Paddy Morris

I tried one for a bit.  It was very like an Underwood.  Had the same sort of muffled quality the Underwood and DG Copperhead have.  Some very respectable players go for that, but it wasn't for me.

I have a big mariachi guitarrón, and eventually I put an Ischell C3 on it.  Sounds mint.  Don't know if that would work for you?

Hi Pete

Yes, when they turned up they were normal weichs in weich packaging.  Maybe just an acknowledgement by Thomann that Brits speak no language but their own?   They took a couple of weeks to arrive.

Patrick

That's interesting Joe, thanks.  I might see if he'll have a look at it then.  Also I don't think the nut has ever been set-up for the thicker, low tension strings I tend to use, so I wonder if maybe the A is it bit tight in the slot.  It arrived with thin Chinese steels on it.

Part of it is, the guy builds £10,000 basses and I'm slightly embarrassed by my plywood and car body filler box! 

I had a bit of a search for this but couldn't find a result, so apologies if it's been covered in depth.

What is the effect of a sound post tweak? 

I took the nicer of my 2 cheap basses to the excellent luthier who did the initial set-up for me, to get bridge adjusters fitted.  He was going to 'tweak' the sound post too.  In the end he said it didn't need it.  So I still don't know what the effect would have been.

My other bass, a cheap plywood slapper which I love dearly, has never had a proper set-up and has always been slightly quiet on the A string - this has been true regardless of the various string setups I've had on it.  It might just be the limitation of a cheap bass, but I'm now wondering if a soundpost tweak might improve the situation?

Very neat indeed.

3rd vote for Spiro weichs. Growly sound, easy on the fingers.

For some bizarre reason they're cheaper on Thomann than anywhere else to buy in the UK.  No good for slapping though.

Very neat looking set-up.  Do we get a close up of the pedal board? Always good to see what other players are up to.

Definitely. My bass with Spiros = blisters after a long gig.  My slapper with guts and EP slaps = no blisters after an entire weekend of playing.

I'm an upright player and I found Spectracomp, Keeley Bassist, and EBS Multicomp, all tend to suck the attack out of a plucked string.  They give a lovely smooth sound for slapped bass guitar, but not for upright.

However, I just tried the Keeley Compressor Pro and it's just incredibly good. You can put soft knee in, and back the attack time off.  You get great levelling of the notes and improved sustain if you want it (I don't) but the initial attack of the string passes through cleanly.

Next time my Mrs complains about the amount of gear in our den, I need to show her this thread.

I have one of these. It's pretty light, loud enough, flexible and ridiculous value for money, even at the retail price.

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

I said I'd report back from the shootout, a disclaimer here I was behind the speakers so I personally couldn't hear the direct output maybe John @Chienmortbb or @stevie or any of the other bassists there would like to comment? Even behind the speakers you could immediately hear the differences in sound and up on stage I could see the difference in audience reaction and I talked to people afterwards and a bit of what I'm saying here reflects those conversations.

 

So the set up was straightforward: we had two LFSys Monaco speakers (very high quality FRFR bass speakers) with yours truly swapping the amps whilst @MichaelDean did the honours with the bass. Initially all the amps had the controls set to 12.00 except the master volume.

 

Gnome first: no reason other than it was my amp and was set up before I went out looking for the others. It caused quite a stir on first few notes and at the end a couple of people said they were suffering GAS for one/going to get one. They are very bright airy and modern sounding.

 

Next up the Elf: again this created quite a reaction. It's immediately quite a loud sound, a bit richer in the bass and with a really pleasing mid scoop. It kind of did have the generic Trace sound as proven later when we tried a proper Trace amp. It had a noticeably higher gain and was initially louder with the master at 12.00. Obviously that doesn't give you any extra power but it's going to jump out at you if you get to try one in a shop which is why they do it of course. 

 

Finally the BAM: to be honest it didn't get quite the same audience response but that was probably about the way we tested, I know from the measurements we did last year that it is in between the other two amps and that is exactly how it sounded. the Elf has a stronger bass and the Gnome a stronger top end sparkle. Like any taste test more always creates the stronger initial impression so the other two got the attention. It's still a fine amp.

 

Once we had all three i went back to the Gnome and asked Michael to forget 12.00 and try to make the Gnome sound like the Elf, within 30 secs he was getting there and you should be able to get all three amps sounding similar to each other with just a little patience and without maxing out the tne controls. Again from last year's measurements I know the mid control works in the centre of the mid scoop they all have so it's relatively simple to remove that or to increase it. Finally I cranked the Gnome to demonstrate what sort of levels you could expect from 130W into 8ohms. There was still a bit of bass boost from the tone matching to the Elf and i took it to clear distortion and cut back to where i could just hear the distortion from behind the speakers. I could still hear the peaks being limited but this would be louder than I'd be likely to need on stage. In practice when I do use back line the Gnome doesn't really struggle as a stage monitor for bass and I only use my bigger amp when I have no PA support. The LFSys Monacos are 98db/W @ 1m. I'd like to thank Stevie for providing them and I've now bought one of the ones I used. I don't think there is a better FRFR bass speaker out there at the moment based on sound quality alone. I'd like to thank all the people who lent me their amps and Michael for being brave enough to demonstrate the amps to a room full of other bass players, I'd have frozen

 

 

Brilliant report back.  Like a wine tasting, but louder.

Thanks for all the replies to this.  I really appreciate it.  So it seems as though most of these amps share the same generic output board and switched mode PSU. But the front end is where the designs are all customised..

Interestingly, just looking on reverb / ebay / gumtree,  there are very few BAMs, Gnomes or Ants that people want to shift (none in fact) but quite a few Elfs (or Elves, whatever)

Thanks. Just found and read that comparison between them.  All very interesting.

Are there any really differences between the Gnome 200, the TC BAM 200, the Trace ELF200 etc?

The exact same layout of the front panel and rear, and identical feature set makes one think that they are probably the same, Chinese pre-assembled PCB, and what you're actually choosing is the case that it comes in.

I have no problem with that, because they're all very good value for money. But is there a subtle difference between them?

I have 2. A Westbury and a Hidersine.  I've got to say that the Hidersine is the one I use all the time.  The padding is more or less the same in both. The more expensive Westbury looks slightly more rugged, but all the straps and handles are in the wrong places.  The cheap Hidersine bag has been yanked from one gig to the next for about 5 years and seems to be surviving ok.  And any minor damage to the instrument has always happened due to my own carelessness once the instrument is outside the bag.

It looks to have a set of natural gut strings on it (£100 right there, if they're in decent condition) and the wear pattern in the fingerboard suggests some pretty full-on psychobilly hammering.  That finish looks like it had a lacquered coating applied that has been removed.

I think you should arrange to meet up and play it first, but it might sound amazing, who knows?

I don't know if you ever need a dep upright bass player?  I'm from Colchester and I'm back down there quite often.  I've picked up a few one-off drop-ins to bands whose regular upright player can't make a specific gig.

Let me now.

That's good to know.  I just had a quick look at the IP300. That's a pretty convenient-sized rig if you're getting a sound you like 

All true. There's loads of amp threads I could go at, including my own previous ones.

Part of the difficulty is that you only have the recommendations of other players to go on.  The gear is too expensive to just buy on spec.  And most music stores don't have a double bass avaliable for you to try out an amp.

It's true. I did ask last year. I had actually forgotten that I did.

But the quest to get a decent amplified sound from a difficult instrument seems never-ending to me.  And I work on the principle that everyone is here because they're broadly interested in the subject, so there's no harm in asking.

Morning all.  I've had a PJ Two Four for a few years now.   There's no doubting that they are a very clever piece of kit.

But I've gone off it. The tone is so highly tuned that it's a permanent feedback hazard at the sort of small room gigs it was designed for.  At outdoor busking gigs, no feedback. But the tone is all that muddy, plumby boxy stuff that makes an upright sound like a cheap Hofner McCartney bass copy.  Or at least, it does for me.

Given that the design is a few years old now, and amp designers are clever people, I was wondering if there's anything else out there now that does this job better.  The Two Four is incredibly compact, but it's actually more compact than it needs to be for me. I'd be happy with something twice as big (still very small, after all) but with a nicer, more neutral tone.

Has anyone discovered a new killer compact combo?

Thanks for that.  I bought one and will try it out.

I also ordered some open cell rubber foam and I'm going to try and replicate some F-Its for my carved bass.   I would love to get Bob to make them, he does such a beautiful job.  But his website has been taken down and his FB page seems to be inactive.   I'm sure he has good reasons.

On 10/10/2022 at 17:12, Jakester said:

Just to circle back round to this, I managed to pick up (boom boom - or not!) a Thumpinator which now sits under my pedalboard. 

 

Did a gig at the weekend on a hollow stage stood right in front of my amp, and even with it turned up quite high there was nary a hint of feedback, so here's hoping for now it's dealt with this issue. 

 

Thanks all for your input. 

This is interesting.  So the Thumpinator fixed it for you?  Do you feel like it has affected the tone much?

I bought a Westbury, just after f-its stopped producing covers.  It's a lovely dark instrument, but real handful to amplify.  If I can't get f-its I might try a Thumpinator.

I have also tried Whackers. Much too clicky on my bass, very little actual note. Zero sustain.

Silver slaps I liked very much. Again a bit too clicky on my fingerboard, but a good, defined note and plenty of sustain.  I found the harmonic profile of the A in the set to be slightly too growly. Like a bass guitar string.

I now have one bass set up for slap,  with natural gut D, G, and Evah Pirazzi slap (the cheaper synthetic gut ones) on E, A.  On my particular,  inexpensive bass it's a great combination.  Nice vintage thud. The click is less sharp and brittle. The sustain is moderate, but its enough.  For arco you need to dig into them a bit to get them to start, but it's a nice dark tone.