dan670844

[quote name='Rich' post='1101686' date='Jan 25 2011, 06:19 AM']Up until I saw this thread, it was the only Ashdown I really really wanted. But not for the price of a 2nd hand car thanks [/quote] And a decent one at that!!! I was thinking that this should be around £1300-1500 tops, I like the idea, but practically speaking i think the head is a better option as like the ole B15's lugging that lot about is not funny, since all the weight is at the top of the cab. You would probably split it anyway. But there are so many good 200 watt valve heads around and this sucker looks like a pint magnet.

[quote name='4 Strings' post='1101387' date='Jan 24 2011, 09:10 PM']Now I can appreciate in- ear monitoring for vocals but has anyone had to play with in-ear monitoring instead of using backline amps? I have such a gig on Friday. Is this sound man control gone mad? I can't imagine rocking out to my own little headphone world. Guitars certainly won't be getting any feedback! What's next, taking headphones to watch too, doing away with the whole amps thing altogether and enjoying a perfect mix? Upon argument we've been asked to give it a try before using our backline. Drums are behind shields so we'll still need 'phones for those. Rather than completely miked up kit and sending a signal back to us I'm hoping to be able to just remove the screens. Anyone else had to play like this?[/quote] Sadly yes now most of the time thats how it is i am afraid, for bass I still use cabs /amps for monitoring you need some localised thump (bit of wind in your back) for bass but the in ear is great for hearing the rest of the stage mix. Most of the huge stage bass guitar/ rigs you see are mostly for show / ego . Most of the on stage sound comes out of localised monitoring and the out front from PA line array whatever. I think its a good thing the sound quality on stage is now superb and loud enough! I would imagine the sound guy will let you use your own amps for personal monitoring in particular guitars and bass. You need to feel the bass a bit to play right. The in ear is for you to hear other people not yourself.

[quote name='dan670844' post='1101643' date='Jan 25 2011, 12:55 AM']Its a stand lone cab really as its is four ohm, and was built like that. The rubber feet are on the skinny end but you can use em any way you like ! I use mine like that as its for monitoring, you get better near field dispersion that way (it gets to your lug 'oles) I don't really use a big amp stack anymore, usually its on a stage riser so it hits me without being too loud as I don't want to go deaf. It can still take the full output from my Amp though. I have this and a 4x8 and a 4x10 and these cover everything as it goes out through a digital idiot box (DI)[/quote] But to answer Paul's question there are so many decent UK made cabs I wouldn't bother, by the time you get hold of one you could have something superior that was UK made for less money (when you consider shipping import VAT etc as someone else has said) i.e something from Barefaced, new Ashdown uk made cabs are nice, or a cab with the New Celestion green /orange label neo oogees in like purple chili, or even the Laney Nexus. I bought mine in a A Momentary Lapse of Reason brought by lack of faggage. I don't regret it but, I could have made a wiser choice as like the Eden full range 210's is bleedin big and heavy. Mine is an early one, they are better than the newer ones I have heard.

[quote name='Stuee' post='1101574' date='Jan 24 2011, 11:19 PM'].:EDIT:. I'm not sure what you mean by that. They are pictured on the Avatar website horizontally and the logo badges are stuck on that way too...? [/quote] Its a stand lone cab really as its is four ohm, and was built like that. The rubber feet are on the skinny end but you can use em any way you like ! I use mine like that as its for monitoring, you get better near field dispersion that way (it gets to your lug 'oles) I don't really use a big amp stack anymore, usually its on a stage riser so it hits me without being too loud as I don't want to go deaf. It can still take the full output from my Amp though. I have this and a 4x8 and a 4x10 and these cover everything as it goes out through a digital idiot box (DI)

[quote name='paulflan0151' post='1101342' date='Jan 24 2011, 08:44 PM'][url="http://www.avatarspeakers.com/s"]http://www.avatarspeakers.com/s[/url] Hi, Has anyone out in the UK bass world had any experience with these cabs? The prices seem too good to be true.[/quote] Hi I have a B210 Delta its very good, its big for a 2x10, but you can pump 700watts RMS into it and it handles anything a four string can chuck at it. It has a really flat frequency response no mid bump, very punchy, very smooth. It has a fostex tweeter one of the best I have heard. I have gigged it a lot, its can go very loud and they are really hard wearing cabs. I have even done some reggae stuff with it. Sadly Eminence no longer make the drivers for this cab as they were custom made for this cab. I don't know what the new ones are like (mine is rear ported). A guy in Holland used to sell them. He did the 2x10 2x12 and 1x12, i will try and find the sales ticket I have it somewhere The guy in Holland had bergs and Accugroove schroder and I liked this one the best, but in hind sight the demo unit was broken in I think the the others where brand new. Funny thing I only went out to buy some beer and fags, its funny what you come back with........ Here are some picks I always use it stacked, as the picl it has no provision for being in the trad way horizontal, so I think Dave at Avatar knows what he is doing! D

[quote name='pixiedust' post='1099760' date='Jan 23 2011, 03:58 PM']Hi im new to playing bass and would like some advice on what pratice amp would be best for someone like myself. I have an SRX300 by ibanez what amp would best suit this bass please help.[/quote] To be honest I would not bother with a practice amp, for at home use. I would have a look at the Korg PX4D of something like that (boss do one as well) I use the PX4 all the time has a wide range of effects you can loop, but best of all you can link it to your ipod stereo or whatever and play along to music, which is a good way of getting stuff down and you can play away at three in the morning and no one will care! For jamming / rehearsals then you could not go far wrong, by looking at the Hartke Kickback 12 or 15 stuff or the A series A70 or A100 all of these can cut it in jamming / rehearsals thet are plenty loud enough, but more importantly they sound good. I would avoid the A25/A35 as the others are only a little bit more, the A25/A35 aren't really up to the job if you are using a lot. A lot of them seem to destroy themselves after a while (The DC voltage regulators fail, and blow the speaker, they have tiny heat sinks). Another sure fire is the RB stuff from Laney also can take loads of abuse or use ! Some of the older Peavey stuff is good, Marshall MB is ok, Fender Rumble is also good stuff. Have a look on this site there are usually a few of all mention for sale. You have a lot of choice it really depends on the sound you are after. Personally for the bass you have I would go for one of the Hartkes.

[quote name='phatbass787' post='1095294' date='Jan 19 2011, 03:55 PM']I think its great they're doing both. If like you someone wants to pay a premium for a UK made product they can, however an extra £100 means some people may not be able to afford one so they can buy a chinese one makes sense to me[/quote] Yes I understand that, but one thing the UK, Wales and England in particular is good at doing is building transformers, Safe to say that we are probably the best in the world. Everyone goes on about Hammond and Heyboer transformers in the States for guitar bass etc. But a cheap Danbury output transformer from Essex for example, very nearly matches a Hammond UL transformer (their expensive top) Danbury UL transformers are the muts and deliver full power from about 10hz all the way up to 10Khz with NF they are that good. I can imagine there is a big difference in performance of a UK LB and a Chinese because of this, I know what I would rather have..... the extra 100 squid will be worth it as it will sound better and probably last for life. Look at all the old Marshall, Orange, Selmer, Wem stuff kicking about, some of it is pushing 50!

[quote name='baboom' post='1096983' date='Jan 20 2011, 11:41 PM']guess not all of us are so lucky.... but, go on then, let us know how good you are, take the test??? :-)[/quote] +1 what over have said don't worry about the beat, its natural just relax, don't be human and think about it!!! it will come naturally to you if yah let it.

[quote name='dan670844' post='1098077' date='Jan 21 2011, 08:39 PM']And walking he walking in clothes shops trailing the mrs if there is a beat i glide............ [/quote] Great thing is most things in life have a beat, a machine, music even rain ! anything mechanical and natural, you don't need a bass to work your time ! when I read 'the book i was like wow, he is right accenting certain parts of the bar the phase whatever with dynamic playing playing forward dragging all these dudes jameson, bruce, flabba holt, george porter thats what they do its very subtle, but what makes them great is they are playing with TIME literally, in and around that pocket. To create that tension and release. I have also now released after all these years that a valve amp really is the only thing that can aid you with the dynamic playing, as they are not a switch, on off they are organic and dynamic just like music itself..................... arrgh muso alert, I should have stayed in the pub!

[quote name='baboom' post='1096672' date='Jan 20 2011, 07:10 PM']This turns out to be pretty important in dancing too - stopping at the breaks etc. Another testing ground for timing skills![/quote] And walking he walking in clothes shops trailing the mrs if there is a beat i glide............

[quote name='LethalLion' post='1097675' date='Jan 21 2011, 03:38 PM']Recently started playing again after about a 2/3 year break. I've never had a 'real' amp, just a small 15w practice one. I'm looking for something pretty compact, as I don't have a lot of spare room, but something that's going to be able to give me a nice tone, and make me enjoy playing bass. Would I be better off going for a combo or a head and cab? Any recommendations at all? EDIT: Budget would probably be around £200ish. Cheers, Dan[/quote] You could probably pick up a decent secondhand Peavey (TNT 15) or a laney combo laney (RB is a good bet) go for a 15" speaker though cheap 10's dont go very low

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='1097649' date='Jan 21 2011, 03:27 PM']A starter...... Peter Green (in his heyday)[/quote] +1 you beat me to it even slabo day era would do

[quote name='dan670844' post='1097567' date='Jan 21 2011, 02:24 PM']Is the drummer complaining about that he can't hear himself (i doubt) or that he can't hear the guitars? It maybe to do with the fact as well that guitar cabs design are still in the dark ages whereas bass cabs are constantly evolving, if the problem is lack of percieved guitar volume on stage then the solution can be. If he is using a 2x12 / 12 combo or 2x12 cab try to get it off the deck. It needs to be 2-3ft of the deck as pref angled up towards the player, he will get better monitoring this way, he should look into buying a amp stand/cradle, . Even if he is using a 4x12 4x10 better to try and get it off the deck, in his field of hearing (i think this is the main problem, its loud but the sound is not hitting his ears) But the ultimate solution is try to get a monitor set. You sound a pretty loud band so what you really need to do is get yourself some monitors if you havnt got them one for you the guitarist, drummer and the singer i.e each side of the stage and the back. Then you can balance out the stage mix, and use your PA to push the sound out into the crowd, ideally you don't really want to be using the backline totally for your band volume, you will go deaf and the sound will be unbalanced across the stage so you can't hear each other. In these sort of situations you should consider getting about 60-70% of your volume from the backline (or even less) the rest should come from the PA, which you should use to balance out and push the sound out in the crowd. Same goes for your monitor mix use it to balance out the sound across each side of the stage, so everyone hears everything and consider shoving a mics on the drum at least the bass, if you PA is good use it it can get you out of a lot of trouble at tricky venues. At the very least the guitarist and the drummer need better monitoring of the sound if you are saying the sound out front is ok. Also the amount of speaker you have will give you a great dispersion on stage, do you really need the?. Most often I use a 2x10 (a very expensive one) even in really big job very often a 4x10 is enough for me (4x4x10 is just for show ha ha). Perhaps you should also look at your placement your sound is probably not getting to you but its getting to everyone else Hope this helps! D PS I play for a fair few different people / Bands, due to the type of work I do, My amp really is now only for my personal enjoyment! and for personal monitoring, Such is the level of advancement of PA stage monitoring, really I do not need an amp these days I can Di through some kind of signal processing. I really do not need any amplification whatsoever I am not saying you should do this, but you can go some way with your system toget the stage volume down and most importantly get a good balanced sound on stage is the name of the game, then you will enjoy, your ears won't ring etc as this is really a thing of the past now as good power amps for PA can be had for so little money.[/quote] Also what about you sound how is it in the mix? are you all bouncing off each other, you need to leave space for each other

[quote name='mercuryl' post='1097494' date='Jan 21 2011, 01:40 PM']The Neanderthal and the Pretty Boys .......... sorry, I mean the drummer and the guitarists in my band, often complain that my bass is too loud in the mix on stage. However, as the only member of the band who plays wirelessly, I am able to stand both where the audience will be and on stage during the sound check. I notice that the sound IS louder on stage, but that if I turn my backline down, then it becomes too quiet in the mix beyond the front of house speakers. If I turn it down for the band, then the audience won't hear me, I spoke to a mate of mine who works in the audio labs of a well-know electronics manufacturer and he tells me that it is down to the fact that lower frequency sound waves eminating from a bass cabinet are of a different shape and nature to those created by the guitarists and drummer. In short, bass sound waves degrade quicker and the sound doesn't travel as far. I cure this by getting the mix right for the band on stage and run a DI feed from my amp to the front of house PA. All of that works okay for me, although probably only as we have decent subs in the PA. I'd appreciate some input. Incidentally, I use either a Marshall 450 Watt head through 1 x 15 and 4 x 10 cabs ........... or an Ampeg 2 x 250 Watt head through two separate 2x12 cabs.[/quote] Is the drummer complaining about that he can't hear himself (i doubt) or that he can't hear the guitars? It maybe to do with the fact as well that guitar cabs design are still in the dark ages whereas bass cabs are constantly evolving, if the problem is lack of percieved guitar volume on stage then the solution can be. If he is using a 2x12 / 12 combo or 2x12 cab try to get it off the deck. It needs to be 2-3ft of the deck as pref angled up towards the player, he will get better monitoring this way, he should look into buying a amp stand/cradle, . Even if he is using a 4x12 4x10 better to try and get it off the deck, in his field of hearing (i think this is the main problem, its loud but the sound is not hitting his ears) But the ultimate solution is try to get a monitor set. You sound a pretty loud band so what you really need to do is get yourself some monitors if you havnt got them one for you the guitarist, drummer and the singer i.e each side of the stage and the back. Then you can balance out the stage mix, and use your PA to push the sound out into the crowd, ideally you don't really want to be using the backline totally for your band volume, you will go deaf and the sound will be unbalanced across the stage so you can't hear each other. In these sort of situations you should consider getting about 60-70% of your volume from the backline (or even less) the rest should come from the PA, which you should use to balance out and push the sound out in the crowd. Same goes for your monitor mix use it to balance out the sound across each side of the stage, so everyone hears everything and consider shoving a mics on the drum at least the bass, if you PA is good use it it can get you out of a lot of trouble at tricky venues. At the very least the guitarist and the drummer need better monitoring of the sound if you are saying the sound out front is ok. Also the amount of speaker you have will give you a great dispersion on stage, do you really need the?. Most often I use a 2x10 (a very expensive one) even in really big job very often a 4x10 is enough for me (4x4x10 is just for show ha ha). Perhaps you should also look at your placement your sound is probably not getting to you but its getting to everyone else Hope this helps! D PS I play for a fair few different people / Bands, due to the type of work I do, My amp really is now only for my personal enjoyment! and for personal monitoring, Such is the level of advancement of PA stage monitoring, really I do not need an amp these days I can Di through some kind of signal processing. I really do not need any amplification whatsoever I am not saying you should do this, but you can go some way with your system toget the stage volume down and most importantly get a good balanced sound on stage is the name of the game, then you will enjoy, your ears won't ring etc as this is really a thing of the past now as good power amps for PA can be had for so little money.

This is just my opinion of course, but maybe the reason is the frequency response of a valve job is that much better at the low end of the scale. They can really push some energy into the into the 60-200hz range, but with a great deal of definition, I have been studying this a bit and have been looking into the frequency response of the output transformers / valves (with nf) used in the Orange / Hiwatt / Matamp / Laney / Ashdown the frequency response is almost flat right the way down at 15hz all the way up to 10khz, that is mental! loads of power, to push a good amount of air, no spikes no bumps, no need to use DSP to iron out oddities. You can do this with Mosfet, I have a QSC that is pretty good, but to get the equivalent low end power with the clarity you have to spend double of what these units are and you have to go for a system which has serious watts (mine has about 1800 watts) these units are also even heavier than these valve jobs and on reflection I don't think they sound so good at the bottom end. I have always been disappointed the class D stuff although I have not tried the Orange effort, I have tried SWR, Genz, and some others, the lightweight is cool, but for me, from what I am used to (Trace Elliot, Ashdown, Ampeg... a long time ago!! ) they really have a nice tone, but they really have no dynamic range and low end push, as a consequence to me they have always sounded flat and lifeless . I think if you are going to go valve 200 watts is more than enough, 400 watts is nuclear! If you don't believe try one they are loud, very loud We are spoiled in the UK we have got these great heads from these UK manufacturers (never thought I would say that again) and we also have Celestion. Their Orange label and Green label drivers are lightweight and they sound really fantastic, in my opinion most neo stuff does not. Then we have Barefaced, something different / lightweight that sounds really good, Wizard pickups nice handwound jobs from Wales. On the bass side we have Wal and various other cool planks. So if you are a Bass player and British it is looking good. Now if we could only start making Shoes again that would be awesome (hate that word) the Chinese are very clever, when they invade, it will be easy to suppress the population with no shoes........ [quote name='Musicman20' post='1092313' date='Jan 17 2011, 11:45 AM']I still dont know the full reasoning why a tube amp sounds 'louder' and seems to have more volume on tap, but Ive seen huge bands play very very large stages with the AD200b Mk3 and two cabinets. It seemed a lot of the bands I listen to are ex-Ampeg users and have switched to Orange due to the recent 'problems' with Ampeg. I think Ampeg are pulling themselves out of it, but in the UK, its a no brainer, as the Orange gear (well the high end of the catalogue) is hand made in the UK and comes with a 3 year warranty. I agree anyway, the 200 watts (or whatever the true rating) is incredibly loud. One thing to note, tube amps are their FULL wattage no matter what cabinet/ohmage. So at 8 ohms its 200W and at 4 ohms its 200W. When you start pushing that gain, it gets quite dirty, but in a very pleasing way...and it seems to get incredibly loud to the point where I have lots of volume left on tap. The amp you are thinking of is the Bass Terror, which is a hybrid 500 watt light weight amp. Very good price, very light, and can capture the vibe of the bigger AD200b quite well, but obviously it will never have that full girth or tube push. Its close though. Personally, if you dont want the bigger AD200b Mk3, try the Bass Terror 500 with a few cabinets. The Smart Power SP212 is one punchy little fella! Or, try it with the traditional Orange OBC115 or 410, or try another brand as well. Hope this helps. I had the same reaction when I played mine for the first time. Like 'woah.....this is it!'.[/quote]

[quote name='The Funk' post='384118' date='Jan 18 2009, 04:21 PM']Stop trying to tap your foot. The number of people I see with bad time whose feet tap all over the place! Also, stop having beat 1 louder than the rest. Have them all the same. And think of 4/4 this way: there's a big accent on the 1 and a pair of accents on 2 and 4 (where there's often a snare) - this is called the backbeat. Once you can hear 4/4 that way, with an accent on the 1 and the backbeat on 2 and 4, you'll never get lost again. I never count btw except for when I'm trying to work out a tricky song in an unusual time signature.[/quote] +1 one and whenever you listen to music in the car, in the bath whatever try to work out the tune from a time perspective, you should be able to work out the begining / end of each bar obviously but more importantly work out when each section of the song begins and ends and you should know when that break occurs or is about to occur, as that is when most often things fall down, for me anyway, when you are not prepared or don't know when the song is transitioning from say a 16 bar verse to the chorus middle 8 or whatever it really can be telling . Then you will probably be all over the place time wise, its important that you are on the money in these bits as that is where the bass can do its magic. I do this counting working out malarky all the time and have been doing it for ages, when i listen to a song for the first time i mentally map it out i.e the structure, I know 'blah blah' by 'the blah', has an 8 bar intro, 16 bar verse, chorus etc, then if I am ever asked to play it I am halfway there. I have found out the hard way that you have to know where you are at all times, never rely on other people, of course take you time from the drummer, but never rely on him for the breaks, you should know them, some geezers even rely on the lyrics to get them to the breaks no good that! Good time is what makes a band tight. when you are on the money in the pocket or whatever else they come up with to signify good tight time, you can then play around with it, or play around the pocket. For example when the cadence, chord progession is resolving i.e. going from a fifth or whatever back to the root, you can be a little late on the money or drag it as they say, then you can see just how powerful the bass is in music as it creates great tension and then release, same can be said about being early or pushing that creates a sense of movement if desired. Subtle but extremely powerful, basically sums up the bass really, sniff If you listen to John Paul Jones or Jack Bruce these devices are pretty much in use all the time! But what do I know Ta ta D P.s There is a book on this whole subject and all about anchors, pivots and dynamics, its not at all dry, called the 'untold secrets to melodic bass' by John Burr, if you can get a copy its well worth a read.

[quote name='TomKent' post='1095106' date='Jan 19 2011, 01:25 PM']I'm there both days for reasons of.. personal interest. Inbox me numbers and we'll go drinking (or we could all just.. meet up at the same time?)[/quote] No thats a good idea

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='1091657' date='Jan 16 2011, 06:18 PM']I am sure you've probably heard about the forthcoming London Bass Guitar Show at the Olympia Conference Centre that will be held on MArch 12th and 13th this year, well I have read in the Dingwall forum that Sheldon Dingwall will attend and here is a good chance to meet the man and ask questions about his basses and perhaps to try some too. Here is a link to the event [url="http://www.londonbassguitarshow.com/"]http://www.londonbassguitarshow.com/[/url] Buy your tickets online and Save. On the door price for each day - £17.50 / ONLINE PRICE £12.50 click here to buy your ticket [url="http://www.londonbassguitarshow.com/get-tickets.html"]http://www.londonbassguitarshow.com/get-tickets.html[/url][/quote] I will be there How you getting with your drop head? I am interested in this amp?

[quote name='basskit_case' post='1095136' date='Jan 19 2011, 01:45 PM']Checked this out with Mark at Ashdown, he has confirmed that the LE is British built and the standard edition is built in China. Mark said: [i]"The British one is the LE... with a majority of UK parts, Chassis, Transformers, PCBS, box, etc and built here , tested here, packed and shipped. The others are CHINESE built. "[/i][/quote] In that case they should have continued making the UK one as there was only a difference of £100 or so, it probably had Danbury transformers in it, they are much better that any import stuff, even there bog std stuff is brilliant. I have had enough of overseas made bass amps, I had had some bad times with a Chinese ABM. I will certainly never buy any bass amps that are chinese made after that, they are not that much cheaper than US, UK made stuff anymore, at least for the equivalent quality. The only opportunity they have is to use locally sourced components............... look at what has happened to Ampeg, they used to be good amps the US ones still are but not at the inflated price a hand made unit is cheaper.

[quote name='basskit_case' post='1094918' date='Jan 19 2011, 11:09 AM']I am interested in purchasing a Ashdown Little Bastard Amp Head and was wondering if those with experience of the unit felt the Limited Edition was worth the extra money over the mass produced version? Apologies if this has been raised elsewhere, searched through and couldnt find anything. Thanks[/quote] So what we are going to pay for i.e. the extra £100 quid for the ltd edition is a number, a bit of paper a signature, sorry two signatures. I guess If I bought I would be using it till it until it was worn out, I am no collector, er well I am.... well the Missues thinks so....

[quote name='willyf87' post='1093564' date='Jan 18 2011, 10:15 AM']I'm hoping that's the case!! I'm quite happy with the sound I'm getting from the rig as it is, just its no good if it doesn't cut through. I have a feeling everyything will be a-ok!! I'm going to rehearsal tonight so I'll let you guys know.[/quote] The LG1000 has a power amp in so you can connect your external preamp into it no prob and bypass the preamp, but that would be a shame as it sounds quite good if you can feed it enough juice ,just boost your input with a pedal and she will open up nicely, these amps work very well with the superfly cabs, I have a Super 4x80 1000 watt job, together they make an nice mini rig with a lot of volume and a suprising amount of low end. Other thing to note the volume pot is linear and not logarithmic i.e. it will get louder all the way up and not be flat out on '2' like some other amps!

[quote name='Rich44' post='1092999' date='Jan 17 2011, 07:47 PM']I'm looking for a cheapish (no more than £20-30) pair of headphones to use with my practice amp, because by the time I can hear myself, my flatmates will be complaining. I've tried a few pairs and there either really muddy sounding in the bass, have too short a cable or are too heavy. I'd like a reasonable sounding pair, but I'm clueless when it comes to specifications. In terms of sound, can someone explain what frequency responses are about?[/quote] Also have a look at AKG K44 and K77 they are cheap and pretty good for the money.

[quote name='pete.young' post='1093092' date='Jan 17 2011, 08:50 PM']Torres [url="http://www.torresamps.com/"]http://www.torresamps.com/[/url] has some nice looking kits and you can even go on a course to learn to build something.[/quote] Arrgh I forgot about Torres! yes they does a 200 watt one I believe. But I really want is just a valve poweramp just a big KT88 monoblock monster that I can feed on a variety of preamps! that is rackable. With proper cooling etc and modern components. In the old days (before my time) they used to build slaves not anymore... Mesa and others have had a go but they didnt seem to take off that well. A lot of circuit Guitards seem to use the Marshall EL84/34 rack power amps these days I guess they get it!

I used one for a while for rehearsals with a jazz bass, suffered the same problem could not get enough input gain. I solved it by using one of those little ART valve driven mic preamps which can provide up to 20db of gain. I guess you could use any boost pedal suitable for bass to make up the gain. Its a nice sounding preamp but its like they didn't finish of the design properly. An active Yamaha bass that I tried only just managed to drive it into clipping 'flat' But if you can get enough input signal they are quite good. Also they benefit greatly if you use a mains filter. Ha i didnt read you post properly! stick the Art pre inline i.e plug your bass into it then the Art into the input of the amp at least thats what i did. Best on active and adjust the gain so it doesnt clip

[quote name='daz' post='1092884' date='Jan 17 2011, 06:35 PM']So would you say it may well be worth picking up a broken bass amp on ebay and using parts off that ? Im assuming a non valve amp could be gutted for its transformer here? (as you see i know nothing about electronics)[/quote] A lot of people mainly guitards gut their old tranny amps and make them into valve amps a popular choice is the uk made Laney linebackers, they get rid of the nasty transistor amp (which isnt bad in my opinion for clean sounds, much better than modern stuff) and just use the chassis and even the speakers as they were pretty well made. But when I mean gut I mean junk all the electronics as not one bit can be used including the transformers, valve stuff works on high tension i.e high voltage and low current whereas, transistor amps most often work on low voltage usually around 15 volts but with higher current. Of course there are exceptions. One of my friends has got a PP18 (18 watt push pull) amp kit inside a old laney linebacker chassis it sounds awesome and know one knows! So to answer your question really no. Having said that there are usually quite a few old valve bass amps and PA amps that appear on ebay quite regularly for not much money, Brands like Selmer, WEM, Laney and Carlsbro, there is nothing to them they usually have a few dry capacitors (dead) knackered resistors and or need new valves. They can be easy re cased if you like (see Ampmaker) great as a project (usual caveats apply) and above all they sound pretty dam amazing esp the WEM / Carlsbro /Selmer. Great for noodling rehearsals etc, but they are very heavy and for live you would be chewing your nails on the reliability.....