Spoombung

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1345313277' post='1776223'] Cab is going to be a fairly significant amount of colour, standard bass cabs have pretty limited bandwidth. [/quote] This.

Most bass amps are clean and sound pretty similar. It's the cab that makes the difference.

Well chuffed with mine. Sounds embarrassingly good. My only criticism is that it's not easy to tilt back because the little stand thing that you pull out has no catch and doesn't click or fix into place. You have to slide your hand underneath and try and pull the handle thing out which is very difficult and to be honest, a bit risky as you could crush your hand. I may employ a length of string to aid me next time! Other than that, very pleased.

Audiences are just as happy to hear an instrumental band in my experience. They don't want some whiney twit screeching 'yaa maa wanderwaaaaallll', for instance.

I hate fans in amps. Absolutely NOT necessary.

I associate Pub Rock with a dearth of interesting musical ideas and the gloom and boredom of my youth in Ipswich.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1344582792' post='1766605'] When you say HiFidelity do you mean in a similar sort of way to a Markbass? [/quote] I don't really know what markbass cabs sound like. The EAD cab has a very full, complete sounding frequency range- unlike the Aguilar 12's I played through at a gig recently(for instance) that were all top and bottom but not much mid.

Well, like Ewan, I bought one of the prototypes. I'm actually a bit shocked how good it sounded in rehearsal today. I'm not really used to this sort of high fidelity. I used it with my 27- year old H/H 100watt amp and hardly used the amp's tone controls at all. Everything was there already and it sounded fantastic with a much fuller midrange than a typical 12" cab. Band mates also very impressed. It's a wonderful cab and a great design. I hope Dave puts these into full production soon. I think they'll do really well.

Before we start a groove versus non-groove war here is an example of the new york style of free impro (which often contains grooves) http://youtu.be/OtKJPMw1ARI This Features the Granddaddy of the genre, Derek Bailey

You can also tell a lot about where they're coming from by their choice of instruments and sounds, ie, the keyboardist is using a Fender Rhodes sound in time-honoured fashion and the bassist with his fretless Pedulla. Theyve listened to a lot of Jazz rock as well as Brit Free- impro. You can read where the music's coming from if you can spot the influences. I This sort of thing is only 'difficult' for groove -obsessed bassists and fans of the rock band, U2.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1344248507' post='1761585'] Can you elaborate on that? I'd welcome your views. [/quote] It's a fusion music. It's basically post-Schaumburg, Euro style, free-improvisation that had it's heyday in the UK in the 70s (Evan Parker with Derek Bailey Gavin Bryars, etc) but is still practised regularly at London venues. That combined with a bit of free-jazz. Thats where the chord sequence comes from. This has also been mixed with a light smattering of modern electronica (Microstoria, Oval) hence the noodling with chaos pads and the like. Free-impro and electronica have been faithful bedmates for years. After you establish the form and come armed with the chord sequence it's basically a cosmetic decision as to how you arrange the track and where you place the pockets of free impro. I think they do it quite well, although, as I said, I don't particularly like their free-impro noodles.

Not bad. A preset chord sequence and pockets of free-improvisation placed in uneven intervals along the composition. I particularly like the 'false start' mocking the standard jazz 'head'. The structure is novel but the free-impro is fairly standard stuff, IMO. It might be worth hearing more of their stuff to form a better opinion. BTW this kind of music is all [i]very[/i] readable and [i]not[/i] difficult to understand (or appreciate).

The Yourchoice guy is very disorganised and has some sort of problem with all his emails going straight to a spam filter or something like that. He emailed me back 3 and a half months after my first email and asked me if I still wanted the pickups I asked him for.

Tried the Reidmar today. Pros: I liked the size and style of the box. It looked great. It was plenty loud enough with a great parametric mid control - so lots of control of your sound in that area. Plenty of clean bass (not a fuzzy or boomy bass). Cons: The highs and trebles had an almost brittle, hard, clean quality I wasn't sure I liked. Nothing seemed to soften it much. The compressor was too subtle even when turned up full. It didn't soften the amp's super-clean sound. Summary - very clean, cold clarity.

With the fretless there were little things (bad habits, you might say) that I'd got into that were getting on my nerves, for instance, playing something low down on the neck then having to jump up to the high notes very quickly. I'd always end in a lot of vibrato as it's naturally difficult and physically challenging to [i]aim[/i] for the right note when making a large jump. I still write big jumps in to my music but now I'm finding that a bit simpler with the fretted... and I don't have a chunk of vibrato on the end. I [i]do[/i] miss sliding harmonic chords but I've been doing that to death for years so it's time to try new things (like tapping) which feels very different with frets as you are bouncing of metal strips rather than wood. The things that still occupy me are interesting note intervals and harmonic contrasts and these are all very achievable on frets - and like Bilbo, above, I was never one for the big mwah effect either. Perhaps I'm just after a different tactile sensation? It might be something as simple as that.

After 30 years of fretless playing I've stopped and don't plan to go back to it any time soon. I just got fed up with all the 'special effects' - you know - slides and all that. I much prefer frets at the moment. Never thought I'd say that.

Yep, I'd like to echo Eude's endorsement - I also played through one at the weekend and was [i]very[/i] impressed. The mid speaker component (working at 800hz) is handy for anyone who likes using harmonics (like myself) - so you've got mid-punch and clarity as well as bottom end. It sounded more balanced than a regular 12" cab - very clear without being harsh and good dispersion.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1342877293' post='1742247'] I really need to try one - I always play with compression and I like an articulate tone that reacts well to the controls on my bass. If the compression is good enough for me to leave my board at home that would be excellent. [/quote] My thoughts exactly. Would love to try one of these. Anyone got one in London?