Al Krow

You going for a push / pull pot set-uo to keep both series and parallel options available like the Doc ordered for his?

But it's giving Peter a different tonal colour, which is what's it's all about here, believe me. Famous audience be damned! 😁

Sounds like a tasty additional option! Wonder why it's not made more widely available? Turn your Yamaha into a Spector, when the context justifies. I mean what's not to like about having that at your finger tips?! Just need to get @Maude to do this as his next mod to his souped-up BB424...

Very cool - and something I suspect a "proverbial" audience would very much warm to! 😉 How does that differ from the same lick played through just one MXR BEF?

Interesting! What difference did you find having them in series? Nice touch being able to switch between parallel and series, as we, with the push / pull pot - more tonal choice from the same bass is always nice to have in terms of versatility.

Yeah fair enough - we've all been there. Not everything is going to pan out perfectly for everyone all the time - otherwise we'd probably all end up playing a Fender P with flats just to keep sound engineers happy! Hope you manage to get it away for a good price.

Yup, that does look good! And great value too (half the price of my RCF)!

Just for my education: is it mainly the body shape / "sharp" edge that's the issue? Are you otherwise liking the core Ric tone?

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? 😉