Beer of the Bass

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1436208322' post='2816030'] I would have to be seriously convinced to go down the Class D route for guitar. Matrix Amplification do a Marshall-stylee hybrid head (see pic below), and lightweight Neo-loaded cabs, but I am waiting for them to bring out a head based on a Deluxe Reverb or an AC30! [/quote] I wonder if some of the Quilter amps might get you a little further in that direction, since they come with reverb and tremolo: [url="http://www.quilterlabs.com/index.php/products/mach2-amplifiers/micropro-mach-2-head"]http://www.quilterlabs.com/index.php/products/mach2-amplifiers/micropro-mach-2-head[/url]

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1436175745' post='2815517'] Struggling to see anything beyond that Hayman Mark. That's bloody lovely. [/quote] Indeed, I'm still vaguely annoyed that I missed out on one of these as my first bass. I saw it in a secondhand shop, sorted out the money that evening and went back the next day to find it was their day off, and in my teenage impatience I went somewhere else instead. I should have held out for the Hayman! It was a silvery grey colour and still had its perspex ashtrays...

I guess keys are the obvious example, with things like the Nord Electro. A friend's band use one, and I really can't tell by ear which of their recordings were done with the Nord or with the studio's Hammond and Leslie.

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1436093780' post='2814835'] It looked a bit like PMT in Birmingham to me.... [/quote] Well, that's one explanation for that behaviour, I suppose...

It occurs to me that while it's not unusual to come up with a functional cab as a DIY effort, trying to make something which does the job of your Vanderkley but lighter and smaller could be setting the bar rather high. It's already about as small as a 2x12" could reasonably be without sacrificing bass response, is built with lightweight plywood and uses very good drivers (Faital, I think?). A 1x12" with similar voicing might be an attainable goal though.

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1436050826' post='2814650'] It's all over Facebook. I find it highly distasteful to film such an incident - to post online for comedy is shameful. I can't see any other reason for uploading it for all to see. Incidentally the shop made me think of Red Dog in Edinburgh, but the accents heard would suggest otherwise! [/quote] It's a few months since I've been in, but I'm pretty sure there's less space between the counter and window in Red Dog and the acoustics live at the back of the shop. I haven't watched it with the sound on yet, so I can't say whether I recognise the owner's voice. I generally find the guys in there to be quite good, so I'd sort of like it not to be them!

If anything, a Jazz width neck on a P-bass seems to be quite a popular idea, so I reckon you shouldn't have any trouble finding a buyer for the leftover body and neck.

I used an Ashdown Mag and an OC-2 together for several years, and I don't think they sound that similar. The OC-2 is much more synthy and obvious sounding, even with the mix down low. I liked the OC-2 more, which is why I rarely used the sub-harmonic button on the Ashdown, but I'd say that the two are more different than you might expect. I think they generate the octave down in the same way, but the Ashdown filters much more of the harmonics out of it.

I haven't played the higher-end modelling setups or delved very deeply into the ones I've played in rehearsal spaces, but for the sounds I like even a good quality traditional SS amp usually gets me closer than the modellers. Because my own amp is based on a Fender Princeton Reverb, the sound of a blackface fender combo is my goal. So far, each time I've used this setting on a modelling amp it feels like they've overdone the characteristics of a blackface amp (scooped mids, glassy treble etc.) in order to make the sound recognisable and distinct from the other models, and it comes across almost as a caricature of that sound. I'm sure that when you get up into the better modelling setups this is less of an issue, but on the Line-6 and Vox combos I've tried I haven't quite managed to come up with a variant of that sound that I enjoy.

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1435835802' post='2812843'] I have a theory about Kanye West (just a theory). If you've ever spent time talking to someone who's coked off their nipples then elements of Kanye's interviews & his on stage rants start to sound strangely familiar. Maybe he just has naturally very high endorphin levels.. [/quote] Whatever the reason behind it, could that be a part of what people find compelling about his performances - the old "mad, bad and dangerous to know" thing?

I think this is very dependent on the style of the band. In the band I play guitar in, I can rarely turn my 15 watt 1x10" combo up past squeaky-clean without being too loud. We're quite a busy sounding band and the guitar works best for us if it sits in the mix rather than on top of it, so a three-piece rock band might be different. It's not a major hassle for me as clean guitar works well in that band and I'll use a pedal on some songs, but I wouldn't be able to depend on cranking an amp into power-amp breakup on every gig, fun though that sound can be.

I guess double bass C-extensions are a variant of the same idea, otherwise I can't think of any.

On mine I've stuck with the bronze, as I reckon that in the absence of any real bottom end the brightness helps it to be heard. I tried an old set of tapewounds I had lying around, and they were mellow but seemed very quiet compared with the bronze. They'd be nice plugged in though. I wonder if coated bronze wounds like the Elixir acoustic set might cut down on the raspy, scratchy quality a little?

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1435654471' post='2810924'] There's a few grumpy old men on this thread aren't there? It's interesting that all the singers held up to be better are male and rock singers. ... I'm a bit worried that we find it ok to criticize women more easily than men. [/quote] That's an interesting point and one which has got me thinking. I can think of a few female singers whose pitch can be wayward at times and whose work I really enjoy. I was a 90s teenager, so the singers I was listening to in my formative years included Kim Gordon in Sonic Youth and even Courtney Love in Hole. I think in a more rocky/grungy context where roughness is part of the aesthetic I can enjoy roughly pitched vocals, and the reason Florence's singing can seem jarring to me is that roughness doesn't seem to be what she's going for. So I would hope that in my case it's not about gender. I think that when the music is something I can connect with, things like intonation bother me less or even add to it, and it would be fair to say that this is just a style I'm not particularly into. Clearly there was a massive audience who did feel that connection so I guess Florence wasn't a bad choice of headliner, but myself I would have been hanging out at one of the smaller stages watching something different.

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1435682125' post='2811422'] So if the after length is so important, an by all accounts it is, I wonder why DPA, Fishman, KK, etc recommend hanging mics and jacks off it. [/quote] I've noticed that orchestral players who double in other settings tend to remove any of these for unamplified work, so this is clearly something which bothers some people. On my bass, I use a wolf eliminator on the A-string afterlength which only works if the afterlengths are left free, so I prefer a tailpiece mounted jack where possible.

I'd be curious about how well some of the Class-D power amps made for PA use compare to a typical small bass head in this respect. For example, the Crown XLS series are light and not too expensive. While one of these plus a 1U rack preamp would be bigger than a micro-head it might be a useful point in between micro and heavyweight.

Stanky Wee?

W*nkey Set?

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1435663707' post='2811068'] Poplar is a bit specialist - that's a good point. It's not something you'll find at B&Q, although I think most major cities have an outlet. There's a supplier near you in Grangemouth. My experience with wood merchants is that they will get hold of whatever you ask them for from their suppliers. It's not usually a stock item though. [/quote] There's one a bit closer to me who say on their website they have a range of speciality plywoods, so I could give them a ring too. Is the Chinese poplar core ply worth a look, or should it be the European stuff?

I'm also going to say Spiro Weich would be worth trying. On my bass they bow quite nicely (more easily than Mittels), though it's a brighter voice than a dedicated orchestral string. With the steel core they're fairly robust too, so there's not much risk in picking up a lightly used set to save some pennies.

Is poplar ply something you can find in decent timber merchants, or is it a more specialised item? There are a couple near me who will also do cutting, but I haven't asked them if they do poplar.

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1435607903' post='2810599'] I think that's her talking voice. [/quote] I mean in the overexcited "Glastonbury! Whoooo! Make some noise!" fashion.

Apparently the BBC's subtitle writer was struggling! [url="http://www.oystermag.com/bbc-subtitle-writer-gave-up-on-life-during-kanyes-glastonbury-set"]http://www.oystermag.com/bbc-subtitle-writer-gave-up-on-life-during-kanyes-glastonbury-set[/url]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1435593911' post='2810379'] I think it`s indicitive that we don`t have rock stars anymore due to the fact that for some reason we have "role models" instead. To be a rock star you`ve got to be beating naked groupies around the buttocks with live sharks, preferably in a hotel corridor for horrified normal guests to see. The lot that are around now, well ordering a a chicken sandwich with mayo is probably as daring as they get. [/quote] Maybe that's not a bad thing, as with hindsight some of the sexual behaviour that went with the title of rock star is something we maybe don't want to celebrate. The number of court cases, out-of-court settlements and assorted allegations which have come up in the past few years would support that idea. I'm not saying they were [i]all[/i] at it with underage groupies in the 70s, but it doesn't seem to have been that uncommon.

Did anyone watch the Fall set, by the way? I will say that Townsend and Daltrey's 50 years or so of career have been kind to them compared with Mark E Smith's 30-something years! The sight of him banging two SM58s together to the beat while the damp patch on the front of his trousers slowly dried is probably one for the dedicated Fall fans only.