danlea

I've just bought a Trace Elliot AH600SMX (mint condition, £361!) and am trying to decide what cabs I'm going to use with it. I currently have a compact TE 1x15 combo with a 2x10 extension cab, and the main reason for buying the new head is so I can use a large 1x15. So, I'm very tempted by the Hartke 115XL (only £155 delivered from Absolute Music) to give real focus to the low end, and keep using the TE 2x10 - probably using a crossover around 250Hz. I've used a 115XL + 410XL stack (with Marshall bass amp) once before and I have to say it sounded really smooth, something you wouldn't necessarily expect from the aluminium cones but something a lot of people have noted. However I do love the tone of the celestions, so I'm hoping I can keep that by using the Trace 2x10 but add a more direct deep bass sound by using the Hartke 115XL.

Any comments, warnings and such?

Dan.

This baby is mine!

You have three precisions, and two of them are identical apart from the fretboard?!? Greedy son of a $%^"£ $%&^ing "$*% $^%! I'm just jealous.

Sunburst and tortoise shell all the way! There's no better choice!

Hang on... Is the horizontal one touching the floor!?!?!

[quote name='tauzero' post='174438' date='Apr 11 2008, 11:43 AM']...all my experiments with the Precision taught me that actually basses all sound the same.[/quote]

Ok, there's definitely some heresy going on in this topic, but I'm going to assume the above comment was made with tongue buried firmly in cheek! I can't imagine my post will be read by many people after all this, but here's my current opinion (and this is of course subject to change once I get my Marcus Miller jazz with active/passive switch):

Primarily this issue is about the quality and nature of the preamp. I disagree with a previous description of the passive sound as being 'direct' and the active sound as being 'over-engineered', not because of the intention of the explanation, but purely due to the wording. If you wanted to hear exactly what would be going on in the pickup itself before you've done anything to it, you'd want an 'ideal' operational amplifier - one with infinite input impedance and zero output impedance. Of course such a device doesn't exist, but in any case that's probably not what you're after. An active pass is closer to this situation than a passive bass due to the short length of cabling to the preamp for starters, and I would say (partly for this reason) that and active bass has a very 'direct' sound.

Now a good percentage of the bass playing population will talk about pure valve pathways, and this due to the fact that the electronics attached to a pickup also interact with it and affect the signal that is drawn from it, even before you've done any processing (e.g. equalisation). Valves interact differently with pickups than solid state electronics do, and this is why I like to have a valve as the first piece of active electronics after my pickup. You can't very well put a properly driven valve in your bass guitar now can you! Of course putting any signal through a valve will alter it, and a lot of the character of valve electronics arises due to this, rather than through what I've just been talking about.

Or alternatively, this kind of sh*t might be largely irrelevant, and it might be due to the different makeup of pickups designed for active or passive basses. Experimentation required I believe...

Argh! All these great deals up north... I wouldn't use the tweeter at all anyway, so I suppose it would be a bit of a waste.

Cheers! Glad you liked the tracks, and even that you listened to them in the first place. As always there are some things which didn't work out quite as we'd hoped: issues with the upright piano, having to use a digital piano for JSG (and LTP, but that's fine)... The thing is the piano is supposed to be more of a driving force a lot of the time, but the sound often doesn't quite live up to the part, meaning it can seem to be something of a distraction, so I know what you mean. In any case, I'm very happy with them overall.

Thanks again...

I use Orange strings, heavy gauge - 50-110 I think. I'd get angry at lower gauge strings...

They're not heavy enough to cause neck dive, but I have one and it makes no difference for me whatsoever. I use heavy gauge strings, so that may be a reason for this, and I can't say for certain that it didn't make any difference to sustain as I do use mild compression on the low frequencies and didn't do any rigorous testing. I've only tried it on my Fender Jap Precision and an American Fender Deluxe Precision, so not extensive testing!

Well it doesn't bother me because I've put it by itself in a true bypass effects loop (which I use for a tuner mute anyway). I should say I don't overdrive my preamp at all (Trace Elliots simply aren't designed for that kind of shenanigan), but yes, very different uses. The noise is most definitely the pedal as it's the same as what it makes when engaged, only much quieter. Having thought back, it might only have been noticeable when the valves were actually squealing after the knobs had been knocked.

Cheers guys. I've just realised there's a forum for repairs stuff, so sorry for posting here.

Passive all the way. I owned one of these (2001 model) for a short while because I thought it would good to be able to dial in the extra mids from the bridge pickup or with the EQ, but it's just not the tone for me. Great for pop, reggae, RnB, that kind of stuff because it's such a direct and responsive sound, and it does look and feel the part. I had it advertised on Gumtree (London) for ages at £650 (with case) and it didn't budge. Eventually sold it for £600, though it did have a couple of very minor marks on the edges of the body. Sorry for bringing bad news, but you can get them brand new in a hard case for less than £880 delivered.

I might be up for this, though I'm extremely light on effects. I only use my DHA pedal, and have a few other pedals (Digitech Bass Squeeze, an old style DOD Chorus, and a Trace Elliot 7-band Graphic EQ). I rehearse at Premises Studios in Hackney, not very far from Liverpool Street station. Or there's The Joint in King's Cross (just thinking about people travelling into London). Of course I live near Euston/King's Cross, so I can get pretty much anywere in London fairly easily.

Dan (Lea).

I have the non-custom version of this and I use it purely for the ultra-high gain mode. This is because the clean sound to me doesn't improve anything given that my amp's input is blended to about 70:30 valve:ss and the moderate gain sounds as you've said are much lower volume ([post="171501"]see this post[/post]). Without that extra volume level control, the extra setting is effectively useless for me, but of course the second valve is not. It's the combination of these two valves that gives that great overdriven sound. I use the pedal in front of my preamp and so my fairly typical EQ setting is applied to the valve tone as well, and I love it (I'll be posting a song that employs this soon)!

The other thing I should say about this pedal is that when using high gain settings it does produce noise even when in true-bypass mode (yes, it is possible due to capacitive coupling, and in any case is an issue on my particular pedal). Perhaps you could let me know if you can observe the same problem (crank both gains and adjust the 1>2 to just lower than the point at which the valves start to squeal) and listen in bypass mode.

Perhaps this section could do with something about multi-band compression/limiting, the classic examples being the Trace Elliot dual band compressor (also found on Ashdown stuff obviously, and on the dreadful DigiTech XBS Bass Squeeze) and the multi-band limiting essential for good mastering.

[quote name='chris_b' post='14204' date='Jun 8 2007, 02:11 PM']- Use a Fatfinger, to increase the mass of the head. It does work.[/quote]

I'd just like to say I bought a Fatfinger and it made not one iota of difference, to either my Fender Jap Precision or the American Fender Deluxe Precision I had for a short time (which incidentally had several serious dead spots that were just shifted around when adjusting the truss rod).

My 2x10 Trace Elliot cabinet has developed a bit of a 'whisp' on one of the cones (and also the internal cover for the jack socket has come loose - just needs regluing) and although it's nothing major, it's a bit of an annoyance. The problem disappears if I press on the offending edge, so I'm guessing it just needs some adhesive to sort it out. Does anyone know of any places on London I could get it sorted cheaply (or anyone with experience in such matters that could help out for a small fee)? The cabinet is stored at Premises Studios in Hackney, so anywhere that isn't too far away from there would be fine. I know there's an amp repair place on Denmark Street, and I'll get an estimate from them, but I expect them to be fairly pricey.

Dan.

Hey fellas,

Just noticed this forum and thought I may as well try and plug my band's music. Four of the tracks from an upcoming CD are mixed and provisionally mastered and are available for download at lights.4shared.com (high quality mp3s). They were mixed by Richard Rainey (who works with U2 and consequently has two Record of the Year Grammy's for Beautiful Day and Walk On) in a small room at Olympic Studios (check out the bands that have recorded and mixed there!). That was a great experience for us in itself.

I should start by saying that I'm no showboater and I don't write my parts to stand out, but that's not to say I've not put a lot of thought into them - just don't expect many leading basslines from me! Just Say Goodbye is a fairly typical driving indie track - the bass has a wonderful clear precision tone in this one. Welcome To The Real World is a dark jazzy take on indie music and features two pops (as opposed to slaps) and a little bass run in the second verse (go me!). Losing the Proof is a dancy track with a punctuated bass line written around a great drum beat. Lastly, The Fear is simply a great 'anti-ballad', and without anything of interest in the bass part, I'll note that I play a short violin part in this one!

All the bass parts were recorded with my standard setup (see signature) using a 10" speaker cone as a mic on the 1x15 cab and an SM57 on the 2x10. Recording was done over about a week with one of the engineers at Fortress Studios, namely Ed.

We've recorded three more tracks at Urchin Studios (with some recording done elsewhere) and these are being finished off over the next week or so. They should be available for download (at the same URL) soon after that. On one of the tracks I use the DHA pedal for certain sections and for one glorious extended burst/rumble of bass feedback at the end.

Whilst I'm on the subject of feedback, anything from you lot is very welcome.

Dan.

Hi guys (and gals?)...

I've read posts encouraging people to introduce themselves, so here's my "Hello (bass)world!"

I'm 25, have been living in London since I came here for uni, but am originally from North Wales. I've been playing bass in a band called Lights ( www.lights.mu / www.myspace.com/lightsmu ) for over a year and half now. You can download four high quality tracks that I've been a part of from lights.4shared.com and there are three more tracks on the way. I play (finger style) a Fender Japanese Precision with a Seymour Duncan SPB-2 (Hot) pickup and heavy Orange strings (those strings take a real battering from me) and this goes straight into a Trace Elliot GP12 SMX 1x15 combo (early 90's) with a TE 2x10 extension cab. I also have a DHA VT2 Dual Bass pedal cranked to the limit for occasional overdrive (I use this in a forthcoming track in some sections and for bass feedback at the end - it's monstrous).

The main thing that defines my bass playing is the fact that most of our music fits around the piano part, and my setup allows me to complement the sound of the piano (Kawai MP5 + effects + synths, extremely weighty live - no bass roll-off). I'm no showboater, and I don't write my parts to stand out, but that's not to say I've not put a lot of thought into them. The best way for people to get to know me, my sound and my style is simply to listen to the tracks ( lights.4shared.com ).

Just Say Goodbye is a fairly typical driving indie track - the bass has a wonderful clear precision tone in this one. Welcome To The Real World is a dark jazzy take on indie music and features two pops (as opposed to slaps) and a little bass run in the second verse (go me!). Losing the Proof is a dancy track with a punctuates bass line written around a great drum beat. And lastly, The Fear is simply a great anti-ballad, and without anything of interest in the bass part, I'll note that I play a short violin part in this one!

As a band we've played a few gigs at the Borderline and elsewhere, and supported Puressence (anyone remember them?) at the Islington Carling Academy, but we're just little guys - unsigned and hard working!

Finally, I guess I should say I'm a physicist (now of the medical variety), so I have a reasonable knowledge of electronics and general technical stuff. If anyone wants to know anything about the recordings, or anything else for that matter (within reason), I'd be happy to respond to PMs.

Hey there,

I bought I a VT2 Dual Bass pedal around Christmas '06 and never really got back to you on my thoughts, so that's the first part of this post. When used in full overdrive mode (I mean cranked with both valves to the point just shy of valve squeal) it really does give a fantastic sound - something I'm using on a track we're currently mixing, in chorsuses and for bass feedback at the end (I'll post a link once it's finished). I have to say I don't find any use for the single valve setting due to the great difference in output levels. I'm running it into a GP12 SMX amp (valve/ss blend input stage) so I don't want to overdrive the this preamp, hence the output level is set pretty low. Unfortunately, this means the single valve setting on the pedal is too quiet. For me it would be nice to have separate output levels for each of the settings so I could have both options, but as it happens I'm happy with using it purely in the dual valve mode. The other issue I have with the unit is that there seems to be some capacitive coupling (or some other form of electrical connection) when in true bypass (noticeable when the valves are cranked, as they are for me). I've gotten around this by putting it by itself in a true bypass effects loop (which I use for its tuner mute anyway), but I thought I'd let you know about it.

Now, I've gotten this silly idea of whacking a piezo bridge onto my passive (Fender Jap) precision bass. Now, my precision pickup must remain passive, but naturally the piezoelectric transducer would need it's own onboard preamp. I'd probably send the two separate signals via a stereo cable and split them to two mono connections close to my rig. Now I'd like a valve on the end of the passive connection, so would Bob the Blender be a decent option for mixing the passive and active connections? I ask because I'm not entirely sure how the signals are blended in context of the valve (I don't think I'd want them being mixed passively).

Dan.

The head looks like the exact same amp that's in my 1x15 combo, but could you let us know the wattage at 4 Ohms and the manufacture date please? I'd be interested in the head by itself so I could get larger cabs. I currently use my combo with a 2x10 extension cab - I could just do with having a deep 1x15 cab (the combo is compact).

Dan.