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Obrienp

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Everything posted by Obrienp

  1. Obrienp
    I did eventually get another Monza and I can confirm that it has done everything people said it would. I don’t think I’m going to need another/replacement amp. Using the two Monza’s together, there is an instant volume increase, plus a heftier feel to the bottom end, while retaining clarity. Another advantage is that the second cab is much nearer to mine and the audience’s ear level. The Monza has excellent dispersion as it is but the extra height of the second cab really adds an extra level.
  2. Obrienp
    Like @Musicman666, I’m quite surprised that they hadn’t already moved some, or all production to a lower cost geography. “Made in UK” might have been part of their USP but surely not at any cost. Unfortunately, businesses have to move with the times.
  3. Obrienp
    Could be. The lead guitarist in one of my bands was struggling with intonation on his PRS. After many visits to the luthier, they decided it was the fret height PRS use combined with his string gauge and the strength of his grip. He went up a string gauge and tried to use a lighter touch. It improved things a lot but occasionally I think we sound a bit chorusy. Nobody else notices but it does make me check my bass tuning a lot.
  4. Obrienp
    I fitted a Tone Rider split P Bass set with a custom made guard from fleaBay. It required a little extra wood work under the pick guard but not much. Sounded great. The problem with that kind of intrusive mod is that you can’t reverse it to sell the bass and we all know you never recover anything like the cost of upgrades when you sell. The purpose-made upgrades are likely to sound better (and cost more) than a rail intended for a Strat and you can always remove the pickup and sell it separately, if you move the bass on. You probably can with the Strat pickup too but it’s a saturated market, so resale values could be lower.
  5. Obrienp
    One of my daughters was running the Hackney Half too. She got a PB. Your music must have lifted her to new levels! 😀👍
  6. Obrienp
    That’s the full scale version. A brilliant price nevertheless. It’s the TMB 30 & 35 which are the shorties. https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/model/talman_bass/ I had the 35. Chunky neck and it weighed a ton (apparently they vary a lot). Very noisy, weak Jazz pickup that is not a standard length. Weird Strat style jack socket that I couldn’t get my wireless dongle into. Most people end up spending a lot on upgrades to get a decent bass. Then you can’t recover the outlay if you sell it. Fine, if like me, you are an inveterate modder and enjoy the process.
  7. Obrienp
    If you do that with a standard short scale neck, you will have to move the bridge forward around 4 inches, which will make quite a mess. I guess you could hack off some of the tail end and reshape it but it would be a lot of work and require refinishing afterwards. The pickups will be in the wrong place: a lot closer to the bridge, which will probably affect the tone as well. If you were performing major surgery on the tail end, you could reroute the pickup cavities as well, to get them closer to the sweet spot but you are going to end up with a bass full of filler. if you can’t land an original Gibson short scale (or can’t afford it) and it’s the tone you are after, the new Shergold Tele shaped shortie has twin humbuckers. I have only heard the samples on the website, so I can’t tell whether it would get you the same tone as a TBird but it will be a hell of a lot cheaper. Might be worth a look.
  8. Obrienp
    I have had one for a few years now and I think they are great little basses but not without their issues and idiosyncrasies. Pros and cons from mine and other folks’ experience: Pro: 1. Very light weight and well balanced; 2. Slim fast neck (36mm at the nut); 3. Lots of tones available and it can sound massive on some settings; 4. The push-button presets give you instant repeatable tone (not to everybody’s taste); 5. Quality hardware but see some of the cons below. Cons: 1. Selecting the all-in (series) pickup setting can be very tricky; 2. Some reported issues with the longevity of the push-buttons; 3. First batch basses suffered from the saddles dropping on the Hipshot bridge. The official cure was Loctite and careful location of the string ball ends (not acceptable IMO). My second batch model has been OK in this respect; 4. The pickup screws go straight into the metal baseplate and the thread can strip over time giving the screws no grip, so the pickups drop. My local luthier has had to repair quite a few by attaching a nut to the baseplate. He says the pickups look very cheaply made, which is ironic as they are one of the few USA parts; 5. No body contouring. I haven’t found this as much of a problem as on basses like Mustangs and the Gretsch Junior Jet; 6. The upside down headstock is a gimmick that wears thin after a while and it can be confusing tuning it, if you swap from a conventionally configured bass during a gig. I am thinking of having a pickguard made to accommodate a strat style pickup selector, vol, tone and jack socket. Then I can do away with the buttons. I like the tone presets though, so I would replicate them with a rotary varitone control. Just a thought. There looks to be ample room in the cavity to accommodate this set up. Hope this helps your decision. BTW my experience is with a dual pickup model.
  9. Obrienp
    I wasn’t aware of that one but I see it has a 42mm nut, which is too wide for me. Otherwise looks very interesting. Somewhat in the mold of the Watt Plower II with the pickup configuration. That leaves me still gassing after the Warwick Starbass (bit cheaper too). Hard to get hold of though. Anyway enjoy your new acquisition. It looks the business.
  10. Obrienp
    They have fixed the bridge and machine heads issue, that @BassApprentice refers to, in the latest Sonic version. I’m not saying you won’t want to replace them with higher quality items but it will be a lot easier to do the swap with a 5 hole Fender style bridge mount, etc. The pickup is still a Strat 6 string thing under the plastic cover. Most people want to replace it eventually and there are various options ranging from purpose made (expensive) replacements and cheaper Strat rail pickups. I had one of the previous models with the two saddle bridge and toy machine heads. After wrestling with the bridge and tuner replacements, I fitted a Tone Rider split P bass pickup with a custom scratch plate (off eBay). After these mods it was a very nice little bass. I imagine the Sonic versions will be just as much fun, with less hassle involved in the upgrades.
  11. Obrienp
    I’ve been thinking of giving that a try. Presumably you need to use the bottom 4 strings out of a 5 string set, or get hold of a single B. The reason I haven’t tried yet, is that it will require opening up the nut slots to accommodate the chunkier strings. It would then need a nut replacement to reverses the experiment.
  12. Obrienp
    They have a lot going for them in terms of ergonomics: light and very well contoured. Another benefit is the string clamping mechanism, which allows you to use standard length strings and cut off the excess. This gives you much more choice and keeps the price down compared to short/medium scale strings. I had a 4 string EHB that had quite a wide neck but it was shallow and the profile was graduated, if I remember correctly. This meant it was still easy to play. The only problem I had, was often landing two frets out when playing without looking at the neck. I think it was something to do with not having a headstock in my peripheral vision. This might not be as much of an issue with the multi-scale EHB 5. The benefit of buying used is you might get one that has had the pickups upgraded to Nordies, or Aguilar. The original Barts weren’t everybody’s cup of tea. However, if you like traditional, they very much fall in that bracket. I note the new model EHB shorties have Nordies OEM.
  13. Obrienp
    I missed that. Just looked at their website and couldn’t see anything about it but I’m sure you are right. They had quite a lot of challenges with their Far Eastern manufacturing. It’s a shame as far as price is concerned but perhaps a bonus in terms of build quality.
  14. Obrienp
    People have already mentioned the Ibanez EHB models. They now do a standard 30” and a nicer looking version of the multi-scale but those are both well over the £1k mark now. Bass Direct have a MTD 5 string 32” scale at just under £1K. It looks like an upmarket version of the discounted Ibanez SRMD Mezzo medium scale but with better appointments and build (you would hope). Nordstrand have been threatening a 5 string version of their short scale Acinonyx for some time. That would probably squeeze in at around the £1K mark and might just be the fiver for those, like me, who can’t manage the usual neck width. It was meant to imminent but no doubt Trump’s clowning has caused a delay. Neck width was what caused me to part with the Talman 5. Mine had a neck like a cricket bat, as well as a body made of lead. I understand they vary quite a bit in this respect. A reasonable bass otherwise but you will end up spending so much on upgrades, you may as well look for a used EHB.
  15. Obrienp
    I’m out. Gave into the temptation of a second LFSys Monza, having considered many alternatives, including sticking with just the one. I have a significant birthday this year, so I decided on an early birthday present and I needed just a few more DB for the blues/rock band I play in. Life’s short, etc…. No excuse.
  16. Obrienp
    Ah! Sorry, didn’t notice that this was in the EUB and Double bass section, in which case my comments above are irrelevant. Have to say, I didn’t know they did nylon tapes for upright. They must cost a fortune!
  17. Obrienp
    I put LaBella black nylon strings on a large bodied fretless acoustic (Guild) and they suited it extremely well. It was short scale and they had the right amount of tension to prevent it from being too slappy but still give a bit of that upright sound. That’s where they excel IMO: fretless and acoustic basses. However, that’s based on one set of LaBellas, I haven’t tried any other makes and I haven’t tried them on a fretted bass.
  18. Obrienp
    My first and worst amp was a FAL solid state 50 watt thing in the early 70s which I played through a homemade cabinet with a Fane 18” driver. I think the cab was probably OK but the FAL …. euch!
  19. Obrienp
    I used to view folk club sing-arounds as creeping death. It really winds up your stage fright waiting for your turn to come around. I much prefer a jam.
  20. Obrienp
    How many publicans would be happy with you asking for free beer all night in return for the great publicity? Not to say I am not very sympathetic to their issues. It’s a real struggle to break even for many and paying a band means that it has got to lead to greater takings. Playing for free is fine for charities but in no other circumstances IMO. It undermines those who make a living from music and depresses the value of music in general.
  21. Obrienp
    Thank you for the explanation. I think that definitely puts the nail in the coffin of my idea to upgrade the drivers. it’s not that the Two10 isn’t loud enough, it’s that it starts to break up earlier than I would like. This happens particularly in the blues/rock band but also in another covers band that I dep for occasionally. What I would like is a clean, deep tone at medium volume, which happens to be around 12 o’clock Gain and Master on my two class D heads (500 watts at 4ohms), normally with no bass boost (the Two10 provides the vintage voicing out of the box). I’m coming round to the view that I would be better getting another LFSys Monza: the two would give me ample headroom and I can get to my preferred tone through EQ and amp voicing. I just wish I could turn the horn down a touch on the highs but I can get the same effect with a LPF. A plus is that adding the second Monza would give me a 3 db boost, over the single. It would also raise the output nearer my ears, making it even more audible. I’ve been told this several times by various people but I was trying to explore cheaper options.
  22. Obrienp
    Thank you for the offer. Generally I would be up for a self build but I have a DIY duty list as long as my arm at the moment. It might be something to consider for the winter, if I haven’t sorted my cab requirements by then. At the moment I don’t want to jeopardise domestic bliss by “getting distracted” 😏.
  23. Obrienp
    Interesting suggestion which I will investigate. Weight might be an issue for me as I am getting on but worth looking into. 👍
  24. Obrienp
    I think you are right but funds are an issue, plus I might need to buy another amp to cope with the combined impedance of 2 x Two10S. Both at 4ohms = 2, which my current amps can’t do; both at 12 = 8 ohms (according to BF) which reduces the output of my amp to 250 watts, so either way I might need a new amp. My other options is to get a second LFSys Monza, which would give me a 4 ohm rig capable of handling 1,200 watts AES. This would be a cheaper option and I could keep my current amp. I would need to play a lot with EQ to get the same tone out of the FRFR cabs. Also I’m not sure that two stacked cabs is quite the same as two drivers in one enclosure with a hybrid resonator and a LPF on one driver. It would be a cheaper option though. Obviously not as cheap as my plan to replace the drivers in the Two10 but that appears to be a non starter.
  25. Obrienp
    @bremen it’s covers 50s-90s, plus originals in one band but that’s not the problem; the other is blues and classic rock, which can get quite loud. TBH I’m surprised, even with the latter, that the Two10 gets out of its depth. I have two class D heads capable of 500 watts at 4 ohms but I rarely have either at above 12 o’clock on gain and master. I do like quite a lot of low end in my sound and occasionally some overdrive but nothing more than that. The Two10 has a tendency to go over to speaker overdrive when I don’t want it. I just think I need a bit more headroom. An old rule of thumb was that the cab should have an RMS rating twice that of the max output of the amp. Perhaps it still applies.
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