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MB is definitely not old hat. They were pretty much the first to get a great sounding ultralightweight head that hit really big though, and have continued to innovate. The LMII sold more than any other lightweight head for a good long while. However since then a lot of other manufacturers have come on board the market, and so there is bound to be a lot of people moving their current amp on to try something else out. Personally the TC never did it for me, I guess I'm old school enough that I want a single box to be a really good single tool, so if it goes wrong I'm not totally lost? I also hate multi function controls - comes from doing a lot of UI design, a single control should ideally have a single function. MB isnt perfect in this regard, but TC is off the scale bad for overloading controls as far as I can tell...

Dont entirely rule out the [url="http://www.sourceaudio.net/products/soundblox/tri-mod_phaser.php"]Source Audio Trimod Phaser[/url], yes its big, and digital, but it does have a lot of varying phae sounds to play with, ranging from very very mild to utterly bonkers, it can run as an envelope following phaser too, which is quite neat (esp with some grind) Just a thought...

[quote name='wesfinn' post='1128032' date='Feb 15 2011, 09:49 AM']I did get some tapewounds for it, but personally i don't like the feel of them. If I decide to sell this after all I will put them on if the person wants them.[/quote] Not surprised, they do feel really really odd dont they!

Got the H4n, and they are brilliant, been recording drums for a mate with it, snare, kick and the device itself as an overhead. I swear I've heard way worse results from studios....

Nice job Wes! Are you going to get some tapewounds for the real Herbie vibe though?? Honestly never heard anythiong else sound like his bass and I reckon its mainly because no one else uses those strings....

2 basses (5 & 4 string fretted), but I share a third (fretless) and fourth (shortscale) with Plux... No gigging band, just a band that writes & records occasionally at the moment, no sign of that changing right now, too busy!

If it was between Ampeg and Berg I;d go Berg every time (but I've never been convinced by any Ampeg gear I've heard) My ae410 has proven its worth on enough gigs, it sounds superb, the low B of my Roscoe is perfect through it, and I wouldn't call it overly aggressive at all, it has some bite, but its easily tame-able if that is what you want to do (either eq-ing your amp or turning down the tweeter, no big deal). IME too much deep low end on a gig is a recipe for disaster, very very few rooms really cope with it at volume, tending to leave a lot of mud and boom and very little clarity. That was a reason for going with the little ae410 (its about as small a 410 as you will ever find, which is cool), and I've not wanted for low end with it ever. I would add that turning the tweeter off complettely leaves a really superb 'old school' sounding cab, its ace like this!

The other thing I love about the Lexicon FX units is the chorus/flanger stuff, the chorus is just, well, lussssssshhhhh works wonderfully on bass, and if you push it it really does enter flanger territory, whilst backing the flanger right down it sarts to sound like a fat chorus, which is really how these things should work, but often dont. You may well find a use for it when tracking fretless which will make it double the value!

[quote name='Beedster' post='1123400' date='Feb 10 2011, 11:29 PM']Hello mate Thanks for your reply. It's for monitoring and live, I'm putting together a rack I can use for both. Lexicon stuff does seem to have a decent rep so I'll take a look at those you've mentioned Cheers Chris[/quote] For those purposes then IMO literally any lexicon unit I've ever used will be fine, they are simply great reverbs IME. You can pick them up for silly cash for the quality these days (especially taking into account the difference in quality between them and the ubiquitous alesis effects of the 90's for instance).

[quote name='alexclaber' post='1122474' date='Feb 10 2011, 11:55 AM']Get your drummer to use hot-rods for rehearsals, damp the kick more and turn down everything: Nothing short of two feet thick concrete surrounding the rehearsal space will contain the lows![/quote] +1, and very big deep one at that. Low end energy is baaaad news, and you have a rig that can deliver it, and a drum kit that means you need to. Alex is not overstating the 2' of concrete. Mass is all that will stop low end, mattresses are going to do absolutely nothing to attenuate those frequencies at all - total waste of effort. On the other hand they might slightly improve the sound in the room if there is a lot of bare walls surface area to reflect top end in a nasty way....

I've had 4 basses in my life. Two were Arias, and pretty plop, sold them to get the green Vester (been with me for 17 years) the other is the Roscoe. I see absolutely no reason to get rid of either of the two I have. If I need another (cant see it happening at the mo, hardly playing currently) then I'll get one...

I've played with all sorts of stuff for mastering, and keep going back to ReaXcomp, BootsyEQ, Density II, Ferric TDS, Rescue AE and GMix. Sounds complex, but does exactly what I need (ok sometimes use ReEQ if I want to get a bit surgical, and have even stooped to a smidge of de-essing with spitfish on a particularly nasty sibilant vocal track). Its 90% monitoring quality, you simply have to know your room/monitors or all is lost! I reiterate that the above wont touch a real mastering studio, but it gets me 'close enough' to get an idea of what the real thing would sound like....

Beedster, what exactly are you planning on using the verb for? Is it going down to 'tape' or is it for the vocalist's monitoring? Makes a diff about the quality you can get away with. Personally I'd get the best second hand Lexicon unit I could find and be done with it. Even an LXP-1 can sound fine, although an MX200 is a better device. What is your workflow though? How much of youyr mixing is ITB (in the box - done on a 'puter using a DAW) and how much is going to be off a desk to a 2 track recording device (OTB - out of the box - not using a computer DAW to mix - ie old skool)? If you are working ITB, and going to use a hardware reverb just for a bit of 'feel' during trackoing (but arent actually recording the reverb) then I would recommend several great plug ins, Epicverb and SIR (a convolusion engine), both are free and sound fantastic. TAL II and TAL III are great plate verb plugs too...

Dont believe the hype....

She just plain rules, doesn't she....

[quote name='DazBoot88' post='1114064' date='Feb 3 2011, 04:14 PM']Wanted to put Bootsy Collins - Under The Influence Of A Groove but could not find a video so will instead go for some Funk Factory [/quote] Love this in Pauls Boutique, sped up a tad IIRC....

Lots of options really. Cabswise one of the cabs from these Barefaced, Schroeder or Bergantino will almost certainly hit the tone thats in your head, or surpass it even. I also think Markbass amps tend to amplify your bass rather than colour it. Largely anyway, certainly not far off a flat eq. The LMII SA450 do have a really nice very subtle warmth, whilst the F1 F500 class D amps are incredibly clean and clear. Anyone preferring the sound of a Markbass amp with the VLE all the way up would do well to buy some flatwound strings and a cab with no tweeter I would think. Not a criticism at all, just that the VLE is a very peculiar tone control, its a fixed dB cut filter, when you turn the knob up you are lowering the start frequency of the filter, at its highest it gives something like -9dB to everything above 200Hz IIRC). The TC head is a superb bit of work too, might be a bit of a space shuttle to you (million and one flashing lights and too much functionality in a tiny box) or you may love having all that processing power. Then there are the Shuttles which are another set of timbres again. The new Mesa gear sounds amazing too. You are really going to have to get yourself off to a place with all this stuff to try for an afternoon. Its all great gear (and thats a tiny subset of what is actually available)

I'd also suggest its worth looking at the MXR bass auto Q (M-188). It doesnt do anywhere near as wide a variety of sounds as something like the Discombobulator, or the 3 Leaf, however what it has going for it is that is unbelievably simple to set up and get a pretty darn good squelch. If you arent too used to setting up filters it can be a right old dingdong of a learning curve, and that pedal definitely flattens that curve considerably.

Surely you mean this....

Short answer, you cant with that head. LMII has the following EQ/Filtering:- LOW center frequency: 40 Hz; level: ±16 dB LOW MID center frequency: 360 Hz, level: ±16 dB HIGH MID center frequency: 800 Hz, level: ±16 dB HIGH center frequency: 10 kHz, level: ±16 dB VPF (Variable Pre-shape Filter) center frequency 380 Hz (cut) VLE (Vintage Loudspeaker Emulator) frequency range 250 Hz-20 kHz (cut) But before you starting trying to get rid of 100HZ (very important for warmth and punchh it is) get rid of it in the kick drum. and guitars first. Really. I do this a lot with FOH in a big enough room, +3 or 4dB for the bass at 100HZ, -the same in the kick. Doesnt half help them 'gel' without the bass going all tubby.... If you had an sa450 you could have done what you wanted, assuming you can hear where 100Hz is....

ear plugs (on key ring) rack (amp, compressor, tuner) cab stand mains extension lead car satnav map [b]bass bag[/b] bass cleaning cloths spare strings string winder spare ear plugs cheat sheets set lists [b]gig bag[/b] spare strings leads + spares gerber multitool head lamp 4 gang + 6 gang power splitter (so more sockets than I could ever need for me alone) assorted audio plug converters more spare ear plugs (really!) cleaning cloths (for bass) immodium (yes, I have had to use this on a studio session - thank god it works!), neurofen, plasters batteries (9v & AA) [b]tool box[/b] soldering iron & handy hand kit mic & instrument cable speaker cable assorted plugs (1/4", XLR, Speakon) switch cleaner multimeter emery board screwdrivers allen keys (complete set imperial and metric, nearly every gauge known to man!)

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1105966' date='Jan 28 2011, 10:28 AM']Point four - random mysterious earth loop-style buzzes that only appear on the amp DI and not your proper, transformer-balanced DI. Oh, how many times have I had those...[/quote] Yeah, very good point, you dont want to be asking people to lift the earth on their amp on a stage really....

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1105833' date='Jan 28 2011, 07:23 AM']So like I said again, Point 1- I have had 2 di boxes fail on me and only one amp (if i knew i had an amp issue i would of course have a clean di and pre warn the engineer until the head was replaced or 100% repaired). Points 2&3- I always have my DI set to pre EQ and never touch the gain/input volume knobs once playing any other knobs only affects my cab not foh.[/quote] You are in the minority there I think. I've never seen a decent passive DI that hadnt been brutally abused go pop. In fact I've never seen an active one go pop I think. I've seen plenty of amps fail though. My suggestion, get a really good robust DI of your own if you do a lot of work with PA support and lots of different PAs/soundguys etc. At the end of the day if you are happy with what you have and how you are using it, then great, not going to suggest that there is only one way to sking this cat, just that other ways may be better. If your experience doesnt tally with that, then go with whaty makes sense to you! However if someone told me they had a known potential issue with their rig, I'd politely ask them not to use it if there was any other option. Electronics going wrong can do very nasty things, and nobody wants to see that happen.

Point to note for all those guys thinking about taking an amp DI withe some overdrive. Overdrive has an awful lot of nasty high frequency crud in it. Masses in fact! That is why DIing an overdriven guitar sounds fizzy, nasty and utterly unconvincing. How come a mic on a cab sounds so good then? Because paper cones dont reproduce that high end fizz and crud at all. Its beyond their capability to, and guitar cabs have only got paper cones. So whats the issue with sending an overdriven DI to a soundguy? The PA has massively powerful tweeters that happily go way higher than the nasty gank at the top of the overdriven signal, and will reproduce it in all its disgusting fizzy 'glory', sounding not unlike a baziilion angry bees rather than a fantastic tone. What has this to do with bass? Exactly the same gank occurs at the top of a DI'ed overdriven bass signal, and it sounds just as rank. If you want to use overdrive, and have it sound good, mic the cab. In fact if you tell any sound engineer worth his salt that amp/pedal overdrive plays a part in the bass tone you are after, he should go reaching for a mic to capture it, and a DI to get a really tight solid bass tone too. A cab simluator may help rectify this, but if you arent playing in a venue with a lot of outboard you can't expect that, and frankly they dont sound as good as an SM57 on a driver anyway (and cost a lot more). For the purpose of capturing drive on a cab an SM57, although not the best mic in the world, is perfectly acceptable. Eq alone will nto fix it either, it still sounds rubbish if you try and eq the top off, no eq deals with the top end like a paper cone does. Unfortunately. If you are really really serious about having your cab mic'ed, get a serious mic for the job, like a Heil PR40. If you want to use overdrive and have the FOH reproduce it, mic the cab. Amp DI's will not cut it.

Ever seen a hefty fuse wire go pop? "Not funny Indy, not funny!!"