Japhet

At a gig once a punter shouted out 'What does the bass do?' I replied, 'OK, I won't play in the next song' and the band backed me. It sounded sh*te and when I started playing again in the next song I got a big cheer. It's not only punters who don't know what we do but I'm lucky that my bandmates do.

I'd have a serious look at the Tech Sounsystems 4x10 in the FS section. Huge capability and ridiculously light.

I use a Black Jag 500 head through a TechSoundsystems 2x12. It's the best sounding rig I've had and frequently gets good comments. It has boostable EQ sections but I never use them. Everything is set at roughly 12 o clock and it cuts through the mix like nothing else I've ever had.

Used a Mk VI head for years and it never missed a beat and had a hard time. Very loud and versatile eq section with sliders and shelving. Felt like it had a concrete block down one end when you picked it up though.

Are you looking for a combo or separates (head and cabinet)?

I would love to have played in Seal's band. He's written some fabulous stuff.

I love Genz stuff but since they were sunk by Fender I'd go for the Aggie.

To state that Baker was a different class to John Bonham almost made me drop my beer. Think it was Clapton that said it. Baker always struck me as a complete tool and nothing in the film changed my opinion of him. Thoroughly unpleasant bloke.

Brilliant!

Pino stepped into the breech at extremely short notice when Entwhistle died. The band hardly broke stride which is great credit to Pino. Perhaps some of the people bemoaning his position in the Who would like to suggest an alternative who was available at the time and would still be available now. Can't level any criticism at him for not being John Entwhistle.

Love Tecamp stuff. Well made, powerful, versatile and light weight. Beats anything else I've tried hands down.

Bob Babbitt's bassline on Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me does it for me.

The Proton is a really good pedal with top class sounds and build quality . Never tried the EHX though.

As we all know, what we hear on stage can be way off what the audience get. I like to get a bit of input from the punters as long as I trust their judgement. We have a few regulars who tell us if levels need adjusting. If you play pubs it's often the case that levels need changing as the place fills up as well, so what sounded fine in the soundcheck needs altering later on even though the sound on stage hasn't altered. I'm not precious about a bit of well intentioned input at all.

Interesting one last night. Long story short. Played at the Rose in Bigglewade. Bit of a journey. Set up with 30 mins before scheduled start to find mixing desk had no output. After some frantic attempts to remedy the situation it was looking bleak - then I remembered my backup amp (Genz Streamliner 600). No idea if it would work but it did just fine. Mic straight into the jack sockt and a bit of EQing and off we went. Singer said he could hear just fine with no monitoring and the amp stayed cool in spite of it being blisteringly hot. Not sure what Ohmage it was running at either but the sound (by all accounts) was spot on.

Miami Vice - Jan Hammer

Guitarist in my band uses a Blackstar set up. After a whole load of Marshalls Fenders and God knows what else it's the Backstar that delivers the sound. Had one problem that was solved with a new set of valves. Other than that it hasn't missed a beat. I love the sound of it personally and prefer it to stuff way way way more expensive.

My guitarist played a gig through my Ashdown 4x8 once when his cab failed. Sounded fine.

Forward he cried from the rear and the front rank died.....

Bob Babbitt was a fantastic player. Often unnoticed next to Jamerson etc but in my opinion it doesn't get much better than the stuff he did with Marvin Gaye.

Ashdown combo isn't a bad place to start. Don't expect to get your money back any time soon though.

I like my Catalinbread SFT.