attackbass

Hi everyone, Just wondering if anyone has bought a John East Preamp directly from the website? They seem to be all out of stock at Bass Direct and Bass Gallery and I've sent John a couple of emails asking questions in the last month but haven't had any response. Just wondering if he is still making them at the moment before I put in an order! Anyone have any info as I'd love to get a J tone in my bass!

Hi @TrevorR How are you finding these pickups? Im looking at replacing the pickups in my 70s jazz which after some time of not playing this particular bass find the bass sounds thin, very bright and almost hollow, especially the bridge pickup. The current pickups are vintage wound single coil types which I don't think are a good match for a light swnap ash body, roasted maple neck, badass bridge and 70s bridge pickup spacing!! Looking for a fuller, warmer sound with a sweeter top end whilst retaining the clarity of the jazz bass sound and noiseles would be a plus. Was looking at the nordstrand vintage hum cancelling ones but I'm intrigued by these... Just wish there were sound clips somewhere! Would you recommend them? What were the pickups you swapped out for these?

I was once briefly an Eden artist, just as Marshall had taken them over. I wanted the WT550 amp and 410XLT. I was told I couldn't have the WT550 and could only get the WTP amps. The 410XLT was incredible, my favourite cab of all time. So responsive, clear and punchy The WTP600 was utter garbage. Worst amp I ever used and just didn't have any real volume. The DI out was terrible. I don't know who designed that amp but it was terrible. During a gig the clip light would be flashing away and eventually would go solid red and would have to turn the amp of and on to stop it from shutting down. I feel like they should've built a lightweight version of the XLT cabs that were still high quality. The original Eden Amps weren't very heavy anyway. It seemed an odd match up between Eden and Marshall. It's still a shame theyve gone tho!

Over Christmas I decided I had had enough with my Fender Jazz USA 75 Reissue and the fact that although playable I wasn't happy with the neck. The neck would not lie as flat as I would like ( I like 0 relief) and I had completely played through the frets. The bass was my main touring and recording bass for a decade and had travelled all over the world with me and had all the battle scars that went along with that! So I decided the neck was coming off and was going to be replaced with a new neck and also the thick clear poly finish was going to be stripped for a refinish ( which turned out would be necessary anyway!) Deciding that I wouldn't try to recreate the bass but instead create something new and different, I imported a Fender Mexican Roasted Vintera 60s from Germany in the early days of brexit and bought some Hipshot HB3 tuners and I dropped the bass off at my tech! The 3 bolt micro tilt neck system had to replaced and converted to a 4 bolt which meant the holes had to be plugged with quartersawn ash which were grain matched, as the 4 bolt plate didn't cover the holes. This is where the refinish became necessary as to sand the plugs down mean sanding the finish to get them flat with the body. So after a bit of discussion and Google image search I opted for a thin Inca Silver Nitro over White and a nee parchment 70s pickuard. We also decides to get some new saddles for the Badass bass bridge 2 to try and get the strings more centered over the pole pieces. Ater weeks of waiting and various photo updates I went to pick up the bass and spent a couple of hours with my tech to set it up and sort out the bridge saddles. I know that to some this may be sacrilege and that I should've kept the instrument as it was because the dents all bring back memories but I have instruments to play and I have far better memories of touring the world than smashing a bass around! I absolutely love what it has become. The roasted neck is amazing, the back of the neck is satin whilst the fingerboard and headstock face is poly and is definitely a better profile and overall neck than the US neck. The action is amazing and the bass seems to be even more resonant and clear in tone. The refinish is beautiful and with the black knobs and chrome hardware and parchment pickuards has an almost old sports car vibe. The finish will also naturally wear with age as it's nitro so I'm looking forward to that process happening over time! My tech also now believes that the old neck is actually probably fine but just the frets are completely shot in it... Despite that still happy I chose to do what I did!! And here's a photo of the finished bass

Hi, I have one and it's a great, versatile little unit and indeed does away with the need for a compressor and tuner on your pedalboard. I agree with the above apart from the drive, and this may because I use it differently.... I tend to use it for a gritty amp sound more than a dedicated overdrive. I also find the pedal sounds better to my ears in series mode rather than parallel. The thing which I find a bind is that I need a new power supply to now power all the pedals I have as it takes a fair amount of power.. I've yet to use it in the real world as I got it a week before lockdown and it's in competition with my Broughton SV-Pre... But that is in part down to me tracking a punk rock record at the moment and I'm going to assume that the EBS will shine for the more funk/jazz and pop stuff I do so I can see both sitting on my board. Also... I love the compressor, so simple and feels and sounds fat playing into it.

I play both and enjoy both. I feel more connected with fingers but sometimes, especially in recording situations the pick wins out in terms of tone and feel.. I was always anti pick and begrudgingly used them for recording If the producer pushed for it but then I saw Chris Chaney play and I realised how cool it was to be great doing both well! It's all about music at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how you get it out as long as you get it out!! (Music that is) 🤣

Used the AD200b and 8x10 for a number of years touring and recording.. Can do a nice clean glassy tone. It was a great amp, the eq did very little really and it sort of has that orange sound, always felt it was quite a mid forward amp in comparison to say an SVT and not as clear as an SVT but it broke up a lot easier and sounded great still.. The 8x10 is amazing..preferred it over the ampeg 8x10 it just seemed to go deeper and was more articulate. Actually got to compare them side by side one tour. Uses it for a few wedding gigs at one point but as the amp warmed up and I started to play more and more into it, the tone became a lot more BSSM RHCP than nice, inoffensive wedding bass tone. I loved it haha.

I have had an OK experience with bassdirect on average... Buying low cost things like strings, straps etc mainly and found that they have always replied pretty quickly to my emails and offer advice freely. I did buy some nordstrand pickups and a Delano preamp this summer though which ended in a bit of a fiasco and I can't remember exactly what happened but I had to chase the order after a few days, then the preamp arrived and only one of the two pickups I think, so I emailed an explained I was missing a pickup and they said they would send out the other one, the following day two sets of pickups turned up which I was slightly confused about and then the day after that the original missing pickup arrived! I of course returned the extra pair of pickups, I would never take advantage of a business big or small in that way but I did wonder how it had happened and it was a bit of a pain to send them back and to worry if they did make it back to the store. Mark did deduct the postage money from a string order to be fair so it was al good and would still buy from them.

I've been loving the sound of the PJ model that bassist Josh Paul has been using on a few of his instagram videos recently. I used the older J version model in a studio for a song about a decade ago and it sounded and felt awful to play, I imagine it hadn't been set up properly. But what I have heard recently of them they sound really good! Don't know what's changed but whatever it is, it's for the better!

Thanks for the link and the info, I think I know what to do now hopefully!

I've got a Delano preamp on its way to me and it looks simple enough but I am confused as to what to do with the various grounds coming off the tone, volume and preamp. Do I just send the ground from the blend to the volume and then to the jack input and also send the preamp ground to the jack input? Do I need to wire one of them to the bridge?! Usually I can wire passive instruments but not sure what I am to do here as it's not clear in the Diagram (to me)! Here is the diagram

I used one on a song on an album once. It was hanging on a wall in a studio in eagle rock and looked and sounded like it hadn't been played in years. Worked perfectly for this sting-esque verse on a song! We also used it with an ebow which sounded glorious through a Neve console tho I don't know if that actually got used for anything. Had no idea there were so many variations of the bass!

Microbass 3 user here! Received mine just before lock down so haven't been able to gig it or use live! It's become very handy for silent bass practice with the headphone and aux input over the last few months. One thing I will say about the Drive section and the unit in general is that I have found I've gotten the best results using it in series and treating it like an amp. I find the drive is great in the lo setting, just adding some harmonics and edge/grit to the sound rather than using it as a full blown overdrive/distortion and switching from clean to overdrive. I find using it in series also gives you a slighter darker/warmer tone from the Hi-Fi EBS signature tone especially when using EMG loaded basses.. But you can add that brightness back in and have more control using the bright switch and the drive section mid EQ - found boosting roughly 4k there really helps add some presence if needee Don't miss a speaker/emulation sim either - the lo pass tone control works great if it's needed. I usually find that cab sims either sound nothing like their intended cabs or just feel very weird to play through. Currently enjoying using it with the clean channel flat, some compression, going series into the drive section with drive in Lo gain mode set at around 12 o'clock and the deep switch engaged and then adjusting the mids on that channel on how I'm feeling that day! One thing I saw mentioned in the original post was the issue of balance between clean and drive channels when using the blend. I think in serial mode the blend isn't really a blend, but just a control of how much of the clean volume channel is being pushed into the drive channel. I think in that setting it's best to put the blend to maximum and alter the drive to your taste. I haven't had any issues the of balancing between cleans and drive channels doing it that way - not that I do that anyway!

I've recently rediscovered my love for Warwick basses after years of playing fender type instruments. I have a 97 Corvette 5 string with EMGs, a 2001(?) Thumb Bolt on fretless and a recently required 2000 Streamer Stage 1 with EMGs and Aguilar OBP-2. The Corvette 5 I would say is probably the best made of the lot of them, with the wenge neck and plays very nicely but is very heavy. It also has the thicker tone of the three. I would says I prefer the EMG pickups over the MEC stuff - to me it just sounds a bit more solid in the low end and liver - probably finds a middle ground between the Spector and Warwick in terms of tone You can probably pickup up a German made 90s Warwick Corvette for not too much money. I've never played a Spector tho I was tempted by one when getting my streamer. Both companies no doubt make great basses but owning that Corvette for 20+ years and it never letting me down and still looking and playing well despite touring it heavily in the early 2000s made me stick with Warwick.

I had the Henry Thomas/Rock School bass VHS that my mum had bought me from Virgin Megastore the same day my parents bought me my first bass at the age of 10. I loved that tape, tho I can't remember much of it now I do still remember some of the warm and basic finger exercises from it. This must've been back in '95. It's amazing the life long relationship you can have with an instrument and that tape definitely helped point me in the right direction.

Just bought Ben's Streamer Stage 1. Good communication and very patient, as it took me a little while to find myself at a computer to pay for the bass! He did an excellent job packaging the bass up for me to survive the UPS delivery, waited all day in for them to pick the bass up and did it all with a broken wrist! The bass was as described and would happily buy from him again.

Yep, that is what I tried. No use.

Strange I never get DPD showing on interparcel. I would've used eurosender before when it was 24hr delivery insured for about £27 but since Covid-19 I think they've started to take the fosters and have had some bad reviews on here lately, when it comes to customer service. Didn't want to risk the bass taking 3-7 days hanging around warehouses.. it's bad enough as it is, we recently had a delivery that never showed up on the day it should've and didn't until 2 weeks later... Experienced similar things happen at my current job to. I've gone for using UPS through Transglobal express where I was able to insure the value of the bases for £18 on top of delivery... Can to about £44 to deliver to work. I'll see how that works out and update you on here! It seems a lot of people are having issues getting suitable couriers or a decent level of service currently. I don't understand why eurosender etc can use DPD yet booking it on as a general member of the population you can't due to size restrictions. I wonder if basschat could get a commercial account with somebody like DPD, work out how many instruments are shipped via the market place sales per week/month and offer it as an option... I don't know how realistic that would be, if it would mean somebody on the basschat actually having to sit and book the orders on I can't see happening haha, I'm sure they have enough on their plate!

Oh really - when i put the dimensions on DPD it either lists no available services or doens't let me book anything due to the size!

Think I'll try UPS and hope for the best! I would like to use DPD as the drivers who usually deliver to where I'm currently working take care of our parcels and stack the vans sensibly - but it's dimensions are too long! If only basschat could get a deal with DPD or UPS that would be amazing!

Portsmouth to Cardiff. In ordinary circumstances I would jump in the car and drive down but we are currently being held prisoner in Wales... That's what it's starting to feel like anyway and we can't go further than 5 miles from our homes lol