thodrik

[quote name='bremen' timestamp='1335454214' post='1631487'] Bite his hand off. The 135 is a monster; much deeper and louder than the 100. [/quote] If I had the money I would have for sure.

[url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fender-bassman-135-vintage-valve-amp-and-cabinet/100241298"]http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fender-bassman-135-vintage-valve-amp-and-cabinet/100241298[/url] Some guy in Paisley is selling a 1970s Bassman 135 and matching 1x15 for £450. You could give him a shout I suppose.

I think the Jazzes look great. Never played one though.

I want a guitar amp. I have had a nice guitar for 5 years (US Fender Toronado) but still do not own an amp. I have been borrowing my brother's Marshall Valvestate combo, but its hardly great. Ideally I would like a nice combo or head or 2x12. Marshall Vintage Modern looks cool, Orange Th30, Laney LH50 etc. Any one of them would be great. Or an old JCM 800/Selmer Treble and Bass etc. When I find the money...

Back into the heavier stuff after going through a few Stravinsky cds I found in a drawer. Soldier's Tale was the highlight. Torche - Harmonicraft. Pop-Doom. I find them charming. Summoner - Phoenix: A really lofi mixture of Baroness and Isis with Thin Lizzy guitar harmonies. Probably not many people's tastes musically or production wise but I must admit I quite like them.

I generally prefer the look of maple, but even then it depends on the colour scheme. I personally think that the sonic differences between the maple and rosewood are pretty minimal compared to fundamental issues like design, build quality, strings, eq, playing style. When it comes to a Fender just go into a shop and try all of them until you find one that looks great and plays great. Or if you are ordering blind just order the one you think looks the best.

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1335213045' post='1627476'] It did take me a minute to get used to the Glockenklang preamps. They are so transparent, subtle and emphasise just the right frequencies, that it is easy to think that they're not doing enough. If you want very extreme eq controls, then I guess you might need to swap it out. Personally, I've found that my Sandbergs sit in a band mix superbly well, and never seem to be lacking any guts. Just thinking, if you haven't had the bass long it might be worth just living with it for a bit before ditching the pre. Hope this helps [/quote] My Vigier Arpege has a Glockenklang preamp. Very transparent and subtle as you say. It took me a few weeks to get used to the idea that it was okay to boost the bass and treble eq quite a bit, at least compared to my other active basses, which usually require just a touch of eq before it is overpowering the natural sound of the bass. Still, I can understand those that would prefer to have the option of being able to dial in obscene sub-bass or glassy highs, though I suppose you can do that using another preamp anyway.

How old is that picture? I only ask because I thought that Geezer was only using Laklands now. Maybe its a few years old and he really just uses to a Phil Jones Briefcase.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1334693895' post='1619979'] The semi-para is so well voiced, it's really hard to get a bad tone out of it. For its size and rating it is a phenomenal piece of kit. Good decision, and one that i'm sure will immediately impact on the selling price of used Mesa gear on BC [/quote] I barely ever touch mine if I'm honest, or even the bass, middle and treble knobs that much either. I just set the gain and then away I go! I'm not even one of those 'everything should be run at 12 o'clock but with the 'all important bump' in the mids' type people. Its just a cool piece of kit with an inherently good sound.

After so many years of playing with them I think I am immune to the roughness of Rotos. Generally decent strings providing a solid fundamental that last a while, at least in my experience! Generally I get them though because they are a bit cheaper than D'addario Prosteels which used to be my string of choice. Any reduced quality, which is minimal to my ears, is offset by the money saved each time I buy strings. Getting a dud set is entirely possible with any set of strings though. I've had D'addarios prosteels that went dead on me within a day. I've also had a a set of Dunlop Nickels that were pretty dead as well. Isolated cases really though. I've never had a problem with Ernie Balls, but I generally prefer a stainless steel string rather than nickel.

Rotosound swing 66, 110-50. The shop down the road stocks them and they work okay for tuning down to D etc.

I like the look of the double humbucker model. I'm not sure I would really need/appreciate all the features though. Still, I wouldn't say no!

[quote name='TommyK' timestamp='1334692405' post='1619943'] No tis your choice anyroad...I just wondered why...open strings seems like a logical argument to me....carry on [/quote] Thanks!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1334687830' post='1619851'] Not all 5-strings are active. Two of the 5-string basses I use regularly are passive. [/quote] I am aware of this. My five string is active with bass, middle and treble eq for each pickup. That was the 'bells and whistles' to which I was referring. Tommy K, in terms of tuning to C or on a five string, it would involve tuning the B string up C yes. In terms of why? Of course I could play everything in standard B-G five string tuning, its just that a lot of the music I play in that kind of tuning tends to rely on a lot of open strings. Having to constantly get down to the first fret/sixth fret etc is inconvenient, making fingering twice as difficult compared to just changing the tuning in the first place. Plus to my ear it doesn't sound as good anyway. In any event I just decided that the easiest way to get around the issue was just play a Precision with bigger strings, so my 5 string is still strung B-G anyway. Though I don't really see the any problems with tuning an instrument a certain way that is not standard tuning if you want to. Its hardly uncommon and has been going for years stemming from when groups used to tune to E flat rather than standard.

I like them, but find them to be overly prevalent in the types of music I really like (stoner, doom, classic rock), so I'm not sure I'd buy one. Still, the Rickenbacker being played through a cranked tube amp is something. I've played a couple of 4003s and thought that they had a nice clean sound as well and had lovely necks (though apparently these can vary a bit). I didn't find them to be a million miles away from my Vigier Excess in terms of overall feel and playability, though the sounds were fairly different!

I've found a five string to be a bit problematic when working with guitar tunings around C, C# and D standard unless I dedicate the bass to that tuning. For those kind of tunings I generally use my old P bass. I know that with the correct fingering I could play the 'correct' notes with a five string, but usually I've found that the music I play in these tunings tends to rely on a lot of open notes. Playing on a five string just doesn't really feel right, or even sound right to my ears. Also sometimes I just like playing a passive Fender without the extra bells and whistles of an active five string. Anything around standard tuning or needing low B or lower tends to be done on the five string, hence the reason I don't want to permanently have the 5 tuned to C etc.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1334610855' post='1618640'] Definite theme of being exploded among the ones I've seen though. Think they were a bit tight on the filter caps or had supply issues, seem solid enough once it is all sorted though. The eating valves rep might also be down to maintenance issues, they don't seem to be doing anything that unusual. [/quote] I didn't know the exploding reputation, though I've never had experience with them for longer than an hour or two so not long enough to be familiar with faults etc. Long enough to turn me off the newer Ampeg SVT Classics though!

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1334596897' post='1618290'] Matamp are pretty much a different league to Sunn quality wise mind. Check link in sig, as I have a ton of amps that are suitable for these things, some of which can sell, but mostly to give you a general idea of what can work for the purpose. [/quote] Mmmmm Laney Klipp. Great amps.

I would probably get a Laney, Sound City, Hiwatt, maybe even a Marshall JCM 800 bass series type thing as they don't seem to be going for high prices second hand compared to Orange, Sunn, Trace Elliot V series or Matamp. Ideally I'd like a Matamp, but like Sunn and Orange their ubiquitous nature at stoner/doom gigs actually puts me off getting one a little bit. No doubt the amps are great (especially Matamp and Sunn) but you can pull off stoner/doom gigs without them, or even an all valve bass rig. The valve rig does make the experience more fun though!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1334351589' post='1615183'] If there was ever a reason to get a second cab this is it! Put the two cabs ontop of each other and only use the top one! [/quote] This is actually what I have done in the past. Also I have found that additional cabs can be very effective as study desks and coffee tables when not gigging.

The fan on my newer (2009) Blackfaced Walkabout gives a fairly audible hum at low volumes. I've found that playing loudly gets rid of the problem though

I saw some bits when I got in late. ZZ Top and Johnny Winter are great. Cher and Gregg Allmann were not so much to my tastes.

In live situations, any time I thought I would save weight and just take a Sansamp/Pod to a gig, the venue would invariably have a poor monitor set up, leaving me unable to actually hear myself. The best way to solve this problem was of course to buy my own monitor and bring to gigs, giving me a consistency of sound. However that seemed pointless as I already owned a bass amp. With a portable bass combo I can at least go to a gig without any real monitoring problems on stage. So generally I will choose an amp for practical reasons before I even take the sound into account. Of course, at the gig, I've often had other bass players playing through Pods/Sansamps if they could use my amp 'as a monitor' as there are not enough monitors in the venue.

I've had a GP7SM amp for over ten years and it still works. I may be wrong but I think that the SMC range was introduced during the Gibson era and aren't really as sought after, probably even less so than the GP7SM range which I think is Kamen era and generally 'alright' without being as good as the earlier ranges. You could try the Series 6 stuff, which are often regarded as Trace's best efforts in terms of solid state amps. I always thought that the Boxer/Commando experiment into practice combos were more a reason for their death, but even then I think the demise of TE was a multi-faceted problem. It usually takes more than one bad amp to kill off a company, otherwise Ashdown would have gone under after the Superfly/Little Giant was introduced.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1334304230' post='1613977'] To be fair, he's been doing this a while now and he never seems to get better at it. Compare this to the like of Genz etc's. efforts at trade shows.They make Ashdown look a bit silly. [/quote] Pretty much my view. I've seen that guy do a bunch of presentations, none of them very helpful or frankly any good. I'm sure he is a lovely fellow but surely Ashdown could find another role for him.