Dood

Hi, just a + for TC in general. I've owned a fair amount of TC products (though not any voice models) and have to say they are my favourite effects units and sound amazing!

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='1009210' date='Nov 2 2010, 01:10 AM']I've just had a weeks holiday in 'Wells Next The Sea' (well, it is when the tides in), and had a day in Norwich. Is it just me or is this place a haven for Muso's? Where we parked we came across the East Anglian Drum Centre within 50 yards, and this was followed by a music shop of some kind about every 20 yards for the rest of the street, must have been about 10 shops in all, half of which had some bass content! Personally I've never seen such a cluster of music shops. Anyway, managed to try out a second hand Vintage five string in Crack Converters (they have a dedicated music shop in Norwich as well as the standard one). Actually very impressed with this (playing through a G&K Combo), but I thought they were charging too much for it given its condition (£360 IIRC) Also in another shop tried a G&L MIA L2500 (£1200?), through a cheapish Ampeg combo. I really wanted to like this, but I found that for all its pickups and switches the range of tones available was a bit dissapointing. To be fair to it I did not have the manual so was flicking switches and turning knobs fairly randomly, so may have missed some great tones along the way. Also the action was set considerably higher than I, and I suspect 90% of people, would have wanted it. Why, when the staff in these shops have nothing to do a lot of the time, do they not sit down and set some of there instruments up a bit better? In the same shop also tried a MM Sterling 5 string (£600), through the same combo. Again, really wanted to like it, but it failed to excite me tonally, and the action was again rather high (but not as high as the G&L). Also saw, but didn't have time to try a couple of Yamahas, and several Corts, along with the usual crop of Fenders and Fender clones. So, a very interesting day, but saw nothing that made me want to sell my Ibanez SR505. PS: My wife was also happy as one of the shops was a real piano shop. Mmm - starting prices at around £7000 - puts our instruments' costs into perspective doesn't it![/quote] By the description, You walked up Benedict's Street - and yes indeed it is the street with the most amount of music and musical instruments on. I'm glad you parked nearby! - It's not the only place in Norwich with instrument shops either! 'More?' you say? - yes indeed - There's also a fairly large PMT store on the other side of the city too!

[quote name='fretmeister' post='1008376' date='Nov 1 2010, 12:01 PM']Northampton ish (on the A5 near Towcester) I'm working on the missus - selling an expensive cab to get a cheaper one is always ok with her, but a 4x10 takes up plenty more room than the tiny Tecamp.... and my rig lives in the lounge![/quote] Hmmm, shame I have no plans to head over that way in the near future, else I would have been happy to have brought my whole rig over for you to play with! Lemme know if the F1 is due to leave the flock.

Hey everyone! Thank you for your kind words :wub: It means a lot to have such nice feedback from my fellow bass playing bretheren. I'll gets some more tunes up on YouTube soon just for you! Thank you Basschat, you're ace! I've sent a message to see what happened with the dead link and will let you know when I do.

I've had a word with LickLibrary.com to get me involved with their tuition DVD department. Their guitar side of things is great, but they really need to have an amazing Bass department too!!

Very sad news. Grrrrrr!!!!! Definitely gets pics out to all the local 'trade' shops like Cash Converters and guitar shops ASAP. Fecking pond life make my blood boil!!!

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1008359' date='Nov 1 2010, 11:50 AM']Nice one Dood....and nice little plug for the site at the end too I subscribed to this site yesterday. Good article[/quote] Hell yeah! BassChat definitely gets a plug! Best forum on the web bar none!

Here's the link to the interview! [url="http://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2010/11/biscuits-bassment-a-bass-musician%e2%80%99s-review-spotlight-on-dan-veall-aka-%e2%80%9cdood-on-bass%e2%80%9d/"]http://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2010/11/bi...-bass%e2%80%9d/[/url]

Beware of some of the lower priced (usually chinese origin) power amplifiers - especially if they start looking a bit like more well known amplifiers! All that glistens is not gold and quite a few have ridiculous power outputs which they attempt to achieve in ways that are akin to thrashing the pants off a Nissan Micra around Brands Hatch. Those who have a bit of techy know how have spotted ICs under the lid that would not be able to produce the specified output and whats more - a cooling design that would be ineffective if the amp was running really hard. There's some great reviews and inside shots of amplifiers over on this forum [url="http://forum.speakerplans.com/"]http://forum.speakerplans.com/[/url] along with some rather surprising 'shoot outs' with some amplifers doing better than you may expect powering the likes of massive subs! I guess 'stick to the names you know' is always good advice to start with.

[quote name='fretmeister' post='1008010' date='Oct 31 2010, 11:26 PM']I really need to find a LH to try!!![/quote] Where are you based? There might be a friendly 'chatter nearby with one.

[quote name='fretmeister' post='1006506' date='Oct 30 2010, 04:55 PM']I'm currently using a Mark Bass F1 with a TecAmp S210. It's a great rig. But I do keep thinking about my old Hartke gear. All the time. I had a HA3500 and a Pro2200 2x12 cab (actually I had 2 of them, but had to use another amp as they are 4ohms as the 3500 won't do a 2ohm load). A Hydrive 410 seems a bit of a no-brainer choice - but what about the heads? a 5500? Or a LH500 / 1000? I haven't tried the new heads yet and I'm suspicious about an amp without an input gain control!! Maybe I'm a luddite! Or - for the moment sell the TecAmp and get the Hydrive 410, but loeave the amp until the Hartke Kilo comes out??? Has anyone tried all the above and come to any conclusions? I think Dood has / had a Hartke and F1 rig at some point - so any opinions welcome![/quote] Hey buddy! Here I am! Yeah, I reckon the Hydrives are the easy bit - they do sound different to the 4.5XLs and BassCat, Stag and I have had a proper A/B session with them! - Gotta say though, there is defintely added 'warmth' in with that lovely Hartke character. I think you'll like them. I do miss the porting of the 4.5XL - but that said - they were only 400W RMS and the HyDrives are 1000W - so it's probably just in my head! I'm defintely quite excited about the Kilo head as the adverts say it will do bridged, dual mono OR STEREO! which is exactly what I want right now! - I think the EQ on the LH heads is brilliantly simple and clever - it just works! That's all it needs - though if you are Graphic heavy, you may miss the ablity to do the harsher EQ settings. I love the LH1000 - it is monsterously loud and never runs out of breath. Don't be suspicious of the lack of gain control! To be honest when you look at the simplicity of the preamp design - a better way to describe the topology is actually a lack of master volume and the preamp schematic is more like the first critical stage of other preamps where the gain control would feed another section - what I mean to say is - that it's kinda like the volume on the amp is a gain control and that the would be 'master' is at 100% all the time. The result is a very clean and defined amp. No it doesn't do filth - but I have plenty of outboard shennanigans that do instead, so I'm happy with that. Hope this helps!

I'll be interested if you decide to let the F1 go - give me first dibs on a price! - I'll be back later to give you a better reply re: Hartke gear - but a quicky, I have the LH1000 and no, you won't need a gain control as the heads are clean and juicey all the way up to 'OMG THATS TOO LOUD'

[quote name='Dandelion' post='1005877' date='Oct 29 2010, 10:55 PM']Note the winking smiley...[/quote] Actually, it reminds me of a story in Guitarist magazine (I think) were they had an interview with the guitarist from They Might Be Giants. He challenged all the great guitarists to play the [i]slowest[/i] solo ever. I like his style!

[quote name='Dandelion' post='1005877' date='Oct 29 2010, 10:55 PM']Note the winking smiley...[/quote] Indeed! ;o)

I think the tongue is firmly in the cheek there, cos that ain't tha' fahstest lick in da world.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='1004601' date='Oct 29 2010, 12:20 AM']I changed my trace's original valve for a [i]EHX 12AX7 electron tube[/i] - comes in a black box - and my sound improved a lot! The valve pre (named as valve drive) in my amp comes after the SS pre and has a on/off switch. Does your ashdown have the same switch? Try and turn it off to see if that hiss desapears...[/quote] The OP is refering to a Hartke head with hiss issues. - The Hartke unfortunately does not have a valve bypass, as the circuit uses the valve exclusively for amplification - as opposed to the Ashdown and Trace Elliot design of using the valve more as an 'effect' like drive.

[quote name='Wilco' post='1004369' date='Oct 28 2010, 08:56 PM']Many thanks for your posts guys. Dood - tried your process. Connected active & passive basses into their respective inputs (separately obviously!) & amp hissed way merrily. Put a good instrument cable in the effects return socket & the hiss went (mind you, doing that muted the whole sound - was that to be expected?).[/quote] Yep, exactly. Good stuff! [quote]Unplugged both basses & the hiss was still there. Didn't actually try it previously with nothing plugged in the front end - the hiss was quieter, starts getting noticeable at about 5 on the volume control, but to me, still way to loud at 7 (although will I ever need to have it that loud is another question.....). I think the basses are a contributing factor, particularly an active one, but as a couple of the other posts are saying their LH500's are silent I'm thinking I have a noisy pre-amp. As you say, possibly the valve is the guilty party. I've mentioned it to the retailer & he was going to get some advice from the distributor so I'll await their response & take it from there.[/quote] Ok, interesting stuff. Well in the design the master volume control is placed before the effects loop but after the valve. So if the hiss progressively gets louder as you turn the volume up without a bass plugged in - and the hiss is pretty loud, then I deduce you do indeed have a noisey lil valve! - It's a ECC83 / 12AX7 in there and very lilely to be one of the Sovtek rebadged valves such as 'electroharmonix' or you could even have a JJ valve in there - but any 12AX7 will be ok (though I'd recommend getting the best valve possible to go in that slot!) - The distributor is Korg and they are brilliant - it's likely they will pop a preamp valve in the post for you, which is dead easy to swap out. I and many others on the forum are here to help you should you need assistance