Ben Jamin

Aguilar Tonehammer has a great sound. The drive control has a really nice warm break-up, unlike the nasty top-end fizz from a lot of other pedals/amps. And mostly importantly - sweepable mid frequency! The single most useful thing on a pre-amp that lots of others lack. Really useful for finding booming low mids and cutting them or adding a bit of punch in just right spot.

+1 for Matamp

I've just replaced my Ampeg PF-500. I used it for about 2 and a half years and 95% of the time it was fine. Every now and then though it would do something weird like this. I've since come to realise that buying an amp with a dedicated 'fault' light isn't the best idea!

I used a Morley ABC to play both my bass and Bass Station II simultaneously. Worked a treat! By that I mean have them 'live' at the same time, I'm not cool enough to be playing both at once, sadly. Worked pretty well for me - however if you've got full PA support with an engineer etc then I'd definitely DI the bass synth separately - I tried running both through my bass amp at big gigs and it just caused hassle as the engineer wants to apply different EQ/compression etc to each instrument for the FOH.

[quote name='Joe_T' timestamp='1415270675' post='2598541'] Nice one man Yeah I kinda wanted the effects loop for some stuff. How Is the compact for weight/size? Kinda stuck between that and the Midget. [/quote] For a 15 cab my Compact is pretty small - the new ones have 12s I think so I'm guessing they'd be smaller still! Fits in the boot easily enough. As for weight you can literally lift it with your little finger, which makes you look really strong and manly.

*highly sophisticated bucket of stuff

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1415231574' post='2598333'] It's probably a load of nonsense. [/quote] I think I know where they got it from http://phaser.gfxile.net/ligen/technobabble.php

Just read up on La Bella's new Vapor Shield strings. http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2014/11/05/la-bella-unveils-vapor-shield-treated-bass-strings/ [color=#000000][font=open-sans, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4]“Using a highly sophisticated Ionic Vapor Process™ developed by Acoustic Science™, proprietary compounds are activated in a glow discharge electromagnetic plasma, modifying the string’s entire surface,”[/size][/font][/color] [font="open-sans, arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][color="#000000"][size=4]Beam me up Scotty.[/size][/color][/font]

I received a Tone Hammer 350 today. Bloomin' loudest 350W I've ever heard. Louder than the 500W Ampeg it's replacing by miles. It's got the same Bang and Olufsen poweramp as in a lot of 500W+ heads. If you're not fussed about the effects loop then I'd go for the 350. My cab's a Barefaced Compact, generation 2. It sounds amazing.

The Line 6 XD-V55HS is pretty good value Wireless is expensive (at least usable ones are)!

Check out the Empress Compressor - best metering I've seen on a pedal and sounds great.

Here's a explanation of overtones and harmonics [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone[/url] Like BotB said BBE and Aphex make good exciter pedals. Another good bass-specific one is the Basswitch Sonic Spark [url="http://lehle.com/EN/RMI-Basswitch-Sonic-Spark"]http://lehle.com/EN/...tch-Sonic-Spark[/url] Edit: found a good demo! [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2kp_GHj2lw"]https://www.youtube....h?v=k2kp_GHj2lw[/url]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1413380268' post='2577705'] It seems crazy to move it on just because I don't like the colour! [/quote] I think that's a perfectly justifiable reason. Just saying.

Nooooo!

Looking up the Carlsboro monitors - you're probably going to damage the speakers if you run your bass (unless it's high-passed - filtered out low frequencies) at reasonable volume through them. It's the sub frequency stuff that's the speaker-killer - which bass guitars tend to kick out a lot of. As BRX says these kind of monitors are designed more for vocals/instruments that take up the mid-range. If you're running bass into the PA then you could maybe try repositioning/setting up your amp so that it works just as a monitor for you, as opposed to going out front of house as such.

That looks ace! My brother's got a '81 F-100 and it's quite simply the best guitar I've ever played. MFD pick-ups are the way forward. If you ever decided to move it on...

I have a Bass Station II. I can confirm it sounds awesome.

Ahh rubbish. It displayed the price in £ so I just assumed. Sorry!

I'm not affiliated with Musicians Friend or anything - I just saw this offer and thought some of you might appreciate it I very nearly bought one! http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid?source=3XFCBK2

I have an Ampeg PF-500. Don't get one. Nah's it's alright really, just run it clean, overdriving the gain produces some nasty clipping and coincidentally kills the power-amp, IME.

Thanks for responses guys, a second Compact would be ideal, there's just a few things... a. It'd be a shame to waste the SWR, which I picked up on here recently. It also has a replacement Celestion 18" - FTR18 I think (should've mentioned that earlier, sorry!) which is 1000W RMS/8 ohms. b. I think the 15" Compacts have been discontinued [url="http://barefacedbass.com/product-range.htm"]http://barefacedbass...oduct-range.htm[/url] c. I don't really trust my amp since it took a pretty nasty fall and it's never been particularly reliable, I wouldn't sell it on here for that reason, so I'd like to replace that first if anything d. I don't have a massive budget I'm totally open to every option, the cabs don't sound inherently bad together I just wondered if I can make it work better - would the best solution be to try and get a better matched cab/sell the SWR/get an affordable amp? Probably looking at 2nd hand price-wise. I don't need EQ etc as I can use my Sansamp for that and XLR out Thanks loads

I recently got myself an SWR Big Ben (lovely 18" subwoofer cab) to compliment my Barefaced Compact because a lot of the stuff my band's doing at the moment requires bass synth/lots of sub which is a bit much for the poor Compact by itself at volume. I'm currently running them both from my little Ampeg, but I'm thinking it be much more efficient to split my signal and send the subs to the SWR and the rest to the Compact, so it's literally like a 18" sub with a 15" top. My PF-500 took a nasty tumble last week (never let singers carry your gear) which caused some severe aesthetic damage and snapped parts etc so I'm taking that as an excuse to 'explore the possibility' of a new amp set-up I'd really like to be able to send everything below around 100-150hz to the Big Ben and everything over that to the Compact and control the volume of each. I'm guessing I could do this with an active crossover and two power-amps but is there a simpler/more affordable method?

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1402917531' post='2477786'] Poke the last bit of the cable through the cab handle to take the stress off the amp's input socket [/quote] I used to do that until I wandered too far off-stage once and pulled my whole rig over with everything plugged in. Made an awful noise. Nearly cried. That's the downside to lightweight cabs!

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1402917531' post='2477786'] Poke the last bit of the cable through the cab handle to take the stress off the amp's input socket [/quote] I used to do that until I wandered too far off-stage once and pulled my whole rig over with everything plugged in. Made an awful noise. Nearly cried.