BassBod

What joeg said. I've always heard good things about Tom (but I've never used him) and he's in your part of town. Never hurts to talk about cash.....and you'll find out what the problem is. BB

Hi jwbassman I'm going in the opposite direction - I loved my SWR rack, (90 lbs cab and 30-40 lbs of pre/pwr amp). It always sounded good. But, I really appreciate the newer lighter stuff (EA esp) and don't use the bigger rack gear unless its a tour/big venue and there's plenty of people to load the van or its a really important recording where someone might appreciate (or even notice) a better sound. Whenever I've used the sansamp for recordings I've always been very impressed, in fact surprised, that it performs so well. People think of it as a fuzz box, but it can be more subtle. Enjoy looking for your solution - there's a lot of good rack gear out there - I'd recommend the SWR Grand Prix (very clean), any age of Alembic F1X/F2B (warm as toast) or the Trace GP12SMX. All great and sometimes available on evilbay.....or here? BB

I'd suggest that you try a sansamp bass driver in front of your existing EA. You can (with a bit of adjustment) use this to warm up the sound, and make it sound "older" if that makes sense? I did ths for ages with my SWR (Grand Prix or Studio 220 into 800 pwr amp) for blues and rock gigs. I've also done the same with an iamp500 / cxl112 and get very good results. It may not be a purist approach, but I've always found it works well and you don't have to cart extra heavy rack boxes about. Maybe I'm just getting old and lazy..... BB

Calton (UK) - moulded hard cases,made to order and to fit a specific instrument. All the "acoustic" people I work with use them and rate highly. Expensive and heavy, but the best I've seen. I'd also vote for the Hiscox - not too pricey but mine has survived countless flights and vans with only exterior damage - very impressed. I recently got a Harvest canvas bag (from Overwater). Very nice, seems strong but the back straps are set very high so you can't go through a door without taking it off your shoulder. I'll update in a few weeks when its done some work. BB

Passive bass - active box. Active bass - passive or active box. From the ones I've used it seems like you get a better sound from a cheap active box than a cheap passive box. Much depends on what you want it for - I use a sansamp a lot, but I often use it as an amp substitute or overdrive. I also use a radial Pro-DI (medium price passive) but this normally comes after a preamp send (to keep phantom power away). Both can/do sound excellent. You can easily over do the eq/emulation on the sansamp, so it pays to get to know it well (you can also switch it all off!) Another thing I've learned - an active DI that clips (runs out of headroom and distorts) sounds awful, but a passive DI can be more forgiving. For a live situation, with a loud band, I'd prefer to use a good passive DI run from the amp. Have a look at Orchid electronics - they have a cheap(ish) active design that I've also used for 10 years, and there's nothing wrong with the sound at all. BB

Hi stewblack, Looks like you don't live far from me - I've got a ply "knock about" upright and the Clifton EUB, so if you want to try one out....I can certainly explain the difference/process of moving from BG to upright. It is addictive though. And expensive. BB

Had a quick look again - WMP is ver 11, so that's current. I downloaded an audio file converter, and WMP works fine if I convert the H4's .wav files to .wma. If I don't then WMP won't open, play or burn these .wav files. There was an error message somewhere about these files missing a "PCM codec" whatever that means? Its too late to be trying to sort this out....so I'll look again over the weekend. Thanks for the interest! BB

Thanks peted, I've only had the H4 for a couple of days - it shows version 1.3 on startup, so I don't think any of the updates would apply. Still puzzled - had a look at a few Zoom discussion pages and there is no mention of this isuue? I suspect its as much about using better CD burners as the Zoom box? BB

Yes, iTunes converts and plays fine, but not WMP (or Sonic Record). But, if you import/export (as wav) through Audacity the resulting wav files are fine - I guess something is done to them in the process that the H4 doesn't do when it creates them?? Seems very strange to me, but them I can't seem to load photos onto message boards anymore.....where's my bass.. BB

I need some help with this - its a good little field recorder/usb audio interface. Like an Edirol, but with more built in stuff (mic simulations, effects etc). But when you record a .wav file (44.1khz,16 bit) it won't be recognised by (for example) Windows Media Player? This means you can't just copy files from the H4 to PC then burn a CD - you have to first copy them in/out of something like Audacity to get them to work?? I'm new to this digi stuff, and I just don't understand.. when is a .wav file not really a .wav file.....anyone got an explanation/fix? cheers BB

Hi Subaudio, I've had the same experience - my Clifton EUB was built with an adjustable bridge, and it was always set a lot higher than I expected. When I'd got used to it (36" scale, not 42") Mo made a fixed bridge, and I asked him to add a couple of mm's of extra height. It looks scary, but with the Innovation strings it sounds really good. Its also not hard to play, as long as you don't have two weeks off and then expect it to be easy....like I sometimes do. The main reason I never liked the NS bass was the ones I tried felt like bass guitars sitting on a drum stand- I guess this was just the setup? BB