Muzz

Well, if it's got a dowelling system that makes it like a neck-thru one-piece, that makes it tonier... Take my money 😏 Oh, I forgot the custom-wound alpino pickups... The real question is...does it go to eleven?

Funnily enough, I was in PMT today trying out some small combos, and was very impressed with the Studio 15; Ashdown have clearly gone for the Rumble series, and done a good job, too. The Studio 15 weighs nothing, is very compact, and has plenty of punch...

Was in PMT this afternoon trying out small combos (see my ongoing search for something loud and light in another thread*), and the first bass I was handed was an £899 Precision (not sure of exact model), which was just awful in pretty much every way, including having considerable and surprising neck dive. I gave my opinion of it, and was handed a 434, which was soooo much better. A nice slim neck, too - big improvement on the 1024X. If I closed my eyes I wanted one, but then I opened my eyes...and no, sadly, I'm far too shallow... TL:DR - 434 necks are slim and very very nice; £900 new Precisions are rubbish. Oh, and they had a Fireglow 4003 hiiiigh up on the wall for £3349. Yep, you heard that right: pushing £3.5k for a bog-stock Rick... * If you're interested, the winner was the new Ashdown Studio 15. Weighs nowt (26lbs, IIRC), plenty of ooomph, very compact. Ashdown have gone for the Rumbles directly, and from what I heard, got it right.

I'm 56 shortly, I love gigging (I'm with the right people, and yeah, I guess I'm lucky in that), there's two originals bands (one's been going 30 years) which are very occasional but pleasant ones, and a busy covers trio with minimal gear to get a great sound, so it's all good. As is the money. Not gonna stop any time soon. 😁

Ours was a regular venue, picked up late (and for less money than usual NYE rates) because we didn't have a gig and the drummer was super-skint. Both the blokes who own/run the pub were absent (one ill, one away), leaving three young bar girls and no door staff. As a consequence, the usual late-20s-mid-40s crowd had turned into a youth club, most of the lads in puffer jackets and tracksuits, bellowing at each other...yeah, lads, I remember my first drink, too... Amongst the girls, there appeared to have been a 57-way tie for the local Dress Like A Teenage Hooker Competition, possibly inducing the aforementioned Bellowing... Amazingly, it didn't actually kick off, though we left (see below) a long time before closing, so the air of potential fisticuffs could well have been realised before then... We played a couple of mostly unregarded sets (tho there was sporadic dancing for the second one), but finished at 11:45 to let the countdown and inevitable spillage of drinks run its course, there were some gingerly-detonated fireworks outside, during which lull we packed up and fecked off. Back home for half twelve, so not too bad, but it was one of those gigs where you're clock-watching pretty much from the start...

Sorry, not very clear there: 12th fret, 2mm on the E, that being the highest: the others are lower going down to about 1.5mm on the G. I never used to measure the action, just set it how I like it, and that’s how I still do it: I measure afterwards and hey presto, it’s always 2mm at the 12th on the E 😀 As far as Clank goes, I don’t mind some, and I like more of it when the song calls for it...in fact it’s like solo bass tones: they’re verrry different (and rarely better) with the full band playing. Just listening to some of those isolated bass parts from people like John Entwistle, Chris Squire and Geddy Lee shows how tons of clank and gnarl can kind of settle into the band sound, and you don’t hear them...

The pickguard is aesthetic genius, but still not a colour I'd suit. It's me complexion, see... 😁

The BB3000 (and 5000) came in a sparkly black, not unlike the EB Starry Night kinda finish, only much subtler... Nope, not orange, Ever. My BB300 was black, tho. Yer actual black... 🙂

Oddly, back in the day (I think '88) when I bought my BB3000A, I wanted a black one, but the only one Yamaha had left in Europe was white... 🙂

Oh dear... 🙂 Thanks, I've been keeping an eye out for a s/h one to try, but as you say, they're quite rare...even rarer in white, which is the only colour I'd want...

If that godawful sound doesn't teach the lesson that a bass is best EQ'd to the whole band sound and not soloed, nowt will... 😕🙂

I don't like a high action, but as I'm mostly an aggressive pick player, I don't go 1mm low, either. I find just under 2mm to be the right place for me. 2.5mm and up seems like hard work... Never noticed the tone changing much with action height, either, but then I have active EQs in all my basses, so it might be that...

Now that's just against the spirit of this place...where would the whole industry be if we played cheap basses that were just fine? 😕😁

I've had a couple of fretless basses, and while I don't have one at the mo because I don't have a requirement for one, I've never had a lined one...they just seemed a bit, erm, training wheels... 🤐

Just to be awkward, I've squeezed a pair of Dingwall split coil soapbars under the chrome covers on mine, which is my preference for sound. The Epi routs are a decent size to fit most soapbars in, so the world's your oyster, really...

Luckily, I don't have any back issues, but the heaviest bass I have is just under 9lbs, and now I wouldn't consider anything heavier. My 7.5lb Dingwall is fantastic for a long gig: the difference, even between 7.5 and 9lbs, is huge.

Just to chip in with my 2p...I think Yamaha suffered with the pricing of the old 202x series because they were the ultimate 'sleeper' bass: I played one for a good while at Bass Direct when they first came out, and it was the best thing I've played in there when it came to feel and tone. Very very nice indeed - whatever voodoo they were doing, it certainly produced a terrific bass. As we've already said, though, it's hard to distinguish visually between their flagship (IIRC they were about £2400 at first, then dropped to £1600 when retailers started unloading them a year or so later) and their entry level basses some £2k less, and I think this was the problem. I'm still unsure as to whether to pursue a 2024 (the reunion gig I bought the 414 (and a 1024x) for was a success, and we're playing some bigger gigs next year, so I can justify it), because I still don't know about the neck profile: I sold the 1024x because the 414 had a slimmer neck, and that's become a deal breaker for me over the last few years, and I don't know about the 2024 neck profile vs the 1024. If they're the same, I guess I'll save myself a big chunk of cash, because the 414 is just fine. Back in the day, I had a BB3000A (I'd have another of those, too, but the prices are daft now) and a backup BB300, and I never minded using the 300, as that was a great bass, too...

If it's a no-drum gig, then ignore my advice about the Rumble 100: it'd be mahooosive overkill for that sort of gig...

Yup, it looks like I've got the industry against me...oh, and physics, too... 🙁😁

I think that @Stub Mandrel would be more than covered with the Rumble 100, and it really is very, very convenient and light... @Al Krow I don't think a 110 is gonna cut it if a 112 isn't no matter if the Promethean is putting more watts into the 10...hence my Plan B to put a more sensitive 12 into the Rumble to squeeze juuust a bit more db out of the Rumble's 100w... If the 210 Rumble was vertically stacked, I'd be looking hard at that, but that diagonal thing makes the cab too big...ditto a lot of 210 combos...

I don't think 23kg is a lightweight solution, unfortunately (especially for a 110)...and a combo is what I'm after...

I'm in a similar position at the moment - a lot of our gigs these days are smaller bars and pubs, and that's a good thing, as they pay the same as bigger pubs, but the amount of gear we need is much less. I have a Rumble 100, which is physically perfect as a very small light cube (the smaller gigs, by their nature, have much smaller spaces to set up in), the only issue is I'm pushing it right to it's limit - last gig it was starting to squish...a lot. There's lots out there on the net about lining the cab and fitting a different Eminence speaker, which is around 5db more sensitive (the original speaker is an Eminence, so the numbers will be at least comparable, even if they're not necessarily definitive) and would run me to about £70 The alternative would be something as close as I can get to the size of the Rumble (taller would be OK, as long as it doesn't get wider) but with a little more ooomph. I already have the Walkabout and two BF cabs (Compact and Super Twin), but I really want the convenience of a combo. Tone isn't a major factor - I have the Stomp for the heavy lifting on that front. Anyone got a suggestion for the Rumble 100...Plus A Bit?

I hope he kept the receipt if they're all like that...

With the covers band, we generally do a 45, then the second set is longer (an hour, or an hour and a quarter) because people are more likely to dance and sing the more they've drunk...funny, that... 🙂 We're generally flexible, tho: there's one place we play regularly that wants 3x45s...it's a city centre pub, tho, so they have a pretty steady churn of punters... The originals band reunion gig we did last month was about an hour ten, which was enough, despite folk having paid to see us...always leave them wanting one more... 🙂

I think the action on that might need a tweak; I can see his tie through the gap...