funkle

I have a Big Baby 2 on order. Can't wait!

It might be that something like a Yamaha BB425 might suit? http://m.uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/el-basses/bb/bb425/ Pete

I have modded a lot of basses in my time. If you're not going to sell it, do as you wish. If there's the slightest chance of selling it, your mods may not add value if the next buyer does not want another pickup. I have modded basses with different pickups, piezos, bridges, preamps, tuners, the lot. In my general experience, mods add little to value though many are aesthetically pleasing and fun. As an aside, most basses sound the way they are going to sound and modding it to change that is generally expensive and awkward. I'd probably find a Fender PJ bass that fits your needs and buy it. It's probably easier than paying a pro to mod your current bass and if it turns out you don't like the PJ setup (and I have never found it that useful) you can sell on easily.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1379529775' post='2213835'] Bone of contention..I am lugging a sub...and I don't yet go through it FFS..!!!! having said that.. I am loving my bass monitor rig anyway, so anywhere we use this P.A ... small halls, the bass backline can reach anyway [/quote] [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1379530046' post='2213840'] As a general point, I embarked on my bass monitor some time ago when I used Turbosound stage monitors..and SWR started the Bass monitor concept with their SM amps and Goliath cabs...way back when. The thing about only hearing very clean is that it isn't very forgiving...so you need to be up to that...or rather want to hear that coming back at you. [/quote] Big +1 to this. I got my first Acme cab (B2) 5-6 years ago and was astounded by the low end but also by how much I needed to pay attention to technique. There's stuff I see bassists doing on Youtube where I sometimes wonder how they would sound through 'honest' amplification. I'm not all boutique...I do enjoy typical bass amplification. I did a jazz jam session last week playing through another bassist's Minimark - http://www.markbass.it/product_detail.php?id=86 - thought it sounded pretty good and decent enough volume. But the geek in me wondered about off-axis dspersion, etc...

[quote name='DanEly' timestamp='1379529765' post='2213834'] I tried the 4 Stringer MIM in GAK, they had a new different models of the 5er. I'm not really so hot on the Marcus basses but one of them had some lovely gold/brass frets and the one I tried out was diffidently a MIM - 1 peice pick guard etc I wasn't sure about it because it just felt a bit bland. Nothing was jumping out at me. In passive I wasn't a fan at all. It might have been the amp I was going in to. Not a huge fan of orange. It just didn't seem the same as the jap one on tried a few moths before. The build quality was nice though. Tried out the fender Japan JB66j and that blew it out of the water! [/quote] Good to get feedback. Negative is as useful as positive! If I have to order over t'internet I'll make sure I have plenty of time to return it...

I was in Guitar Guitar in Glasgow. They had Alto, Mackie, Samson, Yamaha, and QSC PA gear. I think the QSC was kind of the top of the line of what try had. I asked about RCF (the HD10a has some very interesting specs) but they didnae have it. JTUK, didn't see the wooden QSC KW12 though I'd like to give it a go at some point, alongside the K12. You're using the KW12 in your band PA rig aren't you? Mmm, Meyer gear. How much money do you have? And roadies... I have a sense though that bass guitar amplification has evolved naturally to fill the niche that most people require. I guess most players like bass cabs with significant mid colouration and that push goodly amounts energy at 80-160 Hz, with a small amount of energy in the 40-80Hz area. An SVT stack rolls off pretty heavily below 80hz, I think...and is perennially popular.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1379507831' post='2213465'] And futhermore there is no ambiguity about whether you are going up or down - you don't have to learn to hear the gap between 2 notes as both a 5th and a 4th depending on inversion, its just a single "key-function" that you are listening for. [/quote] Again, I agree. Are you my long lost brother?

[quote name='DanEly' timestamp='1379507752' post='2213464'] Have you tried good old GAK? I tried a MIM out a week ago in the shop. Mind you I wasn't [i]that [/i]impressed [/quote] Thanks man. I think from the website the GAK ones may be MIJ? Or at least the photo is MIJ; perhaps the specs refer to the newer MIM? ([url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-marcus-miller-jazz-bass-natural-maple/15834"]http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-marcus-miller-jazz-bass-natural-maple/15834[/url]) Whilst searching for the Marcus MIller, I tried an ash/maple Fender USA Deluxe today. A very well made and crispy sounding bass. Fender have really upped their game in the last few years. Another USA Precision I tried sounded really great too, very resonant. Both had great feeling necks. What didn't you like about the Marcus Miller, Dan? Pete

As a bit of feedback, I went and tried out some QSC K Series powered PA cabinets today. Took along my Squier CV 60's Jazz and my Zoom MS-60b to use as a preamp (it works for the Bergantino IP112ER, so I thought I'd try it out the same way.) The K8 (specs at [url="http://www.qscaudio.com/products/speakers/k_series/K_series_K8.php"]http://www.qscaudio....K_series_K8.php[/url]) low end only sounded so-so without the deep switch engaged. The mids and top end sounded very pleasant and 'honest'/faithful in their reproduction. With the deep switch engaged, it had *just* enough bass (less than I like to hear as an Acme fan), but this lowered the overall volume possible. Did not deal with slapping well, not that I do much, but it gives an idea of how a cabinet deals with transients. Overall, my Acme B1 covers this area for me better, though of course it doesn't have huge max volume either and also doesn't put up well with big spikes from slapping. I note -10db point for the K8 given as 61 Hz. The K10 (specs at [url="http://www.qscaudio.com/products/speakers/k_series/K_series_K10.php"]http://www.qscaudio...._series_K10.php[/url]) seemed like a winner for low-moderate volume jazz stuff. Even without the 'deep' switch engaged, it had a pleasant low end and a very honest mid and upper end. With the 'deep' switch on it really beefed up. Again, though, the max volume out of the cabinet was not as much as I had thought it could have been. The specs say -10db at 56Hz. Not dissimilar to the Audiokinesis Thunderchild 112, which has a similar -10db point ([url="http://www.audiokinesis.com/product_ak_thunderchild112.html"]http://www.audiokine...erchild112.html[/url]). I didn't have time to test the K12 though I will probably go back and do so at some point. I suspect the K12 will be where it's at in terms of bass guitar reproduction/low end. On the whole I really liked the mids and top end of the K8/K10. Very honest, I thought, and in some ways more flattering than my Acme cabinets. I assume it's the quality of the compression driver they use. Perhaps the Zoom pedal wasn't pushing enough voltage to drive the K series, though it seems to be fine for various power amps according to Talkbass users and IMO also drives the Bergantino IP112ER just fine. Perhaps I'll try putting the bass through a mixer first, or take along my Aguilar TH DI box for the next run. For now, for me, the Bergantino IP remains top of the heap in terms of volume and serious low end for a small size of cabinet. My Acme B2 has been supplanted by the Berg and it is just about on its way out the door to a happy buyer. I do have a Barefaced on order which I think will be very exciting. I'll post back here with results after a trial/gigs. Pete

Anyone know who has stock of these? I've checked the usual suspects (Dawsons, Guitar Guitar, Google!) but not a lot of MIM models are coming up...

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1379109325' post='2208906'] With Banacos/Arnold method there is no such ambiguity because you always reference all notes to the key center rather than each other. [/quote] Exactly.

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1378976983' post='2207180'] I changed to flats and put a new pickguard on mine (plus a good setup) I like it. I'm tempted by another one with rounds on. [/quote] What other pickguards fit this bass?

I modded mine with various things. Hipshot tuners, J retro, Babicz bridge. Honestly, the tuners and bridge upgrade did nil to change the sound, so I put it back to stock and enjoyed it just the way it is. It's an excellent bass for not a lot of money. The J Retro now lives in my Celinder, but I might hunt down another to put back in this bass. Most basses are going to sound the way they do. I think the stock pickups sound just fine and generally hardware doesn't make much odds to sound in my experience. IMO a preamp, the type of pickup installed, and string selection (and of course the player) make the biggest differences to sound on a given bass. The rest can be to taste/aesthetics/function.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1378401848' post='2199826'] This was not my experience when i did it, but maybe i wasnt really listening out for it. I had the necks reversed for well over a year before putting the Lakland neck on it. I [/quote] Maybe just how those particular parts mated, or didn't, in my case.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1377809753' post='2192320'] My Yamaha BB has a very slim neck and does a perfect imitation of a P-Bass (P-Bass pickup). There's a thread on them in this section that shouldn't be too hard to find. [/quote] Which BB do you have Stevie? Is it [u]exactly[/u] a Precision tone, or just most of the way there?

This is exactly the dilemma I'm having at the moment....I love my Squier CV 60's P (with John East P-Retro) - strung with GHS Pressurewound Flats - and I'm sure a good chunk of the tone is in the meaty neck. Nonetheless I find my Jazz (a Celinder) gets taken to most gigs as it's neck is much more friendly. [FYI, I did stick on my Squier CV Jazz neck onto the Squier CV 60's P - and I thought the tone lost something. I had the same feeling about a Squier Precision Deluxe (Jazz width and contour neck, P-J pickups), though it was a very nice bass.] I'd buy an Fender Precision of any stripe in a second if it had Jazz width nut (1.5") with a Precision bass thickness/contour front-to-back. This is very much what Musicman Sterling and Big Al necks are like, and they feel just great. I think the extra wood front-to-back does affect the tone of both of these instruments positively, and I would hope a similar neck would help retain the 'meatiness' of a Precision if I tried it on one of them. Haven't found a way to do this apart from going custom though! I played an MIA P yesterday in Guitar Guitar in Edinburgh that was just outstanding though. Just a perfect Precision tone...beautiful. It just resonated very well acoustically. Sigh.