Merton

My functions band is a democracy if the drummer or singer get their way... If they're at loggerheads then it's really quite interesting. My originals band started out as a backing band for a singer who wrote everything himself but has morphed into a democracy over the years I've been in it.

I'd have the same cab and bass that I have, but get a Trace V6 or V8 EDIT: I'd actually commission Mikey to make me lots of basses, plus I'd get an S2 Classic 5 string

[quote name='alexclaber' post='569930' date='Aug 15 2009, 02:12 PM']I've been thinking about that and it makes sense to offer such options. So going forward you'll be able to have black with silver cloth grill as standard, or specially order: Black metal grill (no cost) Custom cloth (+£25) Custom colour metal grill (+£50) White finish (+£25) Custom colour finish (+£50) Alex[/quote] Bollocks. An all white one would have been awesome Gigged it twice this weekend people, and it has very quickly become my favourite bass sound ever. I finally hear only the bass and amp, no speaker distortion. The cab will do deep or bright, middy or smiley, and it will do all without breaking a sweat. And my god is it loud. And light. Lovely!

[quote name='MythSte' post='569014' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:47 PM']You see to me, That was a VERY useful video, Thanks! The tone you got from that sadowsky is exactly the tone im aiming for (and getting) a lot of the time at the moment, And the Bergs are what i would have shot for if i was in a funky band. But< im doing blues and rock and roll, After talking to Alex for a bit we decided that the slight roll off on the highs of the vintage (Or lack of any peaks up that end) would stop it sounding like i was building a shed at the same time. If your telling me that the vintage can do both, then well, I'm going to be a happy bunny! Thanks so much for that![/quote] Ste, I have a feeling you'll love the Vintage. What amp are you using?

Fascinating stuff, and kudos to Alex for helping Myke out. I am one of the lucky few to have played through a Compact, Big One and a Vintage and I have to say all three are bloody brilliant. I'd love to gig a Big One one day as I thnk I'd make our drummr sh*t himself every time I hit a bottom E, it's a stunningly good cab. But I prefer a slightly less crisp top end and the Vintage does that for me beautifully. Myke; if the Big One isn't for you then i suggest a Hartke LH500 with a Vintage. Tonal bliss and a very "classic rock/blues" sound

Well that's just caused a little accident in my pants. Lovely

Probably exactly what Alex reckons then, a simple problem to fix

[quote name='davidmpires' post='561878' date='Aug 6 2009, 12:05 PM']Hi everyone I bought a T-bass by Status from Bass Gallery last November and since then I've been trying to gather as much information as I can. This is what I gathered so far. There were two series a 90's one and a SE edition Mine is a 98 SE edition. My teacher back at home bought one new, I think it was an SE in natural oil, but I can't be sure as I haven't checked the serial number. Some of them I think the SE ones came with a hum cancelling pick up under the pickguard, I'm going to check mine tonight. Initally I was told that they only did 100 4 strings and 100 5 strings. But Rob Green thinks he made only 50 of each, but I don't know, I have yet to find an SE with a serial number higher than mine. (031) Another thing I've noticed is that all non SE models seem to have caps on the pick ups while mine has exposed poles. I've tried to register on the Status forum to ask some questions but I've never received the activation email so I couldn't do it. If you have any information I would really appreciate. I fell in love with this bass years ago when my teacher bought one and now I'm a proud owner of one too Check the picks[/quote] Nice bass! Always wanted a 5string T bass :0 AFAIK ALL T basses have the hum cancelling pick up under the pick guard... Other than that, I know nothing except that I want one!

[quote name='Mikey R' post='560544' date='Aug 4 2009, 07:30 PM']Thanks! I was having a play after work today, Im just so pleased. The balance is perfect, it looks cool and I can get all of the P-type sounds I need from it. Really good rock bass and I'd suspect it would do some pretty good funk tones too. Theres only three problems, and they are probably very minor but they bug me cos its mine: * The pickup route in the scratchguard is not quite centered in the strings, so Ive had to move the strings over towards the treble side a little. Schaller 2000 bridge made this really easy! I'll eventually make a new scratchguard. * The neck has a few dips and bumps. Its slimmest at the 5th fret but then gets thicker by a very small amount towards the volute. * The HIDEOUS three dots! Im tempted to keep all these imperfections as a reminder not to rush, and plan and measure EVERYTHING! But Im totally hooked on this building thing - Im planning another bass (after Merts of course), same thing but a little different...[/quote] Mikey, it looks awesome I still can't put the 5 stringer down (cue disapporving looks from nic as I should be changing Theo's nappy ) so I bet this is a cracker. Can't wait for mine, but first you get yourself to San Francisco and enjoy

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='560616' date='Aug 4 2009, 09:02 PM'][url="http://www.stevesamps.co.uk"]Steve Rowse[/url] is very good - based Godalming. Has fixed all my Trace stuff in the past.[/quote] +1

[quote name='Protium' post='559402' date='Aug 3 2009, 04:45 PM']Haha why even have a power switch when you can just turn the bass volume to zero [/quote] Good point, plus the plug in the wall is the on/off switch. Easy!

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='558665' date='Aug 2 2009, 06:53 PM']Used mine in anger for the first time at a gig last night. Great tone and power through my 4x10. Best bass sound I've had in a long while, actually. Didn't have to do much tweaking to get it either - just boosted the treble a bit. Made the floor rumble and my trousers flap, which is all good. Only downside is that in a rack, it is a heavy bugger.[/quote] Glad you like! [quote name='Protium' post='558679' date='Aug 2 2009, 07:17 PM']Why even have an output volume then? I have tone controls on my bass, does that make the amp EQ redundant? [/quote] Yeah, maybe the amp should just be one 500W power amp with no controls at all save for a power switch. Lovely!

[quote name='davidmpires' post='558580' date='Aug 2 2009, 04:41 PM']Can I make a suggestion? Would be cool to have Steve Lawson doing a workshop, he's not that far away from Surrey. Would be worth contacting him.[/quote] Good suggestion. We have a couple of session guys on our target list but we'll add him too

Lovely! Pretty sure you'll be loving the LH500

All three basses look great, nice one people! I'm trying to persuade my brother in law he wants to come and do this next year with me

Right, it's been over a week since I took the prototype off Mikey's hands; I've gigged her once and caressed her every day I'm still in love with this bass. [b]Sound[/b] Unplugged, this bass sings. A great fundamental and some really nice harmonics make this sound rather woody and lovely indeed. Plugged in it's a revelation. Cheap no-name ebay pickups they may be, but this bass packs a punch and the 4-way PU switch gives a great fundamental basis to the tone (bridge / B+N in series / B+N in parallel / neck). Through the LH500 and Barefaced Vintage I have to say I was really enjoying rocking out with this bass. It cuts through the band beautifully and packs a huge wallop with it. Nice! [b]Playability[/b] Easy. This may have a chunky neck but it's a joy to get around. The fanned frets were a doddle and on the whole this is a very comfy and easy bass to adapt to. I think it has a fatter neck than my old MIM Jazz V but I have to say, it's a hell of a lot more of a joy to play. Light and reasonably well balanced (a bit neck heavy but it isn't an issue) and ergonomically perfectly suited to me. Grand grand grand. [b]So what's going change on the "production" models?[/b] Not a lot, to be honest. Well, obviously the woods will be a bit more fancy, and Mikey will have the experience of this and Jon Shuker's course under his belt, but most people would be hard pushed to spot many major differences I suspect. Mikey is going to slightly enlarge the body to help with the balance, both visually and ergonomically, whilst the neck is going to be slightly slimmed down. My particular bass is going to have Wizard 84s and I'm intrigued to see what effect they'll have on the sound. The electronics will essentially stay the same but we'll source some higher quality components. Some of the manufacturing techniques will be changed or refined by Mikey (e.g. how to install the electronics and jack socket and how to fret the neck), the fan will be parallel at the 4th fret rather than the 3rd, but as you can see we're really not making radical changes. My particular spec has had a slight modification though. We were going to go for a ziricote board to balance the olive ash top, but I love the maple so much on this bass (and it's cheaper!) so we're going for an all-blonde bass now - rippled olive ash top with maple fretboard. The whole wood spec is like this (shamelessly pinched from an email from Mikey back in snowy February): "Body is hard ash caps top and back, over a poplar core, with walnut accent lines and go-faster stripes. Neck will be walnut-ash-dark ash-ash-walnut, maybe with some artistic used of veneers to make pinstripes between the ash lams." It's obviously still a long way off but it's mighty exciting! This thread has a loooong way to go

Mikey that looks great

I got mine from [url="http://www.avocations.co.uk/speaker-grille-foam-21-c.asp"]here[/url] but Blue Aran do it too

[quote name='alexclaber' post='550249' date='Jul 24 2009, 02:48 PM']I doubt drum hardware could pierce it, but I shall have a go at throwing some cymbal stands at a cab one of these days. Alex[/quote] Our drummer tried that on Saturday and failed, a slightly dented badge is all. Even so, I've stuck some 20mm acoustically transparent foam behind the grille to add an extra bit of protection. As Alex said to me, it probably won't stop something which pierces the grille but it'll stop it being deflected as much and give me a slight reassurance....

[quote name='buff' post='548843' date='Jul 23 2009, 12:56 PM']And a sansamp makes it 4 although if the amp is that great it shouldnt need it.[/quote] My Sansamp is used purely for giving our FoH the sound I want. I haven't used it as an "extra" preamp for my onstage sound since I have the Trace 12 band head: make of that what you will I guess...

Another point to make about the volume control - you have AT LEAST two other volume controls in your rig already: 1) on your bass and, more importantly, 2) your fingers. So it's bullsh*t to say that there's not enough control

Tell you what, I'll weigh mine at work tomorrow on their big warehouse scales

[quote name='51m0n' post='547495' date='Jul 22 2009, 12:54 PM']no vol setting probs here....[/quote] nor here it goes up and down and i can put it where I want it.

LH500? Cracking amp for the money (even the new less cheap money!) Yes, on it's own it's slightly hissy but I've NEVER noticed at a gig. overall, the LH500 has power to spare, a basic tone to die for and you'd be hard pushed to ruin your sound with the EQ (read that as it's very musical, not that it's limited). It's essentially the same preamp as in the old Trace V-Type heads (and before that the Fender Dual Showman I believe?) though I'd say the Harke has a more agressive EQ section and as such it's more "tweakable". Well worth a look IMO. Oh, and it you want speakons, get the LH1000 and have LOADS of power to spare:)