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Update - after gigging these, I'm very happy. Loud enough in a 40x75 room for medium volume. Enough bass I could put a bit of kick drum in the mix without subs if I want. Punchy, clean and sweet on vocals. Use nice sounding mikes and you'll hear the results.
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These replace old tech 1x15+horn JBLs. They are my band's rehearsal PA for now (Guitar + Keys driven Motown & rock). They provide rich, sweet sounding vocals that make our vocalists sound better. They handle high quality keys well. From what I've heard so far, they will be fine for the small city & suburban clubs here. Adding 1x15 hi performance subs soon.
My only issue is getting them in to start with, just a little clumsy. But they fit well once on, sound natural, isolate noise and solve my monitoring problems. I use them as wired IEMs with a Rolls PM50 splitter/amp.
A Made in Mexico Fender P/J bass. Slight creep in the tuners when tuning up to pitch. Vintage "screwthread" saddles on bridge. Neck is not as skinny as my J, but not the huge P profile either, very comfortable if you don't have huge reach.
What began as a good bass is now excellent with a Gotoh bridge upgrade and a precisely cut bone nut. I upgraded the pickups to a Fender Super 55 (bridge) and a Duncan SPB-2 (Hot P) neck.
Great bass for metal, Motown and just about everything else.
Actually, 3.5 stars. This is a Made in Mexico Fender bass. The fretboard and build quality are very good, and it's fairly resonant. The tuning machines could be a little better, they have some 'creep' when tuning up to pitch, but they are adequate.
But playing fretless is FUN, and the excellent neck and fretboard feel will make you a happy player. I upgraded with a Gotoh bridge and a precisely cut bone nut and it greatly improved the sustain (a good tech cutting the slots precisely is a huge help with this). I also installed Fender Super 55 pickups - this is a solid, gigging instrument now.
Go fretless, you'll be glad you did !
Most people don't understand the EQ controls on this preamp, yet I've had a dozen other players use my rig at a festival and all were happy with the tone. Built in compressor is transparent. MIght not be suitable for really extreme players, but you can thump hard and it will sound great.
Used in my bass guitar rack. No problems ever; requires a hot preamp signal to develop maximum power.
Stopped looking for cabinets after I found this one. It's the first thing I load in.
I upgraded mine with a high power Eminence 15 (Kappa series) and use it under my 410 for extra thump. Casters eventually get a bit loose from roadwear.
My preferred live vocal mike, unless you are super loud on stage (e935 for that). Natural sounding on most voices, can be a little sizzly on females with high voices. Less presence peak than SM58s and smoother. A good deal on eBay used.
This amp has tons of clean, hard spanking power. Super wide ranging EQ can get a little strange, but it's a warm clean amp that will sound good with distortion and FX pedals in front.
I closed the open back with a plywood plug and put two WGS speakers in that are a clone of the G12-65 and Blackback 30. Fantastic hard thumping rock machine now.
Instant Billy Gibbons. That's all it does, but it does it very well. Needs a boost for use as a harp amp.
Sadly a mostly overlooked pedal, the Hot British spans tones from Little Wing to NWOBHM. It's not quick to switch between gain or EQ settings, but does play nice with other pedals in the chain. I noticed a huge improvement from swapping tubes. Both old Amperex and Mullard 12AX7s sound fantastic in this box. Silky sweet grind now, my favorite dirtbox of them all.
I use individual Roland pads mounted on PDP traditional hardware. The tom-tom mount fits the Roland pads exactly.
3.5 stars. I wanted a high pitched hi-hat set with a lot of ping and sweetness. These hats give me that without the clank or boing noises inexpensive hats often suffer. Very happy after 3 years still. The Zildjian ZHT Mastersounds were also great.
Placed in a compact Ampeg bass cabinet and rewired with speakon connectors. Plenty of woof for club gig PA. This is the smallest and most efficient subwoofer I have found yet. It's not a 2x18 monster but it's tight and punches pretty hard. Limited to about 3/4 its potential power to keep the cone under control.