Guitarists of Singletrack…

Any thoughts on this Ashdown Five 15 100 watt bass amp?
After starting lessons in a studio with proper big amps, I fancy something LOUD for the occasional blow out. This is local for £100. I’m not sure about the durability of the sliders, but anything else to consider?

TIA

In my experience 100W isn’t LOUD as bass amps go. It’s virtually just above practice-amp level 🙂

If you’re playing with big bass amps in a studio, they’ll probably be 500-800W heads running a 4×10 and 1×15 or whatever. I’m sure the Ashdown will be fine, but due to the crazy way we perceive volume and low frequencies, you’d have to go a lot bigger to get to trouser-flapping levels…

(Caveat – I am not a bass player, but I find my 250W TC bass amp only just copes with a drummer…)

In my experience 100W isn’t LOUD as bass amps go. It’s virtually just above practice-amp level

I’m at the very inexperienced end of the spectrum and just bought my first ever bass amp. It’s a 50w Orange Crush and I can only run the volume knob up to where it just kicks in. That’s practicing in a biggish living room at a comfortable level.

If I turn it up over half way you can hear it down the street. According to some very friendly neighbours. It’s brand new and not sure how it compares to older stuff.

I haven’t been in a room with a drummer yet but I’ll welcome a good excuse to buy something much bigger!

You don’t need a bigger amp.
Just get a smaller drummer. Ideally with an electronic kit.

As a home amp it’ll be fine….I actually quite like the sound of even the budget Ashdown stuff (apart from that hateful mini rig think that they did)

However, one of my former students had that amp and it is literally useless playing in a band (at least with a drummer). 100w is really low power for a bass amp, my rig when I played a lot of bass was 600w….the bassist in my wedding band and touring show is on a similar powered rig to that too.

Well here’s my current ‘rig’. Thanks to lockdown business disaster it has lost some weight but being honest I’d happily have a playdate down the pub with mates using it.
As long as I have enough volume and 25watt DT25 has enough for that, and reverb (DT25 has a choice of assorted modelled ones) or even better a delay (via the Pandora) and a switchable drive then I’m happy.
If I was expected to do accurate cover versions or played anything other than pub rock standards then it wouldn’t work but all I need to do is find away to turn on and off the Pandora and I’m sure some Sugru and some carbon fibre rod I have will let me extend the Bypass switch enough for careful foot tapping.
The variety of guitars sounds available especially using the THR10 is more than enough to play with at home. It’s not like I’m recording a masterwork.
Looking forward to changes next year when I plan to head back to Weymouth, maybe retire and play with my old guitars down there.

If we’re doing rigs

Fender Duosonic
Fender Stratocaster
Line6 Variax
Simon & Patrick Woodland Cedar
Ibanez V72
Line 6 Spider II
Spark Positive Grid
Boss ME25

🤎 the duosonic

Are rigs the new sleds/weapons/steeds?

@BoardinBob I reckon the original Strat on your Variax is better sounding than the HD model on mine.

@BoardinBob, what do you think of the Spark Positive Grid? Looks promising from the marketing material.

Yay. I’m in holiday now, so more time for riding and music. I’m putting together a fingerstyle version of the foo fighters, My hero. Needs more work, but you get the idea. That’s a Lakewood M1 guitar by the way. It’s about 15 years old and is lovely.

@BoardinBob, what do you think of the Spark Positive Grid? Looks promising from the marketing material.

I love it. Its perfect for the type of player I am now. I just play myself at home and I play a huge range of stuff. Everything from mainly blues and classic rock but also loads of alternative, grunge & metal. The range of sounds from the Spark is immense and covers everything I like to play. I can jump from a classic Hendrix sound to a Pavement-style indie jangle instantly, then onto a ridiculously good BB King sound. It’s so versatile. The only thing missing is some kind of foot controller to switch between patches but I have to think they’re working on one.

@BoardinBob I reckon the original Strat on your Variax is better sounding than the HD model on mine.

Pretty much. It’s crazy how accurate it sounds, particularly as it’s almost 20 years old and really at the infancy of this kind of tech. The criticism levelled at it initially was that it didn’t feel that great to play but I like it. I know a lot of people stuck upgraded necks on but I find it’s ok. Somewhere between a strat and les paul neck. The Strat, Tele and Les Paul models are spot on to my ear. It’s worth nothing on the 2nd hand market so I’ll always have it and I’ve really enjoyed playing it recently.

I bought it. It looks nice in the flesh once the baby blue controls have been cleaned up. And it’s loud enough for what I want and it’s nice to have a piece of British engineering doing a job. For £100 it seemed rude not to.

My rig(s)
Live (remember that?)
Shure wireless system > Digitech Whammy DT (for fun and to save de-tuning for Eb songs) > Orange Rocker 15 Terror Head > Hughes & Kettner cab loaded with Celestion V30, usually via an SM57 to FOH and in-ear monitoring system.
Recording
Blackstar Artisan 15H > Boss Tube Amp Expander (Load box & Cab IR’s) > Apogee Element 24 AD convertor to Mac Mini. Have experimented with blending a SM57 on the cab recorded at the same time but TBH doesn’t add much and is hassle. Will sometimes have the cab in the room if I need to work the guitar for additional sustain but usually silent recording wins.
Practice
Until recently this used to be plinky plinky on unamplified electric but just bought an HX Stomp and enjoying using that. Getting some nice sounds out of it in my headphones and will seriously consider gigging with it in 2021 (feeling positive)

I’ve gone and done it again. New amp day soon, 65 amps Ventura Head….Nice

I will post a rig pic when its complete but

Tele, Strat

Gigrig atom and strymon

Stereo Ventruas 🙂

but just bought an HX Stomp and enjoying using that. Getting some nice sounds out of it in my headphones and will seriously consider gigging with it in 2021 (feeling positive)

I’ve used my stomp on quite a few gigs both guitar and bass and really apart from the power supply it has been excellent

What plumber says! Got mine powered via a truetone cs12, but did have one mysterious failure during a theatre gig.

My first post in this thread so be gentle!
My son lives with his girlfriend now and a month ago I took the acoustic guitar I bought him years ago off the wall and started trying to learn a bit… I am the most novice of novices but really enjoying trying to learn to play. I have no aspirations other than to be able to entertain myself and Mrs Surfer has treated me to a Yamaha Pacifica for my first electric jobby so I would appear to be hooked 🙂
I have been following Justinguitar on YouTube and I am amazed that so much excellent teaching is freely available. anyway I will read this thread from the start…

edit: I should say any recommendations for beginners would be appreciated

@surfer I would really recommend you learn some music theory to go with your “learning to play guitar” journey. Its the one thing I wish I had done when I was first learning guitar 30 odd years ago.

I’ve started back on guitar since the CV19 thing hit as a way of keeping myself amused and I can honestly say learning the theory behind the music has been the most enjoyable thing ever.

It has explained so much of what goes on in music but has also given me a greater appreciation of how complex and refined some seemingly mainstream classic guitar music was/is and how genius some guitarist are/were.

@surfer I would really recommend you learn some music theory to go with your “learning to play guitar” journey. Its the one thing I wish I had done when I was first learning guitar 30 odd years ago.

I would second this, I have also found that playing a bit of keyboard where all the notes are there in front of you is an aid to learning music theory.

Thanks @sammyc and @bazzer will do

I’ve started back on guitar since the CV19 thing hit as a way of keeping myself amused and I can honestly say learning the theory behind the music has been the most enjoyable thing ever.

Yeah, I’ve been doing something very similar this last year – Forcing myself to learn all the theory I neglected when I started playing many years ago. Like you, I’ve found it super interesting and also useful for livening up my playing. I wish I had done more structured practise when I was starting out at 13, maybe I’d be decent now.

Like @surfer says, there’s a load of teaching available. In my day, it was all Ultimate-Guitar.com and tabs of very variable quality. So I ended up learning killer riffs but with no idea of the theory behind them. Whereas Justin / Marty and especially Paul Davids (who I guess is a fair bit more advanced) et al will give you some of the theory and other tips, alongside the riff lesson.

That said, I don’t think you need to go crazy with music theory as a beginner. If you’re not that bothered it’s a good way to suck the life out of something that’s supposed to be fun!

JustinGuitar for me at the start of lockdown and then gravitated to a mixture of him for the lesson structure and Wayne R Guitar on YT for some indie tunes

Wayne R Guitar

You can get most of his chords on Ultimate Guitar if you just search the song

I learned theory in my lessons early on which has been the biggest asset to my ability to learn songs very quickly

One thing to know is music theory is finite and once youve learned it thats it.

The places it can take you however is infinte

Also what I say to everyone is practice 10 minutes every day rather thanks an hour a week

good luck

Have a look at Andy Guitar as well, I found him a lot easier than Justin when I started.

Its strange as a learner the things that you think are impossible such as fast chord changes. They become possible quite quickly (still very messy but almost there with a couple of easy ones)
And the the things that look dead easy which arent (to me) such as strumming. it looks like childs play but I am finding it difficult. spent an hour last night and made a mini break through 🙂

I’m finding that, and it can frustrate the hell out of me, it’s not linear, it’s periods of nothing and then POP – suddenly you can.

Have you ever read Bounce by Matthew Syed? All about the 10,000 hours of practice, and other stuff. There was something in there about learning to do physical things, where you need to create a pathway of synapses that have to fire in the right order and timing, to for example move the fingers to do a chord change.

As well as linking them, there’s also a process where once linked they then firm up – don’t recall exactly the process but you lay down insulation around that link so the signal gets through better. That takes time, it’s a biochemical thing.

When I’m trying to learn a particular sequence (playing mainly bass it’s all about fingering oo-er!) I set myself a task to play it 20 times, no more, no less. If after 20 you still don’t have it properly, move on. If you have it after 10 goes, do another 10 and then move on. Go back to it tomorrow, or the day after and you may be surprised how without practising any more, you still improved.

I played recorder to a good standard 35 years ago. When my kids had to learn it in music at school, I picked the recorder up, and barring a bit of fumbling around, after no more that 5 mins could play my exam piece pretty well perfectly. I didn’t need sheet music and had no idea what note came next but my fingers did. The pathway was still there, just needed to find the entrance and then let my brain do its thing. Which is also frustrating with my guitaring….stuff I’ve learned I frequently have to look up the tab again to find the first two notes!

Anyone ordered one of these yet?

Anyone ordered one of these yet?

That’s fantastic

I’m assuming the spinning part is plucking the strings. You can see the low E oscillating a lot, yet he’s not touching it.

There’s actually plectrums on the rotating thing!!!

Found it here- https://www.wired.co.uk/article/circle-guitar

Kind of explains it but not very in depth and there’s nothing on the official website yet. I want to see it running in slow motion and know what all the buttons are for.

I’ll pass.
I’m still waiting for my Gizmo from 1975.

I love that people make stuff like that. Quite a bit of engineering in it.

The “bounce” book recommended up there ^ is good. Well written and some interesting examples of skills acquisition.

The “bounce” book recommended up there ^ is good. Well written and some interesting examples of skills acquisition.

Syed is one of my favourite non-fiction authors. Black Box Thinking and Rebel Ideas are also worth the time.

I love that people make stuff like that. Quite a bit of engineering in it.

The problem for me is that a lot of this stuff just makes a guitar try to sound like a synth. Doesn’t work for me as I’ve tried Roland (and that wierd Yamaha) synth guitar and it isn’t … right?
I love tech but that just looks crap.
I have a Vox Organ guitar in my brothers loft. It doesn’t sound that different to rotary guitar thingy above.

I do think it’s actually a bit pointless, but still like that people take the time and effort to try out thier ideas. I think that’s more where I was coming from.

Made this for our work Xmas party. Totally just for a laugh so it’s a bit rough and ready. Most parts recorded on phones etc. I’m on the bass this time. 2:25 for some slapping action! 👍

Thanks for bringing a bit of cheer into this dismal Christmas, Adam, that made me smile. 🙂

Another five-string bass owner who hasn’t worked out what the fifth string is for. 😉

Looks like it’ll be the last face to face lesson for a while tomorrow. It’s a pain because I feel like I’m really starting to make progress by having someone point out and correct all the things I’m doing wrong. 🙄

Zoom lessons are really good though too @oldtennisshoes…..different and not as good in some ways, but still really worthwhile imo