NancyJohnson

[quote name='Old_Ben' timestamp='1420638308' post='2651588'] £30 every 4 months isn't the worst amount to have to fork out. [/quote] Now factor this up by nine basses.

Anyone go the route of just replacing single strings? This isn't really anything about making economies - I was about to change the strings on one of my basses and quickly came to the conclusion that while the E string was pretty dead, the ADGs still have an awful lot of life left in them, despite the fact they've been on for a while (this always seems to be the case). The strings on the bass are EB Slinkys. A new E is £8, a full set (of whatever brand I decide to use - generally I'm going the Elixir Nanoweb route now) is £30/35+ - it just seems horribly wasteful to chuck the whole set - so, for the first time ever I should add, I pulled the trigger and just bought a Slinky .105 for £7.50. P

Cool. Thanks for the heads up! P

I've got a BH800 head and my only disdain is that while the chorus/flange/etc. TonePrints are very good, the dirt/grit options are a bit underwhelming, so I'm still going with a Sansamp as my front end until a new TP becomes available. I can't fault the amp elsewhere.

Anyone seen these in the UK? It's a non-permanent fluorescent pen (green ink), for marking effects pedals with your settings. Arguably nicer than covering all your pedals with stickers. They're available on eBay from the USA , but postage costs are more than the actual item!

Out Gibson Thunderbird NR Gibson Thunderbird IV In Rickenbacker 4003 TC Electronic BH800 What I've learnt? Always trade up and if you fall out of love with any piece of gear don't keep it because of sentimental reasons. I'd wanted a Rickenbacker for some time and due to continuing back issues, a lightweight head was a priority. Also that a lot of gear isn't necessarily a good thing. All in all though, a decent, albeit, quiet year. 2015? Let's see how things go. In light of the 'lot of gear' comment above, I've been giving some thought to having a big clearout and simply just buying a Lull Jeff Ament. On the amp/cab front, moving on my Hartke enclosures and getting a Barefaced cabinet of some sort might be on the cards. We'll see. Happy new year everyone.

[quote name='UglyDog' timestamp='1419765925' post='2642484'] Like these? [url="http://tonyfarr.ca/tonyfarr.ca/Win_in_Time_jpg/STRAT_PLATE.jpg"]http://tonyfarr.ca/t...STRAT_PLATE.jpg[/url] [/quote] I've already been in contact with that guy! No black ones left. All anyone seems to have is curved ones for side-of-body mounting. P

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1419597220' post='2641125'] You can't fit an angled jack in a 'strat' style recessed socket, my eub only takes straight for example. [/quote] My Hamer FBIV has Stratocaster style output jack. It does take a right-angled jack plug, although it's not pretty. I'd like a flat oval replacement socket if i could find one.

Why not go for a Spector Forte X? It's Thunderbird shaped, in a similar finish. They're veeeeery nice.

I guess you have to ask yourself what you want to use it for...if you just want a straight and simple interface to capture anything that works off a 1/4" jack plug or an XLR, I can highly recommend the Presonus Audiobox USB. No MIDI though.

If you're west of the smoke, Julian Mullen is great. Reading. About ten minutes off the A33 junction.

Well I emailed Thomann and they're sending me a replacement. Small result! It worked fine before it went pop so I'll persevere.

The GigRig Generator is around £100, plus it looks like you need a £35 distributor unit to send isolated power to each pedal (rather than daisy chaining the supplies). T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior or the Diago Powerstation frontrunners at the moment. I've emailed Thomann about the HB to see what they'll do (probably not much as I've already put it through the WEEE recycling at work)...if they sort out some discount, I'll go with the T-Rex.

The Diago Powerstation looks decent, small too.

Thomann one (£22) conked out after very little use in around a year. I have a small Pedaltrain board, on which is Velcro'd a pair of talent boosters (Sansamp BDDI/VTBass DI) and a Boss TU Tuner. I also have an option of a yellow Boss bass overdrive. I'll use Thomann (I have a voucher that will cover the 10Euro shipping). I'm drawn to the Pedaltrain Volto (£75), T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior (£83) - this looks almost identical to the Harley Benton, or the Mooer Micro Power (£67). Anyone else got any suggestions? P

I play in a noisy old-boy(!) punky outfit; guitarist loves to crank. Sadly, I'm not playing in any loud capacity until mid-January, due to band members being away, so the acid-test is a way off. Also the measurements on the website are off. Allowing for knobs and the little carry handles, the unit is pretty much 11" square and not 11 x 9.5" as quoted. Tut tut! P

OK, briefest of updates. Amp arrived today, got it unpacked and set up. I was able to have a quick noodle before I took up the offer of a couple of pints of Old Peculiar at my local followed by an Indian takeout.. Plugging straight in it sounds nice enough, but plugging my BDDI in front of the amp (with the controls at the noon position) gave me an 'oh, myyyy' moment. Lovely. Tone Print function works without any issues, however it doesn't work with the Sansamp on. I suppose it's understandable as the incoming signal that loads the patch is affected by the pedal, so switch off before loading the tone print. Tried a few chorus effects, and all good. I'm not particularity taken with the tube/grind emulation(s) and much prefer my Sansamp. It weighs next to nothing and size for size is about a tenth of that of my 4U rack. Incidentally, the amp seems reasonably happy to accept a line-level input from the BDDI without any distinct clipping. One big bone of contention that I've been reading up on is TC Electronics claims that the output wattage is over-egged. I ran it through two daisy-chained 8ohm Hartke Hydrives (so that's 4ohms I believe), took the master volume up to about 20% and I'm happy to report it's painful loud at that level, which is reassuring. So that's it for the moment. I'll have a decent mess around tomorrow. If you want to shoot me any questions, I'll be happy to try poop out and post here. P

My guitarist uses a Bugera set up. It's very good for metal \m/ P

I understand that the Tone Print app is Apple or Android and that it stores the tones on your device so, in theory you can just load tones from whatever compatible device you have. You'd only need to connect to the Internet to check for app updates. Moving along, the head does have a usb socket on the rear fascia to update via a cable. TCE suggest you update the software when you fire it up for the first time.

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1418149059' post='2627413'] Cool. That's some good info on the Tech 21 stuff. I'm looking at getting the VT bass DI to replace my VT bass. I like the idea of the DI option should I need it. Would you know, if I use the VT bass and not the Oranges Pre-amp, can I still use the DI on the Orange or does that not work since I bypass the Preamp. [/quote] From my perspective (Ashdown ABM), I understand that if an XLR gets plugged into the front panel of the head, it'll output whatever the amp is outputting at line level. Generally, sound guys at gigs will take an XLR cable out of the back of the RBI (or side of the BDDI), so you have a choice. Personally, I prefer the RBI/XLR output - there's an XLR knob on the RBI that controls what goes to the desk (so you have a little control of how much bass the crowd get). P

Got one incoming. Very happy. Will review when it gets here.

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1418117054' post='2626899'] Have you ever used the BDDI live rather than the RBI? If so how did it compare? Also what Cab/s do you run live? Thanks, G. [/quote] Live I run everything into a Hartke HyDrive 410...if I need another enclosure I have a HyDrive 115 that I can add as well. Before I got the RBI, I used the BDDI all the time, live and studio. It's got more than enough output to drive a poweramp. About eighteen months ago I purchased VT Bass rack unit, but it didn't do it for me, so that got sold on here and I purchased the RBI, this forms the backbone of my tone. The BDDI is on a PedalTrain board with a VT Bass DI unit. I use the Pedaltrain set up for recording or where I'm having to use someone's rig at gigs. Live, the BDDI and RBI are pretty similar - but now you have me thinking. Live, I tended to use the bass/treble controls on the BDDI whereas I tend to leave the RBI controls pretty much flat. That's something that's never really crossed my mind! You obviously have a mid cut/boost on the RBI as well (also generally flat) and a few more routing options. I tend to concentrate more on the drive and blend options rather than messing around with the tone too much. Irrespective, it's all good. I've seen Pete V with a number of Thunderbirds...I'm almost certain that the one on the Islington DVD is a fairly rare Gothic version - these were a short run (100-150 units) and the ones that went unsold were retooled to become the Gibson Blackbird models. I've got a Gothic as well as three others. Nice bass. Whatever happened to PV? The Bassknives album was supposed to be finished years ago and it went very quiet. Seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth! P

Listen here: http://www.nancyjohnson.co.uk/_2013%20Wedgie%20%28Mastered%29/01%20-%20Don%27t%20Rush%20%28Mastered%29.mp3 OK, granted the bass is a Gibson Thunderbird, I've been using a Sansamp BDDI and Sansamp RBI for recording/live. I've repeated the same process with a number of heads whilst having to use other gear when gigging and the BDDI always sounds there or thereabouts. This recording is a BDDI straight into the audio interface. Live I run the RBI into the effects return of an Ashdown ABM. I'm a big fan of 3CR and moving to Thunderbirds was largely down to Pete Vukovic )and Mott The Hoople's Overend Watts). I sound like this all the time. P

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1418041335' post='2626166'] My advice, save up for a day in a big rehearsal studio Mic the drums, DI the bass, Line6 POD for guitar. Track the drums, then in your own time overdub the other stuff 'properly' You cant do what you want without a decent space and its going to be loud, but a day in a rehearsal studio is not too expensive at all. [/quote] This is pretty much what I was thinking when I read this. You could (emphasis on the could) record the guitars/keys to a click and then get your drummer to add their poop after, but generally it's better to capture the traps first. P