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In case anyone was wondering I wound up going with the B20 and I'm enjoying it. Great bedroom jamming amp, is keeping up with low-watt tube amps fine, and has a nice punch to it. Takes OD and fuzz pedals well, too!
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Mar 28, 2010 23:31
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Can anyone give me some tips on training up three-fingered plucking? I've always played using only two fingers, but lately I've been playing some very fast stuff, and having a extra finger to slap deh bass would be helpful.
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Mar 29, 2010 02:13
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I just started playing bass again after a long period of playing guitar/drums for various bedroom bands etc. I've been playing with a local thrash band who lost their bassist, and decided I like it, a lot, and thought it best that I give the borrowed Yamaha RBX270 back to my old guitarist and finally get my own rig (I've been hiring an amp from our practice venue) I put a deposit on an Ibanez SR500 on Saturday. At $920 AUD(RRP was given at about 1150), the thing is marvelous. After reading this thread from front to back and a few other resources, I decided that this was what I needed. I tried a LOT of other instruments - P and Js both fender and Squire, Shecters, Warwick Rockbasses and Spectors and even after all that I still came back to the 500. It has a smoother and lower action than almost anything I've held, the tone from the Bartolini actives is so versatile... I'd just like to thank everyone in this thread for the fantastic advice and ideas they've been dishing out for however many years now. It helped make the transition from guitar to bass relatively painless for me, and yall are the reason that in a few weeks time I will own one sexy motherfucker of a bass guitar  So one question: I'm thinking of picking up a Hartke HA3500 head once the bass is paid off... I know a lot of you guys aren't fond of Hartke, and it is a lot cheaper than the Ampeg/Aguilar/Mark Bass etc equivalents I've played through, at $850 vs over $1200+... Should I just grab this, or are there any serious concerns I should be worried about?
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Mar 29, 2010 05:58
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Ackbarf posted:So one question: I'm thinking of picking up a Hartke HA3500 head once the bass is paid off... I know a lot of you guys aren't fond of Hartke, and it is a lot cheaper than the Ampeg/Aguilar/Mark Bass etc equivalents I've played through, at $850 vs over $1200+... Should I just grab this, or are there any serious concerns I should be worried about? I can't speak to their build quality or anything. But Hartke just sounds so incredibly sterile and lifeless to my ears. Same with SWR.
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Mar 29, 2010 12:46
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Geisladisk posted:Can anyone give me some tips on training up three-fingered plucking? I've always played using only two fingers, but lately I've been playing some very fast stuff, and having a extra finger to slap deh bass would be helpful. I'm not sure there's any real tips, just practice. It takes a little while to get used to it. I think I started with a simple RMI- pattern (ring, middle, index, rest). Some people like to go index to ring, others (like me) go ring to index. After that I went to RMIM-I- so it's like a triplet sixteenths with two eighths after it. And after that, RMIRMI comes quickly after.
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Mar 29, 2010 17:48
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Ackbarf posted:So one question: I'm thinking of picking up a Hartke HA3500 head once the bass is paid off... I know a lot of you guys aren't fond of Hartke, and it is a lot cheaper than the Ampeg/Aguilar/Mark Bass etc equivalents I've played through, at $850 vs over $1200+... Should I just grab this, or are there any serious concerns I should be worried about?
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Mar 30, 2010 02:02
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Currency conversion rate means nothing when it comes to music gear over here. Amps are about 2x the price in USD over here man. Let me post some prices from a popular music store here... Mesa M6 Carbine: $2895 rrp Big Block 750: $4295 rrp Powerhouse 4x10 cabinet $2495 rrp Warwick Hellborg: $2999 rrp Pro Fet III $1299 rrp Eden WT405 $2125 rrp WT550 $2450 rrp WT800 $3950 rrp AGUILAR AG500: $2999 AG500sc $2499 Hartke HA3500 $1099 rrp (I can get it cheaper than this) So you get the point. poo poo is expensive here. Feel free to recommend any other mid-entry level bass heads so I can look up pricing though. Edit: Actually my co-worker just put me onto Ashdown - I've played through some of the MAG amps at both Billy Hyde and Music Park, and found that they sound pretty drat good. The 300W/4ohm is about 575, so one can assume the MAG600H (575W) is probably sub 1k.. Anyone have any experience with these heads? Don Dongington fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Mar 30, 2010 |
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Mar 30, 2010 04:49
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Ackbarf I'm selling my Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 for ~$800 AUD if you're keen? It's less than 6 months old and has been used at about 5 band practices only. I bought it sight unseen to replace my old Trace Elliot 300H V-Type head. I bought a Sansamp VT pedal to go with it and found that the Sansamp + Trace combination is much better for the punk music I'm playing, so I need to get rid of it. Comes with a 5m Speakon lead, and the footswitch. I'm really keen to sell it so I'd be willing to negotiate a bit. I'm in Brisbane but can post. Lemme know.
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Mar 30, 2010 11:44
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My old bass player has one of those, it's pretty sweet. And 800 is a good deal.. I won't be able to drop any cash until I've finished paying off my bass though. I was going to layby but we'll see how I go at saving. Don't hold it but if you still have it when the time comes I'll hit you up.
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Mar 30, 2010 12:13
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Sounds good dude!
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Mar 30, 2010 12:18
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Never buy Ashdown gear, they're literally full of plastic.
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Mar 30, 2010 12:57
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I got a quick technique question - when I mute a note for a rest or if I'm playing staccato, I play the note with my first finger and then mute with the second finger, right? If the next note is on the same string, I play that with my second finger since I'm alternating to pluck and my finger's already there anyway, but what do you do if the first muted note is (say) on the A string, and the next note is on the G? It feels awkward to pluck with the first finger, touch the string with the second finger and then do another movement in the other direction to play the G string, feels like 1-2-2 instead of 1-2. Would you guys count the mute as the whole move in that case, and alternate back to the first finger for the G string?
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Mar 30, 2010 19:38
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baka kaba posted:I got a quick technique question - when I mute a note for a rest or if I'm playing staccato, I play the note with my first finger and then mute with the second finger, right? If the next note is on the same string, I play that with my second finger since I'm alternating to pluck and my finger's already there anyway, but what do you do if the first muted note is (say) on the A string, and the next note is on the G? It feels awkward to pluck with the first finger, touch the string with the second finger and then do another movement in the other direction to play the G string, feels like 1-2-2 instead of 1-2. Would you guys count the mute as the whole move in that case, and alternate back to the first finger for the G string? Just tried this and it definitely feels a lot more natural to play both notes with the same finger and mute with the alternate (either index-middle(mute)-index or middle-index(mute)-middle).
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Mar 30, 2010 23:08
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The Flying Fish posted:Never buy Ashdown gear, they're literally full of plastic. What? I had the 2x10 combo version of the Mag 300 he's talking about and the insides looked no different than any other amp. I never had trouble with it and it certainly was a lot more reliable than the Markbass Little Mark II I replaced it with.
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Mar 31, 2010 00:49
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That's interesting.. at the moment my options as I see it are the Hartke HA5500, Ashdown Mag600 and the Little Mark... I've figured out I need about 500-600W I to compete with the other guy's amps (Dual rec and a 5150), and the cab I'm buying off a co-worker was too quiet with a shuttle 300(he took it straight back and paid the extra on a 600, which is what he had when I was playing with him)
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Mar 31, 2010 00:58
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I went to the LMII from the Mag 300 because I wanted something more portable and powerful to take to gigs. At practice I was already over 60% volume because our drummer couldn't control his loudness so I wanted some extra headroom. The problem I had with the LMII was that it was pretty sensitive to power, and pretty much every place I played had sketchy power which would put it in some sort of protect mode (the DI out still worked so that saved me mid-song a couple times). I don't know how common that issue is, but I saw a few other people on Talkbass were dealing with the same thing. I sold that and got a Shuttle 6.0 instead, which doesn't sound quite as good to me but has been completely reliable.
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Mar 31, 2010 01:16
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Plastic Snake posted:Just tried this and it definitely feels a lot more natural to play both notes with the same finger and mute with the alternate (either index-middle(mute)-index or middle-index(mute)-middle). Yeah, it definitely feels better to me too, I'm just worried that I might be taking shortcuts instead of aiming for Ultimate Perfect Technique! I'm already fighting the urge to use the same finger twice if it's on its way to the next string
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Apr 1, 2010 20:12
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Playing my first show in a year tomorrow night!  None of my friends are coming and it's a free show  I'll take pictures maybe and everyone can be jealous that they weren't there.
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Apr 2, 2010 17:33
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scuz posted:Playing my first show in a year tomorrow night! Eh who cares, just go out and have fun.
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Apr 2, 2010 18:14
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Bruce Boxliker posted:I basically know jack about electronics but I want to put some new pickups in my MIM J-bass. Anyone know if these pickups are decent at all? Anyone?  Got my paycheck today, looking for some new pups what what.
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Apr 2, 2010 19:23
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Bruce Boxliker posted:Anyone? I have no experience with those, but DiMarzio makes great pickups. I'm pretty positive you'll be fine. They'll be a good bit hotter than the stock ones you have now, but nothing too far out of control.
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Apr 2, 2010 19:36
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Bruce Boxliker posted:Anyone?
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Apr 2, 2010 21:37
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Great, thanks a lot guys. I'm gonna order 'em.
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Apr 2, 2010 22:07
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Scarf posted:Eh who cares, just go out and have fun.  Heading over in about a half-hour to set everything up and do a sound check in an unfinished basement.PUNK RAWK 
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Apr 3, 2010 00:23
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420 play bass every day.
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Apr 4, 2010 00:15
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Hey, quick question from a noob. I've got a little bass practice amp for messing around on my bass. Any reason a buddy couldn't borrow it to run his guitar through for a while? I know you don't want to run a bass through a guitar amp, but does the opposite hold up?
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Apr 5, 2010 07:55
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Yeah it'll hold up fine with a guitar. And I use a little guitar amp for bass practice too, it's not really a big deal if you don't crank the volume.
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Apr 5, 2010 08:01
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Liquid Communism posted:Hey, quick question from a noob. I've got a little bass practice amp for messing around on my bass. Any reason a buddy couldn't borrow it to run his guitar through for a while? I know you don't want to run a bass through a guitar amp, but does the opposite hold up? It's doable, but the won't be very bright, obviously.
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Apr 5, 2010 15:37
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Bruce Boxliker posted:Great, thanks a lot guys. I'm gonna order 'em. Might be a bit late... but check this out, new EMG J pickups (granted they're active, kind of): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3-uPgqcHuo Scarf fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Apr 5, 2010 |
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Apr 5, 2010 15:48
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Liquid Communism posted:Hey, quick question from a noob. I've got a little bass practice amp for messing around on my bass. Any reason a buddy couldn't borrow it to run his guitar through for a while? I know you don't want to run a bass through a guitar amp, but does the opposite hold up? Some guitarists actually prefer to use bass amps and/or bass cabs in order to get a darker sound or for whatever reason. It can sound really good. But I wouldn't expect much out of a little practice bass amp.
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Apr 5, 2010 23:19
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I got a Dean Edge five-string unlined fretless not too long ago. Due to the fact that I was used to a fretted four, it has been quite a jump! I'll be playing at a big college jazz festival in two weeks, and I hope this bass will go over well. My school owns a vintage 50 watt Fender Bassman that gets a gorgeous tone. I've had a bit of a hard time getting the bass to bring out that distinctive fretless "mwah" sound. It sounds great in the upper register, but I've been struggling to find settings and playing styles to get that in the lower positions. Could it have something to do with the setup, the EQ, or just a picky bass? It has fairly new roundwounds on it which I thought would make that tone come out better.
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Apr 6, 2010 08:10
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I have a question about my bass. It's an Ibanez soundgear with active pickups. Occasionally I get a natural distortion coming from my amps using this bass. It happens on my little practice amp and my gigging amp as well.. it's usually on the low end frequencies only.. a small buzzing. The drive on the amps is usually turned most of the way down, so that's not the issue. Any idea what this could be caused by? Can the bass itself give a natural distortion?
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Apr 6, 2010 12:39
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I r Pat posted:I have a question about my bass. It's an Ibanez soundgear with active pickups. Occasionally I get a natural distortion coming from my amps using this bass. It happens on my little practice amp and my gigging amp as well.. it's usually on the low end frequencies only.. a small buzzing. This is most likely caused by the battery in your bass going flat. If the battery is not able to supply the onboard preamp(s) with enough power it will clip and cause an unpleasant sounding distortion.
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Apr 6, 2010 13:27
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CaseFace McGee posted:I've had a bit of a hard time getting the bass to bring out that distinctive fretless "mwah" sound. Try dialing out some of the low-end and use the bridge pickup maybe? I r Pat posted:Any idea what this could be caused by? Can the bass itself give a natural distortion? If it is present at all amplifier/preamp input gain settings, it's a dead battery like Mr. Posters said. If that's the case, replace it with a 9v lithium and you won't have to worry about it for a couple years. If it only shows up at higher gain and lower output volume, you're overdriving the preamp stage. If it shows up at low gain and high output volume your guitarist probably hates you. Does you amp/pre have a -15dB input jack? If so, use that. It's intended for actives. Otherwise turn your gain down until it goes away. If it's still a problem, Radial makes an impedance matching transformer called the Tonebone Dragster. I've never used it, but it is made for this very application. If it's the battery, you're a doofus* and you should be ashamed. * (I actually took an active of mine to a tech when it had a flat battery many many years ago. I still hear the mocking laughter of the entire music store in my ears as I drift off to a sleep filled with nightmares of playing in front of my old high school in tightey-whiteys)
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Apr 6, 2010 18:34
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CaseFace McGee posted:
I've found the mwah has more to do with your bass's setup and your technique. You want pretty low relief in the neck, almost completely flat.
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Apr 6, 2010 19:05
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I'm dumb when it comes to fretless but shouldn't you be using flatwounds?
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Apr 6, 2010 19:17
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Big Face posted:I'm dumb when it comes to fretless but shouldn't you be using flatwounds? You certainly don't have to, and I personally don't. A lot of the fretless "mwah" comes the buzzing of a roundwound string. With my fretless, I can play by the bridge and dig in, and you wouldn't ever know it was a fretless, or I can play over the ramp and get as much of that fretless sound as I want. If you're looking for a fretless electric to be more of an uprighty type thing, then flatwounds would do the trick.
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Apr 6, 2010 19:25
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Kynetx posted:Try dialing out some of the low-end and use the bridge pickup maybe? I had been doing a bit of that already, and it's the only way I've gotten it to sound like a fretless at all without messing with the setup. Scarf posted:I've found the mwah has more to do with your bass's setup and your technique. You want pretty low relief in the neck, almost completely flat. I'll give that a shot. Right now, the action is pretty high and the relief is moderate - I think the previous owner was trying to get more sustain out of it? With some luck, tightening the trussrod might move the deadspot on the G-string enough that I can play a C that doesn't die on me.
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Apr 6, 2010 19:39
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Kynetx posted:Does you amp/pre have a -15dB input jack? If so, use that.
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Apr 7, 2010 00:25
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DrChu posted:Just curious, does anybody actually use the "Active" input if using active basses? My current Stingray (and the previous one as well) is not really any louder than my passive Precision or Jazz unless you dime all the EQ controls, the L2000 I used to have even at its loudest setting didn't overload the input, and some generic six string I used to have was about the same. I used to, and then it seemed to not matter, so now I don't. I have three active basses currently, and the only amp/bass combo I have that doesn't like each other too much is a Bongo and my old Acoustic 370 head. The 18V preamp on the Bongo makes that amp sound pretty farty, even with the output on the bass set low. My Stingray and that same Acoustic get along just fine.
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Apr 7, 2010 03:54
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