Evening all - hello and help!

[trent900]

Hi all at basschat,

Just come across this forum and can't believe I've never seen it before. Looks like a sterling service.

Anyhoo: my name's Jon, I'm 24, and I'm from Derby. I've been playing bass for about 8 years now, I think I eventually nagged my Dad into getting me a £100 starter kit and never looked back. Not my first instrument though - I've been playing a variety of wind instruments for nearly 20 years. Still, at the moment bass has priority.

Gear: needs upgrading, I'll get to that in a minute. I have a Tobias Toby Pro V which I bought for the looks and which turned out to play rather well too. I love it, and I don't want to change if I can avoid it! I'm still really in the realm of practice combos: I have a Hartke Kickback 15 which does me well enough for practicing at home, and a Torque T2001EB which I bought while still in my 'must get more watts!!!' teenage years, and which sits gathering dust in a cupboard.

Style: you could probably call me 'conservative' I much prefer getting into a really good groove using just root and 5th if necessary to flying about all over the fretboard and leaving the poor drummer at a loss. This has the upshot that my right hand has good-ish technique but my left leaves a bit to be desired. Still. I like playing rock, funk, hip-hop, some metal though I'm not very good at it, and I often get roped into playing Sinatra songs. 95% of my playing is fingers, the rest slap and pick, both of which need work. I like a rich, growling, punchy finger sound and sort of 'bang and pop' rather than 'twang' for the slap. To illustrate: on stage I often pluck hard enough to get the bass's on-board electrics to start to clip - because I like that slightly square sound. Do shout up if this is bad practice and there's a better way!

So that's me. Now to my problem: my Hartke is a nice little amp but I'm getting roped into more and more gigs and I need something that will hold its own in a full practice and make up a proper backline. Between now and Christmas I've got maybe £1200 to get a stack for this purpose: any suggestions? New/secondhand? I've always lusted after a Gallien-Krueger so at the moment I'm thinking of a 1001RBII or waiting for the new Fusion 550. Given what I've said above does that make sense? I know nothing about cabs though - can anyone help?

Please ask any questions. Sorry this is such a damned essay.

Jon

PS. The Torque T2001EB mentioned above - it's not great, but it works fine. If anyone wants it for a good home please shout up and you can have it, otherwise I'll probably donate to a school if they want it.

[Kiwi]

hi jon and welcome

I have a GK RB700 combo which I gig regularly with at weddings, birthday parties etc. Its bloody loud but if I ever need extra oomph (say for when we're playing to crowds larger than about 250) then I have a 2x10RBH cab to fit on it as well. Its probably a good amp for your toby because its quite aggressive in the mids so will make it sound punchy. The basses I play are a little scooped sounding so things tend to even out a bit. I guess you could look at getting a set of EMG humbuckers for your bass as well if you fancied a cleaner and even punchier sound. What I like most about the combo is that I can set it up as a wedge point directly up at me so usually I hear myself pretty good.

I think they're pretty good value second hand and sometimes they come up on the forum for sale. A number of members use the GK 1001RB you mentioned with lightweight neo cabs like the Epifani 310UL. Again, keep your eyes peeled, they sometimes come up. In fact I believe Platypus is selling his Epi 1x15 UL at the moment.

[bass_ferret]

Evening and welcome. Your money goes a lot further second hand and there is usually a quality selection advertised on here. If you are buying new then GK has a good rep on here unlike some stuff thats a bit marmite or of variable mileage.

[Kev]

Torque T2001EB eh? first person iv met who's owned a torque T series amp other than myself! iv progressed onto trace elliot now though

id be happy to give the torque a home though if its no use to you!

[paul, the]

Welcome to the forum, Jon. There's an [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18301"]Epifani 310UL[/url] in the fs section on BC if you're looking for something a bit swish.

Cheers for the generous intro and best of luck with the gear search.