Wolverinebass

In truth, I'm waiting for someone to say thay they take it off whenever they play a gig "just in case they get lucky." I found it curious for a while after I got married, but got used it to after a few months.

My view was based on when I pointed this pricing out to Tech21 they replied with a "care" emoji on their Facebook page. Would you not feel patronised at that? If you exclude the ADAM/Photon series, there isn't a Darkglass stompbox type pedal which is more than £400. Now, the g4m price of the XB driver isn't "more reasonable," it's "slightly less evoking the spirit of Dick Turpin." A slight difference of viewpoint I admit, but for a single use stompbox which has no means of flicking between the crossover/parallel/bite functions and has no preset control and for it to cost more than an HX Stomp still after being reduced just seems like robbery. At £350 I'd probably have one. Maybe the bass elite is a good deal. It seems to be in theory. I'd have to play one. I wonder if it'll be like the PSA 2.0 which is fantastic, but didn't catch on because in that case, people assumed it was digital when it wasn’t and didn't buy it.

No, in the last 2 months. Up until the new year it was £620.

Obviously it's come down recently. However, you can buy a Stomp for that which will do that and loads more. There is no pedal on earth that's worth that much when you can't control the settings remotely, nor does it have a stereo input which is an instant fail for its market. Yes, I've played one.

Okay then. If this is $299 and £339 over here, why is the XB Driver $500 and £620 over here? Ooh, look, Tech21 and/or Rocky Road are selectively price gouging us on the more premium products. Just like they did with the Dug amp. $1700 and £2500 here. Until they sort that out, as a company they're dead to me.

I remember trying an Elf into a Vanderkley 2x10 at a SE Bash a few years ago. It was total and utter crap. To get any form of volume out of it you'd either be red lining it the whole time or using it with an 8x10 which defeats the entire point of such a small amp. Fair enough, coffee shop gig. For anything loud, it wouldn't work at all. Zero headroom.

In truth, Ashdown are very hit and miss. I never liked the ABM range at all due to the mix of sliders and knobs. Ironically, I found the MAG series amps more intuitive. The Rootmaster heads are brilliant. The cabs are awful. Just terrible. The treble end voicing is just so off and the low end is hyped to my ears. In 2005 when I was shopping about for cabs as my band was going on tour, I thought about getting an Ashdown ABM 4x10 until I discovered it was 37kg. Er... no. It didn't sound very good either. Fast forward to last year and they're trying to sell the same cab, same weight (20 years later!!!!) For £1400. Read that again. Mental isn't it? They're not lightweight, nor have they changed much in almost 30 years. It's not a Barefaced, Bergantino or anything that's boutique. You'll be giving it away in a year as nobody will buy it for more than 200 quid. The Geezer cabs are more than 2 grand each. For some purple tolex and stencil grill?!! Really?!! Who is going to buy them? As for the pedals. If you exclude the LoMenzo Hyperdrive, (which is absolutely amazing), a lot of the rest are awful. The MegaDrive is so bad nobody is going to get to review it again after that abomination that was the PMT demo. I joked a while back that it was a review that sounded so bad it bankrupted the company. I have no axe to grind here, but in many ways I don't get the fandom. Has anyone in recorded history ever used the sub harmonic generator? The pre shape being on by default except when the button is depressed is an automatic fail to me. Before anyone asks, I use a GK Fusion 1200s and Vanderkley 2x12s. I own and have used a Lomenzo Hyperdrive a lot. I'm probably biased in that I want clarity, precision and what goes in, comes out. Ashdown for the most part, don't do that due to their cabs being so coloured.

About £50 a set. So not Pino Palladino flats expensive, but certainly a bit more than DR.

Well, as you say, there is the nickel allergy. For me though, it's how they respond to distortion. I'm someone who looks for maximum clarity. The preservation of all the overtones and harmonics which you can get whilst playing. Optima's really respond to this and my own style, so that's why I like them. One could also argue that they are surprisingly downtunable and still maintain pitch as well as lasting longer than a lot of other strings. Obviously, if you want to play with a fretwrap, this isn't for you. I don't use them exclusively, but I have tried them on different basses so I know what difference strings can make even within the narrow category of just nickel roundwounds. As ever, it's if you think it's worth it to get more expensive strings or go cheaper or just cheap. It's all about what's important to you. For example, I don't care if Rotosound steels are cheaper, they're still rubbish and die within 4 hours of playing, so I don't buy them.

I have, yes. I started with the 105-45 (2319 set which has an 80). That's really good, but, I ended up preferring the set that has an 85 for tension. They take downtuning very well and doing 3 semitones is possible. Going to C from an E is too, but that's the limit I've found. The downside is the set with the 85 is like a tenner more which is unfortunate. I think it depends how flash one wishes to be. Were one to have an endorsement deal, I'd use them on other basses I have, but since I don't, I just use them on the Status Buzzard a la John Entwistle.

Optima strings are brilliant. I got into them about 20 years ago, for the obvious reason. Playing on my Status Buzzard. They're not cheap of course, but I'd recommend them thoroughly and they last very well.

Is it the angle or is the body shape wrong? The lower cut seems too high towards the pickups. I appreciate it's a copy of course.

The irony is that when Gibson do that, it'll look even worse.

It doesn't matter. I play both 8 and 12 string basses fingerstyle. It's just about getting the angle of your plucking fingers right for what you want to achieve. So, if you only want to play the octave strings that can be done and the other way round. It's all just a different form of control. Stereotypically, the octave strings are above the fundamental. So, unless you want to get a new nut made, that's probably where you're going to be. I know Rickenbacker did an 8 string for Chris Squire and John Entwistle and the octave strings were below which is somewhat curious. Had you been at the recent SE Bash, you could have played my 8 or 12 and seen if you like the concept as a whole.

The one I have on mine is the Schaller 471 bridge which has independent saddles for the different sets of strings. The downside is that it doesn't have grooves cut into the saddles and youd have to do it yourself. I don't know if it's made anymore. Most of the other versions used on commercially available basses are of the tune-o-matic variety.

Only Hagstrom think that which is why their 8 strings are crap and woefully out of tune above the 5th fret.

You'll have to change the bridge otherwise it won't intonate. That's a 4 saddle bridge.

To be fair, mine was a Warmoth body and neck and it was one of the last Explorers Warmoth made before Gibson said, "we've got lawyers you know." Sadly, Warmoth don't even make the 8 string neck anymore either, so that sucks. I presume they didn’t sell enough to keep it on the roster of products.

With respect, you were operating at a level where things would get sorted out quickly and amicably, so the sort of situation I described wouldn't ever happen. You would be dealing with the same groups for weeks or longer at a time. You wouldn't have behaved in the way I'm about to describe and then annoy everyone more by being condescending with it which is why things got heated. In the toilet/originals circuit in London where I'm sure the engineers are getting paid much less than you to do a good job, they very often don't care. Worse still, the air of impunity of action in some cases can be really bad. If it's only one night does it matter if you annoy the bands? You probably won't see them again. Who cares? When you ask why they did something that has negatively affected you or your band and they tell you to f@&£off refusing to discuss it, would that not annoy you? Like one time, one muted my guitarist (he was using a helix staright into the desk) for the whole last third of a song and when asked after the gig what happened told him the exact same thing and then shoved him. No explanation, no apology. When you ask someone nicely for what you need (explaining why you need it) and they proceed to do the exact opposite is that not screwing with you? So, if you're playing in a trio the bass takes on a whole different role than in say a 5 piece with 2 guitars and making the bass all "whump" isn't going to help you or the band sound good. Admittedly, I play a more driven, lead bass style and seemingly that doesn't compute for some of them and I can't understand why as it's not that complicated. I've never asked for anything except to be able to hear myself and to point out before soundcheck that in some of the bands I've played in, the bass has played more lead figures than the guitar, so please don't cut the treble. Whilst experiences like these aren't every time, it's been enough of a negative experience for me over the last 20 years that I find it depressing that in all that time, very little has changed in how bass is allowed to be presented in a live format. It's worth noting that when I have played bigger venues the engineers have been great.

To be fair, it's just an advertising cash grab by all parties. "I'm outraged by this!" Next, post "I'm outraged by your reaction video to my video" video. However, I would say Sapko has some very reasonable points here and Dey comes across as a blatant cash grabbing div. I'm not sure which of those two statements I'm more curious about my reaction to. As someone who's never really liked Dey's playing but appreciate the technicality of being able to do it, it somewhat saddens me that it's about nothing more than cash for her and as a result, she doesn't come over well and that's before we get to her other half having the wit and personality of a fatberg. She's done some serious reputational damage to herself here and Sapko is completely right about it.

It's because bass isn't valued. I now refuse to play a venue if I'm not able to use something that isn't a piece of crap. I've almost come to blows with a few sound engineers for them trying to screw with me. If anyone says "pre-eq DI only" I immediately harden my accent to "full on Taggart" and generally something said in that voice does tend to get a bit more co-operation. Most live engineers are underpaid and as a result, don't give a toss. The ones who won't do what you ask when it's totally reasonable or do the exact opposite are the ones who I have massive problems with.

From my own viewpoint, I never liked the ABM series due to the mix of sliders and dials. Somehow this seemed wrong to me and less intuitive because of it. I may be in the minority, but I always quite liked the MAG series amps and the Rootmasters are great. The cabs are awful though.

It's an autocorrect fail. It should have said "I don't think anyone could say his style isn't distinctive." Anyways, edited my post.

That's an autocorrect fail. It should have said "isn't."

Well, I didn't use all capitals at least. I'm sure Sapko is a nice guy if you met him. I just can't be bothered with clickbait internet personality crap, so I don't watch it.