mcnach

... and the AMT Bass Wah arrived earlier today! "Lucky" me, it's the last day I stay at home after knee surgery, so I was at home to receive it. Yeah, knee surgery and wah action is not a great match, especially as it's my right knee (which I'd favour for wah), but my left leg did the job nicely while sitting down. First impression: where is my pedal?????? Well, not exactly, but the box from Thomann was oversized, with lots of padding... and the tiny little box inside was looking very lonely. It is TINY. Pretty much like a Boss pedal. Yeah, I knew that... but one thing is knowing it and another holding it in your hands. It's got a good weight to it, it can be used as a weapon. "Made in Russia". Cool, I'll start a rumour that these are made from recycled Russian tanks So, I plugged it in, and started playing with it a little, trying it with or without various overdrive pedals, octave... the lot. The good stuff: It is a lovely wah sound! It has three frequency range settings, all three work ok, but I think it's going to stay in the middle one. It goes from very low to a good upper midrange trebly sound... Volume is not adjustable, but it's well matched to the input signal. No "tone suck" that I can tell. Since the switch bypasses the pedal entirely, it should be that way. Because this pedal has a switch, unlike my 105Q, you can leave the pedal in a particular position, which can be pretty cool. The 'different' stuff: It's a tiny pedal. Wah operation is a little different from what I'm used to, but it took maybe... oh, I don't know, 3 minutes? to get the hang of it. It's got a very reasonable sweep and I'll just have to retrain my brain to adjust my foot position slightly. Not a biggie. The bad stuff: pop! The switch often, not always, makes a noticeable pop when switching on. It's not a deal breaker, but it's not pretty. I'm keeping it... but I'll probably consider modifying it in the future to reduce/eliminate the pop (I believe it's a matter of a adding a cap or something simple like that to the switch... but I could be very wrong ) I like it a lot better than my 105Q, soundwise, and its small footprint helps a lot in my pedalboard. I'm happy

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1381660301' post='2241832'] I think part of the problem BF faces with their cabs is the fact that they use 9mm ply - it just looks flimsy, no matter how well it is braced internally. Marshall uses 18mm ply on their 4x12's and still double up the thickness at the front edge of their cabs. It says 'massively tough', even though it's there just for cosmetic purposes and doesn't add to the overall strength of the cab. As for the finish, it certainly isn't the best looking cab I've seen but a painted finish is pretty much standard on PA cabs and I don't think I've heard too many people complain about the looks. Perhaps it's the actual paint used? Would people prefer a smoother paint or more matt/satin finish? As far as the tone of the cabs, this is really just a 'people like different sounds' shock horror story. It's as ridiculous to expect that everyone should like what they hear as it is to state that they sound crap. It's all opinion based and there is no right or wrong to the matter. [/quote] 9mm ply... Yes, it looks less sturdy than other cabs. But we don't really hear of people having issues of fragility with the cab itself, so I think it's safe to assume that it's robust enough. Since it's one way BF manages to considerably reduce weight... I'm all up for it. I'm not a big fan of the painted finish either. But not so much for the looks, but because it gives little friction. I used to put my MarkBass combo on top... but it would slide easily if someone leaned on it expecting a solid rig. A couple of near misses made me get two mousemats, glue them together rubber side out, and I put that in between the BF and the combo, so now the combo does not move. You nailed it about the tone: different people, different tastes, different priorities. That's why there are so many successful companies around making superficially similar items, from cars to juicers to amplifiers. It's ridiculous to argue that if someone does not like what I like, *they* must somehow be wrong

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1381604764' post='2241379'] If you're happy with the sound why change just to go lighter ? Use your ears and don't be a sheep. [/quote] For some, like me, weight is a big factor. Obviously, if it sounds like crap then it's not doing what I need the cab to do, I might as well buy a bag of cotton, which is even cheaper But I do like what my BF Compact sounds like. Is it the best sounding cab I've heard? Probably not. But it is not bad at all either! It works well in my current set up, it's loud when I need it to be, and it's extremely light which is the main reason I would buy it again. I'm sick and tired of carrying equipment from place to place. The BF Compact and a MarkBass CMD121P combo have sorted that out for me and sounds good enough to me. Different people, different priorities, I suppose. Although I don't feel I'm really compromising much.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1381727554' post='2242818'] Is this demo of the Westfield B1000 not suffering from a fair amount of fret buzz? [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UNfi8233G4[/media] [/quote] I can't say I heard much fretbuzz, to be honest. In any case, that would only relate to the particular setup of an individual instrument...

The VT-Bass pedal is pretty good to approximate many of the TimmyC bass sounds in RATM, I find.

I used to see these small pedalboards, essentially just the board covered in "velcroable" fabric, with a hard end with a handle, which fit inside a soft protective bag. They used to make some very small ones... and I'd love to get one, just to install two mini pedals and a standard sized one. A full pedalboard is overkill, and it gets tedious to have to set up the whole thing everytime. That solution described above would be ideal but I can't find it anywhere. Anyone?

[quote name='BanjoChris' timestamp='1381766467' post='2243371'] Yes. after the other poster said Octave Pedal I went off and listened to a couple on You Tube and I don't think that's it. I hear no octave down on the lower notes and she plays right down to the low e. So I guess this gives me a good excuse to go and play some Stingray basses in a shop for the hell of it Stingrays get their sound from the placement of a humbucker more than anything else don't they? Makes me think those new Modern player Dimension basses from Fender might do the job. without looking yet I'm guessing a Stringray is muchoo money. [/quote] Any excuse to try Stingrays is a good excuse Yes, that particular pickup at that particular position is what makes a Stingray sound that way. The preamp just gives it the ability to modify that basic sound and produce other tones that are also typical Stingray. The girl in the video plays one of the Sterling by MusicMan (SBMM) Ray34 basses, which have a different preamp and pickup, but it's still instantly recognisable as a "Stingray style bass". They are a lot cheaper than "real" Stingrays... although whenever someone wants a Stingray but does not like the price, I always recommend the SUB bass. Here it gets confusing, as SBMM have their own line also called SUB. These are a cheaper take on the Ray 34. They can be nice, but I'm talking about the Ernie Ball Music Man (EBMM) SUBs, made between 2003-2006 at the same factory as the Stingrays, in USA. I don't really care where a bass is made, but these SUBs are real Stingrays in anything but name. Same pickup and preamp. The body wood is different, the hardware is not stamped "MusicMan", the finish is uglier for many... but it's a fantastic bass. I own a Stingray and two of those SUBs, and other than looks there really is nothing the SUB should be shy about. The best part is... you can get them for £350-400 (secondhand only). There is a beautiful black one right now in the "For sale" section of the forum, in fact. I don't know the seller, it has nothing to do with me... I simply noticed it's there. They're amazing basses. The Fender Dimension has also caught my eye... they do sound very Stingray-esque, from teh videos I watched. The 5 string one natural/maple is very tempting!

[quote name='JwK94' timestamp='1381760108' post='2243235'] Octave Pedal [/quote] I love octave pedals but... I doubt it's going to do the trick here. Pedals are great fun, but the sound here is pretty straight forward. With the BB614 bass, I think I'd try to favour the bridge pickup rather than the neck pickup. The Jazz pickup at the bridge is bound to give you some of that growl, and use the onboard EQ to enhance the low end that you lose by moving to the bridge pickup. Bear in mind that a P/J style bass does not sound anything like a Stingray, so you will not nail that type of sound.

[quote name='uk_lefty' timestamp='1381672533' post='2242045'] Apologies if this seems like a bit of an amateur question... I have a 90s MIM Fender J Bass. As much as I'd love to have an MIJ or MIA I can't justify the cost, so the MIM has had a few upgrades over the years - BadAss II Bridge, Schaller tuners, copper shielding around the pickups, handmade real bone nut, and for cosmetics a new pickguard and a pickup cover on the neck pickup. I'm now wanting to upgrade the electronics. Being a 90s J Bass both pickups are the same size so most sets of 2x J pickups won't be suitable without routing which I dont want to do... I've found the pickups I want (Fender CS 60s) So the real qestion is can I get away with buying 2x bridge pickups and installing, or will the mis-alignment of the strings and poles at the neck pickup position cause me a problem? Would I better off with a differently desgined pickup such as the Bartolinis? Part II of the question - as the pickups will be going in to a lefty bass will i need to take any other measures? I've heard some lefties needing to extend the wire length but not sure this would always be the case? Thanking you in advance... [/quote] Two bridge pickups? I am pretty sure that they are both neck sized pickups... I may be wrong, but best to double check. Yes, if you get two neck (or bridge) pickups, it'll be fine. One of my favourite basses is a cheap Squier Jazz, it had two neck-sized pickups. I ended up applying (carefully) a chisel to the bridge pickup routing to expand it so that it could accept standard pickups. It's only a tiny bit extra, and with a sharp chisel and a little bit of care you can get a good result. I got too overconfident once I saw how easy it was, and managed to get a tiny chip in one corner. Barely noticeable unless you look for it, and as the bass was already pretty "reliced" it really did not matter to me. But I could have got a good result, without previous experience, just by being careful and working slowly.

[quote name='Ghost Rider' timestamp='1377363228' post='2186777'] Well there are some good things to come out of Italy... Monica bellucci for instance! If she wanted my Roscoe Beck I'd delivery it myself... [/quote] Her mum lives opposite my friend's mum... When I heard, I immediately offered to travel and help buying groceries etc, as I hear Monica visits often...

I keep looking around for the Fusion F1 on online shops... and nobody seems to have it in stock. Has the company gone under? I hope not, I *really* like my F1 and was considering another!

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1381659120' post='2241814'] Tried a Modern Player version in PMT Birmingham yesterday. It was ok but didn't really inspire me. Of the 5 positions on the switch, the 3 middle sounded utterly identical. I think the 2 pickup active model will be a lot better but then I can just see it being an L2000 copy, irony overload. [/quote] I am totally uninterested in the switch, I think it's overkill. There is a difference in tonality, but not enough to provide a variation in tone that would be useful live. However, I wonder if this is more of a "it comes in 5 slightly different flavours, choose the one you like!" thing. You know when you pay a bass, you like it, but thing... hmmm, I wish the pickup had a bit more ooomph on the mid range... or brighter... well, the switch may just give you access to those flavours without a pickup switch (which is out of the question, right now, on that bass). Personally, I'd still prefer they did away with the switch... but maybe that above is part of their thinking, allowing more people to like the new bass? I still want to try the Dimension V... and I hope I don't like it.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1381654498' post='2241742'] i think that guy from Fender is a f***ing moron. [/quote] or... he knows there is a substantial market who would listen to that and think "yeah! Fender!" Cynical? Me? Goodness gracious!

[quote name='Excalibr' timestamp='1381611370' post='2241486'] I popped into Andertons today to pick up some strings whilst I was passing by. They had a red Modern Player Dimension on the wall and I decided to take a look as I've not seen one in the flesh yet. Ugly brute. I had no intention of ever wanting the bass, just wanted to see what it sounded like. The thing is so damn comfortable to play - challenging my 'Ray - that I almost took it home with me then and there (£360 was very, very tempting). Managed to restrain myself! I'm still trying to convince myself it's a hellish, horrible, ugly thing that will be loved by no-one. Cue existential crisis... [/quote] You're not helping my GAS one bit!