mcnach

Well, the first gig is out of the way... and this thing is just lovely. Outdoor gig with PA support, so just a single Two10 with the D800+. Sound onstage was just my amp/cab and it sounded fantastic. There was a substantial 'quality' to the sound that I cannot really describe. It's definitely one of the nicest amps I've tried... and the best of the small & light ones. The combination with the BF Two10 caps is incredible. I haven't been this happy with the sound of my bass in... forever!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1497799801' post='3320601'] I'm the cheerleader for my band. Always upbeat and funny, telling jokes and keeping everyone in good spirit If a band member is really down I will do the invisible bear hump and that will fix everything. Hard to have a bad time when your humping an invisible bear 🐻 Blue [/quote] !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got asked to play at the Great Scottish Tatty Run today. Well, there was more standard running involved too, but the Tatty Run was part of the event and I liked it: run with a sack of potatoes on your back... and at the end take them home. It was a charity event in Holyrood Park, which was great as the weather has been fantastic. They invited us to play a couple of days ago and... why not? Backline provided, just show up and play... (I did bring my Mesa + Two10, as they allowed us to park right there, so...). There was no payment as such, but it's one of those gigs that are easy and right in your backyard and sound fun. In the end, we took a sack of potatoes home each I know some say that music pays peanuts, but...

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1497605781' post='3319409'] Compared to the OTB do the other class D hybrid amps have similar high levels of overdrive/distortion available? I am planning to down-size my rig very soon. I play with an overdriven sound all the time, varied by how hard I play, pick/fingers etc. My preference is a hybrid amp with the input level high to get the distortion, I DI from the amp 99% of gigs. I’ve heard a couple of OTB heads in action and was impressed. I currently use a Hartke 3500 with the input at 7/10 to get the drive (yes I know it’s not as sweet as an all-tube head). [/quote] Streamliner and Tonehammer have some nice drive in them. The Mesa D800 too, but doesn't get as distorted... but there's some good overdrive there as well. Markbass LMT not so much.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1497605743' post='3319408'] You need to come over to the Dingwall forum - it's a lovely, warm, supportive canadian sort of place [/quote] but then I might end up wanting a Dingwall... best to stay away, my bank statement says...

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1497604539' post='3319397'] Can't we squeeze a kazoo solo in there somehow? [/quote] Funny you say that... we have a last minute gig this Sunday... there's some charity event involving running and walking (I'll drive there, thanks for the parking pass ) at Holyrood Park, and they must have had some cancellation and asked my main band to help out. The weather looks promising, sounds fun, we said why not. The problem is our trumpet and our sax players can't make it. We decided to go ahead anyway, and kazoos may be brought out

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1497551515' post='3319094'] GK mb500 and GK mb800 are very light, small and insanely loud. Great punchy tone and a boost knob that makes it go all growly wowly, if that's your thing (you can tell I've never used that particular knob). You can drown out any puny, guitarist with these boys. [/quote] Oh yeah... those are really really nice sounding amps.

[quote name='acidbass' timestamp='1497531434' post='3318910'] Lightweight gear = lightweight tone! [/quote] ok

[quote name='richardjmorgan' timestamp='1497529887' post='3318892'] Hi everyone. I've jumped back into playing bass seriously for the first time in a long while, and need to get myself amplified. Since I was last paying attention, it seems that small amps are rather the thing, and the idea of being to carry my bass, amp and pedalboard around relatively easily is hugely appealing. My only reservation is whether or not one of these tiny amps is going to be loud enough for my purposes. Need it for rehearsal/gigging in a stoner/desert rock kinda band – the guitarist's going through an old 70s or 80s valve amp that doesn't have a master volume, so we run pretty loud. My main other consideration is having something that'll play nicely with a variety of cabs, as I'll either be using what's in the venue/practice room or hiring something. My initial thought was the Orange Terror Bass, as I'd heard good things about it and liked what I heard on the occasions I've seen it being used, but it seems they don't make it any more. TL;DR: Recommend me an amp / loud stoner rock / as small and portable as possible. Cheers in advance. [/quote] A lot of the tiny amps will sound as loud (and many of them, LOUDER) than the Bass Terror. Many of them will also sound better and have a much better DI Pretty much, all of them will be loud enough for your purposes if you have suitable speaker cabs for it. You can't expect any amp to be earth-shattering loud if you just want to play through one or two little cabs. So if volume is your main objective, I'd be thinking more about cabs. Amps, I'd recommend the Mesa D800. It's as small as you can get and that thing sounds really good and gets loud. A Streamliner 900 would probably be good for your style... it has a very nice preamp section that can get a very good thick sound... a bit like the Bass Terror, but nicer sounding (in my opinion) and significantly louder.

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1497595892' post='3319274'] Yes, I'm aware that he polices his board quite 'vigourously', but lets not forget that's it's his board to police and unlike Basschat it relates directly to the product that he manufactures and sells, so I would kind of expect it to be that way. Being a member there myself, for the most part, it's a nice environment to be in. There are some very helpful people there, but much like any other board, there are also some complete idiots and I don't see why they should be given any more time than anywhere else. Personally, whenever I've had an issue with any of my MM basses, their customer service has been lightning fast, including sending out replacement parts. I would much rather see Sterling on the board getting involved rather than being some faceless management type raking in the cash. I am a Rickenbacker owner and have been for decades, but I wouldn't recognise John Hall if he stood in front of me. [/quote] The thing is you don't need to criticise their instruments. Suggest replacing anything in them... say, a pickup... and observe the sycophantic mob descending on you with nasty comments. That sort of thing. And then the big guy joins himself too often. It's just ugly. Yeah, there are nice and helpful people there... but I find the atmosphere ugly, which is why I stopped going there and I only go back if I have a specific question that the helpful ones can talk about while the sycophantic fanbois pass me over looking for another target to crap on... God I hate that place... shivers. I love the bass (my Stingray is the one bass I'd keep if I could only have one), I love their consistent production... I hate the personality.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1497557833' post='3319155'] I agree if a used one is bought then JH gets none of my cash, but moving on said used one isn`t as simple as moving on other makes. Making both parts of my argument valid - I wouldn`t buy a new one to prevent JH getting any of my money, and a used one is more difficult to move on - not many sold on here for example, a forum specifically for bass. I should add I`m not a Ric-hater, both of the ones I`ve played for a fair amount of time I really liked, played great, sounded greater, so I`m not knocking the instruments, just the Stasi way the company police them. [/quote] Not selling them in this forum is because of a policy instated due to their CEO's antics about copies... it just made life easier (there's lots to read about it and I'm sure you remember all that). You can sell them elsewhere. As long as it's legit, and it shows, their CEO won't bother anybody about it. EBay and Gumtree, and other places, are absolutely fine.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1497466017' post='3318481'] So apart from the neck, body, finish and some of the electronics it was identical to a standard rick ? [/quote] "what have the Romans ever done for us?"

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1497397077' post='3317889'] I always though Rickenbackers were old clank machines until I heard someone playing Dune Tune by Level 42 on one - then realised a lot of my favourite soul funk bassists from the early 70s played them (Larry Graham for one). They're quite versatile. [media]http://youtu.be/McBSPmqi5fo[/media] As for the CEO - well he simply takes issue with people making unlicensed copies of his instruments - and can you blame him - he's more interested in protecting his customers and his business rather than the knock off merchants and theirs. I don't see that being odd in any way - maybe the zeal with which individuals have been chased is a little surprising. Very strange some manufacturers never bothered to protect their designs and probably now regret those decisions. [/quote] Nice sound from that Rick... shame he got a blegh Stingray sound which makes the Stingray sound terrible by comparison... but, anyway, lovely Rick sound. Shame he can't afford a shirt after buying that bass

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1497374511' post='3317677'] Walnut is a great tone wood. I actually think Ricks are pretty flexible and I like the sound, just not the looks, ergonomics or the CEO. [/quote] Much like ped, I think they can sound really good, and I actually like the looks of some, in an "they're so ugly that... I like them" (maybe this came from looking at myself in the mirror every morning )... but the playing feel and especially the CEO... urgh. I just would find it very very very hard to pay for something knowing that person will receive a good chunk of it. If I really wanted one I'd get a used one... and I have considered it in the past. But that CEO still puts me off, and I haven't. Don't get me wrong, if I *really* wanted one I would. I'm not particularly fond of the main guy at Ernie Ball MusicMan either... but that won't stop me playing Stingrays. However, I don't want a Rick so much that makes me ignore their CEO. That's just me.

[quote name='joeystrange' timestamp='1497423422' post='3317935'] I'm joining a new originals band (beginning next year) and I have a lot of songs to learn. hey're about to release their third album and also have a couple of EPs so I need to learn those plus around 25 new songs. I'd guess around 60-70 songs in total. I know there's plenty of time to learn everything but I have no idea where to start or how to retain that much information. I'm after some advice from anyone who's been in this position before and can tell me how they've tackled learning this many songs. Thanks. [/quote] The good news is... you've got lots of time! I would probably ask for the setlist of a couple of recent shows, and I'd probably start with those. They may have 70 songs, but I doubt they play them all live. My originals band we have a couple of CDs and probably another 15-20 songs on top. Some of the older stuff just never gets played anymore. It's good for a new player to learn them all, but chances are you will never play many of those songs, so I'd start with a current set of songs that actually get played live. Apart from that band, I've got a relatively busy originals/covers (50/50) ska reggae band, and I joined first as a dep with 10 days notice and a list of 30 songs. The good thing is some of the covers I was already at least familiar with, a couple of the originals I was also familiar with (I was the original bass player when the band was starting, for about a month)... and in general they were pretty easy technically and in terms of structure. But the process for me is the same when I've got other stuff to learn: First, I take an A4 sheet per song, and make my little basic chord chart. I annotate the various parts (intro, verse, chorus, bridge 1, stop, etc)... I use different colours to add various bits of information (maybe bits of lyrics as cues, which allow me to know where I am in the song, places where a specific riff or maybe a bass variation should be, etc...). Any tricky bits I mark clearly. I do that for every song... and identify the easy ones and the hard ones etc. I would get the easy ones first, to simply ensure I have a good number of songs I can play quickly: if I'm wobbly in a given song, I can always ask on the day "let's not play this one today, but we can play A, B and C...". And then I move onto the hard ones. The harder they are, for whatever reason, the more I practice them. I also listen to them a lot. It can get a bit... boring... but it's a simple way to brainwash myself. I make a little playlist and play it in the car, at work, etc... Maybe not all the time but very very very often. It's an easy way to get those songs in your brain without actually 'working' at it. Finally, my "set list" contains the song titles in thick black marker, and next to it the first chord. I use a different colour for each chord, so that I can easily identify them on the floor at a distance... although stage lights sometimes turn certain chords invisible! ). Sometimes the song is about to start and I just can't remember the rhythm or anything... but if I get the first three notes the rest follow ok, so that first chord reminder has come handy many times. I may add "watch for the stops!" if needed And then use that to practice until you no longer need the 'cheat sheet'. If I'm really in a hurry, I focus on getting the song right first. Making sure I get the structure and chord changes, and don't worry about specific basslines or riffs unless they are the signature of the song. My goal is to be able to play that song ok. Then, I work on getting the extra bits.

[quote name='linear' timestamp='1497535167' post='3318940'] FWIW I will actively avoid any pub that has installed a standard four-piece playing rock covers, but this band I would definitely stop in to have a listen; even if they were playing Sex on Fire and especially if they were playing Rime of the Ancient Mariner [/quote] Rime of the ancient mariner... with sax, cello and ukulele. Got it!

[quote name='Monkey Steve' timestamp='1497532418' post='3318920'] the irony was that after splitting than band up (I told the lead guitarist in question that I'd had enough of him and was quitting when unbeknownst to me the drummer had sacked him the previous night) the drummer, singer and rhythm guitarist (basically everybody except me and the lead guitarist) formed a Maiden tribute band and didn't ask him to join! If he hadn't been such a tool he could have been in the band of his dreams. Sometimes Karma really bites you in the backside [/quote] !!!

[quote name='Monkey Steve' timestamp='1497455079' post='3318323'] funnily enough song selection was one of the key points that ultimately put paid to the band of mine that did this. Not from the audience - the No Paranoid rule was always well received - but from one particular band member who only wanted to play Iron Maiden or Cult songs because that's all he listened to in the '80's so he couldn't conceive that anybody might recognise songs by, say, Motorhead or Judas Priest. He'd spend whole rehearsals arguing that rather than Bomber, which clearly nobody would recognise, we should add Rime Of The Ancient Mariner to the other five Maiden songs that we already knew because you can never have too many and it's good to have spares and to be able to rotate them. And he was quite serious. When I told him that I wasn't going to learn another Maiden song he accepted it in very poor grace and came up with another Cult song that we could do as we only had three on those and our imaginary audience would love them. [/quote] Rime of the ancient mariner!!! that's 13-14min right there in a single song You can add Alexander The Great at nearly 9 minutes, and Hallowed Be Thy Name which is almost 8 minutes... "hey, it's just 3 Iron Maiden songs"

The Mesa D800+ should be in the list here.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1497376863' post='3317695'] Looks good. Have you had a chance to check it out with the s112s yet? I wonder if the HPF might do useful things for them. I had an Acoustic Image head with a variable HPF, and it was handy for getting a little extra loudness out of a small cab before it starts to complain. I tend to like what a bright switch does for the voicing of an amp too, so the features on this one look quite attractive. [/quote] No, I haven't yet, but I suspect you're right. I'm always wary of pushing the lows too far with the S112s and I always used a Thumpinator with them.

[quote name='The59Sound' timestamp='1497352812' post='3317445'] Do quiet rehearsal bands play quietly at gigs too? [/quote] I don't know what others do. I like to let the FOH PA do the heavy lifting and not be excessively loud onstage, because if we are it's hard to hear everybody clearly enough... and it makes it impossible to play 'reactively'.

[quote name='matski' timestamp='1497348778' post='3317415'] A few years ago, the band I was playing with was asked to perform at a quite prestigious gig which was to take place on an outdoor stage in the main square of a city in Poland. I asked if I needed to bring my own amp, but was repeatedly told it wasn't necessary as the back line would be provided. Anyways, we arrive and check the back line on stage and sure enough there is an Ampeg half stack so I'm thinking all is well. We were told our soundcheck would be a quick 5 minutes immediately before our set, so imagine my surprise when I take to the stage and find that the Ampeg rig has disappeared and has been replaced by a tiny Hartke 50w combo! Bollocks! Luckily I was just about able to hear my bass DI'ed through the monitors or I would have been in major trouble. [/quote] Ha! Luxury! You had monitors!!! Outdoor gig I did a few years ago... everything provided, yes. Out in the field it sounded good. The bass was strong and clear, no problem there. Our turn comes to come onstage (just brief linechecks) and I look around for the bass amp. Then... I see a tiny 30W Gorilla practice amp with a cable plugged into the line out at the back. I put it on a couple of crates and even if it was cranked and pointing at me I could barely hear anything. There was no bass on the monitors. Oh joy. That was an experience...

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1497302183' post='3317212'] We always rehearse at low volume. Its easier to spot errors and easier to call a halt to sort them out If you can hear exactly what the whole band is doing, more so when working up new songs. [/quote] +1 if you can't clearly hear everything that's going on, how does it help anybody? I was *briefly* in a band that played really really loud. You could not make out what was going on. I recorded it and listening back it was easy to pick a few places where the second guitar was playing stuff that clashed with the rest... but at the volumes they were playing you would not notice. Utterly pointless.

For a number of reasons, mainly the fact that I think they sound really good, I've ended up with two 4ohm BF Two10 cabs. They're not quite as nice sounding as the TKS S112 that I *love*, but they're not too far off, and they can handle a lot more power, get a lot louder, and have a stronger bottom end (yet still tight)... The MarkBass LM3 has been my choice of amplifier for a while now. I've tried a bunch of other heads, light and not so light, and while the LM3 is not the absolute best, I really like it and it's extremely easy to get good sounds out of it. You have to try hard to get a bad sound. For that reason, it's been my favourite: a simple, no-nonsense, reliable and relatively cheap amplifier. When I came to the two Two10 cabs I thought I'd try them in series (8ohm) and see first, although my plan was to get a second LM3 and use both together with the two cabs. They're small enough that carrying an extra head is not exactly a hardship, and I like the backup factor of that setup. I used the Two10 in series and it worked pretty well... but I felt that I was going to need a bit more 'oomph' at times, so I set out to get that second LM3. I used to have a Streamliner 900 that I sold and kept the 'gear tokens' towards the new head, so it was a matter of finding it. Then I got distracted. What about a 2ohm capable amplifier? There are a few. One that I tried a while ago was the Mesa D800 (thanks deksawer! ) I borrowed that amp and checked it against my Streamliner 900 and the LM3 through 1, 2 and 4 TKS S112 (that was fun). The main conclusions from that were: - the LM3 should not feel shy just because it's rated at 500W as opposed to 800-900W, it was still very punchy, very loud and great sounding. - The Streamliner just wasn't my thing and should go. - The Mesa D800 was pretty special. It sounded great, and had a certain extra quality about it... it sounded... 'bigger'. Hard to describe. It was a little dark sounding, and the treble was set a little too high for it to bring the 'air' I'd like... but that was a minor niggle. I liked it a lot and could see one of those in my future, I just wasn't ready to spend the cash yet and I didn't really need it when the LM3 was perfectly adequate even if a little less nice. So, now I was naturally after a D800. Used, to save a little bit of cash. The transferable warranty of these amps make buying them used a pretty worry-free matter. Of course I wasn't seeing any... I almost got a Fender Pro800 to try... but then I started thinking about the D800+. What is different between the D800 and the D800+? Well, the D800+ is a bit bigger... but still compact and light. That's not an important difference. There are a number of added functions on the D800+. First, the low mids and high mids have an extra control where you can select the frequency centre. I generally prefer not to have that, as I am going to be tweaking to death over the first few months... I'd rather have an amp with simpler controls that are set the way I like them. In that respect, the LM3 is pretty cool. But, fine, it's a matter of self control and adds usefulness, no doubt. I wish the knobs for the boost/cut and the frequency selector were different, as I find it too easy to turn the wrong one by mistake... I might just change the knob, actually. Anyway... semiparametric 2-band mids, covering from to 150Hz to 5000Hz. That's quite a range. In fact, the treble control is a little high for my liking, but the high mids can easily be turned into a "lower treble" of sorts when needed. However, I don't think I need that... the D800+ adds a "bright" switch, which adds just the right amount of presence I was missing from the D800. Brilliant. This switch just made a great head that was a "little dark" into a great head "full stop". Both D800 and D800+ have the "voicing" control, which is a bit like the VPF control on MarkBass heads... but much more useable in my opinion (so it doesn't work the same way, clearly). All the way off to "flat" position the D800 sounds... not too different from an LM3, in fact... but then once you start turning it clockwise and/or using the EQ it quickly moves away into a different territory. I find that I like this control set at around 9 o'clock... it smoothens and warms up things a bit. Between this and setting the input gain just right (which can add a tiny bit of very nice 'grit' unlike the LM3 which just sounds ugh if you turn it too high), you can get a really nice, fat, defined, delicious sound. That's all great. However, what I'm in love with is the variable HPF control. It's the feature that made me consider this amp in the first place... and it's turned out to work much much much more nicely than I expected. I have used fixed HPF before, but this has been a revelation. It allows you to adjust the bottom end *just so*. You can still get a fat bottom end, but keep it tight and defined without crazy low end... I haven't yet tested it at a gig, as I've just got it... but I can see this is going to be incredibly useful and I think I'm going to be looking for this feature in pedal form and let my trusty Thumpinator go. So... what an amplifier! I love it. I remembered the D800 being very nice... but the extra features in the D800+ just make it superb. The combination of the D800+ with the Two10 cab(s) is fantastic. Very good match. Ok, and to finish, the obligatory picture... (the controls don't reflect my favourite settings or anything as it was taken before I sat down properly to investigate it)...

[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1497271036' post='3316909'] This thread passed me by originally but having just seen it, and particularly this comment, I find it relevant to my situation with my current band. The bandleader wants us to play 'songs he likes' at the expense of 'songs people want to hear' which in my opinion isn't a sustainable model for a covers band that exists to play pub gigs. [/quote] I agree... I think the selection has to have a broad appeal for it to work. But I hope there are satisfactory ways to compromise. I liked the method suggested above, where the songs chosen came from well known bands and the songs themselves were well known, just maybe not the top "hit" but the second... something that will still be instantly recognised and liked, but not always the most obvious song that everybody does.