Ed_S

I've been in a couple of bands where I'm a better guitarist than the guitarist (not so with my current band, I hasten to add), but I'll always keep to bass because I enjoy the role more on stage. I find it's less stress for the same level of responsibility, so I get to actively enjoy the music that I'm playing as I'm playing it. On guitar I'm too engrossed in getting it right to actually enjoy doing it, so have to rely on reactions after the fact.

[quote name='Bigwan' post='1329355' date='Aug 5 2011, 10:50 PM']Can't agree about the volume though. I've always found the ABM400's quiet.[/quote] Yeah, that's closer to my experience too. I had an ABM500 Evo3 and whilst the tone of the amp wasn't bad, it was just so quiet that I couldn't use it. I remember proudly turning up to rehearsal with my new rig (500 head and matching 410t and 115c) and getting completely drowned out at fairly sedate rehearsal volume with the thing running to its absolute limit. My old 200W Hartke HA2000 was amazingly loud through the same cabs, so I kept them (still got 'em, in fact) and sold the ABM500 at the earliest opportunity.

From a voltage and polarity standpoint I'm pretty sure you'll be ok - my Boss supply powers my Sansamp BDDI fine. I'd just check the tech specs first to be sure you're not trying to pull too much current in total.

Cracking amp choice, mate! I still love my HA5500 and keep it at the studios for our weekly rehearsal slot. I pair it up with an Ashdown ABM-410T cab (think it's been replaced by the 410H these days, but very similar) and despite it being an 8ohm cab, it's still one hell of a loud and powerful rig. I used to gig it before I went for more lightweight gear, and I was always happy with the volume and tone for classic to heavy rock and metal. I rarely get the master volume over '4', and we play loud As an aside, I took my new Barefaced Super 12 down to the studios on Saturday, and when I plugged it in, forgot that I'd left it on 3 on the master. All I'm gonna say is that four perfectly good pairs of underwear were put at risk! I realise you might not want to spend £700+ on a cab at this stage in your playing career, but in later years when you're fancying an upgrade, just remember that if you give the HA5500 a classy cab, by 'eck does it perform!

It's the whole gear-share that bothers me most about taking a decent rig to pubs - I've had too many idiots agree not to change anything on my rig except the master volume, but by the end of the first song they're twiddling merrily away, probably because they know I'm not going to be so unprofessional as to jump up on stage in the middle of their set and slap their hand for it. One guy I recall particularly naffed me off by setting my rig to a 'painful high-passed distortion mode' that I never knew existed for 45 mins and then immediately jumping off stage at the end to tell me it was 'a bit sh*t'. I may possibly have lowered myself to saying something about it being a perfect match for his playing.

[quote name='Jag_Bassist' post='1319439' date='Jul 28 2011, 04:01 PM']thats quite weird from a guy i have seen on youtube, he sets both dials at 12 and it makes his jazz sound very nice similar tone to justin chancellor of tool's tone[/quote] I guess that's why the phrase "your mileage may vary" is so widely used It did absolutely nothing for me, but might be everything you want/need given the equipment you play and the sound you're hunting.

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1319965' date='Jul 29 2011, 02:06 AM']On the combos you're looking at specifically I'm not an Ashdown fan anyway but I'd go for a 410 over a 115 for a lone cab if possible. For a decent combo on a budget I'd be looking at Hartke, just my opinion though.[/quote] Yeah, having owned both I quite agree - if I was dead set on a serious (and pleasantly old-school) combo, I'd be giving DV a shout about this: [url="http://www.dv247.com/guitars/hartke-vx3500-bass-guitar-amp-combo--44014"]http://www.dv247.com/guitars/hartke-vx3500...mp-combo--44014[/url]

I quite extensively use the SansAmp BDDI, used to own the Sonic Stomp, and to be honest really can't equate the two in any way. I tried to like the BBE, but the fact is that I could hardly tell when it was turned on! I tried it in just about every configuration possible, and even loaned it to one of our guitarists to see if he could hear something I couldn't, but he was equally underwhelmed. I stuck it on eBay and haven't missed it. I've used stereo rack (line level) Sonic Maxi's before and found them to be quite handy, and likewise own the BBE B-max rack preamp which has one built in and seems to make decent use of it, but from my experience I couldn't recommend the pedal format.

I borrowed a guy's AD200Bmk3/OBC115/OBC410 stack at a gig the other month, and whilst it was nice, it wasn't doing anything that my Terror Bass can't. You'd perhaps tell the difference in the studio, but live at gig-volume, I honestly couldn't. Maybe there's more of a difference between the two when you start really pushing the gain, but I keep it fairly clean so wouldn't be able to say.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='1316797' date='Jul 26 2011, 11:18 AM']I don't think the Hartke LH and Orange Terror preamps are similar in any way - the former has a topology with tons of headroom and the latter doesn't![/quote] Perhaps my second LH was electrically duff as well as badly assembled, then, as it certainly started to crunch at about the same gain level as my Terror does now. It was actually that very characteristic of the sound that sealed its fate and got it swapped for an HA5500. [quote name='dood' post='1316843' date='Jul 26 2011, 11:53 AM']I think that's possibly more to do with the design of the preamp vs the power amp choice, I have to test the theory and see if the volume jump happens through the DI. To be honest, using my basses with really high output pickups, I'd be lucky to need my amp above 3! Never needed to turn my stack up any further as that was plenty![/quote] I regularly took the LH to about 7 because I was using a fairly sluggish 8ohm cab. I always put the jump down to the power stage since it relied solely on the position of the master volume at any given preamp settings, but I realise there's potentially greater interaction so I'm prepared to stand corrected.

[quote name='dood' post='1316510' date='Jul 26 2011, 12:53 AM']Yep, I'm running a Hartke LH1000 which is just a stonkingly powerful and very clean head. I'm willing to put a few pennies on there being similarities in the OTB and LH preamps too.. tonestack Eq per chance?[/quote] Good call - I had an LH1000 for a while when they first came out, and now you mention it there's a fair bit of similarity. Sadly I think there must have been QC issues in the batch I bought from, as the first one popped and whistled to itself (even with the tube swapped for a known-good) and the second one that replaced it had the front racking handles screwed on upside down! Back to the point, however, you'd hope that with the OTB1000 being a single power stage it might have a more linear response on the master, where the bridged LH1000 has that volume 'jump' in the middle of the dial. [quote name='Lozz196' post='1316557' date='Jul 26 2011, 07:21 AM']Yes, that is a valid point. With the 1000w version, you will have much more clean head-room to work with. One of the things I`ve read on here is that many change the pre-amp valves to get more clean head-room on the 500w version. For info tho, my Gain on 2, Volume on 2 on my OTB was a clean sound (just minimal break-up). If I put up the volume to 3, I completely decimated the volume of the rest of the band - suppose my Marshall 412 helped with that. But don`t go thinking that the 500w version doesn`t do clean - it does.[/quote] Oh aye, don't get me wrong, I've got an OTB500 and I get a clean-enough tone out of it at absolutely ample volume, even with the stock tubes in it. But if the 1000 can put the extra juice to work in letting me get even cleaner tone at the same volume, I'm game to give it a try. Maybe I just want one and this is phase one of the justification process

[quote name='RichF' post='1316454' date='Jul 25 2011, 11:03 PM']I like your style my friend. Many of the reasons so far given not to buy - wake the dead, blow out doors - seem like great reasons to me.[/quote] Plus, packing 1000W in the back end, there's a chance you'll be able to get closer to the kind of volume the 500 produces running flat out, but with the preamp still set to clean-ish, thereby making it a bit more versatile.

For me, the American Standard feels like a 'proper' USA Fender, where the American Special feels like a Mexican Fender. An absolutely exquisite example of a Mexican Fender, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't feel like the American Standard and, for me personally, isn't worth the price that most shops are asking. If it was £200 cheaper, I'd have already got the red/maple one as I think it looks fantastic, but I'm not paying £800 for it when I know that a £450 Mexican Standard and a paint job would achieve the same result. Just my opinion, of course

I've got the EX112 (4ohm) and quite like it. I'm using it with my Little Mark II, and it seems to be a good partner to it for quiet to moderate practice, but I've not had the occasion to gig it yet so I don't know how it cranks up. I'm probably about to give it the chance to prove itself, however, as our band has reverted to acoustic while we search for a new drummer, and it seems to be about right for reinforcement in that sort of context. They're already quite 'toppy' due to the full-range speaker design, so I'd play 'em solo first before you start work on that tweeter - you might be pleasantly surprised! Only negatives for me are the lack of a speakon in addition to the jack socket, and the speaker design making it quite hard to get a good close-mic'd tone. But that's what Sansamps are for

I use it as a fretboard conditioner on rosewood that doesn't need cleaning, just hydrating a little, and it works really nicely. I absolutely detest the feeling of it on my strings and fingers, though!

I used to play violin in big orchestras, and was always secretly envious of the larger, lower register instruments because of the sheer power they had in creating the atmosphere of the whole performance. Whilst I loved classical music, I was always a rocker at heart, so I eventually gave up violin, requested help buying a bass and amp for my next birthday and joined my first band at school. 14ish years down the line, I'm pleased to say I've never looked back!

If you really wanna be able to make quick changes in an emergency, grab an ABY box and have your spare guitar already on a spare lead, just pick one up, put one down, hit the button and off you go.

If it was mine I'd get in there and check the impedance of the internal speaker. If it happened to be 8ohm then I'd safely disconnect the internal speaker, solder a new speaker lead onto it and run it outside the combo to a jack. That way it'd plug into the external speaker-out when flying solo, and could be plugged into the parallel out of a suitable extension cab to run both together.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1301600' date='Jul 12 2011, 09:08 PM']The only thing that I don't feel sure about is the clip. It's attached by a couple of flimsy looking plastic tabs. I don't use it. I bought a leather Levy's transmitter holder and that's what I use.[/quote] Just for the record, I've always used the clip to attach the TX unit to my strap and have had no problems with it. I think that being polycarbonate, even flimsy looking tabs are quite strong.

Since it seems other people are asking for non-bass band members, I thought I'd join in... After 3 good gigging years our drummer has decided to move on, so we're on the look-out for a competent replacement. We're called Soul Shredder and have a few vids on YouTube to give an idea of what we do. If you know of any friends or acquaintances who are in the Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Chesterfield area and are looking to join a metal band that prides itself in offering a bit more than just loud noise, then please let me know! Thanks everso

[quote name='Bankai' post='1299450' date='Jul 10 2011, 11:42 PM']And just to clarify, that time lag is down to time it takes the sound to travel from the stage to your ears. Wireless systems transmit at the speed of light, literally![/quote] Well... yes and no... Line6's own Don Boomer states that the G30 adds "just less than 4ms or about 4 feet" to the latency / perceived distance "while the computer grinds numbers". But I completely agree, what you're hearing is mostly the difference in distance between the amp and your ears

[quote name='Hamster' post='1299435' date='Jul 10 2011, 11:24 PM']I agree these are pretty good. The only thing I don't like is the crappy little plastic latch on the transmitter battery box which is really hard to close with most makes of AA batteries inserted.[/quote] I was worried about that at first, but it seemed to get easier to operate when a few sets had gone through and it'd been worn in. I admit, I don't know if that's due to flattening the springs a bit, taking the edge off the polycarbonate, or just a peculiarity of my particular belt-pack. One of our guitarists is about as ham-fisted as it gets, and he's not managed to break it... yet..

I'm pretty confident you won't be disappointed in the long run. I've used the G30 since it first came out and have converted both guitarists in my band along the way - none of us have ever had a problem with it as a system, even with three of them in use together. You have to get used to the very slight time-lag if you go walkabout off stage like I do, but it doesn't take long to compensate. A pair of decent alkaline AAs tend to last about 6 to 8 hours of constant use depending on brand; have to admit I thought that was either in the manual or the advertising somewhere, but it's true nonetheless. In terms of battery drain over time, the signal stays true until it cuts out from what we've seen.

[quote name='charic' post='1294374' date='Jul 6 2011, 09:45 AM']I seem to be in the minority here that actually disagrees with this [/quote] I'm with you! That white one's on the shopping list

[quote name='dc2009' post='1291010' date='Jul 3 2011, 02:18 PM']He said you need a P bass for police sounds, not for lightweightedness, I'd argue a P is one of the more heavy basses I've played, especially for a 4 string.[/quote] I know what he meant... i was just corrupting it a little.. sorry From having been there, weight isn't the only factor and the P sorted it for me... YMMV etc. but I speak as I've found!