Wolverinebass

It depends on what criteria you want to make your choice on. I'd imagine the schecter other than being a through neck won't be that much different to the spector. The Warwick is probably the best due the bridge and nut adjustment available, but if the single coil pickups bother you then it's not for you. Having played most of them, the esp has the best neck and shape. But it's a basswood body. If you do go with that, get them to confirm its a post 2014 model as prior to that they had a 4 saddle bridge. The spector is good, but the pre-amp is horrible. It depends what you want. Most will need some form of upgrade in terms of pickups or pre-amp, but that's only my opinion. Just put yourself out of your misery and buy one!! 😋

If you're using Android. Click on the photo which expands. Click it again to make it fill the screen. At the top right there is the share symbol. Click that then the first option is save to gallery. Job done.

@Al Krow I could have shown you why that doesn't work at my studio if you'd said, but to sum up. There is no pedal or fancy processing you can do that will properly imitate an 8 or a 12 with a 4. You can mimic the note, but not the overtones and harmonics. That's what you won't get.

No. It most certainly isn't. However, it's definitely not Hartke Tx600 underpowered.

I'm not expecting total devastating power obviously. I just meant that the lack of headroom I'd find concerning. No way would I ever be taking it as a main amp. By that token I wouldn't use it as a backup either as I'd want something with more juice instead of thrashing the thing the whole time to get a remotely similar volume. That can't be good now can it?

@Bluewine the Beatles aren't untouchable. Nobody is. One could argue it's the failures in technique in a band that make for the magic and personality of it. Well, sometimes. Sadly, people do think the Beatles are the greatest musicians ever. Otherwise Paul wouldn't regularly top "best bass player" lists. On a technical level he's nowhere near it. I'm not talking about songwriting as that's different, I'm talking about just chops. He doesn't have the ability of Stanley Clarke, Jaco or any of those pedestal type players. Even within the rock medium he's nowhere near the top. Quincy might have been blunt, but I'm sure that Paul won't care and also won't be wondering about his reputation has been tarnished as a major producer has insinuated he isn't that great at his instrument. He's probably having a wry laugh at it. Take Quincy's interview as what it is - an old man deciding to let rip a bit in the twilight of his life. Some of it's amusing, but I bet the stuff he'll not discuss in an interview would be much more interesting.

See Mick, this just confirms what I thought all along. You'll be redlining the thing the whole time. That's not a stress free backup as it wouldn't put me at ease. I picked up on it at the bass bash when we played yours through that Vanderkley 2x10. Tone was fine, but it just didn't have enough juice to be taken seriously as either a back up or standalone amp. Had they done a 500w version I'd imagine my opinion would be different.

You're basing that on your situation of needing gig money to live. The OP doesn't, so therefore he doesn't have to put up with idiots or people he can't stand. I agree with @spongebob. Life is too short to put up with crap like this, but one thing is irrefutably true of all those situations. Once the fun's gone, it's gone and it doesn't come back. Ever. I'd much rather work on my own material for a bit than put up with a crap situation just to "be in a band."

The Dean 12 is somewhat "meh." I would avoid. As for them discontinuing the Edge, I'd imagine they wanted the Rhapsody basses to match. Pity that they're not that great.

Oh dear. If you'd have said when you were round I could have shown you why a whammy or pitch shifter on a 4 string doesn't quite work. Just get an 8 string and use it all the time. It's what I did. Quite like the non-alcoholic beer analogy in comparison to getting an 8 string. Maybe it applies equally to both of our situations. In my case, if I ever drink again, Mrs Wolverine will be "upset" and possibly leave. Maybe in your case, the purchase of an 8 string will lead to Mrs Know saying "enough is enough!!" It could all end in tears. Or, you could just buy an 8 string and be done with it. 😉

Also, the invalidation of his dental insurance.

I look forward to it mate!

Like all new things it'll need a bit of adjustment. I can play a 12 or 8 exactly like I do a 4. As @Al Krow saw the other day. What I would say is get it really well set up. If it's a difficulty pressing the strings down, get the action lowered. I got my 12 fret stoned and the action is stupidly low. If you're using fingers you might want to arch your hand slightly or pull through the strings more than you would normally. You can see what works for you.

That's really interesting Chris as I didn't know that about bergantino. I have to ask, have you ever played a TX600? It's woeful and Hartke have cooked the books on the watts. I'd never play one in setting where I had a choice even if it was free. A mate of mine bought one and he sent it back. I honestly didn't believe him until I played the thing myself. Utter Crap. As for Sheehan, he's using a helix so the Hartke is just a poweramp. Even before he had that I'd imagine most of his toneshaping was from his board rather than the LH1000. However, I digress. 😉

Yeah. "Not fashionable" was what I was looking for. Cheers @The59Sound. @ambient I tend to take endorsers with a pinch of salt. Is the Hartke TX600 really being endorsed by Victor Wooten for any reason other than money?! Aside from the fact it's awful of course. I see markbass have a Stu Hamm amp now not just Marcus Miller. Quite the coups, but I'd bet they're paying them for it and because they're all fantastic, they can make any old pile of junk sound great. Markbass stuff isn't junk of course. Gear choice for those folk I'd imagine is almost irrelevant in some ways other than how much they'll get paid for using it for a year or two.

Normally, I go on the Sunday, but this year Mrs Wolverine has plans, so I'll be there on the Saturday. Be good to say hi to folk.

It's funny you say that @discreet about the combo. I played a 1x15 Markbass combo at an audition a couple of weeks ago and it was total crap. There was no tweeter, so I had to make some quick decisions. I was playing my Wal and ended up with all the pots and pick attack pulled on the bass. On the amp I had to cut the bass, turn the filters off (does anyone use them?) and maxed out the treble and high mids. The sound was barely passable. I just couldn't get any snap or click out of it and it really put me off leading to me making a bit of a mess of it. Or, at the very least, I could have played a lot better. I hasten to add that I started this thread to see if somehow I'd missed the prevailing wind of opinion that Markbass were now regarded as a bit "meh," or if I was just imagining that was the case. It definitely wasn't to have a go at them. Let's face it, if my cabs were total rubbish I'd have flogged them long ago, but maybe I'm just waking up properly to the fact that they're possibly not going to give me what I want as easily as other brands.

To be fair @Lozz196 I've come round to agreeing with you on this. The Vanderkley was as harsh as the DI when I put the tone of the Precision back up. I had to roll it off a quarter to get where the Markbass was with the tweeters on full. When I was in my last band, the Sansamp out from my 12 string sounded like a buzzsaw. There was like no low end and the top end was just insane. In the end I used it only at very low levels for bite. Bonkers isn't it? If I change cabs it's got to be an upgrade. On the other hand, I'll have to get back into a band first to justify it. That's another thread full of tonto hilarity and woe in itself when I get round to writing about it to amuse folk. Hopefully soon.

As I said, the Spector is the better instrument. That's why it costs twice as much. I think that if I didn't have mine I'd be getting that or the the Schecter. It's what you're happy with really. You are completely right though, the Dean has less top than the Spector. The Spector has a better body material as the Dean is basswood, so I'd imagine it'd ding easier. However, it's your choice. As long as you're happy with it. Enjoy dude.

You should be the one who's bragging after getting virtually the same bass for half as much cash.

Just to clarify, I've got a USA Hamer not an Indonesian or Korean model.

It kind of seemed to me that there was quite a lot of people flogging the cabs. Probably that wasn't the case as I was looking at them so there was probably less than I thought. However, last night I had @Al Krow round at mine and we compared my cabs with his Vanderkley 2x10. Well, that was sickening. I've long thought that the line out signal from my sansamp is harsh in comparison to the cab sound with the tweeters maxed. After trying that 2x10 with the tweeter on max it was obvious. The sound got really harsh. So, either Vanderkley cabs are really bright or Markbass cabs are slightly dull. Or both. Either way, you'd assume it's be better as it cost twice as much.

If it's the Rhapsody you've got, I'd flog it and keep the spector. If it's the Edge you've got, I'd keep them both for a bit and choose in a few months as there's less in it. Out of the box the spector is better, but I think the Dean Edge plays slightly better as I preferred the neck profile slightly. It doesn't sound better though. Enjoy!

I've been wondering for some months about this. I've seen various comments along with the recent thread on dullness of the cabs. We'll leave the amps aside for the moment. Back in 2007 they were surfing on the move to lightweight gear. Nowadays virtually everyone is doing that. Leaving aside colour scheme here I'm talking about sound properties. I appreciate that they've probably been surpassed, by brands like Bergantino, Barefaced, Vanderkley and all them. The glut of Markbass cabs in the classifieds suggests that maybe they're not keepers? I imagine that the sourcing of work to Indonesia led to some more than negative publicity as did the move from B&C speakers to in house which allegedly may or may not be as good or well engineered. Just wondering what the views were. For the record, I have the Traveller 2x10 and 1x15 and I'm not stating an opinion of the newer stuff as I've got a previous generation of "made in Italy/B&C speakers" and I haven't played the newer ones. Are they now budget cabs in comparison? Just curious.

I saw the one on @Tech21NYC facebook feed this morning. I thought the distorted portion sounded like John Entwistle circa Live at Leeds. Just brilliant. I can't wait to get my hands on this and play through it. I feel that it's stuff like this that makes Tech21 brilliant. I was a bit reticent when I saw it was going to be a fixed crossover, however I'm pretty sure that's not going to matter from the videos. Genius bit of kit.