GILLY

Yes, it's one of the tall versions. Sat on my homemade Gramma pad, the whole rig is at a decent height for stage monitoring. I omitted something quite important in my review, and this is to confirm what others have said about the construction quality of TKS cabs - top notch in every respect.

I bought one of the discontinued cabs last October, but only got to gig it last night. Up until then my only band experience with it has been in the confines of a rehearsal room at a local recording studios. The cab is an H115, to which I had a tweeter fitted before it left TKS. Amp is an Aguilar TH500 and bass is a 2013 Stingray 3eq with cobalt strings. The gig was in a village hall, better than most of its kind because the natural acoustics were ok when it was empty, but larger than most pubs I would say. Only the vocals went through the pa, the rest of the band consisting of one guitar, keyboards, drums, and bass. The stage was one of those hollow sounding modular affairs so I was glad I took my homemade Gramma pad. My biggest concern was I wouldn't have the horse power to fill a room of that size and I have spent the last two weeks trying to decide what cab to add to the TKS in order to get the full beans out of the TH500 and add some midrange that I perceived the TKS was lacking(based on the rehearsal room experience you understand). I didn't buy anything as it happens, so turned up with lowish expectations. How wrong was I... We set up and I adjusted the amp to boost in the low mids (400hz I estimate), turned the volume up to 12 o'clock and off we went on a sound check, with a muso friend stood at the back of the hall to have a listen. The first revelation was that I was asked to turn down a bit, to the point where my volume was exactly where it normally sits in rehearsals. The second, and very best bit about the cab, is that I could hear every single note in every single song (whoops) as a solid, clear, well defined punch all the way up the fretboard and into the second octave. Midrange was there in abundance and my stingray sounded just fabulous. You couldn't tell if the cab was a 4x10 or a 2x12 or a 1x15 because it sounded like it could have been any of those cabs! [As a side note, I have found that if you boost mids on the Ray a little, then there is little change in the sound, but if you decrease bass by the same amount there is a significant increase in mids. I then add a bit of bass at the amp to compensate, and there is the sound I'm after]. I bought the H115 on a whim and then spent some time wondering if I should have waited for a 2x12(everyone else was). After last night's experience I am convinced that I made the right choice and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a one cab solution. I believe you need a tweeter to bring out harmonics but I had mine set at 20% and this added a little top end sparkle without sounding harsh. I shall add to the Aguilar TH500 review in a bit because this particular amp adds to the TKS experience in quite a special way.

Have the op but resist the temptation to look at Youtube procedures first!! Seriously though, the worst bit was the local anaesthetic (stings a bit) but the operation is really quick and you cannot see anything, nor are you aware of what is going on. Within three days I was noodling on the bass (had my fretting hand done) and but the time the stitches came out ( 5 at 10 days), my hand was back to normal. The best bit....The pins and needles stopped immediately.

Well I know a bit about this bass because I had it built and I am sat here looking at photos I took of it along with two other Mansons I owned at the time. One was a Kestrel with Kent Armstrong pickups and the other was a 5 string lined fretless that was built for John Giblin and which he played on 'The Lady in red' (Chris de Burgh). I don't recall how it came to be back at Hugh Manson's but evidently it wasn't quite what he wanted at the time and bought it. From memory, I would say the Wal/Manson was built in 1988. I took a picture of a Jaydee down to Hugh Manson (he had a workshop at the bottom of his garden in Devon) and asked if he could make one identical (well done to the previous poster who spotted the likeness). As it happened, he made it to his template shape which was a bit of a disappointment, but the colour was the same Gibson cherry red that John Diggins was using for the Mark King basses at around that time. The pickups and electronics were, indeed, Wal. They arrived at Hugh's set in a block of wood, almost as if a section of a Wal bass had been cut out. I'm not sure if I asked for Wal electronics or he suggested it. I remember Hugh commenting that the magnets in the pickups were so strong that you'd never get them off the fridge door. Funny how you remember these little details!! I seem to recall that you couldn't buy Jaydee stuff at that time. The bridge was the last one of a batch that had been custom made for Manson basses - a solid brass work of art. I didn't keep the bass long, partly because it only half resembled that Jaydee I asked him to make, and partly because I didn't get on with the Wal active circuitry. I believe the second owner was from Bristol - in those days you paid for a week's ad in the newspaper and hoped to God that someone would see it before you had to pay for a second week! I have to say that it appears to have been well looked after and seeing the pictures makes me think of the pear drops smell of the two pack paint that was used for the finish. If I can figure how to save a scan in Windows bloody 8 I will post a pic of it with its siblings.

Lee bought a Tone Hammer from me and it was as straightforward a transaction as you could wish for. Price agreed, payment received and item posted all in the space of one hour as I recall. Couldn't have happened without fast and concise communications from Lee.

Mark just acquired my Genz head in a deal that was entirely straightforward and mutually acceptable. I'm glad to add to the previous positive posts.

This is not feedback for a purchase or sale, but Graham was good enough to act as courier for me on a recent sale. He was more than helpful and saved me the anguish of sending an amp through the parcel system. Hope to return the favour some day.

The blonde singer looks very much like one of the singers in Clean Bandit. You can tell by the length of her legs!!

Had the pleasure to meet Graham today to pass over my Genz cab and collect a Tone Hammer in part ex. An exemplary Basschatter and gets a 5* recommendation from me.

I have just received a set of Chromes from Stringbusters and the E is dull and dead sounding. Emailed them and had a response within an hour to say that they will ship another set today by way of apology from D'Addario. How about that for all round customer service!! As an aside, the Chromes (flatwounds) went on my Stingray and I am now converted.