I don’t know what I did to appease the bass gods. It might be the practicing I’ve been doing, or maybe just my recent whining about the desperate need for a better amp. Either way, good fortune has visited upon me and I’m mightily pleased. Last night I purchased an Ashdown half-stack consisting of a MAG300R head and a MAG410T cabinet. This setup produces a huge fundamental bass tone with clarity and authority. I’ve been looking at Ashdown amps for months and trying to decide how I could possibly afford to purchase this rig.
I was lucky to find such a great deal on this amp. It’s used, but in great condition. It’ll be a welcome improvement over my previous amp, which will now be relegated to the practice space. Actually, having my old amp sitting in our practice room will save me the back-breaking work of hauling it up and down the stairs. Amazingly, this 4×10 cabinet still fits into my trunk, so I’ll be able to haul it myself. It actually might weigh less than my old amp. I came home from work tonight and cranked it up in the garage just for fun. So far, I’m delighted with this amp and can’t wait until our next gig. Hooray for awesome tone!
In the past couple of days I’ve had curious experiences with fairly large companies, involving problems with technology. It’s surprising when such companies overlook seemingly obvious opportunities for service recover, and it makes me wonder what happened to the fine art of paying attention to details.
My position is this: sophisticated technology requires a sophisticated user. Especially if the user is a large corporation.
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Lately I’ve been looking around for a better case for my trusty Warwick Corvette fretless. It came with a reasonably sturdy gig bag, but I wanted something that would offer a little more protection for this instrument. I do have access to an Anvil flight case, but that is overkill for local gigs and adds substantial weight to an already heavy bass. I recently decided to purchase one of the newly redesigned SKB 44 bass cases, which seems to be a good fit for my needs.
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A few years ago, OLP introduced the Tony Levin model bass. I was intrigued by Tony’s comments about the planning and design of this instrument, and was in the market for an affordable fretted 5 string so I ordered one from a local dealer. In the two years I’ve owned it, I’m happy to report I’ve really enjoyed this instrument. It has been solidly performing on all my gigs with The Preons, and sounds great on my various recording projects. This is the only fretted bass I currently own; my other basses are a fretless Warwick Corvette and a fretless P-Bass.
The Tony Levin model is based on a 5 string Music Man Stingray, but this model has a slightly narrower neck profile. OLP produces these instruments in China under license from Ernie Ball / Music Man. It’s not a Stingray, but it’s a decent instrument and is a very good value. To get an appreciably better bass, you’d need to spend a lot more than the $349 suggested list price (a 5 string Stingray is priced at about $1,000 more than the OLP version). In my limited email interactions with OLP, they’ve been responsive and helpful. One a scale of 1 to 10, this instrument rates an 8.5 from me. It’s a great balance of value and features.
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This spring I decided to update my live rig to consolidate the functionality of my guitar and bass setups into a single signal path. For the past several years I have used a Line6 Pod Pro as my preamp, which is a good-sounding guitar processor with versatile amp modeling. However, it wasn’t particularly good for use with bass. Line6 makes a dedicted bass version, but that would mean having two completely separate rigs. My solution was to sell my old unit and replace it with the Line6 Pod XT Live. This unit is basically a hardware platform with the ability to process any instrument, and Line6 has additional amp models available including bass amps. In order to maximize the potential of the Pod XT Live, I loaded it with all available model packs: FX junkie, metal shop, collector classics, bass expansion. I also installed the “gear box” software which allows the unit to present itself as a VST plugin.
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Last night’s Preons show at The High Dive went fairly well. Originally there were going to be three bands on the bill:
- Monostereo
- Mercurius
- The Preons
At about 8:00 we were informed “Monostereo” had dropped off the bill, so we adjusted the set times a bit. Ultimately this meant pushing back our start time by 30 minutes. The guys in “Mercurius” were cool and fun to chat with. I always enjoy meeting musicians who play for all the right reasons. These guys had taken the ferry from Bremerton on a Wednesday night, just to play in Seattle. That is a refreshingly unjaded attitude.
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Last week I finally got the bass I’ve been wanting. A few years ago I started searching for a great fretless, and the one bass that always remained my reference point has been the Warwick Corvette. They tend to be expensive, and I really couldn’t justify the expense of a new one, so I’ve been waiting for a deal on a very good quality used model. The right deal came along last week, and I have Bass Northwest to thank for the deal. They’ve been very patient during my search and have offered a lot of guidance. My new bass is a four string model with the standard setup: bubinga body, ovankol neck, ebony fretboard. And it goes “mwah!”
Up to this point, I’ve been playing my basses through my trusty guitar rig, but it’s really not ideal. This week I am going to order myself a bass amp. I’ve been looking at specifications and asking other players for advice. I am planning to order a Behringer Ultrabass BXL3000A. With 300 watts and built-in compression/limiting, it should handle my needs easily.
Last week I took my favorite electric guitar to Mike Lull for a set up. On a stringed instrument like a guitar or bass, a “set up” involves things like adjusting the action, intonation, neck relief and other mechanical aspects of the playing geometry. Generally, I do my own guitar work since I have a pretty good idea of how I want things to be on my instruments. But I wanted to have this guitar get a detailed shop setup from Mike. He’s considered to be one of the best – if not THE best – luthier in the Northwest, and his shop rates are actually fairly reasonable considering his reputation for excellence. All in all, I’m delighted with the results, and feel the money was well spent.
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My guitar rig is really pretty simple. I’ve got a preamp, a processor, and a power amp. The audio processing (modulation/delay/reverb effects, equalization, filtering, etc) is all handled by one smart black box – a TC Electronics GForce. The technical specifications on this device are impressive. It has a 24-bit 128x oversampling processor with over 105 dB of dynamic range, 20 Hz – 20kHz frequency response and 0.005% THD. I ordered my unit before the first shipments had even left Denmark. I had used TC Electronics gear in the studio and knew the company’s reputation for high quality, so when they announced the release of a new guitar-centric processor, it was an easy decision. It replaced a fairly expensive multi-effect unit that I was reasonably satisfied with, but I knew that the GForce would have that legendary TC reverb and chorus. From the first day I received it I was delighted with the audio quality and lush effects. I’m 100% satisfied with it, and no other piece of equipment in my rig can make that claim.
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