NancyJohnson

This may come across as a bit of a stupid question to those in the know, but flats. When I first started playing (when all this was fields), my first bass came with flats on it. I can only really remember them being shiny, flat, dull and lifeless and it didn't really occur to me that I could change them for anything else. The G-string broke one weekend and not knowing any better I dipped into my paper round money and replaced just the one string with a roundwound (and there was light - heh). I remember hearing the [i]zingyness [/i]of that G-string and pretty much played everything on that string for weeks and frankly never looked back. Given the music I play now (punky/noise), I ask what would flats give me now? Is it worth having a punt and stringing up one basses with flats, or will they just be lifeless mud? P

Mwahaha...I think that was a raging success and I shall [b]definitely [/b]be repeating this exercise in the future. Obviously the new E is a tad brighter than the ADGs, but it'll lose some of it's zing in the coming days and even out. Despite saying this wasn't anything to do with money saving, there's a feel good factor to be had for saving yourself £20.00 plus! P

Jeepers, I'd be in like a shot if you lived in Berkshire. What's wrong with everyone? P

In my defence, two full bands (with an occasional third), recording, jamming, writing, big heavy muthafunking plectrums. I pick up whatever is close to me and I tend to play for at least an hour a day. It has to be said that some basses don't kill the strings as much as others, which I am not able to quantify.

[quote name='Old_Ben' timestamp='1420638308' post='2651588'] £30 every 4 months isn't the worst amount to have to fork out. [/quote] Now factor this up by nine basses.

Anyone go the route of just replacing single strings? This isn't really anything about making economies - I was about to change the strings on one of my basses and quickly came to the conclusion that while the E string was pretty dead, the ADGs still have an awful lot of life left in them, despite the fact they've been on for a while (this always seems to be the case). The strings on the bass are EB Slinkys. A new E is £8, a full set (of whatever brand I decide to use - generally I'm going the Elixir Nanoweb route now) is £30/35+ - it just seems horribly wasteful to chuck the whole set - so, for the first time ever I should add, I pulled the trigger and just bought a Slinky .105 for £7.50. P

Cool. Thanks for the heads up! P

I've got a BH800 head and my only disdain is that while the chorus/flange/etc. TonePrints are very good, the dirt/grit options are a bit underwhelming, so I'm still going with a Sansamp as my front end until a new TP becomes available. I can't fault the amp elsewhere.

Anyone seen these in the UK? It's a non-permanent fluorescent pen (green ink), for marking effects pedals with your settings. Arguably nicer than covering all your pedals with stickers. They're available on eBay from the USA , but postage costs are more than the actual item!

Out Gibson Thunderbird NR Gibson Thunderbird IV In Rickenbacker 4003 TC Electronic BH800 What I've learnt? Always trade up and if you fall out of love with any piece of gear don't keep it because of sentimental reasons. I'd wanted a Rickenbacker for some time and due to continuing back issues, a lightweight head was a priority. Also that a lot of gear isn't necessarily a good thing. All in all though, a decent, albeit, quiet year. 2015? Let's see how things go. In light of the 'lot of gear' comment above, I've been giving some thought to having a big clearout and simply just buying a Lull Jeff Ament. On the amp/cab front, moving on my Hartke enclosures and getting a Barefaced cabinet of some sort might be on the cards. We'll see. Happy new year everyone.

[quote name='UglyDog' timestamp='1419765925' post='2642484'] Like these? [url="http://tonyfarr.ca/tonyfarr.ca/Win_in_Time_jpg/STRAT_PLATE.jpg"]http://tonyfarr.ca/t...STRAT_PLATE.jpg[/url] [/quote] I've already been in contact with that guy! No black ones left. All anyone seems to have is curved ones for side-of-body mounting. P

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1419597220' post='2641125'] You can't fit an angled jack in a 'strat' style recessed socket, my eub only takes straight for example. [/quote] My Hamer FBIV has Stratocaster style output jack. It does take a right-angled jack plug, although it's not pretty. I'd like a flat oval replacement socket if i could find one.

Why not go for a Spector Forte X? It's Thunderbird shaped, in a similar finish. They're veeeeery nice.

I guess you have to ask yourself what you want to use it for...if you just want a straight and simple interface to capture anything that works off a 1/4" jack plug or an XLR, I can highly recommend the Presonus Audiobox USB. No MIDI though.

If you're west of the smoke, Julian Mullen is great. Reading. About ten minutes off the A33 junction.

Well I emailed Thomann and they're sending me a replacement. Small result! It worked fine before it went pop so I'll persevere.

The GigRig Generator is around £100, plus it looks like you need a £35 distributor unit to send isolated power to each pedal (rather than daisy chaining the supplies). T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior or the Diago Powerstation frontrunners at the moment. I've emailed Thomann about the HB to see what they'll do (probably not much as I've already put it through the WEEE recycling at work)...if they sort out some discount, I'll go with the T-Rex.

The Diago Powerstation looks decent, small too.

Thomann one (£22) conked out after very little use in around a year. I have a small Pedaltrain board, on which is Velcro'd a pair of talent boosters (Sansamp BDDI/VTBass DI) and a Boss TU Tuner. I also have an option of a yellow Boss bass overdrive. I'll use Thomann (I have a voucher that will cover the 10Euro shipping). I'm drawn to the Pedaltrain Volto (£75), T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior (£83) - this looks almost identical to the Harley Benton, or the Mooer Micro Power (£67). Anyone else got any suggestions? P

I play in a noisy old-boy(!) punky outfit; guitarist loves to crank. Sadly, I'm not playing in any loud capacity until mid-January, due to band members being away, so the acid-test is a way off. Also the measurements on the website are off. Allowing for knobs and the little carry handles, the unit is pretty much 11" square and not 11 x 9.5" as quoted. Tut tut! P

OK, briefest of updates. Amp arrived today, got it unpacked and set up. I was able to have a quick noodle before I took up the offer of a couple of pints of Old Peculiar at my local followed by an Indian takeout.. Plugging straight in it sounds nice enough, but plugging my BDDI in front of the amp (with the controls at the noon position) gave me an 'oh, myyyy' moment. Lovely. Tone Print function works without any issues, however it doesn't work with the Sansamp on. I suppose it's understandable as the incoming signal that loads the patch is affected by the pedal, so switch off before loading the tone print. Tried a few chorus effects, and all good. I'm not particularity taken with the tube/grind emulation(s) and much prefer my Sansamp. It weighs next to nothing and size for size is about a tenth of that of my 4U rack. Incidentally, the amp seems reasonably happy to accept a line-level input from the BDDI without any distinct clipping. One big bone of contention that I've been reading up on is TC Electronics claims that the output wattage is over-egged. I ran it through two daisy-chained 8ohm Hartke Hydrives (so that's 4ohms I believe), took the master volume up to about 20% and I'm happy to report it's painful loud at that level, which is reassuring. So that's it for the moment. I'll have a decent mess around tomorrow. If you want to shoot me any questions, I'll be happy to try poop out and post here. P

My guitarist uses a Bugera set up. It's very good for metal \m/ P

I understand that the Tone Print app is Apple or Android and that it stores the tones on your device so, in theory you can just load tones from whatever compatible device you have. You'd only need to connect to the Internet to check for app updates. Moving along, the head does have a usb socket on the rear fascia to update via a cable. TCE suggest you update the software when you fire it up for the first time.

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1418149059' post='2627413'] Cool. That's some good info on the Tech 21 stuff. I'm looking at getting the VT bass DI to replace my VT bass. I like the idea of the DI option should I need it. Would you know, if I use the VT bass and not the Oranges Pre-amp, can I still use the DI on the Orange or does that not work since I bypass the Preamp. [/quote] From my perspective (Ashdown ABM), I understand that if an XLR gets plugged into the front panel of the head, it'll output whatever the amp is outputting at line level. Generally, sound guys at gigs will take an XLR cable out of the back of the RBI (or side of the BDDI), so you have a choice. Personally, I prefer the RBI/XLR output - there's an XLR knob on the RBI that controls what goes to the desk (so you have a little control of how much bass the crowd get). P