thodrik

Their business, their decision. The worst thing that they could do in my opinion is sign a licensing agreement with for mass-produced designs made in the far east with varying degrees of quality control. That would quickly ruin the exclusive nature of the brand and in turn reduce interest. Hell, if the licenced products were exceptional then it might actually reduce demand for the made in England instruments. The prices of Wals exceptionally high and the output of instruments is exceptionally low and the demand for the instruments is really high but the demand itself is from a relatively small client base. Of the major manufacturers who could be trusted to make a licensed Wal 'correctly'? Certainly not Fender or Gibson and I don't see why Musicman would be interested since they have their own products. Perhaps Warwick, but Warwick masterbuilds are just about as expensive as a Wal, plus a licensed 'Wal-wick' would no doubt benefit from 'improvements' like the Just a Nut, magnetic pick up covers which have appeared on the licenced Sadowskys. Best to stick to their current model. There are other exceptional luthiers and custom builds out there to consider in any event.

I'm guessing that he was the entire mix!

After looking at the Trace Elliot historical catalogues thread, I really think that a 1x18 and 2x10 stack with an additional bright box is the way forward. The 18 for the lows, the 10s for the mids and the bright box for the highs. Use a mic on each cabinet, a pre-EQ DI and post EQ DI and send them all to the sound engineer who will obviously be delighted and entirely willing to cooperate with you for 45 minutes until the FoH sound in the small club is exactly to your liking.

I would have thought that set up would at least give a decent clean tone…

I very much recommend to try before buying. The boutique J bass is a fairly saturated market and there are lots of options out there. I own an NYC five string and a Metro four string, both dating from around 2009. Both J basses with 60s spacing and maple fingerboard. I bought the Metro brand new and NYC used in 2016. Both are great basses. In terms of the pre amp I really like it but I find that the best sounds are achieved with very minimal use of the preamp. Generally I turn the bass dial less than a quarter turn and leave the treble not boosted. Comparing my NYC to the Metro. The preamp and general fit and finish is pretty much identical. The NYC though just ‘feels’ more special because it has a quilted maple top and the neck has a cool vintage tint whereas the Metro has a very plain top and very plain fingerboard. In terms of the general sound they are very similar apart from the fact that the NYC has an extra string… I have never really used the VTC. If I wanted a vintage sound then I would use another bass. To some though the VTC is an amazing feature. Is a modern new NYC worth the money? Well, they are very expensive but also in very limited supply. To me the NYCs are now in the Wal, Fodera category in that the main customers are either top pros or people with lots of disposable income who just really want a Sadowsky NYC. I have used my Metro as my main gigging bass since 2009. No issues whatsoever and I won’t ever be selling it.

Pretty much the same apart from the 60 watt one having a slightly larger speaker, slightly more powerful amp and a bit heavier.

I really like Phil Collins, even his work on the Brother Bear movie. I prefer the Load era Metallica albums to anything that has come since, mostly because I liked the slightly bluesier, alt-rock mixed with Sabbath and Skynyrd style and with less thrash metal. Granted a lot of the songs are generic but some of the tracks are very listenable mainstream rock. I also really like the 1980s Fleetwood Mac albums when Buckingham and Nicks openly hated each other but seemed to keep on going purely for the money.

At current and upcoming energy prices in the UK, the cost of boiling a kettle and then using the cooker to boil the strings will probably ended up being more expensive than the cost of buying new strings. So essentially, I view the process as a waste of water and electricity. I generally just buy long life coated strings. Yes, I prefer the initial sound of fresh non-coated strings which to me is a 10/10 sound, but usually the tone fades within 6 weeks leaving me with a 6/10 sound. A set of Elixirs or similar strings gives me an 9/10 sound for about 18 months.

The drums on St Anger sound great.

Yepp, I consider this good news. Spector and Vox have done well under Korg. Korg also acquired Aguilar which isn’t struggling. Yamaha bought Ampeg as well and this is generally thought of as a positive development. If nothing else, I would actually enjoy it if Korg dialled back on the patented Darkglass marketing strategy of releasing a pedal, waiting 6 months, and then releasing a slightly different version of the same pedal in the Ultra or V2 format.

I do really rate the Ashdown heads. I find that they cut through better when I cut the main bass EQ to about 10 or 11 o clock and effectively use the next two sliders as my de facto 'Bass' control. It definitely tightens things up, particularly on higher settings of the drive control. I generally don't use the pre-shape.

Honestly, with so many young people these days being socially aware, not drinking and very health conscious, rock bands are very tame in 'wildness levels' compared to the bands of the 60s-90s. I say this as someone who turned 36 today...

This is a really enlightening post. As a useless anecdotal note, my 'dream amps' as a teenager in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s were generally the boutique hybrid/Mosfet amps or all valve amps that were priced at around £1500-£2000 bracket even then. The cost of the boutique class D bass heads that my 14 year old nephew dreams of owning are generally in the £800-£1200 bracket in 2022. In the meantime the cost of a passive US made Fender bass (say the old American Standard compared to the new American Pro) have essentially doubled in the same timeframe. With that in mind I think that the modern class D amps offer phenomenal value.

Done. Best of luck.

Thanks! The green pedal is a clone of an Earthquaker Hummingbird. My pal is now making loads of pedals. I also have a GCI Bass Brutalist overdrive which I actually use for guitar. The Mesa 6x10 is the best cab I have ever used. Just brutally and impractically heavy and frankly unnecessary for most gigs. Big Block is immense too. I wanted that head for about 12 years before I finally got one!

Thanks, I entirely forgot I posted a link to the album in this very thread last year! I am turning into some kind of stoner/doom spammer. Apologies all!

I have five main basses with each bass getting alternated every few weeks when I practice. I have owned all but one of my basses for well over a decade so I am familiar with them all to the extent that I can chop and change on short notice. The most played one at home is my 'new' five string as I am still familiarising myself with it as I have only owned it since 2016. I might practice sitting down, I might practice standing up. When I practice sitting down I still retain the ability to play a gig, rehearse or record standing up, so it has never been an issue for me. If I can't play something standing up that I can play sitting down then I take this as a sign that my strap is in the wrong position rather than I need to practice standing up more.

Basses, rigs, artwork and pedals attached! Main doom machine is my old P bass. Generally I tune to C sharp standard or drop B. Five strings are tuned the same but with an added high A string, so despite being used for stoner/doom they are tuned 'up' rather than down from a standard five string. Main gigging amp is actually the Mesa combo but used to gig the Fafner with a Trace Elliot 1x15 I gave to my nephew. I've had the V6 and Fafner for a about a decade each. Big Block and 6x10 I just got for silly money second hand in the last few years. Presently saving up for a 4x10 that is more practical than the 6x10! Pedals are a work in progress. Not convinced if I like the voicing on the B3K. Unfortunately though I discovered this after I recorded a whole album with one... https://electricmother1.bandcamp.com/album/ii Joined this band when I moved back up north. Not toured like we planned because of Covid. When I joined we recorded an album with plans to tour more extensively but Covid hit and that touring is probably not going to happen, probably ever. The album was finished off during lockdown which unfortunately affected the final quality but it was either that or not finishing the album. Not really doom, just drop C fuzz rock. Currently on hiatus due to house moves, job changes/promotions and new babies, might be back playing later in the year. Older band did a small EP that was more in a proggy melodic doom direction, production is rubbish though as it was meant to just be a demo and we split up before we recorded it properly. Has a bass solo on it somewhere. Frankly wish we had recorded it properly. https://khydra.bandcamp.com/album/skycrasher Trying to record with my other band this year, but need to buy a better laptop so we can record. Will post something in this thread if and when we manage to record something. Edit: apologies that the pictures are massive. I'm not sure how to make them smaller!

Pretty sure manufacturers use Brazilian rosewood and buckeye and markedly different price points to Fodera, including manufacturers in the New York area so I don’t believe that this a determining factor. I have no doubts that Fodera do not make a massive profit relative to the price. Length of the builds, relatively low output of instruments, the need to pay luthiers a good wage on account of the skill required, cost of running a business, admin costs, marketing costs, local taxes. They all add up, though of course most boutique manufacturers have similar issues. Though essentially if you need to have a Fodera (or a Wal or a Ritter) then there is an inherent cost involved.

I have similar thoughts. When I was 15 I just assumed that the more extravagant basses were constructed out of really expensive wood!

To me it looks like a concept piece that requires a lot of hours to make and that results in a high price. Perhaps the asking price is a means of Fodera essentially saying 'yes, we can make this bass, but it is very difficult and complicated and we are only going to do it if it is really worth our while'. The price point is probably set on the understanding that Fodera don't expect (or particularly want) to receive thousands of orders. I am pretty sure you spec a Warwick, Wal or a Ritter and come to the same price eventually if you add enough options. I put Fodera in the same category as those type of custom orders in that these are not instruments designed for sale to the general public but are instruments to be acquired by a very small clientele who frankly have money to burn, for whom a ridiculously expensive bass is no different to a ridiculously expensive concept car, luxury watch etc. As a result, this type of pricing does not really irritate me whatsoever. Frankly, it irritates me more when I see Warwick made Sadowsky Masterbuilt basses being sold at a higher pricepoint than Sadowsky basses made by Roger Sadowsky and even that doesn't really irk me, particularly given Warwick are entirely within their rights to set whatever price point they like under the licensing agreement and Warwick masterbuilt basses don't come cheap.

I also like to use the search function on Basschat to find specific threads I am not interested in just so I can leave a comment detailing that I am not a fan of the subject matter. For example: 'I am not overly familiar with Joe Dart and thus I have no interest in this thread discussing the new Joe Dart latest signature model bass.' 'I have no interest in country music and never listen to it. However I nevertheless feel that I have the authority to say that it all sounds the same and that all of the country subgenres and descriptions like Classic Country/Alternative Country/Rockabilly/Western Swing/Outlaw Country/Country Rock/Bluegrass etc' are just different names for a largely uniform type of music which all sounds a bit generic and uninteresting to my infinitely more sophisticated musical palette.' 'I hate bass overdrive, so I have no interest in this thread discussing bass overdrive pedals.' 'I use a Helix with a FRFR speaker and just wanted to post that this is a superior set up and that you are all a little bit silly to make a thread discussing valve bass amplifiers'.

D'addario do a balanced tension set of 120 - 90 - 67 -50. I use that generally for D standard and drop C. The tension of a 120 tuned to D is not dissimilar to having a 110 string tuned to E. GHS do a Heavy Boomers set of 50-115 which I rate. There is also a DR DDT set of 55-115 but I find the higher strings to have too much tension at D standard for my personal taste. A normal heavy gauge of 50-110 with your favourite brand of strings should be fine though. If you are changing from a lighter gauge of strings tuned to standard then you might need to give your bass a set up for the new tuning.

I don't own any class D amps, however my nephew has a TC Electronic BQ500 which is about as budget as a budget class D head gets. I think it sounds pretty impressive for the price and practicality standpoint. If you are using a pre EQ DI or using an additional preamp for your core tone, then it is a perfectly useable gigging amplifier given that nobody is going to hear the amp anyway. Would I trade my bigger amps for it? No way, but I would be totally happy if I was given one as supplied backline. Though I love amps as a point of personal interest (design choices, features, how they are put together etc), however I am not picky when it comes to a gig. If a gig required me to go the IEM route I would do that without hesitation. However my main interest has always been heavy rock, particularly in the blues, stoner and doom sub-genres in which amps (particularly vintage amps) are generally part of the culture and 'fun' of being in a band and doing live shows, so going IEM in that route is unlikely for me, even if it makes complete logical sense.

You really must try out as many as you can. Last summer I tried the following - Tech 21 VT Bass DI - Darkglass B7K Ultra - Tech 21 Bass Driver DI v2 - Markbass Something or other (it had a valve in it). In short, the Bass Driver DI v2 won out. From owning V1 for over a decade I consider the V2 to be much more flexible because of the mids feature. It is also 'idiot proof' in terms of operation and great for gigging or recording when you need a decent bass sound quickly and without any fuss which is something I really appreciate. I have never tried the Para Driver but I'm guessing I would like it too! However, no on board compression, no headphone out, no additional footswitchable drive however I didn't need that as I already have other drives and compressions that I can used along with the Bass Driver. It is a bit above your initial budget, but something like a second hand Helix Stomp must surely be worth a consideration given it has a number of amp sims and effects on board? I was tempted to go this route, but I decided that I really need a 'plug in and play' preamp pedal.