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58 year old rocker

#21
It's true: old-school tone doesn't necessarily require old-school gear. With so many choices of so much excellent gear on the market today, compared with 30-40 years ago, there's no good reason not to take advantage of it.

I'm 50 years old, so I've observed the evolution of bass technology occur during my own lifetime. But in no way do I feel tied to the limitations of the gear that prevailed during the time when I was a kid. I'm into modern tone...and modern technology.

Good gear is good gear. Get the good stuff...

MM
 
#22
MysticMichael said:
It's true: old-school tone doesn't necessarily require old-school gear. With so many choices of so much excellent gear on the market today, compared with 30-40 years ago, there's no good reason not to take advantage of it.

I'm 50 years old, so I've observed the evolution of bass technology occur during my own lifetime. But in no way do I feel tied to the limitations of the gear that prevailed during the time when I was a kid. I'm into modern tone...and modern technology.

Good gear is good gear. Get the good stuff...

MM
Click to expand...

Have to jump back in on 'get the good gear'. good sounding gear makes you want to play more.
 
#23
Sooo many choices and opinions-but that's great right? and thanks to all who responded. If I take all of the comments and summarize, I think I'll proceed this way and look for the best price. First I don't plan on giging and moving this stuff around much-but who knows:
I'd prefer not to go with a combo-so:
Look for the best deal on these amps--Peavy firebass/nitro
Kustom HD1200
Ampeg SVT
Look for the best deal on these cabs:
--Bag End
--Peavy
--Avatar
Question--1-Can you get as good a lows with a 4x10 as with 1x15 or do you have to push it much harder with a lot of watts/volume to move the air- This will be mostly low volume stuff...? 2- Which is the best way to go to give you the most flexibility to expand with additional cabs 4 ohm or 8 ohm?

Thanks Again--Ken
 
#24
kew48 said:
Question--1-Can you get as good a lows with a 4x10 as with 1x15 or do you have to push it much harder with a lot of watts/volume to move the air?
Click to expand...

Depends very much on the make/model in question - unlike in the old days. The short answer is "yes". For example, the Avatar 4x10 Neo (since you mentioned Avatar) is reputed to have excellent lows...

kew48 said:
2- Which is the best way to go to give you the most flexibility to expand with additional cabs 4 ohm or 8 ohm?
Click to expand...

Generally speaking, the 8 ohm cabs - assuming that your amp is powerful enough (and/or that the cabs are efficient enough) to provide you with sufficient "oomph" using one cabinet alone.

MM
 
#27
Aaron Schiff said:
The Peavey bass cabs with the 15 inch Black Widows are flat out great cabs. The weigh a lot more than the Bag Ends, but they are terrific and there are lots of them.
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+ 1 Bang for the buck. The old Peavey`s are hard to beat. I have one of the first solid state TKO 80`s and it is still kicking. Also a newer TNT 115 that has played many small gigs
and still use it at some of the smaller places. I play a five string now and I think the Peaveys lack a little low end. But if you are going for the mo town sound you are not going with a five string any way.
 
#28
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#29
Nice Old Ampeg--looks like it needs a little work. Also wrong Bill Evans-Do a search for "Studio in the Country". It is still one of the absolute best analog studios in the contry. I'm still confused on the 4 ohm versus 8 ohms cab issue for flexibility--Ken
 
#31
Amps want to see some resistance in thier circuit to work correctly. Some amps will overheat and die if you run them without a speaker attached. The speaker(s) needs ohms resistance for the system to work correctly. Add one speaker after another is series and the resistance adds up - 8ohm + 8 ohm +16 Ohm, but if you wire them up in parallel - both speakers attated to the output with their own pair of cable then they divide 8/1 + 8/1 = 8/2 = 4 ohms. A 4x10s though is wired both ways, 2 in parallel, and then those pairs in series to end up with 4x8 ohm speakers still adding up to 8. Like this 8/1+ 8/1 = 4 ohms and add another in this configuration but in series = 4 ohms + 4 ohms= 8 ohms. (Somebody tell me where the ohms key is please!)
 
#32
I'd put in a word for the Ashdown ABM range. Lovely and warm, they are, and you can thicken things up even further using the blendable tube input stage. With my ABMs I can get a very convincing Jamerson/Dunn thang going - and I'm playing a Rick 4003 ! :bassist:
 
#33
*smb said:
I feel like a bit of a fraud here being only 19...
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YOU feel like a fraud? i'm 17 and been playing 4 3 years, unlike some of the guys here who've been doing it there whole life. i've got nothing on anyone here at TB.

However, you dont learn if you dont ask, and this website has taught me HEAPS. You gotta start somewhere.

i only joined TB this month and in that past few weeks, i've learn so much simple stuff that has completely revamped my ways of playing.

thanks to all TB members for everything you've posted, it has been a great read and taught me alot. i look forward to future posts.

game_freak24

P.S. my favourite thread so far is the "Rig Of Doom" thread. some of those amps are to die for! and an honorable mention goes also to the "Fuzzbass" thread posted by Joris in the Sticky. Very informative.

P.P.S. soz guys, wasn't trying to hi-jack the thread or anything. just felt like giving you all some Kudos :)
 
#34
When I was 17 I was gigging 4 times a week and that was about 8 hours of live playing + practice sessions. And when we gigged there was nearly always another band - sometimes well know and famous - so we all saw a lot of live music and got to talk to loads of other players. Now as a teacher 43 years later I teach a lot and play live a lot less - if I gigged like I did at 17 my wife would kill me. There's a lot of young players who are playing live much more often than us 'older, experienced' players - I don't even get time to read the bass and guitar mags my students do.

At 17 you know a lot of stuff I don't, you see the gigging environment differently and I bet you get to listen to music more than I do. Don't knock being 17 - anyone who makes you feel insecure about not playing for long says more about their own insecurities than yours.
 
#35
Tactician said:
When I was 17 I was gigging 4 times a week and that was about 8 hours of live playing + practice sessions. And when we gigged there was nearly always another band - sometimes well know and famous - so we all saw a lot of live music and got to talk to loads of other players. Now as a teacher 43 years later I teach a lot and play live a lot less - if I gigged like I did at 17 my wife would kill me. There's a lot of young players who are playing live much more often than us 'older, experienced' players - I don't even get time to read the bass and guitar mags my students do.

At 17 you know a lot of stuff I don't, you see the gigging environment differently and I bet you get to listen to music more than I do. Don't knock being 17 - anyone who makes you feel insecure about not playing for long says more about their own insecurities than yours.
Click to expand...

+1
And....someone may have played the same song everyday for 40+ years or someone may have played a different song everyday for 40+ years. It makes for a different world. Your voice added to the many.
 
#36
Tactician said:
When I was 17 I was gigging 4 times a week and that was about 8 hours of live playing + practice sessions. And when we gigged there was nearly always another band - sometimes well know and famous - so we all saw a lot of live music and got to talk to loads of other players. Now as a teacher 43 years later I teach a lot and play live a lot less - if I gigged like I did at 17 my wife would kill me. There's a lot of young players who are playing live much more often than us 'older, experienced' players - I don't even get time to read the bass and guitar mags my students do.

At 17 you know a lot of stuff I don't, you see the gigging environment differently and I bet you get to listen to music more than I do. Don't knock being 17 - anyone who makes you feel insecure about not playing for long says more about their own insecurities than yours.
Click to expand...

i never looked at it like that. thanks *insert thumbs up icon here*
 
#37
Tactician said:
HTML: 
When I was 17 I was gigging 4 times a week and that was about 8 hours of live playing + practice sessions.

During the crazy days of 1963 after the Beatles explosion throughout September, October & November alone we gigged 62 nights out of 91; I was also working 59 hours a week in a shop at the time, all of my courting was on the road with my band, my girlfriend at the time has been my wife for forty years.



HTML: 
Now as a teacher 43 years later I teach a lot and play live a lot less - if I gigged like I did at 17 my wife would kill me.  There's a lot of young players who are playing live much more often than us 'older, experienced' players

Until recently I was in four bands playing Rock Blues, Delta Blues, 60s music & Rock'N'Roll

HTML: 
At 17 you know a lot of stuff I don't, you see the gigging environment differently.  Don't knock being 17 - anyone who makes you feel insecure about not playing for long says more about their own insecurities than yours

One thing that I would add is gig as much as possible, you learn your songs in rehearsal, you learn to play them at a gig.
Click to expand...
I'm still hungry for playing after all of these years and when I step up on stage or just get up to gig in pub/bar I don't feel any older than I did in 1962.
 
#38
I was 60 yesterday and I have to say I felt slightly traumatised - all the knocks about bus passes, zimmer frames and settling down. (I think I must have shocked a lot of people when I changed career 5 years ago and went back to playing full time again.) Nice to know you've out gigged me and you're a couple of years ahead of me! YES - I plan to gig much more on 2007 - opting out of some of the teaching and kicking into action a duo and a couple of other projects. I think you can get so busy, you forget what you really want to be doing and say yes to any music stuff that comes along - so the gigging starts to take a back seat. I think 'Pinetop Perkins' is a great source of inspiration - still gigging at 95 across the World. I'm keeping going until I can't move the kit or stand for an hour - when I'm about 95 is the plan.
 

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