ped

I wonder why Blackstar (British) chose to use the American valve names (6550 instead of KT88 for example)

I don't need them any more, I'm married

I'm heading to the studio next month and although 90% of the time I go straight to desk, we sometimes have an 'acoustic' jam through amplifiers which is good fun. I haven't actually had an amp for a while now (except the TC BH800 I have at home to power my floorboard/studio setup) so I decided it would be good to pick up a light-ish and decent powered combo. I know I like 10" speakers and I wanted a compressor built in, plus something that would match a super clean Smith bass with rounds and a P bass with flats, which is quite a tonal range. I looked at a few options, and thought about using an external pre or my Roland VB99 to take care of the front end but really fancied something 'plug and play'. I tried the Fender Rumble series which I was impressed with but I saw this come up at a decent price which happened to be en route to my in-laws. It's a 2x10 500w job which is a fairly easy one hand lift - I've got a dodgy back but even I can manage it fairly easily but would probably want help over long distances. I have only trialled it at home for a little while (I don't really like playing amps at home, stuff rattles, I don't like annoying people and people can hear me!) but my first impressions: - The compressor seems to be EXCELLENT! I was worried about this as I'm quite picky with them but it's very pleasing; you can't hear any 'squashy' effect at all, just an overall limiting and evenness. - Lots of tonal options. You can choose between three 'voicings' (Classic, Modern, Flat) and three 'responses' (Linear, 6L6, 6550). That gives plenty of options (9?). So far I like the modern voicing with linear response but I can tell that the 6550 setting sounds very close to my old Trace V4 combo which had those valves in - which I wasn't expecting. Very punchy and clackerty. Nice. To be honest it took me right back! - It also has OD, Distortion, Fuzz, Chorus and Octaver. I'm unlikely to use those but they might be fun to mess with. The chorus sounded good, the octave might take some time to balance as I think it pushes the pre into overdrive at the moment - Need to spend some proper volume time setting the input gain correctly; no indication light to show when it's breaking up and I can't crank it at home to learn how it reacts yet! - Loud... you can see I had the master on 9 O'clock and although that's no indication I turned it up half way and touched a string and now my balls are in my bottom So I'm very pleased with it so far - as I say I haven't really been up to date with amplifiers since leaving my last band, and the rigs I'm most familiar with are a Mesa 400+ and 1516BE cabinet, a Trace V4 1x15" combo and an SWR stack (see why I have a bad back!) and this gives me even better initial feels than those did, which is a good sign. Plus I can move it. A few pics:

Yes going through the bridge is the way to go. Shouldn’t think the strings will be affected at all 👍🏻

After several basses I’ve come to the realisation that I’m not really a good five string player (or four string for that matter). However I’ve really had fun on the journey and will probably buy another one day because I keep thinking it’s useful to have one. My two faves were: Bacchus TwentyFour. Smith BT5. Can’t find a pic at the moment!

Why didn't you get the Fender combo?

Said pdf could go ‘missing’ if you bring me back something nice 👍🏻

I’m going to download this thread in a pdf in case I need it in court

Sorry not possible! Only took me 15 days to find that out!!

OK folks, thanks everyone for entering - I've picked the winners and I'm just speaking to Jason at Rotosound now about the final details, so you can expect to hear from me soon if you're a winner!! Cheers ped

I think we’re done here...

I should add that the fact BC isn’t having a stand at the show is mainly due to staffing and lack of funds rather than any other show based factors. I’m looking forward to coming and enjoying the show as a regular punter this year.

#justiceforrudy

There isn't an app as such because the site is designed to work on mobile as well as desktop on a browser. I don't know about Android but you can sort of make an app for it by placing a bookmark on the home screen.

I actually put a chair on mine and sit on it but yes - imagine it like standing on the grille of an upturned speaker cab. Feels awesome

Different thing - you stand on a bassboard

I'm sitting on mine right now!! To be honest I think it's one of my best buys - it enables you to 'feel' the bass as if you're sitting in front of a massive speaker stack. I use mine as part of my studio/office setup for playing bass and listening to music. It helps with timing, feel, and it's nearly silent. I haven't used it 'live' yet but will be in a few weeks.

Not this time.

Yes I think we’re done here - our annual Finnbass recruitment drive looks like it’s been a success!

I’ll PM you

As I say I think I read it somewhere. That’s not the same as spreading lies 🥺 And with regard to your second point, most of it was behind a forum you can only read as a member. I’m now banned and it’s probably been deleted. Trust me, it was there.

Do you know what IIRC means? I’m sure that’s what I read at one point, or maybe it was the new ‘movingair’ forum which was going to be the next big thing and take all my members.

Finnbass was brilliant, it really served a purpose for us as we could send anyone who couldn’t behave on BC over there where people could spout off about how we’re Nazis and so forth in an echo chamber. Lots of very nasty things said about me there, quite funny to read at first but actually quite upsetting, sad and frightening at the same time. Wishing them all the luck in the world, the more the merrier etc. IIRC the owner got locked out of the forum somehow and couldn’t get back in or decided not to bother.