thodrik

Simply put, if there are only three bands playing and we are the headline band and are ordered to turn up several hours before a gig for a soundcheck, I would expect a bit better than just a DI box awaiting me! Playing in a three piece band most of the time with bass, drums and guitar, its not like our set ups require the soundguy to spend ages with a horn section, keyboards or other stuff. I don't run an extreme setting or anything but the fear of the DI box puts me off using a passive bass at gigs, as a bad soundman can completely change the character of the sound of the bass in a bad way. I don't buy the 'what sounds good to you may sound crap out front' as a reason for always using a DI box, as it kind of gives the impression that the bassist in question has no real idea on how to use eq. A crappy thin, middy P bass tone is going to sound pretty weak regardless of the system its being played through. Of course some bassists really don't know how to use eq, and some soundguys can make a passive bass sound amazing from just a DI box. I also just don't buy the 'he/she is protecting himself/herself in case your amp goes', half of the time it is just lazyness and at most gigs, there is about as much chance as the PA 'going' or their Behringer DI breaking down as there is of my amp. With that said I never really kick up a fuss and even understand using a DI box if there are a lot of bands playing at a gig (for me this is more than three), with lots of different amps and no soundcheck for anybody. Usually if a soundguy gives me a good reason why he is only using a DI box(small venue, very little bass going through PA anyway, time schedule etc) I will leave him be and just use the box, as life is too short to get wound up about such things. But if the answer is just because he can't be bothered, I just make sure to take the Sansamp out of the gigbag. Rant over! With all that said, most sound guys/girls I deal with range from good to excellent and are very easy to deal with. My rant is just based on the few times that I have just been at one of 'those' gigs.

After watching the Gibson Firebird X demo, the Gamechanger looks like a P bass in comparison in terms of ease of use.

Tough one that... Probably any of Hendrix, Peter Green, Buddy Guy, SRV, Matt Pike, Josh Homme for an open ended blues based/stoner jam. Part of me would say Kurt Cobain as well. I always think that his ability as a guitarist was a bit overlooked, he knew what he was doing and always got a great sound, in my opinion anyway.

I don't really get on with MM basses myself, but they make really good stuff. A nice way of way of moving the design of the electric guitar while making it appear user friendly. Personally one of the best things I like about guitars is the natural character or identity they tend to have (ie the Jazz/P bass or Tele/SG differences). This will be a great studio and live instrument for sure though. Not my thing however. I'm really enjoying the Youtube video though, you can tell they are really proud of it, as they should be. Without all the gimmickery though, I think that its one of the best looking MM basses they have made, especially the double humbucker model.

Interesting. I still have not even seen the BTA series around at gigs or in shops around here though, and they have been out for a while. It could be a while before I see the Drophead around.

[quote name='JMT3781' post='1089728' date='Jan 14 2011, 07:30 PM']Price is 1399 as stated in the article[/quote] Wow, so that is Mesa's idea of being 'truly wallet-friendly'?

From what I have heard the M3 Carbine is a standalone amp rather than a replacement for the Walkabout. The Carbine series are supposed to sound a lot different to the Walkabout, generally a lot cleaner sounding at high volumes. I hate to see the Walkabout be discontinued, as its great amp. The lack of clean headroom on the Walkabout is a problem for some, but brilliant for folk that don't want a really really clean sound.

I ended up going with the Aguilar Agro recently as I got tired of doing repair works on the English Muff'n. Good pedal, adds a bit of grit and can do some good full on fuzz too. Could do with a blend mind, but nice for a bit of grit that doesn't colour your sound as much as the Sansamp Bass Driver, which is also a great pedal.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1087030' date='Jan 12 2011, 06:46 PM']Do you mean they are not worth the asking price of £1200?[/quote] I was a little bit yes. In term of looks if nothing else I find the 44/55 series as lacking a bit of wow-factor, even in comparison to the Joe Osborn series etc, but that might be down to me not liking the looks in general as I will always pick a Fender clone over a Musicman based design. With the way the price of basses has skyrocketed in the last couple of years though, I think I have to reevaluate my expectations of the bass I can buy new for £1200. Musicmans are going for around £1500 new, standard US Fenders are going for over £1000. So in that respect, yes the Laklands probably are worth the money. Its just that a couple of years ago I'm sure that the Laklands were going for a lot lot less than they are going for now. With all that said though, I absolutely maintain that they are very nice basses that are really playable.

I tried a 55-02 and 55-01 recently and really liked them. In the day where I also tried an Overwater Perception and an older series Fender American deluxe V, the Overwater 55-02 was my favourite by far. I really liked the neck profile which surprised me. I never really liked the profile of four string Laklands I have tried, but on the five it just seemed right. I wasn't entirely convinced by the electronics of either the 55-01 or 02, but they could easily be switched out. The overall build quality seemed pretty good on all the ones I tried as well, a much better 'good ones to dogs' ratio than Fender. Still regardless of that I have a hard time believing that the 55-02 Skylines are really a £1200 bass. But I think a £1200 bass is fairly different from it used to be, in terms of buying from shops.

Looks like it. I prefer the new name anyway. I wonder if they would ever make them as a five string? Doubt it though.

I would maybe say the ampeg BA combos as well. Not very moveable or loud for their size, but will always deliver good tone, be loud enough for gigs and ampeg have good name recognition amongst the general public. Hartke would also be a good one, though I'm in the minority of folk that don't like the Hartke aluminium speaker cones. Good luck.

I have heard worse. At least he is not afraid of using his own products. With it being an Orange amp, all he really had to do to sell it was turn up the gain pretty high, hit the e string and go 'see, its loud and valvey and it can be quite fuzzy too'.

I have a Gibson EB3 circa 1974. Neck Dive? Yes Really heavy? Yes Badly designed bridge? Yes Tone controls that are more like off/on switches rather than a gradual change of 1-10? That as well Terrible? Far from it Its medium scale (32 inches), which means that it is not much use for anything downtuned even to drop d, but in standard tuning it really is a great bass with a unique sound which makes up for its obvious design flaws. Brilliant for blues and rock stuff. Huge natural low end means you have to be careful when adding bass through the amp. Really nice neck, although it doesn't really taper much.

I'm not an Ashdown fan at all, but after 4 years or so I can generally manage a pretty good sound out of them. Normally it involves turning the bass knob to about 10 or 11 o'clock, leaving everything else 'flat' apart from maybe boosting the highs a tiny bit (passive basses can bit by with a bit more bass in my opinion). I find if you cut the bass on an Ashdown you end up with a tone closer to most other amps when the bass has been boosted a fair bit. Other views may vary, considerably Saying that though, I just don't think the eq is in any way an improvement over what Trace Elliot were doing a decade before. I'm not that impressed with the Ashdown cabs though. Still despite all of that, I still thing that Ashdown make decent amps, I just don't like the front end design as much as anything else.

I like them. A bit unsure about the bridge in terms of looks, but at least it stops it from being a complete Fender clone. Same with the fingerboard/headstock issue. After buying a Sadowsky Metro I think I have fulfilled my 'expensive active electronic instrument based on a Fender jazz' quota. One is enough for me. The five string I would maybe consider, but I think its well out of my price range just now, and for a five string I would prefer to have 24 frets, I don't know why, I just do.

I've only tried the 4x10 cab, which I think is a really great cab. Tried lifting one though, which has almost ruled it out for me as a cab. When I tried the 4x10 it was playing through the TD650, and got a very usable tone with a fair amount of old school grit. As such I didn't find the combination of the amps and cabs to be too glassy, I suspect the person letting me use his amp had already turned down the tweeter. I use the Fafner through Trace Elliot cabs, which I think goes well with getting a decent, modern but not too modern sound. I'm not saying that they are greatest cabs, they have just done a good job the last couple of years. The problem I've heard from folk is that the amps are a bit too transparent, which makes them seem a bit characterless compared to amps that seem to have a built in signature sound (Trace Elliot, Ampeg, Eden, Mesa). If you love the natural sound of your bass, the EBS amps are a really good amp to use. Not tried the HD350 though, maybe I would find it a bit too modern. I pretty much turn tweeters off, or almost off, on any cab I use though.

I like a lot of the music and the sounds created by the band, but I just don't like Morrissey: his voice, his lyrics or him in general. It doesn't bother me if others find him amazing, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I just will never be 'won over' by Morrissey. If the entire Smiths catalogue was released any of the vocals, I would buy it without question.

300 watts sounds fairly small in comparison to some of the competition. But how much power do you really need before it just becomes a generic number that people use to signify 'loudness'.However, I find it difficult to classify watts in terms of loudness beyond the obvious (ie a 65 watt amp is not as loud as a 300 watt amp). For example I have a Trace Elliot 300 watt head (SMX series) and a Mesa Walkabout, and find that there is no real difference in headroom/loudness between these amps and the Ashdown ABM 500 and Ampeg SVT 450 that are in the studio I use. I have always had the view that an efficient 300 watt amp driven through a 4ohm loud was plenty loud enough to cope with most gigs (especially if is being driven through a good cab). Tech 21 will probably bring out a 600 watt version in 6 months or so, much like they have made people wait a while before they brought out a VT bass pedal that had a DI out. Merry christmas everybody!

I don't really see the problem in tuning down. Even if it is just a half step, if you prefer the sound of it being a half step down, then why not? I don't like it when those that prefer 'heavier' (meaning lower/downtuned) tunings are perceived to be unable to play in standard tuning or have a working knowledge of harmony, melody and song structure. I don't think it says anything about the ability, or lack of ability, of the guitarist in question. I used to get annoyed by the amount of guitarists who insisted on playing in drop d the whole time. The tuning often pretty much demands you also play in drop d (D A D G) rather than tune a whole step down (D G C F), as you often need the two open Ds (what I call the 'Tool effect'). Even then there were some good ones in amongst the one finger power chord wonders.

Just keep playing! I found that playing double bass and learning the theory alongside was great for my understanding of music in general. However it was not as helpful as all the time I have spent playing the electric bass by myself or in band situations. After a certain point (ie six months into studying classical music at uni), I thought that playing double bass in order to be a better electric bass player was like learning to play squash in order to become a better tennis player. After a while I just wanted to play tennis, and playing squash was just getting in the way of things, even though it was really helpful at first. After using up my metaphor and imagery quota for the month, I'll just say to keep doing what you are doing. I would say to keep doing what you are doing. I wouldn't get too bogged down on learning new techniques all at once, or adopting a clinical approach to electric bass playing as you would with classical double bass playing. Just keep on playing and after a certain period in time you just get a feeling on how to approach chord sequences etc and different techniques will come more easilly once you start to really know the instrument.

I always thought four strings was enough but now I am confused. I used to play tuned to C, which was fine on a four string with biggish strings. Then everything became drop D or standard and again a four string was enough. Now I'm playing stuff where a low A is needed (or I think is needed) and I'm thinking a five could be needed. I could easily change one of my basses to be able to get a drop A, but I don't think I could get a string that could do both a drop A and a drop D, which would mean taking two basses to practices or gigs (each bass wouldn't be much of a backup to each other either). Also, I don't like the idea of altering either my Vigier or old Precision to the point that it would be permanently in low A tuning, as I would feel it would either a waste of a great four string bass, or I would be worried about whether the old bass could take it. So on balance, now that I have a bit of money together, I'm now on the look for a five string bass, preferably with 24 frets.

I think that EBS is really flexible in terms of what it can be used for. Victor Bailey uses the Fafner (or at least did) and so does the guy from In Flames. In the US EBS are known as slappers amps whereas in Europe they are used by a lot of metal band. I think a lot of it is down to marketing mumbo-jumbo. Simply put I just consider them to be very good amps that can be used for any style. I use the old model Fafner myself, and it has no problem doing a driving rock sound. The new Fafner with the overdrive channel looks great and I would love to try it. That said the td600 is also perfectly capable of getting a good fat rock tone similar to the Fafner as well, it just looks less like a rock amp if nothing else. The Spector thing shouldn't really matter at all. I find the EBS stuff to very transparent, allowing the basic bass tone to shine through.

We were supposed to doing a gig in Campbeltown tonight, but I decided to cancel as I wanted to get home for Christmas. Sounds like a flimsy excuse I know, but between the weather in Glasgow and the weather in Orkney, today was my best shot of getting back at all. Travelling to Orkney isn't much fun!

Looking at the Bass Direct site, I like the look of the Mayones, as well as the MTD Kingston Heir for buying new. I try not to look at the Vigiers, Skjolds and others that I have no real hope of affording! I'm looking at getting a fiver myself, the G and L L2500 seem like good value bought from new, the only thing stopping me from really wanting it is that I would quite like a 24 fret neck. Good luck in your search.