lonestar

I really like Hiscox cases especially their liteflight ones

I've just finished the book. Great stuff.
It's very funny, interesting, nostalgic and a really easy read. Mr Pratt, aside from his obvious musical talents, comes across as a nice guy with a wicked sense of humour, great snippets of showbiz gossip with some brilliant put downs of the great and not so good, all done in a refreshingly self deprecating style.
There is even an anorrakky gear bit at the end too!
Haven't seen his stage show but would like to "having read the book".

I've also just read Tony Visconti's autobiography. Highly recommended and the best muso biog I've yet read. Inspiring stuff.

I remember hearing/reading? somewhere once that overdeveloping the muscles in your fretting hand won't make you any faster technique wise and may have the adverse effect.
Elswhere in this thread somone mentioned that good LH technique is all about using the lightest touch. I couldn't agree more. and while these gadgets and hand excercises may help the beginner develop the requisite strength, playing more watching your hand position and practising in a disciplined way (someone else mentioned metronome) is the key.

Having spent last couple of years gigging quite busily, including a 5 hour stint at the London marathon preceded by a gig the night before, I have developed quite a strong left hand,fast fingers and don't get any aches and pains or sore bits,(well not in my hands anyway ) after long gigs.

i practice unplugged most nights when every one else has gone to bed and noodle with my bass in front of the telly, concentrating on accuracy and a light touch but certainly don't use any other gadgets other than my bass to work out with.

Comfort strap bough mail order from one of the sponsors of this site with crucially Shaller straplocks. i use these on all my guitars to avoid any embarassing and potentially destructive instrument falling off moments

A fender us Jazz standard s1 does it all for me; Jazz growl , twiddle the knobs or hit the s1 switch and you have a fat p bass sound.
Mine was £659 just over a year ago. a good SH one should be easy to find for £600

[quote name='subaudio' post='14137' date='Jun 8 2007, 12:45 PM']Hi Luke, I'm seriously looking at getting one of these and as I have never owned any gear with valves I'm not sure what to expect, and I wanted to be aware of workarounds if a problem occurred at an unfortunate time (as they tend to), so good news about reliability.[/quote]


go for it they're great amps for the money!

[quote name='subaudio' post='14095' date='Jun 8 2007, 11:38 AM']Sorry if this is a really dumb question but, as the Harke has a valve in the preamp, if this blew at a gig would it still be possible to use the amp in solid state mode ?[/quote]

This has happened to me at a rehearsal on my HA5500 which I believe is very similar. It has a separate valve and solid state input control knob.
It still worked perfectly just using the ss preamp but just sounded slightly less "chunky" and was fine until i replaced the valve, which was easy enough.
'




'

Good revue Ollie. I owned one of these for a couple of years and would thoroughly agree with your comments. They're really nice instruments.
Only one negative point to add. The only problem that cropped up on my Tribute L2000 was that the pots were actually nasty Korean things that started breaking down within a year of my buying it, although the pickups were of US origin.
The dealer I bought it from swapped them for Mighty Mite replacements supplied by the distributor and as fitted to the US models and all was fine again. I have heard of other Tributes having this problem but it may be down to a faulty batch from that year and now nothing to worry about.

Regarding action I set my neck up to roughly Fender factory specs and it played like a dream.
[url="http://fender.com/support/setup/basssetup.php"]http://fender.com/support/setup/basssetup.php[/url]

Good luck and have fun with the new toy

I may just have to try a 5 string one at some point now!

Mike

I've had a a HA3000 which was OK but also a Hartke HA5500 which was really good with the valve preamp and 500watts on tap. The valve blew and i swapped it for a mesa boogie 12AX7, Supplied under warranty from Coda music, and it sounded even better.
If a big powerful amp and stack is your thing then I'm sure an HA3500 would be a great choice for the money.
Can't say I've tried the cabs, mine were Ashdown, but the amps are great.
I've now just got a little Markbass combo which I love dearly, sounds great and is much easier on the back

i've been listening to dot com blues by Jimmy Smith.
An album with a who's who guest list of jazz and blues greats plus superb bass playing from: reggie mcbride
Never heard of him? here is some furtherb reading: [url="http://www.bassplayer.com/story.asp?storycode=15886"]http://www.bassplayer.com/story.asp?storycode=15886[/url]

[quote name='3V17C' post='5891' date='May 24 2007, 04:57 PM']ok so one of the outputs has gone on my ampeg power amp...its old and secondhand and quite likely to be sold on quite soon. so was wondering if anyone knew of a handy amp repair man preferably around the norwich kinda area (don't wanna be sending it off as postage costs would be hefty..like the amp itself!) that can fix this up nice n cheap??
peace

c[/quote]


Not near norwich but Panic Music in Swavesey, just north of Cambridge are official Ampeg repairers I think.

Listen to the bassline on "you're My Best Friend". Pure class.

I'm not much of a Queen fan to be honest but having covered several songs of theirs over the years and having had to listen and work out the bass parts IMHO he really is an outstanding bass player.
Melodic punchy and never particularly flash; all the other attributes of a class rhythm sectionist.

[quote name='paul, the' post='2452' date='May 19 2007, 09:09 PM']This isn't a 'who's your favourite?' What it is, is that one of my favourite bass lines and my favourite bass tone is on the Stevie Wonder Track: "I Was Made To Love Her."

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrsrTvB_F34"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrsrTvB_F34[/url]

Now the problem is, after 20 minutes or so I've got the chord structure down and had a Jamerson style fiddle around them and I went to have a look at anybodys'(g?) ideas online for the specific bass line.

I found this page: ("Carol's famous hit bass line transcriptions...I Was Made To Love Her")

[url="http://www.carolkaye.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=36&osCsid=721f54f83d906ec5958bed1b5d047d05"]http://www.carolkaye.com/catalog/product_i...58bed1b5d047d05[/url]

Now I always assumed, understandably so, that it was a jamerson line from the tone and his relationship with Stevie. And I know Kaye can get a bit sh!tty about this - so I was wondering if anyone can clear this up for me before she comes and stabs me in the jaw.

Anyone got anything beyond say and conjecture?

ta,

Paul.[/quote]

Get hold of a copy of Standing in The Shadows of Motown. The Jamerson song book.
It's got the full tab for this plus all the other classics.

My bet is that that James Jamerson recorded this.

[quote name='paul, the' post='2452' date='May 19 2007, 09:09 PM']This isn't a 'who's your favourite?' What it is, is that one of my favourite bass lines and my favourite bass tone is on the Stevie Wonder Track: "I Was Made To Love Her."

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrsrTvB_F34"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrsrTvB_F34[/url]

Now the problem is, after 20 minutes or so I've got the chord structure down and had a Jamerson style fiddle around them and I went to have a look at anybodys'(g?) ideas online for the specific bass line.

I found this page: ("Carol's famous hit bass line transcriptions...I Was Made To Love Her")

[url="http://www.carolkaye.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=36&osCsid=721f54f83d906ec5958bed1b5d047d05"]http://www.carolkaye.com/catalog/product_i...58bed1b5d047d05[/url]

Now I always assumed, understandably so, that it was a jamerson line from the tone and his relationship with Stevie. And I know Kaye can get a bit sh!tty about this - so I was wondering if anyone can clear this up for me before she comes and stabs me in the jaw.

Anyone got anything beyond say and conjecture?

ta,

Paul.[/quote]