Wolverinebass

Well, today I took delivery of a rather shiny and hilariously triple boxed Vanderkley 2x12LNT. So I had a quick play with my 50s precision. In comparison to my Markbass cabs it's much brighter on the same settings. My rig is all midi, so it's the same settings without question. In other words, I think that it's much closer to the DI signal as it sounded horrible when I recorded it. After some very quick fiddling and this mainly involved turning the treble down by about 40% and the bass and mid range up slightly, I was good to go. As with all things, change one thing you have to adjust and this will take some time to programme my rig again. One thing I will say is that the weight of the cab is given as 24kg. I think it's less as I can quite easily lift it with one hand and I'm not a big guy. I'm happy with it. Just have to adjust. Maybe I might get 2.....

How about something like that Hagstrom with say a babicz bridge, dimarzio pickups to keep the look and an ACG filter circuit? Or have I went too far?

I guess the debate is ended if everyone wants to get a banana.

Funnily enough, one of them (white with a less insane bottom horn) was my first bass which I still have. It's brilliant.

Yeah, go on then. Let's see what everyone wants out of it.

I'll be 39 next week. I've never been told I'm "too old," but there are loads of adverts which are 20-30 only. Fair enough, it's their band. I generally don't mention my age as I look about 5 years younger than I really am. I generally find that as long as I don't get into a situation where war stories are being told, nobody will know. As someone who plays in the progressive metal genre, it's quite niche anyway so limiting by age in adverts may and does exist, it's generally not mentioned overtly.

Hartke have been awful for some time. Since 2007 at a rough guess. I know I'm in the minority, but I think the LH series amps are awful. Powerful of course, but the tone controls are pants. The Kilo was redesigned for about 2 years from the initial announcement. It was plagued with reliability issues. The TX600 is a 400W module saying its a 600W amp. I played one and it felt like 300W. Pitiful. In my opinion, their best amp is the HA5500 though it's old school and rather heavy especially in light of today's penchant for amps the size and weight of a packet of cigarettes. Like lots of companies they are living off past glories. Saying "Jaco played these!" sadly doesn't matter anymore. I wonder if Larry Hartke has any say or even cares any more as their decline has been quite terrible.

Will be along. 1) Cetera - Spector NS2 & Legend 4X, Dingwall NG2, Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbird, Yamaha BB3000, GK800RB head, Genz Benz Neox212 cab, Tech-21 Dug DP3X preamp/pedal 2) Ezbass - Maruszczyk Elwood L 4 string fretted (J pickups), Maruszczyk Elwood L 4 string fretless (MM pickup), Rickenbacker 4003s, Rob Allen MB2 fretless, Phil Jones Flightcase + PB300 3) Happy Jack - AliKat DB #004, Mike Lull 54P, all I need to play a doubling gig (that evening) on those two instruments 4) BlueJay - Eminence Upright (left-handed), loads of camera equipment 5) obbm - TBA  6) Nancy Johnson (Paul) - The Big One, rack (GED/poweramp), possibly the dUg DP3x. A bass. 7) MacDaddy - Shuker bass(es), Snapdragon Folding bass, Flattley Bass Poison Ivy. 8 ) prowla (Paul) - Maybe a Ric or two and fakers, maybe a couple of Statii, maybe J- & P-basses. Probably a Markbass amp & cab and a pedalboard with some FX. 9) Stingray5 - Old faithful Stingray5; Tune SWV4-BB bass; Eden EC180 1x15 combo. (I also have a gig that evening so may leave the Eden in the car but happy to bring it in if anyone asks). 10) TrevorR - Wal Pro II E, Wal Mk 1 Custom, Aria SB700, MarkBass LMII and Traveler 2x10, pedalboard. 11) TheGreek - Mesa M Pulse 600 head/ Powerhouse 1x15 cab and The Psilos bass built by Andyjr1515 12) JapanAxe (Graeme) - most of the stuff in my signature! 13) Wolverinebass (Andy) - Maybe some Wounded Paw effects/signature preamp and a bass.

So would I. But that's mainly because I don't like jazz basses.

It's chromatic.

One of these. http://www.guitarsoundsystems.com/Mobile/gss-1000w-sumo-guitar-bass-power-amp-c2x23791314 It's bound to have gamed the wattage ratings.

Yeah, but you haven't bought a Wal yet!

It's what put me off getting a Moog delay. You can't see what you're adjusting. It's why I got a strymon timeline and it's much better in a functionality way.

Kind of. But you need a chase Bliss midi box for it to work. The cv stuff is reasonably accessible, but the presets are somewhat more buried. If you can't see where a knob is positioned it's kind of difficult to adjust isn't it? Has anyone ever adjusted the position or value of a knob by sending a cc message instead of turning it?!

Not at all. I only got it a few weeks ago just for fun really. Aside from the fact the bridge is total garbage, it's really good. You're welcome to pop over if you want once I get my new cab sorted.

Quality!! "Diet Coke amps." I'm going to use that at some point unless you have patent pending.

Are you using the compression Lozz? Doing so adds stupid amounts of low end.

Their stuff only allows for cv control via the parameters selected by dip switches on the front of the pedal. I'm talking about presets which recall all the knob positions. There's a few examples though my Tech21 PSA 1.1 is brilliant for that reason. The original version came out in 1989 I think so the ideas I'm talking about are nothing new. Try selling a decent delay pedal without midi patches. In the main it's not adopted by distortions, but kind of has to by delays. Modulations slightly less, but it depends on what you require.

Well, that makes everything acceptable doesn't it? 😄 On a serious level, I'm sick of manufacturers gaming the wattage ratings for class D/switch power amps. Hartke's newest underpowered joke being another example. I generally operate on a rule of thumb that if it's class D, you need at least a third or 50% more power than it says it gives to get the required wattage you desire. Maybe it's just the cheaper amps don't use as good power modules, I don't know.

Interesting. However..... If this is another distortion pedal with no presets that costs £350, then not really so interesting. I honestly think Darkglass are totally missing a trick with this omission of functionality. Just my opinion though. We shall see what transpires.

I suspect that I'll be too late in any event at that price. I'm going to decide by the 15th as I'm back in the UK then and will be able to schedule delivery to fit in with my schedule. We shall see.

Maybe not a massive collection, but I think I'm done now. So, here we go: 1. Fenix by Young Chang (short scale) 2. Alembic Stanley Clarke Signature Standard 3. Status Graphite John Entwistle Buzzard 4. Warmoth 8 string Explorer 5. Hamer Chapparal 12 string 6. Eko Florence acoustic 7. Wal Mark 2 8. Fender Classic 50s Precision 9. Rickenbacker 4003

The compressor is already there so that they can game the wattage ratings.

Probably about 300 watts but with more compression baked in than a baked Alaska splatted on a car windshield in the height of summer.

I guess, I'm leaning towards the Vanderkley. Whatever cab I choose I'd have something great, so I'll hopefully be okay with that. Barefaced are definitely close after much thought, but I can't get to Brighton due to my work. So I'm buying blind regardless. I appreciate barefaced do custom baffles, but getting one and not liking the sound negates the warranty so you can't send it back and buying something just to send it back for a slightly different one seems bonkers. I don't think they're flimsy at all. There was a time when "barefaced handles" was a recurring joke on these forums, but it hasn't been for some time. I just don't dig on the looks as standard and the paint finish just isn't for me. As I've said on many occasions, if Alex did something about that, he'd get the custom of shallow preening Bass peacocks like myself. I don't think he's ever going to and if I'm paying £1200 for a cab, I want one which not only sounds great, but looks like as much care was taken presentationally as sonically. Should I care? Probably not, but I do. All that being said, I still haven't fully made up my mind.