cheddatom

The gig was great - thanks to all who asked. It was quite packed out, and apparently it sounded great FOH. We played great and tight, loads of energy 'cos we hadn't played in ages. It seems the sound on stage at this venue, is always going to be crap. I personally had a great time with my two amps and monitor around me, but I couldn't hear any of the guitarist, and the only vocals I could hear were coming from FOH. After us was "bad sandwich" who I had not seen before, but were very entertaining. I know the singer from school, but he's been away in Brighton getting f*cked up and he makes for a really extroverted frontman. The best song was when the bassist and singer swapped, so the bass player could rap, and the singer play bass for him. The whole room was jumping! Incidentally, the bassist had a nice Ampeg/Ashdown rig but wasn't really cutting through FOH. I wondered if he was a BCer but didn't get chance to ask.

Yeh, I love compression, but I don't tap much, so don't really know what's required. I feel that for a rock/pop band (I don't know what music you're playing) you should always use quite a lot of compression, or a little compression and quite a bit of limiting. I always hate seeing a band where the bassist is going mad but you can't hear what he's playing 'cos his dynamics are all over the place. I find it weird when people say "I only like compression for recording". My sound on disk is less compressed than my live sound. When i'm playing live, I want to ensure consistency in level so that it's easy for the soundman, and so I always cut through. In the studio, I want the dynamics of my playing to come accross more.

I like to use limiting to give a nice consistent level for the soundman. I use compression for sustain and attack and such. I have a Digitech dual band comp, which would work very well, also for the sound i am IMAGINING you want. I think it's called "bass squeeze" and deffinitely worth a look. However - I don't really know why people suggested a compressor either. Any kind of enhancer would probably help. Your EQ pedal will surely do the same as a treble booster if you set it right.

if you use a limiter enhancer (the behringer one is good and cheap) you can use the enhance function to get the kind of top end I think you're after.

2 6 strings and 1 acoustic 500!

Loads of guitarists use bassman amps.

Bump - just so that you notice my free pint offer.

I realise that you feel like you need a change, but in your first post, you say "I've tried both cabs separately and find the Hartke brighter and more responsive, but the Trace rounder and warmer." which made me think "he has the perfect rig, what's he want to change for?" I can't really offer any advice, just interested in the subject matter.

[quote name='King Tut' post='104365' date='Dec 14 2007, 04:21 PM']Also, you can only change directly to the patch next door[/quote] We discussed this in another thread, and there are lots of ways around it. A big plus for the Zoom for me, is that it's small enough to go on my board with a load of other pedals.

Heh, ok, so it's never supposed to come on, and if it does come on, I need to turn it down? Does you reckon that means it's fubard by now?

I think you should video the collection, just incase this guy comes out with some comedy genius!

So it's not about the lable, it's just about the look of it? Weird. I suppose I take aesthetics into account when I buy a bass, so, fair enough!

Heh, are you the kind of guy that would pay over the odds for some jeans or a shirt or some aftershave with the right label? I personally don't care how my rig looks, I just want it to sound good.

I was going to say - Why do they all need to be the same brand? If you like the sound of trace cabs through your hartke head, why would you then consider getting a trace head? It seems to me that you already have a great rig that you like. What's the problem, other than it looking a bit weird?

Last night at a band practice where I play drums and the bassist uses my rig, we started to hear a horrible bussing from my amp! It's only when you play, and it's only very noticable at quieter volumes, but it must be some kind of distortion as there's no noise when you're not playing. Because of the recent failure of my trace 18" extension cab (see other thread, still not fixed) I have been running my combo a bit louder than I used to. Also, because of the recent purchase of a barge concepts blender, i've had a slightly less compressed signal recently. So, i'm turned up louder, with louder peaks to the input. The yellow DDT light has been comming on in most of the choruses and riffs for my band, where i'll use my loudest settings. I did read on here that the Peavey DDT system was really good and effective, so I wasn't so worried, but, now i'm hearing this horrible distortion! What could be causing it? What could fix it? Basschat caused the less compressed sound and caused me to trust the DDT so now basschat owes me a fix! Thanks in advance EDIT: I just noticed the "humming and buzzing" sticky and wanted to make clear - If I play just my bass, or just an electric guitar with humbuckers through two different planet waves leads, no effects or anything, straight into the amp, I still get the noise.

boss patch switching is deffinitely not faster than Zoom.

I don't think there's anything "weak" about the Zoom, but with the lack of footswitches, I wouldn't place it in the same category as a gt-6b. You should be able to think of songs in your band, and sounds you would want for different songs/parts of songs. If you're not sure how to create these sounds, describe them and we could help. If you know what effects you would want to use in the patches, then you could look at more specific "can it do this for this song" questions. Switching between sounds is something very important to consider. Some units might not be able to do what you want/need so you can eliminate them from your search!

[quote name='Musky' post='103772' date='Dec 13 2007, 11:17 AM']Just a thought, but if you're using the Dean with a fuzz you're not going to get good results. Active electronics and fuzz don't mix.[/quote] That's not necessarily the case - It depends on the pedal and the bass and what sound you like/want.

it's a similar distortion sound, deffinitely no loss of low end, with an octave up option.

get a danelectro french toast IMO

Maybe it's a shame, if you have some kind of emotional attachment to british manufacturing. If Ashdown have made a change in their manufacturing process, and it is for the worse, then obviously this needs pointing out. However, that change could have been made anywhere in the world. Any generalisation of products based on where they come from is (basically racist ) seriously limiting your opinions without any rational justification.

There's a difference because Ashdown decided to make changes, not because it's being made in China! Fair enough if you have your own views about the economic patriotism/loyalty of Ashdown, but where a product is made, doesn't have any direct bearing on the quality.

[quote name='David Nimrod' post='103265' date='Dec 12 2007, 02:47 PM']As far as I'm concerned I wish very little was made in China.[/quote] Why? Surely it doesn't matter where it's made? It matters how it was designed, and how it was put together. If ashdown can't sort out their own QC in China, then that's their fault, not China's!

I wasn't offended by the language at all. I was offended by this notion that because something is produced in china, it's of poor quality. I had a massive argument with someone about this on another message board, and they had no good reason for saying it. I know we should really be talking about this 'cos someone's going to get offended etc but..... Chinese people are not a seperate race, they are a nationality. If you group all chinese people together, in a negative way, it's not racist, it's just anti-chinese, and bigotted etc. Maybe that's pointless, but I don't think many chinese people are going to take an abbreviation of their nationality as a racist slur. Obviously, i'm not chinese, and so I wouldn't know, but with respect to the actual word, which is causing offence, it has much more in common with "brit" than that other racist slur you mentioned.