Finbar

Just running through a few ideas for some new rig options, and one of them is involving using an HD500 at my feet as a selection of preamps, pushing a power amp. Ideally I'd like a valve power section though, and I'm not really sure what I'm looking at in terms of the choice of what's out there. There seems to be a plethora of stuff about for guitar, but I'm under the impression that stuff you want to run bass through should have better/bigger transformers and stuff? I'll be using it for super clean stuff, dirty crunchy stuff, and probably some more subby stuff too. So I guess the only criteria are it has to be good quality and loud enough to gig with. Price is negotiable, but I'm looking for something in a reasonable price bracket. The Aguilar DB728 is probably too much for me, for instance, while a second hand Mesa Strategy would be justifiable probably. Don't want to break the bank! I'll probably only ever be using it with one channel, so I'm not bothered about the capability to push out kW of power at 2 ohms or anything ;p I know about the Strategy, but not too much else. Anyone got any idea what else is available?

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='1177063' date='Mar 26 2011, 11:34 AM']Truths Ugly Head - Nuclear rabbit.[/quote] Good shout.

You Think You're John Lennon by Glassjaw.

Not sure if there's one available for sale commercially, but it sounds like it could be possible to mod (or find someone who can mod) the footswitch in a pedal this way? I'm no expert though.

I'm considering going even further to the dark side.

My old pedalboard must have been easily 2 grand or something. Don't want to go down that road again!

The M9 does have some good DnB sounds hidden in it somewhere, after a lot of tinkering. First time I've got synthy sounds that I like out of it tbh. Only problem is it takes up all 3 effects to make a decent sound, and then you have nowhere left to go for adding more flavour to it with delays and stuff. I've not given up on this yet though

Well my new band is going to be with the guitarist from my old band, and our ex-drummer pretty much. So I have some kind of idea where it's going to be coming from. But with new songs, I don't have to use effects (it's nice not to have to worry about them sometimes!), or I could ditch what I'm using for some new setup. I'm feeling the tried and tested OC-2/WM/Moog LPF setup, but I can't see it having much use with the kind of material we're likely to write. So I'm kind of in a similar situation to you really! I don't think I could give enough variation to a DnB project though (I have no love at all for Dubstep). As much of it as I listen to - and I listen to a lot, I just can't write stuff that sits well in that style. And it's REALLY hard to incorporate into a rock crossover without sounding really cheesy and forced, which leaves me not wanting to do it.

Not sure where to go with my effects now! My band just split up, so it's a case of whether I decide to keep effects in a new band or not now :/

[quote]I pretty much think that as well Fin - I'm always in the middle of the depth with full drive. Treble at 1 o'clock and bass at 11 o'clock with presence at about 2 o'clock. I play with a plec. What about your settings?[/quote] Depends on a couple of things really. If I'm using my Schroeder 1212L, I'll have the depth on the middle setting, but with my Matamp 6x10, I'll usually only have it on the rightmost setting, or the middle one if I'm feeling I need a little more. It's a really bassy cab. But yeah, I'll normally have the drive on the 3rd notch, the bass, treble and presence controls about 9 o clock. And the master about 11 o clock (or less if I have to turn down). That's with a pick as well. If I'm playing with my precision, I'll usually try and shove the drive up to full as well though. Just sounds epic. [quote]Does the GAIN have a big effect on the amount of bass in the amp? Does the presence affect the bass a lot too? If you were going for a nice clean setting - does the amp still offer too much bass for you guys?[/quote] It has an effect, but not a massive effect, and nothing you can't sort out with the amp's EQ and the depth knob. The presence doesn't really affect the bass that much. It's hard to describe. It kind of changes the 'girth' of the sound rather than the actual bass being stronger. Somebody else can describe it better, and probably actually tell you what it physically does as well! I don't really go for a nice clean setting so I'm not sure I could really say with any authority, and I wouldn't buy a GT200 if that's what you're looking for. Some massive headroom solid state amp is probably the way to go for that. It does clean up quite nicely if you don't pick as hard though. I don't normally dial too much bass in anyway though - that's not the sound I like in a clean or a dirty tone.

I seem to be the only person who thinks the deepest depth setting has way too much bass D:

I don't think it has a specific low pass effect, but it has a lot of EQs which can all be operated with the expression pedal. Gonna have me an experiment! The M9 is missing a gated/spluttery fuzz as far as I remember. Hmm.

Yeah, I've seen that. But most folks seem to use it as part of a bigger ensemble. I'm not sure it can do the core sounds on its own. I know it's got all the reverb, delay and modulation stuff just fine. I realised I'm going to have a lot more time from now on so I'm definitely going to experiment!

Anyone tried making some of these fat sounds with an M9? I'm not looking to go and spend loads of money buying pedals for this kind of stuff - I don't really like dub that much, but it'd be neat to see if what I already have can make anything like this. I've got an OC-2 I'd probably run into the front of the M9, so I guess it's really a question of whether there are any decent LPFs, oscillator/tremolos and maybe something a bit fuzzy in there too. I don't get much time to play with mine really, so if anyone's found any cool effects in there, I'll be checking them out when I can get to mess with it

Glassjaw. Brand spanking new.

I sent them an email about getting cases separately once and got no reply. Never followed it up though.

[quote name='Mog' post='1124081' date='Feb 11 2011, 05:17 PM']Same thing really innit. I have a very tight picking stroke from my guitar shredding days and almost always start on a downstroke.[/quote] I've noticed that our guitarist always starts on downstrokes, probably for all that palm muting and stuff, and we end up playing the same riffs in songs with completely different picking patterns. I almost always focus on upstrokes. That said, I'd play this pattern as up down up. Catches the first up on the way back down from the last up of the pattern in one motion then. Don't know if that makes much sense!

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='1102834' date='Jan 25 2011, 09:45 PM']Only problem with the Conklins is the price =S They have no european dealer (even though i asked Bill Conklin himself and he said he would like one!) and thus the import tax combined with actual price comes out at like £1300 new, I'd LOVE a Conklin GTBD-7 fully active basses aren't my thing, and it would have to be red haha (I'm so picky =S) Weight isn't a 'huge' issue but clunky? How so? Generally unrefiened design? Thanks guys Wish i could afford to get a new GTBD-7 =([/quote] I've had a GTBD-7 which I struggle to remember how much I paid for, but it was around 600 quid second hand I think? Something like that. Maybe not quite down to entry level price, but the regular GT-7 is every bit as good, and cheaper still. I've also had a second hand US Conklin 7 Sidewinder, which cost me around 800 pounds I seem to remember. For what you get, those prices aren't unreasonable to me. The GT-7 is still THE 7 string to learn on IMO, and there are plenty floating around in the UK second hand. They seem to hold value fairly well too if you buy second hand. As for the Galvestons, I find them to be unacceptably heavy (I'm normally quite forgiving with the weight of a bass - I'm pretty much happy up to about a stone). They're also large in the neck department. Some people might prefer the spacing of a generous 4 string on the neck of a 7, but it becomes much more difficult and tiring to play IME. They also have suffered from poor finishing when I've played them - the fretwork isn't astounding etc. I've heard fairly decent stuff about the Antonio Tsai basses you can pick up off eBay, but not had enough experience to offer a useful opinion to be honest.

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='1098645' date='Jan 22 2011, 01:40 PM']For those of you who currently play a 7 string whats the best way to get into playing a 7 string? I'm pretty interested![/quote] Conklin GT-7 or GTBD-7. Almost everyone I know who plays/played 7s got into it through these basses. They're great quality, and you can pick them up for very decent prices second hand. Don't buy a Galveston off eBay just because it's cheap, only to be put off by the weight and clunkiness of it.

FWIW I'm pretty sure Max stopped offering the OC-2 mod. I'm not sure why, but I think it may be something to do with being potentially harmful to the circuit long term or something :/

I had never heard of one. Had to look it up. Looks like it's from slightly before my time...

My Matamp GT200 is actually 19" wide without the case. Now if that doesn't sound like it could be made rackmounted with a little fiddling, I don't know what does

I thought about that. But I just don't like the lift off cases, and I'd prefer it all in one box. I think a fan will keep air moving whichever direction it is pointing at any rate, which is the important thing I guess. I can't afford a case just now anyway, so I suppose it's all a bit moot.