The Last Bass Outpost

So I need a new amp.  Love my Garnet Sessionman Vocal but it is just a hair short of power/headroom before distortion when playing shows (50Wish 6CA7 pair); easily fine for jams.

I'll be keeping an eye on that Sunn in Portland from the other thread (it's not moving fast at that price).  I'm not sure I require a full quad of 6550s (so I'll keep my eye out for single pair models like the Sentura II as well).

My main issue is that I would like a 6550 (or KT88) based amp, ideally quad (uncommon enough as that is) with reverb (rules out most Marshalls and Hiwatts; don't think I want a Marshall anyway).  Which means I'm looking at guitar/vocal heads vs proper bass amps (the only  bass amp  that qualifies in that it has reverb is the Thunderfunk 100ls and that's not going to happen).  Not ideal, but far from horrible.  Mostly it means I have to pay a bit more and lose out on more useful tone shaping features. Too bad because Sunn 190bs are cheap, and look perfect otherwise.

Also noticing that MM HD130s are surprisingly affordable on ebay.  There seem to be 2 versions - the standard HD130 guitar/bass version and the HD130 reverb.  From what I can tell the only differences (other than the reverb/trem) is the channel 2 bass EQ cap (and therefore the corner freq of that tone control - mid and treb tone controls look the same, as is the bass cap on Ch 1) as well as having a Deep vs Bright switch.  The rest looks pretty much the same, though some things are laid out differently.  Anybody got any opinions of how much difference this makes - that deep switch useful or just mud city (the bass cap is easy enough to change out)?  Does it do anything that can't be achieved with the EQ?  I'm cool with the ss preamp.

Also if anyone has any other ideas for heads that might suit my needs I am all ears.  There are bigger Garnets but they're oddly shaped (won't sit on my cab securely) and the big Traynors (obviously plentiful locally) don't have reverb... though there is the Mark 3 (YGL-3A), think those run a quad of EL34/6CA7, so it's enough power but not my preferred output tube.

This has been a thought I have been mulling over for a good few years now (and though y'all ain't at fault for it, the impetus was a lovely experience in Paul's Boutique with a much too pointy number for me to seriously consider, you certainly did your bit to fan the flames).

Problems are I can't afford anything too nice and I am likely going to have to buy something online without trying.  School me; what's out there that's cheap, doesn't totally suck, and won't look out of place if I'm not rocking spandex and teased hair.  Also would prefer not long scale (med or short) and bonus points on a sliding scale proportional to how close to the neck the pickup is.

So, there was that Gibson nut thing this model year that seems like a complete failure, but I have always been a fan of (properly executed ) zero frets or brass nuts.  I never understood why the zero fret seemed to only be used on cheap import instruments (something of a stigma I suppose; we here at [insert premium American brand of choice here] have better workmanship so we don't need this) which ignores the fact that there are some significant benefits.

Anywho, now there is this product from Stew Mac:

http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Supplies/Nuts_and_Saddles/ZerO_Glide_Nuts.html?lac_guid=39829e61-a428-e511-9fbd-bc305bee17b9&utm_campaign=NPA_M703

I must say, I am intrigued.  I like the idea (adding a zero fret or even a brass nut to an instrument without one is impossible/difficult). Aside from the price (which seems a bit ridiculous for a peice of molded plastic; the actual fretwire is not even included from what I can tell with a cursory glance - and that would make sense because how are they to know what guage you use), I 'm wondering what people think.

I don't know how I didn't get in to this so much sooner, but I just finished a copy of  the Klon Centaur overdrive and it was so satisfying.  Used the PCB by Aion and took it from there; a few minor mods.







I considered a switch for alternate clipping diodes, but decided against it in the end - instead I socketted the diodes so I can try a few different types easily and settle on whatever I end up preferring. So far I have only tried some Russian germanium D9Es and I like them a lot, but I have a bunch of BAT41s I should try in there at some point.

If I was to do this over I think I would invert (mirror image) the control layout - that way the stomp switch would be in the “O” vs covering up the “E.” I dunno why I didn’t think of that before. Maybe I’ll redo the enclosure at some point, but probs not due to lazy/if it ain’t broke…

I really like this thing; it's not as dirty/hard as other ODs (hard enough, though I expect to keep the gain knob in the top 3rd of it's range) but, unlike most other OD/dist boxes, doesn't compress your signal very much if at all.  This means that it's great for driving a tube amp or a second OD/Dist, and it won't squash the swell out of any modulation fx (expecially envelope filters; that's been a peeve for me).

Up next is a Ross style compressor, and then another OD - harder, with a parametric mid in front of the clipping circuit, more gain and switchable diodes (based on the Pearl which is somewhat Tubescreamer like).  Both using PCBs from Aion.  After that I'll be getting into the modulation effects; looking at some boards from madbean.

2014 SG Std and Midtown Sig + 2013 SG Std.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/price-drop?N=610040+500257

Besides the browner/walnuttier finish of the 2014 + trap vs dot inlays, anybody know if there are any other differences between these SG model years?

So I requested an insurance quote for my newish studio last year.  Months later still no word.  A week ago I harassed them about it, they swore the quote came through and they'd have someone call me back the next day.  No call.

Last night I got the call that the building my studio is in got flooded.

Motherf*$!er!

My car was in the shop (the prospect of lost gear coming on the heels of a $1300 suspension job) so I called my studio partner to pick me up and we headed down.

We got lucky, so damn lucky.  The guy in the unit behind us said he had 1-2" of water, so I was worried as the floor slopes down from there to our door, but luckily the wall between us kept the water from coming in that way, instead the path of least resistance was flowing around our unit and then in under the front door.  We had about an inch to 1.5 (uneven floor) in about half the room diagonally.  The elevation of the pedalboards saved the pedals.  We lost a few cardboard boxes (styrofoam saved a Minibrute synth by keeping it 3" off the floor), one of my snares got wet and a pair of cans that fell off the drums onto the floor were soaked through, but might be fine.  The drum corner is the lowest point in the room but the garrish (pastel pink and blue; ties the place together really  ) 2" thick rug under the drums saved the bass drum (there was a dry spot in the rug underneath it when I moved it - fookin miraculous).  When we took the rug out there was a puddle underneath.  All the recording gear and racks of expensive stuff + wiring were on the high side of the room and dry. Some cabs that were on the floor got a little wet  on the bottom (including half of the bottom of my MM 115RH cab, and my partner's DIY leslie, which whicked up a lot of water due to lack of finish) . ... and my guitarist's jam shoes (converse hightops), completely waterlogged. The water was clean (water main froze and cracked during the cold snap and then thawed on the weekend gushing everywhere - not sewage or lakewater), so the things that did get wet should be fine after drying out.  Moved gear around to let it dry off, tossed the rug outside, dripping water all the way.  Overall feel so relieved and lucky, as does my partner who thanked me profusely for keeping as much shit as I did off the floor and especially for building that shelf in the storage corner that keeps the guitars 4' off the floor... all but one, an ES335 style Harmony that had been sanded down.  It was in a soft case and about 1/2" of the butt end is wet - should be fine, if slightly watermarked - doesn't even look like it soaked all the way through the wood, just some surface absorption.  As he said; "well now we don't have to worry about the winter drying all our gear out."

My landlord (I'm sub-letting a room in a larger unit) used to be a maintenance guy in the building and told me the studios in the unit just next to ours are 5' lower grade.  Feel really bad for those dudes; their shit was all under water.

Later today gonna grab me mop n bucket from home, as well as a dehumidifier from my folk's place and head back down to clean up more; staying positive despite this horseshoe up my ass making me feel constipated.

Currently I have TI flats on everything.  This is mostly due to being able to get them for $40ish a set (about what any other brand cost in store here at the time) and stocking up, but the middishness is getting to me on some basses (they seem to get more middish once the break in too).  Love them on the Victory, where they really bring out the bite, and will keep them there.  Also pretty good on the RD Artist with active treble and bass controls  the middishness balances out nicely here, but not so much anymore on my shorties (EB3 and  especially the Triumph).

I need a new flatwound.  I would like them to be nickel, but from my searching, my only other options seem to be Pyramid Golds (LOVE the geetar version on my archtop acoustic but the bass version is tres cher... still cheaper than TIs tho... gauges seem weird too, but you never know until you try them) and Rotosound 77 Monel Flats.  Anybody know of any others?

I was considering LaBella Deep Talkers but a) they're steel and b) many reviews complain about the stiffness/feel (despite the general positive nods from some of you lot).

I plain refuse to use rounds (on a bass) - they destroy my fingers (hypersensitive due to eczema). 

Anyway, anyone have any thoughts on these strings as compared to TIs?