Ed_S

I’ve got an ABM1000 that was built in Essex and is probably my favourite amp... but I rarely take it out because I’m normally using a shared cab in a smallish bar where it’d be overkill. When I do use my own cabs on bigger gigs, they’re gen-2 Barefaced... but the cab I actually use the most is a Markbass 4x10 that lives at our rehearsal studio. I have a Shuker that I could finish the whole arrangement off with, too... if it didn’t weigh 10lb 10oz, making it pretty much only playable whilst seated! So, most of the time it’s a lightweight Polish or German bass through a tiny little Italian amp head into a random cab. Ah well, at least I bought those things from UK retailers!

I’m in the ‘yes’ camp - an EBS black label Multicomp on my main originals band pedalboard, a Boss BC-1X on my occasional covers project pedalboard, and a Markbass Compressore for recording in the studio.

I owned a mid-price one for just long enough to help me ascertain that I didn’t need one often enough to justify the much higher cost of one that would be worth owning when I did need one. These days I don’t need one at all. I want one, of course, but I want other stuff more with the same money! 🙂

No probs at all! Just got home and had a check - it’s actually 2.85kg, so a little heavier than the figure I had in my head, but not far off.

Sticking with the Ibanez theme, last year I impulse-bought a GSR200b that I picked up by chance in the ex-demo section at my local. No idea why it was languishing - I couldn’t find a mark on it - but it was very light and had a great feeling neck with really nicely finished frets, so for £140ish I had to take a chance on it. Despite my plans to swap the hardware and pickups for something more reassuringly expensive, when I actually got it home and put some decent strings on it, it turned out to sound really lively, stay in tune and be easy to adjust, so it’s staying exactly as it is! I know it’s well under 3kg (2.7kg rings a bell but I’d need to confirm that) so cheap, decent, long scale and lightweight solid-body basses are out there, if somewhat rare.

Such a shame it's not an ebony or maple board. I'd have been seriously tempted by either of those. Reminds me of my Shuker before it was refinished, right down to the extra scale length. Will just have to keep on enjoying my TM4-SL for the moment. Maybe one day I could get them to do me one of those in satin orange and black with maple board 🤔

I’ve used the G30 for years (same one since they very first came out) and never had any show-stopping issues with it. I bought a spare belt pack for it just in case they were as flimsy as many people suggest, but haven’t needed it yet - the original still has its battery door and belt clip intact. The only issue I’ve had recently was in a venue with a Line6 digital mixing ‘board’ - the sort with the iPad instead of an actual board - which seemed to be taking up 3 out of 6 available channels for its own purposes, and when we took up the other 3 for two guitars and my bass the sound guy started complaining that half his faders went into DFA mode 🙂 it was only a 30min battle of the bands set so we just cracked on and nothing dropped out, but that seems like an odd oversight on their part; you’d think they might like the idea of people using a full set of all their kit. I bought a ‘hound to have a play with over last Xmas after a lot of people on here seemed to be giving it good press, but sadly it just went straight back in the box and is still there now; nothing wrong with it as such - it works - but it’s not for me.

Think I’d go for: Joacim Cans - vocals Howie Simon and Doug Aldrich - guitars Erna Siikavirta - keyboards Marcel Jacob - bass Jimmy DeGrasso - drums Sadly Marcel’s no longer with us, so Billy Sheehan would need to dep if the rules change to say anything about actually being alive!

It’s a fair shout - I think I’ll live with it for a while, though, and see how I get on. Pretty sure it’ll be fine and I’ll just change hand position to achieve the tone I want. And nobody in the audience will notice 😉

Yeah, I believe that’s what it’s doing. It’s probably all written in the instruction ‘leaflet’ hang-tag but I have to admit I put that to one side and just jumped in ears-first 🙂 The only other option I can think of is some kind of preset mid shift, but it doesn’t sound like one of those. Heh, I think ‘leave as-is’ will win to be honest - it’s only a minor thing. I can still make use of it for whole songs where it’s a more appropriate tone, and of course recording sessions where you can pause between sections to flick as many switches as you like 🙂

Yeah, I liked that about it - it’s not a massive jump between the two modes which I think was a good call on their part. The one thing about the preamp that I wish was different is the positioning of the toggle switch, as I play predominantly with a pick but move to fingers for certain quieter passages and then go back to the pick. The split setting would have offered a way to take a little of the edge off the attack for those sections but it’s too close to the rest of the controls for that - I'd end up changing things I didn’t mean to and causing myself a problem! Of course, I realise there’s only so much space on/under the bell-plate so the switch is where it has to be.

One proof of ownership as is the law: The grain is pretty nice on both sides - it has a kind of iridescent look to it depending on the lighting - and although tobacco burst is not my usual 'thing', the comments from the rest of the band with regards aesthetics were all along the lines of: "it looks like a bass - you could turn up to any gig with that so it's fine". I'm really not a fan of any kind of patina / mojo / road wear, so I hope the finish holds up. I don't expect bulletproof but I'll look after it as best I can, and I expect it to hold up its end of the deal! We'll see. Sound-wise it's very useable just with the volume at full and the balance and eq all on centre detents. I ended up giving the balance a slight nudge towards the bridge pickup for a bit of definition and then adding just a bit of low end with the eq, but certainly nothing drastic. The preamp seems to be quiet, the controls are smooth and definite and the passive mode isn't just a failsafe for a dead battery - it actually sounds nice in its own right. The best thing I can say is that I got it sounding right within the first song and then left it like that for the rest of the rehearsal without feeling like I had to keep fiddling with the sound. So far so good; it plays nicely, feels like a quality instrument, sounds classy and looks.. acceptable.. 😉

I’m just headed to a rehearsal that will be the first outing for my new TM4 SL that I picked up on Saturday, so that should be interesting as I’ve only really had time to put some new strings on it and give it a couple of half hour sessions through headphones so far. I’m already impressed by the general build quality - especially the finish of the neck - and of course the weight. It’s not the colour that I really wanted, but it’s not unpleasant and I figured it made sense to get the one that’s available off the shelf, see if I get along with it in the medium term and then maybe custom order one that’s exactly how I want it to look later on when I’m sure ..and have sufficiently replenished the toys fund! My main concern right now is the satin finish; how hardwearing it will prove to be and how long before the first proper ding when I find out!

I managed to walk away and leave my backup bass in its bag leaning against the side of the stage. The stage was the low kind that becomes an extension of the dance floor at the end of the night, so I wasn’t too hopeful for its safety and security, but it was still stood there when I rushed back into town for it. People even seemed to be giving it some space to avoid knocking it over! The Sheffield rock and metal crowd is generally a good-natured lot 🙂 It’s just mains cables after that - I seem to leave a trail of them. I think it’s because my gear is easy to set up and pack away, but first-on-first-off means the mains flex always seems to snake its way to the back wall under a load of bags and half-disassembled drum and guitar bits, so I leave it with the intention to grab it at the end.. and many times just forget! Fortunately I work in IT so I have boxes of the damn things.

That does look quite handy! I work in the bit of IT that extensively uses rackmount kit and I’ve still not happened upon one of those. Any chance of a link to the product page?

I had pretty much the same conversation the other day. Knowing the guy was a gamer, I got him to log in to his online account thingy and show me how many hundreds of hours he’d burned on there; it was a hell of a lot. I hinted that the same investment of time and money would have put him well on the way to playing an instrument had he actually wanted to. Made for a shortened version of the conversation!

Quite - can’t comment on PMT, but I’ve had a couple of recent interactions with other shops where I’ve asked them to match a price because I’d rather buy from and support them, and they’ve politely refused - basically said that I wouldn’t be doing them any favours buying at that price and they’d rather I go and buy from the other shop because in doing so I clear another cheap one off the market leaving their expensive-but-in-stock one looking more attractive.

As much as I quite liked it, I eventually decided that for me the ABM600 wasn’t as good as the ABM1000 and wasn’t different enough to the original model RM800 either, so I moved it on. I’d describe the ABM600 (and indeed the RM800) as a really solid and loud amp, but when asked about the ABM1000 I tend to start using pseudo-made-up abstract terms and soon realise I’m actually describing how it feels to play rather than how it sounds. 🙂

I don’t mind the look actually - like an HA series Hartke but with big knobs nicked from an Orange and the general Markbass paint-job applied. As long as there are rack ears for it (there appear to be holes in the right places to attach them) then I could see myself quite fancying one. My biggest issue with it is that it’s a signature model, and whilst I know who Stu Hamm is, I’ve only got passing interest in the artists he’s most associated with. Oh, and our lead guitarist is called Stu. Maybe a bit of ‘tricians tape over that bit of lettering 🙂

Heh, aye, there's a few of us knocking about! Don't tell too many outsiders of the selling power of the RTM carpet - we can't have the competition finding out and all getting themselves a photogenic contract cord too 😉

Best purchase of the year for me is an Ibanez GSR200B that was in the ex-demo clearance at my local. It's a very light 2.8kg, the fretwork is perfect and the board coloured up nicely with a bit of oil, the hardware that I expected to have to upgrade is all absolutely solid and the pickups and preamp that I expected to have to change sound so good I'm currently using it completely stock (with the exception of new strings) to record our next EP; my signal chain is pretty much just a Radial JDI straight into Pro Tools. Absolutely brilliant little bass for very little money! Picture: Rich Tone Music - hopefully they don't mind me using their picture since I bought the bass! Worst is probably an EBS MicroBass II that maybe I've just not learned to get the best out of, but is currently just sounding a bit underwhelming. I'm sure there must be a reason people speak so highly of them...

Oh, I’m sure that for many people it helps no end to know the note positions by name. I’ve always been fine knowing where to find the sound that I want next in relation the the sound I’m producing now 🙂 that way it doesn’t matter how many strings (as long as the neck fits in my hand) or what the tuning is (as long as the intervals between string are ‘normal’) - I’m just as clueless but still perfectly happy!! Maybe that’s it - I went to 5s very soon after starting to play and stuck with them exclusively for years before reintroducing 4s into the mix, so I guess I approached it differently to many. I suppose all I’m really saying is that it’s perfectly possible to play by ear without getting tangled up on different numbers of strings and not worry about the note names. I could go and learn them and it’d possibly help me talk about music but I genuinely don’t think it’d help me play music. Whatever works 🙂

Bit of a sweeping statement. Can you know them by ear or do you have to know the note you’re playing?

I own both and generally don’t find it a problem to switch between them, but I do approach them differently and don’t play both in the same performance or even band. For example, I instinctively play across the width of a 5 as soon as I’m holding one (I can’t just treat the extra string as a thumb rest, ignore it and play as I would on a 4 - I’ll end up altering my playing and maybe even the line itself to use what I’ve got) so I guess that kinda means that for me, the fabled “thing I can’t do on a 5 that I can do on a 4” is instinctively play like I’m holding a 4, and that’s actually something I actively enjoy doing. Just to be awkward, I don’t have a clue which notes I’m playing - I go by ear and relative position on the board. Granted that means that nonstandard/drop-x tuning just doesn’t compute, but does mean that any variant of standard tuning intervals across any number of strings is fine; all I need to do is find the first note and be able to hear myself 🙂

I only tried one briefly on my lunch hour, but tonally I really didn’t like it as much as the Drop - it sounded much more ‘artificial’ to me. The biggest problem, though, was that I couldn’t seem to actually get the three half-steps down that I needed out of it. That may be because I’m hard of music theory and/or was using it wrong (very real possibility as I didn’t read the manual and I only play by ear!) but I’m told that what I needed was a minor 3rd, and it didn’t appear to have that option on the dial.