brensabre79

No worries fella. Also, a little tip if you're using rattle cans. Get one of [url="http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/air-tools/can-gun-1-spray-can-tool"]these[/url]: It makes it soooo much easier

[quote name='Weststarx' timestamp='1405953293' post='2506867'] Can anyone recommend me somone who can do band logos? Or if anyone is extremely kind enough to do it for free? I have a rough sketch of what I want, I just need somone to make it look sexy. Thanks for your help! [/quote] Depends on what your sketch is, and how easy it is to recreate... Drop me a PM with your sketch and I'll let you know if it can be done for free / cheap But if it ends up being like this sort of thing I promise not to be rude [url="http://youtu.be/VfprIxNfCjk"]http://youtu.be/VfprIxNfCjk[/url]

A mist coat means that you don't completely coat it, but apply so lightly that it doesn't settle smoothly. With a spray can this means spraying from a bit further away so that the 'mist' just settles. This gives a slightly rough texture so that further coats have something to cling to. It's all about building up the layers very lightly to begin with because a large quantity of laquer will not stick straight away, it'll probably just run. I usually just spray the can once around 1 - 2 feet away in the general direction of the area being laquered. It dries almost immediately. Don't worry about it looking rough at this stage. There's a reasonable tutorial with pictures [url="http://www.talkbass.com/threads/decal-application-pic-tutorial.682386/"]here[/url] After a few of these you should see the texture of the laquer is not smooth. Now you can start to add light coats - again about a foot or two away but moving more slowly and smoothly so that with each coat it appears to settle with a smooth texture. After a few of those I like to lightly rub down with sandpaper and apply thicker coats. This is where you need to leave at least 24 hours between coats to let it harden before you rub down. Just remember, it's better to apply too little and have to add more coats than apply too much and get runs, orange peel or milking.

Hey there. You'll probably inundated with people telling you that the amp they own is the best one for you. Allow me to be the first. Seriously though. What's wrong with the rig you're running? If you want All-Valve 400W plus you must be playing with some SERIOUSLY LOUD people! And your options are very limited there. but don't despair, valve watts are very different to solid state watts! I would suggest you probably don't need 400W all valve, 200 - 300 will suffice for most stadium gigs, and THE classic bass rig is an Ampeg SVT 2. That'll sound as vintage as they come - with the right cab (8x10). But these days they are not so fashionable as technology has moved on... If that's out of your price range you could look at the Bugera clone of this amp BVV3000 i think... but stay clear of their speaker cabs. You could look at the Mesa Boogie Bass Strategy - also very very loud and expensive all valve. Or a bit closer to home there are amps by Orange and Ashdown before you go down the custom route and look at Matamp. All of the above are all=valve, very heavy and expensive amps. Which is why everyone except the tone-junkies these days uses solid state stuff, its 99% as good In that case you have an entire world of amps open to you, one of which you already have. I've heard Markbass stuff can sound vintage in the right hands, I personally love my Carvin BX500 which can do crispy hi-fi to thumping muddy lo-fi. they also do a 1600w version of this if you need more volume. In short though, whilst everyone will have recommendations. the best thing you can do is get down to a well stocked bass emporium near you, and try stuff

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1406542604' post='2512199'] As far as I'm aware, most of the current crop of class-D's use the same ICEPower module. Marketing nonsense does the rest. EBS seem to be acting more sensibly with the Reidmar, rating it at an honest 250w. I'm happy to be educated otherwise, though. [/quote] There are a number of different ICE modules available, and some can be bridged too. Other manufacturers are now making their own, or licensing the technology. The Genz I had was definitely an ICE - but I was told it was an OEM model (which they also do), I'm not sure the Carvin I have now is an ICE because the boards are completely different.

I really really want one of these... But nearly £2k Still saving, but secretly hoping another company, with slightly less greedy distributors will come up with a lower cost alternative.

Isn't this what Talkbass is for already?

I'd still go with [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/peavey-max-115-mkii-bass-amp/83682?gclid=CPbS15DB4L8CFSoEwwodQ4oArA"]Peavey[/url] personally. Solid gear that should last for years beyond the warranty. Trace Elliot new will be just out of reach. Ibanez Promethean and Hartke Kickback mentioned above, but I have 1st and 2nd hand experience of reliability issues with both. The new [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-rumble-500-v3/92779?gclid=CLnCqd_B4L8CFQeWtAodzAMAfg"]Fender Rumble[/url] stuff looks promising, looks like they have made good use of the Genz Benz tech they recently bought out, but I haven't tried these.

[quote name='GCYPbass' timestamp='1406278479' post='2509994'] I know it is all depending on personal preference but what made you to prefer Carvin BX over GB? Was it GB streamliner or shuttle? [/quote] having had the chance to A/B at a gig I just thought the Carvin was a way better sound. It was warmer, more powerful sounding (not louder) and seemed to have more features. The main reason though, and the reason Mykesbass let me try his BX500, was that I was actually looking for a lightweight head that could closely replicate the big air 'bounce' and instant articulation you get from an all valve amp. i used a Sound City 200w head in the practice room we used at the time. The Carvin, for me, came closer than anything else I had tried (Solid State). I had a GB Shuttle before that, after I A/B'd the Shuttle and Streamliner I found I could get what I wanted more from the Shuttle, although it did need a couple of valve pedals to warm it up. The Shuttle was quite brittle, but the Streamliner just sounded a bit dull to me - although I can see how many would love the old school sound of it.

Another BX500 owner here. I got mine after hearing Mykesbass's (well, he let me use it for a gig actually). It replaced my GB. The only one I haven't tried is the Eden. The Carvin has a great pre-amp, so if the B1000 is similar Pre it should sound awesome! Although I've never used my Carvin past 10 o'clock on the master as it is incredibly loud. Incidentally, the BX graphic EQ is switchable, I don't use it. There's also 4 band EQ (with two parametric Mids) and a 'scoop' so pretty much all angles covered.

[quote name='2004gdavi' timestamp='1406218843' post='2509465'] Had my bass built with my name on the headstock. [/quote] I made my own bass (not just constructed from parts) unique shape, put my name on the headstock, gave it serial no. 0001 too. It still got nicked and it never turned up. Some other stuff from the theft did, at the local cash converter but the police said they would probably have chucked my bass in the river or burned it when they saw the serial number. These days i buy vintage Fenders and put fake Westfield decals on

I have to agree on that. I will recommend Peavey stuff all day long - my Combo 300 is from 1978. It lives in the practice room where it gets a beating from noisy metal bands all week long (we rent the room out to other bands to help pay the rent). Still going strong. I can't speak for the new stuff (with digital gizmos in or not). My advice is to old school, if it can live in situ, an old Peavey or Trace combo is solid, and both should be easy to fix most problems. Most modern stuff is designed with a finite lifespan, wheras the old stuff was built to last, and be repaired if required... the great thing for you is that right now everyone is getting in to these lightweight car stereo amps that fit in your watch pocket, so the old heavy stuff is terribly out of fashion - and therefore cheap!

I like to keep it simple. Regardless of some amps are OK some are not. No harm has ever come to an amp by connecting the speakers before powering up so I ALWAYS set up amps in the same way. 1. connect speaker 2. connect mains 3. turn on / power up

Dammit I'm always away or gigging when these things happen

Maybe the wife made him sell it. Then, when it didn't sell she broke it...

If it's a permanent setup, you could try hard-wiring it. But you'll need to open up the power brick and the Sony and Thumpinator to do it. It is reversible if you're handy with a soldering iron, but the downside is that if your power brick fails at a gig it's not going to be a quick swap over.

Are the quarter pounder pickups humbuckers? I think you probably have the bridge ground wire connected already as the buzzing is only when you're not touching the strings, therefore the strings are connected to ground through the bridge.. The Wizards are deffo single coil. Most single coil pickups buzz a bit unfortunately. You could try reverse wiring one of the two sides of the pickup ( I think this is how a P-bass should be wired anyway) to make it into a giant humbucker (basically swap the two wires on just one of the two pickups). You should not get any phasing issue because the two pickup sides are on different strings. You can also minimize the interference buzz by [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/setups/how-to-shield-a-guitar/"]shielding[/url] the pickup cavity

Bugera & Turbosound are both Music Group (Behringer too). They are renowned for frankly ridiculous wattage ratings, just look at the iNuke series e.g. 3000watts is actually more like 400 per channel (and that is being generous). The other thing to consider is how the handling figure is measured - it may be able to take the watts it says, but might fart out at the very low frequencies even at a lower volume due to the way the cab/drivers are designed. But beside the power handling is the tone. You say you use an EBS 8x10. And that is a very nice cab by the way (as long as you have a roadie or two!). I can tell you with reasonable certainty that the Bugera will not sound as sweet. Having said all that, I haven't tried one. It might be that they can produce an amazing cab for a fraction of the cost that everyone else can without sacrificing any quality at all. But personally I doubt it. My recommendation would be go for something tried and trusted secondhand, (lots of people are ditching their big rigs these days so you could snap up something really tasty for that money) or get somewhere where you can try one of these [u]AT GIG VOLUME[/u].

Nice, although its screaming out for some LEDs behind the amp to shine through the gaps dontchya think :bling

Barryman Without knowing the full spec. of the amp or the speakers you're using it's difficult to be precise. We can say the amp is running too hot because the thermal light comes on and the protection circuit cuts the amp off (hopefully) before any damage. It is common for amps being underloaded to run hot. Most PA speakers are either 4 or 8 ohms (nominal impedance). So if you're running two 4 ohm speakers in parallel (1 out of each socket) you'll be putting a 2 ohm load on the amp - i.e. underloading it, causing it to run hot. Same for a 4 and an 8 (about 2.7 ohms). So your logic is bang on there. IF that's the case. Even with two 8 ohm cabs you'll be running at the minimum 4 ohm load (which will run the amp hotter than a single 8). First thing would be to establish what the speaker impedance is. And if the total load in parallel is less than 4 ohms. Even if it is 4 ohms, the amp may be running a bit hotter than it should for a myriad of other reasons. You can get a basic multimeter from maplins and test the resistance across the two poles of the speaker to get a rough idea. Second thing, if possible, would be to run the speakers in series. You won't do as much damage to the amp running at 16ohms than you will at 2, it will just be quieter. As you don't run it at full whack anyway this might be better. Third thing to consider is this. If your speakers are mismatched for impedance they will not be getting equal power. e.g. if you have a 4ohm and an 8 ohm, the 4 ohm will be getting twice as much out of the amp as the 8. This is the reason it is best to have a matching pair of speakers for a PA. hope that helps... EDIT: There's a link to an appalling looking manual here, but it only goes to confirm what you have said. The mono amp has a total minimum load of 4 ohms (i.e. 2 x 8 ohm speakers) and the speaker sockets are indeed parallel. http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/STARINMANUALS/Hohner%20-%20Laney/TH6150,%20TH8300.pdf

I have a Behringer iNuke amp as a back-up - purely because it also serves as a backup for the PA amp. If both amps go down together, chances are it's a problem with the venue's power, but as it's a stereo amp I can use 1 side for PA and 1 side for bass Note: you do still need a pre-amp for bass if you take this route, but I use a Zoom B3.

I think with a lighter touch it is easier to play near the bridge. But when you play heavy and dig in, the lack of resistance means you can play faster nearer the neck. I try and practice playing with a lighter touch, but on a gig with energy flowing (and guitarists turning up mid song) it's really easy to get carried away and dig in for a bit more volume. Especially when you're playing 16ths nearly all the way through, there's not much chance of tweaking the volume control! I admit, it's a bad habit, but it does sound massive!

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1404887187' post='2496632'] if you don't really have the $$ what advantage will the limelight P give you that your current one doesn't? [/quote] I gigged for 2 years with a secondhand Squier VMJ because it was all I could afford. It was really hard because people would come up to me at every gig and tell me that I would be a really good player if I had a proper bass, and that by using a Squier I'd ruined the whole evening for them... ...Not really. [u]When[/u] I had the money I bought a [s]better[/s] more expensive bass, the only person that noticed was me.

Not sure about the strings but I do know from experience that DR ones generally seem a bit more taught than others. I play Elixir's these days and find them pretty balanced - but they don't come in neon green! I will say though that our covers band does this song (I lost a bet with the drummer) and when I'm a little out of practice I too move closer to the neck to get the speed at a gig. I would hazard a guess that you're digging in a bit too much - which is slowing you down. It's a bad habit of mine... Here's the tip: try to play the whole thing lighter and move back to where the P pickup would be (I think that's roughly where Norm played it last time I saw him). Let the amp do the work and all that! It's tricky, but learning the right technique will do far more good in the long-term than changing strings to compensate.