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That would have been an obvious thing to post. When I've been in a shop (remember those?), I tried the Ibanez SRH500F. That thing was amazing. I could get an acoustic bass with the treble up, and something approaching a double bass when you rolled the treble off, across the entire fingerboard. I think the following post covers what I'm after. I can always roll-off the top when I want so it's the last section from 2:08, although all the tones here I wouldn't say no to: Less for tone, if you could tell me how to play like Marco in the following solo, I'd be much obliged Warwick PJ, similar to the one pictured below. Even if I was brave enough to try a piezo pickup on it, the procedure would be quite invasive on this bass because of the bridge system.

Agreed, an amp does go a long way, but my amps are about as good as I can get it and they still aren't good enough in my opinion. If I played a short passage on my bass and uploaded a clip, I'd be genuinely interested in how close people could get to an acoustic sound on EQ alone. Maybe I don't need to do anything more than twiddle knobs, but I've been twiddling a while now with no joy. I've never heard of them, thanks! The words on their website talk a good game, but the clips they post aren't exactly helpful to me in making a decision. I'm not one for playing an entire piece using just harmonics, nor distortion.

Greeting basschatters. There seems to be a market for magnetic pickups, each with their unique sounds and tones. There's also a (smaller) market for piezo for their large frequency response and acoustic-like sounds. I would like to retro fit the latter's sound to one of my basses, but I don't have the brains to retro fit a piezo pickup to my bass. So, in short, is there a magnetic pickup (single J coil, or split P coil) that even approaches an acoustic-like tone? The Fishman Fluence look like manufacturers are starting to look at augmenting the humble magnetic coil, but nothing that I've seen outright says it can give a wide and reasonably flat response. The Fluence is also frustratingly humbucker size. I'm aware of modelling, but this isn't really what I'm after and I've been disappointed with the results of that in the past. Any help appreciated!

@Joebethell Sorry to take this thread off topic, but did you order your come with tweeters? Is that a possibility? I was originally in the market for a GSS cab with this speaker and tweeter, but they're based in France and so it's harder to order them in the UK now.

I'll put in another vote for Reaper. One thing that separates Reaper from the rest, at least in my opinion, is the collection of top quality video tutorials on YouTube. I've watched them and come away with tricks that I didn't even know I wanted. At the same time I've never encountered something I couldn't do with Reaper, although my needs are modest. I'd at least give it a spin. It's free to try so it's only time you'd be wasting. Even when the trial expires you are free to continue using it. All that happens is that a pop-up appears when you start the program asking you to puchase. You can close this pop-up after 5 seconds. To boot there's a free-to-use licence valid until 1st April 2021.This has been extended multiple times already so 1st April may not even be the end date.

That's true, but I don't see the relevance here, unless you think the cabinet isn't designed around the speaker. If that is what you're saying, how do you know that?

There are two 2x12 cabinets on their website, including one containing a pair of BN12-300S https://www.zillacabs.com/bass-fatboy. Now that speaker seems to polarize opinion here on BassChat as to whether it's appropriate for bass, so much so that I contacted Celestion about it. This was their response: I don't think I've come across anyone on this site who owns these speakers and dislikes them, so there's that in their favour!

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I bought a set of Kaplan strings and I cannot fault Geoff's prompt service and great communication. Would definitely buy from him again. Thanks Geoff.

If I may stick my oar in here. I've just taken delivery of a set of Kaplans from geoffbassist. The service was excellent and I'm indebted to him for the good price, but that's an aside and not what this thread is about. The strings were replacing a 12 year old set of Obligatos. I don't actually know what sound I'm after, but I know a good price when I see one which is why I thought I'd take a punt. For me this was a punt and a miss, but as with all things there are too many variables to blame the strings as such. I'll happily answer any questions as they're on my bass at the moment though. In comparison to the Obligatos, the strings are quieter, and that's an objective observation. Also objective is the ease of bowing. It's much more reactive and easier to get an even volume across the strings and to choose the dynamics. In terms of tone, that's where opinion creeps in. To me the pizz is lifeless but functional. To me the bowing with the Kaplans has with less scratch than the Obligatos and more body, although bear in mind that these Obligatos are 12 years old. I've elicited feedback from someone who has exceptional taste in everything (my wife) and she said that she preferred the Obligatos in both bowing and pizz. We ran two strings side-by-side at the same time which, while not scientific, is good enough for us to compare the two sets at the same time. She said there was more definition in the Obligatos and I'd say it's her opinion that's important as after all it's the tone from a few feet away rather than on top of the bass that's what you get paid for. Perhaps that's what D'Addario were going for: something which blended into an orchestra better rather than something that stood out. Absolutely no sense in getting any high frequencies out of a bass in an orchestra with so many other instruments. For me, while I do try to keep my bow warm, it's not in an orchestra pit. The pizz with the Kaplans just isn't doing it for me. It's not old-school warm like the Obligatos. It's just dead. This is totally appropriate in an orchestra, but just not for me. The bowing again is very much an orchestral bow. I preferred it. My wife didn't. Update: Actshwally, I'm starting to warm to the Kaplans. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with an updated appraisal, but the bowing is much, much better than the Obligatos after some extended playing.

Chin up, surely a prophetic statement too?

It's as if @Ashdown Engineering reads basschat/my mind! Thank you Ashdown, your new Bluetooth Tone Pocket is the product I've been waiting for. Once I am unshackled from lockdown's restrictions I'll be heading to my local music shop to try this out, and let's be honest I'll probably buy it. https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/new-for-namm-21/products/tone-pocket-bluetooth

Ashdown Ant seems to fit your bill, but for the power requirements. I'm just throwing this in here just in case anyone searches the site for a pedalboard amp. I don't own one, but I definitely want one Totally anecdotally, I was able to keep up with a savage drummer with 150W, but I did have a 15" cone behind me. You could replace your cab, but then you're trying to cut down on gear. Guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch https://ashdownmusic.com/products/the-ant

Thanks both of you. I've tried all pemutations I can think of from your suggestion, putting it in another room, another power supply etc. It still persists, *except* on one amp. When I run through an Acoustic Image Coda R there's no buzz! I cannot explain that unless there's some amazing wizardry inside the Acoustic Image that doesn't feature in other amps. I've opened the bass up to look for loose cables. It looks very clean and nothing jumped out as being wrong. While she was open I tried some contact cleaner on the volume pot. Did nothing. As you suspect touching the strings does make it better, even if not completely getting rid of the problem. While open I plugged the bass in to play. I wasn't able to make the buzz go away by wiggling any cable. However, I was able to make it much worse by just touching the white cable leading from the volume pot direct to the jack socket. This was touching the outer sleeve rather than the copper, which surprised me a lot. I should have said in my first report that the bass is dead silent at both 100% volume and 0% volume. It's around 50% that it's at its worst. I don't have a multimeter to hand so I think it may be starting to get to the point I need to bring it into someone who would make it better by inspecting it rather than me who's making it worse. I tried to take pictures but nothing came through with any clarity that I think anyone would find useful. Thanks for your suggestions so far. Very helpful.

Thanks. This only happens on the one bass and I'd be surprised if it were outside the bass if turning volume to 11 makes it disappear but anything under that makes it buzz. It's an active bass but has a passive bypass. Both buzz at lower volumes. I've had buzzing issues before but nothing like these symptoms.

Hi everyone, As I progress and learn the nuances of playing bass guitar, after 20 or so years' playing I have come across this knob I believe people call "volume". Now my bass may have had this from day dot, and I'll never know as I've only ever started fiddling with this control, but when I dip the volume down I get an annoying an audible hum. Full volume and zero volume are dead silent. At this point I would usually take the bass to someone more qualified, but I'm kind of stuck at home with nothing better to do, so I'm asking for help here. Is this a common occurence and is it an easy self fix? I see general hum issues, but not related to when the volume is only partly engaged. The offending bass is a Sandberg California which I've owned from new around 10 years with no mods. Any help gratefully appreciated.

If FRFR is your bag, then ask him what he thinks about the Double Six and how it compares to his Single12 for your needs. He can fit the Double Six with the coax 6.5 driver, which is amazing (speaking as someone who owns and has gigged with it) but you may not even need the coax. As @Hellzero says, there are good videos of the cabinets online. Most useful to you probably is the one which compares the single12 to his Four6.

I don't see anyone arguing here, even on rereading. Apologies on my part if I wrote something that came across as that and I'm too tone-deaf to notice. An argument was not my intention.

You'll have to fill me in. I don't understand.

I don't feel there's any dishonesty on Celestion's part. They publish the spec of their drivers after all (typos and all!) Are there other drivers that absolutely demolish the BN12-300S in terms of low frequency output purely by virtue of their lower Fs, ignoring the xmax? I think there's no doubt there. Can you put a HPF on these others drivers and get a cabinet that can do what the BN12-300S does, and more? Again yup. I agree with everything you say, but the reason I'm still tempted by the GSS Single12 is that I wouldn't call myself an electric bassist. Given I HPF around (I don't know the exact frequency; I twiddle a knob until it sounds good) 80Hz, I'm grateful that there's a cabinet that does something different by being smaller and lighter than the competition, at the expense of things I don't care about. I used to walk two miles twice a week with a double bass and combo, and still walk to rehearsals and gigs, so those things matter to me. Pretty niche and mad granted, but just to say there are mad people out there.

There's a typo somewhere however you slice it, be it in the wattage or the weight. With the FTX1225 listed as 14lb the full cabinet weight should be ~10lb heavier than the BN12-300S loaded cabinet. The coax loaded cabinet is in fact listed as 7lb heavier, which is pretty much how much heavier the TF1225CX is to the BN12-300S. The 63.5Hz, whether you think it's too high for electic bass or not, is very similar to the BN12-300S's 62.1Hz so the cabinet sizes should be similar if designed properly, or at least more comparable.

Hmm, after a bit of digging I'm not sure it is the FTX1225. The TF1225CX would make more sense if, as the images seem to imply, the two drivers are put into the same cabinet. The weight differential then lines up as well.

Nothing wrong with it if you prefer it, but I'm not one of them. It annoys me when volume controls make no difference to my ears past the halfway mark. This is more pronounced on my TV and Hifi than anything else. No log taper pots in those, just cynical marketing (IMHO).