alexclaber

Playing deep in the pocket is when you're absolutely dead on grooving as hard as can be - when everything is just right. You could be improvising, you could be playing tons of fills but the essence of it is about be absolutely spot-on with your timing and feel (and note that this does not simply equate to playing on the centre of the beat). Alex

I don't know what I'd get them to learn but I know what I'd get them to listen to - Donny Hathaway Live featuring Willie Weeks on bass. The bass is nice and upfront in the mix, the tone is huge and fat and the playing goes from absolute minimalism to all-out 16th notes and crazy fills and is always deep in the pocket. Everything a bass player should be! Alex

Yep, great player! On the US version they had a hip-hop group dance and the drummer in the band for that (not their usual house drummer) was absolutely blinding - kick drum work like Bonzo! Alex

I love AJ's playing on this kind of latin influenced jazz! Great tone as well. And his array of comedy faces is unparalleled... Alex

[quote name='chris_b' post='320623' date='Nov 3 2008, 01:02 AM']I don't think your GK is in the same league as the cab so my upgrade path would start with an LM11.[/quote] I totally disagree, that's a great head. Way different sound to the Markbass as well. Alex

Back on topic, I'm somewhat suspicious of any vintage instrument in absolutely mint condition: Why hasn't someone wanted to play it for so many decades? Alex

[quote name='ARGH' post='320276' date='Nov 2 2008, 04:49 PM']But nobody in a correct,professional,versatile,state of mind takes a 4 string bass to gig,where they know that a 5/6/7 will offer AND deliver so much more[/quote] Yes they do, hordes of pros. Fives may outnumber fours but fours way outnumber everything else. Pros do it for the money so you take what gets you paid! Sometimes I wonder if we're on the same planet... Alex

[quote name='charic' post='308953' date='Oct 17 2008, 09:17 PM']Lol i was simply referring to the fact that condensers shouldnt be near spl's like a snare due to damaging the diaphragm. The fact its a c1000 makes it worse seein as imo its very overrated unless as live overheads.[/quote] Depends on the mic - a C1000 has absolutely no problem being next to a snare. The main issue with placing condensers next to a snare drum is not the high SPL (even my large diaphragm studio condenser can handle it) but the risk of the drummer hitting the mic with his stick and this impact damaging the diaphragm. It baffles me that any manufacturer would release an amp with a DI that is not phantom power safe but it's actually quite a common problem. Furthermore it tends to be quite hard to find out which DIs are phantom power safe and which aren't! Alex

[quote name='spector6' post='319278' date='Oct 31 2008, 06:50 PM']Yeah, he used both his Wal and his Ray' on BSSM, I'd go with what everyone else is saying about the RATM debut album, your bass tone will never be the same once you've heard that album [/quote] Though I've always much preferred his tone on Evil Empire - HUGE! Alex

[quote name='Bananaman' post='319264' date='Oct 31 2008, 06:29 PM']It sounds great tone wise I think but it can struggle volume wise at bigger gigs. That may be down to the amp head not as much as the cab though.[/quote] Possibly slightly the head but mostly the cab - it's bigger gigs where the lack of maximum LF output is likely to be a problem. [quote name='Bananaman' post='319264' date='Oct 31 2008, 06:29 PM']I've also used the 410HLF with the head but I did find that too bassy (you can perhaps control that a bit).[/quote] The HLF has a larger enclosure, higher Xmax speakers and is ported, which all equals more bottom - similar max LF SPL to a sealed 8x10". The downside of the higher Xmax speakers is a dip in the midrange which is where a lot of that characterful tone, particularly when using a valve amp, occurs. If you can afford it the Bergantino NV610 seems the best way to get the classic SVT tone in a reasonably portable package - still a two man lift if your back is at all dodgy but tall slim shape and wheels help with transportation. Alex

[quote name='coasterbass' post='319185' date='Oct 31 2008, 04:38 PM']Walkabout from One Hot Minute is pretty Stingray friendly too.[/quote] Alembic Epic I believe. [quote name='lowhand_mike' post='318980' date='Oct 31 2008, 12:39 PM']pretty much the bulk of Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the chillis has that ray sound. also higher gground by the chillis[/quote] Wal on all of BSSM bar StingRay 5 on Funky Monks and the title track. Not sure about Mother's Milk - could be a Ray, could be a Spector. Very few of Flea's studio recordings are on a StingRay! Alex

Once you're done with the bracing if you take the all screws out once the glue is set and fill the resulting holes you'll save a bit more weight. Every little helps! Alex

Ideally you'd aim for there to be no more than an 8" unbraced span anywhere on the cabinet, but your handle placement and your current braces preclude that without tons of bracing. A front to back brace roughly between the centre of the baffle and back will make a big difference though. When you add the damping make sure it doesn't block the port airflow or insulate the driver frames (which are part of the cooling mechanism). Stick some in your ABM whilst you're at it! Alex

Tidy work! I'd have intuitively done a bit more bracing but I think you'll be fine as the Beta 10s won't be creating the huge internal pressures my cabs have to deal with. Don't skimp on the damping - I'm amazed how many production cabs have just a layer of insulation on the back wall and nothing anywhere else! So does it weigh half as much as the old cab? Alex

Just to expand on that, you've probably noticed that the Ampeg 8x10" is the most popular cab on the planet but strangely the 410HE (which is a half-size version) isn't very popular at all. The reason is that because the cabs aren't ported all the low frequency output comes from the speaker (whilst with a ported cab the port shares about half the load) so to get the same low frequency output as a ported cab the sealed cab's speakers have to move about 50% more. That extra excursion increases the distortion in the sound, but as this is low frequency distortion you don't hear it as such, it just comes across as increased mud and boom. Also the off-axis response of 4x10" cabs is quite poor, so unless you're only 3' tall you don't hear most of the midrange and highs very well. The big Ampeg 8x10" solves these problems by giving you twice as many speakers to move air (thus reducing excursion related mud and boom) and by raising some of the speakers to nearer ear level so you can hear the mids and highs better. My rather magic design gets around these problems by a totally different approach - a very high excursion woofer deals with providing big bottom with low distortion whilst a very high output midrange speaker deals with all the midrange punch and treble clarity and provides good off-axis response. Only downside of this is the cost and complexity - if Ampeg made a cab like this I guarantee it would cost well over £1000. (And stepping off the soapbox...) Alex

Regardless of the era those sealed 4x10" cabs can't handle much power in the lows, little more than 100W. If you fancy thinking outside the Ampeg box then that rack rig would sound absolutely delightful and incredibly loud and fat driving The Big One by barefacedBass! Alex

[quote name='dood' post='318916' date='Oct 31 2008, 11:37 AM']With technology being such these days, I have to agree. I always found that valve amps 'feel' different to play through though.[/quote] [quote name='ped' post='318921' date='Oct 31 2008, 11:43 AM']The idea that valve amps are maintenance heavy is a misnomer.[/quote] Ditto, ditto. Alex

Sorry, I should have said power amp clipping, not merely clipping. Preamp clipping can still damage tweeters due to the increased HF energy but then so can overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals. In practice you're pretty unlikely to have a problem. Turning down your tweeter will not help because that means the L-pad has to absorb the extra power and because you can't hear the increased HF if your tweeter is turned down then you could keep cranking the distortion until you burn out the L-pad. I'm always reading about people wanting high power amps to have headroom - the fact is that unless your rig is huge, you're using a lot of compression or you're in a very quiet band that no rig will have sufficient headroom to never clip. Uncompressed bass guitar is incredibly dynamic - the peak signal is far far louder than the average signal. If you have experience with digital multitrack recording you'll have noticed this because if you set all the inputs to never clip then when you come to playing back the full mix you'll find the fader for the bass guitar channel has to be way higher up then any of the other faders. If a power amp clip light is permanently on then you might have a problem but I would expect most amps' clip lights to flicker throughout a gig. Alex

Clipping can cause tweeters to be overpowered and thus damaged. It is unlikely to damage woofers unless your amp has a much higher power output than your speakers are rated or your are pushing the amp so hard that there are no dynamics and the tone is constantly overdriven andh heavily compressed. Pushing an amp into extreme clipping will not damage the amp - that's what guitar amps spend most of their lives doing! Alex

Stomp - Louis Johnson The whole of RATM's debut album - Tim Commerford Aeroplane - Flea Alex

Fair bit of woodworking in that! Nice bridge too... Alex

I practice with the bass unplugged so it doesn't distract me from the vocals. When playing with the band I seem to mentally split at neck level - my ears and head gets on with the singing whilst my body feels the bass and my hands react to that. This only became obvious when the rehearsal room bass amp broke and I had to run the bass through a very poxy little PA. Without the feeling of the bottom I found it much harder to groove whilst singing but as soon as I stopped singing (i.e. during instrumental sections) I could lay down the groove as well as I normally do (i.e. like a bad mofo!) I've messed around on drum kits for many years and can fool non-drummers into believing I am a drummer and I think that the independance I've developed from that has a beneficial effect upon the independance I have between playing and singing. Also I write my own music and despite it often being quite syncopated I rarely have a problem with playing and singing presumably because it all feels quite natural to me. The one exception is when playing more reggae style - the melodic riffs which run a rhythmic counterpoint to the drums are much more challenging to sing over. I think this is because I'm usually feeling the bass groove like I'm part of the drum kit whilst when playing reggae I'm singing a line against the drum groove. Does that make sense? Alex

And mine is more a mix of Jamerson, Jaco, Larry Graham, Family Man and Geezer Butler. (On a good day!) Alex

I am the second coming of Jaco. Apparently... Alex

If you want an amp and cab for £400 then cheap is good! The LH500 is very impressive for the money. But look in the used section of the forum, you're bound to get a good deal with that much to spend. Tonally a 6-string is no more demanding than a 5-string and it's more down to your personal taste than the demands of the string count, capiche? Alex