CamdenRob

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1428599556' post='2742909'] Oooh, that looks a job very done Sir! [/quote] Well hopefully thats me sorted... The proof will be when I get this band together and get out there gigging

[quote name='Drax' timestamp='1428649552' post='2743329'] So - 2 x P's, 2 x J's gets you GAS free? [/quote] as long as you also have backups, fretless versions and one of each with rounds and flats...

GAS gets you in the end... it's devious and always finds a way, you are never truly free. I am 100% with my bass, amp and cabs and utterly GAS free, so the GAS demon has moved on and got me thinking about guitar gear instead ... the bastard.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1428624098' post='2743284'] I've been using your thread as a prod to look at various ways of achieving This is a demo of the Mesa Mini Rectifier. IMHO this is an awful review, and I decided early on I wasn't going to waste 18 minutes of my life on it and FFWD'd through it a lot. The digital 'Rectifier' models I have use huge amounts of gain, so much so that I can't use it all as I don't practice in a quiet (electrically) enough environment and there is silly amounts of noise when gain is high. I was surprised how non-metal the demo sounds of the Mini Rectifier are: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKJnzV8JdFU&spfreload=10[/media] I had a look at the Suhr Riot. Listening to this demo, it seems that the Suhr does the distortion pedal thing fine, and I like the sound. Though, is this a distinctive sound? It sounds a bit like a fairly generic distortion pedal. Nothing wrong with the sound, and it does cover quite a few bases, but I'm not hearing anything unique here. Am I missing something? [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueg5KRW80Ng&spfreload=10[/media] [/quote] Yeah I saw that review of the mini rec... it's rubbish, really hard to tell anything from video reviews anyway as there are so many variables between the actual sound coming out of the amp and the end device / headphones you're listening to it on. I have this issue with the stuff I record for the BC compo comp. My bass through my rig sounds exactly how I want it yet recorded and played back from soundcloud it sounds dull and lifeless, no doubt due to my limited recording knowledge. I did see a youtube review of a guy A/Bing the mini rec and a Orange dark terror, that wasn't to bad, clearly showed the vast difference between the two. I made my decision after getting down to demark street and having a go through some options, whilst some of the various pedals sounded good, for me the tone of an actual rectifier still had the slight edge for me. But bare in mind I am going for a very specific sound... and to my ears it's a sound mesa do best

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1428616739' post='2743212'] the annoying bit comes when the guitarist doesn't know what chords/ changes he's playing.. [/quote] I think this is the crux of my frustrations with jamming. If someone was to go "hey guys lets jam something over 3/4 in F, a simple I, IV, V - Fmaj, Bbmaj & Cmaj and then breaking down for a section in D Minor". That would be fine, everyone knows where they are, where the piece is going and you can all play something that sounds good with notes that actually work together. However it never works out like this. The suggestion of a jam is always proceeded by a guitarist playing some kind of chromatic riff, in no discernible key signature which is basically just a random combination of notes, where the only bass options are roots or exactly the same as the guitarist is playing.

In my experience jamming is a word used to describe the scenario when you turn up to an audition and no one else has bothered to learn the material properly and prepare their own parts. "Hey let's just jam it man" seems to mean "I haven't got a clue how this goes so I'm going to blag it with a combination of random notes and trying to watch everyone else's fretting hand." I absolutely hate jamming...

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1428581603' post='2742628'] ...and get on with having fun writing and playing music. [/quote] Thats the crux of it for me, I'd much rather develop as a musician than a technician. There are so many aspects to bass playing outside of your technical ability, or even outside of playing altogether, like working with others in a band environment, communicating your ideas, knowing when to compromise and when to stand strong. Obviously being technically better gives you more tools for your compositions but for me its all about writing and playing your own music

[quote name='Drax' timestamp='1428582287' post='2742654'] Current bass, amp, van and the drummer [/quote] oh our drummer didn't cost us anything, the guitarist got him free in a box of rice crispies.

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1428581851' post='2742635'] You could probably buy 3 or 4 very special custom basses for that kind of money. [/quote] I could replace like for like all of my current bass and guitar gear (including amps and cabs) for around that...

meh... spend your money on whatever you like. If it's worth £11K to you then go ahead

OK, well predicatbly I've done an about turn and bought a mesa mini rectifier...

10000 hours? Well i recon, allowing for periods in the wilderness I've played for 10 years. In that time mostly 1x 4 hour rehearsal and 1x 1 hour live set on average per week, more rehearsals and gigs now then when I started but say that's an average. Also maybe 5 hours a week at home working out parts and general writing, noodling etc. So that gives me 10 hours a week, some weeks loads more but some weeks i'm on holiday etc so it balances out roughly. That gives me 500 hours a year so sadly I'm still ten years away from being any good... bugger

OK well after much deliberation and after an initial swing to class D power amp and pedals, I've gone ahead and ordered a mini rectifier and two matching mini rec 112 cabs (got a great price from GAK as a side note). so hopefully I now have the tone I want in a portable format I'll pop some pics up when it all arrives.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1428535229' post='2742299'] I don't know the answer to your question, so here I am wasting your time (see username for explanation). After reading your post, and having played around with some of the guitar amp models in Logic Pro X this evening, I had a look around. Here's a guy going on about pedals, he's quite amusing and forthright in his opinions. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUABS0LWByM&spfreload=10[/media] He's now talking about the Marshall Jackhammer, which is interesting. I have a Marshall Guvnor Plus and IMHO it does a good job at getting rock sounds. At least 'as far as I know', which isn't very far. He says that the Jackhammer can be bought for £20 on ebay. I paid £17 for mine as a shop 'floor' model. Here's an ultimate guitar thread where people are discussing your question. [url="http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-1281261.html"]http://www.ultimate-...?t-1281261.html[/url] Some boutique pedals recommended. Homerecording.com similar. [url="http://homerecording.com/bbs/equipment-forums/guitars-and-basses/distortion-overdrive-pedals-mesa-boogie-sound-362926/"]http://homerecording...e-sound-362926/[/url] I don't know how much it matches the 'Mesa' sound, but after I accidentally bought a Harley Benton Bass Graphic EQ and enjoyed it, I'm thinking about adding another inexpensive pedal to my next Thomann order. Listening to the samples, there's something about the HB Extreme Metal pedal that I like, though for me it's the 'Rock' sound sample that really catches my attention. The pedal, compared to the same music being played through other pedals, has a clearer top end, IMHO. The metal sound sample sounds very much like ... metal to me. More so than some other distortion pedals I listened to. This may not be the sound that you want. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_extreme_metal.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...treme_metal.htm[/url] EDIT: I had a bit more of a look around for sound samples. The only other pedal that gave the clear high end response that I heard there was the Boss Metal Zone 2 itself. Is the HB a clone? On other threads (your post prompted me to look around a bit) people are recommending the AMT pedal, here's a youtube video. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOs9Mux5oDA[/media] Hopefully someone who actually knows what they are talking about will be along to give you some proper information. [/quote] Thats brilliant, thanks for putting all that together it's much appreciated I've read through the reviews and I'll check out the vid tonight (no soundcard in the works PC unfortunately). Another one I've been looking at is the Empress Heavy. To be honest I'm torn between these kind of reviews and the "Valve is best and everything else is rubbish" stance... I was wanting to go down the lightweight power amp and preamp route for portability and ideally I'd still like to do that but now I'm looking at the mini rectifier and wondering if it's the answer to what I'm looking for... Mesa tone, 25 watts, tiny footprint and 5kg. The sort of venues where this sort of music is played always have full PA support, so masses of headroom isn't really a requirement, so long as its loud enough for rehearsal. It's a strange feeling scouring the web for reviews etc... I'm so confident on what I want from bass gear having played for years and tried just about everything out there, but I'm a real newbie for guitar gear, having only played guitar as an accompaniment to my bass pieces in the past.. I know what I want to achieve but I've no idea what kind of setup will get me there!

Which kettle is best for metal?

OK yes I actually went there... I've gone and asked "what's best for metal?" on basschat... Please forgive me but it's a genuine question. As an aside to my bass playing projects, I've recently decided to set up a hardcore metal band (Haymaker era Throwdown, early Will Haven etc) Always used to love this sort of stuff but I stopped playing it years ago, mainly due to being a bass player and wanting to play styles where I have more freedom and space with my basslines. Which I am continuing to do, this is very much a side project. However I've never quite managed to shake off wanting to play hardcore... So my solution is to play guitar instead for this project and write all the material myself. The tracks are tuned to straight B and I'm using a new Schecter 7 string. I'm going to go down the lightweight power amp and 2x112 route as I need a rig I can jump in a taxi with and be a one man lift into venues etc with my guitar on my back. So... I need to know what sort of preamps / pedals I should be looking at to get that massive Mesa style high gain distortion I'm looking for. Any advice appreciated as I'm way out of touch with guitar gear and what's available.

Outragous

I don't really buy the "its all in the fingers" thing... When I play my wal it sounds completely different to when I played my fender or my Warwick. Obviously I always sounded like me but my fingers would be unable to produce the core timbre of a wal if I was playing a p bass.

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1428213625' post='2739104'] So you actually have the right to say on Basschat 'but is it any good for metal?'!! [/quote] Yes I was very tempted to start a new thread with that title. I think I met that guy in regent sounds on Friday when I went in on a whim and came out with a 7 string schecter and a crazy idea about starting a metal band... In fact you could say this entire situation is his fault. I'll get down there when I can and make some noise.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1428171494' post='2738818'] Music, in almost all contexts, is a question of contrasts. A loud passage only has value if there's a soft passage, and [i]vice versa[/i]. A fast part is balanced by a slower part. Silence is as important as notes, dynamiques is the name of the game. Permanent intensity becomes mundane, as the brain accepts it as the 'normal'. This balancing act is what differentiates 'good' music from bad. Overplaying (filling in all the gaps...) is, generally, counter-productive; all the life-breath is squeezed out. There is much to be said in favour of the pregnant pause. Silence is golden and all that. There are extremes, of course, as with all things, but the emotion is not in the 'fullness'; quite the opposite. YMMV. [/quote] And thus ended all discussion for the truth had been revealed...

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1428154733' post='2738573'] You know, what with pedals being so good these days and the fact that there are so many boutique pedal makers keeping everyone on their toes, Class A grear may not be a necessity for hardcore metal imo. And the digital simulation stuff may just suit that style too as everyone loves a Mesa tone so it gets copied a lot.. Wish I still had my Mesa V Twin pedal, damn that was good. Good luck, worth a trip to some shops for a bit of thrashing.... [/quote] Ok cool, so I recon for portability maybe a lightweight Poweramp and cab set up... I already have a strat / orange set up for blues noodling but its not really suitable for metal... And to be honest I'm not sure I really need th subtly of full valve for this project. So my next question is which pedal / preamp will get close to emulatiing that massive mesa high gain distortion? I really appreciate your input here, I'm basically a newbie with guitar gear.

Thanks for the feedback, I really am clueless. Portability is more important than cost. I'm not looking right now, just trying to get my head around it all. Been thinking about playing guitar in a hardcore metal band on the side of my bass playing duties.

Hi all, despite playing bass and being a bass gear fanatic for years I know absolutely nothing about guitar amps... Does every one still use valve based heads etc? is their such a thing as a class d or similar for guitar, or would that just be crap? Preferably something that sounds as close to those enormous mesa beasts everyone uses. Any advice appreciated.