EliasMooseblaster

One of the motivations for buying a Fender Tony Franklin was that I'd heard the man himself stipulate an ebony fingerboard to cope better with the wear from roundwound strings. Despite this, I'm very aware that my usual favourites, Rotosound Swing Bass, are notorious cheese graters, even the softer nickel variant. I'm sure the ebony will cope, but there's a nagging sense of doubt about it as the day gradually approaches when I'll have to replace the stock Fender strings. Then I remembered that my Schecter came with Elixir rounds when I first bought it, and they certainly offered a similarly bright "angry goose" tone to my usual RS66s. Aside from imparting insane longevity, would the coating make them gentler on the TF's beautiful fingerboard?

I might be able to help here...I have both the CTM-100 and the LB-30, which I run into a Bergantino 2x12. The CTM-100 managed an outdoor gig without PA support last month, and coped sufficiently well that the rest of the band suggested suggested I turn down a bit! I mostly use the LB-30 for home and recording, but it still comes out for smaller gigs - it's certainly managed small-to-medium-sized pubs and bars without needing any help.

I managed to get up to seven, and decided it was time to implement a one-in, one-out policy - partly for space reasons. The trouble is, if I wanted to get another, I'm not sure which one I'd move on in its place... I can't sell the kit-built Precision for sentimental reasons. I probably can't sell the parts build, as it's since become an experimental three-pickup oddity, and would have everyone here marvelling at my awful botched routing over on the "eBay Weird and Wonderful" forum within minutes of me posting it for sale. I don't want to flog the Epi EB-3, as the resale value is non-existent, and ever since I popped a DiMarzio Model One in to replace the stock mudbucker, it's been really enjoyable to play again. I don't want to flog the T-bird, as it's still my second favourite. I don't want to flog the Schecter, as it's my current favourite. The 8-string? Maybe, but I'd have to trade it in for a different 8-string. Not beyond the realms of possibility, but I'm not really looking at the mo. The Tony Franklin? Still my favourite fretless. It's not going anywhere. NB I've mostly put this all down in writing for my own benefit, as if I don't keep reminding myself of all the above, I'll start trying to justify a Sandberg or some weird and exotic fretless...

Does nobody else look at that twin humbucker placement and think "Thunderbird"?

"Richter" is to Laney as "Rumble" is to Fender - it's the name for one of their more enduring bass amp series. "RB" is indeed "Richter Bass", and they cover everything from tiny practise combos (RB1) to a high-powered head (RB9).

As someone else who also appreciates a good cup of the Earl, next time you cross la manche, I would recommend tracking down a bottle of Marble Brewery's Earl Grey IPA. It has saved several evenings when I've been caught in the dilemma of whether to have another beer, or a cup of tea!

The weekend before last, my CTM100 chalked up a (very unofficial) victory in the (very unofficial) volume war between our guitarist and me - at an open-air gig I actually had to turn down for a change! Admittedly I was driving two 12" speakers to his one, with 100W to his 15W, but we all know the lengths to which we have to go to keep up with most guitarists. At any rate, the tone was to die for.

I find it's better not to s**t on them in the first place.

Another vote here for Fast Fret on uncoated strings. It won't bring a set back to life, but they'll go for a lot longer before they start to sound dead if you're diligent with the stuff. Back when I still had flats on my fretless, I found it was pretty nifty on those as well (anyone else find that flats get a bit "sticky" if you don't clean them?)

For as we all know, a watt in the valve is worth two in the transistor...or something like that.

True; I'd suggest it more as a pair of stabilisers than a long-term solution. As you say, Brubeck and co were more able to break free once they were more comfortable with the material, and I'm sure our Leonard will do the same once he's feeling more settled in the band.

How improvised is "semi-improvised"? Can I assume you at least agree on a time signature beforehand, and the only difficulty is tracking the drummer's pulse? If so: be the pulse. Even if just to build your own confidence to begin with. While we're all citing Take Five as an example, there's a great example at the end of the Time Out album where Eugene Wright keeps the band anchored to 6:4 by playing steady crochets throughout the whole bar, and Morello is free to just float around his pulse:

Probably has a lot to do with it - admittedly one of my tonal holy grails is "Live at Leeds," but I'm not always going for such an in-your-face tone, and the warmth and fullness of a more moderate valve tone is hard to beat - at least to my ears. There's no way the LB30/CTM30 is going to compete with a Trace Elf on weight, for example, but in terms of being small and portable it's the kind of thing I can carry to the bus stop in one hand without any trouble. And not to do down the Class Ds by any means. I've played through some tiny little lightweight amps at jams and suchlike, and some of them sound really nice; they just wouldn't be my first choice from a tone point of view. Does make me tempted to try out the Little Stubby though - I seem to remember @Merton speaking very highly of the one he tried.

The LB30 wasn't discontinued so much as rebadged - the CTM30 is the same 30W all valve head in a different case, and if anything I think Ashdown are trying to expand upon the design (see the "Little Stubby" variant they recently released). You do raise a good point, though - small guitar amps have probably done well because the majority of guitarists still ultimately want a valve tone, whereas bassists are split across more different camps. Some of us want valve sounds, some of us want tight, clean Class D-type sounds, and various shades in between, so the demand probably isn't as evident.

The Ashdowns mentioned above all have a post-preamp DI socket if the sound guy wants a DI signal. That, and the scale of gigs I'm typically playing tend to be vocal-only PAs.

I have heard about this happening to some friends of mine without any sudden change of owner! I happened to end up talking to a guy who'd organised an event, and told me he'd booked a band for it, but they were so awful that he'd decided to pay them off after their first set and mumble some excuse about messed-up scheduling so as not to hurt their feelings. As if I hadn't been cringing hard enough as he told me this tale, he then told me the name of the band - I decided to bite my tongue and not mention that they were friends of mine...

Perhaps I've been lucky, but with Cherry White we've been fortunate enough to find recording engineers who are to happy to put a mic in front of a bass cab (at least one has even favoured the approach). Most of them have taken a dry DI signal as well for everything <100Hz, but by either re-amping or putting the amp in a different room, I've had the pleasure of recording with a vintage Fender Bassman, a B15, and my own LB30.

Oh hell yes, the LB30 is without doubt the best looking amp I've ever owned! I always heavily qualify my claims that it was powerful enough to gig, as the gritty, mid-focused tone I use to fill the space between a loud drummer and a lone guitarist in relatively small venues is not going to work for everyone. But yeah, if you ever get your hands on a 100...

True, and I know it's a thread which has already been flogged to death! All I shall say on that front is that the Viz cartoon "Ed Sheeran and The Fountain of Popularity" resonated quite strongly with my own feelings on the man...

+2! The LB30 and CTM30 are, I believe, the same amp in different cases. I have the former at home, and it's superb for recording. Also holds its own surprisingly well at *smaller* gigs, especially with a decent cab. PS: Its bigger brother, the CTM-100, is definitely powerful enough for live use. I actually managed to drown out our guitarist at our last gig!

Rather p!$$es over Ed Sheeran's loop pedal, doesn't it?

You'd think a company that had kept Black Sabbath in amps for several decades would enjoy a better reputation! I've been quite staunchly loyal to Laney for most of my time as a bass player - partly because they were among the best-sounding bass amps I could afford for a long time. I always thought they sounded good and were pretty solidly built, and I probably would have stayed with them if not for the temptation to drift towards all-valve heads.

^ this is surely the best motivation for replacing a bridge. I've long since learned to keep my SG bass flat on its back while changing strings, but it's not always a practical option...

Officially, 18. Though most of us start a few years before that, depending on how confident we are that we can pass for 18. Does make me curious, though: what was the rationale behind raising it to 21 in the '70s? I always assumed that the US legal drinking age was set at 21 as a hangover from the Prohibition era, but clearly I was wrong!

That reminds me of Rory Bremner's impression of Blair, which always began with the nervous blink-and-grin, followed by "Look..."! It seems to have been replaced with the increasingly popular "Let me be clear...", which, as we all know, means, "Let me be evasive and obfuscatory..."