), Yamaha TRB pii. God there's loads! I'd kill for a budget like that! But if you're determined to go brand new, you can't go much wrong with Ibanez, but that's because I'm an Ibanez fanboi. Nothing wrong with Cort at all. But really, you're restricting yourself seriously if you want a brand new bass. Truckstop

Personally if I had some cash to splash on a spare head, I'd go for the smallest head possible so I could take it with my in my leads bag. Maybe the ashdown MiBass? Or someone's selling an EA Micro head on here for like £320, gotta be worth a punt at that price! Truckstop

As a general rule; yes, you should try to have a cab that is rated slightly higher than the amp is. However, the opposite is also ok and provided you don't push the cab too hard it should be ok. The only problem with having a cab rated lower than the amp, is that the you won't be able to use all the juice from the amp, and some say that that is where the best tone is! But experiment! Truckstop

The Orange Crush 100 will definitely not be good enough I'm afraid. As previously mentioned, wattage is not really the most accurate way of working out how much volume a head will provide. It's more to do with the sensitivity of the cab and also how much air the cab is moving, ergo, how many speakers it has. Vis a vis, a 100w head will be 'louder' through a 4x10 than through a 1x10 even though the same power is being provided for the cab. With this is mind, anything about 300w would be good for your needs based on my experience in several metal bands in my youth. Even better, I believe that on this very forum there is either a Gallien Krueger 400RB or 700RB for sale for not much money (£175 if memory serves) and they are great amps. Compact if you keep it out of a flightcase and have a great tone. I used a 400RB for years in a very loud death metal group and it coped extremely well! Cabwise, any sort of 4x10 would be perfect. There's an SWR 4x10 for sale here somewhere again for £175 and that is a real bargain. Looks a bit tatty, but it'll be smaller, lighter and more reliable than your HH cab! I also vaguely recall someone selling a Hartke VX range 4x10 for £120? Also a good buy in my opinion. Buying your first proper rig can feel intimidating, but in real terms it's very hard to end up with gear that won't do what you want it to do. On this forum there are plenty of people that really care about every nuance of their tone, for the moment though, you just need volume and enough of it! Hope this helps Truckstop

Hello all! As you all probably know, I bloody f***ing love Ibanez Blazers. I bought my first last year from Flat Eric for £165 and still get blown away by its articulate, zingy, bassy tone; masses of sustain, heavy attack and responsive EQ. Great build quality, great aesthetics and Fender-killing tone! The re-furb diary of the Ibanez Blazer dubbed 'Awesome' is here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/170079-refinished-my-84-ibanez-blazer/page__p__1586111__hl__ibanez%20blazer__fromsearch__1#entry1586111"]http://basschat.co.u..._1#entry1586111[/url] Anyway, the other day I was trawling ebay for some bargains and came across this - a 1981 Blazer for £175 BIN or best offer. I emailed the guy straight away saying there's no way I'm not buying this and nabbed it for the full £175. The pictures on the ebay ad showed a little 'distressing' but in the flesh it's much worse. Nevertheless, the Blazer designated 'Wicked' will be saved! Someone in its past had decided to paint it black (ie. with a brush), the scratchplate clearly broken, neck or bridge slightly misaligned and quite a few deep dents all over the body. Apart from the shoddy re-finish, my thoughts that it wasnt a factory black bass were supported by seeing the neck plate taped over and underneath beautifully clean lacquered wood! The neck's in great shape. Nowhere near as much fretwear as Awesome and less dings too. Frets and fretboard a little grimey, but nothing a little lemon oil won't sort split quick. I eagerly took it apart (didnt even check to see if Wicked worked) to see what the innards looked like and it's actually not too bad. A little grimey, but looks sound and salvageable. So, my progress so far is documented in these pictures. Unfortunately, the sanding exposed my biggest fear: that the dents would 'carry' the black too deep to be sanded out. Nevermind, I thought. Looks like it'll have to be a black refinish! So far I've only spent a couple of hours with some 60 grit sandpaper. I'll be spending many more hours with increasingly small grit size papers before finishing on wet and dry. Once that's done, I'll be appying a black stain mixed with danish oil, before using beeswax to buff. Hopefully it'll end up looking like those gorgeous Warwick/Sandberg open grain matt oil finishes. Anyway, I'll keep this thread updated over the coming weeks, thoughts and suggestions welcomed as always! Alex edit: A thought occurs; how come the pup cavities are black, but the neck socket is natural? There's absolutely no sign of any black in the socket or on the neck at all. Guy must've been a masking tape genius.

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1338239240' post='1671515'] I've got two of those in a Marshall 2 x 15 - a mate of mine has 2 x Delta-Lites in a cab. I bought mine over the counter at Maplins & they only did 8ohm versions at the time. AFAIK the bog standard Delta only comes in 8 or 16 ohm but that was a few years ago; while not trying to tell my granny how to suck eggs it may be worth checking in case Blue Aran are looking for something they can't find. [/quote] Yeah I already checked that it was the 4ohm version! Apparantly when I ordered the site showed that although they weren't in stock, it would get to me in 5 working days which turned out to be wrong so still waiting for it And I didnt know that that was how piping was fitted either until I got it in the post. I thought i'd figure it out when it came and luckily I did! Truckstop

Lovely! Thank god the neck seemed to be in fairly good shape! Truckstop

Ibanez Blazer. Just bought my second, and will hopefully be buying many more in the future! They're an interesting take on the traditional P design, love the 80-'82 headstock design. Incredibly well built and the brass bridges really set them apart from other P-alikes! And all for less than £200 each. Truckstop

Cool! Love the colour! Truckstop

Trailer ftw Over time you'd save a fortune over hiring a van for each gig or paying a guy to do it for you. Just get a fairly square one with the wheels on the outside and a stretchy tarp covering. Manouvering with a trailer can be a pain in the arse, but it tigh spots you can just unhitch it and push it to where it needs to be. Sometimes if there's a big enough band entrance, you can wheel the whole thing right up to the stage! Truckstop

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1338048445' post='1669024'] Hi, looks great, nice work! I notice you say you had problems with the adhesive, was that the Stikatak brush stuff that I recommended? It does have quite a slow tack time which can be good or bad... Unfortunately I do think that your port grill will cause problems, as well as lowering the tuning with the batons, it will impede the air flow causing issues with turbulence at higher volumes - cab ports are usually left uncovered (or with a high-void-percentage grill offset a cm or two) for a reason. I'd suggest you try with and without at a decent level to see if it matters to you. [/quote] Yeah I'll have to wait and see. I would have been happy to leave it open, but I couldn't get in there to get all the carpet out and the piping/tolex is clearly visible in the mouth of the port so desperately needed to get it covered! Hopefully it'll sound fine without :s Still waiting on the speaker though. Anyone had any dealings with Blue Aran before? Thank you for all the kind comments everyone, means a lot! Truckstop

Yeah man see if you like the dudes first! Then buy a PA and take a bigger cut of the gig money to keep things simple! Truckstop

In nearly 10 years of live performing, I've only ever had to deal with broken strings (and that can be sorted in about 2 minutes if you've prepped your spare strings already) but I always take a spare with me. Some lout might stumble onto stage and crash into your bass and then you'll be shafted for sure! Some bugger might nick one, the headstock might snap off; god, there's a million things that can go wrong that can't be sorted on the night. A spare is always handy. You can buy decent gigbags designed to carry two basses and as long as you stick with a fairly light bass (RBX's are pretty light as they go) you'll not find it too hard to carry them around. Decent 2nd hand RBX's go for around £70 on ebay. Maybe grab one and then at least you'll have another one that you can mod and tinker with? Maybe experiment with bridges, pups, learn how to set-up a guitar? Truckstop