paul_5

Beater every time!

Jeez! There's no way on earth you could call that a practice rig! Nice though, and [i]definitely[/i] worth keeping. My rig lives elsewhere, as there's no room in the house for it with 2 little _5s running around. My 'Practice Rig' is a DHA VT1 DI-EQ; line in, headphone out, happy days.

KiOgon's right - Neutriks all the way; I'm still using a lead that I had made for me 23 years ago from Van Damme cable and Neutrik jacks. They're a little bit more extensive initially, but as the old saying goes "buy cheap, buy twice". Also (perhaps more importantly) you've got peace of mind that your kit isn't going to crap out and fall apart at any given moment.

Long day. Lots of waiting (wedding gig) to get going. Once we were up it was brilliant; literally the whole room was jumping up and down. DJ went missing at a critics point, so we had an extended jam at the end of Prince's 1999 (last song in the first set), but a brilliant gig. Got home at 2am

Thanks guys. I still need a bit of bite at the top end though, do the LaBellas have that? Also, It's a Jazz bass, so the pickups will probably help to give me a bit of 'snap'.

None for me! seriously though, 20 frets is fine, but occasionally I'd like to have that extra 'E' at the top. Very, very occasionally.

yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with getting the cleanest DI signal I can from any bit of kit. I spend a lot of time recording through various setups, and can't be doing with noise.

Secret option c) play your bass through a guitar amp (no restrictions on those, I believe); I've had great sounds out of an old Fender Deville... Seriously though, take whatever you need to get through the gig (IEMs, or even a DI box as a splitter to a headphone amp) and move on.

[quote name='Treb' timestamp='1468963386' post='3094796'] I've read that Steve W. Rabe is retired. So no more SWR gear to be expected from him, he probably may not be allowed to even use the SWR brand name anymore. I have a 1996 SWR Workingmans 12, still sounds great! I did modify it a bit. Replaced all the TL072 opamps with TLE2072's and replaced the two 4700uF PSU caps with 6800uF ones. Speaker-wise it's equiped with a Celestion K12T-200. [/quote] Ooh, I'd not thought of replacing the opamps; I've got a glut of Burr Brown OPA2134s in a drawer waiting for something special...

There's a really easy fix for the 'mid scoop' on the SWR heads - I did it to mine and have got a pretty much linear response across the preamp - makes it much louder too! If I need a 'mid scoop' I can just dial one in using the massively flexible EQ. Winner.

Reliability on the chord pedal is brilliant. They come in a cast metal case with heavy duty switch and controls. I've had a couple of chord pedals over the years (chorus and octave) and I've never had one fail. I was expecting a fairly flimsy plastic jobbie for the money, but was really surprised with the quality.

I second the Chord OC50 - I only sold mine because I'd built my own OC2 clone. Would I have one again? Definitely.

I'm still gigging a 92/93 SM400. It's had a tube replaced and that's about it. In over 20 years.

Does anyone have any experience of drop tuning (D, G, C, F) flatwounds? I'm tempted to just go up a gauge (currently 45 to 105) and see how that works, but if anyone's got any better suggestions then I'd be happy to hear them

I play every day. Some days it's 'the other' guitar, but most days it's bass. On the 6 stringer it's running through Jazz standards and experimenting with chord voicings, but on the bass it's mostly running through band material (NOT jazz!) Occasionally a bit of drums too, but that's more of a treat than 'practice'.

12AX7 is the American name for the British ECC83, just as 12AU7 is the 'murican for ECC82. I used to run mine with an ECC82 for less gain, but these days I'm back on ECC83s for a bit more filth. They are interchangeable in this particular pedal. FWIW I've never had a problem losing the D and G strings with it engaged either - do you still have this problem without the VT1 turned on?

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1467400929' post='3083517'] ...god quality pics... [/quote] I wouldn't go that far…

I like it - not too much scrolling on any of the pages (apart from the songs, obviously) - the media page is empty, but I gather that the is a work in progress, so not too worried about that. The font issues that some BCers have mentioned aren't happening on my machine (late 2011 Macbook Pro running 10.8.5 using Safari 6.2.8). the spacing between the text is easy on the eye too. 7/12 of the pictures in your gallery are of your lead singist - do you not have any other photos of other band members?

Have you checked that the strings aren't touching the fingerboard (right at the end) and giving you automatic 'pinch harmonics'? It can happen if there's a slight bow in the neck and your action's set very low.

Germanium transistors are affected by changes in temperature. Is it just me that relies on them for tone? Also, I played the 'other' guitar for 2 hours tonight - sounded great to me, but that was through an amp sim pedal into headphones; none of this 'moving air molecules' nonsense for me!

'Singles' or 'Louder than Bombs', which is another great compilation. 'The Queen Is Dead' is magnificent from start to finish, as is 'Meat is Murder' if you can get past Mozza's bloated piano introduction to 'Last Night I Dreamed That Somebody Loved Me'.

Music is my priority. Bass is my main instrument, but as long as I'm making and playing music then I'm a happy bunny.

[i]Broadway The Hardway, Apostrophe[/i] and [i]Sheik Yebouti[/i] are my recommendations for anyone wanting to dip their toes into Zappa's massive body of work. Great players and great tunes each and everyone. Stuff to save for later would be [i]Weasels Ripped My Flesh[/i] and [i]Uncle Meat[/i]