Al Krow

That was a seriously painful experience, Paul, and you have all our sympathy on that one mate! Out of interest have you had any breakdown issues with your other non-valve / SS amps?

So how complicated would it be to DI through the PA? Well, although I've not ever needed to do this on any gigs so far (touch wood), actually it can be a complete doddle and potentially avoid any disruption to the flow of the set - another factor to bear in mind. In my case there's a spare Gtr (high Z) input to our Allen & Heath mixer which means I can just take the lead out of my amp and plug straight into the mixer (without even needing a DI pedal - although please shout if you disagree with this bit). Job done. How does it sound? Well I've just given that set up a spin and it's very passable, bearing in mind it's a 10" speaker (albeit a quality RCF 310A) and hasn't been tuned to bass frequencies in the way a bass cab will be. I suspect a lot of you will have decent 12" or 15" speakers for your PA which should sound even better. Sufficient insurance for the hopefully blue moon event of a modern SS amp going down at a gig? Yes, for sure for me and similarly several gigging bassists on this thread. I appreciate others want to take a more cautious approach and have a back-up amp instead. Completely respect that as being an entirely valid solution. Just not one I feel is necessary for my two covers bands.

Haha it's not all about you, even if you are talking baloney some of the time! I mean seriously, who calls a P pup anything other than a "P pup"?

Or you could just DI through the PA 😁

Agreed. I had the same experience with hardly being able to hear myself once and, similarly, it was no fun! But as we've observed, actually needing to use the insurance of DI/spare amp/spare FRFR etc should hopefully be a once in a blue moon event.

Hah! In which case, when I upgrade my current amp I really should hold onto my existing SS amp as a backup, without feeling too guilty! The comment about age / reliability of existing gear touched on is also an important one. And as Chris and several others have pointed out, to have nothing go wrong for 20 years with decent SS gear, which generally seems to be more reliable than some of the older valve amps, seems a long time to be carrying about a spare amp without ever needing it. I get that DI'ing via a PA may take a little setting up, but to hear myself I would simply step closer to the FOH and include a touch the bass in the monitor. After all, we are talking about pretty rare circumstances if we did an average of "amp-downs" encountered between us vs number of gigs we've amassed.

Home insurance is a tiny cost in comparison to the cost of your home. In that rare emergency, you can always simply DI into the PA and job done.

@jrixn1-that's very fair. But Steve's solution above or just DI via the mixer is even simpler / cheaper and avoids needing to cart around another piece of kit that you may never need to use.

I think it can balance out though. I suspect you've got a very decent PA though plus several monitors? We have two lightweight RCF310As that can handle 3 vocals, acoustic guitar and sax, and we manage with just one monitor for the vocals. Our backline serves as the "monitors" for bass and electric guitar, which works just fine for pub gigs. My sense is thay you need a pretty decent PA to handle bass as well as quality separates can - so it boils down to which route you're going down and clearly both can work well. In terms of the OPs question: I've never had an amp blow, never bothered with a spare and we will have a spare lead somewhere so that I can DI into the PA in an emergency. Or not and audience probably wouldn't notice...

@MB1 so glad that you have rendered OCD obolete on this thread 😉

This one is definitely stealing the thunder from its 5 string brethren in my herd (with one notable exception!):

Thanks Alfred - and good luck with your writing and teaching! One final suggestion from me (again please do with as you feel appropriate or just ignore!) Have a think about putting the 500 exercises in order of difficulty and by also key signature starting with C. As someone who is new to reading bass clef, finding that the first exercise was in the key of B major with 5# was a little scary 😁

Agree it's a real head turner. Doesn't sound too bad when played by young master freak either!

You're really piling up my "watch later" YT list 😁

Ah ok thanks Wat - yup I should have said VM4 rather than 5 but I seem to default 5 string references these days!

@wateroftyne - enjoyed your YT review. Did you you consider a Sandberg VM5 as a possible alternative?

Would have been great to have had included the Berg neck pup in passive mode on your tone review and compared it to your P basses. Maybe next time eh?

Just to clarify the Berg Obra was using is a TM4 i.e. J / Humbucker set up with no P pup. But I think the point you're making is that Berg wasn't even using the neck J pup which we've been elsewhere discussing whether it can get close-enough to the P bass sound.

It's an ineresting point. On my purely active Spector which blends purely via separate V/V knobs for each pup, if one pup is maxed at 10/10 I only really notice the other pup starting to impact tone at 7/10 and only having a significant tonal impact at 9 or 10, which kinda ties in with your comments above.

Just to confuse, there are a couple of "Toms" at Wunjos and they're both great guys. Had several dealings with Tom (manager) over the years with Ibby basses and can vouch that he is a top bloke!

🤣

What a really neat comparison video! Be an interesting one to put in its own thread and see what folk think. My own order of preference: 1. (D) Fender P 79 rounds pick [3rd one along in the picture / 4th in the video] 2. (A) Fender P 68 flats pick 3. (C) Fender P 78 flats fingerstyle (but would have killed it on a Motown track!) [the 4th one along in the picture / 3rd in the video] For me a very long way behind the other three... 4. (B) Sandberg TM4 rounds fingersytle (actually very similar to my former bass, except mine wasn't relic'd) - sounded insipid in comparison to the three Fenders. Guess it's confirmed that 'Berg TM4s are not for me! @krispn- we were just having a discussion about J pups getting close to the P bass sound? Well this definitely is not a good example! [PS Obra confirmed below he was using the MM pup not the J pup on the Berg] @jrixn1

Hi Caroline. I've been a huge fan of octave pedals but I'd actually say don't go for your suggested approach! You may well find the octave pedal glitching and / or having "latency" issues (i.e. not perfectly in sync with the original note played) and the tone will also likely be changed by the octave pedal from the P bass tone you really like. I wouldn't rule out a 5 string, as it: allows you to play a number of songs an octave down, as compared to a 4 string, particularly those in Eb, D and C (I've not come across too many in the key of B); it makes swapping to a different key a whole lot easier; there are a bunch of fretboard positional benefits from a 5 string and you'll be surprised how often you make use of the notes on the low B string further up the fretboard as well, not just the low Eb and below. Alternatively, maybe get yourself a decent pedal to detune your 4 string into a lower key e.g. Digitech Drop comes recommended.

👍 👍 @alfred arrived safely this morning - looking forward to working through the patterns. Slightly disappointed by the picture of an Eich cabinet at the rear with the Sadwosky 5er obscured behind it - surely it should be the other way around with the Sad in front? 😁 More seriously: is there a sound file somewhere online with what the exercises should sound like? You also mention in your forward that practice with harmony instrument and drummer would be beneficial - agreed; if there was a backing track with these on for each exercise it would feel like a complete course resource and I suspect would allow you to charge additionally for these features. Just a thought.

Checked out his course material which looks good! Although I read music my familiarity is just on treble clef, given that I originally learned on classical guitar; so this could be just the ticket to get me up to speed on low end stuff! I'll wait for another of his "sales" before hitting the credit card though...and in the meantime I've ordered that Alfred Kalfass book Dad has recommended to keep me out of mischief. It can add to my long list of bass books bought with good intentions and gathering dust 😁