Al Krow

Depends on the sound you're after - not sure what you currently have in your head?! 

Based purely on my own journey/experience when I moved on from my Sanderg TM4 (for the same pup reasons as @TRBboy mentioned, in my case Delanos):

• If you want more of a growl, then I'd happily recommend an Ibanez SR premium range - light, super fast neck, very decent on board EQ
• Closer to a Sandberg VM4, then a used Yamaha BB 1024 won't break the bank and is a classy, purely passive, bass.
• Something spectacularly good but not cheap - Spector Euro LX with EMG pick-ups or more off the beaten track Elrick.

YMMV 

Have fun!

I think your best bet would be to try them both out, not least because the Sandbergs tend to be active/passive whereas the BBs (a few notable exceptions aside) are pretty much all purely passive. They are two bass brands with strong/devoted followings. My first "serious" bass was a Sandberg TM4 which I played and gigged for about 4 years but, like you, it was the Delano pups on the Sandberg that I found a little too tame for my liking and I personally prefer the Yamaha BB series that I've had to it, and the BBP35 was a really excellent bass - really lovely tone.  Weight can be an issue with it though, although it does vary and I've seen ones coming in at sub 10 lbs. I am gobsmacked by the list price of the vintage white model though!  

3Leaf Proton Mk4 in very good condition. Lovely filter with both up and down sweep and super easy to dial in a great tone! 

I am the second owner having acquired this in April 2020 (previous owner bought new two months previously) and it has been well looked after by me since. 

As shown in the pics there are a few metal fade marks on the unit - which I think maybe are a feature of the metal finish used, but flagged either way. Previously had velcro on the base which I've removed and cleaned.

Bought a filter pedal off Paddy. In great condition as described, well packaged and fast delivery: very smooth transaction and a pleasure to find out what a great bass player and band he's in! 

The Behringer B105D (50W) / B205D (150W) models could be just the ticket? Have had good experience with the B205D with my bands. Decent value for money too. 

1 hour ago, markbunney said:

The Dug one looks like it has a small headphone button on it, maybe they changed the design

Maybe Steve Harris didn't request a headphone option that works well as a specific feature? 😅

Sorry - couldn't resist!

A Theramin in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing. Super impressive! 

Think I've "lost" my GT 1000 Core...😅

Lent it to a new guitarist who's joining a second line-up of my covers band so he had a decent multi. He's taken to it like a duck to water! Some great tones and he and another guitarist we work with, who has the GT 1000, don't seem to have to fight an inherent harshness of the Helix Stomp / Pod-Go which a couple of other guitarists we work with have had to figure a way around - one gave up and traded in his Pod-Go for a Kemper which he's always wanted, tbf the other one's getting there with his Helix XL.

21 hours ago, Enormous Buttocks said:

That’s a great spectrum of drive tones, certainly for me. Seems like the general direction manufacturers have been going in the last 3 or so years is more towards this organic, tube-like tone for drives. I’ve heard more decent new bass drive pedals in the last 3 years than I heard in the preceding 10.

Agreed!

One suggestion: would have been really helpful for live use if the filth button and, especially, the dirt button had been stomp switches, so they could be easily foot stomped on / off when needed for parts of songs. Not sure how tricky that would have been to incorporate@Tech21NYC? If that had been available, I would have been sorely tempted to part with the list price for it!

So literally half (23 so far and I'm as guilty as anyone, haha!) posts on this thread about the non UK PSU. 

And just two on whether it's actually a decent bit of kit and potentially usable live? 

😂

Thanks to @Woodinblackat least for a decent review. 

Yes let's not get political. However let's please get the economics right. 

The current cost of living crisis is primarily down to two things:

1. Covid - governments around the planet printed vast amounts of "free" money (and gave it a fancy name: "quantitative easing") whilst locking down the economy. Inflation is pay back for that. The alternative would have been the mother of all depressions. 

2. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and its impact on energy costs, which feeds into all costs of production. 

47 minutes ago, SumOne said:

How many people under the age of 30 have commented on this thread?

 

I can't speak for them either, but I don't think many young people want to be in bands that are basically using the same music formula that their parents and grandparents used (Bass, Guitar, Drums, Singer - promote by travelling around to gigs in a van). Technology and society and popular music has moved on - they don't expect to make a lot of money from selling an album, plenty don't even do albums, but will be quite focussed on getting a lot of Spotify streams and Instagram and Tik Tok followers and getting to a level where they are sponsored to endorse things, that is where the audience and fame and money is and they know it.

 

It's potentially a great time for music where most 16 year olds can now access a cheap computer to make music and record their vocals and a use a phone to record videos and self-release and market their stuff to a global audience. It's just different to how their parents and grandparents did it.

 

Older people writing off music like rap and Electronic music as they are not using the same formula as they did must be quite similar to how parents reacted to rock n roll.

Very true!

The one surprise to me came at a recent corporate gig with a younger audience than we're normally in front of (mostly 21 to 23 y/o's). I was concerned how relevant our set list was going to be for them, but they really seemed to love it and I was actually a bit shocked that the song requests from the floor, given their ages, was for more Blondie, ABBA and Queen! And they seemed to know all the words as well as we did!

LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos

Maybe we, and the great tunes of the 60s to '00s, aren't quite as obsolete as we might be fearing just yet?

Nice review:

3 hours ago, markbunney said:

Its really annoying, as it only seems to work properly at 50% of gigs. I pair it last after the other items are set up, but often just get a weird pulsating noise from my bass.

 

I prefer using the Boss units rather than the Lekato ones as they don't move around as much

Similar experience for me. The Boss is a first rate bit of kit in terms of lack of any distortion/clean sound but the drop outs live were becoming unsustainable and I similarly switched to a 5.8 GHz set up on bass. I went for the Nux which are more expensive than the budget Lekato, as the latter was distorting a little with my active basses. Been very happy with the Nux since in terms of both range and lack of drop outs. But this is using the Nux as a wireless purely for bass rather than IEMs so not sure if relevant to this particular discussion - apologies if it's not.

"It's gonna be free practice for us tonight...super quiet"... Lead Singer

Well it was the start of "dry" Jan, but that's maybe going to be the worst prediction of 2024 already in the bag! 

Was a huge amount of fun!

Yeah but we invented Black Sabbath who invented metal. The rest are just tribute acts 😂

How much of that YT track was the unit actually creating?

1 hour ago, franzbassist said:

Best was without doubt my Sire P8 5 string with natural finish ash body and a roasted maple neck: Everything I have always wanted in a P5: sounds fabulous, 9lbs, perfect balance, and looks beautiful.

 

Worst was probably the EHB 6 string.  A lovely bass, but I just need to accept that six strings is one too many for me!

Oooh pics please! 

Very tempted to get another active PJ 5er  at some point and I could never quite bond with my Yamaha BB735A. 

Guess I need to check out what the key differences between the Sire P5, P8 and P10 models are - have to fess I was totally unaware of the 8 series! 

1 hour ago, JoeEvans said:

This is a very heart-warming thread.

My thoughts exactly! Loving the love. 

Why not kick off with something like the Zoom B1-4? Very capable and ridiculously good value.

I personally would really miss not having a screen on a multifx to easily remind myself which patch I was on at any given time mid set. 

17 hours ago, bassace97 said:

https://www.kemper-amps.com/products/uk/profiler-player.html
 

Curious how this stacks up against the HX Stomp/XL. Not a bad price at £499 either.

Is it primarily geared at providing amp/cab sims though? Ie does it offer a full range of editable fx in the way that Helix Stomp and GT1000 Core do? If not we're not comparing like for like.

There's mention of a "well-curated selection of 136 different FX settings taken from the legendary KEMPER PROFILER FX arsenal that features over 444 FX presets in total" which sounds promising, but no indication of what's available in the that selection.

On 14/12/2023 at 16:52, zrbass said:

Sorry peeps I almost feel bad for not spotting him. Anyway just to say if you go..."mwah" up and down the fretboard youve got him to thank.

I think Jaco has just displaced Carol K for a place in the top 10 😊

6 hours ago, HornetPinata said:

After reading through this I've just had a realisation: I've bought nothing. Nothing.

Not a pack of strings. Not even a pick or a strip of velcro.

I don't know what to do with this information really. I never meant for this to occur. 

I have bought books and documentaries though.

And I had planned to get some new jacks and a speaker cable so it's all rock n roll from here.

My younger self would laugh his derrière off. 

 

edit: I know this is not interesting for anyone else but in the interest of my future well being this needed to be written down.

But have you managed to play lots of bass this year? If so, sounds like you've had a very good year! And there are hairshirt threads (aka "gear abstinence") for recovering Gear Chat addicts where you would be lauded as a hero... 

15 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

From that list, best musician would surely be the actual best musician? So not Macca, because he most certainly isn't. And bear in mind Geddy has an altar to Les Claypool in his bathroom...

So from that list, I'd say actual best musicians would be Stanley Clarke, Anthony Jackson and probably either Les or Marcus Miller.

And in terms of influencing me, from that list again, it would be Bootsy, Norman Watt Roy and Flea...

But are you then saying that singers are not musicians and the voice is not a musical instrument?

I think the ability to sing, write music, and play an instrument are all aspects of being a musician. And Macca, Geddy Lee and a handful of others could do all three to a very high standard.

If, on the other hand, you're meaning the best bass player (which is what this list is about) then yes I'd agree that Macca wasn't technically anything like as good as some of the others and his pre Jamerson inspired 1965 and earlier stuff was very root/5th in approach.