thodrik

[quote name='Alec' post='1352619' date='Aug 26 2011, 03:44 PM']Well, I think the TalkBass folk, being more US-centric have an affinity for anything home-grown - and TC are a bit too much "them over there" for them. I'd always been struck by how many posts there were saying how good the Genz team were at resolving the problems they've had - I'd rather see fewer posts about having had problems! As for the power, I'm more than happy with the output my RH450 gives me, but then again, I never had any complaints about the paltry 250W that my old Trace 4x10 combo kicked out! To be honest, my joy with my RH450 is less about its power and far more about its form (small, light, cool) and function (tuner, compressor, EQ, valvetone, presets). It has waaay more power than I ever need - if I need more level then I have a PA to support me. I'm still a very happy puppy...[/quote] There are a few brands on Talkbass that seem to be difficult to speak out against (Sadowsky/Nordstrand/Genz Benz/Ampeg). But I'm not sure that is much different from this site either in terms of 'untouchable' gear. A person starting a thread here saying 'I used a Shuker bass with a Mittle Mark III head and Barefaced Compact and it produced a really rubbish sound', would probably be subject to a few questions. I doubt it would amount to the level of some of the Talkbass threads that occasionally get highlighted on here though. However I have not seen much on the Talkbass site that suggests that the US members are suspicious of anything not made in the USA (insert non-Heritage series Ampeg joke here). They have Sandberg and Trace Elliot clubs, and there seems to be a lot of love for EBS and Ashdown stuff too. However, I think that are a number of folk on there with an Ampeg complex that seek to make EVERY thread on amps amount to a discussion of how Ampeg just does everything better. These comments are generally easy to filter through though and trying to argue with them is about as useful as going on the Ernie Ball forum and asking questions regarding how to modify the pickups, bridge and eq section. Putting it this way, if it was discovered that the Ampeg PF 500 was putting out about 250 watts, some of the same people going after TC on Talkbass would be making statements defending Ampeg. However,I must clarify that I just look now and then on Talkbass for updates for gear being planned/released around NAMM season or when I'm looking to buy gear. Though the excitement that I could potentially be Sadowsky club member 1545 and Trace Elliot club member 486 is almost too exciting...

Apart from the creative watts rating, I though that the BGM magazine gave a pretty good review. The watts issue has been jumped on by Talkbass folk, leading to lots of criticism. Some of the criticism is that a 236 watt amp has been marketed as a 450 watt amp. Regardless of whether the TC amp is a good product (it is), TC have really come across quite badly with the marketing of the watts ratings. They are not the only company to do this, they just got caught out and their 'quasi-watts' explanation is fairly weak and is something they should really have advertised more clearly before this all came to light. The fact that it is 236 watts does not make it any less of a giggable amp.

Saw them at Hampden on the last album tour. Very underwhelming and I am a massive fan. I heard that live that they should be called 'the Red Hot or Cold Chili Peppers', so I may have just got them on a bad night. I'm glad I at least have seen them live though. Not likely to be motivated enough to see them again though, unless the new album is something I really like (of course by then the gig will have sold out).

Pawn shop in Glasgow has what looks to be a heavily modified EBO or EB3 that has had a precision pick up inserted between the front and back pickup. It looks really really cool!

Sounds like you are approaching the instrument in a very technical way, almost to the point that you are not having fun anymore. If you have learned a lot of scales and theory, then getting lessons for that and working on playing fast is almost needless if you are struggling with basic time signatures and struggling to come up parts you like. Have you tried playing along to bands you like? I learned a lot just by listening to songs and trying to play along to the band and try to copy the basslines? Start with fairly easy songs that aren't technically difficult, but just try to keep time and lock in with the drummer. Over time you will just naturally pick up on the role the bass can play in a band and pick up ideas on what to play in certain chord progressions. Techniques such as tapping, slapping and 'playing really fast' can be learned afterwards. It might be helpful get a couple of theory lessons, just to get a feel of melody and harmony and how songs and basslines can be written and adapted depending on what the other members of the band are doing. Playing in a three piece band is actually a good thing, as it really allows you to play off the drummer and guitarist and try out interesting ideas. Many bassists in pop, rock and blues bands will never slap, tap or use double thumb technique in a band context, even if they have the techincal ability to do so.

Personally I have never needed anything more than 300 solid state/hybrid watts (Trace Elliot 300 watts mind), especially if it is going through an 8x10/4x12 cab. This applies even when I was playing with two full Marshall guitar stacks. On point of the topic, a Mesa 4x12 should have no problem coping with the power of a 300 watt valve amp. I don't have much proof in technical sense (I am an idiot in these things) but I have seen lots of bands playing with these set ups over the years: 300 watt valve amp 8x10/4x12 cabinet. However if you want a really loud clean sound at huge volume levels, I'm not sure whether there is much advantage in having an all tube amp. It might be the Matamp fan in me, but the benefit in having a valve amp is pushing it to get some nice overdrive. Have you considered a hybrid solid state/valve amp like the Mesa bass amps? The M9 does 900 watts, which sound ridiculous but is probably needed if the guitarist is playing a Dual Rec or something.

I really like the outro. Its not as bad a song as I thought it was when I first heard it. Must say I won't miss the Frusciante overly layered falsetto vocals on every bloody song, but they will miss his talents as a songwriter and guitarist. I can't really make any judgements on the new guitarist as the guitar doesn't really feature much in the song. All I can really take from this video is that Flea is using his own bass and is not using Gallien Krueger anymore, though I'm guessing that most of the recording was probably done to a DI and louds of plug ins rather than using the amp. The bass sounded like a bass played by Flea, which it was. Also Flea and Kiedis seem to be in great shape for 48 year old men. (Though they are 48 year old multi-millionaires living in California, which could perhaps help.)

EB strings are great strings for the money. Usually go for the hybrids myself if I go down that route.

[quote name='clauster' post='1339988' date='Aug 14 2011, 08:16 PM']£800, used, home use? I'd say you can pick any two out of the above three criteria. £800 and used will buy you a lot of gig-able combo: Mark Bass, TC Electronic, Eden, Maybe a Mesa Walkabout, but IMO you won't get the best out of any of these at low volume. Used and home use: Line 6 110, Roland Cube, smaller Ashdown combos, little Eden Combos, Ampeg Combos. Lots of change from £800. £800 and home use: Ashdown Little Bastard and one of the matching cabs? Still bloody loud though[/quote] Just from experience, the Mesa Walkabout is pretty rubbish for home practice (unless you live in a detached house in the middle of nowhere (me in Orkney). The point where it opens up properly is also the point where the neighbours from upstairs and downstairs start banging on the roof/floor (me in Glasgow)! The advice above is pretty good. Anything beyond 100 watt is going to be overkill for home recording.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1339759' date='Aug 14 2011, 04:51 PM']I wish they would make the Slapper bass again! [/quote] Is that a graphite/carbon-based neck? That is pretty cool. If so its funny that they would shift from those designs to the more standard wooden neck designs they have now. Mind you I really like the look of the XP basses, which kinda look a bit like Wals on a budget. Anybody have any knowledge of the history of the company? I'm guessing that there was a takeover of some kind, or there has been a change in designers.

Get a second hand Ashdown, Trace Elliot or Ampeg combo or stack for a couple of hundred and save the rest until you know if the bass is going to be a long term thing and you have thought more clearly about what you want out of a bass amp. No point spending the whole lot on an ultra lightweight modern set up if its going to be sitting in a room and you discover that six months later you would rather own a 200 watt valve amp and matching 8x10. Although the amp companies I have mentioned are perhaps not the most trendy of names in the lightweight gear environment, they can deliver in any kind of 'rock' setting and can generally be found for fairly cheap second hand (£300-500 could get you something really good). In the end it doesn't really matter that much, just buy what takes your fancy, though anything less than about 250 watts (solid state) is usually going to struggle to compete with a 50 watt valve guitar head if it is going through a 2x10 or 1x15 (which many combos use).

Unless the damage is having an adverse impact on the sound, how the bass plays, or its overall stability, it is better to leave it alone. The damage doesn't look to be severe and I would doubt it would put off a potential buyer providing you were up front with the damage. Unless you are looking for a collectors item, most people looking at buying a 1970s Precision bass would expect a bit of cosmetic damage. Apart from the one bit of damage, your bass looks in cleaner shape than a 'roadworn' bass, where the added cosmetic damage adds to the value of the bass. The 4th email is pretty much spot on as far as repair impacting the value of an instrument. If you are selling it, I'm not sure whether undertaking the repair is worth it. Damn nice looking bass too!

I haven't played one myself but a guy I know changed from playing a five string Musicman Stingray to a five string Clover Avenger. He said that the Clover quality is pretty top notch for build quality and compares wellwith pretty much any US brand. I would suggest trying one to see if you like it. Once you get over a certain price point when buying new, pretty much all basses are going to well made with decent parts and electronics. After that what sounds 'good' is a matter of personal preference which can vary wildly. Try doing a search for 'Sadowsky Metro' on this site to see examples of this! My personal feeling is that the active tone circuits and pickups made by Fender are not of the quality as other 'souped up' Jazz bass designs like Sandberg and Clover etc. Sorry for any thread derail but is there/was there any connection between Sandberg and Clover? I only ask because the Fender-based designs look really similar, right down to the Delano pickups.

[quote name='bobpalt' post='1337225' date='Aug 12 2011, 06:29 AM']Its quite puzzling really why some "boutique" basses really drop in value so quickly. As well as Roscoes, Pedullas dont do well on the second hand market (when comparing their value against new cost), neither do Stingrays, Skjolds, Dingwalls, Mayones, even ACGs. Why is this? They are worth every penny of the new cost, so why the huge drop in value the minute you carry them out of the shop? Only Wals, Foderas and Fenders seem to actually hold their values in general (although I'm sure there are more). Very odd. Bob[/quote] I'm pretty glad of this, otherwise there would have been no hope of me owning a Vigier Arpege! I'm not sure I would ever buy a bass as an investment, save buying a pre-CBS Fender if I somehow get really wealthy, so the idea of a bass declining or rising in value is a bit pointless for me. Its not like I'm going to sell anything anyway unless I'm really struggling.

I had never really looked at the Roscoe stuff seriously as in my mind I always thought 'prices probably comparable to Fodera' when I saw pictures. But I just looked at the Bass Direct site and WOW! The Century Standard series is both stunning looking and looks bloody good value for money for a top quality made in the USA bass! I would certainly love to try one, though owning one is probably realistically out of the question bar selling/trading my other gear.

I would suggest it would cause a lot less bother to either play all the 'standardish' songs at either concert pitch or using 'E flat' standard tuning. If nothing else it allow the gig to have more of a flow and would mean that there would not be constant changes of instruments/tunings for each song, which I find to be a pain when watching gigs/ At least then you could get down to 2 four string basses, one in standard/E flat and one in D, where you could probably use for drop C tuning when needed. Failing that if the style of music is such that you don't need a 'tight' low D or C, you could just downtune the E on the standard four string. I used to do this before I changed to fives, but I was using using fairly hefty strings for standard tuning anyway (50-110 roundwounds, I just liked the tone). The benefits are that you can get the low note that 9 times out of ten 'will do' for the purposes of a particular song and you only have to tune one string rather than four. The annoying bit is that basically you have to transpose the song and get to grips with sometimes strange fingering, meaning that you have think through your parts a bit. Also compared to a good B of a five string, the sound is not going to be as tight.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1331434' date='Aug 7 2011, 09:53 PM']Haha, not this year! I think it was Summer 2009...when I visited a friend. I must admit the quality of each Sadowsky I tested was very good. I think Fender lose a lot of sales due to the fact that we have to 'try' before we buy, everytime, whereas with Sadowsky I bet 99% of them are spot on.[/quote] I agree on that. I have only played one Sadowsky that I thought was a bit iffy and that was about 4-5 years ago. The only problem I had in finding one was getting the finish and model I wanted. In terms of Fender I think you think that you could line up 5 basses of the same model and finish, they would feel like entirely different basses! That is the magic of Fender though and makes it all the better when you find one that feels right. I still think that when you actually find a really good Fender there is not much that can beat it, including the Sadowsky. Its just that after looking for about 5 years of searching I thought the Fenders I tried where nowhere close to the Metros and Sandbergs I tried, including a few late 60s and 70s Fender models. Hell the Metro prices didn't loook that bad compared to the costs of 70s Fenders now! My 1978 P cost me £390 in 1999! Even though that was a good, I find it hard to justify paying £1500 to £2000 for a late 1970s Jazz, knowing the flexibility of the modern interpretations of the Jazz.

I think a lot of people that go to gigs etc tend to see with their eyes. If I saw a band at the pub that were playing mustang sally etc and the guy was playing a top of the line Warwick, obviously I would assume that the player has invested a lot of money into furthering his interest in playing bass, even if he knows he isn't going to make a living playing bass. This for me is a good thing. Sometimes bands are very conscious of how they appear on stage and everybody has to have a certain 'look' to them. In that case maybe bringing the Anthony Jackson Fodera and wearing a full suit and tie combo isn't the best idea when playing in a vintage rock band where the rest of your band are playing vintage gear and wearing jeans and t shirts. Whether you are opposed to the notion of people hearing with their eyes or not, this does happen. However, if you are playing covers in your local pub, or play in a band that doesn't feel that its instruments have to look a certain way, then play what you want. For me the issue of whether the bassist in question is 'worthy' enough to play an instrument is neither here nor there. A bassist that can't keep time or hit the right notes is going to struggle just as much on a Westfield P copy as he/she will on a boutique bass.