thodrik

Looks like it. I prefer the new name anyway. I wonder if they would ever make them as a five string? Doubt it though.

I would maybe say the ampeg BA combos as well. Not very moveable or loud for their size, but will always deliver good tone, be loud enough for gigs and ampeg have good name recognition amongst the general public. Hartke would also be a good one, though I'm in the minority of folk that don't like the Hartke aluminium speaker cones. Good luck.

I have heard worse. At least he is not afraid of using his own products. With it being an Orange amp, all he really had to do to sell it was turn up the gain pretty high, hit the e string and go 'see, its loud and valvey and it can be quite fuzzy too'.

I have a Gibson EB3 circa 1974. Neck Dive? Yes Really heavy? Yes Badly designed bridge? Yes Tone controls that are more like off/on switches rather than a gradual change of 1-10? That as well Terrible? Far from it Its medium scale (32 inches), which means that it is not much use for anything downtuned even to drop d, but in standard tuning it really is a great bass with a unique sound which makes up for its obvious design flaws. Brilliant for blues and rock stuff. Huge natural low end means you have to be careful when adding bass through the amp. Really nice neck, although it doesn't really taper much.

I'm not an Ashdown fan at all, but after 4 years or so I can generally manage a pretty good sound out of them. Normally it involves turning the bass knob to about 10 or 11 o'clock, leaving everything else 'flat' apart from maybe boosting the highs a tiny bit (passive basses can bit by with a bit more bass in my opinion). I find if you cut the bass on an Ashdown you end up with a tone closer to most other amps when the bass has been boosted a fair bit. Other views may vary, considerably Saying that though, I just don't think the eq is in any way an improvement over what Trace Elliot were doing a decade before. I'm not that impressed with the Ashdown cabs though. Still despite all of that, I still thing that Ashdown make decent amps, I just don't like the front end design as much as anything else.

I like them. A bit unsure about the bridge in terms of looks, but at least it stops it from being a complete Fender clone. Same with the fingerboard/headstock issue. After buying a Sadowsky Metro I think I have fulfilled my 'expensive active electronic instrument based on a Fender jazz' quota. One is enough for me. The five string I would maybe consider, but I think its well out of my price range just now, and for a five string I would prefer to have 24 frets, I don't know why, I just do.

I've only tried the 4x10 cab, which I think is a really great cab. Tried lifting one though, which has almost ruled it out for me as a cab. When I tried the 4x10 it was playing through the TD650, and got a very usable tone with a fair amount of old school grit. As such I didn't find the combination of the amps and cabs to be too glassy, I suspect the person letting me use his amp had already turned down the tweeter. I use the Fafner through Trace Elliot cabs, which I think goes well with getting a decent, modern but not too modern sound. I'm not saying that they are greatest cabs, they have just done a good job the last couple of years. The problem I've heard from folk is that the amps are a bit too transparent, which makes them seem a bit characterless compared to amps that seem to have a built in signature sound (Trace Elliot, Ampeg, Eden, Mesa). If you love the natural sound of your bass, the EBS amps are a really good amp to use. Not tried the HD350 though, maybe I would find it a bit too modern. I pretty much turn tweeters off, or almost off, on any cab I use though.

I like a lot of the music and the sounds created by the band, but I just don't like Morrissey: his voice, his lyrics or him in general. It doesn't bother me if others find him amazing, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I just will never be 'won over' by Morrissey. If the entire Smiths catalogue was released any of the vocals, I would buy it without question.

300 watts sounds fairly small in comparison to some of the competition. But how much power do you really need before it just becomes a generic number that people use to signify 'loudness'.However, I find it difficult to classify watts in terms of loudness beyond the obvious (ie a 65 watt amp is not as loud as a 300 watt amp). For example I have a Trace Elliot 300 watt head (SMX series) and a Mesa Walkabout, and find that there is no real difference in headroom/loudness between these amps and the Ashdown ABM 500 and Ampeg SVT 450 that are in the studio I use. I have always had the view that an efficient 300 watt amp driven through a 4ohm loud was plenty loud enough to cope with most gigs (especially if is being driven through a good cab). Tech 21 will probably bring out a 600 watt version in 6 months or so, much like they have made people wait a while before they brought out a VT bass pedal that had a DI out. Merry christmas everybody!

I don't really see the problem in tuning down. Even if it is just a half step, if you prefer the sound of it being a half step down, then why not? I don't like it when those that prefer 'heavier' (meaning lower/downtuned) tunings are perceived to be unable to play in standard tuning or have a working knowledge of harmony, melody and song structure. I don't think it says anything about the ability, or lack of ability, of the guitarist in question. I used to get annoyed by the amount of guitarists who insisted on playing in drop d the whole time. The tuning often pretty much demands you also play in drop d (D A D G) rather than tune a whole step down (D G C F), as you often need the two open Ds (what I call the 'Tool effect'). Even then there were some good ones in amongst the one finger power chord wonders.

Just keep playing! I found that playing double bass and learning the theory alongside was great for my understanding of music in general. However it was not as helpful as all the time I have spent playing the electric bass by myself or in band situations. After a certain point (ie six months into studying classical music at uni), I thought that playing double bass in order to be a better electric bass player was like learning to play squash in order to become a better tennis player. After a while I just wanted to play tennis, and playing squash was just getting in the way of things, even though it was really helpful at first. After using up my metaphor and imagery quota for the month, I'll just say to keep doing what you are doing. I would say to keep doing what you are doing. I wouldn't get too bogged down on learning new techniques all at once, or adopting a clinical approach to electric bass playing as you would with classical double bass playing. Just keep on playing and after a certain period in time you just get a feeling on how to approach chord sequences etc and different techniques will come more easilly once you start to really know the instrument.

I always thought four strings was enough but now I am confused. I used to play tuned to C, which was fine on a four string with biggish strings. Then everything became drop D or standard and again a four string was enough. Now I'm playing stuff where a low A is needed (or I think is needed) and I'm thinking a five could be needed. I could easily change one of my basses to be able to get a drop A, but I don't think I could get a string that could do both a drop A and a drop D, which would mean taking two basses to practices or gigs (each bass wouldn't be much of a backup to each other either). Also, I don't like the idea of altering either my Vigier or old Precision to the point that it would be permanently in low A tuning, as I would feel it would either a waste of a great four string bass, or I would be worried about whether the old bass could take it. So on balance, now that I have a bit of money together, I'm now on the look for a five string bass, preferably with 24 frets.

I think that EBS is really flexible in terms of what it can be used for. Victor Bailey uses the Fafner (or at least did) and so does the guy from In Flames. In the US EBS are known as slappers amps whereas in Europe they are used by a lot of metal band. I think a lot of it is down to marketing mumbo-jumbo. Simply put I just consider them to be very good amps that can be used for any style. I use the old model Fafner myself, and it has no problem doing a driving rock sound. The new Fafner with the overdrive channel looks great and I would love to try it. That said the td600 is also perfectly capable of getting a good fat rock tone similar to the Fafner as well, it just looks less like a rock amp if nothing else. The Spector thing shouldn't really matter at all. I find the EBS stuff to very transparent, allowing the basic bass tone to shine through.

We were supposed to doing a gig in Campbeltown tonight, but I decided to cancel as I wanted to get home for Christmas. Sounds like a flimsy excuse I know, but between the weather in Glasgow and the weather in Orkney, today was my best shot of getting back at all. Travelling to Orkney isn't much fun!

Looking at the Bass Direct site, I like the look of the Mayones, as well as the MTD Kingston Heir for buying new. I try not to look at the Vigiers, Skjolds and others that I have no real hope of affording! I'm looking at getting a fiver myself, the G and L L2500 seem like good value bought from new, the only thing stopping me from really wanting it is that I would quite like a 24 fret neck. Good luck in your search.

Must say that I quite like it. Old vintage Fenders seem to a law unto themselves when it comes to price, so I don't really get the 'wow its far too expensive, and it looks ugly' argument. Its as much a piece of musical history as it is a musical instrument. If I had the money I probably would buy it. If I would was looking for a great playing and sounding bass within a certain budget, I would look elsewhere. I do love maple boards on P-basses.

I'm not too picky, but I avoid any bass with gold hardware. Preference on colour works with design as well, as some of the block colours I don't like on Fenders (White, that horrible frosty grey colour, bright red ) but look good on other designs. To me a Fender of any standard will never really look out of place at a gig, pretty much on the basis as its a Fender and Fenders are everywhere. My preferences for Fender type instruments: Cherry sunburst, Natural, Black, Deep wine Red (a la the new Deluxe range), lake placid blue. I also love the colouring of some of the Sandberg hardcore aged basses, even if I'm not a fan of relic-work.

Ampeg 8x10 with SVT 450, Ashdown ABM 500, and SVT Classic in the posh rooms.

[quote name='matski' post='1026257' date='Nov 16 2010, 07:34 PM']But the Sadowsky is supposed to be a 'retro' bass, isn't it? Hence the ultra vintage (UV) name and the Vintage Tone Control function.[/quote] Well it is and it isn't. It is designed to look like a vintage bass, but to me Sadowsky basses have a quite modern sound, even when run passive. The VTC helps to take a bit of the modern 'zing' off the bass and is a cool feature. For me Sadowsky sits halfway between retro bass and a really modern type bass. If you want a Fender sound though, I would suggest sticking to Fender. I bought an MV4 model and love it, I'm not really a fan of the UV series, because I'm not a fan of neck binding and it has one fret less than the one I bought. As an owner of both a Sadowsky and a 1978 Precision though, its going to be the Precision every time. Really cool black vintage Fender Precisions are not very common and are tricky to replace once you get rid of them. Really nice Sadowskys are fairly easy to find, though they cost a lot.

[quote name='lojo' post='1019138' date='Nov 10 2010, 06:28 PM']what a pain having to play through a top end ampeg fridge, no wonder he had a bad gig[/quote] Poor guy, surely must have been better than the bird poop gig though?

So they are playing Glasgow it seems. I probably will see them after all. I saw Brant Bjork a few months ago in a tiny little venue. Somehow I feel these gigs will be a little less intimate, which I suppose is good news as it means they are making money. I wonder with it being Oliveri that it will mostly be stuff from Blues for the Red Sun and Wretch rather than anything written after he left?

I heard about this a while ago, though originally I thought they were just playing Germany. Personally I would prefer Scott Reeder in there. No gigs in Scotland is a bit annoying. I would go if it was local, but its not something I would travel to. I'm generally against bands reuniting just for the sake of it, without actually releasing anything new. It really needs Homme to be Kyuss as he was such a big part of their sound. Should be some good gigs though.

That is pretty cool. I didn't know that early Passions had different pickup configurations. you learn something every day. I wish I had an Arpege or Passion bass.

Ummm, it doesn't have fret-markers, not great attention to detail... Nah, sorry can't help, lovely bass. I would maybe prefer a white pickguard or another colour, but otherwise I really like it.