DiMarco

On 25/12/2020 at 14:05, Beer of the Bass said:

In the band I'm with at present, the first two bass players before me were both pick players, and while I have used one at times, fingers are "home" to me. When playing the bands older songs, I've tried it with a pick and never been quite happy with the feel I get. I feel like I can own those lines better with a percussive finger style even if it doesn't entirely replicate the sound when they recorded them.

I have played for about 30 years now, 25 of those exclusively fingerstyle and slap.
But then I got my Ric and wanted to sound like Chris Squire. It can ONLY be done with a pick, especially on a Ric.

So I ordered a big box of picks of all shapes and sizes, while practicing I would switch between them based on how they feel and how they sound... It took me just two or three weeks to learn to play with picks and make it both sound good and feel natural.

So have a bit of faith and go for it! is my advice. You can do this.

Two things.

1. I think what you are looking for is an articulate valve amp that makes the bottom end bloom like only valve amps can.
2. Ampeg amps have this grindy "push/bump" in the lower mids that makes them sound so characteristic. You can not switch this feature off though. Try before buy!

As I pointed out in the first bit, bloom. Did you ever consider a hybrid amp? The Mesa TT800's top channel will give you pretty much this exact sound. It may do the job and is pretty lightweight.

Otherwise like some others already stated an Ashdown valve amp is a pretty good bet. Me I use an old Trace Elliot Hexa Valve I bought for 800, then had its valves replaced for another 500 (the old valves from the early nineties were still in there!).

15 hours ago, Woodwind said:

on a tangent what bass is that? Viscount? Vincent?

Looks interesting

Vincent. I had it built by my specs. Passive, bridge pickup is switched single/single/parallel/series with the three jaguar style switches. Slanted neck pickup for more even bottom end across the strings. Lacquered bubinga fretboard because I love Rics.

Meanwhile I received the new amp for this stack. It sounds very tight, solid and warm.
"Tube tone" on the amp is a bs dial though, I see no use for that. The Spectracomp on the other hand is really nice.

Here's some closeup pics of that Vincent bass:

I owned a One10 but sold it. Just wasn't loud enough. These T-E cabs are really nice though.
More top end then the One10 and the lows are great too. So far loving them!

Now I only need that RH750 to arrive - The Elf does run out of headroom pretty quickly.

Yay! Tomorrow the cabs arrive. Amp later this week I hope.

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I've summarised the key take-aways in the OP for ease of reference.

All those GAS inducing basses (and other gear) in the FS from EU based BC'ers are going to be 20% more than their listed prices...

Maybe it would be a good idea to add a mandatory region (pulldown selector) field to the for sale section so that it is clear in every single ad whereabout the item for sale is located. What do you say @ped?

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

That's right...don't sell the big stuff.

No worries. My Hexa Valve is the holy grail of amps. I will never let that go.

3 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Stingray best and Fodera worst? 

Nah those two are my best bass purchases this year.

I don't do worst. But the Darkglass X distortion was pretty pish tbh. It didn't stay here very long! 🤣
Replaced it with an Alpha-Omicron so still a DG user.

and

15 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Too much amp overhang for my liking lol. 

Oh come on! 😁

*I also own a Trace Elf mini amp, but that compresses the living **** out of my signal when it needs to deliver more watts than it was intended to.

This rig is arriving next week, standing about 114cm tall.

I should tell you my other two rigs are a Trace RAH600SMX with an SWR Henry the 8x8 cab, and a Trace Hexa Valve with Barefaced Big Twin II.
The main reason for the small rig is I don't see any bigger venues in the near future and play small jamsessions and in-house parties more.
I went for as much utility value as possible hence the TC head with all its bells & whistles.

Wonder how it will stack up to the bigger rigs. Tonewise I will probably be losing quite some heft and warmth I'm afraid.

Thanks for the link. I have seen that post, but his question is specific to a current deal (we're still in 2020).

Teen Town.

😁

Please include "selling to Europe" as well lads. This thread will be muy importante in a few days time.
Thanks so much for posting Al!

We don't really do xmas presents here in NL as we have 'Sinterklaas' on dec. 5th for that.

But since I get a 13th month wage each december I decided to add an even more portable rig to my arsenal.
What I already had:

Rig 1 - Trace Elliot Hexa Valve + Barefaced Big Twin II Gen3.
Rig 2 - Trace Elliot RAH600SMX + SWR Henry the 8x8.

And now I added ultra portable rig 3:

TC Electronic RH750 + 2x Trace Elliot 2x8" cabs. (already have an Elf amp as well)

This new rig will be used for all situations where I don't want to drag either of the bigger rigs along.
I am hoping it will be plenty loud. The TC head was a nobrainer. It has a built in tuner and comp plus the three EQ preset buttons are very useful. I went for as much utility value as possible as let's face it - the Hexa Valve sounds 10.000x better then any class D head ever will.

The Warwicks I have owned and played were all phenomenal quality instruments.
They play light, are really easy to set up and usually allow for ultra low action and lots of playing comfort.

BUT

Warwicks have a sound all their own. I found they were a bit too perfect for their own good. When digging in they would just get louder but not snarl or growl (they do have an always growly midrangey character though). They keep sounding articulate and clear at all times, at all positions across the neck. This is not for everyone.

After laying hands on a Fodera NYC Empire, which is essentially an active jazz bass with Mike Pope pre, I decided it was time to say goodbye to Warwicks. This bass is much more responsive and full of character. It translates what I throw at it into sound better in my opinion.

Moral of the story: Warwicks are awesome, but not everyone will like their characteristics.

42 minutes ago, alexclaber said:

Obviously I’ll have to rewrite that blurb because of how people are assuming it’s just a pedal for going heavy heavy but on the site I do twice mention “subtle overdrive” and also that the distortion channel can go “almost totally clean”.

I should probably correct the latter to “totally clean if your bass isn’t too hot and you don’t pluck so hard” because my main basses are all LOUD and my right hand is quite heavy.

The joy of pedals rather than cabs is that you can listen to far more useful sound clips. So I’ll get back to that now...

I don't want to be a smartass but words can never really properly describe any dirtbox now can they...
Would LOVE to hear some of its possible tones with both passive and active basses. Are there any clips available anywhere yet?

It looks like an interesting pedal. Will be checking the toob for any tests/reviews in the next couple of days.

The idea of mixing od and fuzz may not be new, but adding the clean with low pass is most probably making the unit sound very proper! The combination of these aspects develops GAS tbh and I consider Alex as an honest, hard working guy.

My Trace Elliot RAH600SMX. It is AWESOME!
Out of all amps I have tried only the Hexa Valve beats it.

I never liked the Ampeg sound much. Taste.

I'm still using heavy old amps after trying a bunch of lightweight ones and not liking them.
Only the cab is now light (Barefaced Big Twin II gen 3)

Playing with IEM's does not inspire me to rock out at all. Rock & Roll just needs to be loud and sweaty.
So to each his own I guess, My basses sound better through a real rig.

The headstock on Sire jazzbasses. They play and sound really nice but I can not be seen with a headstock as ugly as those.

My Tech21 amp bounced off my cab while I was playing, I had to stick it on top of the cab using velcro. WTF? Now I am back to using my old Trace Elliot amps.

So: lightweight amps put me off. They are too light to be practical.

5 hours ago, bloke_zero said:

I'm just trying to get a clearer understanding of the factors and their weighting. I have a roasted maple neck with graphite stiffeners that I feel really helps the instrument sing. I'm about to experiment with a more trad maple p-bass neck on a different build.  My feeling is that the neck is going to be the key part, but I'm trying to get a feeling for how the whole is going to interact.

 

For sure this has a lot of impact. The strings will ring out longer and the colouration of tone changes too if the neck is more sturdy. At least if I can judge from the differences in tonal character I hear between my Fodera Jazz (maple neck, ash body) and the Zon Sonus (carbon neck, ash body) which are both 34" and have the same strings and pickup config. The all wooden Fodera sounds warmer and gels better inside mixes while the Zon sounds ultra articulate and snappy. This occurs both acoustically and amplified. I strongly believe the neck plays a huge part in these different sound qualities.

I have had dead spots on basses with really dense body woods so there's no guarantee. Higher/ lower mass bridges can both help when a dead spot exists but I do not think either can be considered better then the other in that scenario.

Resonant frequencies and standing waves depend on everything in the instrument that vibrates. Adding or substracting any mass will impact this but you can't rely on any of it to eliminate the possibility of dead spots occuring as resonance is the sum of many things.

Just in! Serial says 2015. Never has been played. Lowered the action quite a bit and the pups accordingly. The low B is MUCH WOW on it, so much definition!