Muzz

Now this may have been done to death, but not for a while, at least, so here we (possibly) go again... Just restrung my Michael Kelley Dragonfly, now the good weather's here and I can get out into the garden and play a bit for fun, and, tightarse that I am, couldn't face paying out for another set of strings, so I had a delve around and tried a few options - Warwick stainless rounds (ok, but a bit too zingy), some oldish nickels of dubious vintage (bit too dead, tbh), and then I found a set of flats I had lying around which I'd taken off a trade bass. I'm on record on here as disliking flats completely, but on the acoustic - wow. They suddenly make sense, tension and everything. Very nice indeed. I'd recommend trying flats on an acoustic to anyone, no matter how flatphobic.

Dingwall, a major improvement on the basic design, my go-to bass... oh, and my Fenderbird and FrankenP, because they're pretty much unique, and I built them. And my early Warwick Fortress has the best neck I've ever played. That's it for now, but I reserve the right to change my mind, although in the case of the Dingwall, I seriously doubt it...

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1338357579' post='1673114'] Are your cabs the same brand, power handling and impedance? I would be quite surprised to hear a difference like that if they are. You're right though, the cab construction, type of drivers, etc, etc does all make a difference. But if you do have two "matching" cabs by the same manufacturer with different size drivers in, they will sound different. Mark at Bass Direct is a great guy, (and I know I'll get shot down for this!) but I think some people on here think that his opinion is gospel and is 100% right all the time. Don't forget he is a business man and is there to sell what's in his shop too. [/quote] Nope, they weren't, but then power handling and impedance refers to just the speakers, not the cab. Another way to illustrate this would be the Schroeders: the 1210 and the 1515 will sound more like each other than they will compared with other cabs, not because they have similar drivers (10", 12" and 15"), but because the cabs have similar designs. Put the two Celestion 15s in my Schroeder into a different cab, and they will sound very different. Even talking purely about speaker size, there's clearly a huge marketing influence, because, as has been thrashed out many times on here by people who know tons more about it than me, the DIAMETER of a modern speaker does not dictate the frequency of the sound it produces - 15s do not always produce more lows than 10s, so why would the mantra about 15s (bottom) and 10s (top) persist, if the manufacturers didn't keep making them for people who know what they like and like what they know? It's a conspiracy, I tell ya... As far as Mark at bass Direct is concerned, he talks more sense (and knows how to listen, a much under-regarded skill) than a lot of people I've met in music shops, but I don't think anyone is suggesting he knows everything. That's our job here on forums . For the record, he's never sold me a cab - I like Schroeders. As far as the OP is concerned, though, his shop is a great resource worth investigating. As an example, I'd never tried a Dingwall before I went there, but I also never realised how much I don't like the Shuttle series, or the Mark Bass Tubes, either. That saved me a few quid finding out. Lord knows, he might even suggest to the OP a 1x15, 4x10 stack...

Lord, that was awful.

[quote name='MrTaff' timestamp='1338221499' post='1671041'] They go back in their cases after soundcheck, when we're playing I use the same Hercules stands I use at home. [/quote] This ^

If that was being played in my garden, I'd shut the curtains.

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1338250246' post='1671764'] I'm genuinely amazed that so many people can't get their heads around mixing 10's and 15's! People have been doing it for decades! You get the get the gut rumbling lows from the 15 and more punch and focus from the 10's. I've always had both! Used to have a Trace 4x10" and 1x15" stack for about 10 years, and now I've got a 2x10" markbass combo and 1x15" ext cab. [/quote] I've got a 2x15 which is punchier and has less lows than my last 4x10. It's much, much less to do with the speaker sizes and much, much more to do with the cabs. A visit to Bass Direct will demonstrate this admirably.

+1 for an afternoon (actually, with your budget go for the day) at Bass Direct. You'll learn an awful lot about what you like, what you don't like, and what you thought you liked but actually don't and what you thought you didn't like, but.... well, you see where I'm going here. Mark's a great guy, knows his onions, and with respect it sounds like you could use some very knowledgeable advice.

I always take two basses (in a double gig bag, unless it's gonna be a really long/rough trip, when I'll hardcase them) because I like the backup, plus I can swap basses for different songs if I feel like it. Means carrying a double stand, but that's hardly any bother at all.

We open with Copperhead Road, and the other week at a posh wedding at the Lowry Hotel in Salford, as the first notes of the pipes intro echoed around the room, a bloke in a kilt wandered across the deserted dance floor, oblivious to us falling about laughing as the singer intoned "If you play it, they will come..."

Dunlop grey .88s, for the last, ooh, thirty years or so. I think I'm settled on them...

[quote name='benthos' timestamp='1337158886' post='1656252'] ....once you let the brown note go. [/quote] I've got tea in my eyebrows.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1337216578' post='1657374'] I don't know about MusicMan but I am a few weeks from receiving a roasted neck to go with my Dingwall ABII bass which Sheldon has been kindly building for me, I can't wait. Pics to follow, it will be a standard whole maple neck roasted with none of those tiger striped or birdseye maple effect. [/quote] What??? Oh dearie dearie me, that could spell disaster for my wallet in the medium term. Picspicspicspicspicspleeeeease...

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1337198175' post='1657119'] I do. Not a problem IME [/quote] Really? My set looked like crap a few weeks in, beardy and scabby, and I don't use the heaviest of picks - .88 Dunlops. Blimey.

Elixirs aren't much use if you play with a pick, tho - well, not unless you like your strings to have a 'beard' pretty quickly I do like D'Addario Nickel rounds, tho: they're great for the money. As far as stainless rounds go, I've always liked the cheapo Hartke ones, although they're getting harder to find.

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1337159595' post='1656272'] I've had it for the best part of 30 years and as far as I'm concerned there is no fix so I just ignore it and get on with things. Most of the time I hardly notice that I have it. [/quote] Not been aware of it until the last few months, after one horrendous gig in particular (a guitard's Line 6 12" combo at friggin head height was the cause), so I guess I've dodged that particular bullet for a long time, but it's there now. More aware of it trying to get to sleep at night, and now I'm typing about it, but it doesn't prevent me doing much. Needless to say, in the traditional stable-door-bolted-horse manner, my custom ACS ER15s arrive this week...

Ordered three cables from Dave Monday evening, they arrived this morning. Startlingly quick delivery, top, top quality. There's only one place to get cables round here... Cheers!

Yep, I love early Rush, left them at Signals (came back after the 80s tho), and certainly wouldn't pay the sort of money we're talking about here to see it all done live. Maybe Rush should do some gigs specifically for the people who aren't 'out of touch' with Rush and have 'grown with the band'. Although it'd be a smaller tour, obviously. Perhaps they could put something out to that effect on the posters? Wouldn't want the wrong sort there, after all.

I work on 2mm being about right, maybe a bit less on the D/G, on all my basses. The Fortress is even lower, but that does have the most sublime neck...

Well, I have owned and gigged with an 8x10 (and the SVT to go with it), and while my 38lb Schroeder might not look the part in a wall-of-amps-nob-substitute kind of way, it produces a shedload of bass volume and presence for the gigs I play. I played on a pretty big stage at Fleetwoodstock (about 30ft x 30ft) last year, and had no trouble hearing what I was doing, but then the sound engineer was good. If I was playing even bigger stages a lot (or had the spare cash), I'd be phoning Alex for a Super Twelve or even a Super Fifteen, but there's nothing on God's earth which would make me want to buy an 8x10 again. Been there, done that, got the back to prove it...

That's lovely, just the thing for a Sunday morning.

[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1336641439' post='1648686'] Tonewoods=bollocks. The idea that you can engineer a certain and definate tone in an electric guitar is rubbish. Obviously you can point it in the right direction and hope for the best but that's about it. I also do not want to start another tonewood debate cause it's all been said and done! The fact is that resonance and tone are two different things. Strings resonate. The idea is to enhance the resonance of the strings. Certain woods will resonate at different frequencies encouraging the strings to resonate at the same frequency. A well made bass with tight fitting neck and quality 'tonewoods' will sound 'better' than an instrument made of cheap wood with poorly fitted fixtures. Pickups,amp and more importantly technique have a bigger impact on tone than all the other variables. A one piece neck will resonate better than a laminated neck as a general rule, because there is no glue involved etc. You don't see too many acoustic instruments with laminated parts which says it all. [/quote] Can we make this a sticky please? Perhaps a site banner?

Are you mad? Giving the cash to the Mrs sets a dangerous precedent my friend, if word got about it could be the end of Basschat as we know it. You wouldn't want that on your conscience, would you? For the sake of future generations of Basschatters, buy the amp, quickly...