neepheid

We're back, baby! It's taken a few months but we have a new singer and our first gig with Jac is on Friday, at the Balaclava Bar in Fraserburgh.

Yeah, thanks pals. Stand by and do nothing why don't you?

Nah, I'm walking away. It's a frivolity, and if I'm going down, I'd rather it was for something special instead of a curiosity killed the abstinence type situation.

Where's that electric triangle I had lying around for this precise eventuality?

I think it's the version the audience would want that's the most important, regardless of whether or not my preference correlates with that.

Nice pair. The bass is a Sire D5, an interpretation of a '51/'54 Precision bass.

It is unclear from the photos I've seen - where does the ball end of the string go? It's not through body but they just seem to disappear like through body stringing.

Don't worry, someone will be along with completely different advice shortly, forums be foruming! I'd like to add that you don't need to get two cabs right away - one will be perfectly fine for home use and to be honest, I've done gigs with a single 12" in the early days of building up my rig and it was sufficiently loud. The second cab gives more headroom (I look at it like it allows you to turn the amp down a bit to achieve the same results and give it an easier life). Also, whatever cabs you use should be able to handle at least half of the max power of your amp. So for a 600W amp, you should look at cabs that can handle 300W each. I'm using a 500W amp and both cabs can handle 400W each so they're never going to be maxed out (they'll only get 250W each). Matching cabs isn't necessary, but it looks pretty! Here's me looking all colour co-ordinated. For clarity - the top one is actually a combo so the amp head is built into the case - in case you're wondering where my amp is!

Also, FWIW I gig with 500W into two 1x12" cabs.

What's your budget? Are you wanting one cab or go modular with two smaller ones? You can use one cab or two. If you're using a single cab, it can be 4 ohm or 8 ohm impedance and you use a single cable from the amp to the cab in either socket. If you're using two cabs, they must be 8 ohms each (together that make for a 4 ohm total impedance) and you can either use two cables out of the amp, one to each cab, or most cabs have a daisy chain connection so you can run one cable from the amp to the first cab then a cable from the first cab to the second one. I would not recommend getting a 4 ohm cab unless you're sure you want to go single cab because you will not be able to add a second one later (to this amp at least). A single 8 ohm cab will result in reduced output from the amp but it's not super significant a loss, you'll still have plenty power for live shows. I would recommend getting proper speaker cable(s), the wire used is fatter and can carry more power than an instrument cable. I'd recommend using Speakon connectors rather than jacks if they are available on the amp and cab - it's a more secure and robust connector.

I definitely don't need it. Need doesn't come into it when one owns ten and has churned through 58 in total...

Damn it, this is seriously challenging my gear abstinence, thanks for that, OP! I am very curious to see how good this is. My suspicious mind says some corners must have been cut to squeeze this much (bound body, flamed maple top (surely will be a veneer at this price, but still, it's an extra step in production), roasted maple neck, individual bridges) into £150. But I also have faith that someone's just uncovered the bargain of the century. If the bones are good (fit/finish/fretwork) then it'd be a doddle to change the pickup, wiring, tuners and a somewhat more involved (but far from impossible) task of replacing the bridge(s) if any of those were found to be substandard. Damn these mind cogs, stop your damn turning!

These are short scale, I doubt they'll be long enough for a 32" scale bass (which the OP has) as the Ball to taper length is 32.25” (820mm).

Some good info here - https://www.talkbass.com/threads/best-flatwounds-for-medium-scale-bass.1284069/ These might do a job for you - https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/collections/bass-guitar-string-sets/products/la-bella-4-string-deep-talkin-bass-stainless-steel-flat-wound-45-105-medium-scale-bass-strings?_pos=3&_fid=57403350d&_ss=c But check the "Ball to taper length" against your bass - measure from where the ball end sits to the E tuner, if that's less than 34.25” (870mm) then these strings will fit just fine because the taper will kick in before the string reaches the tuner and you'll be cutting the bit you're supposed to be cutting.

Now this is dedication to the cause!

Is a power supply "bass gear"? Surely it's a tier 2 failure at best? I don't think this is a significant enough transgression. Thoughts everyone?

OK, you're going to have to walk me through how this works now...

A cheese sandwich. Ach, I'm too late for the flippancy. Well, you're getting it anyway!

I don't see it that way, Epiphones aren't counterfeits or copies, they are legitimately allowed to exist by Gibson. I just read the video as saying that Gibson aren't worried about Epiphones being counterfeited, although with what appears to be a repositioning of Epiphone as a mid-tier brand (at least price-wise) this attitude might change in the future. We should be thankful that on this evidence, Epiphone is allowed to just pootle along and do its own thing with a degree of autonomy and not get sucked too much into the douchebaggery and general paranoia that Gibson USA exude with a video like this. Without that autonomy, we might not have had a Jack Casady Signature - because Jack went to Gibson first and they said "nah, get Epiphone to do it".

Except that Gibson own Epiphone, so an Epiphone, by strict definition is a Gibson product. Still a douchey video made by douchebags though.

Maybe. The only bass string I've ever broke was when I was trying to put a 34" scale flatwound on a 30" scale bass - trying to bend the full thickness of the E string round the tuner caused it to ping and fail immediately.

Are the flats the appropriate scale length, or are you trying to fit 34" scale strings to a 32" scale bass?

... 23ish weeks later... Did it ever arrive? Still no sign of it on the Thomann website. Just wondering.

That's where you're going wrong - you do these things instead of going to the gym. Gotta pick your battles...

Precisely the ethos required around here. Today I'm going to bore out two position marker washers I bought last year to 10mm so that they fit on the push pull pots of my Les Paul. Hopefully. I don't have a bigger (suitable) drill bit than 10mm and I don't think I can make them much thinner anyway!