BassBunny

Had a custom carbon fibre pickguard made by Jack's, (Tiny Tone). Fantastic job and a country mile better than the original.

Most modern amps are designed to give virtually full output with the gain around half. It's a marketing thing to make you think there is a lot more to come. Notable exceptions being EA gear and the Ashdown Retroglide. Another 208 would make a massive difference as the additional speakers will shift more air and 2 of the same speaker cabs is the way to go. Regarding a new amp, I was a massive Mark Bass fan until my last one went faulty and the only place to get it fixed, (same company TC use), made it an uneconomic repair. I switched to Ashdown and had a RM500 and Retroglide 800. Both great amps and Ashdown customer service is legendary. The will repair any of their products at reasonable cost. There's a Retroglide for sale in the amps section. Nothing to do with me I stress.

If it's just home cover, speak to your home insurance company. Might be better than a specialist company.

Just get replacements from Ashdown. At least you will get speakers designed for that combo. If in doubt, call Ashdown, speak to Dave Green. Best customer service on the planet.

Not sure if this would be of use but Ashdown have a couple of Hayden Amp sleeves in their clearout sale. https://ashdownmusic.com/products/hayden-speakeasy-head-sleeve

Just mention BassChat.

Try Tiny Tone. They've introduced themselves in the affiliates section. I sent them a piece of carbon fibre to cut and they made a fabulous job of it. Pretty sure they offer some metal in their options, so they must be happy working with it. 20% discount for BassChat as well.

What's the budget?

Having just turned 75 I relish learning new numbers. I've been playing with soul bands on and off since the 60's, so some of our numbers I've been playing for 50+ years. Funnily enough it's these numbers I seem to make the odd mistake with as I feel I know them so well, I don't seem to think about them. Newer numbers I really concentrate on.

I had toyed with the idea of going passive but Vol/Blend/Tone and a rotary switch with some different capacitors in a bit like a ToneStyler. Regarding cost, going passive would be a lot cheaper than a new pre-amp. A Glock 2-band is about £100 give or take.

Depends which version. The 4 pot 2-band and 5 pot 3- band both do. The treble pot becomes the passive control. The 3 pot 2-band doesn't as it's a stacked bass/treble. What I like about the Glock is it doesn't colour the sound when set flat. In fact if you set it flat there is no difference between active and passive.

I've got a Glockenklang 2 band in one bass. It's pretty much my go to pre-amp. I had them in all my three Bass Collections before I sold them and I've a 3 band in my Marlleaux. I picked up a second hand Norstrand 4 knob 3 band for the other one but have yet to fit it

I tried the Active/Passive mod in the attached diagram on my SRMD205. I ended up with a load of noise and quickly removed it. It could be that I didn't actually mount the switch it was just loose in the cavity as I didn't want to drill any holes if it didn't work. Not sure if this was the problem or not. I've gone the new pre-amp route as I reckon the Mezzo range are pretty astounding VFM and I have two of them. I actually prefer them to my other, considerably more expensive instruments.