chris_b

Yep. If you have the gear to hand give it a run through.

Plainly you are not reading what I'm writing. I'm not bickering with you . Good-bye.

I don't think so. In this case, and apparently with some other German car manufacturers, it was illegal activity and they were just plain cheating their customers and the regulatory bodies. Of course you would care because you were getting worse fuel economy that they were being told, ie driving was costing more than they were leading you to believe. There are no parallels between this and the TC subject at all.

I wouldn't bet on that. People didn't like the tone and others wanted to kick TC about their marketing claims, but I haven't yet seen a post that says these amps were too quiet. TC sold 500 watt and 750 watt "boosted" amps. These amps stood up against all other amps in their class in terms of volume. That's why they sold and there were many happy users. Let me repeat, many happy users. I had the Staccato and RH750. They were loud enough to rattle your fillings out. Whether you like the tone or not is a preference, that they were loud enough is a fact. I sold the RH750 to fund my Thunderfunk, but this "nonsense", obviously caused by TC's marketing dept, has more to do with internet "experts" than it does TC.

So you guys are saying that it doesn't matter how good an amp sounds, the only thing that matters is the design spec? Pull the other one! TC were selling a 250 watt amp that was as loud as a 500 watt amp. The only "problem" you've got is they called it 500 watts. As it was as loud as a 500 watt amp then is anyone really going to feel short changed when they start gigging and find it is as loud as all the other 500 watt amps? As I say the "noise" came from internet armchair experts. The guys who gigged those TC amps were happy their amps were performing well.

You say that as if what an amp sounds like doesn't matter! The loudest noise and most condemnation came from people who had never seen or heard a TC amp. Sadly, what TC didn't say was their amp was equivalent to a 500 watt amp etc. If they'd done that then there wouldn't have been a problem. The assumption most of the people who joined in to the Talkbass thread made was that a 246 watt amp couldn't possibly be as loud as any one else's 500 watt amp. If these people had used their ears rather than what ever else they were using they would have heard 250 watts sounding as loud as 500 watts. The mature response should have been, how are they doing that? Unfortunately the subject quickly descended into abuse and got nowhere. It's still getting nowhere.

RMS is a standard that applies to amps and cabs. Apparently doesn't mean much due to the nature of power, sound and volume, but RMS is an indicator that seems to be understood by most. SPL works well for cabs, but not for amps. I believe AES is the coming thing and a more accurate standard than RMS.

CK was a jazz guitarist, which accounts for the pick. She started on bass when a bass player failed to show up for a session so she played the studio bass. Back then most studio players would have used foam to even out the notes, damp the strings and take some dynamics out of the sound.

You want good bass lines? Start at the beginning of Motown and work forwards. Same with Stax. Same with Aretha Franklin, Chic, Keb Mo, Incognito, Steely Dan, Little Feat, the list of good bass lines goes on. . . . .

And I saw a program on the TV the other week about curing type 2 diabetes where they proved that for some a placebo actually does work, even when they know they're taking a placebo! How weird is that? My logic has always been, if I have good gear then the rest is up to me and if I play badly at least I'm not going to sound bad as well. I think I've got the gear sussed out. Now my 80-20 rule has turned around to technique first then sound. On Saturday I had several confirmations. The drummer said he thought he could hear the lessons I've been taking coming out in my playing. That's the best comment I've had in years. Then the drummer complimented me on my sound and the band leader complimented the drummer and me on how well we played together. Then several members of the audience came up and complimented the band and me as the bass player and as a member of a great rhythm section. It was a good gig, but maybe it wasn't your average audience! What is the split between people who hear your sound and people who hear your playing? If I sound good and play well enough to please the band then I know that'll be good enough for the audience. If the lessons sound like they're working, then I'm really satisfied.

Check out Joe on the original Clapton Crossroads concert. With a fantastic MG's as his band. So nearly a rock and roll casualty but still playing and sounding great with the Eagles.

The simple answer is, yes. The longer and more complicated answer is. . . to my ear the sound from the SM added a nice bit of mid range and top end to my SC and I did prefer this to my SC + SC, but I'd say it's a small margin of preference. I can't afford the SM at the moment so I've recently been adding more top on the bass which I think has improved my sound. IMO this isn't comparing apples and pears, it's more Pink Lady's and Jazz apples. After 2 years I'm still happily gigging both SC's and, to throw a spanner in the works, I'm also happily gigging my 2 Two10's in a rather loud blues/rock band. If you are interested in hearing what an SM can do for your SC, give Alex a call and ask if you can borrow their demo SM and use it on a gig or 2. Maybe you'll hate it, or maybe you'll start saving.

Exactly. Do we know what version she was claiming? I think everyone knows she's not on the the Stevie Wonder song but she could easily have been on another version. Back in the 60's and 70's there were lots of versions of songs. Motown recorded some songs a dozen times. They also recorded in LA (CK did play on some of those recordings) and some of those tracks were shipped back to Detroit for overdubs and various parts to be rerecorded. In the end the water gets a little muddy. Jamerson himself claimed to have recorded Cool Jerk, when it was actually Bob Babbitt. And I saw Scott Edwards, on Talkbass, telling Lee Sklar off for claiming one of his tunes. A few years ago, US Session players started to get royalties for their old work, if they registered in time. Maybe this mix up came out of that.

She's on so many seminal recordings that, either directly or indirectly, she has to be an influence on anyone who's picked up a bass since. She's on 2 of my favourite songs, guitar on You've Lost That Loving Feeling and bass on River Deep Mountain High.

Buy a lighter bass. There are lots out there. With my bad back I can get through 2 hour gigs with my 9 1/2lb 5 string Jazz. . . . on a good day. My 5 string Mike Lull Precision weighs 8 1/2lbs and doesn't affect me, even at the end of a 4 hour rehearsal.

I have never used a pedal and I've never been asked to. I try to buy gear that sounds great out of the box and matches the sound I want. Fortunately that sound seems to fit. I've played songs that had pedals on the original, chorus etc, and so far no one has commented when I just play it straight. While ago I bought a Thumpinator to see what it would do for my sound, but I kinda lost interest and haven't even bought the transformer for it yet.

Try it. Many players use both. If swapping starts to cause problems either practice harder or stop playing one or the other. I don't swap. I only play 5's. I have nothing against 4's but for what I want to play 5's are the most flexible option. I have done 2 gigs with a 4 string bass since I switched to 5's in the mid 90's. One was a Rock and Roll gig which was easy and the other was on a borrowed bass in Prague, for an all originals gig where I had to transpose on the fly a whole set of 5 string bass parts. Definitely the most uncomfortable gig I've ever done.

That is not really logical! Transfer your OCD from "volume controls must be full on" to getting "a better tone".

You find them amongst the guys you know from other bands.

Honestly, there are a lot of bass players who would love to sound like that.

I mostly agree with that. Of course we all buy gear for ourselves but very few of us are playing in a vacuum. Buying for yourself only is only a good idea if your opinion matches the rest of the band. I don't agree with the views expressed that ours is the only opinion that counts in all this. Turn up to a blues band sounding like JJ Burnell or Chris Squire and you're going to be an ex-bass player pretty quickly. This is why I think there are far more important factors involved than achieving the "sound in your head".

There's PMT at Farlington, but jump on a train and you'll be in central London in an hour.

You can play any song. You've set your bass up like 90% of the session players in the 50's and 60's and they managed to play everything on a bass such as this. You can add a lump of foam under the strings by the bridge if you want to kill some of the dynamics, but the way to do it is to change your technique to fit the song.

IMO if you are never going to gig you'll be missing the best part of being a bass player, but. . . . You can go down the heahphone route with something like a Phil Jones Bass BigHead. This will take up no space and cause the least noise, so you can play late at night. There are good small combos around, like the Markbass CMD 121P. You can rehearse with one of these. There are good small amps and cabs. A 110 or 112 cab (Barefaced, Bergantino or Aguilar etc) and a 200 to 300 watt amp (Aguilar, Markbass, Trace Elliot etc) would work well.

Why read between the lines? Just read the lines! As I posted, neither BF cab or combination is an alternative for the other. They all have strengths and some can combine to become stronger.