Shaggy

Always used rechargables, mainly as my MMhas always drained batteries fast - never had a problem with them.

Bought a Mesa cab off Gary, great, laid back guy to do business with; - delivered the cab to my folks house in Cambridge! Knows his gear too.

[quote name='Deep Thought' post='194231' date='May 7 2008, 10:10 PM']How many of you are happy with tthe stuff you're playing, and how many are doing it because it's the only gig you can get? Do you feel that you should play the stuff you love or nothing, or is it a case of you'll play anything as long as you're playing? Here's my situation-after 15 years of not playing I got a band together with some folks at work and we're gigging fairly sporadically at present, but working on getting sorted so we're doing it more regularly. We play mainly covers, some classic rock, some modern chart stuff, and a bit of blues/r'n'b, some of it written by me. Some of the stuff we play is by bands I don't really like, but I find I enjoy playing it. I do draw the line at some stuff however, and I'm probably the one in the band most likely to flatly refuse to play something. I have mates who if they heard the stuff I'm playing would be scathing in the extreme-I was brought up on punk and a lot of guys I know still haven't got away from that ethos, and would be disgusted if they knew I was playing stuff by Pink. Personally I say stuff 'em, it's so nice to be playing again in a band that's going down well on the whole, that I couldn't give a stuff what they think. One said to me in an Email that he 'couldn't do crowd-pleasing' ie. he played what the hell he liked and if people didn't like it that was their look-out. I'd very much like to be in a blues/r'n'b band playing stuff I really like all the time, but that's just not a practical proposition at present, so I'll stick with the covers, because the alternative is not playing at all. What do you guys feel about this? Whatever it takes, or maintain your artistic integrity at all costs? This isn't a request for advice BTW, I'm quite happy with my current situation, but I'm curious as to how others view this kind of thing.[/quote] +1 I could have written that entire post myself, down to the background in punk, non-playing gap, and current material (yes, including Pink!!! U & ur hand has a great slappable bass-line…….) I play bass purely for the buzz of playing live and the brotherhood of being in a band, I certainly wouldn’t bother otherwise. “Integrity” has never really been an issue, especially as the music that’s the most fun and/or challenging to play very often isn’t the music that I’m into or would listen to (disco, & 80’s funk for instance) Having said that, I’m not sure I’d wear a Womble suit for anyone! Or be in a Kajagoogoo tribute band. Or….

[quote name='mxm' post='189135' date='Apr 30 2008, 07:17 PM']Hi, I used to use an allegedly ex-Motorhead 1978 JMP100 guitar head[/quote] Blimey, was there anything left of it? That's like buying a used car that's been driven at top speed ten times round the earth by the Stig!

As used by JJ Burnel early on in the Stranglers, I think.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='188699' date='Apr 30 2008, 11:02 AM']Is the pickup selector on yours wired so that it gets a single coil from each humbucker?[/quote] When in combined mode you mean? (and a “pan” control would have been great) Not sure about that - it’s an early one with phase and bright switches only. I found it sounded amazingly similar to a mates’ ’75 Jazz, especially on combined p/u’s, playing through his SVT which admittedly adds its own colouration. Likewise on bridge p/u only the Sabre is effectively a Stingray, although apparently the voicing on the EQ is supposed to be different, and inevitably the big magnets in the neck p/u will slightly dampen string vibration and therefore affect tone. The cutlass 2 is the graphite neck Sabre, right?

Until I found BW/BT/BC I had a max of 2 basses and was quite happy! Having said that, I do use and enjoy them all, and try to suit the bass to the genre (NB; Jazz + Stingray = 1 Sabre :brow: )

[quote name='vegas_hooker' post='177329' date='Apr 15 2008, 08:37 PM']The bassman in that picture is a little different to mine. Each channel has 4 dials whereas the left sided one in the photo (the 'bass' channel) only has 3. Has yours always been like that?[/quote] You’re quite right, I hadn’t noticed – that was a pic I got off the “Vintage” site more because I liked the EB bass. This is mine (paired with a cr@p speaker in “room practice” mode!), each channel has a volume, bass, middle, & treble rotary control, “deep” switch (bass) and “bright” switch (normal), with a master volume controlling both.

[quote name='OldGit' post='177473' date='Apr 15 2008, 11:29 PM']Lovely little amp. I had a head in natural alloy. But, it's a bit quiet set clean. Overdrives nicely though More like 80 (valve) watts and the pre has some solid state and some valve. Too tech for me but it's aparently not strictly speaking "all valve" It has big brothers - the Quadravalve and the Hexavalve. You get about 80 watts per pair of EL34's or KT88's IIRC. They are ancesters of the Trace V series. Not sure how they compare and the biggies are rar as hen's teeth. A guy on talkbass got a Quadvalve head for £40 a few years ago .. I guess that was a boot sale job [/quote] I've got the head too, and the case is stainless steel. It does have a very "hi fi" sound which is exactly what I wanted for fretless, and the "pre-shape" control is instant '80's - the Bassman is lovely but more of a rock/blues vibe. Generally loud enough for most venues and very portable for a valve amp, but I'm always looking out for the quadra/hex valve beasties you mentioned! Anyone selling one.......?

[quote name='nick' post='176306' date='Apr 14 2008, 02:56 PM']Might be interested....How cheap is 'cheapish'?[/quote] About £250 after I've re-valved it? The current pre-amp valves are "Fender" branded so they're probabaly the original ones close on 30 years old! All controls working fine otherwise.

[quote name='vegas_hooker' post='175900' date='Apr 13 2008, 09:47 PM']Mine is a monster (as umcoo/chris knows). Ive been running a small patch lead to bridge the two channels and this kinda round things out a little more. Sounds great with guitar too. I managed to pick mine up for £270ish IIRC. I think it would take something serious for me to let it go. That said, the trace V4's are very highly spoken on here. If I was inclined then id try and check one out.[/quote] I seem to remember the V-series TE's are based on the Bassman circuitry, at least the pre-amp. I'm about to sell my Bassman 135 if anyone is interested (gone the DI route when the Trace Twin isn't up to it) should be cheap-ish but I'll need to re-valve it first. As well as sounding great I've always reckoned they're the classiest looking amp head ever made

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='174350' date='Apr 11 2008, 09:24 AM']Hmmm. I, like many here, own examples of both active and passive basses. I think the appeal of a passive bass lies in its inherrent simplicity, coupled to the fact that the fewer components between pick-ups and loudspeakers gives a more "direct" sound - The opposite to the aforementioned "over-engineered" sound. The advantage of actives is that you can tweak your tone as you go. I think that the reason the on-board EQs produce different results to EQs in pre-amps/FX/heads is that they have fewer bands (2 or 3!) with a much broader f and often a much greater Q +/-20dB isn't unheard of. Not many off-board EQs will go to those extremes. Theoretically the effects of an on-board EQ should be repeatable with an off-board EQ, but it's frequently not the case. Still, both active and passive have their place. I just grab whatever I feel like playing!!![/quote] +1 Again having a mix of both, I’m generally inclined to the simplicity and more natural “woody” sound of a passive bass, especially having had a couple of batteries die on me gigging with the MM, and no passive switch option. Having said that, playing the MM in a covers band gives me huge tonal options direct from the bass when going from, for instance a ‘60’s soul ballad straight into some ‘80’s funk and then some ‘70’s metal! I find the main difference between active and passive is at the bass / amp interface; for some reason my passive basses sound so much nicer through my all-valve Trace head, and the active basses just sound better through my digital solid-state Yamaha head - the difference is night and day. One issue is compression, which I find I need far more with the actives, but it’s a tone thing too.