SteveXFR

I could only pick two, Geezer and Cliff. To be honest there are loads of others who I think are better. Justin Cancellor, Matt Freeman, Alex Webster, Troy Sanders, Al Cisneros and Scott Reeder. Because my taste in music isn't exactly mainstream, most people in this forum won't have ever heard them so even if they were better than Jamerson they would get less votes.

With all the heavy guitarists playing a Les Paul in to a Marshall, it's good to hear something different. I quite like Baroness, one guitarist plays a strat and the other a tele and they share leads so their contrasting tones add another dimension to their music.

The metal zone can sound alright but only if you put it in the effects loop. The Line 6 spider doesn't have an effects loop and doesn't like pedals so it would be a horrible combination.

What's the point of filthy riffs if people can't hear every disgusting note? Our guitarist uses a Strat with single coil pickups for better note articulation (at least that's what he claims)

No, dreadful for metal. It's got loads of distortion but all of it is bad. In the faster parts of songs I couldn't hear what he was playing, there were no audible notes in the mess of overdrive.

That's some very decent drumming. It gets interesting from 2 minutes in this video. This is the show the young'un went to as well.

My daughter has one of his sticks from a recent gig in Bristol. She really enjoyed them. A bit emo for my tastes but very good at what they do

This demonstrates it well

We recorded a demo (original metal) and its been really useful for getting gigs. We get invited back after gigs but we also like to play different places so we send the venue or promoter a demo then if they like it, they book us. Maybe it's particularly useful for metal because there's so many sub genres of metal that just saying your a metal band gives no idea of what you sound like

There's one in the practice space we use. Our guitarist used it while his Marshall was being repaired. He developed a deep hatred for that thing because it doesn't work with pedals and all the high gain settings sound terrible. We did recently find a use for it, it makes a good weight to stop the kick drum moving forwards. Terrible amplifier, useful dead weight.

Yes, he is. I think he worked with a lot of useless bands in his earlier days where they just gave a bass to someone who couldn't play and showed them three notes not understanding how important good bass is to the overall sound of the band. He's also worked with lots of bands who'd rather spend money on drugs and beer than expensive equipment like bass strings. I listen to his videos regularly and whilst bassists are the punchline to a lot of his jokes, tone/gear snob guitarists get at least as much if not more abuse.

Do hybrid amps (Ashdown ABM 600) need servicing and if they do, how often?

Before we recorded we did a couple DIY recordings, one with a click and one without. We all thought the one without felt like it had more energy in the chorus so that's how we chose to record. I don't think it will always be the right way for us to record. I think one of our new songs would benefit from a dead solid tempo.

The mix wasn't done on the day. The mix was done separately by a friend of the recording engineer who had more experience with heavy music. It was done over about a week with us going in for final tweaks

We recorded a four track EP in a day, it was live recordings so all instruments playing together and we were absolutely solid with the songs after rehearsing plenty so took three takes for each song and then added vocals at the end of the day. Even then, it was a long day.

I've only been in to a studio to record once. I arrived with donuts for the recording engineer. Put him in a good mood at the start of the day before we irritating him with our unholy racket for 8 hours.

Do you get a lot turn up not knowing how to play their own songs? Or have instrument faults? Or no spare guitar strings?

Did you expect musicians to be easy to work with?

I'm having a day of Killing Joke to enjoy the work of the late, great Geordie Walker who passed away on Sunday. I think this will be the end of the band as well. I'm currently on the 2003 album

Stoner metal - Weed, smoke, driving, guitars Doom metal - Weed, smoke, wizards, demons Pirate metal - The sea, rum, treasure

Here's my current setup. The ABM 600 seem to fit in with it perfectly. It sounds huge.

Turn down the input volume and possibly switch on the active input pad?

I'm hoping you people can give me some advice. I read that the input should be set so that the vu dial is averaging around zero. With my active five string, the gauge is showing an enormous difference between the G and B string levels although the volume sounds about equal. My bands sludgy doomy sound means probably 75% of what I play is on the E & B strings so should I set it to average zero while playing on those? What happens if I'm getting off the top of the gauge a lot? Is it a problem? Am I thinking about this to much? Should I be more concerned about the futility of it all as the sun will eventually swell up to swallow the earth? Edit - It's an ABM 600 IV

Thanks to you I have now rediscovered Sebadoh. They were awesome.

Shedding skin - Pantera