three

4 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

I understand.

 

I'm playing at the Back Room at the Green Hotel. I'm in the band for a UK tour with Greg Douglass, who was the lead guitarist with Steve Miller.

A bit off topic but are you anywhere near Manchester on the tour Steve?

I had a couple of Classic Supreme LG4s (with the DN boards) back in the early days of Jimmy's production - lovely instruments, but ultimately, I'm not a Fender-type player.  The circuit in these is superb and works beautifully with AC's own pickups.  This one looks lovely and I'd concur on the MHS.  The headstock shape was never to my taste but the additional mass may (?) have helped with the avoidance of dead spots - both of my ACs had beautiful clarity and sustain from B to E on the G (not something I can claim for all the Fender-types I've owned).  Good luck with this one - a lovely bass and a very decent price (IMO)

1 hour ago, Bass Culture said:

 

I like the look of this but I see it's described as an Acoustic guitar amp.  At 23kg, probably a bit heavier than I'd like as my current amp and single cab set is less than (although probably heavier when I add the second cab).  The informed choices seem to be:

1) AER Amp One or Three (second hand)

2) GR AT or Cube - one of the variants

3) GK Fusion 112 or 115

4) Markbass CP 121P

So, seems like I need to spend some time comparing the specs of each in a more considered way, and then think carefully how about how much gigging use I may get out of it.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.  Still happy to hear about any others that people have a fondness for.

Yes, the AER Basic isn't very light, the Amp One is around 32lbs from memory, though given it's cube-like shape and positioning of the handle, it's not as portable as it might look at first glance.  The Amp Three is probably the more giggable AER if volume could be an issue (though the DI is excellent on the One and Three - I was using the One for on-stage monitoring).  The Basic Performer works beautifully with an electric bass, along with all manner of acoustic instruments.  They need to be heard/used to be believed really.  Unfortunately, I can't comment on any of the other contenders - I like the look of the GR range and many of the reviews are excellent.  However, I'd be going for wood rather than graphite despite the additional weight.  I'm sure that the build quality is excellent with GR carbon, but I'd need to have a carbon combo flight-cased to ensure on-road resilience. 

As above, AER produce some astounding combos - really amongst the best I’ve heard and used anywhere. I used an Amp One extensively and only moved it on as it wasn’t sufficiently loud for stage monitoring on loud rock/funk gigs - it was a loud stage. For moderate, smaller room gigs it was fine - quality, controlled tone is superb with a very stable and defined low end. Last rime I looked, Beedster was selling an AER Basic Performer combo at a bargain price on here - quite a step-up from the Amp One and superb for electric and upright. That would be my first choice - just found it, it’s here:

A very cool little bass and that neck looks lovely - nice pickup choice too IMO

That was fun and some really nice ideas - I'd really like to see a re-worked Ripper

Very cool - not seen one of these in ages!  It looks really well-built with some very nice features

11 hours ago, jazzyvee said:

Interesting question, though one i can't answer from personal practical experience. From my understanding, one of the differences between alembic pickups and most other pickups is they are designed to only pick up what the strings are doing instead of being wound to emphasise or impart a particular tonal character. So since the SF-2  is more versatile in tone shaping than alembic basses generally have on board, my assumption would be that the rig would give you the same way of tone shaping but not the same tone.

I hope this isn't a further thread derail but I'd agree entirely with Jazzvee.  We use pretty much identical rigs, though I use a Warwick Hellborg pre as I prefer SS to valve pres.  I'd sort of hoped (ridiculously) that the SF2 would make non Alembic basses - I use Spectors fairly frequently - sound more like an Alembic.  For many reasons, not least the pickups in Alembics, the SF2 doesn't do this.  It's pretty good, with a bit of messing around, at making an Alembic sound like a non-Alembic bass (Fender etc.) but it doesn't do the reverse.  That said, the tweaking options with the SF2 and any bass are pretty much infinite.  As with Jazzyvee, in pretty much all practical circumstances, I use the on-board filter on the bass rather than the SF2.  I find that Series basses interact very nicely too with the Hellborg PR40 - I dial in a base setting on the PR40 (according to the room/circumstances) and then use the filters and q on the bass - pretty sparingly.  Piers, your Alembic fretless looks lovely - beautiful body facing

Staggering craft work and very Spanish (in the best possible way).  The routing and finishing in the cavity is on another level

Absolutely lovely - with the DB750 (a peerless head IMO) that is a class rig indeed!  Do you have the weight for each cab?

Absolutely stunning! Always loved these. The weight (and scale-length) imply that I’m out but what a beautiful example of a classic and innovative bass.

Absolute powerhouse. I’d love this but have no use for it (other than to admire it) and nowhere to store it. Utter bargain IMO

Absolutely lovely and very unusual to see one of these - is it 34" scale?

Edit - oops, I think they're all long scale...

Quite an interesting, sometimes fractious thread here - more about amplification than strings but some informative contributions:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/whats-the-secret-to-have-a-decent-sound-of-a-low-f-string.1156517/?amp=1433525564

Superb amp, superb seller.  Absolutely love these - rock solid and crazy prices for the power, quality and tone!

I had the pedal version of this.  It was superbly built and extremely flexible - only moved-on as I have a number of pres and prefer the rack configuration.  Mesa gear does appear to be very hard to come by in the UK and Europe just now.  Good luck - an excellent amp!  

Superb tuners - extremely useful for accurate set-ups and intonation.  Very well built too.  

5 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

For a shop you describe as not “bass heavy” can I count 15 in you photos?

Hahaha, You’re right and I thought the same when I looked at the images again! There’s a very nice bass amp too.  I’ll have a look later in the week. Rare, valve and classy!

Gorgeous finish and the quality of Bow’s work is stupendous.  I know from experience that Thumbs don’t work for me but this looks beautiful and some serious upgrades

The fretless is very nicely done and I like the markers over the edge of the board - they're not intrusive but sufficient as a guide.  I'm not sure as I didn't have that long to play the bass, however, it appears that the board is in two parts (not visible in these images).  The the edge with the markers looks like a separate strip, though this abuts the main part of the board perfectly and it's very hard to see if there's a joint or not.  The replacement board looks like a very nice piece of ebony and it's a really thick slab.  The finishing work is really impressive and it's clearly a high-end job.  There was a superb luthier in the area (really, world-class), though he very sadly passed away a couple of months ago.  It wasn't his work apparently, so a bit of a mystery.  The nut is brass too and I'm pretty sure it would have been fitted at the same time as the board.  

I was in a local music shop this morning – a really nice place, with a friendly and knowledgeable owner.  His wife runs a lovely cafe at the back of the premises. It’s not a bass heavy shop, though occasionally there’s some really nice stuff in there. There are two black ‘70s Precisions and a late ‘70s or early 80s Jazz available at the moment. There’s a ‘77-‘78 P that’s had an ebony fretless slab board fitted (very impressive job), and a ‘75 fretted with a rosewood board (in extremely good condition). Both need a set-up tweak but play very nicely. The fretless is around £1700, and fretted is around £2100. I think the jazz is up for £2250. Just a heads-up but worth a visit if you’re in the area: Gibson Music Ashton under Lyne - I’m not affiliated in any way.

Really superb bags - I have the F1 which I think is the predecessor to the Urban.  Excellent design, detail and construction.  I too prefer these to pretty much any other bag - really impressive protection and mercifully lightweight

New to me but looks nicely executed - a bit of a hybrid Wal body shape - interesting eq section too.

Extremely light and lovely part of the world!

Absolutely love the look of this - 'looks like a beautiful recreation of a classic mid '70s J.  Even the tort looks pretty decent (not like some of that truly awful CS stuff).

Any idea of the weight (my '76 J was around 11.5lbs - I'm sure these are much less weighty)?