Al Krow

Well I fortunately haven't yet, but I've just been looking at a few of the basses in the for sale, with stories along the lines of: I bought this amazing new bass!! ...I've had it 3 months, but it's not for me and I've decided to move it on Lots of nice appreciation from fellow BC'ers on how gorgeous it is But still for sale with not a sniff after 18 months... Ouch!!! I can't get my head around the whole thing. Sure if you've got £3k to blow on a bass and that's what you want to spend your hard earned cash on, go for it. But I'm guessing at that price it's going to be a 'dream bass' for even folk with cash to burn and what a nightmare when it doesn't shape up to what you hoped for and no one else wants it. Is the lesson here a simple one? Avoid designer basses unless you're absolutely sure what you're after and do everything you can to get your hands on something similar by the same luthier to try out before committing to buy?

Just get a VK210 MNT (or possibly an LNT, although your DG won't need that much power handling) and you won't need a second cab. Your ears will totally love you. Job done.

Although it's not an issue for the OP as he can get a second 8 ohm cab, I hadn't previously spotted that the DG M500 doesn't have a 2 Ohm mode unlike its big brother the DG M900. That's almost the wrong way around!

A very good analogy about the direction of travel.

If you want it a lot smaller, that can be sorted. There's a very clever chap by the name of @GisserD, who's got a bit of a following both over here and in the US for his little creation (I'm claiming credit for the blue and white edition). Be warned, he's tall...

I can't deny any of the above. And I'm possibly even worse: I've just turned down the possibility of a BF BB2, which is one of the most loved cabs on this forum, for the chance to get a Fearless F112. Bye Alex, hello Guy. Actually that's not entirely true about saying bye to Alex: my BF SC at 21 lbs continues to blow everyone away for what it delivers at its weight-point. And frankly I can't bear to part with it. It's just that back in the real world (and even on BC) there are so many fellow bass players who find that Markbass hits the spot at a price that's half of the stuff we've got ourselves into.

Ok that does it!!! I just gotta get me one of these. ...oh wait, I did that already. Now where did I leave it? 😄

So setting the bar high then? Funny thing is if you go into a store, the assistants will react with hushed tones if you mention high end Markbass. We are such bass snobs!

Please define "great".

Ashdown amps have earned a very loyal following on here, and are a great UK success story to be celebrated. But with the arrival of superb multifx like the Helix Stomp, this belated, expensive and underwhelming foray into pedals by Ashdown feels like someone deciding that diesel engines are the future when the rest of the world is moving onto hybrids.

No, no, no! Mixing cabs of different makes is akin to creating mules according to "them that know better" and to whom forlock tipping is required.

You would be already regarded as a minor rock god if you had. Made of vonder clay.

Weird he should think that. In my experience drummers manage to change key (and rarely moan about having to do so) quicker than just about anyone else in the band 😂

The TC is an amazingly good value combo. I also had a 115 that @Pat2019 now uses as my first bass combo. The 210 and 208 came out soon after I bought mine and I suspect if I was starting over, I'd go for one of these two instead now, just for the tighter punchier bass tone they seem to deliver.

Congrats! I suspect you'll totally love it. The clips I've heard of Cuzzie playing through his have been great (I hope he doesn't mind me saying). And I know I regularly get beaten up for my neanderthal views on speaker cone size, but if there were no other considerations (weight, power handling, frequency response etc) and I wanted a single cab, I really don't think I've come across anything better than a 212 for getting everything right. Funnily enough 95% of the folk who tell me I've got it wrong own either a 212, or 2 112s, or are making do with a single 112. (I appreciate I'm being a little Fearless in making such a claim). 😄

So Cali CB, DG AO Ultra and Pitch Shifter sorted. I think it's just paid for itself! And that grin on your face would obviously be priceless 😁

That's overstating it a touch. Yup leaving the lead in drains it. But if you remember to unplug it at the end of the day when putting your gear away the battery should last a fair while (months in my experience).

The best value multifx IMO is still the Zoom B3N and I'd happily recommend it as a great starting point if you're on a budget. If you can fork out the extra, then the quality of the Stomp, in terms of its chipset and processing power, delivers effect sims at the next level.

All fair comments. However 3 quality single effect pedals can easily get you past £400, and then that's your lot. Cali CB + DG AO ultra = how much new? Whereas a Stomp can expand on demand at no extra cost and allow you to try out all the effects you fancy using without having to separately buy them. It won't nail them all, synth in particular. But that's what a FI is for

Totally. The amazing generosity of time in sharing experience and expertise by our fellow BCers is something to be treasured.

That's very kind of you to say! I don't think there is a great deal of difference in dimensions and weight between the 1025 and 735A. The 735A has been slimmed a touch, but it's still very much a BB design bass - which I think you'll see from the pics I posted a page back in this thread, together with a rough 'bathroom scale' measurements of weight - it is also a touch lighter. If size matters - then I hate to say this on this thread(!) - and if you're after a smaller comfortable body, I'd actually consider getting an Ibanez SR. I'm also a big fan of those basses, particularly the Premium range as I really like the more 'throaty' Nordstrand big singles, although my Ibbys are all J/J rather than P/J configured pups. Having said that - see also @bigsmokebass's comments above about the subtleties of difference adding up (and there's, of course, also the not subtle at all addition of an active EQ, although he is not using that additional feature, but which I most certainly will be!).

Good question. I guess I'm a bit old fashioned and tend to assume that tone from a bass is driven by the following: 1. Type (P/J/MM etc) and make of pups 2. Position of pups 3. Quality of EQ including whether active or passive mode 4. Strings (and playing position). And then some way behind the above in terms of impact: 5. Variation in type of woods used. I suspect the the tonal difference between the two basses would be less if I was using identically aged same strings and I guess the simplest way to do that is to put a new pair of the same make strings on both, but I'm too much of a cheapskate to want to do that until the strings actually need replacing

Often only noticeable, anyway, when you're practising at home alone. The moment you're surrounded by the noise of a pub or start playing you'll be hard pressed to notice at all. (And although not relevant here, cooling fans can often be just as noisy or more so than any amp hum).