gjones

I have a bid on a 5 string on ebay at the moment. I've been playing bass 30 years and have never owned one yet. I think it's about time I did.

I make an effort when making an effort is merited. If I'm playing 'the dog n duck' I don't. If I'm playing a gig, where the audience has paid £20 a head to see the band, I make an effort.

There's one at my local venue. It's going through an Ampeg SVT classic 410HE. I play through it 4 or 5 times a month and it sounds fantastic. Considering it gets played continuously for about 6 hrs a night it seems pretty reliable. But, although I'd love to buy one, all the scare stories on bass forums have put me off.

Put your cab up on a chair/table whatever so it's nearer your ears. No use having your bass flapping your trousers, your ears aren't on your knees.

I went to a gig at The Festival Theatre, in Edinburgh, a couple of years ago. It's a 2,000 seater and it was full. The overall sound was shockingly bad (the sound engineer took until the 3rd song to realise that he'd muted the snare) but the bass sounded excellent. The bass player was a friend of mine, who plays a Musicman Sterling with 5 year old roundwounds on it, and wherever he plays he always gets a great sound (however bad the rest of the sound mix is). He uses a lot of mid, which isn't a great tone on it's own, but when playing with a band it always stands out in the mix.

Yes I saved about £60 when I bought my Hartke Hydrive 112. Zoom B3 is for sale for under £100.

The money is in weddings and corporate gigs, not pubs. But that may be a road you don't want to go down.

Having bought and sold a few Japanese Jazzes over the years, I'd say £650 was about right for a 75 reissue, whatever the year. If you decided you didn't like it you could put it up on basschat, at that price, and it would be snapped up pretty quickly.

[quote name='Pembo' timestamp='1415310819' post='2599186'] I can't answer the question, sorry, but very interested in the answers/advice hopefully forthcoming. I'm trying to decide between the TC and the Hartke Hydrive at the moment, for small gigs. I use a Markbass head as well. [/quote] If you're thinking about a Hartke, I bought a Hydrive 112, for £284, on Thomann's website last week. A saving of about £60 compared with UK shops.

Personally, I'd stay away from anyone with 1842 negative feedbacks. think you should too.

My brother in law bought a Harley Benton Les Paul Goldtop for £100 from Thomanns. It needed a set up but sounded excellent. He's a pro player and usually plays teles and strats. He just fancied a change and decided to take a risk on a £100 chinese copy. He's very pleased with it.

I have a Jazz with a John East preamp in it (which allows me to get just about any sound under the sun) and a Fender Precision. I used to have a MM Stingray and an active Yamaha too. But I tend to find that whatever bass I play, unless I go for an extreme EQ setting, just sounds like me.

This might help [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/230055-tilt-back-cabamp-stand-which-one-to-buy/"]http://basschat.co.u...ich-one-to-buy/[/url] £18 from Thomann http://www.thomann.de/gb/standback_ampstand.htm

Thanks for your advice. I bought one today from Thomann at a great price. It's for smaller gigs and when I'm going through a PA as a monitor. If I like it I may get another to make up a mini stack.

I heard one a couple of years ago, it sounded fantastic.

The most I've had at one time is 5. But since I bought the John East pre amp for my Jazz, I have no need for loads of other basses. The only other bass I have is a precision, which is my 'just in case bass'.

On the clip I saw, I thought the bass sounded great. And quite a groovy bassline. Although I didn't think the song sounded particularly memorable.

The John East in my Jazz is so versatile, I really don't need any other bass.

Mercedes builds Mercs in China. So why not manufacture Fenders there as well. Becoming a boutique guitar builder , based in California, is not what Fender is all about. Fender's were created to be the Ford model T of the guitar world, affordable by Joe Public everywhere.

But he's throwing in a tuner!

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1402132126' post='2470257'] Interesting one last night... Turned up to a usual sort of Friday night pub gig with my covers band. While setting up the power tripped no less than 5 times (before we'd even turned the amps on!). Finally managed to get consistent power from an extension lead behind the bar. I had a feeling it was going to be one of 'those' nights... Next thing, we do soundcheck, who should appear... None other than Mr MDP! Thats right the infamous eBay master bodger extraordinaire himself is standing right in front of me! Turns out he's having a fish supper around the corner with his family... He comes over after the soundcheck and says "sounds good guys" then leaves... SO we get started, to a suspiciously overenthusiastic rabble of a few. Within about 5 songs, a couple of guys who were dancing (to smooth operator!!!) bump into each other, a heated discussion turns in to a bit of pushing and the place quickly descends into a moshpit briefly before a fight breaks out. (oh my days) Police are called, they have a word with the worst of the offenders and leave. Allowing the meatheads back in to the pub!!! Second set. And another punter decides to walk over to the stage area, expertly navigating the leads and mic stands despite his drunken state and makes a bee line for our singer. I step in his way and politely tell him to move away (mid song here so options limited) he doesn't, instead stands touching my shoulders watching my fretboard intently. I start to push gently away, guiding him to the edge of the stage, where he stays for the rest of the song playing air bass! In the end an audience member stepped in (3 times) to have a quiet word with him and eventually he backed off a bit. Believe me, I've never seen a band pack up and leave a gig so fast! [/quote] Oh the joys of playing in a pub band! The guitarist/singer (in a band I play in) had to headbutt some guy in a God forsaken pub, in nowheresville, recently, for doing the same to him. He didn't seem too bothered.

My old style MiBass has a seriously quiet fan and masses of bass.