Happy Jack

SOUND These units continue to sound excellent, and to manage to sound good in pretty much any pub or club environment . I should mention that I have yet to use them outdoors. The debate about the 'hole in the middle' will not go away. At low to very low volumes it is certainly possible to convince yourself that the midrange is lacking. As soon as you start to turn up the volume, that stops being an issue (assuming that there is really an issue in the first place). The sound quality and presence is good enough to withstand schoolboy errors in the setup, like failing to switch on one side. Yes, even with a legend like me it happens. We played an entire set without realising that only one side of the PA was actually operating - that's four experienced musicians on stage plus Silvie out front - which to me implies that the sound is pretty bloody good. POWER We have repeatedly played the George IV in Chiswick, a very large pub which gets absolutely rammed, with the whole band (drums = kick only) going through the AC4s for sound support. Playing to >200 people the Output controls on the AC4s have never yet got above 11 o'clock. We all know that these things aren't linear, but it's obvious that there is a massive amount of headroom available on tap in that situation. RELIABILITY Nothing has yet broken, nothing has yet failed. Each problem we have so far encountered has been traced back to user error, usually me but not always so! If we use them exactly as Marco de Virgiliis intended then there's a fair amount of assembly and pluggage required. Each side comprises a 2x10 sub (which can be placed either upright or flat - it has two pole sockets), a telescopic pole mount, a steel bracket to sit atop the pole, a 4-piece linear module to hang from the bracket, and a second 4-piece linear module to hang from the first one! It's all bolted together using (basically) enormous wingnuts, and then plugged together using multiple patch cables. In fairness, the majority of these cables never need to be unplugged. All of this kit comes in a set of what can best be described (in gigbag terms) as matched designer luggage. The bags are some of the nicest, prettiest, over-engineered, and thoroughly over-the-top things I've seen in a month of Sundays. Plus they take up a silly amount of storage space at a gig. Frankly, the whole process is a bit of a PITA, and only really practical at a gig for my 4-piece covers band because we also have Silvie (at every gig) acting as our PA roadie. She sets up the two AC4s while I do the desk and the cabling, the drummer does his kit, and the guitarists scratch their derrières. The next post will be the extended Review of the Mark Audio AC4 units after a year of practical use, the questions that people tend to ask second!

Almost exactly a year ago, I started a thread about the Mark Audio AC4 PA system. Silvie and I were sufficiently impressed with it that we sold off almost all our other PA kit plus several Barefaced cabs to fund purchasing a pair of them. Sad to relate, that thread lasted less than a week before having to be put down to avoid further pointless pain and suffering, but some good stuff did emerge. https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/321292-markaudio-linear-array-systems/ So ... how did Year #1 go? The first thing to note is that I've played about 50 gigs in that year, but the AC4s were 'only' used at 27 of them. About a dozen gigs were played with bands who strongly preferred to use their own PA rather than experiment (as they saw it) with my radical new one, and I've increasingly opted to use a simpler, lighter vox-only approach for smaller gigs for my covers band and for pretty much all gigs for my rockabilly band. That said, 27 gigs with three different bands at over 20 different venues is enough of a sample size to allow us to draw some conclusions. All gigs were at pubs & clubs with an immense variation in room size and crowd size. The next post will be the basic Review of the Mark Audio AC4 units after a year of practical use, the questions that people tend to ask first.

So is "You slag!" a gender-neutral term?

So the 'official' proof of provenance states: I cannot explain why there is a different serial number on the receipt and guitar, it's just too long ago to recall that, but you wont get any information from Gibson because although this guitar was started during my tenure at the Custom Shop, I took it with me when I left, and so it ended up getting completed after I left Gibson, and so it became somewhat unofficial. Well it's good to get that cleared up ...

You've spayed it so it can't reproduce, I imagine?

Book yourself at least ONE lesson with someone who knows that they're doing. The number of wrong turnings you will avoid, mistakes you didn't need to make, simple things you didn't think of, will more than justify the fee. If you tell us where in the country you are, you may get some helpful recommendations as to who to contact. Oh yes, and you will NOT regret buying a DB.

I don't follow. If all the instruments tune down a tone, would it not make more sense to tune them all correctly but play in a lower key? Not trying to extract the urine, just puzzled.

Mind you, the thing that worries me most is that we've made it to near the bottom of p.3 and no one has yet had a pop at the concept of 'Exoctica', which sounds like a nightclub where they show pornography.

Personally, I'd buy a ZIG bass (base?) every time.

And now, the previously-quoted meme in its full, unexpurgated glory: Captain: What happen ? Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. Operator: We get signal. Captain: What ! Operator: Main screen turn on. Captain: It's you !! CATS: How are you gentlemen !! CATS: All your base are belong to us. CATS: You are on the way to destruction. Captain: What you say !! CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. CATS: Ha ha ha ha … Operator: Captain !! Captain: Take off every 'ZIG'!! Captain: You know what you doing. Captain: Move 'ZIG'. Captain: For great justice.

In my experience, the best books for musicians are really short ones.

If you study the photos really, really closely, you may spot the 'feature' that the vendor inexplicably forgot to mention. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hofner-President-Bass-approx-1965/192831895281?hash=item2ce5ad36f1:g:o0QAAOSwNJlcCVGq

I always end up with the side with jam on touching my shoulder ...

Good grief! How did that get past QC?

We only ever start the whole song again when the guitarist forgets to put on his capo.

That may the case now, but it certainly wasn't historically. I used to own this 1971: When I sold it, I replaced it with this 1976: Not a fretline in sight ...

They're in Avrainville, a tiny village just south of Paris. For that sort of money, and with a choice of seven available, I'd contact the seller and say that I was going to come over for a weekend in Paris with a visit to Avrainville (Uber would be good) as the centrepiece, allowing me to try all seven basses and choose the one I like the best. If the seller immediately starts throwing obstacles in the way, there's your answer.

But what a great Certificate! I'm particularly impressed by the need to write in the serial number and year in pen, because he presumably issued one of these certificates every time he sold one of Ronnie Wood's many Ovation fretless acoustic basses. Incidentally, Paul Karslake used to be Ronnie Wood's brother-in-law, so you'd think he's know which "ten years" Ronnie played this bass. He might also be in a position to work out who "Santana's bassist" might have been.

Loving that 1U blanking panel with the draft excluder ... the second I saw that, I ordered one!

We can sale this Bass for £4695.00 including case. But for that sort of money, don't expect us to speech English.

This is 'the new wireless' ...

Yup. In my rockabilly 3-piece I can play much 'better' basslines on a Precision, I can play with more accuracy and consistency, yet the same songs played on a DB just sound like the real thing, and it feels to me like I'm playing the real thing.

Nice one Jack, that's exactly the sort of detailed insider gen that we really need to know. When I retired last year the firm gave me a reasonably top-of-the-range Dell laptop as a retirement prezzy and - frankly - it has been largely gathering dust for nine months. I'd say it has now been re-purposed. What's really sold me on the XR18 is the option to ditch the wireless angle and just run an Ethernet cable. It's not so much that that's what I want to do ... more that this means that the option exists in an emergency where the wireless/router/network/cloud completely f***s up just before a major gig. I love the cabling for the outputs. Did you cut the hole and fit the grommet, or was that already part of the rackmount kit?

Three years is no big deal, and should be easily surmounted. What you really don't want to do is to get involved with a band who have played together for 10 years or more, and where you'll always be the 'outsider'. After three years together yes, they'll have stories to tell and shared experiences, but you have a fighting chance of becoming a fully paid-up member of the band. Musically, their tightness works to your advantage. Your inevitable mistakes will do far less damage and they'll be able to carry you to a certain extent while you get up to speed.

Now that's a fairly crucial piece of information! Thanks.