gjones

I play through the 'old' bassist's (he doesn't have any room in his house) line6 LD300 at the rehearsal room my band rents. It actual sounds alright when you turn all the rubbishy effects off. It's certainly loud enough and it's got a bit of oomph.

I've played some dodgy dives in my time. I played a bar down in Leith which was straight out of Trainspotting. The manageress was a 65 year old ex hooker in a mini skirt and thighboots. Most of the fighting was between shellsuited women and the guys just wandered around in a heroin induced haze. The singer/gutarist had a full pint thrown at him while he was singing which just missed him and smashed against the wall.

Amazingly they loved us and asked us back! I refused to go as I didn't want to end up dead but the rest of the band actually went and played the gig. That night some guy got glassed for supporting the wrong team.

It could have been me.

The coolest bass player I ever saw was the guy in Goldfrapp. He just stands with hat tipped over one eye and plays a perspex bass. Occasionally he'll also wear gold lame trousers. There's no trying to look cool........he just [size=6][b]IS[/b][/size] cool.


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn9ETvfIRFQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn9ETvfIRFQ[/url]

Oh well, you'll all be glad to know I haven't lost the GAS. I played a gig with my ABM 500 and my BC212 and I just couldn't get the volume required (it's a 250w cab after all). So I've put a deposit on a Barefaced compact. Hopefully it will sound fab and that will be that, no more GAS.

Hopefully.......

It depends on the gig. Recently I've been back playing bass (after ten years playing in other bands) for an old friend of mine, who is a singer and guitarist, who has gone onto bigger and better things touring with some big names as guitarist and band leader. The bassists he's been playing with recently are real pros so when I turn up for the gig I know I have to impress. It's good for me though because I've been cruising for a while and these gigs stretch me and mean I have to up my game.

It's weird because I thought I was over the butterflys in the stomach thing a long time ago.

And it's got a musicman bridge? It's a real Frankenstein bass (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

I hate to think how he gets those basses looking so disgusting. But there must loonies out there who want a bass that looks like it's been smeared in excrement or he wouldn't keep on doing it.

Certainly sounds like the real deal. The quality of some of the so called budget basses coming out of the far east is scarily good.
Of course it helps that your playing is pretty ace as well. Like they say, a lot of the sound you get out of an instrument is in the fingers.

[quote name='Alec 'Aleb' Mills' timestamp='1330766304' post='1562608']
I suppose it is!
Ah, I guess I'm just a tight bastard then
[/quote]

Recently they've been selling cheap on ebay..............around £250/260 on ebay for secondhand ABM 500.

Look what you've gone and made me do! I've bit the bullet and put a deposit on a compact.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1330628243' post='1560754']
Is there any point asking for a BassChat discount??
[/quote]

If you don't ask you don't get

I have a hankering for a barefaced cab too as my first gig with my BC2x12 and my ABM 500 in a standing room only bar on Sunday wasn't exactly a resounding success. I lost the battle with a very loud drummer and guitarist.

I found the 62 and the Geddy very different basses. What are your thoughts.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1330384522' post='1556757']
That's me ... if it 'sits well' in the mix then it has it's own sonic space and will be well heard amongst the other instrumenst and will not overpower or be overpowered by the other instruments, and that is to say it will 'cut through'.
[/quote]

+1

The bassist in The New Mastersounds has a great Precision sound.

He's also a damn good player.........as I'm sure you'll agree.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACTDquZ7PD4&feature=relmfu"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACTDquZ7PD4&feature=relmfu[/url]

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1330286415' post='1555284']
Report back on how it goes !
[/quote]

Nice sound but my Jazz has a pre amp which was putting the needle into the red when things got louder. Maybe I need to use the EQ on the amp instead of the pre amp on my bass. I had the gain and the master up full to get the required output in a bar bursting at the seams with Frenchies up for the rugby. I could add another cab but I like the idea of travelling light. I'm pretty sure the 2x12 is capable of handling more volume just need to figure out how to do it without overdriving the pre amp on the ABM.

Anyway the sound was much better than my old TC Electronic head through the same cab so I'm sure I made the right decision.

Well I'll be playing through my new ABM for the first time tonight through my TC electronic BC2x12 cab . Hopefully I'll be as chuffed after the gig as you were.

Well if you Sell your 4x10 combo you would then be able to buy my 1x15 Klystron Cab with neodynium speaker (ie lightweight) for the ultimate Ashdown stack.

Mucho cheapness [url="http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?ID=186"]http://www.ashdownmu...tail.asp?ID=186[/url]

Buy a new one and give it a good kicking!

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1330164274' post='1553504']
Your guys need a bit of education about layering sound.
They can't just turn up and play what to them is a great sound and be oblivious to what space everyone else needs...plus there are two of them...!!
[/quote]

They're guitarists it's in their nature.

I bought a 10 year old, made in Indonesia, standard Squier, 3rd or 4th hand for £95 ($150). It played and sounded great. The neck was slightly out of alignment with the bridge but nothing too bad. The newer ones such as the VM or classic vibe are even better.

I hate to say it but at the time I had a Geddy Lee Jazz and a 62 reissue both made in Japan. Guess which one I preferred playing?

My nephew has started playing bass so I gave it away to him.

I'm seriously thinking of buying another standard Squier Jazz (if anybody has one going cheap - black or sunburst please).

You just can't go wrong with a Japanese Jazz. You've got a Geddy Lee so you know that already. At one time I had a Geddy and 62 reissue and it was interesting to compare them side by side. They're both great but very different.

Very Jamerson from 'What's going on'. Which is the highest praise you can give any bass player in my opinion. If he was playing live then he deserves a round of applause because he was flawless and had great feel.

I had a similar problem when I installed a John east J-retro in my Jazz. What I've now done is screened all the cavities with 3 layers of screening paint and made sure that the copper earthing strip (it's an old MIJ 62 reissue type Jazz) from bridge to pickup plate is connected to the earthing circuit securely. The popping sound has almost gone - it only happens now if I touch the bridge pickup with my finger.

There's plenty of info about screening and earthing basses on this forum if you use the search facility at the top right of this page (which is what I did).

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1329777990' post='1547357']
Really?! How odd...
[/quote]

The amp sounded as if you'd removed the sliders on a graphic equaliser at the punchy end of the spectrum. There was low bass and mid and a decent high end but however much I twiddled and widdled the knobs I couldn't find the specific low mid frequencies I was looking for. I thought it might have been the speakers but they now sound great with my ABM 500 so they weren't the problem.

My TC Classic 450 was plenty loud enough going through my BC212 - I never had it much above halfway on the master. I just really didn't get on with the sound of it. It just didn't have any low mid 'grunt' if you know what I mean.