lownote

Faced with tiny venues that put me on top of my cab, and so entertaining my ankles not my ears I coughed up for a stand, a Qiklok BS317 from Andertons. But.. how to stop my amp sliding off the now entilted cab top? After considerable umming and erring and fooling about with bungee cords I settled on slotting the amp vertically into a small Hercules guitar stand and shoving it under the cab. Downsides: my footprint is four times the cab on end on the floor and I'm not wholly convinced I haven't lost most of my bassy oomph. We shall find out next practice.

As a long term bedroom player and new to gigging I am astonished at how hard it is to get the right tone in the field. ALL the gently and carefully honed bedroom settings go out the window in a pub gig with other instruments. And as noted elsewhere a rusty Behringer or cheap Ampeg head with trashed venue Peavey cab may give a tone miles better than my poncey high end brand head and cab purchase. Case in point, I'm currently running a MB LM3 into a BF 210 and would swap it for the crap rig in my rehearsal studio in a heartbeat, if only I could carry it!

Active circuitry, EQ, amps, strings, basses, cabs; they all make huge differences, for me anyway. Have I found the perfect tone - yes, and gone round again because that's the fun. Just as I have already owned the ideal gear and flogged it again, sometimes to buy the same thing again, because for me that's the fun.

Does Markbass have top end and common or garden categories of cab, like Ashdown? I wasn't aware but was reviewing comments on 151s when I saw a reference to two types. Be this so?

Choc chip cookie, crossed with playing like butter, of course

At my expense let me give you a personal example of where this sort of thing can be useful. We did a gig recently where someone (what a Sir Richard Head III, can't imagine who) played all night using a coiled extension lead (he blames the arctic blast of the external venue addling his wits). Despite warning smells of hot insulation the band ploughed on to the end and the abused cable drum never missed a beat, even though it was so hot it was still too hot to touch half an hour later even in the subzero temperatures we had that day. It brought home to me that if it had burst into flames and that had spread, PLI might have been quite handy.

Know what you mean. Only the last time I went back to Sussex it seemed to be full of oiks with baseball caps driving L200s. Nostalgia's not what it used to be.

I grew up in Horse Ham. Found it very difficult to escape but did in the end.

Thanks all. The Sadowsky looks perfect for my needs.

Thanks. Unfortunately my browser won't let me access BassDirect because it says their website is infected with a trojan.

As title really. There aren't many unlined basses around, and the only fiver I know of and have owned is the Ibanez Portamento, which has stub lines. I'm looking for a clean board with just on-the-note dots at 'frets' 3, 5, 7, 9 etc. Any steers?

Yeah, a good while back I was wingeing to Dave Green at Ashdown about wimpy oomph. He thought I was being far to wimpy with the settings, and counselled me to wizz the gain way up so the signal is only just still clean, and then if necessary pile on the volume and even the EQ settings. Effectively taking a comfortable practice setting and overegging every single setting by the same amount.

Yes it is! Well spotted. Even thought of asking the studio bloke to swap it for my old Mag 300 head. But it’s just too heavy, and too dirty.

Having owned cabs priced from £50-500 I’ve grown the opinion that you get what you pay for. So I was considerably excited to partner my MB LM3 with an as new Barefaced Two10. Only the BF didn’t turn up until after I’d left for band rehearsal. Which put me in the disagreeable position of using the studio-provided bass stack. Yuck. A dusty old Ashdown 210 and an ancient Peavey 410, adorned with what looked like the remains of a melted plastic coffee cup, topped off with an unsavoury looking tatty Behringer Ultrabass head. With no alternative until I got home to welcome the BF, I reluctantly plugged in. Quelle surprise. Wonderful punchy gut thumping rock-toned bass goodness, even at volume. Once I tried the Barefaced I was impressed. But I have to say that if the studio stack also weighed 13 kg and not more like 70 kilos and I owned a small van and not a small hatchback, I know which rig I’d be gigging. Not knocking Barefaced, just saying there may be unexpected answers to kit needs. And price or even condition may not always be the decider. As with basses, try before you buy.

Very beautiful bass. Just... right somehow. I had one, sold it. Too much info from all the stub markers + the main side spots aren't on the notes.

Just bought a BF 210 cab off Chris. Not only did he answer my Wanted appeal, but the whole deal then was wonderfully efficient yet handled in a lighthearted and friendly manner. Awesome dude.

Our Wanted section is just extraordinary. This is the second time I have posted an unusual request* and had someone come straight back with just the thing which they weren't even advertising. Jolly good, well done. * BF Two10 4ohm cab, Ibanez Portamento 5 string.