watchman

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1166051' date='Mar 17 2011, 06:47 PM']There are a lot of guitarists that understand the discipline involved. Our guitarist is also a bassist and he's great.[/quote] I'm not entirely sure that I'm great, but I've played both for donkey's and I do understand that they are entirely different in terms of technique and role in the band. As you imply, they're simply not variations of the same instrument.

I think the cabs are really important, as others have said. Essentially, the low end of a bass is always pushing the limits of cabinet and speaker design. For one thing, ideal cabinets would need to be so huge and rigid that you'd have to stop regarding them as portable. There are vast differences in sound between different cabs, for example, in relation to different amps (let's say run flat). The essential nature of the bass is also important, as in P-bass or Music Man for example, but realistically you'll want a bass that is comfortable for you and that you can afford. I'd say that cabs are where a lot of the budget should go, assuming the budget to be finite. Cheap basses can sound great (and let's face it, there's nothing inherently expensive about the classic designs in general), but you seldom hear anyone evangelizing about the sensational sound of a very cheap rig. My advice is to get a bass rig that is as good as you can possibly afford, preferably with decent flexible eq for ease of tweaking, make sure you're not loving the sound of a MM and trying to get it with a Vox Beatle bass or whatever, and practice like hell. How you hit the strings and what they are is also massive. The idea that tone is in the fingers, to which I subscribe to a large degree, must also take into account one's not having to put up with gear you just don't like. I also think that when we say it's all in the fingers, usually when we hear someone we really like play different gear and still sound like themselves, what we probably mean is that we love that person's playing so much that we look beyond the precise attributes of the sound and feel the music. It's hard not to sound great if you play great.

[quote name='spongebob' post='1168339' date='Mar 19 2011, 04:25 PM']Playing alongside in support, Wilko Johnson and Norman Watt-Roy! What a player....couldn't believe what he was doing with 12-bar material. I think he must have at least 15 fingers.[/quote] I love him, he's a ridiculously groovy bass player!

[quote name='Sawtooth' post='1160282' date='Mar 13 2011, 11:44 AM'][/quote] Well, I like his look. Never really liked slapping though, although I am of course open to revising that opinion if I heard something I loved. And no, I can't slap to save my life.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1168283' date='Mar 19 2011, 03:33 PM']There are great young players,and there are great older players,it makes no difference.[/quote] +1. Youth's a marketing ploy.

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='1164739' date='Mar 16 2011, 07:24 PM']I would hang fire Andy, if you have a giggable rig the noo and don't need this amp straight away, then you may as well wait till you get exacly what you want, I believe you once said that to me.[/quote] That's gotta be the way forward, surely. +1.

[quote name='SteveK' post='1170642' date='Mar 21 2011, 02:39 PM']Cos without it my Precision wouldn't look like a proper Precision, and the knobs and socket would be dangling by their wires [/quote] You beat me to it...

Or, if you can be bothered, you could sell the serviceable parts of what you have and put the dosh towards another bass. The thing is, the neck's really the be-all and end-all of an instrument since it is the part you most notice the feel of and a major contributor to the sound. If you're going to replace the neck, tuners and bridge I'd say be very sure that the body and electronic parts are exactly what you want first. Because if I were in your position the idea of building exactly what I wanted from parts (and from scratch) might well appeal. Funds permitting, of course - the old bugbear.

Absolutely not.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1173588' date='Mar 23 2011, 06:49 PM']You gotta move. It's a show [/quote] Totally.

If I had a fretless I'm sure I'd mess around with chorus, but I haven't so I don't. Normally I don't bother, although I have a Zoom B2.1u I mess around with sometimes. I haven't gigged it though. I can see fun possibilities with a decent looper though, now I'm thinking about it.

[quote name='Marvin' post='1178925' date='Mar 27 2011, 10:39 PM']Um.............don't know, so probably not.[/quote] I thought about it and concluded the same.

[quote name='Big_Stu' post='1167714' date='Mar 18 2011, 11:01 PM']I've been using Roto's in guitar & bass for almost 30 years. I've tried Fender (worst of the lot), Ernie Ball & D'addario but never for long, in fact, not of more than a one packet trial. Always gone back to Roto's. Now I just wouldn't bother trying any others at all.[/quote] Exactly the same, although 34 years in my case

Guitool thingy, spare strings, towel, fuses, torch, pen and paper, spare leads, spare tuner. All get used save for the spare strings...

[quote name='icastle' post='1168651' date='Mar 19 2011, 08:14 PM']+230 (±10%)[/quote] That was very funny

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1171373' date='Mar 21 2011, 10:36 PM']I use the dear Loctite stuff on everything (it's the luthier's best freind)... even then it's not a powerful as it used to be.[/quote] +1 I habitually use Loctite Blue on saddle screws. Works like a charm.

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1163162' date='Mar 15 2011, 03:40 PM']In saying that though, GKs aren't the simplest amps to use (mainly the boost knob is confusing to most people, don't think I've ever really heard it described properly).[/quote] Always used to be a paragon of reliability, though, which counts for a lot.

No issues at all with my two or three year-old SVT 15E cab. Rather well made, if anything. And although RRP was £500 or something comical it became £220 very fast when I started dealing. Cheap and good.

[quote name='Bankai' post='1175502' date='Mar 25 2011, 04:57 AM']You'd never use a cabinet mic solo. It should be used in combination with a good DI. The microphone is there just to add that bass power/tone to it that you just can't get from DI alone. Hence using what is primarily a bass drum microphone. You don't need to rely on it to reproduce everything, it's there to do a specific job in supplementing the DI, and a microphone like the e602 does that best.[/quote] +1. Madness not to have DI as well IMHO.

[quote name='Bankai' post='1176792' date='Mar 26 2011, 02:08 AM'][url="http://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-guitar-amps/pid20612/cid561/ashdown-klystron-500-full-stack.asp"]http://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-guitar-amp...-full-stack.asp[/url] Not my cup but seems a good deal.[/quote] You have to love "an exceptional live bass sound that could fill a stadium if you needed it to" in their description. Because you're going to be playing in a stadium. On backline alone. And having reached those heights you'll be paying for your own gear. Still, they have to sell stuff... My experience with Anderton's in Reading was not good three or four years ago. I'm talking the shop rather than online. In the shop the prices were sky-high, much of RRP for 'sake, and they were really sniffy when I attempted a modest haggle. I always take displayed prices as a starting point for negotiation, and I conduct this in a courteous and friendly way. Anderton's was the only place in 30 years where I felt that they were rude and aggressive at the outset as soon as I mentioned doing a deal. It was: Me: "So, if I were to take the bass and amp now, cash, what would your best price be?" Manager (I think, oldest guy there and deferred to by other staff): "I told you the price". I bought neither bass or amp. The young lad who had set up some stuff for me to try, though, was great - friendly and unbiased. The whole experience put me off them rather. They need not have been curt. I bet in the current economy they've had some of the corners knocked off them.

[quote name='xgsjx' post='1177111' date='Mar 26 2011, 01:15 PM']Try telling that to a guitarist! [/quote] +1, and I'm a guitarist and a bassist in roughly equal measure. Of course much is down to economics. I use a few different amps for guitar, so that if I need the push of a melting tube amp I can use 10 or 15 watts and not deafen or destabilise every poor wretch nearby. Bigger gear for bigger shows or clean headroom. It's nice not to have lug my full rig to rehearsals too (see my tag for stage gear). That said, I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a small selection of amps. Many people have one rig, and need it to do largish outdoor shows in the summer for example. I keep levels down in rehearsals purely to save my ears, but then I wouldn't have said that 30 years ago...

[quote name='nash' post='1173496' date='Mar 23 2011, 05:37 PM']i'm a traditional guy. i can't get on with class D power amps.[/quote] Love the cleanness and light weight, and use 'em. They are so clean, however, that one perceives them as quiet compared to "real" wats of the old-school type. Simply demonstrates how little what we perceive through our hearing relates to measured specs and numbers. See also audio tapered pots, etc. I find class D gives me lots of clarity, but then I like the sound of my bass DI'd too. I also thoroughly approve of big old dirty conventional amps in some contexts. Horse for courses, as always.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1176554' date='Mar 25 2011, 10:04 PM']Yep hence the 38Hz shelf, just cuts the wool out. Nothing missing that humans will hear, better to use the power somewhere else.[/quote] What he said. Death to the wool...

[quote name='guybrush threepwood' post='1176880' date='Mar 26 2011, 09:12 AM']I agree with Alex on this one; 200 watts isn't a great deal, and it's just a RMS figure anyway - in the real world I reckon that there would easily be moments of almost 1000 watts at a big gig.[/quote] I use an Ashdown Little Giant 1000w (actually two separate 500w output modules in there with their own speaker connections). I run it into an Ashdown 6x10 as a 500 watter, and sometimes add an Ampeg 1x15 for larger gigs, which being 8 ohm gives 250 watts on the other output. I grant you I play mostly reggae, but this rig at three-quarters wallop (as far as you can tell from where the knobs are anyway) is about right for me. Noone's ever told me it's too much in a band context. Two important points about audio, forgive me if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs: First, these class D amps are very, very clean. Since much of what we perceive in terms of volume is down to distortion, they don't sound all that "loud". Think symphony orchestra or big band giving it some stick. Loud as hell (measured in dB), not perceived as especially offensive to the ear, musical taste aside. Small guitar amp melting in a good way, however, is perceptibly loud as hell. I actually got rid of my little class A 5 watt valve guitar amp since at the level it cooked it was far too loud at home. More distortion = "louder". I'm told that this is because the ears and brain become fatigued while trying to "correct" for distortion. By this I don't just mean overdrive either - the phenomenon also applies to the low level of distortion all audio gear exhibits. This is why valves sound a lot louder for a given power output. Well, that and compression inherent in valves being driven. Compression may massively increase perceived levels of volume. Second, the difference between 200 and 400 wats, say, isn't that great. To get a perceived doubling of volume levels you need roughly ten times the output power. If you work in a band where lots of clean, deep bass is required (yes indeedy, I do) then it's not silly to have a great deal of power. There's no escaping big cabinets and high wattages, although there may be some productive fakery in modern digital processors and so on. I tend to just plug in and go myself.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1171546' date='Mar 22 2011, 12:32 AM']This [/quote] Headroom, baby! It's all about having massive headroom (for me)...