Muzz

Following on from the giddy thread about my rig, I thought I'd share some bass giddyness. After a lot of basses recently, I've ended up with a really unexpected go-to bass, which is a bitsa Precision based on an SX bought on here as a beater. I paid less than a hundred quid for it, so I wasn't expecting much, but with some touring gigs coming up, I wanted a cheap spare. The neck was a Tangoed nightmare as thick as my arm, but the body was nice and light, and the sound plugged in was really, really good. So, after a bit of pondering, I Ebayed a MM maple neck for £78, a Schaller 3D bridge and a black scratchguard, and had Steve at PMT in Salford set it up for me. Result: the best Precision I've played: tons of growl, tons of zing and lovely and light. There's a picture of it in my avatar (complete with chav decal). The Stingray is (and all the others are) now second fiddle to a bass which set me back about £220 all in. Funny how, after spending several grand on basses, the cheapest one of all ends up being the best for me...

[quote name='Wil' post='855712' date='Jun 3 2010, 09:28 AM']I very much like my 1212L. Lovely little cab, does pack a fair punch, but I wish it was 8ohm so I could put another one underneath. I mean, it's loud, sure, but it's not as loud as I'd like in a rock/punk band. If you really push the volume, you tend to have to roll back the lows a touch. Maybe a bigger box would help there, they are dinky.[/quote] Lord above, how loud do you play? Either the 1515L is a lot louder than the 1212L, or my ears are duff, because I was standing next to our drummer (who hits 'em a bit), and I had the amp on "bugger all" (OK, less than 9 o'clock) and was easily loud enough - even at Montrose Town Hall, which is a big stage. One of the best things about the rig (and the part I was most paranoid about before I bought it) is the headroom. If I ever need to push this cab, I'll be playing far, far too loud, and the drummer will have exploded. IMHO, YMMV, God help your ears, etc, etc On the box size, the 1515L is the same size as the 1212L, but it puts out a ton of bass. Maybe not bowel-loosening deeeeep bass, but with a Precision/Stingray/pick, it's tonally where I like to be. Ditto the lack of tweeter - I don't need one, YMMV, but there's plenty of zing for what I need. The dropped D on the Ray needed a touch of bass from the amp (forgot to mention, I run the LM flat on all EQ), but then it delivered in spades. I'd have loved to have tried a Barefaced Super 12, but time was against us. On that subject, a big nod here to Alex, who was a gent while I was dithering (not entirely my fault, but the circumstances are far too dull to go into here), and had it not been for external pressures on me, I might well have had a Barefaced cab instead.

[quote name='51m0n' post='853609' date='Jun 1 2010, 02:32 PM']Exactly which sansamp doo-hickey is it that you have? They do a couple of programmable jobbies you see...[/quote] It's the BDDI one. Had a Behringer one first, to see if it was what I was after (they're pretty much identical in operation/sound apart from the build quality and programmable bit), then went the whole hog. Great piece of kit - here's a linky: [url="http://www.basscentre.com/bass-effects/sansamp-bass-driver-di-programmable.html"]http://www.basscentre.com/bass-effects/san...ogrammable.html[/url]

Well, it's been a long journey - into my fifth decade buying gear*, and after God knows how many rigs, from combos to the full SVT/8x10 nine yards, I'm finally done. I was after a single cab, light solution that would nevertheless keep up with a loud drummer up to the point where we'd both be going through the PA, and possibly beyond. The LMIII has been done to death (in a good way) on here, so I won't go over old ground, other than to say I'd tried most of the other newer kit like the Orange head, the RH450s, etc, and it was the one for me. The 1515L is simply a revelation - it weighs 40lb, and produces an ENORMOUS sound. With the Sansamp pedal to warm things up ever further, I'm getting all the sound of the SVT rig (including volume) at a tiny fraction of the weight, size and cost. (IMHO - I do prefer 15s, YMMV, etc, before I get lynched... ) We played four gigs over the weekend at the Montrose Music Festival, and the rig was just perfect. At one of the gigs, the sound engineer was a very experienced guy, and when we first set up, he got the kit through the PA, and said he'd do the bass next. I said we could probably speed things up by not putting the bass through the PA, and he gave me a pitying look. Five minutes later after we'd played a bit, he came back on stage, and said "Is that your rig there?" I said yep, that's it (it was a small stage, so it was sitting under one of the guitar combos). "And that's all of it, is it?". Yep. "Blimey". The Schroeder is a 4 Ohm cab, I never got the LMIII past 9 o'clock on the volume, and we filled every venue with a ton of sound. The Sansamp is the three channel programmable, which is very very useful for setting up three (four with it off) sounds of varying tonal warmth (up to a great overdriven sound) with a single pedal. That's as complicated as I like to get. Can't recommend any element of this rig highly enough. Just thought I'd share, in a giddy manner M * Not quite as long as it sounds - started in 78...

On the original 'Idiotic Comments' subject, I was in Staples yesterday looking for a specific type of pen. I asked the girl on the till where they were, and she pointed me down the relevant aisle. When I brought it back to pay for it she said "Did you find it then?" I said "Errrr......yes?" "Oh good" she said, and rang it up on the till.

+1 for the Schaller - I've just fitted one to an SX Precision (along with a MM neck), and it's a really, really good bridge. Had one on a Goodfellow, and I loved it on that, too. As an added benefit, if you're a pick player like me, I spend a lot of time with the heel of my hand on the bridge, and the Schaller's really comfortable to do that with, and the allen screws don't move, either. IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc...

I've just bought a Mighty Mite Precision maple neck, and it's really, really nice. £78 plus about £4 delivery off EBay (new). It's satin finished, but then that was what I was after. There are Jazz necks, too, I'm sure. Highly recommended. Edit: Just been on EBay for a quick look, and there are none at the mo, but they come and go - keep an eye out is my advice. Cheers, Muzz

Fitting a Hipshot to a Stingray is very straightforward - if you can work a screwdriver, you'll be OK. As long as you've bought the right Hipshot, natch. It takes about 20 minutes, including setting: they're very well designed and explained. Go for it! M

Cheapo Behringer BDI21 thingy. Switched it on, fiddled with it a bit*, loved it, switched it off, didn't like what I heard, so now it's never off. It may as well be nailed to the amp with the switch removed. Reading over that last sentence, I realise I really should try a Sansamp BDDI, or the DHA VT version thingy, just for the better build quality and reliability. Or spend another £28 and have a complete spare for backup... * I'm not a fiddler - five minutes max is all I ever give kit - if I can't get a sound I like in five, I give up. Perhaps that's why I didn't like the RH450, but love Markbass. Life's too short.

Well, I played in originals bands and spent a lot of time on music (rehearsing 3 times a week, gigging as much as we could, etc) up until my late twenties, then burnt out and left it behind for a long time (still kept my main bass and a guitar, tho the SVT and 8x10 went) except for the odd birthday gig and depping for a mate's covers band a couple of times a year . Fast forward a couple of decades, and a random phone call drops a fantastic opportunity into my lap, and now at 46 with Mrs and 5 year old, I'm back in a great originals band* with some old mates, and I feel like I'd been asleep for a long time. It's harder than ever to find time for playing and rehearsing (even once a week is tricky), but as a couple of people have said, the effort's worth it for the buzz. Oh, and the GAS... If you aren't feeling it, maybe it's time for a break to recharge, but I wouldn't bother burning any bridges - you know you'll be back... Drop the bits you don't enjoy, and make your life easier for a while, see how that works for you; you can always pick it up again. Good luck with whatever you choose. * The Mrs and the 5 year old aren't in the band, btw...

Reminds me of being offered 4 x 18" Peavey cabs (were they 1820s? I can't recall) back in the day for a ludicrously small amount. Each one was roughly the size and shape (and weight) of a washing machine. They'd have been beyond Doom stacked as 2 x 2. I never pushed the button, but even now a very very small part of me wishes I had, just to see what'd have happened...possibly a Marty McFly moment, but...

Yep, a valuable lesson in the value of your own ears. Or my own ears. Someone's ears, anyway... Thinking on it, the clear difference I heard between the amps may well have been overly coloured by the cabs - the MB was 2 x 15s, whereas the RH450 was through the RH stack, which is 10s and 12s. It might have been more the TC cabs I didn't like. I'm going to go back when I've got the cash ready to go and spend longer switching the cabs and amps around to try and get a definitive answer. I just don't like mithering shop staff too much when I know I haven't actually got the cash. It's made me seriously consider distance buying of any sort of amplification without trying it, though.

Well, I spent an hour in Sounds Great yesterday A/Bing the RH450 with a LMII, plus the RH 2x10 and 2x12 stack against the MB Jeff Berlin and 151HR. I had the LMIII and a 410HR, but it all got nicked (there's a thread somewhere about that), so I'm after a complete new rig. I was very surprised to find I MUCH preferred the MarkBass gear, as there's tons and tons of enthusiasm and giddyness about the RH450 around at the moment. I didn't like the tubetone valve simulation on the RH much (my Roland D-Bass did a more convincing tube tone on its Vintage setting), and overall I thought it sounded less full and rounded a sound altogether. If anything, the RH sounded too modern and sterile - unless the tubetone was dialled in, when it sounded like a cheapish distortion pedal. Maybe with some EQ tweaking the RH450 would have given me a more acceptable sound, but the LM flat was just [i]there[/i]. The onboard tuner is a corking idea, the memories are great, I love the LEDs (but you can't read the button titles at the top because of the overhang), and the unit itself just exudes quality (and so it should for the price), but when it came to the tone, there was no contest for me. I was, as I said, surprised. Thank God I didn't buy the TC gear simply on recommendation. YMMV, natch.

This is probably a bit late, but I was speaking to Eric in MG the week before last, and I mentioned this bass. Unsurprisingly, he has no recollection whatsoever of it, although he agreed that it was possible that he might have once been in the same room as it. Or perhaps the same building. Or possibly the same postcode. Definitely the same planet, though we couldn't narrow it down much closer than that.

A 1980 4001 Jetglo sold to finance an Aria ZZB Deluxe...yikes. Having said that, I'd like to have the ZZB back, too, if it ever resurfaced again, just for 80s Hair Metal nostalgia...

Looks like a realyl nice save from the firewood stack. I had one of the 8 strings years ago whcih I bought from Andy's on Denmark Street - one of the most vicious neck-dives I've ever come across, but it sounded HUGE...

[quote name='sshorepunk' post='761486' date='Mar 2 2010, 08:26 AM']Muzz, ask napper to give Tony a ring about the paint job! Tony[/quote] Will do - I'll get an update tonight...

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='760501' date='Mar 1 2010, 10:33 AM']Just had a mooch, and the shop fitting is still in place, but no gear, apart from the Levys strap stand. There isn't a note on the door or anything. Meant to wander up to Johnnys to have a gab, but didn't have much time. Still, if anybody sees Napper, pass on my regards.[/quote] I'll be seeing him tomorrow night, and I shall. I'll let you know what his next venture's all about shortly, too. M