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Hi folks Just wanted to show you another fantastic ACG I’ve acquired from the great Alan Cringean. This one is a pure joy both in terms of feel, playability and tone. Alan’s work is second to none. This is the Krell model, 5 string and 35 inch. ART maple on top of a swamp ash body. Ash neck with wenge strips. Fingerboard is flamed sycamore with blue dots from the bass body. Luminlay side dots. Hipshot ultralite tuners and Hipshot bridge then finally a John East Uni Pre 4. Pickups are a FB humbucker in the neck and an RFB humbucker at the bridge. This combo can cut through the mix no problem. If 2024 is the year you’re looking for a custom bass then get into ACGs website. Alan is a pure gent and any communication I’ve had with him has been top notch. All the best Stuart

Bramble On - Led Zeppelin

My 2024 board (for now) picked up the HX stomp other day and I am super impressed with it. It’s replaced everything on my board, including a cali76 compressor!

I can probably answer most of your questions relating to Trace Elliot products made between 1978 and the end of 1986.Fred Friedlein (MD),Alan Morgan(sales) and I (designer) were the founder members of Trace Elliot.designed all models up to then including GP 11 preamp, GP7 preamp and the AH 150 combo amps. The amp heads AH150,AH 350x,the biamp model and the most popular AH250 and AH500 heads. Stuart Watson.

Just my opinion, of course, but I played in originals metal bands for 20 odd years and I never used any distorted sounds, kept it tight and punchy because with two massive fuzzy guitars, I didn't want the bass to get lost in that. Obviously that might not be waht you want, but may be worth recording yourselves and seeing what you think??? Best of luck 🤘🤘🤘

All set up and assembled by Chris! Looks the part with all the hardware & electronics in now. Expecting delivery later next week just letting it all settle then!

In general, I've found that bass is only interesting to bassists.

The gamble paid off....Just to confirm the Epiphone EB-3 Long Scale case is a great fit for my '73 short scale.

I think you'll be surprised by exactly how much drive/dirt there is on what sounds like clean bass in the mix. Have a look and see if any tracks by the above have been posted as isolated bass tracks on YouTube. Then you'll get a much better idea of the sound you are aiming for.

Grape Me — Nirvana

You're missing my ability to misread things

Blackberry Way — The Move

We did a festival with Ash in summer 2019 and I spoke to Mark briefly - seemed like a personable enough guy. I told him Burn Baby Burn was the first song I ever learned on bass, which was perhaps not the compliment I intended it to be. The real gem was Tim Wheeler, who was an absolute darling. He watched our set from sidestage and then afterwards came and chatted guitar nerd stuff with me for ages. I was actually having a bit of a Moment after I got offstage because the stage was directly in baking sun and we'd all overheated, so I was laying on the grass with my head under a wet towel when a very polite voice went "Mind if I have a look at your pedalboards while you're busy down there?" He took us up to where their rig was being set up so I could check out the infamous Vee and his new EGC acryclic/aluminium SG and then we watched the set from there later. Sometimes you can meet your heroes, although preferably not while alarmingly red and sunburned.

Ordered a b-stock bass (MTD Kingston Z4) in December. I’d been watching it for months, just hoping I might get a Christmas bonus big enough. Bonuses were announced on 8 December, so at that point I knew I had enough. But when I checked it was still available, the price had increased by £100! I must have just been no more than a week late. I phoned on the off-chance that there was room for negotiation, but before I’d even finished my first sentence, Mark said I could have it for the earlier lower price. (He also delayed despatch so it would arrive on a day when my good lady was at the office!) In short: super service!

There are two forces here: string height and tension. The higher the strings are, the more pressure (or pull) it takes to get a note. Some people prefer a low action but get it too low and the strings can rattle. String tension is another variable. I use low tension Spiros, but couldn’t cope with ultra low tension guts or gut-a-likes. This article is good discussion about string heights. https://www.bassgearmag.com/jazz-vs-classical-vs-bluegrass-set-up/#:~:text=The traditional bluegrass set-up allows for slapping%2C as well,strings at the same height. Unless you’re confident working on your bass it’s best to take it to a pro. Last set up I had, I was there when the action was set and was able to get it to a level I was happy with, and the luthier was able to advise on the quality of note and overall sound. I’m very much an amateur and I’m sure you’ll get much more in-depth and helpful replies. Where are you based?

As it happens I've just seen this on YT. 4 separate videos going through 48 different bass drive pedals pretty much in order of price. Low, mid and high gain settings for each. Should give you an idea of what you might like to try. I now want an EBS Multidrive!

Sansamp - Punchy, grindy tone without distorting Then add a: TC Electronic Spark Booster - adds as little or as much grit as you want or: Joyo Double Thruster (budget copy of a Darkglass B3K and just as good IMHO) You don't need anything more than the Sansamp plus one of these.

Pedals that just add fuzz do tend to strip the bass out. I used to use a Dave Hall Amps pedal that was good, have also used a Big Muff Deluxe (this model has something it it to keep the bass frequencies in, I can't remember what it's called) to similar results. Depending on the type of metal, it's not a bad idea to just leave the bass clean & let the guitarists do the distortion.

Yeah, songs like: Happy, Get Lucky. Uptown Funk, Can't stop the feeling, shake it off, are all real downers compared to stuff by Joy Division and Nick Drake.

For the Zoom it is just to cycle thru the patches. 1A is for the 1st patch, 1B 2nd… You will have instant access to about 32 patches. It comes with a wireless dongle (encircled one is for the Zoom, the other one is for MIDI port devices), you just need to connect it to a USB powersource and then connect a USB A to USB mini cable

Your average musician (who isn't a bass player) probably couldn't name the bassist in their favourite band. Bassists are invisible to everybody, other than other bassists. Sad but true

The problem is if you as a small business simply publish your email address online you have to deal with masses of unsolicited scammer type emails, but if you set up a contact form it works well initially so you think great, cracked it 😀 and then as the software used to make the website (wordpress for example) gets updated to help prevent scammers and as the isps constantly update their defences to reduce spam the contact form becomes unreliable and is often blocked by the isp, or ends up in spam. So you end up having to do lots of maintenance of the site and testing and updating, which is fine if you are in the IT business but if you just need a presence for the non word of mouth customers to find and contact you then it has become increasingly a pain, thanks to criminals all around the world and AI. I have found it gives best result if you call companies where possible, they will usually give you a better email address to use if they can't deal with the enquiry wholly by phone, like fred @thebiz.com where fred is the actual person who can sort your enquiry out. The biggest companies are often the worse for contact form not working, maybe because they assign that inbox to someone who leaves the company and they don't reassign the function or have a catch all set up to monitor incoming mail where the 'duty' person everyday checks the stuff that is in the spam filter or hasn't been final delivered. But big companies publish the phone number and have a reception/telephonist person who can route your enquiry generally.

Maybe Steve Harris didn't request a headphone option that works well as a specific feature? 😅 Sorry - couldn't resist!

I ended up using Lemon oil and a green scourer to clean followed by danish oil on the back of the neck and some oak wax I had kicking about. Did the job nicely!

Loved listening to her request show in the 80s, came after the Top 40 and was always miles better (both the music and the chat). Introduced me to loads of new tunes and genres. Thanks and RIP Annie x

It's too nice a bass to put it through that 😂

A quick pre gig (post soundcheck)review of the T.bone IEM D2.4 The bottom line is its great. No regrets so far. It arrived today and i took it to tonight’s gig. First impression was how small and heavy it is. Both plus point. It doesn't feel cheap at all. No idea why oi was surprised at the size, but i was expecting it to be a big larger. It feels very sturdy and solid. The display looks great and the easy of use is very good. I looked at the manual once so far, and that was just to see what a certain icon meant. Stereo spread is good, and the L/R balance control helps to keep things sitting where i need them. There doesn't seem to be any noise (i wouldn't hear it over the band anyway). S/N is quoted as >115db for the transmitter, >95 for the reciever. Not fantastic but more than good enough for my use. I posted earlier about the EQ, there are 4 types, but there is also 4 types of Eardrive as well. A lot of EQ options in the Reciever. I’ll probably keep these off as i have my Aux EQ anyway, but it’s nice to have those many options. All make a noticeable difference. So far we havent had any isseus with drop outs. We played 3 songs, and everyone is happy. One of my guitarists is trying out the Lektar i got off Amazon, with the aim to get oen for himself. He uses the Xvive U2 and he hasnt had an issue with using both yet. Obviously this is in an empty hall, so the real test will come later this evening when the room fills up. The only negative so far is the crappy PSU’s that come with it. Very thin wires and big chunky 2 pin. It comes with two and I’ll probably get a 3 pin PSU off Amazon before the next gig.

Don't remember that one. Was it something like if you touch the brown and blue wires at the same time, your knickers will be twisted?

I really like the gain on the Ampeg Scrambler & SCR-DI, having a blend option it keeps the solidity of the low end nicely. That said my go to for years has been some form of Tech21 pedal, find their pedals just work so well for rock/punk/metal.

Many bass drive pedals come with a clean blend feature so that it-'s possible to still retain some clean punch to the driven sound. The fact that there's an absolutely bewildering number of drive pedals out there suggests that what constitutes a 'good' bass drive is highly subjective, probably the only way to find out what works for you is start trying some out. Buying and selling in the BC effects classifieds should hopefully keep the inevitable costs of such an endevour to a minimum.

What sound are you trying to achieve? Any examples?

King Volcano — Bauhaus

....and even thats pushing it a bit! 🤣 Maybe as @NHM says, to most people "the band" is the influence and the bass player is a by product of that eg: from the age of 10 I was influenced by a range of bands from Black Sabbath to Abba and only much later knew who the bass players were!

I look at it this way . Play a a young person some Bach and they'll probably go wow. In other words old classics are just that, old classics and at the risk of being flamed for the umpteenth time, way more "old" stuff is just better than new stuff. In fact I would go so far to say new stuff is dull and miserable sounding compared to old stuff which ... As an eg, a dep I did a while back, to show willing they did a George Ezra hit single.....The band hated it and it didnt seem to cheer the audience much either, we then played Disco Inferno and the floor was heaving.

I’ve always been tempted with the multi coils. I have the filter pre in 2 or 3 of my other ACG basses and I love it. My plan is to get an Uber build as ACG calls it with the multi coils etc for my 50th. Thats a few years away yet but gives me time to decide what model I’d like and to save up for it 😀.

I didn't spot this earlier but we've been doing some measurements on frequency responses of amps. We specifically started with the micro amps; Gnome, BAM and Elf. It's on a thread here somewhere. None of them are flat with the controls at 12.00 though you can tweak them to be more or less flat. They all have differing scoops at 440Hz but all three have the mid control at 440Hz which makes eq simpler The Gnome and Elf all have decent HPF keepint the subsonic frequencies under control which will help protect your speakers, ideal for small amps which might be used with smaller drive units. The Elf has a classic smiley face/old school eq with everything at 12.00 the BAM is similar but slightly less pronounced and the Gnome is also scooped but with a more lively top end which gives it a distinct 'hi-fi' sound. In listening tests at the last SW Bass Bash the Elf got a lot of love with everything set to 12 but all three are tweakable to give a flat sound if that is what you want. In other tests we found the Bugera Veyron M to have the flattest response we measured rolling off the frequencies that a bass doesn't make only. It is a 700W amp though so you'd have to use the volume control judiciously. The Gnome in our tests is mine, bought as a back up when my MB Tube started having problems. It is now my go to amp much to my surprise, for what you want it is ideal but the Elf or BAM would probably do the same job for you. It's a silly price too. If you genuinely want a flat response amp with lots of tone options the Bugera is a great option and on the basis of the tests and subsequent listening tests I bought one which I use in preference to my Peavey and MB. I'd be careful about people's subjective opinions about how an amp sounds. You should see the range of terms we see in descriptions they give of the same amp or speaker we collect in out shoot outs, mine included Miost amps withan fx loop are flat beyond the fx input though. Oh DC resistance 5.9 ohm is typical for an 8ohm impedence speaker as you surmised

"Congratulations! You've increased your rank to Veteran!"... As if I didn't feel old enough!!!

I wouldn't accept it whether it was genuine or not. The different logo would drive me nuts.

The older Eden heads are brilliant pieces of kit and indeed greatly underrated. They appear to have fallen from grace for some reason? If by chance you are looking for a combo (and can handle 72lb) then look no further than the Eden Metro 210 They are first class. Like most of the heads, they need very little adjustment to get a great sound. Set everything at 12 o’clock and you are more or less there. Beautiful fat creamy bass tone. However, the combo and the heads are far from one trick ponies, they have a vast range of tonal possibilities.

Harder to step on by accident maybe?