neepheid

I don't know much of the back stories of any of my basses. The only thing I can do is create the next chapter in their existences, hopefully without causing too much further damage to any of them

[quote name='sykilz' timestamp='1333277103' post='1599424']
Hey neepheid, I notice you have a Hartke 3500 as well,I foolishly sold my one of these a few years back, and am now thinking of getting a redsub 500w head to replace my heavy Peavey tour450, how does the Redsub compare to the Hartke in terms of tone and volume? Seems too good to be true at that price and only weighing that much!! I play heavy rock, originals and covers, mostly using a Warwick standard corvette. Thanks in anticipation.....
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It's a bit early to tell as I've only done one gig with it and in a brand new (to me) venue so I've no experience to A-B with. It certainly has no problem kicking up a fuss - for the gig the master was set to a little under half and the gain wasn't set super high, about 3/4 and it was plenty loud enough to be heard over the rest of the band and fill the pub with bass (minus a few blind spots downstairs) with no PA support. EQ-wise I had bass and treble boost on with the low/high controls at about 2 o' clock, a slight hump in the low mids on the graphic and the contour set in the middle (which is like half way round). Still playing around with it, but there's plenty to play around with so I'm happy with the initial outing and I'm confident that there's plenty scope in the EQ to cover most eventualities. The guy in the band before us used a P bass and it was doing its P bass thing in a most authoritative fashion. If anything it was maybe a bit too loud for their band - it was a more folky outfit with acoustic guitar, violin and a drummer playing with brushes. It blew them out of the water - normally this would be a bad thing but his mistake meant I could hear the bass super clear and I was pleased with what I heard

In summary, I will likely be moving the Hartke on - loyal servant though it has been it's such a big, burly beastie and once you've gone mini head it's a pain to go back. Perhaps there's a little more warmth in that valve preamp, but to be perfectly honest I didn't really notice much difference between the valve and solid state preamps in the HA3500, someone will tell me I must be deaf but I really didn't hear what all the fuss is about. What I always liked about the Hartke was the directness and preciseness in the sound, it was bright and modern and just sounded great straight away - I never used the high/low controls on it and just put a bit of a sad face on the graphic for live and a happy face for playing by myself and cracked on with it. There's more to fiddle with on the RedSub and fiddle I shall. It doesn't sound as good as the Hartke when everything's flat, I'll tell you that - a bit harsh, a bit too "middy" but it's that's easy to tame with the contour control. Then EQ for additional flavour/room suitability.

Yay, more BB love! As I might have already mentioned elsewhere I have a BB614 and despite being my cheapest and probably most battered bass (not by me I should add) I love it because not only does it sound good it is also ridiculously easy to play in terms of ergonomics.

Video from last night's gig - we were joined on stage by our friend MC aka Millennium Child for a bit of freestyle to "Bring Down The Birds". Phone didn't pick up the bass too well, I'm simultaneously sorry and glad to say

[media]http://youtu.be/vrszawQqwYY[/media]

The head out of the RedSub got its first gig last night and it did a great job paired with my Zoot 4x10 - plenty loud enough not to need PA support (just as well as it wasn't on the cards) and a substantial, thick, chunky bass sound with my RD Artist. All bands used my rig without issue, one of them was using a P bass and while he might have had it turned up a mite too high for the relatively laid back band he was playing in it certainly made itself heard.

Plenty scope left in the EQ that I didn't need, enough oomph to fill a pretty big room on its own, and all contained in a laptop bag. I'm delighted with it and I think I've got a winner here.

There's a few niggly things going on right now that are bugging me, bandwise - but I don't want to go into that. Let's focus on the good stuff

Last night's gig was in a pub called Slains Castle and it's one of those rarities in Aberdeen - a pub/club that used to be a church It's a big old room with lots of nooks and crannies - an acoustic nightmare you might think. Turns out not to be the case.

There is no stage - there is a small mezzanine floor about 5 steps down from the top of the stairs and that's where the band goes. I guess it's a bit like being in an orchestra pit. Punters above you, in front of you and behind you, it was a bit weird at first - cosy space for a 5 piece band but we arranged ourselves as best we could in a semi circle.

Gig went really well, from a bass point of view. I was using my RedSub head for the first time in anger with my Zoot 4x10 and it performed beautifully. No PA support, just the rig. Lovely thick sound coming from my RD Artist. I bloody love that bass! All the bands used my rig and while they were playing I headed downstairs and wandered about. Apart from a couple of blind spots, the sound travelled down pretty good, I was impressed

In short, I think the gig went pretty well all things considered, I played pretty well with only a few minor bloops, got some folk dancing and filled a big old church with sound. I am pleased with my amplification equipment and I've got a bass that makes me feel ... strangely powerful

EDIT: apparently someone videoed us... http://basschat.co.uk/topic/61774-show-us-your-playing-videos/page__view__findpost__p__1598648

Agreed, you're going to need more oomph than 15W. I once tried to play a wee pub with a 30W practice amp against one acoustic guitar and a keyboard and it was just about ok on stage but I don't think the audience heard much (probably a good thing ).

Against a full band you'll need a three figure sum of watts. I know there's more to it than power, but it's complicated, and more complicated than my capability to understand. The 100W Laney you can borrow will probably just about make it but you'll maybe want a bit more headroom and leeway than that. For what it's worth, for the first few years of my gigging I used a Hartke HA3500 head into an Ashdown ABM 4x10 cab at 8 ohms, thus yielding 230W and I never had to put the master volume much higher than about 6 out of 10, even when I was doing a marquee gig without PA support and I was the bass for the room. Then I got a 4 ohm Zoot 4x10 cab for 350W and the volume went down to about 4 Now I've got a new head (gigging it for the first time tonight) which spits 500W into 4 ohms so I wonder what I'll have to set it at tonight - 2? Doubt it - it's a big room to fill tonight, no PA support (vocal only) and we're slap bang in the middle of a big old church which is now a pub - literally in 3D about in the middle - on a mezzanine floor most of the way up the stairs in the middle of the building.

In my experience it's nice to know you have that extra oomph if you need it and it's also nice to know you aren't thrashing the hell out of your amp, running it at full tilt every gig.

[quote name='Townes1992' timestamp='1333097777' post='1597208']
I played some MIM's too and wasnt really excited by them. I was considering ordering a BB424 online (i played one a few days back and it felt good!), doesn't it concern you buying one without playing it?
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When you live in a place like I do where the music shops are small and don't carry much (interesting) bass stuff, you kinda have no choice. At least buying new from a shop you have Distance Selling regs to protect you - you don't like it then send it back for refund. OK, it might cost you £15-20 to send it back to them but how much does it cost to traipse into town, get parked if necessary, look around, buy lunch because you're out etc etc.?

I would add that anyone who buys instruments on spec alone really ought to be able to set up instruments for themselves, even carry out minor repairs - as that is sometimes required by the nature of the exercise. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the neck is good, I can fix everything else (or know someone who can).

Yes, although my main passion is Gibson basses, I do have a soft spot for my old, battered Yamaha BB614. It's always there for me in the office to pick up and noodle on at lunchtime, but I've gigged it too and it's no slouch. It's just so easy to play, it's not heavy, the neck is a little slimmer than I like but it's about half way between a P and a J and that's ok for me. It sounds pretty good too, the bridge pickup is surprisingly hot and keeps the neck pickup honest.

I couldn't give a monkey's if they're cool or not according to the general bass playing population. I think Yamaha BB basses (only the truly broad ones though, I'm a bit meh about the slimmer bodied BBs) are cool, so they are.

Yamaha. My bass tutor uses a simple RBX170 in his band and it works great for him. I have a BB614 that I picked up for buttons (although it had some issues to iron out) and I would say that a BB414 would be a great, inexpensive bass (I have heard some people say they preferred it to the active 614).

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/169384-what-strings-do-you-use/

IBTL = Irritable Bowel Total Laxative?

I've done outdoor and marquee gigs armed only with a Hartke HA3500 and an 8 ohm Ashdown ABM 4x10. I'm sure you'll be fine

The only time I've used anything else is some extra long D'addario XLs for my RD Artist for the through body stringing. Had a play with flats a while back - hated Rotos and Fenders, loved Thomastiks. Tried D'addario half rounds and didn't like them - felt sticky to me.

[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1332762892' post='1592630']
But it is major depressing someone putting out some of the nicest original design basses at a decent price has to resort to putting out another Fender "Clone" .
[/quote]

"Clone" is taking things a bit too far IMO. Clone suggests slavish copying to me, even if you did put it in quotation marks. While some design cues have been taken from the Jazz, this seems like an evolution to me though, not a clone, and certainly not as Fender-like as many custom maker's Jazz-like efforts - which considering the antipathy I have towards Jazz basses is not a bad thing

I have one of these and it's the most useful thing I own other than basses and amplification. Don't worry too much about the USB cable, it takes a standard mini USB. Power adapter was an extra, not standard issue.

I hate crap sound on stage. All I ask is that I can hear myself. It doesn't have to be pleasant, but it should be audible. At my last gig I could hardly hear myself, was going mostly by feel. People out front said it sounded great, but it wasn't a great gig to play, constantly wondering if what you're playing is right and realising that you'll never know so you just have to plough on and hope for the best. Disappointing.

I've owned three acoustic bass guitars (note the past tense) and the only advantage I can find is they're good to just pick up and play by themselves, particular ones with built in tuners. On their own they can be drowned out by a single acoustic guitar, and amplifying them brings all the problems already alluded to in this thread. I won't be partaking again.

They can be beautiful of course:



But regardless of how pretty it was, it was pretty pointless and no, you can't see an acoustic bass on the radio

[quote name='Matte_black' timestamp='1332719524' post='1592187']
I ordered the 250w head version of that thing, plan to use it with a self-made cabinet with Eminence 15" woofer [b](so the eventually bad enclosure of the combo is out of the equation)[/b]. Should receive it tuesday.
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Can you expand upon the phrase in bold? I don't understand what you mean there. What does "eventually bad" mean? Over time it'll break? You'll outgrow it?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1332703935' post='1591940']
and I'm not sure the 'clones' are the same high quality, component-wise.
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As I have no evidence with which to rebut your suspicion, all I can say is ask me how it's doing in a year's time - the first year of my five year warranty.

[quote name='Oldman' timestamp='1332697336' post='1591789']
The T shirt looks white to me.

You've tried this haven't you Mr Neep, go on admit it tsk tsk
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I may have had a wee listen to it, yes

Heh, well, I tried

Right, let's put this issue to bed. Do we all agree that a Polytune pedal is white?



It's cream. And loud

That middle pic with the organ pipes behind you, what a great backdrop.

Vote for repair. Headstock repairs done well are stronger than they were before the break. There are many vintage instruments out there with repairs and it doesn't seem to affect the potty prices they go for