GarethFlatlands

Saw them on the Down on the Upside tour and spent the whole gig on his side of the stage watching him play. Great bassist.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1363892932' post='2019097'] One of Norway's well-known recording studios used a lot of Behringer stuff, but the owner did state that with Behringer, one must know what gear to get and what to avoid. He was clear about some Behringer gear having short life span, and/or huge fail rate. [/quote] Indeed, I'm warming to the idea of trying something by them again but my experience put me off for the longest time. I think a BDI21 is in order as they seem to be very well though of and I've not heard much on failure rates for them.

I only have experience of the bass cabs with the aluminium cones, every single one of which failed in a very short space of time. The cone came away from the surround and disintegrated rapidly, until one speaker blew and took my amp head with it. I've been put off using them since that day and haven't bought another one of their products.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1363356878' post='2011737'] Any that I should avoid? [/quote] I have the M-Audio Oxygen 25 on my desk, and while it's a very well built and useful bit of kit, the feel of the keys is pretty poor. I don't play keyboards a lot and even I noticed it when I played it. The newer version might be better but I'd struggle to recommend it if you plan on playing it a lot. This is all IMO of course, you might like it. I also notice you want pads which it doesn't have so it probably wasn't an option anyway.

[quote name='mcruiz67' timestamp='1363428106' post='2012545'] Wish I could hear what i played......Ha, ha [/quote] You played all the notes, very fast and made me realise I need to practice my fretless playing. A lot.

Having just got a Letts fretless I can highly recommend it, although ACG make stunning looking basses which sound huge on that video. There's always Shuker too but I'm not sure what his build times are these days.

I was just sick a bit in my mouth....

+1 for the getting a cheap one to start with. I just sold a Yamaha RBX to a friend for £85 having just picked up a very nice Letts 6 string and while it had issues, it was a very helpful tool in learning the basics of fretless playing. Then use the spare cash chop and change bits and strings until you find what works for you or invest in a better bass later on.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1363363093' post='2011884'] HJ - indeed, ticks most of not all the boxes. Do you find enough control over the mids without having a separate mid sweep control? I think the VT Bass Deluxe has this, but also a lot of stuff i don't need such as amp simulation (or is that just 'presence' by another word?) I get confused. [/quote] I didn't like the lack of mid control personally but it was a great piece of kit apart from that. The new Sansamp character series look like they all have a switchable speaker sim so you can stop the pedal being too much of an amp modeller and more of another channel.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1363023634' post='2007142'] Sorry, but this is going to sound really big headed but I do not mean to be. Back in early September 1969 I happened to be in Wessex Studio with a mates band with Tony Clarke producing. Mr. Clarke put on The KC master of 21st Century Schizoid Man for our delectation. F**K Me! I felt as if I had been hit round the back of the head with a cricket bat - incredibly heavy and very advanced for it's time. Best thing I'd ever heard 'til then and there have not been many others since IMHO. I came very close to walking away from attempting to play bass or any other musical instrument at that point, believe me. [/quote] Nah, cool story. Fripp is a genius but it's terrifying how much work he puts into being that way. 'Discipline' is from my birth year which makes it a nice co-incidence that it's my favourite KC album.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1362851961' post='2005389'] Balls - this one did, recorded in August 1969. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_B6zhENrQ[/media] [/quote] I'd love to have been at the hippy fair they did as one of their first gigs and checked out the looks on the faces when this dropped. Still heavy as hell, I need to learn it actually. [quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1362877892' post='2005839'] Cave-In - 'Big Riff'. More of a classic take on what id class as heavy. [/quote] Also a good one, I do like a bit of Cave In.

A quick Google didn't throw much up but the Red Deer, Uni Arms, West St Live and the Broadfield seem to do open mic stuff, although it doesn't say what night they're on. I thought the Red House did too.

[quote name='thumbo' timestamp='1362819479' post='2005102'] It's good to see someone in the UK stocking them [/quote] Not according to my wallet.

Like but don't love them. Diamond Eyes was very dull IMO, very few standout tracks but the new one is a lot more fresh and generally much better. I think I was one of the few people I knew in the late 90's who didn't like the first album. Loved Around the Fur.

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1362234598' post='1997336'] Yeah I feel your pain here (or at least I have done in the past). Unless you're a tribute band, all songs are up for grabs to do in your own style (the various versions of Superstition by famous artists other than SW are a case in point). My general rule is, try it and if it works do it, if not bin it, just don't go in with the preconception that it should sound exactly like the original. [/quote] There are about 8 clavinova tracks on 'Superstition' so you have to really. I've got a keyboard with a lot of different usable sounds on it so we usually fudged any sounds we couldn't make ourselves.

[quote name='Toasted' timestamp='1362048295' post='1994876'] Depends on your perspective really, doesn't it? [/quote] You can offset it against what I would have spent on drink and transport but not really in pure monetary terms. We certainly weren't paid and wouldn't ask for money as it was a favour for a good friend so I didn't mind paying out. I do mind someone assuming we're raking it in and I'm just being difficult. I took the opportunity to take a break as it's a simple song and there was no reason to have 2 guitars and piano playing the same part. We'd all agreed what songs we weren't going to play on well in advance and I took over drums on "Your Song" so that Stu could have a break. It was all planned and worked out so it was as fair as possible for everyone. I just happen to hate that song so bonus. I certainly played enough stuff I didn't enjoy but needed to play on. My point being you don't have to play it if you don't need to. If there's 3 of playing one chord progression on a song for the sake of it or you all hate the songs your band plays then that's your problem. Join better bands or play better songs. For the once every 18 months or so I gig for free at friends weddings I'm going to carry on drawing the line where I'm not enjoying it and it's not detrimental to the song, and you know, actually enjoy the experience.

Well Tom and I met up today along with another local bassist (Nicky Grayson who I'm not sure posts on here) who we thought might be able to provide some useful input. Still in the early pre-prototype stages, here are the very basics of operation. Signal is split into 2:- 1) Clean signal with bass and treble EQ to mitigate the loss of lows mentioned elsewhere in the thread so it doesn't have to be compensated for at the amp. 2) Filtered signal with lower and upper cutoff frequencies adjustable (this was for ease of build as opposed to a sweepable frequency centre and width and hopefully more flexible) and an internal trimpot for resonance control on the low pass filter. The filtered signal will go to a Rat style distortion circuit. The 2 signals are then combined with a blend control and an overall level control sets the volume. Tom was aware of the phase cancellation issues at the upper and lower boundaries of the filtered signal and will deal with them somehow. He's built a ridiculous Meatball clone with 14 external pots and several switches so I can only assume he's got to grips with bass filters to at least some degree! He also had a number of excellent ideas for other functions, as did Nicky but I'm not sure how much to give away at this stage as it's such early days and it's all likely to change. Plus I don't want anyone stealing our ideas Basically, I've come away thinking this is a good idea which I wasn't sure of as there already seemed to be similar pedals out there and am really looking forward to how it turns out. Whatever happens, thank you everyone for your input and ideas so far, it's all been very useful.

I love them and seriously don't think I'd buy another brand of tube amp. My 80 watt old school looking amp may get laughed at my the scene kids with their solid state Marshall heads but when it's melting faces with the volume at barely over zero, I don't care. Add that to the fact that they're an hour away, know the amps inside out (duh) and charge a reasonable amount for repairs and it's a no-brainer.