thodrik

I’m totally going to try this on my Trace V6!

I like Guitar Guitar, but the one time I enquired about selling some gear they basically told me I was better off selling privately, which kind of defeats the purpose of the service. The thing that annoyed me a bit was the amp I was looking to sell was a Mesa M6, and I was told that they would only offer me a couple of hundred quid on account that Mesa bass heads don't have much resale value...all while they were marketing a used Big Block head for about £1300, which incidentally was the amp I was looking to buy in p/x. I did sell privately, and then I bought a Big Block privately (for nearly half the price of the one in Guitar Guitar). I like Guitar Guitar and generally my experience with the staff there is great. For any sales of used gear though, outside of BC I would just use Bass Direct as their policies are fairly clear (20% commission).

I saw Buddy Guy when he was over 70 and he was suffering from the flu. He was utterly outstanding as were his band.

Don’t get me wrong, but I love Mastodon (well up to Crack the Skye, I only ‘like’ their stuff after that). High on Fire could sometimes be a hit or miss depending on the condition of Matt Pike on any given night. I would love to have seen Danzig back in the day, very underrated band.

Homeless busker outside Glasgow Central Station. Far more emotionally engaging and keen to perform than Van Morrison was when I went to see him an hour later. In 2008 or so, I saw Torche open for Pelican. Torche were great, Pelican less so. Taste of Chaos 2009. To my ears, Every Time I Die blew away Killswitch Engage and In Flames. Technically though it was a ‘triple headliner’ tour but whatever. In 2005 I saw Mastodon twice. However both times I preferred the support, High on Fire and Dozer. It happened again a few years ago when Red Fang supported them. I also saw Motörhead twice and both times preferred the support being Danko Jones and Clutch.

As a Trace and Mesa aficionado I think you have done a cracking job!

Any of the Mesa Boogie 'Simul State' series (Walkabout, Big Block, Titan V12, M-Pulse) have valve pre-amps which are designed to be very close to the front end of an all tube amp. Most of these Mesa amps have about 3 12AX7 pre amp valves in the preamp. Most of them also have valves in the output section as well, which is great in the sense that it reacts like a valve amp but not so great in the sense that the EQ settings at lower volume settings can sound a lot more different when playing at louder volumes. I have the Walkabout and Big Block which behave more like a classic all valve amplifiers in terms of pre amp overdrive than my Trace Elliot V6 which actually is an old valve amp. There are quite a lot of hybrid amps where the 'valve' component consists of a single preamp tube forming part of a 'drive' circuit which is separate from the pre-amp. Amps like Ashdown ABMs and EBS Fafner/TD650 have these types of designs. To my ears these amps sound less like like an all valve amp, but they sound close enough once you familiarise yourself with the amp and have the benefit of having loads of clean headroom.

It was such an awful advert for the company.Also, credit to the show makers for actually documenting that the workers were totally shafted in terms of the false promises made to them. I wonder what an undercover boss Gibson episode would have looked like?

For a 'bowed cello' type effect I like to use a delay on a very slow setting and then use the volume knob of the bass to give a 'bowing' sound. I generally use the back pickup of a Jazz bass to stop the low bass from overpowering everything. Combine this technique with some chords on the upper strings and arrange them into some kind of familiar melodic sequence, preferably in a minor key. On top of that, adding a slight fuzz like a Big Muff to increase the sustain can make the 'bowing' pattern sound interesting as well. A volume pedal would also be a great help to save faffing around with the volume control on the bass while also trying to pluck the strings. Then use your looper to record your cello-like chord pattern, then once you start looping your cello chord pattern, start playing some melodic tapping with some reverb and/or chorus over the top of the loop. Then start looping the tappy part and then start playing low single notes on your low E/B string to give added 'weight' to your cello/tappy composition. Also start using using an envelope filter effect over the top of everything, just because you can. At this point, you will release that you want to change four effects simultaneously but you only have two feet and two hands. Putting some effects on a separate loop isn't an option because there is no way of arranging the different loops in such a way as to enable you to have immediate access to all of the different effect sounds that you desperately need. Congratulations, you are now a post-rock bassist.

Just to add to the thread, Roger Sadowsky wrote a piece on the Sadowsky site to explain the licensing agreement. It is an interesting piece, particularly in terms of explaining the IP/logo issue with the Metro Express basses. It seems that it has been a long term issue but which is likely going to be coming to an end at some point shortly. https://www.sadowsky.com/warwick-gmbh-to-be-exclusive-licensee-for-sadowsky-guitars-ltd-copy/ SadowskyWarwick.final_.pdf

For classic Ampegness I would say a 4x10 hlf. However if I was renting out a studio/rehearsal place I would not be using an all valve bass head personally. Every time you have to re-tube it is going to be a very expensive job. I would also invest in a back up head.

Looks class. I’ve only tried the RB heads, which I think are great as well. I’m not familiar with the Fusion line to be fair.

Three preamp tubes? Foot switchable overdrive with additional tone shaping? So in features it is similar to my Mesa Big Block but a fraction of the size and weight. I'm not buying anything soon but this is the kind of head I would be interested. Basically I'm putting this post in to see how folk get on when the try and buy these amps.

For me, it has to be Threatin...

In terms of guitar amps, I have. I have seen lots of Dual/Triple/Single and Mini Rectifiers at local gigs over the years. Perhaps I have gone to too many 'hardcore/metal' gigs! Not as much as Marshall amps, or Peaveys, but a fair number of Mesas nonetheless. In terms of indie/rock gigs, the sighting of a Mesa has been really rare. In terms of bass gear, I have rarely seen other local bands using Mesa bass stuff. The odd Walkabout has cropped up. I lived in Glasgow for ten years though, where the Mesa UK distributor was based. At least one of the times I saw a local bassist using a Walkabout it was because he had been working at Westside and got a great deal. At 'pro touring level' (i.e. non UK bands), I have seen a few M6/M9s and the odd 400+.

You are correct, they should 'need' less margin per unit, however business being business, they will 'want' more margin per unit.

You might be onto something there. Mesa is at the 'premium' level of gear, so some shops might take the position that those who can afford the 'premium' would be willing to pay additional 'premium' on top of that to establish a profit margin. I was going to say that still doesn't explain the bigger up-charge on Mesa relative to other premium amp brands (say Bergantino). However, once you factor in guitar amp sales, I would presume that Mesa sales would greatly exceed that of Bergantino etc, so that would maybe explain why there is a bigger up-charge on Mesa items. I dunno, I'm probably talking nonsense, morning coffee break thoughts and all that.

I have the Keeley Bassist. It is a really good 'transparent' compressor/limiter in my opinion. It is generally an always on pedal for me. Honestly though, I never play much slap live. In rehearsal context though it is great. EBS Multicomp is another good pedal, though I personally think that the design of the pedal is starting to show its age in comparison to the newer pedals such as the ones from TC Electronic. Horrible oversized footprint aside, I really liked the Aguilar TLC for slap.

A Spector 6 is now on my wish list.

Peter was kind enough to post me a spare light bulb for my EBS Fafner. He actually contacted me by PM to say that he had a spare without prompting after I had mentioned on a thread that the bulb on my Fafner had gone again. He really didn't have to do anything, but Peter is another example of why Basschat is so great.

Oh yes, I'm sure that there are high level meetings at certain manufacturers taking place as we speak to discuss 'communication protocol' and 'historic communication data purging initiatives' after reading this: "The CMA also found that certain Fender employees deliberately tried to cover up their actions by recording as little as possible in writing. However, the investigation uncovered emails and texts from Fender’s IT servers and mobile phones, which proved the illegal behaviour."

In terms of the WD800 not taking off (at least on Basschat), my views are: 1) Price, it is more expensive than other premium heads, including the D800 and D800+ which were already on the market and were catering to people who wanted a high power, portable Mesa bass amp. People who spent £800-£900 on the D800 in 2016-17 or D800+ 18 months after that were not exactly going to be in the market for another Mesa bass amp at £1200+ released shortly thereafter again. If the WD800 had been released first, then I have no doubts it would have made a bigger splash on the market. However, the D800 and D800+ were developed and released first, so 'it is what it is'. I don't want to come across that I am criticising Mesa for releasing three brand new bass heads in five years, which I think is a really positive move. However that is a lot of new products in a short space of time. 2) It is a 'new' design but is also still kind of a take on an 'old' design by being marketed as kind of a 'new and improved' Walkabout. This obviously has the danger of limiting the amp's appeal on the basis that a lot of people who have the Walkabout like how it is already is, and given the build quality of Mesa, most of the existing Walkabouts are going to be operational for years to come. People who didn't like, or who never tried the Walkabout might prefer the D800 or D800+ anyway as they are less expensive and look more 'user friendly' (i.e less knobs). For that reason, I think that the WD800 is a bit more of a niche product to begin with. If I am being honest, the price of the WD800 doesn't really turn me off. I paid about the same for my Walkabout 1x15 combo in 2008. In that case I paid a premium but it has been more than worth it. In any case, the flagship Mesa bass head is now £1299 or so, whereas their previous 'flagship' M9 and Big Block/Titan V12 amps were closer to £2k and above when new, while the recent Strategy/Prodigy amps were much more than that again. Yes we are talking class D vs Hybrid and all valve amps and we would normally expect Class D type bass heads to be cheaper. However, as it stands, the flagship Mesa bass head is now much less expensive than it used to be... The Mesa pricing issue only really becomes an issue for me with the cabs. Their current 4x10 is currently listed as £2150, which I think is over the odds, even for the usual Mesa UK price allowances (the cab is being sold for about $1599 in the States). I just cannot justify spending that much on a cab when it is almost double the price of other premium level competitors.

I’m not sure if any Basschatters have bought one yet. I think that there is a Talkbass megathread which is largely positive.

Me too. Given that the HD360 has been readily available for under £1000, I would hope that the price for 802 is not really over the top.

Any news on what the price is going to be? I know it is going to be much more expensive than the class D Reidmar range (bigger, heavier, entirely made in Sweden), so my guess would be around £2000 or so. Anything more than that is getting up there in terms of price though.