hamfist

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1359542640' post='1956243'] Hey folks Has anyone added a thumbrest to a BB? I just picked up a BB414 and really like it, but having come from a 5-string I can't quite find the right place to put my thumb when playing the E-string. The edge of the P pickup seems *slightly* too far away (might get used to it I suppose) and since I prefer to play closer to the neck I'm not going to use the J pickup as a thumbrest! Cheers [/quote] Unc, sorry for a hugely late response, but I added a rest inbetween the two pickups on a BB424X I had last year. It did exactly what I wanted it to. Got it from [url="http://www.classicguitarboxes.com/thumb_rests.php"]http://www.classicguitarboxes.com/thumb_rests.php[/url] . I havn't got a picture of the BB with one on, but I have put one on my current G&L SB2 in exactly the same place. It's only very small and subtle, but anyway. Here ...... [url=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/sb-2-blue-b.html][/url]

Just bought Mark's BB414 fretless. Bought via Paypal. He couriered it to me. All went absolutely painlessly. Mark did exactly as he said he would. Communicated well. The bass is a cracker. I would very happily buy from him again.

[quote name='Iana' timestamp='1363589946' post='2014333'] the Baer is very tight in the lows and VERY aggressive in the upper mids.[/quote] I agree with Ian's capitalisation of "very". You can tame them, but if you do not want a very present, slightly in-yer-face, tone, the Baer may not be the best cab for you

I'd second the recommendation of a Lomenzo Hyperdrive. It is very, very good at what it does, if it's the sound you are looking for. As for Darkglass, what tones are you looking for ? If you want a "modern" slightly scooper, cutting, metal-type drive then the B3K is the best there is. For a more traditional, vintage OD, then I'd go for the brand new Darkglass Vintage. We don't actually have them in the UK yet, but they are on the way. The soundclips are awesome.

Steve is a top bloke. Bought my Warwick Thumb from me. Great comms. Did exactly as he said he would. Easy, easy deal. I would happily deal with Steve again.

[quote name='BassFaceRudd' timestamp='1363463898' post='2013137'] Cheers mate tht will help a lot! I Avnt got a budget really dude but around a £1000 would be great!, size and weight I don't really mind about, the type of music we play is stuff like biffy clyro, red hot chili peppers, stuff like that really and some classic rock in there too [/quote] Start off with trying a lot of the good advice already given in this thread. If you are serious about the band and gigging then I'd say you will be wanting to upgrade your amp sooner or later. You have a lovely bass, so why play it through some duff old amp and cab. Anyway, for the genres you mention, take a look at Gallien Krueger (GK) amps, maybe an MB500 or MB Fusion. As for cabs ... yours may be OK, what is it ? A couple of GK 112 neo cabs would be light and very loud with a 500W amp. THere are so many great amps and cabs out there though, but for someone new to the scene, into the type of music you are, GK is a good place to start.

It's a looker ! The finish on those Legends is very nice. Have fun with it !

It's possible that your amp is faulty and thence a bit quiet. It's also possible that your bandmates are truly loud and that a 150W amp is not up to the job .... quite possible. First step is to boost your mids, not the bass frequencies so much. Mids let you be heard and also are perceived as louder. Low frequencies take a lot more energy. Therefore low power amps struglle to get loud and low. If you want advice on potential new amps/cabs then you'll need to give an idea of what your budget is, and whether size/weight is an issue or not. Also, what type of music would also help

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1363429028' post='2012562'] What do folk think? My Thumb NT had an 18v pre-amp, My Streamer is 9v. What's in the Thumb BO? Is any of this even significant? [/quote] Don't know if it is significant but my 2006 Thumb BO4 is 9V.

My Thumb BO4 is not particularly high output ..... unless you have the bass knob goosed of course, which will clip the input on many things on most active basses

As Thumbo advises, the Ovnilab site is by far the best online resource for compressor advice.

[quote name='Captain Codpiece' timestamp='1363305018' post='2011497'] i think it may be the valves, i recon getting some early gain ones will let it breakup easier. [/quote] I doubt it. I have put some pretty massive signals into mine and still no OD from the amp. I've also tried a couple different 12AX7's in the front end too. Just it's design I think. Nothing a decent pedal won't sort. Of all the many, many OD's I've tried I find the Ashdown Lomenzo hyperdrive is the best fit with this amp for adding a touch of grit.

Between those two I'd go for the GK, even if they were the same price.

[quote name='V4lve' timestamp='1363258643' post='2010502'] Interesting. I have an ongoing pot crackle thing that I had learned to live with but has started to bother me again. I isolated it this morning. If I play a few notes and then fiddle with the pots they crackle. If I then give the strings a good wipe up and down the neck a few times with the same hand and then fiddle with the pots they don't crackle. It's repeatable. There is a ton of shielding in the cavity and under the cover and everything seems earthed (to my limited knowledge). Is there anything else I can do to get rid? Ta [/quote] I'm guessing you've now put your glasses on and checked for rogue fine bits of fluff that might be grounding out the pickup to the string ?

Over the last few days I've been suffering from a very annoying "crackling pot" on one of the pickups on my G&L SB-2 bass. No probs I thought, I'd changed the pots recently so it must be a dodgy solder joint. So, in I go, re-do all the joints .... no better. OK, must be the pot, thinks me, Brand new CTS pot is duly installed. With a smug look on my face I test it out, only to discover that this damned crackling sound is still there on the bridge pickup only. I seemed to get about 20 seconds of playing with no crackling and then it would quickly get worse until it was unuseable on that pickup. Neck pickup and sound behaves perfectly. What would you're next move have been ? Anyway, in frustration I have a very close close look at everything and I then notice a tiny, tiny strand of fluff that is just bridging the gap from the pickup to the G string. When I started playing it wasn't touching, but after a few seconds, a static charge builds up between the pickup and the string attracting the strand of fluff towards the string. Whenever it touched the string it gave an electrical connection between the string and pickup and caused a crackle. It's definitely a first for me. So anyway a good clean and a slight lowering of the pickup, to reduce the chances of it happening again, has sorted it out. Just thought I'd post it here as I'd never come across that problem before.

[quote name='Captain Codpiece' timestamp='1363118274' post='2008893'] just had a quick little 10 min mess about OMG! nice rich tone. i found the bass switch to be a little heavy when past 12'oclock but i found a sweet tone,mids at 2 with switch on, bass at 12 treble at 10/11 with gain cranked to 3-4 and use volume to balance nice very happy with how things turned out and hopefully get a loud practice/gig in soon [/quote] Excellent. A question ...... does your amp give any overdrive with the gain knob, or not ? Many folks seem to find that their spyder 550/ touring 550 won't overdrive whatever the strength of signal you put into them. However, others do get the OD. I'm convinced Ashdown changed the design at some point.

[quote name='martin8708' timestamp='1363038561' post='2007535'] As a past owner of an Ashdown 550 Spyder , I found that particular amp to be very stong in the mids and struggled to get a full bass sound . See if you can borrow another head (my personal favourite is Markbass ) and you may find that you don't have to turn down the upper mids . All the best Martin [/quote] No need to change, the Spyder sounds fantastic through the ML112's. Just need to make sure that the "mid voice" switch is in the up position, and mids at about 11 to 11:30 (o'clock).

Looks lovely Cap'n.