casapete

Another +1 for the Countryman. Great preamp and build - tried the Kala and couldn't justify the extra £250+.

Mine was great just as it was really. Heard stories of poor neck joints but mine was solid. Pickups and tuners were enough for me but you may prefer to upgrade - personally don't think the outlay would justify it. Cracking little S/S basses, only sold mine to fund an amp purchase. Black ones cool, have you seen the silver though? 😄

And the madness continues, this time with The Beach Boys. Clips of Brian and some of the band on YouTube saying how wonderful this is etc. Radio 2 currently playing 'Fun fun fun' which is truly vomit inducing IMO. Why can't these be left as the classic recordings they are, and who the feck is buying this garbage?

Your Ashdown cabs will probably be 450 watts (4x10) and 200 for the 2x10 making 650 total handling. The GK head will give 300 watts into 4 ohms ( your two cabs combined) so I really don't think you need to worry on that score unless you are really hammering the rig. Let your ears be your guide - if it sounds like they are farting out then maybe look at upgrading, but using both cabs shouldn't create problems otherwise. I have a GK Backline 300, and it sounds very close to my GK1001RB, both tonally and output wise! Great amps for the money.

JV first series currently on ebay for 2350 English pounds - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-JV-Squier-Series-Jazz-Bass-Fender-logo-full-size-Squier-Series-small/273066974614?hash=item3f940f5d96:g:ZUgAAOSw9NBaggUH

Call any of our crew 'roadies' and you'd get said manual shoved somewhere I couldn't possibly mention here 😂

Not a massive GJ fan, but love this. Our sound guy uses this to soundcheck the PA, sounds awesome loud!

Agreed, although for me carting a Precision around into bars / restaurants in the few hours before a show just isn't practical.

Some great basses mentioned here, although not sure if they all meet with the OP’s requirements regarding weight and budget?

Also forgot to mention the Fender Precision Special - MIM, PJ pickups and narrow jazz width neck. Current/ recent models are active but the first ones if you can find one were passive. Again, s/h your best bet, around the £400 mark.

A Fender Precision Lyte May do the job - sort of scaled down Precisiony body, PJ pickups ( albeit with active preamp) and as light as a light thing. Mine is around 7lbs and has saved me from making a shoulder injury a problem, and long sets are so much easier too. Made in Japan from late 80’s to late 90’s ,they are well made basses that sound fine but can be easily modded to a passive if that’s your thing. Often come up s/h for around £350 upwards and are a well kept secret / well worth it IMHO.

I don't use my 63 P-bass on gigs. Much as I would like to, it's just not feasible in my main band at the moment, and ironically not so either when I dep with others in pubs and stuff. I do use it sometimes when it's viable / safe, e.g. - got a pal's birthday coming up soon which if I'm asked will be ideal for me to play it in the 'house' band ( will take a spare along in case anyone I don't know fancies a blast after a few too many sherberts ). It kinda goes against the grain a bit for me really, as everything else I have basswise gets used at some time, and I'm not a big fan of keeping stuff that doesn't earn it's keep so to speak. It's just that along with it being quite valuable, its also very precious to me as it belonged to an ex-bandmate who passed away, so I'll never part with it and feel honour bound to look after it and hopefully play it too.

Great stuff. In my old band we often had strange requests. One wedding we had to sign on the contract that we would not at any time play any Tom Jones stuff. They wouldn't elaborate as to exactly why, maybe the bride had previously had a thing with Sir Tom? ( Of course it was maybe just because both bride and groom couldn't stand his music...) We usually wore quite, ahem....colourful stagewear. Had quite a few requests for us to please just wear black all evening. ( Can't say I disagreed with that one.)

You've obviously never seen me depping then......😂

Another big +1 from me. Been on here 11 years ( blimey...) with no bad experiences at all, and met some top people too.

After a quick Google it seems that your speaker is a 'Sheffield' model, rated at 150 watts (should still handle your Elf though). They did them originally in 4 ohm versions as you say for use in single 15 bass bins (a long time ago!), but the later Sheffield 15's were designated PRO 1500 and were 8 ohms/250 watts. Wonder if yours has had a new basket fitted to later spec if that's feasible?

Where did you find the 125 watt rating from? Sounds like it’s been reconed too with the 4/8 ohm change. Peavey bass cabs with original speakers until fairly recently have been usually 350 Watts ( Black Widow speaker, BW on rear panel) or sometimes the old Sheffield speakers which I think were 250 watts. Both of these were featured in the same cab, and could handle the TE okay. Peavey did make lower wattage 15s ( used in cheaper PA cabs ) so the model number of the speaker chassis would be maybe the best way to be sure.

Just got in from a wedding gig, local-ish and quite well paid. Large marquee at the back of a Georgian town house in a big garden in the university area of Hull. Nightmare of a get in - either through the front way via garage / long windy garden path / into the bar area then right down the full length of the marquee to the stage, or - drive down some back street to some massive locked iron gates, through which there’s an narrow alley ( they call them tenfoots round here..!). After 50yds there’s a pair new large pine gates, leading into the rear garden and the back of the marquee. Because the tenfoot is so narrow you can’t swing the van into the garden, so we decide to lift the large gate ( maybe 12 foot long by 8 high) off it’s hinges to widen the angle. As we’re doing this, a guy who looks a lot like Lemmy emerges from the adjoining terraced house and starts to chat. Turns out the booker doesn’t have right of access to the garden despite the new pine gates, and no key to the iron gates at the end. Says he’ll be around later if we need him to let us out etc so we thank him and crack on. Get the van in and unload it. We do the gig, go down well with over 200 guests and the happy couple all enjoying it. Finish our second set, then strike the gear down and load it into the van. Yes , you’ve guessed it- the best man ,who was rather tired and emotional earlier on, is nowhere to be found and he has a key to the iron gates, so we get his mate to go and knock at Lemmys door to see if we can borrow his. Lemmy not in! Fortunately another resident, lovely Romanian guy called Mihail, sees our dilemma and helps us out using his keys, despite a slight language barrier. All this happened in virtual darkness with a steady rain shower drenching us as well! So relieved we can escape after a long sweaty gig, thank god ones like these don’t happen too often.

Our first gig for nearly 6 weeks at Leicester De Montfort Hall last night. Audience of around 1000 all up for a good time, plenty of interaction and dancing. We had our flakey moments, including a keyboard crashing on the opening song, but end result was okay thank goodness. A great venue, with top crew and staff as well, certainly one of our favourite gigs.

As a Danelectro fan , I’m bound to agree to a certain extent! Does my Longhorn have the ‘best’ tone of my basses? Maybe not, but it’s probably my favourite nevertheless. There is a lot of pleasure for me to be had from getting good results from stuff that hasn’t cost an arm and a leg , and the arguments over where instruments were made / materials used can get tedious. You just know when something feels and sounds good to you, and can hopefully see beyond the hype that often surrounds buying an instrument. The gap in quality has narrowed so much over recent years between budget / medium to upper end basses, and it’s a great time to be starting out buying kit now.

Really feel for you Andy, and hope that you can make some progress following your appointment in June. Take care, all the best.