Ultima2876

Oh wow, I want to do the same with my BB415 now - it's a black one, but I'd love to throw a pickguard on there. I play with a pick too, so it makes absolute sense... do I just email them?

[quote name='Amazoman' timestamp='1354060940' post='1881707'] I say Markbass because weight is an issue at 57 years old I can't carry like I used to. [/quote] Guessing that by this, it needs to be fairly mobile.

99p? Bargain! ... I jest of course - what's the reserve out of interest?

Hey there pal, I've got a GK 212 MBE on the way (was it my thread you were talking about? http://basschat.co.uk/topic/192845-dilemma-4x8-ashdown-mini-genz-benz-2x10-other/). No experience with the Genz Benz Focus series but I'll be posting a review (and possibly a tone video/mp3) when I have it.

Indeed, GAS is nasty. I thought I was done with it a few months ago, but then I joined a band playing bass... coming from a guitar background, I have pretty much all the stuff I'd ever need for guitar. But bass? Nope. Not even close - when you require something it's very easy to let GAS seep in and end up spending 1.5-2 or even 3 times what you originally intended to spend!

I bought a gig bag from them before, it came from a different music shop. It's a bit like amazon. That 'Fender' Starcaster is on par with a Squier Affinity Strat. Garbage, basically. [quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1354025312' post='1880980'] [/quote] That guitar looks really nice!

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1354011537' post='1880681'] this might all be moot as i don't have any money till friday and the gk cabs might have sold out by then [/quote] Hm, I think it's unlikely that they will sell out that fast - people were thinking they might sell out back in July, so I think you'll be good to order on friday If you can wait until I get mine I can run it in and drop you a PM with what I think about stability etc when I get it? I think I'll probably be happy with it - to be honest, my current practice "rig" is a Fender Rumble 15 combo worth £30 (and I rent an Ashdown MAG 1x15 combo at the rehearsal studio). If I really do have concerns about it I can always use Thomann's 30-day money back guarantee though! I'll definitely report back here anyway!

Squier Bullets are a great first guitar. For the price, they're actually incredibly decent, and I've actually seen someone gigging with one (!) in my time

Aaaaah, screw it! Ordered the GK. Thanks everyone! Will post and let y'all know what I think!

[quote name='AnalogBomb' timestamp='1353978464' post='1880544'] It's not as bigas you might think. They made them pretty compact. Can get that, my head and my guitarists ac30 in the back of my fiesta! [/quote] I'll have a wee look into them! Your avatar gif brings back memories - been a while since I've seen that!

One thing about the GK 212MBE that's worrying me - I've read a lot of kind of worrying stuff about their sturdiness; particularly that if you stack 2 2x12's on top of each other... the stack would be wobbly o_O I'm not so bothered about the lack of damping and bracing stuff, but if they're slimsy enough to wobble in a stack I don't know that they'd be right for me after all. The last thing I want is for someone to lean on them and they topple over and destroy my amp or whatever... that, and I've read a few reports of them just kind of falling apart after a while (not literally, but things going wrong, jack problems, tweeter problems etc). It makes me a little worried and makes me think that maybe it wouldn't really be a very good investment at all. I'm not super bothered about weight - I think stability is more of a priority. I'd say tone > volume > stability > compactness > weight > aesthetics > other stuff for me... If the minis are beaten out by a £150 2x12 in terms of sound, and aren't very light then they're probably not the way to go. But I also don't want to spend £200 (potentially anotehr £200 again in a month too) on a cab that will fall apart on me or risk toppling over on down the line. I have a habit of sitting on my amp cabs at rehearsals too, which could be a problem with something that's a little cheaply built. Opinions? Is that cheapness/instability/problems after a year all stuff that I shouldn't be worried about (exaggerations/buyers remorse, unlucky defective units etc)? Is that just something I'll have to put up with unless I'm able to fork out the extra cash? Am I reading into all this too much and I should just make up my damn mind? Haha. Just from this thread I'm getting bad vibes about the ABM Minis - and also if I'm reading it right, the fact that within a day of asking I've got 3 offers on the table to sell ABM Minis to me... does make me think that maybe people are wanting to get rid of them. Whereas I haven't seen many of these GK units for second hand sale... coincidence? As always everyone, thanks for any and all input - it's all appreciated and I know that when you guys help me come to the right choice, it will be the RIGHT one! EDIT: Also, RE: 4x10, probably will be a little too big... I also need to be able to squeeze my rig into a car along with my guitarist's fender twin... so modular is the way it's gotta be if I need a rig of that kind of size! ... man, I really wish they had the 8 ohm version of that Genz Benz cab at GAK

I have about £200, £250 at a real push. I could always get one, then get another when I get paid next month (Pretty much what I planned to do with the Ashdown Minis; get the 48 now and get the 15 next month or maybe the other way round)

I've gotta say, after having been an internet power user for about 11 years and taking part in many many communities online... this has got to be one of the most helpful I've ever stumbled across. You guys are fantastic and your input is all really appreciated. I'm seriously getting the impression here that the GK 212MBE is the way to go. Now I need to see if I can find a way to try one... unfortunately I'm based in the UK so finding a dealer that has them for trial might be a difficult option. That said, I've had a search around and can't really find a bad word about them... I'm just gonna finish talking to the people who have potential Ashdown Mini deals for me to see a final comparison on prices, but I'm now leaning pretty heavily towards the GK cab. Thanks again!

[quote name='RandomBass' timestamp='1353950974' post='1880159'] It sounds like these ratings refer to the new ABM1000 and ABM2000 amps which have only just been released. The ABM500 is definitely 575 Watts into 4 Ohms, and probably something like 360 or so into 8 Ohms. So one or two MBE212 will be just fine. [/quote] Aha! That would make a lot of sense! Thanks

I hear ya; if you don't mind my asking, why not a Mini 15 as the cab with a 48? I thought that they were designed to work together. I would have thought that two Mini 48s would have a weak low end due to their frequency response not covering < 70 hz? Or is there some physics wizardry that gets around that? Also, the 1000watt thing was from the "get manual" link on ashdown's site - [url="http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?ID=6."]http://www.ashdownmu...etail.asp?ID=6.[/url] In the ABM section it says; "Speaker Outputs Minimum impedance 4 Ohms Output Power 1000watts RMS into 4 ohms. / 2000watts RMS into 4 ohms." I think the 2000watts RMS into 4 ohms part is for the 575/575 dual ABM amp. I figured it'd kind of make sense for 575w @ 8 ohms to be around 1000w @ 4 ohms - but I am really a beginner in all this so I'm not really sure if that's the correct way to work it all out! Either way the GK cab can handle it at 8ohms, and two of them would cope at 4 ohms, so yeah...

Yep, I'm pretty much in love with the Ashdown sound. In fact, upon hearing my friends Ashdown ABM rig a while ago I was pretty much an 'ashdown' guy from the go; I've never heard the GK cab first hand so that's another leaning point towards the Minis. The main point of contention is the weight and carting two cabs everywhere, but I don't know if that's too much of a big deal for me. There's also kind of mixed opinions on the Minis, but I think if I look hard enough I'd probably find the same thing with the GK.

Yeah, I've got someone else who has a Mini 15 too that he wants to sell. It's between the GK 212MBE and the Minis then... I really don't know what to do. I've heard that in combination the Mini 15 and Mini 48 sound great, and I absolutely love the way they look (not that it matters that much). I also like that they're side-handled. But, the GK is a lot lighter (50% lighter than the Mini 48, 20% lighter than the Mini 15) and probably more flexible - I could play smaller gigs with just one cab, which means a lot less back strain and less trips to the car. I'm gonna have to think it over. If anyone has opinions then chime in [quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1353918595' post='1879594'] I wouldn't go for the Ashdown minis either. [/quote] Any particular reason or are you just not a fan? I'd love to hear more if you have time!

Wow, those do look excellent and fit the bill very well. Being a bit of a bass n00b (yes, I am originally a guitard that has 'seen the light'...), I don't know much about Gallien Kreuger - are they good cabs for reliability and sound? I really like that they're only 15.4kg. I do think I'd have preferred side-carry handles, but at 15.4kg I'm not sure if that matters. I'm gonna go and lift some amps and compare the weight! It might be perfect... thanks for all your help guys, you all rock!

Yeah, that sounds about right - checking the manual for the ABM500, it's 575 watts @ 8 ohm or 1000 watts @ 4 ohm... so it's probably going to be putting out some decent volume into the GB cab. I'm so tempted to hit the fire button on the GB cab... only thing stopping me (pretty much) is that it's 4 ohm... but that could maybe be a good thing. Stops me from being tempted to buy extra cabs for the hell of it in future - provided its loud enough and sounds good, it could be all I need. But then, if I ever upgrade, I don't really have any other equipment that I could use a 4 ohm cab with, whereas I could repurpose any 8 ohm cab to be used with one of my guitar amps. Aaaaah, decisions decisions Thanks for your input!

For what it's worth, I've read very good things about the Genz Benz GB210T-XB - pretty much everyone gives them glowing reviews. Might be a good idea to pick up the GB210T-XB2 from GAK then get a second one later? It's a bulky option, but if it sounds good... I won't be playing any gigs bigger than a large club for the foreseeable future, and if I ever do I'll be able to upsize my rig later. EDIT: Blarg, just realised, the Genz Benz at GAK is 4 ohms... that would mean I can only use one of those cabs, correct?

I've just recently acquired an Ashdown ABM500 head on an excellent deal, but I don't have a cab for it! My band is hopefully due to start gigging in January. We play a kind of psychadelic bluesy post-pop. The drummer is fairly loud and the guitarist plays through a Fender Twin but keeps the volume dialled back some. I'm a fairly scrawny guy and I'm on a bit of a budget (for now), and I really can't decide what to do. I want to be able to be heard, first priority. Second priority is size, followed by weight - I don't want a single big 4x10 - I'd rather keep things modular and smaller so I can make multiple trips to shift stuff. Options are as follows -Original plan, get an Ashdown Mini 15 then later get a Mini 48 to complement it. Unfortunately, I can't find any 15s - I do have a Mini 48 available for £175 posted. So I'd have to reverse that; get the Mini 48 now, then hope I can find a 15 later (or something else that goes well with it). However I also play 5 string (very rarely use my B string though, I'd say in one or two songs) and I've heard that the Mini 48 on its own isn't very good... if I don't find a 15 or something that goes with it for a while I might be stuck with something sub-par... The Mini 48 weighs in at 30kg according to the spec here http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?ID=61, but is quite small in terms of form factor, and 600 watts @ 8 ohms. I also love the way it looks! Frequency response is a little worrying, bottom being 75hz, which seems a lot higher than any other cab I've seen... -Plan B - gak.co.uk has those Genz Benz 2x10s for £200 referenced in this topic: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/192121-best-cab-around-l200/"]http://basschat.co.u...ab-around-l200/[/url] It's about the same weight as the Mini 48. Bonus; this would be a brand new cab. But I've heard that 2x10s might not be loud enough to keep up with the drummer... it's 300 watts, and honestly after all my reading I'm so confused and dazzled about what I should be aiming at here. Some people say they can gig a 1x12, others say they need 4 4x10s with 2 amps and PA support etc etc etc - I'm not sure of anything any more! -Option C; I could potentially try and stretch my budget and go for something else, maxing out at about £250... but I'd rather not. However, if there's anything that would absolutely blow the other two ideas out of the water at this price range then I'm all ears! I've decided instead of spending any more hours reading thousands of conflicting options, making up my mind, then reading more only for my mind to be un-made again, I'd just ask here and see if anyone can help out. I've wasted nearly my whole weekend debating over all this =/ I've read amazingly gleaming recommendations about Barefaced cabs, but availability and price put them out of reach for me at the moment. However, they are pretty much the holy grail of what I want, and I love their aesthetics too. I'm hoping to eventually be able to get myself a pair of Barefaced Compacts, down the line Anyway everyone, thanks for your help! I hope I didn't ramble too much!