Al Heeley

Could do with a few more music shops round here (W. Yorkshire) that give you the chance to try out some Hartke, TC and Ashdown gear

Son is looking for a bass combo to take to college with him, now has his summer job pay check burning a hole in his pocket. Needs to have headphone output if poss, and be loud enough to hold its own at a pub gig, and be lighter than a Trace Elliot Any recommendations? Looking initially at the Blackstar 250 and 500 (2x10) combo, a bit over the top of the budget, fender rumble 200 (not a fan..) and the Hartke hidrive 500 (2 x 10) which comes in at under £400. Markbass is a bit outside the budget, don't want him getting a 200W then finding its not man enough to keep up with a loud drummer.

I had same quality issues with mine - 2 x 10 combo and 1 x 15 xtn cab, never really got the sound i was after in a band mix but design issues caused failure - the crossover board is mounted horizontally onto the rear face of the amp with a shitty little soldered joint and nothing else securing it; after a few months of gigging and internal vibrating up and down it started to break loose then fail. Didn't suit me at all - tone or reliability or weight. Hope the head doesn't have same issues for you.

Do you know what the cent shifts are for the E,A,D,G on bass for the sweetened tuning?

Been reading up on ACU sweetened tunings, aka James Taylor and acoustic guitar, trying small compromises to get around the harmonic clashes on a fretboard, some sweetened tunings are also incorporated into the Petersen strobe tuners. My acoustic guitar certainly sounds really nice with the ACU tunings; E= -12c, A = -10c, D= -8c, G= -4c, B= -6c, E= -3c this is to help compensate fro finger pressure on frets and also for string windings or lack thereof. Does anyone have experience of sweetened tunings for Bass, and what the steps are?

Thx for correcting me, jrixn1, I thought it was for fx return. Must. read. The. Manual!

Many thanks Jus, good to hear, gives me a lot more clarity on set up once the new pedalboard is all consolidated. Just one more Q: Sansamp at end of pedal chain just before amp, or at the start, just after the tuner?

I read FX loops are meant primarily for rack mounted gear, not so much stomp boxes. I had a try with the pedalboard in the fx send/return loop but they seem to be a bit more subdued. Switching to pre/post on the back made little difference (at quiet room levels admittedly). How about sans amp bass di? Should that be fed into the front input or the fx return ? Presumably switched to post-eq to go into the power amp section?

Can anyone tell me, what is the benefit of using the effects send/return loop on a Markbass head - Little Mark 800, rather than direct in from the pedal chain? I'm using a mix of analog and a couple of digital stomp boxes.

Thanks for the info, Best Bass are quoting $22 for shipping to UK, which brings price up to £74, same as Bassdirect (only they're currently out of stock)

Any advice on where to buy in UK? I can only find Allparts touting a ridiculous £115. Ebay only listing US outlets with £15 - £18 shipping plus same for import duty. I need BT2 for japanese Geddy Lee Sig JB.

Stable gigging board for the past 6 months but I'm starting to get restless.

I recently upgraded from Peavey 450 tour head, Hartke 410xl and VX210 cab to Markbass traveler 210's and little mark head. My back is very happy with me, the cabs and amp (in shoulder bag) are easily carried in one journey from the car, I got to the stage where I needed 2 people to help me lift the HArtke 410 cab in and out, or up stairs, the Markbass gear is so portable and takes up a very small footprint - both on stage and in my house. Also really pleased with the clarity of sound from the Markbass gear, loads more headroom, punchy defined speakers and more than enough tone shaping from the amp. I'm also like you - playing some rock, punk, new wave and a bit of ska. Using a Geddy Lee Jazz bass which sounds great through the new kit where before I was sometimes struggling to get some definition int he sound, bass would be either too woolly or have little presence, mark bass amp is mostly just set flat 12'o'clock on the tone and you can hear a lot more clearly the tone range from the bass, balancing the neck and bridge pickups as well as finger position. Its very transparent and surprisingly loud for its diminutive stature.

sounds like a really good purchase there, what was the spec for the barefaced cab?

I'm looking to downsize my rig to a more portable option and am interested in comments and recommendations; Currently gigging a Peavey 450 tour head, 4 x 10 Hartke XL cab + 2 x 10 Hartke VX cab, Music is a mix of punk, indie, new wave, ska, I like a lot of punch from my jazz bass and sit pretty high in the mix with 1 guitarist, singer, drummer, playing medium sized pubs and clubs. It took me a while to get a sound I liked from the Peavey/hartke but what helped a lot was a little spectra comp bass pedal that remains on all the time. I found the lower bass often a bit flabby and boomey no matter how I tweaked the EQ on the amp. Volume wise the peavey has been nearly full tilt at times, with the red limiter light flashing every now and then at bigger or outdoor venues - don't have PA fit for DI so it all comes out the Hartke cabs. The 4x10 is a heavy beast and its doing my back in. So I want a smaller lighter setup being quite impressed with 2 pals recent purchases of markbass and TC electronics mini setups, both went for two 2x10 cabs and a mini head. Would 500W be enough for larger clubs? Any opinions re the mini heads from TC and Markbass? Any other options to consider around the £500 range? I'm assuming I need to be paying around £450 each for lightweight 2x10 cabs?

I've just got hold of a little Mooer Thunderball and I found it really easy to dial in a Muse-like fuzz straightaway, it also does a decent gritty overdrive. For the money its hard to fault it and I love the small footprint. Compare with some of the exotic boutique fuzz pedals with £1.35 worth of components selling for over £100 and giving a violent spitty square wave rhasp, I can never find a usable live tone, and I've put together a load of mammoth clones over the years, the little Mooers certainly don't have the elitist appeal but as a cheap and usable workhorse its hard to fault them. I also bought the bass sweeper and its far easier for me to get a good usable Bassballs envelope than with the original EHX pedal (which I now have for sale....). Next to try out os the Bass chorus. I'm liking them.

thx danny