Bassman68

Man who sold the world, Boys keep swinging, Scary monsters, Heroes.....Too many choices!

Was that a Trace head I spied atop his Aguilar rig? Had the 'green glow' but couldn't make out the graphic..

I've used a Warwick Rockcase double gigbag for the past 5 years that's holding up very well. The shoulder straps aren't the most comfortable but for transportation from the car to the stage with amp flightcase & lead bag in hands, it's just about ok (I normally carry the gigbag by its handle, over any distance). Seems reasonably well padded & all the zips are still working, I personally think I'd have to spend a lot more money to get anything much better..

Does anyone else think that the string length (behind the nut) alters the tone slightly? i.e an E string (played open) sounds different on a five compared to a four? I think there is a difference, Maybe only slight, but 'going to town' on an open E sounds different to me when I change between my Stingray 4 & 5's, Same with my Warwicks. Slightly different with tensions on the higher strings much the same as the difference between 4 aside to 2 over 2/ 3 over 2 etc..

Here's Cynthia, a Squier affinity that I got purely for the Burgundy mist colour. It's now one of my 'essentials' basses for my covers band as we all have 'Purple' guitars (sounds a bit 'naff' but it works for us!). Replacement pick-guard, Gotoh bridge & a set of Entwistle pick-ups & it sounds great. Just contemplating an East retro circuit next?

At a pub gig on the Kilburn high road, packing up after a gig, A one armed Irishman asked me "Do you need a hand wit anyting fella?"... At an 'Opened-just-for-the-night-pub' in Stratford our 6 piece function band were asked "Do you play any Bhangra?" (excuse spelling). Was asked mid song at a posh Golf club gig to "Stop playing heavy metal" - We were doing a fair cover of "Suddenly I see" by Katie Tunstall.... Later on at the same gig I was asked "Do you know the Gay Gordons?"..... I asked "What table are they sitting at?"

I had one of these when they first come out. The Multi-stack range. They were introduced as a budget cab for the AH150 head, hence only having a 100 watt handling, Other cabs in the range consisted of a 2 x 10'', 1 x 15'' & a 1 x 18'', all with a 200 watt handling, as well as the little 'Brightbox'. They were introduced late in the series V 'era' circa '88, with the idea for use as either stage monitor or backline stack.

It's probably a very 80's cliche & my back twinges just remembering it all but my favourite rig was a Status 2000 5 string through a Trace GP12 pre into a RA500 power amp feeding 1048 & 1518 cabs. The Racked up amp/flightcase weighed 6 stone & the cabs not-a-lot less but boy did I smile when I played it all. Very happy with my MarkBass gear these days.

Streamer std's were @£600+ when they were launched in the late '90's. Apart from the chunky Necks & the quiet output, they were proper,German built, bolt on necked Warwicks. My 2 x p/up, active Streamer std that I bought off of here a few years back is a great little 'workhorse' which I'm glad I snapped up for £250 & made a worthy addition to my 3 other 'wicks. Your find seems overpriced, especially with the wear & tear but if you can negotiate a better price? [sharedmedia=core:attachments:150353]

The cabs are series 6 by the looks of the grilles, Mk V's had the black pressed steel 'Fire guard' grill. The 1518 has a Fane 15" which pre-dates the change over to PD's & before the Celestion Kevlar impreg. jobs, so I'd put that cab at @1989? All in all, a nice tidy 'Classic' Trace stack. Hope you've got a sack barrow to cart in all around? ;-)

I bought one back in early '88 & that was passive. Just 2 x EMG select humbuckers & V,V,T controls. Still sounded great.

The bass intro reminds me of the intro to 'Edge of heaven' by Wham with that Bass,vocal & low piano "Dow, doh" etc?

Think the main differences were the HA3500 had twin valve & transistor pre-amp gains & a switchable 10 band graphic eq, whereas the other head was a solid state transistor head with rotary tone controls?

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a black pearloid scratchplate for my Stingray 5. I've looked on the Ernieball/Musicman web pages but they don't list them.. Someone must make copies? Thanks in advance Steve

As has already been said, I think the amp has very little to do with it. It's all about a Stingray & dead roundwounds in my opinion. If you're on a budget,You could probably get close with a Sterling Sub & some 'played-in' nickel roundwounds & a touch of compression, through an amp set fairly 'flat' with perhaps a bit of low-mid but keep the treble on the guitar fairly flat with the bass control boosted? The rest is all down to fingers & technique..

Brings back memories of Henry Thomas on 'Rockschool', Probably plenty of clips on Youtube?

Would have thought the best thing to do would be to ask over on the Warwick forum?

Sorry for the dull answer but I think the original Fortress had a P/J configuration & the Fortress one had twin J's stacked in a humbucker config. Both originally being active with 2 band, treble & bass controls but I think the Rockbasses were passive? There was also a German built Fortress Flashback that had a pearloid scratchplate & 'Lipstick' tube covered p/ups....

Same as post above, I take a 4 & a 5 string to gigs with my rock band, (Both Stingrays, so sound similar) but certain songs in our set require an open bottom D which just sounds & plays so much better on a 4 string, even after playing mostly 5 strings for 24 years... I would much prefer to use just 1 bass a night & for my Function band I do so, Never having broken a string or suffered guitar failure mid gig.. That's it, completely jinxed myself now!

They say about "Playing every gig like it was your last..." I reckon if I copied him, that would be?.....

After 1976Fenderheads demo, I got myself a EH Deluxe Big muff bass pi. I've been using my Boss GT6B for most of my Muse sounds in my rock covers band but felt the fuzz sounds were lacking on occasion. I've covered a fair few Muse songs over the years & can't fathom why I didn't get some 'Muff' sooner! With a Boss OC2 in front & the addition of a EH Bassballs for more 'filtered' tones, I think I've got everything covered (at least for the pub/club circuit).

Your pick-ups look a bit more on a slant John?

A closer look at the Streamer..