MichaelDean

If you're ever near Bristol, you'd be welcome to give mine a go.

Looks great! I'd like to add some lights to my pedalboard for ambience. Might need to do some research...

My Zilla 212 is a nice thing. It can thump and sound vintagey. It's got neo drivers and weighs in at about 24kg. With a hand truck, I can wheel that, my head and pedalboard to a gig easily with my bass on my back. No pesky high frequency driver to deal with either! I ordered mine as vertical only so it's taller and doesn't have a huge stage footprint. Plus made in the UK if you like that sort of thing. https://www.zillacabs.com/bass-cabinets

Ashdown heads mute the output if nothing is plugged into the input. Stick a patch lead or ¼" headphones adapter in the input and it should work.

Mine was an Aslin Dane jazz bass copy that I bought from Noteworthy Music in Chippenham. I got a bit of money knocked off for a few dings on it, and I also bought a terrible, but within budget practice amp at the same time. It really had a very heavy ash body. Phenolic fretboard too, which was cool. I kept it for 20+ years before moving it on during COVID. I restrung it and took it to a jam with a friend (while it was legal to do so!) and it wasn't bad, but wasn't doing it for me anymore tonally despite twiddling all of the knobs on both amp and bass. I'm not sure my playing suits a jazz bass tone. Sold it to someone else as their first bass, so I'm hoping it can keep them inspired. I have very fond memories of it, but I'm happy for them to be memories. The basses I have now suit me much better.

We rehearse in the live room of a studio, and they've got an Ashdown 810 in there. I find it's total overkill for the space, but apparently they've had a few 410s and people have destroyed them whereas this has the power handling to cope with the abuse.

@Downunderwonder the DI out on the back is labelled as DI Out. The description in the manual is this: XLR DI Out: Low impedance balanced XLR output for connecting the amplifier to a stage box, mixing desk or the PA for live and studio use. The phrase "line level" is not featured in the manual at all.

I understand what you're saying, but any DI from a bass amp should be tested going into a mic pre into a mixing board or similar before the product is released. It's such a common use of the feature that I just can't believe that it'd be unsuitable.

@Downunderwonder that's what the gain control is for on the audio interface, to allow you to adjust it to the correct level. I have very recently connected my Ashdown ABM-600 to my own audio interface using the DI into the XLR input. It worked perfectly.

@Jolltax it's what would probably happen if you were playing at a gig. Someone takes a DI off your head and you play through the cab. Literally no different.

Your interface looks like an Audience id4, right? Just get an XLR cable and take it from the di out, into the mic input of the interface on the back. That'll do the trick. You can also connect to the cab as a monitor. Won't hurt a jot and you're not going to release any magic smoke.

I'm currently enjoying Slower, with musicians from Monolord, Kyuss and Fu Manchu doing slowed down versions of Slayer songs to make them doomy. I never got into Slayer, but I like this!

Oooh, interesting. I quite like the Payson strings and don't find they die that quickly for me. I wonder if the Newtones might last even longer for me...

I half wonder if they just ended up buying out Gotoh's stock of parts so they literally couldn't make more of the Gotoh ranges? You don't see Gotoh tuners on many basses in that price range, and certainly not at the volume that Thomann probably sell.

They said in a comment on their Instagram page that there were more coming later this year.

Ooooh, and if you scan the QR code, you get the product page for the new Rootmaster head, even though they've hidden the link on the website. Can't find the one for the OriginAL though. https://ashdownmusic.com/pages/rootmaster-evo-iii

Is that a faker? Looks like it from the body contouring...

A Gibson EB-2 would be fun, but I'm not sure I'd use it enough to warrant owning it.

A bit of Monolord this afternoon...

If you're happy with the pedals, would it be worth looking at a board that is a different configuration? That looks pretty square and maybe not helping the layout.

Not that I've played a Shuker, but I have heard lots of good things here. Prices starting at £400 for a new neck according to the website. £350 to replace a fretboard. It'd be worth an enquiry to see what's what.

Free Rhodes V-Pan plugin. Haven't tried it yet, but I love a free plugin. https://rhodesmusic.com/rhodes-v-pan-plugin/

We didn't have regular practice, instead we rented out a "production room" at Pirate Studios. There was a couple of big Yamaha speakers, a minor and a Focusrite Claret interface, plus a vocal booth. I wouldn't have wanted to record any vocals there. The bleed from another room was too high. It wasn't a terrible space to have a group review of my mixes for the EP though. I just brought my laptop and plugged in. A bit of good feedback and tweaks approved by all, so now we've finally got pre-master tracks for everything.

I've got a Boss GX-100 that really works for me in my doom band. I'm mainly using the guitar effects rather than the bass specific ones, but the GX has a separate bass boost, which lets me thicken up the sound. Before I got the GX, I was using a MojoMojo as an always on drive, and then a Bass Big Muff for my fuzz. I run into an Ashdown ABM-600 with the tube drive engaged as well. That also helps with the tone I think.

I think there is also the room for in-depth bass reviews too. Colin over at The Guitaristas goes into all sorts of nerdy detail and manages to attract an audience. I've watched a lot of really long videos that are basically the same format. Intro over a jam with a looper, what is this thing/history lesson/could be nonsense, jam with looper, take it apart, jam with looper, pickup impedances & neck profile, jam with looper, go through the positions, sum it up, outro jam with looper. I have previously watched the linked Spector review. It really did showcase the bass well, but it almost felt a little too formal. And thumbnails are everything in the YouTube game. As much as it might be a bit soul destroying, sometimes the cringiest thumbnails are what get the clicks in the first place. It's really hard to find the formula that works for you effort wise and also draws people in. If you want to keep doing it, I really do hope you find your magic formula. Slight sidetrack, but I think a part of the problem that has always plagued bass content in any form of media is that there is just a lot fewer bassists. So, companies are perhaps slower at developing products for bassists, meaning there isn't as much content for magazines, websites, etc. The BGM website feels like proof of that. Most of the content on the front page is more than two months old. There are even two articles from 2022. There isn't enough new content there to get people going back to it. And I know some members here are very much exceptions to this rule, but I tend to think that maybe bassists might be more settled in our gear choices than guitarists (perhaps due to less gear to choose from in the first place?). Most of the guitarists in the bands I've been in have gone through 2 or 3 guitars where as I've pretty much stuck to the same bass and maybe added a pedal for my tenure in the band. Heck, some bassists start on a P bass and they're just sorted forever.