geekabit

+1

I'm not sure about Ashdown, but my Mesa amp has a poorly designed DI output. Even though it's not a cheap amp by any stretch of the imagination, they really cut some corners on the DI output. It does not provide any isolation, which is one of the main reasons to have a DI box. In other words, you're probably better of with a separate DI box than with the one built into your amplifier. The sound tech can usually provide you with one, or get one yourself to be fully self-sufficient. For the people who enjoy some more technical details: For a DI you can use an audio-transformer, which is big, expensive, but provides you with galvanic isolation. In combination with a ground-lift switch you can get audio across without any buzz. On the other hand, you can have a balanced output without a transformer. These are usually called transformer-less or electronically-balanced. This is considerably cheaper than using a transformer, but does not provide any isolation, so it may lead to all kind of buzz and problems. On stage you do want galvanic isolation. So either make sure you amp has a transformer based DI output, or get a separate proper transformer based DI box.

Thanks for all the kind words. In other news; my new Ibanez bass was delivered today! So I'm mostly trying to wrap my head around playing a 5 string again.

Oh, bugger, I sent you to my test site. The correct url is https://www.geekabit.nl/bass-tabs/ Thanks Geek99 for bringing this to my attention!

Haha, just found a photo of 14 year old me, playing the borrowed Fender Jazz.

After spending an hour writing a welcome story on my profile, I figured out it might be an even better idea to post it here. I'm a bass player from Zuidoostbeemster in the Netherlands. And since hardly anyone knows where that is, including most Dutch, I've marked it as Amsterdam, which is close enough and most people do know Amsterdam. In the early 90s I started playing bass in a cover band. I was playing the accordion and keyboards before, but the bass was a significantly better match. My father had borrowed a bass for a while, but I was the one who ended up playing it. Since then the kit has changed a few times, but the bass playing has stayed. Since a few years I'm band-less, so I mostly end up playing along with other peoples music from CD or Youtube. Sometimes I transcribe songs, which then end up on my website: https://www.geekabit.nl/bass-tabs/ Mostly I do this for songs that have no (decent) tabs available. So what kit do I have? For the last 2 decades or so I have been playing a MusicMan StingRay (4 string), converted to passive, with a Haeussel pick-up. An Ibanez SR1105 (5 string) is currently on it's way to me and I can't wait to start playing it. I used to have an Ibanez GWB-1 (fretless, 5 string) but it turns out I'm not much of a fretless player, so I sold it again but have been kicking myself about that since it was such a wonderful bass. Hence the new Ibanez 5 string bass. Besides electric bass guitars I also have a Stagg EUB which is wonderful for plucking, and a Kala Rumbler ukulele bass which is more portable than a full bass guitar and nice to take with me camping. The only remaining amp at the moment is a Mesa Engineering Roundabout, with a 15" speaker cabinet. After a few years of lurking on this forum (and also on talkbass), I decided to sign up and maybe actually contribute. Cheers, Maarten