thodrik

For me it is between: Mastodon - Hushed and Grim - decidedly less 'metal' than previous efforts, but I really like it. Not every track is a winner but I think that the album flows really well and it is their most cohesive album in years. At this point this is about as 'mainstream' as I can go with modern rock and metal in terms of production. Green Lung - Black Harvest - London based Sabbath retro rock with a guitarist who loves Brian May. My favourite tracks are actually the more folk-influenced tracks. Boss Keloid - Family the Smiling Thrush - love this band, elements of heavy doom, English folk, 70s prog. Gutted I missed them on tour. I am conscious that my listening tastes are 'limited' to heavy rock/metal. However, after spending 20 plus years of ensuring that I listen to every genre possible I really don't have the time to continue to do so with work and family commitments, so I really haven't listened to many albums this year.

I follow EBS on Facebook and they are plenty busy on that front. I think it is more of a change in philosophy from being a 'bass amp specialist' to being more of an all round manufacturing brand covering guitar and bass effects and a range of class D bass heads. The range of made in Sweden bass amp heads have been phased out. As EBS-Freak says above, they were a bit late to the party on the class D amp front and their Proline and Neoline cabs are still pretty expensive. Personally, I think that the Reidmar amps are very nice but I don't see them as 'best in class' amps superior to the Mesa, Aguilar, Darkglass, Bergantino 'boutique' class D heads. I really do believe that the HD350/650 and Fafner were close to being 'best in class' amps for their time, but that was about 10+ years ago and technology moves on and brands come and go as the 'flavour of the month'. Still I have been using a Fafner for about 12 years and will probably keep it for years to come. Cracking amp if you put up with the weight of a 3 unit amp head which actually 'only' delivers about 440 watts at 4 ohms.

Damn, I really want to get some specs. That 4x10 looking cabinet in a previous video has got me super intrigued.

Very nice! I love the metal 'V' added on the headstock. It just looks a bit classier that the painted on logo on my 2009-ish Arpege from the earlier run of the Series IVs. Love that finish too!

I use Elixir Nickels on the Arpege IV. Good all round string and last for ages (tough to source now with general shortages). Other than that my go-to string is D'addario. I had a set of Hi-Beams once and just found them too bright.

I desperately want Vigier to release a walnut grain run of basses again. I think that they look terrific. I have now owned an Excess for 17 years and a bolt on Arpege five string for ten. Both sounding better than ever. I just need a Passion to complete the set!

My main (only) amp from the ages of 12-22 was a GP7 SM300 1x15 combo. Really good combo, built like a tank. However, when I moved on to a Mesa Walkabout 1x15 it was certainly an upgrade. I later bought a GP12 SMX 300 head as a back up and it was a really great head, however my main head was then an EBS Fafner which again I thought was far more versatile. I also used to have the Peavey era TE 2x10 and 1x15 (non-compact) cabs as a stack, but replaced that with a Mesa 6x10 about 3-4 years back. I did try the Peavey era TE amps and while they were very nice, they just didn't feel or sound quite like the old amps. I actually think that the Peavey era cabs were an improvement on the old cabinets in terms of tone. I found that the old Trace cabinets had a very coloured sound, whereas the newer cabs seemed to be better full range cabinets. They were certainly much lighter, though the build quality didn't seem as bullet proof (mine had a few QC controls and screws tended to need re-tightened frequently). The only bit of TE kit I have left is the V6 valve amp which delivers a very different tone to the solid state amps. I will never sell that. If I was buying another Trace head it would probably be a Series 6 head. I probably wouldn't bother with the cabinets because they are heavy and much louder, lighter and more efficient cabinets are available. For the the proper 'classic' TE sound I think that you would need two of the classic cabinets and run a crossover in line with the (now) over the top 'recommended set ups' detailed in the old sales brochures.

That was where I was playing. It is a really nice venue.

It is a really great venue. Unfortunately I believe that the venue has been subject to planning permission to turn it into a hotel and/or apartments. I just don't that there are enough 'big' gigs to support the venue for regular use. The venue is located right in the middle of Inverness so it is prime real estate for some kind of development. Hopefully however it doesn't happen as it is a first class venue.

On Friday I did my first gig since the week before lockdown. Opening for the Wildhearts in Inverness as part of Monsterfest. Lovely venue and really enjoyable experience despite us having to do the gig as a four piece on two days notuice on account that our guitarist tested positive for the 'you know what' two days before. The band had a grand conversation with Danny from the Wildhearts as well who was a proper gentleman and it was good to see him in good health given his difficulties over the years. Here's a picture of us on stage. Myself and the guitarist look like small children on account that our singer is 6ft 4 and is training to be a strongman. Hopefully doing a small tour next year, work and everything else dependent.

I was just midway doing my own 'calling Ped' post but was beaten to it. Looks like a cracking bass. The old style Vigier bridges look really cool!

I once got a call from a sound engineer friend asking if I could lend a bass to the bassist of a Bon Jovi tribute band, who had managed to travel from London to the Orkney Islands without bringing a bass. I presume that the bassist was over halfway there before he realised his mistake. I couldn't help because I was out drinking somewhere else, so I'm guessing that the bassist was just living on a prayer by the time he arrived. Unfortunately that is a true story. I generally will lend a bass or amp to someone who is having technical problems with their own kit that they actually brought. Less likely to lend to someone who didn't bring a bass to a gig where they are playing bass.

Another bass equivalent of that time when Homer Simpson was asked to design a car.

For home practice both are great options. I would also look at the Orange Crush 25 and the Fender Rumble 25 at the same pricepoint. The specs will largely be similar. The Ampeg has a three band EQ and some kind of 'grit' overdrive feature. The EBS has a two band EQ and an XLR out so you could conceivably hook it up to a PA for gigs or recording. The Orange is, orange, has a three band EQ and a cabinet simulation on the headphone out (so it might make playing via headphones more enjoyable) The Fender has a three band EQ and an overdrive feature. Honestly, I don't think that you could go wrong with any them. Generally, I would go with the one that you think looks like the best. My nephew has the Orange one and I really like it, though my practice amp is 25 year old Park by Marshall 30 watt combo which barely works so I am easily impressed.

As far as I'm concerned these lines are just a rebranding of the old Mexican made Deluxe Active Jazz range, which were previously in the £800-£900 range already so I don't see it as blurring any lines in particular. In the current climate, £950 or so (street price) for an active Jazz bass with 18v 3 band EQ, 12 inch radius neck with satin finish and high mass bridge which says 'Fender' on the headstock seems about right in the current climate. The US made 'active jazz' equivalent of the Ultra series is nearly twice the price. I would actually be interested in trying one.

I want to buy 10 so I can make a Christmas tree stack and place the one with the tweeter on top to act as the star on top of the tree. X X X X X X X X X X My wife will love it, as it will mean that the new Christmas tree can be used throughout the year as opposed to our present plastic one which is stored in the attic for 11 months of the year.

If you are not a qualified tech or do not have the correct equipment to bias an amp then biasing an amp is an alien concept and not something that a lot of players want to 'dabble' with. Having an amp with a pre-set bias is a real benefit to me personally. If a power tube goes in my Mesa Rectoverb, I just need to buy a new set of tubes (either Mesa branded or ones which I am confident have been measured to be an equivalent to a Mesa set). Job done. Very handy if you are on tour or at a gig. If a power tube goes in my Trace Elliot V6, I'm probably going to send it to a tech that I trust, which in my case is about a 6 hour drive. I could try and fixing it myself but I could end up killing myself or doing something worse like damaging the amp.

I played a few Fender Custom Shop Jazzes in Guitar Guitar a while ago. Very nice basses but they all had the vintage 1960s spec 7.5 inch radius which I just don't like. They also had quite a lot of single coil hum, which I suppose is being true to vintage spec but to me was annoying to have on a £3k 'new' instrument. In the same shop there was an actual 1975 Fender in store for £500 less than the Custom Shop which I preferred by a significant margin. I'm not sure that the Fender Custom Shop offer a 1970s jazz (most of the ones I have seen are 1960s inspired) as one of their 'stock' models, so a custom order for one would probably be pricey (but if you got one it would be fairly unique and would probably retain value). If you want a proper 1970s passive Fender jazz vibe, I would probably stick with passive Fender basses. I have two Sadowskys but even set passive and with the vintage tone control 'on' it never feels like I am playing a 'vintage' bass (it is very much a modern take on a vintage design, which I actually prefer). The relic Sandbergs to me get a bit closer to being 'vintage' but the oversized Delano pickups scream 'modern' to me even with the heaviest of relics. I would wait until you find an actual 1970s Fender if something like an American Original 1970s model won't scratch the itch and a bespoke Custom Shop 70s model ends up in the £5k or above range.

Guitar Guitar can do a good set up. There is also someone working out of CC Music where Jimmy Egypt used to work out of. Jimmy Egypt would be my first port of call for fretwork.

You don’t need to bias preamp tubes. Just install them and they should just work until they stop working.

I think that all the stock Mesa preamp tubes in my Walkabout and Big Block have been replaced with JJs (the stock Mesa ones in the Walkabout lasted ten years so they did a good shift!). I didn't know that they 'had' to be either Mesa or JJ's though. I had always thought that most 12AX7 preamp valves were fairly interchangeable. When I got my Big Block second hand, all of the preamp valves were of a different brand and had gone a bit microphonic and the amp sounded like a bowl of Rice Krispies when I first turned it on but the amp still worked. With my Rectoverb 50 guitar amp, I had some bad luck with new Mesa 6l6 tubes which went microphonic and developed rattles within a short period of time after I bought them. I actually replaced them with Watford Valves' own brand 'Harma' valves (bought as matched for Mesa set) which perform much better for me. The fixed bias of Mesa amps is a great feature, as it makes so tube changing so much easier and quicker.

Let me know how you get on, as it might come in handy for me in the event that one of my bits of of Mesa kit stops working.

Hi Dave, With any amp repair in Scotland I generally use Flynn Amps. https://www.flynnamps.com/ Fortunately/unfortunately I have never had to have my Walkabout repaired in 13 years, but if I did I would probably send it there. They have fixed a fair number of my old Trace Elliot amps and speaker in the past and my brother's old Marshalls. I think that they can fix most types of amps but they really specialise in older valve amps and solid state amps. Checking the Mesa website (https://www.mesaboogie.com/support/locations.html?q=United+Kingdom&page=1&t=repair), they have Fretronics Engineering as a recognised repair centre. They operate in the same premises as the CC Music Shop in Otago Street (I am pretty sure that this will be the same premises that Flynn Amps used to operate out of before they moved to their current location). The Fretronics website has a big picture of a Rectifier so I would presume that they would be well placed to assist! https://fretronics.com/.

Yepp, I am waiting for an update on that front too. Mostly, though I am hoping that the cabinet includes a 4 ohm lightweight 4x10 I can pair with my V6. On topic again, I believe that the Mesa M9 has onboard compression too.

With my basses I have been using the rubber washers off Grolsch beer bottles as strap locks for the last 14 years. No failures yet. I have Schaller straplocks on my Les Paul because it would come a cropper if the strap came loose and the original strap buttons were not deep enough to fit the old Grolsch washers.