thodrik

I know what you mean. There were great tones in the Pod for sure but you had to work for them rather than rely on the preset tones.I ditched the Pod once I got a Sansamp Bass Driver, not because it was better, but just because of how quick and easy to use it was!

That sounds like a brilliant set up. I think a Helix is in my future. However, I am still stuck in the 'old school' mentality at the minute and generally go weak at the knees when I see a 'bargain' Mesa, Orange, Trace or Ampeg rig on the BC Marketplace. In lockdown though my thinking has certainly changed and just from messing around with things like Bias FX and Amplitube I am really starting to realise just how far things have come since I bought the original Bass Pod in about 1999! The last time I was considering buying a Helix, I ended buying a used Mesa Big Block 750, matching 6x10 (essentially my dream set up 10-12 years ago) and a Mesa Rectoverb 50 1x12 guitar combo. The total cost for all of that gear was about £1700, so in terms of 'new RRP' cost comparison it was technically a complete bargain. However is a boutique 6x10 a bargain at any price in terms of practical considerations? The answer is 'no', though I still love that cabinet as it essentially filled my lifelong goal of owning one 'big' cabinet in my lifetime. In terms of practical use I am absolutely confident I would have got far more practical use out of a Helix and FRFR, as well as saving a load of floor space! The main benefit of buying the Mesa 6x10 is that I have started doing weights in order to be able to physically fit enough move the cab, which has resulted in me getting in much better physical shape, so there is that.

That is a really great practical set up and when you state it like that it also is a wise financial investment. I have probably spent upwards of £1500 on bass pedals alone over the last ten years, without even factoring in what I have spent on amps and cabs, so it really brings into the value for money of of the Helix FRFR route once you get your head around the concept.

I really like that finish. I really wanted that for the Arpege but when one in burgundy came up for sale I wasn't going to be choosy! Honestly, if the pickup system in the Arpege was converted to a comparatively 'simple' three band EQ shared for both pick ups I don't think I would particularly mind. It is the neck shape and general fit and finish that impresses me more than the electronics, even though the electronics are great.

Looks pretty legit to me. Price seems about right for a Precision which has been upgraded with non-original parts. If the bass hasn't been played much and has been well looked after, then it doesn't surprise me if it is in good condition. As said by Doctor J above, getting an exact date on Fenders from this era as S7, S8 and S9 serial numbers each span multiple years. I have an S9 Precision which could have been made at any time from late 1978 to around 1981. I have never bothered trying to get it dated exactly as it is not from a particularly valuable or collectible era so there is no point in trying to strip and trying to confirm whether the body and neck are dated from a particular year or whether the signatures or stamps can be identified. I'm not going to sell it so I have never bothered checking. If the bridge and pickups have already been switched out, I'm not sure there is much use in checking the pots or wiring. I would just be checking whether the pickups are delivering a sound you like and whether the bass needs a decent set up. My bass plays great and I don't want to risk that by taking it apart with the aim of authenticating it. If I was buying a pre CBS era bass I would maybe however want to check everything.

I think that there is good degree of overlap between the Arpege and the Passion. The three band EQ per pickup on the Arpege does give a bit of option paralysis at times. It has taken my ten years to figure out my preferred settings! I don't tend to use the Arpege as a traditional 'jazz bass' by running the pickup blend dead centre. It sounds great doing this, but in practice I prefer a more traditional 'Fendery' type bass for traditional J bass sounds (I have a Sadowsky for that). I use the pickup blend to slightly favour the rear pickup. I generally use the EQ system to add a bit of additional bass to the back pickup (but not the front pick to avoid too avoid a potential lack of definition), so that it sounds less like a single coil jazz pickup, but more like a big humbacker or dual JJ pickup you would find on a Warwick Thumb five string or a Stingray. In practice, I think I am actually trying to make the Arpege sound more like a Passion! A black, satin finished 5 string Passion is on my 'wishlist' for sure.

Amazing looking bass! I really like that finish a lot. I really want a Passion as it is the only Vigier bass model I am missing. In terms of the bridge, I was initially wary of the monorail bridge design on the Arpege compared to the solid hulk of metal on the Excess. However, in terms of functionality and sustain, the monorail bridge on the Arpege has been brilliant and I definitely wouldn’t change it.

I am temped to get one of those or the TC Electronic BQ500 as an emergency back up to my main amps for gigs. Previously my back up was a Trace Elliot SMX 300 amp that weighed more than my main amp! Also, I LOVE the feature list for the Gnome amps: 6 Switchable Pad: No 7 Switchable Low Cut: No 8 Integrated Effects Processor: No 9 Internal Effects: No 10 FX-Loop: No 11 Tuner: No 12 AUX Input: No ... 14 LINE IN: No 15 LINE OUT: No ... 18 Tuner out: No ... 22 Foot Switch Connection: No 23 Incl. Foot Switch: No None of the Gnome range have any of these features, so why even bother listing all the things the amp can't do?

Ah right. We are definitely on that. I just remembered that our vocalist did all of that before we pressed the album,. He is really good in that regard. I just turn up and play bass.

Yes, 666MrDoom is the main guy who shared our album too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkcohmp8Unw We are up to 9k worth of streams in two weeks. I'm pretty sure the band are up on CDbaby but I would need to check. There is one Youtuber who run the Stoned Meadow of Doom page who was pretty much accused of monetising the work of artists by sharing albums but claiming he was helping bands via giving them the old 'exposure' explanation. Of course, he took a hit when accusations of bullying towards bands who didn't want to work with him came to light, along with him having various worldviews which would politely be called 'non-inclusive', which resulted in loads of albums being recalled from his page. I shall give your EP a listen later today and contribute about £0.00001 to your streaming revenue. Long form stoner/doom is pretty much my genre of choice!

Savage Garden being a pop band but Soundgarden being a much more aggressive alt-rock band always amused me. Queens of the Stone Age feature no female royalty or any cavemen. The Distillers never showed any inclination to making alcoholic drinks either.

My band are in the same boat. We released an album last month and it has been received fairly well in the stoner/doom circles which is great. This means that numerous different sites/blogs and fans have already posted the whole album to Youtube, which means that we get absolutely zilch for those plays. At least a couple of the larger blogs had the decency to ask if they could post the album and made sure to include a direct link to our bandcamp when posting the video. The process of sharing of the album has helped the band in terms of 'exposure' and our bandcamp physical and digital sales are more than they would have otherwise been if the sharing had not occurred in the first place. Essentially, the band have almost written off streaming revenue since we don't operate in a genre where that will ever be a significant revenue driver unless Lady Gaga changes style entirely and does an EP with Sleep. We are still relying on people who find the Youtube links to check out the bandcamp, maybe buy the physical album to listen to it in better quality, possibly buy a t shirt and maybe catch us at a gig sometime when it becomes possible. The revenue the band generates helps keep the band going but there is little to no individual income for any of the band members. Even if the band 'made it' within this genre it would not be particularly financially lucrative.

Seen CoC twice, first time with Clutch as chief support in about 2005. It was an awesome gig.

My band have made it into ‘The Doom Charts’ with our new album. One spot behind Cult of Luna so I will take that, though we are admittedly not very doomy. https://doomcharts.com/2021/03/01/doom-charts-february-2021/

Mesa Walkabout has been my main head for over ten years. Sounds great and brilliant overdrive tones, but if you are looking to maximise clean headroom it isn't the greatest. If you can find one used a Mesa M3 head would be a great head. EBS HD350 would be a good all round head and you can get them for a good price used and reliability wise they are pretty great. The Ashdown ABM300 would be a good bet, but the 500 would probably weigh about the same and by much louder. However if you already own an RM head it might just be too similar to you already have.

Nice. Cracking looking bass too!

Haha, my bad! Maybe this will be an option for Ultra-Broadneck Warwick made Sadowskys!

A 24 fret Sadowsky Metro would fit the OP's criteria of something that looks Fendery and has 19mm string spacing. There is a new 24 fret 'Warwick made' Sadowsky Metro on Bass Direct for slightly under £2k. If you have the cash though, there is all number of boutique J basses out there, Mike Lull, Overwater, etc At sub £1k level, I am pretty sure that the Sire M series have 19mm spacing, but may be wrong. They are cracking basses but not overtly Fendery looking.

I have tried any number of strings with this tuning over the past 7-8 years. The fact that the low C is dropped two whole tones from standard while the other strings are only dropped one whole tone means that getting a 'balanced' set of strings from a standard pack is pretty tricky. It might be better buying single strings. My advice would be to look at the tension ratings of your preferred strings in standard tuning and try to use a set that has a similar tension in drop C. There are string tension guides online which are worth looking at (D'addario's one is very good). Of course, tension isn't the only factor. Other factors such as compliance, the touch of the player, preferred string height, the fret work of the bass, the relief in the neck, all play a role, however I think that looking at tension is good at pointing you in the general direction and after that there is a bit of trial and error. Also, if the low C is just used for a low C (and not a D for D standard) you can probably use a much heavier low C string to get a tighter response. Brief reviews of the strings I have used on a Fender Precision and Sadowsky Metro are as follows: GHS 'Heavy' Boomers: 115-50: Good strings, decent even tension, didn't last that long but perfectly good strings. Rotosound 'singles' set 115-50. Decent tone, didn't last long and it had that Rotosound 'rough texture' thing going on which I like but some folk hate. DR DDT: 115-55: Good strings but frankly I didn't like them due to how unbalanced they were. The tension on the low C was alright, however the 75 and 55 gauges were really far too tight for being tuned to C and F. Great for Sabbath tuning (C sharp standard) but anything above that was too tight and anything below that and the strings went all flubby. Dunlop Heavy Core 115-55: pretty much exactly the same issues as the DR DDTs above. They have been discontinued I think. Custom Newtone set: 50-110: better than the DR DDT, though very expensive and not as good as the D'addario set below I can source for about half the price. D'addario EXL160BT: 120-50. These have generally been my first choice. Balanced(ish) tension so the higher strings do not feel like unmoveable steel cables and low string doesn't handle like a bit of Spaghetti. Cost effective too as they only cost around £20 or so. My current choice is a set of Elixirs I made up a set on Strings Direct: 50-130 (50-70-95-130). I found that the D'addarios only last a few rehearsals and gigs before going dead. The Elixirs have been installed for more than a year now and still sound fresh (well, the lack or rehearsals and gigs probably helps!). The 95 gauge for the G (A in standard) is pretty tight but Elixir don't make a 90 string and the 85 string isn't heavy enough for my own taste/ham-fisted touch.

I think that the pricing of the Masterbuilt line is made in accordance with the general Warwick custom shop pricing rather than with any regard to Sadowsky NYC pricing. So if the same Warwick master craftsmen and women who make £6k Streamers/Thumbs are spending similar hours when making a Sadowsky Masterbuilt, then this will result in prices which are a similar to, or exceed the prices of Sadowskys made by Roger Sadowsky.

This is a good point. I think some of the complaints are based on the fact that it previously very unusual for any of the non-chambered Japan made Metros to be over 9lbs in weight, yet quite a number of the made in Germany Metros which have been released are well over 9lbs. Of course this doesn’t make the German Metros an inferior bass from a build or sound perspective, but it has inevitably caused a few eyebrows raised from those who expect a Sadowsky instrument to always be lightweight. Add that to some of the QC issues and there is a lot fuel to Warwick haters to latch onto. I’m trying to keep an open mind on the arrangement. I have never played a Warwick that I thought was a poor instrument, so I don’t doubt that instruments will be top quality once the initial QC issues are sorted out. Personally I actually prefer the increased level of figuring on the maple necks of the Warwick Metros, as the Japan Metro tended to have very plain necks. The Warwick Metros have a bit more ‘bling’ to them in general. However, I can’t say I am likely to pay the Masterbuilt prices when Roger Sadowsky himself is making basses. However, in ten years time it might be that the only way to get a custom Sadowsky bass is via Warwick, so it might be the only option, so for that reason alone I hope that the arrangement works out long term. I’ve always fancied a six string Thumb though, so that might win out if I happened to have £6-8k of spending money available, which is admittedly highly unlikely short term.

I saw Converge in the upstairs area of Glasgow Barfly circa 2007. It was incredibly loud. Mastodon in Cathouse in Glasgow circa 2004 was just ridiculously loud. I saw Dillinger Escape Plan there as well and they were pretty damn loud but the aggression of the music made the music seem louder than it actually was. High on Fire in Nice N Sleazys in Glasgow in about 2006 was borderline painful. Generally I don't suffer at the larger venues where the sound is controlled entirely by the PA. I generally only struggle in smaller venues where there is no escape from the stage sound or oversized PA subs for the tiny venue. Also Buddy Guy was blisteringly loud when I saw him.

In terms of 'mainstream' gigs, the only gigs I left early was Motorhead and Killswitch Engage. Motorhead were great but I felt ill so left. In terms of the Killswitch Engage gig, I was kind of enjoying them but I was really only there to see Every Time I Die with my mate who secured me a free ticket. My mate didn't like the silliness of Killswitch Engage's onstage antics and wanted to leave to grab a beer instead so I did. I wish I would have left the following: - Red Hot Chili Peppers - mind numbingly awful and I was fan!; and - Van Morrison - the level of contempt he had for the audience and his own band was palpable;

Buddy Guy. I used to have Danko Jones’ but lost that. That is it. Van Morrison’s guitarist threw a pic into the crowd at a gig I was at. If I had caught the pic I would probably thrown it back at Van Morrison’s head given how half arsed his performance was.

Not exactly an entirely mainstream song, but Morningstar by Baroness is one that comes to mind for me. For me it is a classic case of tagging a 'heavy rock' riff into the beginning and end of a song. The song in the middle has no relation to the opening riff whatsoever and is kind of just a standard verse/chorus rock song. The opening riff then returns at the end, again out of nowhere. I quite like the opening riff but the song leaves me a bit 'meh'. My friend likes the song but finds the opening riff 'meh'. My brother hates the whole song in its entirety. Also I just don't like the mix, the bloody hi hat is so damn loud and everything is really compressed.