Beer of the Bass

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388755219' post='2325624'] That's two of us in the market for one but i don't see them catching on somehow. [/quote] Although chances are if they existed, I couldn't afford one! I'd be more likely to adapt a cheap old short-scale bass, which in some ways would be a more authentic approach than buying one.

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1388762702' post='2325761'] Wow, thanks 6v6. I'd better check it out then, as I only got a bias reading on 1 out of 3 tubes! Would the amp even work if only one or two of the tubes were actually giving any output then? Maybe this explains why it seemed so underpowered...? [/quote] Yes, the amp will work and not sound unusual so long as there are at least one pair of valves working. Hence the guitarists' practice of taking two out of your 100 watt Marshall or Fender twin to make it less loud. 6V6s troubleshooting procedure is sound advice, so I'd try that first.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388705356' post='2325238'] but seriously i'd love a Mark Sandman (Morphine) 2-String Bass (based on his converted 4-String Premier Bass). I would actually buy one of these. [/quote] I was going to say that! It would be genuinely different to anything on the market.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1388741327' post='2325385'] I think you'll struggle. The MB200 is really very good for what it is, but you won't have a lot of headroom at the best of times. Against a loud drummer, the extra cost to upgrade to an MB500 will soon seem like a good investment. [/quote] I think it compares OK to other 200 watt SS amps, but whether that's enough depends on the cab and the rest of the band. I used mine as the house amp for a monthly night my band hosted, and heard it cope with louder bands than mine, but I have a fairly efficient cab. It wasn't enough in a band where the guitarist was using a 350 watt Marshall mode 4 through a 4x12" turned far too loud, but most of the audience had left the room by that point due to guitarist induced ear-pain.

Shame they didn't use the magic eye on the CTM15. As a gimmick, it would be a lot cooler than the Ashdown VU metre IMO!

Mine has been fine in terms of reliability and the output seems to be up to scratch. I'd definitely put it up against other SS amps of a similar rating that I've used. I have no problems using it at decent volume for my band, with an efficient 8 ohm 2x12" cabinet (a 4 ohm would give you a little more), or a 1x10" for smaller rooms. It has a very "voiced" EQ which you will either like or not.

I'd expect some sort of SS stuff to drive the meter, but there just aren't enough preamp valves in there for a push-pull amp with a tone stack if it's going to have enough gain. Having said that, well designed SS stages aren't necessarily a deal-breaker. It could be single ended (i.e. no phase inverter needed), but then the 15 watt rating would be rather fanciful. I wonder if the unused valve space on the board is there because it shares a board with one of the Hayden guitar amps and they just populate them differently for the two models? Certainly the tick boxes at the top of the picture would suggest this, since I think they have one built in the same size chassis.

And for anyone who might be around Edinburgh tomorrow night, the gig is at the Counting House on West Nicholson Street. Jen and the Gents are on at 8pm and Sea Bass Kid at midnight, so why not come for the whole evening and see us both?

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1388617966' post='2324193'] Closest I've been able to compare is a Mexican J to a US Standard J to a Custom Shop. They were all quite different tonally but, to be honest, I've played 3-4 Custom Shop J's back to back and every one sounded different to the next one as well. Could be that there's more variation in tone between J's than P's. [/quote] A Mexican Fender could be a bit of a red herring in this type of comparison, as they use ceramic pickups which are very different in design to the traditional alnico jobs. The CV or VM Squiers should be closer to old style US Fenders in this respect. Aside from the flats vs. rounds thing, I'd agree with the OP in that this type of instruments are quite simple beasts by design and consequently the cheaper ones can often do a respectable job.

I had one of the Eminence Kappa 15A in a cab, which I think is the same driver as the Orange uses. I wonder if you may have trouble finding a modern neo-driver cab with the same response, as the Kappa 15 is quite coloured sounding. It has a massive peak just below 2KHz then rolls off steeply above that, which makes it quite bright and aggressive sounding but in an old-fashioned lo-fi manner IMO.

I think they're going for the rock bar wallhanger market. They'll sell a couple of sets I'm sure, but I doubt they'll ever get played.

The Red Iron looks like an interesting one. I'd seen the photo-essay on John Chamber's site (which is fascinating for any valve amp geek), but hadn't realised this one was yours. The design and layout are unorthodox, but I guess if it works, keeps working and sounds good then all is well. I'm kind of regretting selling my last all-valve bass amp last year and I may have to rectify that...

What about having a singer who plays fairly simplistic rhythm guitar, (usually low in the mix) as well as being the main songwriter, and a non-singing lead guitarist for the melodic bits? That would seem to be a fairly classic formula, and is what we do in my band Jen and the Gents. We're relatively fortunate in that neither of them has a massive ego and both are happy to keep things sparse where the song needs that.

Yep, they haven't finalised the stage times yet, but it looks like I'm playing with Jen and the Gents earlier in the evening and McNach is playing with Seabass Kid at around midnight. So, for anyone in Edinburgh, why not come along for the whole evening and catch us both!

DI Fuzz is always nasty if there isn't time for an extensive soundcheck, and I don't think that trying to find a way around that is being precious. What I would really like to have is a simple DI with no amp simulation going on, but just a steep lowpass filter at 4K or so to take the edge off like a tweeterless cab does. My BSS AR116 offers this, except that the lowpass is only available if using the 20dB or 40dB pads. I guess the Markbass DI might do the job if using the VLE filter judiciously.

I don't know how they might affect the modelling in the Variax, but nylon tapewounds do still sound different from other strings on basses with bridge piezo pickups. This is why they're a popular choice on electro acoustic basses or piezo solidbodies, especially fretless ones.

I can't see that there would be any benefit in running a speaker level DI with a Class-D amp. They're designed so that the power amp is relatively uncoloured and not run into clipping in normal use, with all of the dirt and tone shaping coming from the preamp. Speaker level DIs tend to be used with all-valve amps where the power amp is considered an important part of the character.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1388227944' post='2319614'] Flats with a pick? I have only twp words to say to that. Herbie Flowers! [/quote] Hmm, kind of an interesting example, since he seems as happy gigging with a Squier Affinity as with his much coveted early Jazz. Though he's actually a TruBass 88 player, which will get Dad3353 dribbling again!

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1388193304' post='2319444'] You know you'll only get a limited sound from flatwound strings, so why not just put them on a cheap passive bass instead of a vintage P? [/quote] I feel almost exactly the opposite. Stick a new set of stainless steel rounds on a bass and it'll sound just like a new set of stainless steel rounds! Without those bright upper harmonics grinding away over the top I think flatwounds are actually more revealing of certain aspects of the basses sound.

Ooh, looks nice, if somewhat massive for a 100 watter! Personally, I wouldn't want a Bulgin plug on any piece of kit I was gigging with, as the cables pull out easily and people stopped using them for a reason.

I've had a very quiet year for bass gear changes. I've built a Superfuzz clone and changed my strings, and that's about it.

I've seen some eBay business sellers put up outrageous prices when an item is out of stock, so that nobody will buy it. It seems ridiculous, but I think it costs them less in listing fees than if they pull the auction and then re-list later when they have stock.

I think Charles Mingus's comments about the electric bass are pertinent here. This being a bass players' forum I think most of us will agree that a good player can be supremely expressive on electric bass, but Mingus thought otherwise; [quote]"You can't bow electric bass. The acoustic kind with a pickup is another story, but you can't bend it because once you put in that amplifier you can't bend your notes. A real bass player will tell you. They had amplifiers way back in the 40's. Joe Comfort with Nat Cole had one; in fact I think he invented it. Oh, you can hear it better, but on one level, one volume. There's no dee-ah, dee-ah; it's all ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I don't know if it will ever be able to happen. I'm not an electrician, man. Once a microphone touches that wood, the wood is no longer wood. It's something beyond human control. The wood and the strings make it happen. Get rid of the steel strings if you want to hear straight music, good music. You must go back to gut. Ask that little kid who was with Ornette Coleman, what's his name? Bass players are not particular anymore. They know that nobody really listens so they go out and bullshit."[/quote] I'd say that if musicians raised on electro-mechanical instruments (i.e. us) have doubts about whether digital instruments can be truly expressive, we're just going through this same thought process and will probably be proved about as wrong as Mingus was. Of course, this is all IMO as there are still jazzers who agree with him on this point.

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1387874831' post='2316604'] are they sort of the squier Vintage Modified of the "Ray" world, if that makes sense? [/quote] I think the closest Fender analogy would be the Highway One basses of a couple of years ago, since they were made in the same factory as the US standards but cut the price by using a cheaper, unbuffed finish.

I wonder if one of these horn tweeter designs would still come out ahead if the blind test included a fuzz pedal, or other distortion effects? Although I suppose the switchable 3.5KHz roll-off mentioned in the specs might help with that.