 Howdy TB
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Fresh blood here from Houston. Long-time synthesizer tweaker, sequencer, sometime live keyboardist and vocalist turning toward the bass side. I've been playing for the last few months during the contemporary service at my church (where I am also, so it seems, the youth pastor) and it's a blast.
I'm not really all that good *technically*. Like many of my friends, we're all "decent" on just about everything, but not masters of anything due to serious fits of boredom that strike. I'm trying to keep myself committed to the bass thing, because frankly it's the most fun I've had in a long, long time.
Equipment:
Main bass, Ibanez SR706**. Do I need 6 strings? No, I wanted 5 and the C is a bonus for some high chording.
Secondary basses: Washburn 8 string (passed down to me from my last band's bassist and good friend here in town). Hideous Lyon (by Washburn) 4 string that I bought years ago to lay down a couple of live tracks.
amp: GK backline 210 combo. Perfect size for what I need. Pretty huge for a practice amp, appropriate for the service I play in, would operate as a tilted monitor in any other situation I could see myself being in. I had a very brief affair (I won't say "love") with an Ampeg BA-115. Brief as in less than 24 hours. The forums already have enough moaning about the BA-115, so we'll leave it at that.
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Currently not running any pedals or multis. Probably going to get a BOSS GT-10B pretty soon as an economical way to avoid dropping >$1000 on the discrete pedals I'd like but don't "need". Then replace them with discretes over time. Decided against the X3 because Line6 generally feels more guitarist oriented. I have no desire to play anymore electric 6, and hopefully will have my amp sold to a guy i work with this week.
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Other gear: i've had so much gear go through my life, it's sick (like many of you I'm sure). Currently have 3 keyboards left, and will probably sell two of them - everything else is just inside my computer.
Access virus indigo2, Roland Fantom x6, Nord Modular G2.
Those run into my macbook pro via a MOTU UltraLite.
I've pretty much given up Cubase for Ableton Live exclusively.
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I've got two kids on top of that, who I'd trade all my gear for if pressed. Wife is still confused why I feel compelled to spend so much $ on gear when I'm not even in a gigging band anymore, but once it is in your blood it's hard to get rid of the GAS.
Ya'll be good,
Chris aka UMS
** disclaimer: I've already noted that in general Ibanez is not well thought of, but the tone of this bass is awesome and it's comfortable to play. As a general note, I've seen that several people carry huge chips on their shoulder vs certain gear (e.g., versus Line6 PODs, certain guitar models, etc) and post about it at every POSSIBLE opportunity. This is just from a week of reading the site. As a long-time keyboardist/synthesist turned bassist, I know where you're coming (gearhead, soundsnob myself) but I'm just in it for the tone, and as long as it makes me happy, well, hooray. | 
