thodrik

When I was really hard up, my Trace Elliot 1x15 functioned as both my gigging cabinet and as my principal living room coffee table.

I'm guessing that Mike McCready is switching to playing a Telecaster and just bought a Line 6 Helix, rendering all the gear he trashed to be utterly redundant.

I'm not aware of the stinky poo bass overdrive, unless that is the new nickname given to the Boss ODB 3.

I have always fancied stacking a Way Huge Swollen Pickle straight into a Malekko Barker Assmaster.

Just went on the website and all the amps are still there. They are just lumped in with with all the pedals and guitar stuff under the Musician product category. They have also been owned by Behringer for a considerable period of time.

Tate FX 'Brexit means Brexit' Rat based pedal and I am really sad that I didn't buy it.

I had an Aguilar Agro for years. It is really good but doesn't have a blend knob. It doesn't cut bass, however it doesn't give that 'ooomph' low end push you get with some drives. More of an 'always on' drive. On low gain settings it doubles up well for a mild overdrive 'clank'. I only sold it because after nearly ten years I was just needed to try something new. My pal also made me a GCI Bass Brutalist. Essentially it is a DIY bass distortion that is similar to a Rat circuit. Very greasy and dirty. Andertons also stock the Frost Giant Bass Mountain overdrive, which frankly is such an awesome combination of words that I really want one irrespective of how good they are. Catalinbread SFT might be worth a shout if you want an 'Ampeg in a box' kind of sound which is not a Tech 21 Bass Driver/VT Bass type pedal. I also tried a ZVex Basstortion for a similar vibe but didn't like it for the price.

Most of my bands have had t-shirts but I have never kept (or in many cases - acquired) any of them. Mostly because they were made for selling and if each band member kept one it would eat into the profit margin (the realities of being in small original alternative rock/metal bands post 2008 credit crunch). I have never kept a show/tour poster either, even though a few of them were very cool. This isn't a 'me not being sentimental' thing so much as a 'me moving a lot and not wanting to acquire too much stuff' thing. I would try to keep a copy of my complimentary CD for every release but some of them have been lost in home moves too. Some of my bands released vinyl records and tapes but I never kept them as I didn't own a tape player or record player to listen to them on! I thought I would start to collect more stuff after purchasing a home in 2018. However, my most recent band released an album last year and I have already lost my complimentary copy. Also lockdown and fatherhood has really limited my gigging in any event. The most I will do is maybe Google the band name so I can re-listen to the stuff on Bandcamp/Spotify or the like.

I used to say get a set of four string Elixirs in your preferred gauge and the buy the high C string. However I have found it difficult to source the said high C string for nearly a year as they seem to be permanently out of stock at Strings Direct.

Steve Albini actually does offer affordable rates to indie bands. He does work to scale which has always made him somewhat attainable to bands. However you are very much getting a ‘sound of your band playing live in a room’ type of recording rather than a highly polished product.

My old Fender is brilliant for stacking one fuzz on top of the other. I can’t get the same raucous OTT fuzz on the Sadowsky even when using it in passive mode. For general ‘sitting in the mix’ medium overdrive though I prefer the Sadowsky. Also the Fender is falling to bits after twenty years of owning it!

A Sadowsky Metro (made by Warwick) might be a good option. I use a ten year old Sadowsky Metro Not for full on doom but it could definitely cover whatever ground you want. Looks vintage enough but can get somewhere close to vintage Fender tones if you want. For heavy fuzz tones I actually prefer passive basses. Edit: Sandberg might be worth a look too.

Honestly a P bass is the perfect place to start. it really depends how far into the ‘aesthetics’ you want to go. An all valve amp and an 8x10 would be the traditional route but it isn’t exactly practical. In terms of traditional doom basses maybe a Rickenbacker would fit the look of old school doom too, but frankly you can pretty much use anything you like. A Warwick could definitely be a good doom bass.

They exist in the USA but not in the UK. Probably production issues not dissimilar to what is happening with Mesa.

If it was given to him at Live Aid in 1985 then he wouldn’t have had it for the ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ video shoot in 1984.

The lack of case/protection for the valves, horrendous layout of controls and difficult to read handwritten markings would make it a 'no' for me, even if it was priced at £800.

An overdrive pedal with a built in webcam!

An announcement that they will from now on exclusively build all valve amps and matching 4x12s and 2x15 cabs would perhaps be unlikely. I would guess that they announce a range of class D amps that can also act as an audio interface, perhaps also including an inbuilt cab sim. Something like that.

With spare amps, my main consideration is getting something that is easy to carry around and generally is only needed in an emergency. If I was looking for a brand new spare amp in that price bracket I would probably be looking at an Aguilar Tone Hammer (probably the smaller 350 watt version just to save space). Into the £700 bracket maybe the Darkglass 500 amps. I would mention the Mesa D350 or 800 but I would doubt any will be in stock. Maybe the EBS Reidmar as well. Being honest though I would not spend that much on a backup amp I would rarely use. I would probably buy something like the TC Electronic BQ 500 or TE Elf if buying new, given the chances of an ABM 600 going wrong on a gig is fairly minimal. That way it would be a minimal outlay. If weight is not an option then generally I would just get whatever I can find second hand for about £300-£500 on Ebay, Reverb or BC marketplace. That is why I ended up with an old Trace Elliot SMX head as a backup for years, which I sold because it was a pain to carry around an amp that I never used!

A think that ‘thin and without volume’ would be the exact opposite description of my experience with a Mesa 6x10! Definitely an upper mid hump aggressive voicing but loads of low end extension, but that is with the ported Powerhouse cabs. Not tried the more vintage sealed cabs. Pretty much the most obnoxiously loud cab I have used. And bloody hell the weight…Completely over the top for any gig I can imagine. But a guy was selling one for £400 so I bought one about four years ago. I still gig with a 1x15 combo.

Nah, there is nothing wrong. There is barely any difference between the choke engaged or mudbucker on its own on my bass either. I think that is just a quirk/limitation of the design. New bridge looks great!

Nearly bought one when I was 15, ended up buying a Gibson EB3 instead. I really should have bought the Stingray! Funnily enough, I have never come close to buying one in the 21 years since. Iconic basses though.

Yes, there is no obligation for him to continue making instruments or expanding or coming up with licensing agreements that might devalue the name. I am lucky to own two. I would have loved to have put in an order for a GV Rock, but house renovations will dictate otherwise.

In my current position I would be more concerned about the following than the backline: A) why am I playing very large venues when the peak of my band's achievements was getting to number 18 on the Doom charts in February 2021? B) following on from A above, I would want confirmation that we are not liable for any losses suffered by the venue from lack of tickets sold. C) if the band are playing such large venues then why are drinking cheap lager? I would probably want a more premium lager. Probably my pedal board, a Sansamp and using my old Mesa Walkabout 1x15 combo for on stage monitoring (because I have played 'good' venues where the monitors were bloody awful). I did try a Helix but for my purposes a Sansamp is all I need for live use. Might buy a Helix but it would probably be more for recording than live use.

Bad artwork is generally a Megadeth trademark. I will check in to listen to it later. I think that I bought the last album but might have only listened to it twice. I quite liked The System Has Failed (think Chris Poland played on that), but that was a while ago!