thodrik

Add a Trace Elliot Bright Box and you have a ‘portable full-range gigging solution’. i have read too many old Trace Elliot manuals…

Of course the opposite is when I am told that there is 'world class' backline which ends up being a mid 1990s Laney Richter 50 watt 1x12 combo!

I played a punch of gigs at Drummonds from 2008-2011. We generally parked at the rear of the building located off Denburn Road. At my first time playing I then had lug my Trace Elliot 1x15 combo up three flights of stairs only to find that the house bass amp was a...4x10 Trace Elliot combo with the same amp! I think that we had to shift the van after loading. It was fine but this was 2008 so that traffic issues wouldn't have been as bad as they are now.

During my time in Glasgow, I once had an initial audition with the guitarist who was so high that he brought an old Boss 8 track recorder as his 'pedal board' and proceeded to try and run the 8 track recorder through a Marshall AVT head and cab so he could access the onboard effects on the recorder. He assured us that he knew what he was doing and that these effects were 'the bees knees man'. He gave up after 20 minutes then just plugged in his guitar in to the amp only to notice that it only had four strings, which was unfortunate as 'those two strings were the ones I really needed.' Another session involved a guitarist who hailed from Yemen, who was actually technically pretty competent. However we really couldn't play in a band with him out of the awkwardness of him insisting to check that none of the other band members were Jewish before we started playing, although in his defence he did also state 'I have no issues with Protestants or Catholics, so I am still more tolerant than many Glaswegians', which admittedly did get a laugh. I mean, when you try to start a stoner rock band, it comes with the territory that sometimes people will turn up entirely stoned or slightly unhinged. It is only now, about 15 years later that I realise just how weird some of those sessions were.

I have had a Vigier Excess for twenty years. I always knew it was a great bass, but coming from a passive Fender Precision (which I have owned for 25 years), I struggled with just how 'active' and powerful the pickups were on the Vigier as they generally overpowered the inputs of most amps I had. I also wasn't convinced that the action wasn't as nice as it should be for a bass of that price (it was about £1,200 back in 2004...). I used it on and off for gigs and tours etc but it was replaced as my main gigging bass in 2009 when I got my first Sadowsky Metro and didn't really get used after that. I then took it to a tech in 2015 who noticed that the neck was slightly misaligned. The tech thought that the neck was either not put on correctly in the factory, had been taken off and then not put back on properly or had maybe received a knock in transit. Anyway the tech sorted it out and it played like an entirely different bass. I then 'discovered' in Covid lockdown that most of the best tones involved cutting rather than boosting the active EQs in order to tame the pickups. Now instead of starting with the EQ in the 'centre' (no cut/boost) position, I treat the EQ as a boost only EQ from 'fully cut'. It makes the bass so much more useable. I actually hate myself for not noticing this trick about 15 years earlier! It became my main bass again in 2022...

I have had NYXLs on my Sadowsky NYC 5 string for about 8 months. Owing to home renovations/studio construction I haven't really been playing as much, but the strings have actually held up pretty well. I think that I will stick with Elixirs however as they last as long as 18 months with semi-regular playing.

I have a five string NYC and a four string Metro (Japan). Both are standard sixties style JJ basses, so not the modern designs which I think are probably better suited to more expansive playing styles. In terms of upper fret access, outside of the 24 fret models I would say that the upper fret access is no better and no worse than the equivalent Fender. Essentially, it is fine 90% of the time. The string spacing on the Sadowsky five strings are generally 19mm so there is loads of space for slapping. The neck on my five string (and all other Metro five strings I have tried) is pretty wide at the nut. As much as I love the bass for tone and general playability, it is a fairly substantial neck to navigate if you are playing more progressive legato stuff. It is still absolutely possible, but it requires a bit of effort and I find left hand 'fretboard gymnastics' easier to play on the four string, or my five string Vigier Arpege which has a much narrower neck and slightly narrower string spacing. Though I do play with fairly high tension strings with a 'medium' action so I'm not really going for a super low action/play with a really light approach to begin with. In terms of space to use slap and double thumb techniques etc, I much prefer the Sadowsky to the Vigier owing to extra string spacing near the pickups and bridge. In terms of comparing the Sadowsky 4 to 5, I can switch from four to five very easily owing to the string spacing being essentially the same.

In terms of prices the absolute top of the line Mesa bass head is now just under £1600. The M-Pulse lines were considerably more expensive than the current Mesa amps about 10-15 years ago. In terms of D-350 being expensive at £800, in about 2009 the 300 watt Walkabout was about £1300 for the head and about £1600 for the 1x15combo. The M3 Carbine 300 watt amps from a decade ago were also more expensive than the D-350. Essentially Mesa bass amps are more affordable than they used to be. Granted the designs are entirely different and class D amps are generally more cost effective to make (and ship) than the older amps. However I don’t really have an issue with the pricing mainly because this is not a new development. Mesa have always been more expensive to buy in the UK. This isn’t a new development or some master plan by Gibson. The products really are high quality though and are generally built to last. I bought a new Walkabout 1x15 combo in 2009 and it still works perfectly after hundreds of gigs and sessions.

Saw them live in 2006 in the then Carling Academy in Glasgow. It was in the middle of the FIFA World Cup and Justin was the English celebrity columnist on the FIFA website. Eva Longoria was the Mexican correspondent and Gorbachev was the Russian correspondent. It was a wild time. Maynard did the whole gig in an orange cowboy hat. No support, no massive video screen, just a gig with some basic lighting. I loved it. Danny Carrey missed a couple of beats in a two hour set and a couple of Glaswegian drummers in the crowd yelled ‘F**k me he is actually human!’ Good gig.

I have seen 'Excellent' condition OR120s from the 1970s go for £1700-£2000, with more worn ones going for slightly less than that and some 'aspirational' Ebay/Reverb asking prices upwards of £2,000 which I think are over the odds unless it is in amazing condition. Reissues from the 1990s go for less. Not tried one myself, but it will be heavy, loud and will win you lots of respect with vintage gear fans/nerds at any venue you play.

Warwick Thumb 6. I know it would be heavy. I know it would be unbalanced. I know I know I don't need six strings. I know I probably wouldn't get on with the neck. Still want.

I've had a original Japanese Metro since 2009 and an NYC 5 since 2016. Great basses. If you like the preamp and provided that the previous QC issues have been sorted out, then the SMX bass should offer great value for money. Andy Irvine (former Warwick demonstrator) has bought/acquired loads of SMX basses which he has upgraded and modded and now uses as his main basses. There is a cool Facebook group for that called 'Sadowsky Metro Bass Owners' where he regularly posts about upgrades he has done.

Good instruments, definitely worth trying a Metro or NYC model if you are in the market for a modern active J type bass. I own an NYC and Metro (Japan), both from about 2009. The NYC is chambered, has five strings and has prettier woods. However both are fairly identical in terms of quality of fit and finish. I have not tried a made in Germany (by Warwick) or made in China Metro Express and I am unlikely to do so given I already own two Sadowskys. The made in Germany Warwicks really should be exceptional instruments. I won’t be selling mine, though equally I am not sure I would be willing to pay the current prices for the Masterbuilt instruments while Roger Sadowsky is still building instruments.

D’addario have a 120-50 set (50-67-90-120) which I have used for D standard/drop C. Personally I prefer them to any of the drop tuning sets I have tried from DR or ‘heavy core’ strings I tried from Newtone. 50-110 would probably be fine though, I just prefer a fairly high tension/tight low string.

Might hook up my Les Paul to my Trace V6 and Mesa 6x10 and see what happens. Probably an incredible amount of volume, might need an overdrive pedal though.

I used a little bit of reverb (and delay and loops) on a track on the band's last album. Mostly atmospheric stuff. It is essentially an intro to the track that follows. The band mostly does down-tuned stoner rock so the above track is a bit of an outlier. I don't generally use reverb in the context of a gig, even if I am playing the above track, which involves tap-dancing between loop and delay which is difficult enough as it is.

I will never buy a bass which has the following: - Gibson Three point bridge (okay, I have a Gibson 1974 EB3 I bought over twenty years ago but I wont buy another); - short scale basses (see comment about Gibson EB3 above); - pickup selectors on basses (see comment about Gibson EB3 above); - unbalanced neck heavy basses with strap buttons in the wrong places (see comment about Gibson EB3 above). Damn.

Sign of being a 37 year old rocker with two kids… I didn’t even particularly love the new albums by Baroness, Metallica, Alexisonfire or Queens of the Stone Age. I just listened to them multiple times to determine if I like them and they varied from ‘meh’ to ‘really good…at points’.

I don’t disagree. Not quite sure why you quoted me given that the words ‘pedalboard amp’ is in the title of the topic and was the main selling point of the product in question.

I played a gig with one and the matching 4x12. It was at all instrumental post-rock gig in a basement venue. It had absolutely unreal levels of headroom. I was very impressed.

I really love it. It actually has a bit less EQ flexibility compared to the other Mesa heads I have tried/owned, being the M6 Carbine and the Walkabout. However, as a mid-heavy, slightly dirty rock tone the Big Block is great. The overdrive channel is great too, I just crank the gain and it becomes one of the best fuzz tones I have ever tried. Its definitely a 'will never sell' head.

Ooff Nice, here is my own 'triple'. I am now down to one cabinet and it is impractically heavy and loud, so I need to get at least one 2x12 or 4x10 (preferably 4 ohm) to add to my collection. Most of my gigging is with the Mesa Walkabout combo which is nearly out of shot.

I was born in 1986 and already have a couple of basses which are older than me. I would say a Wal, but if I went the Wal route I would prefer a Mk 2 or 3 which only came out after I was born. I own a late 70s Fender Precision and I looked for years to find a nice vintage Jazz bass to match. However I never found one I thought was worth the money and I ended up buying a Sadowsky which I preferred to any vintage jazz bass I had previously tried. Generally, I am more likely to buy a new YOTF bass, as in a 'Year of Turning Forty' bass as I could get something I really want like an ACG, Warwick or Spector Forte, or (sacrilege) a guitar!