alexa3020

Russ bought an ABM cab from me. Really good person to deal with. immediate payment and excellent comms throughout.

incidentally i just bought a fosi audio bt20a bluetooth amp to power some old tannoy hifi speakers - it was cheap on prime day. it uses the 3116 chip. i have to say its pretty good as a 'hifi' amp. To my ears that setup easily beats the Q acoustics m20 active speakers that i was tempted to buy.

Hartke HA5500 - as good as any amp I've owned Ashdown ABM 600 - on par with the Hartke Trace Elliott Elf - I love this amp, plug in with EQ set at noon and you're good to go. Plenty of volume too when paired with the right cab The best sounding amp I've heard live is an svt. I have had limited playing time with one, but I was a bit underwhelmed when using one. Probably a bit of a learning curve when you're not used to tube power sections

How about the presence knob on the Sansamp bass driver? Or the behringer bddi if you're on a budget. Sounds like it might do a similar thing.

Interesting, so the valve drive control is essentially a blend knob? I'm interested to run the valve drive at max and back off the input gain to see if it gives a clean tubey sound. I was kind of worried I'd degrade the tube quickly if I did that, but from the sounds of it, it would probably last longer as the amount of drive would be less, because my input gain is less

I had 2x210s and moved them on. One of the reason for this is because I thought they lacked clarity - seemed a bit dark sounding, so they weren't for me. I thought they would really benefit having a tweeter. On the plus side, I thought the other claims were true. Extremely well made and plenty loud enough.

Presumably you still get the valve drive, octave and compressor regardless of if pre or post is selected. What about the shape🤔

140bm - ouch indeed! Sounds like I'm on the right lines with what I'm doing at the moment. Set my metronome to increase every few bars and play a line/scale in 16ths over the top of it. Hopefully if i focus on doing a little bit of that everyday the pick playing will naturally improve. Thanks for the advice

Resurrecting this thread and just changing subject slightly. I know that some of the tracks I play would be better with a pick. I've always played finger style and my technique is decent, but I really feel I've hit my limit with speed - I can play through c major scale in 16ths comfortably till about 95bpm - above that is doable but not as clean as I would like. I know with a pick I could go faster. But I just don't sound as good playing bass lines with a pick. Also with finger style I'm usually muting with my right hand, but you can't do that with a pick (unless your palm muting). How long does it take to master playing with a pick and does anyone have any decent exercises they can recommend?

Bought a trace Elf from Sam. Excellent dealing with you from start to finish. Thanks Alex

Oh dear, well I was on the fence about getting one of these - but that's me put off. I think maybe an elf or gnome might be better as a backup. Played an elf last night and was super impressed.

@NancyJohnson have you had the chance to play it in a band environment?

Proves my point really. Amazing playing and skills on show over a simple drum beat. Reasonably entertaining but very gimmicky. If that's on my playlist I'm skipping. Get him in a band with some musicians of a similar calibre and you might get something special! maybe.

No doubt he is an incredible player and I find some of his videos quite entertaining, I cant help but think he is wasting his talents on these videos. I'd like to hear him play in a really great band with a great drummer. Perhaps he's already done this but it hasn't shown up on my radar yet. Maybe Youtube is the best way for talented musicians to make decent money now - which is a bit sad really.

Plus one for Pat Finnerty Also like Dead Wax, Drumeo, That Pedal Show

That's exactly what it did - all the flabby mids that seemed to be getting in the way, it removed. Similar thing with the sansamp bass Di for me - I've got quite a mid rangey bass & it gets rid of the unwanted frequencies

Spent the day at the recording studio, going through various ampeg amp Sims. Wasn't 100% happy with the tone. Re-amped the Di through the Ashdown and a trace 410, shape on and slightly boosted mids, and that was it - the sound I was after and so much better than what I had before. I've never usually engaged the shape button live, but it worked so well recording I might have to start using it live.

Traded a TC head for a markbass head with Kim. Easy hassle free deal. Many thanks

Great amps

Yep headphone out is on the back. Good overview here:

I prefer the silver cloth on the RM cabs, compared to the previous styling. £335 for the 115 seems quite reasonable too https://ashdownmusic.com/products/rm-115t-evo-iii

How cool do these new rootmaster and original heads look 10/10 from me on cosmetics. The RM has cab Sims too. I think they should have done the ABM Evo 5 in the same style. That said, here's an ABM with a blue/gray facia. Looking cool. Prefer it to all black