chris_b

I can understand that. Mesa does make brilliant bass gear. I try to ignore GAS. I just try to find stuff that works together then hope to forget about gear for as long as I can.

Guys, I wouldn't let me put you off buying a D800. I bought the D800 on a whim. There were such good write ups and reviews I thought it would be worth checking out. It was, but running both amps side by side at home and on gigs left me slightly preferring the more "vintage" flavour of the TH500. I don't have any negative thoughts about the D800 at all. The TH500 was an instant love affair and the honeymoon period lasted more than 4 years. I use it at home and I still gig it on occasion. Again, I bought the AG700 to check it out. I had very little idea what it sounded like before and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it. It's like the TH500, but cleaner, slightly less "vintage", more punch, breadth of tone and more "oomph". I seem to be preferring my P bass through the TH500 and the Jazz through the AG700. The other feature that really interested my was the AG700 can run at 2.67 ohms. I've use 3 8 ohm cabs in the past (and might again) and I'm currently running 4 ohm and 8 ohm cabs together and separately. Both the TH500 and AG700 were lucky accidents. They appealed to me instantly. The D800 is equally good but just didn't hit the spot in the same way.

The PF fret board on my Sadowsky looks great.

Show me the new designs that Sadowsky and Lull make!

We've all had to put up with disinterest and apathy from our audiences. The problem is that, as performers, we should be making them look, listen and appreciate us. if we don't do that then we don't deserve to be noticed. This guy is not impressing anyone by sitting, hunched over in the street. He needs to get up and walk about. I'm impressed he's busking in a suit, shirt and tie. Did he pop out of the office for 10 mins in his lunch break for a bit of al fresco bass playing? If you want to be successful at busking you've got to be big, bold and interesting. Unfortunately, 'cos he seems like a reasonably good player, this guy is none of those.

This is exactly what the "new" Fender has to do in order to start competing. They've been complacent for far too long and were sleeping walking their way into bankruptcy. The new lines have to be better than before so they can fight back in a very reduced marketplace. They have to start impressing the guys who look at this news and think, "Yeah, so what!" I'm impressed that you have a Fender that sounds better than a Lull. That would be my go-to bass if I found one. Sadly, I bet it's not under 4kg.

1. Sell it as is. 2. Replace the EV with another driver and sell as a working cab. Include the EV. 3. Recone the EV and sell. You have to know how much these cabs (with original EV's) fetch and what a recone costs. Only then can you decide which way to go. I had a 15" EV reconed when Shuttlesound were the dealers. That was 20 years ago. I don't remember how much it cost but it didn't break the bank.

Whenever Fender comes out with a new design. . . . no one buys it. It seems they have not been managed very well and need to draw a line under the past. Expect a reissue of all their models with new names to differentiate now from before. After all the only difference between an Anderson Strat and a Lull P bass and the Fender originals is quality of manufacture, sound and playability. I'd expect the new models will be better made so that Fender is better placed to be able to compete, and start reducing that massive debt. I tried a Pro Jazz last year and I liked it. I thought it sounded better than the ASJV I had at the time. Still too heavy for my glass back but if it could shed a few pounds I'd have been tempted.

I was interested in the Subway amps and briefly owned a D800. I liked it a lot but preferred the Aguilar TH500 I was using at the time. I'm now using an Aguilar AG700 with 2 SC's for the loud gigs and I can't remember getting a better bass sound. In spite of that I would still like to hear the D800+. Just curious! My new rig for the smaller gigs is the same AG700 with a BF Two10 and One10. I sound checked the 310 and the keyboard player leaned over and said, "Well, that sounds good." You don't get many compliments from that guy so it was a great start to the gig. I was planning to compare the 12's and 10's and keep the one I preferred, but it looks like I'm going to have to keep all of them.

Exactly. We did a wedding and were totally ignored in the first set. The singer was really cross, "The audience just isn't interested!" I had to slowly explain that they were not an audience, but wedding guests and that our second set had better be more appropriate. We played covers for the rest of the gig and managed to rescue the evening.

I'll happily play private parties, weddings, corporate etc. Why not? If you're in a cover band you can make these gigs work. Other styles I'm not so sure! We have played when it was obvious that it was a bad idea from the start. Band not needed or wanted by the party guests. A square peg in a round hole is never going to have a good outcome so you have to be realistic about your suitability before you take the gig. Once when it didn't work. . . . I was in a Chicago blues band that got booked for a wedding! I didn't think we were appropriate but the brides dad insisted we were. Well, I was right. We played to an empty room and the wedding reception effectively took place in the car park!

I have an old IBM staff issue leather laptop case, from back when laptops were the size of a breeze block. Easily fits everything in.

I know a bass player getting a great sound out of a Barefaced Six10. It'll tick all your boxes and most of them twice. I'd also check out the Four10 which would be a match for most of the 610 cabs you've listed.

I find all this talk about tension rather baffling. Tight/loose/floppy I don't recognise any of these descriptions of strings. All strings feel the same to me. I play relatively lightly and play over the top of the strings. Even when I think I'm "digging in" I don't pull them so the tension, that everyone seems to talk about, doesn't seem to be important to me. I don't need a ramp to help my plucking hand. I never get my fingers that far under the strings. The action on my basses is high enough that I don't get any fret buzz and I never have a hard job fretting notes. I've had several basses set up by the Bass Gallery and I always have to raise the action when I get the bass home. Sorry. Not sure that this is going to help you much. I bonded with the sound of the Ti's immediately. If they are still being made, my next set of flats (in about 20 years time) will be another set of Ti's.

The sound of flatwound strings was an eye opener for me. I put a set of GHS Precision flats on my Lull PJ5 a few years ago. They were the first set I'd used in many decades and they made a significant improvement to an already great sound. I was surprised as to how much oomph and authority they brought to the tone. I've since put on a set of TI flats and IMO they sound even better. I doubt I'll put rounds on my P basses again. So the plan from now on is rounds on the active J but only flats on the passive P.

If it's a good 5 string bass, flats will sound fine. I assume La Bella's will be good on a 5er but I've not used any. I have a set of TI flats on my Mike Lull PJ5 and the bass sounds just right.

It really shouldn't. There are many reasons for selling a bass, so it's entirely possible to be selling the best bass you've owned and played.

OK, so he wasn't a Jack Bruce but I saw Hendrix in local clubs a couple of times and if a Jack Bruce style player was on bass that band would have been the biggest mess ever, and no one would be fondly remembering any of them. Just like Adam Clayton, Dusty Hill and many others, Noel Redding was exactly right for the band he was in. His job was to hold it all together and give the others a solid platform for their frantic playing styles. And after all, someone in the band has got to be playing the songs. . . . so it might as well be the bass player!

We're old fashioned here. It's either CD's or steam driven radio in this house.

I've never know what the reference to "butter" means, but all the expensive basses I've owned in the last 20 years have either been Pleked when made or fret stoned and set up for me by Martin at the Gallery so, it's true, all those basses have played "like a dream". A couple of cheaper basses were set up by me and when I moved them on they were playing far, far better than when they were sold to me. So from a "nightmare" to a little bit "dreamy", at least. I try to put all the info into my adverts but some don't put in enough. I still add "non smoking home" in my adverts. I remember the old days when basses, amps and cabs, from smokers, came into our non smoking home and the terrible stink that was so hard to get rid of and made our home smell so bad! Plus the awful smell of tobacco clinging to everything from the gigs!

Strange! I've got TI flats on my 35" PJ5 and I wouldn't describe them as floppy at all.

But if there are only 2 notes which one is the root? If you're relying on notes from another instrument, as someone said earlier, then that's more notes. OK so 2 notes counts as a chord, but it isn't because 2 notes can't provide enough information to be usefully called a chord.

2 notes might fit a theoretical definition but in practice how do you establish major or minor chords with just 2 notes?

3 is the minimum.

Then you get to 6:00 and he's very impressed with the band. "Blown away", were his words.