40hz

I absolutely loved TE Ah300 GP12 SMX. Still the benchmark bass head for me of all the ones I've owned. Crystal clear, pokey, defined and notes full of body. I always found the presets bloody awful myself (sucked all the definition) but horses for courses and all that. I also can never understand how people can say a bass sound is 'of a time', Which is a phrase that gets bandied about whenever Trace is mentioned. My tone with the Trace was anything but 'dated' or 80s sounding. It was any sound I wanted to have! 12 band EQ! Can tone even be 'dated'?

35-95 Elites (beautiful pliancy and tone) or 40-95 D'addario Prosteels.

[quote name='Osiris' timestamp='1499179565' post='3329746'] I had a Mark II amp a few years back and the only thing that I wasn't keen on was the frequencies on the bass and treble tone controls. If I remember correctly, the bass eq was 40Hz and the treble was about 10Khz. I found these to be too wide and not particularly useful for your average pub/club/function gig. They're probably fine for recording, but for live work they weren't much use - in my experience and opinion that is. The bass eq was only ever really useful for cutting as boosting it tended to make things boomy, and the treble was so high that it didn't seem to make much difference (I was playing finger style with a more rounded overall tone). Re-voice the bass eq a bit higher, somewhere between 80 and 120Hz, and lower the treble eq to somewhere between 4 and 6Khz. That's be about right for me. Those people who want the wider frequencies could still boost them using the VPF control. Absolutely, Lozz. Not a full on drive circuit as such but something lower gain and subtle, more akin to the drive channel on the Genzler Magellan 800 would be great. [/quote] I couldn't agree more with you about the EQ. This was my exact experience. Although I loved the amp and rate them very highly, they could do with the EQ points being jigged about IMO.

Weirdly enough I liked the Thunderbird best.

That's quite clever. Well done Sandberg!

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1498653959' post='3326135'] Watching on iPlayer right now and I must admit that some of Jerry Barnes' playing is getting on my nerves. I don't necessarily believe that he needs to play Bernard E's parts note for note but the continued slides up and down the board seem a bit pointless and, at times, it's almost like he feels he has to fill in all those nice gaps that Bernard left to let the music breathe a bit. Without the gaps the songs seem to lose their core groove in places. Of course, Bernard was a total rhythm 'machine' so very difficult to fill in. Jerry's tone when he's just playing with fingers sounds good to me but some of the slappier stuff sounds a bit clanky to my ears. One thing I was surprised at was My Feet Keep Dancing - the middle section of this has what is almost a bass solo section in it where Bernard just pumps a robotic groove straight through and a flourish at the end. The current live version loses that groove and is all clicky/poppy sounding. I think this relentless groove stuff was core to the classic Chic sound but maybe not the most entertaining thing to stand and watch. Many songs barely deviate from a single groove all the way through with repetitive vocal lines and just the odd little flourish from bass or guitar. To listen, or of course dance, to this is great and the scarcity of those flourishes are sometimes pure joy (like when Niles comes back in after the breakdown in the full version of Good Times). The other thing missing with the live band is the string section. The horns sounded great on some numbers but another key aspect of many Chic songs is the way they breakdown and then build back up again with sparse key stabs, strings & horns over that perfect groove. The live keys sounded like it was trying to cover too much of this and, again, wasn't giving that space for the songs to breathe a little. I'm sure they would be great to see live if you're actually there but as a TV spectacle I kept finding myself reaching for the fast forward button Mind you - that's true of lots of music on TV. Too easy to start over analysing and picking holes - just as I've been doing here, lol [/quote] This to a 'T'

Watched it last night and pretty much the same thoughts as others. Brilliant set, but Jerry Barnes was overplaying like f***. Chic basslines should be funky and classy, with a solid groove and the odd fill. He ruined the groove on several occasions and his tone was not suited to the music IMO. I'd never really hate on someone else's playing (each to their own etc), but it really grated on me watching the set.

Best strings on the market bar none. Used to use Flexsteels but now discontinued so I'm back on the Prosteels.

I love gloss necks! My Geddy Lee and Modulus Flea having had particulary nice ones on that front 😁😁

While I'm not remotely against this style of playing, it just leaves me feeling a bit cold and empty. On the flipside, when I listen to Paul McCartney or James Jamerson work their magic lines, walking, melodic, intertwining and tasteful with every note in the right place at the right time, that is the definition of bass playing to me and elicits a far stronger sense of wonder. IMO etc

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1495013057' post='3300370'] What an excellent, succinct, comparison. Thank you! On the Streamer thread, there has been the really helpful suggestion to consider swapping in the Aguilar OBP 3 pre-amp to provide a top notch EQ and I have to confess to really liking that Warwick growl... [/quote] My Euro 4 growled 10x harder than my Streamer Lx4 did. It was almost too much!

[quote name='DaveFry' timestamp='1494526070' post='3296786'] Interesting blog article by a Brit muso ; [url="https://innerpieces.co.uk/blog/is-there-life-after-tinnitus/"]https://innerpieces....after-tinnitus/[/url] [/quote] Interesting stuff, thanks for linking it!

I'm 31 and developed it in my mid 20s. Years of playing in loud bands without any ear protection *facepalm* mine isn't too bad but the fact that it's always there is a horrible feeling. I just hope and pray that advances are made in curing it or minimising it's effects.

I second washing your hands before playing, this small act can go a long way in prolonging the life of a string. Once they're dead though, I don't faff about anymore (used to boil them), a new set just goes on. Easier!

The TC BH series has speaker emulation on the headphone socket.

Drummers have always been the most stable members of any band I've been in! The real problems have always been guitarists and keyboard players!

[quote name='djaxup' timestamp='1490623104' post='3266533'] for me nothing beats the US 2-Band Stingray. The old S.U.B. Basses are very close sometimes in tone, but they feel more clumsy and just not as good as the real ones. 2-Band vs. 3-Band... my take on this subject: the 3-band is easier to use, it is very intuitive to use and its almost impossible to dial in bad tone. Also more varied. the 2-band has a bit more zing in the top end and a lot more deep low end booty. If your amp and cab can dish out serious low end you will for sure notice the difference. The 2-band has a phat deep low end to die for. Many amps have a built in HPF that essentially cuts out the lowest lows. If you think all that happens down there is unwanted rumble then you have yet to hear a bass/cab/amp combo that really delivers in that region. Feet massage and low end punch that can be felt without overpowering the other instruments is something very nice. [/quote] The SUBs use the exact same pickup and pre-amp. How can they be "close sometimes"?. My USA SUB 'IS' the Stingray sound. I much prefer it to the full fat 3-band model I had.

Wide necked Precisions? As opposed to what?

They have one of the 1x15 versions of these at my practice rooms. It's fantastic for the money, shifts a lot of air without getting too muddy and is impressive tonally (I find it to be fairly clear and balanced), so much so, it swayed me to get the K210 cab for my BH550 head. The mute switch, tuner and toneprint function (always Spectracomp!) Seal the deal. Under £200 is a good price, Congrats!

I've actually owned a USA Stingray (3-band), a SBMM Ray 34 and currently own a USA SUB (with a Status Graphite neck). The differences between the Stingray and Ray34 were negligible. Tonally they sounded near enough identical. Build quality on my Ray34 was also on a par with the USA Stingray and I preferred the satin finish on the Ray34 neck to the oiled Stingray one. However the USA SUB is my favourite bass of the lot. Build and finishing is on a par with the Stingray, tonally, my SUB a rare early one with the pickup wired in Series, so it's very ballsy and aggressive with a stronger punch. I preferred it even before the addition of the Status neck, which just focused everything I like about the sound and amped it up to 10, not to mention the unbelievable quality and stability of the neck and slimmer profile. In short, you can't lose whichever one you go for. It's all much and the same and in reality the differences between the 3 are nowhere near as vast as some might make out (except the recent cheaper SBMM SUB line, which to my ears are not the full ticket). The USA SUB would get my vote though, stupid good value for money! Edit - Writing this out has made me realise just how stupid and convoluted the naming is on EBMM products 🙄🙄🙄

[quote name='Deedee' timestamp='1489828194' post='3260113'] Looks great. I've just done the same with my 2003 MM 'ray. A used neck off this very forum (a member responded to my wanted ad) and it plays beautifully. I would have actually preferred one with no dot markers on the board for added stealth, but hey ho. [/quote] How are you finding it, DeeDee?

Red Labels reminded me a lot of Roto's when I used them. Coarse and rough, died quickly and eat frets.

Geddy's Wal sound is one of my favourite tones of all time :/

[quote name='ebenezer' timestamp='1489491532' post='3257333'] Well, i'm sitting down, so here goes...how much did that set ya back [/quote] Neck was £350 there or thereabouts. £175 to have it fitted with a full setup including new strings (Hotwires are actually rather good, I'd definitely buy another set).