jazzyvee

I'v recently bought a BF Big Twin II after having powerhouse cabs since about 2003. I love the mesa cabs and they do sound great but for what these days they don't do big fat low end very well at reggae band eq and the off axis sound has no depth to the bass. I've sold my PH cabs 4x10 and 2x10 cabs and compared to the BF, they are completely different animals and you either prefer the sound of one or the other. Mesa seems to be voiced to give more emphasis on punch and mids maybe as they are more common in rock bands??? And these days I'm downsizing both number and weight of cabs. So Mesa had to go though I am sad to see the 2x10 go as that is a great all rounder cab.

I had a 5 string set of those on my main bass for just about a year before i thought about changing them.

I'm not into the edgy, gritty, overdriven or vintage sound so I always go for whatever gives me the cleanest sound at the volume I need for a gig. Usually for me that means having the master as far open as I can without hiss, which on my QSC PLX 2402 that means fully open but not so with my walkabout head. Then I bring up the input gain of my pre-amp till I get the volume I need. That always gives me a clean powerful sound.

I've had my mesa 1x15 since about 2004 and it's been a great cab and mainly used with a walkabout head. I can highly recommend those cabs. My only two reservations with them are: 1) for playing reggae, I find the off axis sound falls off at a short distance from the cab so really doesn't have enough umphf in the bottom end to have any authority for that genre. ( Other stuff where I need more full range sounds it works great.) 2) Now I'm gigging more often I'm finding the weight of them to be unpleasant. I'd still recommend them and with a 2x10 or 4x10 it's superb.

I've had my BF Big Twin II for a couple of weeks now and it's been on 2 gigs so far and am really impressed with the sound of it. I went for the black metal front cover more for durability. I've now got to get rid of 3 mesa boogie powerhouse cabs and once those have gone I will more than likely get one of the smaller cabs for when I want to travel light and still get a big sound.

No’, sadly the original bass player died many years back. I started playing bass with the band about 4 or 5 years ago. Sadly the gig got cancelled. It was a benefit gig for a member of Ub40’s band and he took a turn for the worse the morning of the gig and passed away the following day.

I play bass for Musical Youth and we are opening for UB40 tomorrow night at the Electric Brixton [url="http://electricbrixton.uk.com/events-article.php?id=1056"]http://electricbrixton.uk.com/events-article.php?id=1056[/url]

Once I started buying cables that had decent metal jacks and no crackling noise I can't say that I have been able to hear any difference in tone from any cable. There may be a difference but I can't categorically say I've heard it regardless of the price. The only leads I've tried that had an immediate audible difference is the[url="http://www.iconicsound.com"] Iconic Light lead[/url] but then that is optical and i'm not even sure it's released yet.

How about this one. ;-) [url="http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_knobfest2010.html"]http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_knobfest2010.html[/url]

In the past I bought a guitar with some some alembic electronics in it on ebay and had to ship the electronics back to the Alembic for repair as it wasn't working. It was out of warranty and they told me that they have to declare any new parts fitted and you pay duty on that cost. Also if you have current insurance on the item you can ask if it includes insurance for common carrier which will save you having to insure it separately through the carrier. On fixing the electronics, have you tried giving John East a call to see if he can fix it. He's designed studio gear and might have/or be able to get the parts you need and fix it.

I love short scale basses, I have a short scale bass with 45 - 105 string gauge and whilst the strings are slightly looser, the tone to my ears is richer and warmer on the bottom end and sweeter at the top end than a 34" scale bass. I haven't personally found any disadvantage tonally of a short scale bass.

[color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Had a reggae gig last night at an awesome 80's weekender at Butlins Skeggy and used a hired in backline of ampeg gear provided by the venue. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]I have no idea what wattage they were but as usual I brought my F1-x to plug into the pwr amp input or the return socket and both times options I could not get any clean headroom even with the F1-x down really low. I decided to forget my F1-x and go from my bass into the front of the ampeg head via the venues DI box and even then I could not get any clean bottom end everything was middly and distorted like the speaker was being pushed too hard. The keyboard player came over to see if he could EQ the thing whilst I played and he is a good producer and couldn't get anything with any weight at any useable volume without distortion. In the end we had to settle for a low volume middly tone with the bass setting on the head just under the 12 o'clock and the volumes on my bass just under 50% open and use the floor monitors. But even they were unable to give me any decent bottom end. Our regular sound engineer was out front and confirmed the sound FOH was perfect which was a relief to know it wasn't my bass.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]We played well but, there is nothing worse than taking a decent bass that you know sounds awesome and not be able to hear that sound.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Yes I could always take my own rig but these are all weekend events with multi-band setups and the transfer time between bands is short and just a line check so we don't usually carry our own backline on these gigs for convenience. This is the rig I was provided with but I have no idea what wattage it delivers. [/size][/font][/color]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1503624469' post='3359804'] So far I've never owned a pedal or played in a band or style of music that required one. My tone is me~bass~amp~cab. [/quote] + 1 I'd say I get my core hifi tones from my analogue rack system which is an F1-x and PLX2402, but for most gigs I use my mesa boogie walkabout head which I get a great warmer sound from.

Im the only non pro in my quartet and my only problem is getting gigs where they are all available. Other than that all is cool.

All my basses came with a hard case which are only used for storage. I have two custom flight cases for the long scale basses, one for short scale and three gig bags that i use most of the time when gigging. One for short scale that doubles for guitar and single and double gigbags for long scale basses.

I'm another one who ended up having two break on me in under a year. First one the headphone socket came away from the board inside then the next one the jack broke off. I decided to get something sturdier so the PJB Big Head was what I went for and so far it's been a great purchase. Now if I could find a small hard or padded case that could hold the charging and aux cables that would be great.

If anyone is gigging with a barefaced cab around Birmingham & West Midlands give me a shout I'd love to hear one in the wild so to speak. Especially if it's a back line gig with the bass not going through the PA. I'm gonna phone barefaced today to see if I can get one to try out. Which is all well and good but I want to understand how they sound out front as well as when I'm standing near it playing.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1502500883' post='3351897'] I would love to try two 8x10s stacked horizontally with a big valve amp. [/quote] Me too, I have a stereo bass (individual pickup outs) and would love to try that through my QSC PLX2402 amp with a a rack pre-amp on each channel, plus a roland JC120 taking the high end out from pre-amp crossover output fed from the bridge pickup. However there aren't many gigs that I could do that setup and not annoy the sound guy. I'm not after the volume just the clarity and density of sound. That said I've done a few gigs at a large music college in town and the sound guy is happy for me to do that setup next time I gig there. :-)

Had a dep gig with a band called Soul Kinda Wonderful at the livestock festival in North London last night. It was a really good gig. I enjoyed playing and the most important thing was that the crowd loved the show and wanted us to go on for longer and longer. Good news is the band have asked me to do another gig with them in August. :-)

Awesome gig indeed.

Consider this.... does the vocalist sound exactly like the record on all the covers you do with the band? If not, then why should you feel you have to? Trying to get the exact tone isn't really as important as finding a sound that works for the song. I dep in a few bands that include covers and all I aim to do is get a tone that sounds right with whatever the song is. No-one has ever complained, and i get repeat gigs. For example this weekend I have a dep gig with a Drifters tribute band and i've never played that stuff before, I dont own any fender or passive basses which I presume most of their music would have been recorded with. All my basses are active which I doubt was even around back then either, so in my practice sessions at home I just aim to get a tone I think works for the tracks. I won't even have my own bass rig for the gig so will be at the mercy of the dreaded backline. As for setting up your rig. Usually my settings are the same on my bass rig regardless of the gig. Sometimes I roll a little off the bottom end if the room is boomy but that's it. Everything else I do from the bass and/or by changing where and how I hit the strings, and where I think the bass needs a different tone I give it for each song or within the same song. It all helps to gain an understanding about how to create tone.

I'm heading for the gig in Leeds tonight and based on his gig last year at Love Supreme it should be another belter. His band are youngsters but man they can play and keep up.

That is sadly a rare case to recover all your gear. I'm so glad that it all ended well. But I can imagine the stress of the whole process whilst you were trying to find it. I guess the lesson for us all is don't let your guard down.

Take a listen to Herbie Hancock's version on his Possibilities album, the bass is nice and sprightly but grooving nicely. [url="https://youtu.be/eo7AcIdMnHY"]https://youtu.be/eo7AcIdMnHY[/url]