Mikey R

What Ive noticed in the past, is that people often get offended by the high price put on quality stuff they might want to buy but now have to think twice about. A while ago, I watched a thread over on TB where the OP was really angry at how expensive a new Fodera is. The big problem was the upcharge on a scratchplate, and how criminally out of touch with the working bassist this high end company are. Madness. Personally, I am very happy that people like Alex, Alan at ACG, Jon Shuker and all the other UK based builders of cool stuff can actually make a living doing what they love, and are willing to share their product with us. If we want one of their products, then paying for those products is how we support them so they can make more cool products. Alex, Alan and Jon invested way more in their small business than any owner invested in one of their products, they had to pay for the R&D for the first few units, set up shop, buy the equipment, and so on, before they were able to sell even their first unit. And I guarantee you, even though they are now established, none of these people are getting rich doing what they love. Back to Barefaced, if you want one, and you save your pennies, you can have one. If you dont want one, you can spend your pennies on other things. If you want one, but dont want to save your pennies, then thats not a problem with the product.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1386242338' post='2297539'] Pickup clearance is only an issue if your playing style means that the string can bounce off the pickup. By and large, this is generally considered to be A Bad Thing.. [/quote] Ive always had this problem, to the point where I cant play basses with exposed poles on the pickups. All my basses have covered poles, which allows me to dig in as much as I like, whilst having the pickups much closer to the strings than I would otherwise be able to do. You can get replacement pickups for your MMs

[quote name='barkin' timestamp='1385996339' post='2294417'] HA2500 into a single Compact is a combination that I use frequently. Surprisingly loud, and good, isn't it? [/quote] It doesnt kick like a valve amp, but its way cheaper and way less heavy. Im actually surprisingly GAS free at the moment!

I played at todays practice with my Hartke HA2500 head (liberated from the combo) into the Barefaced Compact, thats 175 watts at 8 ohms Towards the end, our drummer was digging in, but my rig was having no problems keeping up, perfectly clean, and I had absolutely tonnes of volume left if I needed to crank it any further. I suspect alot of what was working was a mid heavy tone from the instrument into a very sensitive speaker. Ive played through two ashdowns on separate occasions, and I had to push them both very hard to get anywhere near audible, and they were wooley and undefined at those volumes. So I guess its a combination of tone and efficient speakers.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1385809581' post='2292374'] If your band has a drummer who can't vary his volume fire him and get a drummer who can play properly. [/quote] Most drummers dont have that level of self control, especially when the music starts to really kick. From an amateur point of view, finding a drummer is always the limiting factor when starting a band. If we all fired drummers who couldnt play quieter then there would be far fewer bands out there.

The trick is to try to get the guitarist to use a 30 watt open backed combo. Loudness issue sorted.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1385298038' post='2286497'] ...At the risk of repeating myself though, if people insist on beating themselves up with the U.S.A retail price then they need to do a much more complex equation than just converting the numbers at the current exchange rate, because tempting as that is , it gives a wholly innacurate impression of how cheap or expensive these amps are in the wider social context of each respective economy . [/quote] Im not sure the cost of living in the US is applicable to us over here. The real cost of flying over to the US, buying one, and flying back would be when either it breaks and you cant get it fixed on warranty, or when you want to move it on and you need to tell the buyer that its the version with the 115V poser supply.

Ive been thinking, is that distortion from the power amp, or is it speaker cone destruction? Is that the infamous "farting out" we're supposed to be avoiding? Its difficult to tell, as loudness dulls your perception of these things over time, but it may be that the amp started off fairly clean at the beginning of the rehearsal, then got progressively dirtier. Could that be speaker damage, or could that just be the power amp heating up?

I agree, it would work on some hard rock, but its a little too agressive for Floyd.

And this is us at our second practice. Im amongst friends, so please ignore the second dodgy note, it got better. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f155rlBWDZU[/media] Also, we're not using my rig, its a dodgy Ashdown combo that Im pushing really hard to keep up with the drums. Hence the uber-grind.

Guys, I said HIGH END MANUFACTURER, I dont think cobbled together on the kitchen table counts as high end Still playing around with the EQ and preamp, maybe I'll do an update soonish.

It seems to me there is room in the UK market for another high end amplifier manufacturer.

Stormshadow Guitarworks in Sheffield got togerther with MJW to produce some high gain guitar amps - its a business model that worked for them.

Cheers everyone! Ive not gigged in 10 years or so, playing again should be great.

Eh up, Ive just joined a new band. We had our first get together today, it all clicked and Im really happy with it, I had to share. We mostly play Pink Floyd songs, but theres a few other songs in there too. I should be back to gigging towards the end of the year. Lots of songs to learn, their repetoir is HUGE!

The BF cabs are very well engineeed, they do lightweight, high power handling, high sensitivity as well as sounding great. I just wanted to debunk the myth that BF went after SPL at the expense of tone.

One piece of advice I got from a sound engineer (the chap that used to do sound at the Twist in Colchester) was to try putting the bass amp at the opposite end of the stage to the bassist.So, over the far side of the stage, we had the big Marshall guitar amp pointed forwards (those 4 x 12s are very directional) and the small Trace bass amp pointing across the stage. Job done.

Ive been playing around with my two main amps today - one is an Ashdown Little Bastard through a Barefaced Compact, the other is a Hartke VX2515. This isnt a like for like comparison as I dont own a high end transistor amp, but the Hartke is alright for a spare. First the obvious differences - the Hartke kicks out alot more bottom end, is more powerful and compresses less. It has a graphic EQ. Obvious really. The LB, however, kicks out so much low mids it would puch through a brick wall, with the EQ set the way I like it. It doesnt have the clean headroom to really shift air like the Hartke, but thats why you use a 30 watt valve amp. Although it is starting to break up, it is still way more defined than the Hartke. Now, the more subtle differences, and you need to own and play both for a while to really appreciate them. Valve amps have a different, interactive feel. They feel like part of the instrument, breathing along with the bass. Solid state amps are very stiff by comparisson, to the point that they give a very clinical feel - if youre playing alot of fast stuff, this might suit you, but I find them a little uninspiring. And the best bit - output tubes just round out and polish off the sound so nicely. My Blackfinger compressor is a bit fizzy through the Hartke, but though the LB its slick and creamy. Combined with the LBs ability to push the mids, and Ive found my ideal tone for rock. Maybe a high end solid state rig would be less fizzy, more defined and more interactive than the Hartke. For the moment, Im happy with the LB, though it would struggle without PA support on anything but the smallest of gigs.

Nope - it has a strange trolly case handle thingy, so Im guessing its a beast!

Not my cup of tea, but it seems they definitely have their fans. If anyone is after a big, tubey warm amp, thats a little unusual, there is one in Mor Music in York going for around £500 (half what it is in on the website). [url="http://www.mormusic.co.uk/product/mesa-boogie-buster-200w-valve-combo---used"]http://www.mormusic....ve-combo---used[/url] You might be able to haggle the guys down a little, tell them Mikey sent you.

I cracked open my LB yesterday evening, the valve types are written on the top of the chassis.

Is this something you want to be able to switch in and out of? If youre looking at something just a little warm and driven to use as your basic sound, that you can add to with other effects, then EHX do a couple of nice valve pedals. Ive got the Black FInger to give me my basic warm tone - its absolutely amazing, just adds that little bit of edge without losing any definition. I call this my clean tone, but really its just a little bit driven.

Cheers Kiwi, it seems I had the wrong expectations. I'll look elsewhere.

I had a chance to play through a Buster 200 yesterday, I was lead to believe its basically half a 400+ in a weirdly shaped 2 x 10 combo. I was totally not blown away by it, in any way, despite really trying hard to find a nice growly tone using both a P and a J. I was really let down. I know the 400+ gets loads of rave reviews on here, whats the secret to making these things growl? EDIT: It seems Ive had the wrong expectations from the amp, so Ive changed the topic title to reflect this

This is a constant battle for me. If you add too much drive, then the bass drops out. The best Ive come up with so far was splitting the signal into two, so that a Rat into a Sans Amp VT runs parallel with a Sans Amp Blonde (bassman mode), then combining the two with a line mixer. Still not really satisfied with it at high volume with the full band. I think Im on the right track to a solution, but experimenting with actual valve effects has given better results, so I think valves are the way to go. I'll probably be selling both the Sans Amps soon, they are really nice but Im just not using them.