molan

I know a couple of people running a Monique pre-amp through an Aguilar Tone Hammer power stage. Sounds really nice and has graced a few very large stages We ran a head to head of the Demeter Minnie and the Tone Hammer (plus a low cost lightweight Carvin rack unit and a high cost, bloody heavy, 3u rack amp). The Minnie was most definitely the winner, especially at high volumes, but the Tone Hammer came very close and you effectively get the pre-amp for free vs the Minnie. For a little bit of on-stage oomph the TH350 might even do the job, it's surprisingly loud (especially into a 4ohm load).

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1398243784' post='2431918'] Just out of interest, are the Big Bang heads made in Indonesia as of now, or still Italy for the time being? [/quote] I think everything is slowly being moved over to Indonesia. I've tried a few things and made there now and I can't hear any differences and build quality seems identical so far. Obviously it's early days yet.

[quote name='leroydiamond' timestamp='1398186130' post='2431374'] The Markbass F500 is a cracking amp, and with a lot more oomph than the more common LM2/3. Within a rock setting, the F500 is probably the best micro amp I have ever used, with the ability to punch through the mix with considerable aplomb. Acres of headroom with this baby IME and superb EQ possibilities. Sadly it is no longer in production. [/quote] Have you tried the Big Bang? It's my personal favourite MB head. Seems to sit somewhere between the F500 and LMIII tonally and has a few more features than the LMIII as well. Edit - here's a review of the Big Bang that directly compares it to both heads : http://btpub.boyd-printing.com/iphone/article.php?id=1397751&id_issue=158781&src=&ref=

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1398191765' post='2431499'] Not quite sure what there isn't to like about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ0__5muEjA His melody at 5:26 gets me every time. Si [/quote] This band, as our American friends might say, kicks some serious ass

I'm not a huge JT fan (although I do like the funkier stuff) but his bands are almost always really classy and amazing musicians. There's some great live footage out there of the band holding seriously tight funky grooves. Lots of the vocal harmony work is great as well. I've always really respected him for picking such quality musicians and, from what I've seen, insisting on always performing live

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1398099968' post='2430471'] Well, on that particular way of assessing wattage of an amp, (e.g. a test by a magazine with no proof that it is 100% correct scientifically or whether indeed that is the best way to do it anyway) yes, you'd get more RMS rated wattage with the LM2/3. What you would also get is a hard wall limiter, especially at 8 ohms, so when you hit that limiter, that is it. No power compression, just awful clipping. Also, the Markbass master volumes I've tried hit the max volume at roughly 12/1 o'clock. Lot's of manufacturers do this, to make you think you have more master left. With the LM3, I didn't have any more headroom left. Genz do it differently....eg the volume goes up gradually and you can push and push the modern amps they finished with and they will not clip. TC also do it differently. You can absolutely hammer the master volume all the way up and it will not clip...it will just get incredibly loud, and like a tube amp, it will naturally 'sag' and compress like playing through a large 8x10/SVT at high volumes. Different design goals, different tones. Wattage? Volume? The RH450 sounds louder to me. [/quote] I think Alex Claber kinda summed it up for me in an earlier discussion about TC heads and the power/loudness equation: "Just because some bassists think that doesn't make it true. If you like what the TC amp does as it runs out of power then you'll think it's loud. If you don't then you'll think it's overly compressed and lacking in deep bottom. It's just like how a lot of people think 300W valve amps are really really loud but personally I find them lacking in clean oomph. We have lots of happy customers using the TC amps but I don't recommend them universally because of the sound of their APM system. Clever technology by TC. Disappointed by their marketing" I'm firmly in the 'overly compressed and lacking in deep bottom' camp (and I'm not alone) but obviously a lot of people like their core tone and how they sound at the top of the output range - of course, it's a good think we all don't think the same way or the world would be a much duller place

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1398113780' post='2430656'] Some times it works though, I went into the music shop in dorchester, as I had an indie guitar and its pickup switch was missing and they have a lot of indies (I didn't get it there). I asked if they had switch ends, they didn't but they guy went off to search for something that would work, and eventually found one that worked from the back of the store and charged practically nothing for it. Some stores really do go the extra mile. [/quote] I've actually had this in Denmark Street on more than one occasion - odd screws missing or a washer that's come loose. I used to work around the corner and would pop in to see if they had a random part and got a few little bits and never paid for any of them

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' timestamp='1398098254' post='2430436'] The RH750 is plenty loud enough - never had an issue with the volume it could output just the tone! [/quote] I think it's rated at about 395w so it should have a fair bit more heft than the RH450. I don't really understand all the tech stuff but I've read a load of stuff that talks about how the sound of the Rh series is very heavily compressed to make them sound artificially 'louder' than they really are. Whilst this translates into a very immediate and lively tone in a shop environment it seems the over-compression kills the live tone. To be honest I thought all this was hogwash until I took one out on a gig and my sound absolutely sucked - the presets I'd lovingly set up at home were lifeless and dead and the only way I could get anything decent was to push the mids on my bass through the one 'clean' pre-set I'd left open for emergencies. In general I'd heard the 750 was a much better head than the 450 but I think it really benefits from being used with TC's own speakers which are, unsurprisingly, designed to match the heads.

Sold Ivan a pickup when he spotted the postage was a couple of quid more than I'd charged he simply sent me the balance & the first I knew about it was when it arrived in my PayPal account - what a gentleman!

I'm getting: "86% of women would switch to a new skincare brand"

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1398084355' post='2430215'] The LM2 did not hit the rated wattage if I recall correctly. Obviously not how the TC heads did, and thats different, but the LM2 was about 450 watt or something, maybe a little more or less. [/quote] So it's only twice as powerful as the RH450 then? And 20% cheaper Sorry - couldn't resist

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1398086286' post='2430239'] So logged on today to find this... my guess is that either Ped or Kiwi are offering a new service, and making use of basschat to advertise..... and whichever one of them it is does look okish in a dress.... [/quote] I think you'll find that these ads are served at you based on your previous browsing history on other sites. . .

Leon bought some pickups from me - super fast payment, nice to chat to and even let me know when they'd arrived and how they sounded when installed

Ah, that might make more sense (to me anyway, lol). So are you just using the TC Classic power amp stage? Although I thought the RH 450 was seriously underpowered, it's that 236w amp again, I always thought it was the pre-amp that was the big issue in getting a decent tone. I've not heard of problems with MB combos blowing fuses. Certainly I've used a few and never had an issue. I gigged a little CMD112P the other week in a fairly loud band and was really surprised at how well it coped. I was standing rammed between a loud drummer and a guitarist with a Boogie 2x12 stack and could hear myself perfectly with the master at about 12'oclock

One interesting little observation I have about instrument retailers is that almost all of them are 'players'. A lot of them are relatively young, have been through years of learning at school, university or music academy type places After all this preparation for a career in 'music' they end up flogging guitars in a shop because there's either so few opportunities to earn money playing or they simply didn't have whatever it took to get into the band they really wanted. This can often result in a resentful workforce who look down on their customers. I'm not defending this attitude one bit, I've always thought that if you do any job you should try and do it to the best of your abilities, but it might explain some of the attitudinal issues from some music shop staff

The US one you saw would cost about £600 in the UK and prices on used stuff are generally a little higher than in 2005 (this is a real generalisation of course). Something you paid £600 for then ought to have retained its value. I'd list at £620 to cover your costs and add £30 for UK shipping (this is really easy to organise). That way you don't lose any money and no-one will think your price is particularly 'unfair'

Worst live sound I've ever had was from a TC RH450 - absolute tone sucker for me Obviously that's purely subjective For me MarkBass is in a different league (plus their 500w heads are actually a real 500w rather than the 236w the TC450 has).

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1398019400' post='2429639'] No, I'm not! I thought the wait would be longer... I've set my sights on an Emperor 5 for my 30th (the missus promised to pay ;-)) so I'll be calling you! [/quote] They dropped to 11 months but demand & increased production has pushed the time up to about 13 months now. The Standards are a shorter wait time but some are limited editions so you never know exactly what the next batch will be. I'm loving my new Monarch - currently my favourite bass and it's even been out gigging with me

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1398018606' post='2429624'] That's good news for me too! I could put my Fodera in now for my 30th birthday present and they'll probably have it ready just in time :-) (and give me time to pay for it lol!) [/quote] You're 30 next June? I thought you looked younger

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1398011275' post='2429512'] I'm sure you're right about. Market domination by a few big players is probably not good news whether they are shops or online, but markets are dynamic and subject to constant change. There have been instances of large supermarkets moving into a town, pricing aggressively to drive out the competition, then creeping up their prices. But then that lets in new competitors and so it goes on. [/quote] I agree and I'm sure this has been happening in the UK for the last 3-4 years. From a personal perspective I think it's interesting that the three main custom build brands we represent have all seen demand for their products rise in the past year and each one has had to increase their lead times because demand has been outstripping supply

Most MiMs I see these days are well made. Nice necks, good fretting, neck pockets are ok etc. etc. You get an odd one with slightly proud fret ends but that's about the worst I've seen recently. Some sound good straight out of the box but often a decent pickup upgrade can make a lot of difference. Sometimes you need to swap out the controls and jack socket as these can get scratchy but that's not a huge cost (especially if you're handy with a soldering iron).

About half of all sales through the shop I work in are online and about half of these are international so we see quite a few different sides of the modern instrument retailing market. We get some people who absolutely refuse to buy without an extensive period of in-store trial (our longest is someone who drove to the store overnight, slept in the car park and stayed all day!) and others who buy online without asking a single question beforehand. In fact we sold a custom bass yesterday to a customer in Slovenia who didn't ask a single question about it. Conversely some online customers have mail trails that reach into the hundreds - one guy sent 54 emails in a day asking about multiple instruments and potential custom builds. We aim to treat in-store and online customers the same in terms of both service and pricing. I'm sure we're by no means perfect but we do the best we can. We definitely believe that service is important but realise we can't really charge much of a premium for it. It's interesting to watch the online pricing strategies of the really big retailers. I track a number of lines across two particular suppliers and the biggest of these has been quietly pushing prices up over the last 18 months. I'd initially thought some of his was currency fluctuation stuff but I've noticed that both € and £ prices have risen. I've discussed this with distributors and manufacturers and there's definitely a view that prices are quietly increasing on some key product lines. It seems that the bigger they get, and as their completion stutters and fails, the more they are able to dictate market prices. Unsurprisingly they seem to be using their dominance to increase their operating margins. It'll be interesting to see how things develop as traditional bricks and mortar businesses fail. Basses are, essentially, quite a niche market compared to those that have most obviously been a success online. If we end up with just a couple of really large online retail outlets I'd surmise that prices will rise rather than fall and that range of stock will reduce because profits will be easier to maximise from a limited stock holding. Might be good news for custom builders who compete on more than just price. . .