mike257

Behringer do a guitar USB interface that's only around £20-£30. Haven't used it myself but I'm probably going to pick one up when I've got the change - I asked about it in a thread on here a few months back and seem to remember it getting some positive comments as a basic recording tool. Would probably fit your needs just fine and I think it comes with some bundled amp sim software too.

Blasts from the past, wow.... Started out with a Vox Venue Lead 100 guitar amp (still have it, needs fixing but lovely S/S clean tone) Haven't had that many bass amps, went a bit like this: Laney DP150 1x15 combo - battered old thing bought from a keyboard player at college. Served 17 year old me well for a bunch of bad pub gigs. Trace Elliot GP12SMX 4x10 combo with 1x15 cab - my first 'proper' amp, loved it. When I joined a better band I moved on and treated myself to.... Ampeg SVT3-Pro with SVT410HE/SVT115 - the first rig I bought brand new! Eventually sold the cabs and bought... Ampeg SVT610HLF - love this cab, it just sounds huge Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 - treated myself a couple of years ago, still can't believe how light it is (and how good it sounds!) Think I'm sorted for bass amps for now! One of the heads is going to have to go to fund a new guitar rig, so I'll need to buy another spare bass head at some point, and I'm always keeping an eye on what Alex at Barefaced is bringing out next, but I think I'm pretty GAS-free for bass gear!

Heard good things about GFS pickups, although I've not had first hand experience. Apparently they aren't a million miles away from the 'big' names, and are supposed to be pretty great for the price. I've got my eye on some of their humbucker-sized P90's to spruce up my Epi

I've done it, more out of necessity when teaching guitarists new songs in the practice room. It's passable but not great (and the ODB-3 needed tweaking too!) Did the job for my purposes but wouldn't be particularly satisfied with it as a long term solution. Do you need something for gigging or just playing round the house? You can pick up a used Epiphone Valve Jr for absurdly low prices if you keep an eye on ebay (I got Thomann's rebranded Harley Benton version for buttons) and that is a great little all-valve set up for home/recording use. Sounds ok as it is, and can also be tweaked into oblivion if you're that way inclined. Cheap and cheerful practice amps tend to sound pretty awful, but theres a bit of a trend in recent years for small, low wattage valve amps like the Epi - there's equivalents from Vox, Blackstar and a good few other brands. Worth a look if it fits your needs.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270889677417?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]Here's[/url] the Tele I was watching - apparently a Fender body that Mr Davey had fixed up with a custom neck. Looks great. From flicking through his website it looks like his lower priced stuff is built with standard parts, but he'll do full custom builds with woods of your choice etc if you've got the dollar to spend. Might be worth dropping the man himself a line, he'll probably be able to tell you what he made it out of!

I've been watching a Telecaster he built on eBay, just went for £175ish, looked lovely. According to his website his guitars start at £650. Think he uses off the shelf bodies/necks etc and just finishes and assembles them. Made a few for Status Quo apparently!

I've never used it live either, but learnt my studio chops on a pair of linked O2Rs. I ways found them really easy to use, the important stuff is very quick to get at. Much preferred them to the D8B, I always felt that was a bit 'gimmicky' in its user interface, whereas the Yammy just got the job done. Haven't used them in a good while, but if there's one drawback I'd imagine the converters on the original O2R are showing their age by now.

I own an SVT3 and a Genz Benz Shuttle 6 and whilst they're both great amps, over time I've come back to the Ampeg more and more as I love the grittier tone I can get from it. Sadly, I might be parting with Ampeg simply because it will go further to fund the other stuff I need, but given the choice I'd take the Ampeg tone any day. Would be nice if it was in a Shuttle sized package though!

Sad news - I'm a huge fan of his playing with Case Lewis on the first Skunk Anansie album. RIP.

I guess it comes down to which tone you prefer! What suits your gig better sound-wise? Having said that, as much as I love valve, you can emulate (up to a point) that valve tone with pedals in front of your nice clean SS amp - plenty on here swear by the Tech21 VT Bass - but you'd be hard pressed to make the valve rig sound clean and sparkly like the Epi stuff. If flexibility is an issue and you need both kinds of sounds then it might be worth taking the plunge on the Epi.

[quote name='GarethFlatlands' timestamp='1326381001' post='1496411'] Seriously, I'd agree with the DIY option. If I weren't terrible at woodwork that's the route I'd be going down, it's dirt cheap and you'd have cash left over for a decent synth bag/flight case to put it in. [/quote] You could do it even simpler to save on the woodwork skills - scope out a carry case the size you need and just go buy some 12mm ply from B&Q (other DIY retailers are available) who will cut it to size for you (I think they'll do basic cuts for free), glue a piece of carpet to it to take your velcro-laden pedals, and screw some cabinet feet to the bottom to give it a nice user-friendly angle. You could screw aluminium edging to the sides to make it a bit more resilient if you fancied it, but basically you only need the skills to work a screw driver and a tube of glue! Your board will be solid, and you only need to spend on a hard/soft case of your choosing to keep it safe - bargain winner!

I usually find that one of my basses suits a particular project more than the others (usually JM4 with flats for mellower stuff, Stingray with rounds for rocking out!) so will have a good idea before any session/gig which bass I want with me. Always take a spare just in case, but rarely find myself swapping in the studio, and never live.

Wow, that's got to be the best fiver any of us have spent in a while, nice work mate! Looks lovely

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1326290778' post='1494971'] is technically proficient ........But he can't keep time. [/quote] Your drummer is an oxymoron! Does he practice much away from your rehearsals? If something as basic as keeping steady time is evading him, then he needs to put some time in outside of your band activities to correct it really. Unfortunately being a drummer he's probably stuffed for practice time unless he has no neighbours, access to a rehearsal room, or an eleccy kit/practice pads. Metronome work as suggested would be good, and getting tempos together for your set and having him play to a click in rehearsals will also focus his attention on the timing. I guess the single most important thing is this - does he recognise that his timekeeping is poor? Unless he acknowledges and accepts it and is prepared to try and improve, you're on a hiding to nothing and I'd get the 'drummer wanted' posters up quick! EDIT: Eddy made the same point much more succinctly while I was rambling!

[quote name='Wil' timestamp='1326282159' post='1494806'] I've been watching a few amp demos on youtube and it hasn't really helped - my favourite tones so far have been produced by the Vox AC30, and those are a few hundred over my budget at least even used. [/quote] I just missed a nearly-new AC30CC2 that went for £375 on ebay a few weeks ago, and it was 15 minutes from my house. Gutted

An ordinary rack sampler and a MIDI floor controller might work for you - you can probably pick up a sampler pretty damn cheap off eBay or wherever these days, and I think most MIDI floorboards will allow you to send Note On messages from the pedals. In fact, I've just checked and the Behringer FCB1010 can send note on/off, and has 10 pedals, plus Up/Down switches to scroll through 10 banks if you needed more. It's a little more fiddling to set it all up, but might be better suited to what you need if you're only running pre-recorded loops.

Guitarist in my old band went from a DSL100 to a Blues Jr, sounded great and if you're in a band where everybody is sensible with the volume controls then it's got plenty beef to carry through. Used it without PA support for a few small room gigs, in a 3 vocal/3 elec/1 acoustic/drums+bass set up and it was fine. Other guitarists were also using small amps too mind you (Fender Pro Jr, Cornell Romany) so I guess it depends what you're up against!

[quote name='Jacqueslemac' timestamp='1326116854' post='1492461'] ....the guitarist in my band (who has a Gibson Trini Lopez 335 and a Dan Armstrong Plexi) [/quote] A big Dave Grohl fan then? Nice! I've had a blast on one of those Plexi's, one of the nicest necks I've ever had my hands on. Lovely guitars to play. [quote name='Jacqueslemac' timestamp='1326116854' post='1492461'] And a Japanese-made Strat my girlfriend gave me: (It came with a white scratch plate, but I reckon it looks better with a black one.) [/quote] You're right, I think you've just converted me into a Strat fan. Never normally that fussed on the way they look, but that colour combo is lovely!

I like to take elements of other melody parts within the song, like following or echoing the vocal line in short passages.