Lozz196

I have a Boschma plastic utility case that I sometimes place my cab on. My cab is on 4" castors anyway so including the fittings etc normally 5 " off the floor, whereas on the case it`s about 10" off. Doesn`t really seem to make that much difference to my ears but I suppose that I have to take into account that I have a trebly/twangy/driven sound rather than a warm bassy sound, so any coupling of floor/bassiness wouldn`t be to my liking anyway.

I had a 78 Precision that I nicknamed Ian Paisley as it simply barked at you. It was a difficult bass to tame, luckily with me playing punk that wasn`t on my list of considerations.

I`ve recorded through a guitar amp in studio and it sounded fantastic. Admittedly it was only low volume but we were trying to get a sound we liked for ages, the producer suggested the guitarists amp, think it was a Roland Jazz Chorus, and away we went.

I’ve played a few older basses, 50s & 60s ones and they were ok. I preferred the 70s ones I had to those, and I much prefer my 2012 - 16 ones to any of them. Age may make them desirable but not having heard them in the mix I can’t comment if they sound that much better or not.

That’s probably it for me too, I have a trebly/twangy/overdrive sound and that harshness coupled with the warmth of the ABM600 makes for a great onstage sound.

I’ve used my ABM600 through Barefaced cabs but I preferred it through Ashdown cabs. Each to their own, it wasn’t at all bad through the BF cabs, and indeed a good few other Basschatters love their ABM600/BF set ups. I will add that having had previous ABM amps and MAG amps that imo the ABM600 slays them, they’re not bad amps, just that the 600 is so good. So if you liked the 500RC with the rest of your set up I reckon you’ll be over the moon putting the 600 in its place.

Uh-oh

My first bass was a Kay EB-O copy, and yes, taxi from the strings to the fretboard is a pretty accurate description. It cost me £45 in 1980 which was well over the cost of a 100 pints of beer back then. My current cheapy backup, a Vintage V4 Tony Butler is around £300 new (I lucked out and got it for £120), which is less than a 100 pints nowadays, yet the difference in quality is amazing.

Yep, for some reason Trace watts are louder. A TE 80 watt combo is a lethal instrument and can be as loud as that scene in Back To The Future. No idea why, their amps just seem to be majorly loud, irrespective of the power ratings.

Virtually all my gigs are through FOH, in theory I could gig with just my D.I. pedal but I just prefer to have an amp on stage that I can hear. It doesn’t have to be loud either, I prefer a quiet amp on stage to a loud monitor mix.

Pretty much any Precision works for me. My faves are the US Standards, 2012 - 2016 Series, but I’ve gigged with Squiers and been fine. I’ve been through the journey - ahhh, X-Factor speak - of replacement pickups/bridges, high-end cabs etc only to realise that a stock Fender Precision and my Tech21 Para Driver are all I really need for me to be happy (along with fresh steel roundwound strings). Amp-wise I’ve been through many makes and realised that Ashdown are the brand for me, they’re a lot more affordable than many others but are great sounding, hard wearing, a good company to deal with, and an hours drive if I need something repaired. I’m glad I’ve bought/sold loads of gear, it was great fun, but I don’t need to go looking anymore, my current gear is what works for me. Additionally I have been surprised to see that many pros are happy with much lesser instruments than we would expect. A good deal on the Punk/Oi circuit seem happy with Mex Fenders or Squiers, Epiphone guitars etc and a great many are happy to use any amp that is provided, confident that they’ll get a sound that works for their band.

Makes perfect sense to me

So recently I`ve had 2 dead A strings in packs of Warwick Red Label Steel Roundwounds. Contacted them as although I buy in bulk and had other sets which I could nick the A from, this left me short on full sets. This was on Sunday btw. Sunday evening I received a reply stating they would send out 2 replacement packs - I would have been more than satisfied with just 2 A strings alone - which arrived today. Quality customer service imo, and the fact that my message was read and replied to late on Sunday really adds to it, a company that looks after its customers.

Yep, brilliant mics, and not just for the price. I find them crisper and less nasal sounding than SM58s.

2" for me, use Jim Dunlop nylon ones, if they`re good enough for Duff McKagan they`re good enough for me - well it`s as good a theory/rationalisation as anything else I spose.

A bassist I know has one of these and it is incredibly powerful, and seems to be voiced so that whatever anything else is going on it will always be heard. Really cuts through the mix.

Barefaced customer service is excellent, I`m sure they`ll be able to offer some advice pretty quickly

Very interesting Mark, I do use a preamp so have to back off the input gain on my Ashdown ABM600 a good bit, but to get the best sound I have to be hitting the red in that VU meter, much like what you describe above.

Def Roqsolid for covers

You should like those, great set-up imo. Bizarrely on the RM the pre-shape is on when pushed in. It gets very confusing.....

You did have the Pre-Shape button in, didn’t you? Bizarrely that switches off the scooped setting of the ABM, rather than engaging it.

Def sounds like flats to me, a great simple but effective bassline.

The theory is add in the same cab again, it`s usually a guaranteed way of making you smile.

I`m not at present, have an ABM410 plus an ABM210 which is dragged out for the big gigs. Previously I had two RM210s and they were very good, not much difference in sound to the ABM cabs in all honesty, a little less low-end but the core sound was very similar.

I may well be adding to my RM range, my ABM cabs are becoming a little bit too much for me now, so thinking of another batch of two of the 210s, which were great.