4 Strings

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='875452' date='Jun 23 2010, 02:30 PM']No-one will be able to shift big heavy speakers. The value will plummet. People will realise there is a sound difference between heavy and light. The heavy sound will become retro and cool. Price will skyrocket.[/quote] Absolutely, we'll have people talking about the original, thin tolex letting the 'sound out' from old heads. In reality there will always be a value for quality heavy stuff as bigger DOES sound better for bass - can't substitute volume (as in cu m) for depth and weight in sound - but only as long as its good in the first place. Just be circulating among fewer people than a couple of years ago. I must admit, I'm always more excited when I go to see a band, even in a pub, and see a proper bass rig. This one will ALWAYS excite me!

[quote name='Delberthot' post='870353' date='Jun 17 2010, 11:02 PM']They do look nice and compared to what I've been looking for are great value but are a bit jazzy for me - I may see if he can do me something more 'normal'[/quote] Just let him know what you want, he'll do as 'normal' as you like, put in straplock holes and any other detail you want

I must admit my first thought was, if you know little about Fenders, how do you know you want something as specific as you describe? But that's not my business. Lfalex's response is wise and, if you're anything like me, you won't be able to help yourself finding out tons of info about what you're after. Safest way is from established dealers (they may be able to find one for you too!) as they will not want to lose their reputation. For this peace of mind you'll not be paying bargain prices. Also safest is from someone who can be recommended (on here etc). Last place (for safety) is untried from ebay. If it helps, fakes are normally easily spotted by the collected detailed knowledge represented by those here and from stuff you can get on the net. Keep us in touch, ask on here for opinions on what you find and I'm sure you'll end up with a great bass.

Try this guy I recommended here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=85940"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=85940[/url] He'll make whatever it is that you want.

[quote name='Kongo' post='518570' date='Jun 19 2009, 04:40 PM']Buy the Ibanez, leave the Tanglewood![/quote] I would say 'try them both'. Ibanez has a great reputation for its expensive guitars (not so for some of the plywood cheaper ones) but tanglewood has only the reputation for the cheaper guitars. the Canyon 2 and 3 are not cheap (unless you can find one cheap somewhere, they are around) but really are very nice, I can't recommend them highly enough if you like that sort of bass. My lad has one, won't let anyone touch it - its round his neck most of the day anyway!. Its beautifully made, wide range of very good sounds and plays very nicely indeed. For rrp they are in the upper regions and hold their own, they sometimes crop for bargain prices in which case it would be a steal. If you can hack having 'Tanglewood' written on your bass they are definitely worth a try for, I believe, a pleasant surprise.

"As for amplification, my rig has been a gradual evolution over 25 years from cheap Laney gear, through lots of Trace Elliot, Ashdown, Mark Bass and finally onto Genz Benz. I don't really GAS for amplifiers. As long as they're reliable, light weight and faithfully reproduce the sound of my instruments, I'm not really fussed." I think this was similar to Victor Wootens 'recommendation' of Hartke.

See, now with active basses it all goes to pot (excuse the pun!). With my Jaydee its bass and treble at ~90%, middle at ~75%. With the Stingray its bass at ~75% and the treble either 100% with the Trace combo at church or 50% with the Hartke. ie even if the amp is 'flat' the bass isn't. I suppose that's why we choose our basses, we like their sound. Perhaps a better question would have been 'Do we vary our sound more by our playing or our eq settings? Definitely the former for me (although I must admit I love to whack up the treble on the Stingray for a bit of slap fun, not in performances though).

Yep, don't offer opinions unless it is somehow 'your' band. Just made that mistake recently, found out it wasn't 'my' band in any shape. Having had musicians do work for me on a project, I would say: - Turning up on time - Having the ability to do what's asked with aplomb but not with 'extras' - Only offering alternatives once the original idea is in the bag (and remembering who's project it is and not flouncing off if ideas aren't taken) - Discipline, would people please stop mucking about and stopping to make 'jokes' when there's work to be done. Funny things always crop up naturally, which is great, and there's always down time for fun. I hate wasting time. - Respect for everyone else involved. Arrogance doesn't last long as it is quickly followed by being on your own. Having others working for you teaches the priorities of what's expected and helps when you're working for others' projects.

"As a rule of thumb I try amps by setting everything at 12 oclock with all the bells and whistles switched off. If the basic tone I get pleases me I'm happy. If I have to swing on the knobs to get it somewhere like I'm not happy." I remember in a band a long while ago the keyboardist was offered an old Marshall 50W guitar valve amp and thought it would be a cool thing to use. To get it sounding neutral he was wanting to use a graphic eq in the signal path otherwise it was boxy sounding. I told him that to change the signal so much meant it wasn't the right amp. He agreed and bought a 200W Frunt (remember those!) bass amp I was selling instead, much better all round! (The Marshall was pre-master volume and so about a hundred quid, be ten times that now!)

There are quite a few differences to the Stingrays of the time apart from the extra pickup. The bodies are dressed away for the forearm and beer gut like Fenders whereas the early Stingrays were slabs, adopting the dressed bodies after a couple of years of Sabre production. The bridges are top loading (Stingrays of the time were string-through-body) and different to even top-loading Stingray bridges. The electronics were also different having coil taps and lots of other little switches with options for 3 band eq. If a Stingray is like having a 5litre Chevy then a Sabre is the 8 litre model. Its going to be powerful. I crave a good Sabre. I think its rather odd that MM didn't call it a 'Saber'. If you can possibly find one, link it to a Sabre neck (hen's teeth etc) or a Stingray neck (the necks are the same apart from a transfer) and you should have a very fine bass for yourself. (Can you see the serial no. on the bridge? Are there any stamps on the neck pocket?)

In my experience this is quite a recent phenomenon. Driven more by reducing change-over times than people not having their own amps. 'In my day' each band always brought their own gear, that was that. Was never asked to loan, never asked to borrow, this over 20 odd years, but then it was mostly two bands at the most each night. Nowadays, my lad's band gigs, on average, fortnightly, almost always with other 2, 3, 4 other bands on the bill. He (drummer) is almost always asked to bring only snare, cymbals and pedal, the rest asked not to bring their backline as it's 'provided'. Turns out, almost always, by the last band on. These poor sods have the free hire problem. I must admit, there is normally no problem, only once have I seen a guitarist complain about his amp afterwards only to find a button not pressed or something and it was fine. Its to do with smooth/quick changeovers, not bands with no gear. If someone was not prepared to loan (and this has happened, its their prerogative) then the promoter asks the next band down for whatever's needed. There's no requirement to lend, refusal to loan doesn't mean no gig, just means either a longer changeover or using an unfamiliar amp. Normally fine, not seen a problem, although I can certainly see how there can be and I'm glad I wasn't asked when I played these sorts of venues. If I was asked now I would be on hot bricks and would have to instruct each user on what not to do (for example not to plug the guitar in last etc) and conjure some respect. If I'd had the experience of the OP, it would have to be 'no'.

I get the comments about the LH500, I noticed that at the Victor Wooten thing in Romford. A good direction for new amps, me thought. Also I get the comments about 'what's flat' as bass amps, in general, have a scoopy sort of sound when the controls are flat. (Try putting a recorded track through and you'll hear). I accept my Hartke amp gives me a scoopy sound. If we assume manufacturers get their amps tried out by bass players before launching into production does this mean that we (in general) like a rather scoopy sound to add a bot of life? Would we be dissatisfied with a REALLY flat sound, like by plugging straight into a PA type power amp?

I know its horses for courses etc but I have still yet to play anywhere (from pubs to church halls to festivals to indoor parties) that's required me to use anything other than flat on the amp. I have been known to tweak the 'low pass' up a bit at home when at low volumes but that's about it. There's graphic equalisers and all sorts of other knobs and sliders on amps but I always look for the bypass switch. Am I a purest or something or do people generally not use tone controls on amps? If so, maybe they could be made more simply and the money spent on tone control diverted to better capacitors or something.

As at the extreme, I use a little 2.5XL (2x10 with a little 5" tweeter) all the time, loads of bass and sparkle too, extraordinary amount of both actually,I roll treble and bass off the guitar (Stingray - amp always flat). Gig on Sunday a bass playing mate described the sound as 'monster'. Add the 115XL and it can really rumble. I regularly use an old 1x15 Trace combo at church (which is great) and I have to wind treble and bass up full for that. Seems like it was his personal choice sound (or his guitar had twangy, new strings or toppy pickups) ps The old 1518 Trace cab I used to have, until it was pinched, was below sub. Lovely!

[quote name='discreet' post='861692' date='Jun 9 2010, 12:18 AM']Pics?[/quote] No pic, no butt. I'm in the 'pink is good, gold bits are bad' camp. Err, not camp, um, brigade. They are much more girlie. I would expect that bass to be packed away into a giant, black Range-Rover with low profile tyres and spinners. Just pink would arrive in a Corvette Stingray.

+1 on all this. For me though, totally personal, I just don't get the fake worn out look and would buy the other on that basis. However, I was one of the privileged few at the VW Hartke thing and afterwards Digital Village opened an Aladdin's cave of gear. Dozens of basses, Musicman, Fender US, Mex, Ibanez plus all sorts of others. For me, not necessarily a Fender fan, the stars of the show were a US sunburst Jazz (just played so beautifully and sounded so cool) and a Mex sunburst Precision which sounded fab. Having moved to try the Musicman basses first and only picked up others because they were there, these two stood out (though what a sound you could get from the Bongo HH!) even if they looked nondescript. I wonder how many other people went to a shop to buy a certain bass but, having tried a few more out, came out with something different, even totally different. There can't be many greater pleasures than trying out basses knowing you're actually going to buy one! (ps the other oddball star was a fretless Tanglewood Canyon, three other people made special comment of that one)

Is this where we can say thanks to you for this event? Like, I'm sure, every single person at the event I was very impressed by Victor's playing, communication skills, musicianship, attitude, humility, time and patience. He was still friends with us after 3+ hours of being on show, signing and having photos etc and being one of the last to leave. I was expecting an hour of him explaining the latest Hartke features and quoting model numbers. Actually, I believe he mentioned Hartke once and almost in passing. So, my thanks to you is for letting Victor free to play, chat, teach and impress us all about Victor in creating a relaxed, bass players heaven for an evening. Please be assured that despite the focus on Victor, the fact he happily uses Hartke at his level and that Hartke are prepared to invest at our level was lost on no-one. Thanks again for a great evening. Greg

[quote name='chris_b' post='848328' date='May 26 2010, 11:14 AM']Many thanks to DV and Hartke for putting on the evening with Victor Wooten, I enjoyed it immensely. He's not my style at all and I only bought the ticket on a whim but I was surprised at how much I was drawn in to VW's playing in the live environment. He's a very good communicator and a direct and likeable guy and I felt that he got his advice on playing, practice, music and life etc over very well. “No one ever got a gig on the back of the “twiddley” stuff. You get gigs on the back of your groove.” That's how I've justified my style for years!! So much of what he said resonated with me. Now I’ve just got to try and get some of those licks sorted! The only down side for me was the gear. Sorry, but I just don't like the sound of Hartke![/quote] Just tuppence here, the gear was DI'd and much of what you heard seemed to come from the PA. If so, not sure why he didn't have it louder from his cabs. Of course everyone has their opinions, which is why the world is so great, but I thought he sounded great.

Not really thought of trans orange before this thread but now I'm getting hooked. Say, Iconic, have you bought one yet? Surely you don't need any more recommendations? Funnily enough, in a little Google on it I can find lots of trans orange Sterlings, fretless and 5s but not a 4 string Stingray. If you order one, make it an HH. Oh, and without the matching head. <climbs out of dream to get back on with work>

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='846410' date='May 24 2010, 12:09 PM']Our trumpet player is always pushing to get me to take a solo. I keep telling her bass players don't solo because nobody enjoys it when they do, but she still brings it up every rehearsal.[/quote] Sounds like she has a soft spot ...

Yep, done it after some 15 years, was childless at the previous gig and turned up with my two teenage lads as personal roadies while the singer/guitarist had bred four in the meantime! Just reminded myself of (most of) the tracks from cassette tapes - took a while to find a player! - the night before, turned up and away we went! Only a three piece but the guitarist and myself still had the same guitars - even the PA was the same! Great fun, another 3 years have passed.

I have a personal 'No 5s rule'!