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Looks like a much more expensive take on the Ibanez Mezzo. Is it that much better I wonder? They are advertising them on the Bass Direct website in 4 and 5 string versions. Anybody got the spare cash to find out how good they are? 😀

Certainly worth a go. Thanks for the idea.

I’m using a Warwick Gnome with this set up, so even more danger of it sliding off. It’s going to have to go on the ground but in cramped playing conditions there is a real danger of it getting trampled on. I have visions of a jack plug breaking off in the socket (I have had that happen with a pedal before), or worse the speaker socket on the amp getting mangled. I even considered an Ashdown Ant for the pedal board but over £300, for an amp with the same capabilities as my Warwick that cost half the price, seems excessive. WRT your drink: one of those drink holders that clips on a mic stand?

Thanks for the suggestion. Similar stands are available in the UK. I went down the MB tilt stand route because it was half the price and folds flat but I may yet have to put out the extra cash on one like you suggest.

The Markbass Tilt Stand arrived today. A quick try with the BF One10 at low volume suggested it might just work. I am not sure it would with a heavier cabinet, at high volume, without the Velcro attaching to the cabinet but the One10 is so light that it doesn’t seem to want to slide 🤞. It rests on the back edge of the cabinet, so I will put the whole assembly on my Auralex isolation pad, to stop any rattles. There is no way the amp head will stay on top of the cabinet given the angle of tilt. Trouble is it looks very vulnerable on the floor, especially if we are playing in cramped conditions. Perhaps I will have to put the head on my peddle board (Warwick Gnome) and use a long speaker lead: does that cause drop off, or latency issues? Next task is to sort IEMs 😳.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give that a go if the Markbass stand doesn’t do the job.

Doesn’t sound as though it is going to be very successful. Perhaps I should have hung onto the £35 and put it towards a kickback combo like the MB Marcus Miller 2 x 10 but whether it would operate well at such low volumes is anybody’s guess. I find BF cabs are sensitive enough to function OK even at those low volumes. I don’t know MB stuff well enough to know if it will do the same.

Don’t apologise: it’s great you put the thread together and I guess it reflects your journey. I was hoping there was an easy solution; e.g. somebody would pop and say spend the £1200 on the Sennheiser system (plus £450 a pop for the extra 2 receivers) and you will be laughing but I suspect it is not that easy. We never have the luxury of a big stage but I am not sure I could manage a trailing lead these days, so wireless is definitely favourite. I did buy a super cheap 3 receiver set from G4M last year, to try with my other band but the guitarist/vocalist prefers a wedge monitor (mine as it happens) and the other two refused to wear them after the first try out. At least it means we have something to try out with this band, without spending more cash but I am certain the G4M system is not good enough to be “the answer”.

Thanks for the heads up: I don’t recall seeing that in the blurb about it. TBH I was after that AER tilt stand, which is much cheaper but I could only find it at Thomann with £10 shipping, so went for the Markbass version from Rich Tone Music. I am surprised there are not loads of cheap knockoffs available but not in the UK anyway. I read somewhere that the Markbass version has metal plates in it, so I could use it with my Two10 as well, without worrying about rigidity but it sound like I will need to stick Velcro all over the cabs. If it is anything like my experiences with pedal boards, it will peel off the first time I separate cab from stand ☹️. I will just have to hope I find a good IEM solution and won’t have to worry about hearing my cab.

This is very topical for me as one of the bands I play in is going very low volume on stage and letting the PA do the work: the rhythm guitarist/vocalist has developed tinnitus. Fortunately we can do this because the drummer uses an electronic kit. We did a gig on Friday evening using this low volume approach but it was a very cramped stage. I was standing right against the BF One10 cab I was using and couldn’t get on axes for the nearest wedge monitor because of where the lead guitarist had to stand. I couldn’t hear myself (especially anything on the D and G strings), or the rhythm guitar all evening. Most of the gigs we play are equally cramped, so it is a problem we need to fix. I’ve just ordered one of those Markbass Tilt System folding cabinet wedges, as a cheap alternative to buying a kickback cab/combo. I am hoping having the cabinet at an angle will help me hear myself, even when up close but I foresee issues with the amp head sliding off during the gig. I am sure Velcro or similar can sort that. However, all that is probably tinkering at the margins and the best way to solve this is to go down the IEM route. I posted about this in How Was Your Gig Last Night thread and was directed to the IEM topic linked by Phil Starr above. Agh! There is so much of it and there are so many conflicting opinions! A hard wired IEM system might work for the drummer but the rest of us have already got rid of guitar leads (partly to have fewer trip hazards on cramped stages). We are inclined towards a wireless system but there seem to be so many pitfalls and this gear isn’t cheap. It looks like it could be easy to make a very expensive mistake! Sorry for the word vom but sorting this problem doesn’t seem easy!

Strange one on Friday evening: doing a favour for the committee of the Village Hall where two of the band live. We provided music for their pub night. Trouble was it had to be at a volume that would allow people to chat over a drink. Fortunately the drummer in this band uses an electronic kit, so we can turn the drums down! Still it is really weird playing at such a low volume, we couldn’t get any energy into the first set. Also a very small stage, so I had to stand right up against the BF One10 I used, with a Warwick Gnome running with the master hardly on at all. Everything DI into the hall’s tiny Yamaha Stage Pass PA (8” speakers I think). I couldn’t get close enough to my monitor because of where the lead guitarist had to stand, so I couldn’t hear myself, or the rhythm guitarist most of the evening. Fortunately, for the second set the dancing faction among the punters got their way and we were able to turn up a bit. Our energy levels went up and they repaid us by dancing for most of the set. Women of a certain age are great in an audience: they just want to have some fun and they don’t give a toss what anybody thinks of their dancing😀. We were doing this for free but it turned out that somebody had passed round a bucket (not to throw up into) and people had been pretty generous with their donations. It easily covered fuel costs and a couple of drinks each for the four of us. After the gig, the rhythm guitarist/vocalist, who is suffering with tinnitus, said it was really great playing at that stage volume and we should do it all the time 😱! We are now considering a wireless IEM system. Any advice/experience gratefully received.

Yep and I just saw an Epiphone press release about the Newport and El Capitaine introduction. It goes on about Epiphone having been at the forefront of innovation for 150 years, blah, blah….. now releasing new models the Newport and El Capitaine J200 basses. Innovation seems to mean re-releasing a model from the 1960s! Perhaps they meant the El Capitaine but a bass version of an existing jumbo acoustic (copy) doesn’t seem that innovative either. Anyway the Newport looks fun and if the neck wasn’t so wide I might be interested. Good to have another affordable short scale on the market anyway.

I agree with you. It looks like one of those cheapo unfinished necks you can buy on fleaBay with the paddle headstocks!

I would go for the DiMarzio Model One, or the Billy Sheehan version (DiMarzio 120 I think), which I have in a parts bass I built. Much less muddy than the Gibson but I think the Billy Sheehan one may have been discontinued. Somebody might have old stock though.

For some reason I can’t see the image but I get the general gist. You can get it cheaper, if you shop around but it is still a lot for a Far Eastern made instrument. However, there aren’t many medium scale basses around, so perhaps that is driving their pricing strategy. I don’t think it is justified by the specification particularly but I imagine it is a small production run. I would still like to hear from anyone who has actually owned, or tried one.

Bumping this again. Has anybody on Bass Chat owned, or tried one of these basses? Views?

I really don’t like the idea of adding counterbalancing weights to a bass body but that’s possibly because I am old with joint issues. Talking of neck dive: I really like my Squier Jaguar H, which makes a great bass (with a few mods) for not much money but it dives badly. It seems to be a design fault with the Jaguar body shape. The top horn needs to be longer: at least reaching the 12th fret. It is quite heavy as well. If anything I would like to route some chambers in the body under the pickguard to get rid of some of that weight but that would make the neck dive problem even worse. I think the only answer is a ridiculously long strap button. It’s not going to look good.

I can see that there wasn’t much love for this bass on here when it came out but this all seemed to be based on its looks. Has anybody actually tried one, or owned one? What are they like to play and how do they sound? On paper it seems to have quite a lot going for it, if you can live with the looks. I see that Coda Music have one in a natural finish that only weighs a tadge over 7lbs and with the 32” scale (and jazz style neck) it might suit folks like me who have arthritis issues. I am wondering whether the chambered body makes it a neck diver. The price seems to have gone up a bit since launch: £1,050 give or take at Coda.

Anything that reduces stage spaghetti is worth it IMO, as long as it works OK. Enjoy the Smooth Hound. I wouldn’t be without my Boss WL-20 (fixed cable simulation). It’s great to be able to walk out the front during sound checks. I am always surprised at how different my bass tone is out front compared to what I hear “on stage”. As others have said, you also have the option to get up to crowd pleasing antics. One of our guitarists walks round in the crowd while soloing. Guitarist eh!

I’m envious of you folks getting gigs. The well seems to have dried up in my neck of the woods. A lot of the venues we were waiting on for dates this year have gone off air. We are considering whether we can get together with a couple of other bands and promote our own show but will the punters come out?

There is a white one on Reverb at the moment.

You are not alone there! I can do it if I am playing guitar, even quite complex picking, or slide parts but on bass, no way. I am yet to get my head round why. I can just about manage the response part of a blues call and response but anything else is beyond me.

I think you are going to have to find out what the wound string length of your string of choice is. Most manufacturers do publish this and the Strings Direct website is pretty useful for finding this kind of information too. You need to make sure that the wound part of the string is going to be long enough to clear the nut before the silk winding starts. TBH there doesn’t seem to be a lot of choice available for medium scale. Some of the shorter wound length standard scale strings might fit, which is an advantage: it gives you more choice and will probably be cheaper too. Conventional wisdom is that the string shouldn’t be so long that the wound part goes round the machine head shaft. I have also seen quite a few posts from people saying they have never had any problem with this and even use 34” strings on 30” scale basses. Make of that what you will.

I guess it’s different strokes for different folks. The neck suits me fine but I have short fingers. I hadn’t noticed it being thick: perhaps the FSR versions have a different profile? I think Jaguar basses have always had Jazz style necks, so you might be waiting a long time for one with a P neck profile but wouldn’t it be great if they did a medium scale P bass in the Affinity line to compliment the Jag. The Japanese medium scale Ps and Js seem expensive to me, plus there is all the hassle of having to import them.