chris_b

Very tight playing style. Always a favourite player.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1482319350' post='3199475'] Just deciding on a new bass and not sure which way to go with the electronics. [/quote] What kind of bass and what kind of sound are you after and how flexible do you need to be? I run my Precision with flats and IMO it sounds best as a passive bass. My 2 pickup basses have round wounds and are are active. 2 of them have 3 band pre amps. I've just been checking out an active J type bass that has a 3 band pre amp with a switchable mid range centre and 4 trim pots. I'm not sure I have a need for that amount of flexibility but in the end it's all about how good the bass sounds.

Every bass is costed down to the last screw so more pickups equals more expense. Do you actually get a better sound with three pickups? Actually you don't need more pickups to get a better sound. A better or active EQ will do that. Plus if enough people show an interest it will be done. Until the interest is in the hundreds it won't get done.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1482115908' post='3197779'] They're the best blues band to come out of London.IMO [/quote] Fleetwood Mac were just so good but the band that usually gets forgotten when talking about British blues bands is Cream. When they started and for the first 3 or 4 months about 80% of their set was blues that anyone in the Deep South would have recognised. They started to change into the prototype rock blues band pretty quickly but from when they started to just before they recorded the first album they were the best blues band in the UK.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1482309156' post='3199316'] Genuine question. Why are big old speakers more efficient? [/quote] Mine never were!

How is Fender or the shop going to set up a bass? High or low action, lightweight rounds or heavy duty flats? Either way they'll be wrong for someone. I can tell if a bass is one I'd like to play even with a mile high or stupidly low action. Fender have given people too much ammunition over the years but set up is personal and easy to work through.

The Stones are a great rock band. They practically invented the stadium rock genre. Anything they do will sound like them and not their influences. The good bands and players will always do this. A band embarking on a world tour taking in dozens of countries over several years will usually put out an album. After 55 or so years it's unlikely that any band will be writing songs as great as they did in their hey-day, but it's "product" and many people around the world will want to buy so it's cool to make an album for them. Nit picking that they don't write songs like they used to is petty and pointless. The Stones are one of the more successful exports from the UK to the rest of the world. They have helped to change cultures (not many bands have achieved that) and today they still make a lot of people happy. Sadly, it says much about us, as Brits, that so many find it easier to focus on the negative, rather than enjoying the positive. IMO they sound as great as ever. It will be a very sad day when they stop touring.

I don't know why people who have a sound they love get the urge to throw it all away and replace it with gear that it totally unknown to them. A few years ago I saw a great sounding bass player using an LM3 with 2 102HF cabs. I've never been a fan of Markbass cabs but he lent me his back line on the gig and I liked it. . . a lot. If I already played Markbass I would be looking at this as the affordable, sensible and straight forward option. More of what you already love about your sound but better because there are 2 cabs. IMO 2 cabs really do sound better than 1. Having said that I think that Bergantino cabs are fantastic sounding cabs. IMO you can't go wrong with any amp through any of their cabs, especially the 212 cabs. I played these for years and love their sound. They are worth saving up for. OK, so this is way over budget, but I'm now playing Barefaced Super Compacts. If they were stolen, out of everything I'd played in the last 10 years, I'd go out and buy more SC's. Again I think they are worth saving up for. Try and get a 212 out of the BC Classifieds. A BF cab would breath a new lease of life into your current amp and if you postponed the new amp purchase your budget would stretch further?

It was a big box when I'd finished.

I just received a bass from abroad via UPS and everything was fine. I had everything crossed. . . must have worked! Interparcel refused the bass sized parcel I was trying to send because it was too big!

[quote name='Autobot22' timestamp='1482150178' post='3197987'] I'm selling a bass and may need to ship it to the buyer. I have no idea how to go about this (ie where to get a cardboard guitar box, packing materials etc) and how to ensure it gets to the buyer in one piece, how much to pay, etc etc. Any advice much appreciated. [/quote] Slacken off the strings about half a turn. Put in a bass case or gig bag. Pack any empty space around the bass so it can't move about inside the case. Put the case or bag into a cardboard box, If you can't get one from a guitar shop then you can get great cardboard boxes from bike shops. Pack the spaces so it can't move. Tape it up, a lot. You're done. Some couriers have size limits which exclude basses and many won't insure musical instruments.

When we had the cab and the amp shoot outs at the SE bass bash, same amp for each cab and all amps set at noon, with one player demoing the lot they all sounded more similar than different. There were amps and cabs that I wouldn't have looked at twice (going on reviews of others) that sounded pretty good to my ears. In a band setting the differences would have been even less noticeable. OK, everyone will EQ differently and have different sounding fingers, but the most important difference between all of us is [i]what[/i] we play and [i]how[/i] we play it. I've been told I make all of my gear sound like me. Even though I think each bass is different, to the others they're not. To anyone looking at a oil painting, it doesn't matter what paint or brushes the artist used.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1482089653' post='3197571']I will never understand why some of you guys think it's a particular bass that sounds good.[/quote] . . . Err. . . because that particular bass sounded good?

You have more options if there is FOH support involved. I think we'd all like to know what you choose to replace an SVT. That's the gold standard for most genres.

Nothing sounds good for long if you're trying to run it flat out. IMO your usual volume should be somewhere in the middle of the amps working power range and you should have enough speaker to manage the power you need with plenty of headroom. In my estimation, that's more watts in the speakers than you have in the amp. I used to put an 800 watt amp into a 1000 watt 410 and 700 watt 210. Both good quality cabs. The actual numbers didn't matter, I was pealing paint with the volume and I never came close to a bad sound or damaging my gear. If you are trying to put on the performance of your life you don't want to be listening out at the same time for tell tale signs of speakers going over the limit and breaking up. If you're having to do this in the middle of a gig then you didn't do your homework properly at the planning stage. I'm assuming if you're playing at a volume level that is threatening to break your gear then [i]that's[/i] the level you need to buy gear for. Turning down probably isn't an option in these cases. Get as technical as you like. . . . you bought the wrong gear.

If we're talking about the Every Picture Tells A Story album, the bass on most of it was Andy Pyle. Edit spelling.

Don't shoot the messenger! Nothing went on a Bowie record that he didn't want there, so George Murray's bass playing on Sound and Vision is exactly right, cos the boss said so. I'm not a Bowie fan but this rhythm section with the aggressive playing and sound really make this a stand out track.

You can use an A/B splitter box. Run your bass into a box and then 2 cables, one to each combo.

I don't think anyone should buy a bass because it can [i]sound like another bass[/i]. Buy the bass that sounds great and makes you sound like you.

Looks good. A 40" scale bass will really pick out the guys with poor technique.

Tom Barney and Gail Dorsey, both great players, moved on from MM to MTD basses. Just sayin'.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1481968043' post='3196590']. . . the bass is as versatile as it's operator [/quote] I think this is the truism. How many of us use more than a couple of sounds, even when playing the most versatile instrument? A good player will develop his style and sound and that's what he'll use 99% of the time. So "versatile" usually means we prefer that sound. You choose the bass that feels right and gets the sound you like and then you make it work for you. We've done shoot outs at the SE Bass Bash and the other truism is that one player usually makes all the gear sound more similar than different.

I sold my SR5 because I thought it wasn't as versatile as the Lakland that replaced it (I still think this) and the neck didn't feel great to me. But, in spite of my experience, here's Stan Sargeant making an SR5 sound fantastic. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yx_6IwdQvY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yx_6IwdQvY[/url]

Best bass playing I ever heard. . . . live? John McVie with John Mayall, dozens of times Robert 'Pops' Popwell with the Crusaders, New Victoria Theatre Reggie McBride with Keb Mo at the Jazz Cafe Joe Dart with Vulfpeck at the Brooklin Bowl Jack Bruce with Cream, dozens of times Phil Chen with Gonzalez, dozens of times This could be a long list. . . . !

Nice. All good but particularly liked the extra depth of tone when he switched to the Lakland.