Chienmortbb

The A&H CQ series look really good if not a little more expensive than others. I am going for the Stagebox version, the CQ20. However, it does seem that the CQ18, the touch screen version is very popular for those transitioning from a mixer with traditional controls, it's currently sold out until April.

MDF, can suck in black holes at a million miles as it’s so dense.

There is no right answer to this. One of my bands useds a Behringer Powered Mixer stayed at 500 Watts. However that is across two channels and also Peak watts. I suspect it is about 100 into 8 ohms, 150-200 into 4 ohms per channel. One channel is used mono for FOH and the other for monitors. The front of house speakers are Ramsa WS-A200s and they have a sensitivity of 98dB . We have played pubs clubs and small theatres and never been short of volume but then we currently only put vocals the PA Remember the watts do not tell you how loud a system is. The sensitivity of the speakers determine that.

A bold statement.

HiFi or FRFR means faithful reproduction of the sound you put in. Most "old school" amp/cab system have, as @Phil Starr said, have little top end and often a boost at around 120Hz. That used to be the sound of bass. With more and more modelling systems/multi-effects units, more and more people are either going into a HiFi/FRFR system or directly into the front of house PA system. HiFi is usually reckoned to be 20Hz to 20KHz, but in BASS systems I would argue that 40Hz to 15KHz is more than adequate for bass (in fact probably 15KHz is probably higher than you need). Most modern amplifiers are close to HiFi, we measured several at the SW Bass Bash two years ago and these included class D offerings from Bugera, Ashdown and others (I will try to dig out the results). Be aware however that the "Gig Bag" amps, like the Elf and the Gnome, tend to be coloured when set with all EQ at 12 o'clock. The Elf has a baked in Smiley Face EQ and the Gnome has a rising response. The Aguila TH series are also probably not flat as shipped. Many people use PA cabs for this too. RCF and QSC get a lot of love for this, and it is a fairly lightweight option, but not a cheap one. A decent cabinet will cost at least as much as a good amp/cab combination, and probably much more.

Whoever accepted the gig on behalf of the band was done up like a kipper!

Behringer get a bad press as a copier, but many of their spruces are designed in house and do not copy anyone. The power amplifier section of many of their older speakers were based on the same NXP chips as the earlier Mackie Thumps. Most of the low to mid-speakers use the Analog Devices DSP chips that are of a higher quality than the rest of the speakers/circuitry but are really there to make up for the deficiencies in the low-cost drivers. Although I am not a fan of the Behringer Stage Box Digital Mixers, for a few reasons, but they have almost created the market and Soundcraft, RCF and Allen and Heath probably benefit from that.

I do agree, although it is the values of the components that matter. There is no magic in Orange Drop capacitors or any particular make of pots. The law or taper does matter, though.

My lot laugh at how many cables I bring. They were not laughing last week when the lead guitarist's only cable and a month ago, when the Rhythm Guitarist's mic cable was safely in his garage when we were 40 miles away at a gig.

That is the daddy!

Wise people1

I have just retired my passive PA tops and set an 11Kg limit per item. My bass cab is 11Kg and I am looking for tops under 11Kg tops.

Good work.

They should not come together, and mains sockets on different phases should not be closer than can be touched simultaneously by a single person.

My point was that the actual wiring has little effect as a sound upgrade. The workmanship on @KiOgon's looms is superb and in many cases a worthwhile upgrade, but there would be little difference in the sound to a bass without a loom but with an identical circuit. In fact, you need to be careful when laying out a loom that the innate tidiness does not cause unintended problems. @KiOgon is experienced enough to know this and if you want an easy, trouble free installation, one of his looms is a no-brainer. The other advanatge of @KiOgans looms is that it looks nice inside your bass, but only you can decide how much that is worth to you.

I only use my J pickup once in a blue moon to check it is still working (it is). I often wonder how much the loading of the J pickups affects the sound of the P even when the volume is at zero? I must do some circuit analysis, or I could noodle on my bass....

Much as I admire @KiOgon s work, I don't think he would argue that his looms are a tone upgrade. In saying that, if upgrading the pups you might want to upgrade the other electronic items as well and in that case, @KiOgon should be your port of call if soldering is not your thing.

No, the voltage between phases over here is over 400V.

All human life really is here! It ain't wrong if it sounds right.

I can quote for that (with apologies to Hall and Oates).

There is a lot of good advice here but also some conflicting thoughts. Are all the band onboard Are you worried about size or weight of the equipment, Do you need multiple monitor feeds? How many input channels do/might you need? The other thing to be considered is that more gear means more set up time, especially if you initially keep the backline. For a pub band, if you want in So my two pennyworth, go for as big a mixer as you can. I have just sold a Soundcraft Ui16 that would do most things, mixer wise. That went for just over £300 and would do everything you need and more but Behringer RCF and others can be picked up for £300 or less. Secondhand. If you decide to put the drums through as well as all the instruments, go for one with at least 12 mic/line inputs on XLRs. An analogue desk may well suit you better but would be bigger and heavier for the same no of inputs/output due to physical channel strips. Now that would only leave £450 for speakers. There are some bargains out there but again look for a good brand second hand. You may have to wait a while for good ones that are within your budget but you can make offers on some. Having researched active speakers, there are some to avoid. Many of the Behringer ones have poor reliability, as do some of the Mackie Thump series. Only look at the higher end Altos. The main thing though is to listen to them first. Don’t rule out passive speakers. I recently auditioned a few active ones but they were not as good as my 25+ year old Ramsa tops. Choose some uncompressed audio tracks that you know well but not recent over compressed stuff. It is best to use CD from some years ago as modern is compressed to hell. Vocals are important, especially around the crossover point. The last time I checked, Spotify uses lossy compression but but Apple Music uses a lossless compression method.

Suck the mids out, and you suck the life out of the mix. Seriously though, modern 12s can be equal or better than the old 15s as the real issue is how much air they can shift. I got good feedback about my sound last week from some "old timers" about my sound from a 10 with a compression driver/horn. Don't judge a cab by its driver diameter.

As my local stores could not supply, I could not try before I bought. PMT have lots of stores but none less than 2.5 hours drive and over 200 mile round trip. I have only returned one thing to Andertons, in about 8-10 purchases, so the cost per purchase is minimal. It is a bit like credit card fees, a cost of doing business.

To be honest, I did replace the machine heads on the Sir Marcus Miller M2 with some Hipshots bought on here. The original ones stayed in tune, but had awful backlash. That put the overall price at £330 approx. I would like to replace the knobs at some point too as they are not nice but are functional.

You can only comment on your own experiences. I often use Thomann, Andertons and have used G4M and PMT. Thomann used to have a price advantage, but it is now often pennies and DHL, are to be avoided where possible. The worst tracking of any company, IMHO. Andertons, despite me not liking the bloke that does their bass videos, I have found them to be excellent especially when I changed my mind on a purchase after it was delivered, They arranged pickup FOC. PMT were good to buy from, BUT when I was unsure about a very recent purchase, I checked their Ts and Cs. It is down to the customer to pay for and arrange the return. G4M did not have the things I wanted recently, so I have not used them for some time.