la bam

I use the hack of a cheap (2p) rubber washer, pulled over the basses strap bolt and covering the top of the strap hole. Works a treat. I like the idea of proper strap locks but dont trust myself fitting stuff like that.

I've said it for years - bands doing 90s dance music will go down a storm! Great stuff!

I meant get a quality cab, but second hand. With a £700 budget i wouldnt want to be spending say £350 on each and being stuck with them. It isnt going to be as effective or as flexible as a new £500 head and £200 second hand cab - which you could sell for what you bought it for if it didnt work out. (Or even £600 and £100). Loads of great used cabs out there for £100-200.

Just my opinion, but separates are the way to go for the following reason: If you're worried about having to be loud enough for lots of different venues and perhaps not having pa support etc, I'd recommend a 4x10 cab. Pretty much get away with anything with one of those as long as its driven correctly. However, in time you might not need to lug a 4x10 around, so perhaps a 2x10 or a 1x12 etc would be better suited (or even better suited to certain venues leaving the 4x10 for the bigger ones). With that in mind, and to save you buying another new combo, I'd spend the majority of the budget on a top quality, powerful amp head, and the rest on second hand cabs (or even one cab to start with) and see what works for you. Head wise it depends what you really like. Loads of eq and functions and buttons? Or simpler the better? Lightweight? Built in fx? The worlds your oyster. Theres lots of ashdown abm combos around for around £200, if you wanted a combi, but I'm not sure if they'll be loud enough. I had an abm2 500 (1x15) and it wasnt enough for me. I also wouldnt recommend a 4x10 combo - very heavy. My main rig (and pretty much rig for everything) is a quilter 800 and laney n410. Total weight around 22kg and loud and good enough for any gig.

Snark works well for me. Nice and cheap. Batteries last forever too.

ooh, now then.... 22kg, rackmountable (easier to protect), x9 valves, a gain that goes up to 25! Auto bias and valve selection. And the best part - it looks like it can run on 8ohm cabs? Nice.

Pedals, pre amps etc that have flimsy 9v adaptor type power connectors. All connectors should be some kind of locking cable for me.

Pedal boards that dont come with a built in 13a plug rack, so you could plug anything in, instead of just 9v stuff. A 1u-ish sized rack like you can buy would be perfect nestled inbetween the rails.

Exactly! Just one beat off, but your head feels backwards! I used to play the lower b on the e string then bounce of the high E on the A string. If you ended up playing e then b, instead of b then e, it just freaks you out!

Pretty sure when I played this years ago I just played the B and E for the verse and it worked well for us. Trick is the timing. Go one beat out and itll mess with your head and sound like you're playing it backwards.

Problem doing it from tab is the notes all look the same value and time, and they're not. You need to keep playing through it and work out which are what I call "joining" notes (not essential to line, but help link the parts together) and which are essential. When you've got your head around that, add the joining notes in at your own pace and style.

To get to grips with it - as the other tabs are quite busy, try the songsterr version just to get used to it.

It's a fantastic, underrated bassline. Really for me is a classic line. Smooth, grooves, quite complex and unexpected, but amazing to listen to. I had a go years ago at it. The tab doesnt really make much sense until you're really upto scratch with it, but just pick out the main notes and add in the other when they start to feel right. Good luck.

I dont really understand the fan being loud (which to be fair it is) being an issue. At gig and practice levels you'll not hear it at all and theres a headphone socket for practicing at home. Only worry for me is a potentially noisy DI which i will have to investigate.

I saw one of those Shavo heads in PMT. They're a lot bigger than I thought and a whole lot bigger than an abm600. Look cool though.

I'd go for a good modern 4ohm 4x10 cab. It's amazing how close in size the 2x10s are to the modern 4x10s. I did that with my laney n cabs. Bought a 4x10 and a 2x10 for smaller gigs. Turned out there wasnt much space saving at all. So I sold the 2x10 and just use the 4x10 on everything. I used plenty of 4x10s and never been short of volume anywhere.

Maybe send by specialist pallet courier instead of normal courier? Itd be strapped and protected and attached to pallet. Nothing would go on top of it (youd hope) and courier would be used to heavy pallets.

Cheers all. I've done all the above now. And it looks to have worked a treat. I've been playing for nearly 30 years and still hate re-stringing! Never really got to grips with it!

Thanks.

They're daddrio chromes. They have a blue cotton around the top few inches (if that helps?).

Hi all, I've just bought some chromes and stringing them on my p bass. However, the E string seems fairly long and winding it round the final wrap of the string is resting on top of the other wraps. Is this ok? Or should I cut the string? I'm not sure if cutting flatwounds is ok?