Minininjarob

1 hour ago, BassBunny said:

As someone who has tried a ton of different amps over the years, before going ampless, I found Ashdown to be my favourite. 

The Rootmaster is a fabulous amp if you want lightweight. The ABM is industry standard and I loved the Retroglide.

The other advantage with Ashdown is that they have the best customer service on the planet. The can repair anything they have ever produced and are more than reasonable.

The Ashdown combo sound I wasn't enthralled by when I tested them but their customer service reputation really draws them to me if I’m being honest. No point in using something amazing if it never works. 

58 minutes ago, Ed_S said:

Just my opinion, and I'd never try to frame any of it as fact, but...

 

I'd say you're on the right track with a good 2x10 and 500W head for the vast majority of gigs - I've arrived at the same rig myself after 24 years of swapping and changing. However, the cab needs to be good and the budget you've got right now will only buy the head (I'm talking new with warranty as I personally don't see second hand gear as being worth the risk) so for now I'd use the combo as a cab, spend the budget on a new head and start putting some cash aside for the right cab later on.

 

With the amp section out of the combo, it might be easier to send it off further afield and see if it can be fixed relatively cheaply. If so then great, but only slot it back together and sell it as a worker to finish off the new cab fund, as there's no point selling it half way through and scuppering your plan by forcing yourself to buy 'something that will do' with what you have in the pot at that moment. If it's still broken by the time you have the cab funds anyway, then either put the combo back together and see what you can get for it as-is, or part it out and flog it on in bits.

 

My current rig along the same lines is a Markbass head (pretty much bang-on £500) and a Barefaced Two10 (about £700, but really does the job) so of course I'd recommend that as I play rock/metal (on a 5er, with a pick) with it and I know it works.

Thanks. I was looking at one of the Fender Rumble heads, but was worried the increased wattage may be too much for my GK if used as a cab only. It’s a 1x12, not sure on the watt/ohm situation. I loved the Rumble sound on their combos and was going to buy one until I found the GK second hand. 
 

I’m  the same as you I would prefer to buy new, I will probably go to a couple of shops to test out what they have tomorrow. 
 

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

If you love the GK and it truly is beyond repair, your answer is GK. You can read everyone's opinions, go through tons of chopping and changing different sorts of gear, but if you know what you like and like what you know you've already got the answer.

I’ve only ever had one amp, this one, so am open to anything. 
The GK stuff is really expensive too, new and used. 
Thanks for being the only person to try and help with what I asked for though!

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

Maybe have a look or ask here 

 

Thanks - I will ask but they are a long way from me. 

2 hours ago, nekomatic said:

Is it the amp or the speaker that’s packed up? If nothing else, it should be possible to do something with whichever bit still works - for example take out a dead amp unit and use the speaker with another amp head. 

It’s the amp. I studied electronics and i can’t figure out what’s up with it. All the components I can test seem ok and all the connectors are ok, continuity seem ok. No idea what’s up. 

4 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Is there no one who could maybe have a look at it for you before you spend out on another setup 

Can’t seem to find anywhere in West Yorks that will look at it. 

My GK combo, which I love, an MB112mk2, appears to have bitten the dust - I can’t seem to fix it (I do know electronics a bit and I can’t see anything wrong with it) which is annoying for a £600 combo. 

i want to get a new amp but would probably prefer a separate head and cab. But it’s a minefield and I don’t have the luxury to swap things around if what I buy doesn’t sound right. 
 

I’m thinking a 2x10 cab with an amp in the 500w range would be a good step up from what I have now but still be compact enough for use at home but be good for the sort of gig I hope to do one day. 
 

Play with a pick mainly rock/punk stuff. 
 

Needs to be relatively lightweight as it’ll get moved often. 

I was hoping to sell my combo to go towards the new setup but it looks like a no-go now so I maybe have £500 to spend on it all. 
 

Ideas?

11 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

I've used a few now. I'd say the 40w one is lovely for rehearsing but struggles to do the low end thing in a live situation. For small gigs the 100w would probably do okay, depending on the drummer. If you've got a GK combo and are short of money could you take the amp bit out and use it as a cab with a head? 

I did think that but I’ve no idea what the spec of the speaker is and I’m wanting to go around 500w next and I don’t think the 1x12 combo speaker will handle anywhere new that (it’s £200 currently)

I’ve tried to fix my amp but it’s beyond me an ok struggling to find anyone who can fix it. Not great for a £600 combo. 

What sort of weight is this please?

My GK amp has broken and I might be buying one of the Fender Rumbles - not sure on just a head or one of the combos. They have a great sound. 

8 hours ago, Risk101 said:

Really interesting to read all this and to see how other churches do things from an AV perspective I'm surprised 4 bassists aren't enough really, unless maybe you are running multiple services each Sunday (which we did for a while)? I find if I'm not playing at least every other week or so, its much harder to stay familiar with the songs and to have a sense of "team". I'd be interested to know what other bassists think about the optimum playing frequency. 

 

Crack on with your learning and in addition to learning from your current bassists have a think about getting some lessons maybe? I had been playing for years when I decided to get some lessons from a pro-bassist and it absolutely transformed my playing - was also great to get an external "secular" perspective on playing bass as so much worship stuff is repetitive and predictable so you can end up playing in the same way the whole time.  Sounds a bit of a contradiction, but its made it easier to worship while playing! It was also nice to share some of our music with him!

it’s mainly cos we have a lot of rotas and people tend to be on multiples of them, if you’re not careful you can never be in a service as a member of the congregation. It helps with swaps and extra services too. 
We have multiple “bands” who always play together which helps a lot with consistency. 
 

We generally have drums/2x guitar/bass/piano/2x brass every week, sometimes adding a synth player, extra brass or violin depending on the week. Plus 6x BVs and choir once a month. 
 

I’m learning to play all sorts of music, would like to be in a band myself, don’t want to limit myself. 

1 hour ago, Owen said:

Thanks MNR. We have just bolted a couple of phone holders underneath our balcony and we will just run with the iPods for a bit to see how it feels. We might yetupgrade. However, I can only dream of a full D&B front of house and proper in-ears!

We started with very little. Just the kit the musicians owned in a small room. God really blessed us over the years, music is really something we have developed quite a lot. 
We have 4 bass players at the moment but could do with one or two more as we don’t like people to be on all the time so they can be in the congregation themselves sometimes. Spread a bit thin at the moment as we are providing some musician support to a church in Bradford - so wonderful going there, a small place but with a great heart. 
We had a couple of bassists move onto other things which was a shame as we lost a couple of really good ones. 
I’m a beginner but I’m practising with the person who is playing on a Sunday to try and learn the songs myself. Definitely hard work but hopefully worth it. 
 

The IEMS- we were having issues with a very noisy stage in our last building and when we moved into this new one we decided we wanted a completely clear stage - we do hire the auditorium out so being able to clear it completely  is a lot quicker and easier with no amps or monitors on stage. I suppose it was easier to covert to IEMs for us as we had a custom install put in so could design it from the ground up. 
The lead guitar normally has an amp in a separate room which is mic’ed up but the bassist runs through a DI box or preamp. 
 

I suppose it was a lot of money to install it all but it means we can hire it out for big Christian and non Christian concerts so it does make some money back. 

Seems like he is keen and wants to secure it. He is the one trusting you if he’s sent it F&F as he can’t get it back. 
I’d always insist on cash on collection when he comes to pick it up. 
You could always send the money back as F&F if it falls through. 

On 30/04/2023 at 22:21, Owen said:

Yep, paying more always gets nicer. However, we are trolling along happily with phone/iPod cameras so thinking there has to be something out there which will fit the bill without a massive bill.

In smaller rooms it’s amazing what an iPhone can do, it’s difficult to spend more when then work so well. We make a lot of our church videos from iPhone footage. 

I am a relative beginner bassist and I would really love to play in our church band, we are a bit short on bassists so I need to put a lot of practice in!

We have been really blessed to be able to put in an amazing PA in our new building. We have a couple of pro audio engineers in our congregation who have been so invaluable to making the most of our system, teaching people how to use a system which I would never stand a chance of understanding. 
Info here if you are interested, I don’t understand what most of the set up is! I just know there’s a lot of flashy lights. 
https://www.sseaudio.com/Installations/Churches-Cathedrals/Cathedral-House-Huddersfield

On 01/05/2023 at 23:38, Owen said:

Anyone tried those "whack one of these lenses on your phone and make it super zoom" doobries? Honestly, if it functioned then we would be good to go. 

At our church we started with nice consumer level digital video cameras which had to be manned and did take a lot of setup - we had an analogue vision mixer which was pretty limited but we were chuffed to have it as it was more than a lot of churches have. When we moved to our new built for us building they soon started to struggle to get a decent image from the back of the auditorium (we won’t have cameras at the front as it would be distracting) but we persevered until they eventually broke and we have to buy something new. 
We now have couple of Black Magic design studio 4k cameras for the camera operators and another smaller static BM camera (don’t know the model). It’s all controlled from our vision desk with a touch screen PC controller (and various other complex boxes I don’t understand). We use long zoom lenses to get to the stage which isn’t perfect and is t cheap but it works for us. 
The only negatives they have don’t really make a difference to us and I’ve been impressed with their quality, we’ve had them 4 years now and they are rock solid. 
Worth a look I think. 
Pic shows control desk. Right hand side is Mac which controls all the words/PowerPoints/backgrounds etc. left hand side is mixer side, one screen for inputs, other screen is outputs and screen at bottom is controller. Run off a Mac Mini. Little screen in the centre is a Black Magic mobile recording thing which we put in SD cards to record each service live, hopefully good enough so it doesn’t need much editing  (maybe not when I do the mixing!)

On 08/06/2023 at 17:57, How1 said:

Yep. You might find a preamp pedal handy if you’re doing a lot of of alterations to your sound. Or invest in an active bass in the future. P basses are great though, play around with, you might find you never need anything else. 

I have a fender downtown express which I like but might replace with separate pedals as I don’t use the overdrive section at all. 

It is good as a preamp as it has a switchable DI and so is useful as a one box solution and it does look gorgeous. I’ll probably keep it for that reason… 😂

On 08/06/2023 at 17:48, nilorius said:

Why did you choose p bass???

Cos it’s what I wanted. I tried a few basses, don’t really like Yamaha/Ibanez modern basses, didn’t want an active bass either. My other choice might have been a stingray but I preferred the p bass sound in the end. 
And it’s a nice colour. 

That’s good to know, thanks all. I have a Fender Player PB so nothing weird. 
That means I can turn the treble up on the instrument and use an EQ to shape the tone to be a bit more subtle when I need it. 
 

Newbie here and I was wondering what exactly does the tone control do?

When you turn the tone control up so you get more treble does that reduce the bass level. My novice ears can’t tell. 
I was thinking that I would like a brighter tone most of the time but the music I play would sometimes benefit from the treble being rolled off in some sections which I could do with EQ on the preamp. But if the bass is reduced when the tone control is used then that might not be a good thing. 
 

Man I really want this but it’s just out of reach cost wise at the moment. 

On 21/05/2023 at 01:31, ern500evo said:

First outing for the GK Fusion 550 tonight. I’ve loved my ABM600 and I really didn’t need a new amp, but I’ve gassed for one of these for so long I couldn’t turn it down. All I can say is Jesus H Christ, this thing is just incredible! Wish I’d bought one years ago! 

What did you like about it? I have a GK combo and am considering a GK head but not sure what to go with. Not many opportunities to try them out before buying. 

Not sure what sort of t-bird this is but was surprised to see the bassist in the Levellers playing one - I thought it sounded great in this video. 

Not sure what sort of t-bird this is but was surprised to see the bassist in the Levellers playing one - I thought it sounded great in this video. 

Not sure what sort of t-bird this is but was surprised to see the bassist in the Levellers playing one - I thought it sounded great in this video.