chris_b

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1452526540' post='2950813'] Have Bass Gear magazine ever reviewed the Tonehammer? [/quote] No. Sadly, surprisingly Dave Boonshoft declined their request for an amp to review. Conspiracy theorists might have a field day, but if I think an amp sounds good (and this one sounds better than most) then I don't care what's under the covers.

If there was any justice the TH amps in the classifieds would be snapped up. They have been some of the best amps around for the last couple of years.

I've been playing the TH500 for several years and so far nothing can touch it with either my Bergs or Barefaced cabs. The Tonehammer amps produce a great sound with almost any cab. I liked the TH500 so much I got 2. Just in case! I have only found 1 minor gripe. . . the fan is a little on the loud side for home playing, and 1 major gripe. . . or design fail. The -10 dB input pad button is located so close to the jack plug socket that it can easily be pushed in and you loose all your volume and on a dark stage it's not always apparent what has happened!

A current Mayer favourite of mine is this with Herbie Hancock. The wonderful Willie Weeks on bass. I've managed to get this on to the To Do list for one of my bands. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ldO3PJ5IA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ldO3PJ5IA[/url]

And I missed it first time around as well. I liked it. Clean, tidy, fluid playing.

Sad news. I guess we'll be dusting of some Bowie classics for Saturday's gig.

Increasing your library of licks and techniques is always a good thing, but whatever else you feel you need to do, practice won't increase your stamina. Sounds like you just need to gig.

Do you mean keeping the sound of the 410? You [i]will[/i] sound different if you switch to 12's and you might even sound better. I went from an Epifani 410 to 2 Berg 112's (and later to 3 112's) and it definitely was a move in the right direction for me.

If you find a 112 that sounds good you can be sure that 2 of them will sound 5 times better.

A Jazz is a good choice but there are other 2 pickup basses out there with great tone. I'd also look at Lakland. A good used 44-01 would be in budget, and maybe you can stretch to a 44-02? These are a lot of bass for the money.

No idea. Really, I don't know. I rarely get to the 12th and I've never played the top note on any bass. I'm no paragon of bass playing but if 20 frets is a flaw it didn't seem to limit the three guys I mentioned earlier. Why 20 frets? Must have been a number that Fender thought would never be reached by any sane bass player. My guess is that, listening to early records and looking at the maple fret boards of the early basses most bass lines were played well below the 7th fret.

Dave /OBBM. . . . every time. [url="http://bassic-bits.co.uk/"]http://bassic-bits.co.uk/[/url]

If Jamerson, Jaco and Larry Graham could change modern music within a 20 fret limit then I'm not sure what problem were talking about!

I have no issues or things I'd like to change on any of my favourite basses. My Lull PJ5 has no flaws and, apart from the fact that it isn't a 3 tone sunburst finish, neither has my Lakland 55-94D. Precision basses were designed that way because in 1957 players played differently and the amps they used produced an entirely different sound. Most bass amps at that time produced mid frequencies rather than bass, so bass players needed all the help they could get. Then after years of phenomenal success why would you want to change anything on the best selling and most acclaimed bass instrument on the planet? Fender didn't remove the headstock strap button or tug bar for decades and they were pretty much redundant after about 1952!

Everyone's opinions can vary. But those with persistently negative opinions are usually in the minority and because of that should be taken in context. For a few months I've been using my Aguilar TH500 with 2 Barefaced Super Compacts. I think this rig sounds good, and all comments so far have been more than positive. Last week a bass player and our drummer came up to me after the gig and said "Never, ever sell that rig". I weigh up all comments against my experience and the positive easily outweighs any negativity. That says it all for me.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1452340272' post='2948998'] Quite a few of those examples would have disqualified it as best ever [/quote] I sold my Dynacord because I needed a louder rig. I sold the Boogie because of weight related injury. So in my experience there are valid reasons for selling the best gear you've ever owned.

Can you borrow a bass to see if your tone problems persist. Then, try your basses through a different amp.

[quote name='thebassist' timestamp='1452340221' post='2948997'] Ditto with Precisions. I LOVE the way they look and like the sound when I hear some other people playing them but I can't get used to not having a bridge pickup whenever I play one. [/quote] They must have designed the PJ specifically for you.

I'd add too heavy to that list.

I've tried any number of fantastic basses that have impressed me when I've heard others playing and wondered what all the fuss was about. I have a bass that sounds good and you can see top bassists playing any day of the week and I feel totally neutral about it. I knew in the first week that it wasn't for me but I kept it and tried hard to like it. Predictably that hasn't happened. I should have been more decisive and sold it back then. You can spend money trying to make a bass work for you and maybe it will but probably it won't.

I currently have the best 2 rigs I've ever owned sitting in the room behind me so, of the gear I've sold, I have a dead heat between my 80's-90's rig a Dynacord BS412 115 combo and my 90's-00's rig an Ampeg SVT3 PRO through Mesa Boogie 210 & 115 cabs. These all used EV speakers, sounded like a force of nature and weighed as much as a small planet! Unusually for me I was actually sad when I sold these rigs.

[i]How[/i] you improve your playing is the criteria for practice so you can use any amp to practice through. You can make many things work in the studio. For their classic bass lines Fame studios (60's Aretha Franklin etc) used a Fender guitar amp with one broken, disconnected speaker and one good speaker. James Jamerson, at Motown, got one of the best, warmest recorded bass sounds through a valve DI. Does Ampeg still sell their Ampeg SVT-VR Bass Amplifier plug-in for recording?

Are you sure it's a 4 ohm 112? You mostly see 8 ohm 112's because 2 [i]always[/i] sound better than 1. I don't see a single 112 sounding big enough even at 4 ohms. It just can't move enough air on its own.

I own 3 5 string basses but only take one bass to gigs. I play in multiple bands playing diverse genres and one bass covers everything. For years it was my Lakland 55-94 which I used in an acoustic duo through, originals and blues bands to covers. That was replaced as No1 bass by my Lull PJ5. My basses work. They do hundreds of gigs and they get looked after. They have very few scrapes, scratches or wear marks. I've tried playing different basses in different bands, like using a Wal in the originals bands and a Rob Allen in the acoustic duo but while they did get compliments and sounded great to me they didn't seem to raise anyone else's heart rate enough so I sold them and went back to the Lakland. I've never seen the point in changing basses for particular numbers. I'm not precious about my sound. I'll do what fits best and my experience is that if you buy a reasonable "Fender type" bass, get a good sound out of it, play it well (good timing, no bum notes) and be easy to get on with most people will accept and be happy with "your" sound. I don't know anyone else on the "circuit" who is significantly different. We all seem to have made the "one size fits all" philosophy work.

. . . . but the Seinfeld theme was played on a synth by Jonathan Wolff.