la bam

Nowhere near as bad as I thought, but heres a comparison between the g&l and v4.

Just set up a blank patch.

Sorry, I should have said... they have different amounts of frets. With the frets definitely differently spaced out differently - almost a semitone in the 3-7 area of the fretboard. G&L - 21. V4 - 20. Some basses even more.

I'm sure weve all been there..... bought a new bass and it's slightly a different scale which then throws you're muscle memory a fret or two out. I'm trying to keep to one brand from now on (g&l) which have the same necks, but cover different styles of bass (p, j, pj, mm etc) but also have massive gas for playing my vintage v4s and buying some lovely looking cheapo harley Benton's, but I know these will be different scales and amount of frets again. Now, playing around the house isnt a worry, but I'd hate to play one bass all week, then get the usual out for the gig and be semi tone to full tone out when gigging! Has anyone ever done that?

Massive to be honest. But as always the case hard to explain. Cheaper ones are usually quite thinner sounding once you need volume, and struggle balancing low end with the rest of the sound for me. They seem to divide up the sound coming through the speakers much more and struggle reproducing a full sound, sounding disjointed. Theres a distinct lack of richness and warmth, and the sound sounds like it's coming only from the area around speaker boxes. The more they are driven the worse they sound. You can tell they are being driven hard. Higher end amps are more like coming in from the cold into a warm house on a winter's night - lovely and warm sounding and just get better and better the more they're driven. Theres more definition and feel to the music, and it just kind of feels like a complete sound, not like an amp driving some speakers - more like the sound sounds like it's coming from everywhere rather than the x2 boxes. A bit more 3D if you like. And they always sound like theres a million percent more power and volume at the same quality on tap. Also much more reactive to eq.

It's definitely folly for me. I DJ'd professionally for a living for 10 years. I used ALL kind of PA systems and rigs, from just a pair of 12" active to x4 18" subs and 10" tops, to full passive and active rigs for small venues and large venues all over the country. I probably played through most of the top 12" 'tops' out there (all supposed flat- ish) from Mackie, Alto, EV, HK Audio, RCF, Martin, Peavey, LEM, Yamaha, Nexo and more - all using the same mixer and play out systems - and I can tell you now theres a whole massive range of quality, depth, warmth and sound between the lot of them. Likewise with power amps. All you need is something fairly neutral to give you a fair crack at getting a good sound. Looking for fully flat - to me anyway - is pointless. A rig, whether it be djing, band, bass etc is only as good as the sum of its entire parts. What you gain or lose from one part you add or subtract with another until you have the sound you want.

Agreed. Great reviews. Well thought out, explained, and nicely in depth without becoming monotonous. Keep at it!

I love my G&Ls. I had a mint M2000 tribute. Gorgeous and an amazing sound. It sold for about £300. I also have a sb2 tribute I bought for £50 in bits, and love it. And a owned from new l100 tribute. Utterly brilliant bass in every way. I'm just a G&L man from now on. Unbeatable value. I think they only struggle as not many shops stock them for people to try. Good luck with the sale.

I had one as a backup. Looked lovely. Sounded good. Impossible to play. Horrendous neck dive. Absolutely terrible. If buying, but a thick suede strap to have a hope of keeping in place.

I emailed laney once. Got a reply in a day, very thorough and easy to understand (no fobbing off), and they even sent me some free replacement parts in the post. I found them to be a fantastic company.

My advice is listen to several 'bass only' or 'bass and drums' multitracks from your favourite bands on youtube etc. You'll be amazed at how awful (even amateurish) they sound isolated, but brilliant in the mix. For recording a beautiful loud thumping live bass tone isnt always the way to go. I've had best results with quite a messy, over driven, basic sound which picks up all kinds of clank and fret noise.

Yes, 12 o'clock keeps it clean. 4 o'clock adds in the drive and thickness. If you doing the eq etc from your stomp, start with everything at 12 o'clock.

On it's own I use the gain at 4 o'clock. With the stomp I set it at 12 o'clock.

Just remember with the bb800 that the controls work together - especially gain and volume. Around 12 o'clock gain is tight and smooth, and 4 o'clock can get nice and drive like. You have to work the gain and master with each other to get the desired sound.

I remember the headphone one the elf being quiet. Rest of the amp - very good.

You have to scan everytime you use it - but that's a good thing - it makes everything more reliable and best possible quality. Scanning also finds any other wireless instruments etc and picks you a channel away from them. I love mine to bits. Easy to use once you know how (it isnt easy at first!) and has been reliable indoor and outdoor.

Quilter bass block and a laney n410. More power than you could believe. Whole package weighs just over 20kg. I've done big gigs and indoor and outdoor festivals with that rig and didnt even come close to half way on the volume. I used to have a barefaced super compact. I sold it as it struggled at larger gigs. The laney n410 doesnt even break a sweat. Probably get both for around 1000 if you're lucky.

What did this cab work out at price wise in the end?

Theres an incredible deal on the line 6 g75 - around £150 - same as the wl20. I love mine. Rock solid. Ah, I see you want a bug type system... i cant help on that I'm afraid.

If you're using your bass rig and not going through the pa, the easiest way is to just choose your chosen amp sim, add in an eq sim and go straight into your cab. Then adjust eq until you have the sound you want.

I guess it's how you use them. If you record with an ir cab, it sounds great. However if you use an ir cab then go through your cab, I agree it sounds muffled. What I do now is split the signal, so the ir cab goes to pa and no it cab goes to my cab. Helps clean things up.

Firstly its ridiculously light and small, but well built. Then it really does have a great sound, and more importantly lots of great sounds. The simple dials (that work together) are brilliant on the fly - turn it this way a bit, turn it that way a bit, yep that sounds right! None of that 10 band eq and cut and boost confusion - leave that to the sound guys. QSC are well known for quality and importantly reliability, so hopefully Quilter will continue that. Literally plug in, play, for right in the mix and sound good. Easy. Then it's a one hand lift out back to the car afterwards too!

Wow! Youd definitely fall over dizzy trying to work out were you were on that fret board!

I'm now using my patch split 2 ways to send my 'sound' to the PA via main out and my sound minus a cab sim via send to my cab. That way stage sound doesnt affect PA sound, and my stage sound isnt clouded by a cab sim and a cab. Also guarantees consistency for ever gig.