jazzyvee

what about the natural wood finish? is that not an option?

i use labella nylon coated flats strings on my acoustic which sound much better than the clattery bronze ones.

I tend not to change gear often and do a lot of research before buying so that I get what I think will suffice for the long term. In the past three-ish  years I have replaced my three Boogie Powerhouse cabs 2x10, 4x10 and 1x15, that I bought new around 2004, with barefaced cabs, BBII, BTII and Dubster II and couldn't be happier. I have all angles covered for gigging and  I can't see any reason to go looking elsewhere although there is no harm in window shopping. They are lovely and light and have a sound I prefer to my boogie cabs.

Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder

14 hours ago, SumOne said:

Nice one. I ordered some La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass flats earlier today as they seem to have pretty much unanimous praise, if they don't do it for me (I'm guessing they will be good for Reggae but not so good for slap) then I'll give the D'addario Pro Steels a go. 

I tried some Labella Deep talking flats but the black nylon coated ones for a few reggae gigs but didn't like the tone I was getting from them. They are now on my acoustic bass guitar which seems a better match. I'm not averse to flats but at the moment I prefer rounds maybe I will try them again in the future but just plain flats not coated.

14 hours ago, tthiggins said:

I use Warwick red label Nickel rounds as they're cheap and good i.m.o.

But i use new fresh ones for funk and old worn in ones for reggae .

I tend to re-string my reggae bass with used strings from other basses that I am putting new strings on. They are a bit more mellow in tone then and they usually last about a year before I change them again.  Works well, recycling is good. 🙂

Thanks reggaebass. I use D'addario Pro steels 45 - 130 and use them for everything including reggae, funk and slap and can get what i need from them. I did really like the sound of the D'addario NYXL strings which again are great strings and have a more mellow tone but bright enough for slapping etc. My fingers don't seem to get on with nickel strings so i don't use them regularly. I have one bass that i use mainly for reggae and would love to try an even heavier gauge string set but as I have a brass nut and saddles i don't want to open them up and find they don't suit me so i stick with the pro steels as they can go deep and mellow, punchy and i still keep note clarity.

if it's any help, i spoke with Aston Barrett and he uses Fender Flats.

Might be a good way to wind down after "Line of Duty" especially if we don't find out "Who are You"..... H.🤣

I still use an 18" bass cab as a stand alone cab for some of my reggae gigs but prefer it with my 1x12" cab as it gives me a bit more detail whilst not detracting from the low end. I have used it like this on a few gigs and mainly on gigs without the bass in the PA. 

I watched some of that last night and I don't even play fretless electric bass as I thought it might give me some ideas that would translate to my learning double bass. I posted a link to the Slominsky's pdf book on the chat last night. I found it really informative and differing approaches to the instrument.

A great local bass player friend of mine whom I played many reggae gigs with used the 5 string version of that bass and it sounds great. All the best getting your sound with it. 

I can recommend this one for a double gig bag.
http://www.harvest-guitar.com/en/Cow-Antique-oxid-3.html
 

If you want something more solid then these are good. I have a single bass version and it's tough and light and I use it when my bass needs to go in the back of the van.

https://www.scottdixoninc.com/webshop/cases/double-bass-guitar-case/

I'm learning Slam the Clown by Alain Caron.

and Surreptitious by Jeff Lorber.

Both are styles of bass that I haven't attempted before.

I bought a 1x18 Dubster II a couple of years or so ago and teamed up with Big Baby II and a super clean bass head and it is a superb reggae bass rig.

I saw that a few weeks back on the Alembic Web site forum and my guess was that it was probably converted to a lefty at some point in it's life and then back. Sorry state but I guess if someone was really good at woodwork they could shave the top half of the bass down about 1/4" and replace it with another tasty piece of the same kind of wood, (looks like Bocate to me), then put battery in the space it was originally placed, give it a sand and respray. Probably still sounds great as it is regardless.

Not a task I would take on for that price. £500 maybe if it was in the UK as it would probably cost me the same again to fix it up.

Not bad at all, I have to confess my knowledge of basses is limited to alembic really, bass electronics  bass rigs outboard gear like effects and cabs is really limited  and one of the reasons I joined this forum and Talkbass was to gain a wider understanding of the business of bass. Just recently I have been rewiring my bass rig and got issues with gain staging so that's still a work in progress.  😁

I am sold on the versatility of active low pass filter based bass tone controls. It took me a while to be able to make repeatable tone choices especially since mine have independent filters for each pickup. 👍🏾

Hi itu, im no electronics expert so maybe you clarify my understanding. I use alembic basses that have onboard low impedance pickups and individual preamps using low pass filters for each pickup. I have been under the impression from their web forums that the tone is unaffected by the position of the volume controls. I certainly don’t hear any change in tone when alter the master volume control, but i know that ears can be misleading. Cheers

My basses are active with no passive option some have a single volume and others have a volume for each pickup. The ones with single master volume have no change to the tone when changing it up or down.

The ones with individual pickup volumes do not change the tone of the pickup output it controls either. However it does alter the ratio between both pickups in the output so in that respect you would expect that the tone at the output of the bass would be different even though you have not changed the tone of an individual pickup by changing it's level.

As for my amp I tend to run a separate preamp and power amp ( this is usually on full), so if I need more or less volume on stage I change the preamp level and since i never get anywhere near the saturation points on it i doubt if there is much if any change in tone.

On 15/02/2021 at 07:24, funkle said:

The biggest problem I’m looking at now is I have 8 basses and might want steels on all of them 😂

Anyone have a good supplier for D’Addario?

I use mainly D'addario pro-steels on my basses I tend to recycle them. There are basses that I prefer a warmer sound from (for example reggae or my p-style bass), and those where I want to use a brighter tone mostly. So The new strings go on those and once they mellow and need changing, they go on the basses that need a warmer tone. 

Sounds like you need a bit of relief in the neck.

It's not too far from where I live , may be 1/2 hr drive. I have never had a bad experience there. If I was to say Mark has a fault, then it's the same one as I have, we like to talk, so sometimes when I go there we end up having long chats about the business of bass, gigs etc and that morphs into other stuff. Last year I went there before the official lockdown and we had ended up having a good chat about the impending Covid situation, and I didn't even buy anything. 😂

1, Fingers and/or thumbs

2, D' addario Pro-steels 45 - 130 (when i want a bright sound), or Alembic 45 - 128 nickel for a slightly more warmer and less brightness.

3, Alembic bass (active electronics)

4, (Alembic 5 pin instrument cable & Alembic DS-5 external power supply   or Fender mono instrument cable)

5, Alembic F-1x pre-amp with (Alembic SF-2 in the send and return, not used always but subtly when it is)

6, Jack to Canon leads from pre-amp out to

7, Crown XLS 1502 stereo class D power amp 

8, Speakon cables

9, Barefaced Big Twin II speaker cab

10, Air

11, Ears

On 01/03/2021 at 21:27, TheGreek said:

Good point. When you go to their portfolio page the basses even have the original designs named when you scroll over the images.

http://lutherie-letourneau.fr/index.php/portfolio/

I just had a look and would have thought that was an infringement of those companies and their product names. 

Try Steve at Madhouse, he's repaired some stuff for me in the past and it's been a top job.

Welcome to the Madhouse (madhouserehearsals.net)