la bam

I've had a lot of rack pres and full on valve amps etc, and the best sound of them all for me - despite 20 years of ignoring it - was a simple sansamp bdi. Rack pres are ok, but when coupled with a power amp, they're large, quite heavy, fiddly to use (they dont all sound loud as they should with their connections and outputs) and still quite delicate. I'd say when playing in a band theres no difference to me between my markbass and sansamp, and any of the all valve beasts I had. I'd even say it sounds better.

I've just played my new ray 34 (ash, roasted neck) at an outside gig, it's a complete tone machine. Gees, they're good these stingrays. Really full sound. Easy to play too. I played through my sansamp bdi pretty much flat. What was great though is that the tone can be so easily changed using the eq on the fly. As it was an informal garden party I had chance to experiment and theres so much tone and possibilities in there from fat, punchy funk, to mid driven rock. The only difference I'd say between the 34 and a precision is that the 34s bottom e is softer and rounder, you dont get that slam. Well, maybe you can after a bit of eqing and playing around, but the bottom e just felt softer than the others. Not in a bad way though.

If you're lugging a big valve head, it's best paired with a big cab. If your lugging a big cab, it's best micd up, otherwise you're more than likely just getting the pre amp valves, not output valves sound when di ing from the head. If your gonna just di the head, imo you might as well just get a di pedal or rack - it's the same thing for foh.

Ahhh..... the familiar class d, class a/b, valve amp circle.... I cant get out of it either. Mark my words you'll get a SVT, then a month later be back on class d, then a/b.....then back round again!

All my usual bass leads work fine with all my other basses and amps, just not this one.

What's weird is when I looked at my boss wl50 jack, that's a 2 ring jack as well, not a one ring mono.

Hi all, I've just bought a used but immaculate ray 34 and it only works when using a cable with 2 stripes on the jack. Whether it be a patch cable type, or my wireless unit - boss wl 50. It will not work at all with a regular guitar / bass cable. It works superb, no hassle, eq and volume great, sound great, but only with a 2 striped jack...... Anyone any ideas why?

Gees, how many bands are on!! I thought there was only about 3 or 4 stages. With that list it looks like every band in the country is gonna get a go!

Zero for me. Been in bands where people think 5-10 pints makes them better. It doesnt.

If you want early queen sound, listen to some of the isolated bass tracks from queen on youtube. John's sound is nothing like youd think. Its raw, very rough sounding and quite growly. Sits in the mix as something completely different.

Its pushed all the way in. But it only works with shielded cables. I've never had this before. Sounds awesome though. Just a weird thing to be happening.

Weird. It had a new battery in. Wont work with my usual bass leads, but will work with shieled / 2 stripe connector leads....

I've been looking at shops all over Europe for markbass stuff. It looks like they're really really really struggling to get things out, presumably from covid supply issues. Everything seems to say 'due in xxx weeks' then when the date comes it reverts back to 5 weeks.

Got to admit that is the coolest looking rig there is. That classic ampeg silver and black looks fantastic.

Thats weird. I'll check again later.

Cheers. I've caved and bought a new style ray34. Ash natural. I am missing something or do these only run off stereo cables? My usual lead doesnt work, but my little stereo patch cables do?

I suppose with barefaced theyll benefit from always being, and always going down the path of, being a higher end, more expensive cab, that people buy because of what it is, not its price. So I think people will still buy at the same rate.