molan

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1406200066' post='2509222'] At a glance they don't look like bad prices but unsure as to where the country of origin will be (unless I missed it on his site). [/quote] Made in Indonesia, price range £1,100 - £1,250. We were going to stock them but pulled out to concentrate on a US built brand in the slightly lower price bracket instead.

The bass has 51 on it but tthe description says 54 - seems a bit odd?

Have you seen this new Ampeg combo? [url="http://www.ampeg.com/products/bassamp/ba-210/#"]http://www.ampeg.com...assamp/ba-210/#[/url] It's designed to work with a very shallow tilt so it can be a standalone floor monitor - even looks like a PA style monitor when tilted with the amp controls down the side If you click the left or right wedge images you can see what I mean No idea on price yet but I am reliably informed that they are on their way across the Atlantic right now. . .

My PA guy says no In his opinion the core sound of a PA cab won't sound that nice with a bass running straight into it. He said you could use a sub cab to get some of the core fundamentals but the decent ones start to get pretty expensive, at which point you might as well buy a bass specific combo. He's been selling PA gear professionally for many years and also works with a couple of quality bass amplification brands as well. I would definitely trust his judgement on stuff. I think his summary was that if it worked really well to buy a powered PA cab as a bass monitor then loads of people would be doing it

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1406033958' post='2507674'] I'm in the wrong game hahah! They seem to be earning more than a doctor/lawyer! [/quote] £50K a year each is less than most lawyers I know but the lawyers do put in more hours than the musicians

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1406030943' post='2507627'] Well I understood it and agree with him, I know people who earn much more than me but never have any spare money because they have a much more lavish lifestyle than me. The factual examples given are meaningless without knowing their personal circumstances, a guy bumming around crashing with mates or parents that had no children and is happy as long as they have a few meals a day and a bed to sleep in is going to be able to be in a full time music job playing covers easier than a guy with four teenage children,a massive mortgage on a five bed house in London and a wife that won't leave the house without a grands worth of clothes on and drives a range rover evoque but won't work herself. [/quote] OK - maybe I'm just being too literal. When I said "I have a good friend who is in a jazz covers outfit with his wife who earns - they pull in about £100K a year" it was a simple statement of fact and not an opinion so I didn't understand the reference. This was a direct answer to the OP who didn't ask about lifestyles so it seemed a simple answer. The couple in question are married with one kid, own a flat in North London (which they rent), a house in Bedford (where they live) and another house fairly nearby that they bought as an investment and also lease. They drive a Merc and live a pretty decent lifestyle that's funded by playing covers around 4-5 nights a week plus some additional income from teaching during the day. They are very good at what they do and have built up a strong client base for weddings, corporate functions and cafe/restaurant type gigs - hence the relatively high income for a duo working as covers players

I have actually used a pair of PA speakers to gig with once and they sounded great. To be fair they were Trace Elliot cabs (from the short period when Trace went into PA) and each one had a 15" and a 10" mounted concentrically so there was quite a lot air moving Are you planning on using a PA cab for front of house or just as a stage monitor with the main PA running FoH? We have a local PA guru who also knows a lot about bass gear so I've asked his opinion for you

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1406023814' post='2507521'] There is a massive degree of variation here. I don't even earn any where near these lower estimates in my regular full time job and I live perfectly happily. Depending on where you live and how you want to live you could need as little as £200 a week all the way up to £1000. I would take some of these peoples opinions with a pinch of salt. [/quote] I don't really understand what you're saying here - the people you've quoted have stated facts about how much they know some pro musicians can earn so they aren't 'opinions'?

There's often a lot on eBay. Biggest problem with so much used PA gear is that it's often trashed by the time it's sold. Not as many sound engineers with major PA GAS compared to bass players - they jus use stuff until it breaks

Should be able to have a play with things later in the week I really like Mesa Boogie heads (although the Walkabout combo isn't my favourite). They can sometimes have a problem with reliability but other people have them for years without any problems. The M3 combo looks quite cool but it's relatively low powered by 'modern' standards. I think as a standalone unit it would only running at 150-165w so you'd need an extension cab to get the full 300w from it. No idea what trans-class is - it's a Mesa trademarked term and they don't seem to expand on it other than to say it's a hybrid design with tube front end with a solid state power amp. This type of design has been around for a while so maybe they've just changed the interface between the pre & power a little & given it a fancy name I haven't heard a Carbine for ages (used to be called the Fathom) but early ones had some problems with a noisy fan and background hum so need to watch out for those on the used market. It's one of the cleaner sounding Mesa ranges and I definitely prefer it to the M-Pulse. I've heard people call the Carbine range 'Mesa Boogies for people who don't like Mesa Boogies' lol. Definitely designed to be a more modern, quick, clean amp than Mesa are usually associated with. My favourite Mesa head is actually the Big Block - whack one of these up loud through a 4ohm 4x10 or 2x12 and they sound great. The little Demeter is currently my favourite amp. Small, light weight, powerful and near impossible to get a bad tone from it. Really nice tone controls that work nice and gradually without suddenly going into over-kill. Sounds very clean & clear and 'muscular' to me and warms up nicely if you use the tone controls sensibly. Just feels like a nice marriage of a very high quality pre-amp with the very best of modern lightweight power stages. I've not heard another power amp that sounds as nice as the Demeter Minnie unit without going into huge, heavy valve models & I just can't be bothered to lug one of those around any more!

I owned an early SVT2 (non-pro) and used it for a while with an Ampeg cab that had a 15", a 10" and a horn (someone gave me for free as part of the deal on the head). The 10" had been upgraded to handle the power of the SVT and it sounded great. The SVT came in a Mesa Shock-Rack that added nearly 50% to the weight of the head! Only ever gigged it once and loved it but carrying the head nearly gave me a hernia and it had to go Every time I see a pro on stage with an SVT and an 8x10" I am extremely jealous

Listening to it right now! I've put a FaceBook link up on our shop page as well. We've got about 6,500 'likes' so might spread the word a bit further for you https://www.facebook.com/BassGearUK

I've definitely noticed pub gigs getting shorter. A lot of places near me ask for 2x45 min sets.

It's a way smaller event than Winter. Lots of major manufacturers only have a small presence & many of the more niche bass specialist guys don't go. Not really sure how it survives!

I heard a GK combo for the first time this week and was quite impressed. Need to spend some more time with one and will try to do so next week. I'll be able to run a direct comparison against a MarkBass 1x12P combo as well. What really impressed me was a GK 500w head into their Neo 4x10. Sounded nice and very loud If you are considering an AER combo then be sure to give one a decent workout at volume. I'd always fancied one but when I tried one about a year ago I came away a bit disappointed. It seemed to be struggling with low end response without an extension cab (it was set up with the extension for demo purposes and I was told quite forcibly to leave it that way but I sneakily unplugged it!). Without the aid of another cab I got it to break up quite quickly at any sort if volume on really low notes. I guess it could have been a dodgy unit though and that's why the sales guy wanted me to keep the extension plugged in

[quote name='Iain' timestamp='1405753633' post='2504909'] yorks - it was the same price! The MB ears were decent value but the shipping cost more than they did! brensabre - the BB LEDs are pretty bright and the G90 has plenty of flickery bits going off when playing, bling enough for me for now! [/quote] Obviously too late for this purchase but the trick with MB accessories is to find a dealer who regularly orders stuff or has a good relationship with the distributors. They can 'piggyback' a small order like rack ears on to a larger shipment and reduce the postage significantly. We jus organised this for someone for a set of rubber feet for an MB head. It meant a 3-4 week wait but cut costs by about 75%.

That's a custom shop serial number. Must have been an attempt to try and get a CS bass that sounds, and looks, like a modern 'super-jazz'. I'm not sure this is what makes CS basses really special. All the best ones I've played have been vintage replicas rather than modern active things.

I'd think GK or Mesa for core amp tone, maybe an older Washburn for authenticity or a punchy Spector for a quality rock tone. A Mouradian would be cool though

Commodore was a very cheap entry level brand. Made in Japan I think and simply re-branded by a UK importer as Commodore. I don't think it's worth a huge amount I'm afraid. I saw a lead guitar version for sale at £25 on Gumtree.

I have a good friend who is in a jazz covers outfit with his wife - they pull in about £100K a year. . .

Is that definitely a Fender Custom Shop? I've not seen a CS with that electronics package fitted before. Looks more like an American Deluxe quilt top.

[quote name='Platypus' timestamp='1405704174' post='2504529'] Interesting post, Barrie Be interesting too, to do a similar shoot out between the Demeter and the Jule power amp when that becomes available. [/quote] We spent about a day just testing the power amps - it was really quite fun We did use both Demeter and Jule pre-amps for the test. At the moment it looks like Jule's new power stage is for integrated heads only. We have a Jule with an internal Demeter amp so probably won't order a Jule powered amp until the Demeter one has sold. It'll be really interesting to see if we can hear a difference between them. I was super sceptical about even being able to hear anything between the Minnie and a Tone Hammer power stage but it was quite clearly audible (helps that we had an amazing player, with a much better ear than I, to work with too!).

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1405675066' post='2504177'] Could you just use the power section of a micro amp? [/quote] You definitely can but it may not sound as good. A few months back we ran a series of tests over a 2 day period with two very well known pro players. We set up a few different dedicated pre-amps and also used the pre-amp sections of a couple of decent spec integrated heads. For power amps we had heavyweight dedicated rack units, one class D rack and a power stages from the two integrated heads (one of which was a typical class D 500w model). The Demeter held its own up against the heavy transformer units and outclassed the two class D options. It had a lot more heft and definition than the class D amps and was a bit faster and cleaner than the heavyweights. The big heavy transformer amps were nice but both were big money (a lot more than the Demeter). It was the first time we'd really run AB tests on power amps and it was great to hear one of the pro guys really going for it, at considerable volume, to put the Demeter though its paces The final decision was that we all really, really liked it but we felt that in a lot of everyday situations the difference might not really be heard by an audience. However, if we could afford it we unanimously said we'd buy one Using an integrated head's power stage could be a lot cheaper though - plus you've got the backup option of using the head's pre-amp too. It's definitely a tough call!