Ed_S

I had the CV 70s P for a while - bought as a less expensive bass for gigs where I thought the chances of things being nicked or damaged were higher. It was nice enough for the money and very comfortable to play but I found that the frets seemed to be a bit soft when faced with plain steels and showed a lot of wear very quickly. The pickup was pretty uninspiring (although perfectly serviceable) so got swapped out. I guess you can’t go too far wrong if you just bear in mind that as good as they are, they’re built to a price (just like anything) and you rarely get much for free.

I’m generally happy with basic Rotosound and D’Addario for either nickel plated or plain steels. I push the boat out and put Elixir coated plain steels on a bitsa that lives in storage at the studios because despite the less than ideal conditions, with no more care than clean hands to begin with and a quick wipe down before it goes back in the flightcase, I get a year of weekly rehearsals out of a set. My girlfriend settled on Fender 9050 flats after playing them on one of my precisions, but ultimately decided she wanted them on an Ibanez SR650. Turned out to be quite a good combination!

Had an Ashdown speaker (15” blue one) just stop working and start smelling, an Orange Terror 500 blow a capacitor on the power board, a fairly cheap power conditioner go bad and take out a rack of outboard, and a cheap-ish Warrior PA amp that was running monitors just release one last howl and pack in. All new and well looked-after kit that was working fine when checked... and then suddenly wasn’t! Had spares and/or managed to patch round the problem and keep going, but I now expect issues and leave pleasantly surprised if they don’t transpire. My bandmates have had various all-valve rack power amp issues along the way, too, so along with the usual bass spares, I pack a little 250w Bose PA power amp module which might one day get me or either guitarist out of trouble and even power a monitor, top or sub if it had to.

My Ashdown experience started out with a brand new and unmolested ABM500 evo3 which I bought to replace my SWR Workingmans head since I was already playing through an ABM410 and fancied a matching setup. It was everything that people complain about; wooly and underpowered. I stood the loss, moved it on and went Markbass with no regrets. Purely by chance, after a period of actively avoiding anything Ashdown, I was offered an absolute steal of a deal on an ABM1000 which I took home on the grounds that I'd very likely make a little money selling it on should I dislike it. It was (and still is) an absolutely astounding amp that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the 500. Between the 500 and the 1000, probably the best and worst amps I've owned. Since then I had a MiBass 550 which I thought sounded nice enough but I wasn't keen on aesthetically so swapped for an RM800 which is great for rehearsals. I also had a CTM30 which was alright, but the EQ did very little and the project it was bought for fell through so I sold it and bought an ABM600 that I'm very happy with for general gigging purposes; it's not the 1000 but it's still a very capable amp. So yeah, I wouldn't avoid them these days but I certainly would have at one point based on a negative experience with an amp that hadn't been beaten by any teenagers.

Mine's 44mm without the feet - basically 1U.

Cheers for that! I'm far from unhappy or disappointed with the original RM800 (especially given what I paid for it when they were clearing them out to make shelf space for the Evos) and it's thus far proven reliable, so I guess I'll stick with it as I don't think a difference in tonal aggression is what's leading me to just slightly prefer the ABM600.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1505670793' post='3373469'] The evo is much more aggressive, which suits my style of playing and the bands I play with. In fact, I will be selling the non evo root master to replace it with another evo when I can afford to. [/quote] Would you be able to say whether either one is closer than the other to the ABM600? I've had a non-evo RM800 for a while now but recently picked up an ABM600 which I'm really enjoying for its extra 'authority' (for want of a better description) of delivery. I'd be really interested to know whether the RM evos get you any closer to that character in a smaller package, as I won't always be able to transport the ABM. Cheers!

I played mine with my Markbass 104HR for the first time at rehearsal last night and it sounded absolutely great. Normally use an RM800, but thought I'd take the full-fat version for a bit of fun. I used to have an Ashdown ABM410h before the Markbass and, whilst it was a decent enough cab, I've never regretted swapping it out.

The point where a BBOT doesn't work for me is when the height adjustment grub screws stand proud of the saddles, as no matter how careful I try to be, I inevitably end up cutting my wrist on them whilst playing. Sadly, because the saddles on my MIJ Fenders have all been quite small barrels, the grub screws have been pretty much guaranteed to stand proud, thereby rendering the bridge unfit for my purposes, if not actually 'unfit for purpose'. The Wilkinson BBOT is an inexpensive upgrade; looks nice, feels generally smooth all over and has big brass barrel saddles with suitably short screws, however, the intonation adjustment screws were also short on the D and G of my Aerodyne J, so I ended up taking some from a late 90s Fender MIM BBOT that happened to be long enough to create a mash-up that was actually right for the instrument! It was all ok in the end, but why put something sharp on any instrument in the first place, and then why offer something for sale as an after-market upgrade that doesn't adjust over the full length of its baseplate, given that it could end up on such a wide range of instruments?

Personally I'd like them to make the power section 2ohm stable, build in the circuit from their Compressore pedal (stick the XLR-in round the back to make more room for the extra controls on the front panel) and add a parallel / serial switch for the effects loop. Oh, and provide the rack ears in the box as standard!

Power output aside, the Nano and the F1 are quite different sounding amps - to my ears at least. The Nano is closer to the sound of a newer model LM3 (or Combo Head 2) where the F1 is like a particularly snappy LM800. I've never played a Black Line 250 myself, but I've gigged alongside somebody using one and it sounded closer to the LM3 than the LM800 or F1 as far as I could tell.

I've got a TU-3W. My girlfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday and specified "something stupid that you want but can't justify buying yourself" so that's what I ended up with! I like that the W means it's painted black and has blue lights, but I really can't tell any functional difference between it and my normal TU-3.

I recently picked up a second hand Rebop 5 with Aguilar DCBs and have been practising and rehearsing with it pretty much exclusively for a month or so now with a new project that's just getting going. Happy to report I'm a convert to the point of trading my Stingray 5 to finance a second Rebop 5 with EMGs so I have a pair for eventual gigging. The neck has a much more pleasing profile to me than the Ray, and the ability to have slightly thinner strings over a slightly longer scale suits my preferences too. The pots with no centre detents are a bit irritating because by the time you've carried it any distance in a gig bag they'll have moved and you can't just think "put it all back to centre and back-off the bass a bit" for example. Oh, and the bridge is strange to set up until you get used to it. Neither are deal-breakers, though; the preamp is very capable and the bridge seems solid when you get it how you want it. [quote name='FarFromTheTrees' timestamp='1493133270' post='3285930'] About the neck dive, could that not be remedied somewhat by moving the rear strap button to where they re typically placed? I could have this done professionally as a friend of mine is a luthier who actually used to work at Overwater. [/quote] I wondered about the strap button location, and whilst you could move it round I'd say try it where it is. Granted, I don't seem to be suffering with neck-dive on mine and all I use is a fairly standard 3" black woven polyester strap, but the position of the rear strap button seems to shunt the playing position of the whole instrument back a little, meaning that the headstock-end doesn't seem so far away, which I think maybe makes the 35" scale a little more comfortable. All I can say is that 3 hours of standing whilst holding and playing the Rebop 5 at rehearsals isn't hurting my dodgy neck/shoulder at all and that's quite a result. The only possible issue so far is that my second-hand bass arrived with some small lacquer cracks radiating away from the corners of the neck pocket (front and back), and sadly my first attempt at the new one arrived with a chunk of the finish actually split away from the surface between the neck pocket and the neck pickup rout. The second-hand one doesn't worry me and the new one is being swapped, but hopefully the combination of thin body and deep neck pocket isn't overly prone to such damage.

It can keep up with a loud metal band rehearsal played through a 4ohm STD-104HR but it sounds like it's working fairly hard to do it. I'd say it's similar in output to a GK MB200 through the same cab, but that obviously has a bit of baked-in grind to it when it gets near to full volume where the Nano stays quite clean. It was a bit of an impulse purchase and I haven't played it a great deal or for a little while, but my lasting impression was that its gig-fitness probably depends more on the amount of serious low-end you want it to produce than the volume you want it to achieve.

I've really been enjoying my Ashdown RM800 (original model rather than the evo) recently. With a SansAmp BDDI in front of it and a Markbass 4x10 on the output it's sounding just great, and yeah, the ABM might sound a bit better and the CTM maybe even a bit better than that, but I'm still not up for carrying them.

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1490800867' post='3268168'] Yep - I've got some and it's great stuff, doesn't smell particularly nice, but does the job admirably. [/quote] I couldn't get past the smell. Ttried it on a cheap bass and thought it was alright but nothing particularly special so, given the whiff, binned it. My frets never seem to be that badly tarnished anyway, to be honest. The worst cleaning product I've ever had applied to a bass was called 'Chrome Frets' - it was used without asking on my brand new USA Precision as part of the free set-up that you got whether you wanted it or not, and it took ages to dissipate. Slippy liquid PTFE all over a thousand quidsworth of bass just because the guy in the shop liked it on his. Since then I've always insisted that new instruments stay in their box upon arrival at a shop; if I don't cut the tape then that one's theirs and they can order me another!

I have a Minimark 802 that I've used for acoustic singer-songwriter and middle-of-the-road rock stuff. It always handled the low B with a fairly clean tone absolutely fine - at least up to the point where I'd want to go through the PA for some reinforcement anyway.

I would (and indeed do) go for shallow as they tend to sit better on the majority of cabs I've owned/used and there's still plenty of space round the back of a LM to leave cables plugged in etc. The RBI I seem to recall is shallower than the LM, most tuners I've ever met are shallower still. The only time I'd say maybe don't shallow rack a LM is if it's a 2U rack with a removable panel rather than a full-face removable lid at the back (some older SKB ones - maybe others are out there) because it can be fiddly to plug things in if you have fairly big hands. As you're talking probably 6U I'd imagine any would be fine as the panel/hole on that particular style would be much larger.

+1 for both Bassic Bits and Cleartone. Add Bedford Guitars in Sheffield to the list. Also Designacable - only ever bought their wares via Amazon but believe they're based near Nottingham.

I recall being told that the rack compressor I wanted was 'crap' and the guy on the phone flatly refused to sell it to me; I forget exactly how he phrased it, but the essence was that if I was daft enough to insist on buying it I'd have to put the order through the website myself as it wasn't worth his while to take the order over the phone. Needless to say I knew exactly what I was ordering, what I wanted it to do, why I didn't need anything better and, following that exchange, why I'd be getting it from somewhere else! Incidentally I did just that and it still works fine. On the other hand I recall searching for rack-ears for an amp that I'd picked up ex-demo a good while after they were discontinued, and the only place that seemed to even list the right hardware was GAK. I called up and spoke to a very helpful guy who went and rooted round until he found the last remaining set (incorrectly labelled and in the wrong place), cheerily took all of about £18 for his time and effort and they arrived the next day with no fuss.

The MB200 is great - it's still one of the 'sounds in my head' with everything set at noon. The Markbass Nano 300 is also very good for a similar size if you fancy something with a different flavour. My personal favourite backup amp is a little Bose A1 power amp as it would get any member of the band out of trouble; I have a sansamp on my board and both guitarists use midi pre / valve power racks, plus it's a full-range PA amp so could cover any failure there too. Seems worth taking along for about the same size and weight as a small bass head.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1485089094' post='3220987'] .Out of interest what were they failing on ? Earth continuity ? [/quote] Yeah, if memory serves they failed or were close to failing earth bond for their length. I had a few Y-splitter cables that had absolutely no earth continuity at all on one branch, too - they went straight in the bin.

Why not make a register of your gear, buy some specific 'visual inspection only' stickers and actually learn how to do the formal visual inspection yourself? That way you've not said something's been checked in a way that it hasn't and your gear's probably had a better going-over than a lot out there. That said, I'm trained to be 'competent' to fully PAT computer equipment in public use as part of my job, and when I tested my own moulded-plug mains leads with a calibrated tester I was amazed at how many either failed or were close to failing despite looking absolutely fine, so I'd advocate replacing those every so often irrespective. [attachment=236410:patvisinsp.png]

Probably 'King of Dreams' from the Slaves and Masters album. I enjoy a lot of the more recognised tracks too, but Joe Lynn Turner just wins it for me.

I've got a 4ohm Markbass 104HR (rear-ported version of yours) and I used to have an Orange SP212. The SP212 was a nice enough sounding cab and capable of gigging as a single cab provided you could throw some serious power at it, but it really couldn't compete with the Markbass on anything other than physical size.