Kateplaysbass

Thanks again everyone - I love how helpful this forum is. I now have some Speakon cables on their way - thanks for the recommendations - and I feel slightly more knowledgeable. I'll report back on how the LB212 fares against our drummer in due course!

Actually, whilst I have all you knowledgeable folk assembled, can I ask a follow up question? I'm puzzled by the speaker outputs on the CTM 100. They look like 1/4 jacks to me, and that's what the Ashdown website says they are. However it says on the rear panel 'Use Neutrik touchproof connectors only'. This is confusing me. I know Neutrik usually equals Speakon, but these don't look like Speakon sockets. The CTM 300 says 'use Speakon connectors only' so I presume Ashdown are intentionally drawing a distinction, but I've googled 'Neutrik touchproof connectors' and not got much back. It works with a standard 1/4 jack speaker cable, but I don't want to continue using that if it's liable to damage either me or the amp! I don't currently possess any Speakon cables, so I can't just try one out. Can anyone advise what cable I should be using?

Thanks everyone for the advice. I don't know why I'd assumed that the 212 on its own wouldn't be enough, but that's definitely the easiest solution, so I'll give it a go at our next practice. We don't usually play gigs with PA support.....but they aren't massive either!

I thought that might end up being the answer! But even in my wildest dreams I'm not going to justify having an 8x10!!

This is probably a very basic question, apologies, but my knowledge of matching heads and cabs is limited, and I'm paranoid about damaging my lovely new tube head! So, I've just acquired an Ashdown CTM 100, courtesy of a fellow Basschatter. At the moment, I've just got it set up with a LB 212 cab, which is 300w at 4ohm impedance. That's more than sufficient for home use. However, I would potentially like to gig with this amp, in which case I'm thinking a single cab may not be enough to compete with an enthusiastic drummer! I also have an Ashdown VS 115 cab, which I had listed for sale, but now I'm wondering if I should keep it to use in a rig with this head, with the two cabs stacked horizontally. This is where the technical side of things starts to exceed my knowledge. The head has outputs at 2 ohms, 4 ohms and 8 ohms, but only one socket for each. The LB 212 is 300w at 4 ohms and the VS 115 is 300w at 8 ohms. Both cabs have 2 sockets. Is there a way I can make this rig work? Is it as simple as connecting the 4 ohm output socket to the LB 212 and the 8 ohm output socket to the VS 115 - or will that result in a fire?! Or alternatively can I use the 2 ohm output with some kind of special cable/ adaptor that allows me to connect both cabs in parallel? Please be gentle if this is a very stupid set of questions!

The keys player in one of my bands jumped before he was pushed a couple of years ago...we were getting pretty fed up of him not bothering to learn/practice the agreed songs for a rehearsal, amongst other things. A year later, his replacement leaves as he's moving abroad, and the rest of us decide to fold the band as it's just too much hassle to find another Hammond player. But the others have kept in touch with the original keys player, and eventually we decide to give him another go, on the basis that he's now semi-retired and can devote more time. Anyway, we sacked him a couple of months ago.... semi-retired or not, he was still obviously not as committed as the rest of us (which is saying something, because we're only looking to gig very infrequently with this band). So on the basis of that experience, I'd be wary, but every situation is different I suppose.....

Bought an Ashdown cab from @Thurbs yesterday. Cab was as described and all set up to demo with a couple of different heads. Altogether a pleasant, easy transaction, good comms, and bonus points for carrying it out to the car for me!

Very interested to hear an in-depth review of this one Mike!

La Bella do medium scale - I have their medium scale Low Tension flats on my 32" ACG and I love them. Thomastik also do their Jazz Flats in a combined short/ medium scale length. I bought a set of these for an Artcore I used to own; hated them. Tried them on 2 other basses - same. I'd pretty much given up on them, but then I got a 32" Aerodyne which came with rounds, and the TIs were the only medium scale flats I had. To my surprise, I really like them on the Aerodyne, so perhaps they really do pair well with a J.

Me too. I still have Deep Talkin Flats on my JMJ, where I want a very specific sound and they do that perfectly. But overall I think the Low Tension are a bit more versatile, so they're now my first choice on my other basses.

Thanks @Obrienp, I thought that was probably the case- I've just never seen that much of an angle. But it sounds great so I will trust my ears!

NBD: Fender Pawn Shop Mustang Picked this up yesterday - a 2012 model apparently, but it looks brand new. Very happy with it, but when I got it home I realised that the pickup is set at quite a pronounced angle - ie it's significantly lower under the E and A strings, which I presume is why those strings aren't quite centred over the pole pieces. The pickup is pretty hot and has a lot of low end as it is, so I'm guessing this has been done deliberately and I should leave it be. But I am pretty clueless when it comes to anything technical, so more informed views welcome!

It did work! Thanks very much 😊

Got a few lined up for this year: Simon and Oscar from Ocean Colour Scene at The Roses in Tewkesbury Richard Thompson at the Bristol Beacon (very much looking forward to seeing Taras Prodaniuk on bass) Delvon Lamarr Trio at Gloucester Guildhall (hopefully - tickets not on sale yet) James, supported by Sleeper and The Pigeon Detectives, at Ludlow Castle

I've been playing around with it a bit more, and I've found 4 pre-defined patches that would work for the majority of the setlist, meaning I can use it in Memory mode, which is so much easier. The hurdle I've now encountered is that, since these pre-sets use amp modelling, I understand I should plug into the Effects return input on my amp head (Ashdown ABM300). Which I did, but got no sound. It works fine when plugged into the instrument jack. I've never used the Effects return jack before, so I don't know if it's faulty, or if I'm just doing something very basic wrong! Or even how much it matters, if I like the sound of it going through the pre-amp.....

Thanks both- that's both helpful and encouraging!

Acquired my B6 yesterday, courtesy of @paddy109. I'm wryly amused by all the comments about how intuitive it is because I barely know where to start- however, I'm determined to persevere, hopefully with a little help from you guys. Apologies for what are probably some incredibly basic questions coming up. I've basically bought it for gigging, and ideally at gigs I don't want to do anything more taxing than click from one song to the next. In other words, I don't want to have to be thinking/ remembering what settings I need for a particular song. So am I right in thinking that I need to create a patch for each song, in the order of our setlist, and then use it in memory mode at gigs? What I don't really understand is the point of grouping patches into banks - am I missing something? Is it just functionality that isn't really necessary for the way I plan to use it? Also, I understand that there's a finite number of patch slots, but can you organize your patches into a much larger number of different combinations - ie setlists? I think the answer to this is 'no' but I thought I'd ask. [I'm kind of ruling out the presets because from what I can see they all use amp/ cab modelling, and as I'll usually be running it through my Ashdown rig at gigs, I should steer clear of that- right?]. Finally, and this is just a minor thing, but the character limit for patch names seems really low - about 10 characters, so you can't use full song titles in most cases. It's not the end of the world, but it's a bit of a shame- is it limited by the size of the display screen?

Just bought a Zoom B6 from Paddy- all went very smoothly, and he very kindly drove a fair way to meet closer to me, at short notice. Helpful friendly Basschatter and a pleasure to deal with. Thanks again Paddy.