alexclaber

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='170626' date='Apr 6 2008, 11:37 AM']Just my two'penneth, mind. It's your dosh![/quote] Or is it his parents' dosh? The Laney B1 was discontinued quite a few years back but is one of the best bass heads to ever come from a UK manufacturer. Marshall may be the name amongst guitarists but apart from a few exceptions they have a unique talent for missing the mark with their bass gear, hence if you do buy something new from them you'll lose a ton when you come to sell it on (which no doubt you will, I don't know of any bassist that has hung onto every bit of gear they've ever bought...) Also unless we're living in a different country, you can't drive a car legally until you're 17 so portability remains important. A decent head and a decent 4x10" is all you need. The key word is decent - for your budget you will do far better buying used. FAR BETTER! And if you buy something off one of the noble ladies and gentleman here you are highly unlikely to be screwed. Look in the classifieds forums, there's quite a turnover of gear in there. Now you can ignore everything I've written, buy an oversized overpriced stack, and I can have a good laugh in a year's time when you realise we were right all along. Alex

[quote name='jjl5590' post='170270' date='Apr 5 2008, 02:42 PM']lol im not a professional or anything. i just want something big and loud to be heard in a funk rock band...[/quote] Which is why buying used is such a good idea, especially when in a while you realise its a nightmare moving a full stack around London and have to sell it at a loss. Alex

[quote name='ahpook' post='170219' date='Apr 5 2008, 12:47 PM']i've got an old HH 15" bass cab that i've had sitting around for a while - i never really use it as it's only rated at 150W.[/quote] Don't let that stop you using it, thermal power handling ratings are pretty irrelevant for bass playing. If it does fart out too easily that's an Xmax issue, nothing to do with the 150W rating. Alex

[quote name='lwtait' post='169892' date='Apr 4 2008, 04:35 PM']ok. he also used fretted jazzes but when you think jaco (or at least, when i do) i always think fretless jazz bass. thats what he's most famous for.[/quote] I always think fantastic and pioneering bass playing. I don't care what gear he played, he'd have sounded awesome on anything. Likewise many of the greats - they all seem to have spent far more time making music and getting great vibes out of whatever gear they had, than worrying about what they were playing through and how many strings it had (AJ excepted...) Alex

[quote name='jjl5590' post='168944' date='Apr 3 2008, 11:07 AM']besides, where i live, its hard enough trying to find it in a shop let alone used[/quote] Yes, London's really the back of beyond... Alex

[quote name='jjl5590' post='169725' date='Apr 4 2008, 12:08 PM']no sorry id rather just stick to my options listed in my first post[/quote] Why? Alex

Just use a much smaller and less sensitive cab. Alex

When I first saw stuff about this on the net I remember reading of people spontaneously applauding after watching live music DVDs on that system! Can you imagine how incredible it must sound? Alex

[quote name='tauzero' post='169704' date='Apr 4 2008, 11:40 AM']Some of us have no desire to emulate Jaco. In fact, some [1] of us haven't even heard him...[/quote] He really is worth listening to! And those that say he only played four strings are wrong. Jaco had a five string acoustic bass guitar made for him: "1974 acoustic bass guitar Jaco and luthier Larry Breslin co-designed a fretless, 5-string acoustic bass guitar with a high C string; upon completion, Jaco paid Breslin $500. It featured a 34"-scale neck with a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with maple veneer fretmarkers, Brazilian rosewood back and sides and a spruce top. Jaco strung it with Rotosound roundwounds. In later years, the headstock broke off and Jaco brought the bass to Kaufman. He still has it." Alex

[quote name='greyparrot' post='169463' date='Apr 3 2008, 09:38 PM']i take it you belive a bassist should not have his turn to do his bit at a gig then?[/quote] He spends the whole gig doing his bit! Alex

I think the best place to try out kit is one of the Bass Chat Bass Bashes! Shame about the Bass Centre but I hadn't been there since about 2001 when they were still in Wapping. Alex

An interesting thing about that speaker system is that it relies almost entirely on acoustic crossovers. OK, well I found it interesting - I'll get my coat... Alex

I think flashy twonkness usually fails to show civilians the true potential of the bass and instead shows the potential of attention seeking bassists to undermine a fine, powerful and subtle instrument in the hope of being noticed. If in the process of laying it down like a bad mofo you happen to come across one of those bass moments that not only gets the party started but also shouts "look at me, I'm not just the subconsious sonic glue that makes you move" then that's groovy but trying to force noticeable playing into an unsuitable context is not hip. For years I've been on a mission to get my basslines less noticed in favour of the songs being appreciated, which is surprisingly challenging when you're writing the material on bass. Play it cool Trig, play it cool. Alex

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='168767' date='Apr 2 2008, 10:44 PM']Can I have one of those then please? [/quote] Alex

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3730"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3730[/url] Most confusion is due to variations in gain though frequency response and sensitivity are important too. You can also add distortion and compression into the gumbo. The loudest amp to the layman will be the one with the most gain at low knob settings, the most midrange, the most distortion and the most compression. Alex

[quote name='Ray' post='168434' date='Apr 2 2008, 02:21 PM']P.S. Sorry if I over-reacted to your first reply.[/quote] No problem - let me know if you fellow funksters are playing the Brighton vicinity and need a support act at some point! [quote name='The Funk' post='168448' date='Apr 2 2008, 02:30 PM']The funny thing about the big Ampeg 8x10s is that a lot of funk players used to use them back in the 70s. But I personally don't think they're clear or defined enough for some types of funk playing now.[/quote] Two things - the old 8x10"s don't sound the same as the new 8x10"s, and back in the '70s they were about as good as it got, so it was simply a case of "shutting up and playing your guitar"! [quote name='cheddatom' post='168465' date='Apr 2 2008, 02:48 PM']I can't see the point in buying an amp that colours your tone that much. I have pedals to colour my sound, and amps to amplify it.[/quote] Although its pretty easy enough to make a colourless amp it's a lot harder (and thus more expensive) to make a cab even vaguely uncoloured, so it makes economic (and logical sense) to buy a cab with a colouration you like rather than one without any colour if you then have to use something else to add the missing colouration. But I know I'd rather have a rig that amplifies my bass cleanly and then let my pickup settings and my playing add the tonal colours required. Alex

[quote name='FJ1200' post='156699' date='Mar 13 2008, 01:13 PM']I think it's the same for me - but a Streamer, Barbican Guitar Festival - mid/late 80's, absolutely stunning, and yes - felt the notes were being pulled from me too.[/quote] I have a rather forlorn looking one of them that is now playing second fiddle to my RIM Custom 5 (which just goes to show how amazing that turned out!) I hope it settles into enjoying its retirement soon because it's not going anywhere, being a posthumous gift from my Dad. I may see how it likes tapewounds and does the super old skool funk thang... Alex

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='168435' date='Apr 2 2008, 01:22 PM']For the Paul Chambers fans amongst you: had you spotted that Kind Of Blue and Giant Steps were recorded a fortnight apart - not a bad couple of weeks work, eh?[/quote] Now that definitely deserves better than "not bad"! The Giant Steps changes are one reason why I will never be a jazz musician - so hard to handle I'd rather just write something new! I can totally see that if you aren't into jazz then this is about as inaccessible as it gets (once you get past the head at least). BBC, maybe if you changed your beret for a black one and worked on the beard then all this jazz would become All That Jazz! Alex

[quote name='Viajero' post='168427' date='Apr 2 2008, 01:14 PM']Did anyone catch what bass that legend was using?[/quote] Looked like a Spector to me but I bet he could have got an equally great tone from any number of different basses - it sounded like his hands were doing all the talking. Alex

Not bad at all! Alex

[quote name='OldGit' post='168355' date='Apr 2 2008, 12:58 PM']jury's still out [/quote] The power of animatronics. You'd have thought they'd have used a voice-over artist that could sing though! Alex

[quote name='Ray' post='168149' date='Apr 2 2008, 08:43 AM']Thanks for your advice. All taken on-board. It's going to be a long and expensive journey to find my ideal setup![/quote] No, it needn't be. At low volumes any bass amp should be able to produce the sound you want, within reason. The problem you run into is maintaining that tone at gig volumes. We are bass players and as such our speakers have to be able to produce bass frequencies in substantial quantities, which requires moving air. This is done by the speakers moving forwards and backwards - the amount the speakers can move fore and aft multiplied by the area of the speakers gives you the amount of clean bass the rig can produce. I had the pleasure of trying quite a few nice rigs at the bass bash and one thing I noticed was that none of the smaller cabs could cleanly produce bottom at a good volume. They all did produce lows but they were those punchy lows which are actually a result of the speakers moving out of their linear zone, which subtly distorts and noticeably compresses the sound. Once you get up to 4x10" sized cabs you're in a situation where in less loud bands you can actually get clean bottom instead of 'punchy' bottom. So I strongly believe that if you added another matching cab to your rig you'd be able to get the 'warm' bottom you want. The other issue is one of amp preshapes - that's the tone curve the manufacturer designs into the amp with the EQ set 'flat'. Unfortunately I can't find the image but in an old thread on another forum a whole load of us ran frequency analysis software through our amps and posted the results. One of these was a GK and what we found was that the sound sloped up towards the highs with the EQ set flat. To get a reasonably flat response you had to turn the treble all the way down! So don't be afraid to really twist those knobs (apart from the bass knob that is - twist that far and you'll quickly send your speakers beyond clean and into 'punchy'). The last thing I'd suggest is selling a nice head and cab and replacing them with a combo, an Ampeg one least of all. Do try an Eden head, I can see one of them working well, particularly the ones with a valve in. The only small cab I can imagine actually getting you the sound you want is an Acme Low-B2 but if you're happier with something bigger, or a pair of cabs, then the world is your oyster. In the meantime, try to use the room acoustics in your favour by taking advantage of wall or corner reinforcement wherever possible. Alex

Caleb Speir was the bassist on the studio track but I've yet to suss out who's got the Estelle gig. A pile of notes on the second track she played too, really intense bass playing! I haven't heard the single, I presume it's a lot of sampled cut and pasting judging by the complexity of the live arrangement. The Only Ones' vocals were hilariously bad and until I googled them I thought it was Ronnie Wood fronting them - stick to playing guitar, I said! Alex

I'm so sugary sweet in person that I have to balance it out with my online persona. Alex