wambamalubop

It worked, you are awesome man!

Oh, thanks I'll try that!

Switched on my bass amp (head) today and I always use the mute switch to plug in, so turned off mute and... Sound is very quiet and distorted now. I'm thinking, pre-amp stage has failed. I wonder if it is the tube? The amp is a Laney SLS studio, I've had it for a few years but it's largely been unused, I've used it for practice in my studio with a Bergantino speaker. It's been treated well. What do we think? Tube? I guess its a cheap thing to swap to see if it solves this.

I've been thirsting for a fretted 4-string Sire bass in the natural finish for a while and the V7 ran about £450 or so. I have the fretless 4 string already and like it a lot. The bass : https://www.andertons.co.uk/sire-marcus-miller-v8-4-string-bass-guitar-natural-sirev8aw4nt I've seen now that the v7 version are scarcer and there's the V8 that is a heftier price around £750. On Anderson's website this model is described as "new" but I thought it had been around a while already. They don't have any of the older ones in stock. Thomann has them but has a photo that has badly matched wood so I guess that's their way of downplaying your expectations. https://www.thomann.de/gb/marcus_miller_v7_swamp_ash_4_nt_2nd_gen.htm As far as I can see, this v8 is a minor refinement perhaps a slightly better bridge, refined neck profile and so on. Maybe the difference is also the "roasted maple". No idea how big a deal roasting it is, but the colour is pretty cool on the new one. There are no comparative reviews on YouTube or by Googling so overall this mainly seems like a price bump up into Fender Mexico price territory. Thoughts?

Good to know.

Who was the courier? So I gather you didn't have a delay while the courier charged you for handling the import? This to me is my biggest concern as I buy a fair number of things from the US and the courier handling charge and associated delay is the biggest PITA. There is a great camera shop in NY called B&H Photo and I've bought a lot of stuff from them, they are like a Thomann for Cameras. They have a system that means that you don't get this kind of delay as you see all charges in the shopping basket, and that's from the US where we have a less aligned trade arrangement. With other vendors it then comes down to who the shipping agent is whether there is a delay, with some like Royal Mail they won't release the goods till you give them their £11, with others you get an invoice and the product and can pay after delivery.

I trialled a few of the small transistor amps, including Darkglass, Markbass etc. and they all left me a bit underwhelmed. Then I tried out the Laney SLS through the Laney Nexus 210 cabinet and I really liked it, bought it but didn't have a cab until I bought a s/h Bergantino 112 from this board at the weekend. This amp gives me some great sounds. It comes with a decent reverb/chorus, compressor and a good degree of subtle distortion with the gain cranked to 70% and volume down from the tube pre-amp. I've fiddled for a couple of hours now and I'm very pleased with it. Because the effects are built in there's a lot of convenience and no need for cables. The footswitch/remote looks a bit limited, but inexpensive. My only beef with it is the somewhat garish product design but I can live with that. Hoping to find some time at the weekend to try out some of the recording features and see how that sounds.

That looks very tasty

I did like the look of those.

OK, some background is that I'm happy with my Marcus Miller Jazz style copy (the old not the V version) but for a couple of things. So I'm not too demanding. 1. Unlined fretless bass with dot markers on the side, not mini lines etc. 2. 24 fret equivalent scale, so need a shape with good access on the G string. 3. 4 string 4. Plain wood body, natural, one wood, simple walnut or something dark like that, at a push natural ash. 5. Ebony fingerboard. Kinda like a Wal model 2 but for under £2000.00 Soundwise like a Jazz bass, so pickups and electronics as per. Seems like this should be possible off the shelf but nothing quite hits these specs. Some of the Sandbergs seem to come close but I'm not sure about the sound. The Wal 2 would be perfect and I could imagine stretching to £3k for a S/H one but my hens have more teeth. Maybe a Sandberg with a particular pickup configuration or maybe even swapping out the stock ones for some others?

A rainy Sunday evening in Bristol around 1987, feeling a bit lonely, I’m walking my local streets, from a pub comes the sound of some local musicians playing Blue Bossa. There’s a cute girl sitting at the front with her girlfriend, we’re both digging Andy Sheppard and his band. Thank god for Jazz. I wish I was able to play it well, then I’d know I’d truly been blessed. One day! This double album is a favourite of mine

Never fancied drumming, too damn difficult! ... and that was before watching Whiplash! what a great movie

I'm a fan of the Sire MM basses too. I love the neck on my V7 fretless, very easy to play. I'm sure there are better instruments particularly for 4-5 times the price, but I preferred mine to a new Fender Pro Fretless. Having said that I tried another Fender Pro in a shop recently and loved it, so it may have been the one I bought before was a dud. I bought and returned 3 other basses before fixing on the Sire MM.