Beer of the Bass

Maybe just people expecting more than even a very good single 8" will do?

Are those multiple Fender 400PS heads racked up in the older picture? That must have been a pretty crazy setup for the time!

I'd also say it is for me, in the bands I play in, although I do run into bands playing in the same venues who'd probably want more power. I've usually got one guitarist on stage with a style that's not too heavy, plus brass, and my bass sound has a lot of midbass in it, not pushing the deep lows. In that setting it sits nicely with the level of the acoustic drums and guitar backline, and beyond that we'd need decent PA anyway. But if you brought in multiple guitarists doing the chunky modern rock thing, a scooped bass sound and a drummer using double pedals, the PF50T wouldn't be my choice.

For wah I'd say Michael Henderson on Miles Davis' On the Corner. I thought this was some sort of envelope filter at first, but apparently it's a wah with very good foot technique! For envelope filter, Parliament's Chocolate City is a big favourite, and I think it's because of this that I won't even consider filter pedals without a reverse sweep mode. Thinking about it further, I really can't come up with a favourite example of synth pedals on bass. There are keyboard synth or sequenced basslines that I love, but I feel like synth pedals are mostly a convenient means for a bass guitarist to imitate those live.

Impressively neat work with the tolexing there! I've done a couple of guitar combos, and there's certainly a knack to doing it well. I suspect that Ampeg never put in that level of attention to detail over the check pattern.

If you're making a big box that looks like an amp, and then putting an amp inside the box, are you really going ampless?

Yep, it looks like the Carbon would fit the bill. The Audio Technica AT95E mentioned in the linked thread falls into a similar price bracket too, so I'll do some searching around for opinions on those two.

I'd definitely be looking sub £100, both in terms of what I can sensibly spend at the moment, and what I'd be willing to put into this old turntable. So I could certainly look into some of the suggestions here.

I'm presuming that the cartridge is the original; I can't see any markings on it, but the styli that fit are labelled as a replacement for the Pioneer PN10/11/14/15/20 cartridges.

I'm not a massive hi-fi enthusiast, but have and listen to quite a bit of vinyl. I have an old 70s Pioneer Pl-11 turntable that I've had for a long time, with the original cartridge. I had a few NOS styli that I picked up a few years ago, but I've just put my last spare on, and it doesn't seem to be a very easy replacement to find now. So, would it be worth thinking about a new cartridge rather than looking around for more replacement styli for the old Pioneer cartridge? And if I did, what's OK and not too expensive?

The Orange Terror Bass definitely gets a big chunk of the flavour of certain valve amp sounds, too. When I've used one I'm not always sure if the voicing is to my taste, but the character is certainly there.

I used to use my 506 quite sparingly, chorus on one tune, octave and distortion on sections of others, so I had the effects off most of the time and it was the difference between the Zoom with effects off or bass straight into amp that was noticeable. But I'd expect like any other piece of affordable digital kit, things will have come a long way in the past 20 years! I don't have any complaints about the sound quality of my Zoom recorders, for example.

I'd hope that they've improved since then! I had the original 90s 506 which I used to use all the time. One rehearsal I forgot to bring it, and the drummer said something like "Man, your bass sounds really good today. Did you change something?". I don't think it came out again after that...

The guitarist in my band borrowed a Koch amp the other week...

I must admit, I often get lazy and leave a cab in my car boot between gigs, tucked out of sight under the shelf. It hasn't caused me any problems yet, though my cabs are home built with drivers it wouldn't be too difficult or expensive to replace if I did kill one.

Hasn't every double bass player tried to clamber inside their gig bag and zip it up at least once, just to see it they can? It can't be just me!?

I feel like power soaks are most useful for knocking just a few dB off a cranked valve amp for a more sensible gigging level. At bedroom volume they're rarely more satisfying than getting your dirt from a pedal IMO. Since the LB30 is a non master volume amp but has an FX loop, you might have useful results running a simple box with a volume pot in the loop, depending on the signal path of the amp. (Edit; ignore that last suggestion - I just found the schematic, and the loop is too early in the circuit for that to be useful)

I've been really enjoying Bob Drake's solo stuff lately. He plays a Ric and will happily talk about his Squire influence, but I'd say it doesn't really come out as derivative. https://bdstudio.bandcamp.com/album/arx-pilosa

I feel like D versus E flat necks make a difference if I pick up someone elses bass without having time to get used to it. So I could imagine having a preference if you were playing international gigs with rented instruments. On my own bass, surely you just find an instrument you like and get familiar with it?

Or the Kumquat!

I'd almost buy one for the name, and then pronounce it with a hard G like Gong's Radio Gnome Invisiblé!

It's quite an old fashioned website, but Dennis Havlena had an article about converting low-end cellos using electric bass flatwound strings. http://dennishavlena.com/cellobas.htm

I played an unlined fretless through most of my teenage years in the 90s, a Hohner Jazz copy. I prefer them, though currently my only fretless electric is lined as it's been defretted. Between that early experience and playing double bass, the lack of lines doesn't bother me, plus it looks nicer and usually wears more evenly.

It's one of the things I like about my Ampeg PF50T - it may be limited in power, but with a decent bag it's convenient enough that I actually take it out and use it for everything rather than leaving it sitting at home or in a rehearsal space like I would with a 300-watt valve beastie. I guess that may have been one of the reasons this amp wasn't made for long; the form factor is only really going to appeal to folk doing quite serious touring gigs, who generally don't mind shelling out a little more for a recognised brand like Ampeg.