kwmlondon

Looking forward to it!

I sold Rob a little Laney 15 valve combo and it was a great transaction! Rob was excellent to deal with and I dropped the amp over with a freind of his who lives around the corner. Great to do business with him and I hope the amp gets some good use now! Thanks for buying, Rob!

That's one of the weird things about the fretboard for me. If I'm doing something specific, like playing a bassline I've been playing for ages, you can ask me what notes I'm playing and I'll pull a face like a todder trying to do a poo. If I'm practising sight reading I know EXACTLY where I am, what key I'm in, what mode etc. When I'm writing a bassline I'll often be pulling "routines" from the old memory bank to try out and maybe slightly aware of the theory behind it but usually much more intuitive.

Yup. I had a combustion and I just didn't like the EMG preamp. I took the batteries out and used the passive/active as a mute switch. And very handy it was too. Since I got my ABZ though I find the passive tone incredibly useful, and the bass and treble on the Never are so usable - I'd say I use the onboard preamp about 20% of the time, passive the rest. In terms of options though, I'd be fascinated to try out the six-position but as it is I think I'm better off with 4. It's like compression - the best system I used had an on/off switch that worked. As soon as I start to get too much choice I feel like I'm wasting time faffing and give up!

Met up yesterday in Pirate, Dalston, with one of my bands. Lovely guys and they're getting better! The drummer is definitely coming on leaps and bound. The songs we know are getting tighter and working better. We're gonna have one more rehearsal then do a band open mic in November, maybe do a split bill with the guitarist's other band (he's retired so he can dedicate his time to music). But... the big eye-brow raiser was my sound yesterday. I had a Blackstar 250w 15" combo and blow me if it wasn't one of the best sounding rigs I've had in a practise. So punchy, deep and clear. I was running my Dingwall ABZ into it through a Sansamp VT-21 and the dirty sound was sublime. The Neve preamp on the Dingle is the best active circuitry I've ever used, seriously. I don't often use the bridge pickup on a bass because it lacks low-end but taking the bass up a few notches to balance it and tame the low end gave me an incredible rich, burpy sound with oodles of attack. I even whacked the treble up for one tune with distortion to get a really nasty, clanky sound. Unbelieveable how versatile and useful it is. The Blackstar did make me wonder how many of the other bass amps I've used in rehearsal spaces have just been buggered though! Maybe this one was new...

I honestly think the Neve is the most usable preamp I’ve ever had. Brilliant thing.

I have such a love for these basses. So many of my heroes have rocked (ricked?) one. I worry that one day I’ll see one of those mad 5 strings they did recently and I tell you I WILL buy it…

Does it just have a two-band EQ? Personally, I prefer not having a mid - just works better for me.

I am totally in love with this pickup configuration

I know there are a lot of people who share your point of view. I play a Dingwall and I would imagine I'd not be allowed into a lot of bands because I've got such a space-age looking bass but I think I'd rather not be in those anyway.

It did sound very good, though I was using the Tech21 for the drive and the preamp on the bass for any EQ so trying to keep the RM as just an amp stage. For some reason I prefer to get any colouration from pedals, bass and cab rather than the amp. Always have. No idea why.

Had a practise with one of my bands last night. Almost all originals. It was good to mee up with the other two, but I'm not sure about some of the material the guitarist is coming up with. He's getting overexcited and churning out a lot of samey material now but he's a very nice guy and fun to play with. The drummer has moments when she clicks and it works well, when she's confident with the song but when uncertain can go very much out of time. I did try a few exercises to try and start listening to each other and get them to both slow down as they really do race away. Anyway, hoping we can get into enough shape to do a gig by the end of the year. Some of the material is pretty good and fun to play and they're great people. What WAS really good though was that I got to play through a 4x10!!!!! God, I love this configuration. I have an ultra-portable MarkBass NY121 that I can take to gigs on public transport, but the luxury of a big old cab filled with lovely ten-inchers was a total joy and pleasure. I think that this is "my" sound. Definitely my sound of choice.

Cat? Hey daddy-o where all the hip cats at?

I know that 'Rays are really hard to get to sit in a mix - tough live, even harder in the studio - but I've used mine in loads of recordings and it's been a joy. I've often just plugged straight into a desk and the results have been fantastic, but I know a lot of people who get eye-rolling from the sound person when rocking up with a 3EQ Musicman. I never got that with mine and I don't think it's down to the wood so much as the electrics. That's just opinion. I've no evidence!

Interesting. I have always maintained that the 2EQ 9v circuit is magical. It's not like any other preamp...