Dan_Nailed

He's from Macclesfield and is my bass teacher at Uni! Great guy but isn't really into his death metal haha. Although he gets on my back for my reading plenty so that's good of him.

The Fender one seems a little more hands on, such as seating the frets by hand and the same person installing the electronics as stringing the instruments. No setup action though, might explain why fenders come out of the box playing pretty terribly haha! And what's with the porn music soloing? Warwick factory is a little bit efficient!

I use a Korg DTR-1 which I got for about £60 second hand from the States and it's almost too good. I can never get my basses to go completely in the green, even when tuning with the harmonics. When I get them as close as possible and check the tuning by ear they sound perfectly in, and the tuner is telling me they're still out. It's that precise!

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='13532' date='Jun 7 2007, 12:16 PM']that's one of the basses i'm looking at getting, can u say what they're like in terms of sound/playability etc...[/quote] Playability wise it's a case of whether you get on with Spector necks or not. I love them to pieces, and this one has gotten better with age as my hands have gradually rounded the fingerboard edges! It's a shred machine but you can lay back and really pound it as well. Soundwise it comes stock with EMG-HZ's and a BTS circuit, the BTS circuit is great and the HZ's are fairly good, but I switched mine out for real pickups and the sound was catapulted into real Spector territory. The HZ's sound great(especially at this price range) but the proper EMG's have a little push further over the cliff. Another thing I've done is mod the electronics to 18V which makes a big difference in terms of headroom and bollocks to the sound. Slightly better pic of fretless:

[quote name='nash' post='13029' date='Jun 6 2007, 01:53 PM']is the plx much lighter than the rmx?[/quote] On paper definitely but when I went RMX to PLX I added a rack tuner and US-UK converter and that added weight back in. However, the full rack you see here is lighter than the older one with the RMX in and a blank space.

Because I'm lazy I'll just link you to two things: [url="http://www.myspace.com/naileddeathmetal"]www.myspace.com/naileddeathmetal - For songs and general information[/url] [url="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.showvids&friendID=24321374&n=24321374&MyToken=d308ef2a-be4a-4873-a59c-0a77ab047c41"]Myspace Videos[/url] The five songs on the MySpace player are probably the best from the first album, my personal favourites being "Vermin" and "Without Hope There Is No Fear". Just waiting on final master from our second album before I put anything off it online.

2+ is better but guitars need more articulation and sub could do with a little taming. 9 sounds a little bit too distant, as in it sounds more live to me.

6U Rack Samson Powerbrite 1U Korg DTR1 Tuner 1U Ampeg SVP-Pro Preamp 1U dbx 166xl Compressor 1u QSC PLX1202 Poweramp 1U

I own an Ampeg 8x10 but I just put a leatherette cover over it to protect from scratches and scrapes, but carry it otherwise. That thing doesn;t need any more weight! Peaveys are pretty damned heavy as well, although the 4x10 is manageable as a one man lift. Good thing about ny decent 8x10 is casters!

Rack + SVT810E + Spector REX 2000/5 Spector NSJH5CM And the current rack contents: Samsons Powerbrite PB11 Korg DTR1 Ampeg SVP-Pro dbx166xl QSC PLX1202

They're pricey and IME have more of a reputation as a DI box. But undoubtedly they're a good piece of kit!

I used to have a Sansamp PSA-1 and that was both warm and sterile at the same time, very odd! Then I switched to an Ampeg SVP-Pro and was a lot happier with my overall tone. Tube preamps vary quite a lot in range, my Ampeg only cost me £250 off Ebay but you can buy stuff like Demeter or Aguilar that is pretty boutique so shop around. You really do have a lot of options here! I'd look into either of the two BBE preamps, the Sansamp RBI, Ampeg SVP-Pro and SVP-CL and the EBS Classic 1.

Bi-amp capable heads that spring to mind are the Harthe HA5000 and HA7000 and the Ampeg SVT4PRO that have built in crossovers. I used to run a HA5000 into a Peavey 4x10" and1x15" and it always seemed like I was wasting the speakers. Running just lows into the 15 and just highs into the 10s ignored the quality that those speakers impart on the full frequency range, like punchy lows on 10s and scoopy mids on 15s. Just IMO.

Lots of decent poweramps bridge into 4ohms, both of my QSC's do it really well as do Crown, Crest and Peavey. If you have one 8 ohm cab though you'll need to get a seriously high-wattage(and therefore cost) amp to get lots of power. I'd reccommend a QSC RMX1450, 1400watts into 4 ohms, 800W into 8ohms. Can be had for about £350. Heavy though! EDIT: Also cutting through isn;t necessarily about power, it's about EQ.

I used to run a 4x10" + 1x15" setup and then I switched to an 8x10", and the key will always be 15" vs 10" if you're choosing. 15" speakers tend to develop their full wallop quite far from the speaker, maybe about 5 rows in, whereas 10"s develop much closer, probably onstage, so what you hear is generally what the audience hears. 15"s tend to scoop mids slightly and 10"s have more mids and tend to growl a little. 15"s are better for super lows obviously. If it were me, I'd go for the 4x10" + 2x10" setup, because all the advantages of flexibility are there but the low end would be a little tighter and more subdued, and you can coax lows from a decent 4x10"(which the SVT410HE is). However, the 2x10 + 15 setup is definitely more old school and will rock like a bitch, great for one guitar bands or bands without heavy guitars wailing everywhere. A 15" cab will be lighter than a 4x10" as well.

You could but you'd be compressing the signal twice, pre EQ and post EQ and would need a lot of cables haha!

[quote name='dood' post='11984' date='Jun 4 2007, 06:52 PM']I'm going to have to disagree Dan. pretty much every compressor rack that I have used has had a far higher input impedance than that of a passive bass and has worked fine IF as you say the pickups have enough output volume. Active pickups don't suffer to badly from from the impedance miss-match, having a far lower impedance. Low into high is fine. I do agree that if the bass is too quiet the s/n will be a bit grim. Pups like EMG for example are pretty hot and I find that I have to switch down to take care of the extra input gain. I also have to disagree with the placement of compression after the EQ. It isn't wrong as such to do this, but there is a good reason not too, unless it is the effect you are hoping to get. I'll do my best to explain! ok.. lets get theoretical. We'll take it that we have plugged a bass into a preamp and then into a compressor. We will assume for this example that the bass is a flat response across the frequency spectrum to make my life a little easier explaining. we'll set the compressor to kick in at -10dB ok, if you strike a note down the bottom end of the scale, the 'bassy' sounds will go over the threshold and pull the compressor output level down closer to the -dB level. Also if you hit a high frequency note and it goes over the threshold level, the compressor then pulls the whole output level down to the -dB level. How's that sound so far? and frequency that goes over the threshold volume level will make the compressor pull the total output level down toward the threshold. ok, here's my problem with putting the EQ before the compressor. Remember we are assuming the bass is flat response. (most basses have a greater bass end than top end) ok, lets play a bassy note and a trebly chord at the same time. because both are a similar velocity the compressor pulls down both by the same amount towards the threshold.. you can stil hear them both clearly. good. now. lets wind the bass end up to +15dB at say 40 Hz. this is where it gets difficult to explain!! if the threshold of the compressor is -10dB, the bass frequencies need a whole 15dB less to kick the threshold of the compressor and drag the output right down by an additional 15dB. now play a chord (something high up) and then strike a bass note whilst the top notes are sound. you will notice that the extra 15dB boost on those low notes will tug that output level down by that extra 15dB. You'll hear your bass note at the right volume, but because the total output volume of the compressor has been forced down ward.. your high notes / chords whatever will just disappear. Too much bass boost and you will loose top end and the compressor will sound woolly. The only way round this on a budget compressor is to ensure it has a side chain filter, or.. go out and grab yourself a dual band or multiband compressor. Failing that, simply move the EQ after the compressor, so it has no effect on the compressors threshold. I have tried and tested this on many amps to the same effect. a nice cheap rack compressor with said side chain filter is the Behringer Autocom. I'd finish off by saying, that if you want a woolly bass sound that pumps annoyingly, set a lower threshold say -20dB and crank the ratio nice and high.. 4:1 or higher then pile on the bottom end on your EQ! I hope this makes sense. It'd be easier with pictures![/quote] Well, with [b]my[/b] dbx166 when I plug my EMG'ed Spectors in the level is basically pathetic, even running at 18V. The inputs on the 166xl are line level inputs, switchable between consumer -10db and professional +4db and the outputs of passive bass guitars are not line level(otherwise we wouldn't need DI boxes), now whether the compressor manufacturers manage to make their inputs high z is not the point - it is bad practice to go around plugging instruments straight into line level inputs without a preamp. I can plug my basses right into my PC soundcard line inputs at -10db and the level is not strong, and doesn't convey a very accurate portrayal of the tone. Hence I wouldn't go plugging straight into a line input on anything. As for compression placement, you're right, but it's what your ears say sounds good whether you EQ the compression or compress the EQ. But unless you're boosting around 15db(which is pretty irresponsible let's face it) you won't encounter the limitations of none-multiband compressors very often!

You can't plug your bass directly into the compressor as it doesn't have a proper Hi-Z guitar input. -10 and +4 are both line-level standards that are meant to be used with already line-level inputs and outputs, such as other effects gear, preamps and poweramps. The best place is in the FX loop, or ideally between your preamp out and poweramp in(if you have one). If you plug your bass straight into the dbx you'll either get stupidly low signal and very unusable compression, or nothing at all. If you have an active bass things might be slightly better but your signal to noise ratio will still be terrible. You could go Bass>DI box>dbx if you wanted though. I think it's always better to compress after the preamp as you compress any boosts in EQ that you've put in previously. As for amp DI out, if your amp DI has a Pre EQ/Post EQ button, make it post-EQ and it should include everything in the FX loop. This is what I do when sending a DI to the soundguy and I want my out front sound gated. However, most engineers like to use their own compression and EQ so I wouldn't worry too much about sending all your signal to the soundguy.