mike257

Well, used it for the gig last night, and what can I say, I'm really impressed. The rest of the band were in utter disbelief that this tiny box was my new 600w monster bass amp, and couldn't stop picking it up to marvel at the weight. I plugged it in for soundcheck, flattened the EQ, dialled in a touch of valve drive, and my Stingray jumped out of the speakers and nearly bit my head off. I didn't get time to have a proper play around, but I absolutely loved what I heard. The sound engineer asked me afterwards what 'that little silver box on top of my amp' was for. I had to explain three times over that it wasn't a preamp, it WAS the amp. All in all, I'm well chuffed, and looking forward to putting it through it's paces properly in the practice room next week. I'll post my thoughts on how it fares next to the SVT3 when I've had the chance to get them together!

Yeah, paid for it mid-afternoon yesterday, landed first thing this morning! No mains lead or instruction manual though, the cheeky bugger. Can't believe the size and the weight, and I love the funky little gig bag. I've got a gig tonight with a loud-as-hell rock band I used to play for (their new bassist is in LA for a month!), so if there's time at soundcheck to give it a test run, I might throw ithe amp in at the deep end and use it there. I'm hoping to give it a proper A/B with my Ampeg over the weekend, or early next week, so I'll let you all know what I reckon. Oh, and Musicman20, I'm reluctant to part with my big cab too, I love it! If I can raise the funds some other way, I'm going to try and keep it AND get a lightweight cab as well

Right now, it's going to be a comedy double act of the tiniest head around sitting on my huge SVT610! I'm really interested in Alex's Barefaced cabs, but I haven't got the money to go for one yet. If the Ampeg head ends up going, a Barefaced Compact or Big One might be the next thing incoming. It'll be the first time in 6 or 7 years that I've not had a massive stack behind me though, it'll take some getting used to!!

When I've been dragged in for original bands at short notice, I'll usually stick everything on a CD, spend a couple of hours playing through it, and then that CD gets permanently stuck in my van and goes round and round the whole time I'm at work, until it's permanently ingrained in my memory. Get to the gig, it's like you've been playing them forever

I've had two with the same issue, it's not just you!

Crikey! After spending ages contemplating going lightweight, I've just took the plunge and bought myself a Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 off the dreaded 'bay! I'm going to A/B it with my Ampeg and decide which one's the keeper, so expect to see one of them in the For Sale threads next week. Ooops.

I'm in Liverpool city centre, so not far from you Wirral lot. Count me in!

Etienne, are you playing in town any time soon? I've been thinking about a lightweight rig and fancy hearing your Compact in action! One of our lads borrowed a guitar off Stu that's still sat in my flat too, so I need to catch up with you guys anyway. Mike EDIT: I've just bought a Shuttle! I defo want to catch you guys so I can check the cab out though, that's next on my shopping list!

[quote name='BigRedX' post='534691' date='Jul 7 2009, 02:15 PM']I'm no longer convinced by on-board pre-amps of the traditional cut/boost variety because they don't do anything that the controls on your amp ought to do better. The only reason IMO to fit one would be: 1. You like to fiddle with the tone as you're playing 2. You prefer volume/balance as opposed to volume/volume on a 2 pick up bass. I've still not come across a decent passive balance control that sounds as smooth as a good active. 3. The pre-amp offers individual tone shaping for each pick up. What advantages are you hoping to get out of fitting a pre-amp to your bass?[/quote] Most of the gigs I play, the FOH bass sound is from a DI box, so an on board pre-amp gives me control of my bass tone on stage and out front - surely there's a lot of us in the same boat. I don't find I do loads of tweaking, but sometimes it comes in really handy.

My old 2005 Buttercream Stingray has had at least three owners on here - I traded it to Mr Cougar, he's sold it since. I've seen a couple of them up for sale since then, so I don't know if it's travelled further now!

[quote name='Kaiu' post='529646' date='Jul 1 2009, 03:13 PM']Do these sound anything like a Musicman Sterling? I have a sterling at the moment that sounds great, however I love the shape and feel of the Jazz style basses and I was thinking of getting one of these. Thanks, Ed[/quote] I haven't played a Sterling so I can't comment on that, but I did a/b it against my 3EQ Stingray. The Sandberg's MM pickup will do a pretty reasonable approximation of the Stingray, but it didn't have quite as much bite and balls. It was Stingray-lite, if you will, but still a good tone. This might be to do with the JM having a 2-band EQ, and my tendency to whack the mid up on my Stingray as much as anything else. To be honest though, after using nothing but Stingray for about 4 years, I'm loving the neck pickup on the JM4. There just seems to be so much more depth to the bottom end when you blend it in. The bridge pick up hardly gets a look in these days!

I've decided I can't have too many, so long as they've all got a purpose. I'm on 5 at the moment, although 7 was the peak. I had a pile of [i]really[/i] cheap ones that weren't even worth selling, and a pair of [i]really[/i] nice Stingrays for gigging! Some swapping and changing later, and I think I'm at a pretty sensible point now. I have my Sandberg with flats for my old-school sounds, and a Stingray for rocking out. There's a modded Squier P and a modded Jazz copy that do as backups, or when I don't want to take the posh ones. The only one that's surplus is the T-40, got used heavily with a classic rock band I was temping for, but has been made redundant by the JM4 and will probably go soon, despite the fact I love it. I think if I'm missing anything, it's a really nice Precision, but I can live without it. I also fancy a dabble with fretless, just to see if I'd find a use for it, but I can't see myself needing anything more that I've already got if I'm honest.

That top one has a familiar look about it. I suppose they're seeing everyone grabbing at Laklands and other trad-styled basses, and thinking "Hold on, this was Leo's!". Do quite like the look of that carved top Tribby though, I must admit.

Haha, wise move, you know it makes sense!!

[quote name='Shaggy' post='527690' date='Jun 29 2009, 01:10 PM']Not buying a Wal when they were £500 s/h[/quote] I got offered a lovely one for a little more than that from my old boss about 8 years ago. If only I had a DeLorean.

Too far up the motorway for me, but I'd love to hear the demos all the same, as I'm a big fan of a lot of what you mentioned above, so I'd love to check it out! Good luck with your player-hunting!

I'm going to predictably weigh in behind Sandberg, especially on the versatility front. Sounds great active, great passive, and if you go for a JM, the coil tap means you can go from a reasonable approximation of a Stingray, to a great Jazz-type sound, and I think I get fairly close to some P thump with just the neck pickup and some judicious use of the preamp. With a £2.5k budget, buy two, put flats on one, rounds on the other, and you'll have every bass tone you need!!!

I'm sneaking my modded Squier P into the set for a song or two at the moment - was my first bass, so it's nice to have it back in action. It's been given a Wizard Thumper/84 set, Badass 2, CTS pots and a new W/B/W scratchplate, and is an animal compared to how it used to sound. I've made a start modding up the 'Extreme' Jazz copy I won in the Basschat raffle too! It's become my main 'playing at home' bass, but I'm about to start doing some pub covers gigs, and I'm not sure I want to take the posh basses to some of the places!! So far, it's had a new B/W/B scratchplate, a Gotoh 201, and the control plate/pots from a Geddy Jazz. I tried to throw some new pickups in it, but the bridge p/up cavity isn't standard sized, so I've been thwarted. Spoke to Andy at Wizard though, and he reckons if I send him the pickups, he can rebuild the guts of them as 84's for me I'm still undecided whether Wizards or a J-Retro are the next move for it.

I've never got a sound I've liked through Ashdown gear - but I've only used when it's been house/shared backline. On the other hand though, I've seen a few people (locally, in small enough venues that you hear the backline!) get an absolutely killer sound out of it, so I can't help but wonder if it's just me, or just not having enough time to experiment.

The guitarist in my band is a sworn Gordon Smith user - he's got a pre-production prototype guitar that looks very much like Shaggy's bass above, and it's lovely lovely. I've never heard a bad word about them from anybody, by all accounts they're fantastic, especially consdering the dollar you have to lay out for one.

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='527421' date='Jun 29 2009, 08:18 AM']I've seen a load of live footage from Bucharest and I did definitely see Freddie tearing things up with his Smith. Or maybe not... you've got me thinking otherwise now![/quote] I've got the Bucharest DVD, it's definitely not Freddie Washington on that! Didn't know about David Williams, that's awful. Real talented guitarist, the stuff on Off The Wall is pure disco magic.