molan

Looks like there will be a full review in BGM in a couple of months

[quote name='Mikkoantt' timestamp='1371071505' post='2109573'] Fodera Monarch. Best p&j bass I have ever played:) [/quote] My 86 Monarch was a cracking bass. Separate volume and tone for each pickup but also a, very handy, flick switch to go from neck P only to both pickups to bridge J. Gave a great array of options at the flick of a switch with fine control from the separate vol and tone pots

Conversely Fodera strings are all 10% off this month at BassGear Makes a 4 string set just £22.50 or a 5 set £27 (plus postage if you can't get to the store). I think you just need to put 'Birthday' in as redemption offer or phone Phil and say you'd like the Fodera Birthday offer. I really like their nickel sets and have been slowly swapping over from Elixirs over the last year or so. Id previously favoured DR Sunbeams but I prefer the Foderas now. I had a Monarch that came with the Wooten 40-95 set and quite liked the slinky 95 E. I've generally gone for a more standard 40-100 set now as the 95 was maybe a bit wimpy on my 33" scale Ritter. They aren't coated but, certainly with the nickel variety, I haven't found them harsh on my fingers (or fretboards), lol.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1369890156' post='2093941'] FYI, ATS gear is available through Phil Nixon's fantastic BassGear outlet,in Twyford just west of London [url="http://www.bassgear.co.uk/product-category/bass-amps-and-cabs/ats/"]http://www.bassgear....s-and-cabs/ats/[/url] I bet BCer Barrie (molan), who helps out st BassGear, will be along in a moment to add his thoughts on ATS [/quote] Thanks Clarky These really are amazingly well made amps & cabs. Superb pure sound quality but always sounding 'musical' and natural without that nasty sterility you get from some amps described as 'hi-fi'. The head in particular is one of those that really lets you hear the sound of your bass rather than starting off with a tone that the manufacturer thinks your bass should have! We had a customer in on Monday (another BC'er) who made the combination of the LBA5 head and a CX 310 & 312 cabs sound seriously nice with his funky GB bass. All the prices on the latest stock are significantly lower now that the range has been properly established and distribution is sorted too

Forgot - the main man behind Eden was David Nordschow. He now has his own new range of cabs called DNA. I don't know much about them other than that the Lowend Bass Shop in the USA sells them.

I've been to trade shows where Marshal have had Eden on display. . . Buried away in a corner, nothing plugged in or able to be tried out. No product demonstrations or even a salesperson capable of talking about them. If this is how they treat the brand in front of dealers you have to wonder what the quality control of manufacture is like

[quote name='lowerbassment' timestamp='1369662506' post='2091304'] Very interesting and GAS-inducing ;-) What is your impression how well the CN112 (single or pair) would work with the Markbass Big Bang? I think in an earlier post you mentioned the Big Bang to match well with the CN212. [/quote] I have to admit that the Big Bang has really grown on me over the past few days. It seems to have a faster attack than the TH500 and a generally cleaner sound if you leave the controls flat. The clever thing is that you can get close to the Aggie's tone with some judicious use of both the Big Bang's filter controls whereas you can't really dial out the natural colouration that's in the TH500. The real revelation after a few weeks of testing is the ATS500 head. For a pure clean tone, without sterility, it slays a lot of other heads in the 500w lightweight bracket. Of course it's a lot more expensive but it just oozes quality The nice thing about the CN cabs is that they allow you to hear the differences between the heads quite clearly. However, after extended listening it's obvious that there's a mid hump compared to something that's far more neutral like the ATS 312 or 310. There seems to be a real trend amongst a lot of cab manufacturers to program in a mid biased sound to their cabs these days. I can understand why they are doing it but there is a tendency for some of them to get very nasal sounding and I think this would get quite wearing after a while.

They both look 'home-made' to me

Back in the days when I owned an Oldsmobile '58 convertible I used to go to this every year - always a great atmosphere & always seemed to be sunny

Not as bad as the mistake I once made. . . Had an audition with a band looking for both bass & drums. The drummer & I didn't know each other but locked in really well and immediately got on with each other. We nailed all the songs we'd been given to learn & picked up some others really quickly. Everything was going well, the band guitarist was talking about best nights to get together, which new songs to learn etc. As we were packing up I noticed he had a Spurs scarf in his bag. I asked him, in a very friendly way, if he was a Spurs fan. He immediately turned on me and asked why I wanted to know & if I was an Arsenal fan. I, laughingly said I was a season ticket holder. He then spun on the drummer and said he supposed he was a Gooner as well - the drummer smiled and said that actually he was a season ticket holder at Chelsea. The guitarist stomped off without another word and the pair of us got a very curt rejection the next day saying we weren't the sort of people he was looking for. . .

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1370767975' post='2105195'] La Bella now make flats specifically designed from string thru basses, such as [url="http://www.labella.com/products/760fs-tb/"]these[/url]. [/quote] Somewhat bizarrely even though La Bella make strings they quote for thru-body stringing their most senior string guy very strongly recommends never stringing flats through the body! I had a long chat with him about this and he said that it makes no appreciable difference to either tension or tone but that, unless set up perfectly, it regularly destroys string tonality and they go 'dead' really quickly. Of course there's the issue of breakage as well but I've not actually seen this. I have seen some E & A strings looking a bit sad & definitely heard E's losing definition quickly and sounding dull and lifeless compared to the other three

As BRX says, if you want to buy as an investment it really needs to be 100% original. Values of non-original basses fluctuate all the time and, when the market is rising, it's the all original ones that rise fastest and make most money. £1,395 is a good price for an all original '77. Colour can be important in late 70's basses as well plus weight makes a real difference. Anything over 10lbs will be worth to most buyers and close to 9lbs (so long as it doesn't have nasty neck dive that some light weight Fenders have) will sell a lot easier. Original case can make a big difference as well.

At it's best punk was raw excitement and Great fun to be involved in. I moved to London at pretty much the height of punk's popularity (into Billy Idol's room when he moved into the flat next door) and, at times, London was buzzing with great gigs, clothes and attitude. Some of the music was inspiring and some of it was dross but, at the heart, it was mostly just great fun. Dying your hair crazy colours (or should that be Krazy Kolors?), wearing lots of leather & plastic, studs, lime green mohair, chains, black nail varnish (oh how I loved my black nails), mascara, cheap blues easily available and just generally hanging out with your mates at gigs. This last point was really important for me. Live music was really what it was all about for a lot of people and we went to gigs 3-4 nights a week, every week and always finding new stuff. Reggae really kicked in at the same time so visiting some sound system nights was pretty much obligatory. I spent a fortune on import 12" singles. £4.50 a throw in the late 70's and I was only earning £2,500 a year in my first proper job. I'm sure there were some great other times, from a musical perspective, to be living in London but this was certainly one of the best in my lifetime

I have a couple of favourites from people I've seen live. The most recent was Paul Turner at the Jazz Cafe with Shuffler. Mostly using a '66 Jazz through an Aguilar DB751 into a pair of Aguilar GS 410 cabs. Augmented by an Alleva Coppolo 5 on a couple of numbers and a awesome pedal board. The entire gig is on YouTube but you don't really get a feel for just how good he sounded from this recording. His playing was, of course, excellent but it was the core tone he had that blew me away. Expertly mixed to leave a nice little tonal spectrum for him to fill without getting mashed by the kick drum The other was, I think, Dave Sutton playing with Lucinda Williams at the Hard Rock in New Orleans. He was using what looked like a Fender Pino but could just have been an old P bass. Through a classic Ampeg valve head and a matching 8x10. I'd always read a lot about the combination of a P and an Ampeg stack sounding great together but had never heard anything quite this good before. Deep low pulsating bass but never flabby or ill defined. Fantastic mix as well - makes such a difference

My LPB 'Herbie' is looking rather nice these days (although it's not an actual CS bass):

How does this list sound. . . '64 Jazz, Sonic blue, New Old Stock, white guard, rosewood board, matching headstock - basically the same as the one above! '60 Jazz, three tone sunburst, mild relic, tort guard, stack knobs, rosewood board '64 Jazz, Olympic white, mild relic, tort guard, matching headstock, rosewood board '68 Jazz, 3TS, mild relic, tort guard, rosewood board with blocks (this may change to a '66 'transition') '59 Precision, Lake Placid blue, mild relic I know where these might be landing in a few months time (and it's not my house!)

I've tried these for music through my iPhone and they sounded pretty good. Didn't get a chance to hear them back to back with my Grados but was definitely impressed.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1370627340' post='2103735'] ..and you know what his head looks a lot smaller in real life.. [/quote] You should see me when I get wet - it expands like a balloon

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1370625724' post='2103692'] I think that is the most beautiful bass i've ever seen. And that's coming from someone who doesn't normally like relic'd basses. [/quote] I keep thinking about selling my one as the only Fender I play these days is my original '63. Of course, mine isn't a CS but it does have the LPB & FR undercoat, lol. Also has a brazilian rosewood board now which is lovely. Must take some new pics and add them to the old build thread!

If you're looking for new gear then the Carvin micro combos are good and surprisingly loud. The 2x10 and 1x15 have enough volume for smaller gigs but you'll need an extension cab to cut through against a loud drummer or multiple other guitars that are cranked. The big plus point on these is that they are made in the US with quality components and are much more reliable and well built than a lot of the shoddy Chinese made stuff out there.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1370474937' post='2101705'] It's worth mentioning that there is , according to many people , a direct correlation between weight and sound . A lot of builders and players claim that harder , denser woods sound better and give more punch . The Celinders that Molan mentions are a case in point - they tend to use very dense Danish ash that weighs a lot but probably contributes to the remarkable sound of those basses . I personally think slightly lighter basses can sound just as good in most cases , but I've never done particulaly extensive comparisons , I must admit . What I do know is that if a bass is too heavy for you , the only remedy is to get rid of it , because is a fault that can't be fixed , if you see what I mean . [/quote] There some things that can be done to reduce weight but you might be playing around the margins. I had an Alembic for a while that had been professionally restored, by Alembic, with a specific design to reduce the weight significantly. Of course it was a weighty beast to start with so they had a good base from which to work. I can't remember the final weight reduction but it was a lot of work and transformed the bass (according to the guy that commissions the work). I've done stuff like fitting Hipshot ultra-light tuners and lighter weight bridges and was surprised at the difference (especially on neck heavy basses). However, there's not a lot you can do with a heavy old bass body to reduce weight unless you want to get into major woodworking and that's often not really worth doing.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1370470390' post='2101625'] +1 you have every right to be picky, in fact on one level you are doing them a favour by not auditioning if you are not into it. Nothing worse than spending a few weeks with someone and then have them pull out because its not really their thing. On the other hand, they wanted you to learn 25 songs, which is ridiculous if you ask me, but it does suggest that you were the ONLY person they were auditioning that night so they probably had to fork out hard earned off the back of you backing out at the last minute. Maybe try learning the songs before the day of the audition next time so you don't find yourself in the same boat 😜 [/quote] I first saw the list of songs on Sunday evening and had told them I was out all of Monday. First chance to try them was Tuesday AM and audition was Wednesday afternoon I should simply have said no as soon as the list arrived but I didn't know half of the songs so hadn't realised how 'samey' they all were until I downloaded them all and got a chance to listen to them back to back. I'll certainly know better next time

Fodera XL sets will fit a 5 string. Really nice strings too