Johnny Wishbone

Monster Magnet - Evil (Is Going On). I think this was originally by Willie Dixon. China Drum - Wuthering Heights Faith No More - War Pigs. It's largely a direct copy of the original, but Puffy's drums are just so powerful and full of life, driving the song really well, whilst Bill Ward sounds like he's playing cardboard boxes in the original. Plus of course Mike Patton is a waaaaaay better singer than Ozzy! Allister - I Want It That Way. Cheating slightly as it's hard to imagine someone doing a Backstreet Boys song and making it sound worse. There was a band called Spoiler (Dutch, I think) who did a brilliantly ironic Stoner-ish cover of the Grease song "You're The One That I Want" a couple of years ago. I remember seeing it through a drunken haze at about three in the morning on Kerrang! TV, but I've never managed to find a copy of it. It was fantastic.

Got a couple of days off work coming up soon - I've challenged myself to learn the bridge to Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" in that time. Pretty sure I haven't got a hope in hell, but then I thought I'd never get the hang of Muse's "Hysteria" and that turned out to be a piece of p*ss after slowing it down and then building the speed up gradually. I guess to an extent nothing is really impossible if you put the work in. Still don't fancy my chances with Sir Duke though!

Over the years my bands have supported nu-metallers (hed)p.e. , blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa, Ex-Terrorvision singer Tony Wright's new band Laika Dog (twice) and German prog maestros RPWL. Even more tenuously, we've also played with a local (Sheffield) band called Rise To Addiction, whose guitarists both used to play in Blaze Bayley's post-Maiden band Blaze.

Yep, what he said

He was kind enough to give me a load of flightcase hardware for nowt! All I had to do was refund him the postage. A true gent. Cheers G!

[quote name='ZPQ' post='49536' date='Aug 23 2007, 01:54 PM']Sounds like a reasonable plan. What cabs are you using? Maybe someone has something similar and could throw in some suggestions for amps. (just had a look at your bandsite - looks like things are going well...MM endorsement too, very nice!)[/quote] No name cabs (custom made) with Eminence drivers, not sure of the model names or anything though. I got a good deal on the amp and cabs when I bought them years ago, and they've served me well. I regularly get complimented on my tone (more so than my playing!) and the no-name cabs do get the gear-heads talking. Yeah, things are picking up for the band nicely at the moment. Couple more endorsement deals in the pipeline too. Might hold out and see what comes my way amp-wise in the next few months before I go and splash some cash. Pay little heed to the MySpace tracks by the way - they're a couple of years (and band members) old now, so don't really reflect our sound that much - the bass tone in particular isn't great! Still play a couple of the songs though.

Great, so bearing in mind I have 2 x 300W 8 ohm cabs I should be looking at a head that puts out around 300W at 8 ohms (I tend to use only one cab for gigs unless the stage is big enough for a full stack) but can go up to about 600W at 4 ohms for when I'm running both cabs? I know that with amp heads it's not as simple as double the impedance equals half the power (my Crate puts out 220W at 4 ohms and 150W at 4 ohms, for example) but that's the kind of ballpark figures I should be looking at, right? I'm thinking of getting something like the Gallien Krueger 700RB-II. Most of the time my Crate pumps out more than enough volume when using 2 cabs, but I've had a couple of gigs recently with a tiny stage (hence using only one cab) and vocal PA only and the Crate has struggled to be heard. It's a rare occasion when my current head doesn't give me enough volume, but I'd rather have the extra power and not need it, rather than need the power and not have it.

[quote name='philbillbass' post='49442' date='Aug 23 2007, 11:59 AM']Well both cabinets are probably 300 at 8 ohms so that means that yes in total you wil have 600 watts at 4 ohms power handling.[/quote] Magic. Cheers mate. I figured that would be the case but thought I'd better check before I went out and bought something that my cabs can't handle.

OK so I'm looking at getting a new amp after years of faithful service from my old Crate head (don't laugh). I like the sound but lately I'm starting to feel it's slightly underpowered. Finally got my head around the whole impedance thing, but I've never had to think too much about power handling before. I currently run my head into a 4x10 and a 1x15, both rated at 300W. My question is this: Is the maximum power handling of my speakers 600W (ie the total wattage) or 300W (ie the total wattage divided by the number of cabinets)? Many thanks in advance, Matt

Thanks mate. Pretty happy with it for now. In addition to getting the two forthcoming pedals I need to sort out the cables a bit - some are a bit long and could do with smaller jack plugs to free up as much space as possible I've left a small gap under the raised section which is perfect for tucking the daisy chain cables out of the way (not done it yet though!). Reckon I could probably squeeze a further 3-5 pedals on there if I needed to as well, depending on their size.

Just finished building this one today. Made it from an old guitar case our singer had lying around. I've always stuck my pedals to a piece of wood, but this is my first attempt at a "proper" pedalboard. Couple more pedals (Tremolo & Delay) to add when I get them in a couple of weeks, which will both go in the space at top left.

Thanks guys, keep those opinions coming. I know I'll have to experiment a bit but your experience and expertise will help me to make a more informed choice! Just remembered my amp has a limiter built in - would that change your opinion on where the compressor would go?

OK, so apart for the position of the wah and compressor in the chain it's pretty much as tayste_2000 said then? I realise that most of this comes down to personal preference but obviously there are some pedals that for logical reasons work better either at the front or the end of the chain (for instance tayste's reason for the octaver & synth wah to go first makes sense to me). I can see what both of you are saying about the compressor - I've found that putting it after fuzz does tame the sound a bit too much for me, but then I can see why you'd have it after the octaver/synth/phaser to even out any nasty peaks, perhaps affording the amp some protection if things get a bit silly. I'm pretty happy with the order of my current pedals (although I may switch the phaser and chorus around as tayste suggests for a more extreme effect) so I guess I'm just looking at where the new pedals would fit into my existing chain. I'm not really about subtlety, effects-wise, as I'm usually holding down the low end beneath two heavy guitars so any effect I use has to cut through the mix (think along the lines of Tim Commerford & Chris Wolstenholme).

Right guys, I've recently gone "pedal mad" and picked up a few used pedals to widen my range of sounds. Only trouble is I'm not sure which order to put them in. At present (in order) my signal goes: Bass > Korg DT-10 Tuner > Modded Boss CS-3 Compressor > EHX Big Muff > EHX Small Stone > Boss CE-2 Chorus > Amp New ones to be included are: Dunlop 105Q Bass Wah, Digitech Bass Synth Wah, Boss TR-2 Tremelo, Boss OC-2 Octaver and an as-yet-unacquired delay. I'm pretty sure the wah needs to go near the front of the chain, but I prefer it after the Big Muff, so I guess that would go between that and the Small Stone? I assume the delay would need to go right at the end, but what about the others? Cheers, Matt

I'll take this lot off you! Flight case extrusion including: 1x carry handle (comfy instrument case type - not hinged proper flightcase style) 4x latches (proper recessed top quality full flightcase shiiiit) 8x corner balls (small type - 1" diameter balls and three arms with one screw hole each) 4x right angle edge bits (two screw holes on each leg)

[quote name='amj' post='33232' date='Jul 17 2007, 07:36 PM']Another reccomendation for the ER20's! Band practice is so much more bearable now, loud noises make irritable let alone the already well known effect on hearing. If you haven't got any earplugs yet then for god sake shell out a tenner and grab some of these![/quote] What he said. I find rehearsal much more enjoyable since purchasing some ER20's, plus I find where I've had trouble hearing myself at gigs I can now hear everything much more clearly. Probably the best tenner I've spent in a long time.

[quote name='stacedabass' post='8176' date='May 28 2007, 05:10 PM']rocktron, dc on tap is a very good single psu that can power up to 20 pedals, and has a variety of cables for different types of pedals[/quote] OK, so I've just bought one of these and I'm pretty happy with it, except for I have two EHX pedals and the cable set that comes with it only has one EHX adaptor. According to Rocktron's website you can buy extra cable sets seperately but does anyone know where I could get one in the UK?

2 basses amp head 4x10 for small venues, 1x15 and 4x10 for larger venues pedalboard 4 guitar leads & 2 spares 2 speaker leads & 1 spare spare power brick spare mains leads picks screwdriver pliers pen knife allen keys towel guitar stand paracetamol sweat band & spare 9v battery spare patch leads spare set of old strings gaffa tape marker pens paper demo CDs spare t-shirt

Erm.... RATM/Audioslave - Tim Commerford Soundgarden - Ben Shepherd/Hiro Yamamoto Black Sabbath - Geezer Butler Hundred Reasons - Andy Gilmour Stone Temple Pilots - Rob DeLeo Led Zeppelin - JPJ Metallica - Jason Newsted/Rob Trujillo/Cliff Burton (all brilliant bassists in their own way) Faith No More - Billy Gould RHCP - Flea Alice In Chains - Mike Starr/Mike Inez Queens of the Stone Age - Nick Oliveiri/Josh Homme Pearl Jam - Jeff Ament Not necessarily my favourite bassists, but a good number of them in there.