Ed_S

I would (and indeed do) go for shallow as they tend to sit better on the majority of cabs I've owned/used and there's still plenty of space round the back of a LM to leave cables plugged in etc. The RBI I seem to recall is shallower than the LM, most tuners I've ever met are shallower still. The only time I'd say maybe don't shallow rack a LM is if it's a 2U rack with a removable panel rather than a full-face removable lid at the back (some older SKB ones - maybe others are out there) because it can be fiddly to plug things in if you have fairly big hands. As you're talking probably 6U I'd imagine any would be fine as the panel/hole on that particular style would be much larger.

+1 for both Bassic Bits and Cleartone. Add Bedford Guitars in Sheffield to the list. Also Designacable - only ever bought their wares via Amazon but believe they're based near Nottingham.

I recall being told that the rack compressor I wanted was 'crap' and the guy on the phone flatly refused to sell it to me; I forget exactly how he phrased it, but the essence was that if I was daft enough to insist on buying it I'd have to put the order through the website myself as it wasn't worth his while to take the order over the phone. Needless to say I knew exactly what I was ordering, what I wanted it to do, why I didn't need anything better and, following that exchange, why I'd be getting it from somewhere else! Incidentally I did just that and it still works fine. On the other hand I recall searching for rack-ears for an amp that I'd picked up ex-demo a good while after they were discontinued, and the only place that seemed to even list the right hardware was GAK. I called up and spoke to a very helpful guy who went and rooted round until he found the last remaining set (incorrectly labelled and in the wrong place), cheerily took all of about £18 for his time and effort and they arrived the next day with no fuss.

The MB200 is great - it's still one of the 'sounds in my head' with everything set at noon. The Markbass Nano 300 is also very good for a similar size if you fancy something with a different flavour. My personal favourite backup amp is a little Bose A1 power amp as it would get any member of the band out of trouble; I have a sansamp on my board and both guitarists use midi pre / valve power racks, plus it's a full-range PA amp so could cover any failure there too. Seems worth taking along for about the same size and weight as a small bass head.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1485089094' post='3220987'] .Out of interest what were they failing on ? Earth continuity ? [/quote] Yeah, if memory serves they failed or were close to failing earth bond for their length. I had a few Y-splitter cables that had absolutely no earth continuity at all on one branch, too - they went straight in the bin.

Why not make a register of your gear, buy some specific 'visual inspection only' stickers and actually learn how to do the formal visual inspection yourself? That way you've not said something's been checked in a way that it hasn't and your gear's probably had a better going-over than a lot out there. That said, I'm trained to be 'competent' to fully PAT computer equipment in public use as part of my job, and when I tested my own moulded-plug mains leads with a calibrated tester I was amazed at how many either failed or were close to failing despite looking absolutely fine, so I'd advocate replacing those every so often irrespective. [attachment=236410:patvisinsp.png]

Probably 'King of Dreams' from the Slaves and Masters album. I enjoy a lot of the more recognised tracks too, but Joe Lynn Turner just wins it for me.

I've got a 4ohm Markbass 104HR (rear-ported version of yours) and I used to have an Orange SP212. The SP212 was a nice enough sounding cab and capable of gigging as a single cab provided you could throw some serious power at it, but it really couldn't compete with the Markbass on anything other than physical size.

I've placed two orders with them, had one Saturday delivery not turn up and one item turn up on-time but defective and had two really poor customer service experiences including feeling very much like I was being accused of breaking the defective item myself. Consequently, I won't be shopping with them again.

Theres one place that I play with a sound guy who refuses to take a DI from anything other than his own box and demands that the bass be plugged directly into it, then anything else you might have take its feed from the parallel out. In the past I've gone along with it as it wasn't worth the argument (just a bit annoying that you can't mute properly to tune) but next time will be fun as I've started using a Digitech Drop pedal instead of a dedicated bass for a second tuning we use. Hopefully I can make him stoop to using the sansamp on the end of my pedalboard or half the set is going to sound really odd out-front!

Softalind Pure (or ViscoRub if you prefer more gel-like) is my personal preference - I use it every day and have never had a problem. Purell, however, dries my hands out like crazy.

I tried a 4 string Jazz just before xmas and it was 'alright'. The finish on the back of the neck was like silk, the whole thing was very playable with a better than average setup out of the box and it sounded just like a Jazz should. However, there was slight damage to the board where a few of the frets had been installed, the board itself was a very average looking piece of wood, I could get my fingernail down the gap in the neck pocket, and the bridge pickup rout was quite noticeably big - or at least big for the pickup that was installed. I'm not a fan of the thin finish that looks almost like orange-peel over the more obvious grain in the wood either, but I know from past experience that's just how they are. I take Professional to mean that it's just a comfortable and dependable tool to do a job and should be put to work in order to pay for itself as many times over as possible before needing to be replaced, and yeah, it'd probably make a sensible business expense.

I end up with the bass knocked back, too, and then the mid/high pushed forward a bit. It was interesting to find that the ABM and RM sound similar enough to come home wearing almost the same EQ having been in the same room but months apart, hopefully meaning that in the event of a failure, you could just mirror the ABM settings onto the RM and carry on sounding roughly the same. Hope your newer 600 and 500 will be as good a match as my older 1000 and 800

After starting out on 4s (as I guess most people do) I moved fairly quickly to 5s and then used them exclusively for all the reasons already given and never had to worry about switching. Sadly, for my personal tastes, the one important thing that a 5 string Precision can't do as well as a 4 string Precision is look 'right', so when I wanted a Precision (and it had to be a 4) I resigned myself to a bit of re-thinking! I can now happily switch between 4s and 5s, and make a point of playing both as equally as possible to keep them fresh in my mind.

[quote name='barneyg42' timestamp='1482596686' post='3201746'] Anything recommended for a skint bassist who can't afford to go down the custom fit route? I got some ACS Er20s on the web and they just kill the sound too much, we sounded like an acoustic band as opposed to rock. I know they are supposed to cut things to a certain extent but these seem too extreme! [/quote] Doc's Proplugs - I've used the vented ones for years at rehearsals and gigs with my melodic metal band, plus any gigs I go to watch and even just down the rock bar in town. They attenuate the high frequencies more than the lows, so they take away the 'fizzy' top-end from distorted guitar amps and cymbals but actually make hearing the bass easier when on stage. They aren't extreme or industrial hearing protection so I still find that my ears can be a little 'dull' if I've been somewhere brutally loud, but it's always been the kind of thing that's back to normal the next morning.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1482497669' post='3201064'] If you feel tempted to move the ABM1000 on Ed, I`d be happy to look at taking it off your hands. [/quote] Heh, no temptation in that direction right now, but I'll give you a shout if I ever start edging it closer to the door! No breath-holding, mind...

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1482492413' post='3200988'] That's why I gravitated back to the Walkabout, and latterly the Handbox R-400. Manageable, with full fat taste :-) [/quote] Aye, don't get me wrong, I know just what you mean - my equivalent is the Ashdown ABM1000 (probably similar to your HB in size) and if getting the valve head did anything (other than my back!) it was to highlight some of the reasons I like the class D Ashdown so much; it shares a lot of the 'feel' of playing a big lump of steel and glass. That said, it still misses out on a lot of action because it won't fit in the back of my laptop bag and join me on the train to work and then onwards again to sound check in the evening. I'd love to say that if I could only have one amp it'd be the Ashdown because it sounds and feels great to play and is light-ish and very powerful, but I know it's still inconvenient for a lot of what I do, so I'd take the best of the featherweights every time.

I still firmly believe that my first lightweight head and cab (MB Little Mark II / 104HR) was/is better than any of the heavy gear that I'd owned before it, and it's still the benchmark by which other gear gets measured when I'm trying and buying. That honeymoon period must be well and truly over by now - in fact, looking at the stickers, it'll be the 10 year anniversary in April! I have a 200W all-valve head and I'm not going to tell you it's not a fun thing to play, but it's sure-as-hell not a fun thing to carry and I'm confident that it sounds no better in the context of my band than my usual lightweight rig, so I'm going to keep my back happy and keep travelling light. [quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1482436153' post='3200637'] It's a Coke / Diet Coke thing. One day you accidentally buy full fat Coke, and MY GOD it's nice. [/quote] But some people have a weight problem and need to resign themselves to the fact that Diet Coke helps them to manage it. Some people even prefer Diet Coke 'just for the taste of it', as the adverts used to say! If it makes any odds, I'm in both categories

Very nice bass indeed. I swapped an SR505 for one and really prefer the Nordstrand designed pickups to the Bartolini MK1s.

Not sure whether they're keyed alike or to differ as I only have one MM case, but these are what mine look like just in case it helps you to ascertain whether they are in fact all the same and, if so, narrow down the search for some second hand originals: [attachment=225947:musicmanCaseKeys.jpg] Maybe talk to the UK distributor as they are, essentially, just spare parts?

This thread has prompted me to finally sort out the B string on my StingRay 5 which has been slightly floppy ever since tuning down half a step. The application of a new set of Power Slinkys seems to have done the trick! They're a bit hard on the finger ends at the moment as I'm used to 40-125 and have gone up to 50-135, but they feel much more responsive to play on and they sound absolutely great. Granted it's not a 'cheap' bass, but it's not a mega-expensive one either, has a normal scale length and can, with the right strings, have a very un-floppy B or even Bb.

[quote name='thegummy' timestamp='1470574750' post='3106796'] According to a lot of people, the Squier Classic Vibe 70s P-Bass is better and cheaper than the Fender standard P. That wouldn't surprise me if it's true, especially the pickups, because Squier CV guitars have better pickups than standard Fenders. It does have "Squier" on the headstock though which may or may not matter to you. [/quote] I've had both and unfortunately that wasn't my experience. The 70s CV was nice for the money, don't get me wrong, but it had a few small finish issues out of the box and the pickup was, to my ear at least, quite bland. Changed the pickup and gigged it for a while on those "I'd prefer not to take my best gear" gigs, but then after a while the fret ends started to lift and become noticeably sharp whilst playing so I moved it on to somebody who was happy to put the money into getting that sorted. I just couldn't do with the fuss and I had my eye on something else anyway. The MIMs (I had a pair, one W/W/M and one B/W/R) were great - they were solid, had no fit-and-finish issues and the pickups had some real grunt and grind to them, for want of more descriptive terms! Played some of my most memorable gigs on those basses and, if I'm honest, some days I kinda regret selling them.

[quote name='jrixn1' timestamp='1469198439' post='3096577'] Since it is the same product from the same company, is it fair to reason that if their "500W" is more like what you and I would call 250W, then the original "120W" was more like 60W? So the power in the new version has quadrupled. I'm also quite curious about these, and perhaps I am trying to convince myself to get one! [/quote] [url="http://medias.audiofanzine.com/images/normal/hartke-kickback-12-210427.jpg"]This[/url] page from the manual of the original one seems to suggest that it was 120W RMS into its built-in 8ohm speaker. I've gigged with a Hartke HA2000 and a GK MB200 in the past, both of which are 200W and did the job perfectly well, but usually with a decent 4ohm 4x10 or 2x12 so affording full power output and more speaker area. It's less the 250W rating that slightly puts me off getting a KB12, rather more the lack of ability to add another cab, especially when you perhaps didn't expect to need one but could have borrowed one at the venue.

I was quite excited to hear that they were being re-vamped with a 500W lightweight power section, but then I read the owners manual online and found out the 500W is peak (not RMS) and there's no inbuilt facility to add an extension cab, only unplug the internal speaker and use an alternative 4ohm cab - presumably because the internal speaker is 4ohm to match the minimum impedance of the amp. Of course, none of that is necessarily a problem if it performs really well as a standalone unit, but it curbed my enthusiasm somewhat.

The 801 wth a GEB7 in front of it is the exact setup I use at home when I'm not just going through a pod into studio monitors. It's a great little amp - sounds much bigger than the space it takes up and the eq pedal allows you to do a bit of fine-tuning.