thodrik

I would say that a Warwick being played through a 1990s furry-carpet Trace Elliot stack would be pretty damn unfashionable at the moment and sound pretty damn great. Also Warwick's website is the worst when it comes to trying to look at basses, so they are automatically uncool for me. On the Status points, I'm not sure if they are unfashionable but I have never seen a fully graphite-necked Status or Modulus bass at a gig, whether I was playing or watching. Which is strange as I have been to a lot of gigs. I can't bring myself to call them unfashionable though, as it would essentially result in me declaring myself as uncool on account of the strip of carbon that resides in my Vigier.

If in doubt, Precision. If needing 'flexibility', Jazz bass. Both basses work for pretty much any type of music.

I haven't tried the new ones, but the last two 'new' Rickenbackers I have tried were both fairly good. Still for the money they are charging you would expect them to play fairly well from the get go rather than being a classic Fender 'good bass hiding under a bad set up' job. In terms of shoddy QC (poor bookmatching of body pieces, bubbly chrome etc), I put it down to Rickenbacker having a slightly more 'agricultural' approach to finishing and quality control, compared to something like a Sandberg, Musicman, Sadowsky Metro etc. There is also the rumour/fact that the best Ricks generally never leave the USA. I'm not usually that fussing on purely cosmetic QC, so long as the bass sounds and plays good/great/fantastic, but if these Ricks were playing and sounding poor that is a bit worrying.

I think that the original Fafner has some 'suggested settings' on the EBS website. You can maybe try those since I'm guessing that Fafner II has a similar voicing but with a lot more options.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1341847424' post='1725034'] Mesa seem, IMO, a bit stubborn, but they can get away with it because they make amps with great tone. What the world needs is a slightly more powerful Walkabout, with the same pre, a similar power but higher (eg 500-600W), with speakons and a switchable pre/post EQ with a separate DI level. It'd be £1500+, but it would sell. [/quote][quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1341847424' post='1725034'] Mesa seem, IMO, a bit stubborn, but they can get away with it because they make amps with great tone. What the world needs is a slightly more powerful Walkabout, with the same pre, a similar power but higher (eg 500-600W), with speakons and a switchable pre/post EQ with a separate DI level. It'd be £1500+, but it would sell. [/quote] My guess is that they don't make it out of fear that nobody would buy the 300 watt version. Also the Walkabout has more than enough volume for any gig I have done. The 1x15 combo is plenty enough to keep up with a half stack and can easily be heard above two full stacks if played through an 8x10. All in all, I'm not sure what practical benefits upgrading the power section will actually bring. But yes, a pre/post EQ switch, mute/standby, speakons would be handy. Mine already has a DI level, though knowing what the 'right' level is is usually down to guesswork.

I have the amp. The post EQ thing is a bit of an issue. You can get a really nice post-EQ DI sound for recording or gigging, it just takes a little bit of work with the soundperson in terms of getting the DI level setting at the right level. This can be problematic if your band's soundcheck has to be done in 3 minutes. The easiest solution is just buy a DI box if a pre-EQ DI is essential. I already owned a Sansamp so I never really considered the mod. Getting in touch with Mesa seems like the best option, since in the blurb it states that they would fax you the mod.

[quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1341400300' post='1718259'] Got a reply apologising and explaining the mistake. They've put a disclaimer on the bottom of the 110 and 112 pages. Apparently the large Classic cabs say China correctly, they screwed up with copy pasting from the Neo cabs to the small ones. [/quote] An honest mistake then. No harm there really.

[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1341344904' post='1717532'] Construction goodness, yes. But the b will definately get better with longer scale basses. [/quote] I won't dispute that. But just as every 34 inch scale or less bass won't necessarily have a 'bad' b string, not every 35 inch+ scale length basses will have a 'good' B string response. Construction, pickups and EQ can compensate for a shorter scale length, although the same construction, pickups and eq would perhaps lead to a better b string sound if that bass was designed as a 35 inch scale length instrument. Although that didn't stop me from buying my five string.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1341300977' post='1716451'] They shouldn't have written that on the cabs, I agree. [/quote] Could be a Swinglish mistranslation, or even just a plain old mistake on the back of the cab. The fact that EBS do the certificate of origin in the first place gives the impression that they don't want to mislead anybody as to what is done where.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1341319580' post='1716903'] IME good construction always trumps just adding another inch or two to the scale length. [/quote] My view as well. My fiver has a scale length of something like 33 2/3 inches. Very good low B response. Although I have liked the 35 inch scale basses I have tried (Overwater/Lakland etc).

I have small hands for my size. I started on a Precision bass and after that went through the grades on the double bass. I think that with practice and improved technique, small hands should rarely be any kind of issue as your fingers when trained can stretch quite a bit. I think some of the 'small hands' problems comes from people who try to play every interval with the index and third finger.

Lovely colour.

[quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1341162303' post='1714538'] True, if you're happy paying twice as much, I sometimes am too but not at this moment Well the cabs are made in Sweden if it helps... [/quote] I'm pretty sure that the ClassicLine cabs are made in China as well. That doesn't make them any less good though.

Some basses come with instructions/allen keys etc, some do not. I'm guessing that Dingwall have a contact telephone number for sales/warranty etc.... [url="https://www.dingwallguitars.com/contact/"]https://www.dingwallguitars.com/contact/[/url] Found it in 30 seconds. You should be able to find out if they forgot to include something in your order. Good luck and enjoy your (probably awesome) bass.

[quote name='billyapple' timestamp='1340744183' post='1709132'] It's some piece of work. I like it too [/quote] I liked it that much that it prevented me from writing a coherent sentence!

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1340761002' post='1709335'] I got Newtone to make me a custom balanced set for my bass in A. The bottom string is a .152! They would probably work out a lot cheaper than DR's too so theyre definitely worth a go [/quote] I have been tempted to try the Newtone route for a while, but I got a £30 gift voucher for Amazon, and thought I could justify paying £10 or so for the DRs. I wanted to try them for over a year, but I didn't want to spend £40 to try out strings that would require me alter the nut of my bass. it was now or never. I'm fairly damn happy with the Drs apart from the cost. I'm just going to wait to see how my latest bands fare before I would alter the bass even further by putting on a 150 B string.

I really quite like that.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1340714166' post='1708424'] Its only good if you like really heavy amps that don't sound very valvey. A whole bunch of the characteristics of a valve amps tone is down to the limitations of the transformer, the high pass nature is what keeps cabs happy, and there is some compression stuff too. Get big enough and might as well go SS. My green Matamp has an output transformer the size of a child's head and sounds no different to my SS Matamp power amp, until seriously cranked. [/quote] And I didn't know that! Cheers.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1340711349' post='1708364'] The dimensions of the output transformer are pretty much directly related to its low frequency efficiency, so pretty fair statement. Loads of valve amps are designed not to perform at maximum level at all times, its called power supply sag, and its pretty common in amps, they have restricted capacity power filtering which adds compression. [/quote] Okay, thanks. I knew the correlation between size of output transformers to low frequency response, to which my view is that it be great if every bass amp should have 'overdimensioned' transformers.

Very nice.

The D'addario 'magic bag' that keeps the strings fresh until they are opened always slightly amuses me. 'Hand selected' woods on various basses. The EBS blurb on the Classic T90 always amuses me '[color=#000000][font=Georgia,]The special designed transformers are overdimensioned[/font][/color]' Wow, special and overdimensioned, that must make it so great. [color=#000000][font=Georgia,]'all materials carefully selected to perform at a maximum level - at all times.' So all their other amps are not designed to perform at maximum levels at all times, ie they just don't work as advertised? Were the materials on my Fafner not carefully selected? [/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Georgia,]'[/font][/color][color=#000000][font=Georgia,]The tubes are quality selected and matched with precision'. You mean they don't just just take whatever they can find and throw it in there? It must be very nice indeed.[/font][/color]

Recently strung my Viger Arpege with the DR DDTs heavy gauge which is 55-135. It works fine for tuning a whole tone down. I would have thought that they would have at least had a 140 or more for B, but the 135 works fine for A though, which is as low as I need. Still the 55 and 75 are fairly tight at F and C respectively but eminently usable. Personally I think something like 50 - 70 - 95 - 115 - 140 would have been a lot more balanced but I have found it difficult to source many five string sets with anything bigger than a 105 on the E string. I might stick with the DRs as the tone is way better than what I was using (even when I was tuned to standard), but the cost is seriously offputting. Before that I was pretty much a 45 -130, with it usually being Rotosound or Ernie Ball.

If I had my way I would have a couple of 8x10s or 4x15s for every gig. Reality, practicality, finance and common sense suggests that I do not 'need' such things. I always preferred having a couple of cabs, a 2x10s or 1x15, bought way before I knew the dangers of mixing speaker sizes. Anyhow, they were easier to carry than an 8x10. I have always loved the experience of playing through an Ampeg 8x10, except when it has been paired with the SVT 450, which is a bit of a 'meh' head to me.