garyt

You can see if you need to adjust the truss rod by checking the neck relief. I had to adjust action and truss rod a tad when changing to flats , but had to make big adjustments to the intonation.

I might try that. I’ve been using Cobalts on and off for a few years and never has this problem before. I thought it might be a reaction to some peoples sweat as my son’s cobalts on his guitar always go rusty fairly quickly (fk knows why he keeps using them).

Does anyone else have a problem with Ernie Ball cobalts rusting? I bought a set recently. 3 gigs in and there are 2 patches which look like surface rust. I tried wiping it off, but no luck. I got another gig out of them, but am going to have to bite the bullet and change them, but a set of strings for 4 gigs! My son uses cobalts on his guitar and seems to get rust as well on the lower strings.

Totally flat is a good starting point. If the contour is scooping the mids, I’d turn it completely off, however you do that. I have similar with my LM3, and just turn off all the amp filters which do similar things.

How do you set your amp head? Set bass and treble to noon, and then tweak to fit in with your band / room. Switch the contour off - I found any scooped mids didn’t work with the ST. Drive the gain as high as you can before it breaks up. Once you get the ST set up right, it’s such a great cab for playing in a band, as you can sit it really well in the mix. I set my amp as neutral as possible, and then just tweak any frequency that needs it.

If you don’t mind the weight. Stick with. In 100 million years time, a future evolved species will find all these Trace combos in the fossil layer, and they’ll probably still sound good.

The Supertwin is a killer cab. You won’t get it out of 2nd gear, but it’s light as a feather, doesn’t take up much space, and will deal with any situation. In reality, the Super Compact will probably do.

Check out Amos Heller’s demo on YouTube of the Hyper Luminal. I set the HPF filter to 120Hz, and found this to work really well live. I tested this by setting one of the compressors with everything below 120Hz uncompressed, and another compressor with all frequencies compressed, and the former definitely felt fatter and tighter in a band mix. But compressors divide opinions, so only you’ll know what works for you.

I only have 2 basses and only gig in covers bands now, so just play whatever I feel like. Saying that, as I’ve got older, I’ve preferred to gig with my 4 string and practice at home with my 5 string, as it is more comfortable to play for a couple of hours.

Why do compressors bring up so many different opinions? I have a DG Hyper Luminal, and I absolutely love it, but I’m sure I’d feel the same with any high end compressor once used to it. I only bought the HL to upgrade from a Boss LMB-3, but the things that stand out for me on the HL are the Blend control, the ability to tweak in the DG suite, particularly being able to have your low frequencies uncompressed, having 3 distinct compressors available, and it’s one of those compressors that doesn’t get you lost in the mix. Great pedal.

Although I quite like Radiohead and Foos as background music, I think all your points are pretty much spot on.

How is the Boss wireless? I’ve heard good and bad about them, but quite fancy going wireless.

That snare sound is incredible.

I really like Nickelback.

Try and identify the source. if you have 2 basses, try this sequence with both basses. Clean bass first, bass direct to amp. Is that OK? Then try one pedal at a time to see if you have an offending pedal. Then start with one pedal, and introduce one pedal at a time, until you hear the noise. When you hear it, take that pedal out and see if it clears. Its a bit of trial and error, but easy way to fault find. Could even be a lead or connection. Once you have found the problem, and sorted it, housekeeping helps. Check every cable, every connection. Tidy up your routing. Spray the connections with some Deoxit. It doesn’t look like your PSUs are overloaded, and Daisy chaining shouldn’t be a problem, but isolated power supplies do eradicate any potential hum caused by Daisy chaining.

You don’t ‘need’ a compressor, but stick a decent one in your chain, spend a bit of time getting used to the settings, and it should sound better. I had the LMB-3 for a while and it’s great, but then got a Hyper Luminal and realised you do get what you pay for. There’s a lot of hair splitting between the top end compressors, and I don’t think you really get the full benefit until you’ve played and experimented with them for a while. You sound like you have a really decent bass and rig, so you probably don’t want to get a budget compressor, as your clean tone is probably great as it is.

I’ve had this album on repeat since Friday. Each song is a grower, but I’m giving top spot to Giftig atm.

just change your 9V with every string change. Seriously, when have you ever had a 9V die? I’m lucky as my Sandberg has a passive switch, so if a battery did die, I could switch to passive. The one thing out of our control at pub / club gigs is whizzed up punters .

Has anyone set up intonation on the Sandberg bridge and is it easy? I can understand the manual, but it isn’t the same as other bridges, and seems a faff as you have to loosen all the string tension to move the saddles. Then once you loosen the bridge fixation screw, how do you actually move the saddles and keep them in the correct spot? Whenever I’ve set up intonation previously, I need 3-4 adjustments to get it spot on. Is there a video somewhere?

They cancelled their whole performance because a guitarist broke a string? Really? Who would even do that? Come on, we can split hairs about back up gear and reliability, but not being able to deal with a broken string is the real issue (note - I don’t classify a broken string as a bass failure). Great debate btw. Interesting to see everyone’s opinions on the subject.

Needs must when you don’t have road crew 😉. Our drummer split a snare once. Mid song, played the snare beat on another drum. Didn’t drop a beat. Completed the first set. Turned the snare over for the 2nd set and used that. If my bass ever did fail , and 🤞 it’s not failed yet, I’d think I’d grab my guitarists spare and run it through my octave pedal. Or just leave 😂

Same. I guess it’s down to experience. I’ve never had a bass fail full stop, at home, at a gig, at rehearsal…. Just keep them well maintained. The only thing I can recall is strings breaking on a couple of occasions, but as I used to play 5ers, I always had 4 strings left to finish the set. Now, if it’s reliability we’re talking about, think about the things that have failed at gigs, and it isn’t your bass. Knowing my luck, my bass is going to die at my next gig 😂

I had only one bass at a time for years, and always sold one if I upgraded. I eventually bought a second bass, and now I just use one of the basses for gigging and one for practice. I am back down to one bass now, as my old one is getting Plek’d and it’s a 4 week turnaround.