Dave_the_bass

I'm the happy owner of fretmeister's HD112's and they kick like a mule! I'm also the happy owner of a HD212. This has a slightly more crisp tone than a pair of 112s; it's not hugely different in sound to my old 6x10 cab. There's much love in my home for the HD berg cabs (yep that does include the wife and kids). The only problem with the 212 is the fact it contains dark matter; well that's the only reason I can think of that something that size weighs as much as it does. It's not exceptionally heavy, just heavier than you'd expect.

I used to have the GBE750. That sounded lovely through the 610T (ask bramleyapple as it now resides with him). The 610 is an awkward beast to manoeuvre but does fit in a ford focus with the rear seats down (and leaves plenty of space for other gear) I'm now on a Shuttlemax with a selection of berg 12s. This is also a beautiful sounding combination.

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1387795702' post='2315647'] I've been a very naughty boy, so Santa is bringing me a lump of coal. [/quote] With the cost of heating bills it has to be worth being naughty, receiving coal, then spending the gas bill money on relieving GAS!

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1387655671' post='2314346'] I've seen the bass in the gumtree ad before. I'm not sure exactly where. [/quote] Think it was in this section about six months ago!

I find playing sat down is uncomfortable. My bass has buckle rash where the cut away contour starts (I'd guess thats four to five inches lower than if I was sitting). That's the length, give or take an inch, that I've always played. I learned to play bass standing up, I play gigs standing up, I write/learn new material standing up. Do I look cool? I'm in a rock band playing live on stage; of course I look cool! The way I wear my bass has nothing to do with it, the attitude and stage presence is everything!

[quote name='CyberBass' timestamp='1385847445' post='2292898'] Another option would be the Fishman Fission Bass Powerchord, totally designed for the single guitarist solo situation. Tracking is good as well. [/quote] Was also going to suggest this piece of kit. Never had chance to try one out but the YouTube videos got me really wanting one.

[quote name='jimbobothy' timestamp='1387212214' post='2309444'] Hey guys, I went for the Genz Benz ShuttleMAX 12.2 in the end. Had to send it back due one of the power socket securing clips breaking when I took the power lead out, they make the fit very tight to avoid it rattling out in use, however this one was a bit too tight lol! Saying that I'm getting a replacement and think I'll be very happy with it. Basically using it due to the 2 channels, I like the FET for fretless stuff and the Tube for a bit of grit on my fretless. I also won't be going over the cab limits and don't think I'll need to push it so hard that there would be a risk of clipping. Another point, if I get 2 more 8 ohm cabs I'll have a big stack, and 1200W to play with ! Cheers for all the advice anyhow [/quote] Good move. See my earlier post! My rig's in the gear porn/show us your rig.1x4ohm and 2x8ohm cabs!

It's been brought to my attention that fender make a six string jazz bass that has three, count 'em three, single coil pickups and a tremolo as standard. The only problem is that they couldn't keep the neck stableso tthey've made it a really short scale and recommend ridiculously light gauge strings!

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1387203253' post='2309257'] Actually E is about 41Hz and B is around 30Hz... but aside from me being pedantic you're absolutely right! In this situation it'd be best to stick with standard tuning, otherwise it's going to sound like total sludge [/quote] I too am a pedant; and this is the best kind of pedantry, technically accurate. I doth my cap to you good sir We both agree that trying to play bass in the vicinity of sub sonic frequencies is going to sound(?) awful! I have seen specialist speaker cabs that are designed to operate down 1hz, but, apart from having fun with an audience/brown note experiment, they very expensive with no point!

In all fairness; a standard E is 31(ish)hz. An octave down is 15.5(ish)hz. Human hearing starts at 20hz. All you would be hearing are overtones so you may as well leave the bass tuned standard.

Not sure what the price usually is on these but I had an email from strings direct yesterday; they're knocking them out at £125.

I don't usually get involved in the Barefaced bun fights, but I've got some time to kill so I thought I'd climb atop this rickety fence in the middle of the battle field and use it as my soapbox. My experience of Barefaced cabs is limited, but I'll see if I can inject some logic to the argument. Sound: Never heard one let alone tried one with my amp. People always seem to argue about something that is so subjective. If you break down there comments they usually agree on what the sound is but one person likes it and the other doesn't. I used to here the same arguments over and over about ashdown, guessing the ashdown haters have moved in to one of the barefaced camps these days as all the ashdown threads are full of love! Looks: Never seen one in the flesh. The photos, both on here and on the barefaced website, lead me to the opinion that with the black grille I think they look a bit dull an un inspired, but with the silver cloth I think they look the dogs dangles. Price: Cheaper then Bergs. I like bergs and was lucky enough to score mine from this very website at a very good price. If I hadn't then I'd have paid full price. If I had gone down the barefaced route I'd have been of the same opinion. I don't mind paying a bit of a premium for something that I want if no budget brands can come close. Weight: Assuming the stated figures are correct, they're light! I'm fairly lucky that my arms don't fall of when I pick up something heavy. My berg 212 is quite a weighty beast but I can carry it for quite long distances. If weight is genuinely an issue for you then barefaced are a very good option. Longevity: I've seen the stories about handles and feet. I've also seen the rather rapid work that has been done to rectify the problem. Screams good customer service to me. Do you know what I've never seen? Someone saying "the driver in my bf cab has died". Surely that's the bit of the cab that matters the most. Communication: Before I went berg I contemplated barefaced so I emailed for advice. I told them what amps I use, what sort of music I play and what sort of sound I was looking to get. Do you know what happened? I got a reply! It was about two days later, which I think is reasonable, and we proceeded to have an email conversation over the next week. I asked some, with hindsight, stupid questions and I got reasoned responses that were very professional. All in all, if I decided to get rid of my bergs, I wouldn't rule out barefaced for my next rig on the strength of the haters but I also wouldn't buy them on the strength of the fan boys.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1386956515' post='2306861'] It's not allowed. It's covered in Marketplace rules: 6. Posting links to your own eBay auction is not allowed. Full rules are available from the links at the bottom of my signature below. [/quote] Has this changed recently? Last time I sold something on here, pre-fees (not that I object to the fees, just that I've had nothing to sell), you could link to your eBay auction if your item had been for sale for a "reasonable" amount of time. Edited for typos!

Trying to persuade the wife that we need to go! I hope that the sound for Maiden is better than it was at Download this year. As for The Prodigy; There is no better feel good band to headline a massive open air festival. They never fail to have me dancing round the field like a druid on speed!

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1386683647' post='2303031'] And none of them know that it's actually All Right Now. Guitarist in one of my bands refused to do anything like Rio or Take on me, as he said he'd heard enough cheesy 80s bands when he was at university. But he wants them up and dancing, and there's a better chance of that with that sort of material than with "Basket Case", "Underdog", or "Last Nite" (all songs we do because he wants to). [/quote] It might be my age sspeaking, but: Owing to the pantomime show that Green Day have become I would say (IMO) that basket case is the very definition of CHEEEEEEEEEEEESE.

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1386595086' post='2301869'] I'd go for the joke anti-Valentine's with I Hate Everything About You by Ugly Kid Joe... [/quote] Used to do this in my old covers band. It's a simple but fun bass line. It's even nicely sinked with the vocals so not too tricky to do when the singer doesn't show for rehearsal!

Closer - Nine Inch Nails.

Rather than 900 watts; why not go to the 12.2? 2 x 600W @ 4ohms power amps (375W @ 8ohms) so within the power rating of your cabs and you can always add another two of them if your guitarist starts getting ideas above his station. Nothing says "turn your f***in amp down" like liquefied internal organs!

The beauty of the Ashdown switches (IME) is that you can engage them for home practice at low volume and have a lovely rich tone. When you get in to a full band setting you can turn the switches off, turn the volume up, and have a similar tone that sits nicely in a full band mix.

We did a, verging on death, metal arrangement of Frosty th Snowman. It went down really well. We were also working on a similar style arrangement of walking in the air.

Broke one, second ever gig. It was during the sound check and I was playing with my fingers. I played a note on the A string, bounced my finger in to the low E and it snapped around my finger. It put a massive deep gouge down each side of my finger that probably should have had stitches, but I was too rock n' roll for that! Took me about three hours the following day to clean all of the blood from my bass!

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1386265624' post='2298015'] I played a gig at king tuts once where I was plugged into the DI box down on the floor next to and a tiny bit behind my amp. At some point in the first song I managed to jump onto the end of the lead and half shear it off- so if I moved the signal cut out.... I spent the whole gig stock still right next to the amp (and stage lights) for fear of loosing my signal. I only worked out what it was at the end of the gig when I unplugged and it fell to pieces in my hand! Moral of that story is that floor level isn't always great! [/quote] That's why I was putting it behind the cab.

The other option is to put the head on the floor, behind the cab, once you've got the levels set and run the instrument lead under the cab. This has the advantage that: A, you're head cant fall to the floor and B, you haven't got that horrible bit of lead to stand on, where it drops down from the head, and potentially damage the jack socket in the head.

My current band (see my post from Monday about whether it is still a band) haven't gigged yet. From day 1 we've jammed out ideas and crafted them in to our own original material. We have just about finished a 45 minute set full of material so we can start booking gigs early in the new year (assuming we're still together). We have recently started discussing the idea of learning a few covers so we can switch one of our own songs out if the audience haven't really connected with us. Previous bands I've been in: Two - all originals from day one and never a cover was played. Two - almost all original with a, re-worked cover permanently in the set One - started as a 2 x 1 hour set covers band until we realised we were pretty good at writing our own material so we gradually shifted to having 3 x 1 hour sets (two of covers one of originals) and two band names. If we were being booked as band x we could give people thr option of 2 x 1 hour covers, 2 x 1 hour mainly covers or 1 hour covers and 1 hour originals. If we were being booked as band y it was 1 hour of original material. The interesting time was when band y were booked to support band x at a birthday party as the guy in question had seen both bands a few months apart and hadn't realised we were the same people. Fortunately he laughed it off and paid both bands the agreed amounts as he'd had 3 hours of music he enjoyed for his birthday. The sound engineer that'd he'd hired was laughing all the way to the bank as he'd priced for dealing with two lead singers and four guitarist!

It'd be a tricky one to prove, but the joy of civil law is guilty until proven innocent so, find out the guys details and take it to a small claims court. +1 to naming and shaming. Itf someone one has the good grace to lend you gear then you should have the common decency to treat it with care and respect. Grrrr what's wrong with people today?