watchman

[quote name='razze06' post='1095113' date='Jan 19 2011, 02:31 PM']Would it be ok to express a less enthusiastic opinion on the terror bass head? I went into a local shop to A/B the orange TB and my tecamp puma 350. I was looking for a more valvey tone from a small head, so the TB would be an ideal choice. I played both of them through an orange sp10 cab with my T40. I walked back out with my tecamp. The TB has got a nice tone to it, but the eq on the orange might as well not have been there. I found that I wanted a bit more depth to the tone, but couldn't get it. The gain control does indeed add grit in a nice and touch-controllable way, but I found that it wasn't enough for me. Nice try, but i'll keep looking for something else. Don't shoot me, please, I just wanted to share...[/quote] I'll back you up here. Apart from the lack of eq, which I guess you could fix with a graphic pedal or something if you needed to, the one I tried had a definite nasty little edge of distortion going on at the high end regardless of gain settings and so forth. This was through a little Orange 2x10" cab, BTW, whatever the one is that runs the speakers in tandem in order to be small (and heavy and sound awful, although of course this is only my opinion). I was actually trying out basses at the time, so my comments apply to using it with some Fenders (passive) and Sandbergs (active) and the odd Ibanez (both). I could never get rid of the nasty distortion. And I don't mean tubey sound, this was far from warm drive. Honestly, I think it may have been a dud. A pity, as I too was taken by the power/size ratio and intrigued by the valves - being as susceptible to a bit of audio voodoo as the next menopausal male. I wound up with an Ashdown Little Giant 1000w. I gather these have a fearsome rep for blowing up, as did my previous Ashdown rig, but I get 'em cheap and work 'em hard and take it philosophically when they fail. Twenty five or so gigs in, no problems yet. And I run it close to full chat. I love the clarity and cleanness of class D power amps, but I thought that marrying that to a valve pre was probably the worst of two worlds. Tubes do their magic in output stages driving output transformers (Heat! Weight! Bulk! Expense!). Although in a preamp they warm it all up a bit, I'm sceptical that there is some valve magic inherent. Which said, some likes an egg and some likes an onion. Good to hear that many players here are happy with the little Orange. If your rig makes you smile, and does the required in the band you play in, it doesn't matter a fig what I or others think does it?

[quote name='burray' post='1171796' date='Mar 22 2011, 10:45 AM']I've got a 414 and I loved it from the moment I saw it. Unfortunately, I can't afford to keep it as a second bass and there's no way I'm selling my Aerodyne, so the BB is up for sale! If you're not interested in buying, I've just updated with more pics for you to spank your plank over. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=124074"]BUY ME![/url] [/quote] I'd have loved mine in this colour, but they didn't have a four-stringer in it when I bought mine (nasty white) in a hurry. Good luck with the sale though!

[quote name='73Jazz' post='1174017' date='Mar 23 2011, 11:40 PM']As for me a flatwound string is normal, i am wondering what you mean with normal If you mean the difference between flatwound and roundwound..just take a guess what the difference may be!? soundwise, in my oppinion the rounds seem to have more bite, more highs, more piano. Flatwounds played alone without a band, may sound boring as a first impression to you, but if you start playing in the context with your band for example, you will learn to love them, as you have a better assertiveness and punch.[/quote] As a recent convert to flats, I completely agree. They're great in a band context, but can seem a little dull when practicing or playing solo. Love 'em in the band, and my poor old fingers do too, far less wear and tear.

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1174996' date='Mar 24 2011, 06:56 PM']Well,i looked at it for a bit (13 months) and whipped the tools out,it now looks like this. 1 precision scratchplate,1 Epiphone EB-0 pickup,1 Wilkinson soapbar pickup,1 Precision pickup cover later,and TA-DA.[/quote] That looks really cool, and as though it might sound like my sort of thing. Not a fan of the chrome covers, but then that's why they're simple to add and remove...

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1177788' date='Mar 27 2011, 12:51 AM']Audacity is good free recording software.[/quote] Although it becomes achingly slow and a bit unstable when dealing with long track transformations. Great, and indeed free, for hacking about without effects in software though. Just be a little wary of heavy editing and effecting in it.

[quote name='sykilz' post='1178407' date='Mar 27 2011, 03:59 PM']Cheers guys, no one saying " don`t bother I noticed no difference " so must be a good idea, I`ll hunt for some sound clips before deciding but the DImarzios sound like they may be the tone I want, i.e clear and snappy, but with an undercurrent of f**k you.....!!!!![/quote] I have an SPB-2 (hot p-bass, apparently) kicking around, which I bought when I didn't even have a P-bass to put it in. One of those things one finds in music shops lying around and buys because they're cheap, on this occasion. I figured that one occasionally picks up cheap P-bass copies, and it might be handy to have a decent pickup for one one day. Stuck it in my beloved Yamaha BB414 briefly, but it was about half as loud and a lot less clear than the original pickup - pants, really, by comparison. Also, of course, it didn't really fit - but I'm not really about the cosmetics, so... A short while later I picked up a particularly nice Mexi Standard P, with one of those lucky necks that just plays well off the bat. Flushed with the joy that only an incipient upgrade at no extra cost can bring, I did the sensible thing and left it for a while to decide what I thought of the original Fender ceramic pickup - did a few gigs, recorded a bit. Then I ran up a track with it in my faithful Garageband (quick way to get work done IMHO, less enthused about the Mac one requires to use it), and performed the swap to the SPB-2 and repeated. It's always wise to compare recordings when doing these things, and really I don't think it's particularly useful to listen to a bass outside the context of a band when judging tone. Lots of stuff gets masked by other instruments. Conclusions: SPB-2 was about the same output as standard ceramic Fender, possibly slightly less. Well, we know ceramics are powerful or at least tend to sound that way. More upper-mids in general. Tone was, unsurprisingly, more alnicoey (possibly not in the dictionary). A bit more depth to the tone, but ultimately less clear and defined. SPB-2 sounds closer to an old-school P-bass, I think, but eventually I decided I preferred the Fender as it came. I also did a couple of fair-sized outdoor festivals with the SPB-2 in situ. It didn't really have the drive I wanted, and I swapped the original back. Actually, with my crap left arm and hand, the P-bass neck was a bit of a struggle and I returned to full-time BB414 playing. I can't recommend Yamaha's passive BBs too highly if simple punch is your thing. So count this as a vote against the tide of opinion. As others have commented, check out what DiMarzio have to offer. Although I struggle to rationalise why I think differently to most of the musical world on this, my extensive experience with pickup swapping and modding on guitars has led me to the conclusion that I like most DiMarzio products and am underwhelmed by most Seymours. Good to have a range of opinions, isn't it though? As an adjunct, I now have a '99 or so P-bass Special (Mexi, anodized metal guard etc) as a spare. I'll see how the SPB-2 does in that one day. Anyone know what the pickups in it are as standard? They look like standard alnico Fender units. Another long post. I should write a book

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='1156684' date='Mar 10 2011, 02:46 PM']It means when you back the tone knob off you only loose the top end, rather than the usual slight boost in the low end. At least, thats how i understand it,.[/quote] That's exactly right. I have one or two of these circuits in instruments. Actually, with careful selection of components and tweaking, I prefer the ordinary tone control. Then again, I play a fair amount of reggae and I'm a passive instrument codger so having a little low boost available via the tone pot is very handy. As regards the OP's point about American Specials, I can only reiterate what I consider to be the paramount point: One should go for the bass that does it for one, and try to ignore what it says on the end. This is no way intended to be critical, however, of an honest question. The answer to which is, as I understand it, that the Am Special is basically a Highway One with a more standard finish. There will be small detail differences abounding, but then there are big differences in tone and playability between one seemingly identical Fender off the line and the one after it! Wood varies a great deal in density (i.e. weight). Pot values vary as much as +/- 20% (yeah, even "good" CTS ones), and this dictates the resonant peak at the start of every note with the pot wide open - in other words the character of the instrument. And then it all goes through an amp that I think has far more to do with it all than most things. In a room which, well, ditto when we're talking about low frequencies. So I think that one wants a bass that feels right, looks hopefully good to one's eye, balances and has tolerable bulk, stays in tune and is generally reliable mechanically, and also provides a decent tone which can be worked with in conjunction with one's rig and venue to get a good sound. It's worth mentioning that it's a rare gig when I hear my bass as the audience does! The wavelengths involved mean I'd need to be quite a way from my rig, and that seldom happens. On a larger gig, my bass sound is for the band and the sound guy and the principals of acoustics as applied to that room take care of the audience. Of course for recording or playing at home sound jumps to the top of the list. Very different from live work! Sorry, went on a bit...

To the point where my Quicktime plugin crashed (thank you Lord, for having me stuck with a Mac as a main box) I was thinking that the second one had it...

I do thorough checks of the beast before I go out to play, as someone else said. And I take spare strings, spare strap and a small toolkit around with me. Thus trusting to the gods, no spare bass for me...

Thanks for the warm welcome all

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1155138' date='Mar 9 2011, 12:02 PM']The RRP was a bit ridiculous for what it was, re-sale value was crap. Took me ages to get shot of mine. Although it's playabilty was great, reasonably light, it was just let down by cheap electronics which due to it's over complicated switch arrangement was not worth the hassle to upgrade. Preamps are usually a cut a stick kinda thing but with the Jag I attempted it, got lost and gave up. It came to life a bit with some quality pickups, and it's a great alternative for a jazz bass that looks different and is lighter.[/quote] Mine was neck-heavy - a total no-no when your left arm is as dicky as mine, and I totally agree that the electronics were lacklustre. I lacked the will to gut it and install something decent too, but they did have that "something different" cachet. I think I paid 550 or so for it new, and got maybe 450 back when I traded it in.

Very likely my beat-up BB 414...

[quote name='endorka' post='1156412' date='Mar 10 2011, 11:28 AM']That sounds really interesting, I'd love to hear someone doing this! Jennifer[/quote] Check out Charlie Hunter!

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1157443' date='Mar 10 2011, 11:34 PM']I've never played one myself, but I've never heard a bad sound come from one![/quote] +1

[quote name='charic' post='1160335' date='Mar 13 2011, 11:48 AM']If it was black on black I reckon it wouldn't look too bad. Not a terribly bad idea, just not the best looking[/quote] +1

Bucketbass is killer. Must investigate...

I just picked up a '98/'99 passive one in CAR. It's rosewood boarded and has the gold metal pickguard and a nice amber tint to the neck, which may of course have darkened a little with age. I'd say it's a pretty good bass, with the caveat that I'm using it solely as a P with a J neck. I'm probably not the guy to ask about Jazzes as I lack extensive experience with those sounds. I guess that, as with any bass, a lot would depend on whether you get on with the neck...

Hi, Just introducing myself, being a well-brought-up gent. I play guitar and bass, and have done for 33 years with differing levels of application. Actually more or less stopped playing at all for about ten years a while back; what was I thinking? Over the last few years I've been taking it all rather more seriously though, and I play bass in two bands (could always use a guitar gig too...) which guarantees me a decent number of gigs. I've done some engineering and production work too, chiefly with jazz - ironically, since I have a background in rock and reggae for the most part. I do a little guest work as a "pop bloke" on classical podcasts when they need an expert witness. Basically, I do anything I can in the music and sound worlds. Well, you have to don't you? Equipment-wise I have a fair amount of accumulated gear. Possibly enough to make listing it all a tedious proposition for you and I. I've some modest keyboards, some modest drum machines (always practice to a groove) and an immodest MPC. A clutch of computers (used to work in IT), some of which work. The odd effects thing, and a decent spread of pedals. A decent little collection of seven guitars. And a few amps - big, small, modelling, not. Nothing vintage and rare though, although some of my gear's quite old. Told you it would take too long to list. Even the rough gist could be a novel. Bass gear! Cheap Dean Playmate bass for hazardous duties, which booms like a whatnot even with Swings on it. I also Have a '98 P-Bass Special with the nice anodized guard. Covers the Fender thing nicely. My main gigging axe, though, is a beat-up Yamaha BB 414 in horrid army sheet white tinged with yellow. I use this 90% of the time because I find the neck comfy (knackered hands, variety of reasons) and it sounds great with Roto flatwounds on it. I've rebuilt it more than once, but apart from a few missing bits and rather better pots and wiring it's essentially stock. Made a new nut the other day. I really like the thing, although it's a bit heavy. I have a Zoom bass multi-thing, a b2.1u, which I sometimes use the octaver on for added thud and also for the tuner, but I tend to keep it simple as poss most of the time. I almost always use the 1000w version of the Ashdown Little Giant amp. It sounds great, it was cheapish, and it weighs almost nothing. I make sure I get properly punished though, by using it into an Ashdown 6x10" (one of the upmarket ones). Sometimes I also add my Ampeg SVT 1x15" cab, if I need to be stupid loud - like on larger outdoor gigs where you get nothing back off the walls. It's all good. I know Ashdown tend to be spotty with reliability, and indeed I've killed the odd one before without doing anything silly, but they're very good VFM if you know your shop staff well. And my rig is nicely clean and even. If anyone's read this far, I congratulate them. And I'm looking forward to a long and fruitful participation in the forum, which I can already see is full of good discussion and advice. Cheers!