East Tennessee Talkbass Part 2

[PDGood]

Originally Posted by MichaelVee

I had a good time even though I brought too much stuff along!

This was the only statement I didn't agree with.
In this case, more = better.

And how many times does a fella get to say that he played a fretless Beatle bass? I enjoy the unusual basses as much as the pricey ones. Richard's Dyna Bass was another example. I keep reading about them, but had never played one.

And then the other night I had a dream that Jeff brought a 10K Dingwall to the get-together. Oh wait....that wasn't a dream!?!

[MichaelVee]

Originally Posted by PDGood

And how many times does a fella get to say that he played a fretless Beatle bass? Richard's Dyna Bass was another example.

You did play the Douglas fretless violin bass? That is such an inexpensive, but very, very useful instrument. Quite the upright tone, and it really came out with the TI Jazz Flats and a good setup.

I wish we'd tried the Douglas through your LMIII/TC setup.

Alas, I just checked, Rondo is not listing them as in stock at present, but they'll be back.

[PDGood]

Yes I played it - very nice. Silky smooth. I played a number of the fretless basses present and all of them reminded me why I need to continue to play a fretted neck.

Your Douglas was by far the best playing Beatle bass I have ever picked up. I love the sound. Maybe not as versatile as a P bass, but when it fits a song, it fits very well.
Given your collection of fretless hollow bodies I'm guessing you play a fair amount of jazz or acoustic music. (?)

P.S. Anyone who wants to hear the tone of their bass relatively uncolored will appreciate the Thunderchild a great deal. I've heard a lot of upright players say that it's THE cab for that instrument. I imagine a hollow fretless would work just as well. What it does NOT do is add aggressive mids as most bass cabinets do. I didn't even realize this was happening with other cabinets because I kept comparing them to each other. Almost every other cabinet adds its own color and that's usually represented in the mids. It wasn't until I put the TC up next to a wonderful Bergantino that I realized how even the best of the rest was adding a lot of color. In the case of the Berg, that was still a good thing, but I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't notice how much coloring was going on.
The LMlll is a good mate for the TC cab because it is warmish which helps balance the pristine quality of the TC. Ken Jung, whom I have a lot of respect for, highly recommends the Aguilar TH500 with it to add more grit in the mids, but my brief encounter with that head left me unimpressed. As always, it's different things for different people. One man's floor is another man's ceiling.

[iamoldschool]

Originally Posted by funk generator

Thanks for the pics Michael! It was a blast for sure! I can't wait till the next one.
Also Thank you Richard for an awesome time at your gig last night! Iamoldschool = a beast of a player.

Neal, it was definitely my pleasure having you! Guys, here's a pic of Neal sitting in with The Lost Creek Shakers last night. He tore it up and fell in love with my Roc n Soc stool! EDIT: And those of you at the GTG will recognize the drummer in the background, too!

[iamoldschool]

And here's a pic of me playing Neal's Nordy at the gig. Man, you think this thing sounds good at the GTG, you should hear it in a live band mix! It Kills! You can tell by the big stupid grin!

[MichaelVee]

Originally Posted by PDGood

Yes I played it - very nice. Silky smooth. I played a number of the fretless basses present and all of them reminded me why I need to continue to play a fretted neck.

Your Douglas was by far the best playing Beatle bass I have ever picked up. I love the sound. Maybe not as versatile as a P bass, but when it fits a song, it fits very well.
Given your collection of fretless hollow bodies I'm guessing you play a fair amount of jazz or acoustic music. (?)

P.S. Anyone who wants to hear the tone of their bass relatively uncolored will appreciate the Thunderchild a great deal. I've heard a lot of upright players say that it's THE cab for that instrument. I imagine a hollow fretless would work just as well. What it does NOT do is add aggressive mids as most bass cabinets do. I didn't even realize this was happening with other cabinets because I kept comparing them to each other. Almost every other cabinet adds its own color and that's usually represented in the mids.

PDG- Actually, I play predominantly music theatre gigs. There's not much opportunity to play jazz in K-ville, and I don't know many of the players in the "acoustic" or Americana or whatever scene here. Since I don't own or play an upright bass, I'm very mindful that the older musical scores are written with an upright bass in mind, and so for a number of years, I have been sampling different electric basses that look like they could approximate the upright tone. I have not yet used the Zenith fretless, but it's fretted brother has served very well for three shows now, so I'm confident it will as well. It does have fretlines, which help a lot. I find that after a song gets going, my hand finds the notes, but it's nice to be able to locate the starting notes of a song visually before the song kicks off. That was a problem with the Douglas when I've tried it at rehearsals. The Zenith fretless also sounds terrific with the nylon tapewounds and with the piezo dialed in.

However, the Douglas fretless gets closest to an upright sound of any of the basses I have. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'll give it another go-around soon. Jonathan at The String Workshop in Oak Ridge did a great set-up on it. Jeff and I are both big fans of his work, Jeff has used him for years.

I tend to like a very mellow, woody sort of bass sound. I'm not much on a really bright, snappy tone on bass. I know the majority of players nowadays still love the modern, ultra-clean sound, but I like the sound of a mellow bass with flats or tapes, through a clean amp and cabinet, that doesn't have a lot of aggression to the high end but allows you to hear details of playing. So the Douglas through a TC cab would work great for me, but I can't say that for me, I would like the roundwound Dingwall tone through it- but that's just my tonal taste. However, Ethan playing the Dingwall Z through the TC would have been super- I don't think he did at the GTG, however.

I didn't do a lot of playing and trying out different basses at the GTG, because one of the main gear goals I had for the GTG was to try out your Thunderchild cabinet. I was quite impressed with the clear, natural sound. When you were playing the chordal pieces on your Ibanez through the TC, both Jeff and I were jaw-dropped. It sounded like there was zero intermodulation distortion. It was clear, and we could hear every note in each chord you played.

I had talked to Duke LeJeune on the phone previously that week. I told him I play music theatre mostly and am trying to get the most natural, un-ampy sound possible for my goal of getting the upright bass sound. He felt the 112AF would be just the ticket, and I'm probably going to move on getting him to build one for me.

When I move on the Thunderchild cab, and if it fits the tonal profile I am seeking, then I'll probably be selling the Dr.Bass 3012LF cabs and the EA Wizzy M-line 12. As you saw at the GTG, I have accumulated a lot of gear pieces, and now that I'm zeroing in on the instruments and amp setup that will serve best, I'll be clearing things out a bit.

Having said all that, I would also love to get into a really good rock/blues band! I still love J-bass profile instruments through a tube amp that's cranked up.

[PDGood]

I like a woody tone too, but the more volume that's present the more I find the tone goal has to change. What you hear on stage is often not what is heard out front and eventually, you get a calculator in your head: This sound where I stand = that sound out front. Unfortunately, woodiness is hard to reproduce over distance and volume. Love it in the studio though.

It only makes sense to adjust equipment to meet your tone goals. I played an Acoustic 370 and P bass for at least 30 years without variation. Then one day I had some trouble with the 370 and thought it was time to update the gear to get more modern and also lighter. That has sent me on a very long search where I have bought and sold a lot of gear. It was interesting to discover that there were so many tonal options I had never considered. It's taken awhile to educate myself but the TC is a piece I have decided to build around. I'm also happy with the LMlll and Eden WT405 although I wonder if I'll need more power with a passive bass - I haven't really tested them at gig volume since I rarely play out.

The basses are the thing that I'm still not 100% happy with. I play the SRX sunburst most often - a $199 bass. It has many of the tonal qualities of a Fender but with active electronics so it's easier to vary on the fly. The five string is getting a lot of use too, although with the tuning it is a specialty item for me. I prefer the spacing of a four, but I can do more with the five.

Duke will steer you right on cabinet selection. He has taken cab building to a whole new place to my ears. You won't go wrong with either the 112 or 115.

[rollerberg2000]

Originally Posted by MichaelVee

When I move on the Thunderchild cab, and if it fits the tonal profile I am seeking, then I'll probably be selling the Dr.Bass 3012LF cabs .

Michael, I call dibs on the DR cabs. I want to try a couple of amp combinations to see if they recreate what I want, but I loved the sound you were getting from them! Plus it appeals to me to have an outlaw brand in the arsenal. No disrespect to DRCAB of course. I think a lot of things happened to him all at once and he found himself behind the 8 ball. I won't go so far as to call it a ponzi scheme, but it was probably similar though unintentional.....

That being said, I may start entering the cab building market. I want to try a few designs in my shop, overbuild on the quality end, and take a loss to start with to see if the cabinets get any noteriety (the good kind).

And if I do get into that, I will borrow the selling tag from Paul Masson wines. "we will sell no cabs, before their time", or words to that effect.

[PDGood]

Jeff that's a fabulous idea - and you'll have a great time too!

You may have already done this, but if not, you might want to read the Audiokinesis threads from beginning to end. Although he's not giving any secrets away, there's a wealth of solid general info there that would be mighty helpful to any aspiring cabinet builder.

It's a mega thread and there are four parts. Here's the first if you take an interest:
AudioKinesis 112 Cab

[MichaelVee]

Originally Posted by PDGood

I play the SRX sunburst most often - a $199 bass.

I was telling Jeff at the GTG that I have only owned a couple basses that I paid more than $1000 for in my life. And those were just barely over, certainly not $5000+ basses, say.

I think that if you do things the right way with sub-$1000 basses, they can fill the bill for what you want to do musically pretty dang well. Good strings, good setups, and sometimes replacement pickups and electronics, etc.

I lean more toward cheaper basses because I don't make a lot of money from my business these days, and I don't get paid that well for the theatre gigs, either. I don't want to have tons of money tied up in gear when it doesn't make that much difference in what I do.

I have played some MTD basses, and Alembics, and several other high-end basses, but I didn't necessarily think that they would bring enough to the table in performance situations that I would need to burn the cash on them.

If something happened to my $125 Douglas bass on a theatre gig, I would not cry. I would cry a little if something happened to one of the Zeniths. If I got a bad scratch on, or dropped and damaged, a $5000 bass, I would question my sanity for having bought it!

So, PDG- I applaud your appreciation of your cheaper bass. I did love the Ibanez- just a great tone, and so pretty.

[PDGood]

By the way, the 5 string Ibanez I brought is an SR755 - a moderate priced instrument as well. I think I got it used for around $600. The pickups on it are pristine sounding which is perfect for playing chords. The SRX series has more balls, less sustain, and is about halfway between a Fender and a bright clean humbucking kind of sound. I've attached a photo of one similar to mine. They are amazing basses with quilted maple tops and binding and fast, true necks for very little money.

P.S. But make no mistake, if I had the coins I'd find something to love like Jeff has too.

[code911]

Originally Posted by rollerberg2000

Michael, I call dibs on the DR cabs. I want to try a couple of amp combinations to see if they recreate what I want, but I loved the sound you were getting from them! Plus it appeals to me to have an outlaw brand in the arsenal. No disrespect to DRCAB of course. I think a lot of things happened to him all at once and he found himself behind the 8 ball. I won't go so far as to call it a ponzi scheme, but it was probably similar though unintentional.....

That being said, I may start entering the cab building market. I want to try a few designs in my shop, overbuild on the quality end, and take a loss to start with to see if the cabinets get any noteriety (the good kind).

And if I do get into that, I will borrow the selling tag from Paul Masson wines. "we will sell no cabs, before their time", or words to that effect.

Jeff, funny you mention the drb cabs. I just started using a dr2460 and I will say like that like it alot. Very punchy, your familiar with my tone, now it just has some thump to it.

Charlie

[code911]

Gig update: MY band, Kudzu, will be playing at Gordo's in Athens this Friday night (8/24). Show starts at 930p

[MichaelVee]

What's everybody up to this weekend? Thanks, code911, for the Kudzu gig update.

I will tell everyone here- don't be shy. Whatever gigs you are playing, please let everyone know about them here.

[MichaelVee]

Jeff, I want to encourage you to enter the cab building arena. Your own designs? Bill Fitzmaurice? fEarful? Which?

You are so knowledgeable about watches and precision gear in any arena, I would imagine you would craft amazing cabinets. I would definitely be interested in anything you build.

[funk generator]

Jeff if you start building cabs let me know I'm selling ethan my GK212's and selling the alembic as well, so I'll be in the market for some light weight awesomeness.
I think it's a swell idea!

[rollerberg2000]

I'm a huge fan of Fitzmaurice and fEARful designs, I'm certainly not gifted to add to the science these and other designers have established. I do have the tools and skills to build cabs, I just have to find time now!

Stay tuned....

[funk generator]

dibs on the first one if I can come up with some cash that is lol

[bass10bfb]

Hey guys!!! Hate I missed the GTG; I was looking forward to meeting some of you guys there. Hopefully next time!!!
If anybody is interested, I will be selling some basses, cabs, heads, and probably all of my pedals and pedalboard. I have not had time to get pics and list them yet; just thought I would throw it out here to everybody local first.
Just PM me if you want a list!!! Thanks guys and have a great weekend!!!

[code911]

Gig Update: Kudzu will be in Caryville this weekend at Twin Cove Marina. Saturday night, Show starts at 730p. Interesting place, they pontoon boat you and your gear in. Fun except for having to lift the amp case up so high.....