DGBass

Tonights rig. I chickened out of using the new small compact budget rig. Sometime you just have to go for what you know 🙂

First gig of this year for Blues Delux at a regular local bar in Stirling. Sunday afternoon set finishing at 7pm, very chilled out as we were again playing to diners and people out for a quiet drink, so it's more or less a usual Sunday crowd. The gig started off quite ropey. First song it was obvious the levels were all a bit askew. Second song we had recovered the levels but for unknown reasons our guitarist played the song in the wrong key before stopping midway through to tune his guitar and joining in for the last verse chorus almost in tune. Then the bar staff came up to us as we were about to start the third tune and said there had been a complaint from a customer about the loudness of the band, and would we mind turning everything up!? So we did, and the rest of the gig was rock and roll. We stopped briefly to do a short acoustic set in the middle of the gig with our singer and guitar player on acoustic. Also got complimentary beer from the pub for the first time ever. Not sure what that was all about. Rig wise I'm in a really happy place at present. Silverstone II and a TE AH250 GP12 SMX almost sound as if they were made for each other. The dual band comp is I think the secret sauce that makes it all sound so good. Back up amp was a GK 400RB IV and used it on the second set just for the hell of it. Playing my Sadowsky a lot more recently and it also adds something new and good to the sound. To sum up, ropey start, but a rock n roll finish with free beer, and an early night. ☺️

If we are talking modern class-d amps, I suspect that someone in the industry, probably an accountant, has decreed that 200w gives the best bang for your buck in an entry level bass head ( or combo). The amp designers also probably agree that 200w class-d should be just enough to gig with in a band not requiring a full blown FOH gig setup. If you take a company like ICE Power for example, the unit cost of a 50w, 100w, and 200w class d module is virtually identical. It's literally pennies of a difference. They are also all roughly the same size so will fit in a small box that needs only minimum peripherals to support them eg small cooling fan that runs fast, I/4 inch jacks and basic EQ and a DI. Would anyone be interested in buying a 50w or 100w class d head when a 200w head is the same cost? Could you gig with a 50w or 100w class d head? Maybe a combo though. Fender's Rumble 100 is a very good example of a successful package and I think they use 100w ICE Power modules into a 4 ohm speaker. ICE Power's 300 watt modules are only marginally more expensive but larger so need a bigger case, more peripherals. When you get to 500w modules, the cost has doubled from the 200w modules. Slightly more peripherals like a larger cooling fan, maybe combi speakons, more features mean there is an increase in costs and that is reflected in the jump in retail prices. At the end of the day cost plays a large part in the proliferation of smaller class d heads around 200w. It's a sweet spot for budget rigs nowadays. It's possible to buy a 200w class d amp brand new for about £90 ( eg TC Electronic BAM200). So these days, class-d 200w, 500w and 800w( 700w with 100 marketing watts added😉) are basically what is generally available to choose from new and second hand. These replace what in the past was class a/b 50-100w, 100-300w and 500w +; where 50-100w was for home/studio use and the pub/club player, 100-300w the advanced prosumer player who could afford it( wedding bands?), and 500w + the fully professional level amp. IMHO of course. I still have a couple of amps that I'm equally happy to use at home, studio, and gig with in the 100w-300w power range. None are class-d, and that's just a personal choice. 🙂

Rig of choice for last nights regular Friday/Saturday studio session. It's something budget friendly I put together recently, and so far it's been working really well when I don't need a bigger amp and my Silverstone II. The amp is an Ashdown little giant 350 from 2008. It's very quiet for studio work and the DI is clean and records really well. The cab is a Hartke 210 TP sealed box affair with those aluminium cone drivers. It's super compact and weighs in at 15kg, mainly because the speakers have enormous ceramic magnets and make up two thirds of the cab weight. They sound quite good, and seem to have a sort of naturally bright scooped tone that works well with an active bass. Should be able to do pub gigs with the rig. We shall see.

I used to have a Barnes & Mullins account when I was into Peavey equipment and they held quite a lot of genuine Peavey parts in the UK(and still do). However lack of use meant my account was lapsed. They seemed less interested in non trade accounts last I contacted them( a while ago). I would agree though that parts for "foreign" manufacturers equipment seem more difficult to source in the UK nowadays and I suspect a lot of that is to do with the level of UK support available within the contracts awarded to certain amp repair centres for certain brands of bass gear. Also, changing out whole modules or entire main boards is probably easier and more cost effective than faulting to component level, and in some cases its probably cheaper buying a complete new unit if it's out of warranty. Just recently I tried to get what I thought a fairly obvious consumable ( A compression horn diaphragm for a hartke tweeter ). Hartke USA were very helpful and quick to respond with correct part numbers etc however their UK support had just wound up the contract to deal with Hartke who didn't seem to realise this. When referred to their new UK support team, they were pretty much hopeless, despite Hartke USA being in on the email chain. Conversely, I needed a specific part for a twenty eight year old Ashdown amp repair. It was available, and they posted it to me next day! Go Ashdown! 🙂

My first rehearsal last night of the year 2026. I missed January's rehearsals for various reasons. Three new tunes added, and that all went reasonably well. Feeling a little rusty after the new year break when the last I gigged was late December. The rehearsal was also an opportunity to try out a new sound for me. Usually it's a big thumpy scooped P-Bass sound I go for which works well for blues numbers. However I've been playing my Sadowsky quite a bit lately after getting the hang of an active bass again. It has a mid-forward tone being a single Musicman type pickup which is quite near the bridge, and reminiscent of the Stingray I used to play, only more mid focused than the Ray ever was. I've also returned to round wounds after nearly two decades playing flats. A recommendation to try stainless steel Elixirs has worked out well. They are quite smooth to the feel and quite dynamic sounding. The rest of the band seemed fine with the hike in low mids, a slight cut in the lows, and a smidge of zing at the top end. Curiously, I can hear what I'm doing much better now with this new sound and although it's quite cutting on its own, it sits well in the mix when the whole band are playing. Gig on Sunday so will see how the new sound goes down live.

I met Stuart and the band in 1982 when they were doing a few warm up gigs around Scotland prior to their first UK tour. Thoroughly nice bunch of guys, and very down to earth. They sat pre-gig at a table having a beer in the lounge with everyone else in the club. The gig that evening was at a local Disco Club called the Mayfair Lounge in my hometown in North Lanarkshire. I was still in my teens at the time, a big SKIDS fan, and quite thrilled to speak with the man himself. Tony Butler was also a complete gent and was quite happy to talk about his rig. It was the first time I'd ever seen Trace Elliot gear in the flesh. He was using a four cab setup with two amp heads, and that evening was playing an Aria Pro II TSB bass. Stuart and Bruce were both using their early trademark HH combos and Yamaha SG's. Mark had an enormous drum kit. I always remember that gig well as it was very LOUD but super clear and perhaps a bit overkill for the size of the club. The next time I saw them live just a few months later was at Tiffany's (the Locarno Ballroom) in Glasgow playing to a crowd of thousands when they hit the big time with their singles Harvest Home and Fields of Fire, and of course their album The Crossing. I always remember them as a lovely bunch of down to earth guys, and fantastic musicians. They made some iconic music in their time, and were great influences for me musically.

Sadowsky's Quick Release designed bridge is a good option to help with this issue and generally quicker string changes. There isn't any need to thread an entire string through and the ball-end clicks into place securely until the string is tensioned. Not sure how available they are to buy as a part, I think they may have had a version on Thomann for around £50-£60 recently.

I think Ashdown are doing good things of late with more of their range being built in-house in the UK and probably to order. They also appear to be standardising the appearance of their most popular ranges with the ice blue look that was previously reserved for ABM. If I could be tangential for a moment, The New UK built RBM was recently preceded by a PBM ( portable bass magnifier ) also in ice blue, also made in the UK, and which is I think a replacement for the Ashdown Ant. If being UK built makes their amps even more reliable, and with longer service lives, then it can only be a good thing IMHO. My own rack mount ABM 600 which was a UK custom shop order a few years ago still makes me smile every time I use it knowing it was made here in the UK, and that legendary support if needed is just a phone call away.( it hasn't needed any) I'm also still using a twenty eight year old ABM 400 that still has the majority of its original component parts and which still works perfectly. It was made at a time all their stuff was UK made, so maybe there is something to that? I more than likely won't be around in twenty eight years time to see if folks are still gigging UK built RBM's regularly but I suspect there will still be a few Ashdown amps from this era knocking around that Ashdown will still be able to offer some support for whether Chinese made or UK made. 🙂

From the Thomann web site. These were I believe first introduced for 2009/2010 model American Deluxe Fenders.

It's a reasonably pricy option but I've used Fender's deluxe USA stubby bridge to good effect on an older American Fender bass. Has the grooves to limit saddle slip and the saddles are multi grooved to help with string spacing/alignment. Plus it looks original on a Fender without changing the basic aesthetic. Does top load and string through as well. It's a three screw fixing. It's a very neat lo-bling style bridge. I might add it didn't really sound any different from the original Fender style bridge. Feels more solid if anything.

Looking good😎

Nice one G. A great find and looks just like my N8 P-Bass. A classic colour combination for a Precision, hope you enjoy playing it and hopefully it's a keeper. Question: does it have the lightweight open gear tuners that were more 2012-ish, or the big chunky cast tuners on the early year 2000's Fender USA basses?

The GP12's are reasonably complicated amps. Probably why I prefer GP7's but I do have a series 6 GP12 and a 250 GP12 SMX, both hum free. If I had a penny for every minute I spent trying to track down a hum on a GP12 I'd probably have quite a few quid by now. There are at least three power supply points that have smoothing caps, the output board, the tube circuit, and the pre-amp board. Dublier caps on the output boards are in my experience very durable. Unless they are obviously leaking or bulging they don't usually cause problems even after 20-30 years. Not to say they can't cause issues. Worn dirty jacks and loose or tarnished ground points are very common noise generators on these amps after many years and IMHO always worth a check, especially the back board, before getting into scraping hot glue from boards and components! 🙂

I owned a later 715 peavey era GP7 amp with the BF-4 foot switch ( there was also a BF-6 for GP12's, both with the DIN multi cable). I seem to recall that the best way to set up was to connect the foot switch before powering up and also ensure all the switches or buttons were in the off/out position on the amp front panel and not to use the front panel buttons at all while things were powered on. Slightly off topic but the same thing applied to Ashdown's remote foot switch for ABM heads, always connect before powering up and leave all front panel buttons in the out position.

Bought a used one of this exact model recently and have found it to be a very full sounding instrument. The previous owner bought it direct from Thomann and hadn't really taken to it. It was more or less as it came out of the box when I acquired it. A few things I would point out worth checking with regard to setup that may improve how your bass sounds. The original strings on my example were a set of unremarkable sounding round wounds. I swapped these out for a set of 45-100 Fender stainless flats, my preferred string on my other basses as well. There was an immediate improvement in the sound. The pickups on my JB40 were also screwed as low as possible so re-adjusting them up made another big improvement. I find the pickups sound quite good and see no reason to change them. The neck is a fairly chunky affair on these and my bass had a slight back bow which wasn't allowing the strings to vibrate properly. A little tweak on the truss rod to loosen tension and add a little neck relief worked wonders as well. For the money these are quite remarkable instruments. My JB40 is very resonant and I think that may be in part due to the very heavy ash body. It does big deep lows and has that fretless mwahhh by the shed load, especially using the bridge pickup. If you aren't keen on checking and adjusting settings then it would be worth asking a bass tech to check the setup for you before spending any money on replacement bits🙂. Sometimes a little bit of setup time can make all the difference.

I would say so, if fretless metal is your thing.

I've scratched a lot of itches gear wise and ticked off a few things on the bass bucket list this year as well as having a big clear out. It's all been good though. Best of the best was acquiring my LFSYS Silverstone II cab. It really has been a game changer and has shown the way ahead for me, which is lightweight well designed and great sounding cab to use with my collection of class A/B amps. Anything I plug into it sounds great which has unfortunately made it more difficult to rationalise as much as I hoped this year. I still have one or two itches to scratch so I will not be joining the 2026 gear abstinence thread🙄. Worst of the best goes to a used bass I bought in a car park meet-up on the south side of Glasgow. The bass in question was a Harley Benton JB40L Jaco Pastorius kind of thing. Actually it was mint, the fit and finish, the build quality, the playability, and the sound were all astoundingly good, I'd even say excellent. That I paid half its retail value for such a well put together instrument is mind boggling. It really has no right to be so good for so little even at full retail cost. The only reason I will place this as the worst of the best is its weight. 5.4kg is unfortunately not very giggable for me although its fine sitting down to play it. No idea what the body is made of ( cast iron?) but its a proper slab of something very dense.

Rig for my final scheduled gig of 2025 last night. I thought I'd break out the Christmas lights since it's that time of the year. Cab( Silverstone II) and pedals same as usual, AH250 SMX for the first set, and a Series 6 GP12 for the second set. Bass on the night was my 90s USA Standard P-Bass. All sounded rather splendid together. Merry Christmas rig posters and Basschatters

I can't think of any reason to avoid Ashdown amps. I haven't really come across one I didn't like that didn't have a usable tone with minimal fiddling of the tone controls. ABM's are a favourite in particular. I've owned and used ABM200's, 300's, 400's, 500's, and 600's. 900's and 1200's are just double 500's and 600's and not really on my radar. I currently use a rack ABM600 and it's superb. I do like the early mosfet powered units and just recently purchased a late 1990's ABM400 from @harrison from this here parish. I've fully restored it and these early mosfet units have a really unique tone while still having that same ABM grunt and presence all ABM's have imho. All I need is an early ABM200 to complete my collection of old school iron and I'll be a very happy bunny. Imho, there's no gig you couldn't play with a good ABM 😁

I should probably do a review of the LFSYS Silverstone II as I've been using it for a while now. Needless to say, its revolutionised my gigging experience and afforded me more compliments about how the bass sounds than anything else I've used previously. I just need to work on my actual playing now😉. Shout out to Dave Green @Ashdown for his assistance and wisdom in helping me get a lovely old late 90s Mosfet powered ABM400 fully restored in time for today's gig. It was literally bolted together the day before the gig with no real testing. It worked flawlessly, didn't break a sweat, and sounded immense with the Silverstone II. Bass on the day was my lefty USA Standard Jazz.

Bought some vintage Ashdown stuff from @harrison and all went very smoothly. Excellent comms, quick transaction, and very happy with the deal. A sound bloke to do business with, many thanks, DG.