Salt on your Bass?

I used mine in anger last night at rehersal through two ampeg 15s. Very, very nice amp! I love the tube break up it gives with the gain cranked. Its such an aggressive little box and it cuts through a mix wonderfully! I love it! However, in my haste to play it i forgot to switch the impedence to 4 ohms! Woops! Only realised an hour into things! Seems ok though. Im guessing i got lucky and no damage has been done in the long term??! Lesson learnt though! One thing i noticed is the volume curve us very steep. Absolutely in love with it though and i love the aesthetics as well! Bonus!

At last some sense! It is all about the 418 in the modern world! With 4, 5 and 6 string electric and acoustic basses being used by many players, is there really a solution to properly support the modern bassist?! No?? Well think again!! Portable and articulate, the new 418 removes the thunder from your bass tone. One easy load in or out and youre away! Of course, for some nicely defined highs, why not add a 410 for the perfectly balanced bass rig! Expert village - cause todays bassists are so darn unpredictable! [quote name='Quoth'd' post='1146552' date='Mar 1 2011, 10:56 PM']I wanna 418 now . . . Can I get that? ohh and a 4k head so the sound engineer can hear me from inside the booth & he won't need to DI me then [/quote]

That looks beautiful!

[quote]I know exactly what this one's not gonna do... [/quote] ....Get a 410 to go with your brand new 18" speaker??

This post has made my day! I've just pulled the trigger on another cab, and been thinking about what romantic gestures or excuses I can come up with to soften the inevitable fall out! I've contemplated the following over the last couple of days: 1. Just putting it in the spare room and seeing if she notices - "Yeah, something has changed in here.....I cant quite put my finger on it though..... ". 2. Out and out lying - "what are you talking about, thats always been there". 3. A romantic night out and dropping it in casually over dinner - "On this perfect evening, you look more beautiful than ever my darling. By the way, I've got a new bass cab, I bet you cant wait to see it". 4. Elaborating the truth slightly over recent sales: "yeah, you know that strap I sold on basschat? Yeah, that covered the purchase of this! No, I couldnt believe it either!". In fairness, my lady's always pretty supportive about gear, but I have just acquired a new amp and new bass, and now a cab - consequently I've been feeling the same way as you!! Congratulations on the purchase! Thats a great price!! Keep it! I'm not a fan of selling unless a) you have to or b.) you need to liqudise the asset!! Edit cause b came up as cool!!

Always an upright guy in my book! I purchased an ARIA SWB Lite (upright bass - get the pun!?!) from him. Perfectly executed purchase and top bloke! Thanks very much!!

Well Ibanez came back pretty quickly! As follows: "Thanks for the email and sorry to hear about the problems with your pedal, my thoughts are that it maybe something in the pedal, possibly the main pcb board that is causing the problem, or it maybe something really simple as the pedal is sticking at a certain point and causing it to disengage. Either way my advice would be to contact your local Ibanez retailer who maybe able to have a look over the pedal for you." Off to the retailer. Guess it clears that up anyway, needs a fix!

Ah, I havent tried that - I've never messed around with the guitar setting. I'll give that a whirl tonight. Thanks for the reply, Just emailed Ibanez. [quote name='fretmeister' post='1144515' date='Feb 28 2011, 02:43 PM']Mine's never done that. Good pedal. As it happens though I use the guitar setting as I find the bass setting to be sh*t. IMHO of course!![/quote]

Afternoon all, This is a bit of a feeler, and I'm going to email Ibanez shortly, but has anyone else experienced this with their Weeping Demon..... On the auto Wah setting (the non stomp approach), when getting to about 85% of the pedal down, I'm finding that the red light disengages and my wah stops and my normal bass tone comes through. Rocking past or away form the 85% mark, and it engages again. This only happens when I freeze or move really slowly around this position. Rocking past it fluidly and its fine. Maybe I'm not using it properly, but I do like to hold it at various points - and why shouldnt I!? I've only noticed it recently, and owned iot for about a year now. I'll post with anything Ibanez come back to me with, but I wondered if bass chatters had had a similar experience. Thanks very much, and I'll keep you posted!

Hi Cieran, Im pretty layman, perhaps too much so, but i'll give this a go! 1. An amp can either be a pre amp or power amp. Often when talking, amp and head become interchangeable which is where i think confusion arises. A head comprises a pre amp and a power amp in one box. The pre amp shapes the signal, the power amp boosts it to a high level for output to your speakers. You can buy preamps and power amps seperately. A cab is the box and speaker that makes the noise that your bass and amp have generated. Again, cab and speaker get interchanged a bit. The speaker is simply that - the speaker thats inside the box. Then of course you can get combos which are an amp (pre and power section) and a cab all in one. There are of course excetions to the above - but thats it pretty broad brush. 2. Depends what youll be doing. Garge and rehearsal, and gigs to be honest, id start with a 115 (1 15 inch speaker in a box) or a 210 (2 10inch speakers in one box) cab. Id look for an amp around 200 to 300 watts and youll be set for most stuff, at least for a little. Lots of decisions ahead in this field. It'd be useful to know what your plans are - bedroom jams, garage/rehearsal rooms, a giggable set up? In my opinion, you're best off saving up a little more to get that little bit more that you want, rather than trading up all the time, which can become expensive, but it is fun!! Brands that are good to look at in my opinion are: Ashdown, Hartke, Peavey, ampeg, line 6 (comes loaded with effects). It'd be good to know what sort of budget your working to though as well. Best place for good affordable kit is right here in the classifieds. Best bit of advice that aways pops up on here is try as much as you can before you buy! 3. A multi fx unit is a good call if youre starting out. You can decide what you like/dislike. Have a read through the effects section, as I think theres a sticky or mega thread in there about multieffects which will probably help. I hope this is useful, I've tried to answer your q's without delving too much into other areas on tangents. I think others may be slightly more eloquant than I am, and may put it better! Edit: to try and make it sound like sense rather than ramble.... [quote name='Cieran' post='1144107' date='Feb 28 2011, 02:44 AM']EDIT: removed the questions regarding effects as I felt that I was asking too much in one go. Concentrating on amps and then will tackle effects at a later date Ok here goes....... I need some help understanding the basics of playing live. I have owned a bass for just over a year - getting the hang of playing it but so far I have only heard it 'plugged in' through a Vox amPlug mini headphone thingy and directly through my laptop. So far so good...... Now I am looking to step up and purchase my very first rig equipment so that I can play live with a few friends of mine. Problem is I have zero experience whatsoever! I have read through the Wiki pages which has made things clearer but I still need some help. I thought it would be best to summarise my questions so here goes: 1. Can someone explain the difference between amps, cabs, heads & speakers in layman's terms? 2. Out of the above what am I likely to need to start out with - size, brands, specs, any suggestions etc.......? Presumably I don't need anything too big to start out with but eventually I would like to get a full sized rig. 3. I was intending on getting a Zoom pedal as I thought this would be a good way to try out a variety of rigs and effects. Is this a good idea? 4. This question is for a little bit in the future but what type of problems are normally encountered when plugging into house mixer/ pa vs directly into an amp. 5. Anything else I haven't thought of! Sorry if this seems disjointed but I have done my best to be concise with my confusement! I also understand that there are infinite possibilites - I am simply after a very simple A, B, C type of advice if possible. Essentially I am after the most simple & bare setup that I am ever likely to need. If it helps with rig selection the bassists and bands I am mainly inspired by/ looking to emulate are: The Stranglers (JJ Burnell) The Jam (Bruce Foxton) The Clash (Paul Simonon) XTC (Colin Moulding) Television (Fred Smith) Talking Heads (Tina Weymouth) Also....Gang of Four, The Strokes and The Specials. As always any help, advice, suggestions or pointing in the direction of resources is welcome. I realise that this is not your average straight-foward topic so I appreciate any help in trying to educate me in the wonderful world of bass! Thanks Cieran[/quote]

The obt is 500w at either 4 or 8 ohms, theres selector switch on there for imedence. Im not sure if its possible but id im for an 8 ohm cab, so if you decided you need more speakers at any point you can just add another 8ohm cab. In terms of power im not sure. 500w, but i get a little confused if thats rms you should spec. Norma ratings i believe are thermal. Im sure someone with a vast amount of driver knowledge wil assist better with this. Im very envious! Try and keep the gas at bay to make sure the specs are exacty what you want, and futureproofed where possible.:-)

Bombtrack - Rage Against the Machine Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden Godzilla - Fu Manchu (Blue Oyster Cult) Whole lotta Rosie - Ac/Dc Listened to Rush a lot recently, never attacked any of their material, but seems to be a lot of love for Tom Sawyer. Think I'll give that a whirl tonight!

+1 for the obt. Just pulled the trigger on one t the weekend. Ballsy and aggressive and loud in spades. Not sure its one for moderate home use! This was going to be a backup, but probably going to be my go to amp now! Ive no experience with the ashdown other thn looking at it friday. It is a thing of beauty. Best of luck with the decision and enjoy!

Ive only ever tried the 15 inch 300w combo. I dont recall the model. It ws a bit beaten up and a studio amp, but i just couldnt get a sound out of it close to what i wanted. Too much stuff for me to get my head round particularly quickly. Ive always felt line 6 should have a straight forward amp that just does clean that suits their effects boards and pedals. Probably more from a sales perspective. I understand its useful having a lot of stuff on board, but i guess i have a fear that theres too much likely can go wrong. Of course im sure this only happens as much as any other amp out there, I'm not knocking line 6 as my experience isnt huge.

Ah, ok, I think that helps. So if the limiting factor in your rig is the speaker and you reach xlim with a straight forward SS, reaching the xlim with a valve amp will sound louder due to the compression, even though the speaker is still effectively working as hard as it can in both cases? Sorry if I've hashed this theory up!