DiMarco

Iphones are assembled in china. Using bits and bobs from all over the place as far as I know. Aren't the displays in them made by Samsung? I do know the batteries on a large number of them were bad and the powersupplies had to be recalled at a certain point because they were prone to catch fire.

I do hope the problems with those early copies have all been fixed though. Problem is bad news seems to travel faster and farther then good news does.

I agree with none of those points but hey. to each his own. If you don't notice the difference, for you there is no difference.

My german made Sadowsky P fiver is miles ahead of any Fender in the same price segment I played. Just saying... Warwick are doing an awesome job in Germany. I have never been impressed by any chinese made bass or guitar from any brand. What do you expect? World class for a few hundred quid? Keep dreaming.

Thanks for the responses guys. It is hard to find this kind of info if you don't know where to look. Do bass amp manufacturers state the instrument input impedances and is there a difference between passive and active signal inputs other then the level? Thanks again.

is this comparable to the mic vs high-z switching on audio interfaces? The Bass Butler pre sounds really weak and spongy through the SVT-4 pro when hooked up to the instrument input.

Thanks lads, mixing and matching it is... It kinda bothers me though. A lot of people have just one amp and will never find out how much mixing instruments, pedals and amps can have such a big impact on how strong the tone is. They might simply think the pedal not working well in their chain is simply a bad pedal. So far the two old Trace Elliot amps and the TC Electronic make everything I plug into them sound good (the TC sounds a bit colder and more hi-fi). The Ampeg and Mesa are more picky on which instruments or pedals they like. I sold the Mesa just because it sounded harsh and ugly with active basses. When I eleborate on that in my mind, the latter two amps bring a lot of character to the game. Maybe throwing 'character' pedals like the Bass Butler on top of that is proving contra productive and these pedals are just meant to be used with 'pedal platform' amplifiers that allow you to build your tone on the effects board or with the instrument's active pre. Maybe I should stop looking at the situation as a problem but rather as just having a large number of options. The Ampeg by itself sounds really good, much better then the TC RH750. But the TC+Bass Butler sounds really good, too. Choices choices... The rare and vintage Trace Elliot Hexa Valve beats both, but I only bring that amp out on rare occasions.

I will try to hook up the Bass Butler in the effects loop of the Ampeg tomorrow, see what happens then.

Guys I am puzzeled. I own a couple of preamps: Trace Elliot Transit-B Two Notes Le Bass Orange Bass Butler And I own a couple of amps: Ampeg SVT4-pro Trace Elliot Hexa Valve Trace Elliot RAH600SMX TC Electronic RH750 Mesa Boogie Bass Prodigy 4:88 (sold that one) Now here's the thing... The Bass Prodigy sounded amazing with passive basses, harsh with actives. The Ampeg sounds great with any bass, but loses treble and heft when adding any of my pre-amps in the signal path. The Orange Bass Butler therefore sounds weak on its clean channel through the SVT. That same Bass Butler's clean channel sounds fantastic through the RH750 and Hexa Valve. Is something funny going on with the instrument input impedances on amplifiers or something? I really love my SVT4-pro but having a weak sounding Bass Butler through it (which sounds ACE through it's two D.I. outputs!) makes the amp a no no for any live playing. Can I fix this with a buffer or something? Any help is appreciated.

It is ... quite large. Found a NOS one in Italy through Reverb for a decent price. Took it for a quick spin. It does what I expected and does so lovely. Smooth compression with valve warmth and a bit of breakup when digging in. Like butter! My other compressor is a Cali76cb, which is a different breed and more tight + punchy. Each has their virtues. Will chime in on my findings after using it within the band, as that's where compressors really show what they do.

That is actually an interesting topic. The Sadowsky is indeed lighter, but the Fodera is very resonant and deep sounding (also very loud acoustically) and more responsive where the Sadowsky is more tight sounding. The Fod which I named 'Big Red' because of its massive body makes me come up with lots of bass parts since it is so responsive - it really translates my vibe to music very easily. So which aspect is more important - the weight or the character of the instrument? I guess that's a different story for each musician. For the audience there won't be much difference, only for the musician. I have only owned the Sadowsky for a couple of weeks now but I really love that instrument, too. It just works well within any setting with its PJ pickups. The red one has a distinct 'Jazz on steroids' kinda tone.

These are my two main axes. Which one would you choose?

OK fine tuned the setup, fixed intonation and pickup height according to the new string action. So before ordering this bass of course I had been reading up on owner experiences. Not a lot to be found sadly except for some rather bad experiences with the cheapest "metro express" series which are made in China. Mine however is the "Metro Line" which are built in Germany, where also the highest stock tier NYC or custom shop models (forgot the naming scheme for it) are being produced. Plus Roger Sadowsky is still hand building the toppest top tier instruments in the US. I did hear someone mention interference noises and humming problems but mine is absolutely silent in between playing. Here's the competition the Sadowsky has in my rack o' bassness: Zon Sonus 5, EBMM Stingray 5 NeckThru, Fodera NYC Empire 5 deluxe in the fretted five string pool. Both the Zon and Fodera are souped up Jazz Basses. The Stingray is a HS and can be switched into two single coils as well. So the one thing I was missing is a Precision and a Precision++ is what I bought. Active tone control in the Sadowsky is stacked bass+treb, boost only. There's also a vintage tone control for rolling off unwanted treble and make it sound oldskool, which can be pulled to disable the active electronics. The other two knobs are the regular volume and balance. With the pickups in 50/50 the tone it produces has tons of spank, really clear but with tight bottom end and very responsive. In pure P mode it sounds close enough to a regular P, but having active tone controls on top is really really nice. I can tweak it very precisely with the available controls on the bass. Lovely! Soloing the bridge pup gets you into Jaco territory with harmonics jumping right off the fretboard when you even just think about them. Warwick added a couple of nifty things to the Metro Line series like the invisible fret tech, the adjustable nut etc. The pickups I have heard are still the Sadowsky ones that are also on the USA models, but I have not been able to confirm this. Either way the pickups on this bass sound very good indeed. Tuners are good, bridge seems very solid. Nothing to complain about and an overall great quality, great sounding instrument. Well done, Warwick!

Took pics with a DSLR this morning to get the colour and contrast right (prev pics were taken with a smartphone).

Too early to report on how good it is, but it sure as **** ain't bad!

The old and the new - they get along really well!

I did some direct tests between the Hexa Valve, my Ampeg SVT-4 Pro and TC Electronic RH750, together with my guitarist. We ran all amps through a Barefaced Big Twin II and two Trace Elliot 2x8" cabs (The Hexa Valve doesn't do 8ohms) Result: staggering. Forget about lightweight amps they just don't cut it.

Send the roadies out!

Here's a part-of-the-family pic. The RAH600SMX and SWR Henry the 8x8 cab are in rehearsal room.

Surprisingly loud, but I yet have to test them properly in a live situation. With the lockdown going on I haven't really had the chance to use them in the band yet- haven't practiced in over a month now. That said, at the local jamsession where there's two guitar combos and a drummer, usually a sax and keyboards too my old SWR 2x10" can hold its own just fine so I expect two 2x8" of this quality to be more then sufficient in that setting. On a bigger venue I will use the Barefaced 2x12" which is insanely loud. I play in a punkrock band where I have to compete with two 100w Marshall stacks and a hard hitting drummer so it remains to be seen if I can use the 2x8" cabs in that setting. But I mainly bought this small footprint rig for situations other then the group of overly noisy maniacs I call my band. 😁For the band I have a Trace Elliot RAH600SMX, Hexa Valve and an Ampeg SVT-4 Pro.

It only weighs 20 kilograms. What is wrong with you wussies? If a man can't lift 20kg he is not a man at all.

There's also a Trace Elliot RAH600SMX with SWR Henry the 8x8 cab in the rehearsal room, but I have no pic of that.