Muzz

Yup, that's what I'd aspire to - I got a "tight" from a punter (admittedly a guitarist, but hey, I'll talk to anyone after a gig... ) last Friday, and that'll do, too...

I've a had a steadily mounting regret after selling my 1515L, tho I'd be interested to know how these newer generation of cabs sound compared to the original angled series. Anyone had an direct experience of both generations?

Yeah, a Sunday would work better for me, too...

All good if your setlist doesn't require you to chop and change...horses for courses. I think a lot of people like a mid-scooped solo sound, and that can go walkies in some band setups, which is where the OP was coming from...

'Banter': Yeah, I'd used it carefully with the 'a level of', because it's a sliding scale from affectionate ribbing to pointed barbs, but it can be a good thing. I think what you have seen, Rob, is bullying being passed off as something else.

It depends on what sort of sound you like to hear soloed, but for me, it can be pretty different, depending on the song and the arrangement. We use keys for some songs, we use two loud guitars for others, we use mandolin and acoustic for others, and the same bass sound won't cut it for them all. I even change the basic sound (I'm not including pedals here, which I don't use, because that's a whole different and interesting kettle of fish) between verse and chorus in some songs - Don't Stop Believing, for example, needs some honky mids for the signature, erm, honk in the choruses, but less in the verses. I have superb active EQ (East U-Retro) on all my basses, so I can do this from the bass without touching the amp. Sure, I could get away with one sound, but in my main band we'd expect the guitarist to have several different sounds for different songs, ditto the keyboards, and I don't consider myself a special case.

I'd say it's very healthy to have a level of banter in any group, it's a bonding thing, but only the OP can decide whether this is becoming personally abusive and effectively bullying. From the posts, it certainly sounds like it, and it's not a level of sneering I'd put up with without, shall we say, a robust response. It's an enduring meme to consider the bassist to be a lesser contributor, after all it's (usually) only four strings, how hard can it be, etc, but I've never suspected that anyone I've been in a band with has considered my musical contribution to be any less important than theirs. Maybe I just hang out with good musicians. The desire to put someone else down is usually fuelled by an insecurity, which says more about the bully than the bullied.

+1 to all the above. Complete sense spoken on a Basschat thread -this could be a first

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1439551166' post='2843792'] Our main guitar amp at the time was a Linear Concord, a whole 30 watts. My brother used an enormous old (even then...) valve tape recorder as an overdrive; it was 3 times the size (and weight..!) of the amp. Our 2nd guitar, John Mac, wanted disto too so, not to be outdone, he brought along a whole stereo radiogram, as big as a sideboard. We did very few gigs with that formation, but the sounds were excellent, to our inexperienced (and poor..!) ears. Reggae became known, and we wanted to record something in that idiom. We finally nailed the bass drum sound we were looking for by shoving a giant stuffed ladybird into a plastic bucket, and whacking it with the flat of a wooden spoon. Happy daze. [/quote] Please tell me he'd left the table lamp and onyx ashtray on it, too...makes Geddy's stage rig look amateurish...

[quote name='RandomBass' timestamp='1439533855' post='2843571'] Ditto. Except in my case the badge would either be the wrong colour or the wrong shape. Or something like that... [/quote] Or it would just be too heavy...

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1439416171' post='2842783'] You've encompassed pretty much everything I own with that list [/quote] That's OK, I'll bet my mixing silver and gold hardware on my Fenderbird would bring you out in a rash...

If you're putting 500w into a decent 410, you should be getting some serious sound levels output - I never had any issues with a 2-guitar/keys band with a LMIII and the 410HR. Have you had a play with your EQ? If you're not 'cutting it', then mids are your friend in a band context - there's often a difference between a pleasant sound solo'd (usually mid-scooped) and one which works with the band. I'd start by setting the LMIII flat (that's VLE and VPF off, not at 12), and adding or subtracting from there. I'd suggest tilting the cab up to point at your head, but with a 410 that's gonna be a bit of a job. Or perhaps you could get the band to play a bit less loudly? If you're finding your 500w 410 rig isn't loud enough, I really hope you're protecting your hearing from everything else.

Yep, got mine from an EBay seller in the UK, they were around that money.

OK, I've used these Elixirs (Stainless, Light/Medium 45-105s) for a few weeks now, through plenty of gigs and a few rehearsals, so I feel I can comment properly. Firstly, the environment: they've been on my Shuker, which is by far my preferred bass - walnut body, maple neck, brass nut and has two split-coil pickups and a John East U-Retro. I play in a function band, an originals band and a Very Metal pub band, so the spread of of songs and tones required is pretty wide, from Johnny Cash to Luther Vandross to Guns and Roses to Bruno Mars to Metallica to Paul Simon to Stevie Wonder to Sabbath to The Dubliners to...well, you get the picture. I play pick and fingers, with some slap when I have to, but I'd say 80% pick. I use a Jim Dunlop .88 Nylon pick. The strings replaced a set of DR Stainless Lo-Riders, but I've also used D'Addario XL Stainless and even Ernie Ball Stainless Hybrids on this bass, all the same 45-105 gauge. Tension - I like a higher tension string, and though they're not as high tension as the D'Addarios, they're not far off the DRs, and a nice compromise without being overly high. Feel - I've used coated strings before (DRs, Warwick EMP and earlier Elixirs) and never really liked the too-slick, almost-slimy feel of the low-friction coatings: just too much. Again, though, these new Elixirs seem to have addressed this: the coating is definitely there - you notice the lack of string noise when moving along the strings, but they don't feel slippy in a bad way. Tone - All a bit personal and relative, but I'm really liking them on this bass. They don't have the hissy end of extreme zing that new stainless roundwounds have (at least for the first few days/weeks), but they have a more musical top end which, importantly, stays with them. They have a piano tone (on this bass) with smooth mids and a firm bottom end, which doesn't flab out. There's no noticeable 'bedding in' period - they still sound today (see Durability below) pretty much exactly the same as they did when they went on. Durability - When I've used coated strings before (again, the DRs, Warwicks and earlier Elixirs) the coating hasn't lasted long before it's started to wear off, especially at the bridge end under the pick, and once it started to go, it frayed very quickly, even to the point of looking like Spanish moss hanging off the strings. It also wore down over the frets, especially down in the first position. This was more noticable with the coloured coated strings, but it was there with all of them. The new Elixirs have lasted through eight hot, sweaty gigs (2 x 1hr sets) plus three four-hour rehearsals, and I'd say 30 hours bedroom practice/learning, so that'd be pushing 60 hours of playing, without any signs of the coating wearing at all - and I've had a good close look. I honestly didn't expect them to last this long without wear - I don't exactly baby the bass: I have a pretty heavy touch. String Length - The only downside I've found with them is I would've loved to try them on my Dingwall, but unlike the D'Addarios or DRs, they reduce in diameter pretty quickly beyond the 35" mark, so I can't get them on my Dingwall because by the time the E and A get over the nut, they're down two steps in the winding, which will make them far too low in the nut. They don't make another scale length in them, either, so I'd imagine (tho I haven't checked) if you were using a through-body stringing setup, you'd be in the same position. Something to bear in mind. They don't have silk windings, which is a big plus for me, as I've had bridge issues with silks and had to trim them back too many times before now. So, to sum up - they're an expensive option, that's obvious: pretty much twice the price of some of the non-coated strings they're replacing - but I'm now sure they'll last far more than twice the time, and, more importantly, the tone they'll produce will be far more consistent over that time, rather then the decay in brightness which is normal with stainless rounds. And that's speaking as a pick player: I'm sure finger players will get even more out of them, as they'll probably get an easier life. If you've never tried coated strings, or even if you've tried them before and been put off, like I was, by the too-slick feel and visible wear, I'd say give these a try - they're a great string, and you might well like them, and even save some money in the long term.

Yep, I can single out individual features and whole basses - every single one of my list is a deal-breaker. It's probably a condition, I could get a parking badge or something...

Not them, but I've had a few Mightymite necks, and they've generally been very good - one of them needed a bit of a fret dress (the fret ends), but otherwise great for the money.

Small bodies, single cuts, the top horn on a Corvette that looks like a nob, bog-seat Bongos, rosewood boards, shiny varnished necks, any of the forty seven million Jazz copies out there (no matter how much they cost), real Jazzes, Rickenbackers, anything other than 4s... I could think of more, but I've depressed myself with my negativity too much already... Oh wait, I've just remembered: anything artifically reliced...yeah, that...

I don't think the piano analogy holds up, I'm sure there are many examples on Pianochat or its equivalent (tho I'm not willing to go and look ) of 'bang for buck' cheaper pianos... It's very much an emotive sliding scale - I'm sure there's lots of people who think US Fenders and G&Ls aren't bang for buck - they'll champion Roadworns or Tributes, etc. I've got a P-copy I paid £60 for new, which is pretty close to a US P (and I've had a few of them) [i]for my intents and purposes.[/i] Is a US P ten, twenty times better? Not for me, but definitely for someone else. I have a luthier-made bass which is exactly what I wanted, built to my exact spec and with fantastic attention to detail and quality, which cost me the same as a certain US factory-built bass. Is it better? It is to me, massively, but I know chaps on here who are fans of the other manufacturer who wouldn't hesitate for a second to make the other choice. Which is cool, and says more about us than it does about the basses. An opposite example - I had a 78 Jazz once, a horrible thing to play, sounded...brown...weighed a ton (and I'm talking nearly 12lbs here) but it was in astonishing nick, had the original case, etc, etc, and it sold for an amount that made my eyebrows shoot up. I'm sure whoever bought it thinks it's worth the money; myself, I couldn't be bothered even playing it... It's all down to what you'd consider 'worth double the price' to be? If you can define that, we can answer more accurately.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1439205021' post='2840742'] It all sounds a bit 'wannabe' to me. Like darts players calling themselves 'atheletes'. [/quote] Bit like that George Martin...he always wanted to be Ringo, I heard...

I'd say that when done well it's a real skill, a real musical talent, more akin to production and engineering than actually playing the instruments, perhaps, but within it's genre completely valid. After all, isn't jazz just a lot of old blokes making it up as they go along for a bunch of people sitting down and nodding? Dreadful.

Have you played one? They're a very distinctive bass, that pickup where it is makes it unlike a lot of other basses (there are many subsequent basses which use it, but the Ray's the original) and so can be Marmite. That's not to say it's a one-trick pony, but it is very distinctive. I ask because I love them, I keep buying them, but I keep selling them because I don't get on with them in a band context, so they don't get used. In the light of that, I'd advise a secondhand US Sub (not the Sterling SUB or SUB4 or whatever the hell else Sterling B and the boys have thought of this week) first - can be had for at least a couple of hundred quid less than the US MM ones, and will give you the sound and (most of) the feel of a US one. You'll get your money back selling it on if you decide to either buy a US MM or not bother. There's differences in models beyond this (the 2 and 3 EQs are voiced differently, for starters), but they're fairly subtle compared to the actual living with the bass itself, and you could probably get into all that once you've established you're a fan of the basses. PS Ebay pricing?

All the Barefaced cabs I've owned have been startling on a sound to size/weight basis (and, like you, I come from an SVT/810 background years ago), the Super 12T I had was just huuuge sounding, but the most surprising was the Big Baby 2 - I played an RAF gig in a hangar with just that, and I couldn't believe a single 12" plus tweeter could cut it (playing all sorts, but including GnR, Muse, DC with 2 guitarists), but it did. Cash issues at Xmas meant I sold it, but I've got a Compact and Midget now, and they do all I need, and are modular, too. Plus they both fit, with 2 basses, amp and cables bag, in the boot of my Passat... You could do a lot worse than start with 1 Compact and see how you get on with that, and add another if you need...

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1438887228' post='2838467'] It's what keeps me out of bassdirect and bass gear. Being such high end establishments just makes the pressure worse. [/quote] Naah, just get down there - Mark at BD will have heard a lot worse: me, for a start... He's always been very subtle when I've been there - he sets the amp and bass up, then retires into the office while I faff. Probably to bite his fist...

With due respect to the craft displayed by Mssrs Wilkenfeld and Caron, still ain't heard anything I like. If there absolutely have to be solos in a live context, I'd be in favour of making them at least four or five minutes long, so I can get to the bog and then the bar...

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1438779978' post='2837186'] Those who are dead against bass solos - are you just thinking about the context of the music that you play? Is it just that you can't imagine a good bass solo in this context? I find it very strange for any musician to write off an almost infinite amount of musical possibilities just because it's called a "bass solo", but it would make sense if you were talking about your pub-rock-covers band. [/quote] When I hear a good one (in any context), I'll let you know...