fretmeister

Yes. Of course they do. Whether us punters like it or not is irrelevant to that right. "Classic" status is irrelevant too. A classic to me might be unlistenable dirge to someone else.

Is there a way to make the standard EMG tone control have the same impact on tone as a tone pot on, say a passive P or J bass? I love my EMG pickups, but the tone control does not do a lot and I’d like to get the same dramatic LPF effect that an old Fender tone pot would. Any ideas?

At home when I'm playing to make fun noises I'm happy to use anything I've got lying about, but for 99% of gigs if it won't fit on a Nano+ board then it doesn't come with me. So there's a bit of swapping depending on what I'm doing. At the moment it's Bass > Spectrum Filter > C4 > Darkglass VMT > BC-1X > OC-5 > Micro Thumpinator > amp. TBH the C4 is on there just for a bit of experimentation on a tune or two - my big band are doing an interesting arrangement of Bruno Mars 24K magic and I'm getting close to getting the synth tone from the C4. It's all about being lazy really - I have an excellent patch for my Bass Station 2 that really nails the recording but I just don't want to carry more kit! I also have a massive board that was assembled from when I was in a function band and were playing everything from the Blues Brothers to Muse. I haven't used it for ages, but it's got a couple of LS-2 for blending, Fuzz Wah, couple of different drives and fuzz, the old BSW, etc etc. It weighs far too much. If I ever did that again I think I'd do it all in Helix. But I'd have to buy another one as my existing one is the rack and it's fully integrated into my home studio and there is no way I'm pulling it apart to take to a gig. Too much hassle!

They delivered the replacement today. Unfortunately the twonks delivered the J pickup version and not the MM version I actually ordered. I'm going to get a refund. I can't be dealing with this nonsense.

That's certainly a valid concern. I did enjoy informing an American on facebook that I won't buy from countries that allow exploitation of workers... and then telling him the USA was on high on that list. Sometimes that bear has to be poked.

@agedhorse Why does the manual say 8-32 ohms then? That might cause people to spend money when they don't have to. (Unless Mesa are going to start making headphones! )

As far as I can tell, the dealers pretty much order what they want and think will sell. Might explain why the dealers that hold some stock always seem to have the same options. So I think it needs the dealers to order a wider variety of options. Bass Direct seem to order a large amount without dots on the fingerboard for example, but other shops seem to have dots or other inlays on most items. There are so many thousands of possible configurations with all the options Sandberg offer that I'm not surprised not everything is available. That they can offer that for a lower price than US Fenders is fantastic. Just a shame about the wait - but even then a year isn't too bad. I'm on the waiting list for a King of Tone overdrive - it's been 3 years so far with an estimate for at least another year to go!

When I had a valve amp I always used Karltone https://www.karltone.co.uk/ One of the old fretboard / Musicradar / Intermusic forum guys set it up.

If you've had a hard life then why would you want others to suffer the same way? As always there are 2 types. Those who have suffered and want the next generation to suffer just as much, and those that have suffered and want better things for the next generation. Always pick the second choice, or perhaps admit that your suffering has deeply damaged your humanity and ability to empathise.

If the amp will only drive up to 32ohm cans, then the lovely DT990 set will be extremely quiet to use. Quite possibly to the point of not worth bothering at all. 8-32ohms really is at the cheap end of the headphone market for over-ear cans as that is usually what is used for smart phones / ipods etc. They just don't have the power to drive high impedance cans for long. If you like the DT990 then Amazon currently have the 32ohm version at £139 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0024NK344/?coliid=I2WKA13PUS20DR&colid=36GAI3AM1AYTJ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it I understand why Mesa have done it - almost everybody has a cheap set of headphones about whereas not everybody has a set of 80-600 ohm cans, but it would have been nice if the headphone amp in the head could at least deal with 80ohms. The other option is to get an external headphone amp to sit between the amp head and your cans. But that's a faff.

Yeah - it's not "cheap" labour - it might even be very well paid in that location. But it is lower cost to the main comparator.

"Worth" is a very loaded word. If it costs £1500 to allow the workers to have a living wage and good working conditions etc then even if it is too expensive for me, then it must be reasonable. People often look at the price of parts against the RRP of a new product and declare that the full product is too expensive. Often there is no thought given to building rent or purchase / staff wages / insurance / electricity / heating / building taxes / water supply (always very expensive in manufacturing) / environmental compliance / transport / maintenance of the machinery / distribution systems / IT Networks / etc etc. Just because there might only be £300-£400 of parts in a £1500 bass does not mean there is £1100-£1200 profit. The actual profit might only be £200 after all the actual overheads are covered. Manufacturing is very expensive. Global shipping is very expensive. The cost of the parts is the smallest element of the total monies spent to get the finished item into the hands of the ultimate buyer. If there's one thing I've learnt from seeing actual accounts for manufacturing companies, it's that actual profit levels are always far smaller than people expect them to be, and the total overhead cost per item is always massively larger. For those reasons I'm not convinced the word "worth" is the right one. I can easily say whether I would be happy or not to pay £1500 for something, but that has no influence at all on whether it would be possible to make that thing at a lower price and not go bankrupt.

It's very amusing when someone in the UK differentiates between US rays and Non US ones by only describing one of them as "Import". They are both imports for here.

I use one sometimes for writing but never have for performing.

Perfectly safe. If you buy any power hungry digital pedals just make sure they get powered from a 500mA output.

Yes - I used that set up for a year or so and was very pleased with it. I still have the head. I only sold the cab as I didn't need anything that big anymore.

Why not?!? The Blackstar travel bass is only 22.5 inch scale and it sounds excellent.

Ti Flats on it now. Been playing it all day through my Ashdown and a BF One10. It’s so easy to play and it sounds ace. I’m already wishing I had another so I could have one with rounds on it too! 🤣

this is my 50th birthday present from my wife really. It’s the first (and last apparently) bass she has bought me so I suspect I will have to keep it even if my arms fall off! Not risking that argument!

Seems quite task specific and unlikely to sell massively, but quite interesting nonetheless.

The wood choices and the hardware. The tuners are now lighter than Hipshot Ultralites, the bridge is lightweight. The neck is Norwegian maple as that is a much lighter wood than Canadian maple, and the body is the very lightweight Paulownia wood. No chambering.

One of the reasons for a control on the tweeter/compression driver is to be able to remove that ultra high frequency hiss without really affecting your tone. The cab cannot generate hiss, it can only let it through. The Ampeg is a noisy beast. Use the control on the cab to tame it. There's nothing actually wrong with any of your kit. But as others have said, other amp designs will have less hiss but some will actually have more!

Sandberg VS4 (their P bass) often comes in at 7.5lb (Classic & Cool have a white one at the moment at that weight), but Sandberg will build any of their basses with Superlight specs as a special order. My low weight obsession is because of injury / surgery so I fully understand.

I will be doing a video or two with different strings for my own amusement / testing in a mix. I'll post them as I do them.