Skybone

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1434900702' post='2803690'] Save yourself years of time, fiddling & frustration & go back to using a passive bass as soon as possible..... [/quote] Can totally agree with that! Though you do need to spend some time with an active to understand.

My last band went through about 3 or 4 drummers before we found someone who "got" the material and what the band was about. The band lasted a few years, but then I had to move further away because of work, which was a killer for me, as I had spent more than 10 years trying to get something like that together. We all travelled a fair distance to rehearse, but it was well worth it. How far away has he moved? Are you still In contact with him? If you relocated your rehearsal space, would you & the rest be willing & able to travel that bit further to realise the band? Good luck!

Always remember to unplug the lead from the bass when you're finished playing, or else you will be changing batteries very frequently!

The only damage you'll get by under-powering the speakers in my experience is the damage to your sound when the speakers "crap out" - or when there isn't enough power getting through to them. Used to hear this a lot when the "blues lawyers" slagged off amp attenuators, making their boutique six strings & valve amps sound like crap. The truth was their attenuators were set so high that they weren't putting enough power to the speakers to drive them properly. Quite keen to see how it takes to the B3, and see what works/doesn't work. Anyway, really looking forward to putting this rig through its paces at next rehearsal.

Little bit concerned about the cab, it's only rated at 250w @ 4 ohm, where the amp kicks out 400w @ 4 ohm. Trying to get my head around the numbers, and understand the impedance/wattage ratings, but no, still don't get it! If I get another 250w @ 4 ohm cab, that would be a 2 ohm load (get that bit), but would the speaker handling go up to 500w (IIRC it would)? Would a 2 ohm load damage the amp? Would I still get the 400w+ out of the amp? OR would it be better to try and find a 400w @ 4 ohm cab?

I'm hoping that another 3500 head will turn up when they go through the rest of the horde, quite liked the sound of the 2000 I tried (a close second to the 4000). Wasn't that impressed with the LH1000 funnily enough, stonkingly huge power from it, but the sound seemed a bit 1 dimensional compared to the 4000 & 2000. Managed to have a quick play with the amp today, and had a quick tweak of the EQ. The sound seems bright & lively, only made some really minor tweaks from 12 o'clock/flat, but it all sounds great so far. Much better than any of my old bass amps. Seriously impressed with the Red Sub cab though. A bit of t'interweb research turns out that it's an "in house" brand for Gear4Music. Nice and light cab, but sounds great to me. The 4000 is quite deceptively loud, We'll see how it fares when we rehearse next!

It's an American company and design, so it'll be ton... though it was made in Korea, so it might be tonne. Yes, the head weighs a bit (probably more than the cab TBH!), but it sounded really nice last night. Looking forward to playing with the EQ & getting it into the rehearsal room.

Oooops. That was a mistake. For the grand sum of £250, I came away with a Hartke HA4000 head & rack case and a Red Sub 2x10 cab. VERY impressed with the sound from the cab, tried out a Hartke aluminium cone 2x10 as well, and wasn't impressed at all. Anyway, they didn't have the HA3500 that I wanted, but tried out the HA4000, a HA2000, an LH1000 and a Behringer BX3000 with either the Red Sub or the Hartke cabs. Of the 4 amps, the 4000 sounded the best (all on a flat EQ too), but they said that if another HA3500 turns up in the lockup, they'll let me know and I can try that out with a view to swapping it with the 4000. Turns out that these guys had bought a job lot from a guy who had been something of a hoarder, sounds like he had at least 2 of everything! He'd then popped his clogs, and the family were clearing things out. They have amps & cabs coming out of their ears! Anyway, was a bit dubious at first, but they came across as straight up, decent guys, so was happy to do a deal with them. Here's the Gumtree link, & mention the guy who bought the Hartke 4000 recommended them. [url]http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-bass-amplifiers/bass-amplifier-heads-for-sale/1120866091[/url]

Going to have a look tonight.

Thanks for the replies, I've asked to go and have a look... we shall see. Looks like I can get myself a decent rig for about £300, not including any effects/tuners etc (they have a few V-Amp's & rack tuners as well). "Massively, stupidly loud" sounds good to me!

So I was trawling through the local Gumtree, when I spotted an advert for a number of various bass amps for sale. I emailed them, and was sent quite a long list of amp heads, a few combo's, a few cabs and effects. There's a few Behringer, Warwick & Peavey heads, but quite a few Hartke heads, such as the HA3000, HA3500, HA4000, HA5000, and an LH1000. As a long time Geezer fan, I'm tempted by the LH, but the HA3500 looks interesting too. Has anyone used any of these amps? Any good for hard/heavy rock? Cheers.

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1341876251' post='1725664']Singer - she loved it. Wanted it even further up the mix. Further up the mix indeed And the guitarist seemed a bit put out. CB [/quote] There's a joke in there somewhere...

As a Ric fan, I love the look of the Walnut/Maple on the body. But a maple fretboard on a Ric is just plain wrong! I'll stick with my Faker's, at least they seem to be consistent in quality, playability & cost. Yes, I regret selling my 4003, yes, Ric's are serious Marmite guitars, yes, I would love another Ric and yes, totally agree that if I was to buy another, I would like to sit down with a handful and play them all til I found "the one" (like that's ever going to happen! ).

I'll go back to sleep.

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1434302349' post='2798475'] you can run but you can't hide! [/quote] If there's so many Ampeg stacks in the room, then running AND hiding are actually possible.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1434458444' post='2799757'] Perhaps your school needs more thought? [/quote] There is a school of thought that would agree with you, though there'll be another school of thought along soon that will think we're all thinking wrongly. I think.

It's similar to stringing a Gibson style stop bar guitar either the "standard" way (through the stop bar), or "over" the stop bar. The increase in break angle would seem to lower the actual string tension along the fretboard, where stringing over the bar, reducing the break angle, reduces the string tension. The reduction in string tension allows bigger bends. I don't know what the string tension figures are, but you can feel a difference while playing. But hey, that's only what I've experienced in trying the different methods out on stop tail guitars. My actual preference is to use standard stringing through the stop bar & tune to D.

Seriously? You're asking a bunch of bass playing anoraks, who all suffer from serious bouts of GAS (albeit in different intensities at different times, and very different budgets), whether you should buy yourself a new bass????? Leave the Ibanez in the UK, and get yourself a new toy while you're there.

It was one of the many Gakki's, and now that you mention it, Fuji Gen Gakki made Tokai's. Oooops!

There is the school of thought that through body stringing helps with the transfer of vibration into the body and thus helping sustain and "tone". There is another school of thought that think that school of thought is wrong. There is also a school of thought that think through body stringing will increase the string tension, especially for lower tunings than E standard, and therefore aid play-ability, help sustain and "tone". There are also numerous schools of thought that think that this school of thought is wrong as well. Discuss:

I always thought they all had through necks... apparently not, or so I am reliably informed...

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1426370600' post='2717489'] [b]Leland Bruce "Lee" Sklar[/b] (born May 28, 1947 in [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee"]Milwaukee[/url]) is an American musician I didn't know Leland was a home town guy. Blue [/quote] I thought he came from Orthanc?

Greco is a Japan only brand, though quite a few have found their way to the rest of the world. I have it on good authority that Greco are and were made by Fuji-Gen Gakki... aka Ibanez (more info available at [url]www.ibanezcollectors.com[/url] ), as they have not only released "replica's" of famous American guitars, but variations of numerous Ibanez design guitars (Artists / Iceman / etc).

Is it that 4003s on eBay? As seen on the Facebook Rickenfakers group page? Apparently, the "S" has a set neck, not a through neck lik the standard 4003. I've only ever seen that kind of neck joint on a Faker, not on a Ric.

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1433962396' post='2795511'] This is what some alembics have under the bridge. Usually it's usually made from brass but you can specify what you want. [attachment=194019:serveimage.jpeg] [/quote] That's the same kind of idea that Ibanez used on their late 70's/early 80's models like the Artist and Iceman guitars... Probably"inspired by" the Alembic block.