Painy

I never boost the bass control on my ABM as I find it to be too low (more useful as a cut control in boomy rooms - as you would the red graphic slider on a Trace GP12 preamp) instead I tend to use the preshape to give it more depth and then compensate for the scoop by boosting the mids.

The paint is actually surprisingly quite watery so rather than just sitting on the surface which might flake off, it soaks into the paper. I believe it's designed so that, once dry, it actually stiffens the cone. For your Hartke cab, maybe you could try sticking on some bacofoil? 😁

Don't forget my custom pedal artwork! 😁 Thank you very much though. I like to think of myself as something of a talented bodger for what it's worth. 😅

Yeah he's a top bloke. I was mainly speaking to him at the time about a problem with my CTM30 head which he suggested was probably one of the preamp valves. Along with the paint he sent me a replacement valve on the understanding I could just send it back if it didn't fix the problem or phone him back later to make payment later if it worked (it did work and they only charged me for the valve at cost - no charge for postage or for the paint). No better customer service in the business in my opinion!

I have a nice collection of Ashdown cabs (a 610, a 410, a mini 4x8 and a mini 15) that I'm very happy with apart from one slight niggle. They all have Ashdown's trademark blue speakers - apart from the 610 so it doesn't match the others when using them together. After a chat a couple of weeks ago with the very helpful Dave Green at Ashdown, he kindly sent me some proper speaker cone paint in the correct shade of blue and yesterday I finally got around to doing it. It didn't take too long to do and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. 🙂

To be that happy with the gear you already have is a pretty good place to be. 🙂👍

It's really cool to finally hear a decent demo. I've really got to get me one of these now - it sounds awesome!

Oh you can have those too - you're a millionaire after all! 😁

Thought this might be a bit of fun if anyone fancies joining in. If you were to win the Lotto jackpot, what would your fantasy bass gear shopping list be? Just to set some rules:- All gear must be available to purchase new currently (so no 61 stack knob jazz basses or original Ampeg B-15s) and be available as standard off the peg (so no 11 string triple necks made from sapient pear wood with unobtainium fret wire). Needs to include 1 Bass and one of the following: An Amp head with 1 or 2 cabs. A combo amp (and an extension cab if you wish). A preamp pedal if you'd be going straight to the desk with in ears. To start off, I quite miss my Warwick Streamer Stage 1 5 string and this one on Thomann looks quite pretty. Amp and cabs I'd go for an Ashdown CTM300 and a pair of ABM810 cabs for a nice convenient modular rig as I'd finally be rich enough to afford to pay for a roadie to move it all. 😁

My year of birth precision in black and maple turns up for sale and I'm skint! 😢 If my lotto numbers come up tomorrow I'll be in touch. 😁

A couple that I always enjoy are Extreme, Get The Funk Out (one of the rare songs that I'll play with a pick) and Thin Lizzy, Emerald. My band has recently learnt Ozzy Osborne, Bark at the Moon which is good fun too and I also learnt Muse, Hysteria a few weeks ago just for fun. None of them are difficult to play as such but they're all busy enough to be interesting.

Ah that's perfect, thanks! I hadn't checked Bass Direct to see them at that price and I use Dunlop rounds so makes sense to give their flats a go. 🙂

I have 2 5-string Precisions so I've decided to do the classic 1 with flats / 1 with rounds thing. Having tried using flats when playing in my band however it hasn't really worked for me in the past so the flats loaded bass would only really be for home use and any dep work I might happen to pick up that calls for it so I'm looking for a cheap option. Elites Detroit Flats appear to be the cheapest 5 string set on strings direct at the moment so I'm thinking of giving them a go. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of them and what kind of tone they have?

Polly by Nirvana. When I was 14 my best mate, who was heavily into Nirvana at the time, had just been given a drum kit for Christmas and decided that we should start a band playing nirvana covers (despite the fact that I didn't play an instrument - unless you counted not quite having reached grade 1 piano when I was about 7 years old). He suggested I try bass as that way I wouldn't need to learn any chords before we could get started. His dad however was quite a decent classical guitar player so worked out and showed him how to play the bass parts for Polly which he then showed me. Its only a very simple bass line but the fact that I managed to play it correctly at the first attempt and with my mate literally only showing me once before I got it, convinced me that bass would be my instrument. It was the first bass line I ever learnt but it wasn't even on a bass guitar as we didn't have one yet. It was an old steel string guitar with only the E and A strings on it and to be heard over his drums we used to shove a cheap microphone in through the sound hole and plug it into his Goodmans twin cassette home karaoke machine. Good times! 🙂

I'm not likely to be travelling West any time soon in afraid but I am in Norfolk (near Fakenham) if you wanted to get it dropped off to me and its not too late to arrange. I can happily hold onto it until somebody else is ready to pick it up for the next leg of its journey. Not sure if that would actually help much but at least once it's here you'd have more time to plan the next stage? Let me know and I can give you the address.