BigRedX

Not withstanding the fact that I haven't worn trousers with enough surplus material to "flap" for over 45 years now, I think had I ever been in a band that required me to play at volumes that produced a noticeable shift of air from my rig I'd be even deafer than I am now! I've owned a big rig in the past, although it was made out of smaller component parts than the example for sale, but each of the three individual items was still a two person lift for ease of moving, and without a road crew there is no way I would contemplate having one again. Then again if I was in a band successful enough to be able to employ a road crew I'd be playing places where even a big rig would be an irrelevance. From experience something like the rig for sale needs to be running close to max volume to get the benefit of the power amp valves and therefore is too big for most small venues, and due to the poor dispersion characteristics of the cab in bigger venues will only work as a personal monitor so long as you are stood directly in front of it. Your band mates will still need to have your bass in their foldback and you'll find that the moment you are not stood directly in front of it you'll get more from the foldback than you do from your rig. And that's if you're not using IEMs. Add to the fact that very few PAs will mic up bass cabs of any size and, if they did, a close mic on one driver is not the same sound as the full cab from a couple of feet away, so what your audience hear will have little to do with the rig behind you. I'm now a Helix user and I only use amp and cab models as a special effect, as IMO most of the time they make my bass sound worse, which re-enforces what I have thought for a long time is that instrument amplification for bass guitar is the weak link in the signal chain. These days I straight into the PA from the Helix and it sounds great both on stage and FoH. I have plenty of dirt when I need it but I can also sound super clean if I need that too. Most of the time I'm somewhere in between these too extremes. Finally if you need "The way they pulse the air, the harmonics, the bloom and the trouser flapping." for the right atmosphere, then I would suggest that the songs you are playing are not up to scratch.

By out of date I mean big rigs in general. Anyone who is regularly playing venues big enough to warrant having something of this size will almost certainly be using IEMs for monitoring and the FoH feed will at best be taken from the DI out on the head. So that's a huge 8x10 cab doing essentially nothing for the sound but taking up space on stage and in the band transport. Maybe the head would be worth using if it is possible to run it into a power soak with the FoH feed taken at the speaker outputs, but I'm sure there are smaller and lighter devices that will be able to achieve the same sound in a band mix. I just don't see who would realistically want to have one and actually use it nowadays.

Because it's big, heavy, out of date and collection only.

He has his own signature version made by Eastwood. When I saw him last he was using the Eastwood, although judging from recent gig photos he's gone back to the Shergold Back in the early 80s there were plenty of bass players influenced by him. Have a listen to early Section 25, the first Modern English album, Modern Eon and some Dancing Did to name but four. Nowadays? Me:

Search has most definitely been broken by a recent update to the forum software. I've just done a search for "PRS". as well as PRS it also brings up results for PR and words starting with "pr" that have an s in them. This needs to get fixed ASAP, because I have been able to do a search for "PRS" in the past and only get results with the actual combination of letters PRS.

If you need a second cab the best advice is to get another one the same as the cab you already have.

I get that this is somewhat sarcastic, but now that we have almost all the information about everything ever at our fingertips, why wouldn't you spend a few minutes looking up some musician who people on here think is significant and having a listen to what they have played on? Then you can make up your own mind whether it's worth listening to more or depart with knowledge that what they do is not for you.

@ those who didn't like what I said in my last post: I'm a musician and therefore I have at least a passing interest in other musicians, and like to know about the music they play so I can either find more to hear or to know to avoid them in the future. I've just looked back through this thread and there are only one or two bass players mentioned that I hadn't heard the names of before, but when I checked out who they'd played with I found I was aware of at least some of their work. I have to admit that the late 70s and early 80s is my era for musical influences and therefore I'm well-aware of Peter Hook and what he has done. Conversely I have very little interest in post-grunge American rock (the sort of thing that is called "alt-rock" despite that fact that most of it is completely mainstream these days), but at least I know who Melissa Auf der Maur and Nate Mandel are and have heard some songs that they have played on (and have listened to enough to know that it's not to my taste). What I don't like is wilful ignorance on the part of other musicians. I don't expect people to like everything; after all what each of us finds interesting about musical styles is completely subjective, but when we all have the internet at our fingertips to claim that you don't know who a particular musician is and be proud of the fact is just stupid.

The only musical people I am interested in are those who make music I enjoy, or those who make equipment or instruments that I want to use. Mr Sapko appears to do none of those things so as far as I am concerned he's an irrelevance.

I'll probably be gigging until I'm physically no longer able to do it, and after that making and releasing weird industrial music from my home studio until I am mentally unable. I've been very lucky with my health and fitness. In my current band I'm by far the oldest, but probably also the healthiest and fittest.

I can understand that Peter Hook's playing (or that of any bass player) may not be to your taste, but to claim that you have never heard of them is just being ignorant. I have little interest in the other two bass players in the series, but at least I know who they are and what they have played on. It may be that my lack of interest in their playing is that I don't much like (from a musical PoV) anything they have played on.

Unfortunately we weren't able to play last night as our synth player had picked up some lurgy from his kids and was too ill to play. A pity not only because the gig was sold out, but because we'd spent the last few weeks learning how to play our "Christmas Song" as a band. The recorded version had been assembled in the studio, and I think that before we started practicing in order to play it live I'd never played the Bass VI part all the way through in one go. Still the other four bands played and Social Youth Cult who headlined were enough of a draw to have sold most of the tickets, so I don't think we let too many people down. It appears from our social media comments over the last few weeks, that most of the people who wanted to come and see us play had left it too late to buy tickets anyway. Unless something really good comes in at the last minute, we don't have any more gigs until 2026 now. December Snow will have to wait until this time next year.

Back when this thread started the Gardiner Houlgate bass wasn't known. However we still only have the previous and the current seller's word that this bass is actually by John Birch. There's no logo on the headstock as there is in the example in the 70s catalogue and no documentation. The Hyperflux pickups that were in the bass when Gardiner Houlgate were selling it have been removed which IMO seriously impacts on this instrument's worth, and the wiring installed in both versions of this bass are very conventional by John Birch standards. All that can be said for sure is that the bridge is a John Birch bridge. Everything else is heresy and speculation.

And we made a more "traditional" music video too...

I don't know. I suppose it depends on how like the action of your keys? Traditionally an acoustic piano would have a fully weighted action, and organ no weights. Synths would be either the same as an organ or semi weighted, but then it would also depend on what each player was used to. In my very limited experience with my very limited technical ability the action of the keyboard can completely change how I play.