Minininjarob

On 11/09/2024 at 13:48, neepheid said:

HERE

That looks fantastic. 

From 12min in on the rig rundown  First half of video is about Mikes basses and he is using his original G3 on the tour and his new Epiphone G3 model  

Have to say it looks amazing to me, I am saving up now!

2 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

Nice... and a set of the correct good fitting tools, Allen Keys, Screwdriver etc.

Good thing is that from 35 years of building and restoring bikes and houses I have some very nice tools!

However finding out that the Fender used imperial sized Allen keys was a bummer. 😂

1 hour ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Welcome to the club. Now you've learnt the basics you can use them time and time again. When learning set ups most people are afraid of truss rod adjustments, though if you're careful it's pretty simple.

 

I learnt how to do set ups on YouTube 15+ years ago. Been doing them (basic set ups) ever since. Personally I think every bassist should learn how to do basic set ups, there's loads of good tutorials on YouTube, and it's really not that difficult. You only need a few basic tools. 

I’ve got friends who are asking me to help them with their instruments and I’m like “woah!!”

So I’m a relative beginner and only have one bass, my fender P I bought new. 
I like a slightly higher action cos I play hard with a pick and I’ve always struggled with fret buzz in various places. 
I wanted to send my bass to a pro to set up but after looking at some setup videos it looked really easy. My first few attempts didn’t work too well. 
I got new strings and did the whole thing properly. Polished the frets, set the neck, installed the strings and it sounded great. But still got a lot of buzz above the 12th no matter what I did. 
Eventually found that if that happens then the neck might need shimming so took strings off, unscrewed the neck and slid in half of one of my wife’s business cards. Put it all back together and WOW sounds great, no fret buzz, action perfect. And for no cost and without having to do without a bass for 2 weeks while a pro sets it up. 
I do have an advantage that I’ve spent decades setting up bikes and I am a very competent DIYer but in reality if you are carefully and do things in the right order it’s not hard. 
Now all I have to do is learn to play better but that’s gonna be easier with the instrument set up nicely. 

Hanging on to see your review. I love my first bass and am ready to buy my second and a z7 looks ideal. I’d love an EB but they are comically expensive. 
I actually prefer the Sire headstock to the EB one, I always thought the EB one looks a bit ungainly. 
I can’t decide between a mint or white one. 4 string for sure. 

5 hours ago, la bam said:

Call me synical but....... Advertise something you haven't got.... Take pre orders..... Take payment..... Send orders to manufacturer..... Manufacturer makes that order so as not to produce too many.... Then, and only then, deliver said order. Thus immediately selling out once received. 

I used to work in retail and the lead time for a container you are looking at least 8-9 weeks from ordering and that’s if the stock is reading and waiting in the far east. They don’t get flown over. So that theory doesn’t stack up I’m afraid. 

1 hour ago, tegs07 said:

Well they are either lying and the whole thing is a big conspiracy, or they are telling the truth and import duties plus economies of scale make the instruments more expensive in the UK.

If the quality was good enough in their country of manufacture then they could just ship them to the countries to be sold direct - you’re paying duty to get them to the USA then again to the UK. 

I bet we’d be flabbergasted to find out how much they cost out of the factory door, I’d wager £100-150 at most for a £500 bass if it has to go via the USA. 
You’re paying a lot of money to get that “checked by our awesome techs in the USA” promise.

1 hour ago, ossyrocks said:

 

The 400RB-II was advertised here for quite a long time, months in fact. But it was collection only from Edinburgh. After a bit of back and forth, we agreed that I would arrange the courier, and it duly arrived.

 

The 400RB-III has been on Reverb for about 6 months, so I put in some cheeky offers and again, after a bit of offer/counter offer, we agreed a price. The MKIII is superb too, very much a GK 400RB amp in the vein of the earlier one. I can get it to sound almost identical to the MK-II.

 

Astonishingly, I have invested a grand total of £470 for BOTH amps inc. shipping. These represent my best value purchases ever.

 

Rob 

I’ve never looked at Reverb much as whenever I did it was all in the USA - didn’t realise it was UK as well

Totally missed the Edinburgh one. 😢 I have no idea how. 
You know where to come if you ever want to sell one!!

BTW I have a friend who hires our backline and he has a 2001rb into a GK 4x10 and that combination is terrifying in a very very nice way. 

23 hours ago, ossyrocks said:

So, the GK's are multiplying. This arrived today, a MK-III.

 

All working well and sounding good. I actually downloaded the manual for this one, and I'm thinking now that I was using the MK-II in a way not intended. 

I have been setting the Volume around noon, the boost around noon, and bringing up the Master to suit for volume in the room. 

The manual on the other hand says to set the Master and Boost at noon, and then bring up the Volume to set the levels. This kind of goes against anything I've heard of before and I would be interested to know how you guys use them. I know @shug sets the Master and Boost high and uses the Volume to set the level.

 

I've had about 10 minutes with them this afternoon, just to make sure everything is working. I'm going to do some more comparisons tonight or tomorrow. My first impressions are that the MK-III does not sound exactly like the MK-II, but it's really close. It may have a softer attack and be ever so slightly brighter, but it's still very very good, and I'd prefer it over the other amps I have.

 

This exercise has also made me wonder if the MK-II needs a service, as setting the Master volume higher, (ie at noon) introduces a noticeable but not unreasonable 50hz hum. The MK-III which arrived to day is almost silent even at high Master settings.

 

Anyway, all good fun!

 

Rob

Where are you finding these? I’ve not seen a 400rb for ages and none for sale since I decided I really wanted one. So frustrating. 

On 21/08/2024 at 11:30, Cato said:

Pricing aside I'm slightly confused about the thinking behind this.

 

Is there that much demand for a passive Ray?

 

If you want the classic Ray sound on a budget surely you'd look at the active options like the Sub or the new Sires for not much more.

 

G&L did the Kiloton tribute a few years ago, which was a budget passive Ray type affair and while personally I thought it was a very good looking instrument, neither that or it's full fat US  made sibling seem to have set the world alight.

I’m a relative newbie but isn’t the point of a ‘Ray that it’s an 18v active bass?

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

White Epiphone G-3 spotted...

 

Oh my I neeeeeed that bass.

On 15/08/2024 at 19:09, ossyrocks said:

 

Well, I'm going to get an idea very soon, as I just bought this one off Reverb (and not for the full asking price either).

 

https://reverb.com/uk/item/79551626-gallien-krueger-400rb-mkiii-bass-head-amp-black-silver

 

I'll post again when it's here and I've done some A/B tests.

 

Rob

gah! Another one I’ve missed. 

On 15/08/2024 at 11:19, NancyJohnson said:

 

I used to love the Anderton videos back when it was Lee and Nathan King; there was genuine chemistry and banter from a pair of exceptional players and I really miss that.  Now it's all a bit meh.

 

By observation, CiCi (well, if You Tube videos are anything to go by), appears to have decentish chops, but there's really very little evidence of this in any of the current bass-centric Anderton output.  

 

 

You must be watching a different Cici as her playing is amazing, really wide range of styles, not many people doing these sorts of videos do any proper metal stuff like her and she does some nice melodic stuff too. All of this and she is comically small (stature and hands) compared to some of the basses she plays (eg with a Rick she looks so small!!) 

On 16/08/2024 at 09:45, Chienmortbb said:

I must admit Lee really annoys me. He can really play but  i do not want someone who over talks and he is so jolly. No one is that jolly all the time. Nathan is calmer and more measured.

Whereas I like someone who gets excited about things, we don’t need another dull bass player on YouTube thanks very much. 😂

On 16/08/2024 at 17:35, BillyBass said:

Not reading manuals is fine, it takes no time at all to work what does what, if you are a bass player.  One of them should have remembered to check the active/passive thing though.

 

I'm guessing they were rushing the video out to be the first.  

Making a decent YouTube video is hard work and takes a lot of prep and writing a script (yes the most popular changes have script writers) and editing and shooting b roll etc. I like the Andertons videos as they look good but as they are done kinda off the cuff you get more of a natural reaction. YouTube isn’t there business, it’s just an add on. 
So they might miss details a bit but so what? They added it on the end anyway. 
 

I like Lee ane Cici, both great players with a lot of experience who get excited about playing and trying new stuff and most importantly (to me) have a variety of styles they can play which will appeal to a lot of people. 
As soon as I see a bass video and it’s all just noodling at the top end of a fretboard or ridiculous non musical slap I just turn it off. 
 

I really want a MM but as others have said they are crazy expensive, even the sterling stuff. These look good, are good quality and sound great, the x7 is the one I’m gonna go for, just looks perfect to me in the white colour. 

1 hour ago, bremen said:

What a likeable engineer.

 

So that relatively small reservoir capacitance wasn't just cheapskating. 

I know his attitude about his products makes me want to get them. So funny that he was a bit miffed when he was asked to make another amp after his first one! 

On 07/08/2024 at 15:46, cetera said:

GK800RB - The classic amp. Loud, punchy, authoritative and the most solid workhorse ever

GK400RB - As above, just not quite as powerful (but still super loud!)

GK Legacy800 - Fantastic tones in a small class D head

Ampeg SVT II - 80's rock behemoth. Far too heavy and unreliable but what a sound...

I’m after a 400 or 800rb too. 

On 08/08/2024 at 14:45, Royaly T said:

Check what your back is saying

I had no problem lifting the one I tried out last year, but then I used to work quite physical jobs and done a lot of sports. They aren’t big anyway so unlike the weight of a heavy can they are fairly easy to manage. 

20 hours ago, bremen said:

Thanks Ruarl.

 

That makes sense, but rail sticking is generally something you'd be very careful not to allow, early in the design...as crucial as preventing overheating really.

 

I suspect a lot of power amp stages in bass amps are just lifted from existing amps. The Trace mosfet is almost exactly the Hitachi design note (and a DIY project offered by Maplin), bloody good one though. The one I built could not be destroyed with conventional weapons. The GK does seem quite unusual. I'll ask my geekmates what they make of it.

 

 

 

 

I have a GK combo and I love it, one day I hope to be able to get a 400 or 800rb - a lot of the USA 90s punk bassists used 400rbs into Ampeg 8x10 cabs (or whatever 8x10 can they could find) and they were loud enough for them so I think I’ll be ok!

3 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

This is my Sandblasted P bass. ive changed all the hardware to black. Big fan of black tuners on a maple neck. 

 

I got this on a whim used, for Ana maxing price a few years ago. Dont think I'll ever let it go. Its outlasted a few basses worth a lot more, inc a Yamaha P34.

 

Damn that’s cool. 

On 11/07/2024 at 13:38, Cato said:

If it had had the moving pickup I wouldn't have been able to resist.

 

Yes I'd probably have found the 'sweet spot' and never moved it again, but that's not the point.

 

As it is I reckon I'll wait for the G3.

Same here I want a G3, that silver burst finish is gorgeous. 

I only own one bass, my player Precison and I’ve only been playing less than 2 years. 
I went to quite a few shops and tried all sorts of basses before I could even play a full tune. I tried a basic squire p bass and just instantly thought “that sounds awesome” but still tried others just in case. 
Eventually stuck with the P and went for the cheapest fender version as I preferred the neck and colour. 
I keep trying other basses but I’m still not found something I like as much. 
To me I think that if I don’t like the tone I am getting it must be my fault. I’ve gone to analysing how I’m playing in order to get different tones rather than buying a new instructing and it’s worked so far. 

Another issue is that some people say they are harder to play. When I bought mine I had no idea how to play so I thought “I don’t know any different so why should I be bothered?”. It’s not really been an issue, just my short arms and fingers are a problem 😂 But I’ve adapted and it’s going ok. Yeah the strings are further apart than some others but it just means I can hit the string with a pick and make an awesome sound and there’s less chance of me hitting another string. 
 

The only bass I’m thinking of getting, and I’ll need to see one in real life before I buy one, is the potential Epiphone reissue of the Gibson G3, but it has big boots to fill. 

This thread is not helping the thought in my head that I need an SVT.