Baloney Balderdash
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Everything posted by Baloney Balderdash
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So I wrote a message to the seller of the 300W GP7SM head and offered him the option of reserving it to me to the 30th this month, with the promise that we'd then have a 100% certain closed deal by then, where I will have the money to actually buy it, or not, and then him taking the risk of possibly not finding another buyer before that anyway and me having changed my mind in the meantime, of course formulated in a much nicer, not so ultimatum like, way, actually just asking him kindly if he would be kind and reserve it for me till I had the money by the end of the month, and assuring him that if he did I'd commit to paying him there. So time will tell if he'll accept, and I can expect to have a new amp by the end of this month, or I will have to wait with buying it till I got the money, taking the risk of someone else doing so before me, but on the other hand then still will have the option for eventually deciding against buying it. I'll write an update when that has been settled. -
Confirms the impression I got from the rest of the replies in this thread, that the ELF will likely not do what I am really interested in. As for waiting and getting a SMC instead though I think I'll stick to the SM I mentioned in my OP, as I already got a compressor that I love, and as the GP7SM, as I also mentioned in my OP, will be the exact same type of amp, just in head form and with more power, as the combo I once owned and absolutely loved the tone of. Actually I am pretty convinced now that that would be the right way to go for me, so now I just need to decide weather to actually do it or if I would really be better off spending my money on other useful music equipment instead. It's not like I am really strictly needing an amp, as, as said, I am actually quite satisfied with the tone I got currently, it is just that I am really tempted by the prospect of once more owning a Trace Elliot amp and being able to once more achieve that sweet sweet tone they are capable of.
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True, but I would think I could still get a general idea of more specifically how the ELF and old Trace Elliot amp compares tone wise, judging from the general consensus of people with first hand experience with both. In that this is not exactly as much a matter of personal preferences and taste in tone as it is a specific comparison of how close two different amps get tone wise to each other. My impression so far from this thread is that the ELF likely won't do what I am interested in and that I would properly be best off either buying and old Trace Elliot head or simply stick to my current setup and use my money on some effect pedals I want as well. I actually think the replies in this thread has helped me, they somewhat managed to changed my initial slight preposition towards the ELF in favor of other options, and I would say that's the proof of it not being completely pointless, but still interested to hear from more people and their take on it.
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Thanks. Seems not everyone agree with you, judging from the comments I have read other where, but in case you are right that would be a really heavy argument for me to get the old Trace Elliot GP7SM head instead of the ELF, so waiting to see if that will be the general consensus of this thread. I concluded that, yes, but I didn't say anywhere that that was the most important argument to me, I just listed the ELF's obvious advantages, and as I also wrote I wanted to know what disadvantages there would be, like for instance tone wise, by getting that over an old Trace Elliot head (in fact I say so at the very beginning of the paragraph you quote me for). No use in being able to transport it easily if I would be as good without it tone wise, and if that is the case there would be no reason for me to buy it either really. Obviously not going to buy something that would be completely useless to me just for the sake of being able to drag it around with me. While being able to transport it easily would be ideal, transport of an eventual more heavy head could be arranged otherwise, even if it'll make it slightly more complicated for me, for one the drummer I play with owns a van, as said I have no intention of sacrificing tone for transporatabillity, as I also wrote in my OP I am actually already pretty satisfied with the setup I got currently, just tempted by that sweet classic Trace Elliot tone, and if the ELF won't be able to deliver that I wouldn't spend money on it even if it had been as small and light as a stamp and had a 100 years full unconditional warranty.
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Thanks for your input. Well, if I can trust the comments I've read it is supposed to have inherited the old Trace amp's conservative power rating, meaning it ought to be much louder than the watts it is rated at would suggest, and I have a history of using bass amps most people would claim to have too little power to keep up with a drummer in quite loud rock band settings, even keeping up in small bar sized venues without PA support, and the 130W 1x15" Trace Elliot combo that I owned had no issues with keeping up with a loud rock power trio at rehearsals with the master volume never getting past the 11 o'clock position, so as far as wattage power goes I think I should be good with the ELF.
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You might be right, though that is not what Trace Elliot/Peavey claims, and doesn't match the comments I have read from people having first hand experience with using the ELF either. I for one actually love the straight up tone of the classic Trace Elliot amps without using the pre-shape function (which the ELF doesn't but the Transit B be does have, though personally I hate scooped tones, so I have no use for such a function whatsoever), and with a pretty flat EQ setting, and from what I've read the ELF should be capable of delivering a tone pretty close to that. Not saying that you are not right, just that I'll wait for some people with actual first hand experience with both old Trace Elliot amps and the ELF to dime in with their view on this matter.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have a look at them. But I would still like some arguments for why I should buy a relatively old and heavy Trace Elliot amp head, that would be impossible to transport back and forth home, rehearsal space and eventual future gigs using public transport (since I neither got a car or a drivers license), over a brand new tiny and light ELF head that I would be able to transport back and forth without any issues whatsoever, use as a dedicated preamp if desired, since it doesn't need speaker load, and with a warranty of 3 years?
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So I am pondering on maybe getting myself a proper bass amp here coming the 1st of November, next month, since I am currently just using the poweramp section of my 160W Peavey Solo Special 112 guitar combo, with the build in 12" guitar speaker unit disconnected and the amp instead hooked up with a 4Ohm, 400W, SWR Triad I bass cab with 1x15 + 1x10" + tweeter horn, and even if I actually really like that tone that gives me I just absolutely love the classic Trace Elliot tone, once having owned a 1x15" 130W GP7SM combo that I was very very fond of, and kind of regret selling. So the question is, should I get the extremely tiny and light weight, relatively new, 200W Trace Elliot ELF amp head, which I will buy from brand new, or get the used, relatively old, and quite heavy, 300W GP7SM amp head, that is currently for sale for just about the same price as I can get a new ELF? I would appreciate arguments for and against, beside the obvious advantages the ELF got size and weight wise, making it extremely easy to transport, unlike the old GP7SM head, that I know will be quite heavy. Like would there be any obvious noticeable difference in the tone they respectively produce when set flat and not using the pre-shape of the GP7SM head (which I will definitely not be using anyway, hate mid scooped tones). What would you chose and why? And what would I lose getting one over the other, beside the obvious warranty, ease of transportation, less EQ tweaking options, lack of pre-shape functions (which, as said, I won't have any use for anyway), and 100W less power, of the ELF? Or should I rather, since I am actually quite satisfied with the tone I get now from the Peavey, which also got plenty of enough power for my use, forget about the temptation of getting a Trace Elliot amp in my possession again, and instead use my money on some new effect pedals that I also have cravings for?
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Sire Owners - Quick Pickup Question
Baloney Balderdash replied to BassApprentice's topic in Bass Guitars
No, that is not true at all! Pickups that are sealed got covers as well, they are just not removable, as the pickups have been sealed in the covers, if they weren't the coils would be exposed, a sealed cover is still a cover, just not replaceable, just like a sealed can that have not been opened is still a can. What they should have replied to answer his question would be either A: They are removable and therefor replaceable or B: They are sealed and therefor not replaceable, which would have addressed the actual point with his question directly. That they got covers says nothing about if those covers have been sealed or if they are replaceable, and therefor the answer he got from Sire is as good as useless, not answering his actual question and not addressing the whole point with asking it whatsoever (as in weather they are replaceable or not). -
Thank you. With that in mind I think I might get the EHX B9 Organ Machine to use with the sort of stoner/doom rock bass/vocals and drums duo that has my main musical focus currently. Since I actually tune my bass in G standard tuning, 3 half steps above E standard tuning (kind of more functioning as a sort of 4 string baritone guitar/bass hybrid), I should have no issues with tracking, and the always on 1 octave up that I always have added to my bass signal will help giving an extra dimension to the organ sound as well. I'd imagine that pedal would work really well for that project, well the C9 as well properly, but I can't afford them both at once, and I think the thick doomy church like organ sounds that the B9 is capable will be the most obvious choice.
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Good to know. I got the impression that the 9 series pedals weren't really usable bellow open A of a bass from the comments I've read mentioning the tracking of them, but guess they indeed are then. Sorry for giving off misleading information earlier in this thread, but I just assumed that the people who wrote those comments, and who claimed to have actually first hand experience with these pedals, knew what they were talking about (as this was not just based on 1 single person's claims, but several people), but I trust that you would actually have the more nuanced and accurate answer to that. As for weather placing a compressor in front of them helps, I know that it usually in fact will improve tracking on pitch tracking devices, but I also know that EHX actually claims that their 9 series of pedals already got a build in compressor that will compress the signal fed to the pedals's pitch tracking circuit/algorithm when engaged, exactly with the purpose of improving tracking, but I wouldn't know if adding additional compression helps that further or not.
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Is that a low D as in 2 half steps bellow low open E of a 4 string bass tuned in E standard tuning (as in D1), or as in the open D string of a 4 string bass tuned in E standard tuning (as in D2)? Cause I've read several places that it won't track properly bellow open A of a 4 string bass in regular E standard tuning (as in A1), which is what I based my previous replies in this thread on.
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Sire Owners - Quick Pickup Question
Baloney Balderdash replied to BassApprentice's topic in Bass Guitars
If I was you I'd let Sire know that it in fact doesn't answer the question you actually asked them whatsoever, since they in fact asked them self if it did (even if they deliberately left out a question mark after asking it, and even if they are perfectly aware of the answer to that them self). They might as well have written this back to you: "Yes, the pickups got covers. As to the answer to the actual question you asked us, we know, just refuse to tell you. Now go screw yourself annoying customer." -
Sire Owners - Quick Pickup Question
Baloney Balderdash replied to BassApprentice's topic in Bass Guitars
What an absolutely lazy donkey jerk answer, doesn't answer your actual question at all, and they are perfectly well aware of that, then still got the indecency to ask if it does, like as it does and like they don't know better. ("donkey" = another word for "behind") In fact more of an insult than an answer. Bad service! -
I am of course talking about pictures of those of your basses made in China. Here's my 28,6" scale Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass, out of the December 2010 Chinese production, before they moved the production to Indonesia, which is actually my main bass, currently tuned in G1 standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above E standard 4 string bass tuning, or 2 half steps bellow A standard baritone guitar tuning, strung with a gauge .090 bass string and 3 guitar strings, threaded through the cut off ball ends of a set of bass strings, of the gauges .068 - .052 - .038, equipped with a DiMarzio Model P, P pickup, wired directly to the output jack socket, and the J pickup from the previously installed P/J EMG Geezer Butler set still sitting there, though disconnected and lowered considerably :
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What are you listening to right now?
Baloney Balderdash replied to Sarah5string's topic in General Discussion
From 1968, by the Danish band Savage Rose, really great song with an amazing bass line as well : -
A Girl I Knew (by Savage Rose)
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How about the new Harley Benton Rickenbacker clone, the RB-414? Gets good reviews on YouTube
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Magnolia Caboose Babyshit (by Mudhoney)
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What are you listening to right now?
Baloney Balderdash replied to Sarah5string's topic in General Discussion
Not much of a Hip Hop fan, but I have deep respect for Public Enemy and that new track is absolutely killer! -
Homo Rainbow (by Ween)
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That's still largely how I approach dialing in tones and producing/mixing/mastering tracks, even if I over the years have developed a much better idea of how exactly different effects work and what exactly the different parameters/controls on them do, which helps a lot with shortening the adding/subtracting effects and dialing in parameters, trial and error, adapting and adjusting while listening, procedure considerably. The only right way to do it as far as I am concerned, what works works, regardless of what in theory works or whatever you might otherwise think works or not. There are no rules in music, only guidelines which works best if you don't follow them fanatically and blindly (deafly?). Experiment and always trust and follow your ears whenever you are dealing with music.
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Largely depends on how you have it dialed in. I need to be able to go from very quiet when picking softly to full on punchy and snappy when digging in, and everything in between, and too much compression makes that impossible, as you mentioned making everything more or less having the same volume, regardless of your picking intensity, or at least decreasing the dynamic range considerably. Compression can be used with the purpose you mention in mind, to equal out the signal volume wise, but in my case, using a quite subtle compression, it really has a fairly minimal influence on the dynamic range of my signal, and rather just smooth out the frequency balance of my bass signal slightly, as well as it emphasis the attack a bit, making my bass sound a bit tighter and a bit more focused and articulate, which becomes particularly apparent when using my high gain, quite fuzzy and heavy, distortion setup. I guess it is a fairly subtle effect, but for me even relatively small differences in my tone can be quite essential, which I guess might stem from me having produced, mixed and mastered my own music for years, developing my focus on and sense for the more subtle tonal details.
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I recently bought a TC Electronic SpetraComp, and, while I can see how it could be a really great compressor in certain contexts, after fiddling with the Toneprint editor quite a bit I went back to using the 160 Comp model of the DBX 160A compressor in my Zoom G1Xon, concluding that for my use it gave me just about the absolute perfect compression, mind on a fairly subtle compression setting (Threshold: -7 / Ratio: 2.5 / Gain: 7 / Knee: Hard / Level: 50 (which happens to be unity)). I got mine placed towards the end of my signal chain too, before my reverb effects, which I am also using the Zoom G1Xon for, but before my EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, which is set to a really subtle compression with a quite high threshold and fairly slow attack time, really functioning more as my tube preamp stage than as an actual compressor, then followed by my EQ stage, which is taken care of by my Zoom MS-70 CDR, using 6 of the 2 band fully parametric bass equalizer models, 2 of them (as in 4 bands) used to shape a LPF that starts to cut off from just about 4kHz with a downward slope of about 9 dB/Oct, and then a Behringer BEQ700 Bass Graphic Equalizer, which is also working as a volume control, since it after that goes directly into the Effects Return, poweramp input, of my Peavey Solo Special 112, 160W solid state guitar amp, with it's build in 12" guitar speaker unit disconnected and the amp instead hooked up to a SWR Triad I 400W bass cab.
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So guess the explanation on how the "lumped" strings work is part of the explanation why the somewhat controversial Ray Ross Bridge is in fact an improvement over conventional design, as claimed by the designer of it : https://rayrossbridge.com/
