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Spending money and then liking the cheap stuff best


operative451
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A slight moanette, although i am amused. Poorer, but amused...

I've been faffing trying to get 'that sound' by throwing money at the issue and i find that yes,  i can fiddle with my flipping zoom B3n (which is a super piece of kit) and Bigger Louder Amp and get a sound i really like. And still i like the sound of my bass straight into my Warwick BC15.1 the best!  I paid £25 for it 4 years ago as i was going on a long work trip and needed something portable. For flip's sake!

Gigs aren't really a thing i do and anyway, the BC15 is plenty loud enough for small pub/coffee house gigs and anywhere big enough to need louder probably has a soundguy who'll want to DI anyway... Doh...

So the 'big amp' is on gumtree and i'm only not putting the B3n on the classifieds here out of misguided pigheadedness... Argh...

Oh well...

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Same here. I've had and got some nice (and expensive) toys, but a little Ohm 60w combo I had once sounded as good as any of them. I've always wondered whether I should find a small amp I like and just buy multiples of it. In a way, I've done that, in that I use small PJB cabs and just take out more of them and extra amplification if I need to be louder. It's a bit of a faff, though.

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2 hours ago, Len_derby said:

For me a lot of the pleasure using (especially gigging) cheaper stuff is being relaxed about it getting scratched/broken/lost/stolen.

There’s a lot of sense in that, could be why so many of the pro bands I see use MIM Fenders, Epiphones etc.

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I found out my lovely, shiny, new, Elite Precision, sounds just like my Squier bitsa, once it's DI'd into the sound desk and EQ'd by some random sound engineer.

And my old Squier has a nicer neck and is lighter too.

You lives and learns I suppose :)

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Yup. I've done 15 years worth of gigs on a pretty basic Crafter acoustic guitar. 

And my cheapo Yamaha bass has outlived and outgigged all sorts of more expensive fantasy gear that just didn't play or sound as good. 

I do like expensive refined gear tho as long as it sounds great. Makes you feel cool too sometimes!

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On 18/01/2019 at 20:04, TheGreek said:

Thrown sackfuls of money at amps - can't beat that classic Trace Elliot tone.

Exactly this for me. I’ve been far too easily seduced by the latest, newest and best thing on the block but I always revert back to Trace. No more, that’s me done now for amps honest 😇

 

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8 hours ago, Japhet said:

I mostly gig now with my Harley Benton 50 P Bass and leave my Stingray, Lakland and Tokai at home.

Same with me. In recent years I've mainly used a bitsa that was temporaraily thrown together to check it all worked. It worked so well that the various MIA & MIJ Fenders, Stingray, G&L, Gibson & old faithful Ibanez Musician all stay at home.

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8 hours ago, Deedee said:

Exactly this for me. I’ve been far too easily seduced by the latest, newest and best thing on the block but I always revert back to Trace. No more, that’s me done now for amps honest 😇

 

Yeah, me too.  I spent a family holiday's worth of cash on my Mesa Prodigy Four:88.  OK, it is too heavy for me otherwise I would still be using it but, ultimately, I was just trying to get it to sound like a slightly sparklier version of my TE head. :) 

 

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On 18/01/2019 at 20:16, TheGreek said:

Pukka? I had the 100w version many years ago - purchased from our very own @aDx no less.

It's the 60w one.  It's great! 

I use markbass combo now...  Lovely

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Expensive gear gives you the aesthetic pleasure of higher quality construction and finish. A plywood table is just as usable as a solid oak, hand-crafted, bespoke table at a fraction of the cost - but people still buy the handbuilt stuff. So long as the cheap gear isn’t so cheap that it doesn’t function, nobody really “needs” any more. There is a certain amount of relaxation about cheap gear as others have said - it’s generally less of a worry to gig a £200 bass than a £5K vintage Fender in terms of damage or theft.

One item where more expensive can mean better is with a 6-string bass - the best designs are not a scaled-up 4-string, and neck reinforcement - be that carbon/titanium bars, hardwood laminates or something else - tend to push the price up as getting that all to work on a cheap bass isn’t easy. Correct string balance, a clear B and a high C that doesn’t sound like a thin guitar doesn’t come cheap. Even my current favourite bass, an Ibanez SR3006e, is far from perfect. Sadly, I have played one that was as close to perfect as I’ll ever find - it was an £8K Fodera. So it cuts both ways!

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