chris_b

You can do all that stuff. . . but how about not digging in so hard? I can do 4 set gigs or 5 gigs in a week and the washing up on all of those days and my fingers are fine. I don't have hard skin or callouses. As far as I know the only difference between us is I don't pluck the strings hard.

All of those preamps sound great to me. I've owned the Aguilar and Sadowsky, plus Lakland/Barts, Wal and Stingray. They are all shades of greatness, but if you have good ears you can make most basses sound "good enough" and you should be able to make a good bass sound excellent. I know a guy who is using the East Uni-pre with Bart pickups and he is getting one of the best bass sounds I've heard. On the other hand another player I know gets a totally different, but equally good, sound with an old passive Fernandes Jazz with foam under the strings, a home made bass cab and a BB800. I always sound like me, but I'd kill to sound like either of these players. I upgraded my P bass with a Bart pre in the 80's and I have to say it didn't set my world on fire. It was only marginally better than the previous passive set up. If you've replaced a preamp and are using it passively then I'd suggest you bought unwisely. IMO passive basses can sound as good as active basses. On recordings of my passive Lull PJ5 you wouldn't think a preamp would make it any better.

You're listening to your super clean small PJB rig and comparing it to a large lump of a rig from a previous era and it's not surprising that you're hearing a lot of differences. I gigged an Ampeg SVT3 PRO for nearly 10 years (they're good, but IMO these days you can do better), so I'd suggest an Aguilar TH500 or Quilter BB800 would get you into the ball park. The sound of a big old Ampeg cab would be more difficult to replicate, but IMO (again I think you can do better) I would prefer something like one of the Barefaced 10's, maybe the Two10 or Four10.

IMO a 410 will give you a different sound, but not necessarily better. Depends on the cab. If you want to improve what you are hearing, try putting the Two10 vertically on top of the combo. You'll then be hearing all the clean Barefaced sound, which is what you're not hearing with your current cab placement.

Is a sale thread the place for a discussion? I don't think so. Negative or controversial opinions are not really relevant. The guy just wants to sell the gear and should be left in peace to do just that. I'm all for questions. I don't believe how obtuse some threads are!! Positive comments are good like, "He's a good guy to do business with", or" I've got one of those and they are great instruments". But anything that undermines the sale, like "I owned this and I hated it", should not be posted.

IMO two 112 cabs can make a great sound. Many years ago, I had 2 GS112 cabs and sold them because, while they weren't particularly heavy, the single handle and deep box shape made 42lbs a very heavy and awkward one-handed lift. I've been using Aguilar amps for a few years now, TH500/AG700, and they are just a great sound. I haven't been back to Aguilar cabs but would recommend Bergantino cabs. They just worked so well with Aggy amps and now I use Barefaced cabs. IMO another step up.

Your amp with a second Two10 would give you as much tone, volume and head room as you could want. The reason good cabs sound better than others is that the drivers have been put into a cab that has been designed to bring out the best in their sound. Putting the best drivers in the world into a "box" that has not been designed for them could sound good but is more likely to sound very average.

I'm happy that you've found a good sound with this gear. Finding a room with decent gear certainly makes a change from the old, cheap and nasty rubbish in some of the rooms I've rehearsed in over the years. In one West End studio we blew up 4 Peavey bass cabs in an afternoon. So far I haven't played a rehearsal room that has had better gear than I've owned, then again, the sound in a rehearsal room doesn't bother me. All I'm there to do is to knock songs and arrangements into shape with the rest of the band.

Hey, Scott. . . . . please do a piece on Reggie McBride, Willie Weeks, Freddy Washington and Nathan East.

Usually this is a one-way upgrade. It's all about resonance and the ability of the bridge to transfer frequencies to the body, and then back again. BBOT bridges do the job but high mass bridges usually do a better job because they transfer more frequencies, more effeciently. Which is what you need for a better sound. Of course, this depends whether you need better or can recognise it when you've got it! If you are upgrading Hipshot bridges a very good and the ones used on many boutique basses.

IMO we should always be trying to learn and improve. If I can just learn 1 small thing from another player then the effort will have been worthwhile. I've seen a couple of SD suggestions on his Youtube videos that got me thinking and helped my bass playing along. IMO he is providing a great resource for bass players. Nothing is perfect so ignore the annoying stuff, it's not important. Do yourself a favour, filter out the good stuff and focus on that! Edit to make sense!

Except. . . . GP's sound is going through FOH, DI'ed into a rather sophisticated desk, manned by good people and probably post processed at Dave Gilmore's studio down on the Thames at Hampton!!

So 8 ohms might generate less heat but if an amp is designed to give its maximum power at 4 ohms then I would expect 4 ohms to be easily doable. If the heat generated by 4 ohms is with in the design spec then why should there be a problem with running an amp within its stated range?

I like my 310 stack. It's a 210 + 110 and runs to 700 watts. 2 cabs, 3 rigs, very flexible.

If a lesson with Gary Willis is £70 then $147 for 10 lessons is a bargain. Personally I don't see what you can learn from Gary Willis that can't be learnt from a dozen other bassists.

I expect Gary Willis charges SBL a lot for his services.

I know Jamerson was the star at Motown but the fantastic playing that Bob Babbitt brought to his sessions just makes me smile. IMO his tone on Gladys Knight's record Midnight Train To Georgia is one of the best bass sounds on record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdfZnWsps34 These Stevie Wonder recordings just swing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADpoSeWAK8Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvRwR-hZDVY

At the time there were a lot of guys like RG around thrashing the blues. I saw RG at the Rainbow once. Sorry to all who love this band, but they weren't for me.

I play on the top of the strings and have no idea what high or low tension means in this context. I used GHS flats for about 4 years and they were very good. I only took them off when a set of TI flats came up at a great price. For me there was no difference in feel between TI and GHS strings.

IMO GHS Precision flatwound strings would be a good place to start looking.

This is right. 99% of the music recorded in the last 60 years will contain influences from a very select few writers including Lennon and McCartney. I think it was Lamont Dozier who said that when he went home in the evening he didn't listen to Motown, he listened to the Beatles, and they inspired him to be a better song writer. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys said he was in a "creativity battle" with the Beatles, which he though he had won with Pet Sounds, but admitted he'd lost when he heard Sgt Pepper. Simon and Garfunkel though their writing and records were in direct competition with the Beatles. It was a "creativity" battle and the top songwriters of the day were listening to each other and being driven to be better. At that time the only guy who was influencing everyone and probably wasn't being influenced himself, was Bob Dylan. A switch flipped around 1966 which energised rhythm sections to be more independently creative. McCartney and Ringo were at the forefront of that. If your preference is playing music created in the West, ie Europe and US, your playing has a direct line of influence going back to a few players in the mid 60's.

This. . . . You've just got to let go of the past.

IME the MU doesn't have much interest in semi pro pub gigs. Don't be coy. . . name and shame. Go into the details, leave comments on their Facebook page and review sites. Start a campaign that they can't ignore.

That tone? Nothing. A different, great bass tone. . . . lots of stuff. With the gear you list, if you have a bad back your only solution is to hire roadies. Other than that there are no PRO's for keeping heavy gear. My solution to a permanent lower back injury (because I delayed selling very heavy bass gear, that sounded too good to sell) has been to move to 6lb amps, several 23lb cabs and an 8 1/2 lb bass. It doesn't matter what your current gear sounds like. Find good sounding gear that you can carry and learn to love that sound.

I've bought 2 basses on Ebay. First was a standard win-the-bid type sale and on the second the buyer suggested I try it out and sent me his address. I gave him the cash so I guess that's what Ebay doesn't like. Making us complete the sale, then reversing it if something isn't right, gives us all of the hassle and them none!! All that cash is sitting in their bank account gathering interest! I don't use Ebay any more.