watchman

[quote name='Jerry_B' post='1315277' date='Jul 24 2011, 11:26 PM']414s are brilliant basses, both in terms of tone and build quality. My own criticsm of them is that you have no option to adjust the blend between the neck and bridge pups. The selector switch is nice, but IMHO it'd be nicer to to be able dial in seperate amounts of volume.[/quote] I did wire mine like a Jazz for a bit, but I wasn't too sure it made a great difference to flexibility. Perhaps I should have played around with pot values a bit more, but with either wiring the cool sounds were either both pickups on full or the split neck one alone. Of course this was only given my personal preferences...

I've been gigging a white 414 to death for five years or so now. I think the 'x' just has a pickguard added. I'd say the neck was more Jazz than Precision, but then again Jazzes can vary. I just compared it to my P-bass special, late '90's Mexi, which has a Jazz neck. Near identical. So the answer to your question is yes. Very loud, and rather heavy, in the case of mine. But I love it. As to current availability and colours, I have generally found the Yamaha UK website to be decently up to date and a good indicator.

[quote name='tredders' post='1294339' date='Jul 6 2011, 09:15 AM']A cool, a Precision I haven't ever / don't currently own... All of the "they never actually made anything like this in the 70's" aside, I like the look of these. Wonder how much they'll cost?[/quote] Me too. I like it.

[quote name='merello' post='1298307' date='Jul 9 2011, 04:17 PM']World's worst sales pitch..........sorry to hear that. I am currently down to a Yamaha BB414 and it really does just about all I need. The neck is slightly too wide (I'm a J, not a P handed dude) but in a funny way it makes you focus on playing the song a bit better![/quote] 414s are a great bit of kit, and cheap with it. Never played a Ricky I liked...

[quote name='icastle' post='1298897' date='Jul 10 2011, 12:10 PM']Sounds as though Ashdown didn't think that part of the design through. I'd drop them a line and tell them about it - hopefully feedback like yours will help them decide to choose a different connector for future models. As for securing the current connectors, silicon probably isn't suitable as it becomes soft at temperature. Perhaps a little blob of clear nail varnish would work better - once it's dried it stays solid at a much higher temperature.[/quote] Good suggestions, for which thanks!

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1298635' date='Jul 9 2011, 11:07 PM']The Superfly had a similar problem regarding cab vibration, the allen bolts all over the unit (both on the case and the outer casing) work loose and make a buzzing sound. Really frustrating and not a sign of good design or build quality. I found attaching 4 bigger rubber feet with additional rubber spacers helped a lot, if the LG case is similar there should be suitably situated screws you can remove to attach them. IIRC the Little Giants only came with tiny stuck on rubber feet like the type you see on effects pedals[/quote] Good plan, which in fact I'd already implemented - but thanks nonetheless.

Hi All, I've defended the Ashdown Little Giants here before, as in two years of fairly heavy work mine's been fine and dandy. The other day, however, I was setting up for a gig and realized there was nothing happening (with the amp, I mean). The design of the LG 1000 is such that there are two power modules, one driving each speaker output. I swapped speaker outputs, and all was well. The show was duly kept on the road, and I assumed that I'd blown one output module. Today I decided that since the amp was out of warranty and I know a little more about electronics than it takes to be dangerous I'd get inside and see what I could find. If fortune smiled, I hoped for a simple blown internal fuse. I was surpised to find that of all the block connectors, and they are legion, all were loose and some had come apart completely. Once I plugged it all back in, everything worked again. Therefore I hope to save some of you a repair bill - take your LG apart and check these connectors if you're having any kind of trouble. I'm looking into something, probably silicone seal or similar, that I can use to prevent this happening again. The connectors are pretty sloppy as these things go, and being sat on my cabinet(s) as I boom away is a high-vibration environment (reggae player). I wonder how many LGs have been returned under warranty or for repair when all that was wrong was this silly mechanical fault?

[quote name='gareth' post='1249672' date='May 29 2011, 09:15 PM']Fender MIM Precision Special - the passive one - has a jazz neck on a p body with USA p and bridge j pups[/quote] I've got a '99 one. I second the recommendation, it's a good piece of working kit..

[quote name='MattM' post='1233705' date='May 16 2011, 09:52 PM']Glad to hear you like it mate . There is definitely something uniquely brilliant about the 2EQ 'Ray sound, and the SUB is a brilliant bang-for-the-buck way of getting it. Enjoy....[/quote] I loved mine, but the neck never settled down on it Otherwise I'd have kept it. I gigged it for a few months though, and it worked great for rock and pretty much anything else. Good punchy agressive sound, ideal for bringing unruly drummers to heel :>

[quote name='dood' post='1220041' date='May 4 2011, 04:58 PM']I'd say if it is blowing fuses (of the correct value) then it's a good time to get it checked out by a professional. The fuse in the power lead should be 13A - and if there is a fuse in a cartridge on the back of the amp then check it's the correct value and type (e.g slow blow). If it's tripping a distribution board, then alarm bells should be ringing ;o)[/quote] What he said. Blowing a 13A fuse is pretty hardcore.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='927271' date='Aug 17 2010, 10:12 AM']EBS - I know what you mean about the whole Class D thing. I sort-of feel the same way. The Acoustic Image head I owned sounded great, but there was no body or heft to the notes.[/quote] Although I use a LG 1000 for reason of portability and economy, I know what you mean. From playing around with class D stuff in other audio applications than bass amps I just wonder if it's not that they are so clean as to be perceptibly quiet? Distortion tends to make things seem louder, even when it's subtle distortion. All pretty arcane stuff. Anyway, hiss report: None I've noticed from my LG. Lots from my Line 6 Lowdown, even at idle. Then again, I've never really liked the Lowdown. I just have it by my desk as a practice amp, for which it's ok.

Norman's the king.

I don't know why I quite like it, but I do. The wood's gorgeous. Only the lion head is iffy, and again for me it has a weird charm. I've seen much worse stuff than this, although I can't easily remember where just now

[quote name='jezzaboy' post='1223678' date='May 7 2011, 09:18 PM']The one I had buzzed like a wasp on speed if there was a lighting rig about. I could have got it shieldied as noted above with copper but in the end couldn`t be arsed. It seemed to have a garbage active circut.[/quote] Certainly my experience

[quote name='JayPH' post='1213099' date='Apr 27 2011, 08:28 PM']Hi all This might be common knowledge but I've just discovered how awsome my new jazz bass sounds with the following settings: Neck p/u @ 100%, bridge @ 0, and the tone @ 0. Absolutely brilliant for reggae. Really mellow. How do you set your tone and what are good settings for different genres of music?[/quote] Generally I do the same, although it's a P-Bass Special in my case with rounds. When I played a Jazz with flats I'd keep the tone up a fair way, as I do with my BB.

[quote name='dan670844' post='1213810' date='Apr 28 2011, 01:43 PM']I played a mag 300 210 combo the other day with a 1x15 underneath, it was great, I used it with an old jazz bass and it really brought out the detail and had a lovely solid but smooth and warm tone. I initially turned my nose up at it because it i thought it would be low rent, really a one tone wonder, but it was really nice, almost valve tone, I picked it up just to see how heavy it was and its was supprisingly light. I thought they had particle board cabs (heavy) obviously not. If I was just playing blues rock stuff I don't think you could go far wrong. I think you need the 1x15 to beef it up but thats no problem as that was pretty light too.[/quote] My MAG 300 1x15" combo was definitely MDF or similar. Weighed a ton. Didn't sound all that great either, but it was cheap. Bought new for £220 five years or so back, gigged hard for two years, blew up. I sold it for £50 without the blown amp bit to a mate as a cab. The head's in my kitchen somewhere under a pile of equally u/s turntables, awaiting enough interest from me to fix it...

[quote name='knappymer' post='1212442' date='Apr 27 2011, 11:28 AM']Greetings everyone, I was wondering if any of you have had the chance to try out any of Ashdown's 610 (ABM or CL), VS212, or VS412 cabs. They will most likely be pair with an ABM500 EVO III. I'm thinking about making my way back into the Ashdown herd after selling my MAG300R a few years ago (still regretting it). Any and all of your time is much appreciated. Cheers.[/quote] I have an ashdown 610, the ABM. I use it with an Ashdown LG1000, and at home sometimes with a Peavey Mk 6 for nostalgia's sake. I like it a lot. It's a big clean sound and a lot of power handling in a package that I can just about manhandle into the back seat of my small car. Quite heavy, but there are built-in castors and a handle that make it a bit more manageable. I would criticize it on two grounds (for the money - I picked it up for £400 new, which seemed pretty good). First, when driving it along using the wheels and handle the centre of gravity (or whatever the term is) is such that it tends to want to drop back upright. It has to be leant back quite far to comfortably balance in transit. I imagine that this is less of a problem if you're not too tall. I'm a six-footer, and it makes me stoop. Mind you, without the wheels it'd be hell to move around. Where I live I can't get a vehicle closer than about fifty yards from my house, so this is pretty important to me. Secondly, judging by the pasting it has taken already, the vinyl covering is pretty thin and flimsy. No chucking this one around with gay abandon. I have nothing bad to say about the sound though, although you'd need my ears to take that as a recommendation in itself

[quote name='Beedster' post='1199760' date='Apr 14 2011, 06:53 PM']Line 6 Studio 110 does it for me. I like the Flip Top tone, and although it's tiny, it'll do small gigs at a push[/quote] At a real push, I find. But it is a decent little home amp, with some decent recording chops too. I wish it were a bit lighter, but mine does well for the practice task.

I agree with many here that the details are fairly unimportant and that any Precision will tend to give you the sound, but try as many as you can to get one with a neck that you really like. For me that's the main thing, that and decent balance.

I think without is fine. +1 on the white pearl suggestion, though.

Must admit I like the look of most of those. Always nice to see something different, and Reverend generally seem to manage that.

When I played active basses I set the sound up to my taste on the rig and then used the bass controls to tweak it on the fly if I needed to. Now I'm a passivist I do the same and scurry around at the back trying to tweak the rig if I got it wrong. I have learned the importance of getting it as right as possible in the first place... At one point I had the idea of using a little Zoom B2.1u to switch between preset sounds, but I can't for the life of me get the hang of getting decent sounds out of these things, and they're really not very tweakable on the fly. I have come to firmly believe that the sound coming from my (passive) bass needs to be about right before anything else happens, and that a very careful choice of tone cap in the bass can achieve wonders.

HH stuff, at least the later ones, was very reliable (and loud!). I think they were one of the first to get the whole MOSFET thing together, although at this point my memory's hazy..

[quote name='DaveB' post='1194667' date='Apr 10 2011, 03:01 PM']Well the first time I lost all sound from instrument, sent it back they replaced something but wouldn't say what but I didn't care as it now worked. Then when it got back I got a massive buzzing when I touched the pickups. Sent it back again, they blamed on me using coated strings which is total bollocks as I used the same strings before it went to them the first time and never had that issue. They refused to hear other wise. At the same time it came back the jack barrel was now knackered. I spent £80 getting a guy to replace the jack barrel and put a lacquer over both pickups to sort out the blatant earthing problem. That fixed that. Then the jack barrel has broken again (I accept this is something I could have done) Now the pickups are giving off a very wierd sound which sounds like an echo/ chorus. Simply put, no it isn't else I wouldn't of had any problems.[/quote] I've found Yamaha generally reliable, given that a certain amount of neck tweaking seems necessary from time to time on mine. At the price point, far less of that than I've experienced on comparable instruments from other companies. In particular, those Ibanezes which I love the thin necks on but which always tie themselves in knots when they have to live with me. I'll go with you on the barrel-type jacks though. They're a curse on the land reliability-wise, but it's usually a pain to replace them with Switchcrafts without further modifying the instrument

Interesting rig! Never seen one before, despite having had several H & K guitar amps which I really liked. The old H & K stuff from when it was all made in Germany was great, extrememly well made and very clean sounding in a positive way.