Naetharu

[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1437128601' post='2823782'] I'll wait until Behringer bring out their cloned version at 1/10th the price [/quote]

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1448253353' post='2913934'] So what really is the point of 50 - 100? [/quote] I guess it depends on your band - consider: (1) You play in a jazz band alongside mostly acoustic instruments doing open air garden parties (2) You play in an electronica band where there is no acoustic drum kit and you use the amp as a backline with the main sound all going via a PA (3) You play in a folk band and simply need enough volume to ensure have some clean headroom for small outside/festival type gigs (4) You play bass at church and need a nice clean tone but at much lower volumes than a rock gig. All examples there where 50-100-watt amps could well be just what you are after. From the point of view of a classic 'rock' band with a noisy drummer then perhaps they are not that handy but there are many types of music out there where smaller amps could be just what you need.

[quote name='joey1234' timestamp='1448379427' post='2914914'] Hey, thanks for the response @Naetharu that sounds like a plan. I think i'll go with the zoom, even though the build quality looks a bit cheap compared to the Vox, I like the loop function. [/quote] I use the Zoom MS60-B (the little stomp-box sized multi-fx unit they do) and I'd say that by and large the sounds are pretty good. I assume that the sound library will be much the same on the one you are looking at so should be plenty of stuff that is usable there.

Don't maruszczyk do it as a head and cab? Called the Bass Tank if I recall. The other option that comes to mind would be a radial bassbone pedal di into a power amp

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1448398165' post='2915165'] That would be good, but I think two 410s would be the only fair comparison. Impractical, as you're short one 410. But yes compare the two anyway by all means, it will be interesting. [/quote] If you want to sent me another 410 over free of charge I'll be more than happy to perform the experiment - on a serious note though I will given them a go next to one another and see how they shape up. We'll probably have an Ampeg SVT-410HLF in there too which will make a bit more of a direct a/b I guess.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1448393168' post='2915091'] I wonder how two of them would compare to an Ampeg fridge..? And I see the 800W, 4ohm version is also small, light and affordable... hmmm. Will be very interested to hear about how it fares at battle levels during your rehearsal. Nicely done. [/quote] I will have an SVT 810 in the practice room tomorrow so I can certainly A/B the two and report back if that's any help.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1448392595' post='2915083'] That is one compact 410! These are sealed, aren't they? How does it sound? [/quote] Aye, it is a sealed cab. It seems to sound pretty nice - alas so far I have only been able to use it at low volume given I am in a flat here. I'll be taking it to band practice tomorrow night so should have a chance to give it a good run in the wild there. From what I can tell so far I would say it sounds very tight and punchy compared to the MiBass 112 cab sat on top of it, and a lot clearer than the old blue ashdown speakers in my MAG-300

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1448389053' post='2915032'] Good luck, I was thinking it might have been the parts of Essex nearer to Herts, in which case I could have got along. [/quote] Ah that would have been fantastic. Alas we're down in south east Essex right on the water

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1448388234' post='2915019'] Looking good. Where is the first gig then? [/quote] Playing the Colchester Soundhouse on the 3rd of December then McGintys in Ipswich on the 4th - really looking forward to it! [url="http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad191/naetharu/Gig%20Poster_zpsjktcya61.jpg"][/url]

I hope that this might be of some help: I play in a loud rock/metal band with two noisy guitar players (one using a Marshal JCM-2000 & 410 cab, the other a HiWatt valve head into a HiWatt 410). Add to that a noisy drummer. Yet in a small practice space I find that my MiBass 2.0 head with a 112 MiBass cab is able to cut through fine. I need to push the mids and I tend to pull back on the bass quite a bit and I can hear without issue. For reference, the Mi-Bass 2.0 is running at around 270-watts into 8ohms. I've also tried using an Ampeg Porta-Flex and that seemed fine too again going into a 112. I have to crank things a bit more than I would into the 410/810 ampeg cabs that they offer in most of the rooms but it certainly works ok and makes for a very portable bit of kit.

Hi folks, My new GK MBE-410 arrived today and so I thought I would share it with you. It's the final bit of my rig that I was after ready for starting gigging with my band on the 3rd of December. While I have the chance I just want to say a big thank-you to everyone on these forums for having the time and patience to answer innumerable questions from me while I was collecting all this stuff together. I know for certain that I would not have been able to make anywhere near as clear decisions if it was not for you folks and I really appreciate just how welcoming and helpful you have been And so here it is, the GK at the bottom of the pile there looking nice and cozy amid the rest of my kit. [url="http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad191/naetharu/Gig%20Rig_zpslbqsr7zx.jpg"][/url]

I guess this really is a matter of personal taste and thus no really something anyone can answer for you. The Zoom pedals certainly have a lot of love around here (more for the MS60-B/B3 but I hear enough love for the B1xon too). I've neither heard anything good nor bad about the VOX offering. Perhaps your best option would be to order the one you think you like the best given what information you can find online and see how it goes. If you go via a good online retailer (Thomann are my personal choice, but Andertons, Gear4Music, etc are all fine) then you have the option to return the unit if it does not live up to what you want.

I have my Maruszczyk as my main bass. I've got a cheapnas chips Harley Benton that i noodle on when sitting on the couch - safer that wat since my bouncy staffie is a risk. Then I have a fretless, a six string I use for a couple of songs and for playing some dream theatre covers and an ibanez that I'm in the process of selling as the skinny neck cramps my hands. So kind of justifiable all in all. Saying that I'm sure I'll pick up a few more for a bit of variety as time goes on. I'd like a maruszczyk Jake with flats atnsome point as well as a mm stingray...

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1448200199' post='2913587'] Was the Zoom on its own power supply or shared with other pedals? I've found the Zoom units (and many other digital pedals in fact) to be hissy/noisy when on a daisy chain with other pedals. [/quote] It was just a distortion/fuzz pedal that I've never had any issue with before and the zoom. The zoom was going to a mixing desk via an XLR cable and into an Ampeg Porta-flex 500 head via the output socket. It just all sounded noisy to me - it was ok when I was playing a noisy bassline, but for songs where I needed silence between notes it was not really usable. Alas, we have one song which has a long intro that starts with just bass and light drums and you could really hear the hiss with that. I may try picking up another at some point to compare as I never had the issue with the MS-60b from Zoom.

[quote name='Telebass' timestamp='1448007091' post='2912162'] I'm surprised...Any bass I've ever had, plugged into any amp I've ever had, with the input up full, would just be a very loud mess. [/quote] Actually my MAG-300 is like this - I need to turn the input gain up to 100% to get the VU meter to move to around half way when playing with some passion. Just no chance of clipping on the input gain at all. No idea if that is normal or not but it sounds find and goes plenty loud when asked with a perfectly clear and clean tone.

I've never used one of these so this is a heads up rather than a recommendation of any kind, but Maruszczyk make an amp called the Bass Tank that is specifically designed to handle both bass guitar and EUB/Double-Bass. Adrian is great to deal with so might be worth shooting him a few questions if they look like they might be what you are after. Here is a link to their shop page: http://www.public-peace.de/index.php/amplification/maruszczyk-instruments/971-basstank-black And this is a demo video (its the combo version called a Barabass but it is the same amp from what I understand): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWS0Y3sPg2U

Its a tie for me: (1) Some odd band that were supporting Placebo at the Brixton Academy around 2002 - they were basically one chap yelling in cockney-slang while pogo-dancing, a drummer on an electric kit that sounded pretty bad and a guitarist who just made lots of odd noise with a multi-fx/looper. They were so bad that we took a few mins to realise that they were not just some kind of crazy sound-check. (2) Queen Adreena at the Colchester Arts Center. The whole band were totally off their faces on drugs from what I could gather. The drummer and bass player were having a great time just jamming stuff and otherwise going way off in the middle of songs. And the singer spent most of the gig mumbling into a mic, often with the wrong lyrics and/or just made up stuff. For the grand finale she popped off stage, came back with a DIY step-ladder, stripped naked, climbed the thing and then dove into the audience. It was...erm...interesting. Oh, and a third... (3) Saul Williams at Reading around 2003ish for being a totally condescending and arrogant plonker. The guy is pretty political but simply spending half you gig railing at your audience because you assume that you know more about certain conflicts in Africa than they do is just a bit off really. Shame as musically he was tight.

I've recently been through the same process so I hope I can offer a bit of help: First, a really nice power-supply is the Thomann own-brand [b]Harley Benton Power Plant[/b]. It comes in the full or Jr. version depending on how many pedals you are planning on running. It dosn't cost very much and the build quality is fantastic. You can find them here: http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant.htm Now, when it comes to pedals there are more options that you could possibly want. My advice would be as follows: (1): If you're totally new to pedals then get yourself a Zoom MS60-B/B3/Something else that does the same thing. That way you have pretty much all the basic effects you could imagine in one box and you can try them out. You may well decide to move it on and replace with individual pedals in time (I did), but having the chance to try out different effects and see what they sound like is really useful. You can get the these really cheap (I think there is a B3 for about £80 in the for sale section right now) so it is a great way to try stuff out without paying hundreds. (2): If the above does not appeal, then I would suggest starting simple, and working up as you need to. Some kind of overdrive/distortion/fuzz is probably a good staple to start with. After that I would suggest perhaps a sub-octave which would be nice to thicken up your sound when playing higher notes and maybe a chorus for a bit of an interesting shimmer. To be honest the tonal options that just those three would offer are massive. Beyond that it really is a matter of seeing what works for you. If you're into playing funky slap then something like an envelope filter can be great to get a nice Bootsy Collins sound.

Just an idea but have you tried an ibanez sr? Not sure what the weight is but it is crazy light. I'd guess my one is around half the weight of my squire. Might be an option if you wanted something more regular bass size.

The Delano 2-band eq is great. There is no difference in tone at all when switching from passive to active with the eq flat. The switch is also silent and so can be used mid song.

Well all I can say is that I heard Everything Everything's song No Reptiles for the first time last night. If there was ever any doubt in my mind that 'pop' is alive and well it is certainly gone now. Seems to me that far from bemoaning the state of current music certain people need to put a bit more effort into discovering all of the fantastic stuff out there and not just expect it delivered to them via MTV.

[quote name='0175westwood29' timestamp='1447934152' post='2911550'] Mmmm ive managed to speak to the guys at red witch and im getting one in the next few weeks so ill let you know how i get on man! and im gonna do a review, so you can compare your experience andy [/quote] Cheers, that would be very interesting. Certainly keen to know if my unit is defective or if it just sounds a bit pants.

Well I bounced off that one. The pedal arrived yesterday afternoon. A very nice looking unit with some great packaging and a little instruction note written in the same manner as those awful bits you get on the side of Innocent Smoothie cartons. However, upon plugging in I was at best underwhelmed. The sub-octave was not too bad. It seemed to have a bit of trouble tracking notes that were held for any length of time, oscillating a little between notes giving a slightly de-tuned sound. Nothing terrible but given all the guff about it being a fantastic analog unit I was hoping for something a little tighter. The fuzz was just depressing. Now I am honestly not sure if the unit I got was defective it was that bad. First, it was more fizz than fuzz. I was in the studio live-room with my band last night doing a bit of prep for a gig, and so I had the chance to use a nice Ampeg SVT-CL into an SVT-810 cab. Even through that monster it just sounded bad. Without the high-gain switch on it was fizzy and thin with a bit of crackle. Once the high-gain switch was engaged it was just so messy that notes were lost. It seemed almost impossible to get it to a happy balance between the two. Also, the sputter control was very odd. The idea was that by turning it counter-clockwise you get a kind of gated effect giving the bass a nice staccato sound. All it seemed to do was crackle lots and cut the fuzz out completely if moved to the wrong point. I could not get a proper 'sputter' out of it at all. As I say, I may have had a defective unit (which in itself is pretty disappointing given that it is supposed to be a premium pedal and so one would expect better QC) but if not then it was a major let-down for me. Having done a bit more research this morning I have found quite a few anecdotal accounts of Red Witch units with defective sputter controls and/or sputter controls that wear out quickly* and end just killing the sound rather than properly gating the fuzz. I have no way to verify these of course, they're just comments left by users on Ultimate Guitar and other such sites. However, given my experience I don't find it hard to believe. Needless to say it went right back in its little box and a return has been raised with Thomann. If anyone else grabs one of these I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts. Alas, the quest for awesome fuzz continues. *Just worth adding that these accounts where about other models such as the Fuzz God rather than the Zeus, but I assume that the difference comes down to a variation on a theme and thus they are relevant all the same.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1447920347' post='2911413'] Yes I must admit I would like things a bit clearer, although I've kind of got used to the muffled sound. I was starting to think that the foam ones I've been using might not be offering the protection I thought they were... that was my concern [/quote] I found the leap up to non-fitted yet proper plugs worth the outlay in terms of added clarity. They're still a little muffled (then I used the max protection version) but it is certainly easier to hear properly than with lumps of foam shoved in your ears. From what I can tell they seem to do the job very well too. Even when the band is loud I never have any discomfort nor any odd sensations/after-noise following a practice/gig. It just sounds like we are playing at reasonable front room volumes and all of the nasty sharpness is gone.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1447834399' post='2910703'] Why buy something without even trying it first? [/quote] Often, when it comes to bass guitars/amps/cabs its not possible to try first. There are very few places that stock good range of bass equipment. Most that do have a decent bass section fill it with Fender/Music-Man/Squire/Ibanez and little more. As such, if you want something that is not one of the brands mentioned it's often going to be the case that you have to buy blind. Personally, this is why I use Thomann for almost all my stuff. I know that if it comes and turns out to not be what I am after, they will take it back without charging me a penny. So far, I've never had to use their return service but it is reassuring to know that it is there just in case.