mcnach

Yup... but when you're starting out all you hear is watts this and watts that... and if you have a 300W combo that doesn't quite cut it, you think "ah, this other one is 500W so it'll be plenty"... I had an Ashdown MAG250 head early on, and I used to look at a Peavey 450W head with envy. I didn't really thought much about the fact that my Ashdown was put through a 115 cab, while the Peavey in the rehearsal room was going through a 410 *and* a 115

No problem, just PM if/when you feel like it Urang Matang... ha! That is a fun band to play with. None of the recordings is me, however. I was briefly in the initial incarnation of the band, before they had a name... a month or so in, the drummer (my friend who brought me in) had some family issues and we stopped. That was early 2010. Then I got busy with other bands, and they eventually reformed with someone else. Fast forward to summer 2016... their bass player can't continue and they have like 10-12 gigs over the next 3 months, and they contact me. And what was a temporary situation became permanent. We were supposed to work on new material and be recording this year but there are... "internal disagreements" and we may be reaching the end. But... anyway, long story about nothing, sorry! Thanks for listening! Back on track: why did I choose Mesa? I had borrowed a D800 a while back and compared it to my Streamliner 900 and Little Mark III... I liked it better than the other two. It felt "bigger" in a way that the other amps did not, hard to describe... but the LM3 was good enough so I did not feel I needed another amp. The Streamliner was my backup, but then I sold it and decided to get a second LM3: they're reasonably common and cheap used. However, meanwhile I got seduced by the Barefaced Two10, and got a couple of them, the 4ohm version. My plan was then to get that second LM3, and I could use them as master/slave when I needed more power for both cabs. That would be the cheaper option. But I saw the D800+ had now a bright switch that allegedly 'fixed' its dark character that some commented on (including myself), a semiparametric EQ for low and high mids, and more interestingly: an adjustable HPF. It is ok for 2ohm... so I decided to have a go, knowing I could return it if I didn't like it. But I liked it, a lot. And that's my story. I'm full of boring long stories today

@dmccombe7 If you're in Biggar, we're not that far. I have a couple of BF Two10 and a Mesa D800+, if you want to meet sometime and have a little taste, maybe also in combination with your existing amp/cabs if you like. I used to have a pair of BF BigBaby 2, which unfortunately can't be compared directly, but I have a reasonable recollection of what they were like. The cab that @wateroftyne was using is a TKS S212, if I'm not mistaken? I still own two TKS S112 that I could bring too if interested. Their bottom end is very tight and precise, some say a bit lacking by default, but you can add a bit of bass EQ from your amp and they respond gloriously. They are very very light. The reason I got the Two10s was that I was a bit afraid of pushing the S112s too hard, and I could get a sufficiently similar sound from the Two10, but the Two10 has the bottom end by default and can take a lot more... But the TKS S112/S212 are beautiful sounding cabs. I used to have a pair of TKS 1126 that were monsters. Very clean, very big sounding.

!!!

My impression of it being very bassy came from believing the labelling of the knobs: 12 o'clock labelled as zero, anticlockwise as cut, clockwise as boost. But now that I know that's wrong and flat bass EQ is anticlockwise fully... no, it doesn't seem particularly bassy. They need to change those labels 'though...

I think is a combination of that amp (if flat bass EQ is all the way anticlockwise!) and the big box that is that stage. I started using my BF Two10 largely because when you place it over the 410, it sounds great. These days I never seem to be able to park around the corner as I used to, so I don't bother... but yes, amp's bass EQ all the way down for sure, and turn up the mids. I am surprised they haven't yet put a crate under the amp... but if everybody does like we do, talk about it and not tell them, then it might never happen I like Stramash, but you do need it packed for anything to sound half decent in that room.

Brilliant! I laughed when I saw the serial number... the seller didn't look very hard, eh?

Is this using pre or post? If post, then many amps behave that way. If pre... I'm surprised any amp behaves that way My D800+ does not behave that way, for sure.

Oh, yeah, of course... 5-string! It's one louder, innit? Yes, I only joined talking about the B string not being particularly high tension (at the normal gauges used)... and used the EADG vs BEAD as an example of what I sometimes hear... and then we got all muddled up. I think we agree... dang, it's so boring when we agree. RED BASSES SOUND BETTER!!!! (let's see if that does the trick)

Yup. (apparently I run out of 'likes' today )

In a passive cab (so, anything we're talking about here), if there are multiple sockets, they are wired in parallel. There ARE exceptions... but they are very rare. Always worth checking but I really don't know of any modern cab that's not wired in parallel. If an amplifier has multiple speaker outputs, the same story. So you can treat all the sockets the same. Connect your amp to one cab, then use the spare socket in that cab (or a spare socket in the amp if you had one) and connect that to a second cab. Everything is in parallel.

It's not depth, mostly... it's the *angle*, and we're talking minute angles.

I fixed that for you

Yes, I am saying exactly that. Just check the figures, or even use a crude dynamometer to check it yourself before dismissing it as rubbish The strings (typically) don't have the same tension, the treble end tends to be at higher tension than the lower end. Going BEAD (typically) makes this more even, if anything! A neck constructed from properly dried wood, using the right cut (fibre orientation) is a pretty solid thing that resists pretty well against imbalanced string tension, fortunately, as we've observed for decades on steel stringed instruments. But wood is variable and sometimes stinky poo happens... However, tuning BEAD (say using 125-65 gauges) is actually less stressful for a neck than tuning EADG (105-45), for most strings.

I don't know about that. Mass produced bolt-on instruments often have shims in place during initial set-up at the factory. If you were handcrafting each instrument making sure it matched its neck, no, you wouldn't expect a shim in the end. But those instruments would not sell for the price they currently sell if they required the extra attention. A shim, that you cannot even tell is there unless you remove the neck and look, is not exactly a sign of a poor instrument, to me. But... I have a feeling of deja-vu

There's quite a bit of variation, 'though. The Rotosound Tru Bass were the most "double bassy" ones I've tried. The D'Addario ones not so much, and the Labella whites even less. I had the Tru Bass ones on a fretless Precision and they were very 'woody' indeed. The Labella whites on a Jazz are more like duller rounds with a little extra 'thud' on tap.

They do feel different to other strings and it's a matter of personal taste whether you like that or not, but with regards to punch/sustain/thud... I think it must depend on the actual strings or the bass or both. Right now I have my Jazz with Labella white nylon tapewounds... and it's a monster. It's not as bright as roundwounds, but there's plenty of top end if you want it, and it sounds great slapped. Very meaty, fat but well defined, beatiful low mids... The plastic feel is a bit odd at first, but I got used to it quickly and the sound/feel makes up for it. My girlfriend has been playing bass for a couple of years and we were on a quest to find the right strings for her. She decided the Labellas were the best and that's what she wants. Of course... she'd choose the most expensive strings I have. She could have chosen any of the multiple sets I've got by Fender, D'Addario, Rotosound, Warwick... nah, not even DRs, she went straight to those that cost nearly £50 a set. She'd better not change her mind, for I gave her my last set!

If you want dirt cheap... on AliExpress they have some for $5-$10 (yes, that little)... I tried one and it definitely does the job. edit: I can't vouch for their longevity 'though mine worked when I sold the bass...

The discussions I was referring to all implied changing gauges. It was indeed checking the D'Addario PDF that states the tension for all their strings that I first realised the tension would actually be a bit lower (for my chosen string gauges) and if anything I'd have to loosen up the truss rod a bit.

I haven't had the chance to try a Harley Benton but I have also heard good things. I owned a J&D in surf green that looked identical to the bottom picture you posted (many people have compared hB with J&D suggesting they may be the same instruments, rebadged by either Thomann in Germany (HB) or someone else in the UK for J&D... Either way, the J&D was £119 and was the sweetest Jazz I've had... once I set it up. That was the downside: poorly cut nut (A slot was also too low and the string rattled, so it needed a new nut), sharp frets and a couple tall frets at the treble end... once I dealt with that, which didn't take long, it was fantastic. The pickups were slightly microphonic on mine, which surprised me (I thought microphonic pickups were a thing of the past now) but they sounded so nice that I just put up with it. I gigged with it no problem. If it weren't because I had to downsize and I'm more of a Precision/Stingray player, that bass would still be with me. I sometimes consider buying another!

Thank you! You hear so many wrong advice like "oh, watch that neck with the extra tension if you tune BEAD rather than EADG" etc... when you typically get quite noticeable lower tension. That, despite so many threads complaining about flabby B strings. You'd think people put 1+1 together

I wouldn't say that a shim may be required to make it 'playable'... but it can be something that improves playability noticeably.

Ah, I hadn't read this before I posted my previous reply. Exactly: adding a shim is a perfectly normal thing to do.

No need to remove neck? What if you decide to alter the neck angle with a shim? That's not exactly an unusual procedure on bolt-on guitars... I think it would be obvious that the repair to the neck pocket is not recent. They should (hopefully) be ok with it...

True. But when they came out people were raving at how loud they were! Remember? I had an RH450 for a couple of years or so. I didn't love it but it wasn't because it wasn't loud. That goes to show how little an extra 100 or even 200W matter, compared to other factors, and how "wasteful" the very low low end is.