Muzz

D'oh!

One very good step we took was to have an ambient mic (we've only got one at the moment, we could add another, but we're a three piece and we play some small stages) to give the in-ear mix a little 'air' - it takes away the clinicality of the experience. Plus you can hear each other to talk during soundcheck without popping one of your in-ears out... 😀 And yeah, with a Helix and a good guitarist with an ears for sounds, the guitar sounds terrific. I use a Zoom B3, which is good enough for me. The drummer's the biggest tech-head in the band, his little kit sounds huuuuge when he wants it to... Ultimately, it all means more control. We've invested time into getting the band to sound good across the large range of songs and genres we play using the modellers and the PA, and we have a set of saved scenes we can work from, depending on the room dynamics. We're so much more consistent than turning up and the three of us having a best guess at EQ independently, and then having to work from there to a band sound. As I mentioned, we play across too many genres for that to work properly in the limited time we usually get for setup and soundcheck, so modellers, DI and in-ears have been a massive plus. And my tinnitus thanks me every gig...

If price is an issue while you're trying strings out, you'll find the D'Addarios £10-15 cheaper than the DRs...

I've run in-ears for a good while now, and EBS_freak is bob on: a wired backup pair is much cheaper than a backup anything else, rig-wise, and unless you're on a huuuge stage wayyyy behind the PA, if your in-ears go, you'll hear enough from the PA to finish the gig - it's a breakdown/emergency situation, after all). We all have an independent digital mixer feed for our in-ears, mine runs off my iPad, it's usually to hand. No-one else touches my in-ears mix. We use drum triggers and no backline for pub gigs upwards, it sounds good.

Brightness and zingyness? I'd second the ProSteels...

Girls dance to the bass. Now that's important... 😁

They're, erm, ergonomically challenging and certainly Marmite...I had a new 4001 in 1979-80, my first 'really good' bass. Played it for several years, and moved on. I love the look of them, so for my 50th I paid full RRP for a brand new Walnut 4003. It went back the next day. A £500 bass with a £2000 image... If they weren't so much money secondhand (£1300-1400 for a used £2000 bass is a lot of money for me) I'd possibly try another, but it's a lot of money for Pot Luck to be a factor, and there's more than one thing that can go wrong with older ones... Interestingly, a lot of the 'iconic' players (with the notable exception of Mr Squire) either moved on fairly quickly, or didn't use them in the studio for the 'iconic' sound...I'm thinking Messrs Lee and Foxton here...

I'm not sure the bombastic thread title helps, really...while I'm sure he's terribly, terribly clever, I haven't heard (and I've given it more than five minutes) a rearrangement of a good song that's improved it at all. It's very niche, and in those terms people who like that sort of thing will like it. Didn't work for me, and I don't get it in a similar way to anyone who doesn't get the Stone Roses or The Smiths* doesn't get them, either. Those trousers in the first clip really are dreadful, though...and without wanting to reduce things even further into the realms of shallow waters, his resemblance to a very young, very pleased Keanu Reeves unsettled me, too... 😕😁 * And I note in between the protests of judgement, there's plenty of judgement of other musicians (very much The Usual Suspects) and their output.

I don't think you're threatening him at all - you're only discussing unresolved issues with a bass from a manufacturer whom lots of people here like (this is Page 99 after all 🙂), and he has an opportunity to make things right for you, which in many cases can turn out to be an even bigger positive for the manufacturer. I had an issue with a Dingwall pickup a while back, and the way Sheldon D resolved the issue reinforced my positive opinion of him and his company. I hope it all gets resolved for you.

Is he aware this is being documented on a busy bass forum, and therefore not doing his business any good? He might respond differently if he knows this is the case...

I once had a brain fart when trying out a Warwick Vampyre 4-string that I knew was strung for low tuning. I assumed it was BEAD, turns out the Vampyre Dark Lord (for unbeknown to me 'twas one of those) is strung F#BEA... 😕😀

I’m interested in the outcome of this, mostly because of the knock-on implications to the whole ‘tonewood’ debate... So will it be installed in an otherwise completely different bass? Construction, tone circuit, pickup position, body and neck woods? if it sounds just the same, you may have started a revolution...or a lot of arguments... 😀

I had a direct response from Jeff when I had a question about the amp; he's a very good communicator, unlike some manufacturers, and if anyone knows, he does. FWIW, I ran mine with 3x8ohm cabs a lot, and it was always good...

I'm also a fan of the Schaller 3D bridges, because I think they're a clever and simple piece of engineering to give some lateral adjustment, but mostly because they're a comfortable shape if, like me, you spend a deal of time with the heel of your hand on the bridge. As far as tone goes, like soooo many elements in a bass guitar, I'm unable to conclusively comment one way or the other. Oh, and anything that replaces the Gibson 3-point 'everything falls off when you remove the strings' bridge can't fail to be an improvement...

Can I just start the day by saying '...the clientele are semi-evolved and are only interested in the disco...' has made me smile like a loon? Thank you. 😁

All subjective and completely valid, but in this case, I'd take the OP's original db751 over any of those options, given that the two options you found more pleasing are pretty much as big/heavy as the db751...it's all a compromise, in the end. And, I have to say, in at least 75% of the gigs I play, a completely academic exercise...but then that's the wacky world of gigging all over 😕😀

Ohhhhh, that's genius... 🙂

We played a pub on Saturday night, and by far the biggest posters in the windows were for the previous night's entertainment...which was The Meat Raffle...

Don't forget the constant talking until the Bingo comes on... 😕

There's a wedding venue up in t'th'hills round these parts that we're not going back to: it's a big wooden barn conversion with gaps in the walls you can see through, and 'actively negative' neighbours on the volume front* - none of them are particularly close, but it's quiet up there and I guess the sound carries. Anyway, they have the most aggressive sound limiter I've ever encountered - our dep drummer at the time set her kit up, hit her snare once, not too hard, and off it went. We found it actually onstage. She then tried a rimshot...ping, off it went again. I walked up to it and clapped my hands...it went off. So we moved the kit to the far side of the makeshift stage, and started off at suuuuper low volume. There's nothing more depressing than being able to hear everyone's feet shuffling on the dancefloor, and people coughing, over the music. Still wasn't enough for the woman running the show - she was constantly on our case. The couple who'd booked us were desperately disappointed; ultimately, it's not a venue that can cope with amplified music, and really shouldn't have been advertised (or sold) as such. To add insult to injury, it was early in the year, and the wind was blowing through the walls (see 'gaps you could see through', above) - there were four of those big tube heat blowers going full blast, but it was still freezing anywhere not in a direct line with them. All in all, a nightmare of a venue... * Can't really blame them, as they've been there long before the owners decided to make it a music venue.

My favourite's still Earth And Wind For Hire...

So how are you getting on with them now? How long does a charge from the UV light last? Am considering some Luminlays, but if these are an option, they're a whooooole lot cheaper...

I've never been as comfortable with theory as I'd have liked, despite playing for forty years now, but I'd agree with the poster who's said learning and playing lots of songs (or all sorts of genres) opens up the kinda dry theory with some "Ohhhh, now I get what he did there..." moments, and they're the ones that have stuck.

There's basically two 'Generations' of Class D amps out there, a lot running the older power amp module (which, I believe the TH500 is one), which had its detractors, and was the origins of the whole 'heft' thing, but the newer generation module in the Magellan, Mesa 800, Darkglass, etc, is a different animal in terms of presence and 'heft'. Unfortunately, an awful lot of people's negative perceptions of Class D is based on their experience of the first generation amps... That being said, I think the OP will struggle to replace a db751, which is at the end of the day a £2500 amp, with a £5-600 amp...if weight is the issue, I'd agree with the folk above who have suggested keeping the 42lb amp and changing the 98lb cab for something half the weight...and there's plenty of options for that...