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If you'd like to take the lead & keep anyone who wants to get involved organised, that would be great Wayne. Would that suit you ok? Anyone wanting to get involved in doing so, put your name below & we'll all get a section to search through.

You mean you have chord charts & lyrics?

If you need a hand search through the countless posts, let me know. I'm pretty sure that goes for most of us here. It might make it easier if a few of us took a date/section each & PM'd you things? What do you think?

He is indeed. Would it be too big a job to make a Si Advice sticky in memory of him? A list of quotes, tips & anything else of use/interest that he shared.

Being middle aged myself (40), I find it an easy carry with it in 1 hand, my pedal board in the other & bass & bag of wires slung over my shoulder, & I'm no strongman. Fair enough I wouldn't want to cart it around on public transport, but from car to venue it's a doddle & covers most venues that don't have PA support & a good kickback for those that do.

20kg is still a 1 hand lift without strains & can be had for @ £6-700 from the for sale section here. THe GB is lighter due to the fact that it's a single driver (a 10 or 12) & if you went for the equivalent from Markbass then you'd be looking at similar weights. So IME, the Markbass 2x10 is a clear winner on price, weight, volume & more importantly, sound quality. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Genz stuff, far from it. But when you stick the shuttle combo next to the MB for gigging purposes, there's no contest. That's why I bought the CMD-102P (after mucho searching for what amp/cab combo to go for) A Promathean would be a cheaper option than the Shuttle 10, though I haven't tried one so can't say if they sound better or not.

If you're writing the bassline after the lyrics then listen to the lyrics & playing things either on the vocal accents or between them. Also playing a harmony, unison or bits of both can work very well. If you're starting with the bassline & are struggling, leave the bass & come up with something in your head (this might not happen when you want it tho ).

Apparently Guy's only got the gig because Adam couldn't make it.

+1 for the Markbass 102. Loud enough for small to medium gigs on it's own too if there's limited or no PA support.

It does depend on your budget. The BEF looks like a stonking bit of kit & if moog didn't make the MF-101, I'd have one. The Moog MF-101 is my choice of kit as it's very flexable & simple enough & has an awesome sound (IMO of course). Another option you could consider is a multi fx unit as it may be a cheaper option if you're only gonna use fx for a couple of songs (that's how it starts & before you know it, your bass sounds nothing like it did a year ago ). There's cheaper options like the EXH Qtron (I don't like the whishy sound it has). MXR 90 seems to be the phaser of choice, but someone will be along to offer better advice on that.

[quote name='geilerbass' post='1330623' date='Aug 7 2011, 08:43 AM']In short, there's a huge difference between the various instruments - they're variations on a theme, but very big variations. As well as the body wood, the neck/fretboard wood, the bridge, pickups and eq all vary depending on the type and specific model. Generally the cheaper basses (SR3xx) are made with cheaper materials and have fewer 'features'. The mid-range instruments (e.g. the SR5xx, SR6xx) instruments have more features and better pickups - the Bartolini branded MK pickups - and the 3-band eq. However, due to the rising prices of certain woods, they've, for example, recently replaced the wenge in the necks with jatoba. Some of the other models have different features - e.g. the SR7xx range have tone blocks in the body. There are also variants with different neck woods - I believe there are SR5xxM models that have a maple neck, rather than jatoba. Ibanez have recently introduced a 'Premium' range, in which they use high-end components (wenge neck, nordstrand pickups etc) and also have the mid-range selection that the SR5xx now has. Moving up to the top, the SR Prestige range of basses are Japanese-made (which of course adds a lot to the price), and have more 'nice-to-have' features, such as the power curve mid-range control, which is more of a true parametric mid range control and US-made Bartolini custom pickups. The one thing with Ibanez that I've found (and also appears to be the case with Yamaha) is that the higher-end instruments really do not retain their value relative to cost, which is surprising as they are incredibly well made instruments for the price and even at the higher-end, you're still getting almost boutique-level quality at less than boutique-level price. I don't understand why they don't retain value. As such, with £500, you could maybe stretch to one of the older Japanese-made instruments that pop up for sale on here occasionally. You could also get hold of an SR505, SR705 for probably around the £300 mark or maybe even a through-neck SR905 or SR1005 - the latter has the old vari-mid III parametric mid control, that preceded the power curve in the prestige models. Have a look here: [url="http://www.ibanezregister.com/Gallery/bass_gallery.htm"]Ibanez Register[/url] for more information on specs for some of the older models out there.[/quote] That's some good info you have there. The Currrent Prestige SRs have the Powercurve III eq & the dearer SRs from the early 90s (such as the SR1000) have the Powercurve I eq. I've no idea if they ever did a Powercurve II. If you can get hold of an older Jap model 5er, you wouldn't be disappointed. Infact, it probably doesn't even have to be a Jap one to be excellent!

[quote name='RhysP' post='1306531' date='Jul 17 2011, 11:49 AM']Second coolest. This is the coolest space craft ever IMO: Awesome! [/quote] Isn't that a studio mic of a sort? Loved Blakes 7, but the coolest spacecraft has to be...

I've got a SR1000 I bought new 20 odd years ago (ok, it's a 4 stringer) & it's still my main bass. It's went from being a metal/rock bass to a folk/country bass to a DnB/dubstep bass & hasn't let me down. It has the original Powercurve EQ section. I think the main difference between cheaper & higher models is the quality of parts used as well as the woods.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1329520' date='Aug 6 2011, 03:17 AM']Because bass players tend to be more learned about how their gear works and are less mired in antique technology. If guitar'd players used the same standards for buying cars as they do their kit most would be driving Morris Minors.[/quote] This'll be why one of my guitarist drives a metro (& manages to load it up with a Vox AC30, 2 electric guitars, 1 electro acoustic, a largish pedal board, a tool box, a box of wires & a few other bits) & the other one drives a Fiat Doblo.

I tried a couple of pedal compressors a few years back & never got on with them. I know a little about compression as I've used it for years in rack format for PA rigs & also in VST format when recording (from the early days of cubase up till now). The worst pedal I tried was the Boss Comp/Limiter thingy (sorry Chedda, just my experience of it) as it raised the noise floor quite a bit & Moog pedals can pick up a little background noise, so this ended up 10x louder. I think most pedal compressors are a case of "you'll like it or you wont". I don't use a compressor live, so the answer is No, you don't "Need" one, but you might find one useful. Do what I did & find some local musicians with different ones (that's when guitarists come in useful).

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1327572' date='Aug 4 2011, 06:19 PM']Tune it CGDAE?[/quote] Is that a weird tuning or just the left hand version of EADGC?

You do realise that if you get either the Ashdown or Ampeg head, you'll end up with gas for a Markbass! (& probably vice versa).

Silentfly [sfx] seems like a good bloke & has offered to look at building me a pedal for blending my signals (that will be used for blending signals I split from the bass murf & put through various fx).

I'm very happy with my rig & have been for the 3 years that I've had it. If your amp & cab choice can produce the frequencies you want at the volume you want, then you should be looking to your bass or effects if you're tired of the sound you're getting. My sound has changed over these past 3 years from just my bass with round zingy strings straight in to the amp to now being a very bass heavy sound using flat strings & a few effects & the rig still does the job I bought it to do. It is a MarkBass LMII.

I suppose that could be classed as "fixing" it.

I take it you fixed it?

I really like the headstock & would like to see it on some other bass designs from Dingwall. I even like the fact that the gold & black D reminds me of transfers from the 70s when I was a kid (almost like a new nostalgic bass). Now gimme a 5 stringer with 2 extra frets!

I had a 4x10 Trace combo, t'was a heavy lump but did have a good sound. I now have a 2x10 Markbass combo which blows the socks off the TE. Produces wads more bass & volume than the TE could dream of & I can carry it with one hand. My pedalboard weighs more! No chance would I go back to a 4x10. But like I said, in the OPs case, a light amp & a 2x10 cab would be better for his budget. Then he can upgrade his cab at a later date. & if I was in your sons position, I could always pop the head out my combo, pop a lid on it & put it in my gig bag.