mike257

I'm a fan of the later stuff too, and think the Jam/Lewis production on Dangerous is great, but Off The Wall is the MJ album I play more than any other. Great songs and absolutely outstanding playing across the board. The CD reissue with his home demos is great too, the rough cut of "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" with all the family members chipping in on percussion is great and shows how fully formed the song was before the production team got involved - the man doesn't get enough credit as a writer IMO

I've been playing an 80's Yamaha SA2000S that my brother has loaned me for the last couple of weeks and it's possibly the most stunning guitar I've had my hands on in a long time. I don't think there's a great deal of difference between it and the custom shop 335 the guitarist in my last band used. It's beautiful to look at and play, and has coil taps too so is pretty versatile. I've been using it for a few dep gigs at weddings playing a wide range of rock/pop stuff and it's handled everything effortlessly. Great Yamaha build quality too. You can pick them up for a touch under a grand if you keep an eye out, leaves you with change to get a nice Telecaster too

Would happily sling 4 or 6 strings around in a NIN tribute band, and whenever I have delved into programming its always been thinly disguised Trent-aping - you're nowhere near e though, are you? Can't see locations on the mobile site!

[quote name='TomWIC' timestamp='1337941355' post='1667644'] Yeah, I did read that a while back, annoyingly that was his sound in his first run with Marilyn Manson - when he used Thunderbirds and an Ampeg rig. Unfortunately, I have no idea what he used with Nine Inch Nails. [/quote] Fender Precision Deluxe (with the P pickup and an MM style at the neck) and occasionally a Stingray too. Not sure on backline used live off the top of my head. The studio recordings are generally Trent Reznor playing the P Special or Ray recorded direct with whatever processing generally done with plugins, I think, although some of the tones are very 'driven SVT' to my ears. A quick Google will probably help you - there's a lot of very geeky NIN fans out there, bound to be some good info on what was used live if his live tone is what you want to replicate. Edit: a cursory Google tells me SansAmp PSA pre amp with NIN, Mesa 400+ with A Perfect Circle, and always Ampeg SVT810 cabs.

It's no different to Fender, Squier, Lakland or whoever building guitars in the Cort factory really - especially for someone like Akai whos main output does not involve building stompboxes. Why retool a production line at great expense when you can get an equally well built product assembled for you by people who build this stuff every day. If they've signed off on the designs, and the pedals sound good, what's the difference to the end user? I think this has always happened, but now that the factories building the kit have started slapping their own brand on stuff and becoming recognised builders in their own right we are more aware of the use of these facilities by the bigger names. If Biyang didn't ship pedals with their own name on, we'd be talking about Akai's return to the pedal-making business in different tones!

I lurk around a few guitar forums and the consensus is that the Biyang stuff is (like the Joyo pedals that have been discussed here before) well manufactured and very good bang for the buck. Their newer 'Baby Boom' pedals are in MXR size boxes, true bypass and get good reviews. I'm probably going to grab one of the reverb pedals as soon as funds allow, and a guy I did FOH for recently had their Tubescreamer clone and loved it. There seems to be some great stuff coming from these factories, and they do tons of OEM builds for bigger brands too. I believe Biyang or Joyo (can't remember which) build many of the BBE pedal range.

I saw the first half of the thread title in the 'latest posts' bit and Sandberg was my first thought. Versatile, well built, great to play and look at, wouldn't be without mine. Would never part with my Stingray either but I don't find it as versatile as the Sandberg is.

[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1338333070' post='1673056'] Thanks, I'll have a look at them. Has anyone tried the Genz Benz Shuttle 6.2? [/quote] Haven't tried the 6.2 but I do own the original 6.0 model and its a great little amp. I've always found it to show the sound of your basses well, and often leave the EQ and tone shaping completely flat. Haven't used it in anger with any of the lightweight cabs that are around, but it certainly loves my 6x10 and I've had many compliments on the tone of it (and many shocked guitarists when they realise that tiny box is my 600w amp!)

The Johnny Shredfreak pedalboard power supply is the exact same unit as the Diago Powerstation (have seen them side by side to compare) and sells for around half the price of the Diago branded model. Power my guitar board with one and it does a great job. They also supply daisy chains, adapters and all kinds of pedalboard bits, worth a good nose around their website. OBBM (a member on here) makes very highly regarded cables, many BC'ers swear by him. The Lava/George L solderless solutions are smart but very very pricey compared to regular patch cables. The usual suspects for boards have been mentioned - if you're gigging heavily I'd avoid the cheap and cheerful toolbox type cases (like a cheap B&Q suitcase toolbox but with lift off hinges) as they won't withstand van abuse in the long term. If you have a solid case to transport it in and are even moderately handy with tools there's plenty great advice for DIY options on the web, including great ones based on Ikea Gorm shelving units - costs about 8 quid and some of the finished results look very impressive. If you'd prefer to buy something more sturdy, Pedaltrain and Diago have some great stuff as mentioned above, or the likes of Flightcase Warehouse will sell you something near indestructible for a price - only worth it if you'll be throwing it around stages regularly IMO.

I tend to run with all the EQ pretty much flat on the Shuttle, maybe boosting the low mid a touch, none of the switches in. Pre volumes around noon (off the top of my head, haven't used it in a while) and master volume to taste - have run out of clean headroom at 8 ohms but never really struggled at 4. Other guys amp settings may not translate all that well for you as your bass and more importantly your playing technique will massively affect the input signal to your amp, so what works for someone else may be totally inappropriate for you. Always preferred the Genz set pretty flat with either of my basses though, and let the controls on the bass do the work.

[quote name='Rimskidog' timestamp='1337884331' post='1667003'] Yeah, all basschatters welcome (though not all at once!) [/quote] I might have to take you up on that next time my splitter van travels bring me through Brum, to good to pass up! The place looks more and more impressive with every update, great to see somebody building a 'proper' studio in this age of bedroom chancery.

Same here, I'v had a free footswitch out of them for my Hyperdrive with no hassle involved, couldn't have been more helpful.

[quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1337432187' post='1659837'] My stuff is priced so well that it's worth the journey from within 200 miles easily to come collect it IMHO. [/quote] I can sympathise with you totally as its really hard to move things on at the moment, but you really aren't doing yourself any favours. There's loads of options for couriering, including the network of local shops that will take in parcels (as mentioned by another BC'er above) - I can't remember the name of the service off the top of my head but the Londis near us does it. There's always the Post Office too - you've ruled out asking friends/family or a collection from your workplace already. The thing is, in this climate when spare money is thin on the ground for everyone, how is it any easier or more acceptable (practically or financially) for somebody to travel 200 miles to you for the item? I've got to agree with other posters that you're really limiting your target audience and that as the seller you've got to bend a bit if you want the best chances to shift your stuff. I had an SVT-3 listed on here for ages with no bites, stuck it on my local Gumtree and got a response from a fella in Australia of all places. I was a bit sceptical but he seemed genuine and happy to arrange and pay for his own courier. Had it collected from me at work and it was as easy and hassle free as any deal I've had on BC, certainly made me more open to the idea. I know many of us have had a bad experience of some kind, but nobody really starts threads to say "I sold something and it was simple and uneventful". A cursory glance through the Feedback forum shows that people are constantly having that experience on here. Food for thought? Either way, good luck with the sales, its some lovely gear so it'll be perfect for somebody!

I'd echo the comments about playing position - my Sandberg is basically a jazz and I get a huge jump in bottom end from playing around the neck pickup. It's the cheapest solution you'll find!

I would be inclined to stick them in front of your rack gear, so Bass -> Pedals -> V-Amp I would always use those pedals in front of my amp rather than in any effects loop, and your V-Amp is simulating the front end of an amp for you. Also, you generally want tone-shaping effects like that to be in front of time-based effect like reverb and delay - you want the echoes/room sound to be applied to your distortion, not for your echoes and reverb tails to be distorted. As an aside - on guitar the wah generally sounds better before all your drive effects, but with bass I've found the reverse is true with bass. Always used my 105Q after any distortion pedals. Of course, personal taste overrides any 'rules' with effects placement, so do what sounds best to you!

Wow, there's some lovely gear on show here! Making me miss my rack setup.... Mine used to be (top to bottom) Samson power distribution unit/rack light 1U rack shelf with Sennheiser wireless receiver Korg DTR-1000 tuner Ampeg SVT-3Pro All in a chunky 6U case. Eventually realised that if I was going to have a mute footswitch on the floor for my tuner, I might as well just have a tuner on the floor and save turning round all the time! Between that and abandoning my wireless (did a stint in a 6 piece where there was no space to move on stage without bumping into somebody!) I downsized to a 3U case with just the SVT, and now that's gone too! Still got a 6U case with a 1300w power amp from our old rehearsal PA, might stick a preamp in front of that and go back to making a big rack-et!

Ableton Live was my first thought on reading the OP - if you're happy to go for a computer-based setup and don't mind a little bit of learning to get it up and running, it'd be the most flexible solution for you. I know guys who are into electronic music who do full live performances with Live, trigger pads and a keyboard or two so should certainly be able to concoct a setup that suits your needs. Any MIDI foot controller should be able to send the necessary messages - even something cheap and cheerful like the Behringer FCB1010 - can have a bunch of switchable scenes with note on/off and controller messages assignable to each footswitch. Would take a bit of time to set everything up but would think it'd result in a really flexible system.

[quote name='bassfunk' timestamp='1337721123' post='1664621'] We start first set with a Proud Mary/Think/Kiss medley [/quote] This sounds amazing!

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1337708543' post='1664367'] I suspect that we're going to agree to disagree. [/quote] I suspect you'll have to agree that you're both coming from different scenarios that require a different application of keyboard sounds. You've stated that electric piano and organ sounds are the bulk of what you use, these are pretty 'universal' sounds that you can get a decent approximation of from a wide variety of keyboards. For a band using synthesisers and generating new sounds rather than emulating existing instruments, the unique character of those sounds is as important as the notes they are playing, and can't be as easily replicated. Keyboard playing is a massively diverse world, with a range of sounds, methods and applications that span from the mundane to the bizarre and everything in between - you two are clearly at different places on that spectrum and both are equally valid. No need to argue about it though!