Conan

I tried to make the switch about four years ago, and am still struggling somewhat! There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is simply that I haven't practiced often enough or long enough on the five! I often find myself plucking one string but fretting another! To me, the main advantage of the five is the low B. IMO, bass is all about the low notes - and a five string give an extra four notes BELOW low E! OK, there are other advantages but that's the main one for me. I think that some players face additional problems in moving to a five string because they often buy a cheap or at best mid-range instrument - working on the assumption that "if I don't like it or can't get away with it, at least I haven't wasted too much cash!". I certainly fell into that trap, and then found that the five I bought didn't really suit me! Kind of a lose/lose situation... Somtimes I console myself with the "well, four strings were enough for Entwistle, Miller, Squire, Lee, King et al" argument, which is, of course, a cop-out on my part! The moral of the story is - PRACTICE!!

Just to echo the above - there really are many ways to slap a cat! I went through a real Level 42-clone stage back in the 1980s and although I never bought or even tried a JayDee, I was happy with my Status, apart from the lack of mid-range. I personally never liked the light gauge strings. I tried a few sets of the "Funkmaster" set marketed by Rotosound but they were just about toneless! On the other hand, 45s or heavier strings can be a bit too taught for easy slapping... I guess as in all things, compromise is what you need. Medium or slightly-above gauges give the best of both worlds. To hear the difference that string gauge makes (as well as playing style and gear choices!) compare the sounds of MK with Marcus Miller or Flea. The thing with MK is that he really is a one-off! Spend years trying to mimic his style and the only real use for it is to play in a L42 tribute band! There are many other slap players who are more rounded in style. Having said that, his fingerstyle playing is pretty nifty too - if a little derivative in the Stan Clarke style! When it comes to the height of the action, just go with what feels comfortable. As with many things, I tend to go for the "brute force and ignorance" style - so a low action is no good for me or I would ruin the fretboard and get no tone at all! Players with a lighter touch (which would be just about everyone!) might well prefer a lower action... Just brought back painful memories of Lessons in Love.... I can feel that lactic acid building up in my right forearm as we speak! Ouch! Much prefered Mr Pink for much slap-related showing off!

As a newbie to this forum, can someone tell me what the format is for these BassBashes? Is it kind of a meet-up, chat and try each other's gear type of thing?

Fish (the ex-Marillion singer) always surrounds himself with great musicians, and his bass players are no exception. Some of the fretless playing on his 1989 first solo album is fantastic. It features ex-Simple Mind John Giblin - an extremely tasteful player who has also played with John Martyn (try his Grace and Danger album). Next bassist after Giblin left was David (or Davie) Paton. Another great player, but in a very varied style, he played with the band until 1997 when Ewen Vernal (from Deacon Blue) took over for one album (Sunsets on Empire). Then came Steve Vantsis for the next 10 years - a very tasteful but under-rated player. They are ALL worth a listen! In a completely different style, I would recommend you have a listen to Leigh Gorman's work with Bow Wow Wow. Incredibly dextrous and fast, if a little "guitarist"-like in style... Good call on Andy Rourke iconic!

Anyway, to jump back to the earlier part of the thread (I haven't quite worked out how to do "quotes" yet on here!)... A better word to use instead of "gain" would be "attenuation", wouldn't it? In other words, zero attenuation equals letting the maximum signal through rather than restricting it in any way...? Or maybe I'm wrong?

Nowt at all wrong with old Trace gear! In fact, when I eventually get round to trying anything new, it will be my old Trace gear that will provide the acoustic yardstick with which I will compare them! Sadly though, they just got too damn heavy - well over 100kg for the whole stack, and being tall I didn't like playing gigs with just one cab as the speaker throw was too far beneath my ear level...

He played the fretless line on the Bergerac theme!! Cool! I absolutely LOVE that piece of playing - in fact its one of the basslines that inspired me to play in the first place! Massive respect

I'm confused too! After a few years "in the wilderness", I return to the bass fold to find that the whole "should I go for Ampeg or Trace Elliot" amplification question has been massively complicated by new (to me) manufacturers like MarkBass, Barefaced, Epifani, Genz Benz, Schroeder, Aguilar and so on. Great news as far as competition goes, but by Christ it makes the choice confusing! To make matters worse (or better, depending on how you look at it), the mass vs price consideration is also hard to separate! Twenty-odd years ago, when I last bought any bass amplification, good gear was HEAVY. In the case of Ampeg and Trace, VERY heavy. At least I knew where I stood with that! :blush: Now it seems that, with the invention of neodymium magnets, good gear is not necessarily heavy. In fact, much of the "best" gear (to go by opinions on here) is very light!! So what does it all mean? How can I judge which amps and cabs will suit me? Do I simply pay as much as I can afford? Or do I spend the rest of my allotted three score years and ten trying out amp/cab combinations to the point of madness? A labour of love maybe, but I generally don't like music shops! Dammit - I'm not even sure which size of speakers I prefer! 8, 10, 12, 15 or 18 or any feasible combination of them...

Cheers BOD2! That's kinda what I thought but its nice to have it confirmed! Good advice about the cables BTW. I only found out recently that I had been using the wrong type of cables (i.e. instrument leads) to connect amps to cabs! Nobody tells you these things!! :wacko:

OK, I've read this thread through and there's loads ( ) of great advice - assuming I understand it all correctly! Ohm I God!! One thing though, that I am not sure about, is the issue of series vs parallel wiring! Within the cab itself, presumably the speakers can be wired up either in series or in parallel? If so, what are the relative benefits of each? And one assumes that the info plate on the back of the box will inform the user of how the speakers have been wired if this is important? On the other hand, can cabs themselves be connected to the amp in either series or parallel? If the amp has 2 jack outputs then if you want to connect two cabs there are two ways this can be done 1. Take one lead out of the amp into the first cab and then connect the first cab to the second cab - so only one output socket from the amp is being used. I used to do this with my old Trace Elliot stack, but using XLR connectors rather than 1/4" jacks... 2. Run two leads out of the amp, one into each cab, so that the cabs are NOT connected to each other. Does it make any difference? Is one series and the other parallel? Does any of this make sense?!? :wacko:

I enjoyed it too! What a fantastic voice the lead singer has/had. Was that david Ruffin? Not one of their greatest tracks though IMO...

Love that!! Great stuff. As others have said, his voice is sounding better than ever. BTW, what is that bass he's thumbing? Looks like a Status - is it some kind of "signature" model? OK, off to listen to The Pursuit of Accidents now!! ^_^

Hi, I'm Geoff (sometimes known as "Big Geoff" - due to my physical size rather than other dimensions!) I've already posted a few times on here so I thought I'd best do the polite thing and introduce myself. Oh damn - I've already done that haven't I? Been playing bass since I was about 13. Sadly, that's now about 30 years! Eeek! Not currently playing in a gigging band, and the last band I played with that anyone in the North East might have remotely heard of was the Lounge Lizards. After a break of a few years due to kids, job etc; but am trying to get a prog-rock covers band up and running... In many ways I'm kinda "between gear" at the moment - with two guitars I'm trying sell (Ibanez musician MC824DS and a Jackson C5A), another I've recently purchased (Cort Curbow 5) and one definite keeper that I've had from new bought in 1986 (Status series 2 4-string fretted). Amp-wise, I was always a Trace kinda guy - but as I was using my AH250+1048+1518 stack less and less frequently I tried to sell it a couple of years ago. No cash buyers but I ended up swapping them for an Ampeg SVT-200T and SVT115E cab. A lot smaller, but not much lighter! So I'm currently reading with a great deal of interest the cabinet threads on here and getting seriously confused by mentions of all these manufacturers I've never heard of! Examples would include the likes of Bergantino, Aguilar, Genz Benz, Epifani, BarefacedBass, TecAmp and MarkBass! I also discovered that, although I was unsure what the acronym (used correctly in this case!) GAS was, I have a serious case of it at the mo!! Anyway, I feel that the skills I would bring to the post are..... Oops, sorry - but it was starting to sound like an application letter there! Enough already. Back to reading the gear threads!!

Sounds OK to me mate!! Particularly attractive shot of the open wardrobe too!!

[quote name='Rich' post='528575' date='Jun 30 2009, 12:08 PM']I remember years ago, Trace Elliot used to say that their 15" cabs actually had a brighter top than their 10s, just not as punchy or snappy. Is this generally the case with 15" speakers?[/quote] I used to play through the "typical" Trace stack - AH250 coupled to a 4x10 and 1x15. I definitely found that the fifteen was toppier [b]and[/b] had more bottom than the 10s. Maybe not surprising about the low end, but I was genuinely surprised about the lovely "clicky" top end that the 15 delivered! In fact, although it was "de rigeur" to place the 15 on the floor with the 10s on top, I used to have mine the other way around. Looked kinda wierd, but meant that the cab at ear level was the 15 - the sound of which I much preferred (and it didn't have a horn BTW!). The sound of the 4x10 was much "punchier" and rounded - great for fretless work or funk sounds, but definitely lacking in top end... Just my two penn'orth of course!

Hey! I managed it!!

Hi! I'm new here. Does anyone like my Musician 824DS custom active fretless? Damn! How do I attach a pic from my PC rather than a website?!?!?!

Hi Bass Doc! I never met you, but at the time (about 20 years or so ago) I was having bass lessons with Kenny Potter, who passed my guitar on to you to sort out. Great job - thanks mate! Sadly, I'm trying to sell the bass on ebay at the moment, but it must be the wrong time of year or something... Two of them went for £600 the previous week! I recall Paul Garvey Music... a guitarist I was playing with at the time worked in there - said the boss was a right tw@t!! What was the name of the little place on High Bridge? Spenders rings a bell... I was once in there when a kid of about 14 came in with his mother. He asked for a Gibson Les Paul gold top to play.... usual scenario - smoke on the water and whole lotta rosie on one string. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of this awful torture his mother pipes up "who do I make the cheque out to?". The guitar was a cool £2500, and this was over 20 years ago! To add insult to injury, after getting it all packed up and stuff, she says "Oh, and can you recommend anyone who gives guitar lessons?" !!!

Howard Satterley! That's the name I've been trying to recall for ages! He repaired my Ibanez MC824 fretboard after I ripped the frets out in one of my "Jaco wannabee" phases! He did a nice job of installing an active pre-amp too. Thanks for the reminder dude!

I'm reminded of a quote by (I think) Wilko Johnson of Dr. Feelgood... "If you make a mistake, just look brash and the audience will think they heard it wrong!" Works for me!!

I guess there are a number of ways that someone could honestly and genuinely have "as new" instruments in their possession and want to sell them privately.... but, I too am rather cynical - especially as sometimes the written description of the gear does not sound like it was written by someone who knows what they are talking about. That really sets my alarm bells ringing, although I suppose they could be selling it for a friend or something?! Better safe than sorry I suppose!

Sometimes heavier gauge strings can give more harmonics or overtones to the sound, which might make the your tone a bit "fuller"... Or adding a bit more middle to your EQ should give more definition. Not sure what you mean by a "bassy" sound!? Do you just mean roll all the top end off, or set all the bass/low-mid knobs to 11?! Its all very well flapping your own trousers, but if there is no definition to the sound nobody will be able to hear what you are playing!