mcnach

[quote name='uk_lefty' timestamp='1462180571' post='3040780'] I'd read it!! Would love to hear about the journey. Something I often dream of (in another hobby) but am not brave enough to do. [/quote] +1

I bought an EBS Multidrive from Alain this week. Very good communication, smooth and easy transaction. When I first tried it, at my girlfriend's place, I noticed an ugly hum whenever I used the pedal on a power supply. I only asked Alain if he used it with power supply and noticed any issues before... but he was quick to offer a return & refund if I wasn't happy, after assuring me he was not aware of any defects... Of course, when I tested it with my power supplies at my place, the pedal operated just as it should Other people may have washed their hands, or simply insist I try again... but Alain is a real gentleman and without my even asking offered the possibility of a return. Fortunately the pedal works perfectly, because I love it. Thank you, Alain

[quote name='jonnythenotes' timestamp='1461936682' post='3038930'] It's probably a much asked question, but have any of you guys switched from standard production p'ups to after market makes and been super chuffed you did it. I have a Fender road worn jazz, which I am totaly blown away with, but because its so good, I want more... Everything about the bass is perfect, including the sound and frequencies it covers, but I keep reading, and being drawn to articles and companies saying we can make it better. Is there a pick up our there that will not change the sound of the bass, but give it a lift across the existing freq's, (but not like an active bass which adds stuff,) just a bit more muscle doing exactly the same as the existing p'ups. I would be really keen on something that gives you the initial power and thump as you hit the string. I'm not too fussed about top end or sustain, but super clean and warm mids are essential......(sort of bass drum'ish in its delivery and impact. It's a mix of Soul, Motown and Funk I play, but no slap... A few seem to surface frequently as being pretty decent, Nordy's, Aguilar, Seymore Duncan's, Lolar, Bart's, and even the Fender range themselves,but the more I read, the more confused I get, as all the manufacturers are experts at blowing their own trumpets. Budget up to about £200 max for new, but no manufacturers logo on the units. The whole idea is for them to look and sound original and authentic to a Roadworn Jazz, Early 60's. Once again, sorry to ask what is bound to have been asked before, but all help and advice will be gratefully recieved. Thanks.. [/quote] DiMarzio Area J. Humbuckers but retain a lot of the classic J... with some balls.

[quote name='interpol52' timestamp='1461956375' post='3039174'] Okay, this may have been done before. Reasons why you have quit bands - Mine are 1) the drummer not learning the songs 2) the guitarist not learning the songs 3) the guitarists girlfriend going Yoko. Aside from these, money and power struggles are the usual! [/quote] My usual ones were: - control-freakery, usually a singer - unreliability: when members are supposed to show up but cancel for no apparent reason at the last minute and nobody is bothered much. - and the biggest one: when people don't do their homework and we keep rehearsing the same old boring stuff, or jamming (fun but leading nowhere) instead of gigging

I own many basses... but it's the Stingray the one I cannot imagine selling. Ever.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1461828095' post='3037880'] For me, checking out gear out at a practice is best, because you can play at a good volume, listen from different parts of the room, fiddle with your amp and try different options without getting on everyone's nerves. [/quote] I agree. Especially if you do it as a band activity, to get a sense for how it fits with the band together. With experience you learn what is the sound that fits, without hearing all the component parts... but it takes time to get there and I really prefer to have everybody making noise at once Gigs are a very limiting environment to try stuff.

[quote name='ZilchWoolham' timestamp='1461786266' post='3037692'] It was the 1200€ as the starting-off point, before the added electronics and so on, that surprised me a bit. I suppose all is as it should if your first Jake was essentially stock, except for the neck, and the price was similar. A little peculiar that a bass with a lacquered neck would be cheaper than standard, perhaps. I take it your second Jake was a bit more expensive then, and had non-standard pickups? Oh, wait a minute. Do you mean he gave you the quote in £ as opposed to €? It's true the minor price difference might be because of the exchange rate, in that case. [/quote] No, the quotes were always in euros, but I translated it into currency that means something to me and forgot the original numbers My first Jake, for which I only specified the neck dimensions and it being lacquered was a bit more expensive than the standard Jakes on the website. Not much 'though. The second Jake was more expensive, and round about the quote you have been given. It also included a custom logo on the headstock (my band's). My point was that the price can change a fair amount depending on what bridge, tuners, pickups, active/passive config etc you go for. If you approached him with a vague 'custom' idea the quote may not exactly reflect what the final design you come up with costs. Also... it's been about a year now too, so perhaps their rates have gone up a little as well? --- scratch that, I just checked and they are still the same, 850-950 for a standard Jake (which is amazing!). If you want, PM me and I'll fetch the email conversation to give you a better idea of what the costs were for my custom Jake: reverse P pickup at a position specified by me (closer to the bridge than normal), light black Hipshot tuners, ETS black bridge, Delano pickup, no pickguard, controls fitted from the back, extra custom logo, neck dimensions specified by me, tinted lacquer for the neck, passive electronics.

[quote name='ZilchWoolham' timestamp='1461779850' post='3037621'] Hi there, everybody! (First post here!) Recently I've been eyeing this brand quite a bit, as I've only really heard nice things about them, and I'm quite intrigued by some of the pickups and electronics they offer for their custom basses. So, recently I dropped Adrian an email regarding a custom Jake. I, very quickly, got a reply in which it was stated that a custom Jake 4 starts at 1200€, with pickups, preamp etc. adding to the price. This is of course not by any means a massive price for a solid, EU-made bass, but it did surprise me slightly as some of the Jakes they have ready for purchase are considerably cheaper than 1200€. Of course, it makes sense that a bespoke bass would be a bit more expensive than a similarly-spec'd regular production model, due to the customer contact and added workload, but I do also recall reading about remarkably cheap custom jobs on this very forum. I'll contact Adrian again and ask if I can somehow down-spec the bass to cut the cost a little bit - perhaps he assumed I'd want something a bit fancier and just made an unusually high estimate - but I'd also like to check with you lot to see if you've gotten similar estimates for your Jake inquiries. Perhaps they have become a tad pricier in the recent years? Anyhow, 1700 or so euros for a bass made to my specs, upgraded with the pickups and preamp I want, is not unreasonable, but if that will be the final cost I'll probably have to take a closer look at the old budget. Grateful for any replies! [/quote] when I contacted him for my 'custom' Jake, I indicated the bits I wanted the price was similar to yours (a bit cheaper, but exchange rate fluctuates etc). It could have been cheaper by choosing different hardware, pickups etc... My first Jake was only custom in that I specified neck profile/dimensions and wanted a lacquered neck. That was cheaper as I went with their standard hardware and electronics. For me, the neck accounts for a huge deal, so being able to specify that while barely increasing the cost is amazing. Anything else I can change/modify myself later on if I want to.

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1461754449' post='3037312'] I was thinking of doing exactly that with my Squier Affinity! Do you have any sound clips? [/quote] do it!

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1461748788' post='3037262'] stevie - Good post. Makes a lot of sense. We should all be allowed to post our honest thoughts on a forum, as long as it does not offend. No one should feel they cannot state they like/dislike something, and it is absolutely fine to change your mind. I have eaten my own words with Boss pedals. Once looked upon with a little bit of a frown, I've realised that actually 85%+ of the pedals they manufacture are absolutely brilliant, especially when tested in a variety of settings (this applies mainly to guitar for me). I have told many a guitarist that my views on Boss have changed now I've used them without much outside influence. [/quote] +1

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1461743038' post='3037203'] It's interesting how this term gets used in a passive/aggressive way on every BF thread. It doesn't get used anywhere else on Basschat as far as I can tell. [/quote] It's a bit weird, but I think it's just a reaction to the -often real- attraction that some people seem to have for threads with the BF name on them just to criticise or make fun. There are multiple threads about, say Precision basses, and you don't seem to have a number of people (often the same ones thread after thread) regularly joining in just to say "Precisions, meh". I do not understand that, but I noticed it. I don't care but... I can see where the reaction comes from, and sometimes it's triggered a bit too quickly too soon...

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1461619522' post='3036261'] I think I said 'bloody' once in a thread - I got a formal warning from a moderator. [/quote] ha! same here!

I have been using Award Session cables for years. Stewart is a great guy, and the cables are good quality with quality plugs... pricewise they're cheaper than some crazy "top brand cable" that are actually not very good. [url="http://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html"]http://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html[/url] I have lately bought a few from Designacable. Not because the above ones were worse, in fact these are very similar, but because you can buy these in pretty colours too Apart from looking nice (debatable, I know) it means I lose fewer cables, because I'm the only one using an orange, or red, or white cable... pity they don't do pink [url="http://www.designacable.com/"]http://www.designacable.com/[/url] But I have bought a couple of speaker cables from OBMM a month ago or so and I think I will also buy from him. Any of those three options would be much much better than any Fender or Planet Waves or [insert another 'top' brand] and the prices are very reasonable.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1461489236' post='3034977'] I've not liked any that I have tried, they 'lack' a quality that I don't hear in them and that included the ceramic loaded cab that did the rounds BUT that is just my personal taste. I have no axe to grind with Alex or his company and there are a LOT of folk who do love the BF sound, I do however think that in the early days there was lots written about the fact that Alex was revolutionising cab design and building them from the ground up (my words) rather than copying badly thought out dated designs that had no basis in acoustic design. I recall many threads before BF was even thought of where I would hear Alex, Bill et al rip into poor cab design and give us valuable insight into how it 'should' be done; hence Alex went off to plan BF and many of us waited to see what would transpire. Several years down the line we have a BF 4x10 that looks exactly like every other 410 and yet that very design was criticised and lambasted by Alex et al for being the antithesis of all that was bad with bass cabinet design. Alex has every right to cater to what others want/expect but for me personally other than maintaining the use of the lightest materials and superb bracing to make a cab uber light (is the 410 light?), BF has drifted from where I imagined it would go. Just my own personal view of the BF story. [/quote] but it's not like every other 410, is it? [quote]All four drivers in the Four10 work in unison to produce big bass and punchy mids but to improve dispersion only one column of two has treble output - just like a PA line array.[/quote][...]

[quote name='spencer.b' timestamp='1461618578' post='3036245'] So I'm no expert with ohms etc but am I right in thinking if you're using one cab and a biggish head a 4ohm cab would be getting more power out of your amp,if so then why are most 4x10 and 2x12 8ohm,I'm thinking of getting something like an aguilar 212 to use on it's own so am I better off getting a 4ohm one if I can find one? [/quote] the difference in volume will not be that big between the 4ohm and the 8ohm cabs, so I'd go for the 8ohm one. It gives you the option of adding a second cab later on if necessary and THAT will give you a noticeable increment in volume

[quote name='olliedf89' timestamp='1461605774' post='3036101'] I've tried adjusting the action at the bridge, like you said discreet, the problem is less (but not gone) but now the action is so high I struggle to play, doesn't sound too good either. Tried lowering the action again to find a compromise but haven't really found one that doesn't bring back the problem. Strange as I have nice sloppy action on my other P bass which I play just as hard and it's never been a problem. Getting paid this week and I'll acquire some new strings and find a decent local tech via here and report back. Thanks again, everyone. [/quote] it's not simply the bridge saddles and nut heights, it's also the neck curvature and often neck angle (adjustable crudely but effectively by inserting thin shims in the neck pocket)... all these factors contribute together to having nice even low action, if the frets are level. A decent tech can sort out all those pretty easily and won't cost much. I struggled with a guitar, years ago, for way too long thinking a trip to a guitar tech would be too expensive... and I kicked myself for not having done it earlier, as the guitar came back and it was amazing to play. Yes, we have to learn to do these things ourselves, but it does take time to be proficient enough to do a good job, so don't feel bad for using "external help". Hopefully it's a friendly tech who can talk to you about what he did and why etc and you can pick up a few pointers for next time

if it were me I'd wait a bit and have some more $$$ available. If very light weight is the main objective, I find the TKS S112 very hard to beat. It is not the loudest, but it sounds very good and it is extremely portable. I love those. If you don't mind a little heavier and bigger... the Barefaced BB2 is not quite as portable and a lot more expensive, but a single one of those can be surprisingly loud and I personally don't like it as much as the S112 for sheer sound, but it's very good too, in my opinion. You might be happy with just one of those, perhaps.

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1461510236' post='3035256'] I think I've seen your blue ones - very nice! The v-frames are very much a faux-vintage thing, some people hate it but I think they look quite smart & I need the cabs to look as nice as possible because I keep them in the dining room or lounge so have to keep the girlfriend happy! [/quote] the V-frame looks great. You can put a retro valve hifi amplifier on top and it would be accepted as livingroom furniture. Classy

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1461426265' post='3034564'] NCD! Well it's finally here - 6.5 week wait since ordering but that's all forgotten now I've got it home. Had a good try-out of everything bassgear had to offer & the tks s112 really spoke to me when I heard them. I was really tempted by the aguillar sl112 which seemed to be more bassy but lacked a little definition. Another option was a tiny pjp 4x5 thing which was quite incredible but I didn't think it would be able to hack my current bands different needs (really impressive for the size though). The tks is a funny little cab - seems very polite at low-ish volumes but it's very clear & articulate/musical. But once you crank up the volume (not ridiculous as I'm still in the house) & maybe one notch of bass and it really kicks - the cab definitely has its own tone & I think that's what attracted me, its just the sound I'm after whilst still being very responsive to instrument/eq changes. Just the one for now - will get another one in a couple of months once I've properly given this one a few blastings. [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/greeb0uk/media/IMG_20160423_155703_zps5jpyizox.jpg.html"][/url] [/quote] The S112 is a beautifully sounding cab isn't it? Pretty too! I have a pair of blue ones... without the V frame. Hmmm, I maybe should have gone for that. They look amazing!