jazzyvee

I was hoping to get there again this year but earlier than last time but have just had a gig come in for that evening. No idea what time we start or where it is yet but if there is time before I have to head off for gig or if it's on the way I will drop by with my Alembic Series I 5 stringer.

I'm greedy I have two sets of ACG EQ02's in one of my basses, one set for each pickup with an overall master volume and pan. Though now that I'm more used to two filter based basses I'd like it modified to have a volume for each pickup and possibly if there is space, a master volume. To be honest I don't gig with it but do use it a lot for rehearsals and jam sessions. For me this would have been the ideal setup for reggae since the bottom end control is RIGHTEOUS!!! clear deep and heavy. Unfortunately any cab I tried it through couldn't handle this amount of bottom end at anywhere near gigging volumes. So for that use it was useable only via DI into FOH and eqing the heavy bottom out of my rig. Now I have Barefaced cabs..... this could change things!!!!

I'd like another for a backup. I love it, it gives me a great sound and I like really simple tone controls. Win win for me.

Yep for me Walkabout with Barefaced Big Twin II is an incredible match made in sonic heaven. You are right the BF Twin cab delivers in bucket loads. I did a gig with that setup last weekend and the boogie was on about 1/4 on the input and 1/4 on the master and that was filling some space sound wise.

If you like filter based basses like the wal, alembic would have been a good choice but the models with filters are quite heavy which is something you are trying to avoid. Like was mentioned above, the ACG filter based basses would be good alternative and the weight is a comfortable.

A local bass player I've seen many times uses a really old stingray tuned BEAD and it sounds HEAVY!!!

This will give you some righteously clean and deep dub bass sounds. They are not cheap new but occasionally they come around used on ebay. http://www.alembic.com/prod/sf2.html I use mine only if I'm using decent cabs that can deal with heavy bottom end.

Thankfully i got my bb2 order in before the end of feb so getting the old price. Now i just need to convince myself to get rid of my boogie powerhouse 1x15 i’d be fully lightweight gigwise.

Great interpretation of that classic Stevie wonder song. No idea of the licensing but if you send me a cpoy when its released i will give it airplay on my notstrictlyjazz radio program up here in Birmingham. Cheers

What's not to love, jazz bass style and same number of knobs and switches as strings. . :-)

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]