msb

Probably my favourite bass to play!

My main gigging bass …

Pretty easy to guess what this might be …

Stingrays used to have a nice chunky Pbass style neck. Don’t know about recent ones.

With any clean amp you can add a gain stage , and tart it up. Not so easy the other way around.

We don’t have a high density population , few of the major tours come down this way , we’re way off in a corner of the continent. We do have an unusual number of bars for the population. So we don’t have many local musicians living here making big incomes , most are at best around sustenance levels. But we do have a lot of players. Most are working musicians rather than rock stars.

And the preamp , Monique Here powered by a Demeter Minnie , 800 watts.

There are amps that do not have any EQ , like this M Series amp by Jule. But they are designed to be used with a preamp with EQ . Like Monique. Someday I hope to run one of those rigs.

Some amps are relatively transparent though , others have more distinct character. My Forte sound is largely determined by the bass I’m playing. More so than some other amps I have. There are many that use a power amp with a completely separate front end /preamp. edit The Forte does not suck the vintage out of passive basses , if you want to add an additional gain stage you can simply add the pedal or preamp of your choice , I run mine just as it is. It possesses some serious slam , and I find the EQ on the Forte almost surgical when it comes down to dialling things in.