thodrik

I have had no bass related purchases apart from two identical Levy straps. Honestly, I can't choose between them as to which one is better and which one is worse.

Sadowsky blue labels are very stiff and I think that they still come as standard on the Metro basses. They lasted about a week on my MV4 when I bought it. Great sound but very stiff. I really like D'addarios and Ernie Balls for nickle plated strings, but there are loads of options out there. I tend to use Elixir Nickles on my five string basses as I find that the B string is often the first to go 'dead' after a few rehearsals or gigs (not that I have done much of that this year!). The Elixirs last for ages so save me money in the long run (I have had one set on a bass for over a year and they are still bright). I use an untapered 135 on my Sadowsky NYC which is great. Just my two cents, but with the way the Sadowsky bridge is designed, I find it is very difficult to fit an untapered B string larger than a 135, as even the 135 is a tight squeeze. So if you want something like a 140 or 145 B string it will need to be tapered. Until you find your favourite 'go to' string I would recommend just trying lots of different brands and gauges. If you want a more flexible set maybe try a set starting with a 40 gauge G string and 60 gauge D string.

Just now, a Warwick Thumb 6 or a Spector Forte 6 for a bass. A nice 4 ohm 4x10 as well. I don't have the funds for any of it.

That is a sweet looking set up. I think that every piece of gear on in the photo is currently on my 'want' list!

I wouldn’t say avoided, just more that it has potential issues that the later models don’t generally have. I’m sure lots of players have grey stripe ones that work perfectly.

Thanks, I don’t really do nuances well when I’m quickly posting when sitting in my car waiting for the condensation to clear from my car windscreen before I drive home from work!

They changed the power section. Some grey stripe ones had an issue where the power section would fail, particularly the power switch. Blue stripe ones have a bit more power and are generally a bit more reliable.

Hi, I have the Fafner but have experience with all three. There is actually not much difference in terms of power and volume between the HD350, the 650 and Fafner (mk 1) in power and volume. The difference is more in the features and even then, I don't consider the amps to be radically different. The differences are more subtle. The HD 350 is a solid state amp. No valve but the 'drive' function allows you to dial in a bit grit. It is a really good all round amp. The TD 650 to my ears had essentially the same preamp as the HD350 but also has a tube that can be engaged with the drive. The drive section can be used without the tube (like the HD 350) or you could engage the tube to get a tube based drive like the Fafner. It was really considered the 'flagship' head of the three. If you don't need the bells and whistles of the tube drive though then the HD350 might be a better bet. The Fafner has a similar preamp again but to me has a less refined sound. It isn't a massive difference though and I would say that all three of the old EBS heads are equally as versatile. The Fafner has a tube in the drive section. You can't turn the tube 'off' like the TD650 though, it is always on but if you want a clean sound you just turn the drive down. The Fafner has more of a 'rock' look but it is equally as versatile as the others. In my view the Fafner looks the coolest and I went with that. It is a heavy lump of an amp though once you put it in a rack case, so factor that in too. As much as I love my one there are louder, lighter amps out there. The Ashdown is a good head too. In fact the Ashdown will deliver far more low sub bass than the EBS heads, which are designed to not really produce much frequencies below 100HZ. However, that is actually a great feature in a live setting as it means you never get a boomy, muddy sound.

I think that a lot of the 'magic' is the 8x10 sealed cabinet. Very warm sounding, kinda defined but not clinically clean and works very well with overdrive. Also, despite the huge size, I think that the 8x10s work really well at low/medium volume. One of my favourite rehearsal room/supplied backline was an Ampeg 8x10 with an Ashdown ABM head. Really good match. I like the 4x10 and 6x10 hlfs, but they don't have the same voicing due to the porting.

Forget about the amp, get the leather jacket instead. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Bass-Leather-Jacket/114459524927?hash=item1aa651bf3f:g:1YgAAOSwXwRfhH7q

and a drummer who can actually keep time!

That’s brilliant! Didn’t know that. Cheers!

Reaper is cheap and once you get the hang of it is very flexible and as good as anything else out there once you get the hang of it. . The only downside is that it has a bit of dated Windows 95 look to it when you open it up for the first time, however that can be fixed. I find Studio One to very intuitive and will be buying that when I get started again. However, you have to buy the Pro version at £300 in order to use third party plug-ins on Studio One, which is a bit crap. In comparison you can pretty much use any plug in on Reaper. I find Studio One to be fairly intuitive and idiot-proof though, which is why I like it. Frankly, I found the learning curve on Pro Tools to be too great. Of course, if you have a Mac then Logic. Most DAWs have a free demo version, definitely try downloading them and seeing what one you like best.

For purely MOSFET no preamp tubes, I really like the EBS HD350, the old Aguilar AG500 (dual channel with overdrive) and the GK 1000rb, slightly more than I like old MOSFET Trace Elliot heads. I would think that the new EBS 802 would be top of the list but I haven't tried it and probably wont. Some of the old 80s/90s Peavey heads look really really ugly, but are actually pretty good as well. To me tube preamp, MOSFET power section is a different type of amp again, and when it comes to that I am really partial to Mesa's M-Pulse range, particularly the Walkabout and Big Block 750.

I would just buy singles and work out your own preferred gauge. If you are finding a 110 a bit clacky I would actually recommend moving up to at least a 120, maybe even heavier than that if you like a decent amount of tension or you play with a heavy touch. You might need to alter the nut of the bass to fit the heavier string, but you might need to do that for a 115 anyway so it shouldn't be a big deal. There are relatively few 115 sets of strings out there. GHS do a set of heavy gauge Boomers of 115-50. D'addario have a 'balanced tension' set of 120-50 which I have used for drop C tunings for the last 6-7 years. I preferred that to the GHS sets, the Dunlop sets I tried and a set of Rotosounds I made up from single strings. I tried a custom Newtone set and they were pretty good but didn't entirely blow me away and frankly I preferred the D'addario. Much preferred the Newtone though to the DR DDT 115-55 set which I frankly think were incredibly overpriced and very unbalanced. Ultimately for drop C I am now using Elixirs bought as singles. They are expensive but they last for ages. You might not get that initial roundwound 'zing' of a new Rotosound, however the tone on the Elixir remains constant for months. If it has to be Rotosounds though, I would recommend buying a set of singles or a light 120-35 five strings set and just using the 55, 70, 90 and 120 strings.

Man, I totally regret selling my old SMX amp head now!

Do work: Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile. Once of the few double albums I really enjoy listening to all the way through. Pink Floyd - The Wall. It is Pink Floyd. Don't work (in my opinion) Baroness Yellow and Green: The Green side is just full of filler songs which are very samey. My personal opinion is the influx or CDs ruined the old school double album which generally limited artists to 45 mins per album. However, since CDs bands have frankly been putting too much stuff onto a disk, leading to incredibly long 'single' albums which are frankly longer than most classic vinyl double albums. RHCP Stadium Arcadium effort being a case in point. The other guilty parties to this in my opinion are: Guns n Roses: Use Your Illusion I and I. Considering the length of each individual album is essentially an old school double album (70 plus minutes per album) this is essentially a quadruple album. I think that at least 4-5 (or more) could have been trimmed from each respective album, leading to an album of approximately 45-50 mins per album. Metallica Load/Reload: Each individual album cuts in at 75 mins plus so we are in quadruple album territory here again. I think that at least 4 songs should have been cut from Load, perhaps as many as 6 on Reload which starts great but the second half just has too many 'kinda generic riffs in E flat' songs.

I mean, bad book-matching of bodies and tops annoys me a bit, but it happens frequently on £3k plus Les Paul guitars though so it isn’t always a sign that the whole instrument has been constructed shoddily. A natural or transparent finish is going make the body joins very obvious unless the matching is done very well. Obviously here it appears it wasn’t. However, I would probably at least plug it to see what the other QC was like in terms of general fit and finish and fretwork and at least take a photo of the top to attach to the resultant email to Guitar Guitar detailing that ‘this is not acceptable on a bass at this price point’. If the top just looked awful I probably wouldn’t keep it either to be honest, unless it was so bad and not matching I thought it looked cool. To me the Fender Ultra should be a better instrument but it is priced accordingly so for me it isn’t a like for like comparison. So long as the OP is happy with the bass they ended up with though that is the main thing. Those ultra Fenders look like cracking instruments.

The only bridge I have changed on a bass was installing a Babicz bridge on my Gibson EB3 as the original three point bridge was infuriating to intonate. I haven’t noticed an increase in sustain as much as I can actually now adjust the action and intonation of each string individually. It has made a massive difference to the instrument. I have never had any issues with traditional Fender style bridges. If the stock bridge on a bass works in the sense that I can easily adjust the action and intonation then I generally don’t see any need to replace it.

I was planning to buy a Darkglass B7K Ultra or Vintage Ultra as well as a Boss LS-2 or equivalent to start pairing stacked pedals as 'loops' that I could turn on and off with a single footswitch. I had even sold £300's worth of gear lately in anticipation of making the purchase. However, in the last week or so the plumbing in my house has gone to hell and I also need to help pay for the pressing of my bands album that all of the missed paid gigs this year would have paid for. So, essentially, what I am currently anticipating in the mail is an invoice from my plumber.

Nothing planned for the rest of the year. We have a finished album which is currently being mastered and then released. We thought about sitting on the album until things go back to 'normal' but there is no prospect of normal returning any time soon. So we are just going to release it and do a limited vinyl and CD pressing or a couple of hundred units, which should hopefully sell out amongst our existing fanbase. Gigs or rehearsals are just not on the agenda at the minute. Maybe next year.

The Orange AD200 and matching 1x15 looks like a hell of deal.

Yes, and Flea pretty much ended the venture after about 18 months or so.

Its a cool finish and if I was dropping that kind of cash on a bass I would rather it be this than the Fender Custom Shop Phil Lynott version which was retailing at about £11k, though to be fair I would probably want both for the sake of variety.