Mudpup

Genzler Magellan 800 Orange 4 Stroke Quilter BB800 (The Orange is probably the cleanest out of that lot)

Maybe try and isolate what's important to you sound wise? Do you prefer something traditional like a Fender P or J or maybe something a bit more modern sounding. If you want something that's old school but very useable in most situations and will hold its value if you flip it look for a used Mexican Fender maybe. If you want something a bit more flexible then maybe a more modern active bass (maybe with a passive switching option) would be a good plan. Once you're up to the £500/600 budget you'll struggle to buy a bad bass (especially if you stick to buying used from the classifieds here - it's a buyers market at the moment. Not much is moving so there are some bargains about). The mid range quality is amazing from most manufacturers generally. The likes of Yamaha, Sire, Cort, Ibanez are very consistent quality wise - they're mostly pretty safe to buy without playing them if you really have to. Fender maybe a little less predictable - there are good ones and dogs and you'll only find them if you play them. Sterlings seem to have a few more QC issues than they used to - dodgy tuners and suchlike. I would recommend trying to sit down and play a few if you can though. You can have the best sounding bass in the world but if the neck or ergonomics don't work for you and you find it hard to play physically you won't enjoy playing it and it will slow up your progress. Take a day out and visit a few decent stores (maybe on a weekday whilst they're a bit quieter if you can). Call ahead to see what they actually have on the wall to play. Make sure they have a reasonable bass amp to play through too - I've been to a decent music store to check out a £1000 bass in the past and they only had a tiny little £100 bass practice amp to play through!. Try PMT/DV247/GuitarGuitar/Bass Direct or any stores local to you. Maybe go to a local jam night or some pub gigs and see/hear what people are playing. Talk to them about their gear - muso's are usually a friendly bunch and like to geek out together. It's a great time to be a bass player!

Lovely bass and a steal at that price! Nice.....

I've tried a few over the years and finally found something that does what I thought it should do in my head. The ones that fell by the wayside were an EBS Multicomp, a DOD Milkbox and then a few modelling options in a Zoom MS60 pedal. More recently I sold a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Comp although that lasted the longest by far. The ones that are floating my boat now are the built in compressor on my Orange 4 Stroke amp (I'm not sure it works as a 'proper' compressor but it certainly does nice things to the sound without losing any punch or presence). And I picked up a Source Audio Atlas too. That one is a game changer for me. Bonkers depth of adjustment is available on it if you want to geek out but just using the factory presets and turning a couple of knobs yields great results too. The studio and optical presets really make a nice difference to my sound. Fattens it all up, keeps a nice glassy top end, doesn't lose any cut through or bottom end and just beefs up any sustained notes. Loving it....

This.....

Broken string on the first note of the first song at a well paying NYE gig about 10 years ago. Grabbed the backup bass and was back in the song before the end of the first verse. And I've had one dodgy jack socket as well. I've always taken a spare bass to every gig since I've been able to afford such a luxury

I wouldn't be bothered about what that sounded like.........I could just cheerfully sit there gazing at it for hours instead 🙂

And we got to play a rarely heard classic. Worked well on the night but we don't trot it out too often.

Wicked 😊 Pub gig. Crowd were in the mood. Played well.... (Yellowhouse)

They are truly awesome little amps. I love mine. Lives in my carrots bag for life just in case 😊

Seriously, I have just switched from a posh drum pedal bag to a bag for life with a picture of carrots on the side. All the cables just get rolled up and put in after a gig and come back out in reverse order. My Quilter amp sits in the top. Any little bits like a set of strings, batteries or tools go in a gig back pocket. It's all much easier to squeeze in the car now ☺️

I've been through a load of amps over the last 45 years of playing bass. More so in the last 15 years or so since starting gigging again after a long break and also because I've been fortunate enough to have more disposable income than when I was younger. If something isn't working for me or I feel like I can find something better suited to my taste I don't keep them. Listed below are the ones I have ended up with and I can't see anything else replacing them in the foreseeable future... Mesa Big Block 750 (x2!) A huge sounding old fashioned big iron rock amp. Love it to bits. It has a lovely valvey 'give' to the sound. Grabbed the second one as they're hard to find and I was scared in case my other one blew up. Orange Four Stroke 500. Can get surprisingly close to the Mesa above but has a less baked in sound. Great EQ, stupid loud and weighs half as much as the Mesa. Still sounds like a big hefty rock amp but with a more flexible EQ and a cleaner core sound. Quilter BB800. The only class D amp I've ever used that doesn't lose its ooomph when you really push it. Super clean warm sound, simple EQ once you get your head around it, weighs nothing and lives in my cable bag as a back up amp. Love it.....

I've had both an ABM600 and a Magellan 800. The Magellan doesn't sound anything like an ABM and isn't as loud in a band situation I'm my experience. Both were run at 4ohms into a pair of Barefaced BB2 cabs. The Magellan is one of the best class D amps I've had but it doesn't have as much kick as the Ashdown when it's getting loud.

Why would you want to? (Serious question BTW)

Sony DWZ B30 owner here. Bought it in Oct 2014, done an average of 50 gigs per year since then and never had a single issue with it. Not one, nada. Ever. Runs on 2 rechargeable AA batteries and I can safely get over 6 hours per charge out of it. Metal transmitter body and clip and a cable tone attenuator if you want to induce some top end loss into it. The receiver also has a get you out of trouble DI output on it if you need it and a tuner out. Receiver runs on batteries or a few mains power options. I just run it from my pedalboard power supply at 9v. https://www.guitarinteractivemagazine.com/review/sony-dwz-b30gb-wireless-system/ Looks like you can get the 2 separate components from here for about £360 and just sort out your own guitar jack cable https://www.digibroadcast.com/audio-c63/wireless-transmission-c167/sony-m54

The speculation is that it will be based on the Aviator guitar amp - maybe selectable voicings or twin channel and a slightly larger form factor.

Don't think so yet. There was a thread about it on Talkbass

New one coming and they've sold all the old ones