thodrik

I don't sorry. If I remember correctly, pre shape 2 is less of a mid cut than pre shape 1, but more of boost of the bass and lower mid frequencies and not much of a treble boost. Basically,just boost around 100hz -600hz and leave everything else at level (no boost/no cut). I never liked pre shape 2. I would just use pre shape 1 and add some mids back.

I have a 300 watt Mesa Walkabout that has been loud enough for pretty much every type of gig, from jazz, rock, doom, djent even when in 1x15 combo form. More speakers is always the best start. Speaker positioning can always help as well. Getting your band to pay attention to volume levels also helps.

I bought a set with 'heavier cores' to help downtuning after some rave reviews on this site. I thought that they were decent but did not see any difference compared with any other string of a similar gauge. Also the gauges I ordered were slightly different from the gauges I received. I didn't complain because .5 of a gauge is hardly worth kicking a fuss over. They were good to deal with as a company and I have no complaints about the price or general quality of the strings. I just can't personally give them a glowing review and doubt I would order them again when I can just buy a set D'addarios that I can find more easily and prefer using anyway.

There are gems and dogs for every year when it comes to Fender basses. Try before you buy. Also be wary, lots of people will market a bass as a '1978' Fender Precision because of the serial number. The serial numbers though do not always tell the whole story. The S9+5 digits serial number was used from 1978 to 1981, for example. This is the serial number on my own Fender. It might be a 1978 bass, it might not. It is a great bass though and I would never sell it.

I absolutely love the Sadowsky pre-amp on the two Sadowskys I have. Usually I just add a tiny bit of the bass, nowhere near a quarter of a turn. I generally leave the treble boost off. I don't need the ability to 'cut', as the preamp on with no EQ boost is pretty much the sound of the bass run passive. If I didn't like the passive sound of the bass I wouldn't have bought them in the first place. I can understand why some people don't like the Sadowsky pre-amp. I don't think that it is overly flexible compared to a cut-boost three band EQ you will find on lots of other basses where you can sculpt any number of different tones. The Sadowsky pre-amp does 'that Sadowsky sound' and not much else. Much more than minimal boost leads to a fairly unbalanced sound and takes away from the natural tone of the bass you are playing rather than adding to it. I personally have no need for three band EQs on a bass as it can be really tricky to get them right (what mid frequencies are going to be boosted? Is it going to be a narrow or wide boost?). If I need a mids boost I prefer using the EQ on the amp.

The Keeley Bassist is a really nice bit of kit. Can go from ultra transparent to pretty squishy. It also works as a clean boost if you want. The MXR is a good bet as well. EBS do a good compressor as well.

Bought a used Sadowsky NYC from Bass Direct, really easy process and no issues whatsoever. The best part was that he had no problem posting to Orkney. Yeah it was an extra tenner but a lot of places will not post to anywhere north of Inverness. I would happily buy from there again.

I tried an American Elite Jazz bass a few weeks ago, it was really lovely.

[quote name='therealting' timestamp='1464303431' post='3058392'] Agreed, my MV4 is a work of art. [/quote] Nice! My Metro has the 'mint' guard. I think I prefer the tort myself as that looks brilliant. Just managed to play the NYC 5 for the first time. Really love it. To my ears anyway, it is actually a lot sweeter and more vintage sounding than my Metro which is pretty modern, snappy and clinical sounding (in a good way). I understand that the pickups in the NYC are single coils rather than the hum-cancelling ones that are in my Metro so this might be a reason why. A little bit of wear and tear as well which is to be expected with a used bass. Without the wear and tear I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it though (approx £100 more than the buying a new Metro equivalent). Fit and finish is exceptional on the NYC as it is on my Metro. I prefer the less 'bleached' neck on the NYC compared to the Metro one I have which is pretty plain. The quilted top is lovely on the NYC and because of the chambering in the body it is ridiculously light and well balanced. I've tried to add a couple of pics but I am crap with technology so have probably made a mess of it! I won't gush any more otherwise it will get like Talkbass and we will have to start handing out membership club numbers and the like. [attachment=220150:PicMonkey Collageguitar2.jpg]

[quote name='M@23' timestamp='1464203044' post='3057581'] Oh cool. What finish did you go for? The Fender and Mayones I compared it to were nice, but it just felt like the Sadowsky was the finished product. The build quality and attention to detail is ace. [/quote] I went went for the MV4 59 sunburst when I got the Metro. I love it so much that the NYC is the exact same finish but with one extra string. I love the natural ones too.

Haha! I literally did the same thing a few weeks ago! Congratulations man. I bought a five string NYC from Bass Direct for my 'I'm turning 30' moment. I bought it about a month ago but haven't played it yet as it was delivered to Orkney and I'm in Glasgow until Saturday. I've had a 4 string Metro for over six years now. Great bass.

7 but I don't really know where two of them are other than 'somewhere in Orkney'.

I always play with my fingers rather than a pick/plectrum. I can play with both but generally never bother using a plectrum unless I feel the song requires it (ie my fingers can't play fast semi quaver patterns consistently for 4 minutes etc). Some of my favourite bassists are pick players though and I have never had a 'real bassists don't use picks' viewpoint.

I played one of the new American Elite 4 string Jazz basses for about 20 minutes or so. One of the best Fenders I have ever played in terms of fit and finish and neck profile. It felt like a really classy instrument (which it bloody well should be for the price). The pre-amp was good, certainly an improvement on the previous Deluxe models I have tried previously but I still felt that overall the pre-amp didn't live up to the quality of the rest of the instrument. Personally I think that the pre-amp and pickups are not as nice as you will get on the Sandberg or Sadowsky Metro line (I'm biased, I bought a Metro 6 years ago and love it). Fit an Aguilar/Delano/Nordstrand pick up and pre-amp though and I think that the Fender would be as good any Jazz bass on the market.

Any decent amp will be good for metal, it just depends on what is amp is good for you. If you are using pedals with EQ or drive options (say Darkglass/Sansamp/EBS/Aguilar) your amp won't be doing much of the tone shaping anyway. If you are running a pedal-less setup and need lots of EQ flexibility, compression etc, a second hand Trace Elliot would be a good shout. I do really rate the Hartke LH500 and LH1000 though. Great clean sound and super easy to use, though the EQ settings consist of a very basic passive tone stack (mid cut only etc) that some people find too limited.

As in the new 'Peavey' era ones? I haven't seen many about second hand, though being honest I'm not sure that Trace Elliot sold that many. However that doesn't mean that they aren't good amps! You will easily find an older Trace Elliot 12 band model for not that much money that will offer most of the same features of the newer Trace Elliot amps. The Series 6 and SMX stuff is pretty good. I picked up an 12 band SMX head for under £300 about five years ago.

Don't think that I would sell any of my basses. Most certainly though I would never sell my old Precision. I could easily find a replacement Vigier or Sadowsky Metro if I sold them (affording one again might be a problem) but my Fender is fairly unique, in that it barely works and is slowly falling apart. I love it.

In standard tuning I generally use 105-45. D standard and below it is 120-50. I used to be a 'light strings and low action' player, but I generally don't play much slap, double thumbing techniques these days, so I generally don't mind a more rigid heavy gauge stringwith a higher action , so long as there is enough flexibility for bending and the action is low enough to allow for some fast runs and tapping.

I have the V6, an GP12 SMX 300 head and GP7 SM 300 1x15 combo. The V6 is a bit of a monster. It does a massive clean tone, but given the fact that it is 400 watts, you won't get that power amp tube breakup sound at usable volumes. The preamp doesn't really get 'dirty' in a nice way like say an Orange, Matamp, Ampeg. I have a Mesa Walkabout and although it is a strange thing to say, the Mesa is better in terms of providing that overdriven preamp valve sound. I tried pushing the V6 with a hot active bass (Vigier Excess) and the sound actually collapsed on itself rather than giving a big valve dirt sound. The preamp is based off the classic Fender passive tone stack, so if you are looking for a 'flat' response, I would probably look at another amp. The mid settings can be a bit fiddly as well. Also, I don't find the bass and treble pre-sets and push-pull mid settings to be particularly useful. Oh, it also only operates at 2 and 4 ohms. I've read that it can work at 8 ohms as well, but I'm not really keen to try it myself for fear of what might happen. Oh yes, repair costs! Other than that it is possibly the best amp I have!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1458821629' post='3011204'] How do the DDT strings work? Do you buy a specific set for a specific tuning? [/quote] Pretty much. Same with the Dunlop ones. 105-45: drop D or standard (Personally I found them to be pretty much the same as any other set of 105-45 strings) 115-55: D Standard down to to about C standard (Personally I thought that the 'E' string to be a bit floppy tuned below C#, but tuned to anything higher than C# standard the 'D' and 'G' strings are really tight - basically I didn't think that they were a well balanced set of strings and not very good for drop D variants either) 125-65: B standard, so basically a five string minus a G string (if I need to go below a C I use a five string so I have never used them). As Dood said above, the D'addario balanced tension set of 120-50 are great strings for tuning between C standard and D standard which to me is the area of tuning that can be done on a four string bass without any problems so long as you set it up for it and don't need to tune it back up to standard tuning. They are also much cheaper than the DR or Dunlops. I also tried a custom set of Newtones and prefer the D'addarios personally.

You have got an earlier version. Personally I wouldn't make a big deal of it. It is pretty much the exact same pedal.

In terms of 'normal' bass strings in the 45-105 ballpark I have never felt that the strings were completely unbalanced. The 50-120 set though are fantastic if you want to tune to D standard/C# standard and are in my opinion much more suitable for downtuning than the DR or Dunlop 55-115 strings that are designed for lower tunings.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1457088567' post='2995139'] I do wish I liked the Darkglass 'take' on overdrive/tubes being pushed etc. I always revisit what they have coming out but everything seems to sound like modern metal, which isn't my thing. I still think the VT Bass and Sansamp BDDI are the best for that type of tone, IMO....but I like the Darkglass approach and innovation. [/quote] I have been stacking a Darkglass Duality with a Sansamp BDDI and Aguilar Agro using an old seventies Precision. I'm not into the B3K type default 'modern metal' setting either though. Haven't tried one myself though yet. Sansamp will always be the king for 'Ampeg in a box' tone but I do like that Darkglass are trying something different.

Keeley Bassist is one of the best pedals I have ever got. I don't set it to extreme levels, just to level out a few peaks. Subtle but brilliant.

Good strings. Don't use them any more though as I've pretty much switched to D'addario nickels.