Happy Jack

Now if that said RonnieBarker I'd have it like a shot ...

I've tried this with the Line 6 system, with the Smoothound unit, and with wireless bugs (X-vive, Joyo, Lekato). When they work they all sound exactly the same - as you'd expect. The Line 6 was the most 'stable' once in position, i.e. the least likely to give connectivity issues, but was far and away the most additional faff at a gig that I really didn't need, especially since almost all my DB gigs are doubling gigs. The Line 6 requires the most extra kit, the most pluggery, the most extra options to trip you up just before the start of set #1. I have a Line 6 unit in perfect nick in a protective case safely gathering dust in my studio. Haven't used it in several years. All the 'bug' systems (and that includes for these purposes the Smoothound) are far easier to use and have far less to go wrong. The Smoothound requires a plugged-in base station with very fragile antennae so I sold mine. The expensive X-vive and the cheap Joyo/Lekato (basically the same units but badged differently) are indistinguishable in use at a gig but share one common but intermittent problem ... they seem sensitive to the combination of vibration + angle of dangle which can produce a sort of juddering cutting out when you're pushing hard. The angle at which you have the main bug to the jack going into the socket - these are usually hinged units, remember - can encourage or damp down this vibration, but whatever angle you start at can change during the gig as gravity does its thing. For this reason I now use only https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver-Instruments/dp for DB, whilst continuing to use X-vive and Joyo bugs for electric bass. The fact that the bug holder is also a recharging unit can be an absolute life-saver if you're gigging intensively.

I'd pay serious money to be able to deliver a song like this ...

The OP specifies a Frontman and that's where the rot sets in. A singing guitarist or bassist or even (God help us) drummer can express their creativity through their instrument. A dedicated vocalist frontman HAS to think of himself as the epicentre of the band just in order to function effectively. Nobody wants a shy, retiring, ego-free frontman.

I'm pretty sure that they're trying to sneak through the legislation while we're all binge-watching Hidden Secret Mysteries of the Lost Nazi Gold on the Titanic. With Dinosaurs. And Vikings.

Does it really have to be The End Of Civilisation!!! every bloody week?

Slightly OT, I know, but I've never really understood the thing about avoiding side markers. I can see how playing without them can be achieved relatively easily if you always play the same intrument, but I don't. I routinely move between four upright basses but at least they're all more-or-less the same scale length; on electric I jump around from 30" to 32" to 34" to 35" whilst also moving from fretted to fretless. Side dots make life easier - why wouldn't I use them? On an associated note I once took a DB into a very respected luthier's workshop to have a new bridge fitted. He'd just taken a delivery of DB's for set-up & fettling from one of the big London symphony orchestras and they were laid out on the floor in a long row of side-on DBs. Almost all of them had faint (but clear) pencil marks on the neck where the dots would be ...

That was never 10 months ... felt more like five minutes. 😁

Deliberate - the description is correct, it's just the attention-grabbing headline that's obviously wrong.

I've never understood why people ask this question, requiring people to choose between cheap basses and expensive basses. I own both. Simples.

Yes, a cheap power amp once died in a shower of sparks at a country & western gig. Never had a mixer "fail" as such, but I have had to fall back on the emergency spare when the router on our XR18 just wouldn't re-connect. It was still working and the band could play, but without remote control from a tablet it was more trouble than it was worth. All that said, I've had enough issues with small mixers over the years (Alesis, Citronic, Yamaha, etc - all the usual suspects) that I would never gig with one unless I had a spare readily available. My most common issue is the outputs getting fried for some reason.

@Silvia Bluejay and I are in a good place for this, since we have a dedicated gigging vehicle - not a van but a large MPV (2007 reg) with the third row of seats tossed in a skip and the second/main passenger seats reversed to give the biggest possible load area. This means that the driver's seat and the passengers seats are back-to back but there's actually a permanent gap of just under 2' between them, tapering as you go higher. I have three old hard cases originally built for pro camera gear and which I sourced cheaply on eBay, and they fit in a row across this gap on the floor. They contain a full set of spares for almost every contingency (mixer, instrument leads, mic leads, speaker cables, power supplies, tool kit, etc.) and are pretty much never touched, let alone used, but the beauty is that they live permanently in the car and we never need to think about them. They also provide a perfect base on which to lay all the mic stands & speakers stands that we do use at gigs.