The Last Bass Outpost

A very sad day indeed.

In another discussion, the subject of speakon amp connectors came up. Over the years people have said that no modern bass amp should be without them, and others have said that building high power bass amps without them is irresponsible. Just how true is that? Old Ampeg SVT's, Hiwatts, Marshalls are out there without those. How did we ever survive without them before? When would using speakons actually be necessary?

It appears now that the closing will only be temporary.

He did. He posted a message on his facebook page, explaining why he's closing the store.

Hey guys, just an FYI-if you buy strings from Bassstringsonline.com, Jason is closing the store. Inventory will have to move, so look for blowout specials.
It's a shame really, they were a great place to do business with.

I have been plugging my basses into a Sansamp DI pedal for about a year and a half now. It is the version 2, and I use the SVT setting. From there, it goes into the effects return of my Fender Rumble 500 combo.

I have a Rumble 1X15 extension cabinet as well. I was thinking about getting a power amp, then using that and the Sansamp as my bass rig. The thing is, I have no idea what brand I should look towards. QSC and Crown seem to be top brands. However, with the level of quality dropping in MI amplification as it has been, has the same happened with power amp production? I would appreciate your input on this, thank you all so much!

I have switched most of my basses to D'addario pro steels, and I think I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of them.

Ed Friedland plays a p bass with 10 year old LaBella hard rockin steels on it.

Just wanted to give an update: I have not had an opportunity to use it as a DI for recording, as that situation has since dried up. But I have been using it as a pre amp, bypassing the EQ on my Fender Rumble amp. I stuck to the SVT setting, since I've always wondered what playing thru an SVT would be like. I know it'll never be exact, but I love the way this thing sounds! Big, fat, punchy-seems like a punch in the gut playing thru this-in a good way of course! I know the Sansamp can produce a lot of different tones, but the SVT works just great for me! I like it best with passive basses.

I say go for it!!

I think the TI jazz flats are nice strings, just not my thing.

I know session guys will usually have a bass with flats on it, but most modern music to me sounds like rounds.

No knock on anybody who likes flats, I like them for certain things. It just seems there's this big trend back to flats, although I don't think it's as much as the world wide web would have us believe.

On another site, it would seem that a great majority of electric bassists are switching from roundwounds, back to flatwounds. Out in the real world however, most bassists I know and see of are still using rounds. Are you guys seeing this trend at all?

I like flats for some things, but generally, I prefer rounds. I know Carol Kaye talks about using flats for a "true bass sound," but I believe rounds still rule overall. What do you guys think?

This is really great to hear!

A lot of the motivation for this, is knowing that today's amps are no longer being built to last for years, but have a short life built into them. The Fender Rumble combo 500 I have is a nice sounding amp, but knowing that within a probably short period of years that it's gonna die, I thought the Sansamp with power amp would be a more versatile, and reliable rig in the long run.

Hey Psycho, you probably know more about SVT's than anybody! I love the Sansamp SVT tone. How close to a real SVT do you think the Sansamp is?

I did run it through the power amp in jack on the amp.