molan

[quote name='Mr Fretbuzz' timestamp='1393331972' post='2378763'] Andy Baxter will be at the London Bass Show this weekend as far as I'm aware .... Don't miss the show. Last year I noticed a lot of vintage basses on his stand [/quote] Yep - Andy will be at LBGS this weekend. He's on he stand right next to the BassGear / BassChat one so a good location to see som nice basses and meet people

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1392405498' post='2368440'] Is it that much more to have it included? [/quote] Correction on my part - DI version is an extra £100 not £175. Non DI is £1,125 and DI is £1,225. I ordered a DI version in the end. Based on first impressions it really is an amazing little amp. Made a couple of cabs sound better than I've ever heard them before. I'll try to write up a proper review when I've had more time to play properly.

Woohoo they arrived a day early - cue complete failure to finish stocktaking on strings and much testing of new amp with multiple basses and cabs

First actual units arrive in the UK on Tuesday and the only people who've heard them would have been at NAMM in January. I've heard a VTB201 (which is close to the pre in this head) through the same 800w power amp section it'll have. It was a very clean but smooth sound and the power stage is really 'muscular' with clear note to note definition. It's not old school valve thump but, equally, not like a super modern solid state head. The new amp is going to sound a little 'slower' and warmer based on what James Demeter says and what I've heard from two people who have used one at NAMM. However, I think the difference may be relatively marginal compared to the VTB210 / Minnie combination unless you have an extremely good ear.

Surely that's more like £1,500 or more overpriced? It's 'only' an RI and not even a Custom Shop. You could specify a brand new CS in this spec and finish for less! With a bit of shopping around you could even get an original '60's J with a refin for this kind of money (although probably not a stack knob). Hope it sells though, I could use it as a reference if I sell my '64 in the same colour

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1392918257' post='2374219'] I think they have promised to allow demos only for 15 minutes every hour this year, and make sure everybody adheres. But I can't seem to find anything about it on the website. [/quote] There is a 15 minute per hour ruling this year. If anyone hears people playing outside of the fixed periods then I'd strongly urge you to complain to the organisers. The more people,grumble the more chance there is it'll be enforced

Here's mine

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1392678974' post='2371638'] How much are they going to raise by? They seem to have jumped from £590 to £650 ish. [/quote] To my ears Aggie stuff always comes into its own in a live band situation. Almost all their heads and cabs sound better cranked up I think. There's definitely some brands out there that seem to be 'tuned' for immediate impact in a shop demo environment. I can totally understand the thinking behind this but some of these can get very harsh at any kind of serious volume. It's been a while since I've heard Shuttle, of any size, at serious volume - odd really, they've definitely sold well but I don't see me out gigging much. Maybe it's just the sort of gigs I go to There's been a two tier rise at a few places. They moved from £599 to £629 but average price rises are going to be about 15% (maybe more on some lines). These are slowly filtering through already and the £650 price means UK dealers are swallowing a bit of margin loss to try and stay competitive. My guess is that they'll hold the £650 for a while but could creep to £679 later in the year. You can still get £629 from people holding older stock I think. These rises will be across the whole Aggie range eventually - certainly any new stock will come in at the higher price. The good news is that availability and turnaround times on new orders will be a lot quicker (especially for cabs which used to be 6-12 weeks delivery) but this is being reflected in pricing.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1392630890' post='2370715'] Take that back.... mine broke this weekend mid rehearsal, footswitch started misbehaving. Funnily enough I've had this happen twice on other TC pedals. Time to order a TU3, anyone got one going spare? [/quote] I've got two that aren't being used - I'll get them listed tomorrow!

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1392462207' post='2368987'] Just got a Polytune mini to save space on a little board and it seems cool so far, some slight noise problems with it being a digital pedal in a power daisy chain. But changing it's position in the effects chain seems to have eleviated that. Si [/quote] Where did you move it to Si? I've always stuck mine at the front of the chain. However I noticed a little bit of hiss when I had a wireless unit on my little board recently. It seems venue specific though, it was fine at home but a bit hissy on a gig.

We played a gig last weekend with instructions from the pub gaffer not to go on until 9:30. By 9:00 the pub was quite full and a few punters were hassling us to start but the landlord told us to hold back. He also asked us to take a good half hour break in the middle because he always sold more beer when there was a longer break. He added that by pushing the second set back we'd be kicking off when the pub got its 'second wind' as some other locals started winding down for an 11:00 finish. We were a bit sceptical and got a bit concerned when people started giving us a hard time for waiting until 9:30 to start but we stuck to his guidelines and he had things spot on. The early crowd mostly stayed for the second set and were all at the bar in the break. Then, pretty much as we went into the first song of the second set, a whole extra group of, much younger, punters came in and stayed to the end Turned out it was a really good night and starting late and having a long break just suited the venue!

I recently had the pleasure of watching Paul Turner slapping like a complete funk-god through a TH500 and into a pair of Aguilar SL112 cabs. There definitely wasn't any lack of sizzle or snap in his tone. He wasn't using any pedals either, just a passive Alleva Coppolo 5 straight into the Tone Hammer. I used to own an original Shuttle 6 and never got on with it. I always found it a bit thin sounding and seems to spend more time fiddling with the eq than playing through it. The TH is a real 'set it & forget' head. When I use one I tend to set most things flat and just tweak bass and mids dependent on room characteristics. I sometimes add some of the drive if I'm after a more vintage tone but I find I'm using that less and less these days. Of course, the cab choice is going to make a big difference to the final tone. The TH is pretty flexible and seems to partner modern brighter neo loaded cabs as well as more vintage voiced ceramic drivers. I find some Shuttles can get very brittle sounding through neos - ha could just be my ears though! If you are after a new TH then I'd strongly recommend hunting one down soon. They are all going to start rising in price soon

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1392446444' post='2368840'] lets be honest it's 95% for our benefit rather than 'the music'. I for one know that I could do 99% of what I do with one of my student 'Stagg' basses, [/quote] I was having this exact discussion with a pro player last week. I had been at a gig with a, painstakingly chosen, early Fender custom shop relic Jazz and there were some lighting issues which meant it was near impossible to see the dot markers. Not a huge issue but I had a backup with me that had clearer dots and block markers. Swapped basses at half time and discovered that my sound was, to all intents and purposes exactly the same in the second set. I really couldn't hear any difference on stage. Not too surprising until you realise I'd swapped to a Mike Lull P bass! From a J with everything on full to a P and, in a live band context, I couldn't hear the difference. My pro player said exactly the same thing The next day I agreed a purchase of a new Fodera Custom and placed an order for one of these Demeter amps. The Pro enquired about a trade for a brand new Alleva Coppolo or possibly a Fender CS Pino. We just can't help ourselves Another day later I bought a new Lull J as well because I liked the P so much! I'm super excited about both the basses and the amp. It's entirely possible no-one else will be able to hear any differences in the sound but if it makes me smile then I'll be happy

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1392409948' post='2368538'] Therein lies the enigma; you fine hone 'your sound' with a lush amp/cab set-up and then a hairy assed sound guy does whatever he wants to get the sound that a ) he wants to hear b ) fits the room acoustics! [/quote] Funnily enough I got the opposite effect recently. Turned up at recording studio with a really good idea of what I wanted to sound like. Engineer insisted on using a DI and used quite a lot of Studio trickery on my signal. Sounded nothing like me on the final recording - it actually sounded really good and very professional. . .

The small shop I help in definitely sells a lot more J's than P's. Overall demand in terms of questions and response via email and social media is massively in favour of J's as well.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1392405498' post='2368440'] Is it that much more to have it included? [/quote] I'd guess about £175 based on US pricing so total would be £1,300 rather than £1,500. I've been chatting to a fairly heavyweight pro player who tried it at NAMM as well. He said it sounded amazing - so much so that he had to go back and try it a second time to make sure he hadn't got it wrong the first time. I've done some tests using a VTB 201 and a Minnie which is going to sound relatively similar and it was very nice. What was really interesting was setting the VTB up using Lee Sklar's settings. They look a bit 'odd' but sound great - I guess he should know what he's doing though The new pre is probably going to have a bit more of a mid bias compared to the VTB and will sound a little more vintage but I'm guessing this is going to be fairly marginal. I have done some pretty exhaustive tests with the Minnie power amp and it really is a cracking little unit. We've run it with a variety of pre-amps and run direct comparisons against a big money Rackmount unit, a relatively low cost rack amp and the power stages of some good quality integrated heads. It basically beat everything we put it up against for overall tone and sound quality. Th downside is that it's £865 and it's almost certain to rise to £900 on next orders. Adding the valve pre from a VTB is essentially only sticking £250 or so on top of the power amp so that's what is getting the guys in the US so excited

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1392404565' post='2368414'] Does the inclusion of the Jensen output transform DI bump the price or is the price Barrie quoted inc' this feature? [/quote] The price is for the non DI version. DI models will be about 3-4 weeks behind the standard models. The DI will be a Jensen Transformer job so should be a really nice addition for people that need them. They have a great rep for recording. Interestingly I've spoken to a few people since we've known about these and quite a few people have no need of on onboard DI for a gigging amp so happy not to have one. I must admit it wouldn't bother me because I often DI through my Sansamp for live work or use whatever the studio prefers for recording.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1392402693' post='2368373'] That's cork-sniffing bs if you ask me... No offence intended [/quote] None taken - I have absolutely no idea what this means Cork sniffing is what people who know about wine do isn't it so I'd take that as a compliment.