Osiris

It's a bit of an IT cliche but switch (your mobile?) off, leave it a minute or so and reboot it. You'll be surprised how many times this resolves all sorts of issues! If that doesn't work, uninstall the app, clear your browser cache (another reboot won't hurt) and then try reinstalling the app. If neither of those work, I have no idea

@mikel I've also got a short scale Talman and fully agree that they are superb instruments for the stupidly cheap they are. I bought mine from a mate who had installed some Kent Armstrong vintage pickups and a set of D'Addario rounds and given it a set it up. Since I've had it, I've swapped the bridge as I found the stock one on mine to be a bit flimsy, and had it rewired to include a blend pot instead of the stock individual volumes for each pup. It plays and sounds great, sits in the mix where I want it and is regularly gigged along side a couple of my basses that cost 10 times the price of the Talman shorty! My only gripe is that mine is pretty heavy, I'm not sure if they all are but I use a comfort strap so it doesn't bother me come the end of the night.

That is a great looking bass, I'd certainly be tempted to give one a go. It looks to my to be more inspired by a Sandberg VM with the domino humbucker and reversed P pick-ups with the oversized pole pieces. Even the 6 bolt neck joint is similar. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sandberg-California-VM4-Bass-guitar-Immaculate-condition-/232903409959

All good points and no disagreement from me on any of them but in 10 years or so of gigging it, reading up about sound engineering and trying just about every combination of knob twiddling, slider sliding and button pressing I could with my old rig I just could not get any convincing low end or mid range from it. It just wouldn't deliver. You could get it sounding OK-ish in isolation but once the band fired up it just couldn't project any lows or mids with any substance to them. And that was through a pair of TE 15's. Most folks are reporting the opposite, which is making me think mine was just a bit of an underdog. I'm not trying to be a contrary sod, I'm just relaying my past experiences But for less than £100 I'm might consider giving them another go. Likewise, I like those low mids prominent in my tone and I always use a bass sound that works with the band - and I totally agree, it may not be the sexiest sound in isolation but it works when the rest of the clowns are making a row 🤡 Anyway, back to your NAD (just the one ?)

That's a right bargain that you've got there Mr @discreet I was whining recently on another thread about how gutless and under-powered my old TE SMX rig was (which too be fair it absolutely was, it had about as much heft as a cigarette paper) but it seems as though I'm in something of a minority on that score when it comes to old TE gear. All this talk of the big old Trace sound has got me thinking that my old rig was probably just a bit duff. Not actually knackered as such, more like the fat asthmatic kid on the cross country run when I was at school, it just ran out of steam in seconds. And I still do. Anyway, for the sort of money that these are going for now I'm tempted to pick up another one and see if I can get that big, slamming, hefty sound that folks keep talking about - and to see if mine really was a bit 💩.

Thanks guys. I think I'll stick with my Protec for now at least.

It sounds as though it's little more than a dust cover, is that about right? It's a shame if it is because it looks reasonably sturdy in the promo pictures above.

How do I change the ratio, attack and release times, knee settings etc. purely through technique?

I have one of the RM 1x12 cabs that I use for rehearsals and quiet jamming with friends, I picked it up used locally for £50 and it was in very good condition, it's a huge amount of cab for what I paid for it. I've no idea what it's made from but I'm not too concerned anyway 😀. It's an easy one hand carry, 10-12 KG's at a guess. Soundwise, it has a bit of a mid range bias compared to my realitively flat sounding Tecamp 2x12, so it isn't the sexiest sounding cab when it's just the bass in isolation. But it makes perfect sense in a band situation. Mine is 8 ohm, 300 watts, I think. I power it with a Genzler Magellan 350 and it will easily keep up with our drummer and keys player at a moderate volume rehearsal. I set the volume on the amp between 8 and 9 o'clock, apply a touch of compression and HPF and the cab works just fine. My only concern, as someone mentioned earlier, is the grill cloth seems a little flimsy, a metal grill would give me additional peace of mind but also add to the cost and weight. But if you're careful with your gear it shouldn't be a problem.

Although I occasionally use a touch of low gain drive (definitely not balls out distortion) to add some richness to my sound, my default tone is clean, with a bias for a Precision or Jazz neck pup, relatively flat with a slight bump to the low mids. But my SMX just could not deliver, in more than 30 years of playing it's the one amp I have used that I could not get a workable sound out of without having to plug something else into it. But as you say, tone is a personal thing. Having said that, I recently pickup up one of the new Transit B pre-amps as I'm about to make the move to IEM's and it looked to be the perfect all in one amp replacement. Despite my trepidation based on my previous underwhelming TE experience it does seem to have the heft, depth and punch that Trace are famous for - that was very much sadly lacking from my SMX, so maybe mine was a Friday afternoon special? But the Transit B still has that ice pick top end thing going on that grates on me so it's looking for a new home.

Cheers @Lozz196

That's an interesting observation, @Lozz196. Which cabs did you find had the ice-pick high end? I personally found the opposite with my rig - the speakers were fine once they were paired with another amp or a pre-amp bypassing the SMX one. That was a pair of the original Trace branded Kevlar 15's and a horn in the combo, which was dialled low or even out altogether.

Just received a signal splitter box from Mark in another easy peasy Discreet deal. To echao all that has been said many times over on this thread already, he's a great guy to deal with, funny, kept me informed every single step of the way and the package itself was secure enough to survive the coming apocalypse. Cheers, Mark!

Likewise, I've been there, seen it, still got the T shirt that is about 3 sizes too small for my middle aged spread and saggy man breasts. Like you I had completely lost all interest in being in a band or even making any music on my own. In fact it's happened to me twice over the 32 years or so since I first started playing bass. What killed it off for me on both occasions was people; either not pulling their weight and wasting my time as well as that of the others who were trying to make the band work, or other people with their various neuroses; arrogance, back stabbing, ego, drama queenery, etc. There's no cure for being a thingy, as Bron son of Bron says . Anyway, a different set of reasons to you but the same endpoint, so I completely empathise with your current situation and get the fact that you think it's all behind you and is never going to happen again. On both occasions I went through it I did eventually come out on the other side and get back into music, but the second time took about 6 years before I was ready. My advice, for what it's worth, would be to liquidate some of your unused gear and take the family on that holiday. It sounds as though you need it more. The sight of the unused expensive jazz bass is kicking you while you're down so move it on out of the way, it'll be one less thing weighing on your mind. But I would suggest that you hang on to enough gear to noodle/jam/gig with so that in future if that pilot light ever reignites, as mine did, you are able to jump back in without necessarily having to buy a load of new, expensive gear (although if you're as bad as the rest of us you will anyway )

I had an SMX rig for several years, made up of a 250 watt 1215 combo and 1153 cab and I could never get a sound out of it that I was happy with. Unfortunately I was not in the position to be able to replace it until about 10 years or so after I'd bought it so I had to live with it. A lot of guys on here love the Trace sound, but I could never get it to work for me. I found that it was gutless and under-powered and couldn't deliver any bass or mid frequencies with any conviction, in my experience. Whatever you did with it - and there are a ton of tone shaping options on the SMX - there was always that ice-pick top end thing going on that I just could not get rid of whatever I did with it. Trace gear has a reputation for being punchy and powerful, but my rig was neither. On a good night you could get a mediocre sound out of it, the rest of the time it was just top end clank and not much else. I grew to hate it with a passion. After about 10 years or so the pre-amp developed a fault and I ended up using an original Bass POD as a pre-amp going straight into the effects loop return and all the missing low end and mids were suddenly available and that omnipresent sharpness to the treble was gone. And as for Trace watt's being twice as loud as everyone else's, err, no, not in my experience they're not. Likewise I'm not trying to derail the thread into a Trace bashing fest, but if you are struggling to get a sound out of it that you are happy with, as I did, then maybe try using an external pre-amp pedal with it? Or even ditching it in favour of another amp altogether if that is an option?

But I don't work in accounts. Now who's misquoting, eh? And the only thing Freddie and I have in common is the leotard.

Not sure if that's at least partially aimed at me but while my comments may ostensibly be despondent, they are an honest and realistic appraisal of typical the pub audiences I have been playing to since the 80's. Yes, certainly some notice what we're doing but in my experience they are very few and far between. As bass players we may not be comfortable with this especially once we factor in the endless hours and amounts of money we've sank into our paying and gear over the years, we want them to appreciate it as much as we do. But invariably they don't. The counterpoint to your position is that you risk overestimating your own importance as far as the punters are concerned. To them you're just a bloke in the corner of the pub playing a guitar

All aboard the @Al Krow magic roundabout once more In my experience, the audience are usually more concerned about what they're having to drink next rather than the presence and quality - or not - of any low frequencies emanating from the band.

I think it's precisely the point - whether it can be done on bass or guitar, most punters won't notice any difference and fewer still will care. Isn't that what you were trying to ascertain in your opening post on this thread i.e. what do we bass players bring to the gig??? I think that that part could be done on guitar with barely a raised eyebrow in the house. We as bass players may not like that but I don't think it's too far from the truth. You are right, we would notice and we would feel that the song suffers as a result if the bass was to not play on most of our sets. But I doubt that many in the audience would - and that's the point I'm trying to make. They might be vaguely aware that something doesn't sound quite right but they probably won't know what's amiss, nor really care. How many times have you seen people dancing to disco's where it's all sub bass obliterating the rest of the frequencies? There used to be a DJ in these parts who had an atrocious PA, not much going on below about 2 KHz, he was known locally as Trevor Treble, but he always had a full dance floor. Sound quality is not the punters priority, having a good time is. My opinion is nothing to do with having a low opinion of myself or other bass players, or to belittle what we as bass players do. It's an opinion built up from more than 30 years, and god knows how many gigs. We care, they don't. If other people have had more positive experiences than mine, then I genuinely envy them. Don't get me wrong, I still gig regularly and love every minute of it. But to Sharon and Dave (my deepest apologies @dmccombe7 ) it's not all about the bass...

Get your guitarist to start it at the next gig. I bet the number of people who notice can be counted on one hand. And fewer still will care.

I've been gigging pubs and such like for more than 30 years now and in my opinion the average pub band audience just want to dance and sing along. That's it. You'll get the odd muso and other bassists paying more attention than Sharon and Dave as they drunkenly sing and dance along, but other than that the punters see the band as a live disco and couldn't care less about your gear, your sound or anything else that we obsess about on Basschat. They just want to hear something that they know and enjoy themselves in their own way - which usually means tripping over the monitors while emptying half a pint of beer over themselves or whichever member of the band they are trying to request a song from.

According to the YouTube video I linked to above, the stomp has the amp and cab modelling that is missing from the HX. That's where your money will be going. Or not as maybe!

Except that DG M900 doesn't have semi-parametric mids The 3 selectable frequencies for each band do offer a wide range of flexibility but it's not as precise as a semi-parametric - if you're looking to control a resonant frequency in a difficult room that is outside the options on the DG pre-amp you may run into problems, you might get close but you may also end up having to compromise I.e. live with it or use a pedal EQ. A sweepable mid control allows you to precisely isolate the problem frequency. And as @Muzz said, the Genzler has the single knob, dual voiced contour control for the mids, voice A being a variable mid scoop (more subtle but infinitely more usable than most) and voice B which bumps the low mids for a warm, rounded tone that plonks the bass right where you want it in the mix. Set up your core tone with voice A or B, tackle any troublesome frequencies with the semi-parametric mid control and off you go. Simple, quick and all the control most of us are ever likely to need.