Al Krow

Useful suggestions gents. I'm sure the BF LF800 will deliver all the bottom end you need. @W1_Prowhich Thomann model did you go for? The CL 112 Sub is rated at 120W RMS going up to 1000W RMS for the Pyrit 212 SubA but looks great value at £525 including VAT. 41kg is going to much for my aging back, though! I'm not sure what folk would reckon is a decent min with a full rock band? My RCF 702 AS ii delivers 700W RMS and is a more manageable 17.5kg / 39lbs which seems to be a decent power / weight compromise for our needs.

Such a shame about the Ric. It's one of those iconic purchases that a lot of us GAS for and then to find it doesn't work out in terms of "feel", must have been really gutting!

Pics (of both) please!

So in keeping with best of the year purchase theme - if you had to save just one of the three "from the fire" which would it be (and why)?

Yes absolutely. Why shell out good money for new kit, if what you have is already excellent? Not everyone has money to burn.

That's still way better than pretty much all the competition. And if it's 90% as good as a 3Leaf Proton Mk4, to the point that an audience doesn't notice, why wouldn't you get this instead? Obviously the proof will be in the A/Bing!

That's a great price. But 20% VAT and £12 Customs handling on top maybe?

I salute that intention my fellow Brummie bass player! I'll see if I can follow in your footsteps in 2022! Are you in a band btw? Actually be really good to know how many of us Yamaha owners are managing to get to use our kit with bands and any clips of us playing live would be a nice addition to this thread. I've posted this elsewhere, but I think it's the only gig I've got a recording of using my BB1025:

One came up a couple of years back in mint condition and just didn't shift and I think was withdrawn. I guess some things just fade from collective consciousness as to how good they were untill someone stumbles on them again and says 'Wow!!'; Mendelssohn's rediscovery of J S Bach has gotta be the ultimate musical example? But the BB2004 really is another hen's teeth Yamaha piece of kit these days - I do hope you manage to find one. I'm still feeling unashamedly unapologetic about jumping on my BB2005 within 24 hours of it coming up for sale - such a fantastic bass! Given you've now had at least 4 different BB models and still have the rather splendid TRB5, I've not completely whitewashed (or whatever the appropriate non-offensive term is these days!) you from the wall, for old times' sake (not that I'm saying you're 'old' btw). Being GAS-free is a wonderful thing, right? I mean being able to focus on actually using our gear and becoming better bass players, rather than being on the never ending tone quest for something only we're going to notice, has got lots of plusses!

Kinda get where you're coming from. However isn't there a more general point that if you're leaving the tops to focus on everything above 110Hz vs 80Hz, given that the sub(s) can handle everything below 110Hz, then that frees the tops up just a bit more, which is a big chunk of the purpose of the set up in the first place? And I wouldn't have thought you'd generally want the sub(s) to be going below 30Hz in any event? Happy to be corrected on both points, if they don't make sense.

Digging up an old thread... We did, in the end, invest in a sub (RCF 702 ASii) shortly before Covid hit us, but haven't taken it out in anger since getting. Almost got rolled out for a corporate charity event on Thurs but the hired sound crew, having initially said they would charge £2,000 to mic up our drum kit(!!!) - in the end asked us to use their sound system rather than our own PA, so it stayed in the back of my car for the gig. I A/B'd the PA with and without the sub beforehand and, no question, it's making for a much bigger low end than with just our two RCF 310A tops. I've got the crossover set at 110Hz rather than 80Hz - dunno if that is mostly what other folk are doing? Those of you who have not gone down the IEM route, are any of you using the sub as backline to give you enough of the sound / feel of the bass line to avoid needing to take your rig for on stage monitoring or needing to put the bass through the floor monitors to hear yourself? Our preference would be to leave our single on stage monitor for the vocals. It's obviously not much fun playing a gig where you're struggling to hear yourself, but if we can cut down on the total amount of gear we need to take that would definitely be welcome! Or would sticking the sub at the back behind the mics just lead to a wall of low end feedback-boominess?

If the UK (alone) spent the same amount on funding fusion research as we've done on the ridiculously wasteful track and trace (£37 BILLION) and the much more useful furlough (£73 BILLION), then the whole ruddy issue disappears as we'll have pretty limitless clean energy, and can then focus on locking in with the kick drum instead.

Growing trees to make basses isn't the worst thing environmentally, by a long way, particularly if the forests are managed sustainably. Each wooden bass = carbon captured. If burnt, the same carbon is released back into the atmosphere. The electronics used are going to be "dirtier". We've taken just a one-person return flight between us a family of four over the past 5 years and that was to visit a sick relative. That works for me in terms of thinking about the environment. I'd love to say the same about pontificating celebs flying to Extinction Rebellion events in their private jets. In my books, making musical instruments and music are some of Humanity's very best things. So I'm certainly not going to angst about getting another bass.

Adele – 30 was one of my most anticipated album releases for the year, but... As someone who fell in love with Adele’s huge song writing and vocal skills on her first two albums, 19 and 21, which were both rightly regarded as both being fantastic, I, together with millions of her fans, was very much looking forward to her latest offering. Thoughts? Well she has well and truly discovered the ‘40s – no not her fifth decade when we will no doubt get 40 and 45 from her, but the 1940s. It’s just that a lot of wonderful artists got there a long time ago and did it so much better! I felt that 30 was lethargic throughout and a lyrically lame emulation of writers such as Cohen and Dylan which, in contrast, she did superbly with her beautiful cover of “Make you feel my love” on 19. But then those words were actually Dylan’s not hers. It’s a really interesting question as to who popular albums are written for: the artist or their audience? The answer, I guess, must be “both”. 30 felt as though it was catharsis for Adele’s own emotional journey rather than one she was particularly bothered about taking her myriad of fans with her on. But there again she’s a global superstar and I’m just an average Joe, so that’s surely her prerogative. Was it worth a 5 year wait for this latest album? Certainly not for me and it may struggle to get a second play in the Krow household although, no doubt, it will shoot to the top of the 2021 best seller list.

Just out of interest, how do you think bass players' husbands or partners might jump in on the subject? 😉

You'd need a vast list, though, if you were going to cover every make and model, as so much boils down to individual taste. Dirt pedals appear, not surprisingly, to be the most popular pedal type, but there are loads of (100+?) different overdrive and fuzz pedals. The other thing that's kinda interesting is how folks' pedal boards have evolved over time. The main pedal types I've used have been pretty constant over the past 4 years, but I've changed / upgraded most of the individual pedals as my tastes have changed or better kit has appeared on the scene. Hmnm...that topic could also make for an interesting separate thread 😊

Good question! I suspect many folk haven't come across the benefits of a reverse-P and wouldn't regard it as an improvement, but would see it as modded bass that is no longer an "original". I wonder if you described it as: "reverse-P set up similar to Hooky's PH signature bass to deliver a tighter P-bass sound" it might do justice to the work you have put into it? GLWTS

I've got 5 gigging basses (all 5'ers) and 5 more specialist basses (e.g. 8 string, 6 string, EUB) which currently just get played at home. Having churned quite a few basses over the past few years, I guess I've at least managed to suss what bass shapes, weight, electronics, scale lengths and string spacings work for me and it's brill to now have a herd that I love playing; so any changes here on in are likely to be tinkering at the edges. The test for me these days of whether to move something on, particularly with my gigging basses, has boiled down to "am I always reaching for one of the others and not that one?" If that's the case, and feel that won't change, then I know it's time to say farewell even if it had previously been one of my go-to basses.

By coinidence, there's a thread just started over on Talkbass with a poll of what effects bass players are using - although it's focussed on covers band bass players whereas the posts on here will also include plenty of originals band musicians and "bedroom" bass players not in bands. But it might be of interest anyway - here's the link: Covers bands - besides a tuner what pedals are you using and on which songs?

Had the pleasure of meeting Dan in time honoured fashion in a Holiday Inn car park off the A2 where goods and cash were exchanged! Pity we only had a few minutes to chat but, from my perspective, I've managed to get an excellent Berg cab for a very fair price and Dan is a real gent to deal with.

A little Motown patch for the B1-4: Motown [AK-EQ].zb1f

@Richard R What a splendid bass! And a relatively shallow tapering of the string spacing, not dissimilar to my Ibanez GVB36. Made me realise I knew precious little about Brawley, but have managed to find your NBD thread with lots more detail

Any Black Friday deals looking good and potentially a "best" (hopefully not a worst!) purchase?