chris_b

The Art of Drumming? Should start and end with Steve Gadd.

It always used to be the case that if a retailer wanted to sell Mesa gear they had to adhere to Mesa's requirements, which like Bergantino, were quite stringent and didn't give the dealers much wiggle room.

Or the actual reason. . . he's a better bass player than you are!

I've been listening to someone using Barts with an East pre. One of the best bass sounds I've heard. PS I'm getting pretty close with my Sadowsky J5

Think about it. There are good sounding basses that are heavy, equally good sounding basses that are light and there are many basses that don't sound good in both categories. In this case it does seem that weight has an enduring placebo effect.

There always were great sounding light-weight basses. My 1969 P bass weighs about 8lbs. I know there were heavy basses that sounded good but there are many well made lighter basses that sound amazing, so the idea that you need a heavy bass in order to make a better sound really was/is a myth.

Aston Barrett is one of my favourite bassists but he isn't one of your "regular" reggae bassists. His lines are totally unique. If you want to get the feel and learn the style of Reggae I'd listen to others first, then progress to Barrett. For starters, try stuff like : Peter Tosh - Johnny B Goode, Feel No Way, Glass House, Reggae Mylitis etc Toots and the Maytals - Pressure Drop, Monkey Man, Louie Louie, Funky Kingston etc

That'll do it!

I think the problem with cabs like this. . . is they sound very different to what people have been using. In the "old days" rigs sounded more alike than different, so we never had a night-and-day change in our sound when we upgraded. I had this when I moved from Epifani to Bergantino and, surprisingly, again when I moved from the Bergs to Barefaced. Tones needed to be changed, basses needed to be played slightly differently and techniques needed to be cleaned up. I found the sound of Bergs and BF to be worth the hassle but if the sound never comes to you, it's only sensible to move on to something else.

Unless you have a Mark King complex, you'll probably find that 4kHz isn't much of a limitation at all.

Make sure you lock with the drummer. Nothing else matters quite as much.

So far every 212 I've heard significantly out performs the 112 version. I have 2 Super Compacts and they sound huge. Awhile ago I tried a Super Midget with one of my SC's and the combination was even better.

The exchange rate is to blame for the prices.

Google Fender replacement Bass guitar bridge.

Musical circles can sometimes look like closed shops by those who are on the outside. They can be cliquey and are often difficult to penetrate. In my experience the better bands rarely advertise. They work by word of mouth. So keep doing what you're doing , but start going to jam nights, sit in, chat and network. Make sure you are recognised and remembered (for good reasons!). Go to gigs and say hi, circulate and meet people. Get business cards printed and chuck them around like confetti.

You can see my answer to that if you read the rest of that post.

Playing a fanned fret bass is easy. Try it and you'll see every thing falls into place.

Why would Mesa not consider everything? They were clever enough to build the Walkabout in the first place so if they are lining up the WD800 as a replacement I'd expect it to perform. There are a few who will be dissatisfied no matter what, but as Mesa know much more about their amps than we do, I'd wait to see what the WD800 sounds like before jumping to conclusions.

The "best" sound I ever got was through the first amp I ever owned. It was a 60 watt valve amp and a 412 cab. I sounded so good I couldn't believe my bass (and me) could sound like that. That was it, no turning back. I have no idea if I actually sounded good or not but I thought I did to the point that I knew I'd be a bass player for the rest of my life.

A good sound just makes you feel super confident and gives your playing another gear.

There's another WT500 in the classifieds.

If you like the GB I'd definitely check out the Genzler MG800 that's in the classifieds right now.

Seems to me that putting on a new set of strings should come first, then email Sadowsky, then get the bass set up by a good technician. You're probably going to see the same suggestions and ideas that you got when you put this question up on Talkbass.

Good band, good playing. Poor "whizzy" camera work.

Forget the notes, just play 54-46 for as long as it takes for you to find the groove. Doesn't matter if it takes minutes, days or weeks, just focus on feel.