SimonK

For me the fact that he's musical, and not just showing off, is the main thing. There are so many youtubers that are just about jaw-dropping technique, but both his covers and originals are played to make music first and foremost!

Wow - this week's video is pretty awesome:

If there is a built in compressor on the gain to prevent clipping if set too high, there definitely will be a difference between the two controls as you will get a more compressed (and thus dynamically consistent) signal with the gain set too high so as to avoid what would presumably be not very musical distortion. So for this amp I would use the signal LED to find the "Goldilocks position" (not too hot, not too cold), and then use the master for the main volume - unless I particulary liked lots of whatever compression it happens to give!

2 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

From the manual:

 

 

 

That's fun - they've tried to make it "idiot proof" as clearly they haven't designed it to distort musically, whereas in many older tube amps that is precisely what you pay big bucks for!

Presuming you are meaning pre-amp gain vs power amp volume on an amp they are quite different things. For me the main "simple explanation" is that gain affects tone and ultimately drive/clipping used as an effect, whereas master volume just makes it louder or quieter*. Sometimes if the input signal is really low you can turn the gain up full without any appreciable difference in tone.

I find the easiest way to think about it is to compare to mixing desks where gain is about balancing input levels to stop clipping and ensure levels are roughly equivalent between channels. Gain controls are often used alongside compressors to try to keep peaks no higher than about 3dB.

*edit - except with tube poweramps when you get lovely poweramp distortion - but digital/solid state amps as most bass amps are shouldn't do this!

...oh and if you're right handed it stays out of the way of the bass neck as well...

Well not quite a magic trick, but it's taken me thirty years of playing in bands to realise that if you have to put a mic stand slightly to the side, it should always go on the right (if you're standing behind it) because that way gravity will tighten rather than loosen the thread on the mic clip...

Got the cab out this weekend and the good news is that the speaker works fine and the cab is in much better condition than I remember. The maybe not bad but unsure news is that the speaker does not say "Trace Elliot" on the speaker diaphragm which means it could be from before Trace started doing this, but without taking the whole thing apart I can't confirm whether the speaker is indeed original. I have no idea of the history as I think this came in as part of a clear-out deal with some other items.

RE price, I think given the condition is not at all bad I would be after £50 for speaker and cab together - although as mentioned it probably isn't worth posting. I'm in SO30.

I'm just going to dig my old speaker out and check it before I commit to anything - but at risk of giving you other ideas have you seen:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186394272088?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=e2r3IhAQSrS&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

24 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

 

Ooh couldn't quite help it...

...to be fair I was think £20ish for mine albeit we would need to work out postage/transport - the £150 would get you a working combo from ebay giving you an amp to play with too!

3 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Because I play a 5 string 28.6" scale bass, tuned in G standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above the 5 upper strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning.

 

And I really play it more as a 5 string sort of bass/baritone guitar hybrid, or like you would a Bass VI type instrument.

 

And plan to use it with a TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper pedal, as the main instrumentation, with a backing track of drums/percussion, and more flavor oriented additional instrumentation. 

 

And I plan to use this setup for my drone/ambient project as well.

 

I also plan to sometimes use the FreqOut in conjunction with the Sub'N'Up, which is loaded with the Organ Emulator patch.

 

Wow that told me 🙂 ! Makes "in the pocket" bass lines sound quite mundane!!

Potentially silly question - but the original cab/combo comes up pretty frequently on ebay and the like so why don't you just buy another one for £150 or so and then flip the speaker? For that matter I have one currently not in use (see piccy - top cab) which I could probably sell & send to you if you want, unless you happen to be coming past Southampton anytime soon?

3 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Still haven't gotten down to rearranging my pedalboard, so I still use a temporary pedalboard free setup, consisting of just my always on effects, my dirt pedals, and my delay.

 

But this is the most likely outcome of the rearrangement, using an online pedalboard manager (note that some of the pedals are placeholders, as some of the online app I used lacked some of my pedals):

 

- The XVive Golden Brownie is really a XVive Undulator tremolo pedal, though exclusively used for it's great buffer and never turned on, which are to be mounted under the pedalboard. 

 

- The HoTone Wally Looper is really a HoTone Trem tremolo pedal

 

- The Mooer Black Secret is really a Mosky Black Rat, RAT clone

 

- The Arion Stereo Chorus is really a Monarch MFL-22 Stereo Flanger (which is a rebranded Arion Stereo Flanger)

 

Just out of interest - why would you use a FreqOut on a bass? I use it on my electric guitar pedalboard for doing Jimmy Hendrix style solos when you want to mimic an amp feeding back on sustained notes, but I would never do this on a bass!

...I have a secret envelope lodged with my solicitor - "surprise" we are twice as rich as you thought due to my secret bass investment portfolio....

It's weird, in thinking about this I've realised that all my "likes" are the more tradition p-bass/jazz/stingray shapes, and the further a bass gets from these the less I like them. The Warwicks begin to look a bit stretched to me, and the single cut like the one above is maybe just about bearable, but major no to anything further away from that - violin basses, Ricks, pointy things...urgh!

Possible only exception is the electric stand-up basses that do look like a fret-board with a spike on the end, but the vertical orientation makes it perhaps OK.

The only problem with Andertons is they keep a list of all the things you've bought over the years... I'm terrified the wife may find it one day...

5 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

If you don't gig i'm not sure why you would bother with a wireless system to be honest.

I use a lead at home when practicing and i don't find it a problem but i much prefer a wireless system when gigging especially with the Glam band. It saves tripping over any leads when wearing platform boots which was my main reason for one.

I had the Smooth Hound one but it was picking up occasional interference altho it was only rare occasions but it annoyed me when it did so i opted for the Shure GLXD pedal but that's only because i gig a lot.

Too much money if i wasn't gigging.

Our guitarist has tried a few cheaper versions and is currently on a BOSS wireless and he had trouble with it at our last gig and went back to his lead.

Dave

I have three kids, three cats and two dogs - avoiding a lead trailing across a room is a very good thing so I always use one at home!!

Ironically I seldom use my wireless when gigging as I often don't move far from the amp and find a cable a little more reliable!

So used it in anger both Saturday and Sunday this week.

I think I liked the existential reassurance of knowing I had the HPF set around 30ish, but of course couldn't hear it! Fiddled a bit with the two contours and found that with them both at about 3 o'clock the contour A gave a fairly warm and deep sound, and contour B a much more distinct funk type sound that also worked well for slap. Having the two options was quite neat along with a bit of chorus with the contour A. Still a bit miffed it has a mute rather than off/bypass switch, but then again appreciate it was designed to replace a pre-amp rather than be an additional eq box. Also it's a real pain all the connectors are on the back as it means it has to be on the second row of my pedal board which makes it harder to hit the contour footswitch. But first world problems - on the whole it is a definite positive on my pedalboard.

Am playing again the next two weekends so will keep fiddling.

Absolutely - albeit initially I did GCSE music because it was full of young ladies. Then when I was 16 the school did the musical Grease and one of the music teachers asked if I could switch from Guitar to Bass for the pit orchestra. That was the first time I played Bass and have been loving it for the last 30 years.

Also rather than working in McDonalds my teenage job through to University was busking with various of the aforementioned young ladies...

3 hours ago, alexa3020 said:

 

No doubt he is an incredible  player and I find some of his videos quite entertaining, I cant help but think he is wasting his talents on these videos. I'd like to hear him play in a really great band with  a great drummer. Perhaps he's already done this but it hasn't shown up on my radar yet. Maybe Youtube is the best way for talented musicians to make decent money now - which is a bit sad really.

He's so good he needed 200 drummers:

I'm trying to work out why no one has mentioned probably the most talented bass player alive today and very definitely a youtuber:

Ghost notes are my friends - I just fein confidence and play them until I work out what note I'm supposed to be playing!

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at how rock n' roll this thread is!

But I can join the club - my sons are getting older, but so am I, which means I have to push it more to stay ahead of them in things like skiing - it was so much fun until I spent what seemed like half a day in January sliding backwards down a mountain - I fainted when I tried to put my ski's on again so the boys "borrowed" my credit card for the rest of the day while I hobbled back to the hotel and spent the next two days in a hot bath soaking my back. Since being home I sold my 4x10 cab,  and can only play sitting down... sigh... (NB the massive Trace in my thumbnail never moves... I'm spreading the rumour that it is immovable!).

3 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

There was absolutely nothing condescending intended about a product not being a good fit for a particular player. It may be the price, the size, the weight, the tone, the dynamics, the cosmetics, etc. 

 

If anything, I would be the first one to agree with different amps or different brands for different players. I don’t understand why anyone would argue otherwise?

For the record I totally agree - but what I (personally) am commenting on is a specific marketing shift with the whole Gibson Garage lifestyle brand approach that seems to be a bit different. Yes PRS (certainly the US made guitars) has had that lifestyle image for years, but there does seem to be deliberate attempt from Gibson/Mesa to move into that very high end bankers/doctors etc. market - but again no reason why not to - just interesting to see the strategy!