Wolverinebass

I finally got to play one of these a few weeks ago. It's just awful. Almost comedically crap. My friend returned it which is no surprise. This amp represents the decline that Hartke have been in for ten years. I never liked the LH series as well as the kilo as there was no "flat" setting. I like to sculpt my tone and you can't do that with them. They should have taken the pre-amp from the HA series and bang it in a 1000w class D power section. Job done. But no, they're just screwing everything up. This insanity makes Trace Elliot look well managed.

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1495999525' post='3308048'] I have never seen a TE V8 for sale, but there weren't many to start with. [/quote] Kiwi sold his about 3 years ago. There was another one sold by Hiram as well not long after that. But, yeah. Rare.

That's funny. He lives about a 5 minute bus ride from my house. I'd always assumed that he lived in west London after coming to a few bashes and after I met him at the Gallery a year or so ago. After all, everyone seems to live in west London. Maybe one day a progressive metal band might look for a bass player even remotely near me....

On my last band's ep I did slap on a Hamer 12. It's much more difficult than most people think. For a start, the string spacing is quite narrow and people that have wider fingers would struggle to get their index finger under to pull without playing the next 3 strings. Action is crucial. I appreciate that everyone has different tastes, but if you want it as stupidly low as I do, you'll have to go the whole hog of fret stoning and possibly saddle filing. Mine plays like butter now thanks to Martin at the Gallery. I wished I had more of a chance to use it these days. I seem to be playing my Wal more. For all of you who are possibly gassing for one, I give you a few words of caution. You'll suck all the top end of the guitar signal if you use it properly. Once this is noticed, you've got problems. They'll love you for that. It's an immensely difficult instrument to record right. You really need a clean low end and distortion on top to get the best out of it. The sonic space it takes up is mind boggling. If you're going to use it it kind of has to be the centrepiece of the instrumentation as it takes over everything. If you're a precision with flats person, this probably isn't for you. I love mine. It just kills.

This is going to be harsh. I now have virtually no excuse except that they haven't given custom neck or nut widths a box to specify dimensions or profile. Better than warmoth definitely. Very evil and bank balance destroying.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1493582433' post='3289269'] Always question why a drummer wants to start a band. Good drummers are even rarer than good bass players. I'm always deeply suspicious of any drummer or bass player who is bandless but wants to play. [/quote] Maybe they've got young children. Maybe they want to perform their own material and have just started looking for people. Maybe they aren't interested in covers. Maybe they like specific types of music that are difficult to play and so the chances of finding people who are willing and able to commit is limited. Maybe their job has had awful hours until now. Just saying that there are always reasons that aren't just that the person in question is awful. On the other hand, my reply comes from someone who hasn't played a gig in 2 years. Be suspicious! Ha!

Am I the only person who watched Jon Stockman and thought it just sounds like a Warwick? It's certainly more of a mild setting than I tried the thing on at LBGS. This I think is a good thing for everyone really as it shows the almost ludicrous flexibility of it. The day Darkglass sell something with presets they'll have my money.

Lovely bass. Nice one. I'm just disappointed that this thread is not about Kia-Ora's deadly rival for soft drink supremacy in 1987.

If that configuration tool works like Warmoth, I'm so in there. For days. Weeks. Months. On the plus side, hopefully it'll clear up the "how much does this option cost?" nonsense that is the case now with prices a bit hidden from direct view.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1492757127' post='3282866'] John Stockman Goliath playthrough with Alpha/Omega: [url="http://youtu.be/nm7e9zN9eLc"]https://youtu.be/nm7e9zN9eLc[/url] MULTIPLE EDITS: HOW ON EARTH DO YOU EMBED A YOUTUBE CLIP!!! [/quote] Remove the s after HTTP.

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1492336388' post='3279437'] MIDI presets, on a bass amp, seriously?? The most bizzare complaint ever? [/quote] It's not that bizarre. If you think this thing is flexible now, pile that on and it'd be unbeatable. No setting up for change of basses, just press one button and off you go. I really hope I'm not coming over as having a go at a great product, but if this had it I'd have one, no questions. Even if it cost £300 more. Because it doesn't, it suffers (or would do the way I'd use it) from what things like the Tech 21 Dug Pinnick amp would. Dirt is amazing, but the clean sound is less so. You couldn't swap the distortions mid song on the same engine so you'd be stuffed. Just a thought but not one that will keep anyone else up at night....

[quote name='Cuzzie' timestamp='1492249318' post='3278935'] The amp is rackable, there was a guy on TB who showed a solution, think it's 2U space. MIDI, I will give you that one, but I find it versatile enough with its stock sound and a couple of pedals out front adding stuff when I need [/quote] Not having read the thread on talkbass I have to ask do the words "warranty invalidation" hove into view at this point? It's just it sounds like a bodge with no official product. It's not like they're doing anything unusual here. Loads of amp manufacturers have jumped on the "small box" non rackable type amp. I just don't dig on it. The point I was making is if the thing had presets you wouldn't need a few pedals in front of it as you'd have 128 tones to play with. However, we shall see what comes out in the future.

[quote name='bjelkeman' timestamp='1492207681' post='3278752'] M900 being spongy is not something I have heard or experienced before. Rather the opposite. Maybe it was the bass. [/quote] Quite possibly. If I'd been playing my own bass through it I'd be able to say more clearly, but the low end of the clean channel had that sponge type Markbass feel to it. However, the dirts were just outrageous. Mental really how good they were. For me, I never run a bass sound entirely clean so I suppose I'm being unfair, but certainly I believe that darkglass have missed a trick in 2 ways. First, the amp isn't rackable and 2nd there are no presets controllable by midi. If it had both of those (even if it cost more) I'd have one.

I tried it at the London bass guitar show. I thought it was really good. I was playing a Maurusczyk Hellwood which was a really nice bass, but a bit "soft" for my tastes. I tried the microtubes amp as well on its own and in combo with the Alpha and Ultras. The gain was amazing, but I felt the clean was too spongy. Not using a bass I know well it could have been that, but I was unconvinced. Darkglass have their target market down now and quite frankly, they can charge anything and people will pay it. I'm not going to say their pedals or amps aren't worth the cash, but they are approaching market tolerance. I mean £90 for an amp bag?!! They said to me that it was memory foam. I said that for that price I'd want a mattress rather than a tiny bag. I still can't make up my mind if I was joking or not. However, the Alpha is a great pedal and a lot of people will love it regardless of the price.

That's crap. CD Baby are better. Only downside is that you get paid in dollars.

I'm still of the opinion that this is a total waste of time as its so gimmicky. Unless you're playing a jazz gig there is no way the elf and that cab will be enough. If they're going to roll out some much bigger amps then obviously I'm interested, but at the moment it looks like a gimmick to get people talking about them again which has worked to be fair. After all, who ever thought that TE would release an amp the size of a microchip which you needed a magnifying glass to change the dial settings? As a setup though, I think 200W is laughable in today's climate. Such a pity.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1490680886' post='3266902'] Beautiful! And yes, being shipped with insanely low action seems to be the norm, for some reason! [/quote] Please stop it! I'm trying not to get one! However it sounds like Adrian's set up is much like mine (sub 1mm at the 12th fret), and this seems like something I can get on board with. Ironically, I can't get my Wal that low and I'm not shimming the neck on a bass like that!

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1490470723' post='3265402'] Finally got round to finishing mine - very happy with it. I could have had it done earlier but I went a bit overboard on the box! [IMG]http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp133/alienrat/Combined_zpsjurmb5sp.jpg[/IMG] [/quote] That looks great! Did you do the decal yourself?

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1490517560' post='3265565'] Westside are well known for controlling prices. And they won't warranty repair non EU (soon to be non U.K.) bought items, they are non even keen on U.K. Items outside of the warranty period. And Mesa won't release schematics to help local techs do non-warranty repairs. [/quote] That's absolutely outrageous! What a bunch of tossers! Maybe they went to the same customer service school that educated most of the Rickenbacker and Gibson upper management..... If that's true, I'm never buying a Mesa product ever if they won't repair it out of warranty or if I bought it in the States to avoid them ripping me off.

This is depressing about the Mesa pricing. It seems to me that the formula which distributors apply is this: Take US pricing. Remove dollar sign from the front and replace with a pound sign. Add £200 to whatever the number was. Tech 21 are another example of this syndrome and why their stuff is a bit pricey over here rather in New York. Their distributor is screwing us and the shops have no option but to pass the cost on to us. The joys of middlemen 20%'ing tosspots.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1489943942' post='3260992'] I'm just wondering what colour now...the bass is black with a lot of chrome. [/quote] Red LEDS. My buzzard is the same colour scheme and they're about right. I've found basses with green or blue too piercing.

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1489767782' post='3259702'] I hate to argue with somweone who's had first-hand experience, but I can't see why that Peavey wouldn't be a good amp. Everything else Peavey makes is, and it's specs say it's -3dB is like 5Hz. Don't worry about the 120Hz hpf, it's not really a hpf it's a crossover for PA duty. [/quote] Yeah, but I was talking about the sound with that disengaged. There was virtually no signal below about 85hz. One good thing about having a spectrum analyser in my rig with a 31 band eq is that this stuff can be tested very easily. It's my experience and I'm only disappointed that it didn't work out for me.

From experience, the Peavey IPR1600 is crap. It has a low cut filter on the back for 120hz. Even with that turned off I don't believe that the cut off is much lower. Anaemic is a pretty good way to describe it. One of the channels on mine failed and it was replaced under warranty, but I didn't trust it again and got my Yamaha p5000s which although only 100w a side more completely kills. Also, my rig is midi controlled so it was the same settings with the same cabs and lo and behold I actually got some bass. Okay the Yamaha isn't light, but that'd be the only reason anyone would get that Peavey because the tone suck on it is horrific.

That's outrageous. Just outrageous. Nobody should own a bass that good looking.

I played a Fractal a few years ago. Whilst I didn't think the distortions were that great for bass, the rest of the effects were really good. Like everything, it takes time to learn to programme and you either like that fact or not. The bass and sims were tacked on somewhat at that time. I don't know if they're still a bit ropey now. Wouldn't mind playing a helix to try it. Seems like a good bit of kit. The main question is how much flexibility and processing power do you need?