ern500evo

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DR's are great, they are expensive but they last well. I've switched from Roto's and have been using D'Addario pro steel XL's recently. Not sure what other gauges they do as i only ever use 45-105's but so far i'm impressed with them. I had one pack that had a dead E string but that was a one off. Well worth a look.

[quote name='vmaxblues' post='1248976' date='May 29 2011, 10:31 AM']My two penneth worth is that slap is like swearing, put it in context in a good piece of work and its absolutely fine and dandy. But when you go to a long awaited bass show in London and hear 50 frustrated drummers all slapping the hell out of the equipment it is really, really bad. The bass is an organic instrument to me, it is very expressive, it has its own voice, and overdoing the slap you might as well have bought a washboard! It is a technique, it is valid, but keep it in context and like super powers, use it sparingly![/quote] Spot on! I like to listen to slap when it's done well and it's funky, but within 10 minutes of walking into the London Bass Guitar Show i was sick of the sound of "machine gun" slapping! Whilst i admire anyone who has developed their technique to such a high standard you need to know when to use it, a burst in the middle of song and people will think "wow" but when you've been doing it for 20 minutes they'll be thinking "yea i get the point, you're really fast, now shut the f**k up"! Ps Did you catch TM stevens performance on the sunday afternnoon? Now, that man can groove!

[quote name='amnesia' post='1249386' date='May 29 2011, 04:48 PM']Said to me by another bass player... "You dropped a few bum notes there" My reply - "Yes, I did - but everybody had a good time so it doesn't matter". I only take critisism from people I respect - and this guy isn't on that list.[/quote] Don't you just love playing to other musicians!! Had the same thing recently, Other bass player "Do you know you played the wrong note in the middle of that last song?" Me: "Yea but i don't the think the crowd of people dancing noticed so i think i'll sleep ok tonight"! Tosser!!

I think it's purely a personal thing, if you have the cash to buy expensive gear then go for it. It's your money so why should you have to justify what gear you buy. At the same time if you're happy with budget gear and you can get a good sound then happy days. As for taking expensive stuff to rough pubs, you just have to be sensible i guess. Most of us probably wouldn't take a £5000 boutique bass to a council estate pub with bars on the windows but that doesn't mean you shouldn't own one if you want one and can afford it I use one of the cheaper spector's (£600) most of the time, but i still take my USA P-bass to every gig with me, i just make sure they go straight back into their hardcases as soon as i finish.

[quote name='Salt on your Bass?' post='1245777' date='May 26 2011, 03:39 PM']Drums - Joey Jordison (slipknot) Guitar/backing vox - Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) Guitar - Tony Iommi (Sabbath) Keys - Janne Wirman (Children of Bodom) Vocals - Cliff Richard I can see this band going places!.....a summer holiday perhaps??[/quote] I would pay to see Joey Jordison and Cliff onstage together!!

[quote name='Truckstop' post='1245707' date='May 26 2011, 02:58 PM']Mark Knopfler - Guitarzzzz Guy Garvey - Vox Chris Adler - Drums We'd be called 'Big Hat, No Horse' and we'd play country covers but with amazing drumming from Chris. It'd be the wick! Truckstop[/quote] Love the fact you've even got the name sorted out!!

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1245710' date='May 26 2011, 03:00 PM']Dave Grohl = Drums Matt Freeman = Bass Fat Mike = Singer/frontman Kim Thayil =Guitar 1 Tom Morello = Guitar 2[/quote] Would you not want to be the bass player??

We always get asked who our favourite bassist's/influences are, but what about other musicians? If you could put together any line up to join you in a band who would you choose? I know your answers will change depending on mood and what stuff you're listening to at the time but let's have your ultimate band mates. I'm in a rock mood so i'm gonna go for the following: Dave Grohl (drums) Zakk Wylde Corey Taylor (in his Stone Sour guise, minus the boiler suit and mask)

[quote name='peteb' post='1242091' date='May 23 2011, 07:24 PM']I live around the corner from Geoff - will check next time I see him (possibly in the pub tomorrow night)...![/quote] He makes some really good points in the letter, i can see where he's coming from. Like someone else has said, the bassically speaking feature in BGM does appear lazy, with most players featured being predominantly 4 stringers who's music has no call for slap etc. Again a point raised in this thread, you only have to look at how many of them give the same answer to the gear used question, precision/ampeg. My Nate Mendel reference was a bit of harmless banter, Geoff's Foo's tribute band are really really good and i for one sure as hell wouldn't mind Nate's job!!

I have to agree with Yorks5stringer that the writer may has slighly missed the point. Out of curiosity, i wonder if the writer is the same Geoff Livermore that plays in a Foo Fighters tribute band, and if it is, would he be so outraged if Nate Mendel gave the same answers!

[quote name='Salt on your Bass?' post='1205861' date='Apr 20 2011, 02:16 PM']I didnt think that was legal? My understanding was, unless something boutique or custom, the seller could only charge the card once the order was in the post to you, not prior. Something to do with postal rule and distance selling again. Sorry, not related to the Kilo and not meaning to derail, just querying now for my own peace of mind on such matters. I really need to try out a hartke as I've never had any experience with them. Closest I came was about 8 years ago or so when I was looking for an amp and the guy on Denmark street said "dont bother with them, they're crap. Try anything else other than them. Go over the road and see what they've got". I was younger and a hell of a lot less confident and knowledgable on gear (not that I know much now), so just dismissed them. I'm very disappointed now in hindsight.[/quote] Oh i didn't know that, you learn something new every day! At no point during their order process does it tell you that, and the fact it states "Usually dispatched in 3-12 days" alongside an amp they have no idea when they can get, is still pretty misleading. I've never owned or even used a Hartke before, i just saw an ad for the Kilo and thought it looked like a decent amp with some good features, be interesting to see/hear how it stacks up against the likes of the GK Fusion 550, the Laney Nexus Fet and some of the hybrid Ampegs.

[quote name='andy67' post='1205079' date='Apr 19 2011, 06:50 PM']Yes he said that about April too. The reps state that these will be available here in October, hoping for August but unlikely. Still, give me more time to save up - can't wait![/quote] They better be awesome considering how long it's been!! Still i suppose it's better that they iron out any teething problems before we get our hands on them. I still find it unbelievable that several online stores will actually take your order and your hard earned cash when they have absolutely no idea when they can fulfill the order!!

Hey guys, just thought i'd let anyone thats waiting on the Kilo head know, I've had an email from the man himself and Larry reckons the Kilo heads should be hitting stores both here in the UK and in the US sometime in May!

[quote name='cetera' post='1182265' date='Mar 30 2011, 02:31 PM']The best pickups to replace the EMG-HZ's with (IMHO) are active EMG35DC pickups. This is what you will find on the US Spector models....[/quote] If i change the HZ's for 35DC's would i retain the tonepump, and would the controls on the bass stay the same, volume, volume, bass, treble? Also, would both pickups and the tonepump all link off the one battery or would i need to add another? Sorry if this all sounds like a stupid question but i'm not that tech minded when it comes to bass electronics! Needless to say it'll be someone else doing the actual install! By the way, that is an amazing collection of spectors you have there! This is my first one and i absolutely love it, It's only a cheaper model but it feels great to play, my USA Precision hardly gets a look in now!!

[quote name='Cygnus x-1' post='1181376' date='Mar 29 2011, 08:46 PM']On the subject of Spector Legends. I have got one not so long ago and am getting to really like it. My question is, as the pickups are passive but the tone pump is active, if the tone controls are set to off, is the bass passive? I know it's prob a noob question but I was wondering if the battery went mid gig, if the bass would still work with tones in off position. If I have this totally wrong can a Spector expert explain (in simple terms) how the tone pump functions? cheers.[/quote] I have replaced the battery once in mine and i've had it about 10 years! And, it wasn't dead i was just putting new duracells in a couple of pedals so figured i might as well do the bass as well. They are great basses for the money, mine's a thru neck and i've had a hipshot fitted to it, i love it!

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1180966' date='Mar 29 2011, 04:10 PM']No, you should be able to power them both off a single 9v.[/quote] Excellent, sounds like a perfect solution. thanks

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1180938' date='Mar 29 2011, 03:52 PM']You can keep the tonepump, you just need to make sure the EMGs are linked to the battery too.[/quote] Cool, so if i went for actives would i nedd another battery in the bass?

Hi all, I'm thinking of possibly upgrading the EMG HZ's in my spector bass, I've seen a lot of people suggest changing them out for active emg's, would this do away with the active tonepump in the bass? If so, is this a better option than fitting a higher grade passive pickup and retaing the tonepump? Thanks

I carry two basses to gigs, but mainly for tonal differences. My main bass is a thru neck spector with EMG's and my other bass is a USA P bass with maple fretboard. I use different strings on them too, D'addario pro steels on the spector and rotosound rs66's on the fender. I love the P bass but working in a covers band i tend to stick with the spector the majority of the time as its just a bit more versatile with the EMG's and the tone pump,it's also got a Hipshot D-tuner fitted which i haven't got round to doing to the P yet, so most of the time the P bass is just there in case i need it.This obviously didn't go down too well with an older guy at a recent gig who told me after the show in his best angry drunken voice " you need f***ing shooting for leaving the precision sat on it's stand all night"!!

Thanks for all the help guys, i'd probably just leave the 8x10 wiring how it is and see how it sounds i think. I've got time to think about it as like i said in an earlier post i really want to hear an Hartke Kilo in the flesh before i decide what to go for. I have heard some really good things about the GK though so could be a tough call! Interestingly though, my wife's cousin who is also a bass player has just switched from GK to ampeg, which seems strange considering the amount of artists who are going away from ampeg due to the poor build quality of the new stuff.

So am i right in assuming that plugged into my Ashdown 8x10 the tweeter section just wouldn't be used? Like i said earlier , at some point i will probably replace the 8x10 with a 2 cab set up again, and depending on what head i settle on would probably go for matching cabs. But for the meantime i'll be keeping the 8x10 for a while, so need to consider that before i go ahead and buy.

But...the reason I didn't have a proper play with it was because I was blown away by the MB heads. If you're looking at hybrid heads, don't discount the MB Fusion. It's small, simple, it's still got two channels, still 500w. You'll be missing out on motorised knobs (which sounds like it may be a bonus for your piece of mind, it certainly wouldn't do mine any harm, I'm very skeptical about that kind of thing's reliability, even from GK) and bi-amping, which since you've not decided on a head yet, you probably won't have decided on a bi-amped cab either (and if you do go for a bi-amp compatable cab, you can run them on full range mode anyway). The best bit is it's tiny and only weighs 4.5 lbs. [/quote] Cab wise i'm using an Ashdown MAG 8x10 at the moment, which will probably be staying with me for a while if i'm looking at spending upwards of £700 on a head. When i do change it i may go back to a 2 cab setup(4x10, 1x15) for a couple of reasons, 1) the 8x10 can be a pain in the ass to transport and 2) it would give me the ability to use just one of the cabs for smaller gigs(pub landlords always seem to develop a worried expression when an 8x10 gets wheeled in!!). But as i said, i may have to keep it for a while so whatever head i do settle on it needs to be compatible. I think i've got a lot of weekends in music shops ahead of me, trying stuff out! Which isn't such a bad thing, as long as they can tell that 14yr old playing slipknot(badly) to turn that bloody dual rectifier down a bit!!

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1177170' date='Mar 26 2011, 01:08 PM']It's a good head, as Raggy says it has that classic GK sound. I didn't play it as much as I should at LBGS (I was too blown away with the MB heads and spent the weekend on them haha) but what I did hear of it was that it was in the same league as the 700RB with sound and power, it obviously sounded a bit different because of the valves but with me hearing it with 20 people slapping over the top of me, it's hard to put my finger on exactly what. The motorised knobs are very sturdy. As far as that kind of thing goes, I wouldn't be too concerned. GK gear is bombproof though so they should hold up well. The function of every setting on the amp changing when you swap channels is nice though, my 2001RB's OD channel has it's own EQ settings (only 2 band as opposed to the clean's 4 band) but things like countour don't change when I switch.[/quote] I've heard good things about them, i'm a bit annoyed at myself as i was at LBGS but didn't try one out! I just happened to be in London that weekend and really only went to try out a Hartke Kilo( which was a waste of time as the only one they had in the UK had been shipped straight to frankfurt for the trade show there!!). I want something with a tube preamp and like the look of the GK, the channel switching is a cool feature too. Really want to try a Hartke Kilo before deciding though, and am being told by various dealers that it's going to be late May before they arrive in UK stores.At least that gives me chance to go try a Fusion so i've got something to compare the kilo to, if they ever arrive!!

Is anyone out there using the Gallien Krueger fusion 550? What are your thoughts? It looks a decent bit of kit, but those motorised knobs do concern me slightly. Would be interesting to hear it head to head against a Hartke kilo and a Nexus FET.