Bigwan

BTW, has anyone ever youtube'd Roscoe Beck - the man is a friggin' monster! Listen to some of the Fender Frontline vids of him with the Koch trio. Awesome!

The Gallery used to stock them. Actually I posted a few years back about a mini Jazz 5 shootout that I had there by myself. If I recall correctly I quite liked the Fender Jazz 5 (which I was quite surprised at tbh). But it was a pretty distant 4th behind a Lakland Skyline JO5 (1st - I could get used to the 35" scale easily, but then I have pretty big hands), a Moon 5 (2nd, ex-Randy Hope Taylor, never seen another one in the UK like it) and a Sadowsky NYC 5 (3rd - only 'cos it was stupid money s/h - if it had been a Metro it may have bumped the JO). Worst Jazz 5 I played that day was a Fender Marcus Miller... just didn't feel as good as the others at all - that surprised me too as the MM4 is one of the best Fenders I've ever played! A Lakland Skyline JO5 with an East J-retro or Audere would be the best bet... or just leave it passive and get an external Sadowsky preamp/di pedal (or a Sadowsky Metro - they're starting to pique my interest).

To get as close as possible, feel-wise, I'd go with Jon Shuker as he can basically clone your bass with a few measurements. Nino does great work from what I've seen over on TB, but I think he's restricted on neck profiles, etc. and as anybody who's played an RBV will tell you the neck profile is pretty special! Nortstrand DCs are probably the closest pickup on the market to the RBV's Bill Lawrences, although with the Nordies you have to make the decision whether you'll use them in series or parallel most, as they're wound differently depending on this. lwtait - in theory getting hold of an RBV and having it refinished might be the simplest option, except they're no longer made in 5 string form and there aren't too many around for sale! Nathan only got this one as I didn't see a need for the B string in my current band.... so what have I just replaced it with? Another 5 string. Yes... I'm a tit... that'll teach me (although the Bongo does indeed ROCK!)

Apparently Fender had to ask Roscoe Becks permission to build Christain Olde Wolbers' bass! There's always the refinish option Nathan. You'd be hard pressed to get the same pickups in a custom build if you wanted it to be as close as possible. Missing my old RBV now...

Overall, Laklands ROCK! I've a Joe Osborne Skyline 4 that keeps gravitating to 1st bass status no matter what else arrives in my possession! I've played all the Lakland models except the DJs. They all ROCK in equal measure. I will own more some day, but I'm slowly coming to the realisation that I'm a Jazz bass guy, so it'll be a JO5 or maybe DJ5 for me...

I know it's not the same but if you want to keep your rig compact couldn't you just use a barge concepts pedal or something similar and run the blend at 50%? Half clean, half dirty?

Old ashdown ABMs (pre-EVO) used the same power amp board for the 300 and 500 watt versions. The 300 watt just had 4 components (2 power msfets and 2 large PSU caps) left off... I added them... never looked back!

[quote name='Alien' post='270165' date='Aug 26 2008, 12:41 PM']I assume you did this upgrade by changing the speaker for a 4 Ohm one? If the new speaker had more sensitivity (even a couple of dB) then it will sound louder. Also, you get more dB's if the speaker is running in an undersize box - at the expense of lows. Andy[/quote] Nope... electrickery all the way!

I always bought into the whole "an extra 200 watts won't make any real difference" theory... until I modded my Ashdown ABM combo (from 300 watts to 500 watts). I don't give a monkeys what anybody says - it made a difference!

I've heard of them but they're not really well known. Apparently he also makes replacement pickups for the Ibanez ATK...

[quote name='ped' post='265353' date='Aug 19 2008, 12:01 PM']Mine is basically what I have now, but in a case that I am having made, with a couple of additions. To wit: Vigier basses > Roland Vbass > Line6 pod XT pro > out to IEMs and mixer/PA (Would maybe add a rack tuner and rack mixer) In a case that looks something like this- not a very good picture but when closed up the unit will only be about up to my knee: It will be light and easy to move and cater for my IEM addiction and be excellent for live and studio work. There is a place in Witney, Oxfordshire who I am discussing the case with. It will be made of quite lightweight stuff in flight case stylee. I only adjust the Vbass when mucking about as I can switch between patches and perform basic parameter changes from my bass, so having it up higher will be great. The pod I never really touch as the main setting I have spent so long getting is just amazing so now it functions as a pre-amp basically. Cheers ped[/quote] Hey Ped, Wouldn't it be cheaper to adapt one of these than have something built from scratch?: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/6u_l_racks.html"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/6u_l_racks.html[/url]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='264539' date='Aug 18 2008, 01:33 PM']Glad it worked out! Apart from the singer, can any of the band sing a bit...? Just wonderin'...[/quote] Cheers mate! Actually I'd say he's the weakest singer of us all. But I've never learned to sing and play at the same time (maybe time to start! Not great at harmonies either) and the other guys don't want to sing lead full time (fewer voices to harmonise then). The drummer's the best singer of us all. I'm not sure what the other guys are thinking about the whole situation, but I was aware long before the gig that the singer was weak, just didn't expect him to be pissed and abusive too...

Mine could have been worse I suppose... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=25697"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=25697[/url]

Cheers guys. Was quite pleased with how things went, other than the PA and singer. I've spoken to our drummer since the gig (he's 'the boss') and he's of the same opinion as me. Singer needs a talking to. Also was very complimentary about my playing under the circumstances. I've talked to a few people who were there watching and they've given me a few pointers on songs that didn't suit us or didn't suit the voice of the person singing so there's a few things for us to work on. Funny how the pressure of the situation makes you panic though. Was just thinking this morning that since the mixer hadn't totally died (aux sends to the monitors still worked but the main mixer outputs didn't) that we should have run an aux out into the power amp and FOH and kept the monitors on stage. Oh well. I'll know for again! Every day's a school day...

Eventful gig... First off the place was a terrible layout. 2 separate stages, both small, about 15 feet apart, separated by a walkway from the dancefloor to the restaurant. 1 stage for the drummer, another for the rest of us (2 guitarists and me). Literally if I'd stepped back I'd have been sitting on the PA desk. Whole PA crapped out 7 songs in (not my fault - I didn't step back!). After 10 minutes of fiddling with everything we could think of (and chewing the balls off the guitarist who didn't bring his spare powered desk like he was instructed to do) we muddled on by using our active monitors as the PA and turning guitar and bass amps up to 11. Funny thing was none of the punters noticed. They just thought we were having a break! Unfortunately it played with our heads a bit as I couldn't hear the drummer at all (I was standing right next to my bass amp and the guitar amp and he's not a heavy hitter). Ever tried to keep time with a drummer you can't hear? Interesting experience... Pity, since with the monitors on stage and the PA pumping we sounded better than we ever have! Positives: The manager of the place wants us back again. My bass rig is smaller than I thought I could ever get away with and sounds awesome! (Ashdown ABM 1x10 combo into an Aguilar GS112) My nerves should be fine from now on if we can get through a night like that! Drummer and guitarists singing was top notch (they take lead vocals in about half the songs overall) Negatives: The singer needs a total dressing down (called someone he knew in the croud a c*nt over the PA, got more drunk and generally unprofessional as the night wore on, couldn't sing for toffee, also progressively worse as the night wore on - although probably because he was straining his voice as he couldn't hear what was going on). Also disappeared when it was time to load-up the van... The whole PA experience has made me even more sure I want to go with in ear monitors...

My first gig with my new band is tonight. All covers - my first all covers band that's made it as far as gigging. The nerves are made worse by the fact that a lot of the punters will be people I know. I've always found it more nerve-racking to play in front of people I know than to play to total strangers. How do you handle gig nerves or do you eventually get over them the more you play?

Just bought a Bongo 5HH from dougal. Great guy to deal with. Fast shipping. Recommended!

[quote name='eude' post='262190' date='Aug 14 2008, 09:24 AM']Holy crap! That looks good enough to eat! You must be stoked... Are you getting an adjustable ramp like on Dood's Doodle too? Cheers, Eude[/quote] Totally chuffed with how it looks. My only concern is that I haven't seen the maple fingerboard in detail yet, but I trust Jon's judgement as far as wood goes. Yes the ramp is the same idea as on 'The Doodle', the idea being it'll feel like one big pickup to rest my thumb on.

Things have been a bit quiet lately on this, but Jon sent me some pics last night. Took my breath away when I opened them! [attachment=12105:DSCN4951.jpg][attachment=12106:DSCN4954.jpg] Jon's having a week off next week and should be completing this one the week after that, which'll make it 42 weeks total build (quoted 12 - 20 weeks when I ordered). I'm in no hurry or I would have been a bit more annoyed about the delay, but these pics make up for quite a few of those weeks!

My shuker build was quoted as 12 - 20 weeks. It's now 39 and counting. Good job I'm not in a hurry...

[attachment=12071:13082008052.jpg][attachment=12072:13082008053.jpg][attachment=12073:13082008054.jp g][attachment=12074:13082008055.jpg][attachment=12075:13082008056.jpg][attachment=12076:13082008057.j pg][attachment=12077:13082008059.jpg][attachment=12078:13082008061.jpg][attachment=12079:13082008062. jpg]