HowieBass

Tried watching Vampire Weekend but I thought the vocals were awful so gave up. Waiting for QOTSA after gorging myself on the Kate Bush retrospective.

Cort make some of the Epiphone instruments (maybe all?), they also make many of the Squier range, Ibanez too. That's probably why the Epiphone was well put together. You might find something you like but with their own name on the headstock - I've got 4 Cort built basses and I'm very happy with the fit and finish with all of them.

Looks like the fingerboard's never been cleaned since the bass was made! 9 years of grime eh?

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1408661579' post='2532408'] Read this (and the subsequent chapters). [url="http://www.gtaust.com/filter/05/07.shtml"]http://www.gtaust.co...ter/05/07.shtml[/url] [/quote] Ahh, that genuinely is fascinating... so that's why guitarists can be annoyingly loud with 'small' amps!

I always wondered about the reason for the vertical stacking of speaker cabs you see at big gigs, now I know (I think)...

What you might not like is active EQ or the way your Warwick employs it in the Streamer. I've got an old Westone Spectrum LX bass with a PJ configuration that employs both passive and active tone shaping controls - they sound very different to each other (which is good, otherwise there'd be little point having this arrangement, though I have to add the caveat here that the passive and active EQ interact in a fairly uncommon way). After some exposure to both fully active, fully passive and hybrid EQ controls (the Westone) I have to admit that I do like the simplicity of a passive tone control and I've a tendency to set-and-forget the 3 band EQ tone controls on the actives (only really bothering with changing the mids).

Bill will probably describe this better but I know that when building cabinets, how they're braced and wall thickness/stiffness, you have to design the box with an understanding of how those drivers will behave inside that amount of space and whether the cabinet is sealed or ported, how bass response rolls off, whether any resonances occur... they all play a part in how it will sound.

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1408569827' post='2531519'] Forward further into the video, he plays the bass with no backing. [/quote] Aha, my ears were so shot (listened on headphones) from the loud opening guitar crash that I gave up about 4 minutes in. What's causing the distortion with 2 of the cabinets when he's playing the Fender P with flatwounds using a pick in the second half of the video (think it was with the Vietnam 2007 and USA 2004 cabs)? Was the mic overloaded maybe?

Just had a quick view/listen. Unfortunately, at least for me, the rest of the music, particularly the guitar, was so loud I struggled to discern any difference in the tone of the cabinets

There's certainly a difference between the TC BG250 combos with 1x15", 1x12", 2x10" and 2x8" drivers demonstrated in the BassTheWorld demo (comparison starts at about 9:40)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc4rj6EhB7M I like the 2x10" tone best and that's the driver arrangement I ended up going for (a 210T) with my Genz Benz combo.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1408471422' post='2530541'] If you are interested in going the separates route, you could look at the Ashdown Rootmaster 220. It comes with a "Free" 2x12 cab. all for £299. [url="http://www.giggear.co.uk/p/ashdown-rm-mag-220-rootmaster-220w-bass-head/"]http://www.giggear.c...220w-bass-head/[/url] [/quote] You have to buy a 2x10" or a 15" cab with the head before you can claim the free 2x12", so the cost will substantially exceed the OP's £300 budget

I'm pretty certain the TC208 only reaches 250 watts with an extension cab attached so I imagine you'd be getting about 140 watts with the combo alone.

I can't agree with all of Sheehan's explanations (you won't get speakers out of phase unless you wire them incorrectly or use exceedingly long lengths of connecting wire for some but not others inside the cabinet) but I like his bass, is that fingerboard scalloped above the 12th fret on the G and D?

Do you push the input preamp up to clipping for the tone it creates? I don't know about the head you've got so I've no idea if you're getting a nice warmth from the input stage set to high gain levels but maybe you could put the clean boost pedal before the preamp and set your gain for clipping when the clean boost is engaged (so you'll be using less gain to cope with a higher input level) and then up your master volume accordingly?

I was also going to suggest pivoting on the thumb as that's how I've always approached playing, particularly when there's a need to span more frets than I can comfortably stretch. Great idea about the down tuning and using a capo (as long as you don't navigate using position markers)! And yeah I also calculated that you reduce the span by just over a half inch by playing a 30" scale length.

Add stuff from, or include a link to this Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_Black_Forecast

A hugely generous BCer gifted me a set of La Bella SN45 nickel roundwounds that he had no use for, so I put them on my trusty old Westone Spectrum LX that had been wearing some Fender steel flats. I expected a big difference, I'd had Rotosound steel rounds on it some years previously but the tone from the La Bella blew me away - I haven't heard anything like them before, dark and sonorous but with a pleasing zing. When I need new strings on my other basses I'll definitely be considering them.

Before I bought my Genz Benz combo I was considering trying an Eden cab with my old solid state bass head and read some good reviews of the EX110 and EX112 cabs, they have speakers of the same design as that in your Promethean (a whizzer cone speaker) and they come in at about £199 and £219 each... http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/eden-ex110-bass-guitar-speaker-cabinet-8-ohms.html http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/eden-ex112-bass-guitar-speaker-cabinet-8-ohms.html

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1408276652' post='2528496'] Yes, preamp tubes are very robust in general and Markbass amps are bulletproof, so it's very unlikely you will have a problem. Rock on. \m/ [/quote] So robust in fact that the MiG-25 aircraft employed them in its avionics system giving it a powerful radar and resistance to electromagnetic pulse damage from nuclear explosions... that's valves not Markbass amps obviously

I prefer to use a detune effect rather than chorus as to my ears it's a more subtle enhancing effect but I'm only using a Zoom B9. Tech 21 offer a pedal that has both chorus and detune, it looks pretty retro, comes in at £175 and gets a good review from Premier Guitar (including 2 sound samples) here [url="http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Tech_21_Bass_Boost_Chorus_Pedal_Review"]http://www.premiergu...us_Pedal_Review[/url] and user reviews here [url="https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/6489537782185846076?q=bass+guitar+detune+chorus+pedal&client=firefox-a&hs=11b&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=fflb&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.73231344,d.d2k,pv.xjs.s.en.pILta_SWMTQ.O&biw=1366&bih=637&tch=1&ech=1&psi=hSPvU-XqFoWk0QXy-YDwAg.1408181532848.3&prds=hsec:reviews&sa=X&ei=ICXvU_esEYK3O67XgfgO&ved=0CGAQ9AIwAA"]https://www.google.c...ved=0CGAQ9AIwAA[/url]

You're tightening with a clockwise motion (righty-tighty) and little/no string tension on the neck I hope? With no tension pulling on the neck you will probably have a slight back bow (which is good) if the truss rod is doing its job... if it's still got a forward bow then something's wrong with the hex bolt or the rod. Have you got the right size allen key/hex bolt for the bullet adjuster? I believe there can be slight differences between Fender basses (some use a metric sized allen key, some use an imperial sizing depending on which factory put it together) so make sure you've got the right one. If it turns with no resistance as you try to tighten it then follow the advice given above. Good luck!

I thought WD-40 was a penetrating oil [i]and[/i] a water-displacing spray and was designed to leave behind a oily residue after the volatile lighter fraction evaporates which is why it's exactly the right thing for troublesome screws and bolts and exactly the wrong thing for cleaning crackly pots with.

Something like a series/parallel switch or a phase reverse switch or, if you're adventurous, a multi-tone capacitor selector like an Aria bass.

Don't forget to report back when they're in!

I've no experience of them but I keep reading very good things about Entwistle pickups, esp the PBXN and JBXN models. Complete thread here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/235314-entwistle-bass-pickups/page__hl__entwistle%20pickups"]http://basschat.co.u...istle%20pickups[/url] EDIT: I believe this is the official UK stockist http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-PickupsPlus-Store/Bass-Pickups-/_i.html?_fsub=3616628011&_sid=1021113631&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322