Delberthot

I know that there were a few people interested in hearing what these were like recently so I'm going to give my review of it so far. There were a few things that drew me to this cab: The first one being the weight. its 20kg which is 1kg heavier than the Schroeder 1212L I used to have but then that's coming in at 4x the price The construction: Marine ply, tolex covering and a heavy duty metal grill The speaker: being a user and fan of Trace Elliot in the past I've always loved Celestion drivers (although recently I've used a lot of Eminence ones) but this was the first neodymium one I'd tried. The Price: More expensive than the Ashdown 15" cab but that's made of MDF and 27kg. The final one is that its made and designed in the UK. Hooray for Blighty - we can design and build a marine ply, lightweight cab with a quality driver for less than £250. £237 to be exact. [u][b]First impressions[/b][/u] Competely ignoring the weather which caused this cab to arrive 4 weeks after it should have, or should I say I went and collected it despite the fact that the roads were clear and they were sitting drinking coffee, I was both impressed and disappointed. The cab is very light. I can lift it out of the car and carry it some distance to the gig in one hand whilst carrying something else in the other. The steel grill is thick and very reminiscent of the old Trace Elliot ones. [u][b]First use [/b][/u] It was clear from the start that this is designed to give an old school rock tone. Its not even remotely clear and hifi-like. What you get is a wonderfully dirty sound that would complement a dirty old valve amp. I'm using mine with a Gallien Krueger 700RB II which is a very growly amp and it absolutely loves this cab. Another major contendor IMO would be the Orange Terror Bass. So to reiterate, those with Alembics or other high end gear looking for a clear tone just stop reading cos this one ain't for you alright? [u][b]Active, Passive & the low B[/b][/u] My main bass at the minute is a passive Epiphone Thunderbird with an EMG HZ35 at the bridge and a Wilkinson soapbar at the neck. It is also fitted with a Hipshot Supertone bridge and Rotosound flatwound strings. My other bass is an active Ibanez SRX505 5 string. If you are the type of player who likes to use a lot of low end boost on your active bass then you're going to need a second cab to get it loud enough without it farting out but then that's going to be the case with the vast majority, if not all compact 15"s on the market Its going to easily handle the B string on a passive 5ver but and active one is going to have the cone pushing very hard, perhaps too hard to cope. I use quite a nasally, burpy tone on my Thunderbird and can crank it loud enough to use it as a monitor and loud enough for small to medium pub gigs. I played the Ibanez using the active setting on my amp and with the bass frequency boosted. It didn't like it. When I use the Thunderbird, the speaker doesn't move that much, in fact you have to look hard to see it move at all but with the Ibanez running a lot of low end boost its flappy central and approaching distortion. I wouldn't be comfortable using this for a loud pub gig without a PA with the 5 string. I don't think it could amplify that low B loud enough without distorting or worse. Again, this would be common for most compact 15"s [u][b]Conclusion[/b][/u] This cab is capable of going very loud but not if you use a lot of bass boost on your active bass, especially if you favour the lower end of the B string. there's a very nice dirty sound to this cab and I love it. It gives a very good impression of a cab distorting when, in fact, it isn't. Its simply the choice of driver used to create a lovely rock tone. I love this cab and the tone it gives but it isn't for everyone. I use a lot of muting and staccato notes to get my punchy tone but I can imagine that someone who doesn't could find this cab slow and flabby. If I did a lot more rock dates than I do then I'd be going for the NX810 8x10". 1600 watts and the same weight as my Trace 1528 2x15" of 45kg. That's 19kg or roughly the weight of this cab lighter than an Ampeg 810e which comes in at 64kg. If you're looking for any more info or help then feel free to PM me Its going to be the end of February before I am going to be able to do a review using it as a standalone at a rock gig so I'll report back then.

They usually use Schallers that are MM branded so it you don't mind having a non MM one then just get a normal one. I'm sure WD music are bound to sell them separately Failing that a complete set of Schallers may be cheaper than sending your broken tuner to EBMM and buying a replacement from them - they certainly insist on you sending the pickup if that's what you want to buy from them

[quote]What you see is what you get[/quote] So in addition to the stack the buyer will also be getting some rather fetching curtains, a gym bag and some floor clutter. Nice

A 6 string bass, preferrably an Ibanez, preferrably the SR1016 I stupidly sold a few years ago to someone on this forum, preferrably for a good price Instead of constantly buying and selling basses I'm going to keep maybe 5 or 6 and pick whatever one takes my fancy for a gig. Loads of Roto flats. I've just put a brand new set of what were my favourite 5 string sets - Warwick Yellow label - onto my Ibanez and they feel like barbed wire compared to the silky smoothness of the flats on my thunderbird

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=115605"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=115605[/url]

Its a worthlessless technique to me, I could never think of a single use for it but if you find it adds to what you play, it then becomes valuable to you. Larry Graham plays the way he does as he was trying to replicate the kick and snare of his band's departed drummer and the style felt natural to him. I have to stop here before I say any more as I don't like VWs playing in the slightest

C'mon guys, he's clearly talking about [i][b]the[/b][/i] [url="http://www.sawiki.net/index.php/Eric_Ball"]Eric Ball[/url] get with the times

[quote name='Norris' post='1059488' date='Dec 15 2010, 01:05 PM']The Boss GT-6B is a little more sophisticated (and more expensive), but is a bit easier to tweak settings,[/quote] Easier than what, mapping the flight coordinates for the Hubblle Space Telescope? A fantastic piece of kit but I couldn't work on patches during the gig otherwise the song would be finished before I had managed to save the edited patch. I've had my Korg DT-10 for about 5 or 6 years and its still working perfectly. As for other effects, it depends what songs you do - I have the bass player's favourite, the Boss OC-2 which is great for some specific songs or adding another layer if you're playing with a single guitarist and they go for one of their extended solos. Flanger and Chorus are probably the most commonly used with distortion or overdrive coming in next. Phasers, Envelope Filters and other things like that are mainly useful if you are playing a song that used one on the original recording or you are writing a song yourself and the sound suits.

With most strings you have to stretch them initially when you first put them on but once they're on they just need occasional tuning for different room temperatures, accidentally knocking out of tune etc. Someone (perhaps DR) had prestretched strings and they were obviously highly successful as I've never heard them mentioned although it could have happened in a dream. In which case patent pending patent pending patent pending.

Another point I'd like to make is that a few years ago I had a job where I had access to three different works vans and occasionally hired one for long distance gigs. At first I found it hard to get used to going from my car to the one of the vans and then back again. As I did it more and more, the more I got used to it and the transition became almost seamless from one to the other. I am of the opinion that I am now the same with basses. I've owned that many that I can now pick up any bass and make it my own: as long as it can be adjusted, it can be gigged and I'm having a lot of fun playing a few different basses as opposed to having the GAS pangs that I used to - the chase, the find, the guilt, the sale, the end.

What was the question again? oh aye - I don't claim to be the best bass player in the world but I have quite a unique style and I've found that i can pick up any bass and within a couple of minutes have a close approximation of my sound. So much so that i've given up on buying expensive basses because I sound like me whatever I play. I buy basses now because they look nice

I bought Brian's Ibanez SRX705 last week. Spoke with him over the phone before committing to the deal and Brian comes across as a very trustworthy fellow. I certainly wouldn't have any issues with buying from or selling to in the future. The bass was exactly as he described it in the ad, right down to the damage to the finish which was pretty unnoticable and was packed very well.

[quote name='JP Soundsystem' post='1063550' date='Dec 19 2010, 02:30 PM']T-Birds are sh*te and they are a one-trick pony! (sorry, couldn't resist!) I was looking at the Sixx Blackbirds the other day. I noticed that the ONLY control on them was an on/off switch. No volume, no tone controls. If you don't like the tone, you're pretty much screwed. Which kind makes the Blackbird a one trick pony (the irony!) I'd get a standard black one, at least then you can blend the pickup volume/tone to your liking. I hope this helps. JP[/quote] It would appear that even Mr Sixx is fed up of having no control over his bass [url="http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Bass/Gibson-USA/Nikki-Sixx-Thunderbird-Bass/Specs.aspx"]http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-G...Bass/Specs.aspx[/url]

The best B in my opinion was one of the first 5 string basses - the Musicman Stingray. Its not that heavy but probably a bit too heavy for you if your looking for something a bit more lightweight.

I went through 3 or 4 Rickenbackers, 2 Warwicks, about a dozen Stingray 4 & 5 strings, Modulus Flea bass and a whole bunch of other relatively expensive stuff before I realised that none of these basses made me any happier or improved my playing. In fact, some were terrible and my 20th and 30th Anniversary Stingrays never left the house as I was too scared of damaging them, careful as I am. I'm loving my Thunderbird and have been happy with it for a long time now. it cost me just over £200 including gig bag, new pickups and Hipshot Supertone bridge. I found it remarkably simple to set it up to my liking and the roto flats were the icing on the cake. I look after my equipment extremely well but the odd bump against my music stand or whatever doesn't phase me in the slightest as I know that it wasn;t expensive and could be replaced cheaply enough if anything were to happen to it. I'm happy in the knowledge that I have 3 different basses that i could confidently take to any gig and their combined cost was just over £400

Seriously, I struggled to move the output volume on my Terror 500 between a whisper and deafeningly loud with a 2x15". It was like that finite point on old power showers between icicle inducing coldness and taking the skin off your back hot. I couldn't really see the 1000 being of any real benefit over the 500 unless you're playing large outdoor festivals, and I mean huge, or big arena concerts. They probably only make it for bragging rights so people can say that have a 1000 watt amp

boss OC-2 for 2 songs with the wedding band, other than that I just use the overdrive bullt into my amp - I've never found a decent overdrive pedal that did exactly what i wanted either plus I cannot be arsed faffing about on my hands and knees changing setting or going to night school to get a qualification to be able to work one of those multi effects units competently enough to be able to change effects settings at a gig Occasionally I have a flanger or chorus but for now its just the octave and all its glitchy goodness

Benoit David does do a really good Jon Anderson with the added bonus that Yes can now play stuff like Tempus Fugit which was the Trevor Horn era stuff. I'd be going back to see them if they play again next year