thodrik

Darkglass Duality works well with active basses. Doesn't get to the synthy levels of the Woolly Mammoth though.

Ditto X2 is a good basic looper and is pretty much all I need. The Line 6 DL4 is cool but not much loop time. The Boss RC 30 is nice but I found it a bit fiddly. That is pretty much my knowledge which is next to useless.

I think that Peavey has quietly let the band trail off. The first sign was when manufacturing was moved from the UK to the USA. The second was Paul Stevens leaving. I think that the new line of Trace Elliot missed the boat a bit. They sounded alright but they were still big and heavy and had that 'hi-fi mid cut' sound in an era where people wanted 'lightweight', 'flat sounding' or 'gritty valve' type qualities from their amps. I still have a set of the Peavey era Trace Elliot speakers. They are pretty good.

I recently got the Keeley Bassist compressor. It works really well as a limiter and as a transparent 'always on' compressor. You can also turn the compressor setting to zero and use the pedal as a clean boost via the level control. It also has a small footprint and is easy to use. No complaints so far anyway.

Dood beat me to it but the D'addario 50-120 balanced tension set are ideal. If it is only for one gig though the strings you have should be able to do the job if you set the bass up for it.

45-105 should be fine. If I am honest though I didn't find the strings to be any more suitable to downtuning than a standard 105-45 set. A half step down is a pretty small adjustment and should be easily achievable with standard strings and a decent set up. I have used the the 45-105 set and the 115-55 set. I used the 115-55 set for tuning to D standard. They were okay, but pretty unbalanced in that the 'D' and 'G' strings were really tight until I tuned down to about C standard, by which time the E string was getting pretty floppy. Dunlop do a similar line of 'downtuning' strings that are a bit cheaper so you could try them. Perhaps try the D'addario balanced tension set as well. They do a set that is something like 45-107.

Aguilar do some nice pre amps as do Bartolini. I think that Sandbergs have Delano pick ups with Bartolini preamps and they are really nice. I think that Marcus Miller's main bass for years was a seventies Jazz bass with a Sadowsky pre-amp. You could buy a Fender Jazz and buy the Sadowsky outboard pre-amp or have one fitted. The active jazz bass market is pretty saturated though. Just play a bunch of basses and get the one you like most.

Baroness in Glasgow. Maybe the Cult in March. Also maybe Cult of Luna.

I used to be on it a lot but have barely been on in the last three four years. Work and time pressures mostly but also because I preferred playing bass as opposed to reading and writing about it.

Billy Sheehan comes across really well when it comes to presenting his gear or showing off techniques. I bought the original Billy Sheehan EBS pedal. It is a nice bit of kit but I really didn't take to the voicing of the drive and felt that even with the blending option the drive resulted in a bit of low end loss.This isn't me having a go at either Billy Sheehan or EBS, as obviously the pedal was designed with meeting Billy's approval not mine! I think that the 'phase invert' switch on the new model is probably a reaction to my issues though. The loop functions on the Billy Sheehan pedal are fun, but I found them a bit limiting in the sense that the loops only worked when the pedal was on with the drive engaged. I also would have preferred a two band stacked EQ like the Boss ODB3 rather than the 'tone' knob. I don't think that the features on the new Billy Sheehan model will tempt me to shell out more money, but if EBS ever want to release a signature drive for me I am just a phone call away... In the end I have gone back to my unblendable and barely working Aguilar Agro pedal for my 'bit of grit' needs.

[quote name='D'AddarioUK' timestamp='1453281117' post='2957980'] As far as I'm aware, we have no plans to discontinue Balanced Tension. As for a 5 string set you'd need to pair EXL160BT with a .160 to achieve a BT 5 string set. As I'm sure you can imagine there are issues of practicality that arise from putting such a big string in a set! We sell most of our strings as singles, if you were wanting to try a .160 the item code is XLB160 or XLB160T for the tapered version. [/quote] That is good to hear. The Balanced Tension strings are great. I may have to try an XLB160T sometime.

I remember one being 'sold' in Orkney a few years back. I sent the seller a message along the lines of 'I will be in Orkney this weekend, I could try the bass out then with a view to buying it'. I got an almost an instant reply of 'sorry mate, I've just moved to the Isle of Wight and taken the bass with me'. I hear the Isle of Wight is lovely though, so I couldn't really blame them.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1453226118' post='2957640'] Just a great well thought out set of strings in my view. No messing about! [/quote] I just hope that they aren't discontinued any time soon.

I take care of all of my instruments but small cosmetic dings are bound to happen over time. A massive split on the body, neck or headstock would really upset me though!

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1453125504' post='2956554'] These by a long distance [url="http://www.daddario.com/DADMobileProductDetail.Page?ActiveID=3757&productid=380&productname=EXL160BT_Nickel_Wound__Balanced_Tension_Medium__50_120"]http://www.daddario...._Medium__50_120[/url] 120-50 is a great set for that tuning! [/quote] I absolutely love these strings for drop C tuning. I have used them for anything between D Standard and C standard and they deliver. In my opinion, they are far better than the DR and Dunlop sets that are supposedly designed for lower tunings. The D'Addarios are also much cheaper. Due to the size of the strings they are not great for slap, but in terms of tapping, bending, general speed across the fretboard, I haven't encountered any difficulties. My personal opinion is that when it comes to lower tunings, having balanced tension is much more important than just say adding a couple of gauges equally across all strings, which just leads to the same old 'floppy E string, tight G string' problem. I did try a set of custom Newtones for my five string tuned to A standard, which were nice, but expensive. I have since discovered that if I tuning a four string down to C, I don't really need an extra string! If only they made a five string set.

Ditto X2 and Flashback X4 were my main purchases last year. Mostly used on guitar but a lot of fun was had. MXR Phase 90 was also lots of fun.

I might in the minority that actually likes the sound of Trace pre shape sound when used with a passive bass. I always started with the pre shape on and then EQ'd some of the bass and treble out and some of the mids back in that are cut out by the pre shape. I only ignored the pre shape if I had a bass with a powerful on board EQ or I had a good floor level preamp like a Sansamp or something similar. In the modern era of 'a bit of valve grit' and 'brilliant flat response enhancing the natural tone of your bass', the baked-in sound of Trace Elliot is a bit unfashionable. I have three Trace Elliot amps and love them. The V6 is a monster.

TC Flashback X4 is reliable, fairly flexible and easy to use. Takes up a hell of a lot of space though. The Line 6 DL4 is a good on too. I tried both but ended up going for the TC Electronic. T-Rex do some great (and expensive) delay units too.

Not entirely related but I ended up buying a Duality pedal yesterday. I was looking for an obscenely unsubtle fuzz pedal and it more than delivers.

No information on the ultra on the Darkglass site. I'm guessing that it is still in the prototype stage.

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1451586750' post='2941720'] So you have a bass which is "ok and usable" at best?! Why not buy something that you like? [/quote] Because it is cool and I like it!

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1451502008' post='2941060'] I know plenty of you hate it, but I love the Precision design for its simplicity. The one thing that does irk me about it, however, is the control cavity. I've just had to remove 13 screws (well, 12 since I lost one) in order to pop off the scratch plate and find out why my tone pot's crackling. Leo and co managed to solve this problem on the Jazz (and even the Telecaster before that) by having a separate control plate - so why didn't they think to update the Precision's design for ease of access? Alternatively, tell me what grinds your gears about your favoured axes. [/quote] A previous owner of my Precision solved that problem. Cut the pick up into right about where the Jazz bass control plate would be. Then you can simply remove the smaller area of pick guard rather than the whole thing. Other bass design problems. Gibson EB3: - the bridge: 3 points so tricky to adjust the action. - the bridge again, the string saddles are in the wrong position so the felt from your strings goes over the saddle and causes intonation problems. - pick up selection: Setting 1 (front pick up) is okay and usable, setting 2 (back pick up) is really weedy, settings 3 and 4 (both pickups) are 'mud'. - tone pots and volume pots are really just 'on/off' knobs, so you can't really sculpt any usable tones from settings 3 and 4. - it is really heavy. - set neck, would prefer neck through or bolt on. - neck heavy, so headstock dive happens all the time. Apart from that, it is a great bass.

It really depends. I have heard a lot of bands covering Sabbath songs and drenching the bass in overdrive or fuzz. Most of the classic rock stuff has a bit of light overdrive via it being recorded with valve amp being played at high volume. However, a clean bass sound is probably going to more accurate representation of the original recordings than you would playing through a fuzz like Boss ODB3 or Zvex Wooly Mammoth. You would be surprised at how many 'heavy' bands use predominantly clean bass sounds, Iron Maiden being one of them. With overdrive, a little goes a long way in terms of the overall mix. I like classic rock, but get frustrated with some of the classic rock purists who listen with their eyes and get outraged if you use anything other an valve head or a bass that isn't a Fender Precision, Fender Jazz or Rickenbacker. Years ago I was told that my Vigier Excess was the wrong bass to be used when playing classic rock like Sabbath. Geezer Butler played the same model of bass during the Reunion in 1997 and that Roger Glover has been playing Excesses for years and even had a signature model!

Some of the new Dave Gilmour album, also been listening to Bleeder by Mutoid Man, which is pretty damn cool.

I have also had the Sansamp Bass Driver for the last 6-7 years. I have also tried the EBS Valvedrive, which was a lot more transparent but a pain in the whole to gig with (12v AC power supply, large pedal footbprint, valve pedal so more likely to go wrong) and Electro Harmonix English Muff'n (pretty much the same problems as the EBS but less flexible EQ and less good build quality, slightly more gritty sound though). The Darkglass pedals are getting good reviews at the moment. You could also look at the Rusty Box.