JohnFitzgerald

Would you believe, I almost bought a Trace combo which they had on for £599. Full retail was, I think £1,100. I said to them, "you do know this is the 500W one, not the smaller one with the similar name." It seemed they didn't. It's now on at a couple of hundred quid more. I only told them after I had happily bought a S/H Trace head.

Hi In answer to all of the above. Jimmy Egypt has a pretty well known reputation for repairing stuff for names. Jack's just joining a long list there. LukeFRC. Yep, the Tokai Jazz is still there. Quite a cool bass. My opinion on their pricing. I go there in the full knowledge that it's very likely I could get better pricing elsewwere. However, and this is the biggy. They'll usually price match and if they can't or won't, it's more than made up for because we've been using this shop for a very long time. Everyone who has built up a long relationship with a store will know what I'm saying that showing you're their customer and will always use them sometimes gets you benfits that go far far beyond mere price. Our relationship with CC Music gets us a level of service that no faceless internet supplier could ever begin to compete with. That's worth a premium to me. Everyone who's got a similar relationship with their local shop knows what I'm tlaking about here. You want to take it away for a week and try before you buy ? Yeah ok. Where else might I get that ? That's my take on it.

Nice looking bass there. I do like black with a contrasting scratchplate. I have great great faith in Squiers to do the job and it seems your finding were pretty similar. Although, I had a plonk on a black Fender P with gold anodised scratchplate last week. Lovely looking thing, but when he told me the price tag started with a 9, I stopped listening. He must have been guessing the price, it was one of these. [url="http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/bass/bass-guitars/fender-deluxe-active-p-bass-special-black?utm_source=google&utm_medium=GoogleShopping&utm_campaign=googlebase"]http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/bass/bass-guitars/fender-deluxe-active-p-bass-special-black?utm_source=google&utm_medium=GoogleShopping&utm_campaign=googlebase[/url] I like the way the J pickup kind of disappears on that. Anyway, yours is a cracking bass - enjoy.

Cheers Mike I had kinda arrived at that concluion myself. The 1212M, having an ADAT connection seems like a good call. The fact that it's pretty low cost kinda helps too. If there's a little extra cash, I might actually bin it all and get a Zoom R16. 16 track, but able to record on 8 at a time via combo xlr / jack inputs. Also works as an audio interface to the PC via USB 2.0 and again gives 8 discreet ins to the laptop. That would cost £275, so not a fortune. Thanks again. JF

I couldn't honestly say. I'll ask Jimmy next time I'm in. Even for those who don't neccesarily like Jack's sound, it's such a modern iconic image of bass playing, Jack Bruce with a Warwick. For me it's not far off a picture of Jaco with the bass of doom, or Stanley Clarke with an Alembic.

With apologies to those of you who don't do Facebook. You probably won't be abel to view thes images. The shop we use, CC Music in Glasgow, recently had Jack Bruce's Warwicks in for repair. Here's some pics of them on the bench whilst the work was being done. Very cool indeed. [url="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jimmy-Egypts-Guitar-Repair-Shop/223453997720476#!/media/set/?set=a.277817535617455.66209.223453997720476&type=1"]https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jimmy-Egypts-Guitar-Repair-Shop/223453997720476#!/media/set/?set=a.277817535617455.66209.223453997720476&type=1[/url] The bloke playing the bass, John, works in the shop. I'll be sure to tell him I'm very jealous when I next see him.

My point of view, is that there is a most definite effort to turn up the desirability on Fender badged ones compared to Squier badged. As above, neck tints make a huge difference to the appearance. They could do it with the squiers, but I would suggest that they don't to keep the ranges apart. Same with scratchplates, there's a hierarchy up through squiers into Fenders. I love the squiers, but would struggle with an affinity because it's been so decontented as I believe the car industry calls it. Turn up the wick on desirability and you'll always find the price point for any given punter. My own price point, no mistake, is with the Deluxe Jazz five I have and I now realise it's just me. I don't think I'll ever not have one now. Hopefully the standard Squier J I've just acquired will be the same. If it's any help, the Mexican Jazz Five Active I had, I didn't much care for and preferred the Squier. Both bought new. As ever, buy the one you like and can afford.

Just acquired this off a friend of a friend. Can't beat a basic Jazz. The 5er I have is active, I'm looking forward to having nothing more than a passive tone to roll off or on.

Adding to my own question. An interface that also give mic or instrument pre inputs woudln't be unwelcome. All my desktop stuff gets down via na old Soundblaster livedrive, so hardly the most up to date solution.

Oooh, there's a blast from the past, ADAT. Since ditching my ancient Tascam 3340, I've always recorded on hard disk but have experience of ADAT in astudio environment some years ago.. Now, however, I find myself in a position where I have a good excuse to embrace the obsolete technology which is ADAT. I'll explain. We've just been given (free and for no money) an original blackface ADAT machine. We also got a Studiomaster P7 16-8-2, but that can gather dust. Anyway, it's occured to me that I would like to rack up the ADAT with our live mixer (Mackie CFX12) and use it for live recording. This would involve direct outs from each channel strip right into the channels of the ADAT machine. What I would then like to do after capturing to ADAT is connect it via the lightpipe ADAT connection directly into a PC to fly all the tracks into Sonar for all the tweaking and fixing that we seem to do these days. So. Suggestions please for a bit of kit which would do the job detailed above. Had this machine not been given to us, I wouldn't be looking to do this, but right now we find ourselves in a position to do multitrack live recording for zero outlay. I just need a means of taking it tothe next level and into the PC. Cheers JF

The rehearsal room we use (new facility in Cumbernauld, check it out [url="http://www.amrehearsals.co.uk/index.htm"]http://www.amrehearsals.co.uk/index.htm[/url]) has Ashdown stacks in all 3 rooms. They're, mmmm, ok is all I would say. I think I've said this previously, but I've tried to like Ashdown stuff on so many occasions. Compared to my old Trace head and Peavey 410 cab, the sound just isn't there. Enough volume, but really no clarity. Regardign EQ, I could easily be convinced that the tone controls aren't actually connected to anything. Through any three of them, my Squier Jazz sounds pretty dull. Through the trace, there shed loads of snappy top end. As I said, I've tried to like Ashdown many times, to the point of having owned 3 or 4, but for me it just hasn't worked.

I'm a trace user of old and still am. Whilst they are known for that pre shape sound along with the smiley face, they can certainly do other things. I go for a much more middly sound nowadays as I have become more educated as to what actually works. You have to remember that before Trace Elliot came along, other than an SVT or an Acoustic, bass amps in general were pretty grim, certainly the ones that were generally available to those of us on an average working bloke's budget. Then Trace came along with these amps that put the sound right out there. Anybody who had to wrestle with an old HH / Carlsbro / Ohm / Laney / insert mediocre 70s-80s amp here, will know what I'm talking about. Yes, we have much more choice nowadays and lots of very capable amps, but other than the Acoustic or SVT, which you just didn't see anywhere for sale., your local music shop was full of garbage until Trace came along. I'm hesitating to use the phrase 'game changers' here, but.... Regarding weight. Yeah, I'm with you regarding the cabs, undoubtedly. Regarding the amp head, sorry but if you can't lift an AH-whatever, you need to see a doctor. My AH150 weight no more than my bass in its case. Anyway, as soemone said previously, each to their own.

FFS Lads ! (With the exception of all you techy dudes who do all this stuff for a living.) Please don't tell my old 150W Trace head that it's only 150W or I'm screwed. For as long as it doesn't know that it's 0nly 150W, it gets on fine. Maybe the fact that I don't wind shed loads of subsonic rumble and smiley faces onto the graphic helps, I don't know... My sonic space, right above the bass drum, below the guitars helps. They've also had all the bottom tweaked out fo their sound too. There I am, 150W, Above the bass drum, below the guitars, in my space. 150 watts, plenty. I must be doing it all wrong.

The 4 x 10 has been plugged in at home once, just because, well, you do, don't you. Just one at least. My little diddy Carlsbro practice amp is more likely to see service is a plug and play home amp. I have however used my aH150 along with the two 1x10s I got recently and that's a lovely little home stack, although the amp's a tad wide for the cabs. Volume wise, with the pre amp set just right, the post gain is useless. On the detented volume knob, 0.5 out of 10 is as high as you can go. Little point about it all really. If I'm being honest, if / when the gigging stops, the gigging amps will be gone in a flash.