basexperience

Welcome dude, I'm in south bucks down Taplow way!

Ah, it's you! And I haven't forgotten about the screws, I had some spares - I'll call in and get them soon!

Have you??? Gigged it last night - "let me entertain you" worked really well: the only enhancement now is to alter the patches so that the synths are output on the stereo line and the bass and modelled bass tones are fed out of the extra mono output. Then I can feed the piano, etc out to the PA!

I play a GR55 from a modified Tobias 6-string. Tracking on the low E is fine, and the low B is usable. Expressiveness is excellent. The GR55 contains the capacity to create patches with 2 synth tones, a modelled bass tone (zero latency) and your bass pickups. It's supremely configurable. Gary willis uses one! It also contains 2 effects units so creating sounds is a pretty mind blowing experience. It's possible to have different sounds on different strings - as an example, I'm doing "let me entertain you" as a cover this evening, and the top 3 strings are doing the piano intro, the A and B strings are muted, and the low E is pitch shifted using a modelled P bass up to an F so I can just strike the open string and play the intro part. Then the Ctl foot switch flips to the regular bass pickup ( all this is configured in the patch) for the rest of the song. Outstanding! Don't be put off: try a GR55 with a well set-up GK3B and see what you think. I run the GR55 into a Bass pos XT for other effects. I run the amp flat, only dialling in anything the venue needs at sound check.

I had a brief burst of Warwick-lust here recently - but ultimately I realised I needed more studio equipment, so I still got GAS but exercised the demon by upgrading a couple of basses instead.

If you can afford an extra bag, why not try removing the neck off a bass and putting it back together at the venue? I'm assuming you're flying.

I was considering buying another Warwick 2002 ltd ed jazzman (swirly bubinga top) - identical bass, diff grain! Bit mental, I know, they'd be literal twins.

Did you decide to keep her? I have a Toby Pro-6 which I've recently given a makeover - everything but pickups, including a GK-3B fitting - the story is over on [url="http://basexperience.blogspot.co.uk/"]http://basexperience.blogspot.co.uk/[/url] - and after the work it's a hell of a bass. The spacing is narrow on the Pro-6, too, I tend to use it for fingerstyle only, but it's great for that.

Apparently the string spacing on the Toby was pretty rare for them - and I was keen to get it in Brass, and in black. As an update - this OBP-3 is by far the most startling part of the upgrade. The clarity compared to the old 10-year old onboard preamp is just stunning - it's now silent, and possessed of enough headroom to set the Warwicks to shame (a core requirement of the work)! The push/pull 400-800Hz mid is an eye opener, interesting! Add an excellent fret dress, and it's now an excellent bass. I can recommend Julian Mullen to anyone in the Reading area - he took plenty of pics (at my request) of the surgery so I'll post some when I have them. Btw, an hour and a half tinkering with sensitivity, bridge dimension and nuance settings on the GR55 have yielded a stunningly expressive, fast-tracking midi capability too. Having the system properly mounted is simply a revelation, and now I don't have that bracket hanging on there the bass is back to the visual treat it was before I crowbarred the GK3B on there.

About 7 months ago I decided I'd get a luthier to take a look at putting some new shine on and old friend... And she's finally ready. It's been a long haul: lots of delays, mainly due to waiting for parts - the hipshot was made to order and got caught for over a month in the US in the huge winter storms they had. The GK kit came from Roland UK, but for some reason they didn't want to supply it, preferring instead to ignore the guys at BassGear in twyford who we're ordering up the parts. Thankfully OBP-3s are easy to get. http://basexperience.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/oh-my-god-tobias-resurrection-is-nearly.html There's lots of pics in there (I'm posting this from an iPhone and the editor is a little awkward!), I think Julian Mullen has done a great job. So, in summary: ladies and gentlemen of the Bass world: my upgraded Tobias Pro-6, a workhorse of 10 years gigging, reborn with a GK midi kit and OBP-3 preamp, and a new hipshot bridge. Beautiful! And today I get to pick her up!

A while back a driver failed in one of my cabs - finally got the chance to tear down the speaker, and the failure was obvious - manufacturing fault, not magnet power loss! I wrote an entry on my resurrection blog here - http://basexperience.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-mystery-of-dead-10-driver-warwick.html?m=1 Hope it's handy to anyone - particularly the "symptoms" of driver failure. The cab sounds great now!

I had a great time on the Saturday, spent a lot of time at the Rikker stand, that olive top 5 string was gorgeous. However, waiting for more than 30 minutes for what can only be describes as the worst slapper in the world to f*** off was tedious. Seriously, this was like watching someone hitting a tree with a brick, their thumb moved with all the grace of an asphyxiating fish... It was all I could do not to say to the guy "it's an expensive bass, and glockenklang gear. Can you please F*** OFF?"

Got my ticket for the Saturday! WIll be by the Basschat stand no doubt. Anyone bringing their own bass for some tryouts? It's been years since I visited a show...

I've got a GR55 and a Bass Podxt with FBV, but I usually run it with the capability to pass-thru straight to the amp when required - good example of when this is useful - I had a GR55 patch with the bass chorus for Journey's Don't Stop Believing, but the bass is in the shop so had to conjure up something on the POD in short order during the intermission. When I kicked off the first bass note, everybody else in the band turned around with the biggest grins on their faces. Admittedly, that's a really specific song, and it's a cover, but the bass sound on that track on the chorus in particular, with the motifs in there, is a signature of the track: effects can, and do, enhance bass when they work with the song. The old story...

It's a few years ago now, but when I got a decent rig stack (Warwick Pro IX 900) I initially got the classic 4x10 an 1x15 to go with it, regular cabs and they weighed a fricking ton. Traded both, plus an old 2x10 8Ohm trace cab (which was useful, but also very heavy) for 1x15 and 4x10 Warwick NEO cabs, which I really rate. I've replaced a 10 inch driver but otherwise they're solid as (I have a 250w 1x15 CCL for small gigs). The tone is good, they're not small cabs (the 15 is a cropped cab, short) but they're one-hand luggable and the horns have great sparkle when required.