JPJ

I’m an SWR’aholic. There, I’ve said it, it’s out there and I feel strangely unburdened 😀 So as a few of you may recall, I own the daddy of all SWR amps, the SM-1500. This is an absolute powerhouse of a bass amp with 1500 real watts available if you ever need them, but that comes at a price, and that price is weight. A few years ago I was pairing the SM-1500 with either a Goliath Snr 6x10 or a pair of Goliath 4x10’s but eventually I learned that I didn’t need that type of stadium filling rig for my regular gigs and paired things back to a single Goliath, mated with an Aguilar AG500SC which is more than enough, even when headlining the Bulldog Bash to 4,000 last year. As a result, the SM-1500 lies idle most of the time in the man cave. But as good as the Aggy is, I still hanker for the SWR sound, and so I started to look for an SM-900. After a few wanted ads on here, I got a couple of leads but nothing that came to a purchase and then last night, whilst browsing a Facebook selling group I spotted what looked like a pristine SM-900 for sale in Holland. As luck would have it, I work in Holland Monday to Friday, and the SM-900 was unbelievably just 15km away from me. A few messages later and a swift trip up the road tonight and I own an SM-900 😎 Now all I need to do is ship it back to the UK and I’ll be one happy bass player.

Tell me about it. I sprayed a telecaster in black nitro from rattle cans (Rothko & Frost) for a friend and I can’t tell you how many hours went into flatting and polishing to get to this.

My back wants me to like Barefaced, but 40 odd years of playing through cabs with ‘baked in tone’ mean I struggle to hear what my brain wants to hear with the ‘clean’ output of the Barefaced range. i haven’t tried the Bergantino, but have played through the Vanderkley albeit at low volume, and I loved the sound. Very creamy and musical sounding, even with the matching amp set ‘flat’. If I was to be persuaded to move away from my SWR Goliath, then the Vanderkley would be top of my list.

Just be careful with acetone near the bindings. Certain plastics react badly to acetone as do glues used to attach the binding layers together and to the bass.

So you have a decent PA and an engineer to run it? If that was me, I’d seriously consider decent in-ears instead of a cab that I’m not really going to hear. Or as someone else mentioned, an additional monitor just for bass duties pointed at your face (as opposed to your derrière). Added benefit is less gear to hump and your back will love you for it too.

I’m wedded to my old Goliath 4x10. It just works for me. I’ve been tempted by the newer vertical 2x12’s like the Barefaced etc. but not enough to actually put my hand in my pocket. For slap (I’m NOT a slapper) I think you’ll need a good quality high frequency horn and a fully adjustable L pad to be able to dial in just enough sizzle.

There was a period in their history where they were a bit underpowered and mismatched speakers, especially in their combo range, resulted in a reputation for farting out at fairly low volumes. Personally, I owned the G120 1x15 combo for a lot of years and loved the sounds I could coax out of it. It just wasn’t loud enough to gig with. I did play a gig through the Nexus head and 8x10 cab at a multiband event and was blown away by the improvement, albeit at a slightly different price point 😂

I can confirm that mine works beautifully with my KK Baby Bass

I’ve upgraded mine to 4 ohms (speakers purchased from Grandad above). Used it for rehearsals and acoustic gigs and it’s worked fine especially with PA support. It wouldn’t cut it with the full electric band but that would be because the guitards are wedded to their 2x12’s and 100w valve amps.

So I continue to be impressed by my Sire v7 and I can’t find much to complain about apart from the cheap plastic knobs. Has anybody upgraded theirs to better knobs?

Thanks for the advice. I’ve upgraded to the iRig HD2 and problems solved, loads of volume and no hiss😎

We once played a bike rally where the generator tripped out every two or three songs, and it turned out it was whenever the burger van tried to use their microwave. On another occasion playing a rally for the National Chopper Club the sound man rushed to the stage near the end of our set to say there was enough diesel left in the generator for lights during the load out or an encore. Needless to say we loaded out in the dark!

City centre bar on a busy main road so parking for load in/out is a nightmare. Stage area at the back of a long bar meaning a difficult load in/out especially as the bar was full of punters waiting to go to a gig at the adjacent O2 Academy venue. But what a cracking gig, more than made up for the hassles. Bar full of folk dancing and enjoying themselves, reminds you why we do it.

Any tips for AmpliTube? I’m using an early iRig interface (the round one) with AmpliTube and their SVT Classic amp sim and struggling to match the AmpliTube volume with Spotify for playing along and learning. Is there a better amp sim (I’m a lover of clean tones) or is there a way to increase the output without raising the noise floor (the Ampeg sim is a bit hissy)?

Another vote for the Harley Benton here, I went for the fretless version and it’s amazing, way better than we should expect at the price point. I restrung with Aquila Reds and whilst they have less finger sound they are not as loud as the stock white strings from Harley Benton that are also a little thicker than the Aquila’s.

So I live in Holland Monday to Friday, and all my bass gear stays home in the UK. I’ve got a Harley Benton acoustic bass out here for midweek noodling, but with a couple of big gigs coming up I decided to add an electric out here as well. Having read all the reviews and plaudits on here and spoken to a couple of local players who rate them really highly, I took the plunge on Monday and ordered a Sire V7 Alder 5 string in black. I tracked my parcel from Frankfurt and was waiting patiently for delivery on Wednesday at the shipyard where I work as being out all day makes this is the safest way to not miss a courier. So UPS duly delivered and the shipyard notified me of receipt precisely 15 minutes after the warehouse closed for the day 😤 So roll forward 24 hours and the bass is in my grubby hands. First impressions are very very good. The neck is arrow straight, and sits nicely in the hand. It’s neither as wide or as shallow as my Overwater but it’s still comfortable to play and the increased fretboard radius is hardly noticeable. I’ve always been a sucker for blocked and bound necks, especially rosewood with MOP blocks and this is nicely executed although the binding isn’t that deep suggesting only a thin rosewood board. Frets are quite thin but nicely crowned and dressed with no noticeable high spots or sharp ends. The tuners appear to be good quality and have a nice stiffness when turned, and brought the bass into tune easily. The only downside for me is that headstock shape. The body is finished in a very uniform high gloss black which has been well buffed and finished, again no noticeable defects. The bridge is a bit of a hybrid between the BBOT of old and more modern high mass bridges, and the black springs look good with the black body. The bass arrived strung through the body with D’Addario XL’s, almost in tune, and with a nice low action. Moving on to the electrics, there are a lot of knobs. My main Overwater is fitted with a J-Retro which effectively has six knobs in three stacks, but the Sire has seven knobs in five stacks, the difference being the addition of a passive or master tone. So far I’ve only been experimenting via iRig/AmpliTube on the iPad, but it all functions as it should and has a good range of useable tones, and there doesn’t appear to be a big difference in output between active and passive. Sure the black plastic knobs feel a bit sharp and therefore a bit cheap, and hover about 1/4” above the bell plate, but changing to other knobs shouldn’t be a drama, not that I intend to. The bass also shipped with two Allen keys (truss rod and bridge). Sounds-wise, it sounds like an active jazz bass. As my other five stringers are either 35” or 36” scale, the Sire low B feels a little flabby, but it sounds ok and balances nicely with the rest of the strings. To sum up, I can only repeat what many others have said before. It’s one hell of a lot of bass for the money (€444 or £389) and based on first impressions, I’d be more than happy to gig with it.

You are right, it is quite expensive especially compared to the BigShot I/O but space was premium for me on my little go to pedal board that fits neatly in the lid of my road case for leads etc. plus I already have one of Max's Microthumpinator's on that board. Given more real estate, I would have also gone with the Bigshot I/O.

I believe its something Danny made himself

I do this in the 'big band' and I have this at the front end of my little pedal board http://sfxsound.com/micromix/ The electric signal arrives from my wireless via a Boss tuner and TC Spectracomp and both signals departs via a Microthumpinator to my amp. The EUB runs via a Headway EDB-1 which has a built in mute switch which I use to mute the EUB when switching to electric.

A local bassist has what is basically like a cut down box shaped to the shape of his bass that the bass just 'stands' in vertically. Super stable and means the bass takes up no more room with angled stands etc. It made my Stagg stand look prehistoric

Fair point, and something I hadn’t considered. Maybe I just need to search for that other rare beast the Grand Prix preamp. I used to own one and stupidly sold it in a moment of financial weakness 😤

I like your thinking, and maybe add the SWR bass intensifier circuit as well, albeit in a large enclosure 😎