kjb

[quote name='BassBod' post='30491' date='Jul 11 2007, 11:14 PM']Check out his amp set up - AJ has a reputation for using really high end expensive heavy stuff. I wonder what he uses when travelling to the UK? I can't imagine many promoters finding a Krell power amp......??

BB[/quote]

Yeah, that's something I was planning to do, apart from his playing it's his sound that I like.

A 10 string...excellent.

I'm thinking of experimenting with a 7, probably one of those Bill Dickens basses.

Your bass looks fantastic.

Here at the ICMP, I'm really looking forward to this. [url="http://www.icmp.uk.com/news/anthony-jackson--mike-stern-masterclass.aspx"]http://www.icmp.uk.com/news/anthony-jackso...asterclass.aspx[/url]

He's been a favourite player of mine for ages, and invented my choice of instrument back in the 70's.

Here's a nice clip of him with Michel Petrucciani and Steve Gadd [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8Ch5lU5dw"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8Ch5lU5dw[/url]

A true inovator, and a fantastic musician, where would we be without people like him.

[quote name='artisan' post='30328' date='Jul 11 2007, 04:10 PM']agreed.
its a good job there's a propper bass player there too [/quote]

'Proper' is relative to your point of view.

The bass guitar is only about 50 years old, who knows what it will evolve into, with so young an instrument we should surely be looking forward to the future of it, and embracing it's expanding role, not living in the past.

The electric guitar started of as an acoustic with gut strings, and what about the modern keyboard, look at all of its predecessers.

[quote name='MB1' post='28789' date='Jul 8 2007, 09:08 PM']MB1.

I kinda get the feeling its no good having a transparent wallet if you wish to go amp transparent?.

I agree with the mark king statement i have a kingbass and use ashdown amplification and i cant get it to sound anywhere near as thin as mr kings.[/quote]

Do you want it to, would you want it to.

Give them a ring later in the week, I can't remember what price I was told they'd be.

The Gallery in Camden are getting some Incase bags in, they should arrive end of next week, if anyones interested.

I ended up buying an Epifani UL502.

It sounds just what I was after, I get the sound that I wanted from it, and it is though not completely flat sounding, not very far off.

Here is a link to the same item from Wood and tronics, [url="http://www.woodandtronics.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=34&category_id=7a3f13da875f813925dcb70c64a23247&category=amplification_epifaniamplifiers&"]http://www.woodandtronics.com/?page=shop/f...amplifiers&[/url]

That's roughly £1000, add on to that price the cost of shipping, and all the hastle if anything should go wrong.

Here's a link to the same thing from the Groove shoppe in New York, [url="http://www.thegrooveshoppe.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=8&sort=&sort_direction=&page=2"]http://www.thegrooveshoppe.com/xcart/manuf...ion=&page=2[/url]
I have dealt with these, and can highly recommend them, that price is about £800, add on the cost of shipping and import duty/VAT.

Both of these are more than I paid from the Gallery, I also got an Epifani gigbag, just to make it easier to carry home on the train.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='28123' date='Jul 6 2007, 10:32 PM']I bought my Focus from Bob Gollihur ([url="http://www.urbbob.com"]www.urbbob.com[/url]). I saved myself an absolute fortune (literally hundreds and hundreds of quid - UK retailers were taking the p***, frankly).

The support from AI is great. I don't regret buying from overseas.[/quote]


Yeah, I did think about ordering from abroad, but there's always the problem if anything does go wrong, of shipping it back etc.

And I have been given a good price by Alex, so by the time you add on shipping and the dreaded taxes I wouldn't really be much better off.

Thanks for the link though.

[quote name='Dragonlord' post='28095' date='Jul 6 2007, 09:14 PM']Most are good suggestions (except aguilar! at least not the DB750 and AG500). I'd probably mainly look at the AI and EA stuff for transparent. However, I can't recommend buying at the Gallery - it's great that there's a store that carries these brands in London, but the stuff there is waaaay overpriced. I mean easily up to +50% with a quick look, which at 1000 GBP for example is a LOT of money. I would recommend ordering from Germany or Italy instead.[/quote]

The problem with ordering from abroad was highlighted by this thread here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=889"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=889[/url]

If anything goes wrong with whatever I buy, I just take it back to the Gallery.

And the price that's advertised isn't necessarily the price that you pay.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='27742' date='Jul 6 2007, 08:12 AM']I think your best bet is the AI Focus. MarkBass heads definitely have some preshape built-in and Epifani heads are SO expensive! I know a bassist in London who plays a Wal fretless through one with a UL112, and before the UL112 arrived he borrowed one of my Acmes - I got to try out both and was very impressed.

Personally I remain sceptical about the Focus having the power it claims but I'm sure it has more than enough power to push a UL310 to its limits.

Alex[/quote]


From reading other threads here and on Talkbass you seem to be a bit of an expert on this sort of thing.

How do you think the AI focus compares to your Avalon U5, and to Epi heads.

Cheers

Hi

I use a Sei 6 string bass which has an Aguilar OBP3 preamp fitted to it.

After 20 years of playing, using virtually every amp possible, I've come to the conclusion that the sound of my bass sounds fantastic just amplified, without being messed about with.

Most amps are 'voiced', so even when set flat, the sound they produce isn't.

If an amp has only a 3 band EQ section, then cutting the mids is affecting quite a chunk of your sound, and the resulting sound from your speakers is nothing like the true character of your bass.

I played through a crappy, abused Behringer amp and cab on Tuesday night at a rehearsal studio, plugged into the input it sounded awful, however plugged into the effects return input, thereby avoiding the preamp it sounded great, I just used the pre on my bass to vary my tones.

This is something that I've been doing for sometime, try it next time you use an unfamiliar amp.

Look at Mark Kings amps, you'll see graphic eq sliders flying everywhere, the mids are cut by a massive amount, pretty much everyone agrees that his live sound is crap. It shouldn't be though with the gear that he uses, the Status Kingbass has a fantastic preamp fitted to it, doesn't he like the sound of it ?, because he's not hearing the Kingbass real sound with the amps set like they are.

These are obviously just my opinions, everyone is different.

I'm off to the Gallery tomorrow, they have all three amps that I'm interested in, the Epi 502, and AI focus and Clarus, so I'll be able to try each one, I'm taking my bass with me.

Hi

Thanks for all of your replies.

Yeah, one of the things that appeals to me with both heads, over the seperate pre/power amp is the lightness, they both have a class D power amp stage.

I'm hopefully going to pop into the Gallery on Saturday to try both, I've emailed Alex to check on the stock situation.

I'm considering going with a seperate pre/power amp, probably an Avalon UL5 with a powersoft power amp.

However my prefered option is to just buy as transparent sounding head as possible, my options here are an Epifani UL502, or an Acoustic image either a Clarus or a focus.

I use an Epifani UL310 series 2 cab.

The idea is to just amplify my bass, I have a very versatile pre fitted to my bass, and I think that it's very easy to completely ruin your sound (without realising it), by over enthusiastic tone knob tweaking.

Anyway, has anyone any experience of the above gear.

I only play jazz and funk, so I don't need masses of power.

I do a lot of teaching in schools, mainly for Warwickshire county council.

I got into it through a friend who teaches guitar.

I find it very rewarding, music is looked on as a 'cool' subject these days, and is taught differently to when I was at school, which wasn't all that long ago really.

They organised the CR check and everything else.

It is different to private teaching, you don't have the same sort of relationship develop, you do tend to be a bit more distant when in a school envoironment for obvious reasons.

[quote name='Mikey D' post='16885' date='Jun 13 2007, 02:13 PM']buckeye roscoe 6.......I need to get some money fast![/quote]


Erm, that's mine, as of last Wednesday.

I also have a new Sei 6 on the way in the next month or so.

I need to get saving, luckily I have plenty of work at the moment.

I've been listening to a lot of his music over the last few weeks, he's a fantastic acoustic and electric player, and an excellent composer, he's got a really good live DVD/CD out that's well worth listening to, and his album 'At home' is fantastic, I especially like tracks 1, 8 and 10, but the whole album is great.

Check out some of his stuff here [url="http://www.myspace.com/avishaicohenmusic"]http://www.myspace.com/avishaicohenmusic[/url]

He's playing at Ronnie Scotts quite a bit later in the year, he's also at the Sligo jazz festival next month, I'm there as well so hopefully I'll get to see him live.

Nice, I like your 'my funny valentine', we were playing that last night at practice, we got halfway through the first chorus and had to stop, drowned out by a very loud metal band next door, Rich bitch need to improve their soundproofing.

Do you play live with her, I live in Birmingham and love watching live jazz ?.

Also I don't suppose you know any drum students looking for a few gigs do you, we have to share our current one with about 4 other bands.

Hi

I'm quite fancying one of these.

[url="http://www.qscaudio.com/products/amps/plx/plx.htm"]http://www.qscaudio.com/products/amps/plx/plx.htm[/url]

It's what Steve Lawson uses, I've been a metre away from his in his front room, and you couldn't hear it.

In the past couple of years I used heads by EBS and Aguilar, they had fans but didn't make an awful racket, my experience of power amps is somewhat different though, they were a QSC RMX850, a Crown, both of these were 'budget' models, obviously the QSC 1602 is in a different price level.

Glad to see that you've got everything kinda sorted out at last.

Someone has probably already said this, (it's a bit of a long thread to read through all of the replies), but you can't beat buying from this country.

The service from the Gallery, who I believe are the only UK distributor of Epifani, has always been superb, at least in my experience. I doubt that you would have had the sort of problems that you've encountered if you'd have bought from them.

I just bought an Epi UL310 from them, I had to wait a few weeks for delivery, but it's a superb cab, and I got an excellent deal from them pricewise.

[quote name='dood' post='21533' date='Jun 21 2007, 07:17 PM']Ya know I was even tempted to get another... stick it inside my Epifani 6x10!!!!![/quote]


Wow, an Epi 6x10, I bet that sounds good.

My 3x10 is incredible.

[quote name='dood' post='21508' date='Jun 21 2007, 06:29 PM']Yup! Thats the one! I wrote a bit about the module back in BassTalk days.. but essentially, big thumbs up from me!

What I really liked about the module (other than the fact that you can slot it straight into any cabinet to make it 'active' is that you don't need a preamp at all to drive it. The input is instrument level already (or you can plug a microphone - balanced XLR straight in) This means that you'd only need to use a preamp for tone shaping. Less gain means less noise/hiss etc.

The unit IIRC weighs about 3 kilos too. I'd say yes, it was a very good spec!

Or there's this one too..

[url="http://www.bkelec.com/Pro/Amplifiers/MXF1200D.htm"]http://www.bkelec.com/Pro/Amplifiers/MXF1200D.htm[/url]

BK build OEMs for a lot of PA companies. I think there gear is pretty damn good.[/quote]

Ah yes, that does look good, and a pretty reasonable price too.

Thanks for that, very much appreciated.

I'm using an Epifani 3x10 cab, but was thinking of getting an Acme low B-2.

Where did you get your Avalon from, the cheapest that I've seen it was £375 from Ebay.

The FMR RNP is £380 from here [url="http://www.audioagencyeurope.com/fmr_audio.html"]http://www.audioagencyeurope.com/fmr_audio.html[/url]

Thanks for all your advice by the way.

There's also this that I was thinking of getting, as an alternative to the Avalon.

[url="http://www.fmraudio.com/RNP8380.htm"]http://www.fmraudio.com/RNP8380.htm[/url]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='21492' date='Jun 21 2007, 05:45 PM']Good choice on the preamp - my U5 did its first gig last night and it was decidedly awesome!

Personally I think that if you're looking at rackmount power amps then the fan noise will be inaudible in live situations. For practising at home could you use the Eden as your power unit, running the Avalon into the FX return.

One option is to get a tech to add a fan defeat switch to a normal power amp - at low volumes the fan really isn't required and any quality power amp will shut down if it gets too hot before damage occurs.

Alex[/quote]


Cheers

I'm a big fan of Anthony Jackson sound and I've seen the U5 recommended with reference to him, even though he uses the more expensive Millenia preamps.