Beer of the Bass

Having a little money sitting in my PayPal account from selling an amp, I've inevitably started thinking about something fun and musical to do with it. One thought that's quite appealing would be to go for a little hollow, short scale thumpy bass. It would be a fun sofa bass while gigs and rehearsals are off, and there are a few things where it would be an interesting change from my homebuilt 5 string. The fact they're tiny and don't weigh much seems appealing too. I wouldn't want to spend more than the Hofner Ignitions, though I'd also thought about the cheaper Harley Benton. I'm not a dedicated Beatles fan (I like 'em, but they're not a central part of my musical life), so either a Violin or Club bass could appeal. So the options I'm aware of so far are; Hofner Ignition Violin bass (either the Cavern version or the standard one), the Hofner Ignition Club and the HB Beatbass. Any thoughts on choice between those, or other similar basses out there?

This looks nice, I like that they've done the checker binding and crushed pearl inlays. Dare I say it, but it's almost as if they're responding to the existence of cottage industry luthiers making re-imagined vintage Ric style instruments, by dipping into that market themselves rather than doing ye olde lawyer's letter!

It still does (in very general terms), but it's fair to say a lot of good current 1x12" cabs can easily do the sort of job you used to need a 15“ for.

Mine has been relatively modest, given that it starts around 1993. Those in bold are still with me. Ibanez Rickenbacker copy -My first bass, it had been badly repaired and resprayed, and I only got a couple of years out of it before it folded in half. Hohner fretless Jazz copy -Played through most of my teens, the pickups were microphonic and I never got the neck relief right, so it wasn't great. Aria TSB550 fretless -A considerable upgrade from the Hohner. I saw my old bass for sale recently, now refretted, and I was tempted Self built 4 string (using hardware from the Ibanez) -Built in my parents' shed when I was 18, tweaked and refined a few times since then. Still going but weighs a ton DeArmond Ashbory -Fun but just too tiny Fender Highway One Jazz -Sold when moving house, wish I hadn't Cheap P copy modified to 8 string -Got some good use for a couple of years, but the neck couldn't take the tension long-term Self built 5 string -My current go-to electric bass Harley Benton acoustic bass. -Felt a bit pointless with a double bass around And double basses/uprights; Kay double bass (long-term loan) -Nice bass, but I wasn't keen on the gut strings it wore. Bassix electric upright -Gigged this a lot, though it never played all that well Blonde Chinese plywood double bass -Functional, though I didn't love it Old German double bass 1 -Lovely sounding bass, needed a bit more work than I wanted to put in Old German double bass 2 -Slightly bigger than the previous one, in better structural health though scruffy, will probably be with me for life.

Presuming I had space for them, I'd rather have two 1x15 cabs than a single 4x10. Getting that top cab up and closer to your ear level makes a big difference to your audibility and presence on stage, compared to one cab firing past your knees.

The Italian companies did use a lot of pearloid, it's true. I always thought it was due to their proximity to the accordion trade!

Aww, why do only the 4—strings get the fun colours?

It certainly makes me think of that 90s revival of 60s aesthetics, like Pop flares, lava lamps in Woolworths etc...

I can certainly see a couple of scenarios someone could use it in, though it just seems like an odd combination of functions to put together in one unit. And I hope the outputs are fully isolated from the speaker inputs, or the issues discussed further up the thread could kick in.

I wouldn't recommend gut strings as the first call for someone new to the instrument; while some players swear by them, they're a bit of a niche interest today and quite finicky and high maintenance compared to steel or synthetic strings. They're something to explore later if you're drawn towards that sound, IMO. And the Alice strings are unlikely to be an upgrade from the stock strings on a cheap bass. Quality steel strings have a braided steel core (sometimes called rope or spiral core), while the cheap ones have a solid steel core which makes them stiff feeling and often with poor intonation and pitch stability. So I'd second the suggestion of finding a lightly used set of quality strings. Spirocores in particular can go for years and withstand being swapped between basses better than many.

I've been struggling to figure out what the point of this box is. I can't think of many amps modern enough to use Speakons that don't also have a DI output already. And when would it be useful to take a headphone output from the speaker signal without muting the speaker?

They were apparently a popular thing in the UK in the 50s and 60s. It was long gone by the time the bass got to me, but the three round scars on the top are still clearly visible. Not my pic, but you get the idea...

I think the GHS Brite Flats are the same basic string type as Status call half rounds.

I used a hole cutter similar to that. The blades as supplied are not very sharp at all, so I gave them a quick sharpen much like you would with a chisel. There's a bit of a knack to adjusting them, if the "kerf" between inner and outer edges of the two blades is even slightly too wide, it's much harder work for the drill than if you get it just right. The results were fine once I'd got those two things figured though.

Most of my gigs are in Glasgow or Edinburgh, so the combination of city centre driving (with pedestrians and cyclists to look out for) and often awkward parking mean that I really want that mirror! Perhaps on a different journey it would be less of a bother. My bass has a set of deep indented scratches on the back that I can only attribute to being in a thin cloth bag strapped to a roof rack. It had one of those three footed metal bridges too. Different times!

I don't have experience of the differences between the different power stages or the original amps, but I put a preamp section loosely based on the later B15n versions into an amp I modified. Personally I like a bright switch but don't find the Ampeg Ultra Lo filter useful. I think if I were to build one for myself I'd go for the 68 B15n circuit but add the bright switch too.

Hmm, can you use passenger side wing mirror like that? I wouldn't want to be without it.

I actually quite like using a pick in some places, for a bit of click on the attack with flatwounds, vaguely in the manner of Carole Kay or Joe Osborne and others of that era. It's when it gets more into driving rock lines with a lot of repeated 8th note downstrokes that I find that the feel I get isn't quite there. I can play the lines, but somehow when live with the band I get slightly better energy with fingers. I've worked on it to some extent, but I also think there's nothing wrong with leaning more towards being a particular type of player.

It's a Cathodyne phase inverter. You see them in the smaller class AB Fender amps too, like the Princeton Reverb.

Outside of salvaging parts from old equipment, you'd be hard pressed to find a non-GC 6L6 today.

Are there any times people would really want to use a speaker level DI from the output of a class-D amp (or other bridged topology)? I was aware of using a DI on the speaker output as an occasionally useful trick with vintage style valve amps where you might want the colouration, there's usually no built-in DI output and the amp output is via a transformer anyway. But I wouldn't think to try it outside of that. So it's a useful caution, but also, I'm not sure what the motivation would be to do that with a bridged power amp. Though I'm sure people will have attempted it...

The Talkbass thread got a little silly, but I've been enjoying the band.

I didn't necessarily aim to, but thinking back, I have bought no bass gear at all in 2020, not even strings. Thomastiks go for a long time, and an almost complete lack of gigs and rehearsals meant I didn't feel a pressing need for anything else new.

I had heard this, and I've encountered one or two that would fit the theory, though I wonder if there was a change in driver spec at the same time. I'm not sure a change from plywood to particle board alone would give that large a change in the voicing of the cab.

You need a DI with a suitable pad switch. A 40dB pad gives you an output of 1/100 of the input voltage, which gives you a manageable line level from most speaker outputs.