Musky

By the sound of the 'percussive/attack effect' description on the EHX site, it sounds like an expander - which acts kind of like the opposite of a compresser. The old Gibson RD artists had one of these built in, so maybe if anyone here has ever tried one they'd like to chip in. It'd be interesting to hear how EHX have implemented this. Given how popular compressers are with bassists, I can't really imagine a huge market for this.

[quote name='Shockwave' post='141708' date='Feb 16 2008, 08:49 PM']I am pretty sure its not jap crap, I reckon its korean or chinese. Ventura werent allways japanese and they werent allways the same company. Its pretty recently built (Maybe late 90's) Either way, i am hundred percent its not jap.[/quote] As you were. I got carried away with the name there! Still, a great bargain - that case must be worth the £30 on it's own.

[quote name='Jonny Walker' post='141770' date='Feb 17 2008, 01:39 AM']I'm aiming to get the Mesa Big Block 750...[/quote] In which case you'll be fine with a pair of 4 ohm cabs. It's worth bearing in mind that a doubling of power will give you a 3db increase in volume - that's the same increase you'll get as doubling the number of woofers, i.e. if you're using a single 4x10 at the moment, buying a pair will give the same increase in volume (assuming overall impedance remains the same). Likewise, using cabs with a higher sensitivity will give you a useful increase in volume - the difficulty here being that manufacturers are often less than forthcoming with meaningful sensitivity ratings or just 'economical' with the truth (as BFM often bemoans). Volume seems to be your main issue here, but unfortunately there's more to perceived volume than simply the wattage. To complicate matters, amps with a valve power stage will often sound louder than an SS amp with the same rating. This topic has cropped up a lot in this forum, and it might be worth your while trawling through a search on 'SPL'.

You'll have Jon (Bassassin) spitting teeth! That's vintage Japcrap - possibly Matsumoku! Nice buy!

I've got to admit, I've never heard of cabs with switchable impedance, so I checked the Mesa website. And yes, they say 4 or 8 ohm. But that just refers to the cab options available - you just choose either a cab loaded with 4 ohm speakers or one with 8 ohm speakers. Tellingly there's no switch on the cab to select impedance. What head are you thinking about - the SWR 750x? If so, the minimum impedance that amp will handle is 2.6 ohms - that's the equivalent of one 4 ohm and one 8 ohm cab, with the 4 ohm cab receiving more power than the 8 ohm. Like bass ferret says, don't get too hung up over the wattage. Watts tell you very little about the volume. If you really want more volume you might be better off going for more efficient cabs.

There's currently a Roland Cube 100 sitting on ebay at a whopping 99p with 10 hours to go. You'd have to be able to get yourself over to Burnley though - it's pickup only. It's sitting in the guitar amp category, so it might get overlooked.

[url="http://www.geocities.jp/dgb_studio/index_e.htm"]This site[/url] has more wiring mods than you can shake a stick at. The only bad thing about it is that it was written by a Japanese guy who's English doesn't seem to extend to writing decent descriptions of the sounds you can expect. You should be okay sticking to the recommended ones though.

Hi Norrin, and welcome to the forum. All the Thor Sounds were 32" scale, though I know they altered the headstock at some point. The Rev Sounds were 34" if you're looking for a long scale Mat Aria.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='140981' date='Feb 15 2008, 12:36 PM']I'd say more than another £100 definately. Perhaps even over the £1k ? The recent price rise, the colour and the apparent condition are all going for it. There's a regular Ric seller on eBay who would be asking at least £1150 for this. Peter[/quote] Yep, £850 would definitely be cheap for this bass, but against that there's the lack of feedback and lack of pictures or anything like an adequate description Incidentally, Reidys are doing Ricks for £999 if you don't mind a wait - 6 weeks for a Jetglo, but 10 months if you want an azureglo. [url="http://www.reidys.com/index.pl?submit=View_PLU&PLU=1550"]http://www.reidys.com/index.pl?submit=View_PLU&PLU=1550[/url]

I'd say £740 is more than fair as it stands, but I'd expect that to go up maybe £100 before the auction ends. There's another blue 4003 in similar condition with a case standing at £740 on there at the moment, though that had a buy it now price which has disappeared since someone has placed a bid. Might be worth contacting them to see what they would let it go for.

If you're looking for high powered valve amps you could do worse than a Trace V8 - if you can find one. Officially they're 400w, but I know Oxblood recently set up and tested his VA350 and found it knocked out over 450w - [i]before clipping.[/i] An extra pair of KT88s should be knocking out some serious wattage, especially if you push it into distortion. If that's not enough, how about a [url="http://www.chambonino.com/construct/const9.html"]Clean Electronics CDA 1000[/url]? I feel I've got to point out that you probably won't notice the difference in volume just by doubling the wattage though. EDIT: I've just noticed you're using a single cab(?) - adding another will shift significantly more air, as well as getting the full 450w from the amp (assuming it's an 8 ohm cab). In terms of volume you'd probably be better of with another cab or 8x10. There's a sticky on this (I think) as well as one on apparent volumes of valve and solid state amps.

Actually, this thread has just reminded me of a regular column that appeared in a weekly instrument mag in the early eighties. A guy was trying to design a guitar from aluminium (body as well as neck), and he described problems with tuning instability. The problem lay not in the change of scale length, but the effect it had on the strings. He overcame the problem with quite a simple bridge design to compensate. I think he called it the Exe, and actually did produce a few. Anyone got any knowledge of these things?

[quote name='alexclaber' post='136309' date='Feb 8 2008, 09:45 AM']Obviously the UK is part of the EU, but some EU countries are net contributors and some are net recipients. The answer is to go on regular holidays to enjoy smooth fast Spanish roads that we paid for... Alex[/quote] Or just eat their cheap tomatos.

[quote name='setekh' post='133920' date='Feb 4 2008, 09:49 PM']on a different note - does anyone know of similar (cool) basses with a price tag of under €1000? [/quote] Eastwood Classic? They go for £350-ish over here.

Straight off gumtree - [url="http://www.gumtree.com/london/36/19010036.html"]http://www.gumtree.com/london/36/19010036.html[/url] £1900 from a central London seller.

I'm with Jean Luc on this - they'll work but you won't get the bottom end. I used a Marshall 200w guitar cab, with an amp knocking out up to 175w through it, for years without any worries at all. Mind you, I was using a Rick on the bridge pickup so I wasn't exactly shaking the foundations with the bass.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='132632' date='Feb 2 2008, 04:14 PM']Okay... I'm a bit fick. Explain your point in idiot's language.[/quote] I think (and forgive me if I'm wrong, ARGH) it's not so much an extolling of ERBs or widdlesome technique, more that he's drawing comparisons with developments in bass playing and developments in musical styles. In the way that slap has defined so much modern funk and detuning is so prevalent in metal.

I think there's a lot to be said for your argument ARGH, though I think it's rather in the nature of instrument rather than simple conservatism. There's only so much you can do with a stringed instrument, no matter how many strings you add to it, and essentially all those things have been done. We can add strings, detune, add effects or try new ways of attacking the strings, but fundamentally we're stuck with the same instrument. A lot of experimentation with bass just leads to replication of sounds available guitarists of keyboards. Nothing wrong with that of course - it keeps us as bassists in business - but it's nothing really new. And ultimately someone has to hold down the bottom end - it might be a keyboard player or a second (or third!) bassist, but it's likely to be us. Of course, nothing really new in rock has happened for quite some time (I wouldn't even call Grunge new). Pop has (long ago) eaten itself. But all the really new sounds are coming from the dance scene - which of course doesn't really use bass guitars. I think we ought to recognise that we're working within what is now quite an old cultural form, and one that's not likely to be the dominant one forever. Given the way instrumentation changes with genuinely new forms of music (or is that the other way round?) I don't think we need fret (ouch) too much progression of technique. Like the piano, the bass is what it is.

[quote name='evilLordJuju' post='131380' date='Jan 31 2008, 04:30 PM']A bunch of us Gibson fans have got together to order a bach non-reverse thunderbird style bass. see here [url="http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1408"]http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1408[/url] I'll be getting one for sure - will post pics when they arrive. As far as I know, Bach will make you anything, if you can get together an order for 25 of them....[/quote] €160 for the Thunderbird? What's that - £120? That is ridiculously cheap. I wonder what they'd want for a Rick 4005?

Got to agree with bassboy really, though the Ashdowns are a bit marmite - some people love 'em, others hate 'em. The Laneys I've tried (not any of the RBs) have been ok but don't seem to have any character of their own - nothing to really love or hate about them, just ok. There's a good deal on the profet 5.1 [url="http://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/shop/view_product.php?product=warprofet51basshead&gclid=CNqUnaKrgJECFQwwlAodJmv6-A"]here[/url] at the moment. Insane price - £208 including delivery (be quick - it's a January sale!).

[quote name='jono b' post='131008' date='Jan 30 2008, 10:36 PM']Going by the age what model would you say it was? I'd message him but he seems like such a tool that he probably couldn't tell me[/quote] It's got a CN serial number which is a Korean Squier made by Cort, so it's probably about the age he reckons. The first number after the prefix might be a 5 or 6, though it's a bit hard to see. It's just the standard squier that was available at the time, so could go anywhere from £100 to £150 (if people don't mind the scratches). The way he's listed it I'd expect it to reach nearer the bottom end of that.

[quote name='bremen' post='130624' date='Jan 30 2008, 01:07 PM'][url="http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/data/mains.htm"]http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/data/mains.htm[/url] : "Member countries of the European Union are presently striving to achieve a common mains standard. From 1 January 2004 the mains supply should be 230V (-6%, +10%), 50 Hz (±1%). ie a range of 216.2 - 253V This replaces the UK's former specification which was 240V ±6% (ie a range of 225.6 - 254.4V) Variations should still be anticipated in some areas as the voltage will drop during periods of heavy demand and rise during periods of low demand."[/quote] That's true, but notice that there's scarcely any difference in the upper limit. So in practice electricity suppliers have made no change, and still remain within the EU rules. As Gbase says, it really doesn't matter - these rulings weren't really intended to affect suppliers, but the people who design appliances (who now have a range of voltages that they know their equipment should work under).

My first thought was a Squire VM as well - either the Precision or Jazz. But I'm afraid you're probably going to get a lot of different suggestions from here as well, as everyone has their own priorities of what to look for in a bass. For what it's worth, there have been plenty of people on here that have recommended Yamahas and Ibanezs as a first bass and the odd suggestion for Schecter as well, besides a whole bunch more (Peavey and SX spring to mind). In the past my default answer has been, go with one like your favourite bassists use. Besides looking the part (which let's face it is pretty important), it's also likely to get you on the way to achieving the same tone. So the next questions have to be, what kind of music do you like and who are your favourite bands?

[quote name='Hamster' post='130203' date='Jan 29 2008, 06:33 PM']UK voltage is now actually 230v AC to bring us closer to the rest of the EEC which is 220v AC. Hamster[/quote] As far as I'm aware supply voltage hasn't actually been changed in this country. The EU specified a range of voltages which encompassed those already in use across Europe. There's always some variation in supply voltage, and in practice the change in nominal supply voltage just meant UK suppliers had to keep more of an eye on the upper limit.