Dan Dare

Once I know something, it usually sticks. Learning it in the first place can take some time, however.

You really must listen to the original and start from that. Don't try to change it without knowing how it should be first.

If you don't mind it being wrong, go for it... That's actually not the easiest of bass lines (a little surprising, bearing in mind it was Bill W). Afraid there's no alternative to getting your head down and getting it right. Have a look at the vid' Douglas posted above. It sounds as if you're playing it half time if you can get what you're doing to (sort of) fit. That's not going to cut it at real tempo, I'm afraid.

Worth noting that the Harley Benton is rated at 2x50w into 4 ohms, whilst the GSS is 2x50w into 8 ohms. Carvin is also 2x50w into 8 ohms, but are they still in existence? I thought they went under last year.

Have a look in the For Sale section. Pentode is selling several decent preamps (I don't know him, btw, so not trying to promote his items).

You cannot start and finish every bar on B for that number, even in the intro, let alone the verse itself. Check on Youtube - several teaching vid's for the song.

You can remove the coating (which is there to prevent strings corroding in the packet) with alcohol or white spirit. Better that than have it come off on your fingers, which you will then pick up food, etc with.

Lemon oil is cheaper if you buy it from healthfood shops than in a bottle with a Dunlop label on it.

Dave is indeed a good chap. If you do fancy rolling your own, then, as Bigguy recommends above, the Neutrik speaker jacks are excellent - plenty of room in them to use a proper gauge of speaker cable (anything of good quality, such as Van Damme as he suggests, will be fine). Making them isn't difficult and will save you money.

Most of those I joined have (the two I play in at the moment, for example). It helps that we're all established players. of course.

A Phil Jones C4 with Neo drivers would not be heavy and would work at least as well as your existing Double Fours with something like a Baby Sumo power amp and your mixer.

Could be worse. Might have been James Blunt...

You may be actually tapping the pickups with your fingers. I find this happens when I play hard - I like to play right over the pickup.

Logo is hilarious.

That's a lot of money for an 8 ohm resistor, a switch and a connector or two. If the original 2x10 is 4 ohms, that means it has two 8 ohm drivers wired parallel. Many heads will run into 2 ohms these days (my two will), so you could drive the additional cab, but if not, I'd look at an additional power amp to drive the other cab. Power amps are quite cheap and compact these days now we have class D. Alternatively, if you don't mind something larger/heavier, an old school power amp can be had for peanuts used. Gives you more flexibility.

Exactly. If the cab you like is 4 ohms and you can't run another with your head, power amps are cheap and compact these days, now we have class D. Something like a Baby Sumo will cost you around £250 for 600w into 4 ohms and is about the size of a portable radio, so you can get one to power the additional cab.

So the Bassman 135 ain't over-rated then...

Phil's absolutely right. Try a lot of stuff, find something you like and buy it. You appear to be looking for something to keep longer term, rather than something transitional. So get the thing you like and if you want more power/volume, save up and buy another. Get it right at the start and you won't be one of those serial purchasers, always buying stuff and moving it on/trading it in because you're never really happy with it.

This thread does illustrate the benefit of buying from a specialist. That will usually (if not always) mean a smaller shop and you will almost certainly pay more for the privilege. However, there are benefits to doing so. The larger shops depend on volume for their turnover. They buy in larger quantities at lower cost, enabling them to charge less. However, their tighter margins mean they spend less on set-up and detail and will not be able to offer such a personal service. This applies especially to the predominantly online retailers. If you don't mind taking a chance that you will have to either do set-up and finish yourself or pay someone else to do it, you may save some money by buying from them. If, on the other hand, you value service and want your purchase to be a pleasant experience and to get an instrument that is right first time that you can just play and enjoy, you will be better off supporting that specialist who tries harder. Given that a good instrument is generally not a frequent or cheap purchase, I know which option I prefer.

Given that it isn't likely to realise a lot, whether sold whole or one piece at a time, and also that it's "surprisingly good", why not continue to use it as a spare?

Hence the dreaded Auratone mini-speakers (aptly nicknamed Horrortones) and later NS10s that cropped up in studios everywhere - to get an idea of what a mix sounded like on regular domestic gear. As far as Motown using a relatively high hpf goes, they had a living to make/records to sell. They had to make things sound good on car radios and the like in order to get radio plays and consequently for people to buy the records. Most people did not own high quality sound systems and still don't. The few who do are not going to keep a record company in business, especially as many of those will not be interested in mainstream pop music to begin with.. As a matter of interest, hpf at 70hz is still decently low.

Neck oil, firewater, hooch. The electric soup is stolen from the long-running 'Dear Bill' column in Private Eye.

I think you answered your own question. Post Christmas bills traditionally mean people want/need to offload stuff to boost the Exchequer. A good time to buy if you have the funds.

Trying to re-create studio tones in a live context is a minefield. I agree with comments above that it was probably a vintage P (because that's what most blues players would have used), possibly with flats (you can get an over driven sound with any kind of strings depending on how you treat the recorded track), but the end product will depend on the processing used in the final mix. Could well have been recorded direct to the desk and if so, probably via a specialist pre-amp. Jamerson was recorded that way. Despite claims that his sound was achieved via the classic Ampeg rig, it was actually only used as a bass monitor in the studio so the band could hear him.

Good advice. Those Greenbacks won't have the extension to produce low frequencies loud and you may risk damaging them if you push them.