jazzyvee

2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

FWIW don't split cabs. When you do it creates hot and cold zones in the lows, AKA 'Power Alley'. If you want to be heard on the other side of the stage aim one cab at yourself, the other across the stage. That aims directional mids and highs so they can be heard, without creating a power alley. This explains. It references PA subs, but applies to bass cabs as well: https://www.prosoundweb.com/the-power-alley-discussion-solutions-to-the-troubling-interaction-of-subwoofers/

Thanks for that, I haven't read it all yet but it's not something I was aware of but next time i will suggest they have more bass in their stage monitors. This question may be dealt with further on in the article but, is this also an issue with side fills as most of the larger stages i play on have those too? 

Barefaced cabs also have a much better off axis sound than the ampeg fridges i have had to use at some gigs. On a recent gig i put the ampeg 8x10 on the guitarist's side of the stage and kept my BT II for me. Plugged my SC Acoustic preamp into the back of the ampeg head and the sound was great.

I do reggae gigs and replaced my Mesa Boogie Powerhouse cabs with Barefaced ones and so far they have proved perfect.  I have a  Big Twin II, Big Baby II, Dubster II (18" speaker). For most of my reggae gigs I use the Big Twin II.

That's my rig that I use most of the time. Big Twin II

Occasionally I use these two Bib Baby II and Dubster II ( Complete overkill actually) .

I don't tend to use the big baby II on it's own for reggae gigs

For me the Big Twin II has proved to be the perfect cab for reggae and with the tweeter it is great for other genres too. 

There is no sacrifice on the bottom end. From my personal experience, the design of these cabs makes the bottom end glorious but balanced throughout the range.

Put a lot of bottom end in, you get a lot of it out. 

@Marcus CornallI notice you are a fellow brummie. I'm doing a gig at the Jam House on 1st March and at the 02 in Digbeth on 25th and will have my Big Twin II most likely. Other than that I may be able to squeeze you in at a rehearsal to check out the BBII as i sometimes carry that one along.  

I had mine done by Toby Diggins at Jaydee Custom guitars,  but last time i checked, he was too busy doing their own stuff to take on other stuff. But you an always give them a call.

I also had one for a really short time and yes the fan is really noisy. When i sold it to a friend i let him try it out at a gig we were both on and we found the DI was making a noise. So i gave him a separate di box and he was happy.

One of my new basses came wth a free set. They are the only bass string that have ever broken on me. The 'D' string. Hence never used them since. 

Both items arrived completely as described and problem free transactions. Thanks guys

. Installed in my regular bass rig. 👍🏾🎶

My newly organised pedal board. just waiting for PSU.

I've had a couple of gigs when my bass rig was on a riser behind me so I laid the BT2 cab on it's side and put my rack in the centre. Thankfully I had earplugs in and most of my bass sound through the PA. So i didn't need it up loud.   

I bought one from a member here and also haven't used it since going  Barefaced. Though , i did use it with my mesa boogie cabs and liked the 3D aspect it gave.

I had one of those as my 6u bass rack power amp for a few years but it was incredibly heavy to the point that I hardly used that rack so I changed it for a Crown Class D power amp. BUT..... to my ears the QSC sounds a heck of a lot better and i do miss it for that reason but since most of my gigs these days are through a PA. I will have almost convinced myself not to revisit that.
 

All the best with the sale.

7 minutes ago, three said:

Love that - really individual. Did it change the tone at all? Got me thinking. My long scale is a bit heavy. There’s batteries and stuff in there so I’d have to be a bit careful but I love the aesthetic

Would you really take large drill bits to your alembic?

How have the holes affected the way the bass balances on a strap?

On 29/01/2023 at 10:07, EBS_freak said:

It probably has - it’ll be on the output.

what IEMs are you using ? They could be the culprit of a bass light mix.

I am using Acs ones that fit my custom ear moulds.

https://www.acscustom.com/uk/products/in-ear-monitors/universal-fit/pro-fit

Problem with them is they don't fit tightly enough in the ear moulds and came out a few times during the gig.

Got a gig this afternoon which is all IEM so taking the SC acoustic preamp so hopefully the settings used at rehearsal will be fine live. i just wish the iem software on my tablet had some eq control as the headphone mix was a bit weak on bottom end.

I like bright strings and for my basses i find D'addario pro-steels 45 -130 roundwound strings to keep decently bright for ages. I think I use them for about 2 years on my basses before I change them. The ones I have on now have been on for about 15 months now and still nice and crisp and bright sounding.

14 hours ago, Russ said:

Yep. As someone from the Cronx, I know Jonathan pretty well and he's worked on my basses on multiple occasions. Lovely bloke and he really knows his $h!t.

 

His custom stuff is really nice. He mostly does guitars, but he has made the occasional bass. He made a couple of copies of the Alembic Spider (the Explorer-shaped one) for a guy who played Entwistle in a Who cover band and they were fantastic basses. 

 

This is their site: 

https://felineguitars.com/pages/feline-bass-guitar-models

There is one on sale at the moment on Reverb

https://reverb.com/uk/item/59295212-feline-spider-bass-used

I have a number of times, i'm not famous but i play bass in a famous band so it's more likely, though these days people usually want selfies and not autographs. Usually when they ask i tell them they should get the autographs of the original band members and go off and get them. if they still want mine as well that's cool.

 But outside that, when i was about 18 or so, we did a gig in Kingsbury WMC near Tamworth and our agent at the time wrote some pink torpedo & bull article in the Herald newspaper that we had just got back from touring. So the venue was packed and i got to sign quite a autographs and few female lefties that night.

Over the years i have puzzlingly been embarrasingly, (for me), mistaken for, Lennox Lewis (far too many times), Courtney Pine, Samuel L Jackson, the guy with dreads from the "cool runnings" film, Robert Cray. I can't see any facial similarity to any of these people apart from my hair at various times and skin colour. No facial features at all. Apart from seeing the funny side of it, i am always respectful.

Absolutely agree, it would be a good idea to get confirmation that the electronics and pickups are original. Though if the seller is not the original owner, they may not even know.

But I would certainly ask for as photo of the electronics cavity and pickups as it's not unusual for the electronics on some alembics to be removed and replaced with Bartolini pickups and electronics. Getting a full set of alembic electronics is not a cheap option. Also get a picture of the neck to headstock area since that is made in a way that the headstock can be repaired in the event of a fall. Sometimes when basses have dropped, there can be hairline cracks along the line of the laminates. 

what does CRO mean?

Yes.😂

Mine is really simple. Bass -> EBS Stanley Clarke Acoustic Preamp -> DI - out to PA.

Not gigged with it yet but use that setup for rehearsals.

PM Sent

From a musicianship point of view, i don't consider myself to be at what think of as a professional level. I consider myself competent have a good reliablility and attitude to what i need to do and others and have pro level gear that i understand and sounds good and is reliable. Most of my gigs are with bands containing proper pro players with degrees and formal training and can play whatever you put in front of them and i can see why they are. I'm just pleased that they still want to do the gigs i call them for.

I'm self taught by ear and In the past I have toured as a guitarist with musicians where i have been the only non-pro ( by that i don't earn a significant amount from music).  Even when touring i earned far less from the gigs than my day job. But i took the tours because i love gigging and performing music and well... you can't buy those kind of opportunities.

Now some of those bands were well known ( in their genre) and i was filling in as a hired hand. A short while after getting into rehearsals and gigging with one of those bands, i realised that some of the musicians were not what i would consider pro standard in their playing or attitude and that made things challenging because we couldn't raise the standard of the music.

Personally I have always looked at the standard of musicianship as the main marker for being a professional and not so much the earnings.
 

For example would Nathan East or Larry Carlton cease to be professional if they decided to stop charging for gigs?  I think not. You can still be a professional  standard musician even though your profession does not pay the bills. 

If i had to choose one, it would be to be a professional standard musician. But i'm not so i enjoy being a weekend warrior with a day job.

Hopefully, i will be able to make it this year.