Muzz

Hokay, it's been a bit of a while so I'm a little late to the feedback party, but January was gigless, and I wanted to give these strings a proper run out before reporting back. They replaced a set of EXLs, and immediately the feel is different - the winding is noticeably finer, and acoustically there's less finger noise, and if you're susceptible to rough strings, you'll find them easier under the finger. No silks, which is great - I've always found silk/cotton wrapping to be a problem looking to happen, depending on the design of your bridge. The tension feels similar to the D'Addarios I've had before i.e. pretty high, which is something I like, but of course YMMV. They seem well balanced as a set, no issues with string to string variance. They're a 'big' sounding string - a bit of a vague generic description, I know, but for me that's a good word for them: they upped the output of the bass, and are warmly punchy and meaty, but without being harsh in the mids. Highs are good for nickel - obviously not as zingy as steels, but they've a good range of tone. I play 80% pick, 15% fingers and 5% slap, and they sounded very good with pick and fingers, possibly not so much for slap. Tuning stablility, which was mentioned in the blurb, is very good - I put them on, got them up to pitch, gave them a quick stretch (which I always do - don't we all?) and retuned, and they've stayed there for three weeks or so, through hours of home playing and a hot, thrashy (but not Thrash ) gig. They don't sound to have dropped off in tone very much, either, although I'll be monitoring this longer term and report back. They feel like a premium string, so I'd expect them to be priced a little above the normal EXLs, and if they're ballpark with the usual suspects (though not in with the coated ones) they should sell well. A big thanks to the good folk at D'Addario for letting me play with their new babies: it's been a lot of fun.

$299 = £207 from Sweetwater. Anyone going to the States on holiday?

[quote name='Jecklin' timestamp='1454740266' post='2972499'] But if you're all the way up on 10, where can you go from there? [/quote] Ahh, but some of these amps go up to eleven....

Dime = 10 cents = dialled up to 10...

[quote name='TransistorBassMan' timestamp='1454517792' post='2970437'] Not a Precision, not a Jazz, not a Mustang, not a Jaguar... [/quote] ...and not attractive in the slightest. Colour's OK...

...and does your mother smell of elderberries?

If either my bike or my bass sounded like that I'd take it back to the shop... How bizarre...

The Jenga rig! Fantastic!

[quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1454101020' post='2966547'] Eighteen replies, and no-one has mentioned Barefaced? Oh the shame........ [/quote] Do keep up...

Check in with the drummer - luckily (by the sound of some previous posts) I play with better drummers who I'd imagine will have spotted it, and then we'd bring the guitarist back into the fold with an "Ahem..." kind of fill at the end of the 8 bars...if the guitard doesn't spot that, then he's not listening. OTOH, if it's a very iconic solo, we'd probably go the extra bar so as not to feck the song up...which would be done with some nodding...and "what's he like?" raised eyebrows...

Yup, I'd agree with Lozz and suggest a secondhand ABM from hereabouts. I wouldn't get carried away by the 'half price' thing, either - that's pretty much the going price everywhere... The LMIIIs are more sterile and kinda clinical (although warm) than the Ashdown sound you're used to - when I had mine I had a preamp pedal in front of it 100% of the time, which is why I moved it on in the end. There's plenty of debate on here about the differences between power stage classes and the difference in 'heft' (or lack of difference), and the ABM/MAG and the RM/LMIII are very different beasts in that respect. Try before you buy, (especially new) if you possibly can...

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1454066673' post='2965957'] Especially if stacked vertically [/quote] Oooooo, a 6 foot ten inch stack just over a foot wide? I'd be looking over my shoulder a lot... It's a Jenga Rig!

Our singer's done this as one of his solo gigs when he was full time. He enjoyed it, and he was the first person to point out to me that Chuck Berry, Beatles and Stones songs are in the right age bracket nowadays - I'd assumed it'd be much earlier stuff...

I'd agree with that: it depends on your requirements - what 212s you're using, and why. If it's for sheer volume then I'd say the Barefaced stuff is well suited to matching volume with smaller cabs (I had a Big Baby 2 for a while, and for a single 12 it would comfortably go bonkers loud: two would cover pretty much any gig volume I can think of), but if you don't push your 2 x 212s hard, and you're looking for smaller, lighter, voiced cabs which sound good, then there's lots of options, of which TKS get a lot of love around here.

The new Genz Magellan will go down to, IIRC, 2.67ohms - that'd be three 8 ohm cabs...

Nothing humble about a 4...

The problem with the design is a common one - they've got right on the Fender body shape bandwagon, positioned the pickups in the usual place and then visually the only thing they can work with is the scratchplate, so they change the shape of that. Unfortunately, the shape of these scratchplates don't take any visual cues from the body shape, and so don't work at all. At least Sandberg had the good sense to make their scratchplate changes minimal.

I think my basses are works of art, and I take good care of them: they don't get buckle rash because I don't wear buckles or sharp crap when I put a bass on, but if they get accidentally dinged, it happens. The first ding's the worst... I guess most of them could be described as 'boutique', but I've never hesitated to take them anywhere to gig, and I never would. I enjoy them, and I don't worry about them.

Apropos point to recall my best 810 tale: at a rehearsal rooms years ago, the band I was in had a huuuge row round the pool table which culminated in my leaving in a typical "F*&k you lot, I'm off!" kinda way. Stormed back to the room, packed up and slung my stuff in the car in a massive strop, but then had to go back to the pool table and say "Erm, can you give me a lift with me cab?"

In general, it's a call on how drunk the punters are - yeah, you're there to entertain and produce an atmosphere, but I've done security work, and it's the same call: I wouldn't stop anyone having a good time (though the stage is ours), but if they're hammered, they're a liability to themselves and others. And massively irritating... I'll even let punters have a (unplugged) go of my bass (the Dingwall gets the most enquiries, for obvious reasons) if I judge they're sober enough.