Dood

Mr Foxen beat me to it with the picture posting! They are, as the name suggests a little can that fits over the valve and is 'earthed'. It screens the valve from electronic interference (hum) that can sometimes be picked up.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1357236795' post='1919626'] Do the valves in them have screening cans? [/quote] None of mine did! - A good suggestion actually!

[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1356094952' post='1906733'] according to Billy Sheehan, when you are stood up the bass should be in the same position on your body as when you are sat down practising. That way all your angles are the same and you are not changing position. [/quote] I also teach the same for that reason. I like to teach efficiency as well as getting across the importance of good posture. It makes tons of sense to have your bass in pretty much the same place if you are stood up or sat down. If you practice at home with your nose above the upper horn of the bass - then play gigs with the bass hanging around ya balls - then you're undoing all of that practice and exercise on your hands. As an example, I've never seen a drummer practice all his moves with a kit set out one way, then change it completely for a gig! It'd be a disaster for most.

I've had a few SVP's over the years. All of them arrived with stock valves. I noticed a great improvement when installing premium 'low noise' valves. The old black face SVP used to suffer a lot more than the 'hammerite grey' types - especially with poor valves installed.

Sign up to LickLibrary.com - it has to be the largest online resource of 'how to' videos, articles and DVDs to purchase from practically every genre. The tutors are all top UK professional guitarists too.

If you can find an optical compressor with an attack control that has a real late bloom to the sound, you can mimic some of the dynamics of the fretless 'sound'. By softening the attack so much that the bite disappears, you get a slight double bass effect. I'd mix that with favouring the bridge pickup for the nasal mids whilst boosting low mids on my EQ. Finally, think about how a fretless bass sounds and try to mimic that. for example, with plenty of slow half bends up to notes as the compressor releases. Go for the 'Pino' effect with a boss chorus and Octave, you'll be well on the way to disguising your bass tone!

The Hartke is a cracking head fr use as just a power amp, but lightweight around 800W i reckon you'll get suggestions that include the GK MB800 (fusion or non-fusion) MarkBass LM800 or LM800 Tube as well as Genz Benz's Streamliner or Shuttle heads. The TC RH750 might have too much on board if you want to keep it simple. Some would suggest getting a ToneHammer head instead though!

I had a series 1 (or maybe 2) BBE sonic maximiser and also happened upon the schematic diagram and service manual for it. Interestingly, it appears in that model most of the processing happened way up in the upper mids and treble frequencies that were lost on anyone who wasn't using a decent mid range/ tweeter in their gear. The low process knob was actually just a bass boost (as you'd find on any amp) centred at 50Hz. I only used mine as a 'post preamp, post effects loop' EQ and thus became redundant when I got a decent amp. I can't comment on the newer units and whether or not they have been improved, but I don't think the older models really make a noticeable difference, other than EQ on anything other than a decent full range system.

Oooh really Pete? The editor doesn't work via USB? Eeek! I like the USB connectivity of the B3 as I back up presets with DAW projects whilst the B3 is being used as an interface. I mean, it's no biggy - but I don't have MIDI connectivity on my laptop.

Ahhhh! I am a huge fan of a 16/16.5mm string spacing on my 6 and 7 string basses. I had a pair of Tobias 6ers that both had a 16mm spacing - I appreciate you are looking for a 5 though. I can't comment on the 5 string versions I am afraid. I had a Conklin bass too that had a 16mm spacing. Once again, not being very helpful - that was a 7 string! ha! I still keep to 16mm for my Shuker basses, but just recently I am getting rather excited about my newest 6 string, a Gerald Veasley signature 6 string bass that has a 14mm spacing! - It is AWESOME for a bit of shred! Very easy to take on you lead guitarist to knock them down a peg or two! Funds allowing, Shuker will be building a custom 6 with the same spacing for me!

[quote name='steve' timestamp='1355868028' post='1903941'] I'm quite interested in one of these, but I'm wondering how it compares to the B3, anyone done a comparison? [/quote] Would also like to hear this. I love my B3!

Interestingly, Billy Sheehan doesn't have a particularly low action. I however do

Subscribing! Would like to hear too!

Excellent! Cheers!

I've ran an MB F1 with a pair of Hartke 4.5XL cabs - brilliant sound! Nice and deep but with great projection. I'd also jump in and say that Hartke cabs (XL range I've used or years) are great and certainly not low end.

Or buy any DClass head that has an effects loop, then run the TH straight in to the return. Any of the BC favourites will be fine, GK MB heads, MarkBass, Genz Benz, TC Electronic. But you may find as mentioned already, just getting the TH head instead will be less of a faff!

Is it possible, like the B3 to mix in a clean blend to each affect and a global clean blend to the whole signal path?

If you can find one, the TC electronic Nova Dynamics is amazing. Also look at the EBS Multicomp secondhand too. The MXR is pretty nice as well.