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Ed_S

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Everything posted by Ed_S

  1. I've tried a fair few over the years, but I always end up back with a Levy's M8P3-XL. The Mono Betty was comfortable enough, but it's the first strap I've ever had a lock pull its way through the end of. The Comfort Strapp somewhat ironically sat in just the wrong place and put pressure on a nerve in my shoulder, so was anything but comfortable. I've made sure that my basses are reasonably light and balance reasonably well, so a good chunk of slightly rough 3" wide seatbelt substitute is where it's at for me.
  2. I've never liked Rics at all, and I generally much prefer the other style of Spector headstock, but I do quite like that.
  3. Yup, I'd be having a look at those Pulse II models for a grand. The only reason I've not got one to keep my Rebop company is that they don't do them in high-gloss poly finishes. Aside from that, when you've gone through P, J, Ray and Spector, I'd say Ibanez SR Premiums rock pretty hard and can be found new for around a grand (sometimes a bit less if you're flexible on colours, finishes and ex-display).
  4. I can't recall the full list, especially not in the right order, but the spirit of the journey in general goes.. Park B25 mkII practice combo to get me started. Trace Commando 15 mkII as my first 'real' amp. Hartke HA2000 and VX410 as my first separates rig. SWR Workingman's 4004 as it was passively cooled and the fan on the HA2000 was irritatingly akin to a jet engine. Then it all went a bit wrong as I tried to like various flavours of Ashdown MAG and ABM stuff. Big, costly mistake. I chance-encountered Markbass on a trip to ElectroMusic in Doncaster, bought my LM2 (which I still have) and was happy again! But I realised that I missed my Hartke, so I got a HA5500 which I left at the rehearsal studio with my remaining ABM410. Decent rehearsal rig. Treated myself to a matching Markbass 104HR cab to go with my LM2 for live use, and that's really where I should have stopped. Of course I didn't stop.. I got a taste for class D stuff and have bought various mini amps to try out over the years, keeping some of them and shifting others. Barefaced cabs came on the scene so I got a Super 12 and a Midget for live use, and assigned the Markbass 104HR and an LM800 to rehearsal duties. Everybody on here raved about the Rumble 500 combo, so I bought one to see what the fuss was about. It turned out to be pretty good so I kept that. Most recently I finally got rid of the trusty old 104HR and replaced it with a pair of Barefaced One10s for rehearsals - they sound great with the LM800. Given the success of the One10s, I'm currently musing on selling the Rumble and replacing it with a Two10 and Markbass Nano for small/medium gigs.
  5. Originally I was just looking for louder and smaller, and I found that fairly early with my Markbass LM2 and 104HR. These days, within sense and reason, I don't mind getting drawn into buying stuff that people are madly enthusing about on here just to see whether I think it's worth all the fuss they're creating. Some stuff has worked out really well (e.g. Barefaced cabs, Rumble 500 combo), whilst other bits have been less successful but still kinda fun to experience for a while.
  6. As an absolute bare minimum, I take an extra one of each type of cable I use, the last set of still-serviceable strings which came off my bass, a fresh set of batteries for anything that takes them, and a really basic toolkit. And some bog roll and antibacterial hand-wipes. Unless I'm travelling by train, I'll normally have a backup bass with me. I keep a DI box, strap, lead, tuner, picks and earplugs in its gigbag since I figure that's just enough to get me through a gig with PA or a house/loaner amp if the rest of my kit had mysteriously vanished. If I'm using my pedalboard I take a spare wireless pack, and the board itself starts with an A/B box that has the wireless on one input and a cable ready to go on the other. The board also ends with a Sansamp that isn't part of my sound - it's just there to help out if stuff goes wrong. I've needed the backup bass once due to my main picking up interference from something, had a cable die on me travelling between two gigs in the same afternoon so had to use the extra one, and needed to use the Sansamp once when the house amp went down.
  7. Another vote for the Rumble 500 v3 as a solid, loud, general-purpose workhorse. I'm yet to find an Ampeg that I like as much in a mix as I do on its own, whereas the Rumble maybe sounds less remarkable on its own but works better for me in the context of a live band. Just my opinion, of course. I normally play Markbass/Barefaced if that gives any indication of the ballpark tone I'm after from my gear.
  8. Aye, I just had the same - 16th January I asked after availability of USA Stingrays that weren't the couple of colours they had in stock. Said they'd let me know, but that was the last I heard from them. Took my money elsewhere and got one I'm pleased with so it's all good, but I was surprised that they didn't seem to fancy an easy profit on a box-shifting exercise.
  9. I bought a bass from them a couple of weeks ago. Took a few tries to get through on the phone as it was engaged, but I got through within about half an hour of the first try. The whole email exchange that followed to finalise the purchase (details -> invoice -> payment confirmation -> shipping link) can't have taken more than 15 mins back-and-forth. The tracking went weird overnight so I emailed in the morning to ask whether it had actually gone out and, again, got a response back in minutes apologising that the courier simply hadn't turned up so it was still waiting along with various other packages. I thanked them for the update and they thanked me (kinda unnecessarily in a pure business sense) for my understanding. The bass arrived the next day. So, no problems as of a couple of weeks ago.
  10. I know you're mulling 1x12 Vs 2x10 and people keep chipping in with other stuff, but the Barefaced One10 is seriously worth a look, especially if you could pick one up cheapish on the second hand market. I've just replaced a decent conventional 800W 4ohm 4x10 with a pair of BF One10 cabs, and they're competing favourably in a large rehearsal space with an absolutely built drummer and two guitarists with half-stacks. I reckon just one and your 200W amp would easily do what you need and be almost insignificant on a flight of stairs. Our rehearsal space is up about 8 flights and at around half your age I don't mind admitting that I enjoyed taking my two new cabs up them, one in each hand, a lot more than I did bringing the old one back down in full bear-hug stance on its final trip out!
  11. I mostly play power metal, so not the heaviest and lowest stuff out there, but still loud metal. Speaking purely from my own experience, everything Barefaced that I've played has sounded clearer than everything MB that I've played. It's entirely possible that a MB 2x10 stood on its end so the drivers are aligned vertically might be every bit as good as the double BF One10 stack I've just switched to for rehearsal... I don't honestly believe that would be the case based on my experience of the 104HR, but I've not tried it so I can't say. The closest to a direct comparison that I've ever done myself is my Super 12 powered by a LM3 compared with a CMD121p combo sitting on a NY121 extension cabinet; essentially the same amp head into two vertical 2x12 speaker arrangements. The MB sounded capable, but the BF sounded powerful. The MB stack went loud but started to lose definition and get "shouty" the more power you threw at it, whereas the BF stayed under control and retained clarity.
  12. My main cabs until very recently were a Markbass 104HR (square 4x10, 4R) for rehearsals, and a Barefaced Super 12 (vertical 2x12, 4R) for gigs - pretty much the first two suggestions you got, just the Super 12 is a product generation older than the Super Twin, but still an excellent cab. I recently sold the 104HR and replaced it with a vertically stacked pair of Barefaced One10 (1x10, 8R each) as my rehearsal rig. The difference in clarity and the increase in control over the low end in the rehearsal space instantly proved to me that it was the right decision, even if it perhaps doesn't look like the obvious choice for a loud metal band. I could easily gig with those cabs as well (as long as the available PA was matched to the venue) and I wouldn't have any problems hearing myself on stage using the rig as my monitor, but they might lack a bit of visual stage presence in a metal show. The Barefaced vertical 2x12 cabs are incredibly capable, sturdy, light, portable and look right on stage, so in the longstanding tradition of recommending what you yourself use, I'd keep an eye out for a Super 12 on the second hand market.
  13. Whilst not the ones linked above, I did buy a couple of sets of Regular Slinky 5s since they had some money off them on Amazon the other day. Unfortunately that's gone from being a few quid saved to a total loss. They're fine as long as I don't touch them or breathe on them, but as soon as they contact even the slightest hint of moisture they let off a really strong sulphurous 'rotten eggs' smell. I've been playing NPS rounds for 23 years and never experienced anything like it. I recently bought a very expensive set of the same strings (you know, the ones that come with a free bass) and they don't smell, so maybe the fart-spray effect dissipates after a while, or maybe these are just a strange anomaly. No real point to this comment.. just felt compelled to share, and it's not worth a thread of its own!
  14. Music Man say they do ("Graphite acrylic resin coated body cavity and alumin[i]um lined pickguard") but the preamp on mine still manages to pick up Radio 1. Literally.
  15. I use aluminium tape and it's the same deal, but I've found that wearing a disposable cotton glove (like the ones antiques assessors use) on the hand that I primarily use for pressing down the tape makes the job a lot less painful all round.
  16. No probs at all answering questions! My local is Rich Tone in Sheff, and they’ll generally give 2/3 of whatever they expect to sell something for, which is heavily guided by what that thing is going for on eBay at the time. Then you’ll often see them advertise it for a bit more than they said they would, which I assume is to cover postage and packing, plus all other overheads. It’s certainly not the right way to get the most back if you’re selling as little as possible because you’re short on cash, but if you want to get rid of a load of stuff very easily, don’t want to do any of the work, and the money is not ‘unimportant’ but secondary, it’s worth consideration.
  17. I've been doing a lot of selling over recent months (to my local shop as it supports them staying in business and I'd rather lose money than deal with selling directly) purely because I want less stuff hanging around the house. My taste in instruments shifted slightly over the pandemic, and I also realised that when the band resumed I just wanted to play, not be responsible for providing spare parts and technical services. So all the clutter associated with being that guy, and all the basses that didn't fit the new model shipped out. Maybe alongside those sadly being forced to divest for economic reasons, some others have just come to similar conclusions as myself and are likewise clearing house, thus bumping up the available stock?
  18. Always confuses me (in a "I know why, but still..." sort of way) when I see a guitar or bass that's of a certain vintage being advertised for sale, and it's clearly survived quite happily in one piece for many tens of years, so the first thing that happens to it in the shop is that somebody dismantles it completely to prove just how left-alone it was until they tore it apart. But they have to be able to say with confidence that it's all original.
  19. I dunno.. 35 foot scale length - that's got to weight a bit?
  20. I found the Digitech Drop pedal works well on 4 string bass in standard tuning.. not quite so well on the bottom of a 5 or an already down-tuned 4. It tracks a bit better if you can put a HPF in front of it, but it's not the end of the world if you don't have one. I found it good for up to 3 semitones down, beyond which the very slight chorus-ish thing that it introduces started to make me feel out of tune. I play by ear, though, so maybe you could go further down if you can play to the numbers and not let it put you off. It was great for live work to avoid swapping bass or retuning, but I wouldn't record with it - it's not that good.
  21. It does rather fit the vibe of the instrument. I always fancied trying the 'stealth' all-black-hardware look on it, but the thing is, it's spent most of its life in storage (because it's an impractical damage magnet) so it's never been worth sourcing the parts. I really wanted the more expensive one (KBX?) with proper sharkfin inlays and better pickups, but all I could order over here at the time was the cheapo KB1 with dots.. and then fit my own EMGs.
  22. Definitely cool, and great props for photoshoots, but totally impractical.
  23. I'd try to find another Blacktop. If I had to go back to playing a 4 string Jazz as my #1 bass then I think that was the one I liked the most, and tonally, having two P pickups would be the way forward.
  24. I don't have a Ray 5, but my P and J 5s will technically fit in the Sleeve. I wouldn't use it to take them out, though, as I don't think there's enough clearance when you have 4+1 elephant-ear tuners. I actually had a 4 string P come out of the Sleeve with a bent tuner and I honestly can't remember it taking any knocks between the venue, car and house, so I retired the Sleeve to dust-cover duties and bought a pair of Vertigos for gigs and rehearsals. I have much more confidence in their ability to protect, they can accommodate wide and angled headstocks.. and the carry handle is on the correct side.
  25. I actually can't think of much.. if anything.. that fits either criteria perfectly. I can think of plenty of music that I grew to cheerfully accept due to an overriding requirement to fit in with the company I kept at the time. To the outside observer it might look like a -180 on some stuff, but in truth it was just that as we all got older and some people moved away, the dynamic changed and the music I no longer 'needed to like' in order to be involved simply fell off the radar. Most metal bands with screamed vocals, for example.
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