NancyJohnson

Never had an issue with the old ones although I always felt that (as a Dunlop Straplok user) the design was less sleek than the Dunlops. That they're standard on Ricks was a bit of a curveball; you shell out for a bass then discover that you have to go with a different locking mechanism is a pain. P

We've tried a couple of drummers who immediately said they were going to struggle. We have another guy (who maintains a click isn't an issue), but logistically it's problematic.

I think live we'd be well drilled, but there'd be an expectation for the shambolic. I do like the idea of getting in a non-muso just to handle the quirky stuff. Good thread.

Unsure whether this is the right forum area, but here goes. With the new band, we're up to around 20 songs tracked, about half mixed. All good. What has grown out of a couple of initial ideas is now this proggypunky monster of a thing; at present this is a studio based project, but we want to take it out live, but there's a ton of stuff going on besides vocals/guitar/bass/drums. Lots of loops, samples etc. How would be the best way of doing things live? We're considering two things. First off is taking the recorded tracks and stripping out the instrumentation and just playing with the backing recordings either with a drummer or without. The next idea was to get someone in who could trigger the non-instrumentation elements in a live context; this doesn't have to be a keyboard player or a musician, moreover someone who has a grasp of the technology side of things and could just push pads on a midi controller to fire off the at the appropriate times. I think it would need to be an extra person as there's simply going to be too much going on to be able to stop playing guitar/bass and start hitting buttons. I can't really put it any more succinctly really. Any help appreciated. If you want an idea of what's going on here:

If I can add a comment or two to this thread... Sound/Tone. So many players who own these copies are under this misapprehension that what's coming out of the speakers is a close proximity to how the original sounds. It isn't. I'm not being elitist here or anything, but just because you have something that looks similar, does not mean that it will sound like the original. Look, I know tone is subjective, one man's poison etc. but so many bass players (and I've played with a lot of other bands) seem to be under this allusion that just because they have an Epiphone Thunderbird or a Chickenbacker (shudder) that it's identical to the real thing, then you pull out your Gibson or Rickenbacker then plug in and they're literally jizzing themselves over what's coming out of my rig. They are effectively more in love with the shape than how it sounds. Sure, I'll let guys have a noodle on my stuff, but I've actually had bassists come up to and ask if they can use my basses for their slot (politely as possible, 'No, GFY.'). Irrespective of what love they may have for their copies, when they come up against the real thing, it's a lightbulb moment. You can see it in their face. It's hilarious.

I think you're taking me out of context here. The video I linked off You Tube was really given as fair warning and buyer beware to anyone should they be considering a ticket purchase in the misapprehension that it'll be just like old times. That said, I don't believe that the guy, irrespective of the chameleonesque label he was wearing at the time (pop, rock, blue-eyed soul, soul, jazz), EVER had what would pass as a decent voice and some 30-odd years later, I'm still flummoxed as to how he got as far as he did with so little. A bit like Adam Clayton.

I love mine. To re-use a quote I've used elsewhere, it's like the GED2112 on steroids. Or more like the GED2112's angry big brother.

This is probably more about the inconveniences pertaining to selling and taking a hit against what the guitar owes you. In answer to your question, yes. Several.

Loads around south and west of London. Small sweaty places that don't reek of cheese. Phoenix, High Wycombe. Star, Guildford. Readipop, Reading. Dublin Castle, Camden. Half Moon, Putney.

The handful that were there, yep...

Our rehearsal space at our guitarist's house was affectionately known as Tracey Island; it was this huge place that looked very similar to the family home from Thunderbirds...the guy ran the family business and was pretty monied at 20, so he threw a load of money into getting the lower rooms knocked into one, soundproofed and filled with boy's toys, video and pinball machines, a pool table and a full wet bar. It was a little insane. The room was maybe 50'x20' and I was up against a very loud drummer and the guitarist who was running a very large rack of gear into a couple of 4x12s. I'd say unequivocally that the Laney held its own in that environment. We gigged a handful of times and it was more a case of rolling back the volume in that context; I have no memory of whether the guy handling front of house put a mic in front of the cabs or there was a DI option.

I never actually saw the talent or the appeal; I had mate who just loved him. For me, it just seemed to me that you'd turn on the TV, there he was wheezing his way through Come Back and Stay or Love of the Common People. On the strength of this thread, I decided to look him up on You Tube. The footage below isn't that pretty and it's something he should be able to sing while gargling TCP and it's only from a few months back, so if anyone is buying tickets, caveat emptor.

But it will require an upfront rewire of sorts. It's perfectly feasible to have each speaker wired independently, but then you'd need to utilise a jumper to wire them in series/parallel.

While I don't have any current love for Laney, a long time ago I used to run a rig - 2x15, 2x10, big old DP150 head (I couldn't afford the DP300). I'd never loved whatever was passing for the affordable/budget end of bass playing back then...people just too obsessed with Marshalls to be honest. Anyhow this was my set up. It was furiously loud and I never ran it more than about halfway.

I suppose my methodology or what I wanted was too simplistic for one cabinet. Bear in mind this was pre-GED2112; at this point I was running a BDDI for lows and a GT2 for dirt into a pair of cabinets to try and emulate the Geddy Lee and Dug Pinnick tone. Alex is pretty passionate about what he makes and part of the argument was that the frequencies would get muddied, so I kind of accepted this as is, but still have this nagging doubt in my head that switching the cabinet in this manner shouldn't be insurmountable; on a much smaller scale I was running an Arcam bi-amped hi-fi years ago, feeding the driver and the tweeter of a pair of rudimentary B&W 601s with different signals, OK, yes, I appreciate the volumes and frequency ranges are vastly different with bass, but ultimately when I switched back to running the 601s from a single amp, it was just a matter of bridging the +/- terminals, so why not on a Super Twin? I guess at the end of the day, I'll just try and source a pair of matched cabinets, be them Barefaced, TKS, whatever. I'd like them to be Barefaced...I'm very happy with the Big One, there's an ethic about the business I like.

Incidentally, Andy/Wolverine and I had a long conversation with Alex from Barefaced at one of the bass bashes about whether he could build a switchable 2x12/Big Twin (ie to run each driver independently or the two drivers together). I thought it was genius, a challenge of sorts, the laying down of a gauntlet if you like. Alex said it just wouldn't work. Booo.

This ^^^

I think it's just been more a case of evolution rather than anything else; the RBI is great and either that or the BDDI formed the backbone of my tone for quite a while. The GED2112 is wonderful...to my ears it just expands on what the RBI does and betters it all round, but that said, it's a personal thing. To take things a step further, the dUg takes things further still. If the GED2112 is an RBI on steroids, the dUg is an RBI on steroids, a full belly of vindaloo and a few pints of heavy. It's a fantastic thing.

I'll try and keep this brief! I'm currently running a 4U rack set up (Gator), that tuner aside contains a 2U Matrix stereo poweramp and a Tech 21 GED2112 pre-stage; I also have a couple of other Tech21 units (BDDI/dUg). Whilst it's a dual channel pre-stage, the GED2112 is hardwire tweaked (see elsewhere) to output in mono and the poweramp is bridged to allow a single feed to a Barefaced Big One. All is peachy; I like the tone I get from all this stuff, but I've got this itch I can't scratch and really want to try running the GED2112 in dual channel mode into either i) a pair of decent 1x12"s or ii) a 1x15" and a 1x12". I would also like to be able daisychain the cabinets to get a pseudo 2x12" or 1x15"/1x12" as well. So I'm after suggestions, but there's some underlying fulfilment criteria outside of how they sound; size/weight and visual aesthetic. We all know about the weight thing...nobody really wants to lug a 75lb cabinet into a gig and load it out afterwards and visually, I want the cabinets to line up from a width perspective (see below) and I don't want the rack to overhang the cabinets (giving the appearance of a T), so either the height or width needs to exceed 20". I've already given some consideration to a pair of Barefaced BB2s or pairing a BB2 with a Super Compact; the frequency range of the BB2 should allow for a bit more bottom wobble and top end rattle over the Super Compact, plus the horn is tuneable, but at £1.5K for a pair of new G3/BB2s it'll need to be a used purchase. Anyone care to weigh in here?

The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray. I've never listened to it before.

The way it works here is you seed the thought that you want something. Wife insists you sell/make space first. I just make noises along the lines of, 'Yes, yes, that's fine,' all the while singing the Meowmix song in my head and ignoring her 100%. New bit of kit arrives and I just rack it up. Wife none the wiser.

Does Catrin know about the dozen stashed in my garage?

No stinky poo!

My first love was Thunderbirds, but I adored the Rickenbacker tone ever since I heard those early Sweet b-sides and some of my brothers Yes albums (and yes, I know Steve Priest, like Geddy Lee, also used Jazz basses). That tone was there right out of the case, it is amazing that you can emulate your heroes tone fairly easily. I got a close approximation out of the Thunderbirds, but not spot on, I did consider buying some Rickenbacker pickups and dropping them into a Thunderbird, but life is too short. My only real groan about the 4003 was the taperless neck profile; pretty much the same for it's full length. A bit strange, but not an insurmountable problem.