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Obrienp

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Everything posted by Obrienp

  1. Obrienp
    It’s actually a bit smaller than a standard Fender headstock IMO but that sort of size, which possibly makes it look disproportionate on an SS.
  2. Obrienp
    There is a Barefaced Big Twin for sale for £800 in the listings. I have no connection with the seller but that seems like a fantastic deal, if you want something that is not going to fart out on the lows at volume. If you don’t need the highs, you can turn the compression driver down. I suggest it is all the cabinet anyone is going to need but might be eclipsed by my next suggestion. On the modular front, LFSys has been mentioned and I can second that, being the owner of a Monza (10”). The Monaco (12”) must be even more bullet proof. Rated at 600 watts AES @ 8 ohms it’s going to cope with all but the highest output amps at full chat. Don’t take my word for it though, search for the threads about LFSys on here and/or drop @stevie a DM to discuss your needs.
  3. Obrienp
    The OP doesn’t surprise me, unfortunately. One of the staff at PMT Norwich told me that the max they can offer on a PX is a third of what they sell the item for. I’m not sure how that works for items that have been out of production for a long time but it is what PMT managers work to. The same staff member told me to always go for a private sale to get close to what the item is really worth.
  4. Obrienp
    I love my fretless version. Great bass for the money. The neck is particularly nice.
  5. Obrienp
    Looks great. What model is that with a P/J config? I’m guessing something from Fender Japan?
  6. Obrienp
    Agreed but for me they suffer from the Ibanez neck design. Typically great down round the first 5 frets but by the time you get up to the 12th fret they are far too wide. I have had 5 Ibanez basses of different scales and series and they all seem to suffer from this design approach. If you have short digits like me, it’s a killer, especially on 5 strings. There is something about wide and flat that is really hard to manage. It’s probably fine if you have proper sized hands.
  7. Obrienp
    That’s good. You don’t say how many you are but standard pub pay local to me is £50 a head; even for a 3 hour gig. One of my bands has just grown from 4 to 6. It’s yet to be seen if we can get £300 locally, especially when we have our regular sound guy; inclination is to go for £350 but we often end up having to tax ourselves to pay him. I got £100 for depping in a 6 piece on New Year’s Eve but that was a special occasion premium. The sadness in all of this is that two of the guys were playing in bands in the 80s that used to regularly get £1k a gig locally but live music has been so devalued, that you are pretty well expected to play for free. There are so few venues left and people just don’t turn out. Takings for pubs are pretty poor and they can’t afford to pay proper money. It’s kind of come down to: do you want to price yourself out of the market, or do you want to play? There are some local bands that do better but they have spent decades building a reputation and following.
  8. Obrienp
    My wallet’s safe; you could hardly be further away! GLWTS.
  9. Obrienp
    I thought it was forbidden to smile as a bassist, let alone laugh. I’m told I look like I just heard my Mum died when I am playing but I feel quite the opposite inside. I think I need to work on my bass face!
  10. Obrienp
    I have to declare myself thoroughly confused by the conflicting arguments here. If in doubt (and after reading this thread I have plenty of it) I stick to an old adage that was imparted to me when I bought my first decent gear as a teenager (early 1970s): to avoid blow outs, unwanted distortion, etc, the speaker cab(s) needs to have an RMS rating twice that of the amp. Now this may have been a shifty salesman getting a callow youth to spend more than was necessary but there may be a grain of truth in it? I am sure that speaker technology has moved on leaps and bounds since my youth but I still wouldn’t feel safe running an amp that had a higher rating than the cab, even though I would never have the master anywhere near max. I feel nervous enough running my BF Two10 with amps that have the same RMS rating. The LFSys Monza gives me a comfortable feeling because, at 600 watts AES, it has twice the rating of any of my amps @ 8 ohms. Tell me why I am wrong.
  11. Obrienp
    Still a 10 hour round trip and around 500 miles for me, plus it’s the cost as much as anything else but I am sure that would be helpful for folks who don’t live in the county that time forgot.
  12. Obrienp
    My thoughts exactly. 316 miles and 6 hours driving each way, if you are lucky!
  13. Obrienp
    They also seem to have withdrawn the Mezzo medium scale. I’m hoping that they are working on a new finish for the EHB 4 and that something will be announced soon. I agree the lack of headstock is part of the problem, plus on the EHB the neck seems to be set very far into the body, probably caused by the exaggerated top horn and the body being the same size as the full scale, with the bridge as far back as it can go. It makes for a very short bass tip to toe. I kind of wish a manufacturer would adopt the string clamping and bridge tuning but with a decent sized headstock. I guess there would be no point as far as most people are concerned but it gives me an idea for a self build/custom. The ability to chose any string on the market is a distinct plus and cost saver over short scale strings.
  14. Obrienp
    The short scale basses thread drew my attention to the Ibanez website: they have a new 5 string EHB that is a 30” and a very nice looking new take on the fan fret 32-30” multi-scale. While I was there I had a look around and the Mezzo models seem to have been dropped. Even a search of the site turned up a blank. There goes one affordable take on the 32” theme! Shame for me because medium scales with a Jazz neck seem to be the sweet spot for me.
  15. Obrienp
    I don’t see a short scale 4 string EHB on the Ibanez website. Has it been discontinued? If they released one in the new finishes on those 5s I would be interested. I kind of regret selling my Sea Foam 4 but I was always missing my notes on it. I kept hitting a tone too low. I had to look at the neck all the time to make sure I didn’t make a mistake. I could have done with the neck being a bit narrower too but it was manageable as is.
  16. Obrienp
    Thanks. Better than I feared!
  17. Obrienp
    I think the Cort Action Junior is channeling this. Single soap bar pickup quite far back, exaggerated horns, sort scale. All for less than £170 (if you shop around). Anybody tried one?
  18. Obrienp
    Good to hear. Would you mind sharing how much a replacement driver costs? Just for future reference.
  19. Obrienp
    I know you’ve taken it to a tech, so this might be completely irrelevant but I had a problem with my Two10 of similar vintage, which a previous owner had converted to an S. Distortion from one speaker, sounding like it had blown (to the uninitiated me). It turned out to be that a couple of the retaining bolts had worked themselves loose and the captive nuts’ thread had suffered as a result. Nuts replaced and everything tightened down really hard (Alex told me they use impact drivers at the factory, so I mean hard), and the problem was cured. Apologies if this is so obvious you have already eliminated it. I had never come across it before.
  20. Obrienp
    Thanks @Hutton. My fault for taking the thread off topic. Looks like your amp is capable of handling 2 ohms.
  21. Obrienp
    Got to ask about your two BF Two10S: I was thinking about getting a second but my amp can’t handle 2 ohms. If they are switched to 12 ohms, I assume that gives a total load of 6 ohms, which suggests you are not getting the max from the amp. How does it work for you?
  22. Obrienp
    Whether the Spark’s output is enough for a small gig depends on what your band is like I guess. The drummer, in one of the bands I play in, uses an electronic kit. His on stage volume is low, as he uses a 50 watt drum monitor, rarely above 50% and is DI’d into the PA. Ditto the rest of us: amps are just for monitoring and setting individual EQ. I can’t persuade them to go IEM because one of the guitarist/vocalists can’t stand earbuds. Also the other guitarist/ vocalist is a bit tight, so I can’t see him shelling out for the kit. I agree the Spark on its own is only going to cope with really intimate gigs. Even if 95 DB was enough, that’s getting towards the ragged edge of its performance. It wouldn’t have enough headroom to cope with anything louder and stay clean.
  23. Obrienp
    They were one of the opening acts at the Dereham Blues Festival last year. I was really looking forward to seeing and hearing NWR but the acoustics were a bit odd where we were on the balcony. He was so far back in the mix that I couldn’t hear him clearly a lot of the time. I was really disappointed.
  24. Obrienp
    I’ve had the TMB35. I think they vary quite a bit because I’ve heard them described as light with a thin neck. Mine was a boat anchor with a chunky neck and a 45mm nut. The Jazz pickup was really weak but the precision was OK. It was quite noisy because the graphite paint only covered the cavity for the precision pickup (easily cured with some copper tape). It’s also got a Stratocaster type jack socket that meant I couldn’t use my Boss wireless system with it. It was a real neck diver as well. That said, the B string was OK through the Precision pickup and they are quite easy to mod, should you feel the need. In a world of very few options, you get a lot of bass for the money.
  25. Obrienp
    Great job @mikebass456! Necessity is the mother of invention! I reckon Gibson could sell a lot of the double cuts if they reintroduced them now. Only problem for me would be the nut width.
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