EliasMooseblaster

I've long suspected the problem is that these groups just don't have a great writer among them. Your Billy Sheehans, Paul Gilberts, Steve Vais, etc., are incredibly accomplished instrumentalists, but are they necessarily the people you'd want writing the songs that your supergroup is going to play? The Brian Wilsons, Pete Townshends, Ray Davieseses of the world weren't necessarily the best musicians in their groups, but they knew how to write a good tune and had groups who were prepared to let them lead on the writing. I say this not to suggest that good writing is mutually exclusive from impressive musicianship; more to suggest that a lot of these supergroups overlook what made their original bands worth listening to in the first place.

I think you'll find that the coats, cupboard door, and mat, have been very strategically placed to minimise room reflection and improve the audio capture of his phone camera's tiny microphone.

Do Rainbow count? What with the original lineup featuring Ritchie Blackmore, Cozy Powell, Ronnie James Dio and...erm...the other two.

Quite. The author has completely neglected to highlight the instrument's exceptional natural "heft."

My first thoughts exactly. That chap needs to have one of his colleagues play him something featuring James Jamerson, something featuring Larry Graham's early slap playing, and then either some late '60s Who or some Stranglers. Keep a camera handy in case his head explodes.

The "Felonious Spunk" of guitar manufacture?

I swore by them for a number of years - probably about 13 or 14 years, in fact, after owning a succession of their amps. They were affordable, sturdy, and versatile. If they'd made a smaller and more affordable valve bass head, I'd probably still be using them. They didn't, so I defected to Ashdown, but it's always good to hear that Laney are still turning out decent gear and looking after their customers. (And if I ever find myself playing more lead guitar live, I have their "Cub" series of guitar amps bookmarked in my browser...)

Insufferable and pretentious as he often comes across (especially in more recent years...), you couldn't really accuse him of grinding through the usually cliches: I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar... from the same - at least it's different. No team of nine lyricists trained in manufacturing chart hits is likely to come up with something comparable.

I am utterly convinced of the veracity of this hypothesis. For a brief phase in which one of my old bands started dropping into open mic nights, I saw more than my fair share of aspiring troubadours who'd decided that their "unique selling point" was best built around being an absolute wet blanket. Gingerly strumming through the four chords they'd mastered while shyly and sensitively opining what shy and sensitive souls they were. Just like all the others. By the end of the evening, the only way you could tell these affected termini campanarum apart was by the fret they put their capo behind to play the same four f**king chords as the last one. And oh, how the fashions shifted - the second Pete Doherty's slack-jawed, fat-tongued mockney vocal style was prominent on the radio, every wet blanket at these godforsaken evenings squelched onto the same sodden bandwagon, and supplemented their same set of inane wimperings about how they'd love the object of their desires to bring them Lemsip while they were holed up in their bedrooms with a sniffle, by delivering them in the manner you might expect if (god forbid) Jamie Oliver decided to start a singing career.

Yeah, I went back to the Brick listings after I saw this, and I noticed they offer a choice "at manufacturer's discretion" - so the default option is probably a Warm Stone substitute, but you can have a real 12AX7 if you ask. A bit cheeky, I agree!

I stumbled across this after somebody started a thread about AMT Electronics' preamp pedals over on the Effects board: https://amtelectronics.com/new/amt-12ax7ws/ If I've understood correctly, they seem to be pitching this "Warm Stone" device as a direct replacement for conventional vacuum tubes in valve amplifiers. I see they claim that people couldn't tell the difference in a blind audio test - well, that's marketing departments for you. Has anyone come across this kind of witchcraft before? Does it do what it claims? Is it the next logical step once I've finished replacing all the filament bulbs in my home with LEDs?

I don't know what you mean...

It's a bit hard to predict. I've played through a few Hartke combos, but I'm not familiar with the EBS. You mentioned that the Servo 300 is more powerful than the Hartke cab is rated for - do you know how many watts you could safely put into the speaker? One thing that might be worth trying is to take the signal from the Battalion and plug it into the Effects-Return socket on the EBS. Then you can bypass the preamp in the EBS, and go straight to the power amp, which you can control from the master volume. Of course, you are still limited by the power the EBS can deliver, but at least you can keep your sound more consistent this way.

I can predict with some confidence that if you turned the dial to Radio 1, or Kiss FM, or similar, you'd find lyrics full of different subjects but a comparable level of inanity. Pop music is similarly guilty of pulling randomly assorted cliches out of a hat and crowbarring them into a rhyming schema, but then I've often thought Halestorm were basically just Taylor Swift with louder guitars. And anyway, what is a good lyric? I've a few favourite writers myself, but some people would probably balk at my choices. (Though I imagine we could all agree that Black Sabbath turned out some bloody silly examples in their time...)

Godammit AMT, I literally just bought a preamp pedal a couple of weeks ago! Bestil my pulsating GAS...

I think it should work. The Battalion is a preamp built into a pedal, so it does the same job as a preamp that sits in a box on top of your speaker. It will be sufficient to shape and buffer your signal so that the power amp can amplify the sound and drive the speaker.

Funnily enough, I have a very similar setup for home practise myself! I use a combined preamp/DI pedal instead of a standalone DI (most of my basses are passive), and I take a headphone feed out of the mixer instead of any power stage/monitors (because I usually only get time to practise when Mooseblaster Jr is finally asleep!) Plus it's very convenient to be able to get backing tracks off Youtube or similar and run those into another channel from the computer.

Depends if you go valve or solid-state. Valve amps require a load; I *think* I'm right in saying that solid-states do not.

This might be the key here. Plugging straight into the desk is much more forgiving to active basses than it is to passive basses! An active bass produces a higher-impedance signal (so less vulnerable to effects like cable capacitance, interference, etc), and the onboard preamp may "warm up" the tone a little more. You'd probably hear more of a difference if you tried the DI with a passive bass. After that, it's down to personal preference. If you're happy with the sound of the bass into the desk as it is, then carry on! Again, this probably comes down to the onboard preamp - I personally find actives sound alright played DI, whereas passive basses can sound a bit "sterile" without a bit of preamp coloration..but then some people prefer it like that.

Whilst I can't comment on the CV-5 specifically, I will chime in and say that Schecter's Diamond Series basses are things of great joy and beauty. The four-string Model T is one of the best basses I own - and I've seen very positive reviews of its 5-string equivalent. While it doesn't have as many bells and whistles* as the CV, it is a really good, solid P/J, which sounds great and is a delight to play. *the passive version (which I have) was just V/V/T; I think the modern (active) versions are V/B/EQ

I was just trying to place what it reminded me of - that's exactly it!

Just a thought: if you could stretch to £500 or so, that seems to be the high street price for a lot of Chowny basses. They seem to specialise in short-scales, and I've only heard good things about them. (They might be harder to come by second-hand, as the company's only a few years old - but worth trying the Marketplace here) Or you could follow Frank Blank's advice...that Gretsch looks gorgeous! (I'd be tempted myself if they did a long-scale version...)

I started out on a Squier Bronco myself - short-scale, and a very good bass for the money (about £200 brand new these days). However, if your daughter's used to the Jazz then she may want something with a wider range of tones. Squier do make a Jaguar bass, which you could very easily get within a £400 budget, especially if you go second-hand - you might even get a s/h Fender if you're lucky! I believe they're also a 30" scale.

Quantifiable Heft?

I expect it's historic - way back when, if you wanted a bass with one pickup, you bought a Precision. If you wanted one with two pickups, you bought a Jazz. I don't actually know when the first PJ basses were produced commercially, but I could imagine them being easy for Fender to market as a halfway house between a Precision and a Jazz. Besides, Leo was nothing if not practical, and they would already have a sound design for the Jazz bridge pickup. Typically, the bridge pickups have slightly higher impedance than the neck pickups in Jazz basses; they may have anticipated a certain amount of R&D cost in getting the impedance right on a P-pickup for the bridge position. (Please note that the above is all speculative and may well be complete cobblers)