molan

I’ve owned instruments from every one of the builders mentioned in this thread 🙈 Personally I’d rate Martin as a clear #1 in terms of final build quality. I really rate some of Bernie’s work as well and I respect his no-nonsense attitude about what works and what doesn’t.

Interesting thread - not least because I came across it when searching to see if there were any ‘interesting’ basses for sale. I rarely scroll through the listings but always search for a couple of specific brands. I am lucky enough to have owned or played just about every one of the ‘exotic’ brands here plus some lovely vintage instruments as well. I think the only one mentioned I haven’t tried is a Carl Thompson. I still have far too many basses but there’s a wall next to my desk in my little studio which tends to be home to the ones I enjoy playing most. It currently has on it: Ritter Cora x2 Fodera Monarch Sei J Atelier Z J Lakland US J Sadowsky NYC J Fender CS P Fender Vintage J These days the only things I ever take out on gigs are one of the Ritters or the Sei (sometimes the Sadowsky). These also happen to be the only two I ever search for and the ones that lead me to this thread! With so much to choose from in terms of tonality, looks, weight etc. I find that my main choices come down to a simple matter of playability. The Ritters are just the easiest to work with and allow me to play more fluently. They sound quite different to each other but I’m sure no-one I ever play to could hear the difference. The Sei comes very, very close to the Ritters and has some useful LEDs for dark stages. If I have a gig where something like the Ritters or Sei might look a bit too ‘flash’ I will take the Sadowsky. It’s just a great gigging bass and always sounds good plus it matches the others for weight. For the odd bit of late night noodling I’ll drag the Fodera out and the Fenders get some time just because I like stroking them, lol. There’s no ‘best’ for me here but Jens, Martin and Roger are three of the nicest people I’ve met in the business and all show amazing passion - albeit in very different ways. If I ever had to keep just one bass it would be my white Ritter Cora. If I was going to commission a new build then I’d go to Martin.

Our lead guitarist uses his amp set to 5w into a mic’d up 1x12” and it sounds amazing. Doesnt even crank the master volume when he’s at 5w, it’s easily loud enough. Sometimes at rehearsals we give him a treat and let him go to 15w, unmic’d 😂 We rehearse in a large hall with thick carpets so it’s not banging around the room and deafening us.

I guess the two working landlords who told me their tales of woe were wrong then. . .

Ted Nugent seems to be generally quoted with the famous quote of "if it's too loud, you're too old". However, following a recent conversation with a pub landlord and customer it seems then the modern day version in smaller gig locations should be "if it's too loud, you really are too loud". . . Some background - we played a gig at a new venue for us that's had regular live music for a long time. After sound check the landlady came over and told us we sounded really good and were the best band they'd had in for a long time. Obviously we're all smiling and happy but a bit confused as all we'd played was a few sections of three songs to set the sound up for each instrument. I asked her what it was she liked - she replied without hesitation that we weren't stupidly loud and she could hear herself think when we were playing and also her customers when they ordered. We got a decent crowd and seemed to go down well and spoke to her about possible future gigs. She said she really liked us but that she was almost certainly going to stop having live bands completely. Her reasons were really interesting: Too many of them are too loud - deafening the staff and punters and increasingly annoying neighbours Poor quality sound - guitars drowning out the vocals, bass making things shake around the room and everything sounding a bit disconnected One of her regulars joined the conversation and backed her up. He obviously knew a bit about live sound and he reiterated that bands were getting louder and louder (he mentioned they seemed to be able to do this even with small combos - which is true of course with so much modern gear). The thing that annoyed him the most was the imbalance of sound, only vocals in the PA, PA sounding 'thin' and lacking clarity and the dreaded guitarist and bassist continually turning up to drown each other out whilst the drummer thrashed away regardless. Neither of them thought the musicianship was poor - although they said they often couldn't tell because of poor vocal quality. They both also said that vocals were the single most important thing for most everyday pub gig goers and they couldn't understand why bands seemed to pay so little attention. Soon after we played another gig where the landlord said something along the same lines. He felt he was losing customers because his local bands were simply too loud week after week. He was always telling them to turn down but they always said they had to be that loud because they couldn't hear what they were playing. He said he was not booking any more bands this year This morning I saw a thread (not here) where someone was saying he was in a new band playing weddings and corporate functions but probably wouldn't be in the front of house mix. Another player then said he needed a really powerful amp that went really loud. I see this 'it's great, goes really loud' quote all the time from people playing small gigs and also so many players saying that the PA is just for vocals. I can understand that 'volume' is all part of the dynamics of playing live but surely it should be 'controlled' rather than the mayhem unleashed by so many pub bands? It amazes me that people still think, in an age where quality PA is easily available for not too much money, that being insanely loud is something to aspire to and that they don't seem to really care about setting a band up for the audience rather than themselves. Putting everything into the FoH mix allows you to balance the sound across all instruments so that the audience can hear everything clearly - especially those all important lead vocals. It also allows everyone on stage to pull back on volume so they aren't deafening each other and can hear what everyone else is playing (adding stage monitors or in-ears is a bonus but I realise that's often too much additional expense or is taking up too much floor space). The lead guitarist in my band sets his Mesa Boogie combo to 5w and never needs any more volume. So, apologies for the long post but it genuinely worries me that more & more gigs will disappear if bands don't get their sound in order. . .

I once went to the old Bass Centre in Wapping because they'd just had a new delivery in of Trace Elliot and there was a new combo I wanted to try out. They had so much stock that they'd had to make corridors of TE gear for people to walk down. So there I am, sitting on top of the TE combo I wanted to try and was idly fooling around with the intro of Wherever I Lay My Hat and trying to remember how it continued into the verse. Next thing I know there's someone soloing on fretless over my verse patterns. I thought it sounded quite cool so just kept playing a basic pattern whilst listening to the mysterious fretless player. Eventually I stopped and stood up to peer over the stack of cabs to discover my soloing partner was none other than Pino himself on an old fretless P bass! I was instantly embarrassed and ducked down behind the cab wall again, grabbed the combo and headed off to buy it. As I went past Pino said "those new Trace combos are really good, excellent choice'. I mumbled my thanks for his opinion and staggered off to pay for it (no such thing as neo speakers those days so it weighed a ton!).

If the truss rod has broken wouldn’t the higher tension of the lower strings make it twist like this?