thodrik

Ah huzzah, just thought that was a rack mounted preamp? Should be good.

I bought one of these today. I'm so pleased with it but now I will be eating only bread for the next month. Really great pedal that has a lot of sound shaping possibilities and very quick tracking, even down near the bottom of the A string. I also tried the TLC compression pedal and was knocked out by the difference it could make to a slap tone. If I actually did any slap type stuff (in public anyway) it would be sure thing in my pedal chain. I couldn't justify buying such a thing just now though. Apparently according to the store guy at Guitar Guitar, Aguilar are probably going to release more pedals pretty soon. I'm hoping for a nasty overdrive/extreme Tone Hammer type thing. I won't be holding my breath though... Overall a productive day!

Ampeg 6x10 is one of my favourite cabs to play through. The 450 should be a good match. Well done!

I think it looks great and its always good to see someone thinking outside the box. I would love to try to one, but have my doubts as to how it would cope with playing chords high up on the neck. Until I try one I can't say anything though...

I have one. It is really good at getting a true valve overdrive or acting as a really nice sweet sounding preamp, but I do have a few issues with it. 1. The vintage setting is really fluffy and a bit ill-defined so not much use. 2. It does take a bit to get used to the EQ settings. 3. When used live, there has been a noticeable 'click' when swiched on and off on my one. I leave it on most of the time but it is very annoying. 4. Construction issues, the rubber feet keep falling off and the gain knob fell off once. For the price I paid this should not be an issue really. 5. No UK plug is supplied, so you have to buy an adapter 6. It is massive! Its got to the point now that I just use it for recording/practices. I'm not sure I trust valve pedals to play gig after gig, night after night. I also have the Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n which I think gives a more gnarly, unrefined sound for a lot less money. Depends on what you are after soundwise. Given the choice again, I would maybe have gone with the Multidrive or have waited for the Metaldrive. As it is, I'm back using the Boss ODB 3, as I find the blend knob to be useful and there are no construction fears. The core tone is really coming from my bass and amp really.

An efficient 300 watt amp is more than capable of driving an 8x10 to silly levels of volume. Used a Mesa Walkabout head through an 8x10 and it cut through two full marshall guitar stacks and a very loud drummer. Ashdown Evos sound fine through an Ampeg 8x10. It is the stock set up in a few rehearsal studios around Glasgow. Personally I think that the Ampeg cabs are better than the Ashdown cabs, but the price of 8x10 Mag cab is really good value for money.

For me, its gonna be a difference in the preamp, and possibly more consistent fretwork. For a passive Fender-style bass I would probably take a Fender. However, I've never heard an active Fender that could compete with a Sandberg, Sadowsky or other such basses. I've not tried the new US deluxe line yet, but generally active preamps have not been Fender's strong point, in my view. Also, until the release of the new US deluxe line, I've thought that the colour options of the recent Fenders have been pretty limited/ugly compared to the Lakland and the rest.

Round about a grand? EBS Fafner! I'm biased though... Or pick up a second hand ampeg and leave yourself some cash for new pick ups/new bass/food.

I'm a try before you buy person. If it is a 'new' bass but has a few dings I obviously don't expect to charged full price, but if it plays great then I would see no reason not to buy it if the damage was only cosmetic. Dings and stuff happen, even if you really look after your basses. Spending £2000 grand on a really beaten up old Fender with 'mojo', where the dings seem to add to the value, does annoy me a bit though. I don't like the idea of trying a 'showroom' bass which I decide to buy only to be given a new bass which hasn't been touched, the bass I buy has to be the one I try out in the store. I have no problem buying amps online, but I couldn't buy a bass without playing it first, unless it was made to order type bass like a Sadowsky NYC, Fodera, Ritter etc where I know that the bass is going straight from the workshop into my hands. Spending that type of money everything should be perfect!

Get a valve amp and drive it hard. P bass optional. Getting an all valve head is expensive buying new though. A second hand Ampeg Pro hybrid would be pretty good. Failing that get a tube pedal like the English Muff'n or EBS Valvedrive, or a VT bass type pedal and stick it before the Ashdown. It would do the job and save money. Like what others have said I would look at maybe getting a new pickup or bass before deciding to spend loads on an amp. You could do far worse than an Evo head.

Sometimes it just comes into my head, when doing something else, then I need to find an instrument to try it out, usually it the bass. Sitting down composing is usually with the bass. I usually compose it as if its a bass solo piece. So I build up chords, melodic runs, and loads of other bits that I have no intention of playing in a band environment. This way I have the skeleton of the song and an idea of what I want the guitar to do. I write with the guitar as well, but I don't believe that the guitar is necessarily a better instrument for composing. The bass is only limited if you are trying to write a bassline, rather than a song/composition. If you are using the guitar to write a bunch of bloc guitar chords, then its not really any better. I just tend not to use keys/piano. Mostly because I don't own any.

I really liked the bass tone from the guy in Dozer, nothing fancy just great tone that was usually mixed quite well. And on the singing stoner bassists front I'll say Lou Gorra from Halfway to Gone. Just cool. My personal favourite would probably be Torche though, as the whole band provides bass tone! If Deftones count as a modern band I would stick them in too. In terms of famous bands of the moment, nobody really springs to mind. The guy in Alexisonfire has a fairly nice Jazz bass growl at times. Sometimes I almost think the guy in Nickleback gets a good tone, but I'm not sure if it is 'tone' but rather a case of each note being produced to within an inch of its life!

Awwww, this is an valve amp that gets me a bit giddy!

Tried out a Classic in a shop when looking at a bass. I was playing at a very low volume and a tube went. The guy in the shop then plugged me into an Aguilar DB750, which just sounded so much better. That said, I've seen so many bassists using SVT Classics that have had a great tone and I've never been at a gig where a tube Ampeg has cut out or gone wrong live. Tube amps both excite and scare me. The quality control on Ampeg seems to be as varied as trying out a Fender bass, you could try one out and have a dud, or try one and think 'this is the best thing ever!' They are still a big name, but I'm not sure they can really be classed as the 'industry standard' anymore. I must say that I was buying my last amp, I really didn't consider Ampeg Classic or VR, because I just didn't feel I could trust it in a gig to gig situation. They are also expensive and power tubes are expensive!

After listening to a few, I just concluded that Dual Recs tend to swamp over a lot of the bass frequencies by stealing a lot of space in the mix that would normally be taken up by the bass, which in turn can make it difficult to get the bass to cut through. That said, a good amp even if only 300 watts, played through a decent 8x10 should cut through any live/practice situation. The Ashdown ABM Head shouldn't really struggle, though I'm not keen on their cabs but that is just me. Don't rule out a good 6x10 either, just about as loud as an 8x10 but a but more portable. Unless, you are playing large venues all the time, turning up with an 8x10 to smaller venues can make soundmen take an immediate dislike to you. If you are tuning down and have space to transport them, you could buy a couple of 2x15s and find some space under the guitarists. Its funny that these amps are designed for use in large arenas and stadiums, but the Roadrunner bands playing said arenas probably have empty cabs and are playing through rackmounted effects units sitting behind the stage. Regardless, if those guitarists are turning up that loud, they had better be good!

If you still love the tone of Trace Elliot, you could always just get another head. Second hand Trace heads are everywhere and a Series 6 or SMX type head would also be dirt cheap and be generally pretty reliable. That said if buying new I would personally be looking at other options than Trace Elliot, as I find the new stuff to a little bit overpriced. You wouldn't really be going wrong with a Markbass, the couple I have tried have been great. Also around that price you could try the EBS Classic 450, HD 350 and the Aguilar AG500. Thats a bit of a shame on the amp front though, with the issues of the amp though, you may not get that much money for it. Might be an idea to just play it until it craps out.

I love old Fenders, I have a 1978 Precision which plays great and I could never sell With that out of the way at this point in my life if I'm getting a bass it has to be one that I'm going to play and gig regularly. Owning a piece of history is great, but as I've found out, history can sometimes play and sound like a dog. I always thought I would pay £2000 plus for an old Fender J bass if it was 'the one', but knowing that a Sandberg, a new Fender Deluxe or a Sadowsky Metro are all cheaper than a lot of these vintage basses makes me wonder if it the 'Vintage' basses are worth the bother, from a general playing standpoint. Although lacking in 'mojo' these basses are finished to a very high standard, use good quality wood and have improved pickups and eq systems (to my ears anyway). I suppose its like wanting a Wal or Fodera though, if you really want an old beat up Fender then you need to pay the price. You can try out the 'relic' finishes, but it just never looks right!

Aaarrrgghhhh, every time I see an Arpege or Passion it just about puts me in fits! I've never tried one, but I have owned an Excess for the best part of six years. The best built bass I've ever played. I would love to get my hands on an Arpege or Passion, I've heard that the neck profile is a bit slimmer than the Excess, but until I try one I can't really tell if it would agree with me. Also since I'm not in the frame for buying a bass, I fear trying one out would be a bad idea, because if I liked the bass it would then mean I would somehow have to find a way to buy one, which given my current financial status could be a problem! Although I love the Excess, I find the neck to be a bit wide near the nut compared to a Fender-J style bass, and with my small hands I can't really cover the fretboard with the speed I would like when just practising technique orientated stuff. The sound more than makes up for this though.

I use a Park 25 watt amp. It has lasted 11 years without any issues. The tone is actually pretty good. Apart from the VBA 400 its the best bass amp I have tried that is associated with Marshall. I'm guessing that most of the modern practice amps have a lot more cool features though! I love the new little EBS combo and once saw a little HiWatt combo in a shop that at least looked awesome. I would love a cool practice amp, but until this one breaks I'm gonna just make do.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='776126' date='Mar 16 2010, 11:45 AM']Not a Vintage Modified? The VMJs are going for about £220 lowest online price. Plus p&p of course. The Affinity Jazz is about £150 same deal. Surely the VMJ wins for value for money? No?[/quote] Well, the Affinity Jazz is cheaper. If what you want is a cheap electric bass that looks like a Fender Jazz bass, has four strings, pickups and a bridge and works fine, surely that is the definition of value for money? VMJs are more expensive, and have a few extra features. In my opinion they would only obviously be better value for money than the Affinity series if they were the same price. But the VMJs are more expensive. Its about £75 quid difference for what is still a pretty basic bass, which is about half the price of an Affinity Jazz. I'm sticking to my original answer.

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='775912' date='Mar 16 2010, 03:25 AM']It's an active, as per the title. Yeah I have tried changing the battery, sorry, forgot to cross that off the checklist. I do have to crank the amp compared to my other basses and in the studio they had problems getting a strong signal. I talked to someone else on here that was selling one recently and they said it was quiet but not that bad. Maybe it's just they haven't been in a situation to notice with it or something. This may be a silly question, but when a SS amp starts breaking up, is it at a set point on the amp (e.g. always 5 o clock) or is it to do with the signal strength too? I'm pretty sure that one or two of my other basses can go through my amp and get louder without it breaking up. Is it because the input signal's stronger so the amp isn't working as hard to amplify it or should the amp start clipping at the same internal volume regardless of the input strength? Like I said above, it has lasted me years, ironically I'm hopefully going to be getting a new bass this year, so it's quite late to think about doing something about this. If I hadn't had problems in recording with it recently, I wouldn't be questioning it so it'll do until I get something new in a few months. Just one of those things where you think "well if I can find an easy solution, I should go with it". Thanks for the helpful reply though.[/quote] My eyes weren't working last night, I totally missed the 'active' bit!

Is it an active or passive bass? A passive is generally not going to be as loud as an active bass. Unless you try your bass side by side with another bass of same model, it will be difficult to tell if yours has a lower output than the rest. If its active, I know this is stupidly obvious but have you tried changing the battery? Sorry, if there are obvious problems with the eq etc then its probably best to take it to a repair shop, if possible one with experience of Ibanez basses. Also if it sounds great but just has a low output, couldn't you just crank the gain on the amp a bit? Amps in my experience only start breaking up or clipping when they are being driven hard/too hard. If the output is too low to even drive an amp properly then you might as well take to repair shop as there is clearly be something wrong with it.

Buying new, if you find a good Squier Affinity Jazz then it surely must be considered value for money. Or a Westfield. Buying second hand bass, you can always find some guy selling a great piece of kit for silly prices simply because they don't know what they have. Almost new Stingrays going for £400 and so on. You just have to be lucky I guess. Always thought that the Marcus Miller Jazz stood out as a great mid-price bass that could compete with more expensive basses. I've not tried a Geddy Lee but it seems to have a good reputation as well. I suppose it depends on your budget and what you want to get using said budget.Using the philosophical 'whatever bass makes you happiest', it could be a Six string Fodera constructed only out of the wood from the tree from the Garden of Eden.

Well I suppose I'm using some kind of moveable anchor/floating thumb technique. I find it to be more flexible personally allowing for quick changes to tapping, slap or double-thumbing (none of which I tend to do at gigs!) I always found thumbrests to get in the way when playing a jazz bass, also I have small hands so I always find them to be too far away from the strings! Probably why I move my thumb about as well.